Skylands Legends

5.2 Dark Revelations

Jet Vac's taloned feet sifted through the ashen ground as he stood there in silence. A gray mist covered the barren island creating a dark haze around everything. Lying among the ash was Eruptor's darkened body.

Jet Vac forced himself to look at it. A well of emotions bubbled up within him causing him to look away. He forced himself not to think about the dream the King of Chaos had shown him. He closed his eyes and brought up a mental image of a void. He fed all of his emotions into it until there was nothing but the void there.

Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes again and looked down at the body. He memorized every inch of his friend's corpse, forcing himself to remember it. He had to remember. Remember what was done to Eruptor for when he hunted down his killer.

A brief bit of anger touched the void at this thought and Jet Vac quickly pushed it away. "What do we know?" He asked.

"A shockwave was sensed by our scanners originating from down here." Buzz answered. "Eruptor took his team down to investigate. Hedgefog says a great beast was lying in ambush for them. It attacked them and Eruptor sent him to the sky ship while they held it back, finally calling for him to leave. Says he didn't look back and returned to the academy as quick as he could."

Jet Vac nodded. "And the portalers?" He felt some anger touch his voice as he asked, but let it slide.

"Didn't work." Mags said from behind her scanner. She poked her head around it to look at Jet Vac. "Still don't either." To demonstrate, she smashed one of the pins and nothing happened. "Dunno what's wrong with 'em yet." She said. Her eyes briefly glazed over Eruptor's body and Jet Vac saw her blanch before hiding behind the monitor again.

"Is that all we know?" Jet Vac asked.

"As of right now." Buzz said. "Didn't wanna push the kid too hard. He seemed pretty shaken up when he got back."

"Can't blame him," Mags remarked.

"No," Buzz said, shaking his head sullenly. "A sad day." He said.

Jet Vac ignored the comment and bent down to sift through the ash. After a moment he found what he was looking for, a silver and blue gilded vamplate. Carefully, he picked it up and held it before him. Eruptor's lance.

"You know," Buzz said, hobbling up to rest his hand on Jet Vac's shoulder. "I think you're the one he'd want to have that."

Jet Vac turned his head away from Buzz as another wave of sadness and anger threatened the edges of the void. He fought to push them back and changed the subject. "Have you scanned for rift resonance?"

Buzz nodded. "Nothing," he said.

Jet Vac paused. "That can't be. The rift key was activated right here ten years ago, it can't just be a coincidence that all of this happened back here."

"If the rift had opened, we would know." Buzz shrugged. "No resonance was detected ten years ago just as none is detected now. We have to assume that when the rift key was destroyed, so was the rift."

"And what if we're wrong in assuming that?" Jet Vac burst, spinning around to face the grizzled mabu.

Buzz's one eye twitched back and forth as he studied Jet Vac. "Check it again, Mags."

Mags grunted in response and began working away on the scanner. Buzz gestured towards her and he and Jet Vac made their way to the scanner.

After a moment she paused. "Still nothing."

Jet Vac looked over the monitor. "That can't be," He muttered again. "You must have missed something."

Mags frowned. "I wish I did."