Chapter 8: Return

Everything around me seems to be spinning. My feet stumble along the ground, trying to hold me up, but it feels like my balance has been thrown out a window. I stumble over, reaching my right hand out to catch myself avoiding too much of an impact. It's feels as if something was ripped out of my chest, and as the blood drips from my wounds, I can feel the weight of this battle all around me.

"Are you okay Noah?" Jayden asks as he tries to help me up, but as I do so, the vertigo takes hold of me again forcing me to stumble back down. I blink several times, trying to get my eyes to focus and to try to push away the feelings of pain from the injury. Elementals have more endurance than normal people, can withstand injuries easier, but that doesn't mean we can't be hurt.

"We need to get you some medicine for your back," Jayden says. "Noah probably saved your life, but their poison has a nasty habit of being persistent."

I nod, knowing I can't slow them down. If the number of Xyscons we battled was any indication, then they were surely hit some too, maybe not as bad as me, but as I get back to my knees, I can see blood running down Julius' leg confirming my suspision.

"Come on Noah," Julius says bending down and picking me up. He rests me over his shoulder, and I'm brought back to times when we were younger and he'd carry me and Patrick around, sometimes because of the two of us just jumped on him. "You're going to be okay. I won't let them hurt you again."

"Thank you," I say, trying to take even easy breaths to keep myself calm.

"Don't fall asleep on me Noah," he says, "We might have trouble waking up again." I can sense the grim fear in his voice through his gentle tone. Even in a time with so much danger, so much fear he must feel, his gentleness comforts me, forcing me to open my eyes wider, not wanting to let him down. Of course, there's the whole not wanting to die part, but the gentle encouragement he gives me is what truly gives me strength to stay awake.

Jayden goes ahead of us, and I can see some scratches on him from the battle too, but they don't seem as bad as my injuries, though it's hard to tell for sure.

How many battles have they been through?

How much pain have they experienced?

I know in this world I died, but what about the others. They never said for sure, but in a time like this, I know we'd all try staying together. Which could only mean that the others didn't make it.

Looking behind us, I can still see the mountain of fallen Xyscons, their power unlike anything I have seen. Even though they've been defeated, I can still sense the darkness emanating from them, along with that person controlling them. Even though she's gone now, I can feel the remnants of the grip she had on me, trying to control me, manipulate my darkness. I can feel her hand on me though not in any specific place, like a wisp that disappears if I focus on it, but it's still there just the same.

"Almost there Noah."

Turning my attention to the path before us, I can see the house we were at earlier. Or at least what's left of it. At one point, it seemed to be a relatively large building, but had fallen over, some of it reconstructed to provide us with shelter. Though among this endless wasteland, it's truly a miracle it still existed even in this form.

"Where is this place?" I ask.

"Downtown Sydney," he says shaking his head. "Not nearly as nice as it used to be, that's for sure."

It seems so horrible, compared to what it was like earlier today. Well, earlier today for me anyway. How could a whole town just be leveled like this though? Is the rest of the world the same?

Every question I have I can imagine the answer, the despair, the destruction, and it makes me want to be back in bed feeling sick. A sickness a body can recover from, a few days of rest and everything is better. But the dead don't get better so easily. The wounded may never recover. And those left to mourn the loss may never stop crying.

"Is the rest of the world like this?"

"Not this bad, though it certainly isn't pretty. I haven't been far from here since that day, but this was where the explosion of darkness happened, so this is where it was the worst."

"What happened?"

"Save your strength, Noah. I don't want you overexerting yourself. There's still a lot of poison in your system."

"Okay," I say figuring there'd be enough time for questions later.

As we come upon the house, Jayden comes out from it and starts running toward us, with some kind of syringe in his hand. "All right Noah, this anti-venom should stop your body from absorbing any more of the poison."

I nod as he takes of my arm and injects the needle into my bicep. I jerk at the needle piercing the skin, and grit my teeth at the pain of it for a moment. "There might be a bit of pain soon after it starts interacting with your nervous system, but once that takes hold, you won't be any danger of dying."

"All right," I say as the three of us head back into the house.

"Are you guys okay?" one of the girls from earlier asks.

"Yeah, Noah was poisoned by them, but he'll be okay," Jayden said. "Did Brandon get the medical room set up?"

"Yeah, though we're running low on the pain medicine," she says. Looking over at her, I can guess she's a little bit younger than Jayden. She has long blond hair, and it feels like I should know her too, but I can't remember her name."Only enough for a few more doses."

"I hope this Noah has a high pain tolerance then," Jayden says, and at this my eyes light up. This isn't going to be pleasant.

"You want me to take a look at your arm, it looks pretty bad," she says to Jayden.

"Nah, I'll wrap it and be fine. Fortunately neither Julius nor I got hit by their poison."

"Well, be careful though. You might not always be so lucky," she says crossing her arms.

"All right," Jayden says with a soft smile before turning his attention back to Julius. "Can you take care of treating him? I need to check on something."

"Sure. Though your cousin is right. You really shouldn't push yourself too much."

"I know. But if I'm right then we don't have much time to waste."

"What is he talking about?" I ask while Julius carries me down one of the hallways.

"I don't know. Jayden oftentimes goes off on his own trying to solve things. He doesn't want to burden the rest of us with his struggle. Sometimes he doesn't completely trust us either."

"Why not?"

"Sometimes the best of intentions combined with the right knowledge can lead to a disaster."

As strange as that sounds, it made sense. There were times where Patrick, Sydney, and I would come up with a plan and hide it from everyone else, though not because we didn't trust everyone, but that the more people knew about it the harder it would be to get it to work.

We soon approach what looks like a hospital room and Julius sets me down on the bed in there. I see one of those IV things that they put into people's arms to get medicine and nutrients into their system. "This is going to hurt a little bit," he said taking hold of my arm and pricking it with a needle. I grit my teeth again, though this one didn't hurt as bad as the other shot. "There's a sedative in there, so you'll fall asleep pretty soon. Just relax."

I nod, trying to take even breaths while I could feel the energy in my body fading even more. It's strange, I feel calm, possibly even too calm. I feel like I'm drifting away even though I know I'm not really moving. It's almost like I'm floating on a raft in and endless ocean of darkness. I can see with misty eyes into a sky of darkness, just going with wherever the current of the waves push me. I can almost feel the splashes of the dark water come up into the raft, as I descend into a world so cold.

"Do you see?"

Who...what...that voice...

"Noah, wake up, I'm still here."

I know that voice.

I never thought I'd hear it again.

I opened my mouth to speak his name, but I could barely speak, though I had so many questions I wanted to ask him.

Where is this journey taking me now?

"Open your eyes Noah."

My eyes are closed?

I open them, not knowing that my eyes were closed before, and I see the ocean I was sitting upon, the raft falling apart below me. I slowly get up, and see the dark sea, spires of darkness seeming to shoot up in the distant, absorbing any light that might try to get through.

I then turn and see my guardian, SilverTatsu standing there, in his human form though quite a bit older than the last time I saw him. His silver hair has a tint of gray to it, and I can see the weariness of the many battles across his face. Even though he is the same age as the older version of me, he looks so much older.

"Where are we?"

"The element world."

This is nothing like I imagined it. From what we heard about it, it was a bright and vibrant place, filled with all kinds of people and animals. But this, it's completely void of color. I raise my hand in front of my face, and I can't even see the blue veins anymore, it's just another tint of gray.

"Things changed a lot since your time."

I take a step forward and the ground seems to be like paper, so thin, almost as if it's unable to hold my weight. The rockiness of the waves still seems to be around me, keeping me always just a little bit off balance. "It wasn't just my world then," I say.

"No. Perhaps the first, but it wasn't the last to be ravaged by the darkness."

Looking into an old movie, one without color, you know it's not right, but you don't care, you see through the lines of another time, but being in it, being in a world without life, thinking that at any moment it will come back, the magic and light that once filled the place would come rushing back.

But it never does.

I feel so powerless here, like all the hopes and dreams had been surrender in this endless plain of gray.

"How did this..."

"When darkness exists uncontrolled, it seeks only to devourer. Its first target is always the light, but soon it ravishes everything, even itself."

As I fall to the ground, my strength completely gone, SilverTatsu places his hand on my shoulder. "Where did it come from?" I ask, nearly drained of even the desire to know.

He shakes his head. "We don't know exactly. None of us do. It came without a face or a name. It just attacked us, those creatures you fought in your world, and more horrible ones. Sydney learned that they were formed out of the pure energy of darkness, made manifest into physical bodies."

"That girl..."

"The one the darkness calls their Queen," he says, "She came after our world as well. Led them, destroyed us. Until she came, Geneva was able to give us the strength to fight, but after the Queen killed Geneva, we lost all hope. Our strongest warriors fell soon after, and this world that you see rose from the ashes of countless lives."

"Then what do we do now?"

"Surely you know that there is a reason you came here," he says with a slight grin in his voice. I look up at him and see the wisdom this battle has brought him, both a tinge of joy and an ounce of despair filling his green eyes.

He closes his eyes, and falls to his knees. "Noah, it's you...the one who will bring this world to pass."

"What do you mean?" I ask, and I can tell he's having trouble breathing. I get up off the ground, and place my hand on his chest, trying to see if I can figure out what's wrong with him.

"Don't worry about me. My Noah has died, and with it I must go as well, to join the everlasting dark. But you Noah, your light has yet to be claimed..."

Of course, when an elemental dies, so does their guardian. I'd seen it once before, during the battle against Gattaca's soldiers. I remember seeing the guardian fade into the sky into a burst of light. But it doesn't happen with the same with SilverTatsu. No, instead he falls completely to the ground, and it's as if he's absorbed into the ground, the world taking his life away. No body, no big explosions, he just becomes nothing, like he was never there.

Before I can ponder this for long though, I'm swept away, back into the dark ocean, filled with no shadows or life, but the endless expanse, rocking me back and forth wherever it may lead. No longer standing but laying, my face in my raft as if drifts along. Not caring, not knowing, wherever it may lead.

…

"I swear guys, maple syrup combined with katsup and sauerkraut makes a great cold medicine!"

"Patrick, where on earth did you hear about that?"

"From Zack, he said he gave it to his brother and everything worked out perfectly."

"I don't think trusting Zack when it comes to medical advice is a good idea."

"Come on Sydney, it's worth a shot. I'm really worried about Noah."

"Let's try something normal, like chicken soup, or take him to a doctor first."

"You remember what happened last time we went to the doctor, don't you?"

"Yes, but I'm pretty sure Noah won't nearly blast a hole in the wall with lightning."

I still can't believe Patrick did that. After all we told him, he had to freak out over something so small.

Wait...Patrick!

I shoot up from the bed, pushing the sheets off me until I'm sitting up where I'm greeted with an incredibly painful headache that forces me to close my eyes, and makes me feel like I'm going to throw up.

"I told you that you shouldn't be yelling so much," Riley says.

"Hey, he's awake now, that's the important part, right?" Patrick says.

"He needs his rest though," Sydney adds.

"I'm back," I say holding out my hands in front of me, and everything seems normal.

"We wondered if you'd ever wake up," Riley says.

"You really had me worried bro," Patrick says, "I even started to panic a little bit."

To this, Riley rolls her eyes, and I know I'll have to get the story out of her later. But for now, I just enjoy where I am.

I look to the window, and see the sun shining through and it makes me smile. I'm not really sure what happened, but I'm back with my family. And even though my body would much rather sleep; it's sometimes good to be back in the middle of a bright summer's day.

...

A/N: Remember...a lack of updates does not necisarrily mean a lack of interest. I have some fun plans for the next few chapters...

Thanks once again to DarkElements for betaing.