The Shadow Man

TwentyFour

I stand in the place where I first came into contact with Dāku.
The original man in Golden Armor.
"Do you know where we are?"
Asks the man.
I turn around.
"The Nolite Crucible."
I reply.
He steps towards me.
He towers over me at 8 feet.
"Who are you, Boy?"
He asks.
I'm taken aback.
He winces, as if the question posed physically hurts him.
"You are haunted by questions young one."
He observes.
"Who hurt you here?"
He asks.
I look up at him.
"Dāku. The Dark One."
I answer.
My staff materializes in his hand.
"You battled him?"
He asks.
"I killed him."
He examines my staff in his hands, feeling the crack that still mends itself like a broken bone.
"You are racked with guilt, are you not?"
He asks.
"Why should I be? I severed his connection to a limitless power."
He looks at me, my staff disintegrates in his hands.
"Yet you doomed your own people to this place. You locked us down here for an eternity. You killed your own friend, and failed to save another. Still another you refused to train, and yet another you failed to avenge.
Of all the men who died in your name, you do not feel any remorse?"
He asks.
"Why do you bring me here?"
I ask.
"Because you are worthy to be here. We are all that is left of the Nolite Domain, Donatello Temple. We are the last of a dying light."
I shake my head.
"Maybe this is where we belong."
It takes him a moment to process what I just said.
He reaches up, and removes his helmet revealing his face.
Golden hair adorns his head with silver lining.
He's aged, and worn.
He has more than likely seen his fair share of battles both won and lost.
"How can you say that?"
He asks.
"From what I have seen, darkness thrives here."
I start.
"I was tortured by Nolites before I was brought here. My own people, my species. I had to fight one of my own kind. He slaughtered countless others before I stopped him."
He looks at me, sorrow and fear hide in his eyes.
"Don't you know?"
He asks.
"What?"
I ask.
"That is what the Darkness truely is."
He says.
"Darkness, lives in the absence of the light."
His words cut me deep.
My mind drifts off to Alice, and the world I left behind.
For the first time I realize that the world vary well might have fallen into chaos in my absence.
The man looks at me with such wisdom in his grey eyes.
"That is not your place, young one."
He says gently.
"I know where I belong."
I say back.
"You have lost your way, boy."
I turn to him, and remove my helmet. Tossing it aside I walk towards him.
"Why have you brought me to this place?"
I ask once more, meaning something else this time.
"To learn of your life. To understand you. Your attachment to that world is wrongly placed. It's inhabitants do not belong there. That is Our planet."
He says.
Suddenly, I'm pulled back to reality.
The connection is severed.
I open my eyes, and place my weapon on my back.
"You are conflicted, young Warrior."
Says the man in gold.
The drums have stopped.
He stands from his throne, and steps forward.
All around us, the Nolites take a knee.
Even Kaleo.
Rone and I stay standing.
"You are confused, and lost."
He reaches out a hand to me.
"Let me show you the way."

The transport rocks side to side as we hit each bump in the road.
10 of us sit in the cab, across from each other.
JayVett twirls a knife in the air, floating the blade between her fingers.
"Can you stop?"
I ask.
She looks at me, and the knife plunges into the ground next to my boot.
Finley checks herself, making sure everything is right.
She really knows what she's doing.
Grey constantly has to correct me on what I'm doing wrong.
He first pushed the barrel of my gun to the ground, keeping it from pointing at anyone.
I kept dropping the magazine from my rifle until he showed me where the mag release is.
Then he had to engage the safety for me.
*Not before I unloaded 3 rounds accidentally*
They've outfitted me like a soldier.
I am not a soldier.
But, this ain't the first time I've gone after Donnie.
The isn't the first time Larson has given me a gun and a suit of armor.
While I prefer the smaller guns, I think I will need some heavy firepower for what happens next.
In the briefing, he explained to us that the G'hunawae are the least of our worries.
We don't know what else is waiting for us on the other side.
I can't imagine what that world is like.
The truck steadies as it finds a road once more. I look out the window and I see a military checkpoint.
Floodlights and soldiers standing guard with fully automatic weapons in their hands.
Than we pass through the checkpoint, and we exit the vehicle.
The air is cold and frigid.
I shiver beneath the armor plating that covers my body.
We walk through the base and towards the building they built over the Portal.
As we grow closer, the air grows colder, and less dense.
The moisture in the oxygen is gone, replaced by a foreboding hum of electricity.
We're lead inside by a team of 12 men, where we meet General Ayla.
He briefs us once more, but I'm too distracted to listen.
Larson's men pay enough attention for the rest of us.
He leads us to an elevator, that takes us down, where we are met with the Portal in all of its horrifying glory.
My mind races, and so does my heart.
This is it.
This is where my life here ends.
Everything I've been through.
This is how it ends.
"I'm coming for you, Donnie."