Dread & Terror {open}

[Cazador]

Cazador couldn't find her. At first he thought he had lost her and that she had left, but it wasn't the case. The darkness began to manifest itself again. This time it was taking physical form. Darkness began to surround Cazador. He felt blind. Without his helmet he couldn't use his night vision, thermal, or motion tracker to find her. Cazador needed to find her. It wouldn't accomplish much, but he couldn't just give up. He started to move his hands around the ground trying to find his headgear. As he continued his search, a sound began to pour out of the void of darkness. He knew right away what it was.

Vulture had found them. That short battle earlier must of led them to where they were at. There were footsteps and the sound aircraft flying by. They had to of been planning to kill her. Just as he was about to call out to her again, a light began to shine in the darkness. There she was. It was faint, but Cazador could see her from within all the darkness. It was like the manifestation of what was going on inside her. Light shrouded in great darkness. He needed to follow the light before Vulture reached her and extinguished it. They had done enough to the poor child already.

Before he could go any further the battle broke out. Sounds of gunfire and bombs being dropped began to surround the darkness. He couldn't see any of it, but Cazador could still feel the shock waves from the explosions. He kept his arms up around his head to keep it protected since it was now exposed. As he moved faster and faster towards Legion, one of the bombs was dropped close by to Cazador. The blast knocked him back. Something hard then stopped him. He couldn't tell what, but he felt disoriented. His forehead felt wet with blood. The light looked blurry now to him. The blow to his exposed head was taking effect.

"No... no... I need to find you. C'mon don't pass out. This pain is nothing."

[Legion]

“Help me!”

Regardless of the disorientation, the blood and his body wanting to give up and go unconscious Caz could still hear it. The cries of the innocent little girl calling out for his help now that the demons had chose now of all times to abandon her. That small shimmer of light began to grow, until the darkness pulled apart entirely and Caz could see it as clear as day. A single Vulture soldier backing Legion into a corner with their gun aimed towards her head. The fear in her eyes as he was just moments away from pulling the trigger and ending the child's life. And in that same moment, Legion began to look and sound just like the brother he had lost all those years ago. His and Legion's voice crying out in unison.

“Caz, please help me!”

[Cazador]

His mind and will were being put through a hell storm. The darkness within the child may have nearly destroyed his will, but the light inside was bringing him back. Cazador couldn't fail her. He wouldn't allow it to happen. As he started to regain his senses, he could hear Legion's cry for help. As Cazador looked into the direction of her voice, he could see her cornered with one of the soldiers aim right at her. His mind was flashing between past and present simultaneously. In one perspective he could see his brother about to be killed by Damian while in the present he saw Legion's light about to be extinguished. However, this time he would be ready. There would be no failure this time.

Using his jetpack, he launched himself between Legion and the soldier. Though he lost his helmet, Cazador still had other functions on his armor. As he came between them, Cazador pushed the gun away in time for it to barely graze his cheek. Blood began to slide down a drip from his face. He lifted his forearm up and set the soldier ablaze with his flamethrower before the first drops of his blood hit the floor. The darkness was beginning to fade as he could start to see the troops coming in. The haze in his sight was still there, but for now it would suffice. Cazador looked down at the child.

"I didn't fail this time."

[Ayen]

What he would see were not Vulture's troops, but instead, a battalion of Resistance soldiers watching in horror as their captain 201 was burned alive by Cazador's flamethrower right in front of them just as she had finally cornered the monster of sector 12. The life in her eyes leaving as her now burnt body fell limp to the ground looking up at the sky above. The Resistance responding in the only way they knew how as they raised up their weapons and open fired on both the murderer of their captain and the demon child. Not intending to let either one leave this park alive.

[Legion]

The fire reached across air and claimed flesh. Burning through the clothes and hair of the Vulture's troop before Caz. But as the seconds went on, and his vision became clearer, Cazador would notice the changes to the person in front of him. The Vulture's uniform faded away replaced by a gray jacket and white shirt underneath. Curly shoulder-length black hair fell from her head and onto the ground as he could see plain as day a woman falling to the ground burnt to a crisp. It was not the Crimson Vulture that had came to end the child's reign of terror. It was the Resistance that he had intended on joining sides with. And it wasn't just any member he slaughtered. He would be able to see the rank on her jacket. It was their captain. Bullets trailed through the air, looking to take both her and Caz down now that they saw the burnt corpse of their commanding officer. Legion merely turned and with a single terrifying glance, the bullets were torn apart and the hot silver liquid fell to the ground forming a puddle underneath 201's body as the Resistance men and women bore witness to their own bodies being burned and torn apart. Their skin shedding from their bones, and the muscles underneath also being pealed apart as all that remained of the Resistance soldiers that opposed them...

Were bloodied skeletons piling up by the dozen.

Legion's eyes looked up to the large colossal tower that overshadowed all of Genesis. Feeling the devastating force that was being created even now as the Fourth Aspect spread her own terror throughout the city metropolis of Isafaro. Judgment was coming and it would not show biased towards anything that wandered on this world's soil. Not even a fellow Arashi, be them pure or a form of blasphemy as she herself was. Her head slowly turned back to Cazador, the innocent expression of a little girl gone and in its place? A dead-like expression that conveyed no emotions; neither happiness, nor sorrow, nor anger nor fear. Only nothingness as the Fourth Aspect spoke to the man who has been chosen by her here today.

“She is coming.”

Her voice never grew beyond that of a whisper as the words entered his mind and spun around like that of a hurricane. He wouldn't understand the sufficiency now but when the End came, when Eos set foot on Genesis. He would remember those words and he would understand true despair should his eyes rest upon the mask of the third and final true Aspect of the Arashi's trilogy.

“Prophecy has been fulfilled.”

[Cazador]

The victory in his heart would only last for a few seconds. He did save the light with in Legion, but for such a small child, it would be nearly impossible to stop the darkness completely. Cazador looked away from the child and back to the burning attacker. The shape of the Vulture soldier began to change. Cazador's look of pride began to change back. He didn't stop a vulture troop. He killed one of the resistance troops. Cazador had no words for what he had done. Even before she hit the ground, she was already dead. Her clothing and burning flesh began to meld together from the heat while her hair was falling out in ashes. It was at that moment he saw her badge. She was the captain. He had killed the captain of the resistance. In his quest to destroy the tyrannical Vulture, Cazador ended up doing something helpful for them.

"No... I... It..."

He could barely utter anything for his actions. With his own hands, he killed one of the freedom fighters for Isafaro. The resistance wouldn't even give him the chance to speak for his actions, but why would they. From their perspective all they saw was a murderer that was in line with a monster. There was no discrimination between the two of them. All of them began to open fire on Cazador and Legion. At that time, he was expecting to meet his fate. With his head fully exposed. Cazador would be killed instantly by the bullets, but then Legion intervened. The bullets melted away long before they ever hit him. At first it looked like the child wanted to save Cazador from being killed, but then she took it a step further and killed their attackers.

Like the Captain he had just killed, all of the troops were instantly vaporized by her flames with only skeletons and blood remaining. There was nothing Cazador could do to save them. He turned his head away and looked down in shame. His delicate psyche was ready to shatter into a million pieces like a falling mirror, but at that point he was barely holding his mind together. Out of all the battles Cazador had faced with in his life, this was the first to push his mind to the edge of collapse. It wasn't the physical pain that he endured in their earlier bout, but the psychological torture that the darkness in the child was putting him through. If the darkness's couldn't break his body then it would be sure to destroy his mind.

No matter how hard Cazador fought to protect the light within the child, he would never be able to destroy the darkness within her. He wasn't strong enough. There were so many powerful beings in the world they were in, but he was nothing but an ant trying to topple titans. The death of these good men and women would be on Cazador's hands and not Legions. It was his failure at stopping her darkness that lead to their destruction. His eyes once again met with Legion's, but once again the light with in her went back into hibernation. The only thing that remained was that dead cold stare.He listened to her warning, but he couldn't understand the meaning behind it. His mind was still racing from everything that had happened up to that point, but one thing had become certain. His will to fight Legion was gone. In his head he spoke what he thought would be his last words to himself.

Leon... I'm sorry you didn't get to experience the peaceful life that you deserved. Mama... I'm sorry you didn't get to live out the rest of your life surrounded by beautiful grandchildren. Victoria... My love... I'm sorry we couldn't share a long life together and grow old. Anthony... my unborn son... I'm sorry I wasn't a good enough father to save you. Carlos... I'm sorry, you were my best friend and I dragged you into my messed up world. Dad... I'm sorry I couldn't find you in this world. I would've given anything to see you again. Child... I call you child because I know Legion was what the darkness gave you for a name. I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to rid you of your darkness, but thank you... Thank you for showing me the true innocence within your heart... Today I die the death of a failure.

His life was now in the hands of Legion's dark side. Without the light anywhere in sight, his chances at survival were slim to none. It wasn't the kind of death he was hoping to have. Cazador wanted to die an old man surrounded by his family, but the death was robbed. Since he couldn't have it, he wanted a warrior's death where he could give his life to a battle. This wasn't what he had in my mind. People would remember him as killer of a freedom fighter who helped a monster. It was shameful to know he would die a broken man. He continued looking on into Legion's eyes prepared to except his fate. Not all would be lost. From far away in the sky, something was coming. A voice rang in Cazador's head. He simply thought it was Legion trying to shatter any hope he had left in him, but the voice sounded familiar. He could hear it as clear as day in his mind, but he continued to ignore it.

"Hold on my friend... I'm coming Tony..."

[Legion]

Cazador's will was broken and he was but a shadow of his former self. The once proud and noble warrior shamed in the face of the good people of Isafaro and broken down. Brought to the brink of despair, pulled up out of it and given a taste of serenity only to be dropped back down into despair where the darkness can consume his body and soul. But it wouldn't. Legion would not kill Cazador on this day, not simply because of the aid that was coming for him now. But because the demon child did not will it. She wanted him to live in his shame. The screams of 201 and the Resistance soldiers on this day, as well as the cries of the child and his brother, would remain in his head as a constant reminder of his failures. Of the reputation he would now have in Isafaro as a murderer. A madman in armor in league with a monster. For some people death was a terrible thing, to others it can be a relief. For others having to live with yourself was so much worse and that was the fate Legion would leave him with as she took a step backwards into the darkness that still had a choke hold on the area. Vanishing from sight as the darkness then spread out through the sector looking to devour everyone and thing that remained. She would continue to grow, to destroy until her goals were realized. With the failure of Demetrius and Cazador now behind her who remained to stop her?

Who would be the next victim to fall?

[Cazador]

High above the skies outside of Isafaro, the loud roars of a dragon could be heard coming closer. It flew at speeds that could rival those of a plane. Its large wings were casting shadows that blocked out any light from the sun. Its speeds were continuing to increase as something or someone on its back demanded that it go as fast as possible. On top of its scaled back was a tall robed man. His eyes were set on the horizon as the city came further into their view. He wasn't looking directly at the city, but rather inside of it. His eyes were watching the flame of his friend's life force. It was fluctuating wildly, but now it was small calm and looked as though it was ready to burn out. His blind eyes widened as he began to think he was too late.

"Odahviing! Keep going! Were almost there!"

"Dovahkiin how dare you summon me to this world! I may of pledged myself to you, but I neither you belong in a world like this."

The sky seemed to grow darker the closer they got. It was like the city was consumed by total night. The citizens of Isafaro looked into the sky and saw the large dragon flying over head. They ran back inside buildings fearing an imminent attack coming, but the dragon would not attack them. Its sole purpose was to get Relampago to Cazador and nothing more. They would be safe from from his dragon so long as none of them attacked it. Many of them probably didn't even know what Odahviing was. How many dragons did people see flying around a city anyway?

"I see him! Return back to Skyrim Odahviing. I'll summon you again the next time I need you."

"Very well Dovahkiin. Good luck."

Relampago leaped from Odahviing's back and entered into a nose dive to reach the ground. As he fell back to planet he could see Cazador unharmed or at least physically. There was something different about his life force. It was alive, but dead at the same time. When he first met the young man, his soul burned with intense fury and courage. Looking at him now, it was like looking at a total stranger. The farther he descended to the, the more Relampago could see some kind of darkness spreading around the ground. It was like watching water spill over and infinitly spread. He could see the intent of the darkness. The life around anything it touched was sucked away and it was approaching Cazador slowly but surely. While falling he screamed to Cazador to move.

"Cazador Move Now! Don't Touch It!"

His warning fell on deaf ears. Cazador no longer cared. He only thought to himself one thing now. If I die, then I die... Instead of witnessing the death of his friend, the darkness moved around Cazador. The shadows never touched him. For some reason they spared him the beautiful warmth of death's grasp. It was relief to the elf, but the moving shadow of darkness wasn't stopping. Relampago could see its dark energy source. It had enough power to wipe out the sector. Relampago extended his hand out to his side to summon his Staff of Magnus. The falling elf pointed it down and aimed it at the shadows. The staff shot out a beam of light that started to absorb the darkness. With his other free hand he began to cast light all around the area.

Using his control of wind, Relampago slowed his decent to a steady stop. His staff and the light were slowing the darkness but it wasn't enough. He needed more power. Relampago took in a deep breath and shouted to the sky his thunderous voice.

"HUN KAAL ZOOR!"

His shout echoed across the sky for several moments before several ghosts began to fade into the dimension. They were each battle mages dressed in a combination of robes and armor. They looked to Relampago to know why they were summoned. The leader of the dead battle mages spoke.



"Valandil why have you disturbed us from our slumber? What aid do you need?"

"Lend me your powers to stop this darkness from spreading and consuming this area."

The ghosts looked at each other before nodding in agreement. Each of the battle mages extended their ghostly hands and begun to shoot out beams of light similar to that of Relampago's Staff of Magnus. The darkness was starting to recede before it could touch any living beings to consume. All the while, Relampago looked on at Cazador. He wasn't moving. His face was as expressionless as Legion's was. Cazador may not of been dead outside, but he was inside. If he had just shown up sooner, he just might of saved Cazador's mentality. As the minutes went by, Relampago and the ghosts were able to stop the darkness from consuming the sector. With their job completed, the ghost once again returned to the afterlife. Something was beginning to happen though. The darkness he absorbed wasn't something that a mortal was meant to take control of.

He could feel his hand being pulled into a black void. He couldn't control it. The power he had taken needed to be removed. Relampago focused all the magic he had taken from shadows and aimed his hand toward the sky. The ground under Cazador and Relampago began to rumble from the sheer power of the coming blast. The elf let out a large yell before shooting a gigantic stream of dark powered red lightning into space. The light was large enough for the entire city to see.



As the power dissipated, Relampago started to breathe heavily. The dark power he absorbed let him realize what Cazador had been truly fighting. He looked towards the broken man with anger.

"You foolish boy! You tried to fight and challenge something that was beyond your comprehension. Why did you do it?"

Cazador remained silent and motionless. His eyes were filled with the look of defeat and sorrow. Relampago wasn't getting any words from him. He would have to let his mind do the speaking. Relampago dove into Cazador's mind to see what had transpired. Through his memories he could witness the battle that was sensed all the way from Hollowtown. Cazador had put up a brave and noble fight, but it was all in vain. Legion got away, the resistance sustained heavy losses, Cazador would be branded a war criminal, and his warrior spirit was shattered. Relampago would need to somehow bring Cazador back.

"Antonio I looked into your mind. I saw everything that had happened. This wasn't your fault. There is no one to blame here. There was nothing you could of done."

Cazador started to snap back to reality, but his response was less than friendly. He grabbed Relampago by his shirt and pulled him close in a threatening manner.

"What do you know old man! Nothing! You know nothing about me! I needed to save that child! I had to! Not just for her! But for Me! ME! All I ever do is kill. That's all I do! It's all I know... but I saw something... a chance to save what was left of my soul through her... I failed. You can't understand what it feels like to lose everything and be condemned to still live."

"You really think that?"

"If you want to understand my pain then let me kill everyone you love, Then you will see. Huh? How does that sound?! Say something you pointy eared pussy!"

"That probably would destroy me, but then again... everyone I love is already dead."

Cazador's eyes gained a look of confusion. He let go Relampago's shirt and stepped back. He couldn't understand how the elf could retain his sanity if he had lost everyone he loved.

"You can keep feeling sorry for your failures and sorrows, but you choose your own fate. I learned that a long time ago. You on the other hand still have much to learn. Failing is necessary in life so that you may learn."

Relampago began to walk away from Cazador. He needed to make sure the boy survived and he did. He gave Salvador his word to keep him safe if he wasn't around to do it. Relampago took one last look around at Cazador.

"You can wallow around in your failures and sorrows like a 'pussy' or you can rise up and become something even greater than you were before."

Relampago started walking away again and spoke without looking to Cazador this time.

"Come find me in Hollowtown when your ready to rise... or don't. It's your choice."

The elf's body began to vanish into the shadows of the city. Cazador could only assume that he was leaving back to Hallowtown. The question now was would he follow him or continue walking in his dark path of sadness and despair. He was left to think on this on the graveyard of many resistance soldiers. Cazador didn't know what he was going to do. Legion may of destroyed his tree of his spirit, but Relampago managed to plant a seed of hope with in him. Would Cazador help the seed grow or just let it die?

Cazador saw his helmet in the ground. Half of it was buried in the dirt. As he went to pick it up, he stopped himself. He pulled his hand away from his helmet and walked off. His future was now left in an unknown state. He wandered off unsure of where to go next.