Hey guys, I'm back with chapter 8! So this is the last of the stuff that kind of followed the cannon, so from now on, it'll be all new stuff for you guys!
Anyways, not much else to say, so without further ado, on with the chapter!
Corvan
It's raining heavily. Not that it really matter because soon I'll be in the desert. I've done two rounds of teleporting, and so far, I've landed in the ocean and back in India. This time I think I might be at Stonehenge. Eight and I landed here before, but we couldn't figure were we were back then, I only realized where this was a few days ago actually.
Something seems off though. It's as if someone moved the stones around. Maybe the others landed here before me. I need to find the Loralite as fast as possible and get out of her. I lift up a few of the stones with my telekinesis before I manage to find the Loralite.
I quickly concentrate on teleporting, the rain not really helping before I teleport away from England and to my next destination. Hopefully, that next destination will be New Mexico, but anything could happen.
The heat beats against the back of my head, a welcome change to the rain of England and I can immediately tell where I am. I finally made it to New Mexico. I roll over to face the sky. My muscles are slightly sore, but it's nothing compared to the feeling after teleporting with other people.
"Look who showed up" Eight says cheerfully and extends a hand to help me up, "How long have you guys been here for?" I ask after I'm up, brushing the sand off of me.
"About thirty minutes" Eight shrugs and I nod, only just noticing the absence of Six.
"Where's Six?" I question and Eight looks down slightly, "She didn't teleport to the same place as we did" he replies and I nod, we need to start to move, I don't really want a repeat of what happened last time.
Sensing this, Eight grabs the hands of Marina and Ella and teleports off into the distance, towards the road. I quickly follow him, tightening my grip on my Chest slightly. After only a minute, Eight starts to hear something strange and stops in his tracks.
"Is that… Gunfire?" Marina asks, slightly paling and I listen carefully. That's definitely gunfire. Hold up, what if that's Six? Maybe she teleported here to begin with.
"We should check it out, it could be Six" Eight says, mirroring my thoughts. He looks slightly guilty about losing Six, but it's really not his fault. That could've happened with anyone.
"My thoughts exactly" I joke, teleport off towards the sound of gunfire none the less.
We were right, it is gunfire. When we get there, I can see soldiers fighting off two boys. Its John and Nine. I quickly teleport closer and join the fray, easily dispatching the soldiers with my greatsword. Eight is far tamer than me, only choosing to knock the soldiers out, I don't feel any mercy, these are some of the people who took Lucas.
I light up my greatsword and slice it at the soldiers, catching a slight look of disbelief from Nine. I grin at this and continue taking down soldiers until helicopters appear on the horizon. Immediately, the helicopters shoot a barrage of missiles towards us, but Marina manages to redirect them and they crash into the desert, showering us in sand.
Some kind of giant eagle suddenly latches itself onto one of the helicopters and easily brings it down. The other two helicopters see the eagle and immediately start focusing their fire on it. Luckily, John redirects the missiles straight back to the helicopters. The pilots can't dodge the missiles and they get a direct hit, sending both of the helicopters crashing into the desert.
Seeing the power we have, the remaining few soldiers decide to do the smart thing and flee. They retreat down a trapdoor hidden underneath a tall cactus in the ground. I guess that's where we'll be heading next.
"Nine, John, it's good to finally meet you in person" I say to them, walking towards them to shake their hands, "I'm assuming you know who these guys are too, Marina, Eight and Ella" I state, but quickly remember they wouldn't have any clue as to who Ella is.
"Ella was on a second ship out of Lorien" I say, easing Nine's slight look of confusion.
"We've gotta keep moving" John says and I nod, heading over to the still open trapdoor, "Ladies first" I say to Nine, beaconing for him to go down the ladder. Before Nine can retort, John rolls his eyes and starts climbing down.
Eight, Nine, Marina and Ella quickly follow him and I go down last, wanting to quickly make sure we aren't being followed down. We don't want to have to fight enemies from both sides of us. The ladder is shorter than I originally thought it was and we reach the floor of the underground base within less than a minute.
We're in a brightly lit corridor with a large metal door in front of us. I see Ella start to say something but she's cut off by two panels in the ceiling opening up, two big turrets are lowered down from the ceiling. I guess they were expecting visitors.
Eight and John raise their hands and create a telekinetic shield in front of us and the turrets open fire on us. Immediately, Nine throws his pipe staff at one of them, destroying it while I use my pyrokinesis to heat up the second one to unbelievable levels and the metal becomes red hot before it melts completely, the liquid metal dripping to the floor before I turn down the temperature and it solidifies again.
Eight and John lower their hands and we jog to the door, ready to breach and enter.
"You reckon you can break it?" John asks Nine and he smirks, "Johnny, look who you're talking to" Nine says, flexing his biceps but John just rolls his eyes.
Nine places his hands on the door and pushes on it slightly before taking a step back, ready to kick it in. Without a moment's notice, Nine takes a step forward and easily kicks in the door, sending it flying backwards.
Gunfire immediately flies towards us but we all manage to jump out of the way and Eight and I teleport to the back of the room. We easily manage to dispatch the soldiers before they even know we're here and the others enter the room.
"We need to find the cell block" John says and I nod, "Why don't we just ask someone?" I ask and Nine grabs one of the unconscious soldiers and shakes them awake.
"Huh, who are you?" the soldier questions, but as he regains his composure, he bites his lip and he pales, clearly knowing who we are.
"Where are the cell blocks" Nine asks sweetly but with a hint of poison in his voice and the soldier shakes his head, "I can't tell you, I won't tell you" he says shakily and I see Nine harden his gaze on the soldier.
"Do you really want to try him?" Eight asks out from next to Nine and the soldier nervously looks at Eight before returning his focus to Nine.
"We don't have time for this" I mutter before gently pushing Nine and Eight to the side to get to the soldier.
"Tell us where it is!" I roar, picking the soldier up by the collar and pinning him to the wall, "Fine, fine, its just east of here, go straight until you reach an intersection, take the door to the left" he squeals hurriedly and I nod and slam him into the wall, knocking him out.
"Was that really necessary?" Marina asks but I just shrug, "He'll live" I reply simply and drop the soldier to the ground.
Nine kicks down the next door and to our surprise, there's no soldiers guarding the room. We continue to run through the base, passing all sorts of rooms, including a couple of laboratories, lined with all sorts of needles and chemicals, all of which I'm sure are against international policies.
Soon however, we arrive at the intersection the soldier was talking about and we take a left. Sure enough, this is the cell block. We start to open up the doors, the first few prison cells are completely empty, and my heart starts to sink. That is until Marina opens one of the doors and calls us over. Inside the room, there's a teenage girl huddling in the corner, she looks like she's about our age.
John goes into the room and places his hand and the girl's shoulder and she jumps slightly, muffling a scream.
"Please, no more! I've told you all I know!" the girl screams, breaking down into tears, "Shhh, Sarah, it's really me" John says, trying to comfort the girl but she pushes him away.
"What more do you want from me?" Sarah cries, but John just shakes his head, "Sarah, it really is me" he repeats and John's Chimera enters the room in the form of a beagle, and nuzzles Sarah. Immediately, she picks up her head, a smile starting to form on her face.
"Bernie Kosar?" Sarah questions and turns back to John, "It's really you, isn't it" she asks and John nods his head and embraces her after wiping away her tears.
"This is sweet and all, but we really have to keep moving" Nine remarks and John steps out of the cell, Sarah clutching his hand tightly.
"Guys, this is Sarah, Sarah, this is Eight, Nine, Corvan, Ella and Marina" John says, pointing to us, "Do you know if Six was here?" Marina asks eagerly and Sarah nods her head.
"She was in the same cell as me, but then Setrakus took her away" she says and John pales slightly, "We need to move fast, she may not have much time" he states and I nod, but still keep checking the cells.
"Come on Corvan" Nine prompts me, but I shake my head at me, "If there's anyone else here, we need to save them too" I say and he groans but nods, continuing to help me in my search.
We're at the last door and I open it slowly, praying that Lucas will be in here. Sure enough, there's a man crouching down at the end of the room, clutching onto something. I put my hand on his shoulder but the man quickly stands up and swings something at me. I easily stop it with my telekinesis and the man finally gets a proper look at me.
"Corvan?" he croaks and I nod, it's Lucas. He has signs of torture on him, with various large scars on his arms and his abdomen. He looks thin and weary, but he's alive. I pull Lucas to me and hug him tight.
We come out of the cell and I introduce Lucas to everyone, "Guys, this is Lucas, my Cepan" I say and the others nod, "Lucas, this is Ella, Nine, John, or Four, Marina and Sarah" I say and Eight steps forwards.
"Welcome back" he greets, a grin on his face, "We can catch up later though, for now, we have to find Six" he continues and I nod, leading the way through the base.
We keep running through the base, encountering no more resistance until we reach another large metal door, this time, Nine presses his ear to the door and smiles. Just before he kicks in the door, he straightens up his posture and turns to John.
"You're gonna love what's through this door Johnny" he says with a grin and kicks in the door. Half expecting a small army to be in the room, I'm surprised to just see a redhead woman talking to two soldiers.
I immediately teleport to one of the soldiers and hit him hard on the back of the head, knocking him out instantly. Eight does the same and Nine just casually walks up to the woman, who points a handgun at him, her hand visibly shaking.
"Agent Walker!" Nine exclaims and bats away her handgun with his telekinesis, "Remember me?" he asks, completely towering over Walker but to her credit, she doesn't even flinch. Nine takes on a cold look and pushes Walker into the wall behind her.
"Where's Six!" he yells, lifting Walker about a foot off of the ground, she doesn't talk however and Nine glares at her, "Where is Six" he repeats, even more menacingly this time.
"You're too late, she went in with Setrakus ages ago" she mocks, pointing to the large oak door at the end of the room and Nine punches her in the face, breaking her nose and letting off some steam.
Nine drops her on the floor and she clutches her nose. Before she has the chance to fully recover however, I use my telekinesis to hang her to a light fixture on the ceiling.
"Let's go" John says and Nine nods, breaking the large door into a million pieces with a single kick. We stream into the room and to my dismay, it's the same room as the one in Setrakus' dreams. To my surprise, Six stands triumphantly in the middle of the room, a sword in her hand. She's covered in blood and ash, but she's done it, she's defeated Setrakus.
"She did it" John whispers, echoing my thoughts and Eight teleports to her, pulling her into an embrace.
I can only watch as the next few events happen. Six pulls out of the hug and pulls back her sword and plunges it into Eights stomach. This is it. This is the event that the painting depicted. This is moment when Eight dies.
Eight slumps over and Six drops her sword and begins to violently convulse and change size and shape. Her body twists in unnatural ways and her entire body seems to pulse as it grows. This wasn't Six. It was Setrakus. He somehow transformed into Six and is standing in the middle of the arena, a cruel whip in one hand, a staff in the other and Eight still dying at his feet.
Immediately, I teleport over to Eight and grab him, returning to the others. Marina quickly places her hands on Eight, and his wound starts to slowly close up. Setrakus lets out a laugh and a full army of Mogs emerge from panels in the walls of the arena. This should be fun.
One of the Mogs lets out a roar and they start to charge us. Immediately, I light my sword up and sprint towards Setrakus. He'll pay for everything he did to Lucas, for what he's done to Eight. A few of the Mogs fire shots at me but I quickly teleport to Setrakus, lunging my sword at him.
"You really think you're strong enough to beat me?" Setrakus mocks, deflecting my blow with his whip, "Concede now and I might kill you quickly" I growl back.
Nine
Corvan's taken my fight. I've been waiting to kill Setrakus for years now, and he's taken that joy from me. Though it is slightly annoying, I don't mind all that much. I get to kill Mogs once again, and I have to say, this is some of the most fun I've had in years. West Virginia was fun and all, but this is on a whole other level.
I'm absolutely annihilating the Mogs around me, taking out more Mogs with my pipe staff than any of the others. I plunge my pipe staff into the head of the Mogs in front of me and he explodes into ash, it clings to my skin and my clothes but I don't really care, I'm having way too much fun to care.
John's doing well with what he's got, but he's still nowhere near me. He's completely engulfed in flames and is charging the Mogs like this, killing them almost instantly with the heat. He throws a fireball at a group of Mogs and it explodes, killing several of them and sets the survivors on fire. Soon however, the survivors also turn to ash and John moves on to the next group of Mogs.
Ella, Sarah and Lucas are standing in a group, dispatching the Mogs with assault rifles that we picked up earlier on. They're killing some Mogs, but it's only making a small dent in the army because of the body armor that most of the Mogs are wearing.
Marina is at the back of the room, healing up Eight's wounds, but it's a slow process which leaves her incredibly vulnerable. Fortunately, BK is guarding her, easily ripping apart any Mogs that come anywhere near her. He's turned into some kind of massive lion and is absolutely covered with ash and blood at this point. None of it is his blood though, John is making sure of this.
I'm pretty sure Corvan is keeping up with Setrakus, but I can't really see much on account of all the fire that comes from both Corvan's greatsword and Setrakus' whip. Suddenly, he slams down his staff and it lets off some sort of blue shockwave. Immediately, everything goes bad. I can immediately feel my energy and sapped and both Corvan's and John's fires go out. I take a quick look over to Marina and I see her with a panicked look on her face. Shit.
This isn't going well, John is being pushed back to the entrance by the Mogs, Eight is bleeding out and Setrakus is starting to beat Corvan. I'm in the middle of dispatching another group of Mogs when I hear Corvan cry out in pain. He's been hit with Setrakus' whip and some kind of black substance is starting to cover his arm.
Before long, the black substance starts to turn to rock and Corvan starts to struggle to dodge Setrakus' blows. I hear him cry out again as he's stuck on the leg. Tearing through the rest of the group of Mogs, I rush over to Corvan. Setrakus is about to hit Corvan with his whip again when I block it with my pipe staff.
I take a few swipes at Setrakus before he gets hit in the arm with some red pebble. He roars in pain, and claws at his arm, trying to get the pebble out of his arm. Immediately, I feel my strength come back and Corvan easily manages to break the black rock. His sword lights up, and he immediately lunges at Setrakus, catching him off guard. The sword hits its mark and I can hear a slight searing sound as Setrakus roars in pain once again.
As soon as we start to turn the tide of battle in our favor again, Setrakus and the Mogs disappear. The first thing I see when the ash settles, is that Corvan is lying on the ground, face down. I start to slightly panic, but he starts to stir, so I leave him be for the moment.
Suddenly, something drops from the ceiling of the arena, covering both Corvan and I with black dust. Immediately, I see it's a person that dropped from the ceiling. Is that… Six?
"Six?" I question, and the figure turns around, she's got obvious signs of torture painted across her arms, but I can clearly see it's her.
"Nice to finally meet you sweetheart, I'm Nine" I say with a grin, "I know who you are, the dream, remember?" she replies, rolling her eyes and I hear John laugh.
"Six, are you okay?" I hear John say, moving around me and giving her a massive hug, "I'm fine, don't worry about it" she replies.
"This is sweet, but we've gotta go" Eight calls to them, he looks shaken up and looks slightly pale, but he's okay, "Let's get moving then" Corvan says, standing up.
Finally, almost all of the last Garde on Earth are within a few meters of each other. The real fight starts now, and we're not going to lose.
So, that was chapter 8, really hope you enjoyed it! Also, I know this chapter is a bit shorter than the last one, but I really haven't had all that much time to write this, but I wrote it in the little time I had.
Anyways, if you enjoyed it, please review, as it means a lot to me :D
Until next time, bye!