Ruthe and Gareth travel north east towards Angel City.
Harlem fights Claire. Princess is put in coma. And Gareth and Ruthe meet Harlem in the woods screaming for help.
Ruthe is extremely shy, hiding behind Gareth. Harlem asks for help, seeing their cart. Gareth is partial, but after learning Angel has fallen, he decides heading south with Harlem is best. He won't say what he's looking for though, just that he's "on a journey."
...
There in the clearing the two stood, their eyes locked onto eachother, motionless in the frigid breeze.
"Get behind me." Harlem mumbled, pushing the princess back as her eyes began to dilate, overcome with fear.
"You forget her senses Harlem." Raymond shouted. A tingling feeling suddenly ran down his arm. "Fuck." He thought as its hairs began to stand on end.
Slowly, from behind Ray, she began to emerge. Like a wolf, leaving the shadows to attack it's long sought after prey, she starred him down, eyes black like the night sky high above.
"Care for a dance?" She asked mockingly, raising her hand towards him. As he grimaced at the thought, Harlem noticed the tiny hairs on his legs and shoulders begining to rise aswell. This wasn't the sense he was use to. No, it was something more. Like something was in the air. Like electricity.
"AANNNAAA!!!!" He suddenly shouted, as he grabbed a hold of the princess. Without warning a bolt of blue light shot from the end of Claire's arm. Shadows of the trees shot back as the dark of the night was torn away like a veil.
The deadening crack sounded as it tore through the snow, ripping at the dirt beneath, sending chunks flying. Throwing the princess out of the way, Harlem took the blow. Into his back it struck, like an army of arrows.
"AAAARRRGHHH!!!" He screamed, as the bolt tore through his cloak and shooting him through the air and smashing him through the thick trunk of a pine tree.
Splinters shot in every direction as his body decimated the tree, leaving the giant to collapse. With an enormous woosh, the tree bashed against the snow, flicking bits of its branches in all directions.
"HAAAAHAHAHAHAA!!!" Claire screamed in psychotic fury as she prepared another attack.
Her bolts tore through the trees, shattering their trunks like glass. Unsure of Harlems exact location, she only knew that he was close. Blindly she fired, annihilating the forrest around them, leaving Ray to carry out his own master plan. Slowly, he approached Anneliese.
The snow crunched softly against his feet as he moved toward her. His black, collared shirt tucked neatly, rippling in the quickening wind. In his eyes, she could see the plan. A deadly seriousness, which unlike Claire, held no point of joy. It was as if it was destiny to him. And fate for her. A fate the same as her fathers.
Desperately, she began clawing at the snow with her bare hands backing herself away from him.
"Why? Why are you doing this?" She asked, eyes set on his for only a moment, before looking around anxiously for her savior.
"It was a long time ago, Anna." Ray began to say as his shadow came over her. In every word, there was sincerity, yet it only made him all the more terrifying. "Before the days of Cloud Fire, the human race found God." He continued, as if unsure whether or not to tell her, yet unchanging on his physical actions as he came closer. "Or rather... made her." He smiled humbly as Anna's eyes shrunk in terror.
"Afraid, you are. And as they were, they seeled her away." Carefully, he kneeled down before the princess, touching her gently on the shoulder.
"But awakened, she has. And her will, this is."
He smiled softly at her, almost as to say "it's okay." But it wasn't. Nothing about this was okay. Claire screamed in laughter in the distance, pursuing Harlem through the trees as the two battled it out.
Harlem dashed in, ducking beneath ribbons of bright blue light, twisting and tearing through the trees. With all his might, he thrashed his arm forward towards her face. His fists were solid steel, and steam rose up from his molten tendons in the wintery air.
Carelessly, Claire slipped to avoid his jabs, weaving and grappling his arms. Easily, she used his weight to put him off balance and threw him back to a distance. As his body toppled through the snow, she wound up for another attack, toying with him as lightening wrapped itself around her arm once more. Quickly it charged up, but this time, Harlem had an plan.
"You're insane." Anna whispered shakily, realising that the young man had clearly lost his mind.
"I am an apostle, you're Highness." He smiled, almost as if he felt guilty about his actions.
"And you, are a necessary sacrifice, on a road... to salvation."
Carefully, Ray put his hand over the girls heart. Immediately, the veins across his hand began to protrude and change their colour from green into a ink like black. In a moment of pure terror, Anna siezed his hand and tried to pry it from her chest, but it was useless. His strength, as a Sentinel, was far beyond hers. A sudden violent pain shot through her. Her heart smashed against the inside of her chest and her entire body began to convulse. Blood began to soak out from her cloak around from where his hand was held. She was quickly slipping away. Feeling her life force drain. Feeling her heart begin to stop. His nanites. They were leaving his body, and entering hers!
Like poison, they began to surge through her veins. Her eyes, innocent and blue, began to fill at their whites, change at the veins. The same as Claire's, the black liquid crept in from their sides.
"Har... Harlem..." She struggled weakly as her face became more and more pale. Futile, it seemed, as she reached her hand out in desperation, towards where the bolts of blue light where firing in the woods.
"HAHAA!!!" Claire screamed, as the bolt shot from her arm. Without warning, Harlems speed suddenly changed. Just as she fired, he hurled a small chunk of wood through her attack, striking her in the face.
As she closed her eyes to protect herself, Harlem shot up, ducking under her lightening and making sprinting at her, using the light from her electricity as a blind spot against her. As she opened her eyes, he leapt up into the air, siezing her hand to avoid being grappled. His burnt cloak whipped in the wind against the speed of his movement, and his jeans caught fire at their knees, as like his fists, they hardened into heated steel. One swift motion was all it took. With all his strength, he forced his knee upwards, smashing it brutaly into Claire's chin.
"AGH!!!" She choked as her jaw bone cracked in two. Sending a stream of blood down as she went, Claire fell to the snowy ground. But the fight was far from over.
Without hesitation, Harlem ripped through the snow, running as fast as the wind, towards Raymond and Anna.
Gently, Anna's hand slipped from Rays. As her vision darkenned, the pain slipped away from her. In the final image, she could just make it out. Harlems figure, stampeding through the tree line towards them. Coming to save her. Her knight in a burnt and bloodied cloak. Softly, she smiled as her life finally let go. There was nothing left to give. She had given all she had. It was up to him now.
"RAAAAAAYYY!!!!!" A belowing war cry tore through the air as Harlem leapt towards the two. He was going to save her. And he was going to stop Raymond.
As his body left the ground, all of his might went into a flying superman punch, directed at Ray, as he spun around. There was no way to dodge it. It was going to land and it was going to hurt.
But suddenly, the impossible happened.
It was as if everything went into slow motion. As if time itself ceased to exist, and Rays eyes met with Harlems in mid air. A calmness glazed over them. Expecting the attack. Anticipating it before it even happened. Before he had even seen it and now he had it was... nothing.
As Harlems fist neared his face, Ray grabbed a hold of it. Flinging Harlem over his head, Ray smashed his body like some kind of sledge hammer, into the cold hard earth. The thud struck loudly through the forrest, shaking snow from near by trees as the ribs inside of him cracked loudly.
Harshly, he splattered blood from his mouth across the white snow, trying with no avail, to atleast breath. Nothing. His ribs were broken. His diaphram smashed. And in his sudden weakness, Ray took the boys arm. This young man, once seen as weak by the other Sentinels. Once seen as unworthy of being a soldier. Now he stood, with one arm locked against Harlems elbow, and the other around his wrist. And in one swift motion, he cracked it violently backwards.
*CRRAAAAACKKK!!!*
The loud snapping noise echoed through the trees, followed by a deafening scream of pure agony. Shakily, Harlem stared up at his arm and almost vomited. His bone had snapped in two. Becoming sharp, it pierced through his skin and cloak. Protruded from him, he saw it with his own eyes. The whiteness of his own bone, the deep and dark redness of his own blood, mixed with the clear plasma and black liquid nanites, squirming around the open wound. Rapidly, he started to hyperventilate. His pupils shrunk and grew in and out, dilating in the pain and fear of what was going on. His mind stopped thinking, overcome by the suddenness of the situation.
"Now, she did tell me not to kill you..." Ray began to say. "But I am only human."
Once more, Ray latched his hands around Harlems broken arm, twisting it slowly as the flesh became looser and looser.
"EEEEAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!!!!!!" Harlem screamed in agony, thrashing his head and arms against the ground. Kicking his legs, he tried to push himself away from the mad Sentinel, but this only made things worse.
Seeing what he was trying to do, Ray pinned Harlem down by smashing his shoe onto his broken chest. "HOUUGH!!!" Harlem swiftly exhaled, loosing all the air from his lungs. His eyes bulged and his face turned a disgusting bluish green. Unable to fathom the extent of the pain, his body flooded with a pin like sensation. His head throbbed now as it rocked back and forth. His entire body burnt. There was no specific epicenter of the pain. Just pain. Just agony. A lost hope long forgotten and replaced by the hell he now found himself in. He was going to die here along side the princess. He had failed.
In that final second, there was suddenly a bright flash and a crack, the fire of a light rifle. Before he could turn to see it, a beam of blue shot through Rays shoulder, ripping him off of Harlem, who gasped, finally able to breath once more.
Consecutive bangs erupted from the air above them as a turret opened fire, tearing through the snow towards Raymond. As the young man leapt back, dodging the fire, their savior came into view. A large, dual bladed helicopter with turrets and soldiers weapons leaning out from its side doors. It was a much older model than the ones Reign used, but Harlem had seen its designs before. It was from the old army.
From out of its side door, a black shadow leapt. Flying down through the trees, the figures cape rippled behind him, and from his belt he retreaved two twin pistols.
Smashing his boots down into the ground, the figure finally looked up to reveal his black glass helmet. "Stalk..." Harlem groaned thankfully. He had come just in time.
Without missing a beat, Stalk aimed and fired, ripping through the trees to send Ray into retreat. Quickly, the helicopter set itself down in the clearing and soldiers dressed in white camoflague erupted from its sides to aid Harlem and the Princess.
"NOOO!!!" Ray screamed, rushing forward to recapture his targets. But Stalk shot twice, pinning him through both shoulders. Blooded and broken by the sudden onslaught, there was nothing Ray could do. Ragefully, he covered behind a tree trunk, poking out to search for an opening. But it was to no avail.
Each glance he took was refuted by an almost impossibly quick and accurate shot by Stalk. Upon stretchers, Harlem and Anna were placed inside of the chopper, as Stalk walked backwards to join them, never once taking his eyes off Rays location.
"GO! GO! GO!" One of the soldiers blared as Stalk holstered his weapons, took out a small, black ball and threw it, before leaping back into the chopper. The small object flew through the air, landing beside the tree which Ray stood behind. Suddenly, it clicked open, separating in the middle. "Beep!" It quickly sounded with a small red flash and with no further warning, Ray realised it was too late.
"Fuck."
*BANG!!!* With a quick deafening blast, the ball erupted, decimating the basses of the trees around it, sending them falling over in a hurricane of earth and splinters. Like a doll, Rays body was sent flying through the trees, leaving a trail of bloody mist behind it, stopping only once it was bashed brutally against a large tree.
As their helicopter rose once more above the trees, Stalk stared down at Princess Anneliese. Three medics had already begun to work on her, cutting the cloak away where blood pooled at her chest. Gently, the shadowy phantom reached out his glove towards her. But then, he hesitated, bringing it slowly back down into his cape. He had been her protector for so long. And now her condition was critical. Dire, as she lay there still and barely breathing. And he stared then towards Harlem. And blamed him.