The Red Baron

If You Could Only See

Carlos opened his eyes. The bright light that dazzled him was gone. It faded from his eyes and all around him he was covered by unending darkness. The warmth he had felt was fading and he soon found it to be cold.

He felt like he was floating. Still dazed, he reached around him, feeling for the ground or a bed or maybe his grave. Then it hit him.

Carlos sat up and his senses completely restored. Nearly in panic, he looked all around him as if trying to find something. He was looking to see where he was and if he was truly dead. His breathing became rapid, his heart raced and his mind spun out of control. He felt sick, using all his willpower to hold himself steady.

Okay, calm down, Carlos. You're okay. You feel okay. You look okay.

Then Carlos realized that he was completely in the nude. Even though he was sure no one was there, he couldn't help but turn red in the face.

Can't I at least have some clothes on when I die?

As if on command, Carlos suddenly found himself back in the clothes he wore before the attack. He looked blankly around him as if to find some magic closet that just put the clothes on him or something. But he was still in darkness and nothing more.

Without even thinking about it, Carlos stood up, or at least felt like he was standing. Repeatedly, he crossed himself in the Catholic manner.

"Oh Lord, I'll do all my homework if ya get me out of here. I'll even do extra laps at Janus' from now on."

Carlos then realized that he was standing and completely scared himself. He jumped backward out of reaction and before he knew it, he was falling. Carlos screamed out into the darkness and screamed and screamed and screamed. Soon, however, he found that he wasn't hitting the ground. He ran out of breath and simply decided not to scream.

"Wait a sec, totally some weird dream. That jerk must have really knocked me hard on the head."

Feeling confident, Carlos simply imagined stopping. He felt the wind die down and soon stop altogether, making him feel that he had stopped falling. To test it, he even began to walk. He did a hop and a skip then proceeded to run around.

"Hey, this is fun. I never get to control my own dreams like all the other guys say they do. I'm so gonna make fun of this."

Carlos began to jump far and high, or at least what he though was high. He did back flips and cartwheels and forward-flips and he was sure that got the chance to fly. Carlos just ran around everywhere, not sure what he was doing but doing it in full confidence that this was nothing more then a hard-hit dream.

"Hmmm, I wonder if that means I'm in some coma. That would suck. Though I guess I could just entertain myself here for a while."

Before Carlos could continue his fun, he suddenly felt a shaking in the world. He stopped and tried to hold onto something but of course, there was nothing to hold on to.

OH MAN! Either my coma body is really hungry or I'm about to enter a nightmare.

Carlos soon felt a shift under his feet and the falling started once again. But this time, however, he felt like he was floating. Try as he might, he could not longer control his dream. The more he struggled, the less it seemed to do. Soon, his course was set and he began to simply float into oblivion.

"This is going to be a long nap if I have to stay falling like this the whole time."

Then the area around him began to glow with a brilliant and powerful light. Carlos shielded his eyes but it felt like no matter what he did, the light shone through. It was so intense that it made his eyes feel like they were watering. But it was so warm.

"This feels like that thing I saw in the sky…"

The area around him dimmed down and Carlos looked around himself, amazed at what he was seeing. He saw a world of war and violence. It seemed like an ancient time he had once read in books. On the screen they all fought with swords, shields, and spears. Carlos could see a lot of the bloodshed and even closing his eyes did nothing to take away the scenes.

Soon, the imaged changed. It now depicted a beach. The waves crashing onto the shore. There he saw a woman, whose features he could not tell besides her wearing a long, white piece of cloth, walking down by the ocean. It was here he felt calm at relaxed. He could even feel the sand between his feet. He looked down and saw his shoes had come off all on their own.

"Looks like I do still have some control."

But as he looked down at his feet, he saw that the tide was rising. Carlos tried to move from the spot but he couldn't. His feet seemed bound and would not budge. Then, Carlos saw that the sun was growing dark, as if in a solar eclipse and the sky around him took a redish tone. Carlos looked down only to be shocked that the ocean that once made out the water now seemed to be filled with blood. Carlos began to struggle and begin to panic. The blood that cascaded around his ankles disgusted him and made his stomach growl in foul hatred toward the sea of blood. The sickly feeling began to manifest itself and he felt himself become weaker with an ill feeling.

Then, for no reason, Carlos looked up into the horizon. He saw a giant battleship. But it was not one of the seas but one of the sky. Though it blocked the sun, the ship was clearly visible under its own light and energy. Carlos was in shock, unable to process what he was seeing. Even in his modern age of technology, no one had the technology beyond getting heavy planes and moderately power spaceships. Carlos wasn't sure how, but he knew that ship was something beyond anything he had seen before.

Then, in a wired sensation, Carlos's vision began to make its way toward the ship. It was like he was flying yet it was only his sight that moved, with not control from him. He seemed to hover around the airship as if he himself were flying. His vision took him closer and closer toward the ship. Before he knew it, he was in the air himself, flying toward the ship at high speed. He felt the sensation of the wind chill his cheeks and numb his skin. He realized then that he was flying, with no control, toward the ship.

Carlos yelled out and braced himself for the impact with the ship's hull. He felt a tingling sensation and opened his eyes. He had passed through the hull and found himself standing in front of a control room. The room was manned by shadowed figures. He couldn't figure out any single person in the room, all of them mere silhouettes in his eyes.

But then he did notice one figure stand out. He stood in the middle of the room and appeared to be in charge. In fact, he appeared to be their leader. He was tall, muscular but not stereotypically bulky. He wore a sort of black armor and a long, flowing robe covered his back and part of the chair on which he sat. But most notably was his face; pale and cold with no pupils, just black, dark eyes. His hair was long as well, seemingly complementing his robe. The markings on his armor shone with a stunning but dull glow.

Most mysterious about him was not his appearance, which was impressive and intimidating already, but Carlos somehow knew him. And as he discovered this fact, it was like the man's name rolled of his tongue naturally, all on its own.

"The Dark Baron…"

Then, the man looked straight at Carlos and smiled. His grin was sinister and his teeth appeared like those of a dog, sharp, pointy, and foul. Carlos yelped and stepped back and fell over. But before he could hit the floor, he found himself once again falling. But now he was again in the middle of a battle.

Everywhere he turned he saw only blood shed and death. Carlos couldn't get away from it and continued to fall. The screams of death and destruction were so intense that Carlos felt his body would fall apart from it all. The airship now seemed to conducting its own attacks, sending what appeared to be massive energy blasts toward the ground below, destroying everything in its path, friend or foe. Carlos couldn't take it anymore.

"DAMN IT! GET ME OUT OF HERE!!"

Carlos found himself lying down. He was once again in the darkness. He sat up, gasping for air and trying to catch his breath and wipe away the images from his mind. But it was then he heard footsteps. But when he looked up, he couldn't find anyone around him. He tried to rub his eyes, thinking he might be out of it again. When he opened them, a new image appeared to him.

It was a woman. She had a darkened skin and brown, sad eyes. Carlos couldn't turn away from her. He felt like he needed to say something. He wasn't sure what or why. Her figure was wrapped in a white bodysuit, he arms wrapped in bandages and tied underneath her arms with a ribbon extending up to the shoulder. A thick, gold necklace was around here neck as well as golden bracers around her wrist and around here ankles and around her waist. Even her boots were whitened. But it was her eyes Carlos was interested in. They were indeed sad. Her black, shoulder length hair did little to hide them.

Carlos stood up and tried to walk toward her. But the more he tried to get close, the farther it seemed to get. Soon, Carlos began to ran, still questioning why it was he felt the urge to run.

Then, she disappeared. Carlos fell to the floor, grabbing at his chest. He felt a great burning sensation. It was as if his heart was on fire. He tired desperately to resist whatever it was and growled under his breath at the pain.

"Argh! Either I'm in love or I'm about to die. Guess which it is?"

When Carlos let go of his chest, he felt something in his hands. Bearing the pain a little longer, he looked down into his hands. On it was a necklace. In fact, he had just noticed it hung around his neck. The shape of the necklace looked familiar to Carlos, though he knew he had never the necklace before. Once again, it was like something just shot out of his mouth.

"Red Baron…"

Then, Carlos felt the surge of pain return, now engulfing his head. Carlos screamed and fell all the way to the floor. It was as if something within him was moving and bumping around his body. Sweat began to pour down Carlo's entire forehead, then his whole head, and then his whole body. He wanted to yell but nothing came out.

Engulfed in the tortuous feeling, all he could think of doing to praying. He silently did.

"Please, just get me out of here. I've seen enough."

Then the woman appeared in front of him, standing tall and looking down to him. She just looked down at him.

"It is time, Red Baron. Get up and face your destiny. Be prepared for we shall soon meet again. Until then you are to stay alive. No recklessness."

Carlos could only nod a little. The woman gave him a little grin.

"Good. Stay alive until then. And take care of that necklace."

Carlos opened his eyes. He was lying face up in bed and he sat up quickly. He looked around him and saw that it was just before dawn. The sun barely began to crack through the blinds of the nearby window. He felt around his face and body to see if he was okay. While he did feel a few sore spots around him, he looked like he was alive and somewhere safe. He gave a great sigh of relief and fell back onto the bed.

"Man, what kind of dream was that? Maybe I really do need to cut back on video games or somethin'."

While the thoughts of his dream and even the fight earlier were circling his head, Carlos found himself to be too tired and closed his eyes and once again fell asleep, unaware of the glowing necklace around his neck.

Without any sleep, the Dark Baron continued to follow what he sensed was the energy of the necklace that had eluded him and fallen into Carlos's hands. The moment he felt its presence dissipate, he knew that he was too late.

"Perhaps the woman's persistence was not vain after all. Shame she failed to see the fruits of this rare achievement in life. Had she held me off any longer, I might have lost its position completely."

The Dark Baron was on the outskirts of the city. He was circling it, looking for an opportune place to call home. It was soon after he started his search that he found what he was looking for. It was an abandoned warehouse.

This place will do quite nicely.

The Dark Baron landed. His surrounding energy created powerful gusts of wind that made the loosened leaves the dry summer night. However, these types of harsh winds were normal of the area, and the late night workers of this warehouse thought little of it when they made their way out of the warehouse's large doors.

"Hey, hurry up and let's get out of here. The wind's starting to pick up again and I left some things loose at home."

"Well I'm almost done. Just need to check the power here and we can send all the info through the wire."

The second worker who was taking the notes searched for the power controls, reaching around in the moon-lit warehouse. Finally, he found the box.

"Alright, watch your eyes!"

The worker turned the light on and one by one, the huge, industrial lights lit up, bringing a large amount of light into the room. The first worker confirmed that the outside lights were working as well.

"Hey, the breaker seems to be working for the outside, too. Can we go now?"

"Ya, sure, let's get going."

The Dark Baron then walked into the warehouse, walking past the first worker, ignoring his presence. The worker, on the other hand, did not.

"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing here?"

The second worker, believing the only person who would come at this our would be the buyer of the warehouse, came from behind his co-worker and smacked him in the back of the head, resulting in a loud yelp.

"We're sorry about that. I guess you must be the new owner of this place."

The Dark Baron looked at him with the corner of his eye, smiling.

"Yes, I do have a feeling about this place. I really like it."

"Well you should, sir. It's kind of old but it seems like it can really handle a lot of work when you start doing business here."

"Would I be able to start, tonight?"

The worker looked to his co-worker and was a little at a loss for words.

"Hmmm….ya, I guess. Everything is working great. You'd probably have to pay our boss first since that stuff is happening through a contract and stuff. Not to mention the power is going to be pulled in a couple of days."

The Dark Baron laughed.

"Don't worry about it. I have all the power I'm going to need."

The two workers shrugged, simply agreeing with him even if they didn't know what he meant. Then the wind began to pick up again.

"Oh, come on, let's go, the wind is starting to pick up again…"

"But it's not coming from outside…"

The two workers looked toward the Dark Baron, who was now face toward them, his arms crossed, his dark eyes pitch black and glowing.

"I can't let you go, I still have some thing I need from the two of you."

The two workers then began to grab at their heads. Each of their heads began throbbing with pain, their eyes beginning to bleed, grunting from the pain.

"You two will be the first to serve my new empire and lead me to my ultimate goal of power. This is indeed an honor as the universe will soon be under my command and you two will have a hand my recreation of it."

The two workers fell to the ground. The lights of the warehouse turned off and the wind died down once again.

Back at the hospital, Carlos condition began to worsen again, sweat beginning to drip from his face. His dreamless sleep was still haunted by a silent omen. As the doctors around him tried to cool him down, Carlos continued to sleep, unaware of the fate that was in store for him.