Starting Fires

I slowly opened my eyes to see the rough stone floor just one foot beneath me. I looked around, trying to figure out what just happened. For all I knew, I had fallen to my death, but I wasn't dead. No, it seems that my fall was broken by some mysterious force. My feet touched the ground, allowing me to stand up straight and stare up at the light far above me.

"Guys, I found the bottom," I transmitted, then waited for a response.

"You're not dead?" Blackjack asked in surprise.

"No, that would probably inconvenience a lot of people," I growled. "God knows, I'm so important to you, Jack."

"Actually I broke your fall," Harrison interjected. "Sort of like how I carried us off the Eiffel Tower, only this little air pocket stayed just about a foot off of the ground. You're welcome."

"Thank you, Harrison," I sighed, smoothing my hair. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm getting a little lonely down here."

"Right then," Titan said. "Aeromancers, you know what to do. Tally ho!"

A minute passed before I could make out the shapes slowly descending towards me. I sat back and watched, hoping nothing would go wrong. Unfortunately, one Aeromancer didn't have the strength to keep his spell up for much longer and plummeted down just above halfway. No one could spare the focus to save him.

Once the rest of them were safely down, I surveyed their numbers, noting that the group had been nearly halved and that Eon and I were the only Solarmancers left.

"What happened up there?" I asked.

"We got slaughtered," Beecher spat. "No surprise there."

"Best of the best," Boomer muttered. "And every single time we get beaten out by a bunch of freaks."

"Come off it," Titan scoffed. "We can't have much farther to go."

"Because you will go no further," a raspy voice filled the darkness of the crevice.

Everybody began looking about for the source of the voice; it seemed to come from everywhere. Private Williams suddenly froze in his tracks, a scream brushing his lips, but he was too terrified to make a sound. Before him stood a familiar figure, just as disgusting as he remembered.

"L-- L-- Lloyd," he gasped, drawing my attention to the young man.

"Say something, Ray?" I asked.

"Lloooooooyyyyyyyd!" he screamed, stumbling backwards, falling on his ass.

"Holy shit, Lloyd!" Boomer exclaimed, gazing at the ragged figure of his old friend. "What are you doing down here?"

Lloyd's glowing white eyes examined each of us in turn before he spoke. "Death is not the end for those in the Castle," he rumbled, speaking the words in our minds as well as our ears. "It is a new beginning, a painful initiation. You will all join, one way or another."

"Lloyd, what are you talking about?" Beecher asked, impatiently. "You're our friend. You would never do this to us."

"He's one of them, Beecher," Mullins sighed. "It's no use; he's gone."

"No!" Boomer yelled, furious. "There's gotta be a way! The Lloyd I know has got to be in there somewhere and by God, I'll rip it out myself if I have to!"

"He's dead, Boomer," Bullock pointed out. "The bastards killed him. There's nothing we can do for him, now."

"Did anyone see him die?" Boomer hissed back.

"Did we need to?" Beecher inquired with a pained look in his eyes.

There was a moment of silence followed by broken eye contact and standing down.

"I shot him," Williams stated, "in the head. It only made him angry. Whatever he is right now, it certainly isn't human."

The decision seemed to have been made then and there. The team shuffled past Lloyd, leaving whatever he was with a blank look that might have resembled astonishment. One Pyromancer made the mistake of spitting at the zombie's feet, prompting Lloyd to draw his machete and impale the ignorant bastard. That gave everyone else the cue to run. Ahead of us was a tunnel hewn in the rock wall of the hill on which the Castle stood.

Lloyd did not pursue us. They will suffer elsewhere, he thought before flickering out of existence.

***

The tunnels, quite luckily, were absolutely deserted. There wasn't even a hint of the whispers that so plagued the upper chambers of the Castle. However, it was quite an elaborate maze. The team spent about an hour navigating the twists and turns and the dead ends of the huge complex before we finally exited into a huge, circular cavern, the ceiling of which was somewhere high up in the darkness above us while the bottom was at the base of a spiral staircase that hugged the walls of the cave.

"Down again," Titan decided, testing out the stability of the stairs. "Try not to fall, Mage."

I rolled my eyes, following the group ever downwards.

The Evils were down here, climbing all over the walls, looking down on us. They didn't seem hostile, preferring to leave us alone, keeping to themselves so long as we didn't attack them. The sight of so many of them seeming ready to pounce was severely unnerving, though.

The bottom of the stone staircase was in sight now, and it was guarded by one of the strangest looking beast anyone had seen down here. It was an emaciated corpse hanging limply in midair at first sight, but when the light hit it at the right angle, a set of several transparent arms shimmered, showing them to be what was holding the body above the ground.

"Puppet Master," Romanov muttered, remembering how it was described in the Wise One's books.

"So that's the asshole with the invisible arms," Boomer growled. "I'd love to give him a piece of my mind."

"Glad do see you wouldn't do anything, Boomer," Beecher joked, rewarded by a light slap on the back of the sniper's head.

Not even the Puppet Master would budge at the sight of us as we milled around it, working our way to the center of the chamber. There, standing dead center on the stone floor, was the figure of a man with his back turned to us. Hearing our approach, he turned around, revealing a face contorted in anger and pain with the most strikingly green eyes I'd ever seen.

"Etrius," Bullock gasped. "I-- I shot you..."

"AHA!" Beecher yelled, bringing his modified AUG to the ready. "I knew it! I fucking knew it! You son of a bitch!"

"It wasn't like that, Beecher," the General sighed. "He was a threat to the mission."

"He was my best friend," the sniper hissed. "We all could have gotten out of this just fine if you had let him live."

"The bastard blew a guy to pieces!" the General pointed out hysterically.

"It was an accident," the familiar rumbling voice from the ceiling stated as Etrius's face softened.

"Etrius?" Williams gasped. "That was you? This whole time?"

"I absorbed the power in the artifact," Etrius replied. "It showed me what the General would do with it, what it would go to accomplishing; the satisfaction of greedy businessmen who own and run Atlantis's government."

"But my father is in charge of Atlantis and he has a no-tolerance policy towards corruption," Malena Sextus argued.

"Your father is a lame duck," Etrius spat, whipping his gaze to the young woman who spoke out. "Money is what rules our country. Laws are written for lobbyists, not moral standing or legal justice. Court verdicts go to the highest bidder. Your world is falling apart." He turned to stare me directly in the eyes. "And your world, Liam Foley, is not far behind."

"So why have you been making things so difficult for us?" Boomer asked. "We're you're friends."

"I did not ask for your help," Etrius stated. "You are confusing me with another force. Perhaps we sound alike, but what you have been hearing is the Mind Worm. He was the source of the Ancients' psionic powers that evolved into the Evils'. He travels from world to world, seeking the minds of those on which he feasts, turning them into base, bloodthirsty beasts. Those who resist the transformation and intend on using their powers for what they consider to be 'good,' are then slaughtered by their counterparts who see no limits to their powers. I must remain here, keeping the Mind Worm at bay."

"Can we destroy him?" Titan asked.

Etrius looked at Romanov, who sighed.

"In theory," Etrius answered for the doctor. "You would need someone powerful enough to wield an angel's sword and strike without a blade in his hand."

"Any idea who that would be?" Blackjack grumbled impatiently.

"Did I not address him a moment ago?" Etrius reciprocated his annoyance.

All eyes shifted towards me, naturally,

"So, where would we find an angel's sword?" I asked.

"Do I have to spell out the obvious for you?" Etrius continued to show his exasperation. "You wear it at your hip. You killed a dragon effortlessly with it. That blade is Solaris, the sword of the Archangel Michael who passed to his son who I'm sure is glad to have it back."

"I'm not-- I can't be an angel," I laughed nervously.

"You're not," Etrius stated, shrugging, "but your friend is."

"That... explains things," I said, nodding. "But how do I defeat the Mind Worm if it's... well, more of an idea than a corporeal being."

"Make it angry," Etrius said. "It'll show up in a form you can destroy eventually."

"Thanks for the information, Etrius," Bullock said, looking to Romanov and gesturing towards the figure.

"What are you doing?" Etrius muttered.

Romanov pulled a black, glass sphere from the satchel at his hip.

"No, you fool!" Etrius yelled, stepping back. "If you remove me from my duty, the Mind Worm will be fully unleashed. It will slip in through the cracks in your mind and enslave you all. You will be nothing more than the zombies you fought to survive."

"I'm sorry, Etrius," the General sighed. "You were right; I'm corrupt, bought and paid for." With that, Romanov shoved the orb against Etrius's side, drawing in a white flash of power, causing the man to collapse where he stood.

"The power resource is ours," Romanov said, looking gloomily at Etrius's body laying on the ground. "We can make peace now, yes?"

Bullock drew his revolver and pointed it at Romanov's head, holding out his other hand for the orb. "Give it here," he growled, pulling down the hammer. With shaking hands, Romanov reached out and placed it in the General's care. Bullock stood down and holstered his weapon, placing the orb in his pocket.

"Mission accomplished," Bullock muttered. "Let's go home."

Lloyd stepped out of the shadows once more, a broad smile twisted across his face.

"You again," Bullock growled. "We have no time for your shit. Get out of my way."

"Do you know what it feels like, getting torn apart alive?" the bloody swordsman asked, sending a shiver down the spine of Ray Williams.

With not a fuck given, Bullock fired the six shots loaded in his gun at Lloyd. What it left was simply Lloyd with six more wounds.

"You will take me to your world, human," his voice grew angrier.

Bullock stepped back with a look of surprise, then twitched. He began to clutch his head and clench his teeth. When he opened his mouth to breathe heavily, he spat out a mouthful of blood. He wasn't bleeding, though... it was as though his saliva had become blood. The General fell to his knees, screaming in pain as Evils began to crawl down the walls and congregate around him.

"Fucker got what's coming to him," Beecher mumbled, turning away from what was sure to be a disgusting spectacle.

The zombies closed in ritualistically before going wild on the body before them, clawing, biting, ripping, tearing whatever they saw while Lloyd looked on, his smile ever growing as blood and chunks of gore flew through the air, set to the music of the General's screams.

In a few moments, it all stopped and the Evils scrambled back into the darkness to await their next target.

"You," I said, unsheathing my sword to point it at Lloyd. "You're the one the Mind Worm is using as a vessel. Lloyd is just as dead as Etrius; there's nothing left in his mind but you."

The smile quickly reversed into a deep frown as Lloyd turned to face me. "Take me to your world, humans, or suffer as your friends did," he rumbled.

Beecher, who was mourning over Etrius once again, looked up at this statement. "Lloyd, no," he gasped, weakly, falling to his knees.

"Let's make a deal," Boomer said, cocking his shotgun. "You give us back Lloyd and Etrius, just the way that they were, as well as the power resource and we'll take you to our world. Or, we'll destroy you here and now. Think about it. Everybody wins."

"No deal," was the immediate response.

"So be it," Boomer sighed, aiming down his sights as the Evils began to come down from the walls once again.

Titan pulled the scythe off of his back, ready for the attack, saying, "Let's do this."