The Red Remain (Rubine vol. 2)

Spark

"Do you have any idea what you're even fighting for?"

"Maybe why you do it?"

...

Abrupt forces beyond my own input ripped me from a thoughtless oblivion. Shortly after being able to think, the ability to feel came round as well. I wasn't entirely sure when my body fully returned. Only when it hit the ground did the fact dawn on me that wasn't I dead.

Frantic and startled from my sleep, my arms and legs fumble me upright.

I spin around with my eyes darting every which way in panic. Mysteriously, there seemed to be no one here with me. There was no time for questioning though, I need to get back to my crewmates. No doubt I was in the thick of it yet, this was some kind of enemy base.

After regaining a better footing on reality, I started to look around for a way out of the room.

Upon closer inspection, it was a truly bizarre structure. The area was a dimly lit, large, flat space, that mostly made of dark marble-like stone. It had at its centre, a well of sorts. Filled with molten rock, this well was the most prominent lightsource. Around it in rings were small trickles of the fluid in engraved paths, giving more light to the spaces furthest from it.

I walked around to the different ends of the room in search of a door or warping port. Nothing. Though there was a raised platform on the one end of the room that I couldn't reach.

Looking further into the chamber, I peer up into the space above. I'd never seen anything so dreadful.

Warm, pale, colourful twinkles of light glittered above me like an uncanny night sky. Endlessly going up into the darkness of a massive, seemingly unending chasm. There were so many of the things... Tiny glistening balls filled with gems. Around them, intertwined between the different clusters of bubbles were massive, red, crystalline tubes, winding around randomly and stretching up into the dark where the light couldn't reach.

Each and every one of those bubbles contained a bodiless person. Who knew how long they'd been here for. How long had I been here? I could of easily spent days or even weeks inside that thing, And for these other gems, maybe even longer.

There was a disgusting horror in the sight of the countless fallen allies. My mind spun. What were the rebels doing with all these people? This wasn't a prison or keep, it was more like a kind of twisted trophy room or something. Shocked, I backed up against a wall, eyes locked onto the sky filled with poofed gems.

Touching the end of the room, I slid down onto the floor, letting out a sigh. There was no making sense of any of it. Where was I? How did I get here? What happened? Who let me out of the bubble?

It was at the dawn of the last question that something came as if to answer. A low pitched whimper echoed down from above me. It was unintelligible and distorted by distance.

"Hello?" I called up into the bubbles and darkness, squinting my eyes to try and make out any movement.

After a long wait, another noise echoed down the chasm and into my ears. A yowl. The voice was horrid and distraught, something pitiful. There weren't any words to make out... It sounded almost like a beast. Yet it was too much like a person to be considered an organic.

I got up from the floor and turned around to face the wall. Strewn about in twisting patterns were the bases of the red tubing. With no better ideas, I decided climbing them out of here would be the best course of action.

Shortly into the climb though, I got to realize just how many gems there really was. Endless... They just went on and on. Guilt came over me as I climbed past so many. There was nothing I could do but to gander at them. Each one is too far into the center of the room to reach. I tried a number of times reaching out and popping them, but to no avail. I even tried to summon my staff, but I couldn't; my gem was fractured.

Another cry would echo down through the room as I went further. Stupidly, I called back to it.

"Hello? Who's there?" This time I shouted.

And for a moment, there was a near-dead silence. The only sound to be heard was of the boiling stone below. Feeling slight anxiety, I went and clambered onto an out branching horizontal tube to wait for the next sound. Eventually the silence broke.

The same voice had called out again. It sounded much more calm this time, but still, eerily, had spoken no words.

"Who are you?" I yelled.

No response.

Soon enough, I started climbing again. The chasm was starting to narrow to a point above me. Finally I could see an end to the chamber. Almost out. I thought. Coning upwards, there was an entrance to another room. A single red cable went upward into it. My arms were killing me, but I pressed on. I had to get out of here. If there was any hope to saving all these gems, I need to get word out about this base and its location.

Huffing up a storm, I use my trembling arms to pull me into the next room. After heaving myself up onto the floor, I roll onto my back to rest again. The eyes in my head peered up into a new, even more bizarre place. If I were any less sane, I would of thought this to be a dream; The tube I used to climb into the room continued straight into what appeared to be a massive, crystal blob. It looked like a giant muscle or other animalistic organ, and would emit a deep, ambient thumping sound. Creepy, I thought. While pondering the function of the room, I noticed that there were also two doorways, both leading into opposite directions. Hallways in which the vein-like crystal tubules all lead to and from.

For a while I sat and wondered where I should go. The two paths lead in different directions, which one was the right way? Lost, I sit up and call out again for the other voice. This time, no one answered.

Instead, I hear something from the room I woke in. A snapping racket, and then faint, echoed footsteps. But what really caught my ear was the sound of conversation. I got up painfully fast and bolted over to the hole I came out of. Most of everything was obscured by the bubbles, so I couldn't see much. From this angle though, I could now finally see the surface of the unreachable platform. On it stood four gems, presumably rebels. At first I questioned where they came from, but I soon realized that there was a door on the platform out of reach from ground level.

They all jumped down off the platform, and the door then closed. Bubbles blocked my view of what was going on, but I had the idea that they were looking for something. More than likely, that something was me. Or perhaps it was the other voice.

I slinkered away from the hole and snuck to the path closest to me. Both paths looked seemingly identical, but I chose the one closest as to risk less noise. 

The voices soon vanished as I went further and further away from the two nighmarous rooms, and into another...