From the Dark

by Twisted Fate MK 2

Nox is falling under the Covenant, and its people are retreating. But some aren't in a place where they can reach help. Alex Masters is one. Her friends slaughtered, and being chased by Jackals, she flees to the only place she knows of - an old shrine from a small, local following her mother had taken her to. There, she finds help - in a form she'd never have thought. (Idea Bunny)

3. Chapter 3

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Alex woke up with a startled, strangled gasp and scrambled back across grass, dirt and rough-laid bricks, away from the bright, hot fire crackling beside her. Blinking away spots, she sat up, rubbing at her eyes and shaking the ringing out of her ears. As the ringing faded away, a lot of sounds came to her. A crackling fire, rustling feathers, leaves caught in the wind.

And someone laughing quietly from behind her.

"What the-" She spun around and scrambled away, and the man sitting on the fallen length of wall only laughed louder.

"Ah, you are easily spooked?" The armored man said, shaking his head and sighing wistfully, "It's been some time, since we had someone new. And you're a coward, too?"

"I'm not a coward." She argued, looking the man over slowly. He was dressed in a faintly bluish set of chain-mail, with a sword leaning against the earthen wall beside him where he could get to it easily, but otherwise, he seemed unarmed entirely.

Which was… A relief.

"If you aren't a coward," the weary man sighed, running gloved fingers through his dark hair and shaking his head, "why are you laying in the dirt, like an animal before a hunter?"

"Humans are animals." She pointed out quietly, sitting up beside the warmth of the fire and tucking her knees into her chest, keeping her eyes locked on the man. "And I don't know you, so…"

"Ah." He hummed, "Simple wariness, I see. Though, you are mistaken about one thing, unfortunately."

"And that is…?"

"I'm not a Human." The man said, wagging a finger at her and then crossing his arms with a weary little sigh. When her brows furrowed in confusion, he sighed a more suffering sigh, like she had already been annoying him and now she was wearing on his nerves, "I am… Well, a fragment, now. A remainder. Like the numbers after a decimal- There, but diminished, so far from fullness and realness."

"That…" She shook her head, "You're not making sense."

"Let me simplify it, then, until you've had time to figure it all out for yourself." He frowned, tapping a finger against his head, "We are what is left of what we were. Inside what is. The… Well, you would only know him as the Knight Vin."

"I'm… Inside?"

"You remember, do you not?" The warrior asked, paying her a nod, "Your last moments. Your sacrifice."

"I…" It all came back in a rush, the moment she reached for it. The fear, the pain - the end. It was a shock to her system, one that made her stomach turn and made her want to retch. She rolled over, hand over her mouth, and the man behind her laughed.

"So you do." He sighed, holding up his hands in surrender when she turned to flare at him. Finally, he gesture at himself and smiled knowingly, "Do you know who I am…?"

"How would I-"

"Think about it." He cut her off, tapping his forehead meaningfully. "Don't dwell on why you shouldn't know. Just think about whether you do know."

"I…" She frowned but, after a second… She realized she did know, somehow, and murmured quietly, "Crestus?"

"Exactly." He nodded, smiling thinly, "Alex."

"How do you-" She shook her head, "No, how do we know that?"

"Because we have become a part of something… Much more." Crestus answered with a wry, weary chuckle, gesturing around him at the ruined buildings and cheering, "Welcome… To Anor Londo, Alex Masters.

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"No, not me! Not-" His sword swept around and down in an arc across the entryway to the mall, cleaving through four Grunts sent ahead of the Elite and its Jackal support behind them.

The pair of shield toting Jackals flinched as their smaller allies came apart, spraying them in blood, armor and the fetid methane the Grunts breathed. The Elite charged through it, though. Even as the bright blue blood splashed along his violet armor, and fizzled through his energy blade. That blade lanced in and up as he brought his sword back to the side, grazing along the front of his helmet, and Vin hummed and snapped his shield up. It crushed the Elite's ribs as it was bent over the rim and it staggered to his left as he yanked the shield back and brought his fist around, crushing the alien's skull with the guard of his sword and booting it back with enough force to send it back through the door. The Jackals, obviously terrified by him and for equally obvious reasons, raised their shields and tried to simply run around him, into the mostly emptied mall.

Two barks of gunfire caught each of them in the flanks, their shields turned towards him and leaving them open to fire from further in.

"Targets down." A by now familiar voice called out, exhausted after nearly a night's worth of fighting. Evilyn advanced to join him, just a couple yards into the foyer just inside the mall's main entrance. She was dirty and tired, missing most of her armor aside from an old helmet, and she stared out the doors with weary eyes before she finally grunted, "They're reforming. Another push in twenty, I expect."

"I'll let Command know." The other man, a SWAT officer in riot fatigues with a thin face-shield pulled down over his face and a scarf tucked up over his face. He turned, holding a little radio in his hand to talk, and Vin turned to Evilyn.

"Excellent shots." He rumbled, "As ever."

"Excellent English." She countered, "Which is still new. When are you going to explain that?"

"When I believe that you will believe the explanation." And forgive it, too, though he left those words unadded. Instead, he asked, "When will the next wave of transports arrive?"

"Already did." Evilyn answered, jerking her head back and up, toward the roof where the Pelicans - and a few other, policed civilian units - were doubtless being loaded up with survivors. "What's left are already loaded. Command wants food and drinks loaded, too. Along with a few other things brought in by special forces."

"Such as…?"

"Crates of 'I don't have clearance' and a few bottles of 'ONI will kill me if I look'." She sighed, flicking him a look. "Probably just looted weapons they got off the Covenant. From the rumors, that's how it normally goes."

"Mhm…."

"We'll pull out come-"

"Captain!" The officer suddenly barked, turning and yanking Evilyn around, holding up his radio and looking at her with wide, frightened eyes. "Change of plans - we're pulling out now. A Covenant ship is pushing our defensive lines. We take who, and what, we can or they'll close the sky-lanes."

"What size?"

"They didn't say," the law man answered, "but big at least big enough to push back a few of ours."

"Damn it…" Evilyn scowled, turning and grunting to him, "I don't suppose you can do… Whatever weird mountain man magic you do, and destroy a Covenant warship. Can you?"

"I would need time, to prepare a powerful Miracle." He answered honestly, ignoring the way her brows shot up, into her hairline, and chuckling lowly at the reaction. Turning to the door, he went on, "As things stand, it is best we take all who are left and flee."

"How long would you need to destroy the warship…?"

"I would need long enough to compose a Sermon." He answered, using the, admittedly, fairly inaccurate word as a short-hand for 'a long tale of attendance in the Lords' glory'. Humming, he said, "In terms of time… Thirty minutes or so, give or take any interruptions. Or the specifica tale which needs to be told in order to-"

"I get it." Evilyn sighed, shaking her head, "You can just say 'too long', you know."

"Ah." He smiled, "Then 'too long', Lady Evilyn."

"You quit, too." She scoffed, "I'm not a 'Captain' and I'm not a 'Lady'."

"Why not?"

"What part of how I act is Lady like?"

"I have known many Ladies of war, who spent more time in armor than in bodices." He shrugged, smiling simply as he met the woman's gaze and cocked his armored head. "Forgive me, I hear more coming. You two should withdraw, whilst I conclude these creatures' pitiable lives."

"You can handle it alone…?"

"I can, yes." He had been studying the beasts as he fought them. Alex's memories, treasured as they were within his mind now, held little in terms of actual combat information on this so-called 'Covenant'. Fighting them, learning their quirks, their ins and outs, had been needed - and their support while he studied them had been appreciated. But by now, he understood those he'd fought and raised his shield to the ready as he turned and added a parting, "Go. I will follow."

"But-"

"I have spoken." And with that, he stepped forward, brandishing the Moonlight Greatsword out to one hand and rolling his head until his neck popped. "Let it be done."

Instead of the semi-organized rank and file assaults of previous, or the heavy, brutish assault the foolish Boratu had launched, this assault was more organized and smaller, made up of a half dozen Elites in sleek silver armor with smooth shoulders and helmets. They each carried a heavier, blocker form of the same plasma spewing rifle the others had but, unlike them, paused when they entered the foyer. Looked around. Not in confusion, or as though they were lost, though. Instead, they simply seemed to be…

Studying.

They looked over the corpses, one kneeling while another watched him and inspecting an Elite he had bisected with a beam of moonlight wroth. Another, similarly watched over by a partner, was busy a bit close. Looking over a few he had used his sword to fell more directly. None attacked him, though, and he was content to let them waste the time he'd meant to stay and buy. And they in turn seemed content to leave him be, for whatever reason, instead of attacking him. He saw one trailing a finger along the melted, seared flank of a dead Elite and hummed, taking a single step forward as his curiosity - ever a troublesome thing, that - piqued.

"If you seek answers," he called down the handful of steps to them, "you could merely ask it of me, invaders. Presuming you speak this borrowed tongue."

A heartbeat passed, and the Elites exchanged looks. Presumably, from how their gazes were exchanged and the way one shook his head, they were speaking. Conferring. He let them, for the same reason he had let them perform their examinations. And for the same reason he had spoken to them at all. It all bought more time for those above to escape. And, although to a lesser concern, his own stamina and health - for it never bore fruit, in his experience, to overestimate an enemy.

Even with Humanity restored, he was still perfectly killable.

At least, for a while.

Finally, one spoke, it's tone guttural and its words pronounced roughly, like a child, "You would speak, Heathen?"

"I would if you would." He shrugged comfortable, the gesture borrowed from the newest part of his weary soul. "Conflict is a warrior's path, tis true. But only a fool would seek it out when it is avoidable. And, although I know not the 'why' of it, you seem less inclined to wonton violence than those that came before."

"Oh?" The leader cocked his head, "An oddity for a Human."

"And an oddity for an Elite." Vin cocked his head, "No?"

"We are the invaders." He shrugged, "Many Humans would gladly let us be if we seemed to let them be in turn."

"You are not Brutes." The warrior shrugged, finally offering the thinnest of his explanations. "They, I would give no chance. Not now. Not here. But you are different. In action and the manner in which you conduct it."

"Wisdom?" Another, more guttural, Elite growled, "From a Human? What may be next, Unggoy with true skill?"

"Silence." The first, who he took as a leader of sorts - and the first to fall, if it came to blows - barked, barely turning his head. "We are here to investigate claims of cowards, at the bidding of our Fleetmaster. And, if necessary, put down any of you mongrels in our path."

"I see." He rumbled, turning and holding his greatsword out horizontally between them, suffusing it with fury and adding, simply, "I am likely the source of such reports. This, I offer in thanks and return for your… Forthrightness. With it, a warning. Should you seek any of the 'mongrels' beyond me, then you shall join those reports. As a statistic."

They exchanged looks again and, after a moment, the leader waved and his warriors stepped back. Firmly, he said, "We came for information first. Righteous battle is secondary."

"Then take it and go."

"We do not know all we came for."

"No?"

"No." The Elite shook his head, "We were commanded to learn all we could, Human. And I have not learned your name."

"I see." He hummed, "I am Knight Viin, of Astora, Knight of the Way, member of the first Legion of the Un-" He caught himself, frowned behind his mask, and shrugged, "They are no more. Never mind to the latter title. And what might I call you, invader?"

"Thel." The Elite answered, turning to leave with a huff and a grunt. "Pray our paths cross never again."

"The same to you." He called after the Elite, frowning. That had been far too easy, and ended far too peacefully.

A few moments passed and a creature burst through the glass and steel of the entryway, its titanic shield easily crushing both in a single gesture as it stepped in. Another just like it stepped in just after, and they both faced him down, pausing for a single, seemingly perplexed,moment. A moment where his mind told him their simple name - Hunters. They levelled their cannons in tandem and he sighed, turning and deflecting the first semi-solid shot off his shield as he ducked and leapt forward, Greatsword still humming faintly with strength.

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Thel stepped onto the waiting Phantom and turned as one of the Hunter bond-pair he had dispatched to deal with the creature came stumbling out, turning from a strike and letting them see the long, melted gouge carved through its chest. It roared and spun, bringing its shield arm around like a cudgel that clanged loudly on a shield he could just barely see. A second passed and that strange green blade flicked up, severing the arm entirely. It tried to bring its other arm around, but the shield caught it and flicked, parrying the blow before the behemoth of a Human punched the sword into its abdomen and his sword let out a flash of bright, emerald light.

The Hunter's upper half was blown into pieces, and its lower toppled, what few worms survived scrambling away together as the juggernaut stared down at them, head cocked curiously.

"No." He grunted when his Unggoy door gunner turned his cannon on the 'Knight Vin', who looked up and met their gaze directly as the Phantom began to lift off. "Point that at him and we all die, Grunt."

The cowardly little creature shivered a bit, but nodded and pointedly faced the Plasma Cannon away from the giant, who stood tall and watched them lift off. Thel met his gaze and kept it all the while, only turning away when the Phantom itself turned and obscured the view. Standing in the cool silence of the Phantom, he hummed.

"A new type of Demon, perhaps?" He mused - praying it would prove untrue even as his escort considered his words, waiting for a look or a word to share their own opinions. He offered it to one, turning, "K'nat?"

"Perhaps." The Elite nodded, "It would be sensible of them, to create more Demons. But he appeared different. And spoke first rather than attacking. Foolish, to be sure, but…"

"Honorable enough, with the prowess he demonstrated after the fact." He could have easily slaughtered his guards as they spirited him away - at least long enough to get outside, into the supporting coverage of the Phantom and the waiting Hunters. "So why did he not? A Demon would have attacked without a moment of consideration."

No one offered any answers, and he knew the obvious reason for it.

They all had none.

"Curiouser and curiouser…." Outside, as they reached a cruising altitude, he opened his comms and ordered, simply, "Deploy the next assault force."

"Yes, Shipmaster." One of the Lance-Captains answered with a bark, "Immediately."

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Vigriff :

To be fair - he has a sword that can sorta shoot laser beams. And doesn't die when he's killed. XD

NIaEid :

Just glad you like it!

Dariory :

Yeah, the subject matter kind of *demands* grimness. Regardless, hope you enjoy going forward.

Lea Rosenwulf :

*looks away, sipping tea*

Hollow N :

I do intend to write this - just gonna take time, with everything else going on. Quality over quantity! I hope. XD

Autistic Man :

*nervous chuckling*