Author's notes: This is actually two small chapters linked together; don't ask me why because your guesses are just as good. Must organise myself better…

Chapter 6: Victory of the Earth

Next day, the sky remained pitch black and charcoaled, the way it has been for countless years. As the first rays of dawn struggled to penetrate the thick and tar like clouds, the Eathans below basked in what little light they could find, the fact that there was hardly enough sun shine for a small plant to survive on mattered little to them, because all that was about to change.

High above the smoking remains of Ascalon, Darkness smiled broadly at the sweet smell of victory. Just as he had planned, what little weapons the humans had became next to useless without their precious electricity, which is something his people had neither need nor desire for. Without their weapons, the apes-descendants were no more than the sand bags Darkness's men had fought in basic training, none of them could even master enough strength and courage to throw a punch, let alone create any sort of physical threat.

Although with that said, some of them were rather difficult to apprehend, Darkness thought as he rubbed the small yet distinguishable scar on his forehead where Angel had smashed that rather conveniently placed pottery. Like all Eathans, she was a natural fighter and he felt it.

But like all great battles in history, there had to be losers, and rather predictably, it was the under performing humans. Pity, I was hoping for a better challenge but it obviously wasn't meant to be, he thought, gazing down at the thousands of prisoners tied up and disarmed below him, behind each one stood a Eathan warrior with his or her sword placed upon the human's neck, ready to end their pathetic lives at a single command.

Which is exactly what they were there to do.

"Scum of the Earth!" He yelled at the prisoners, whose face was only lit by the dying flames, which surrounded them, keeping them from escaping. Not that they will escape. "For millenniums you have spread your evil around the Earth, extinguishing her pure heart and exterminating all that stood in your way. Never did you once consider the consequences of your actions and thanks to your act of continuous ignorance, the Earth was forced to weep until she could cry no more, and closed her eyes for all eternity!" He drew his sword and raised it at the darkened sky, and at this motion, each and every Eathan warrior raised their own swords high in the air, "Your crimes were unforgivable, as well as your existence. The age of humans is over, for this is the beginning of an age of prosperity, peace, and civilisation, and your so-called empire must come to its knees!"

Silence swept across the ghostly field of men, women, and children, what was once the nosiest specie on Earth has suddenly been silenced and not a word was passed between them.

"Children of the Earth!" Darkness yelled once more and an earth shattering cheer came in reply, "Soak the Earth with the blood of our enemies and revive her!"

Another cheer rang, followed by a unison noise of blade on flesh as hundreds of thousands of people's throats were slit simultaneously. One after the other, the bodies, now empty of life, began fall. As man's rule came to an end, their blood slowly soaking into the sands of their home, a gust of wind blew from one end of the planet to the other, as if Mother Nature herself had uttered a sigh of relief.

Darkness closed his eyes and felt the gust; it was refreshing to the skin with the added touch of tranquillity that can only be achieved by the Earth herself. Knowing that the time has come, he held his sword above his head and chanted the verses he had known since he was a mere child, the words were like songs to his heart as his sword began to sizzle and glow in crimson red. The Eathans below gazed in wonder, as the sword grew brighter, even more so than the burning city around them, their dragons roared and their horses stomped, almost in unison with the chants, in unison with the Earth itself.

Without warning, a beam of white light ignited from the sword's edge and began to streak its way towards the ever so black clouds, which separated the sun from shining the land. As it finally reached the clouds, the pools of blood still leaking from the human's necks started to vibrate and levitate off the sand, like snakes they crept their way towards the light, all the while joining together with other near by streams of blood until they became one large ball of red liquid.

Still chanting, Darkness waved the sword, and like a puppet, the ball of blood did the same. Again, he waved the sword, more violently this time, and again the ball did the same, this time getting closer as it did. As Darkness waved his sword for the final time, the ball broke back down into one long snake and began to spiral it's way to the clouds, getting faster by each second. By the time it had reached the very edge of the clouds it had became a rampaging tornado and struck the clouds like a spinning top, slowly sucking it into its eerie vortex. Within seconds the clouds began to clear away as the vortex span faster and faster, and like water down a plughole, the clouds were draining away. All over the world, light was once again shining through to the land and as if by magic, plants and animals that has been hiding for seemingly an eternity climbed to the surface, away from their deep hibernation and stared at the new world.

It was now early morning, and the last of the clouds disappeared into the vortex without a sound. His chant finished, Darkness waved his sword once again and sent the red vortex spinning into the sky until not a trance of it can be seen.

He opened his eyes and stared into the sun, feeling its rays against his skin. For once in his life, he felt at home…

Unbearable pain was the first thing that met his mind as he slowly regained consciousness, and as though the shadows of his mind refused to let go, he drifted once again back into the unreachable parts of his soul.

A few minutes later, he tried again, this time the process of waking up was less difficult, yet the same unbearable pain made him reconsider about coming back to reality. But that option was out of his range of choices. Despite the fact that he was now truly awake and feeling every agony of the moment, he only had few senses to tell him what was happening.

First to come was his hearing, and the news it brought back to him wasn't what he had hoped for. The first few noises were indistinct and muffled, as if someone was talking to him from far away using a microphone that doesn't actually work, they were worsened by the fact that there seemed to be some sort of horrid moaning in the background. The clearest of all the sounds, however, was the noise of someone crying from behind, which wasn't something he fancied to hear at that particular time.

Something in the back of his head told him that he really were better off unconscious.

The next to come was his vision, which like his hearing, was blurred to begin with. In fact the only things he could see after opening his eyes were dark shadows of what appeared to be people, combined to what he was now hearing, it seemed that they were all talking in hushed and worried tones. Eager to find out what's going on, he blinked several times, each time his vision became clearer, but only slightly. By the time his vision had truly returned, however, he once again wished that he were still unconscious as he watched men in white coats moving from one end of his field of vision to the other, all of whom were performing an operation in a hushed and professional fashion.

But what truly terrified him the most was that the patient was none other than himself.

This only confused him even more, what was wrong with him? Why are those people operating on him in the first place? Yet as he finally regained the rest of his senses, the answer was all in front of him, the attack, his injury, Angel's capture, the lot. At this thought his chest began to inflate in pain once again, this time though, it went away much quicker, as if what ever it was that caused the pain in the first place is slowly disappearing.

A few minutes later, the pain was reduced to a mere tingle as the doctors finally took a sigh of relief and wiped their brows in pride. This should have caused him to be happy, or at least relaxed. But it was not meant to be.

Just as he felt that his wounds have seemingly disappeared, his senses gave him a new and fresh horror of what has happened. The moaning and cries were becoming louder than ever as the scene of the hospital truly struck his mind. For this was all that's left of Ascalon and the entire human race…