Here I am to write part 6 of this story, and as I said before I make lots of plot twists that you may or may not understand so if you're confused please say so. In part of this chapter we get some background info about Zero! ;)
Disclaimer NiGHTS and other related trademarks ©Sega and Sega Saturn.
Caroline, Zero, Airin, and other made OC's ©Me Dueler Of Fate.
Chapter 10, One Vampire's Choice, Part 6: Missing!
Kate's POV,) I switch between two different points of view in this chapter.
I woke up from a last night's hard core planning and fluttered my eyes into focus. I glanced around the room for a minute, then my eyes hooked onto Airin who was snoring….loudly, Ugh! Oh and he was halfway turned on his side waving his hand about muttering things like ladies…..please there's enough here to go around. Oh I dread to know what he was seeing asleep, the thought makes me shutter. I rolled my eyes, "keep dreaming hotshot." I told him, then I leaned into his ear but I didn't touch. "Keep…..Dreaming." I resisted the urge to laugh and rolled off the bed and got dressed, I wanted to see how Zero was doing. Walking toward the hospital I could sense that the Nightmares and their leader Wizeman were already advancing, and Moreover Carol by now is probably…..NO, that's absurd! Carol would never go done that easily, not now…not ever! Then again….everything has its limits and its weakness, and for a Vampire….well…there's a lot in both categories.
"Where ya goin?" a voice rose up from behind me. I spun around to find Tetra standing behind me, she looked worried. I turned away and kept walking, I could tell she was a little annoyed by this but right now I was to upset and to angry to talk to anyone.
"Hey wait up," I let loose my wings; she knew that I wasn't in the mood for talking. So why didn't she just turn around and leave. And then she caught up with me, I sighed and turned around. She was breathing heavily her face beaded with sweat. She gave me a sour look,
"What is with you," she asked her voice a little angry, I glanced away but my eyes betrayed me, my claws were extending. She backed up, "Never mind" she said now sounding a little upset but the anger did not leave her voice. "Sorry I asked," She turned away and stormed off. I grasped my forehead and shook off the weird feeling,
"What…did I just do?" I asked myself, I saw Tetra turn around. She had apparently heard me,
"What you just did…" She began her voice harsh, "Was that you acted like a jerk!" I stepped back surprised. Had I just turned away a lifelong friend and didn't even know? I made a feeble attempt to apologize,
"Tetra I—"
"Save it" She demanded. I backed up and turned around…slowly, very slowly. As I walked off toward the building I didn't see anyone near this building, strange….there should've been a lot of injured people. Perhaps they were all healed last night because many of our comrades are fast healers; some of them are healers themselves. But Zero….uh….I sure hope she's alright. After what happened to her she should've been dead. But Nights somehow managed to find a pulse and now that is the precise reason why Zero was recovering so slowly. As I headed up I stopped just outside of her door, did she really want to see me? Did she even like me? I sighed deeply and went in my ears ringing with nervousness.
"Hey Zero" I said tying to sound cheery, "How are y…" I looked down at the bed, what I saw was horrifying. Zero was…..GONE! I ran up to the window, it was swung wide open. Zero must have snuck out at night, and in the conditions she in…..she wouldn't last a minute out there! I had to warn the others and….wait, no…I can't. Especially not to Nights, it would break her heart if she knew what had just happened, this was between me and Zero, and I had to find her before everyone found out.
(Meanwhile near enemy HQ.) Zero's POV.
Get a grip. I told myself, you need to get a grip. But I couldn't, yes I had snuck out at night when everyone was asleep. I am not going to stand around and let Carol be tortured to death while everyone sits around and does nothing, she actually made an effort to make friends with me, and she was like a mom to me….almost. My parents died when I was four years old, my dad had died of cancer and my mom could not take care of me by herself. Plus, she absolutely refused to remarry anyone but Tomas…my father. She told me that my dad was irreplaceable, and that he was the best man she had ever met. Later my mother said that the life she lived was too dangerous for me and she whisked me away to a foster home for poor orphans. Although….this foster home was in the human world, I remember her saying that she would've give anything to keep me with her but she knew that if she did I would die along with my father and she would be alone. Our family was like trash on the streets, no one bothered to pick us up, or give us a better home. That's how I grew to thinking that no one in the world would understand me, then one night at the foster home I packed my things as a little 7 year old and found an escape hatch through the ventilation system and crawled my way to freedom. The people at the prison (foster house) began to search for me but to avail did they succeed in finding even the slightest footprint. I spent the rest of my life growing up mostly on the streets; I never stayed in one place for no more than two flipin days. As the years went on I grew sad, lonely, but most of all…..I was angry. I was angry at my mom for just abandoning me like that, and I was mad at everyone around me. I managed to make my way to New York and find the exact tram that took me into the monster world. And on the fifth night living with my new adopted parents I found myself in the dream gate, (Nights told me that,) it had only been five days since I had made my way here so there are still things about this world that I don't quite get. I was able to get here pretty quickly because lightning travels fast and by sheer luck I was traveling in April, the month of rain and or lightning storms. In other words I traveled faster by using the lighting and traveling through the sky, it's an old form of travel but a lot of demons like me still use it. Anyways I'm pretty sure you don't want to hear any more boring history so I'd best continue, I had made my way into the castles interior and I was stalking the area as to where they kept captured people, "no" I said pointing to one cage, I walked by a couple more until I heard footsteps. Someone was coming, I had to hide. My physical pain wasn't worse than my concern for Carol but I had to hide! I slid down behind one of the columns in the hallway and held my breath. One of the nightmaren that had walked by was about Nights height only except she was slightly more foxy and her horns were black and purple. They curved more than Reala's did; she stopped and shot her eyes over to the pillar I was hiding behind. I held my breath my heart racing; the girl nudged the person next to her and whispered something that I couldn't make out. The guy nodded and walked around the pillar but he saw nothing, (boo yah!) He turned back to his partner and shook his head, the girl growled her eyes flaring and she walked on by as the boy followed her down the dim lighted hall. I sighed in relief and gripped my chest, my heart was pounding as my ears rang, and I was somehow disoriented by just being in here. "Carol," I called quietly, "Carol!" I walked down the hallway stalking each and every single barred cage I came across. But then something fierce, strong and pale grabbed my ankle, I batted at the arm but it wouldn't let go.
"Zero?" A voice spoke from inside the shadows of the darkened cell; I stopped my arms from hitting anymore and raised a confused eyebrow, that voice…… it sounded like Carol.
"Carol…" I asked back, I came closer to the door as a face was lit up by the light from the celled window. My eyes widened as did hers, it was Carol. "Carol!" I cried as I ran toward the bars until my bandaged hands were gripping the metal fiercely, Carol smiled widely and gripped my wrist even though her hands were damaged terribly. She looked terrible in general, her hair was tattered and splotched with dirt and blood, her arms and legs were chained together and her feet were bare and scared, she had on different clothes, they weren't those prison jumpsuits you see people wearing now. It was more like everything had been stripped from her, all except the undershirt that she wore which was white (and yes she is still wearing a bra in case you were wondering they just took her other layers of winter clothes.) and her tan cargo pants that had now been turned from winter pants to shorts.
"Zero I…..I'm sorry," I shook my head and released my grip as she did the same.
"Don't be" I said sadly, "I'm the one who should be sorry," Carol looked up her face coated with sweat and slight tears. For a moment no one moved, no one spoke. I immediately explained my plan to break her out and I asked her (even though it pained me) about if she had any of her energy stolen from her by Wizeman. She first stared at me with a concerned look,
"I tried about five times to get out of here Zero and….I failed at every attempt." I sighed and pondered this, when I asked her about her Vampire power being stolen her face turned serious. Her pendant glowed faintly and the ruby was cracked slightly down the middle,
"Partially…" she said coldly, "He took about 20 percent at most, but I still have lots of my energy. Some of it was drained from me being in here so damn long," I grimaced at the sight of the "X" shaped slash across her chest. When she noticed what I was staring at her expression darkened, "That is a souvenir from the first time I tried escaping." I couldn't help but trace my fingers over my own bandaged hands, Carol looked troubled when she saw my face, "That…..looks bad," she said shakily, I nodded and took one glance back over my shoulder. I needed to make sure no one saw me or otherwise they might lock me up…or worse kill us both. Caroline got to her feet and rubbed off her knees, they were badly scared too, gee….I wonder how much they did to Caroline. I stood up releasing my grip from the bars; they were now covered in soot…lots and lots of soot. "Get back" Carol announced, I was a little reluctant but I did anyways, she ran toward the bars and revered her foot up kicking the whole wall down, bars and all. My eyes widened as she stepped out brushing the extra dust from her clothes,
"Why didn't you do that the first time?" I asked, she turned to me and smiled cracking her knuckles.
"Because…" she began, "Because I was trying a play act to see if that would fool em'," I raised a confused eyebrow and folded my arms at her.
"What do you meanwhat do you mean by a play act?" She smiled and twisted her wrists,
"By a play act I mean I was trying to make them think that I had no chance of escape. Did you really think that on those other attempts I was actually trying?" I smiled slyly and nodded; now I get it! She was trying to make them believe that she had no way of getting out until the time was right, namely that being now. My smile widened a little more,
"You've really thought of everything haven't you?" She just gave me that reassuring smile again and walked in front of me, "We should probably get going, their probably smart enough to put..." suddenly there was an alarming blare sounded, I clasped my hands over my ears as a red light showered over us. Caroline sighed looking annoyed as she grabbed my hand and bolted for the exit, "…Alarms," she said finishing her sentence. As we were jolting down the hall I heard loud yells and iron gates behind us were slamming down and closing. Then I noticed something outside, it was raining….and then I heard a loud CRACK! It was lighting…it had to be.
"Carol!" I said shouting over the sirens; Carol looked back at me as we stopped abruptly,
"What" she asked her breathing heavy, mine too. I pointed outside to where another jolt of lighting streaked the sky like a laser beam,
"The lighting," I said relieved, she looked confused,
"What about it Zero, We have to move!"
"I know but…the lighting, I can travel by it!" Carol glanced from the opening in the ceiling and then back at me. "Take my hand" I said quickly, Caroline didn't hesitate, she ran over and grasped my hand. "I hope this works" I mumbled. I concentrated all of my energy despite how injured I was and I started my lightning travel. At first nothing happened and then…in an instant we were zooming through the sky faster than the speed of light, Caroline tried to say something but apparently the speed drowned out her speaking. We landed face first on the ground making a huge crater where we landed. I sat up my vision fuzzy and my whole body was gripped with pain; our landing unfortunately had attracted tons of attention. All around us millions of our comrades and teammates were gathered gasping and whispering to each other about what had just happened. Then I saw the last three people I needed and or wanted to see. It was Airin along with Kate and Nights, when the smoke cleared Airin stepped down slowly into the crater. When they came close to us in perfect view all of their eyes widened to the size of soccer balls, Nights choked and stared straight at me…
"Zero…….?" She asked shakily, I looked up at her and nodded slowly. Airin and Kate's jaws had dropped open hitting the ground; everyone's eyes were on Carol even mine. Airin blinked his eyes a few times before looking at Carol again,
"Carol….I…I can't believe your back!" He smiled widely and hugged Carol tightly; I rolled my eyes as Nights helped me to my feet. She now looked at me with a concerned look,
"Zero….I thought something terrible had happened to you! I even thought that you were dead, I mean you going out in the middle of the damn night just to save Carol in the state that you're in!" She looked upset and angry. But…who can blame her, I had worried her along with the others so much and now I just show up with Carol by my side. There's no way no how are they going to believe that I busted Carol out of nightmare jail (mostly.)Nights sighed deeply and turned away for a few moment and then back, her face now was different, she seemed relieved and happy but she still had that worry mixed in as well. "Zero…." She began; I waited for her to continue. "You're a really brave person and I admire that but….you can't just throw yourself into danger that's too much for you to handle. More or less one day you may put yourself into risky things and……" She hesitated, "you may not come back out," I scowled a little, what makes her think that I'll never come out of a fight!? I've gotten this far, so why can't I continue. I can do anything I set my mind too, why can't Nights see that!? I inhaled deeply and turned back to her, she still had a worried expression but it was more relaxed like she had calmed down. But I hadn't,
"Nights….your right" she stared at me confused, "you right about half the things you said. But next time there's something risky going on, don't count on me to be there because apparently it's too much for me to handle!" I stormed off, I stopped for a moment feeling regretful but I kept walking and I didn't look back.
Part End. Oh no…..Zero now feels that Nights had just criticized her. What will happen now? Please look out for part seven!