Guardian(Part IV): Revelation

Chapter 12: Connor

Ruth and I crept through the frozen northern forests of the island, towards the source of the immense aura of darkness hanging over it. We had been warned that there may have been Lost and other monsters freely roaming the wilderness surrounding the fortress that were strategically placed to kill intruders, but we managed to sneak past them, until we were at the edge of the forest, and had a visual of the island's fortress.

"What do you think is in there?" Ruth wondered.

"Nothing good," I answered. "Let's get in there."

"Don't just walk up to the front gate," Master Avanka warned. "You can find another way in with your APIDs."

"Really?" asked Ruth, tapping her APID. She took a step backward with her eyes widened, then began to look down, below her feet.

"Found a tunnel," she reported, then she formed her aura blade, and stabbed it into the snow under her before dragging it to the side, causing some of the snow to fall through the ground. I looked through the crack and saw a long tunnel with walls of ice that almost shined against the sunlight that reached through the thin snow.

"Huh," I observed. "A crevice."

"It leads underneath the fortress," Ruth assured. "And I'm not seeing any heat sigs."

"They could be hidden by the ice," I warned. "Let's be careful."

We both warped to the bottom of the crevice, then went towards the fortress through it. I formed my aura blade, just in case we ran into anything. We seemed to have a straight path to the fortress, even though the icy crevice was a slightly winding path. I made sure to check every curve before we went forward, but there was still nothing. I heard Ruth give a silent chuckle at my paranoia, which I rolled my eyes at. Eventually, we reached a brick wall at the end of the tunnel, with a metal door in it that had a sign hanging from its handle. The sign was red and the words on it were white, but the writing itself wasn't in a language I recognized. It must have been the Ancient Tongue.

"Avanka, can you translate that?" Ruth requested.

"No," Master Avanka admitted. "And any intel you find will probably be written in that."

"Sounds like you need a translator," a familiar voice blurted. It was Princess Meridia.

"Princess!" Ruth chirped. "Good to hear your voice."

"I'll be available whenever you need me to read the Ancient Tongue for you," the Princess assured. "That sign says 'keep out'."

I covered my mouth to hide a chuckle.

"You're joking," I hoped.

"No," Princess Meridia corrected. "I'm not. That sign on the door says 'keep out'."

"Right," Ruth sighed. She held her hand up at the door's handle and sprayed an icy mist to freeze it over before shattering it with an aura blast.

"I hope no one heard that," I blurted.

"I'm sure no one did," Ruth hoped, pushing the door open.

"Yeah," I agreed. Right as Ruth was about to step through the doorway, Wilson's voice suddenly came through our APIDs.

"Stop!" he shouted.

"Gods, what?" Ruth hissed.

I scanned the doorway with my APID, and saw a giant red space in it.

"What's that?" I asked.

"It's a laser tripwire," Wilson enlightened. "You were about an inch away from alerting the entire fortress to your presence."

"Can we warp past it without triggering it?" asked Ruth.

"I believe so," Master Avanka hoped.

"Yes, you can," the Fox suddenly chimed in. "I just did."

"You tested that theory without telling us?" Wilson scolded.

"It's a motion sensor, Wilson," the Fox reminded. "You have to walk through it to be detected by it."

Ruth and I both warped to the other side as the transmission cut, and out of curiosity, I looked back to see what was in the doorway. A giant pack of explosives was attached to the ceiling above the door that was wired to the laser tripwire. Had we triggered it, we both would have died, along with everyone on the island knowing we were here.

"Yikes," I whispered.

We had entered a large room that must have been a storage unit of some kind, with a large door opposite the wall with the door we came through. I got down on my chest and carefully lifted the door just enough to where I could see what was on the other side. All I saw was a hallway with more storage unit doors on the other side of ours.

"No heat sigs," Ruth informed. "Not out there."

"Do Turned give off heat?" I wondered.

"Yes, they do," Master Avanka informed. "They're still alive, just turned into monsters."

"Right," I understood. "Ruth, let's look in all of those storage units. Maybe there's stuff in there."

I lifted the door to the unit we were standing in, and we both looked through the others in the hallway. There were six on the right side and six on the left, including the one we came out of. The first few ones I searched were empty, but the next ones would give me nightmares for the rest of my life. One had the body parts of people, the next had body parts of demons, and the last one had body parts of dragons in them!

"Are you seeing this?" I asked, through my APID.

"If there's a Tuatha on that island, that would explain the people and dragon parts, but why the demons'?" Master Avanka wondered.

"Could it be one of the Seven?" Princess Meridia suggested.

"I doubt it," I answered. "I don't know if any of them would have body parts hidden from view."

"True," Master Avanka agreed. "Baroz wouldn't bother with anything that required effort of any kind."

"Connor," Ruth called. "Check this out."

I went over to the unit Ruth was looking into, seeing boxes upon boxes of what looked like explosive devices. Whoever was in charge must have been keeping them in this storage unit instead of the armory for security purposes, but what they were meant for wasn't clear.

"Captain Brown, look at the wall to your left," said Princess Meridia. I turned my head to the left wall of the storage unit, seeing a clipboard hanging on the wall by a nail. On it was a form of paperwork that was filled out in the Ancient Tongue. I took it off its nail to look at it as though I was reading it so Princess Meridia could translate it for me.

"Woah," she whispered, then she read aloud, "Shipment: Ten thousand pounds of plastic explosives. Destination: Chardanish Facility. Shipped from: Camnorish Facility."

"What?" I gasped. "Camnora?"

"No, 'Camnorish Facility'," the Princess corrected. "One of these places must be there, too."

"They might have one in every country on the planet," Wilson speculated. "But what are they doing in them?"

"The body parts aren't exactly a good sign," I said.

"And these explosives aren't any better," Ruth concurred. "What's left of the Seven are instigating chaos and mayhem across Zenartha as we speak. From the looks of what we're looking at, they might be selling weapons to any side that will take them in order for more people to die when they're used."

"Unbelievable," I whispered.

"Until we know that for sure, your objective still stands," Master Avanka declared. "Gather more information. What you have found could support that theory, but we need more before we can risk blowing your cover there, and the integrity of the mission along with it. The other teams are entering the fortress as I speak. They'll find out more as well. You two need to move along. Great job so far."