Ancient Forces (2018 Reboot)

Chapter 6 - The Truth

Ver was doing her usual Saturday workout on her elliptical when she heard the loud cracking sound at the front of her house. Startled by it she stopped moving and waited for a moment, expecting some sort of other noise to follow. When a low, weak, and slow knock followed soon after Ver curiously got off the machine and stepped out into the hall. Damien was napping in his room, obviously not disturbed in the slightest by the loud sound. Ver strolled down the hall to the front door, wondering who could possibly come all the way out here at this time of day. Maybe it was someone from work bringing in new info or jobs. It was true they hadn't been as busy recently, mostly because of the one major job they'd been given. The main reason they'd moved here in the first place.

Ver opened the door and nearly screamed when she saw who was on the other side. It was Zayne, his legs shredded and glowing orange, his clothes totally torn and ripped apart. He was leaning against the wall, raising his head slowly to face his aunt. His face was covered in dirt, tears, and blood. He gave her a very weak and very strained smile, then started to drop to the floor until Ver caught him.

"DAMIEN! CALL KEITH!"

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The darkness was inviting. It was calm, quiet, warm, and peaceful. The silence was almost beautiful, after hearing almost everything else for the few hours that he had. Not being able to see, hear, smell, or touch anything. Here, in the darkness, it was just him floating endlessly, enjoying every moment of it. Slowly Zayne could feel his senses coming to life, working out what was going on around him. He could feel his whole body, which currently was not a very good thing. His body was aching, screaming in pain internally. He was burning up, sweat beaded down his face and legs, arms and chest. He was drenched. What had he done? He couldn't remember anything except being at home testing out his heat and scales and then...

Zayne choked as the memories flooded in. The confusion, the hate, the anger, the horror and realization of what had happened. His other senses kicked themselves on, his smell suddenly doubling in an instant. He could smell food, body odor of a most foul sense, and the familiar heat he'd felt only once before. Zayne's eyes blinked open rapidly, but were forced to squint once more as a beaming light bore down on them intensely. He tilted his head to the left, trying to avoid the glaring light above him. He could faintly see a figure standing over a large console with displays all over a wall that the figure was watching. Zayne groaned as he tried moving his arms to pick himself up.

While the pain of his arms was intense, he pushed through and sat up, but when he tried to move his legs he found that he couldn't. He looked down to see them bandaged heavily and strapped down to the mattress he was resting on. The mattress was flat, and not bendy like a normal bed's. It was as stiff as a rock while still retaining that needed measure of comfort. Zayne tried unstrapping his legs, fumbling around weakly with the locks on the straps. Finally he untucked one and felt a pressure release from his now freed left leg. The loud clatter of the strap hitting the metal floor below got the attention of the figure ahead, who turned around to reveal themselves as Ver.

"Zayne you're awake!" She exclaimed joyfully as she ran over and quickly hugged her nephew.

"GRK! Ver, please..." Zayne muttered out, his chest tensing up and hurting from the amount of pressure Ver applied.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Zayne, how are you? Are you alright? Do you feel okay?" Ver began to post question after question, trying to evaluate Zayne's condition.

Zayne grabbed Ver by the arm and squeezed it tightly, getting her to stop talking as he gave her a dead stare in the eyes, "Where's mom and dad?"

Ver stood there, staring at him blankly for a moment. Her lip quivered a bit as she seemed to deflate. Her lips started trembling, and Zayne's grip on her arm loosened to nothing. He didn't have any strength left. Ver's eyes watered up and she threw herself around Zayne once more, forgetting about his pain. Zayne had forgotten about it too. He just stared off into the distant monitors, both trying to cope with the obvious reply to his question, and trying to grasp what it was he was seeing. He was in the cave, the very cave he'd taken the weird orange heart from, except this time it wasn't just a large, unnaturally tunneled out room, it was one large base of operations that split off into several other rooms in different areas. The whole place looked totally different from when he'd entered it not even a few days ago.