Chapter 13
"Naaza." A little boy’s voice calls in the darkness.
Sekhmet supposes he’s dreaming. He tries to banish the dream and go back to the dark oblivion that was his sleep.
"Naaza." The young voice calls again, more insistently.
Sekhmet frowns mentally, scouring his mind. For what child would know Talpa’s original name for him?
"Naaza!"
The darkness vanishes and is replaced with the stunning beauty of a bamboo forest. The warm buttery light frames the green wood of the bamboo in silhouette and turns the canopy a pleasant greenish yellow. A cool wind blows; the faint perfume of cherry blossoms wafting with it.
"Naaza!"
He turns to see a little boy with brilliant red hair standing on a ancient path. The breeze ripples the soft, short, cream colored cloak on the boy’s small shoulders. The boy scuffs one soft leather boot in the dirt; looking down, then he finally remembers to bow.
Sekhmet feels an unaccustomed, friendly smile pull the corners of his mouth up.
"Alexander, my boy! Hello!" Then the Warlord remembers. "But, son, you’re dead. I watched your father bury you."
The little boy gets an annoyed look on his small face. "No, I’m not!"
Sekhmet frowns again and shakes his head. This was only a dream.
"Look, Sekhmet, I know where the Sanada girl is!"
The dream shifts abruptly, so that Alexander is the Ronins’ age. He doesn’t even wait for Sekhmet to acknowledge this change. "Do you remember the Well that went down into a labyrinth and then into dudgeons? Cale was more familiar with it, but you went there once to beat this guy up who was your enemy!"
Alexander was getting impatient, it appeared. "Remember, it was like an inverted tower, going underground instead of up?"
He looked so much like his father. It was a pity he didn’t survive.
" - Remember? . . .Sekhmet?"
But this was only a dream . . .
"This isn’t a fucking dream, you asshole!!!!!!" Alexander roars at the Warlord, too frustrated to feel his usual shyness.
To Alex’s shock Sekhmet slips from his telepathic grasp and sinks into the nebulous depths of madness.
"What happened to you . . . ?" Alex whispers as he resurfaces in hell incarnate.
____
Talpa’s former Castle, now the largest building in a new city. Gone are the vast networks of dungeon and labyrinth; while new parks and gardens take root over old battlegrounds. Everywhere new structures are being built and ruins rebuilt as the natives of Netherworld return a life that had once only a dream.
Inside the castle, Cale shoots around the corner with all the agility of a cat, following Kayura’s summons. Cursing as his feet finally hit a slick spot, he slides through the open door of what had been the throne room.
Rahne had been missing for a week and a half, and their progress in tracking her down had amounted to absolutely nothing. In hopes of speeding the search, they had moved to searching the maps of Netherworld.
He’d gone into his quarters for something trivial, only to find Sekhmet decimating his last sketchbooks. Fortunately most of the damage had been isolated to empty pages and a few torn out pages of the full ones. Having hidden those away from prying eyes, he’d taken his only color sketch to show Sage. It was one of Anubis’s eldest son when he was about a year younger than Yuli.
"What in - ?" He sputters, gazing at the section of wall that housed the viewing screen.
Framed within it was an image of Wildfire’s sister consulting a red-haired youth.
It wasn’t Rahne that shocked him, it was the boy. His wild looking hair looked like he’d cut with a single swipe of a blade and without a mirror. Now it hung around his face like a fiery shockwave; making the dark circles that ringed his emerald colored eyes seem even darker. He looked way too thin and emaciated; Cale almost didn’t recognize him. Then, Rahne must have made one of her smart mouth comments, because the boy starts laughing. Cale’s heart almost leaps out of his chest.
"Alexander . . . !" Cale almost reaches out to the picture. No one, except Sage, notices his shock.
"Wonder who the guy is with her?" Ryo mutters suspiciously.
Sage pokes Cale’s arm and whispers into his ear: "Do you know that kid?"
Cale gives him a distracted nod, "He died . . ! I held him in my arms, he was dead!"
Sage looks at him as if he was going out of his mind like Sekhmet did. He didn’t understand his disbelief. "Cale . . . man?"
"Sage, that’s Anubis’s son!"
Halo watches the boy for a few minutes, then grabs the sketch Cale’s holding. He looks at Cale’s sketch and then back at the wall. His pale eyes grow big.
"That is him . . ." Sage whispers.
____
Back in the labyrinth of The Well two ragged and frightened young people search desperately for a way out.
Rahne follows Alex closely; the feeling of danger was coming all too often.
They’d found rations and had been living off of them for a while. It was better than the thin soup they had been feeding her last week. There had been a lingering sense of danger that permeated everything in the room where they’d found the rations.
Now, she can feel it again.
She tries to keep going, but it’s almost worse than the worst panic attack she’s ever had. She had a really bad feeling about this.
"Alex . . ?!" Rahne whispers, trying to keep from shaking.
("It’s okay . . .") He repeats.
Suddenly Alex stops dead still, listening. His own body starts shaking slightly.
"MOVE!!!!" Alex yelps, pushing Rahne down the hall.
Behind them a four-legged creature leaps out into the hall, a putrid stench following it into the hall. Rahne doesn’t get a good look at it, but it looks faintly dog-like, but without ears. As it moves in the dim light it appears reptilian.
("Don’t analyze it! RUN! That thing bites or claws you, you’re dead!")
‘What is it?’ Rahne asks in her mind, putting on a burst of speed.
("Talpa called ‘em "Perdition Hounds." My Uncle called ‘em "Wraiths", and I’m more inclined to believe him!")
Suddenly the ground shakes. Alex pushes her faster, his face more terrified looking than it did when Zanaton got him.
Rahne sprints faster, a stitch forms in her side, she couldn’t keep running like this too much longer.
The thing gives a shriek that borders on a roar. It pierces into her brain like a hot knife through butter. It leaps after them in a flurry of razor sharp claws and poisonous fangs.
("It saw us!!!")
Alex drags her even faster. She runs, nearly stumbling as the boy yanks her almost off her feet. He lets go of her hand to grab his weapon before it falls.
There’s a light to their left. Alex grabs her hand and hauls her down another hallway.
Hard metallic claws scrape and ring against the stone work as the Wraith pursues them.
The end of the corridor is glowing. Alex runs right into it, dragging her along.
Light fills all her senses, then she falls to the unforgiving cement, half on Alex. He drags her to her feet and takes off down the hall. He sees an open reinforced metal door and bolts for it. Those horrible claws skid on the smooth surface of the cement. Alex and Rahne tumble inside. The red-head immediately jumps to his feet and tries to shut the door.
The whole room shakes as the creature slams against the door. Alex’s knocked flat onto his back. He kicks the door with all his might with both booted feet.
Rahne gets a running start and rams the door with her shoulder. Alex gets to his feet and puts his weight into shutting the door. Rahne looks around frantically and spots a fire extinguisher. She rips the pin out. The fire extinguisher belches out a plume of cold fire retardant. The thing backs away, momentarily stunned.
They slam the door shut, and Alex locks it with his mind. He sinks to the floor and lays there panting for a few minutes; runs his hands through his hair with a groan. Rahne sinks to her knees and takes a few deep breaths; too relieved to feel any fear.
("We’re safe for now, I think.")
Rahne finally takes a look around. Computers sitting on dusty stands. Guns, walkie-talkies, and coveralls hang on hooks on the walls. Workstations equipped with all sorts of analyzing technology. She thinks she recognizes a Gas-Chromatograph over on the wall, and a water purifier on one of the tables. Rowen could tell better than she could. She climbs up onto one of the benches to get a better look at the small tubes on the wall. They’re labeled "Hydrogen," "Helium," "Oxygen," and "Nitrogen." She jumps down, then a shiver not brought on by cold travels up her spine.
"Alex, where are we?"
("To tell you the truth, I don’t know. Someplace Talpa saw fit to make a connection to.") Alex tells her psychically.
Rahne looks around, then motions to the racks of guns and lines of computers, "But technology didn’t work in that other place, Alex! Why is it here?!"
He looks back at her and sighs, "Easy answer to that, Rahne. We’re out."
Rahne tenses suddenly, hope floods her mind in a warm rush. She starts to giggle uncontrollably, then laugh.
("You’re right. We’re back in your world, but this compound belongs to the the Dynasty. More than likely this dates back to Talpa’s most recent campaign, judging by how. . .alien this looks from his original plot. Which means there are probably more Wraiths here . . .)"
Rahne stops laughing; realizing what that would mean. This entire complex was infested with Wraiths meant for the Ronin Warriors. She feels herself blanch, they had to stop the guys from trying to come here! They’d be killed!
They begin to search the connecting rooms for something that could help them.
Rahne looks at the computers, all of their screens are dark. She comes across a notebook computer. Rahne brushes the dust off it, wondering how many people Talpa corrupted to get the pricey bit of electronics. She lifts the screen and tries to turn it on. It refuses to fire up.
Rahne begins to walk towards the room Alex was currently exploring. She passes a drainage grate in the floor, when a gentle wave washes over her. She looks around, expecting to see Guardian hovering nearby or Alex playing with the spring-loaded air-cannon she saw on the shelf. Nothing was there.
The wave washes over her again. It was coming from the grate. Rahne goes back and kneels in front of it. Something was glowing faintly a little ways down.
The screws in the grate are missing, so Rahne hooks her fingers in the grate and pulls up. It gives suddenly, knocking her backwards. Rahne sits back up and reaches gingerly down. Her fingers encounters something like a small, slightly cool, stone ball. She pulls the crystal out and stares at it. It’s glowing a faint violet in color, a strange symbol gleams briefly brighter on it.
"Hope." Rahne whispers absently; closing her hand tightly around it as she brings it to her chest. It felt as comforting as the old blankets she and Ryo used to carry around when they were small children. She stuffs it in her pocket and replaces the grate.
____
Hours later, Alex cautiously peeks around the corner, his kusari-gama held at ready. Behind him, Rahne brandishes a now-wickedly sharp machete. He’d followed the directions his Uncle had taught him to put a keen edge on it, and - Jeez, did it work!
Nobody was there that he could sense.
He rounds the corner and almost straight into Darr’rak’s pet Warlock.
Alex gasps in terror, too afraid to move. Brak’katt laughs and grabs the collar of Alex’s shirt. Alex doesn’t even try to struggle. He just stares up at the stunningly handsome man who kidnapped him as a child, who beat him until his mind and body was too weak to resist Zanaton. The man’s platinum blond hair stirs as he moves, his clothes immaculate and wealthy looking. He had been one of his father’s most trusted servants . . .
He raises his ornate dagger high over Alex’s head. "Ready to join your mother in the Afterlife?" He snarls, an evil leer spread across his aristocratic features.
They’d forgotten Rahne.
She vaults right over Alex’s head, hurling her foot into the Warlock’s face. The Warlock loses his grip on Alex as he flies backwards with the force of her kick. His handsome face is covered with blood from his broken nose, he tries to regain his dagger but the young woman kicks it away from him.
Rahne doesn’t let him get up; keeps pressing the attack. As he gets to his feet, Rahne kicks his knee as hard as she can. Bone shatters and connective tissue snaps explosively with a set of sickening crackles as she destroys the joint.
She turns and runs back to Alex as sharp metal claws scrape on hard cement.
Rahne shuts her eyes as tears begin to flow for what she’s done; she drags Alex to his feet and runs for the door. She slams the heavy door, and locks it.
More soldiers and another General pour through another door, trying to cut off their escape.
Behind the door comes a terrifying set of cries that pierce into her brain like a hot knife through butter.