Disclaimer: I own nothing in the Halo universe, which is the property of Bungie Studios.
However, originial characters belong to me.
Note: To people who don't like the story, PLEASE DO NOT READ THE FAN FIC AND LEAVE.
Author's Notes: I would like to give sirjamie a special thanks. Due to the fact that without his idea the following chapters starting with this wouldn't have been possible. sirjamie, I salute your pure genius.
Chapter 21 Vixofi Ruins
The day for Zen and his family was going to be exciting because their friend, Viperwatcher, had managed to get them a job and at the same time give them a sight-seeing tour. Nira was downstairs at the kitchen making some snacks for them and placing them in a cooler, in which Zen created.
N'kev and Jess were watching the television which was showing cartoons. Zen sat down on one of the chairs and was stared off the distance. He wondered what Viper had in store for them. The only thing they told them was by calling on the phone and saying to bring a cooler and lots of snacks; because Vixofi Ruins was big. As he was deep in thought, he was snapped back into reality when the cooler placed down the table by Nira gave a loud thud due to fact that it was heavy.
"All set." said Nira. Then the doorbell rang. Zen stood up and approached it. He opened the door to find Stahn with a 2 cameras slung on his neck.
"Oh, Stahn, come in." Stahn went in and sat on the nearest chair and laid the cameras from his neck. N'kev and Jess looked at the cameras with curiosity. The cameras themselves were quite odd, since it wasn't one of those simple square digital cameras. These one had those lenses that could be adjusted just for that 'perfect shot'.
"Ok, Nira this is yours.-"he said handing one of the cameras to Nira who eyed it curiously. "-and Zen this is yours." he said handing one of the cameras to Zen.
Zen took it and examined it. It was quite familiar to him since he worked with these kinds of cameras before. He used to do the school yearbook photos back then. Nira asked Stahn,
"What's going to be your job?" Stahn looked at her,
"I would be the editor of the photos you take." Zen aimed the camera and pointed it to N'kev and Jess. They both looked at it curiously and blinked as the flash went off. Zen looked at the preview screen; the picture came out quite good.
"So what, like we give these to you so you can process them and hand them to Viper?" asked Zen. Stahn nodded.
"Dad, can I borrow the camera?" asked Jess.
"Sure kiddo, just don't break it." said Zen handing the camera to Jess. She took it and slung the strap around her. He aimed it at N'kev and said,"Smile." The flash went off and the looked at the image. The 2 smiled and Jess gave it back to Zen.
"So when are we going to leave?" asked Zen.
"When you guys are ready, since we are going to need you Zen to make another vehicle just like the one that allowed us to get here." answered Stahn.
* * * * *
A few minutes later, Zen was exiting the driver's seat of the vehicle in front of Viperwatcher's house and headed to the back.
They had modified there Sedan again to become an 8 seater van; 8-seats because Thel wasn't going to come with them on the trip the same with Johnson and the Master Chief. Viper came out of the house and went in the Driver's Seat.
"Everyone ready?" he asked.
"Yes." answered all of them.
"Ok then." then he took out an AI chip and plugged it into the car.
"Cortana will be driving us once again." he said.
"Apparently I Am." said Cortana from the speaker. "Ok then estimated time of arrival will be 3 hours." then the car started moving on.
The drive wasn't pretty much boring since Viper was a pretty good tour guide.
"That on the left side of the van is Vastor Mountain. Like I told you last night, an animal reserve for Glytrols can be found there." Zen looked and saw Vastor Mountain. It was a magnificent looking mountain with a very tall cliff face. From the highway he could vaguely see a few daring mountain climbers try to scale the mountain. As they passed along they eventually ended up on the town of Vixofi.
The last time Zen saw of the town was that it was sleeping. Now it was literally bustling with activity. People can be seen walking down the streets, heading for offices and what not. They turned around the corner of the street and started heading to what look like a cave in the canyon wall.
"Now this cave is not of natural formation. Someone built these but the scientist of Viper Canyon can never seem to find out who did It." narrated Viper.
The cars headlight turned on. The cave was obviously a tunnel but the sides weren't concrete or the ceiling; only the road that was on the ground showed the signs that it had been tampered by humanity. The walls had intricate designs that Zen recognized. There were forerunner symbols on the cave walls. A few minutes later they could see the end of the tunnel. They came out and saw one of the signs saying, 'Vixofi Ruins turn right'.
There vehicle turned to the right and they could immediately see at the distance a large structure. It vaguely looked like the Control Room back at Delta Halo but the resemblance stopped there. It seemed to have been carved out of the canyon walls. The walls of the ruins had the symbols of the Forerunners etched onto them.
Their vehicle parked and halted.
"We have arrived." said Cortana from the speakers.
"Thanks Cortana." said Viper and extracted the AI chip and placed it into his pocket. All of them stepped out of the vehicle. It was a warmish afternoon, the time was 1:00 PM. They already scheduled this trip so they wouldn't have to eat lunch.
Z'jo, Zide stretched along with Nira, Jess and N'kev looking at the surroundings curiously.
"Guys, c'mon I have a lot to cover for you." said Viperwatcher; They all approached him.
"Ok. This is what I want you guys to do. Nira, Zen you guys are going to take pictures of this place. Try and take good shots of this place like what it will look like in the sunset, etcetera. Try to include some 'people shots'. Z'jo and Zide, my assignment for you guys is to write a review about this place. Try to be honest at best but try to make it appealing to the readers, which will interest them to go here. Got it?" ordered Viper.
"Yes." answered all of them.
"Ok then. I'll watch the kids for you guys so you can do your jobs. We'll meet up here at around 3:00PM ok?" said Viper.
"Sure thing." answered all of them.
"Ok, then. Kids you guys come with Uncle Viper ok?" he asked to Jess and N'kev. They nodded, and then they left.
"Since I'm the editor of the photos you'll take I can help you guys set up shots." said Stahn.
"Ok then let's get started." replied Zen.
* * * * *
So they went about their separate ways, Zide and Z'jo carried around notepads and started asking a few of the tourist how they liked the ruins; Nira was taking photos of the structure while being in the sunset. Zen on the other hand wondered inside the structure.
It was just like the Control Room in Delta Halo except it lacked the 'control room' itself. He took some pictures of the designs on the wall as he moved along the path. It wasn't dark inside because there were some "mine" lights that were strung at the sides of the wall. He felt quite odd as he went deeper into the structure. There was a draft that he felt that was blowing at him that came from the wall. He came to a spot where a symbol intrigued him.
The symbol was somewhat familiar to him but he couldn't put the right word for it. The symbol showed the intricate designs of the forerunner symbols but it was somehow unique. There seemed to be words etched onto it but the language was unknown to him. He let his hand slide along the indentations the symbols made…Until it happened.
He didn't know what he did but all of a sudden the lights on the wall started flickering then died. It was pitch black, to dark to even see his own hands.
'Power cut out.' Zen thought to himself. Then all of a sudden he could hear something moving. Like stone shifting in its place but a little bit fainter. Since it was to dark he couldn't quite guess where it came from. Then he sudden gush of wind that seem to suck him in a particular direction. The current was too strong. He got sucked in by the wind. He felt he hit his head somewhere and the pain made him faint.
* * * *
Nira was walking into the entrance to the ruins when all of a sudden the lights went out. She stood still her place as she waited for the electricity to go back to the lights that were strung to the wall. There was a sudden gush of wind that seems head inside the ruin. Then all of a sudden it stops and the lights go back again. She wondered what just happen but quickly shook it off and continued photographing the symbols.
* * * *
"Uh… My head." groaned Zen as he rubbed his head.
It was still pitch black so created himself a flashlight.
"Where the hell am I?" he asked himself. He was no longer standing in front of the wall he was examining earlier. Instead he was in a circular room. He didn't quite understood what happen earlier but he guessed it was somewhat related to him because he was a Creator.
He waved the flashlight around and saw there was a pedestal in the middle of the room in where he was in. Curiosity got the best of him and he approached it. There seemed to be a chest on top of the pedestal. He strapped his flashlight to his shirt and examined the chest. For some reason he felt vaguely that he was Indiana Jones. He chuckled at the thought and examined the chest.
It was an odd looking chest. It had these weird symbols on its side. Weirdly enough there was no sign of a lock or handle to open the chest. He touched and all of sudden it glowed white. Not just any white but the same shade of white that Zen had seen on the white ball he saw that got him into this dimension. The light radiated making the room be bathed by it. Then he literally saw the chest melt in front of him. The same way things melt when he modifies them.
The light subsided and the chest melted. What it left behind intrigued Zen. It left behind a small ring. But the ring had weird designs to it. It was gold colored. Zen touched it with curiosity then he suddenly saw blurred images of symbols flash right before his eyes. He quickly retracted his finger and the images stopped. He touched it again but this time he felt nothing.
He took the ring in his hands then he heard a voice say,
"Use it well."
He was about to ask, "Who's there!?" when all of a sudden his surroundings shattered like at the time when he saw the future. It shattered and light flooded in. The sudden brightness made him close his eyes. Once his eyes focused he saw that he was outside again.
"There you are!" shouted a voice behind him. He turned on his heel and saw that it was Nira.
"We've been looking all over for you!" Zen then asked, "Why what's wrong."
"We're leaving now." then Nira grabbed his arms and dragged him off towards the parking lot.
* * * * *
Zen did not mention what happen to him to anyone while on the drive back home. It would have sounded so weird to them. Zen already experienced these out of body experiences before like on the time when he was stabbed at the back by an energy sword making him in turn go into the future and helped change certain events. But this time he wasn't stabbed. He had just brushed his hand on a wall and all of a sudden he was sucked in. Then he wakes up finds a chest and a ring. The world shatters around him and he was dragged by Nira back to the parking lot. He didn't even felt time passed by when he found the ring.
Especially the voice he heard that said 'Use it well.' What did the voice mean by 'use it well'. Use it well, what? The ring? He subconsciously made his hand go back down the pocket on where he placed the ring. It was still there meaning everything was real. He wasn't dreaming. Then that means the voice was real as well. He didn't quite understand what the voice meant but he was bound to find out about it.
* * * * *
They arrived at the house of Viper and dropped him off. After arriving at their house, after dropping Zide and Z'jo, he parked the car in the driveway. They all went out the vehicles.
"Zen I'm gonna need the camera now so I can edit the pictures." said Stahn. Zen just robotically removed the camera from his neck and gave it to Stahn.
"Ok then. Good night to you all." said Stahn and went to his house.
"Zen is everything all right?" asked Nira. "You were oddly quiet throughout the trip back here. Is there something wrong?" Zen just shook his head. He was still deep in his thoughts trying to make sense of everything that happened back at the Ruins.
The family ate dinner and then headed for bed. Nira took note of Zen's odd behavior as they ate. He was like staring out into space and he had the dreamy look in his eyes that Nira had understood as the look that Zen made when he is in deep thought; very deep thought.
As the 2 went to bed Zen placed the ring on the table next to the bed. He told himself that he'll look onto it tomorrow morning. As they turned of the lights and went under the covers; Nira cuddled towards Zen.
"What were you thinking about earlier?" she asked. Zen sighed. He turned around face the Sangheili.
"It was just something, nothing you need to worry about." Nira looked at him for a moment then nuzzled him.
"And you say I'm the one addicted." he whispered to Nira's ear.
"Sorry but it seems I can't get enough of you..." said Nira, this time licking Zen with her tongue. Zen felt himself get turned on again.
"Well then…" he whispered to Nira's ear. "I'm all yours."
And with that they had another session that lasted for what like a long time since the two enjoyed every moment of it. As the session ended, Zen felt Nira snuggle up to him and lay her head on his neck. Zen just sighed and placed his hand on Nira's back. He was about to get some sleep when he turned his head and noticed the ring on the table.
Just by sheer curiosity again, he asked himself if it could fit in his ring finger. So with his other hand he took it from the table. He removed his hand from Nira and carefully slid it down his left ring finger. It fit quite perfectly in his finger. That's when something odd happened.
The ring started to glow but not to bright enough to wake Nira up. He felt his body, heat up like a hot kettle. But it seems Nira wasn't bothered by the heat. He felt a slight shock pass down his spine then the ring stopped glowing and the room became dark again. He didn't know what just happened but he let it slide for now. He'll just decipher what had happened tomorrow morning. Since he was very tired he didn't bother to remove the ring, he just slept with it in his hand.
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