by Andrew Jones
Nova struck Drakkar numerous times, but Drakkar blocked each of her strikes with no problem. But her last strike she attempted to penetrate, as she did not move her blade away. The two blades of Nova and Drakkar collided and held against each other, as the two forced pressure against their strengths.
Drakkar grinned at Nova, "I can feel your emotions, Nova. You're scared, confused, and enraged at me. Aren't you?"
Nova shut her eyes as she used more of her strength to push against his repelling blade, "No!"
Nova was finally able to push back Drakkar's blade, and successfully slash against his face. She had seen the sword's mark as it cut Drakkar's mask off. She stopped as the mask came off, the back of the mask had dozens of dark particles that embodied tiny little bugs. The darkened bugs crawled off the mask, as the mask changed back to what it had originally looked like before Drakkar used the darkness to change its appearance. It was an ordinary white mask, with holes where the eyes were, the nose was, and mouth was. She glanced down at the mask, quickly looking up at Drakkar as half of his true face was revealed. That half of the face didn't have the red eyes, it had his original brown eyes.
"Drakkar, look what you have become!" Nova shouted to him.
Drakkar's hand felt his skin, right at his cheek as he felt some of his tears from his normal eye.
"It's too late, Nova-" Drakkar spoke hesitantly.
"No, it's not! You can regain your soul back! You just have to fight back against the darkness inside you!"
Drakkar shook his head, "It's too late, this is what I am now. Not even a Nawx like yourself can help me. This power... It wants me to destroy everyone!"
Drakkar screamed as he fell on his knees and held his head. His scream was loud, but Nova could see that as he screamed, blood replaced his tears as he started to cry blood.
"N-No! This hurts, damn it!" Drakkar screams as he grips onto his head.
"You fool! I knew I shouldn't have chosen a Human to do my bidding!" A dark voice echoed around Nova and Drakkar.
Nova looked around suspiciously, "Drakkar, who is that...?"
Drakkar hung his head low, as he held his hands under his face so he could catch the blood tears dripping from his eyes.
"It's the Dark One. Don't you see, Nova? The Dark One was the Savior from the past life... The Savior herself even gave into her dark side! Her rage, her sadness, the Ruse she hid inside herself. So, it can't be that bad to be like this... In some way, it's normal!"
Drakkar shouted as the blood tears dripped onto his hands more often, soon the blood started pouring down with excessive force.
"Drakkar, no!" Nova shouted, just as Drakkar's body was consumed by the blood.
Bastion grunted as he stared down at Zephyr.
"Always looking for a way to cheat in our fights." Bastion grunted again.
He shot a wave of flames into Zephyr, but Zephyr used his dark replacement wing to block the flames. Bastion shot down into Zephyr, completely sacrificing his body in the impact. The ground shook as the dragons collided, enough for the clock tower to shake and start to collapse once again.
"The clock tower!" Zephyr roared as he shoved Bastion off of him.
Zephyr flew up to the top of the clock tower and began holding the clock tower in place, but it continued to keep falling. It eventually fell over the dragon, forcing Zephyr to fly away from the collapse. Zephyr shot a dark glare at Bastion as he flew across him from the rubble.
"Why is the clock tower so special, Zephyr?"
Zephyr scoffed, "It's the Dark One's source of power!"
"The Dark One? Zephyr, we promised never to get involved with the Human's greatest mistake! You've truly succumbed to those Humans!"
Zephyr growled in pure rage before his senses forced him to look a completely different way than Bastion. He roared loudly as a response to his sudden sense then gave Bastion a glare before taking off into the air that way.
"Come with me if you want to see your friends."
Bastion gasped as he watched Zephyr take off into the air, but he didn't hesitate to take off after him.
Zephyr guided Bastion into an unseen portal in the form of a cloud, as it directed their way back into the same realm Nova and Drakkar were. But as they arrived, Nova had to climb on top of the clock tower within their realm, the clock tower that was identical to the one in the realm the dragons raged war. Bastion looked upon the scene in some sort of fright as he flew above. The ground under Nova was flooded with blood, the blood that was dropped from Drakkar.
"Bastion!" Nova shouted as she waved her hands high in the air.
Bastion saw and heard Nova, as she jumped up and tried to get his attention while he rode high in the air. He flew down to her, not saying a word as he looked back at Zephyr as he flew above the blood, looking down for Drakkar.
"What... What happened to him!?" Zephyr asked, looking at Nova with rage in his face.
"I... I-I uh..." Nova hesitated, as she was just as confused as the dragon was.
Zephyr roared loud. As a giant orb, similar to the one Drakkar showed Nova, with the image of Atreyu being consumed by the dark cocoon.
"Atreyu!" Nova shouted.
Zephyr roared even louder as the darkness within him consumed him completely. As his mouth was open for the giant orb, the blood of his own started to pour out of his mouth and dropped rapidly into the sea of blood below, Drakkar's blood. Bastion gasped in fright as the body of the dragon dismantled itself as more blood poured downward. As the dragon's body vanished with the last drops of blood, something big began to float atop of the seas of blood. It was the dark cocoon.
Nova and Bastion could only stare in immense fright as the to half of Atreyu's body was popped out of the top of the dark cocoon. He looked like he was out, but judging from the cocoon's heart beat, Bastion had a feeling the cocoon was feeding off of Atreyu's body.
The cocoon cracked at the midpoint, it was a small crack but it caught Nova and Bastion's attention right away. It grew in size, as the whole side facing them was cracked. Atreyu's eyes opened slowly as the cocoon opened from both sides. Atreyu screamed as his body fell down into the cocoon.
"Bastion, what's going on!?" Nova asked, as she looked up to the dragon and yelled.
"I... I don't know."
The cocoon shattered into many pieces within the seas of blood, as a big beast emerged from the shattered cocoon. The body of the beast was long, like the body of a snake, but it had long wings like a dragon. One of the wings looked oddly familiar to Bastion like it was Zephyr's dark replacement wing after he cut it off with his beam. As the upper part of the beast showed, the body of it shined a red light inside, the light looked like it's veins, and it had the same sort of heart beat as the cocoon. It took on Atreyu's upper body, he opened his eyes and they were crimson red. He grinned as he materialized a dark mass in both of his hands.
"Atreyu, what has he become!?" Nova asked, looking the most frightened Bastion has seen her.
"That is not Atreyu. I fear Drakkar has taken over Atreyu, using Zephyr's dragon blood!" Bastion shouted as he began to flap his wings. "Get on, we have to take him out before he makes it to our world!"
Nova grunted from the pain she had deep inside her heart as he said that, "B-But Bastion, that's Atreyu..."
Bastion scoffed, "The lad was weak, Nova. I knew he was giving into his inner rage. He was simply too weak to overcome it!" Bastion shouted the truth to her, sighing after he saw her saddened reaction. "We have to kill him... Or them now. It's what he'd want."
Nova took a deep breath as he nodded her head, proceeding to climb on Bastion's back. Bastion flew up into the air above the distorted form of Drakkar, charging in and attacking the back of his head. He bounced off immediately with no pain to Drakkar shown. Drakkar laughed as he clapped his hands together and forced the seas of blood shoot upward. Bastion gasped and flew faster, quickly dodging the blood drips. He knew that if the blood was entwined with dragon's blood, it was going to burn like acid, that can even
penetrate dragon scales. After the blood attack, Bastion flew over Drakkar once again, letting Nova jump on the top of the head and stab both of her blades downward. The beast roared loudly as it attempted to shake her off, but she grabbed onto her blades as hard as she could.
As Bastion flew around, he would shoot minor beams at the beast, forcing it to attack him. He wanted to distract it as Nova tried to attempt a big attack. Nova pulled out the dual blades and walked to the top of its face. She glanced down and saw the face of Atreyu, but she couldn't stop looking into the eyes. She grunted painfully but then growled as she got frustrated. She crawled down his forehead and jumped down to the nose, stabbing both of her dual blades into the eyes. As the beast screamed and roared, Nova turned and jumped off, landing right on Bastion's back, immediately flying back.
But the beast got enraged, and it charged a powerful beam of its own. The dark beam generated fast and shot out of its mouth. Bastion attempted to dodge the beam, but it ended up reaching him, shooting them both out of the sky and onto the top of the clock tower once again. With a dramatic hit, Bastion hit the top of the clock tower, Nova bouncing off and hitting the ground herself. She coughed and ached from the pain to her head, where she had landed. She whined as she opened her eyes, where she could only see pixels. She heard Bastion roaring so she tried to get up, soon hearing her body malfunction. She was scared that she might've damaged her functioning manager in her brain, she couldn't move very much. So she listened, and watched, as her pixel vision sometimes channeled her vision back for a few seconds. For those first few seconds, she saw Bastion on the ground roaring. She remembered, as her vision pixeled again, that he looked badly damaged. His arms were turned the wrong way, and his wings had been broken due to his hard fall.
"B-... Bas..." Nova tried to create words, but that part of her was malfunctioning as well.
Her vision came back, longer this time, as she heard an alarm in her head. She saw a dark mass over Bastion, as the dark mass formed a large spear. She gasped as the spear stabbed through Bastion's soft spot, on his stomach. Bastion roared and screamed loudly, just as Nova's vision only revealed pixels. Nova tried to speak, or scream for him, but she couldn't do anything. She couldn't even feel the sorrow or sadness for her fallen friend.
The beast, or Drakkar's distorted form, glanced down at Nova, as her body had been broken in many parts. Her body had many open wounds which exposed her mechanical parts.
"For a Nawx, you're still as much of a machine as all the others." The beast spoke in the same dark voice Drakkar had.
It laughed, chuckling as the spear moved toward Nova. Her vision showed the spear heading her way as she could see the tip of the spear. She became too scared of the situation, and somehow knew it was over. Her body automatically showed her one of her memories of Atreyu and Bastion. It was a time she was happy, smiling as she watched Atreyu and Bastion arguing about something completely off topic. She wondered how long back this memory was, it was titled her most precious memory within her system files. The only memory within this system file. She, herself, smiled as she continued to watch the memory. She didn't speak, but she stared at Atreyu as he burst out laughing from what Bastion said. After that, it went black. She felt a strong pain in her chest, a pain that took away her breath, and all the air she had breathed in. Her vision showed as all her memory files began to be deleted, one by one. All her functions were being deleted. She watched as the file titled life appeared in front of her eyes. It slowly faded away, as it was deleted.
Branch B – The Birth of Destruction
Verse I
The Divergence Influence
Within a large white room, a large and wide table resided within the middle. Chairs surrounded the table, though only two were being used. Xanadu sat in one of them, while another man sat directly across from him. He glared at Xanadu, as a big holographic picture arose from the midpoint of the table. It showed a timeline, with each unique or important event lining downward until the event on the bottom changed from a pure white color to a dark color. The man raised his hand and snapped his fingers, creating an x through the bottom event as he continued to stare at Xanadu.
"The sealing of a branch." The man spoke. "This happens so rarely, it's quite shameful, on your part, Xan."
Xan put his head down, "I'm sorry, Ace. I told her she should've stayed. But she wanted to save her friends rather than creating a new world ridden with the corruption. Her purpose, really."
Ace shook his head and rose from his chair. As he stood, a picture appeared on the white wall, it was the scene of the final battle Nova had against Drakkar. He continued to walk around the room, observing Xan as he watched the scene on the white wall, horrified of the actions Nova had to face.
"This is because of you, Xan. It wasn't supposed to be like this. This is the only Timeline we have absolute trouble with. We must contain the Timelines, and assure the balance of right and wrong that revolt around each event. That is the purpose of us Divergence!" Ace shouts, as he stopped right behind Xan.
Xan looked pained by Ace's words, but he nodded.
"W-What do we do now?" Xan asked.
Ace sighed in frustration as he walked around the table, looking to have been in deep thought. But as he arrived back in his seat, he leaned back in his seat and stared at Xan once again.
"That is up to you. This is your assigned Timeline. As the Dark One split this branch in a destructive way hundreds of years ago, this now serves as the most destructive branch. We must act fast." Ace explains. "We can't leave this branch to end on a corrupted note. Humanity has ended, and it has a high chance of contaminating the other Timelines, as they are connected through a web-like design."
"Simple. We have to break off the branch and create a sub-branch. A branch B, which we can alter and maybe change the ending. Maybe we can give the spotlight to someone else?" Xan asked as he gave his best answer.
Ace raised an eyebrow, becoming intrigued by his answer. Ace was the one who was always fascinated by change, even though change can bring lots of drastic changes throughout time. Both good and bad. But Ace wasn't one who ran by a set of rules- it was like he made up his own rules as he worked, he was the boss after all.
Ace nodded his head as he stood up, watching as Xan stood up as well. Ace snapped his fingers, magically altering the room into a room with just a device. The device looked big, and it had a PIN code that was required to gain access to the main system. The monitor above consumed the entire wall of the room, and it was big. Ace placed his hand on the device, he did not need a PIN because he had total control of everything, Xan only had a code for his own Timeline altering. But Ace could alter the branch in more ways, more powerful ways.
The monitor turned on, as it loaded its contents it showed a pixelated hourglass that would occasionally turn upside down as the sand fell to the bottom half. A picture appeared, and it was the Timeline of Xan's specifics. As Ace typed, he created an event that separated from Branch A's first event.
"A lot had happened here. More than we have seen through Nova's eyes. So why don't we explore that and see where it takes us." Ace explained as he looked back at Xan.
Xan nodded his head as he looked up into the monitor and saw a picture of Blaze. It was still. She was laying up on a tree branch, with her eyes closed like she was just sleeping. Ace narrowed his eyes as he looked at her like he found her to be familiar, but he eventually shrugged off the thought.
"You can't fail this time." Ace said as he turned away from Xan and looked at the door that would lead his way out of the room.
Xan gasped, "So... You're giving me access to your part of maintenance?"
Ace nodded.
"But, Ace... That would mean-"
"You can fully manipulate all events and transactions that go on in this branch, yes." Ace muttered as he finished Xan's sentence.
Xan frowned, "But, what's the point in that? If I did that, then the people would have no free will."
Ace sighed and looked back
at Xan, placing his hand on his shoulder.
"If that needs to be, then it shall. If sacrificing one branch to save the Timeline, then it shall. Hell, if sacrificing one Timeline were to save the web of Timelines, then it shall. Xan, you must understand that these may be people, but there are many, many more people on other Timelines who have it better than them. As I look at the ones in this Timeline, they seem like they've given up. Like they'd enjoy the feeling of death more than living. And that's how I feel when I look at her." Ace explained as he pointed at the monitor.
Xan looked at the monitor, seeing Blaze there once again. He frowned in confusion.
"Blaze?"
"Yes. Imagine how the branch would've ended if Blaze was with Nova and Bastion. I think it would've ended better- she's a skillful fighter, she's willing to sacrifice her body for a devastating attack. There are many ways to alter this branch and make it better. Just give it some thought and begin anew." Ace says as he turns back around and exits the room.
Xan places both of his hands on the keyboards that laid right under the big monitor. He stared up at Blaze but then hung his head down low as he gave out a loud and frustrated sigh.
"Blaze. Start a new..." Xan spoke from his sigh.
He took a deep breath as he cracked his knuckles and peered down at the keyboard anxiously. But eventually, he started to type with those keyboards with much speed.
Verse II
Operation Armagna
"You ready for the mission?" Drakkar asked as he turned back at Densetsu and Atreyu who had been standing behind him.
"You askin' me, or the kid?" Densetsu asked as he cracked his knuckles, clearly showing off.