Once Again

Chapter Forty-One - The Entity

Picture: A Fallen Star by bluehijinks (I think)

Ack I'm late again

The Entity

The air around him was cold and had a darkish feel to it. He couldn't quite pinpoint what was so wrong; perhaps it had something to do with the ground. The ground beneath his feet seemed to pulse and breathe, like a living creature. This was a different feeling. Moonland had never felt so ominous.

The others felt it, too. Braken's grip tightened on his wrist, as did Tristam's. Alyssa let out a weak moan, and Echo immediately tried to yank out of the leader's grip.

"Let go of Alyssa," he ordered.

"Not yet," Solar muttered.

Echo felt the ground rise up, take a breath, and then a chorus of voices spoke, Stella's original voice immediately recognizable. The others were low and rounded. The pitch of each voice clashed eerily, the dissonance shaking Echo down to the core.

"How dare you?" the AI growled, raising her voice. "How dare you come back here?"

Echo's breath caught in his throat. He knew she was talking to him. Braken tried to say something, and then started coughing, smothering it with his sleeve.

"Echo, Braken, you keep telling me you will not come back, yet here you are, and you brought me a little gift. How wonderful." They felt the entity's attention shift. "And you, SC002 - what a pleasant surprise. I have not had a good fight in a long time."

"How can you fight me when you do not even have a body?" Solar shouted back.

The air seemed to darken even more. "I am a consciousness ten times more powerful than you. I will take what I want and you will leave, or you will die. It is your choice."

"She's not going to care if we're in the way," Echo murmured.

"You have to get Alyssa out of here," Braken whispered.

Tristam's grip tightened on his sister's arm. Echo was quickly running out of options. He didn't want to leave Tristam here, now that he knew for sure that he was fighting Solar's influence, and he definitely couldn't leave Braken or Alyssa. He needed a plan. He needed time more than anything.

"If you are so eager to fight," Stella said, her dozen voices laughing, "then come and fight me."

"Let go of my sister," Echo said, his voice shaking. He was terrified. He couldn't see anything, as there were no stars here, and all he could feel was the ground pulsing and Braken's tight fingers on his arm.

"Isaac -" Alyssa started.

Before she could finish her sentence, Stella's consciousness rushed toward them, slamming into them with incredible force. Echo's senses were immediately flooded with agony as the others seemed to explode away from each other, like a bomb had gone off in the middle. He heard someone scream, though he wasn't sure if it was his own voice, or someone else's. Before he even landed, the darkness grew even darker as he lost consciousness.

...

"Isaac."

He couldn't move. What was going on? Where was he?

"Isaac, get up."

He managed to groan a little, feeling like he was floating. Was he dead? Why did he recognize this voice?

"Come on, son. Get up."

With much difficulty, he blinked his eyes open, squinting in the bright light. There was a person in front of him, blurry even after his eyes focused. "Who are you?" he mumbled.