Dragon Falls (Indigo Apocalypse Book III)

Chapter Forty-Seven: They May Be Sun-Born, But She Is Night-Born

THIRD PERSON:
    They lined themselves up for the attack, the ocean of blood and gore separated the two armies. The Molten Dracons had tried to burn the bodies of their brothers and sisters. Tried to give them the resting place they deserved, but their flames couldn't set the bodies ablaze. Even their own dragon fire couldn't char the bodies. And so, the gruesome image of the sea of death remained. No matter what they tried to do, the bodies of their fallen remained. Kitana suspected the reason why, suspected it was some dark indigoism by the Dark Queen. To keep the agony and pain of the fallen to fuel her own power. Yet, there was a slight shift in the air. Almost unnoticeable. Almost, almost unnoticeable. Kitana couldn't put her finger on it, but she sensed something had changed, something had shifted in the air. She turned, turned toward the scorpion queen. "Go." She nodded, and turning, strolled away. After a few steps, she melted into a pile of scorpions. By her side, Sarah murmured, "I really, really, fucking hate scorpions." "How would you have even known they existed, you lived in Alaska." "You hear things, and see pictures and videos. Spiders are one thing, those things," she gesticulated toward the pile of scorpions that were flying through the shale. "Are quite another." Briella shrugged in response. Kitana watched as the mass of Ragni Di Morte shifted around, then watched in horror, as they began slaughtering, not any of the dracons, "You've got to be kidding me." Murmured Leia. "They're killing their own allies." Said Kupoa in horrified fascination. "But they need them, they need them to kill us." "No, no they don't." Said Vera, looking toward Alexandra. "Not since you blasted their eardrums and rendered them useless." "I meant to do it to all of them, not just the werewolves and vampires." They watched, horrified, as the Ragni Di Morte continued to slaughter their own allies, tearing the vampires and werewolves apart with vicious efficiency.
    When the Ragni finally finished, they faced the indigo from across the sea of death. They snapped their pincers together, as if applauding themselves. Vello blasted the sky with fire and a hoard of dracons rose, their flaming weapons raised. At Kitana's side, Sarah melted into snow and vanished, her masked face hiding her expression, all except her glowing sapphire eyes. Salty winds swept through the massive trench, and Kitana briefly wondered where Audrey was. Wondered, as the Ragni continued their applause, as they continued to clap, in their horrifying way. As the indigo waited, their weapons raised, it was Camille who noticed first. "Uh, guys." Kitana's masked face turned toward her, then toward where she was pointing, where a solitary figure stood, a mass of spiders around her, spiders, and hybrid spiders. "Well fuck." Said Briella, her claws shooting out at the sight of the Dark Queen, at the sight of her, just standing there. The aerial force hovered, watching the Dark Queen stand amongst her spiders on the cliff edge, watching the massive army snap their pincers. Then, "Wait, who's—" the dracon cut himself off as he saw the small contingent of Ragni Di Morte near the Dark Queen, neared her, with a humanoid body on their backs. "That female looks familiar." Said another dracon. Wenzi realized it, realized who went missing, and for how long, realized it, and dropped out of the hoard of flying wings, dropped, to, tell, her friends.
    "We need to get up there." Snarled Briella. "Which is exactly what she wants." Said Kitana. "That's Huntor's best friend, do you not know that girl? Do you not remember that—"Oh, I remember quite clearly how much she means to him." Said Kitana, voice cold, "And I'd bet it's because of that meaning she's even up there." She gestured to the ground at her feet, the tilled soil that marked the entrance to the cavern. "We can'f fucking get in there now. Reina is the only one who has the power to get in there and get Audrey out. We don't have Arachne anymore—"What?" Snapped Wenzi. "She was killed." Said Kitana. "I felt her death. She was killed, and never reborn, I'd have felt it." "Great." Said Vera. "So we have no way to get in to see how Audrey is dealing, or even if she's—" her words trailed off but everyone knew what she meant. "Or if she was even still alive." "Audrey's tough." Said Kitana. Quite lately, Kitana felt like she'd been talking too much. Pulling more than just her weight, more than just her share. "She'll do what she has to in order to survive. Meanwhile, we have that to deal with." Kitana gestured up, toward the Dark Queen, who remained still, looking down at the battlefield below her.
As the Ragni Di Morte continued their gruesome visage of an applause, Kitana and the others looked skyward. Looked, for any sort of salvation, any sort of something that would save them from the Hell that was about to be unleashed on them, yet again. Looked, for anything that just might make a difference in this war. Surely, because Kupoa and Lucy reached Godhood, there'd be some effect. Surely, because Briella reached Godhood, there'd be some effect. They'd seen the effects of Sarah's Godhood, seen the effects of Leia's Godhood, so, wouldn't there be for Lucy and Kupoa. For Briella, for Hecate, for any of the others? As Holly gazed above, she blinked, then blinked again, then again, then again, then, again, again, again, again, until her eyes were a comical wonder, lids blinking rapidly as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. "Uh, Mama?" She asked of Kitana. "What's that?" She pointed to the sky, to the sky they had all been staring at. "Huh Pup?" Holly pointed again. Joy and Luna followed the line her finger made, and grinned like hellions. "What is that?" Asked Amala. "Can you like, audio describe it for the blind people here?" Asked Camille in a snarky tone. Kamala sighed dramatically. "It looks like a falling star." Said Amala. "Oh, real helpful." Said Camille. "Geez you're so irreverent." "You damn right I am you—"Alright Camille, that's enough." Said Kitana. "They look like several stars, like little stars falling from the sky." Said Holly. "And, if I'm seeing this, they are heading right fucking for us."
They fell in a great swarm. Two and a half million Tinkers falling from the sky. All of varying shades of colors. All glowing their brightest as they fell, facing the army of the Indigo. Spanning in a great mass over the sea of death. Kitana stared, her mouth gaping, well, as did all of the mouths of the Indigo. The Ragni Di Morte stopped their gruesome clapping, staring in shock at what was across the battlefield. The Dark Queen and her guard stared, shocked, at what was beneath them. Reina sobbed with relief and gratitude. The Tinkers shifted as one great mass, until a hundred swarmed out and started shifting, until they became a great long line, and one male Tinker floated, his wings buzzing as he regarded the indigo army. His face masked, little body clad in armor,, he raised a tiny spear. The indigo army had no words, none, as another hundred Tinkers swarmed out, and carried a gigantic looking horn. They carried it to the male, and he floated to the mouth piece. His voice boomed, boomed, as if he were a six foot tall male. "We've come to fight with you." He shouted. "We've come on the call of our great Gods. Come on the call of the Gods whom we've worshiped since the stars fell from the sky and created us. We've come to fight and honor our Gods who fight." With shocked eyes, Kitana and the others turned to Joy and Luna, who still grinned like Hellions. "What is your name?" Asked Kitana, trying to bring herself out of her dumfounded state. "CREE." He bellowed. She nodded. Then, pulling herself together, she gestured to the twins. "This is your doing, you coordinate." They, stepped, forward.
    The mass of Tinkers shifted and danced as they organized themselves into a defensive line. Cree moved through the ranks of Tinkers, his head held high, his entourage of a hundred Tinkers baring the weight of the horn. The fallen stars. Cree got to meet the fallen stars. He got to meet the very gods who created Tinkers, who gave Tinkers their powers. He got to talk to them, to see into their starry eyes, got to see the millennia of lives they'd lived. He got to see just what, who, they are. "The Fallen Stars." He murmured. "Beg pardon." Said one of his entourage. Cree just shook his head. All the Tinkers knew the great honors that were placed amongst them in their hierarchies. They always knew their places in the world. Tinkers were no mere magical little things. They were a being, just like the werewolves, just like the dracons. They fought wars too, they fought battles too, against each other, against greater things. Alone, they were nothing, but together as they were, they were powerful. The Tinker army shifted aggressively as Cree floated at their edge, facing the ocean of rotting flesh and desiccated corpses. His entourage of a hundred Tinkers floated around him, then before him, raising the horn. The Dark Queen watched, a smirk on her boyish face as she witnessed what was below. The Ragni guards around her started laughing, laughed, as the Tinkers cheered and jeered, their tiny voices sounding to them like little bugs ready to be squashed. Wings fluttering aggressively, the Tinker army did indeed scream their war cries, their hatred of the darkness, their rage at the Dark Queen. They shook their spears and swords, waving them about with puissant furor.
    Kitana and the rest stared, well, all they could really do was stare. Stare, as they saw what was truly before them. Two and a half million Tinkers, each the size of a six inch toy, all waving weapons and screaming their little voices. "We're dead." Said Briella dryly. "There is no fucking possible way." On the other side of the field, the Ragni Di Morte laughed, their pincers beginning to clap rapidly again. Cree rose higher, as did the Tinkers baring the horn. The Dark Queen smiled now, a smile of humiliation, at the sight of what she'd always viewed as the weakest of the indigo species. The lowest of the low. Cree raised his arms, power alive in his body, power to commit this act, to announce this cry. The Ragni Di Morte continued to laugh, as the Tinkers continued to scream their battle cries and wave their weapons. Sahara stood, her gaze alive with wonder at the Tinkers, scorpions surrounded her. "When he gives the signal." Said Sahara to her scorpions. Her chains rattled as a small scorpion scaled down it and scattered away. Her other guards left her to stand on the outskirts of the camp.
The Ragni continued to laugh, falling over themselves with glee at what was before them. And, as they did, as the Ragni Di Morte on the cliff laughed, as the Dark Queen snorted in her boy's throat, Cree took a deep breath, and flew at the mouth piece of the horn. He blew, and as he blew, all the power blew out of him. The horn glowed a bright purple, then pink, then blue, then deepest indigo. As it glowed though, the loudest war-horn's cry could be heard, heard for leagues.
The Dark Queen scowled, scowled savagely as the horn's sound roared forth. As it echoed through the great trench and beyond. Scowled, as those Tinkers rallied themselves. Scowled, then blinked in shock, as scorpions, scorpions, scorpions, began to come out of the ground, out from behind invisible curtains, a whole line, no a whole army, of them. She bared her teeth through the boy's face, her black eyes roiling with rage as she recognized the desert queen, as she saw her stand, stand, STAND, with the indigo. The Dark Queen vibrated, vibrated with rage, as more figures appeared, as five figures came flying out of one of the many holes in the wall of the Forbidden Kingdom. Five figures who immediately went to talk with one of the indigo. The Dark Queen raged, her eyes scanning over the battlefield, at the clarity of reinforcements on the Indigo side. She opened her mouth, ready to deliver the order to attack, to attack, and leave no indigo alive, to attack and slaughter them all. Her roar roiled in her gut, in the ground of the Forbidden Kingdom. Roiled, readying to be freed. She would not loose, she would never loose, not to children, not to childish gods and half-breeds. Her roar for battle roiled to her lips, but she stopped it, choked on it, as darkness swirled on the horizon. Awestruck, confused beyond measure, she stared at that darkness, that, familiar, mirthless darkness. Stared, at that cruel hapless darkness. Darkness she bore all her existence.
Cree fell to the shale. It shocked Holly, shocked her to the bone. As he fell, wings limp, body dark, exhausted of indigoism. Tinkers flew in, carting his little body off. "It was his duty," Said one Tinker to Holly's mama. "To blow the horn in times of war is a great honor to bare, and the final act before war. Eight houses, for the eight colors of the indigo color spectrum, House Cree bore the weight and honor of blowing the horn." Kitana nodded, and the Tinker flew off. Holly was still reeling though. Tinkers, Tinkers, little Tinkers. Toy sized warriors to fight in something like this. Answer the call of, of, of, none other than Joy and Luna. The Jewel Twins, making jewelry for the indigo to help channel pure indigoism, and now, Star-Born Gods. Gods, Gods with the power to destroy, and raise. Holly shook her head, still unable to fathom it. Holly walked by Briella and Diana, who watched the surrounding area, watched, as scorpions began to make their appearance. "For their sake, I hope they truly are on our side." Briella murmured to Diana. "Otherwise," she gestured to the sky, where snow clouds roiled. Diana nodded, then frowned. "What?" Briella looked around just in time to see a great dark brown wolf leap out of a hole, along with a wombat, a monkey, and a scorpion, above, a raven, not Daitengu, swooped in, her, her, her, purple and black feathers glistening. "Well shit." Said Kitana. She hurried forward, Diana at her side, along with Briella.
"Finally decided to join us?" Asked Briella as the werewolf shifted into a very familiar human male. His eyes were dark, the wolf still near the surface. Flames roiled to life by his side, and a girl appeared through them, for the briefest moment, Briella could've sworn the girl had feathers like flames, wings of flames, and a body of fire, but as she blinked, the girl was in normal clothes. "We came," Said Troy. "To fight with you, to fight the war of all wars, the greatest war in," he seemed to struggle with the word. "Indigo wars. The greatest war of all indigo wars." By now, all of them had shifted into their human skins. Troy and the others were bare, but the girl was the only one who was still clothed. "Strange." Thought Kitana. Kitana waved a hand, "Go get suited up then, these two," she pointed to the twins, who still glowed slightly, within their eyes. "Will fashion crowns for you." The raven girl, what was her name? Briella couldn't remember, oh, right, Maria, looked at the twins with some apprehension. They all looked toward the girl, the blonde girl who was aflame. She stepped forward and they followed. "Vello," Said Kitana. "Be sure you have lookouts keeping an eye on that." She gestured above, to where the Dark Queen's figure could be seen, vibrating with rage. "Anything, any slight move to hurt Reina, let me know." Vello nodded and turned to deliver the orders.
Dracons roared, and as they did, Kitana turned, turned, and, froze. She knew what that was, knew just what it was. For months, the world had been immured in it. For months, the world had been cloaked in it. She'd seen it begin, seen, it's, beginning. "Darkness." She muttered, horrorstruck. "WHAT?" Snapped Briella, whipping around. She was frozen too, frozen, even as the five indigo moved with Joy and Luna, even as the Tinkers readied themselves for their attack, even as Sahara and her thousands of scorpions readied themselves. The Dark Queen smiled broadly, smiled, as that inhuman darkness neared faster and faster, as if stormwinds carried them, carried her, reinforcements. As that darkness neared, Kitana ordered the dracons to make a defensive at their backs, ordered half the Tinkers to fly over them and settle themselves at their backs. Ordered Sahara's scorpions to remain at the front lines. Kitana stared at that darkness, that darkness that spanned over the entire carve of the kingdom. From wall to wall, a mass of fog that encroached swiftly, steadily, relentlessly. Dracons held their line as that darkness blotted out even the light of the comet through the clouds. Thunder roiled, green lightning lashing. The air grew cold, bitingly unforgivingly cold. Green lightning lashed again as that darkness neared. Half a mile away, a quarter mile. Suddenly, it halted.
They all waited, their gazes locked on the frozen darkness that did nothing, didn't roil, didn't sweep, didn't undulate. Did nothing, but remain. The Dark Queen was beyond elated, beyond ecstatic, beyond jubilant. Her inhuman, inindigo grin was monstrous, a poisonous, venomous thing. She stepped closer to the edge, seeing deep within that familiar darkness, that darkness that was home to her. That darkness she loved so much, loved as much as her venom, as her agony above all others, loved, so, very, much. She did not know, did not realize, as three figures appeared from the darkness, that everything she plotted, planned, slaughtered, tortured, mutilated, razed for, was stolen from her. When the Earthen Dracons opened their wings, and one blasted a horn, a horn she recognized as being made of Earthen Dragon bone, she roared her rage. A puissant sound that shook the whole of the Forbidden Kingdom. She roared, as the head figure turned, and looked up directly at her. And, though she didn't want to, she looked, looked, into those green eyes, that moon-white face, at those black horns. At the wings, the tail, all things, she, once, had.
Arachne, the Dark Queen, Queen of venom and hatred, of malice and terror, of agony and fear, of pain and spiders, stared, into, the, face, of, her, once, creation. Stared, into, the, face, of, the, new, Queen, of, Night. "NO," She roared. Her boy's voice cracked, her face trembling as she vibrated even harder, as she stared into the eyes of Arachne, of her, Arachne. No, not Arachne, no this creature was something else entirely. The Dark Queen didn't know the name of this creature, but she knew, whom, it use to be. Nyx smiled coldly up at the Dark Queen. Kitana stared, stared, at what was at their backs. The darkness evaporated, showing line after line of Earthen Dracons spanning all the way across the Forbidden Kingdom. She hurried through the ranks of Tinkers and dracons, saying, "Hold, hold hold hold." "HOLD." The order echoed. She neared Arachne, neared, and wondered how come she hadn't felt her resurrection? How come she didn't feel her life swirl anew? Yet as she made her way across the shale, nearing her, she saw this wasn't that Arachne. She carried herself differently. Her eyes were shadowed, but by the power, of darkness, not fear of it. "Holy Thanatos, Arach—"Nix." She said. Her voice too was different. Fuller, deeper, sounding more, of, her. "And as much as I want to say hello to you Kitana, in the real way, we have a war to fight. A battle to fight." She pointed, pointed, as the Dark Queen roared at her spiders, "SLAUGHTER THEM ALL."