Captain Hawk went with Flash, Shepp and Cain back to their bridge to receive their status report about the mission. Bane and Berry were both at their workstations while the others took care of the rest of the spaceship.
Outside their windows was the Starfall seen, which Captain Wedly led. They investigated the planet's orbit but so far nothing happened on their spaceship yet. Wedly was glad about the calm. It seemed like they had their interest focused on the Blackcrow. Another reason to not get too involved into the mission, Wedly pondered in silence and would only help once they get ordered to do so.
The purple captain walked around the room, lost in his thoughts momentarily before he asked for a status report to his crew members: "I'd like to hear what exactly happened on board that spaceship."
An awkward silence began to rise up on the bridge before anyone started the report. No one knew how to start. As the captain noticed their insecurities helped the purple one out: "Flash, you'll start."
The yellow engineer bean swallowed nervously. "Captain Pitch ordered them to split our group in half to investigate the spaceship. Shepp and I met someone on board, a demonic ghost who played with our fears."
"A demonic ghost? May I ask who you've met?" Captain Hawk questioned his members.
Flash demurred and wasn't sure how Hawk would react to his report.
"Slimey, Captain. We've met Slimey." Flash spoke and Hawk couldn't believe his ears. He was speechless to hear about a previous member again, a previous member who died many years ago. Hawk remembered their spirit attack back then and got flashbacks of how Slimey died. He simply couldn't believe it.
"Well, his name is Slum now, Flash. Don't forget that." Shepp then interrupted and corrected him.
"Slum?" Hawk whispered quietly and Shepp nodded one time. Why did Slimey rename himself? Hawk was questioning silently in his mindful marathon and almost didn't hear Shepp's voice in the background.
"Aye, Captain. Slum." Shepp said.
Guilt and frustration built up inside Hawk and he massaged his forehead. In hope to organize his thoughts. He turned around and looked at the haunted spaceship. Lost in his thoughts, the purple captain wandered slowly towards the bridge's window and carefully touched it with his left hand.
Behind Hawk, Cain felt a sudden burning behind his head and he had to cover it. The burning pain increased wildly in his body, and he began to cough badly. Flash glanced over at Cain and wanted to help the dark-cyan bean, but Cain waved his help away. Hawk heard the turmoil.
"It's nothing, Flash. Don't wo -" But Cain had to cough again. The purple captain turned back and was worried about Cain. He walked to him and asked:
"Are you alright, Cain? What happened on your side with Pitch and Starla?" The purple captain wanted to know. But Cain couldn't answer. He suddenly started to struggle with keeping up his breathing and became dizzy, it was getting worse the more his pain increased.
"W-we got attacked by undead rats, C-Captain..." Cain laid his claw on his stomach and had to sit down before he fell out of dizziness. His view was blurry and couldn't recognize the purple captain anymore.
"Flash, bring Cain to the medical station." Captain Hawk then ordered, and Flash followed his order. With a worried expression, the purple captain looked back to Shepp. Shepp kept his visor on him until he walked to his captain's chair to sit down. Hawk was deep in his thought and didn't know what to do next. Of course, Shepp just couldn't just stand there and do nothing. With slow steps, the orange bean walked near his chair and looked outside for a little while before he spoke:
"I can see that you are frustrated, Captain." Shepp said carefully and knelt down to be able to look him directly in his visor while they talked. Hawk sighed and the member could clearly hear an undertone of sadness.
"It was my fault, why Slimey died back then, Shepp." Hawk murmured. Hold on, thought Shepp in silence, was that a tear on Hawk's visor? It was indeed a silvered tear which showed up on Hawk's visor whilst he replayed those old memories in his mind.
"No, Captain." Shepp disagreed and remembered the fight as well. "It was my fault, why Slimey died back then. Not yours."
Hawk moved his head to Shepp and wanted to say otherwise but a wild peep sound behind them disturbed their conversation.
"Captain, I've received a strong unknown signal originating from the Blackcrow's library." Berry reported to Captain Hawk.
"What signal are you receiving, Berry?" Hawk wanted to know and was puzzled and curious to get an explanation.
"I am not sure, Captain." Berry replied. "I am trying to scan the signal, but I can't. The system says there is an unknown signal coming from out there, but it doesn't tell what it is. Someone is in there as well. It's Saros."
"I can imagine that Saros is experimenting with his magic powers once again." Shepp assumed but he wasn't feeling right with that thought. The red member Berry shook his head in disagreement and typed a command into his workstation. He tried to activate their cams to see what was happening there, but Berry couldn't activate them either.
"I can't activate our cams either. Someone must check out what's going on there. I'm pretty sure it isn't Saros's magic experiments. If it was, the signal would be shown differently on screen, but it looks different this time." Berry explained and was stupefied and terrified of whatever it could be, if it wasn't Saros's magic experiments.
During that time Saros had enough of being shackled by snake tails this way. The dark red wizard hissed and growled whilst he sent out ink impostor tentacles from his back. Two sharp impostor tentacles which he planned to use to get rid of their grab. With deep growling, Saros rotated his slick black tentacles under him to tear their tails apart. It worked and Saros freed himself from their attack. He fell to the library's carpet, held up two of his ink tentacles and showed his impostor mouth; to growl aggressively at the ghost above the alpha snake, until the stone material under him began to glow once again. Saros activated his levitation magic and his visor brightened up in an intimidating red.
"I don't have time for this." Saros then snarled furiously but in a calm way. The demonic ghost above the giant snake's head realized another fear from the wizard. The fear of loss. But in that very moment, before Saros could move the book as well as the stone material back to him, another demon ghost appeared into the battlefield and stopped Saros's levitation magic on the stone. The stone was now floating. Not moving, just floating on one spot. Saros gave his best to move the material to himself, but he couldn't. From out that stone appeared black particles which formed into a dark demonic blue ghost and the other one above the snake's head couldn't believe who it was.
"Captain Spec?!" Zoricus was deeply shocked that his captain would join the battlefield after he shared his view with him. The brown owl-like ghost didn't expect such a move from Spec at all.
"Spec?" Saros whispered as quiet as he could to himself and his red glow on his visor turned back into his common blue.
"Let me take care of the rest, Zoricus." The dark blue ghost growled at his member; he didn't even dare to look around whilst he talked. "I'll do it myself."
Without any more words said, the demonic captain shifted the room into a black void. The library was no more. At least, not in Saros's nor Spec's presence. Silence rushed into the void and Spec looked deeply into the wizard's visor from out a safe distance. The material was still floating between them. All Saros got in his hand was the spell book and his knowledge of magic.
"You have something that belongs to me, warlock." Captain Spec snarled mischievously, and Saros was puzzled that he called him a warlock instead of a wizard. What was that demonic ghost talking about? What belonged to him? With one spark in Saros' mind, the wizard realized what he talked about.
The stone! Saros thought to himself.
"Warlock? I see no warlock." Saros countered back and focused on his levitation magic on the material, in hope to move it. Somehow. "I'm a wizard. And that stone belongs to us, the Blackcrow. Whoever finds it first, can keep it!"
Both had just about enough with their useless conversation and decided to rush wildly at the stone to get it into their own claws. But as they crashed into each other in the middle, the stone began once again to brighten up. An unknown force gave Saros a weird vision, after he touched Spec's claw accidentally as they both tried to lay claim to the material.
A vision which tells stories about Captain Spec's past life: He saw an ocean planet, filled with life. Under the ocean was an underwater city which Saros's visor detected next. Laughs were heard behind him and he turned around. His body was ghostly invisible, and no one could see the wizard. He wasn't sure who Saros was looking at, but he did remember the familiar blue color and red tail tips from the captain's demonic ghost body. He was an aquatic shark-like bean. He was together with someone, joyfully laughing. A female banana-colored shark-bean was with Spec, swimming together. They held their hands. They danced around the seaweeds and stones which the ocean surface decorated. Happily. Full in joy.
After a while of swimming, they stopped and looked deeply into their visor's. Saros could sense a feeling which was unknown to him.
"Oh Spec ...", The female aquatic bean began to talk. Her voice was like a sweet melody.
"You have no idea how much I love you." She spoke and Spec was flustered.
"You warm up my heart as well, Mazu." He admitted and snuggled her, more bubbles surrounded them by his movements.
"I want to be with you forever. Will you always be with me?" Mazu asked, and her heartbeat increased whilst she thought about living with Spec forever until they'd die.
Saros could see Spec's light-hearted visor. "Of course, Mazu. I promise."
At that time the scenario changed and aching screams echoed up in Saros' ears. He had to cover his ears whilst he heard Mazu screaming. After the screams faded, Saros looked around to get his orientation back. Where was he now? Still under water but it looked like a hospital. Spec's familiar voice echoed behind the wizard, and he moved around. Someone else, an orange shark-like bean, was with him, talking with him. Spec looked sorrowful and it seemed like he was about to cry.
"I'm sorry, Captain." The orange doctor apologized. "Mazu couldn't make it... she passed away."
Heartache was felt in Spec as well as in Saros after he heard the sad news. What happened? Why did Mazu die? All those questions couldn't be answered within that current vision.
"She didn't make it?" Spec repeated sorrowfully and had to hold back his tears in front of the doctor, who shook his head.
"We're deeply sorry. We tried everything to cure her illness. But she was unbearably sick." The doctor explained and Spec couldn't find any more words to respond and swam away with tears in his visor.
Spec's swimming away from the hospital then led to a change in the area once again. Like a water whirl. Saros had to hold his balance between the whirl and found himself back in space but on a completely different spaceship which was alien to him. Another female voice started to talk near Saros. This time Saros spotted a violet-colored bean, who was in her terrestrial form together with Spec. Spec didn't seem to enjoy her presence.
"Spec, why are you hiding your feelings?" The violet one asked him. "What's the matter with you? We had so much fun down that luminous planet, since we're back on our spaceship you're acting differently."
The blue bean was about to walk away to continue with his work, but he couldn't just ignore her. He winced his visor together and took a deep breath.
"I don't want to lose you. I can't do it again." He murmured and the violet one was confused.
"You can't do what again, Spec?"
A short silence rushed into their conversation. "To love again, Viola. I lost my wife years ago. I don't want this to happen to you as well."
Viola blinked with a visor filled with empathy. "But... why don't you give our new love a try? I'm sure nothing bad will happen when you give love a second chance."
The blue shark-like bean moved around to her to look at her visor and saw a spark in there. He didn't know what to answer back but all Viola did was to give him a tight hug. To show him that she meant it.
He sighed. "Alright, Viola... for you."
Saros near them was speechless and couldn't believe what he saw in his vision. The ongoing vision didn't seem to end.
Not yet.
The scene around him did change one more time.
A battlefield was seen.
Dead bodies were around Saros, and he was on board another unknown spaceship. In front of him was their ocean home planet. It seemed like they defended them from their enemies, from impostors.
"Viola! This way!" Spec yelled and guided his love safely to the capsules. At least, that was Spec's plan before that one impostor attacked his partner from out a side-hall. She got pinned on the wall and screamed.
"AHH!" She yelled loudly in aching pain.
"Viola!" Spec shouted out loud and wanted to help her. But it was too late. The impostor bit her to death with his sharp teeth.
"NO ...!"
The blue bean rushed towards the impostor to kill him with his knife as revenge and turned around to Viola's dead body. He was mourning her death while the enemies kept attacking their crew members and destroyed the planet down below. Spec was unable to do anything. He ignored the battlefield around him and kneed down to Viola's dead body.
Tears dropped down.
Once again, took love his future away.
Saros witnessed everything and was even more speechless. He couldn't watch this nightmare any longer. But there was one more thing left, Saros had to know about him. A new change in scenario happened. Spec was alone but it seemed like they were on the same battlefield.
Their home planet was as good as destroyed; Spec gave up. Spec gave up with everything. He was just standing on their spaceship's bridge. His spaceship was about to explode. The blue captain was bleeding. There was nothing he could do to save their home planet anymore. Nor himself. His family.
With that last decision the weary and hopeless captain decided to sacrifice himself and his home planet. The enemies wanted him after all, so he gave them their victory. Just like that. He witnessed outside in space, how his home planet exploded and within, his spaceship and himself.
The vision finally faded and ended. After Saros and Spec got their view back on the now, the stone pulsed a gravity wave that threw their bodies away from it. Even the material seemed to have enough. Both fell roughly to the void's ground and Spec as well as Saros couldn't move for a while. Spec was way too much in mental pain to move anything. But Saros was able to look in his direction. He saw him in a different way now. He felt empathy. But this terror had to end. With a heavy heart, Saros casted a spell on him and tortured the demonic ghost even more but this time, with his own fears.
Spec cried out loud and screamed painfully. He was in unbearable pain and decided to flee back to his spaceship, back where he was safe on board the Spiritwave...
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Chapter edited/corrected by: https://www.deviantart.com/spectra-shift