Possibly one of the most action packed chapters so far... dundundun XD
Chapter XVI – Reconciliation
The battle had developed itself into a chaos as the flood had awoken at the scent of new life to kill, as if they walked from the ceilings they were everywhere, clouding even the two Lekgolo, now having trouble shaking them off.
The roars of the Flood mingled with the sound of the shotguns, the fuel rod guns and the screams of the dead souls leaving the bodies.
It soon came to day there was no way they were going to win this clutched together like this, Chakuth knew.
As soon as the last shell jumped from his shotgun he didn't even think twice before grabbing one of the weapons many of the Flood had dropped. The horrible creatures weren't just strong, they knew very well how to handle weapons…
The number didn't seem to thin out, and it was wearing them down slowly.
"Duthaz!", Chakuth shouted through the chaos and watched the Sangheili fight for his life, "Catch!", he said as he had found a Sangheili weapon between the mass of bodies, gun shells and weapons.
The Sangheili turned and caught the Plasma Sword Chakuth had thrown him, his favourite weapon, the one he was trained to fight with.
He grinned, turning the sword on and running towards them, slicing through unprotected flesh when he met it.
A scream suddenly, and Xehn watched how Kate had tried to get a weapon to and shoot them, but was now attacked by an infection form.
Xehn smashed the Flood climbing on him off by scraping them off with the walls and his shield, and as he was flood free he ran towards her, roaring louder than Kate had ever expected him to be able to.
It attracted more attack forms to them, and as Xehn pulled off the small infection form and squeezed it to death in his hand he saw how the Flood surrounded them and cut them off from the group.
He could do nothing, under his shield sat Kate, in pain and shock, trying to stand again.
He roared again in the hope someone would hear him, but the gunshots and the sound of the Flood was to loud for anyone else to hear.
He stopped moving and closed his eyes, "Kate… be as silent and motionless as you can…", he whispered.
As soon as the Flood found out there was nothing but Lekgolo blood in Xehn's body they staggered off, to join the horde attacking the remaining intruders.
Xehn opened his eyes and stared around, noticing they had left him and Kate in total darkness, slowly and silently he rose, "Are you ok…?", he whispered.
Kate stared at his eyes, they reflected every last ray of light, making his eyes seem to give light themselves.
"I… I'm ok…", she said as she stood up slowly and fell to her knees again.
Xehn sighed silently and kneeled in front of her, "Climb on my back, I'll carry you.", he said and watched her move to his back.
She laughed a bit, "How am I supposed to sit here with all these spikes growing out of your armour.", she said and made her way to his neck.
"Don't worry about them…" Xehn said and rose to his full height, startling Kate at first.
He started walking, "We have to find them somehow, but everything has quieted down a lot all of a sudden…", he spoke as he felt Kate gently wrap her arms around his neck and feeling her fall asleep slowly.
He huffed quietly and kept walking a steady pace into what he believed the direction was Chakuth and the rest were forced in.
It took long, Xehn almost felt like giving up hope, but he kept walking until he started recognizing things.
He stopped a few times, to let his hand glide over the metal walls, full with glyphs of the written Lekgolo language. He felt how he narrowed his eyes at the wall in a memorizing way, and how he had learned the written language from an elder.
He closed his eyes and continued walking, the poorly lit floor guiding the way into the remainders of the city he grew up in.
It was silent, he didn't hear anything else but Kate's breathing and his own footsteps on the cold metal.
At first he thought his eyes were deceiving him as he saw light from the main square of the Lekgolo quarters, but as he came closer and closer to the square he saw the condition the city was in, and it shocked him.
Kate woke up from his jerking body, and as she opened her eyes slowly the sight around her was astonishing.
The last piece of uninfected, unspoiled paradise in High Charity was the Lekgolo quarters, Xehn's home.
The Lekgolo underneath her seemed like he was forgetting to breathe under the amazing sight of the cleanliness of his home.
"They left it… in peace… why?", Kate started and carefully slid off his back to look around for herself a bit.
Xehn couldn't move, the memories he was confronted with didn't seem to end and it felt good, to good to give up just yet.
Until he felt a bolt of heated plasma waste pass his head, and a familiar voice shout out.
"Who are you?!", it sounded from the dark.
Kate ran towards Xehn, grabbing his hand. Xehn had fully awoken from his dreaming and held his shield up to hide her behind it.
"Tell me who you are!", it sounded again, this time accompanied by the familiar rattle of Lekgolo armour.
"Xehn… Xehn Huth Kuthan.", he stated.
It became silent for a good thirty seconds or so, then a bright light shone into Xehn's eyes, some sort of spot was aimed at him.
"I can't believe this, look at that bastard, look at his shiny armour, I can almost smell the stink of your undeserved success. And it disgusts me!", it suddenly sounded.
Then a loud clang of metal on metal, and from the beam of light, the shape of a medium sized Lekgolo walked forth.
Xehn braced himself, his mind racing, he couldn't place the voice just yet and felt how Kate pushed herself against him.
The silhouette made some gestures with his hands and more spots turned on, showing the unbelievable truth.
At least 26 surviving Lekgolo, lead by a medium sized foul mouth.
Xehn felt his blood freeze at the sight of the horrifying memory walking straight at him, becoming more real with every step he took, until he stood before Xehn.
"You... you can't be alive.", Xehn almost stuttered.
Kate felt a tremendous amount of negative energy from Xehn, almost as if he was afraid.
The other Lekgolo smiled, a head smaller than Xehn, but still seeming to have all the power he wanted, "Surprised?".
"Ghanek… you died!!", Xehn suddenly spat out as he stepped forward, his arms moving in a wild fashion, revealing the human under his care.
Ghanek stood grinning, "Now what do we have here… carrying around prisoners now?", he pushed her around.
Xehn growled softly, unwilling to tell his one enemy what was really happening between them.
"Leave her alone…", he said, against his own will.
Ghanek frowned, "Why? It's just a filthy human, why care about it.".
Xehn's head turned to face Ghanek's, his adult coloured eyes priming deep into the pale green of Ghanek's, "I'm warning you…".
The younger Lekgolo laughed and made some more gestures with his arms, and Xehn watched how one Lekgolo emerged from the shadows, grabbed Kate's arm and pulled her into a group of four.
"Have fun guys…", Ghanek said as he walked up close to Xehn and stared him directly into the eyes.
"Don't you wonder…?", he whispered at the taller Lekgolo as he started to walk circles around him.
Xehn started to feel uneasy again, and as he felt a clawed finger trace the lines of his skin he shivered, but growled.
He watched Ghanek smile, there didn't seem to be anything he wouldn't try to get him to be angry and feel uneasy.
Before Ghanek's hand was about to move to his collar under the neck piece Xehn grabbed his hand and forcefully pushed him back.
"Enough…", he grunted and walked closer to Ghanek.
"Ah, don't!", he said as he pointed at a screaming Kate as the other Lekgolo pulled on her arms.
Xehn stared at her, feeling the terror from her being, then back at Ghanek, "Let her go!", he shouted, "Tell them to let her go!!", he screamed as he roared at the smaller Ghanek.
Xehn's desperate cry didn't impress Ghanek as he rose and grinned at Xehn again, "That must suck huh, move or hurt me and she loses a limb. Oh painful…", he said as his hands reached for Xehn's head, "Look at me, Xehn. Look at your worst nightmare. I'm going to make you regret the day you tried to kill me, just to retain your honour… Well believe me, Xehn. When I'm done with you and your human friend, there will be no honour left in you for me to feed off.", Ghanek's voice had never sounded so dark before.
"Do you really think you can hurt me?!", Xehn said suddenly.
Ghanek's eyes moved towards Kate, "Who said anything about hurting you physically. Do you really think I don't notice you somehow care for that woman?", he whispered.
Xehn growled, and suddenly his speed in moving increased until his strong hands had enclosed themselves around Ghanek's neck again.
He hardly felt how hard he was squeezing, and all sound around him died out.
Ghanek could only hear Xehn's intense deep roaring and feel the air around him vibrate while his life slowly died away again.
Then air returned again as Xehn was roughly pulled off by six other Lekgolo.
Ghanek rose immediately and gasped for air, "Keep him down!!", he grunted.
Xehn felt the six pair of armoured hands push him down and scratch his exposed skin. His roars muffled as he fought the weight of Ghanek's Lekgolo.
Kate watched how Xehn used all his power to fight his capturers, seeing how cruel the race could be she looked away with tears in her eyes, relaxing her muscles from the Lekgolo that held her.
Ghanek grinned, "Look at you now, not so tough huh?", he said as he purposefully stepped down on Xehn's hand. "High and mighty Xehn Kuthan, now nothing but a shadow of his former self, hilarious.".
He then kneeled in front of Xehn and grabbed him under his jaw and held his head up, "Well then, what to do with you that would make your world collapse in on itself…", Ghanek thought out loud while staring into Xehn's eyes.
He then turned to Kate, "What is up with this anyway…? Why are you so protective of her?", he spoke while walking towards her.
Xehn's pupils narrowed as he watched in horror as Ghanek stood before her, laying his hands on her head.
"It's just an ordinary human, just like the many you ruthlessly murdered in your missions.".
He pushed her to the ground, "Well, why spare this one anyway, it's only one of them…", he spoke as he lift his foot over her head.
"Don't you dare touch her!!!", Xehn suddenly shouted out as a burst of energy raced through his veins and he rose from his knees, shaking off the six Lekgolo in surprise.
He turned, smashed his shield into the heads of two Lekgolo and managed to outrun the other four.
In his burst of speed he rammed Ghanek away from the human doctor and turned to face him. "There is nothing in your power that can stop me from protecting those I care about Ghanek, so I dare you, try me…", he said in a dark undertone.
Ghanek's pale green eyes had widened at Xehn's sudden outburst but he was well on his feet again.
"Oh no Xehn, you are so wrong…", he spoke while shaking his head slowly, "So wrong…". The older Lekgolo growled as he heard Ghanek's other followers surround him slowly.
"If I can't dishonour you… I think I will just rob you of your life, and all that was ever important to you for what you did to me.", he said, sounding somewhat deluded now.
Ghanek held his hand up and all Xehn could hear was Kate's high pitched scream.
He hardly felt the first few blows to his armour, but as the immense group of Lekgolo kept slowly digging their way through the alloyed plates all he could think about was seeing the two things he loved seeing most.
"Xehn!! Please! Let him go! They'll kill him, please!!", Kate screamed in the arms of Ghanek as she heard him laugh.
"Don't bother screaming, human…", Ghanek spoke as he turned her around, "As for you… I think I know just the thing for you…", he added to it, not knowing she didn't understand a word of what he said.
"I'm sure the Flood will love to use your body as a nice breeding station…", he said as he watched the horde of parasitic forms heading for the Lekgolo Quarters, following the sound of human screams and other activity.
Kate watched in horror as the disgusting little creatures slid into the city, "Xehn!! Flood!", she screamed.
Xehn's eyes focussed on the moving ocean of terror moving in on the human and growled, ignoring the pain he dug his armoured fingers into the ground and pulled himself forward. "Get off!!", he shouted and turned around under the Lekgolo and started charging the battered Fuel rod gun still mounted to his arm.
The weapon responded slowly and hesitated with heating up the plasma rod, Xehn stared at the weapon sputter against working, but suddenly it started overheating. The Behemoth grinned and dismounted the gun from his arm and fought to bring his shield up to his head to protect him from the blast that was about to develop from his broken gun.
He heard the gun protest and the metal churn under the heat of the expanding fuel rod. Soon the metal casing couldn't hold the rod anymore and needed to release the heat. Xehn prepared and curled up as the huge explosion blew him three metres away and all the Lekgolo off him.
It took him a while to orientate due to the heavy blast and the sound of the explosion, and as he rose he stared with blurred vision at the other Lekgolo, burned, in pain and some dead.
He stared at Ghanek, his eyes narrowing dangerously.
Ghanek swallowed hard and stared at the mass destruction of his small army, "What did you do?! You murdered them!", he screamed.
Xehn remained quiet, and though most of his wounds bled he remained firm upright and walked towards the younger Lekgolo.
"You… you…", he spoke as he growled and pushed him away from Kate.
"You don't deserve to have survived the Flood…", he roared as he pushed him again, this time to the ground.
Kate startled at Xehn's sudden anger flare.
Ghanek stared at him but didn't seem to be mentally active.
Xehn's hands enclosed themselves around Ghanek's neck and squeezed, "I wont do be so nice on you this time Ghanek… you made a huge mistake…", he hissed as he watched Ghanek's breathing slow down and become ragged.
"Xehn…", he coughed as he reached for his shoulders.
Kate ran towards Xehn and grabbed his arm, pulling it, "Xehn, stop it!! You don't have to kill him!!", she screamed and did her utmost best to pull him away from Ghanek's body.
Ghanek coughed and gasped for air, tears forming into his eyes.
"Xehn!!!", Kate screamed again.
Turquoise eyes widened as the black armoured Lekgolo's hand loosened their grip around the younger Lekgolo's neck.
A small smile formed on Kate's face as she saw him rise from the ground and turn to her, head hung down. She didn't wait a minute to run to him and wrap her arms around his waist.
"Why are you still here?", Xehn asked Ghanek silently.
Ghanek seemed shocked at how easy Xehn got rid of all his friends and how he had to face the horrible moment again.
Tears ran down Ghanek's face suddenly, "The prophets gave me the mission to protect High Charity.", he stuttered.
Xehn frowned, "With twenty-four other Lekgolo? Where is your bond-brother?", Xehn asked him and let Kate go for a moment, turning to face Ghanek.
"Died… the flood got him and didn't leave anything behind…", he spoke as he stared at the ground, still in shock.
Kate screamed suddenly, drawing Xehn's utmost attention, and what he feared was happening, the small infection forms had made their way into the city and were attacking Kate by the dozen.
She frantically stepped on what she could step on and used a piece of shattered Lekgolo shield to hit them off.
Xehn rushed over to her and grabbed her hand, pulling her to his body, "Listen Ghanek, I've got some most interesting news for you, the Prophets betrayed us, they sent you and us on a suicide mission to ship us out of the Covenant. They don't care anything about us, they only care about their great journey and how they can reach their divinity.", he spoke as he shielded a terrified Kate from the infection forms.
Ghanek stared at Xehn, bewildered and unbelieving, "They did what?", he asked staring at the flood battle forms staggering into he city.
"They left this city, all of them and they took those that they thought important with them, Ghanek you were betrayed as well…", Xehn spoke as he start smashed the last group of infection forms away.
The younger Lekgolo shook his head slightly, "Why…", he whispered and stared at Xehn, now more his ally than he could ever be.
"It doesn't matter now, we have to leave, my team is out there somewhere and they can get us all out of this hellhole.".
"Xehn!", Kate yelled and pointed at the horde of Flood coming at them.
The Behemoth Lekgolo's eyes widened and he stared at Ghanek, "We have to leave, now…" .
But the three invaders to Flood-territory were caught off guard by the speed of the hungry parasites. Desperate for new flesh to breed in and feed off they stormed in clusters, taking everything apart standing in their way.
Xehn ran as fast as he could with Kate on his back and pulling a shocked and terrified Ghanek along with him. He didn't dare to look back to see what happened to the rest of Ghanek's followers, they were long gone and absorbed by the mass.
Before them lay a small gulch of Covenant wildlife, and the black-armoured Lekgolo's first thought was to get in there and wait for them to pass, hoping they'd be stupid enough. As he jumped and pulled Ghanek and let Kate jump off he pressed his back against the wall and waited.
"Alright… New strategy…", Xehn heaved and stared at Ghanek sitting down slowly.
"Why did you save me…", he asked quietly and stared at Xehn.
"Because living with your death on my account once was hard enough on my conscience…", Xehn spoke as he carefully peered over the edge.
Kate stared at Xehn, confused, "What happened…", she asked.
The older Lekgolo looked at her for a second, but shook his head.
Ghanek's eyes fluttered shut, "Thanks…", he said silently and bowed his head.
Not to long from that a loud roar emerged from the distance.
All three looked in the direction it came from, and before they knew it was all around them, huge tentacles ripped structures apart and smashed crates away, followed by another roar.
The terror was noticeable from Kate's eyes as the strong arms of the unseen monster wrapped themselves around her.
Xehn roared as he charged the creature, with speed and agility he never even knew he had. Ghanek looked around him for things to destroy the creature with.
He hardly saw the black flash pass him by, and as he watched Xehn jump onto the large lid holding on to Kate he started to understand the power his rival held.
Kate screamed as she watched Xehn's large clawed hands dig into the battered skin on the tentacle.
"Behind you!", she screamed as the grip on her slowly loosened.
Xehn's armoured boot came down just in time, and Kate was dropped a small 6 feet to the ground, but he hadn't foreseen a second and third tentacle to hit him off from the back.
The muscled arm smashed into Xehn's back plate, and both Kate and Ghanek heard the metal churn under the immense force of the hit.
Pain, intense pain surged through Xehn's spine as he managed to get back to his feet after the blow. And as he turned around he saw how the army of tentacles grew every second.
Ghanek had searched the ground for something to shoot with, and as he found it he yelled for Xehn attention, throwing a mobile sized Fuel-rod Gun at him.
Xehn reacted faster he thought possible with his back hurt like that, and within no time he had it powered up, heated and operative.
"Ghanek, protect her!!", Xehn yelled back at him and took steady paces towards the now angered, bodiless creature.
The younger Lekgolo grabbed Kate's arm gently and pulled her behind his shield.
The creature had multiplied its limbs up to fifteen, and was well aware of every living being around it, it had perfect aim and it was very agile for its size. It wasn't anything Covenant, but it didn't seem anything Flood either.
Xehn narrowed his eyes and growled under his breath as he took aim to the base of the largest limb and fired, a medium sized blast burning away the skin, flesh and tissue of the arm.
A pained but distant roar sounded, and another arm shot forwards in its place.
The Behemoth had noticed in time the shooting of the limbs wasn't going to work, and decided it was time to try a more powerful blast to get rid of all tentacles at the same time.
As he dodged the first two limbs thrown at him, the third hit him square in the chest, denting the armour beneath and pushing cracked metal through synthetic jumpsuit.
Xehn winced as he felt warm blood running down the cracks in the armour.
He dared not to give up and kept going, jamming the gun and overloading it by setting a different heat convulsion.
As the weapon finally started to sputter he grinned to himself and took a wild guess as to where the creature itself was hiding. He sent the weapon flying a good far distance until he couldn't see it anymore.
The creature hadn't noticed Xehn's idea and was still dead-set on crushing the nuisance.
The long limbs retreated and suddenly were ready to strike again, wrapping themselves around Xehn and gripping onto him tightly.
Xehn cried out, feeling the shattered armour pierce his skin, "Blow… up… already!", he stuttered as he fought the ever tightening grip of the creature. He almost startled as more limbs snaked their way around his arms and legs, slowly crushing more armour and joints beneath.
All he could hear was Kate's desperate cries.
The explosion was much larger than Xehn had expected, and with his last power he stared in the direction of the blast, smiling at the fact he had thrown it clean into a weapon storage.
The tentacles shuddered before they lost their grip on him, but still it seemed to take forever before he hit the ground. The blow came hard and it whipped up enough dust to cloud his vision.
In the dark he struggled to pry off the torn off limbs, still twitching, with a broken and heavily bleeding body.
His breathing was ragged and difficult, he coughed and tried to stand up.
But his broken ankles and knees wouldn't support his weight anymore and he collapsed back onto the ground. The sound slowly dimmed out as he could hear Ghanek and Kate argue and finally heard her footsteps get louder.
He climbed to his knees and reached out his hand to her growing silhouette.
For the first time he felt tears run down his neck, as her arms enclosed themselves around his broad shoulders.
She was crying, he could faintly hear her sob and felt her body jerking as she tried to push him upright.
"Fight it Xehn, fight!!", Kate screamed as she tried in all her might to keep the crying, broken Lekgolo upright, but his weight was to heavy for her to bear and as he fell forward it pushed her off her feet into the dirt.
"No!! Xehn, stand up!!", she screamed and pushed him again, "Think of Kahlanx, he would never forgive you! Think of your little brother Xehn, fight!!", she screamed again as Ghanek watched them from a safe distance, astounded.
As Kate noticed it was pointless to lift him entirely, she held his head upright and gently placed it on her lap, crying and stroking his neck softly.
"Don't you dare give up… Don't you dare leave Kahlanx and me behind… ", she spoke through her sobbing.
He was still breathing, but very difficult.
Ghanek walked closer to see the fallen Xehn and Kate in the darkest picture he could imagine, he had never seen a Lekgolo so strong broken this bad, it made him speechless.
Kate then stared at him, and he startled.
"Please… look for Chakuth… Please find him…", she pleaded him, "Chakuth is an Unggoy, he and his team shouldn't be far…", she added to it.
All Ghanek could do is nod slightly, he then turned and ran away, towards the centre of the once holy capital of High Charity.
End Note: OH MY GOD THE DRAMA!! And yes people, CLIFFHANGER. Three updates in one day is all you're getting for now )
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