Eclipsed Journeys

S.1, Ep.5: Shattered Realms

The four arrived at HQ. It was all broken down and damaged. Nova assisted in helping injured soldiers. She had a skill for aiding people, so she was in the medical wing. Ace and Nats were in the main room talking about their next move. They needed to take out the Demons quick. Luna assisted a soldier in making more space for equipment. She carried a couple of boxes around and tried with whatever she could do.
The captain called the four to the information table. He looked serious. "Listen. We found out where the demons come from." The captain was tall and big. He had a mustache and short hair. The captain never made a joke and was always on the serious route. He looked at the four one by one, making Luna a bit uncomfortable. "Give us some more detail, Cap." Ace said with quite a demanding voice. He was serious about the situation due to his past in Mirage.
The captain showed them a picture. Nova looked at the picture and raised an eyebrow. "A rift?" She asked while she inspected the picture more carefully. "Correct." The captain responded. He continues: "In the cave is a rift where the demons come out from. If we can close that, we can end this once and for all."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Natalie asked. "We have the manpower to attack them, right?" She turned to Ace hoping he would assist in the conversation. He remained silent and looked at the picture.
"We do... but we don't know how many are in there." The Captain was careful and inspected the picture again. Ace stood up, "One way to find out." Ace said and padded Nats on her shoulder. There was the assistance Nats was looking for.
"Right then!" Nats responded as she also stood up. "I will gather some soldiers then."

The four including some soldiers were on their way to the cave. Nova walked next to Ace and started asking some questions. "So... Mirage is something from your 'past' right?" She asked carefully. "Yeah, well..." Ace looked at Natalie. "When I left Mewni to lift my curse, Mirage was the first city I discovered. Not long after that I met Nats." He smiled. "She was fighting with the military of Mirage to back off the Demons. I assisted them and became close with her. I saw her growing up before I just..." Ace stopped for a brief moment and sighed. "vanished. I never told her about my curse until the moment I left." Nova looked at Ace. "Why?" She asked again. "I don't know. But she promised me that whatever would happen, we would always be friends." Ace looked at the sky for a moment and then back to Nova. He was struggling with the fact that he left Natalie this sudden. "Well... Looks to me that she blindly trusts you." Nova said confident. "I guess yeah." Ace chuckled as he moved on.

The group arrived at the cave. The rift lit up the whole area in a dark blue as they walked in. The Demons in the cave were wandering around, growling at each other. "Look." Luna pointed at a Demon pinned to the wall. It was growling and struggling to get down but every attempt was unsuccessful. "Ah... That was me." Nova said to her chuckling. "Haha.." Luna smiled and looked around the cave.
"It's time." Nova said confident. She readied her crossbow, went to higher grounds and waited for the sign. Luna responded. "Let's do this then." For once, she was confident as well, which was new for her.
Ace took a deep breath as he aimed his rifle and opened fire. Nats and Nova followed his lead.
Nats assisted Nova on the high ground taking out the stronger Demons. Luna assisted Ace from behind. The soldiers took cover as the started shooting the Demons as well.
Ace came close and switched to his magical orb. Blue electric sparks flew of as he hit the Demons with it. As they got close to the rift, Nats grabbed a grenade and gave it to Nova. "Throw it inside!" She said. Nova looked at the grenade and nodded as she knew her mission. She put away her bow and ran to the edge of the rock, pulled the pin and threw the grenade inside. When it exploded, the Demons screamed. One by one they vanished. Luna noticed that the rift started to change color. It was now glowing orange ish. She backed up a bit. Nats pulled Nova back. "Let's take cover Nov. I never saw something like this before." Nova kept silent and followed Natalie. Ace stood close to it and looked at the rift. "Oh fuck." He said to himself. Shortly after that, a loud bang was heard and the rift imploded. It pulled itself in and the wind grabbed Ace as well. "Hold on tight!" Ace yelled. Luna responded to Ace. "It's pulling us in!" Ace held his gear to avoid losing anything. Luna and Nova did the same. Nats tried to grab Nova's hand but missed. They all got pulled in, and everything went black.

Nats woke up in the cave. She looked around and realized she was still in Mirage. The rift was still there but it looked weak. "Everyone alright?" She said but there was no response. "Ace? Nova? Hello? This is a problem." She said as she grabbed her rifle and headed back to HQ.

Luna opened her eyes. "Jeez... my head." She slowly stood up to find herself in a forest. "Ace? Nova? Natalie?" She looked around, checked her stuff and then she realized:
She was alone.

Ace opened his eyes and looked at the bright sun. "God damn..." He stood up as he had to wipe off some sand. It was hot as he looked around. Ace was confused. "A dessert?" He checked his gear. Everything was still there, including the rifle. Ace sighed. "Let's find out where I am then." He saw a small village nearby and set foot towards it.

Nova found herself drowning in the water. She quickly got out gasped for air. She swam to the nearest shore and took a deep breath. "What the hell happened?" She asked herself. When she looked around, she quickly noticed that she was all alone. "Oh for Christ sake..." She checked her gear and looked around to see what she could do. "Smoke?" Nova saw smoke coming from nearby and decided to check it out.