Arc
(Or, The Devil's friends hide in the dark)
Arc waited patiently for what he hoped was just a horrible nightmare to end.
He didn't want to believe it. He didn't want to believe he was captured, again.
Not after what'd happened the first time. He realized that it'd been over two years since he'd thought of it last.
As if he'd wanted to think of that night again.
He'd been fairly young. As were his siblings, too. All seven of them, eight, including him.
They were commonly referred to as bandits, as they made a living by looting areas of…. significant value.
Miniknog research facilities were one thing, but why loot the compound when you can take what you want from the overseer's luscious quarters, filled with one-of-a-kind paintings and private technology?
Avian temples? Target practice.
Hylotl castles? Almost a joke, really.
Miniknog strongholds? Just another day at the office.
A small smile crept out of his mouth.
He had thought they were certainly destructive, almost unstoppable.
But…
Back to the thought of his first imprisonment.
It was an average operation, nothing new. No changes to the plans, no weapon loadout modifications.
He didn't have an exactly daring position, being the second youngest, like how their eldest brother, Ren, had the main field operations under his lead, and was always followed by Elduin, and Aris.
Shard, the fourth eldest, had sniper and reconnaissance duties, like making sure any guards or witnesses who spotted Ren were immediately silenced with a suppressed sniper round.
As their armor quality was fairly moderate, as the three in the open usually took the quicker routes.
Theses routes were scouted out by Arc, and him alone. He only possessed a small handgun and a dagger at the time. His armor….what armor? All he needed was the holographic scanner to send the blueprints. He didn't need any armor, of course. He needed to be fast.
He'd made his way into the tomb, without being seen. It wasn't anything special to him. It was required.
The encompassing darkness was always a problem in avian tombs. Almost worse than the guards, he thought.
Hours of darkness. Hours, stacked on hours. The augments inside of him helped compensate for the lack of light, but they had always made him unbalanced, and prone to error.
Which led him to his next problem.
He snuck silently down the sandstone stairs inset to the wall, watching the ground below him with his ears facing forward, to possibly pick up where any voices or noises associated with the guards.
Nothing.
He'd thought, leaping off the stairs. Quickly scrambling to a lower platform, he gazed across the gap laid before him. A silent whirring hiss of circular saws echoed from the bottom.
Not much of a jump. I bet I can make it.
He bent his knees, then let out his breath as he leapt toward the other side, grabbing onto the ledge with his talons.
Oh no
As he dangled above the pit, he realized that he still had enough strength to continue.
Groaning quietly, he heaved himself up onto the cold stone brick.
He gasped, taking air into his lungs before standing up to continue, running down the chamber.
The air was cold and damp here, just filled with stone coffins, which were filled with bones, pixels, and sometimes books. Arc had wondered how the guards even made it around day-to-day without falling from the high ledges, or of course, into the pits filled with saws.
The hallway turned off to the right, down some stairs that lead to another chamber, filled with more stone coffins.
Strange. I haven't seen a single guard.
At the end of this hallway was another set of stairs. Yes, more stairs
Though, he found it suspicious that at the end there was a faint glow, almost like a light...
At the bottom he found out that he was screwed.
Three Avian warriors, or 'Valkyries' he'd thought was appropriate, stood at the bottom of the stairs, bows drawn and aimed in his direction. See, Valkyrie was the perfect name, because all guards in avian tombs were female, and wearing heavy metal armor, which bore markings like feathers.
Anyways, it wasn't looking too hot.
He raised his talons in front of his chest, a fearful fleeting feeling passing through his body.
"Uh, hah hah. Hi." He chuckled nervously, beginning to back away.
A cracking noise echoed across the chamber, and Arc instantly felt the pain, screaming out as he dropped his gun.
The arrow was deep inside his leg, and there was definitely no chance he was going to make it back out, especially with the close-call he'd had on the jump.
"Ugghhhnnnn…." He moaned, grasping the wooden shaft, then yanking his talons back when pulling it out only caused more pain.
He felt talons grab his shoulders, dragging him down the stairs, jostling his wound.
The pain was almost enough to make him black out...
Which he guessed was why he didn't remember being cuffed.
Slumped against the wall, his purple blood stained the feathers on his pierced leg, having leaked across the ground, causing tiny rivlets through the lines in the brick floor.
I need to warn them….somehow..
He'd thought groggily, attempting to stand, only to be jerked back down to the floor.
Arc looked down at his talons, seeing they were firmly encased in shackles, just like his legs.
"Ahhh…..that's bad."
Upon looking around, he saw that he was in a smaller room than before with a small wooden door, a box of hay large enough for an avian to sleep in, and a cabinet beside him.
They must have assumed someone would follow me, because the Holographic scanner isn't on me anymore. Dealing with future threats, since I'm not one anymore…..
He sighed, flicking his tail as he covered his leg before more blood could escape onto the cold stone.
Gunshots echoed outside the door.
He perked up his ears, listening.
They're coming!
Avian screeches followed by gunshots sunk through the door.
Silence followed.
The door exploded into a million splinters as Ren burst through, his armor covering his black-and-lime green feathers.
"Why the hell did you have to go ahead and get noticed, Arc? We never had this problem before!" He muttered, grabbing the kinetic knife off his belt.
"Hold still."
Ren flicked it on, the blade beginning to glow a warm orange. He lowered it to Arc's shackled talons, shearing them off quickly as the smell of melting metal filled the cold, dank air.
(*laughs immaturely* Dank. *Continues laughter*)
The steel cuffs clanked to the ground as Ren quickly moved to cutting the shackles at Arc's feet.
Now, you may be thinking, 'oh that's fortunate for him, he's home free without being scarred eternally, nice'.
Well, you're wrong.
You're welcome.
The second they made it into the hallway, Arc was able to pick up the audio from Ren's earpiece.
"We're pulling back! They're too damn accurate!" Aris yelled on the other end, gunshots crackling through the low-resolution audio.
"Frick. We'll need to find another way out if they don't clear the entrance up there." Ren had told him, his gaze darting from hallway to hallway as he helped Arc limp through.
A bird-like screech screamed behind them.
"The Kluex compels me to take your life!" The Avian fired her bow, the arrow nearly hitting Ren's nose.
Ren yelled and fired his submachine gun, the Avian warrior going down in a spray of scarlet blood.
"The Kluex also compelled you to die, apparently." Ren muttered, spitting on their corpse before leaving down the hallway, Arc leaning against him.
"I-I'm sorry...I didn't see them, it-it's alright if I have to tend to my own wounds." Arc murmured softly, trying his hardest to ignore the pain.
Ren stopped him, staring him in the eyes with a serious expression. "Stop. You're fine, I'm fine, we're all fine as it is. But stop blaming yourself. Hell, every operation is a success if we all get out alive. I'm not going to stand for you saying it was 'all your fault', because I don't know what happened down there. Nobody alive does. Except you. Only you can come to terms with your mistakes, if you truly believe in the results." He said. Looking back up the tunnel, he coughed.
"Come on. Let's get out of here before their third messenger reaches the nearby town."
Looks like Shard's doing his job. Why is it if anyone messes up, it's always me?
They reached the top of the stairs, into the entrance hallway. Sunlight shined into their eyes, painfully bright after emerging from the darkness of the crypt below.
Hmm. I didn't come this way. The room I was locked in must've been past the saw pit.
His eyes adapted to the light, immediately seeing a problem.
Seven Avian warriors lined the entranceway, faced away from the stairs. They had taken cover behind pieces of the deteriorated temple above the crypt, some hiding behind fallen memorial statues and others behind shattered fractions of the giant pillars that decorated the outside.
Several of the warrior's comrades lined the floor, all having been killed by bullet wounds.
Ren pointed in the other direction, to the opposing side of the entrance.
Arc nodded, limping toward it as fast as his mental strength would allow as Ren followed slowly, sliding a reflex sight atop his SMG.
Sounds of arrows and gunfire rattled behind him, urging him forward.
Run
His instincts panicked.
Reap.
A small part of his conscience hissed.
Arc cried out, his leg suddenly burning with pain before he tumbled down the stairs, a small trickle of blood seeping from his forehead as he struggled to stand up.
His foot slipped on the grass, preventing him from making it back up. "Ugnh…"
Ren jogged down the stairs, taking Arc's hand from the ground and pulling him up.
"Come on bud, we're leaving. I think you've had enough action for toda-"
Thwap!
Arc's heart stopped as he instantly recognized the sound.
Ren's grip on his shoulder lightened as he coughed. "Hrrrk. Aw….shit."
An arrow had pierced straight through his chest.
Arc's mind instantly began to panic.
Nonononononono...this can't be happening, not him, please!
Arc snapped the arrowhead off, wiping his older brother's blood away.
"Hang in there, please." Arc whined.
Ren only coughed up more blood, falling to his knees before Arc caught him.
"I said hang on!" Arc repeated.
Ren nodded slowly, his eyes slowly closing.
"No! Stop, Ren! Stay here! Stay here, stay with me!"
Arc grabbed the other end of the shaft in Ren's back, pulling the headless arrow out swiftly and cleanly.
Ripping his sleeves off his shoulders, Arc crumpled them up and placed one piece across Ren's back, and the other over his chest, letting him fall to his back.
"No, no, no, no, no, stay with me Ren, please don't leave!" Arc cried, pressing down on the open gap in his brother's blood stained chest.
Ren grabbed Arc's wrist, looking him in the eyes. "Stop….I'm not…" He coughed, specks of pale violet blood covering his white armor. "...going to get out of here…..I'm done….You're….safe now….I think that's good….enough…..for me…" His grip began to weaken slightly.
Arc shook his head, blinking away tears. "N-no! I can't do anything without you! How will I live? How will any of us live?! We need you!"
Ren smiled weakly. "I think you give me too much credit."
Arc grasped Ren's talons tightly. "I don't want you to go. Please."
"I would if I could….you know."
His talons stopped squeezing Arc's suddenly going limp.
Ren exhaled, smiling as if he'd already gotten everything he needed, and closed his eyes.
Arc snapped out of his reminiscences to the sound of lava bubbling around him.
Oh right. That's normal.
He sighed, kicking a small pebble that had dislodged itself from the floor.
I wish I could fix all of that day.
He didn't deserve to die.
If anything,
I did.
Not that his killers have anything to say about it.
A brief memory of rage, screaming, and icy fury seeped through his brain, passing by as quickly as it had come.
I think I want to leave my thoughts for a while.