Dawnbreaker Episode II: Shattered Worlds/Part 8

CHAPTER 22

Lord Darkon wanders through corridors made from pure glass for what seems like hours. All of them look alike, and no matter how many he tries to bash through, there are always more.

"Oh, wait! I still have the Force. Silly me!" Darkon concentrates, and uses the force to see through the walls. "Ah.. there is a way out."

Lord Darkon walks down a rainbow-colored corridor, arriving in a hexagonal room with a teleportation portal, guarded by a giant pink frog.

Darkon approaches the frog, only to have it spit acid a him.

Lord Darkon barely manages to dodge this insidious attack from the frog, leaving a smoking hole in the rainbow coloured wall.

Darkon uses attempts to use force destruction on the beast, but nothing happens.

"Wha-? Where is my Force?! Fine then, we will accomplish this the old-fashioned way, frog!"

Darkon uses his Teras-Kasi power strike - Darkon's stiffened fingers jab hard at the frog's throat. The frog collapses without a sound, but a large glob of smelly spit lands on Lord Darkon

"Ah, this is just PERFECT!"

Lord Darkon steps through the portal, finding himself in some sort of foggy forest...

Captain O'Neill hears something snap behind her. Without thinking, she swings the branch around, only to have the assailant grab it. O'Neill relaxes.

"What the hell is going on here?" she asks, then sees that Ty is armed with some sort of weapon. Looking between her branch and his gun, she starts to feel a little out of place. But she still hasn't seen any sign of her Wing Commander. "Have either of you seen Rattler?"

Rattler curses as energy bolts slam into the door frame he and Deathstrike used for cover. He shoots a quick glance at the Sith woman. "Got any bright ideas? I got nothing."

Deathstrike rolls, dodging the rest of the energy bolts.

"I am beginning to sense my Master" - Deathstrike replies.

"I believe Lord Darkon has moved to another dimensional plane..."

Rattler tosses her his blade, before her words register in his mind.

"Wait, WHAT? dimensional plane?"

Ty294 laughs at the assailant and O'Neill's surprise at his weapon.

"Even when I sleep or enter another mental dimension, I never go unarmed. Now let's see if we can find the rest of 'em."

O'Neill follows the assailant and Ty through the forest. After several minutes, they come across Lord Darkon, who is currently in an undignified position and covered in slime. "Well... illusion or not, I think the universe hates you."

Something snapped in the Assailant's mind. It all came back. He knew what he had to do.

He grabbed Ty294's gun and shot O'Neill in the chest. He then impaled Ty294 with his branch. "Your welcome," He said as they fell to the ground, gasping for air. "I'll see you again." He crouched down to O'Neill. "Just remember, these creatures are impossibly fast, strong and intelligent. Use ANY means necessary to avoid contact. I'll be back."

Ty294 and O'Neill woke up strapped by strange vines to a ceiling. This time, it was real.

CHAPTER 23

"Holy crap!" Ty294 cries, "Now I know I'm home!"

O'Neill struggles against the vines. Just as she is about to free herself, she hears something. Deciding that the best way to find out what they were up against was to play possum, she makes like she's still out cold. She can barely make out the shape of the creature. It looks like a robed human, but she cannot see it's face. Ty starts to struggle, but she quickly stops him by putting a hand on his shoulder, and pointing at the incoming creature.

Ty294 whispers to O'Neill: "Considering your a woman, I'd appreciate it if you'd look away."

Ty294 slides his hand into his trousers and removes a small knife from and 'indiscrete' location. Just as he raises it into a throwing position, it suddenly turns red and melts in his hand.

"Aw nuts." he mutters quietly.

"Ah, where is Gatekeeper and his attacks when you need them? Being blasted, fried, burned, buried alive, dismembered, and killed is one thing... but being covered in frog spit is quite another. Ah, look... a lake! Excellent."

Lord Darkon runs to the lake and leaps in, eager to rid himself of the foul frog excretions. As he swims, something grabs him by the legs, and pulls him under.

"Aagbrrljljglulglugljrl" He manages to momentarily raise his head above water.

"Heeelp!!!" Darkon cries.

The Assailant walks over to him, aims the shotgun at Darkon's belly and fires. Nothing happens. Darkon wasn't in the same forest as the Assailant.

The Assailant curses, realizing that he's all alone in the forest.

Deathstrike rolls her eyes at Rattler.

"Grrr, I am THIS CLOSE to ripping your throat out, flyboy! In case you failed to grasp, all of us are spread across multiple planes of existence. And my Master has just found a way out of his, and into another."

Deathstrike uses the force to try to sense a way out.

"Now follow me, flyboy, and keep up! I will not return to drag your corpse!"

Deathstrike unerringly finds her way to a massive octogonal room with a teleport portal, guarded by a small, black cat. The cat locks eyes with Deathstrike.

"Watch out, flyboy... there is something... off.. about this cat. Stay ready!"

"Excuse me for not having fancy powers or otherworldly knowledge. I'm just a combat pilot."

Rattler eyes the cat, thinking that it was definitely a trap.

"I'll draw fire...what the?" Rattler feels something at his side, and discovers a laser pistol materialize. A lightsaber materializes on Deathstrike's belt as well. "Well... looks like that bug was telling the truth. I'll draw fire. You go in once that thing starts gunning for me. Divide and Conquer."

Rattler rushes out and to the left. The cat starts shooting laser beams from its eyes at the Terran.

A critical quarter-second before the laser beam is discharged, about to fry Rattler, Deathstrike uses the Force to interpose herself in front, and catches the beam on her lightsaber. With more beams being anticipated through the Force and intercepted, she kicks behind her, slamming Rattler back against the wall.

"I am really growing tired of saving your worthless life, flyboy! This is not a galvenned particle packet like those fired by your fighter. This is a laser BEAM, an instant-hit weapon... propagating at the speed of light! You cannot dodge it! Now. YOU use that gun on the cat, and I will make sure both of us live through this battle!"

"Pilots! Outside their cockpits, they are useless..." She muttered to herself.

Deathstrike turns her head back, as Rattler is not firing at the cat. He seems unconscious, his eyes moving rapidly behind the lids. Clearly, he is having some sort of hallucination. She darts to the ground under continuing laser fire, and pushes Rattler ahead of herself back to the access corridor.

"What is the issue now, flyboy?!?" -She snapped angrily. "Wake up! Can't you accomplish even so simple a task as firing a weapon?"

Rattler snaps out of it, "I... what a nightmare! I dreamt that the Gatekeeper ripped out my internal organs! I... whew!"

"Well, that was a dream! It will be a reality when I do the same to you if you don't start to rise above this level of competence! If I didn't need you..." -the sentence hangs unfinished- "Now come on! Let's defeat this cat!"

CHAPTER 24

"I am a Sith'ari! A leader of the True Sith! I will NOT simply drown like some worthless vermin!" Darkon thinks to himself, his anger giving him the extra strength required to break free of the unknown creature's grasp, and kick his way to the lake surface. He quickly climbs out.

"Well! At least I am no longer covered in slime... hmm... what is this?" He asked himself, noticing the small silver crystal laying on the ground beside the lake. He bends donw and picks it up. It felt cold to the touch, Darkon squeezed it in his hand, and as he did so, his flesh absorbed it. Darkon feels power pulsing through his body, suddenly, he wakes up next to Ty on the ceiling.

The Gatekeeper comes to his senses as well, and realizes he is dangling from the ceiling in some sort of strange room. He cuts himself down and proceeds to free the others, then he tries to wake them up, but before he can, a man who looks almost exactly like him enters the room.

"Good evening, Gatekeeper..." Said a low voice.

The Gatekeeper stops what he is doing as his blood runs cold. "Kane? Is that you?"

"It's been a long time, hasn't it? You thought you were rid of me. But why? You never killed me..."

The Gatekeeper turns around, his red and yellow eyes glowing bright. "Kane, I banished you. You single-handedly wrecked the balance in the Force, drove the wedge between the Jedi and the Sith, and then tried to kill me, and take my powers for your own. All the while, being my last living relative."

"When you set the fire that burned down our house, I was critically injured! You ruined-"

"I did NOT set that fire! I was only 5 years old! That fire burned my body beyond recognition, much as it did yours! That's why we wear these masks and attires, Kane! That's why we are what we are! I tried to tell you! Harrington set the fire!"

Ty294 lowers himself from the ceiling and watches the standoff between Kane and the Gatekeeper. "For the love of-" Realizing this is something for him to stay out of, he begins waking the others.

"NO! You set the fire, Gatekeeper! Our father loved us! He would never do that!"

"No. Our father loved HIMSELF, Kane! He didn't care about us!"

"Don't stoke the fire again, Gatekeeper! I know what you're trying to do! You want me to go back to where I came from!"

"After what you have done, you deserve it!"

"No... Instead of giving up like YOU wanted, I decided to come back! That is why I assembled these mindless mutated Gorre's to bring you here! Your pathetic war with the Sith'ari Darkon has only helped me, and in fact WAS part of the plan! And after I kill you here, once and for all, I am going to rid the Universe of ALL life and reshape it in MY image!"

The Gatekeeper stands up straight. "So be it... Brother..."

Kane and the Gatekeeper simultaneously draw red lightsabers. "What style are you using?" The Gatekeeper asks. "......My own......"

The Gatekeeper force pushes Kane across the room and into the wall with so much force that he shatters it and keeps going. He does the same to another wall. And another. And another. 4 walls in total, shattered by Kane's body. The Gatekeeper walks over to where Kane landed, and finds him standing there. Kane leaps up and starts shooting funnels of lightning from his fingertips, but the Gatekeeper catches them with one hand. After around 5 seconds, the Gatekeeper flicks his wrist forward and the lightning turns red and reverses course, striking Kane in the chest and sending him flying into a steel door. He stands up almost immediately.

"Okay, you've had your fun. Now it's MY turn!"

Kane lunges forward and moves to stab the Gatekeeper in the chest with his lightsaber, however the Gatekeeper catches him in midair with his own, locking them in a saberlock.

"I sense great fear in you, Kane... And your fear, only gives me more power!"

The Gatekeeper shoves Kane backwards, but Kane ducks down to take a swipe at his legs, which is blocked. ......... Over the next 3 hours, Kane and the Gatekeeper engage in a feriocious battle, with both taking extreme damage. The Gatekeeper falls to the floor, his lightsaber a few feet away, Kane about to finish him off. Kane raises his lightsaber and swings, but just as he does, the Gatekeeper summons his back to his hand, parrys the blow, and cuts off Kane's head! Kane's body falls to the ground, lifeless. But then, a grey spiritual being rises from the body, and flies away before the Gatekeeper can strike. "This isn't over, Kane." He mutters. "Not by a long shot..."