Guardians 1: Ashes

Chapter 54: Night Fort

Cory's POV

My headaches were getting worse... I couldn't sleep at night, I am getting constant nightmares and I hate it. The voices in my head are getting louder and I try to ignore it, but it is so loud.

I let the entity out on accident, during training, it was a last resort and I could feel my self loose a piece of humanity.

I was beginning to get home sick. I missed Rex, Ross, Adam, Jin, Shelby, and most of all Uni. I wanted to hate him, but I couldn't and I felt guilty for leaving them all. I want to go back, but I can't. I sighed and looked at my bare walls. The room was dark. I stared into the absolute darkness and thought of the Nero kingdom.

I shut my eyes then opened them, and there I was. The base looked messed up, I looked around then remeber Mitch was poisoned so I ran to the medical bay.

I slammed the door open and Jerome jumped up from his seat. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with the others?"

I ignored the question knowing I didn't have a good reason." Is Mitch okay?" I asked sharply.
"Yea, he is good, but he won't be able to fight until his body is done fighting the virus." Jerome said looking at Mitch who looked very pale and sweaty.

"Red... passed, but I expect you know that from the letter we sent." Jerome said and I looked at him surprised.

"You're not suppose to be here, are you Cory?" He asked sternly.

I took a long look at Mitch then mummbled,"Ghetto."

"What about Ghetto." Jerome asked.

I shook my head,"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me." Jerome said crossing his arms.

"He did this." I said quietly while looking at Mitch then shadow jumped back. Knowing I could not be there for to long.

I was back in my room, back at that dark cold place. It had became a cycle of killing the 'weak' kids, if they were not 'strong' enough. I hated it, but it was for Nick.

Nick was all I had left after my parents, after Rex, after Uni... We looked out for eachother when Uni and Rex were gone, and sure, I owed Nick my life after saving my butt that one day.

There was a knock at my door and my train of thought shattered. Ashlie came in."Hi." She said with a smile.

I did not look at her, or meet her gaze. She sat down on the bed and smiled at me.

"First mission begins this night." She said tapping her sword. "It will be me, you, Tommy, and Jason."

"Jason?" I asked curiously.

"Yup, he manages the bigger or tactical attacks. So Jason will mainly be working with the army, Tommy, you, and I will be doing, well the fun stuff." She paused then spoke again.

"We are trying to expand our territories and armies, and there is a pesky Nero fort nearby, we are gonna attack at once, so they won't have time to send messages to worn Kalá. That is where you come in... We need to investigate and scope out the area first. Mostly we need you to find a clear spot to shadow jump me and Tommy in."

I nodded silently, it was a good plan but I didn't want to be apart of it.

"Then we can flood out the soldiers inside, outside where Jason and his army will be waiting." Ashlie said looking proud of herself and I snickered.

Tommy then barged in. "Don't try to stay with her in battle! She leaves you alone to fend for your self like a savage!" He yelled that in a very funny annoying tone.

"Is Nick going?" I asked.

"No his training is not done." Ashlie glanced at Tommy who gave sly nod.

"Suit up." Ashlie said then got up and left my room.

Tommy just stood there akwardly looking at me. "So are you gonna invite me to a cup of tea?!" Tommy said putting on an accent and sitting on my bed casually.

I stared at him, wondering how I use to know this person... this kid was my friend and look at him now. Look how far changed he was. I knew I couldn't let this happen to me, but deep inside of me, something told me... it was already to late.

Ashlie's POV

We walked in absolute silence in the pitch black of night. I signaled Cory to get inside through the roof and he began to climb the building silently."Good thing he was a thief." I mumbled then bit my tounge breaking the silence.

He climbed in a high window and disappeared out of sight. We waited about a minute or two, then he appeared in front of me and Tommy. He grabbed both our shoulders then everything went blacker.

Everything lit up again and we were inside the fort, we were in a room with tons of papers and maps. Tommy looked at the map.

"Oh battle plans." He said in joy and pulled the maps off the wall, then began stuffing a bag with papers. I looked around, I noticed blood on the ground then saw a dead man who looked pale and frail behind a desk on the floor.

I slowly looked at Cory and he stared at me with no emotions in his eyes, and it made my heart skip a beat.

He put a finger up to his lips and made a Shhhhhh motion. He then rose both hands up and the ground began to shake, then skeleton arms sprouted out of the ground and rose to full height.

"Flood them out!" Cory commanded and the skeletons roared and ran out the doors followed by hundreds of screams.

Tommy smiled enjoying the less work then continued to take more papers.

I sat down in a chair waiting. Cory looked a little tired, seeing raising the dead drained him at least a bit, put my mind at ease.

I pushed my red hair out my face to get a better look at Cory. His necklace seemed to be even darker if that was even possible. I could here screams outside then them stopping mid shout. I heard the clanking of swords outside.

"Okay, time to do a sweep." I said and Cory and Tommy both got up and left the room each going on different directions.

People definitely did not know what was going on, after all skeleton soldiers had just chased them straight into an army of men. All they knew, was to fight, and they did just that. I joined the fight, my breathing growing more intense as I worked through the crowd. I didn't see Tommy, probably hiding somewhere I thought to my self.

I was able to clear a path to were Jason was at, he was wearing his usual advance armor with a space helmet type thing. People ran away from that sight, ran straight into a skeleton then cut in half.

I looked around to see if Cory was doing what we had trained him to do... and, he was.

He and the skeletons killed people and as Cory killed one, he grabbed them by the shoulder and drained the remaining life they had. As he did that, his attacks and the skeleton's attacks became stronger.

Then I noticed, where ever Cory stepped, the grass would die out, from green to brown, to dust. I started to get worried, it seemed as if his powers were getting out of hand, then I noticed this weird darkness coming out of the necklace.

What ever it was, it was pulling away from the necklace and following Cory's steps, almost like a shadow. A dark shadow of him.

Every time he killed another person, the shadow grew darker, and was able to pull away from Cory a little more. I began to panic. It has to stay with him, or who knew what would happen, he had to control that thing. I touched my own necklace then sighed.

I duplicated my self and each clone went in Cory's direction, surrounding him. He stopped immediately and looked at us.

The entity behind him had a creepy grin with jagged teeth. It smiled at us then Cory shook his head and it faded back into the necklace.