The Collab...

Chapter 78

by Agent Havoc

Frustration struck Dalasius as the alien ship got out of firing range from all the Reactors, yet it still stood by closely enough to come back and threaten him. Nothing would rob him of this victory. Nothing! He had waited for what seemed like an eternity for this moment. He had even died for it. Such hard work would not be folied by an exterior element like that.

But perhaps there was another option to get rid of the alien ship.

"No Father, this is madness. Please don't do this." said Cisia "You don't know what you're doing!"

Cisia's astral form was floating around him. He let his own astral form float around her as both astral projections danced around each other without ever coming in contact.

"Do you honestly think so?" he replied.

"Revenge against the humans is not the answer, I know you feel anger, that you feel hate towards what was done to you, but you simply cannot make a whole race take responsibility for what was done to you in the past."

Her voice was souding clearer and clearer. Appearently, she was getting used to being in an astral form a little more with each passing moment. That didn't change the fact that he still had total power over her. She could talk, she could express her ideals, but at this point, that was about all she could do, meaning that there was no way that she could possibly become a threat to him. Not now, not anytime soon. Dal let his astral face form smile at her sarcastically.

"So you think I'm doing this all in the sake of revenge?"

"Am I wrong?"

"As a matter of fact, you are... to a certain extent. Yes, I'm going to see Darian Ashley and the two other surviving hunters suffer and die for what they did to me. The same goes to a few other individuals, but that is all. I am to take all life on this planet, but only to get what I want the most: omniscient power in the goal of creating a perfect world. This world is a sad place. People live and people die. Live people mourn their dead. Is that true life? The possibility of grieving the loss of a loved one ? The possibility to feel such a destructive emotion known as sadness ? No, of course it is not. And I have the solution to all that. I am a necromancer, at this point, I'm probably the most powerful necromancer who has ever lived on this planet. I can take lives and I can reanimate corpses. I can make the dead living again for as long as I desire. I can give immortality to a body. But to do so, I need the energy of death within that living organism to accomplish my goals. This said, If I savor the death of Life itself, and that of every living organism on this planet, I can give all living organisms what they crave most, I can give them immortality as long as they worship me as their master. Wich would be such a small price for what I can give them all. No more grief, no more pain, no more fear of death and an eternity to learn and to live. THAT is my goal daughter, that is what I intend to do. I have had more than just a lifetime to contemplate such possibilities daughter, so do not be as arrogant as to suggest that I do not know what I'm doing. I am fully aware of my actions. And hopefully, you will not always see me as the monster you believe I am now."

A moment of heavy silence hovered over their astral bodies as Dalasius and Cisia looked like they were still dancing.

"No!" screamed Cisia "You are indeed a monster! Fear, grief, death, hate, pain, they are a part of a balance of things, without them, there would be no love, no comfort, no pleasure, no joy, no life. They are all two sides of the same coin. They are a part of what makes life so beautiful and precious. Who are you to decide what's good for a whole planet? You're theone that's arrogant here. You call me arrogant because I do not trust your judgment, you who have lived and been conscious longer than I, but I call you arrogatn because you intend to change the way things have been for what is probably indeed an eternity, because you seek to destroy a balance that's been established for a lot longer than you and I could possibly ever imagine. You are a monster Dalasius. You are my father only genetically, but at this point, genetics don't mean much anymore do they? My body may be yours, but my soul never will be. Spiritually, you and I have nothing in common, you are no father of mine on that plane?You.."

"ENOUGH!" shouted Dal as an energy blast originating from his hand hit Cisia's astral form square on the chest, silencing her for a moment "You are but a child, I do not expect you to understand, but you will thank me once this is all over. You will see."

Cisia's form lay dormant as Dalasius stopped his dance with her. He had wasted enough time now and he had to go back to work. No more distractions from here on. He would work towards his goal and nothing would stop him. Not in the astral plane, and certainly not in the physical plane. He had a wild card in his sleeves and didn't expect to use it to reach his goals, but with the alien element in outer space being such an annoying pebble in his shoes, Dalasius knew that he had to use it. He meditated for a moment and concentated a part of his energies on all of the planet's Reactors.

Victory was near and he would soon hold it in his hands.

It took Raoul everything he had not to go into a state of panic. Things weren't going too well for the moment. He, along with the crew of the Izumi had gone through hairy situations before, but this was positively the first time they had such serious problems. Going head to head with an organism that threatened to take over a whole planet wasn't something people did for a living. Not from where he came from anyway. Whatever the case, something had to be done and it had to be done quickly.

Izumi was clear of all the districts for the moment, so perhaps this Dalasius wouldn't be able to physically damage the spaceship anymore. But what could they do? Staying clear of the districts also meant that they wouldn't be able to do anything, meaning that they would absolutely be useless here.

Paula was down there in the middle of it all, and Tamiko had some severe burns because of the Ether blast. Pressing his fingertips together, Raoul looked at the screeen in front of him wich showed a full view of the planet from where all of these problems had originated and he sighed.

Izumi refused to cooperate and get clear of this planet, so that meant there was only one thing he could do at this point : get his crew ready for evacuation and perhaps going down with his ship like all good captains do.

Somehow, that option didn't comfort him the least bit.

« The Reactor is acting strangely enough, perhaps you would like to have it on visual captain? » said Izumi.

What now? he thought.

"Yes, by all means, zoom in on the reactor and show me the situation." said Raoul, trying not to sound so discouraged.

The image of the planet bleeped out of the main screen and was replaced by a view on Central District's Reactor as a whole. It was glowing in an alarmingly red mystic aura as people people were running away from the building in question. To see all these people running away from this building like stampeding buffalos from this distance made him feel guilty that he couldn't do a single thing to help them for the moment. He couldn't even start to imagine in how much of a panicking state these people were in. The red glow became more and more intense.

"Izumi, analyze the phenomenon that is affecting the Reactor."

"No data available!" replied the ship.

"Then put me in contact with Paula again."

A number of operations happened on screen as letters and numbers passed through.

"The signal will not get through captain, Paula is presently incommunicado."

"Perfect!" barked Raoul with impatience "What else could possibly go wrong?"

The captain shook his head and tightened his fist, he closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. He then looked again at the screen trying in vain to find a miraculous solution. It was then that he noticed that the ground near the Reactor was moving, as if something was trying to get out of it.

"Izumi, zoom in on the disturbance that happens at two clicks from the reactor and analyze that phenomenon, right away." ordered Raoul.

Izumi took some time to analyze the whole phenomenon as Raoul could distinctly see a hand reachiong out of the ground onscreen. A dark, metallic hand, clawing its way out of the ground and making its way to the surface. Soon, it was a whole arm, and another arm, and a head. The head resembled a human skull with decaying pieces of flesh still on it. And finally, the creature broke out of the ground with a single burst, as rocks and dirt got out of its way. Onscreen was a creature that could haunt children in old wives' tales; its eyes were glowing red and it jaw opened grotesquely to let out a grotesque high pitched scream as it seemingly looked towards the sky, perhaps directly at the Izumi. It wore a burnt black armor that covered it's whole body, except for the head. On its back, two majestic wings of pure white feathers spread themselves wide open. In its hand, it held a huge scythe. This was the kind of creature that scared children around campfires in scary stories, this was a creature of nightmares. An angel of death, a demon, an undead creature. Raoul knew that such creatures could not be scientifically explained, and had never othered to think about them all that much. But there was one on screen right now, and he could not deny it the least bit.

"Is that analisys done Izumi?"

"No life within unidentified creature, it moves with kinetic energy, but it gives no life readings. Approximatively 50 foot high. Weight unknown. In short captain, there is nothing more to analyze because it is already dead."

"But you know as well as I do that it moves."

"Yes captain, but no logical explanation can be given for it. Perhaps you would be interested to know that this creature is not unique, within 10 miles of each of the planet"s reactor, one of these creatures have surfaced."

"How many of these are there then"

"116."

Raoul looked at the screen once more and felt as if the this winged demon was looking at him straight in the eyes. The creature opened its jaw once more and screamed. And it took off to the sky.

"66 of these cretures are heading straight towards us captain, contact in less then half an hour. The other fifty are headed towards various districts, 10 of those heading towards Central District itself"

What else could possibly go wrong? he had asked himself earlier. Well, this was pretty much it. Things were about as bad as they could possibly get here.

Victor looked out of the window and saw a red glow that kept him from seeing the district properly. He knew that he was no rocket scientist, so perhaps this was a normal phenomenon in the Reactor. But then again, not knowing wht exactly was going on was what scared him. He was preoccupied for his own safety, but was even more preoccupied by little Mikan's. "What is going on Mr. Victor? What's that red glow?" asked Mikan in her innocent voice.

"I have no idea whatsoever Mikan, but it's just going to motivate me to get us both out of here even quicker. There's absolutely no reason for us to stick around here a single moment more than we have to. We'll be safer outside. Trust me."

As to mock him, Victor felt the floor shake beneath him as he saw a huge armored skeleton with wings pass in front of him, holding a huge scythe in its hands. He could see the creature clearly as it scremed towards the sky and spread out its wings.

The Cleaner held Mikan tighter and drew his gun, pointing it towards the window, gritting his teeth. Shooting the creature would probably be in vain, but it was the only thing he could think of if this skeletal giant decided to attack the Reactor.

"Don't be afraid Mikan, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you."

The fear he felt was probably not hidden very well, but he still tried to show as much bravery as possible. If he was to die, it certainly wouldn't be as a coward. Live by the sword, die by the sword. He would die with his gun In his hand even if he was gooing up against a fifty foot skeleton.

The skeleton screamed again and flew off towards the sky.

Victor, not believing his eyes, approached the window and saw the creature getting more and more distant, finally dissapearing , engulphed in what he saw as a reddish sky.

"Well I'll be damned?" he muttered letting out a breath of relief "Of all the fucked up shit I've seen in my life, this definitively tops it all off."

"Are we still going to go outside Mr. Victor?" asked Mikan in a concerned tone.

"I ...ah... I dunno!" mumbled the Cleaner "Do you honestly want to go?"

"You're the grown up, you should make the decision." She replied. She was shaking, obviously scared out of her socks by this rather frightening sight they just caught a glimpse of. And he certainly couldn't blame her. He was rather shaken himself by that... bizarre event he had just witnessed.

"Lets just walk towards the exit, we'll see from there! One way or another, we're not gonne find you're brother by staying put here." he replied.

She was depending on him and he wasn't about to fail her as he did Corrina. This was his redemption, and he sure as hell wasn't going to screw this up.

"Now what?" asked Talehn , visibly tired of all the events that had fallen upon them all as the ground moved lightly beneath their feet.

Anika instinctively lunged towards Kuri and held the boy in her arms.

"Hold on Kuri, this'll all be over in an instant." she said, trying to be as comforting as possible for the young boy.

Kuri held on to her and closed his eyes. The boy was visibly tired, she thought, and perhaps it was a bad idea to have brought him back in here. Hell, they didn't even know what they were all doing in here. What could they possibly do that hadn't been done already in the reactor. Eventually, the ground did stop moving.

"You guys go ahead and do what you have to!" said Anika, I'm getting both Kuri and Phoenix out of here. They both are of no use here and I might as well get them both to safety." The purple eyed hunter suggested.

"And how would you do that Miss Jansen?" asked Ven

"I'll carry Kuri on my back, and I'll drag Phoenix around."

"I'm afraid I can't allow that. First of all, seperating ourselves at this point is an extremely bad idea and would not be a favorable factor to keeping the lot of us alive for the next few hours. Second of all, what you suggest sounds absolutely rediculous. Carrying the boy is one thing, carrying the redhead and the boy is another. You have gone through a lot in the last 24 hours, and you look as tired as any of us."

"He's right Anika!" said Byrce trying to sound more comprehensive than the ever cold Ven "You're not making much sense here and we all want to live through this whole situation. And if you went around carrying Kuri and Phoenix, you'll have a lot of dead weight on you ,and the three of you will be very easy targets."

Anika's breath came and went a little faster. She didn't have any arguments to defend her point, but she just knew that she was right. Kuri had gone through more than people 5 times his age experienced in a lifetime in the last few hours, he didn't need anymore of this.

"Urgh... who are you calling dead weight?" mumbled a voice behind them all "I don't know what's going on here, but I'm not gonna run like a coward, nor will I be a bench warmer on this one."

Anika turned around and saw Phoenix Mark getting back on his feet slowly, rubbing his wound. Paula and Talehn both went to him to help the red head get back on his feet. Byrce smiled when he saw that Phoenix was fine and turned back at Anika.

"Well, that settles that for Phoenix!" said the patrolman " But Ven does have another point, if we get seperated, we'll just all be picked off in an easier manner."

"Nothing you say will change her mind!" said Paula as she looked at both Anika and Kuri with her understanding eyes "This is her maternal instinct kicking in, and nothing will keep a mother from doing what she feels is best for her children!"

"But Kuri isn't Anika's son!" replied Talehn, looking at Paula.

"No, but there's obviously a bond between the two of them that all of us simply cannot understand, and that the both of them probably don't understand either." replied Paula.

Hearing all of this conversation going back and forth, Anika felt dizzier by the minute and simply did, know what to reply . In a sense she knew that they were right, that getting seperated was a bad idea, and that she and Kuri would probably be easier to pick off by whatever threat there was out there, wether it was Dalasius' magic, or it was some Syndicate goons. But she didn't want the boy to go through any more of this stuff. Was it a maternal instinct as Paula had suggested? Perhaps it was, she had indeed grown fond of Kuri, his wide eyed innocence, along with his street wise attitude and high instinct for survival. The boy was so much like she was, so much like Hugo was in a sense too. Perhaps maternal instinct was a big word, but she wanted the boy's safety, that's for sure.

She opened her mouth to reply.

"I want.. to stay and fight... Dalasius...I'm the only one who can fight him on this ground among the lot of us." said Kuri in a barely audible tone.

"I'm not questionning your bravery Kuri, but you really don't have to do this."

"I don't have to, I want to." he replied "For Mikan, for everyone living on the planet."

"What did he say?" asked Talehn.

"He said he wanted to stay and fight!" repeated Anika looking at Kuri and holding him a little tighter. The kid had a lot of guts and she admired that a lot. In a sense, his stubbornness reminded her of Darian also. Nothing would stop her icy eyed friend from fighting for what he believed in, and that seemed to be pretty much Kuri's case. Guys, they'll always be so pig headed. She supressed a smile as she shook away her thought of Darian. The last time she had seen him, she was pointing a gun at his back and demanding that he wouldn't go face the Syndicate alone. Having that as the last image of him wasn't the sweetest of memories, but that sour memory would eventually be replaced by sweeter memories.

But then again, this certainly wasn't the time for memories. It was rather the time to fight to be able to preserve memories. Dalsius had to be stopped, and even though the odds of them being able to knock the necromancer out of the game for good, she still had to do everything in her power to try and reach her goal. Darian wouldn't have it any other way, Kuri wouldn't have it any other way, and Nakano certainly proved that he wouldn't have it any other way.

Game? What the hell am I thinking? I'm starting to think like Darian. she rolled her eyes.

"That settles that I guess" she whispered, referring to Kuri's last reply "So what should we do now, rather than stand here and look at each other?"

"Well, while I fear the worst for the Izumi?" said Paula as she took a pause, probably thinking about her crewmates' safety, Anika supposed "While I fear the worst for the Izumi, I believe Dalasius powers cannot reach outer space. He can send objects from the planet out of the atmosphere usind the Ether Network, but he appearently cannot tap into the Ether network from out there. Meaning that in outer space, the only Ether source he'll have access to is the one in Cisia's body. Wich means that we could actually beat him if we manage to change battlefield."

"And how would you expect us to do that?" asked Anika sarcastically "By sending Cisia's body into outer space?"

"As a matter of fact, that's exactly what I'm suggesting!" replied Paula.

Hihori kept on walking along the hallways of the Core as he hummed the "99 bottles of beer" song. Tainted Love was practically humming the song with him as he knew that he would head towards a final confrontation with both a long time friend and his nemesis. Wether he wanted to believe it or not, the hunt for Dalasius was exactly what made him the man he was today. By putting it all in perspective, the big guys at the Syndicate didn't impress him nearly as much anymore when he had met such a terrifying creature such as the necromancer and actually helped capture him. Had he not been chosen for the hunt for Dalasius, he probably would never have found the guts to stage the coup against his predecessors. No guts, no glory. And that rule applied now as much as it applied then.

Countless possible scenarios played themselves in his head. Perhaps he and Darian would team up at the last moment and knock out Cisia, for the sake of the planet? Or perhaps he would end up killing Darian and then fight Cisia/Dalasius himself? Or, Dalasius could win this whole thing and destroy him?

No, that last possibility was not an option, he would not fail, he would not let doubts take over his mortal mind. His willpower and guts were what got him up to here up to now, and playing possible scenarios could only lead him to having more doubts. So he cleared up his mind of all these possibilities and decided to deal with things as they got there. It wasn't the brightest of strategies, but since he was alone now, strategy didn't matter all that much anymore. And should he anticipate the wrong turn of events, he would only be caught off guard and risk losing everything.

He rubbed his face under his mask and smiled; It was good to know that he hadn't forgotten past lessons the least bit. Perhaps the biggest lesson he was thaught would be this horrible disfigurement. He has underestimated his adversary and taken his victory for granted and this was the price he paid. How Darian survived that fall was beyond him. How he managed to survuve and still be in fighting condition was a plain miracle as far a he was concerned. No matter, he didn't believe in miracles, and one way or another, even miracles didn't last forever.

His past didn't matter with Darian anymore, only his future did. The "99 bottles of beer" reminded him too much of a past friendship, so he switched son in his head , pushing away the joyful beer song, replacing it with a Violin sonata he had heard at a concert last week.

The violence of each stroke of the beautiful instrument rang in his head as he was more prepared now than ever to face his adversaries and his future.

As soon as Darian caught up with the old man, he could see that his newfound companion, the man he was assigned to protect by Life itself had his mind somewhere else aa he was walking slowly along the hallways of the Core. Perhaps he was thinking of the woman who had the same eyes the scarred hunter did. Perhaps his mind was dwelling in moments past, perhaps sour or sweet memories were flooding his mind right now. There was no way to be certain, but Darian decided that it was best to just let a man deal with his past and remember it, unless it endangered his life of course, then, he would have to wake him up.

The past was often something that could haunt a person to the point of insanity as he well knew. Anika's past still threatened her very sanity at times . His own past wasn't doing him too much good either. In theory, it was always easy to say:"Who cares about the past? As long as you have a future!"

But that was only a theory. Practicing the said theory wasn't nearly as easy as it sounded, because the past often had the nasty habbit of coming back to haunt you. And right now, his past, Dalasius, was threatening to come back and destroy him...along with the rest of the planet that is, wich, in turn, would deprive people of a future.

So much for the theory about letting go of the past and looking forward for the future. That theory was pretty much flushed as far as he was concerned for now. In this situation it was anyway. The past, the present, the future... all three were nothing more than components of a long nightmare that he felt he never would wake up from.

Anika had once told him that he had been her knight in shining armor who had ridden to her rescue and got her out of the streets, got her out of trouble with the men who had killed her parents and given her hope when she had none left. He didn't know what to reply then, so he didn't say anything. But thinking about it now, he wondered: how could a man who does not see any hope anywhere concerning happiness for himself, who was in constant denial of his true nature as a killer, give such a feeling as hope for anybody ? The question mystified him. And the concept of long term happiness was ominous to him from this point of view.

"Too many thoughts, and way too much work to do, I have to clean my soul of these thoughts and doubts, I have work to do!" he thought to himself.

Anika... While Bella had meant a lot to him, he had learned even more from his purple eyed partner than he could possibly learn from anybody else. She had a view on life that was particular, one that was so infinitely human. A flawed way of seeing things, you could say, if you went by the norms of society, or worse yet, if you saw life as what milltiary training thought you what life was all about. These "flawed yet humane" philosophies were what had drawn him to Anika, as well as to Derek in the past.

Anika, he knew she had been captured along with all of their newfound companions in this whole fiasco. The had been taken to the Core presumably because of Cisia. All he could wonder now was if they... if she was still alive. He wanted the others to be alive too, but he especially wanted Anika to be alive. The people he cared about always died before he could settle loose ends with them, and he didn't want history to repeat itself with Anika.

He wanted to tell her that...

Did that make sense?

It didn't make sense.

Emotions clouding his mind and judgment in the middle of a life and death situation. Just the kind of thing that always happened to him.

What happens happens, and he would have time to deal with it all soon enough. One way or another.