Sky Returns - Rewritten/Revised

Chapter Eight

They came up to New Byrne when the sun was rising. The golden rays sprayed out over the buildings and the ground, the rare flowers in window boxes or on rooftop gardens arching up to greet the warmth. People were rising for their morning shifts while others were falling asleep after their night shifts. The air was heavy with smog from the factories that never shut down. Three of them had been walking calmly when Cerra suddenly broke out into a sprint, darting across the borderline between the forest and the city. Darius and Sky scrambled to keep up, especially when they dove right into the fray that was the morning rush on both the sidewalks and the cars. People were shouting, talking on their cellphones or hollering to others across the way. Cerra darted into an alleyway and Sky followed after, reaching out to drag Darius in by the back of his collar when the male started to run past them.

"What the hell was that for?!" Sky hissed angrily, adjusting his cloak.

"We only had a couple of minutes. The border's unguarded for a bit in the morning so that the night guards can shift out for the morning guards." Cerra explained while Sky glared at him.

"And you didn't think to warn us?" He growled. Cerra shrugged and shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Not really. But hey, you kept up! That's good because if you can't keep up with me I'm just going to leave you in the dust." Darius, who had had difficulty keeping up with Sky, wheezed in panic.

"Well, what now?" Sky said. "Where's the base?" Cerra looked around before he walked over to the nearest wall. Digging his fingers and pushing his feet into footholds that Darius and Sky couldn't pick up, he scaled a couple of feet up the wall before he jumped onto the nearest fire escape. He pushed down a rusty lever with his foot and a ladder dropped down with such loud banging and creaking that Sky covered one of his ears.

"Be quiet!" He hissed up at Cerra, who rolled his eyes down at him.

"Do you hear the noise the morning rush is making? No one heard it. Come on!" He trapped the top rung of the ladder before he turned and went up the stairs behind him quickly. Sky sighed before he directed Darius to go first, who went up quickly and nimbly from his practice climbing trees. Sky followed and they hurried up the stairs after Cerra who was waiting for them at the very top. He sighed at their apparent slowness before he turned and leaped onto the railing of the stairs. The metal creaked and groaned from the strain and Sky wished they were on the ground. Cerra didn't hesitate though as he grabbed the edge of the roof, pulling himself up onto it. He rolled smoothly once he pulled himself up, landing cross-legged as he watched Darius and Sky follow.

Darius did alright but wasn't nearly as graceful. He would've been too short for it had it not been for Sky letting him step on his back. Sky wasn't graceful at all though and Darius had to grab him by both of his arms and pull him up over the edge. Cerra didn't do anything to help and only watched. Sky stumbled to his feet, ruffed up from the trip that felt nearly impossible to him. He was a knight, he didn't have any business climbing things. Especially roofs of a building that was way too far away from the ground. "We better had come up here for a good reason." He growled. Cerra smirked before he stood and walked over the edge and they followed as he pointed at something.

Over the towering buildings of all sizes, through the thick smoke coming from buildings, the streets, and the factories, Cerra was pointing right at a building with an oval-shaped, steel plated roof. "That right there is the capitol building." He said. "And in the backyard, there's a secret entrance to the BladeDancer base." He turned to Darius and Sky. "It's the easiest way in and it'll lead us to the quickest way out."

"But it's the capitol building! With all of the senators! How are we going to get past all of the guards?" Darius asked.

"Lucky for us, there are no guards." Sky raised an eyebrow. "Well, there is. But they're the capitol building guards and they're lazy! They won't be expecting an attack since the BladeDancers protect them."

"But you said you were crooked." Sky said. Cerra smirked gruffly.

"We're more crooked than el diablo himself, Sky. But so's the Senate, so they pay us a nice heavy price to keep all of the gangs and thieves off their back. And any journalists who are trying to save the world." Sky frowned but didn't reply. "Now, all we've gotta do is wait until nightfall! We'll go out the back, slip through this hole in the fence, find the hatch, hop right down and make a beeline for the BladeMaster's office. And there we'll find our dagger."

"Why do we have to wait until tonight?" Darius asked. Cerra sighed.

"So many questions, amigo! Don't you trust me?" He chuckled. "We gotta do it tonight because every Friday, the BladeMaster goes to play poker with the big shots of the city. We won't have to go against him and his hallway won't be as guarded. He hates people guarding it when he isn't there and he knows that no one in their right mind would break into his office anyway!"

"Yet here we are, about to do it," Sky growled. He was getting uneasy about this plan. It was way too thin. It wasn't thought through completely. What if they ran into others on the way there? What if there were guards by the hatch? What if they were on lockdown because of Cerra's betrayal and escape? Cerra smirked at him.

"We're not in our right minds, now are we, hombre?"