(Hey everyone, sorry it took so long to get this chapter out but school has been more time consuming than originally anticipated. Last chapter I got a ton of questions asking if Omar was still alive and what actually happened to Clem. So I just wanted to clear up any miss understandings right here and now. Omar is 100% dead and Clem is very much alive. Anyways, I understand that the number of remaining kids is growing quite thin so I have planned a couple additions. 'Not in this chapter.' As usual, please leave a review, good or bad, it helps.)
(I do not own Halo, TWD, or any other franchise that I may pull from.)
A brief recap of last chapter:
Chief and the kids defended the school well and killed almost all of the raiders.
Lily lead a small band of raiders and breached the school.
Lily killed Omar and captured Clementine and AJ.
Chief became the new leader of the group and took the kids to the Dawn to protect them.
AJ met David Carver and now believes that he is his uncle and that all the others are dead.
…
AJ had slept in a really nice and comfortable bead that night but it hadn't eased the pain of losing Clementine and the others. In fact, he had been awake most of the night crying or sniffling. He hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to any of them. Even worse was the thought that Clem had been shot, bled out with nobody who cared for her around, and turned into a walker which to her was a worse fate than even death itself. AJ felt so bad that Clem had received the worst death possible and right as she was about to be rescued too. He felt like his whole world had crashed down on him. However, deep down he had a problem accepting the fact that Chief could be killed.
When he woke up the next day he didn't want to get out of bed. David finally came and helped AJ pull himself together.
"AJ, I can only imagine what you're going through right now but can I tell you about a time when I lost someone I cared about?" David asked as AJ nodded.
"Well, my brother William was murdered about ten years ago and when I found out, I was as heartbroken as you are right now. I'm not going to lie; it was a dark time for me. I'm still not really the same as I was before that. I don't think anyone ever is after you lose someone that close. But you only get over a loss like that by accepting the fact that their gone and moving forward with your own life." David said.
With that AJ got up and sort of pulled himself together. He and David had a nice breakfast with a couple of David's friends and then David took AJ on a tour of the community. It was exponentially larger than Ericson, if AJ didn't know better he would have called it a city. The building in which he had stayed was near the center of the community and was sort of a town hall. AJ quickly deduced that his uncle was the leader of the community. They went through a large green house that also doubled as an aviary for some exotic birds that people had found and collected over the years. They had a place for livestock just outside where they farmed pigs, cows, chickens, rabbits, homing pigeons, and some deer. Next there was a large communal area which they had built next to a small creek. It was similar to how Clem had described parks in cities. Then there was the area where the community manufactured everything from food, to bullets, to car parts, to simple clothing. Next David showed him their solar farm and their wind turbines which gave the community more power than they could use in a day. Then there was the prison, which they didn't enter, the garage, the shooting range, the ware house, the residential area, and finally the walls. The walls were about 40 feet high and made of concrete with titanium reinforcements. They were about six feet thick and had guard rails all around the top as well as some watch towers. AJ could see for quite a long distance while walking on them.
"It took us five and a half years to build the walls. Some good people died during their construction so along with having some pride over building them, we also do our best to respect them as the people who we've lost over the years are buried under them." David said.
"Is Clem buried there?" AJ asked.
"Not yet, but when we've dug a grave for her, she will be." David said tenderly.
Just after that Jackson walked up to the pair.
"Ah! Perfect timing Jackson. I'd like you to meet AJ, my nephew. AJ this is Jackson Darrick. He's the reason that we knew where Lily was going when we rescued you." David said.
"Hi." AJ said.
"Hello AJ, I know that right now isn't a great time to ask about the people that you've just lost but my job here is to gather information on certain things. Right now I would like you to tell me as much as you can about a man in your former group called Chief, if you're willing." Jackson asked with some empathy in his voice.
"Why, did he do something bad?" AJ asked coldly.
"No, not Chief. I'm sure that he was a great person who did everything in his power to protect you and your group. However, there's someone else like him out there. That same person has hurt a lot my friends and may be helping some very bad people do some very bad things. I think there might be a connection between what Chief could do and what that other person can do." Jackson said.
"You mean there's another Spartan out there hurting people?" AJ asked in shock.
"If that's what you would call someone like Chief then I'm afraid so. But anything that you could tell me about Chief may help to stop that other Spartan." Jackson explained.
"Well, Chief was from the future. He fought for the United Nations Space Command and he said that Spartans were used to turn the tide of any kind of battle. They were fighting a bunch of alien races that wanted to destroy humanity called the covenant and the flood. Chief said they won but his ship was cut in half and he was teleported here." AJ said.
"Did he say when his ship crashed, or where?" Jackson asked.
AJ sensed that Jackson wanted to know something more than he was asking about.
"No." He said knowing that it was a complete lie.
"Did he say anything about an organization called Monarch?" Jackson asked.
"No, he never mentioned anything like it." AJ said.
"Okay, I think I have troubled you enough but if anything else comes to mind please tell me. It could potentially save a lot of lives." Jackson said.
David nodded to him as Jackson walked off.
"I don't like him." AJ said.
"Well, Jackson does try to play nice. That man is a mystery to me. His heart is soft but he's often too gullible. However, when the chips are down there's nobody who I'd rather have by my side. If he thinks that a cause is honorable then there's nothing on God's green earth that can stop him from caring it out." David said.
They walked around the walls talking for the rest of the morning, during which AJ really opened up to David and accepted him as his new guardian.
…
Clementine woke up in what could only be described as a medieval dungeon cell. The room was hot and damp and only had a small source of light that came from a barred opening at the top brick wall that Clem had her back against. Her hands were both cuffed to the wall and so was her one remaining ankle. The walls, roof, and floor were all made of the same black painted brick which added to the heat in the room. The door had no openings and was made completely of metal. It had a bulged where there should have been a handle which lead Clementine to believe that the door could only open from one side. She then assumed it would be guarded or at least have a door monitor outside. She felt so sick and disgusting that she honestly wished that Lily had shot her. Whatever Lily had drugged her with had worked because she had a hangover on steroids. Her hair was wet and all over her face.
"I should have taken Lee's advice about keeping my hair short." She thought. She just did nothing except try and find a comfortable position given her current state and feel miserable for hours. Once or twice nausea got the better of her and she threw up. However, she didn't have anything in her system the second time so it was just dry heaves. It had to have been late afternoon when a taller middle aged man entered the room. He wore a green jacket and a nice pair of blue jeans with what looked like a new leather belt. His hair and short beard were combed nicely. He wore a pair of nicely polished dress shoes and had familiar eyes and facial features but Clem couldn't remember anyone like this man. Nobody except maybe one.
"So Lily doesn't even have the decency to face me herself." Clem said as loud as she could but only amounting to a mumble.
"No, Lily doesn't have much decency at all. However, she reports to me." David said before Clem made an effort to raise her head and had a confused look on her face.
"Oh, you think that Lily runs this place don't you?" David asked. "Well sorry to burst your bubble but I do." He picked Clem's head up with his hand under her chin as she groaned. "Dang, Lily sure drugged you. You know normally I would get on her case for that detail but for you I'm making an exception." David said in an amused tone." You should have taken AJ back to Richmond Clem, Javier could've protected you, at least from me. But you made the stupidest decision of your life and became the leader of my neighboring community, lead them to victory over Lily, and killed a lot of good people in the process." David said.
"Who the hell are you? Where's AJ? And how do you know about Javier and Richmond?" Clem said as coldly as she could.
"Well, about the third question. I made a deal with an agency called Umbrella. They tell me things and in exchange I let them operate some fragile equipment here. And one of the things that they told me was how there was another community that wiped Richmond off the face of the earth. Don't be sad though, they put up a good fight. Apparently they had some super strong red dude on their side." David said.
Clem's heart fell when she thought of Javier, Kate, and Gabe in Richmond when it was destroyed.
"To answer your first two questions, my name is David Carver." He said as Clementine's eyes went wide open in shock. "I'm AJ's uncle and the brother of William Carver, you know the man you killed and whose son you stole all those years ago?" David asked.
"AJ's not William Carver's son." Clem struggled to say.
"Well, I guess the exact details of who his father was are still up in the air. But I can assure you that AJ has a great home now and he won't ever need to worry about food, shelter, or losing a person he cares about again. We spent the day talking you know, he really adored you. But you still killed my brother and put AJ threw unimaginable dangers. I can't forgive that. I would kill you but I guess I should return the favor of keeping AJ happy all this time. So I won't kill you, but the family and friends of all the people from this community that you killed might." He said as he motioned to the guard at the door who in turn motioned to someone in the hallway. Clem could hear tons of footsteps in the hallway. She knew that this was going to hurt.
…
Louis woke up in the officers' quarters that Chief had given him. The room was a crisp 62 degrees which was standard on UNSC vessels. He got out of bed as Cortana appeared on a console next to him.
"Morning." Cortana said as Louis jumped.
"The hell!" Louis screamed.
"Sorry to spook you, when we got back Chief uploaded me to the ships' mainframe. I was just going to tell you that the shower is through those doors and breakfast is ready in the cafeteria when you're done." Cortana said.
"Oh, thanks. Where's Chief?" Louis asked.
"He's in the vehicle bay repairing and refitting a Pelican gunship." Cortana said.
"Wait, what's a gunship?" Louis asked.
"Basically it's a fighter jet designed to carry troops into battle and deal massive damage to infantry units." Cortana said.
"Oh, so you're going to use it to rescue Clem and AJ?" Louis asked.
"Maybe, I'm still trying to locate the complex that they were taken too. 21st century sati lights are not what I'm used to working with. However, Chief wants to be prepared for any and all possible contingencies and since a Pelican is capable of transporting anything from a warthog to a scorpion tank, it's good for almost any scenario." Cortana explained.
"Okay, as long as it works I guess." Louis said.
"Don't worry Louis, we'll get them back." Cortana said as Louis nodded.
Louis had some trouble figuring out the doors and the elevator but eventually got it. He came down to the cafeteria and was shocked by such a large room with tables and benches. The others were all there and in a seemingly good mood. Louis sat down and saw a meal laid out for him. It was obliviously not of the same quality as anything that Omar would have made but it was food never the less. Louis took one bite and insanely spit it back out and screamed; "What is this!"
The others started laughing hysterically. Violet said; "You had the same reaction as me and Willy."
"Cortana called them MRE's." Mary said.
"It stands for Meals Ready to Eat or something. Apparently they don't go bad for a while and they're the only food that the Dawn had when it left to fight the flood." Ten said.
"Suddenly I've lost my appetite. Anyone know how to get to the hanger?" Louis asked.
"Cortana said to take that door and follow the right corridor." Mary said.
Louis got up and did as Mary had said. He was still impressed with the automatic doors. As he walked down the corridor, it really accorded to him what Chief had done by bringing them to the Dawn. He realized that Chief had done it to protect them and that he was going to try to take Lily and the raiders alone. At first he was going to try to talk Chief out of it but then realized that he was probably more than capable of killing Lily and her goons on his own. However, he hadn't seen a place for Cortana on the warthog so he figured that the Pelican would need a human pilot. "Flying a futuristic gunship can't be that hard." Louis thought to himself as he entered the hanger. He hadn't noticed how jostled some of the vehicles were last night. There was a tank that was overturned and what looked like a warthog but with a different turret almost embedded in the wall. He then noticed that Chief was working on a jet of some kind.
"Morning Chief." Louis said as he walked over to Chief who still kept working on the jet. "So I was wondering if you needed someone to fly the Pelican while you wipe Lily and her troops out."
"Actually I was going to fly it myself but I take it that you have piloting knowledge since you're asking?" Chief asked.
"Well no but Cortana could teach me right?" Louis asked.
"Kid I know that you want to get those two back but it takes some of the best and brightest in the UNSC years to learn to fly a Pelican." Chief said.
"Actually, I could teach him some basic maneuvers and enough to get him through a short range mission." Cortana said as she appeared on a console near Chief.
Chief gave her a death stare in his helmet but to no avail. Chief finally conceded.
"Fine, but you're going to get out of there the second that I'm on the ground." Chief barked.
"Okay." Louis said.
"I'm almost done with the Pelican, take that projector into the cockpit so Cortana can start training you." Chief said.
Just then the alarms started flaring.
"Cortana, what's going on?" Chief asked.
"Chief I'm picking up five enemy signatures approaching the Dawn. There not human though. They're Covenant!" Cortana screamed.
"They should have brought more troops." Chief said as he grabbed his assault rifle and slid out from under the Pelican.
"Wait, I thought the Covenant were destroyed?" Louis asked.
"I thought they were too. But I guess a lance must have been transported here as well." Cortana said.
"What's a lance?" Louis asked.
"A Covenant squad." Chief said while mounting up a mongoose.
"Chief, I could take them out with a missile from the Dawn's point defense system." Cortana offered.
"No, the Dawn is staying hidden. I'll deal with those Covenant myself." Chief said as he rolled out of the hanger.
Chief followed the coordinates that Cortana had given him on his HUD. He eventually arrived in a cluster of trees. He dismounted the mongoose to keep his position concealed. He had his assault rifle ready and was constantly checking his motion sensor for anything that could give away an elite with active Camo. He suddenly heard what sounded like insect wings and heavy stopping. "Drone and a hunter." He thought to himself. He followed the sound and found a dead walker that had its head blown off. He continued a little further and suddenly found himself face to face with a hunter. The hunter had its cannon turned the other way and was obviously shocked to see Chief. Chief was about to fire when it raised its cannon and other claw in a surrender stance. A split second later a jackal sniper, a drone, an engineer, and a grunt came out of cover and dropped their weapons and held a similar stance. Chief was puzzled but still ready to fire when the grunt spoke up.
"Please, no shoot! We defect from Covenant on Ark! Blast from Halo send us here!" The grunt said in a scared tone.
"How do I know you're not lying?" Chief asked in an ice cold tone.
"We only kill stupid humans that try to eat us!" The grunt said.
"Where's your ship?" Chief asked.
"It crash, we are only good survivors." The grunt said.
"How many of you were there?" Chief asked.
"Many brutes, they capture us. There was an elite, we not find her. Rest of us here." The grunt explained.
"And the brutes?" Chief asked.
"Some die in crash. Others try to fight stupid humans. Most get bit, in chaos we escape." The grunt said.
"Do you have names?" Chief asked.
"Yes. Me Jaxx." The grunt said. "He Mac." The grunt pointed to the jackal who looked like a sniper variant. "He Sill." Jaxx pointed to the green armored drone. "We call him Bruiser." Jaxx pointed to the hunter. "Engineer no have name." Jaxx finished.
"Why were you out here?" Chief asked.
"We decide safest place to go would be your ship. We no hurt good humans, we defect." Jaxx said.
The hunter made a groaning sound and threw a punch at Chief. Chief easily dodged the punch but saw what the hunter was really aiming for. Bruiser smashed the walker that had slowly been creeping up on Chief. The hunter put its hand back up like nothing had happened.
"We kill many of those stupid humans." Jaxx said.
"Okay, follow me. But be warned, I can easily kill you all if I want and will not hesitate to do so if you make any wrong move, understood?" Chief asked.
They all nodded their heads in fear. Chief lead them back to the mongoose and drove slowly enough so that they could keep up. It was now high noon and the sun was sweltering. By the time they reached the Dawn they had nearly passed out from heat exhaustion. All except for Jaxx who rode on the back of the mongoose and Bruiser who wasn't very affected by the temperature.
"Chief, be careful there are more Covenant right behind you!" Cortana screamed over the com link.
"It's ok Cortana. They're on our side." Chief said calmly as they rode up to the hangar via external elevator.
When they got into the hanger the Covenant were amazed to be inside a UNSC ship. Louis was watching from the cockpit of the Pelican and hid when he saw the Covenant.
"Why didn't Chief kill those Covenant?" Louis asked Cortana.
"I don't know, he said something about them being on our side though." Cortana responded.
Louis saw an assault rifle lying on a crate in the Pelican. He grabbed it and took the safety off. Chief had told the Covenant to wait at the entrance of the hanger. Chief walked over to the entrance of the Pelican and explained the circumstances of the Covenant's arrival.
"Funny, I would have detected a Covenant ship and or an army of Brutes by now, especially if they were within hiking distance of the Dawn." Cortana said.
"Didn't you say earlier that you're not used to working with 21st century technology?" Louis asked.
"Well yes, however if the ship was that close then the Dawn's sensors would have picked it up. Wait, maybe it was cloaked!" Cortana exclaimed.
"What do you mean cloaked?" Louis asked.
"The Covenant had a technology called active camouflage. It was able to turn single soldiers and in extremely rare cases fighter jets invisible. I even stole one of the Covenant soldier's active camo module during our mission to stop the flood." Chief said.
"Although the theoretical physics of active camo would prevent such a large object from becoming cloaked. I think it would help to know which ship they were on. After all, I have a complete copy of the Covenant Naval database from my time on High Charity." Cortana said.
"Agreed." Chief said.
Chief and Louis walked out into the hanger and signaled the Covenant to follow them. Louis was following just as much as the Covenant as Chief lead them into a room with a large glass topped table and a ton of monitor screens. Louis quickly deduced that it was some kind of war room.
"Which one of you is the leader?" Louis asked while expecting it to be the drone or the hunter.
Instead all of the Covenant except Jaxx pointed at Jaxx. Jaxx had pointed at Bruiser but was shocked to see all of his comrades select him as their leader.
"Well, Terra was our leader but we no find her after crash." Jaxx said.
"Who is Terra?" Louis asked.
"And more importantly what ship were you onboard when you crashed?" Chief asked.
Bruiser groaned something but seemed to stop half way as he realized that nobody except Jaxx and the engineer understood him. He sort of hung his head down and Louis noticed it.
"He say we were on the Invincible Justice." Jaxx said as the room went deathly silent.
"What was that?" Louis asked.
"The Invincible Justice was a Covenant CCS class heavy cruiser. It had the third most confirmed capital ship kills of any Covenant vessel during the war. Given that fact it doesn't surprise me in the least that it would be outfitted with experimental cloaking technology. It most likely took part in both the second battle of Earth and the Battle for the Ark, we just never knew it because it was cloaked." Cortana said after appearing on the table.
"Yes, both second attack on Earth and battle of the Ark. We try to defect during battle for Ark, but Brutes capture us. They kill most of us; Brute Chieftain take Terra away but then we crash. Stupid humans attacked the ship, at first the Brutes easily kill them all. But then some Brutes start acting like stupid humans and chaos allow us to escape. We hear Brute survivors talking about wrecked Human ship so we go in that direction." Jaxx explained.
"How do you speak English? I mean don't you speak alien or something?" Louis asked Jaxx.
"Grunts learn other Languages very fast, so when we were planning to defect, Terra teach me a few human Languages. My English still not good though." Jaxx said.
"This Terra person sounds really nice, who was she?" Louis asked.
"Terra was our leader. She was an Elite who no like the Brutes but her father stayed loyal to the prophets during great schism. Some say a human save her life. Others say she saw Covenant kill defenseless human children. Either way, she would have died before any harm could come to a human or soldier in her command. She was a rare commander who care for her troops too." Jaxx said. "But who you?"
"I'm Louis, one of a few orphans that Chief and Cortana saved from a group of raiders that wanted to kill us. He saved most of us but one of the raiders killed a good friend of mine and took two of my other friends' prisoner. Right now we're looking for their base so we can save our friends." Louis said.
"Bad humans?" Jaxx said surprised. "Me though all humans good except stupid humans."
"Unfortunately no. The group that attacked them was powerful and well-armed, they were trying to kill children because they wouldn't become slaves and soldiers for them." Cortana said.
Mac scowled, Bruiser groaned, the Engineer hissed, and Sill buzzed at this. They not only detested this new group of humans because of their own moral code but also because their former leader would have given her life to stop people like them.
"Bad humans must die, we help you destroy their base and save your friends." Jaxx said.
"I was planning to take them alone, you all know well that I could, but I suppose a distraction or some support wouldn't be unwelcome." Chief said.
After that Chief went back to the hangar to complete his work on the Pelican and also work on other vehicles. Louis took the Covenant and introduced them to the Ericson crew. Willy didn't like that the engineer didn't have a name so he started calling it Bengi. Bruiser was the center of attention mostly because of his size and cannon. Mary was particularly interested is Sill's wings and what they were made of as well as how Bengi could float in midair. Ten was a little scared of Mac, mostly because he looked so weird. Violet was curious as to why Jaxx was wearing a shell on his back and why he talked in such a high pitch. Aasim mostly kept to himself though. He was still recovering from the loss of Omar. He did notice that every once and a while Violet would try to open the eye lid of the eye that Lily smashed. In addition, she wasn't wearing her eye pad that Mary gave her either.
"So you talk like that because there's a chemical in your suit called methane?" Violet asked Jaxx.
"Yes, it help Grunts in battle." Jaxx answered.
"Hey Violet, why aren't you wearing you eye pad?" Aasim asked.
"Oh, Cortana gave me a fake eye earlier. It's supposed to work just like a normal one but the muscles in my eyelid are still adjusting to it. That's why my eyelid keeps twitching." Violet said. Aasim just nodded his head.
…
In the hanger, Chief had finished optimizing the Pelicans flap system and was doing some final checks to make sure it was in working shape when Cortana appeared on a console near him.
"Good news, another phantom signal appeared a second ago and I was able to trace it exactly this time." Cortana said.
"Were you able to crack it?" Chief asked.
"Yes but I only made out a few words. 'Castle, Black Omen, objective complete, requesting transport, out' is all I could get. However, I have deciphered most of the encryptions so the next one that comes along should fall right into our hands. Anyways I traced the signal and found a rather large complex about 20 minutes' flight from here." Cortana said.
"Is it Lily's base?" Chief asked.
"I don't know why I would be picking her bio signature and those of Clem, AJ, and all her surviving soldiers there if it wasn't." Cortana said.
"Alright we're hitting it tonight." Chief said.
"Wow, slow down. This place is really well defended and you're going to need to be airlifted into this place." Cortana said.
"So, I can fly a Pelican." Chief said.
"And land it after you jump out too?" Cortana asked.
"Look, Louis isn't ready for this and even if he was…" Chief was cut off by Cortana.
"You made a promise to keep him safe and you don't want to even remotely chance it. Chief, you talked about these kids being the new first generation of the UNSC. They won't ever be that if you don't let them take risks and do stuff like this. Besides, we told Louis that he could come and even if we were both created by ONI we should uphold that." Cortana said.
Chief laughed a little inside his head but had to agree. "You're guiding him through it every step of the way and at the first sign of trouble you're getting him out of there." Chief said.
"Conditions excepted. And what about the Covenant? Jaxx seemed pretty intent on help you." Cortana said.
Chief sighed. "I guess they can come too. It would help to have a hunter on our side after all. I would like the engineer to stay on the Pelican though, to help Louis in case something happens."
"I'm beginning to think your acting like a father to these kids." Cortana said.
Chief just walked away at that statement.
"I'll take that as you pleading guilty!" Cortana yelled at him as he walked toward the war room.
…
It was late afternoon at David's community. He had was working on some resource statistics when Jackson walked into his office.
"Where's the kid?" Jackson asked.
"In the aviary with Kandice. I take it you have something from Umbrella, what is it." David said in a friendly way.
"Two things actually. First, Monarch hit one of our outposts just north of here today. The person leading the assault was none other than our favorite individual himself." Jackson said.
"Here!" David asked in a shocked tone.
"Yes, although it's unlikely that they know about your involvement with Umbrella. They might send a small detachment of troops or an agent here to recruit you to their cause." Jackson said in a depressed tone.
"You of all people should know that we would NEVER…" David was cut off.
"We know you wouldn't David. Your loyalty has been put through worse tests before and here we are. No, what I mean is don't instantly kill them." Jackson said.
"You want to interrogate them?" David asked.
"Maybe, but what I think the higher-ups want is to put you inside their lines. To have you falsely join them so we can launch a surprise attack and cripple their operations in this region for good." Jackson theorized.
"Smart plan. Count us in, we'll do anything to take those animals down. But what about the equipment in the basement?" David asked.
"It's ready. We'll use it as soon as we have a confirmed target. Besides, unless you show it to Monarch on a tour, they'll never find it." Jackson joked.
"And what was the second piece of news?" David asked.
"Oh I almost forgot! The bosses want Clementine for something, for what they didn't say." Jackson said.
"Hell, that hag is no use to me. At the moment she's clinging to life by thread anyways. Take her!" David said.
"I actually thought that it would be harder to convince you to hand her over but hey I'm not complaining." Jackson said a little shocked.
"Alright, well tell your bosses thanks for the heads up." David said.
"I will, and don't stay up all night counting crops!" Jackson yelled as he left the office. David got a good laugh out of that as he returned to his work.
As Jackson walked down the hallway, he pulled out the Umbrella badge he had in his pocket and held it up to his mouth. "This is agent Black Omen, objective complete. Requesting transport over."
"This is Castle, transport is enroot. ETA 2 hours. Maintain radio silence until further orders are relayed, over." The badge responded.
"Affirmative, Black Omen over and out." Jackson said as he reached the door.
…
It was late and the sun had set. AJ was feeding a red striped bird in the Aviary as his assigned guardian nervously watched the time.
"AJ, I know you're having fun but it's gettin late. Your uncle will be wondering where on Earth you are, come on we have to go." Kandice said.
"Alright." AJ said in a perturbed tone.
They had almost reached the entrance of the Aviary when Kandice suddenly started floating and grabbing her throat. Before AJ could say or do anything though, she passed out and fell to the ground. AJ was scared out of belief but what he saw next changed that completely. Fear turned into joy as a figure became visible in front of him.
"Chief!" AJ screamed.