Author's note: I would have updated yesterday day, but tradgey hit my family. My brother returned home after taking me youngest brother to school and found my mother dead. So, this may be my last update in a while, until I have recovered from this depression. Depression stops my writing, and well, I have never been so depressed. But, i hope you enjoy this chapter anyway.
Chapter 16 - The land of nightmares
Ellie POV
"Who the hell was that?" I asked, we walked through Bowerstone Industrial, towards the base. We had just watched the death of someone called 'Captain' Jones.
"No idea, there was no one in the game who went by that name." Dennis admitted. "But, it means Swift is somewhere, I'm guessing he is with Jade."
"Yeah, but now I am worried. She saved Swift, but it meant someone else dided." Chelsee said
"So?" I asked
"What is she planning to do for Walter, to save him. He gets posioned by the Crawler, then gets killed later on." Chelsee frowned
"We need to ask her, I don't want her doing anything stupid." Hayley said, Dennis chuckled.
"What's funny?" I looked at him.
"I just find it funny that Jade is older then us, but we act older then her." Dennis smiled "Is that weird or what?"
"Na, that's normal for us." Hayley smiled. We reach the base enterence. We all sighed as we saw Jade sitting at a table with her head in her hands, Swift was patting her back, whilst everyone else looked confused.
"What's going on?" I asked
"I just told them about Major Jones." Ben said. "Jade had met him earlier, a few minutes before he was killed, she not taking it too well."
"Ah..." We all looked at her. She saw us and put on a smile.
"How did you enjoy the wheel of misfortune?" She asked,
"It was fun, a lot easier then expected." Chelsee sat next to her.
"It always is. You get used to fighting monster after a while." Jade nodded
"So, what's next?" I asked
"To Aurora." Swift said, "There are people there who can help us."
"Great, so, we need a boat." Page said
"There are plenty of boats at the docks." Chelsee told her.
"True...right, we'll just have to take one of those boats." Page nodded, Jade got up.
"Fine, come on guys to the docks." She smiled
"Ben, go with them." Swift said "I'll stay here and help with what I can."
"Yes sir." Ben nodded, we headed out the back of the sewers and towards the docks.
Hayley POV
"Look out!" I cried out, we all ducked as bullets flew over our heads.
"Well, this is going to go well." Ellie muttered, we all peeked in the direction of the bullets.
"think you can take them out Ben?" Jade asked
"What sort of question is that? Of course I can!" Ben drew his rifle and aimed it carefully. He took out the shooters with one bullet each. "done." We came out of hiding and rushed forward, drawing weapons as we ran into a building by the docks. We only had a few men off, we got to the docks with a few minor injuries.
"Whoa!" We all jumped as a crane blew up.
"Good job Page!" Ben smiled and we rushed to find a boat.
"Here." Jade got on to a steam ship. "My fire spell will help get it going...where's Walter?" Walter joined them.
"We have to go now, we're going to be followed after all." Walter got onto the ship.
"Is this safe?" I asked as Chelsee helped me on.
"Pretty safe, everyone's on board." Chelsee nodded, Walter and Jade started up the ship. Chelsee had to hold me up right as the ship began to move.
"That should keep us going for a while." Jade joined us on deck. "We can only wait now."
"Yep." Dennis nodded, an unsettling silence fell over everyone. We all knew what was going to happen next, and I was terrified, I didn't know about the others. Jade looked calm enough watching the sea behind us. Chelsee, Dennis and Ellie sat starring at the floor, each in deep thought. I looked back towards Albion, I gasped. From the mists came a whole navy of ships. Everyone stood up and looked towards them.
"Brace yourselves!" Dennis called, I watched as a cannon ball headed straight for us. The ship splinted at impact. I was submerged in water. I struggled to swim up, I began to panick, but I was able to get up and hold on to a pice of the broken ship. I looked around.
"Chelsee! Dennis! Ellie! JADE?" I called my friends, but no answer. "Walter? Ben?" The only sound was that of the waves acround me, I lay my head on the wood and let the waves carry me away. I hoped everyone was okay.
Dennis POV
"Urgh..." I groaned, I opened my eyes, my head ached painfully. There was someone above me. "H-hello?" I croaked, my throat was dry.
"Here, drink this." A woman said, I was helped into a sitting posisition and a glass of water was pressed to my lips. I drank, the water did little to make me fell better.
"W-where am I ?" I asked
"Auroura. I am Kalin. Who are you?" The woman said, I looked at her. She still had a bold head which was painted.
"Dennis, a hero from Albion...was anyone with me?" I rubbed my head.
"Two, Ben and Hayley, they are waiting for you outside." Kalin answered.
"Thank you." I got up, Kalin had to help me steady myself on my feet, before leading me from the room. I recongised the place now, the temple. If Jade, Ellie, Chelsee weren't here meant only one thing - They were on the other side of the home of the crawler and they must walked into it lair to get closer to us. I sighed, it wasn't going to be easy at all. We still had no idea how Jade planned on saving Walter, I could only believe it meant endangering someone else.
"Dennis!" Hayley cried and hugged me "I was so worried, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I'm glad ytou two are okay. The others not here?" I asked
"No." Ben shook his head, his face clouded with worry. "From what I have heard and seen of this place, they are in danger if they are out in the desert. The Crawler ight get to them before us and that will only mean death..."
"Don't worry Ben, everyone will be fine. We'll find them and bring them to safety." I smiled at him, Ben didn't looke too optomistic at my words. I turned to see Kalin watching us. "Kalin..."
"I will get some men ready." she smiled knowingly. I nodded and smiled back.
"Thank you, that would be great." I said, Kalin left to speak to her people.
"Wh..." BEn began
"well, we'll need help if we are going ton search for them aren't we?" I looked at him.
"Why didn't I think of that?" Ben mutrtered
"You were too worried about Chelsee." Hayley grinned, Ben blushed
"Was not." Ben growled
"Ben, everyone can clearly see you fancy her. Why not ask her on a date when we take the throne from Logan?" I suggested
"I will, but, you'll have to keep Jade away." Ben told me.
"Sure, we can do that." I nodded, Hayley agreed happily.
"Now, lets go and find our friends!" Hayley said, Ben and I nodded and went to find Kalin and her search party.
Chelsee POV
"Owww..." I groaned, rubbing my head, my cheek was burning. I pushed myself up, I was on a b each, sweet. But, I was alone, not sweet. I got up and dusted myself off. "Hello?" I called, hoping for a reply.
"Chelsee?" A deep voiuce replied.
"Sir Walter!" I smiled and ran over to where his voice came from. The man was sitting in the sand, looking very confused. "Where are we?"
"I don't know..." He began
"Welcome to Aurora." We turned to see Jade and Ellie.
"We made it..." I sighed "Where are the others?"
"Guessing they ended up somewhere else. We need to get out of here." Ellie said "We found a cave near by."
"A cave?" Walter looked worried, I glanced at Jade.
"Seems the only way to go from here Walter, we can't swim from here, there might be creatures in the water." She said
"Very well, come along girls." Walter pushed himself up and dusted himself down. Ellie and Jade led the way to the cave, Jade stopped. Walter and Ellie passed her, I stopped next to her.
"You okay?" I asked
"The Crawlers in there..." Jade muttered
"Yeah...so?" I frowned
"I may have acted fine about the crawler..." Jade said "But, truthfully, it terrifies me...I have no idea where it comes from...I'm afraid Chelsee."
"It's okay, you've done this before..." I began
"On a game. This isn't a game anymore...everything I faced in the game will really happen in there..." Jade griminced
"We'll be fine. The fast we get this done, the fast we can get back to Albion. Right?" I smiled
"Yeah..." Jade nodded
"Are you two coming?" Ellie called
"Coming!" We replied and rushed after them.
We got throught the first two purple magic shield things. Jade admitted that not even she knew what they were. But we reached a ledge, Ellie and I jumped down. We waited for Jade to join us, but it was Walter first. I suddenly realised what was going on.
"JADE!" I yelled, she screamed. The ghastly voice of the Crawler began to laugh menicingly.
'You let her die.' He mocked
"She's not dead." I said
"We'll save her!" Ellie promised, glaring around.
"I think we need to go this way." Walter glanced down the path.
"Let's go then." I nodded, we ran down the path, and towards Jade.
Jade POV
Where was I? I felt like i was floating, but, I couldn't feel water. Strange. What's going on? Oh, of course...I must be in that black glop thing. This isn't as bad as I thought it would be, kinda peaceful. Wait...I can hear voices...Chelsee! Ellie! Walter! Be careful!
"We have to get her out of that!" Ellie cried
"But how?" Chelsee asked
I'm fine! You need to be careful, the Crawler...I heard monsters attacking them...NO! I tried fighting against the bonds of the Crawler.
'You really want to fight, hero. Even you don't have the strength to beat me.' I heard the Crawler's voice in my ear. I shivered and stopped. I was the one who had to be careful, I was in the Crawler's posation. I didn't like this, I should have considered this during the planning stage. I listened to the fighting going on around me, I wish I could have watched, but I knew this would leave me blinded and with a darkness in my heart. I felt the bonds free me, I fell forward and I felt someone catch me.
"Jade?" I heard Walter
"That creature blinded me." I said
"I'll carry you, Ellie, Chelsee, led the way out. You two will need to fight anything nasties we meet outside this place." Walter said, I felt myself being lifted up, at the same time, my energy was depleting. I could feel Walter running, then the burning of the sun on my skin.
"Oh boy, this is one big desert..." Ellie muttered.
"the city is by...a big statue thing." I said, "Hurry, I don't think I can stage awake much longer...I think that monster is taking my energy..."
"Then, lets hurry." Chelsee said, all I could was listen and feel what was going on, but I ended up loosing concousness.
I was floating again, then pain ripped through me. i screamed. It was agonising!
"Jade." I heard a voice. I was able to open my eyes, in the dark there was someone surround in light, dressed in gold and blue.
"You..You're Scythe..." I muttered, then screamed as pain tore though me again.
"This will be over soon. A priestess is removing the darkness." Scythe said
"But, why does it hurt so much?" I asked
"The darkness the Crawler uses is not like the darkness of the Shadow court. The darkness he bonded to you is ancient, and riding it from your body is ripping it from your soul." Scythe said
"That explains things...Wait, how do you know about the darkness of the Crawler?" I looked at him.
"I know a lot of things, Jade. I know you and your friends are destined to save Albion." He told me
"LIke Sparrow, I know Theresa already told us." I muttered, looking down.
"Don't let darkness control you. I can only hope if will not affect you as it affected me." Scythe said and turned, he began walking away.
"Wait! What do you mean?" I asked
"One day, you will understand it. And when that day comes, you will be stronger. Knowledge will become your greatest ally." Scythe smiled "Until then, I hope you will protect Albion, you and your friends have my faith. Farewell." I watched him go, but the light he had was left behind. I reached out for it, and the light expanded around me. I felt myself falling.
I'm coming back.
