Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.

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Chase

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My first experience with the Red Hand, many lifetimes ago, did not go smoothly. Their minds had been twisted beyond recognition, and still, they had easily overpowered me. I only survived because of the arrival of some friends.

There's no cavalry coming this time.

Atrapol starts to stand, and I reach forward and grab his shoulder. "No."

Atrapol brushes my hand away. "Get the engine started, get away from here. I will hold him off as long as I can." Before I can say anything else, he steps out of the hovercar and starts walking toward Jakjak.

If I can start the engine now, then maybe I can grab Atrapol before anything starts. I climb into the driver's seat and yank on the starting cord. The engine snorts in contempt. Damn it.

Jakjak pulls on the reigns of his skeletal steed, and it stops and tosses its head a little. He slides off his back and takes a few steps forward. He and Atrapol stop a few paces away from each other.

Jakjak breaks the silence first. "Where is your armor, Atrapol?"

"Gone," Atrapol replies. "Brother-"

"Do not call me brother!" The ground around Jakjak ripples and dust erupts and hangs in the air.

Atrapol flinches. "I have not betrayed you. I have not betrayed ANY of you."

Jakjak's eyes blaze brighter beneath his helmet, and the dust around him rushes forward and slashes across Atrapol's face, who staggers back like he was punched.

Jakjak takes a step forward. "Lord Van Bloot has ordered your death. Submit, and I will simply perform your exile. I can say I never found you. That much I can offer, in memory of the bond we once shared."

Atrapol wipes blood from his face. "I won't let you lay a hand on Michael, Jakjak."

"Stand down."

Atrapol looks down at me in shock. I don't remember getting out of the hovercar, don't remember grabbing his arm. I just know that I can't let him do this.

Atrapol grits his teeth. "Do not interfere-"

"Atrapol," I growl, "this is an order."

Atrapol closes his mouth. Jakjak stares at me in incredulity. I can hear Pepper whimpering in fear behind me.

I drop my voice to a hiss. "You are going to die if you fight him. You have no armor. You're exhausted. And then, once he beats you, he'll easily get at me."

"Then what do I do?" Atrapol asks, matching my volume.

I glance back at the hovercar. "Get that running. Get to Kiru City. Get help."

I can see a thousand questions flicker in Atrapol's eyes, but he relents, backing away. Jakjak takes a step forward and stretches an arm out. "We are not done, Atrapol!" The floating dust surges toward us, spreading like a hand.

I focus on the diamond I wear, on the power it renewed in the fire overnight. I hold out my hand, and the dust stops and settles. Jakjak stares at me, and he pulls his arm back a little.

I fold my arms over my chest. "You are done, Jaquez."

Jakjak doesn't react to my use of his real name. "Are you coming with me without struggling?"

I really hope Atrapol's doing what I told him to. "Do you swear that nothing happens to Atrapol, that you won't pursue him?"

Jakjak is quiet for a few moments. "His position must be stripped from him. I must perform his exile."

"Not going to happen," I say as I focus again on the vlaric heart.

"So be it."

The ground below Jakjak surges upward, launching him into the air. He pulls his arm back, dust rising up and collecting around his fist.

I lift up my own hands and focus on the earth around Jakjak. Not the dust. His armor. I push my hands forward, and I send power into his helmet.

Jakjak flips backward in midair. He flails about, trying to right himself. I take a few steps to the left, and Jakjak lands ungracefully on his back where I had been.

Jakjak shakes his head and leaps to his feet. "How did you-?"

I swing an arm to the left, and Jakjak goes sprawling as his armor violently tosses him. Another shove and he continues to tumble.

I can't keep this up. Metal is difficult to move, eats away at the power in the diamond quickly. I don't need to keep it up for long, though, just long enough.

I hear the hovercar's engine strangle itself behind me, then finally start to rumble.

Jakjak pulls himself up to his hands and knees. "No!" He raises an arm up and aims it at the hovercar, spectral chains forming around his wrist with an ethereal rattle. I clench a fist and raise it, and the chains' launch goes awry as Jakjak's gauntlet jerks upward and fires his attack into the air.

The hovercar surges past me. For a split second, I can see Atrapol's pained expression, Pepper's terrified face, and then they are gone, sailing away to the north.

Jakjak scrambles to his feet and runs to his skeletal steed. I focus on his boots, swing my arm, and Jakjak goes sprawling to the ground again.

"Damn you, Human," Jakjak spits.

I don't answer. I'm running to his steed myself. I leap up onto its saddle, wrap my arms around its neck, and kick its ribs with my heels as hard as I can. The skeletal steed whinnies and rears, trying to throw me off, then bolts east.

Jakjak spits out another curse, and I chance a glance back at him. He looks at me riding away, then at the hovercar, already so much further. He gets to his feet again and starts running toward me.

I grin. Not a particularly thrilled grin, but at least everything is going well. As well as it can be, anyway. I've already half-drained my diamond, and I only barely remember how to control this stupid undead horse-thing.

"Get back here!" Jakjak bellows.

I hear another ethereal clatter, and I lean right, steering the skeletal steed away from another spiral of spectral chains. Instead of an answer, I grip tighter to the steed's neck with one arm while swinging my other wildly behind me. Behind me, Jakjak lets out a cry of alarm and a grunt of pain, but I don't spare the time to see exactly what I accomplished.

Keep running. Keep him running. Keep him following.

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I don't know how long I've been leading this chase on. Hours at least. My arms and legs are bruised, sore from the rough galloping. My mouth is dry, my eyes burning.

I've been making sure that I haven't left Jakjak too far behind. If he's too far away when I check, I slow down a little. If he's almost close enough to be able to aim, I speed up.

Actually, where is he? I look behind me again, off to the sides as well. No sign of Jakjak. There isn't anywhere that he could have hidden since the last time I checked. I pull back on the reigns a little, slowing the steed to a walk so I can look around better. Still nothing.

Before I can figure out what to do, a storm of dust kicks up to my right. A shadow darts through it, running closer. It leaps into the air, carrying the dust with it.

The figure draws a fist back. I let go of the reigns with my left hand and push toward it.

The storm of dust blasts apart as a breastplate flies out the back of it. Out of the front tumble a helmet, gauntlets, and boots. Sand and stone pour from where a body should have been. A decoy!

The ground to my left explodes. I turn, too late. A spectral chain launches from the ground, wrapping itself around the skeletal steed, around me. The steed collapses like a puppet with cut strings, spilling me out of its saddle. I try to stand up, but a weight hits my back and pushes me back to the ground.

"No more running," Jakjak's voice growls.

I press my hands to the ground. No response, no song. I focus on my diamond. Nothing. The same chains which disabled the skeletal steed have gotten to my vlaric heart as well.

The pressure on my back releases, and a sharp kick to my side flips me over. I suck in air from the pain and squint up with blurry eyes.

Jakjak, almost identical to Atrapol without his armor. Of course, he figured out that it was more of a hindrance than a help. He puts his foot on my chest and stomach and presses down, and all the air escapes my lungs.

"A diamond of vlaric." Jakjak bends over and grabs the gemstone, snapping the chain as he pulls it away. He stands back up and dangles it in front of his eyes. "A vlaric heart, to be specific. Very rare."

I can't answer. I'm trying to push his foot off me, but he's way too heavy for me to move, far too strong.

Jakjak flicks his wrist up and catches the diamond in his hand. "So, it turns out there is nothing special about you after all. And here I thought I had figured out why Lord Van Bloot wanted you so badly. But no. Without this, you are just like any other Human. You bruise if struck, bleed if cut." He presses down on my body with his foot a little harder. "Pop if pressed..."

I can't breathe. I'm trying to gulp for air. If this keeps up, my ribs are going to snap. I dig my nails into his ankle, but nothing. And all of a sudden, the pressure lessens. I gasp for breath and groan in pain.

Jakjak scowls down at me. "You have no idea how much I want to kill you for this insult, Human."

I force a grin. "Pretty sure I do."

Jakjak bares his teeth and kicks my side. I double over from the kick, coughing and wheezing.

Jakjak drops to one knee and looms over me. "You know nothing, creature. You are a worthless, pathetic little bag of bone and flesh, waiting to be eaten by something stronger. It is only by the will of my lord that you still draw breath."

Still doubled over on the ground, I wheeze out, "You were named after a Danian."

Jakjak freezes. Nothing about his expression changes, nothing about his posture. He continues staring with furious eyes, but I can tell, inside, he is shaken. "...What did you say?"

I push myself to a sitting position, and Jakjak shrinks away from me, just a little. "Many solans ago, in Blackstone Desert, a clanless man and woman were rescued by a Danian explorer. A Danian named Jaquez. A child was born a solan later, a child they named after the Danian who saved them."

Jakjak bares his teeth, but his eyes are wide. "Atrapol. He told you."

"How would he have known? You never told him." In THIS lifetime, anyway. "You've never told ANYONE."

Jakjak backs away slightly. I can see his hands shaking. His breathing is getting faster and faster.

I try to push myself to my feet. The pain is too much, I can't. Instead, I say, "I know more, about your brothers. Two peoples roam Blackstone Desert, your people, and the people your kind call 'giants'. Batol is half-blood. Cirridus is a quarter-blood. You all assume that Danidavid is also half-blood, but he is a full-blooded giant, simply a runt."

"Stop talking," Jakjak orders, his voice trembling. He makes no move to force me to stop.

I'm not going to stop. The longer I speak, the better this will work. "Eade developed a relationship with an OverWorlder his clan took captive and is still haunted by that captive's murder. Falkroth wears as little metal as possible because he hates the sensation of metal on his skin. Galmedar drowned several men in their sleep before fleeing from his clan because they abused him."

Jakjak lurches forward a bit. "Silence." He still doesn't close the distance.

I jerk my head in the direction of the collapsed skeletal steed. "Hollow is absolutely terrified of those, and of what they are when alive."

"I said stop!"

Jakjak leaps forward and swings the back of his hand against the side of my head. I go down. I see stars. I feel Jakjak's hand close around the back of my neck and tighten slightly.

"I do not know how you know these things," Jakjak hisses, "but you will stop before I rip your tongue out."

I turn my face off the ground and spit out dust. "What? You find this humiliating?"

Jakjak's left eye twitch. "Humiliating?" His teeth clench together. "I will teach YOU some humility..."

Jakjak lifts me off the ground by my neck and pulls my tunic up, then wraps an arm around my bare stomach and squeezes me against his torso.

Jakjak hisses in my ear. "I was only told to bring you alive. What state you are in is my decision." He reaches down and starts to stroke himself. "You will beg for mercy by the time I am through with you."

I close my eyes. I'm not worried about the swelling beneath me, about the bloodlust in his voice. I'm focusing on the beating of his heart, fierce and pounding. I'm focusing on the strain of his lungs, breathing like the air is thin.

Jakjak is wrapped around me, skin to skin. Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.

I win.

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Stretched out above me is a shower of light. Blazing motes of light, falling past me softly, dropping through an endless void. Each of them a mind, a life, a soul.

Jakjak is scattering into the ether. I grab a hold on him, wrap him in my will, and force his mind and soul together.

"What is this? What have you done?"

I don't answer.

The rain of flame swirl around us, and a particular flame slows its descent to hover in front of me.

"Am... am I dying?"

No, Jaquez.

"Then... what?"

Jakjak only has the strength for one dive. I know exactly what to show him. I pour myself into the flame, deeper, further...

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I woke up screaming again, on this latest of first nights. I am looking up at the ceiling of my bedchambers, and I know it to be true.

I can still see it. Still feel it. My last moments from before. That wretched Human stood over me, hate in his eyes and blood on his face. The sword in his right hand dripped with blood. My blood. Behind him was the traitor, and the rest of the traitors further still.

"Lord Van Bloot," the Human spat, "the next time you remember, remember this. Hundreds of times you've gone against me, and hundreds of times you've failed. Hundreds of times you've betrayed Perim, and hundreds of times your new masters abandoned you. See reason. Surrender."

I spat right back, "I refuse to bend my knee to you, Michael! Not now, not ever!"

The traitor placed a hand on the Human's shoulder, a hand wrapped in the armor of his new, blasphemous oath, black steel with copper trimming. "He never listens, Michael. Why try?"

Weakness filled the Human's eyes as he frowned. "Because it has to stop sometime, Atrapol." He raised his sword up.

"Perim has no need for a false god like you!" I had screamed as the Human brought his sword down.

I shake the memories from my mind. I still feel his blade across my gut, in my head. I stagger out of bed and stumble to my mirror. Untouched. Unharmed. Fresh and new, like every other second chance at vengeance.

I pluck my mechanical eye from its saltwater bath and press it into its socket, then wrap my furs around my waist. I must be quick. The traitor, the FIRST traitor, I must see if he remembers as I do this cycle. He is useless to me, a danger if he does, but if he doesn't... then maybe, just maybe...

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My legs collapse as I hit the ground. I roll over and scramble to my feet, keeping my eyes on Jakjak the whole time.

Jakjak is still standing. His body is rigid, his hands reaching out as if to grasp something only he can see. His eyes are wide, his breath erratic.

"Can you hear me?" I ask cautiously.

Jakjak blinks. "Van Bloot. He... He..."

"He lied," I finish. "Atrapol did not betray you. Van Bloot did. He betrayed us all."

Tears fill Jakjak's eyes. "Atrapol..." He collapses to his knees and doubles over, clutching his stomach. "My patriarch... I am sorry. I am so, so sorry..."

Jakjak leans forward until his forehead touches the ground. His whole body shakes with each sob as he repeats himself, over and over.

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Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.