Prince of Darkness: Shattered Past Book 2

The Further

The team made their way to the base on the moon. The lunar surface was it's typical shade of white. However, James noticed that night would fall on the moon shortly. "You know, this is the first night I've ever spent on the moon?" He remarked hoping to brighten the mood. The group said nothing. Cameron was too distraught by the fact that they were going into the same abyss as the team who died. Aaron was still loading his weapons. Charon had his focus on Sidriks. He may be a guardian, but he was still a fallen warrior. He despised the fallen for what they did to him, Sidriks was no different.

"So, do we get moving?" Aaron asked putting a mag in his hand cannon as the noisy cricket reloaded itself.

"All set," Cameron replied.

"Ready to drop," James replied.

"Good to go," Sidriks responded.

"Yeah," Charon replied still glancing scornfully at Sidriks.

The bridge finally formed itself, and they walked down towards it. All the while James had a chill all too familiar to him. He looked over to the pit beneath them he remembered throwing a grenade down there three months ago. It never detonated. Then a small platform appeared at the end of the bridge, one at the center of the pit. "Nowhere left to go but down," Aaron stated jumping into the hole at the center of the platform.

Cameron and James quickly followed behind him; leaving Sidriks and Charon up there alone.

Charon looked over to him. "I know you have them fooled, but don't think I'll be that easy to convince." He said scornfully.

"I beg your pardon?" He said questioningly.

"There's no way, be you guardian or otherwise, that you can simply change your programming to hate light. Fallen."

Sidriks brushed it off and descended into the pit with Charon behind him. The pair seemed to fall for what felt like hours until they reached the bottom with a thud. Sidriks landed first on his feet. Then Charon fell on top of him with his foot impacting the back of his head. Sidriks face planted on the ground feeling Charon's boot on the back of his skull. Charon got off and moved back over to see the rest of them.

"Sorry about that." He said convincingly.

Sidriks had a hard time getting himself off the ground because of the gravity increase, but he eventually got up. "Don't let him get to you Sidriks," Oracle stated to him calmly.

"I'll try." He replied slightly annoyed. He didn't know where this attitude of Charon's was coming from, but he didn't like it. He called him fallen, of all the things he could have called him, that was the one that most insulted him. He was a guardian now; he left that part of him behind along with a dead prime servitor.

The team started moving ahead; it was dark and damp down there. Much like the cave that Sidriks had seen before however, there were no lights, and he had trouble walking much less running. He still had Charon behind him which made him uncomfortable. He was a guardian just like he was, why did he have such a big problem with him all of a sudden?

"What's the matter? Scared?" Charon asked him.

"No."

"Cause if so, why don't you just crawl back to your little ketch?"

"That's not who I am anymore Charon." He replied.

"Oh but it is, you can't just change at the drop of a hat can you?" Charon whispered.

Sidriks was beginning to get immensely angry with him. "Crawl back to your little ketch?" He thought loudly to himself. "I would never." The group continued along, and Sidriks noticed the amount of thrall that were in here. The gray frames were in front of them, sleeping in massive piles; perhaps to keep each other warm amidst the darkness of the pit.