Jacy: Well, I think I've out done myself with this chapter.
Wolf: Quite possible, but I don't mean the chapter.
*Jacy walks out the door, punching through the wall as he did*
Wolf: Sheesh, touchy-touchy.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use, I do own my OCs and this story.
Extra Disclaimers: Stardust and Dax belong to Alec the Dark Angel, Arana belongs to Shining Darkness Dragon, and Serenity belongs to phoenix firewing. NOT ME.
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Chapter 8: Unexpected Developments
Deryx dug through the tough dirt with a crystal shovel he'd made out of one of the larger crystals growing everywhere, preparing the final resting place of Nguyen's body whilst his spirit joined the Ancestors. Behind him, Spyro and Malefor dug as well, though the two purple dragons refused to look at one another and were as far away from each other as the small grave would allow.
Outside the hole, Talea and Cynder readied the body while Annabelle tried in vain to awaken the sleeping Dextran. The two dragonesses had removed the poisoned blade from his shoulder and were cleaning him, Talea washing him with her Water element while Cynder dried him with her Wind element, with tears in their eyes.
Annabelle tried everything she could think of to wake the unconscious Dex, but nothing seemed to work. She shoved him, but he didn't even stir. She jabbed his side with her clawed paw, all he did was mumble incoherently. She even tried licking his face, after making sure no one was looking, and he just chuckled softly in his sleep.
"Why won't you wake up?" she murmured hopelessly to herself.
"Because he's talking with the Chronicler," said a voice from behind her. She spun around to find herself face to face with a dragon that was only a little bit larger than she. He was black like the night sky and his pure onyx eyes glowed with an ethereal light. She was shocked at the size of his wings, however; they were huge, nearly the size of an adult's wings, and looked very out of place on the child-looking dragon.
"Who are you?" she asked cautiously, standing in front of Dextran protectively, "What do you want?"
"My name is Stardust," the dragon chuckled, amused by the young dragoness's attempt at looking threatening, "and I was told to bring a message at this exact moment."
"My Mom and Dad are over there," Annabelle said, motioning behind the strange dragon with her head.
"I don't think they'd hear me," Stardust snickered, moving aside and allowing her to see that everything had stopped, as if time itself had halted, "And the message isn't for them. It's for you."
"Me?" she asked, surprised enough to come out of her defensive stance in front of Dextran, "Who could've possibly known that I'd be here at this moment exactly? And how are you doing that?"
"Well, the Chronicler would know, but he didn't send me," he told her, "And how I'm doing that is fairly simple; I'm a Celestial Dragon."
"My Dad tells me stories about those," Annabelle said excitedly, getting side-tracked like any five-year-old would, "They control time and space, but I thought they were all gone…"
"They are, I am the last," he said and Annabelle was unsure if he was proud or saddened by this fact, "but I didn't travel back fifteen years to discuss my kind's looming extinction; I came to deliver the message you told me to."
"I told you to tell me something?" she asked, confused, "What?"
"You said that you had to—"
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"—convince Dad that he has to trust Malefor," an older Annabelle told Stardust her message to her younger self, "Because if he doesn't, then this future, where Death's Embrace rules and has killed him and almost everyone who stand as a threat against them in this realm as well as shut it off from all the other realms, will become a reality. It must not be so."
Annabelle was about the size of her mother, Cynder, now, but she was slightly more muscled than her due to the amount of fighting she had to do. Her green eyes were full of sorrow and there were faded gold marks under her eyes and a still-glinting starburst on her right shoulder, the marks that all leaders of the Dawn Resistance, a ragtag group of creatures from dragons to elves to moles to cheetahs, in memorial of their first leader who perished during their first real strike back against Death's Embrace, Dextran. Leadership had shifted constantly after that, going from one to the next before finally coming to her. Since then, she'd not only been the most successful since Dex, but also the longest surviving one as well.
"How do you know a five-year-old will be able to understand what to do?" Stardust questioned the blue dragoness. He looked exactly the same as he always did, like a child dragon with overlarge wings, but his looks were deceiving. He was actually older than most would believe, as old as time itself even.
Annabelle smiled as she said, "I was a smart child, not only will I understand, I'll perform better than you can ima—"
She was interrupted by the sound of something hitting the large metal door that blocked anything from getting into the bunker-like room that the two had decided to have this conversation in, knowing it'd be too dangerous to have it back at the home base of the Resistance, with enough force to dent the metal.
"They've found us!" Stardust exclaimed, looking at the door in alarm. Another bang sounded as whatever was outside hit it again, putting another dent in it. Annabelle got in front of the smaller dragon and got into a defensive stance.
"Go!" she ordered, looking back at him over her shoulder, "Deliver the message!"
"I'm not leaving you!" He shouted, "They'll kill you!"
"As part of this Resistance, you listen to my orders," she told him, turning back to look at the door, "And I order you to leave me!"
Stardust opened his mouth to continue to argue, but stopped himself as he realized it was useless and instead said, "Give 'em hell, Annie."
"You know I will," she said, smirking though she knew he couldn't see it, "Now go!"
He nodded before closing his onyx eyes and winked out of sight with a black flash. Just as he did, a boulder-like fist ripped through the door like it was wet paper. Annabelle recognized it as belonging to a creature her parents told her they fought several of during the war against the Dark Master, it was called a Troll if she remembered correctly. Another rock looking hand tore through the door before it was ripped off and thrown somewhere.
However, it wasn't the Troll that entered first. Instead, a huge, pitch-black dragon walked through, followed closely by two mottled green and blue wyverns that were covered in scars, then the Troll entered. There was a thin scar all the way around the dragon's neck and his crimson-red eyes were filled with sadistic amusement as he looked at Annabelle. Her parents told her of this dragon as well, having fought against his forces and saw him beheaded at the end of the Second Darkness War. It was Ragnarok, brought back during the Fall of Warfang fifteen years ago by the use of Death's Embrace's Dark Magic.
Annabelle glared at the larger dragon as he approached and continued to as he came to a halt a few feet in front of her. She grimaced at the stench of un-death his breath had and he chuckled at the sight, causing her to gag slightly.
"Ah, Annabelle," he said with a malicious grin, "How good it is to see you again."
"I'm sorry I can't say the same, Ragnarok," she said sarcastically.
"You and your little resistance have been causing a lot of irritation to High Priestess Mara," Ragnarok said, frowning.
"Good to hear our efforts haven't gone unnoticed," she responded, smirking.
"Quite," Ragnarok said, cocking his head to the side slightly, "but it ends today. The Dawn Resistance will end with you, Annabelle."
"I thought Gabriel was Mara's executioner," she commented.
"Oh he is," he said, chuckling darkly, "but Mara wants you to be made an example of, and your punishment will make you wish for death."
He lunged at her and she prepared to blast him directly in the face with a wave of ice, but before she could he stumbled back, roaring in agony. It took her a moment to notice the blood dripping from the slash mark across his muzzle.
"Stay the hell away from my daughter-in-law, Ragnarok," an angry, yet familiar voice ordered harshly. A tall figure fell from above them and landed between Annabelle and the black dragon, followed by another figure astride a green dragoness. The first figure had short, sandy-blonde hair that had a few grey and white hairs scattered through it and a pair of ivory horns growing out of it. He wore a black cloak that resembled those of the Death's Embrace members, but his was frayed at the bottom and had several holes in it, allowing her to see that he had wings tucked underneath it like an under cape. He held a sword loosely in his right hand that dripped the crimson ichor that was Ragnarok's blood.
The man riding the dragoness had dark brown hair with streaks of silver running through it. He wore a worn black overcoat with three holes, like scratches, going across the back and revealed he wore a dark green shirt as well as a pair of blue cargo jeans underneath. He held a pair of strange metal devices, one in each hand, which Annabelle did not recognize.
The green dragoness underneath him had a white underbelly and wing membranes. There were a few scales that were losing their color, but they wouldn't be noticed if you weren't looking for them. She also had what looked like an image the man on her back on her left foreleg.
The blonde man looked back at Annabelle over his shoulder, revealing battle-hardened yet caring brown eyes and week-old stubble on his chin, and said, "You alright, Annie?"
"Blane?" she asked, shocked at the sight of her deceased mate's father.
"The one and only," he said, smiling kindly.
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"It can't be…" Rurik said, eyes widening in disbelief, "I saw you destroyed!"
A figure began to form out of the darkness. First it was an amorphous mass, and then it began to form into a defined shape. When it reached them, it had completely formed into the appearance of a dragon. It was made completely of black smoke with glowing red eyes.
"I was destroyed," the smoke dragon said, "But Death's Embrace restored me under Master Merikh's orders and gave me this body to use."
"Who is that?" Blane whispered to Rurik, but the others heard it anyway.
"His name is—" Rurik began, but the shadowy dragon cut him off.
"My name is Cadmus, and I am Fear Eternal!" he shouted, causing it to echo in the cave-like place they stood, "Thirty years ago, your father and several of his allies ended my reign of Swyndria, our home, by destroying my mortal body and sealing me off from the Ancestors. But now that I've returned, my reign shall begin anew in this realm under Master Merikh!"
"Cadmus, listen to me!" Rurik yelled, "You gave us no choice but to end your life! We tried everything we could to try to free you from the darkness that stains your heart, for Sylvia's sake!"
"My sister joined our parents in death the moment she fell for you, a human!" Cadmus spat, saying the last word with extreme distaste.
"Wait a minute," Blane said, eyes widening in realization, "He's…my uncle?"
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Lilia watched, frozen in terror, as Athkor walked until he came to a stop in front of her. Shown in his eyes was the thing she feared, despite her claims of fearing nothing. She saw everyone abandoning her; friends, family, lovers, they all left despite her begging them not to.
Cain felt the vines on him go limp as Lilia lost her focus. He shook them off, careful not to cause Elana to fall off. He watched as Athkor still didn't stop after he was freed, if anything he made her fears stronger and began to grin at the pain they caused her.
"What happened to fearing nothing?" Athkor mocked her, "You seem pretty afraid to me."
Lilia was unable to speak as her fears, quite literally, brought her to her knees. Her eyes started to glaze over as she began to hyperventilate, making Cain realize he had to intervene before something bad happened.
"Athkor stop!" he shouted, "That's enough!"
"No, father, it isn't enough," he said, not breaking eye contact with the incapacitated Death's Embrace member, "She has to pay for the deaths she caused, at the price of her own life!"
"This isn't you!" Cain told him, taking a step forward, "You aren't some sadistic monster!"
"How would you know?" Athkor demanded, turning on him and letting Lilia fall to the ground, unconscious, now that she wasn't looking into his eyes, "How the hell would you know anything about me? Up until five years ago, we each thought the other was dead! How do you know this isn't me?"
"Because I found myself after I remembered your mother and found out you were alive!" Cain yelled, stomping his foot, "If I, the one who killed all of the Elders and made myself a tyrant over all of Gredanka, was not truly evil then there is no way you are. Find yourself, Athkor, please!"
"Listen to him, Athkor," the robed man, whose name Cain remembered was Ignotus, said, "Find yourself, find what makes you you and grab hold of it!"
Athkor was silent for a moment before he spoke so softly that none of them could hear him, "My family…"
After he spoke, his eyes began to close and he wobbled for a moment before he collapsed onto the ground. Cain tried to take a step towards him, but Ignotus shook his head.
"Hunter and I will look after him and the Death's Embrace member, Cain," he told him, "You, Fian, and Nite must go help those in the temple."
"Keep him safe, Ignotus," Cain murmured, looking at his son's comatose form, "He's the only thing, besides my memories, that I have left of her."
"No harm shall come to him," Ignotus assured him kindly as Fian and the midnight-blue dragon walked over to Cain's side, "Nor to the one on your back, should you choose to leave her here."
"I swore that I'd keep her safe," Cain told him forcefully, "No one else."
"Then you will break that oath if you take her with you," Ignotus said calmly, lacing his fingers together, "Inside of that temple, it is a battlefield, and if you don't have complete focus on what you're doing, then you and she will die."
Cain didn't speak for a moment before he relented, "Alright, I'll leave her here, but I want to know how my son learned one of those damned Dark Elements."
He felt the weight that was Elana lifted off his back and watched as her limp form floated through the air towards Ignotus before lowering to the ground at his feet. He knelt down and checked her pulse and moved her head so he could see both sides of her face before placing his hand on her forehead and muttering a spell under his breath.
Afterwards, he looked up at Cain and said, "That is a question we both want answered. Now go, inside is where you're needed."
The three, two dragons and an elf, nodded simultaneously before turning around and running into the temple. When the three were out of sight, Ignotus looked back down at the unconscious Elana and brushed aside the brown bangs that were covering her forehead to reveal a glistening silver mark that resembled a small, twinkling star.
Hunter, who had finished tying Lilia to a tree with rope that Ignotus himself had enchanted to prevent anyone bound by it from using magic, walked over to where Ignotus was kneeling and looked at the mark in bewilderment.
"What is that?" he questioned curiously.
"It's a Rebirth Sigil," Ignotus explained, "This girl was once among the Ancestors, but she chose to rejoin the living by means of rebirth at the cost of her memories. But it's strange…"
"What is?" Hunter asked the robed, kneeling man whom he had only met a few hours ago yet he already considered him a friend. Before he verbally responded, Ignotus waved his open palm over Elana's face, the baggy sleeve of his robe just brushing the tip of her nose, and the mark on her forehead began to glow brightly before fading back to normal, unchanged.
"It's as if the magic of the Sigil has been altered, like someone doesn't want it known who she was," he told the Avalarian, shaking his head.
"Perhaps it was her?" the cheetah suggested, gesturing towards the young brunette, "Maybe she wanted to keep who she was a secret?"
"While that's a good guess, it's unlikely as she wouldn't remember anything of her previous life," Ignotus responded, "No, it isn't her blocking me. And I didn't think it was her choice to be reborn, either."
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Kain felt a moment of weightlessness as he fell into the portal he created below him. Gravity reasserted itself with a vengeance, however, as Kain found he had not made the exit portal in the right spot and he and the unconscious Wolf plummeted towards the bay below.
"Damn it!" he shouted as Wolf slipped from his grip and hit the water before him. He grabbed the lifeless canine before he could sink into the murky water. The weight from his wet clothing and Wolf's soaked fur began to drag the two down anyway and Kain quickly unzipped his heavy, camouflaged shirt and pulled it off. The article of clothing sunk due to its weight, but Kain paid it no mind as he was able to keep himself and Wolf afloat now.
He tried to open a portal to get them to the docks, but found he was unable to. He tried again and again but it was useless.
"It can't end this way," he whispered hopelessly, "It just can't!"
He tried to swim towards the shore, but stopped when he realized it was pointless. He continued to tread water while holding up the comatose Wolf. He felt his legs begin to cramp as he grew tired.
"Why now?" Kain shouted at no one, "Why the hell did we get a chance to come back if we just die like this?"
He hit the water in frustration and the water splashed him in the face. He watched in shock as the water began to swirl before revealing a portal. He quickly dove into it, not questioning where it came out. He closed his eyes as he felt like he was being squeezed from all sides before landing on something soft.
He opened his eyes to find himself looking up into the face of a concerned-looking Wolf. He tried to speak, but found his throat was unimaginably dry and no sound came from his mouth. Wolf turned and said something to someone to his left that Kain couldn't hear, as though his ears were full of cotton. When he finished talking, Wolf turned back to look at Kain and he felt warmth spread through his ears and when Wolf spoke this time, Kain could hear him.
"Kain," Wolf said slowly, "Try not to move or talk just yet, you've been out for quite a while."
Before Kain could ask what he was talking about, he felt his head moved from its spot against the cushion up until it was resting upon the ample chest of a woman. His breathing hitched for a moment and he looked up to see a familiar, blue-eyed gaze framed by golden locks of hair looking back.
"Hanna?" he croaked, his dry lips cracking and beginning to bleed, "You're alive…?"
"And thriving, handsome," she smiled, dabbing at the blood with a tissue, "Who do you think brought you out of that weeklong nightmare, after all?"
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Outside of the makeshift infirmary room, Jacy watched the scene play out through the rectangular window on the door. After a few moments he walked over to the room next to it, where Rosangela was making sure Kera would fully recover from the wounds inflicted to her while in Merikh's capture wouldn't leave any long-term damage.
He opened the door just as Rosangela was leaving. They stared silently at one another for a while, silver eyes boring into green, both waiting for the other to speak first. Then, out of nowhere, she slapped him, hard, across the face and caused his head to jerk to the side.
"Congratulations," she said sarcastically, shoving her way past him and continuing down the hall.
Jacy brought his hand to the cheek she'd slapped and looked into the room, where Kera sat on the small bed with a hand on her abdomen. She was looking down into her lap and seemed lost in thought.
"The hell was that about?" he questioned, stepping into the room.
"She's frustrated, I think," she responded carefully, not looking up, "Do you really think that's Hanna?"
"It seems like it's her, she even likes Kain like she was after going into my mind and meeting him," Jacy answered slowly, "But why would she congratulate me if she was frustrated, and why is she frustrated to begin with?"
"But how do we know this isn't one of Merikh's tricks?" she asked placing both hands, palms down, at her sides.
"Because I anticipated something like this happening and had her tell me the phrase everyone who seems to come back from the dead has to say, in three languages, and she did it perfectly," he responded, walking over and standing in front of her, "But you didn't answer my question."
"It's…complicated, Jacy," she said dodgily, turning her head to look at the door.
He knelt down, placing one hand on her knee while the other moved her head to look at him before he moved it to her other knee, before saying, "Kera, I can feel your distress. You know you can tell me anything, so tell me what's bothering you, please."
She looked into his dark green eyes and saw the love and trust he felt for her reflected in them. Hers began to tear up as she brought her hands up and placed them on his cheeks, feeling the stubble that had begun to grow since he shaved a few days ago.
"Jacy," she said softly, "I'm pregnant."
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"All the pieces are falling into place," said a man sitting at a table made of black stone that had a chessboard-like top. On the tabletop were figurines of different people and creatures, some standing while others were knocked over and even crushed.
The man himself was pale-skinned with hair so dark it was almost black. His dark hair was just long enough to cover his forehead and partially hide his eyebrows, but kept his reddish-brown eyes completely visible. His face had three scars that resembled scratches from claws going diagonally from just above his right eye across to his left cheek.
"Where does Fear's piece lie, if I may ask?" came a voice from behind the man. He looked over his shoulder to see a dragoness walking through the doorway and over to him.
The dragoness was long and slender, with black scales and purple eyes that could hypnotize a rock into walking. Eight long, blood-red horns curved back from of her head and the sides of her face. Her wing membranes glinted a dark silver color in the light given off by the torches hanging on the walls and cast a shadow over her onyx underbelly.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were concerned about him, Arana," the man commented, smirking.
"Not a chance, Merikh," the dragoness scoffed, "I just need to know if I'll be collecting a breathing, in-control Fear, or his corpse."
"Neither," Merikh said, reaching over and grabbing figurines that resembled Cain and Arana respectively and sat them down on opposite colored spots facing each other, "You'll be going after an old acquaintance of yours."
"Dead or alive?" she asked, grinning maliciously.
"Alive is preferable, but you and I both know he'll be dead when you bring him to me," he responded, waving his hand over one of the crushed statues and causing it to reform into a figurine of Ragnarok, "Now go; I have plans to make. A member of Death's Embrace is waiting in the next room to take you to where you'll find him."
"Expect me back in a few hours," Arana said, turning around, "With Cain."
"Oh, I expect you back," Merikh chuckled to himself as she left, moving figurines of Nite and Fian to the sides of Arana's statuette, "but it'll be him that brings you."