Agent of The Nine

CHAPTER V: TORMENTED DECEPTION

Locked on his axis, there was really not much for Xur to do but to look at everything around him in awe, no telling of whether he was in a dream or reality. Soon after, Xur's body was finally set free, falling on his hands on one of the many walkways of Arroyo. The Jovian struggled to stand up with his frail feet due to his legs going numb when the Nine spell-locked him, but he managed to push through. Xur's yellowish eyes grew wider and bigger, as he couldn't believe what he was witnessing before him, it was Arroyo. "As I live and breathe..." Whispered Xur to himself with a minor rasp in his voice.

The breezy wind gusts through the tribe, shaking the straws of the huts' roofs. The marketplace brimmed with goods waiting to be sold. The familiar, fading sun once again showed its face, and the mild snowflakes covered the narrow gap between the patterned rocks of the pathways. Everything was there, intact. Like nothing ever happened. No tomorrow. Although he felt a sense of hospitality from seeing all these things around him, Xur couldn't help but be bewildered. This isn't the Arroyo that he first saw as a Jovian, the Arroyo that is smashed into rubble with no trace of life to be found anywhere around the gloomy blizzard. Instead, what he was seeing then was the peaceful Arroyo. The one with beautiful birds flying and chirping around the playgrounds and public spaces in groups of three, and crowds' constant talking and laughing in the hub areas. Except, there was no crowd, not even a single person in Xur's sight. This Arroyo that he was observing was nothing but a ghost town, nothing but wind gusting around. As if every single Arroyian decided to leave all their lives behind and fled the village out of fear of something sinister coming close. Xur couldn't help but wonder, is this a dream? Or a sort of deception he's going through?

"Hello? Anyone there?" yelled Xur aloud, as his rasped voice echoed throughout the entire village. Not a single cell answered, he was startled. He began to walk slowly with caution and looked around him with complete alertness like he was expecting something to jump and attack him. Unexpectedly, he started to hear voices, coming from somewhere within the village. He couldn't comprehend what the voices were and what they were saying, but their whispers were giving him a headache. Xur groaned intensely, he dug his dark, slithery fingers into the small tentacles of his head until their tips touched his skull, and quenched his eyes from the pain. He acted hastily and listened to his instincts by following the voices and finding the source of the nuisance. Xur walked from the patrol cabin next to the gate of Arroyo all the way to the main walkway of the huts. The voices grew louder the more he got closer to the unknown source. Xur couldn't make anything out of what the voices were saying, but he heard one of them say "Right". Xur's head rose attentively and looked to his right only to see a narrow road that leads to the hut where he once grew up and was raised by a loving family in his past life. "My home..." Xur whispered to himself, looking at his own hut with full focus. His body started to stimulate weird behaviors, the tentacles around his body were flopping instead of swirling and his hands started to shake, he was afraid. Fearful of what anomaly could be inside. Or maybe his body was afraid of what was to come later.

As Xur was able to open his eyes for a little to inspect his home's rocky floors all the way to its thatching roof, standing there, he realizes that this plane of existence has brought him nothing but quandary. To think that he would be standing in front of his intact home, where he once had a beautiful life, was driving him insane. He approaches the wooden door, opening it with a slight nudge with his swirling fingers. The creak of the door opening was rather soundly and slow. Xur peeked at what might be behind the door, but it was pitch black, nothing to even glimpse at, just pure darkness. It was too difficult for Xur to contemplate what might be behind the door, he shook his head vigorously as the voices grew louder and more inaudible. He swiftly rushed into the house, quenching his eyes as hard as he could from all the pain he was enduring. The voices were deafening to the point that a human would have their ears bleed from them, but as Xur stood steadily, the voices gradually calmed down until there was nothing but complete silence.