Within the Archives
"Are you fucking kidding me!" Shepard was moments from putting her fist through the walls of the ancient ruins. "Teleportation! What kind of contrived bullshit is that!"
This time Shepard's biotic fist did slam into the metallic wall, denting it a few solid inches.
"Commander!" A gruff voice yelled out from behind her. It was Sev, who was kneeling next to a prone Six. "While I enjoy watching you beat up inanimate objects, we have a situation here."
The Commander took a calming breath and moved over to the pair of numbered soldiers. Six had a number of breaches in his suit and was looking worse for wear. The Spartan was still conscious however, fueled by sheer will power. They administered medi-gel to stem the blood flow, but couldn't do anything to mend the broken bones as they were.
Swearing under her breath, Shepard moved under one of Six's arms while Sev helped support his waist. Together, they groaned as they struggled to lift the half-ton weighing super soldier.
"Let's get him to the surface. Six needs medevac ASAP." Shepard ordered as they moved back for the stairs. "I just hope Eagle is doing better than we are."
"Sarah! Stay with me, Sarah!" Pyrrha cried out as she pried the T45d Power Armor off of Sarah Lyons' torso.
The medi-gel the huntress applied earlier meant that Lyons wouldn't be bleeding to death, but her wounds were still extremely severe. Now able to examine the wounds while not under fire, Pyrrha could see their full extent, and it was not pretty. The lightsaber went clear through her abdomen and through her back. The blade seemed to have missed the spine, which was fortunate, but her intestines and adjacent organs were probably all ruined. The prognosis was not good, and she came to a single conclusion. If something was not done soon, Sarah would die.
Placing one hand over Sarah's heart and the other on her cheek, Pyrrha spoke the words she recited long ago in the Emerald Forest, "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee."
As Pyrrha was enveloped by a dark, crimson aura, Sarah unconscious form was similarly covered in a steel-grey radiance. The task done, Pyrrha almost collapsed on the ground next to her, her aura reserves completely drained from both the battle and the awakening. Snake, having just finished securing the perimeter rushed over to the pair.
Snake looked over the fallen sister of steel, and once he saw the glow around her, he turned to face Pyrrha with questioning look.
"I'm sorry, but I had to unlock her aura." Pyrrha explained, heaving every breath. "Being completely honest I had no idea if it would work, being from different worlds and all. Her aura should give her some regenerative abilities, and hopefully save her life."
Snake looked back down at Sarah, her face relatively peaceful for someone with life threatening injuries. With a stoic nod of his head Snake placed a hand on Pyrrha's shoulder, before calling down T3 in the pelican.
Soon, the rest of Fireteam Raven emerged from the ruins with grim expressions in a similar state of distress, dragging Six to the surface. Snake sighed as they appeared to have not captured the Imperial envoy.
"Status?" He asked as Six was laid down next to Sarah.
"The ruins are secure, all hostiles neutralized." Shepard reported with a scowl and shake of her head. "Both targets escaped though. Turns out the Empire has access to teleportation tech."
Snake grunted in response as he did a quick visual examination of Six's wounds. "We'll do a full debrief later. Pyrrha, can you do for Six what you did to Sarah?"
Pyrrha shook her head. "If I was at full strength perhaps. But unlocking a single person's aura is taxing. It took everything I had left to unlock Sarah's."
With a simple nod, Snake faced the rest of the Legion. "Get Six and Sarah onto the pelican. I'll take them back to Mother Base for emergency treatment. Thane on me, you'll need some first aid as well."
Thane took a slight step forward to protest, but held it back as he was hit by a stern glare from both Shepard and Snake. The assassin nodded, and moved to watch over his two power armored companions within the pelican's cargo bay.
Snake then turned back to face Shepard. "Secure as much intel from this place as you can. These ruins might finally give us some answers. And take T3 with you, his slicing skills may be useful here." Snake pressed a button to alert T3 to his new objective. "I'll send Thane back for exfil once I patch him up."
"Roger Snake." Shepard replied, moving to organize her remaining comrades.
T3-M4 rolled out of the pelican's blood tray, letting out a sad bwooop as he rolled by the patients as the Boss took control of the dropship and swiftly made his back to Mother Base. The utility droid met up with the remaining ground team, Shepard, Galen, Pyrrha, and Sev as they were preparing to move back into the ruins.
"Alright people, form up." Shepard commanded. "I know it's been a long day but I want everyone on guard. The ruin should be secure, but between invisibility and teleportation, our enemies have too many ways they could get the jump on us."
The legionnaires nodded, and once more descended into the hallways of the Archives.
The passages of the Archives were completely devoid of life, as all of the previous tenants were brutally killed by Fireteam Raven. This time it was a much quicker walk for Legion to reach the final room where they battled against Skull Face and the others.
The battle now long over, Shepard and her companions could now take the opportunity to examine the so-called Archives in depth. There were two primary points of interest here, a mural of two figures fighting carved or forged into the metal wall on the back of the room, and a table-sized holographic projector displaying a map of the area. The squad split up, Pyrrha and Galen going to investigate the mural while Shepard, Sev, and T3 examined the holograph.
Pyrrha approached the relief carving with a mixture of apprehension and appreciation. While she was never a patron of the arts, she could enjoy a well made sculpture as much as the next person. But the apprehension came with the fact that this mural could contain answers to why they were here.
The mural itself depicted two figures, the first a demonic, masculine figure with a powerfully muscular body. Two bat-like wings extended from his back, and on his head were a pair of forward-facing bovine horns. The figure dripped enmity and cruelty, his mouth a grinning maw of razor sharp fangs that sent ripples of primal fear throughout the huntress. In his hands was a massive, serrated greatsword, poised to strike his opponent.
The figure opposing him was his opposite in every way. While the first was the epitome of barbarity and savagery, the second figure was the epitome of grace and elegance. She was a female figure, Pyrrha thought she was quite tall and beautiful, with a simple flowing dress of Greco-Roman design and a pair of immaculate angel wings. A beautifully intricate tiara that held back long flowing hair, giving full view of the figure's face, a stoic, if not somewhat sad countenance. In her hands she gripped a quarterstaff with a crescent moon at its tip in defiance of the demonic warrior.
While Pyrrha gazed upon the two figures, Galen focused on the collections of apparent words next to them. The script was not one that the former Sith recognized, annoying but not surprising him. There was a set pattern to the characters that seemed to repeat itself, meaning that it was some sort of language with grammatical rules and not senseless scribbles. What particularly stood out to him however, was that there was a pattern to the groupings of words. The words would be grouped on to individual plaques, with anywhere between 6 to 10 words per plaque. These tablets seemed to have been placed in a specific order, with 13 plaques in total besides the woman, and 13 plaques in total besides the man.
"I wonder what these all mean." Pyrrha whispered beside him, now looking over the text as well.
Galen Shrugged. "Who knows. It seems to be a fully developed language, but without some kind of cipher, who won't be able to decode any of this."
Meanwhile, Shepard and the residents of the Galactic Republic were having an easier time with their investigation. Projecting out of a cylindrical table, the holographic map that they examined was massive, around 20 feet wide and 15 feet tall. It had the same, Pangea-like shape that the maps back at Mother Base had, clearly divided into 6 different sectors representing different worlds.
But unlike the the hand drawn maps she had seen before, the hologram went into explicit detail of the terrain of the entire world. She could see individual trees laid out in the Forever Fall forest, pathways and rock formations of Kabul and Korriban, block by block building placements and layouts of Ilos and Washington DC.
"Now this will be useful." Sev commented, also overlooking the map. "Geographic intel this specific will be invaluable for planning missions."
Shepard nodded in response but didn't say anything. Instead she moved to examine four icons layered over specific buildings on the map, signifying their importance. The first icon appeared to be that of a book, and was placed directly over the ruins that the Legion now explored. It wasn't difficult for her to draw the conclusion that this icon represented the Archives.
The second icon was that of some kind of castle or keep, and was placed smack dab in the middle of Geth territory in Ilos. Examining the holographic map closely, the location this icon represented seemed to be a short, stout, undecorated square building that was easily dwarfed by the many skyscrapers around it. Shepard surmised that, like the Archives, most of this building was mostly likely located underground.
Next she examined the Southernmost icon, a serrated sword that hovered over the mountains for Korriban. Nestled within a valley where massive, weathered statues of hooded figures stood silent vigil, laid a grotesque looking sight. It reminded Shepard of a Gothic cathedral, albeit covered with copious amounts of spikes, chains, and skulls. The whole design reminded Shepard of the lair of a Saturday morning holovid cartoon villain.
The last icon was a symbol of a crescent moon, and was found far to the North, beyond the ruined cityscape and deep within the Super Mutant held capital wasteland. In contrast to the brutal but intricate details of the previous building, this structure was a simple, monolithic obelisk that stood high above the surrounding ground. However the structure was then surrounded by a series of trenches fortified by bunkers and sandbags.
Shepard meticulously snapped several recordings of the map with her Omni-Tool before calling T3 over. "Hey bud, think you can figure out a way to download this thing?"
T3 gave a concerned buzz in response that caused Shepard to questioningly look at Sev.
"He says maybe. He'll need to find an access port and hope it's compatible with his systems." Sev translated.
Shepard sighed, "Well doesn't hurt to try. See what you can do, otherwise focus on taking scans and recordings."
T3 gave a high pitched whistle of acknowledgement as he began to remove panels from the side of the table, searching for an interface.
"Shepard! We have something here!" The Commander heard Pyrrha call out from her side of the room.
Shepard rushed over to the two superpowered teenagers. In Galen's hands was a small, dodecahedron made of silver metal etched with golden runes.
"Should I know what this is?" Shepard asked with a cocked eyebrow.
"It's a holocron." Starkiller responded with caution. "They're used by both the Sith and the Jedi to store information such as history or instructions on techniques. They can store phenomenal amounts of data, and only a Force user can open it."
Shepard looked the holocron over, it had a faded and dusty appearance, the precious metals long since lost their luster. "Seems a little old don't you think?"
"Many holocrons are. They are designed to last thousands of years. If I had to guess, this specific one looks to be at least a few centuries old. However it should still be in working order."
Shepard nodded her head. "Well then, crack this thing open. Maybe we'll finally get some answers out of this damn place."
Focusing the force into the silver-gold dodecahedron, the polyhedral object began to unfold, separating itself into individual pieces as a bright blue light spilled from within. The rest of the Legion gathered around the device as the glow intensified. Galen let go of the holocron as it began to levitate on its own, ready to reveal whatever secrets it held within.
Shepard had expected to see the hologram of an old, wizened Jedi, or a pompous Sith Lord. What she was not expecting was to see was a rather handsome middle aged man, wearing a dark grey dress shirt and matching striped suit pants. He wore a vest and leather chest holster over shirt, all coming together with a fashionable red tie around his neck. The man rubbed his 5 o'clock shadow as he appeared to look at them confused.
"Damn it." the man began with a tried, gravely voice. "Zack, I can't tell, is this thing on? Stupid, goddamn alien tech."
The Legion heard a voice from off screen, this one much younger and more jubilant. "Yep! Now come on Booker, like we rehearsed!"
The man named Booker shook his head and sighed. "Remind me why the Hell I'm doing this again?"
"Because with the Boss not here, you're the de facto leader! Now hurry up and do your thing, we're wasting daylight here." Zack responded happily off screen.
Everyone froze for a beat, hearing the title of the Boss. Worried glances were exchanged, but no words were said as they focused on the presentation in front of them.
Booker brought his hand to his temple, easing a migraine that he was building. "Right, whatever, fuck it, let's do this."
Booker righted himself and adopted a serious expression, looking over the Legion.
"So, my name is Booker DeWitt. I was born April 19th, 1874 in the good old United States of America." Barely hidden traces of sarcasm leaked from his voice as he said that. "I've been a lot of things in my life, former US Army soldier, Pinkerton, Private I, and shortly before I died, trans-universal adventurer."
Booker seemed exasperated as he prepared the explanation. "Long story short, I was hired to find a girl named Elizabeth from a floating city known as Columbia. She was being held prisoner there by her psychotic father, and after a few murders, revolutions, and dimension hopping, we were able to get out together." Booker paused, biting his lip and thinking upon what to say next. "At the end of that whole, escapade, I wound up dying. Had to sacrifice my own life to make sure that Elizabeth got a fair shot. And after all that? I wound up here, in some crazy, Valhallan battle-royale that these jackasses call the Final Destination."
The Legion looked to each other once again. "Well at least we finally have a name for this damn place." Sev muttered.
After pausing for a breath, Booker pulled out a silver flask and downed a swig of the fire water before continuing. "That's not even the craziest part. See I joined up with a few others here and we call ourselves the 'Warriors of Light'." Booker rolled his eyes at the name, before mumbling, "Still can't believe that's what we call ourselves. Anyway, our job is to defeat the 'Masters of Chaos', I also can't fucking believe that's what they're called."
Shepard raised an eyebrow as Mr. DeWitt downed another shot, his stance getting slightly more staggered. "See we, and by extension you if you're watching this, were all brought to this shithole of a dimension by the Goddess of Order. The bitch wants us to defeat the minions of the God of Chaos, otherwise chaos and darkness will reign through the multiverse, or some shit like that. And the best part? Apparently this has happened multiple times. Each of these little wars the Gods have is called a Cycle, and each Cycle has its own set of heroes, villains, and every type of asshole in between fighting against each other." Booker seemed to go for another drink, before pausing and shaking his head. He screwed on the lid and appeared to look directly at the Legionnaires. "Look, I still don't know if I believe all this, and trust me I've seen some crazy stuff. But those assholes on the other side picked a fight and I ain't gonna back down."
Booker paused, letting his words sink in before his countenance shifted from one of stoicism and determination to one of reluctance and acceptance. "But the reason I'm recording this, is because we're losing. We've already lost contact with the Boss and Taldeer, so me, Zack, Roland, and Shaak Ti are getting ready for one final coup de grace." It was quick, but Shepard saw Galen wince at the list of names as Booker continued. "We're going to kick that bastard Azariah's ass so goddamn hard his grandparents are going to feel it. But before we do, we wanted to leave something behind for anyone else who gets pulled in here in case we bite it. In this here holocron is everything we have about who we were, who we fought, all the information we've gathered about the Final Destination, as well as some ciphers for translating the ruins around here."
Booker spread his arms wide and gestured to the room around them. "This place, assuming the holocron hasn't been moved, is called the Archives, pretty much stores an exact map of the Final Destination, whatever it'll look like in your cycle, as well as the records of everyone who fought in the previous Cycles. The Archives, along with the other ruins are the one thing in this hellhole that aren't from any of our worlds, and we're hoping that means this message will carry over to the next cycle if we leave it here."
Shaking his head, Booker gave a final sympathetic look to the crowd. "Anyway, I think that's all I have to say other than, good luck. I hope that the Goddess or the Force or Khaine or whatever other God you believe in gives you better fortune than us." His speech done, Booker began to walk out of frame.
"See that wasn't so hard." The endlessly enthusiastic Zack called out once more.
"Fuck off Fair!" Booker shouted offscreen as the hologram turned off, leaving the stunned Legion to themselves.
"Well, that was something." Pyrrha weakly commented, breaking the silence.
Shepard honestly had no idea what to think of this. So I guess that confirms that we're dead and that Gods exist. Plural. Great… she thought to herself. She looked to her allies and tried to gauge their reaction. Both Pyrrha and Galen were speechless, which wasn't good given that they were the two most magical of the party. Sev in all of his body armor was harder to read, but the clenching of his fists suggested that he was not pleased by this revelation.
"So… thoughts?" Shepard asked.
Pyrrha was the first to break the silence. "Um well, this concept of a Goddess of Order and God of Chaos remind of the tale of the two brother gods where I am from. Where once existed two brothers, one of light and one of darkness. The brother of light would create life, while the brother of darkness would it in retaliation. To stop this cycle, they created humanity together, beings capable of both creation and destruction." Pyrrha thought back to her conversation with Professor Ozpin and the Four Maidens. "Perhaps that fable was based on these beings here. Or perhaps they may even be the same entities."
Galen nodded his head in agreement. "In my universe it is similar. The Force is always trying to balance itself between Light and Dark. With neither ever truly being able to destroy the other. There have even been records of beings of pure Force existing."
The party contemplated these different revelations together. While Shepard herself wasn't particularly religious, she knew of the many religions and philosophies on her world that espoused battles of good versus evil. Was the fact that they all had dichotomic beliefs a result of divergent origins, or merely a product of convergent coincidence? Their musings were cut off by a particularly gruff interruption.
"This is all fine and dandy, but am I the only one here who thinks this whole situation is a load of bantha crap?" Sev scoffed.
"How do you mean?" Pyrrha asked, slightly confused at the outburst.
"I mean, is this really what we're here for? To be pawns for some interdimensional gods?" Sev spat out. "I don't know about all of you, but I'm not exactly happy to have moved from being a slave soldier of an intergalactic government to the slave soldier of an interdimensional deity."
The others looked at one another, unsure of to say. Shepard was the first to step forward and retort.
"Maybe that's why we're here, maybe not." She began, taking a strong step forward towards the clone. "But all honesty I don't give a damn if we're pieces in some game of celestial chess. You heard what Booker said. If we don't stop these Masters of Chaos, then chaos will reign through the multiverse. If people are in danger and we can stop it, then it's our duty to do so. So no, we're not fighting for some anonymous goddess who hasn't shown herself. We're fighting for everyone we left behind in all of our universes."
Sev mulled the words over, grumbling as he backed off. The Commander then turned back to the rest of her men and began barking out orders.
"Alright people, storytime is over. Galen, hold on to that holocron. We're taking it back to Mother Base and extracting everything we can from it. T3, you download that map yet?"
T3 gave a high pitched whistle of acknowledgement while bobbing his disc-shaped head up and down.
"Good. Everyone else, I want pictures. Pictures, videos, and anything else you can take as evidence. We're finally getting some damn answers from this place and I do not want anything left behind."
Everyone scrambled to complete their orders as Shepard walked up to the mural of the two gods fighting. Crossing her arms over her chest, she stared deep into the forms of the so called Gods of Chaos and Order. Focusing on the demonic face of the God of Chaos, a small snarl found its way to her face. Now there would be no more hiding and surviving for the Legion. Now they had a name, now they had a face, and most importantly, now they had a target.
A/N
Talk about an information dump. Hope I did an ok job with this world building and exposition. In the same way I find environmental descriptions hard, I found trying to dump all this information in a non-boring and non-confusing way also difficult.
As for some notes of the world, I stole the name Final Destination from Super Smash Bros. I spent a long time trying to figure out what I wanted the name of this place to be. I got the idea of this story from Marvel's Secret War storyline, but I didn't just want to name this place Battleworld. Final Destination just seemed like a fitting name for a place where souls of heroes and villains go to punch each other in the face.
And for the plot, I originally was going to go for a Secret War plot where a singular all-powerful being has them fight for fun, but ultimately decided to go for more of a Final Fantasy Dissidia inspired plot, where the heroes and villains fight for their respective god for dominance.
Lastly, some surprise appearances from the last cycle! Booker DeWitt and Zack Fair were actually both characters that I initially planned on making part of the main cast. But it has been a long time since I've played their respective games, at least 5 or 6 years, and felt that I wouldn't be able to do a good job representing them in this story as long term characters.
Review Response:
PTL:
Without giving too much away by saying specifics, you did hit some nails on the head for what I have planned. And thanks, action scenes are some of the stuff that I have confidence in writing.
Anyway hope you all enjoyed the chapter.