Alys reappeared outside the Lower East Wing shuttle shoot, the darkened, slimy, passageway penetrated by shouts and pandemonium in the room before her.
Making Alys' eyes dart across the thick circular metal, the door suddenly opened to a red haired, dust caked girl her eyes swimming with tears, shivering head to foot. Her face simply cracked and she sobbed uncontrollably, falling into Alys' arms.
"O-oh Alys. I sensed you coming...it's Aretta -"
"I know Caren, I know," Alys whispered. The girl sucked in two large gulps of air then sobbed once more, her wailing cutting across Alys like a knife. She gently kissed Caren's dusty head and sat her on the floor then swept through the gap in the shuttle shoot door.
It was a mass of panic, bellows and yells of instructions and commands but all were dramatically silenced by an ear splitting scream. It seemed to tear through the large dust cloud lingering in the centre of the room, as Alys could just make out the darkened shapes of people all still and unmoving. Her eyes scanning the room as the scream drew to an almighty gasp, Alys moved stealthily through the dust cloud but paused when a figure raced over to where she was stood.
It was a man, with a square jaw, short spiky blonde hair and dazzling blue eyes. One side of his face had numerous scratches and was bleeding slightly but was rapidly healing right before her very eyes.
"Alys! Oh thank god you're here! Where's Corgin and the others? Are they okay?" The man questioned, his eyes scanning Alys' face rapidly.
"Yes, everybody is fine. Where's Aretta? Was that her whom screamed?"
The man's face screwed up, as if he was recalling a painful or horrific memory of some sort.
"Grendac?" Alys murmured, her stomach plummeting. "Was it Aretta?"
Grendac nodded. Immediately Alys pushed past him and fled further into the dust cloud. It made her cough violently but she continued, drawing closer and closer tot he darkened crowd ahead. She reached them, gently pulling me and women aside, some sobbing, others completely silent, their glassy eyes wide in horror. Alys came to the front of the crowd then stopped, and gasped at the sight at her feet.
Aretta was sat up against the concrete wall and was writhing and whimpering, her eyes and mouth glowing a ghostly white colour. Her clothes were stained and dirty and her long wild hair was a mess around her head. Her flailing arms were scratched and bloody and her hands and fingernails seemed to be the cause of such injury, they were red and blood stained. Alys slapped a hand to her mouth and shivered. Pearl coloured tears were pouring from her glowing eyes and her facial expression was pained as if she was undergoing extreme physical or possibly mental torture.
Alys squatted down and touched Aretta's shaking leg. As if a switch had been pulled, Aretta snapped her head downward, and stared with her glowing white eyes at Alys. She gasped and rapidly removed her hand but Aretta shook her head and grabbed Alys' raised hand. In the split second their skin made contact Alys' line of vision evaporated rapidly.
As fast as her vision vanished it was replaced by another but the sound that accompanied her new vision made her scream out loud. It was the noise of a great tremendous explosion followed by the rattle of ongoing gun shots and screams of people. As if a giant brick wall had slammed before a sprinting runner, Alys' vision reappeared which made her yell in horror.
A gargantuan behemoth machine was tearing across a darkened city square, buildings around it were smashed and destroyed, some barely standing, others reduced to their very foundations. The machine was at least three hundred foot tall and took a humanoid type form. Its huge arms were swinging wildly, releasing beams of violently bright yellow light. The beams collided into a crowd of fleeing people running across the square. In a split second after the beams contacted the crowd they burst into skeletons and fell incompetently to the ground.
Alys shivered in horror but felt, outside of the vision, her hand still in the vice like grip of Aretta. The giant machine crashed through a bombardment of tank like machines which pelted toward it in the air. They fell to the square in a shower of flaming debris, crushing the fallen skeletons. A sudden figure leaped across the square and pulled from its hip holster a rocket launcher. Alys knew the person but couldn't think as to who it was, but they seemed so familiar from the back. The figure was too far away for Alys to see as it was as if she was floating high above the square, stood on top of a building and looking down.
With a scream like a battle cry, the figure loaded the rocket launcher, placed the weapon on their shoulder and fired. A thick beam of fiery red light shot from the rocket launcher and collided into the giant machines central metal chest plate. The machines rounded glowing head swivelled in the direction of the figure as a dent formulated in the machines chest from the collision. The machine rose a large hand was fired a bright yellow beam.
The figure threw down the rocket launcher and swiftly threw up its arms and, rippling down to its fingertips, an almighty rose coloured shield tore before the screaming figure. It orbed just in time around the figure as the bright yellow beam collided into the shield creating an enchantingly beautiful cascade of sparks and colours. The machine rose its other arm and, still channelling the bright yellow beam onto the shield, brought it down in a powerful punch. The figure yelled and screamed, the rose coloured shield growing larger and larger the bright yellow beam channelling more and more. Alys knew one would give way, but dreaded which...
Materialising out of nowhere, another figure appeared beside the first figure and fired, from its chest, a massive burst of fiery energy. It rippled through the air and engulfed the machines head. Swinging it's beam channelling arm upwards, the machine stumbled backwards as the second figure shot into the air and fired another blast of fiery energy. However, the machine responded faster.
It's great chest plates folded inwards, revealing a cavity of swollen blue light. It glowed profoundly then expanded and suddenly exploded. The entire machine disintegrated into nothing and a giant shock wave burst through the square, obliterating the two figures, the surrounding debris and fallen skeletons. The shock wave expanded further and further and destroyed the surrounding buildings and city. As fast as it had come, the vision vanished and Alys swung backward onto the ground, breathing heavily her normal line of vision finally returning.
"ALYS!"
"What the hell has happened?"
"Oh my god, Aretta!"
"What the hell has happened!"
A cascade of screams and shouts flooded into Alys' ears, replacing the deafening noise she had been subjected too. She slapped her shaking hands over her ears and closed her eyes, blocking out the noise, fractions of the vision she had received replaying themselves over and over in her mind.
A sudden pair of hands grabbed her own and forced them from her ears.
"Alys! Alys what did you see? Look at me Alys!" It was Grendac, Alys knew, his voice was urgent and panicky. Alys slowly opened her eyes and indeed saw Grendac, his eyes were wide and staring.
"Alys, what did you see?" He repeated.
Alys merely shook her head, too terrified, too stunned, to even speak. Words had simply befallen her. She craned her neck past Grendac to see Aretta. She was laid spread eagled on the cold concrete, her eyes and mouth no longer glowing as people rushed and fretted around her. Alys could only feel shock, she couldn't believe what she had saw. But would it come true? Would Aretta's vision come to light? Tomorrow? In a week? In a year?
Gasping, Alys was pulled to her feet and dragged across the room, the dust cloud had now settled to a thin carpet on the concrete ground and a small crater sized hole bore across the far left wall. Grendac gripped Alys' left arm tighter and kicked open the door then threw her out into the passageway. Alys fell to her knees and turned as Grendac slammed the circular metal door shut.
"Alys," he said, "you have to tell me what you and Aretta saw. It could have been anything, what was it?" He urged.
Alys just shook her head. It still terrified her as if she was experiencing it once more right at that moment.
"Alys! Please!" Grendac yelled, spittle flying from his mouth.
Alys jumped. She bit her tongue, should she ought to say? What would he do if she spoke? But what would he do...if she did not speak?
"I'm asking again Alys, what did you -"
"The future. A war. And death." Alys simply said, fighting her conscience. She took a deep breath and sat around, fully facing the bewildered Grendac.
"A war? What war? Who was fighting, who was there Alys?"
"I don't know. I couldn't see exactly. But there were these people and they fought this – this machine. A giant machine. It killed people with light. Made them into -" she paused, the vision of the skeletons falling to the ground flashed across her minds eye.
"Made them into what?" Grendac exclaimed.
"Skeletons. The machine shot these beams and made them into skeletons. Killed them." Alys whispered, bowing her head, her silver hair sliding across her face.
Grendac recoiled in horror. What she explained...could it come true? It sounded horrific, no kind of machine he had heard of could do perform something so deadly as that. But Grendac hadn't stepped foot up there in the city for the past twenty five years, the Normals could be doing, building, anything...
"Alys -"
But she silenced him with a raised hand then vanished, a wisp of silver smoke whipping in her wake.
Alys rapidly awoke, a sweat had formed at her brow.
It had been a few hours since the vision and she tried at sleep. Somehow she thought it may ease her anxiety and horror but it didn't. It some ways it intensified it even further as all she could see was the apocalyptic vision replaying over and over again.
The moment she had returned she was screamed, bombarded with questions and yelled at. Corgin had charged at her, Ranin had leaped, unusually, to her aid, Forcefield summoned her indicated power to stop the enraged Corgin in his tracks and Callistan released a psionic bolt to Alys' supposed attacker, all in seconds after she had teleported before their eyes. But Alys merely whimpered and teleported once more to her room then swiftly bolted the door shut. She burst into tears and collapsed on her bed, drifting, somehow, into a troubled slumber. But now she had awoke and was thinking, her post-vision trauma had now subsided but her anxiety hadn't.
"Alys?" A voice said, in her head.
"Ranin. What is it you want?"
"I just wanted to see how you was. I can't see what you saw."
"You don't need to see what I saw." Alys replied. Their voices were distant and echoey, as if they were communicating across a large empty room.
"But what was it? What did you see? Forcefield is saying you saw a war,"
"News travels fast I see. But I do not wish to tell you anything. Our minds are troubled enough. But there is one fact that lies in those rumours you are hearing. I know it shall happen. I can feel it, Ranin."
AN: Hi Hi Hi!! Wow, how did you like it?! I have so many great ideas I'm just figuring which way to turn the story to, any suggestions? Please review and let me know!
Anyway, I thought I'd clear something up. With Ranin I've decided how to pronounce his name...sort of. I propose we pronounce his name as RAY-NIN rather than RAH-NIN as that sounds too euurrgghh, but hey I'm waffling again! SO, let me know what you think of my dystopia like story, and more shall be revealed and explained by the way, and PLEASE REVIEW. (Without hints of desperation anywhere...) Thankkyouu!