Author's Note

Hello everyone! I'm a friend of Paradise Eco, who gave me her password for fanfiction and all other networking sites to tell her readers that she's hospitalized for a series of stomach problems. She apologizes for not updating like she promised on Sunday but she asked me to update these over the next couple days to keep you guys happy. She also says Happy Halloween. She also wants to thank EcoSeeker and Sandninjabunny for their reviews, with lots of love; Paradise Eco.

The ABC's of Perfect Mistakes

Chapter Twenty-One: U is for Unconditionally

"Barricade those doors!" Parker shouted over the general noise of the city, between the screaming, growling and gun fire she wondered how she could still hear out of the left one. The guards ran to the doors of the stadium, dropping blocks of wood, old pieces of zoomers and bits of buildings in front of the doors. Not only locking the citizens in but keeping the Metal Heads out. She glanced to the small shimmering shield that protected the stadium, but Parker could already see spider fractures in it as a Metal Rhino slammed its head against the wall. All the men stopped as a cracking sounded over them but the quick shield Lena made stood strong -for how long, she didn't know.

"Are you waiting for Christmas?" Torn shouted walking up beside Parker. "Get back to work!" The guards wasted no time moving raw materials into position. Torn motioned for Parker to walk with him, she huffed and followed him. "I've got word that Jak has entered the nest."

She shrugged. "How does that benefit us?"

Torn crossed his arms. "I thought you'd like to know your friends made it through safe and sound."

She glanced at Torn before waving a shield operator over. "How's the shield?"

"We're at 40 percent!" He shouted. "We should work on getting people out."

"And go where?" Torn snapped. "Kras has shut their boarders."

"We're on our own," Parker said looking to the operator. "Work on keeping it up as long as you can, meanwhile the rest of us will work on getting ready for the battle."

Parker paused and looked around. The guards swarmed at the entrance of the stadium, others were at the shield shooting the Metal Heads that rushed them. Some bounced off the shield while others stayed back and clawed at them. What scared her the most were the amount of bodies on the ground. She couldn't tell which belonged to the guards or the innocent civilians that were caught in the crossfires. Suddenly, her legs felt weak and she felt tired exhausted from the countless hours she spent fighting this threat. Soon it'll be over and she could sleep among the dead.

A cackle of laughter rang out from beyond the shield as a massive black ship moved towards them. Several of the men cheered, running to the shield and mocking the Metal Heads that cowered away from it.

Torn's jaw dropped. "How the Hell..." He trailed off as the tank stopped just outside the shield and Lena waved to them.

"Hey motherfuckas!" She shouted. "I found a tank!"

"Do I even want to-"

"Probably not," Parker chuckled running away from him. "Just try to enjoy the fact she found one!" She passed through the shield with a prickly feeling in her chest before she climbed a top the tank. "So where'd you get the tank?"

"I found it just lying around." Lena said with a devious smirk.

"Sure you did."

"Stop asking questions!" She snapped. "And lets blow some shit up!" She laughed hysterically and slipped inside the tank. Parker looked in, beside Lena was another seat just waiting for another person. Instead, she choose to hang out at the top. Firing off rounds into any Metal Head that came towards them, her whole body shook when Lena fired taking out a Rhino and a group of Grunts that charged at them. She reloaded her gun from her pack, firing into the heads of any Metal Head that dared to come close. She felt a trickle of sweat run down her back, not only was she running low on gun mods but she could see the cracks in the shield. The doors were almost covered, hiding among the rumble of the pillars the meds attended to the injured. Parker dropped herself into the tank.

"How much longer do we have?"

"The shield will drop soon." Lena shouted firing another bomb at a Metal Rhino. "Maybe ten minutes?" Parker climbed back up just as another Rhino ran into the shield, it cracked and a chunk of Eco fell from it, followed by another one. "Umm, never mind."

"Parker!" Someone shouted behind her. She turned to see Amberly and a group of Krimzon Guards running behind her, between them were citizens covering their heads and ducking under the hail storm of bullets. Parker jumped out of the tank, sliding down the side and hitting the ground on all fours. She got back up and ran over to Amberly, covering the girl's head as they ran through the failing shield. The tank followed, it's treads crushing the left over bits of the shield.

"What the h-" Parker started before she was airborne, flying over the ground and colliding with another guard. She dropped to the ground and coughed violently, she knew one of her ribs were broken. She held her side and forced herself up, glancing to the shield. Giant pieces were missing, broken and falling from the sky. The tank stopped just outside the staircase, Lena was still firing at the bigger Metal Heads but the smaller ones were able to slip through her missiles.

The Dark Eco bomb carved a hole in the city's defensive, bodies laid everywhere. Some were twitching or crying out for help. Parker could see Torn rushing into battle with his men hot on his trail, those wearing red rebellion scarves and others that wore the crimson of the guard. She looked around, people ran away from the monsters that rushed at them or pleaded for mercy as they slashed through them.

"Parker!" Amberly shouted limping over, Parker gagged when Amberly dropped down beside her. Her arm was broken, the bone poking out of the skin on her left arm. She cradled it with her right arm. "What are we going to do?!"

"Nothing!" Parker shouted. "It's over."

"No!" Amberly shouted. "It's not over, we can beat them! We can save the city! We can-" Parker slapped her.

"Get it through your head! We lost! We're all going to die! There's no hope!"

"This!" Amberly said holding out her bag. "In the box, it's the stone!"

"Jak has the Precursor Stone!"

"No, no, no!" She cried. "The Saviour Stone!" She pushed the bag towards Parker. "Open it!"

Parker glanced to Amberly before dumping the bag, sure enough a brown box tumbled onto the cobblestones. She pulled at the strings and ripped the paper off, Parker winced when she heard a gunshot over head. She glared towards the Metal Heads as she flipped open the lid, inside was a sharp-edged stone set against a white pillow. The stone was a deep shade of purple, darkening in colour in the centre and at the tips. She gagged and covered her mouth, the Dark Eco coming from it was sickening.

"Am," Parker started. "Where'd you get this? This is a pure Dark Eco Crystal!"

"Rhiannon gave it to us! Lena's been keeping it safe in Kras until the day we needed it! It's supposed to power the Eco Shield!"

"You mean that thing that was destroyed by Kor?" Parker snorted. "It won't work."

"Yes it will!" Amberly screamed grabbing the back of Parker's neck and shoving her face towards it. Parker thrashed under Amberly's weak hold until she let go, a group of guards were dragging a screaming Amberly away from Parker's side. "Let me go!" She screamed. "She needs to do this! She needs to finish what she's started! She can save all of us!" Parker watched the girl before looking down at the stone, some of her blood was on it and she could see something sparking inside of it. She swallowed before picking it up, she screamed and dropped it to the ground. Her hands were raw and red, nail beds starting to bleed. She clenched her fist and looked around, Torn's men were falling back and the tank was backing up hitting the fountain. Parker felt the sting of hatred rush through her veins before she bent down and picked it up again, she ignored the burn of the stone.

"Oh my God- Parker no!" Torn shouted rushing towards her before the crystal ignited in a blast of purple flames bathing everyone in glorious purple light. Parker stared at the stone as her own flesh started to blacken, the darkness crept up her arms as she looked up at her friends. Another pulse explodes from the crystal, erasing every Metal Head around them. Ripping their flesh from their bones and burning their bones until they become dust; Parker gasped as another wave went into the ground cracking the cobblestones where she stood and shattering the fountain.

She turned when a building fell, the Dark Eco sparking from its walls as the Eco spread among the city breaking everything in its path to find and kill the Metal Heads.

"Look up." A voice whispered and she did as she was told. "The Day Star brings unimaginable horrors, thing your nightmares are made out of. It will bring down a darkness that will shade the sun, it's creatures will kill every woman and man, then make their thrones out of the children's bones and drink to their victories out of the skulls of heroes." Parker stepped away from the glowing light. The Day Star was just a star in the morning sky, it never left the sky. "Die for you city... die for the world." Fear spiked in her, her skin was dark with deadly Eco and she could feel the world breaking apart around her. She screamed and dropped to the ground when she felt her last protection, her last bit of sanity fall away with the shattering of her necklace.

To her left a balloon lands, a group jump off it. A Green Eco Sage and girl with hints of Green Eco in her veins, but what drew Parker towards them was the Dark Eco creature that hopped off next to the girl. He glanced around before his eyes landed on her, his eyes grew wide with fear as the smaller corrupted creature tugged on his hair. He started shouting something as Parker moved towards them, her moves feeling animated as she moved like she was a ticking clock. "Kill the Time Warrior." The voice whispered.

"Jak!" A dark skinned girl shouted climbing out of the tank. "Get the crystal away from Parker! That much corruption can kill her!" The boy nodded to her before a knife flew through the air and lodged itself into his arm.

The boy hissed as the smaller creature jumped in to the arms of the girl. "What the hell Parker!" He shouted. "We're on the same team!" Her eyes slid from the creature to the boy as he pulled the knife from his arm and dropped it to the ground. He took a nervous step backwards before pulling out a gun.

"Parker!" The boy shouted. "Drop the Dark Eco Crystal!" She threw another knife, this time it pinged off his gun and he rolled towards the tank. "Parker! Stop this!" He shouted again as he fired at her, the bullet hit a wall of Dark Eco burning up immediately.

"Go to plan B!" The creature shouted. The boy glared at the creature before Parker ran towards him, throwing another knife at him. He dodged, stumbling over a Grunt's body. She grabbed another knife and jumped over the body, slamming the knife, hilt deep, into the boy's chest. Someone behind her screamed. The boy grabbed her, flipping her on her back. Parker rolled onto her stomach, quickly, grabbing her gun and firing upwards. The Boy moved and kicked her gun away, she reached for it before the butt of the boy's gun came slamming down on her face.

TBC...