Chapter 57-Something wicked this way comes
Destrodia Earth base, 21.30hours:
Deeming it safe to gather those important people to have their ' meeting', Amicius and Denise flitted about the rooms, gathering either those staff off-duty from the medical unit, their partners or those who they knew had sympathies that lay outside of a Destrodian lifestyle.
As luck would have it, Malum, Corvi and Cariosus had decided to gather at the battleground; from their scouting reports, they hoped the Guardonians were going to retreat tonight, as they had only several hundred left to fight.
Coupling this with the fact that Pictor had disassembled many of the Guardonian weapons, removing firing pins, breaking cross-bow mechanisms and such like, thus sabotaging most of the lightsiders weapons, Malum had decided he would like to be present to offer surrender terms to the light angels. Naturally he never intended to give them any choice but to join him, as Pictor already was by blood and companionship, but those who chose to give themselves up may well be treated slightly better than those who didnt.
Naturally, the 'top-dogs' wouldn't be fighting, but as both Malum and Pictor felt the battle had whittled down the weaker lightsiders, today would be the day to merge, to create a 'super-race' of angels; one that would begin to learn to put the weak human-race in their place. No longer would genuine humans rule the world. Instead, they would be bred with angels, regardless of giving their permission ;no more helping the weak or recruiting the bully-boys. The super-race of angels would be destructive, intelligent and massively strong; these angels would rule the world, the human world, the world formerly (or still presently) run by the Guardonians, as well as any other planets they felt like taking for themselves. The future was immense; take whatever they wanted, by force if necessary and ruling forever. No-one in the human race was even remotely strong enough to stop them....and that was exactly what Malum and Pictor were counting on.
As Amicius entered the emergency room with the final sympathisers, she led a very tired and heavily pregnant Tash to the comfiest chair she could find and sat down at Crux's feet, smiling at both brothers as she did.
Crux cleared his throat to grab the darksiders attention and then began to speak.
" Right then, firstly I need to know, RIGHT NOW, exactly how many of you, if I said we could leave here and no longer be Destrodians, would come with us?" he exhaled, his eyes troubled, as he scanned the room for any dissentors.
Every hand in the room raised, each and every friend and team members feeling exactly the same as they had previously had whispered conversations, in shady places, about.
Smiling with relief, Crux was about to continue, when the ward door flung open, a tall, stocky sandy blonde-headed boy burst through the doors, so fast that he tumbled head-first into the room, just keeping his balance.
Crux walked up to him, taking in his laboured breathing and sweating facial features.
" Are you injured, Finlay?"he questioned the panting boy, who held up his hand, as if to say, ' give me a second'
Once he began to control his breathing, he began to babble all at once.
"We can go," he whispered to Crux, "we can get out of here, don't have to be dark any more" ;he managed to rein himself in, to give Crux the time to digest what he had said.
Leading him to a chair, Crux spoke gently to him, " I think you need to take a big, deep breath and tell us all exactly what you are talking about," he nodded to the rest of the room.
" We are all friends here. Everyone feels the same, so take your time explaining everything." Crux finished, as eager as the others seemed to be, judging by the fact they were all excitedly leaning forward.
Unsure of speaking in front of such a large crowd of people, despite their numbers being less than 30, he began explaining exactly what had happened, from when he followed Deus, to being looked after by the Guardonians, up to offering to be the messenger for them. He finished by telling them they must be at the log cabin by 11am the next morning, in order for Deus to rescue them, take them to the new dimenson, that only Deus could find.
Looking sceptical after he had finished speaking, Crux turned to Mundati, to ask if he knew anything about this ' Perditus place', to which he nodded that, no, he didn't know anything about it.
Finlay continued, his breath creeping slowly back to normal.
"Deus told me to tell you, Mundati, that Jake will also be joining you in the new dimension, that Star will be completely absolved of his accidental death and that Catelyn is looking forward to doing the interior design on ALL the new houses", which caused the others to chuckle.
Mundati felt tears well up in his eyes, his throat closing as if he had swallowed a huge object that had stuck in his windpipe.
" Yes, I trust him," he spoke, swallowing to try, unsuccessfully, to keep the tears from falling from his warm, blue eyes.
"Nobody else would know what happened to Jake, it was kept a secret between the few involved and yes," he broke off, grinning, "the interior design is exactly what my girl would say," he finished, a large smirk taking over his features, as he thought of seeing Catelyn real soon.
"Well," Crux spoke, " it would seem as if we are getting our dreams coming true after all. I want nobody to utter a word to anyone else, unless they have suggested they desperately hate being a darksider and, even then, come to Amicius or Mundati, as both have the ability to read auras and body language." he finished, a gasp coming from the crowd, as he revealed the angels rare abilities.
"Right, we had best go and get some sleep. All those on duty, remain on duty, until it is time for your break. When that happens, Finlay,"he paused, cocking his eyebrow at him, as he nodded, " will guide you to the log cabin. Do not pack anything that cannot be stored in your pockets, but not obvious for all to see. You must leave your transporting ebony stones here, else Malum will be able to track you." He paused, letting that important fact sink in.
"Hopefully, we will get lucky,"he continued," the seniors have all gone to battle tonight, so there will be confusion and disarray all over the camp. Finlay suggests, rightly, that we go as battle is finishing, although myself and Grant will have to remain here as long as possible, as we are likely to be the most missed. The nurses amongst you will easily have cover, as you can attend the injured on the fields, then when it is safe to do so, Finlay can guide you too to the cabin."
Crux finished, feeling the excitement spreading through the group; all of them, without exception, didn't belong to the darksiders; they had just made a huge mistake choosing the dark side, which wasn't as fun as promised for those who were not truly cruel and malicious.
" Okay guys," Crux added, " Off you go, do what you need to, and please remember, this is going to be dangerous, nobody can be blaźe. If Malum's goons get a wind of us leaving, they WILL hurt us, maybe even kill us. We must keep vigilant or else it could cost us our lives. Look after yourself, watch your colleagues backs and, I will see you all when life has started to change for the better. Now, off to work." he stated firmly, making a shooing action with his hands, to dismiss them.
******
Guardonia HQ:
Meanwhile, those in Guardonia were desperately trying to keep ahold on their emotions; those who had to go to battle, namely all of the men, had gone off, promising to keep out of danger, by staying in the back lines of defence.
Catelyn and Lacerta made themselves busy, sewing inside pockets on their camoflagued jackets, just big enough for a bottle of water and several snacks, shrunk by Catelyn's new-found ability to both manipulate and merge inanimate objects, meaning she could make theitems as small as a thimble.
There were around 29 of them going to their new home, so the girls had plenty to keep themselves occupied, but nevertheless their thoughts were on the safety of their boys and going to a new dimension, that they had sworn not to discuss for fear of being overheard.
However, Deus had suggested they come up with a new name for it,so under the pretense of naming the baby, they threw names at one another, trying to decide what suited what was to be their new home; it was to be a home where evil wasn't allowed and where they never had to defend themselves from attacks by the dark siders. It sounded awesome and the girls couldn't wait to go.
In the meantime, they carried on discussing names, until they came up with one, the perfect name for their home: 'Aeterno', meaning ' eternity', which is what they truly hoped the new dimensional home was the beginning of; bringing up her baby in a world without strife was all a mother could wish for.
*****
As the night dragged on, things weren't going quite to plan on the battlefield; for one, Pictor was supposed to have released a preternatural fog, to confuse his men and for two, he was supposed to demand that his boys laid down their weapons and surrendered, being as outnumbered as they were.
Unbeknown to all, apart from the perpetrators, Adriano and Pavo had attended a pre-battle 'pep talk' with Pictor,who had discussed a surrender with them. Not only were they reluctant to agree, they were disgusted with exactly how low Pictor had bent, to accomodate the wishes of his enemies.
Ensuring the door was magickally locked, and would remain so until Adriano removed the spell, the two men bound and gagged the man they once considered to be like a father to them, magickally enhanced it to the same conditions as the door and walked casually out, grinning at the shock that had covered Pictor's face, when they told him they knew everything.
Of course, without their leader on the field of battle, the lightsiders continued tirelessly to match the darksiders, weapon for weapon, attack for attack, as the dawn became to creep in, bringing with it medics to treat and remove the injured, or burn them in the darksiders case.
Amicius's nurses dallied long enough to ensure their disappearance wouldn't be noticed and followed Finlay into the woods and bushes and towards the cabin.
Slowly, the majority of the staff from the medical units trickled out, until only Amicius, Crux, Tash and Mundati remained; treating as many injured as they could and replacing the nurses with some of the trainees, in order for their absence to be as unnoticed as possible.
As soon as they were convinced the medical unit was manic enough to cover their escape, the four of them crept out of the camp, holding two medical bags and a portable stretcher, in order to cover themselves if discovered.
Making good time, they reached the halfway point of the common, where the Guardonian medics were still treating their injured friends; busy in their tasks, they failed to notice the four creeping toward the edge of the forest, where they would meet Finlay.
Tash, 36 weeks pregnant, was struggling to keep up the pace, so Mundati slowed down his, letting Amicius and Crux go on ahead, knowing they would wait for him in the cabin, as previously arranged.
Bending over, he rubbed Tash's back as she stood doubled, huffing and puffing from the over-exertion of the rapid departure from the Destrodian HQ; despite being desperate to leave, she had underestimated just how much energy her babybump drained from her, it being the first real walk she had attempted for weeks.
Hearing a 'thrum' noise, Mundati stood up, reflexes making him throw his body over Tash's as he gently manouvered her to the ground, her tummy protected by Mundati's back, as if making a shield over her; unseen by anybody, the lone darksider stood, feet planted wide to steady himself, as he took aim with his deadly crossbow, at the escaping lightsider he had tracked thus far.
Hearing a second 'thrum', Mundati made the mistake of partially raising his neck and shoulders from the ground. As he did so, he felt a fast wind swiftly pass across his face.Barely skimming his nose, then causing him to gasp, a thick bolt, fired from a crossbow he presumed, entered the side of his neck, causing him to jerk backwards in a whiplash type way.
Opening his mouth to Tash, to tell her to go on, leave without him, he would be there once he got his breath back, he found his vision was going cloudy, dark and cloudy round the edges, as if he were looking through a telescope, from the wrong end, trying to focus as it made his field of vision smaller and smaller.
Unable to utter a word, he rolled away, releasing Tash's body from the shieldshield he had made. Mundati put his arm up towards Tash, faintly pointing the way of the woods, as he felt himself sink into the ground, his limbs turning to jelly and, as he drew his last breath, his dying thought was of Catelyn and hope that she would someday be happy without him.
*******
A/N: Hey guys, okay, so how many of you hate me now?
This is the penultimate chapter of Revenge, which I will post the last chapter of real soon.
Thanks for reading.x