PART 4: The Evangelist

The small robot roamed quietly, its treads catching nicely through the desert sands. It continued, on and on, through a seemingly endless abyss.

Suddenly, it scanned ahead. It detected plant life and H2O.

"Plant?" the robot queried. Then, "Eve?" It rolled down the hill into the small oasis. As it did, two life-forms sprinted past. "Humans?" The robot turned. The two had stopped and were walking back to it.

"What is this?" the SWAT officer asked.

"I don't know," the one in camo replied. "What are you?"

"WALL-E," the robot replied, gesturing towards itself.

"Wall-E," Leon read on the side of the small craft. "Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth-Class."

"Hm. A trash robot?" Snake asked.

"Looks like it. It's not very helpful. Let's leave it." The two began walking.

"Wait!" Wall-E cried. "I help." The two stared at it. It reached into its storage compartment and retrieved an orb. Snake took it.

"That's one of the grenades that brought me here. But they were only supposed to remove living organisms. How did Wall-E get here?"

"I don't know. Maybe he can help crack this peculiar situation we're in. He is quite... different," Leon said. Snake nodded.

"Just keep up," he told the robot. Wall-E nodded and the three began sprinting off again, Wall-E finding he'd been set up with an odd new thruster on his back, allowing him to sprint just as fast as the other two. He queried that for a moment, then it was sent to the back of consciousness.

"What is it?" Cloud asked, staring up at the peculiar looking black hole.

"Some sort of matter distortion," Vincent replied. "It's nothing I've seen before."

"Me neither," Sam replied. "We could..." The two looked at him. "We could enter it..." The others' eyes widened.

"Go... INTO it?" Cloud asked. "That's crazy, it's-"

"Worth a try," Vincent finished, staring into it again. "I don't think we have anything to lose if we do."

"Except maybe our lives," Cloud replied.

"Things don't work the same here. I don't think... I don't think that death is a problem here either." Cloud frowned.

"I suppose you're right. At least the first part."

"Sam and I will hoist you first, Cloud. Then I'll throw Sam, then I'll jump." Cloud nodded. Sam and Vincent knelt down on their knees and Cloud stepped into their hands. They thrust up, throwing Cloud into the shimmering pool of substance. It rippled outward like liquid then eventually sat still again.

"You're next," Vincent said. For the first time, Sam looked at his eyes. They were a deep, fiery red. Vincent looked up again, to distract attention. Sam stepped into his hands and was hoisted up into the air.

Vincent crouched and lunged upward, a little extra boost from his counterpart Delta. The three disappeared inside the peculiar purplish-black substance.

"What do we do now that Riku's gone?" Sora asked.

"I think we'd better move up the river," Isaac replied. "The river's gotta start somewhere." Sora and Master Chief nodded.

"Sorry, guys, I'm pretty useless here," Cortana replied. "I'm picking up no military transponders aside from the two of you, and I can't get topographical data unless I've got some kind of space probe. So... nothing. Total blackout." Chief nodded.

"That's fine, Cortana. I've gone without intel before. We'll be fine." The three began their long trek up the river, unknowingly watched with hateful eyes.

"What's that?" Sora asked suddenly. They follow his gaze upward to see a huge platform floating in the sky, water pouring from its sides into a lake, then forming the river.

"Well we've found where the river starts," Isaac stated. "What now?"

"We have to climb it somehow," Sora said, frowning. "But... how?"

"Stay down," the Chief said in a low voice, ducking into some bushes. They hid in the bushes, then suddenly saw one of the dark lizard-like creatures walk forward and open an invisible door.

"Look," Isaac whispered, pointing up. The creature came out on top of the platform, thousands of feet in the air.

"So that door leads directly up to the top?" Sora queried.

"Looks like it," the Chief replied. "Let's go." He got up and walked over.

"So where's the door?" Isaac asked. The Chief put his arms out and felt around. Suddenly, his hands hit something solid. He looked. The door shimmered into existance before him. He grabbed the knob and opened the door, seeing right out onto the huge lake platform. The three walked inside.

"Whoa," Sora said quietly. The three were astonished. The platform was home to a huge lake, and in the center was a huge, glowing orb of the shimmering dark substance. The lizard creature disappeared inside it and made it ripple and pulse for a moment before becoming very still.

"This place is amazing," Isaac whispered. Suddenly, the orb pulsed again. This time, a figure emerged from it. It was a person, large with a cape and wielding some sort of sword.

"Hello, friends," the man greeted. His cape was short, cut at about ankle length. His sword was a shimmering blade, made of the same dark material as the Dark Bombs and the orb in the lake. Across his chest a circle with a dash going inward was displayed, as well as delicate patterns and designs. "My name is Evan."

"Hi, Evan!" Sora said, reaching his hand out to greet the man. "I'm Sora, and these-"

"Oh, but they can introduce themselves, can't they?" Evan said, a hint of a smile on his face.

"I'm Isaac," the ODST said.

"And my name is John," Chief replied.

"Well very nice to meet you all. Have you found your new home accomadating?"

"New home?" Sora asked.

"Why yes, it's called the World of Trophies. And you're currently in the region known as the Airborne Lake."

"No," Sora replied, "I meant what did you mean by, 'our new home'?"

"Well this is where you will be staying, whilest you're being studied."

"Studied?" the Chief said, not liking where this was going.

"But of course. You think the lot of you were brought here on accident? I specifically chose each and every one of you for this purpose. You are to play out your lives... and fight to the death."

"What?!" the three said almost simultaneously.

"Of course, I hadn't explained the game yet. You are to fight to the death... but when you die, you'll simply become trophies. Like so." He lunged forward, stabbing Sora through the chest. Sora didn't have time to cry out, but fell to the ground, a gray trophy of himself, mounted on the golden pedastol. The other two just stared, mouth agape. "Oh, no, he's not dead. Watch." He tapped Sora's trophy lightly and the boy shimmered back into liveliness, the same pose he was in when he was turned into a trophy.

"What in the world was that!?" Sora cried out, falling to the ground.

"That was a demonstration. Now, I leave you here to explore for a while. Soon I'll have the battlefield ready, then I can send you all there for testing. Good day." He glided swiftly across the water, walking on it, making only small ripples as he disappeared inside the shimmering dark orb.

"Well that was just wierd," Isaac replied. "And a few more things. One, that Riku turned Gordon into a trophy, but then took him. Where did he take him? If Evan is such a high power around here, wouldn't Riku be working for him? And two, what about those lizard creatures? Are they on Riku's side, or Evan's?"

"I don't know," John replied, "but I don't like any of this one bit."

"Me neither," Cortana replied. "I think we'd better go before Evan comes back." The three nod.

"Look," Sora said. "This world is huge. There's desert over to the east, icecaps to the west, and more grassland to the north."

"To the south?" Isaac asked.

"Just looks dark," Sora said. "Maybe it's all that dark stuff."

"Let's head for more grassland," Cortana commanded. They went through the door and started north, toward the Northern Fields.