Jacy: Happy now that you get to make an appearance again?
Wolf: Very. Hurry up and start it!
Jacy: Alright, alright, sheesh.
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 and Azimuth belong to Shining Darkness Dragon, and Serenity belongs to phoenix firewing. NOT ME.
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Chapter 13: Elemental Obliteration
"Soldier! On your feet!" A familiar voice echoed through the whiteness that was all Kain could see. He looked around in search of the person it belonged to before his eyes zoned in on a figure that was walking towards him. Kain was confused as to how the man was walking while he himself was floating as if in water.
The man came to a stop just in front of the young man who looked so much like Blane and he was able to recognize who it was. His brown hair was buzzed down and his dark chocolate eyes looked down at him with disapproval, yet also with concern. He, too, wore dark camouflage similar to what Kain wore, though his had a black eagle patch on his right breast pocket.
"I said, on your feet, soldier!" the man repeated, offering his hand down to help the former Creation Marked One up. He reached for it, but his hand passed right through it like he was made of smoke.
"Theodore…" Kain whispered, not even noticing his hand had gone through his previous CO's, "You, we, died. Everyone in our team was gunned down. How are you here?"
"You were given another chance at life, Major Zaron," Theodore said, his hand still outstretched, "but it was taken away again, once more by a sniper's bullet. Unless you manage to get your ass up!"
Kain chuckled at this, though it was weak. Even though it'd been long, so very long, since he'd last spoken to his friend, General Theodore Brand, he hadn't changed at all. The memory of the day he and all the members of his unit perished was burned into his mind, a horrible memory, but he still didn't wish he could forget it. Theodore had said those eight words that day, too, and it was what cost his friend his life.
"Theo, what's it like? Being dead, I mean," he asked, curious.
General Brand chuckled, "Nowhere near as thrilling as being alive, especially when there's someone waiting for you."
Realization flooded Kain's senses and he whispered, "Hanna…"
"Don't keep her waiting, Kain," Theodore said softly, "Take my hand and get to your feet."
The black-haired man didn't speak, only once again reached for his friend's hands. He was full of determination to spit in the face of Death once again and return to the land of the living. Where Hanna was waiting for him to likely slap him for scaring her before kissing him, again, and he sure as hell wasn't passing that up. Kain's hand made contact with Theodore's and the larger man pulled him to his feet.
A glow began to encompass Kain's vision and he could see his friend and CO fading from view, though he spoke before Kain could no longer see him or anything, "Watch her closely, Zaron, for the darkness will try to claim her. Only you can keep her from falling to its temptations."
And then all he could see was white.
…
..n…
…ain…
"Kain!" Hanna shouted at Kain's lifeless form as she tried to stop the bleeding from the hole in his chest. Tears were streaming down her pale face as she looked down at the unmoving form of the one she loved. She fought the urge to pound on his chest as she knew it wouldn't do any good. Just as she was about to give up and lay her head down against the man's chest, she heard him let out a groan.
"Remind me never to get shot again," he muttered, opening his red eyes to look up at her face, "Were you crying over me?"
She didn't say a word, just slapped him, hard, before pulling him into a hard, forceful kiss before the pain could register. 'That's one for me,' he thought to himself, chuckling, before the pain from the hole in his chest hit him and he let out a hiss, pulling away from her.
"If it's this sore now, I can't even imagine what it'll be like tomorrow," he joked through gritted teeth, "You wouldn't happen to have something I can bandage it with, do you?"
She frowned, unhappy of him making light about nearly dying, but still undid his belt and slid it off him and then took the cloth she'd been using to clot his wound and tore it in two. She helped him sit up before bunching up the pieces of cloth and placing them on either side the hole in his chest before using the belt to hold them in place, pleased that it was long enough to do so.
"I'm glad you never grew out of wearing a tourniquet," Hanna told him, helping him up to his feet, "This would've been a lot harder to do without one."
"Old habits die hard," he chuckled, one arm over her shoulder so he could distribute his weight a little more, "and so do I, apparently."
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Dex, Annabelle, Talea, Cynder, Edarin, and Ixenra followed the child-looking black dragon as he led them through the halls and down several flights of stairs. When he finally stopped, they stood in front of a large archway that seemed to enter into a dungeon. Stardust turned around to look at the group with a serious look on his face.
"I don't think the younglings should come any further," he said softly, "There are things in there…that aren't very pleasant."
Dex and little Annie shivered at all the things their imaginations created and Talea cooed softly to comfort them. They huddled up to her and she held them close, which made them feel safer.
"I'll stay here with them," the blue dragoness offered, "Someone ought to."
The others nodded in agreement before turning back to face the ominous darkness that were the dungeons of the temple. They all knew that this was where some of the worst people in all of history, and more recently where some of the wounded dragons and those of the other races aiding them had fled to recover from trying to protect the temple. And after hearing what Stardust had said, none of them were sure they were prepared for what could lay inside.
"If anyone else wants to stay," the onyx-eyed dragon spoke quietly, "Now's the chance to say so."
Despite their resignations, none said a word and the Celestial Dragon noted their courage, as well as Talea's willingness to stay back despite having just as much courage as the others. He knew that she was not afraid of continuing and that's what kept her back, as well as to watch the younglings. He turned to face forward and used his ability to control Space to lift a torch from where it hung on the wall and made it float out in front of him.
"Follow me," he said, turning around to peer into the darkness, "and no matter what you see, don't try to help anyone but the Guardians and Kepesk."
"There are people still alive in there?" Edarin asked quietly, surprised, "Then why the hell shouldn't we help them?"
"Because they're not really there," he told them, walking forward into the gloom, "They're shadows and trying to help them is useless and could cause unforeseen problems."
"Like what?" Cynder asked as she and the others, besides Talea and the younglings, followed the black dragon.
"You could bring something back that you don't mean to," he answered as they walked forward, "Like the things that killed all of them."
As he finished speaking the entire room was lit up with ghostly blue light by the torches all around the room, including the one Stardust held aloft in the air using his element of Space, catching fire with flames of that color. The glow revealed a horrifying scene to all of them. All around them were scenes of transparent figures of all the races being brutally tortured and killed in gruesome ways, splattering blood all over the room. Oddly enough, though, there was a straight path between all of them.
"Dear Ancestors…" Edarin murmured as he and all the others looked at the scenes unfolding around them with repulsion, "What…when did these people die?"
"All throughout the existence of the Dragon Realms," Stardust answered quietly, "and they will continue to until the end of time."
"Can't we do anything for them?" Cynder asked, her voice shaking. Before Stardust could respond there was a huge blast of blue lightning that arced just over them and hit a cloaked Death's Embrace member that none of them had noticed after he stepped out of the shadows. All of them looked to where the bolt had come from to see a shocking sight.
Leading the severely injured Terrador, Volteer, Cyril, and Kepesk was a blue dragon with a yellow underbelly and wing membranes. His horns resembled Spyro's but angled more towards his yellow, lightning bolt shaped tail than the purple dragon's own. His yellowish eyes looked over the other group with scrutiny before relaxing after recognizing all of them but Stardust. He wore braces on his hind legs that looked to be made of some sort of yellow crystal that were glowing slightly.
"Never thought I'd meet the mates of the Legendary Purple and Silver Dragons," the blue dragon said, smirking, "Nor the other Generals, either."
"And you would be?" Stardust asked, taking a step forward. He wasn't surprised that the dragon didn't know who he was; no one did, really, but it didn't mean it didn't irritate him a bit.
"Azimuth," the blue dragon responded, "and you are?"
"Stardust," the onyx dragon told him, puffing his chest out a bit, "The Celestial Dragon."
"Never heard of you," Azimuth said honestly.
"Then I've been doing my job well," Stardust said quietly.
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All the Death's Embrace members stepped away from whoever they were fighting after shoving them toward the center of the room, leaving Spyro, Malefor, Cain, Arana, Arcaein, Nite, Fian, and Serenity standing there by themselves. They all turned to watch as Ragnarok began to walk towards them. Cain stepped in front of Arana protectively, also stepping out in front of the others at the same time, gritting his teeth as he aggravated his wounds again by doing so.
"Stop trying to protect me!" she yelled at the red-and-silver dragon, "He's after all of you, not me, anyways!"
"Oh no," Ragnarok said, grinning maliciously, "You all die."
"What?" she asked, shocked, turning to look at the High Priestess, "Tell him not to kill me, Mara!"
"No can do, sweetheart," the violet-haired woman said, "You've been giving the Survivors information, Merikh wants you dead as well."
Cain glanced back at the black dragoness to see that her eyes had widened in shock. He, too, was a bit surprised to hear that Arana had been going against her new, 'so-called,' master, after she'd spoken so highly of him, but he didn't say anything about it out loud.
"If you want them," he said, his now-blue eyes full of protectiveness toward everyone behind him, including Arana, "you'll have to go through first."
"How noble of you," Ragnarok complimented as he came to a stop in front of the red-turning-silver dragon, "Sacrificing yourself in the futile attempt to defend your friends, even if they'll only live for a few moments more."
"We'll live a lot longer than you will," Spyro said, stepping up to stand beside Cain. Malefor followed after him silently and stopped at the other Purple Dragon's side. Nite and Arcaein tried to step forward to stand there as well, but Fian put his arms out in front of them to stop them, shaking his head. He knew that all three of them were far too tired, as well as injured, to be of any help. The two dragons glanced at him, seeing that his eyes were locked onto the scene before him and moved their gazes to do the same.
"Ah, the Purple Dragons," Ragnarok said, grinning maliciously, "The ones who walk a narrow path between Good and Evil, and are so easily swayed to either side. Malefor, the Purple who was corrupted and fell from grace before trying to destroy the world. Spyro, the Purple who stopped the so-called Dark Master from destroying the world and is now forever immortalized in the passage of history."
Both Purple Dragons glared at the black dragon that towered over both of them while Cain did the same. Ragnarok merely chuckled and looked past the three of them and locked his eyes onto the young hazel dragoness, Serenity. She had fear in her eyes and the red-eyed dragon licked his lips hungrily, making her hide behind Arcaein to feel safer.
Cain stepped in front of him to block his view, growling, "Don't even fucking dare thinking about it you sick bastard."
Ragnarok chuckled darkly, "A little too late to say that, isn't it?"
Cain felt his anger threaten to overwhelm his common sense and had to struggle not to do something stupid. He saw the wicked mirth in the black dragon's eyes and that pushed him over the edge. He ran at Ragnarok, losing himself to his baser instincts to protect the ones he cared about.
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Blane's sword finally cut all the way through the giant zombie's head as the flames spread from the blade to engulf the creature's entire body. The head flew through the air and into the crowd of monsters surrounding the him, Fera, and Aidan, the fire catching a lot of them on fire as well. Blane jumped off the zombie as it fell to its knees and landed next to Aidan just as a large Ogre was raising its club to smash him.
Blane brought his blade, still alight with white fire, up to block the strike. He managed to, though the force behind it cracked the ground beneath his feet. He shoved back against the club and the Ogre was pushed back a little bit. Blane and Aidan exchanged a glance before nodding at one another.
Blane grabbed onto the blue-haired man's arm and Aidan did the same before Blane used his strength to throw him at the Ogre. Aidan flew at the man-like monster that had long, thick hair and a connecting beard before he collided with it and impaled his sword between its eyes. It fell back and crushed several other monsters while Aidan stood up and readied himself to keep fighting.
Blane, in the meantime, had taken his place and kept the monsters from attacking them from behind. He sliced through almost every kind of dark creature he'd ever heard or read about, and even some he hadn't. His eyes locked onto one that began to rush towards him, a Goblin with a wicked-looking axe and shield. He grabbed onto the handle of the axe just below the blade and used the grip to flip the green creature behind him on its back. He pulled the axe from the Goblin's own grip and impaled it in its chest, sending black blood splattering from the wound.
He looked up to catch a glimpse of a familiar dragoness landing next to Fera. The green dragoness changed into the even more familiar form of Kera. Something was said between the two that Blane couldn't hear over the sounds of fighting throughout the building. He felt the weight on his back that was Dax jump off and run over to the two of them, where Kera picked her up and held her. He pulled the axe out of the body of the Goblin and brought it back into the face of a black, shadow wolf-like creature with red eyes without even looking back at it and it disappeared with a puff of smoke and ash.
He stood and saw the two sisters look in his direction just as Aidan was flung back at him by a Cyclops he'd been fighting. He caught the blue-haired man and skidded back a few inches from the force of the throw. Aidan looked back at Blane and nodded in thanks as he took a step away from the half-dragon, brushing himself off when his eyes caught sight of his sisters looking over in their direction. He grinned at them before they ran over to the two of them with urgency in their steps.
They came to a stop just in front of them and Kera spoke first, "I've got a plan to stop this before it goes any further. At first I was just looking for Fera, but it'd be even better if you two helped, too."
"Fera was beyond excited to see me," Aidan commented, frowning, "Yet my littlest sister acts as if I never disappeared."
"There isn't time for a happy moment if this is going to work, Aidan," the green-haired woman said softly.
"What do we need to do?" Blane asked, already making his decision.
"We need to put all of our power into one of us and use it to obliterate every dark creature here," Fera said, her sister having already told her the plan.
"How would we know it would just destroy the monsters and not everyone else, too?" Aidan asked.
"That's why I'm glad Blane is here," Kera said, making Aidan arch a brow, "His element is Light, Aidan. He could make it single out only the dark and destroy it."
"So, you're going to give all your power to me?" Blane asked, surprised.
"A good portion of it, yes," Kera said, looking at her brother and sister who nodded their agreement, "Hold out your hand, Blane."
The half-dragon did as he was told and brought his arm out in front of him, unable to stop his tail from twitching in nervousness. The other three placed their own on a portion of his and a differently colored glow engulfed each of their arms as the colors flowed into Blane's hand. Before any of them could stop her, Dax placed her paw on his hand as well. Aidan's was a mixture of fiery red and electric blue, while Fera's was just an orangish-red color and little Dax's was a mixture of silver and light-blue, mimicking her eye-colors. Kera's was a leaf-green, like her hair, and the white glow that covered Blane's arm began to become a mixture of all of theirs.
When the three siblings finally removed their hands from Blane's his appearance had changed due to the mixture of elements now flowing through his body. The scales covering his form were now a mixture of orange, silver, green, white, and blue while his horns now had a spiral of orange curling around them. His wing membranes had changed to white with stripes of the same colors of his scales. His eyes were no longer brown, either; instead, they were constantly flashing between orange, blue, white, silver, and green, but both were never the same color. His sword was no longer alight with just white flames, but with flames that were a blend of all the new colors that now covered his form. His sandy-blonde hair was streaked through with the colors as well.
Blane looked at his now form with awe as he asked, "How long before this wears off?"
"I…don't know," Kera admitted as she and her brother and sister panted due to the drain of giving so much of their power to Blane while Dax had passed out, "It's possible it won't; doing this and giving so much of our elements has never been done before."
"Well, there'll be time to find out later," the half-dragon said before he took flight and made his way towards the center of the mall. The three watched him as he flew, praying that Kera's plan worked.
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Jacy saw what appeared to be Blane flying to the middle of the mall with his sword alight. But something was…off about him. He was a mixture of color, like a rainbow. Jacy was forced to look away, however, when a particularly pissed-off snake-man lunged at him. He deflected its blade with Life and then impaled it through the chest with Energy before flinging its now electrically-charged corpse at the crowd of monsters in front of him. The body collided with them and sent the charge through all of them, electrocuting them and clearing the path for him to see Wolf fending off another group of monsters.
He ran over to amber-eyed canine and took up a stance next to him, though facing the opposite direction. Wolf glanced at the brown-haired man out of the corner of his eye, but didn't say anything as he returned his gaze back to the monsters in front of him. Before either of them could do anything, however, a bright glow came from the direction of where Blane had been heading.
The two turned to look and saw the half-dragon was inside of a ball made up of energy. It was colored like he was; a mixture of orange, white, silver, blue, green, and red. They watched in shock as the sphere began to grow in size and eventually reached the floor.
"What the hell is he doing?" Wolf asked.
"The better question is how he is doing that," Jacy responded quietly as he watched the ball begin to obliterate all the foes that had attacked them. They noticed that all the monsters had stopped at had begun to watch the sphere as well instead of doing the smart thing and running. The two began to wonder if they were in danger from it as well, but before they could decide whether to seek shelter or not, it had reached them. It passed harmlessly through them, but destroyed the creatures around them like it did the others. Inside the dome-like energy ball, they felt themselves get rejuvenated and noticed their wounds healing.
"That's why she wanted to find her sister…" Jacy said to himself as he watched a long gash on his arm mending, "She wanted to give her power to someone in the hopes of doing something like this. But, if orange and green are Kera and Fera and white is Blane…whose powers are blue, red, and silver?"
"I have no idea," Wolf said, even though he knew Jacy was speaking to himself, "But I don't think this would've worked near as well without them."
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There you have it, Chapter 13! Also, to Shining Darkness Dragon, I hope you're pleased with how I finally managed to work in Azimuth and I think I got his personality right. If not, feel free to tell me and I'll do my best to correct it. The same goes for the other people who are letting me use their OCs.
Anyways, knowing probably no one read this anyways, this is Jacy, ending the chapter with a bang!
*Pulls out a detonator and presses the button, causing a series of explosions to blow up a building marked for demolition*
I've always wanted to do that…