Elites Chapter III: New Empire Rising

XXI

Gurugram, India

March 20th

4am

"Rob wake up." Sam whispered, slapping her friend awake from a deep slumber. "What is it?" Robert mumbled. "It's Caleb. He set off his distress beacon. Something's up. We need to go get him." Sam replied anxiously. Rob got up from his cot, and said "We can't. Nat and I talked this over; we can't afford to go after anyone else. It's too dangerous and we're spread too thin." Sam replied "You do realize that when Jay comes back and finds out his little cousin has been abducted, he's gonna be pissed. We have to help him at least." "If he comes back Sam! In case you haven't noticed, we've lost Zach, Nic is missing too. It's too risky to go back. We can get caught too, or worse." Robert replied sternly. "We're not going." Before he could get the words out, Sam was already grabbing her things and opening the door to the bunker. "I don't care if you won't help me. If we can save one person, then it's enough for me." Rob jumped off his top bunk and yelled "Wait! You don't even have an access code for the jets!" Sam stopped in her tracks, and turned around and faced Rob. "So you'll come with me." Sam replied. Robert hesitated, before reluctantly saying "Give me fifteen minutes."

Meanwhile in a nearby watch tower, Natalie was watching as they left from the cameras. She was alone in the base, and possibly the last Elite standing. She then turned on the proximity sensors and laid back. She fell into a deep slumber.

7am

Nat woke up only a few hours later to a piercing noise, and blaring alarms. She looked at one of the screens and saw that one of the sensors in the field had been breached. Nat quickly turned to the cameras, and saw nothing but trees and wilderness on all of them. She didn't see any insurgents or Endgame Operatives. She switched over to heat vision as well, and still nothing. Yet the alarms insisted that someone had come through. "Maybe a sensor fell out of place." Natalie convinced herself. She stepped out of the watch tower and went down the steps. She got on a black motorcycle, and headed into the woods. Clouds were beginning to roll in as she raced towards the breach.

After nearly an hour of riding, Amber found the sensor, and the cables completely intact. She quickly realized that something was horribly wrong. She quickly mounted her motorcycle and raced back to the base. After a mile or so, Amber's bike struck a wire. In an instant, an explosion went off nearby as her bike flipped into the air. The Elite quickly jumped off before the bike hit the ground. As she landed on her feet, she was struck backwards. She grabbed Bluestone's old pulse rifle by the handle. The dark spots that were once blue changed to a bright orange. She fired repeating blasts of energy around her, which left devastating holes in every tree she struck. As the weapon stopped to cool down, Amber was struck again by a black figure. It zoomed right past her and she couldn't even see it. She quickly noticed that she was bleeding from her stomach where she was hit. The black sleeve on her left shoulder was also turning a dark red. As she reached for her weapon, another figure ran past and the weapon vanished. She stood back up, and created an energy field around herself in the shape of a bubble. She heard a snapping noise, and a barrage of energy blasts flew in its direction from the field. Suddenly, a smoke grenade was dropped in front of the shield, and the smoke made its way into the bubble.

Gasping for air, Amber dropped the field so the smoke could disperse. She dropped all of her shurikens and explosives as she sprinted for safety. Once she was far away, she detonated the bombs. As the fires spread, the sky opened up, and rain put out the fires. By then, Amber was hidden away inside of a hollow tree. There was nothing but the sound of rain falling down. Suddenly Nat heard a familiar voice. "I was wondering when it would come down to this." Then an apparition appeared in front of Nat; it looked and sounded just like her, but she was glowing a dark orange. "It's not time yet. I've been in worse than this." Nat said calmly. The apparition replied with a burning rage. "Look around you! You're backed in a corner against something you can't even see! There's no one that can save you. You are all alone!" Amber replied " I'll find a way... I always do." "You've tried to hold me in, but you're weak. You're nothing more than a hollow shell of your former self. You've lost your edge. You have nowhere to run, and without me you have nothing to fight for." Amber then asked "What do you want me to do?" The apparition said in an ominous tone "To end. I'm tired of running, tired of hiding. And I know you feel the same, I'm a part of you!" As the storm grew stronger, Amber noticed in the distance a temple. "There. If I run for it I can get to safety." The apparition spoke "You won't make it." Amber replied calmly "I'll make it."

When she heard the rolling thunder, she burst out of the tree and sprinted for the temple. As she ran, she listened for other footsteps following her. For the longest, Amber only heard nothing but her own footsteps, and the rain. Suddenly, she heard soft tapping, feet hitting the muddy ground in pursuit. First there was one, and then two, then four, then eight. In the bright flashes from lightning, Amber looked back and saw their masks. The same masks that had haunted her darkest of nightmares for many months. She ran faster than she ever had before. After a short amount of time, she climbed the temple stairs and dropped through a crevice in the floor. She fell into a deep flood of glowing water, and the light trailed behind her as she swam to the steps. When she reached the top of the stairs, she stood on the edge of a massive coliseum-like graveyard. In the center was a huge tree, that somehow grew with no natural sunlight. There were fireflies surrounding the branches of this mighty tree. At the roots, there was a large tomb. Surrounding the tomb were a bunch of smaller graves. On each grave, laid a rusty sword, or an axe. Amber saw one of the smaller tombs with its top slid open, and she knew where she would hide.

The shadows climbed the temple steps and made their way inside. Two searched the outside, and two more the ground level. The remaining four jumped into the glowing pool. Amber could hear as they splashed into the pool, and made their way into the catacombs. Amber held her breath and dared not to move a muscle. The shadows walked down each row of graves, swords, sais, and chains raised. It was dead silent, as they listened for a sign of life. They walked past the firefly-lit tree, past the largest tomb. After many moments, they turned back, and realized that one of the lids on a tomb was not fixed down. The assassins circled back around, and Amber could hear their footsteps. "They aren't real." She thought to herself. "They're just lifeless clones. Brainwashed shells." She knew she was gonna have to make her own way out. She heard the bladed chains and swords being swung through the air, ready to strike. She created a small orange blast, and expanded it. As the weapons swung down, they bounced off a massive energy field, that decimated the small tomb as Amber burst out. The chains swung directly at her, and were blocked by small disks. Another assassin lunged at Amber from behind. She dropped to the ground, narrowly evading the sword aimed for her back. She got back up, and more chains were slung at her. One of them slashed across her face, splitting her mask in two. As the mask fell to the floor in two pieces, Amber noticed that she also had a cut across her left cheek, and it was starting to bleed. She reached for a pair of swords on top of one of the coffins, and blocked many of the assassins' attacks. Suddenly two of the chains were tied around her body. The assassins then pulled, and Amber fell to the ground helplessly. They then started to pull her back towards her. "Something's wrong. They should've killed me by now." Amber thought. She slipped her hand free from the chain, and fired a bolt directly at one of the shadows pulling her into the darkness. As the assassin fell backwards, the chain came loose, and Amber had a clear path to escape. She ran up the catacomb steps, and ran down another hallway instead of through the pool.

Amber ran along the endless hallways, making sharp turns to find a way out in a labyrinth of dead ends. When she reached a splitting pathway, she saw two more assassins with swords speeding directly for her. She turned down the other path and was met with many sharp corners. She finally reached a path where one more assassin was waiting for her. It had different markings on its mask. Instead of the accents being a silver color, they were orange. It was everything Amber was supposed to become when the Rogues were still around. The twin blades struck Amber's own. Sparks flew every time their swords clashed, lighting up the dark and narrow hallway. The assassin managed to trap Amber's blades, and they were pinned into the ground. Amber quickly headbutted the assassin, cracking its dark mask. Amber then grabbed its sword, as it grabbed a jagged blade. Just as it did, Amber swung the sword back around, slicing the being's neck open. Much to her surprise, red fluids splattered out. The assassin fell to the ground lifeless. Amber removed the mask not to see the decomposed face of a dying clone, but that of a human being. Amber stumbled backwards in shock, realizing the atrocity she had committed. She suddenly felt weak, and had a sharp pain in her left side. She looked down and saw the jagged dagger embedded in her stomach. She was bleeding out, and quickly. She heard the echo of footsteps growing stronger, and knew she was out of time. She held onto the wall, and slowly struggled over to the open window. She sent small pulses through the walls as she walked. When she reached the edge, her escape was blocked by a long fall into a vast river. The pulses sent through the walls grew louder, and louder until they reached their peak. Finally, she gave out, and fell into the river as the walls combusted and collapsed, blocking her escape.

As she fell, Nat thought to herself It's okay. It's okay. I'm okay. It's all over. I'm done. Darkness consumed her as she hit the water, and then nothing.