Jacy: Well, Chapter Twelve…
*Several weapons of all different kinds are still pointed at me*
Wolf: Starting the chapter would probably be good…
Jacy: Yeah, Disclaimers first, though…Damn copyright laws…
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 12: Heralds of the Past
Rosangela, seeing what had happened, turned to see where the projectile that had hit Kain had come from. With her enhanced vision, she was able to spot a man with dark brown hair and wearing dark clothing. He was holding a sniper rifle and was in the process of moving it away from his shoulder.
Anger overwhelming her common sense, she put down the children she was carrying in a safe spot before taking flight towards the man. Aingeru was unable to catch her in time to stop her and could merely watch as she flew away. He continued to ferry the children to the safe spot while his wife joined the fight.
Rosangela grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt, catching him off-guard and making him drop his gun. She flew up out of reach of any one in the fight below and put the man down on one of the support beams near the ceiling, backpedaling a bit so she was out of his reach as well.
At this point she took a closer look at the man and was surprised at her sudden realization. Although he'd aged since she saw him last, there was no mistaking who the man was by his light-blue eyes. She also recognized the small scar just above his lip. However, she needed to be sure.
"Show me your palms," she told him, glancing down at his right hand. He raised an eyebrow at this, but he did as he was told and lifted his hands and showed her his palms. His left one was normal, as she expected, but his right had what she was hoping. It was a Mark, the Mark of Learning to be exact.
"Daniel…" she murmured, "You're alive…"
"Hello, Rosie," he said, smirking, "it's… good to see you again."
"But, how?" she questioned, "We saw you sacrifice yourself after you got bitten!"
"I was given a second chance," he said nonchalantly, "So long as I served my new masters, Merikh and High Priestess Mara."
"You're being controlled!" she realized, flying closer, "Fight it! You're stronger than them!"
Now that she was closer, Daniel pulled a sword out of the coat he wore and swung it at her. She managed to fly back enough so that the blade just missed her. Afterwards she looked at him in shock at what he'd done.
"No one is stronger than the High Priestess and Lord Merikh," the dark-haired man said coldly, "That is why they still remain alive after fighting Jacy."
"You aren't the man I fell for," she said sadly, "You aren't Sarah's father!"
"F-father?" Daniel echoed, surprised, "What are you talking about?"
"When you, no, when Daniel sacrificed himself," Rosangela said softly, "it was after he and I had conceived a child, one he never knew."
The man was silent for a few moments before he let out a gasp of agony and gripped his head as a searing pain shot through it. He managed to stay balanced, but the winged-woman watched him with unhidden shock. And then, as suddenly as he had started, Daniel stopped and looked back at Rosangela. However, this time his gaze was softer and was the way that she remembered.
"I wish I could've known her," he whispered in response. He put his arms out and let himself fall backwards, plummeting to the floor below. Watching in astonishment, the woman dove down to try to catch the man before he hit the floor. She was unable to reach him in time, but he didn't hit the floor directly. Instead, he landed on a wounded wyvern and stabbed it through the skull with his sword. Even so, Rosangela heard a few snapping noises and surmised that his legs were probably broken.
"What are you doing?" she demanded of him as he got to his feet, making her realize that it was the wyvern's bones that had broken and not Daniel's.
"Making up for my wrongs," he said quietly before running off into the crowd of fighting before she could stop him.
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Cain and Gabriel's attacks collided in between them, both of them seeming to cancel out the other. Gabriel had black fire shooting from his maw that was tinged red at the edges while Cain's was blue, like the flames he seemed to be made of, while it was shot through with crimson. Both of them refused to give an inch and some of their excess fire spread off and began to start small fires around the room.
Cain felt himself begin to get pushed back by the power of the attacks, but also noticed that the same was happening to his brother. Turning his determination into strength, Cain began to slowly take a step forward, pushing through the energy pushing him back. Gabriel saw this and tried to do the same, but found that he was only pushed back further.
The flames covering Cain began to get brighter with every step he took, and so did the blazes coming from his mouth. Gabriel watched in shock as they were completely, blindingly white by the time Cain was merely a foot away. Their attacks were pushing against each other in the small gap between them. Before Gabriel could react, Cain reared his head back for a moment and then brought it back and put renewed power into his attack.
The white flames engulfed the green dragon as he let out a roar of agony from the flames that began to burn his body. When Cain finally stopped, Gabriel was no more and all that was left was a pile of ash. Cain let his ability fade and it revealed that his body was covered in burns. Through the burns, however, it could be seen that some of his scales had turned a glistening silver.
The now red-and-silver dragon looked down at the remains of his sibling and quietly said, "I hope the light wiped away the darkness in your heart and that the Ancestors welcome you with open arms, brother."
Cain then turned to look at Arana who had watched the whole fight with her purple eyes wide. She was able to see a change he couldn't; his crimson-red eyes had turned a calm-blue. He began to walk towards her and she quickly got to her feet and into a defensive stance. She tried not to let her emotions come to the surface and managed to keep her face unruffled.
"Don't come any closer," she told him, though she was unable to keep her voice from shaking.
Cain raised an eye-ridge at this, though he did halt his movement, and responded, "Or what?"
"Or-or I'll…" she trailed off as she realized that she had nothing to threaten him with as she was completely exhausted. She tried to think of something, but was unable to. Cain chuckled at this and shook his head, before letting out a groan of pain as he aggravated his wounds.
"Neither of us is in a position to harm each other," he said, looking at her with his now-blue eyes, "and I had no intention to, either."
"Then what to do you intend to do?" she asked, narrowing her eyes and getting some of her resolve back at seeing that he was just as injured, if not more, than she.
"Talk," he answered, taking a step closer, "and convince you to join the right side."
"It's a pointless cause," she told him, both of them becoming oblivious to the battle going on around them, "I've joined the winning side and I'm not changing my choice."
"I know it's pointless," he replied, continuing forward until they were less than a foot apart, "but I'm still going to try. I owe it to Traeia to try."
"Don't you dare use my sister as an excuse for this," Arana growled, "You want to make Merikh weaker by making me join your side; the righteous side."
"I'm not using her as an excuse," Cain argued, "but, even if I was, I would only be using the same one you did when you joined me back when I waged war against the Elders to make the wrong people pay for Traeia's death and my son's apparent, failed attempt at performing the Vredranx Ritual."
"Athkor's alive?" she asked, surprised, "Then he did perform the ritual correctly?"
"No, and he never did perform the Ritual," he told her, turning back to look at the ashes of his brother, "Gabriel killed Traeia and made it look like Athkor tried to use her as a sacrifice for it and failed, when he had actually used both of them for his own."
The black dragoness didn't respond to this and merely turned her gaze to the floor. It took Cain a moment to notice her shaking and he realized she was struggling to hold back tears. He tried to take another step closer and ask her what was wrong so he could comfort her, but she snapped at him before he could.
"Stay back!" she shouted, her eyes full of anger and turned red while there were indeed tears at the corners. He halted in shock at her now-red eyes, but before either of them could do anything else, a wave of energy came from where Mara was finishing up the ritual and knocked them back a bit. It was followed by a burst of blinding light that made everyone in the room look away.
When the light finally faded, Cain looked to where it had originated and was shocked by what he saw. Standing there was a terrifyingly familiar, huge black dragon with blood-red eyes. There was a scar that went all the way around his neck from where Blane had beheaded him. There was a horrifying grin on his face that sent fear through everyone in the room except for Mara, who was standing beside the resurrected dragon.
"Ragnarok…" Cain whispered in astonishment. All eyes in the room were on the massive dragon as he began to let out a dark laugh. His own gaze searched for the purple and silver dragons that had ended his life, but found only Spyro was there. However, he noticed that Malefor was there and standing next to the younger purple dragon and that Cain was appearing to turn silver.
"My revenge begins…" Ragnarok said as he looked over everyone in the room.
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"T-Traeia?" Deryx stammered, stunned. Elana smiled and the magic user could feel she was somehow looking at him.
"Deryx, your voice may be deeper but I'd recognize it anywhere," she said, "Do you know how I got here? Last thing I remember was watching over Cain and Athkor with the Ancestors and now I'm here."
Deryx and Ignotus exchanged glances before the older man spoke, "Traeia, do you remember anything…odd from when you were looking over Cain and Athkor?"
"Ignotus," she said, recognizing his voice, "Well, one of the other Ancestors was talking with me, but I'd talked with him often so it wasn't that strange. Though he was talking about maybe choosing to be reborn and he wanted to know what I thought of it."
"What did you tell him?" Deryx questioned urgently.
"I told him that my place was with the Ancestors to wait for Cain and Athkor to eventually join me when it was their time," she answered calmly, "He seemed a bit angry but he didn't say anymore on the topic, though he seemed a bit distracted, as if he was talking to someone else while talking to me."
"Traeia," Deryx said slowly, "You've been reborn into the body of woman who practices Dark Magic. We don't know how longer she'll be unconscious, and right now that's the only reason we're able to talk to you."
"What?" she asked, confused, "But, that doesn't make any sense! I was told you had to choose to be reborn and I don't ever remember doing so!"
"We're trying to figure out what happened, but we need to know anything you can remember after that," Ignotus told her.
"I-I can't," she whimpered, shaking her head, "it hurts every time I try!"
Both Deryx and Ignotus came to a realization simultaneously and spoke at the same time, "That's how the Sigil was altered!"
"What?" Traeia-Elana asked, bewildered.
"Long story short, we know how to fix it so you remember what happened to you without it hurting," the older magic user explained before he and his apprentice placed their hands over her head and began to mutter the words to a spell under their breaths.
Just as they were finishing, something none of them wanted to hear was said by Traeia, "She's waking up!"
Then she sat up, knocking their hands away from her and breaking the spell before it was finished. She looked around wildly, trying to figure out where she was. She saw Hunter standing over by a violently-struggling Lilia as well as the two magic users kneeling down next to her and jumped to her feet.
"Where am I?" she demanded, blades made of ice forming in her hands, "Who are all of you?"
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Dex, Annabelle, Talea, Cynder, Edarin, and Ixenra made their way through the halls of the temple in search of the Guardians and Kepesk. It was a slow process due to the fact that the Fire General was wounded and had to lean against her mate to walk and stay upright, but they made progress nonetheless. As they were walking, however, all of them felt a dark chill run through their spines and everyone but the younglings recognized the feeling.
"Ragnarok…" the adults all murmured synchronously, looking at one another.
"We've got to find the others, fast!" Cynder said, everyone nodding in agreement.
"I think I can help with that," a new voice that everyone but Annabelle didn't recognize said. They all turned around to see Stardust standing there, grinning.
"Stardust!" Annabelle said excitedly, running over to the Celestial Dragon and hugging him with her wings. The black dragon looked at her in confusion, as though he didn't recognize her.
"Have we met?" he questioned as she let go, "If not, then how do you know my name?"
"Don't you remember?" she asked, cocking her head to the side, "You gave me a message from the future me!"
"I don't recall, but time is a funny thing so it might not have happened yet and might never happen," he responded, closing his onyx eyes, "After all, if that me gave you a message then it changed the past, thus making the future that he came from nonexistent."
Everyone stared at him blankly while Dex managed a, "What?"
"Never mind," Stardust said, shaking his head, "I know where they're keeping the Guardians and Kepesk; follow me."
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Blane, Aidan, and Fera found themselves quickly swarmed by the hordes of monsters they readied themselves to fight. The children they'd been guarding had all been moved to safety, but all the other people that had been protecting them had all been overwhelmed and killed. This left the three of them to fight off the waves of creatures that surrounded them on all sides.
Fera filled the approaching monsters with bullets, though she tried to aim for their heads to conserve ammunition. She occasionally threw in a bone-breaking kick to creatures that came too close and knocked them back into the other beasts. Blane and Aidan had to get close to them to attack so they held the monsters away from their backs while Fera guarded their front.
A particularly large zombie made his way towards Fera and she attempted to hit it in its head like she did the others. The thing was over ten feet tall and covered in muscle, its face horribly disfigured, and it carried a large axe with jagged edges. The bullets pierced its skull, but it still moved forward and she was forced to ignore it for the time being as the other monsters were gaining ground while she was distracted.
Blane, noticing Fera's predicament, turned to Aidan and said, "Your sister's in trouble, can you watch our backs by yourself?"
"I'll be fine," the blue-haired man told him as he shoved back a goblin he was crossing blades with, "Go!"
Blane nodded and hurried over to where Fera was slowly backing up away from the giant zombie that refused to die. She had finally run out of bullets and was trying to reload as quickly as possible while the behemoth of an undead raised its axe and started to bring it down on her. Blane got there just in time to tackle her out of the way and the axe embedded into the ground.
The two landed with Fera on her back and Blane on top of her. The half-dragon lifted himself up off of her and had his hands by her sides, looking down at her with his dark-brown eyes while she looked up at him with her light-green.
"That's twice you've saved my ass, handsome," she said, smiling at him.
"I'm not done yet," he said, pushing her to the side while he rolled to the opposite direction just as the axe came down between them. Blane jumped to his feet, blade in hand, and looked over to where Fera was still lying on the ground, a look of shock on her face, "Three times, now."
The sandy-blonde ran up the axe that was still in the ground and jumped onto the giant zombie's shoulders. The behemoth removed its weapon from the stone floor and threw it at Aidan, who was distracted trying to hold off monsters from all sides. His draconic senses allowed him to hear the axe as it split through the air and he ducked down just as it was about to hit him. The sharp weapon kept going and cleaved right through a large chunk of the creatures in that direction before it got caught in the wall behind them.
Without missing a beat, Aidan got back up and resumed holding off a considerately less amount of monsters. Blane, meanwhile, had his blade around the giant zombie's neck and was pulling it back towards him, trying to behead it. It shook back and forth in an attempt to get him loose, but the half-dragon held fast. He felt the blade sink into the monstrosity's flesh and pulled the sword back with renewed strength.
Fera had gotten back on her feet and was doing her best to keep the beasts from swarming the small circle she, Aidan, Blane, and the giant zombie were in. She had managed to reload her handguns and also grabbed the assault shotgun one of the other people who'd already been killed was using. She placed he her pistols back in their holsters and began to use the shotgun to blast the creatures away.
Blane had managed to cut about a third of the way through the giant zombie's head when he started to lose his grip from the way the undead was thrashing. He gritted his teeth and pulled back harder, unconsciously growing his draconic features. His horns grew once more and his nails became claws again while his wings ripped through his back, his tail through his pants, and his teeth became fangs. Silver scales began to form on his skin on his arms and parts of his face just as he realized what was happening. Using it to his advantage, the half-dragon stabbed his tail-blade into the zombie's gut and he lit his sword on white fire.
"Die!" he shouted as the flames began to spread onto the undead creature's head.
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Jacy: I hope no one wants to kill me now…
Wolf: Maybe now you'll actually get some more reviews than the twelve you already have.
Jacy: I just realized something…
Wolf: What?
Jacy: I have twelve chapters and twelve reviews!
Wolf: Yeah…
Jacy: Anyways, I hope everyone enjoyed reading this and that you'll leave me a review to inspire me to write more!