46.
Blackened Fate
"So you’re the one Naomi found in Sagacia?"
Vance stared down at Nathan with curiosity. "How old are you, kid? Twelve?"
"I'm...fifteen," Nathan spoke
clumsily.
"Wow, fifteen? You guys sure start 'em
young."
"You're only three years apart..."
Cliff rolled his eyes. "And besides, Nathan is a special case. He got a perfect
score on the Guild’s written exam, something that no one's ever done before –
even our own captains."
"It-it's not really that special,"
Nathan stammered. "I mean, I pretty much failed the physical
examination."
A frustrated expression twisted its way onto
Vance's face. "Still, that means you’re smarter than everyone else here,
right?"
"I'm really not," Nathan said
meekly. "I just studied a lot, that's all."
Vance let out an amused snort. "Why are
you so adamant on tearing yourself down?"
Eden elbowed him. "Vance, don't you think
he’s been through enough today? Let him be. Hi Nathan, my name’s Eden. I’m a Knight
of the 4th division as well."
Nathan looked up to the woman nervously. "I-I
know, I've seen you before. It's n-nice to meet you, Miss Eden."
"You don't have to call me miss,"
Eden laughed. "We're equals."
"R-right." Nathan muttered. "That
was stupid."
"Did Naomi say anything strange to you
when you saw her?" Eden asked.
"She said she was looking for Vance,"
Nathan said, "and that it was urgent...but then she attacked me. I'm sorry,
I know I shouldn’t have run. I was just really s-scared..."
"Coming back to report it as soon as
possible was the best thing you could have done," Cliff said. "Isn’t
that right, Captain?"
"The question is what happened to her
after that..." Azuka looked at Vance with irritated eyes. "Ravi searched
all over Sagacia, and still wasn’t able to find Naomi. And that is why
you never let an enemy like that get away!"
Vance let out a groan. "How is it my fault
that you couldn't find her? Maybe she had a tunneler."
"A-anyway," Nathan meekly interrupted,
"it was nice to meet you all."
"Come on," Azuka said, waving her
students away. "Nathan needs his rest, and you’re all far too noisy to let
him get any."
The four shifted out of the small infirmary
and began walking down one of the Guild’s many transparent hallways. With the
tournament only a few days away, the headquarters were alive with busy Knights.
"So what did you do for the past few weeks?"
Cliff asked Vance, unable to stifle his curiosity any longer. "You and
Averyl, I mean."
Vance's fingers disappeared into his dark hair
as he scratched his head. "Well, he threw me off a cliff at the beginning.
Then, I climbed back up. And he explained some stuff to me."
"What kinda stuff?" Eden asked.
"Well, you know..." Vance started, "About
the nature of our powers, the nature of psynergy. That guy can do some crazy
things."
"Right." Cliff frowned. "But
he's our enemy, Vance. There has to be a reason why he's after you."
"No he's not." Vance said quickly.
"After living with him for months, I'm sure of that. He's not on our side,
that's true, but...he's not on their side either. He helped me, Cliff."
Cliff gave Vance a sidelong glance. "So,
what sort of exercises did you do?"
"Nothing fancy." Vance shrugged. "We
just fought."
"You fought?!" Eden shouted.
"For weeks on end?"
"Yeah." Vance chuckled. "Now that
I think about it, that's really all we did. Why, what'd you guys do?"
Eden looked up at Cliff inquisitively.
"Yeah, Cliff, I'm curious myself. What did you do?"
Cliff adjusted his hat. "I did some private
training," he said proudly. "And I developed my own unique ability,
for the tournament."
"What?" Vance lit up. "Do tell."
"You'll just have to wait and see."
Cliff smirked. "If you get far enough."
"Yeah, maybe it’ll be Cliff and I at the
end," Eden said with a smirk.
"We'd be fortunate if things went that
easily," Azuka said darkly. "Come on, let’s head over to the control
room. I’d like to speak to the Seneschal while he’s still got some time on his hands."
It didn’t take long for them to find the
Seneschal within the multi-paneled dome that served as the Guild’s control room.
Despite the chaos and bustle that surrounded him, Tao Fukunaga seemed as serene
as ever.
"First things first," he began, "I’d
like to congratulate you all on what seemed like a very fruitful training session.
It makes me much less worried about this whole tournament situation...but there
is one thing that still troubles me." The Seneschal glanced at Vance. "Naomi’s
infiltration to Sagacia means that someone connected to your family was somehow
aware of your presence there."
Vance drew his eyes downward. "It makes
no sense to me either. Earthlings don’t even know that there are multiple dimensions..."
"Exactly,” Tao said with a sigh. "Which
means the person who used your stepmother as a pawn was no Earthling."
"Do you think the Guild's in danger?"
Eden asked.
"We'll keep most of the 1st
division here just to be safe during the next week," Tao said.
"Someone may be trying to use the tournament as an excuse to catch us
unguarded. But I expect you all to do your part in Enmetropolis. What you do afterwards...is
up to you."
The group remained silent for a while, puzzling
over the Seneschal's last words.
"We'd better leave soon," Azuka spoke
up. "The other three divisions are already on their way. And if you take
too long, they might cut off the registration before you get a chance to sign
up."
"Wait, you aren’t coming with us?" Cliff
asked.
"I won't be joining in the games,"
Azuka replied. "The four captains will be positioned around the perimeter of
the tournament grounds in order to intercept the Dark Zodiacs."
"What?!" Cliff shouted. "But isn't
that ruining our best chances to win?"
Azuka seemed to have trouble with her words,
as if she had something on the tip of her tongue, but caught herself at the last
moment. "It doesn't matter who wins. It was a direct order given to us by
the Church of Holy Truths."
"So what?" Vance asked. "Why
do they get to tell you what to do?"
Azuka sighed. "Remember, Vance, we work for
them. The goal of this mission has never been to win the tournament, but to use
this as a trap to crush the Zodiacs once and for all. If they're captured, we
can gain not only the clock from the tournament, but also the other two they possess."
"Gotcha," Vance said. "Consider
it done."
Azuka looked over to Vance with a wry smile as
they continued. "Vance, during your training with Averyl, were you ever able
to significantly damage him?"
Vance took a deep breath. "No."
Azuka nodded. "Let's not overdo it, then."
Soon after that, Azuka moved up to talk to the
Seneschal in private, leaving Cliff, Vance, and Eden to their own devices.
"I wonder what Enmetropolis will be
like," Eden piped up. "It feels like my life on Earth was a completely
different lifetime now."
"Earth," Vance echoed the word with
a sigh. "Yeah."
"Do you miss anything?" Eden asked.
"All I've ever missed was my mother,"
Vance replied. "But now, I feel like she's closer to me. Or that I'm
heading toward her, or something."
"You'll like Enmetropolis, Eden,"
Cliff said. "It makes Ieon look like the countryside."
"By the way, Cliff," Eden said,
suddenly remembering something. "I’ve been meaning to ask you...who does
Captain Azuka love?"
Cliff blinked. "Well that’s a weird question."
"Got an answer?"
The Vice-Captain thought for a bit. "Yamato,
I suppose."
Eden listened carefully. "Who’s Yamato?"
"Not who, where..." he answered
quietly. "It’s her homeworld. There’s been a civil war going on there for
a while now, and she’s been trying to ask the Guild to provide back-up...but things
haven’t been going very well."
"Let me guess," Vance rolled his
eyes. "The Church?"
"Yamato refused to accept the
religion...so they aren’t an affiliated dimension. And I guess that’s why things
haven’t been working out."
"Wow..." Eden said. "She never
mentioned anything about that, even though we were together for so long. I just
figured she didn’t like to talk about herself."
"It’s true that she’s quiet when it comes
to herself, and likes to stick to business..." Cliff said, eyeing his
captain from across the room. "But as you saw in the Kantor District...she’s
got a passion for justice."
*
Madeleine yawned, dropped her game controller
on the soft, pink sheets of her bed for a moment and stretched her arms.
This is the life, she thought
happily, then went back to continue what she had done ever since she became President
of the Zexaron Corporation: absolutely nothing. I'm glad Grayson didn't
invite me to that stupid meeting. Talk about a waste of time.
Suddenly, Madeleine got a strange feeling.
Her office had been fashioned into a bedroom within the second compartment on
the 12th floor, high up in the structure where no one else would
ever find it. The room had been Madeleine’s idea, since she hated the thought
of having to commute from the city every day.
It's pretty late, though. Who's still here? An idea
flashed through her mind, and as much as she wanted to ignore it, her child-like
curiosity just wouldn't let her leave it behind. Was someone still in the
office? It's too hard to tell, because these stupid humans can't use psynergy!
Well, I guess there are only two options,
really. I could go down there and see what is going on...but that would require
effort on my part. On the other hand, I could ignore it, and say I never noticed
it...but then, if that guy in the basement happened to escape, Grayson would blame
me.
Whatever.
Madeleine shrugged and turned her attention back to the video game. Thinking
about it is just a waste of time – no matter what happens, the Earth is still
going to die.
*
Several floors below Madeleine's lair, Edward
carried Frank's ruined body to the surface. His face looked solid and cold, like
stone unearthed from a long-forgotten tomb.
"Ed," Frank muttered, "you
can't do anything...rash. Grayson isn't...like us."
"Don't talk, Frank," Ed whispered.
"Just leave everything to me."
He felt Frank’s gored flesh on his fingers as
he carried his friend. Victoria...me...my son...and now Frank. Grayson does something
to people. He gets inside their heads somehow...and torments them. I need to
stop this once and for all.
The elevator doors opened to the silent,
deserted lobby of the building. Edward headed straight to the front desk and used
the first aid kit in the back to dress Frank's wounds as best he could. It
would be a long way to the hospital, and there was one other stop he had to
make first. After giving Frank a chance to catch his breath, Edward carried him
back to the elevator and moved his finger up with deadly precision to the button
for the eleventh floor.
What worried him the most wasn't the fact that
Grayson was a homicidal maniac, or even that he had taken Naomi under his wing
– it was those few lines he’d spoken a month earlier about knowing the whereabouts
of Vance.
Maybe that's why he never gave me any
follow-ups on that. Edward seethed with rage. He was keeping
my son as ransom.
The elevator came to a jarring stop, releasing
a deafening screech. This time the doors opened to a dim hallway, illuminated
solely by a glowing light that came from the opposite end.
"Ed..." Frank spoke up again, barely
audible. "I don't...think he's here..."
"There's still a light on. Someone's
here." Edward stomped down the hallway. "Maybe it's our friend McCarthy."
They moved through the darkness: two working men
from Earth who would never be the same again. When Edward turned the corner to
Grayson's large office, he was not prepared for what he saw.
Grayson sitting at his desk with a demonic
grin on his face, or perhaps Grayson cackling over the dead body of his son – Edward
could have understood those. But a huge, wall-length shimmering portal spread
out in the utility closet? That surprised the hell out of him.
It was pure white, yet Edward could see texture
on its smooth-looking surface. Two silver poles supported it, both crackling
with some sort of energy. The screen really looked like nothing more than a
white sheet hung in the air...yet it had depth, somehow.
"Hold on a second, Frank." His rage
had been momentarily subsided by his desire to touch the screen.
Frank watched him with frightened eyes. "We
should escape...Grayson might be in there..."
Edward's hand made contact with the space, and
he felt something that could only be described as deconstruction. It was
as if his hand ceased to exist, and had always ceased to exist, since he didn't
feel like he had lost anything. It was like nothing he had ever felt before,
and it was thrilling. He moved his body forward, and soon his whole arm was engulfed:
gone to somewhere else.
"Ed!" Frank shouted hoarsely.
"This is it..." Edward spoke.
"This is Grayson’s secret...all those files in that secret room...the
parallel dimensions...this is it, Frank. "
Edward moved in up to his shoulders. He couldn't
control his body anymore. He fell forward, inwards, and could feel nothing but
his consciousness. His body was destroyed, he could feel it, and his world was
no more. Then, it came back instantly: the world, and then his body, and then
himself, in that order.
He found himself standing on the rooftop of a
tall building, towering over a massive city. A brief sense of vertigo washed over
him, and he nearly tumbled over the edge and into the neon abyss beneath him.
It seemed to stretch on for miles: a limitless, futuristic metropolis.
"Ed..." Frank moaned. "This
is..."
"Another world." Edward marveled.
"We're in another world, Frank."
Next: The Neon Crux
