The gunfire from the enemies’ weapons were now being focused on Wess and John. “Anyone got a shot?” John asked. “No, I don’t have any sight on any of them yet.” Max informed us. “I can certainly hear them. Does anyone aside from Ithamar have a good line of sight?” “No, but I could. All I have to do is remove the wall between me and them.” Charles said. “I have an idea Ithamar; sync with me.” “Excuse me?” I asked, not understanding what he was telling me to do. “Oh, oh, I’ve always wanted to try this!” Bm-Bx said excitedly. “Try what, exactly?” “You two are going to synchronize to each other, allowing your minds to function as one.” “What do we do?” “Hang on; first I need to get out of this room.” Charles said quickly. Charles walked up to the hard rock wall and placed a small, black, square block on the wall. Stepping away, he pulled a pin from the device. “Uhhh, what’s that?” Jk-Bx asked. “Get down,” Charles said, taking cover behind a desk. As I was taking count of the combatants in the room I could identify, I saw a large dust cloud burst and heard a large boom echo from the right side of the room a rather large hole had been made in the wall. Charles dove through and landed on another catwalk, taking cover behind a railing enclosed by a thick steel plate. “Sync,” Charles said. “What do I need to do?” I asked again. My HUD had an orange "sync" emblem appear on it suddenly. “Just accept the signal,” Bm-Bx said. “Then you will hear, see, and complement each other’s actions.” “How many hostiles do you see?” Charles asked me. “That are firing on your position, I mean.” “Six,” “Alright, just get a glimpse of them, that’s all I need.” I did as Charles requested, quickly glancing up over the edge of the window to get a glimpse of the hostiles. My HUD highlighted the targets, but Charles position had become the new bull’s-eye of their attention. As I was about to suggest a new strategy, my HUD switched to Charles vision; he drew out his revolver, only stretching his arm over the railing. Then a large series of mathematical calculations passed through my HUD as six shots rang out. The purple gunfire had ceased as soon as the final round was fired. “Your turn,” Charles said to me. My HUD now indicated eight of the smaller targets below me; I got a quick glimpse from Charles vision. I drew “Oath Keeper” and dove out of my office window and grabbed the railing with my free hand. Dangling over the edge, I fired and hit all eight of my designated targets who weren’t expecting to be flanked so suddenly. Landing on my feet, I looked up to see one of the taller, sword-wielding behemoths charging at me, about to bring its large blade down on me. I stood up and braced myself for the weight of the blade to hit me. The blade came down with great force, but shattered part of its length as it hit me. “What? How’d you do that?” Henry asked. “According to my scan, that should have split you in two.” The beast stumbled backwards and looked at me with angry eyes. It charged me again, but this time I dodged it and countered when its back was exposed by rushing him, and then slamming it into the stony wall. The creature’s skull was fractured and one of its three eyes was now dark. I grabbed its head and smashed it into the wall again, which broke half of its red, armor-like helmet off, revealing a grey, bald head underneath. I pulled out “Oath Keeper” and placed a round in its inner lobe, if it had one. It roared loudly as it burst into fiery ash. “Okay, that was- Watch out!” Jk-Bx yelled. The second creature came charging at me in full swing, but a knife flew through the air like a bolt of lightning and pierced the beast’s center eye. Charles came down from above me, punching the blade deeper into the eye, causing the monster to erupt into fiery ash. Only the red, bone-like plating remained of either of the brutes. “That was weird,” Jk-Bx remarked. “Are there anymore? I was suspecting more,” Max said. “Yeah, don’t think they were expecting us to survive that small greeting party,” Charles said. “I expect more next time; I suppose this was only a test of our strength and skills.” We made our way back up to Wess and the others. “Is everyone-” John began, but suddenly the rooms we had entered were now full of howls and screams. The catwalks and floor were crowded with the beasts; the doorways we passed through were now open and packing quickly. “Uhhh, what now?” Jk-Bx asked. “I got this,” Max said, tossing a grenade into the horde of monsters. “No, not here!” Charles yelled, jumping to try and catch the grenade as it fell over the railing. The grenade landed on the grated floor below with a few bounces before stopping. The explosion was tremendous; the floor collapsed, divulging a molten core. We all fell down onto a platform overlooking a once dark pit. Most of the creatures fell into the molten mess, thank goodness, but we had a new problem. Wess and Julia, dangling over the pit, were holding on for dear life. Some of the beasts had landed on the platform and John, Max, Charles, and even Henry were trying to fend them off. So it was left to me to reach Julia and Wess. “I’m slipping!” Julia called out. I reached for Wess first. “Save her!” He yelled, losing his grip. He was harder to reach; Wess had fallen below the platform and was holding onto a broken catwalk stabilizer. “Save her!” Wess said. “My mission is to protect-” I began, not really saying what I was really thinking. “You choose: me or my daughter,” Wess said, straining to hold on. “Remember, you promised to keep her safe! I know you better than you think. Don’t give me any of that protocol nonsense!” “Ithamar, hurry!” John yelled. “We can’t hold them off forever!” This was it, one of my most defining moments in my history. “Sir,” I said, looking at Wess. He nodded at me to indicate he had accepted my decision. So I chose. I ran to the other side of the platform and grabbed Julia, setting her down as soon as I had gotten her up. I ran back for Wess, diving onto the raised area and sliding slightly over the edge of the platform to grab him, only to grasp a part of his clothes tearing from my hand as he vanished into the inferno below. I stood up, holding the torn garb and turned to face the others. “No,” Julia said, shaking her head. She started to run toward where I was standing, and reached the edge where I had tried to grab Wess. “No!” she screamed. Struggling to free herself from my hold, I attempted to calmly restrain the kicking and yelling girl in my arms. “Hold her still,” Henry said as he came over. Henry procured a syringe and injected Julia in the neck; she passed out shortly after he administered the sedative. “What is that?” I asked. “A sedative to keep her under for a couple hours,” Henry said. “Hopefully we’ll be far, far away before she wakes up.” The platform jerked suddenly, as if it was about to break away from the wall. We looked up to see a hole, a black gateway that had shadows moving within it. “This structure is unsound. We need to get off of it,” John said. There was a door that led to a dark passageway. It was the only direction we could go. As everyone else ran inside, I looked back to where Wess had been holding on for his life; I was trying to think of what was going through his mind at the time. “Ithamar,” Charles yelled at me from the doorway. “Let it go.” I couldn’t “let it go,” couldn’t let it go the last time I failed to protect someone-- an entire people as a matter of fact. “Let’s go Ithamar,” John shouted after me. I walked off the platform, letting Wess’ torn garb fall to the ground. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The passage we walked down was quite narrow; two men couldn’t walk side by side if they wanted. We hadn’t been moving too far when we decided to stop for a status update on everyone. “Julia’s in good health,” Henry said. “Some bruises and small cuts, but nothing serious.” “Don’t remember the meteor having a molten core! Anyone care to explain?!” Jk-Bx exclaimed as he paced the floor. “Maybe these creatures had something to do with it,” Max said. “Oh, I’d like to think so,” Cicatrix said, appearing among us. “Great, now you show up,” Bm-Bx groaned. “Well, let’s not wallow in our grief,” Cicatrix said. “Let us…press on.” Julia suddenly woke up. “Oops,” Cicatrix said coyly, as if to pretend it was a coincidence or accident Julia awoke. Julia was breathing heavily and looking around rapidly at first, stepping away from us. “Where’s my daddy?” Julia asked, afraid and confused. John had been sitting against the wall and Charles was looking daggers at Max about the grenade, but their attention turned to Julia. Henry raised his hands up in the air in an attempt to appear affable as he approached her. “Julia, please listen to me and be calm,” Henry began. “Your father, well…” “I tried to save him,” I said to ease the tension. I’ll never forget those eyes, those precious little blue eyes looking shattered and full of pain. She was on the brink of tears, but not one drop fell from her eye. [b]Continued below[/b]

“Still confident that you can perform?” Cicatrix asked. “Yes, I can and I will,” I responded. “Are you confident in what you have to do?” “Yes,” Cicatrix responded. “You’re burned out. Need a break?” I just gazed at Cicatrix; his cocky attitude would be the death of him one day- That is if Charles doesn’t kill him first. I looked at Julia, whose hurt, pained eyes she once had were no more. Instead, they were filled with determination to carry on and she understood for what I had to do…I was unsure what to say. I hadn’t seen this in humans very often. “Cicatrix, do you know the way?” John asked. “Yes,” Cicatrix said with a hiss, stepping aside and gesturing for us to follow. “Shall we?” Once again, we ventured into the darkness, but with a quickened pace. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We walked along for a rather long amount of time; seemed as if we were walking in circles. The rocky walls gleamed with a strange light as we paced and the grated floor almost creaked beneath us like it was ancient. Wess’ loss came as a shock. I wasn’t expecting to have made a decision like that in such a short amount of time working with him. Julia walked next to John for now. She wasn’t much for talking either with me or anyone else. Cicatrix was alarmingly out of sight at the moment and it had everyone on edge. “Hey, slow down Cicatrix. You’re so far ahead we can’t see you anymore,” John commanded in a hushed tone into his com link. “We can’t get separated.” Motion sensors Charles left behind had been going off all the more since we had that brief confrontation. My HUD was getting static in it somehow; didn’t understand why I was getting such interference. “Cicatrix, you hear me?” John called out. No response followed John’s call out. A dead silence fell upon us as Cicatrix’s voice murmured out of the darkness. “Am I really here? Are any of us even real?” “Stop playing games,” Max yelled. “He’s not playing a game,” Charles said, his eyes scanning the dark slowly. “Cicatrix, you know what will happen if you go this route. You know what the consequences will be.” “Oh, dear brother Exo,” Cicatrix said brashly. “We both know we have the ability to be free, free of control and manipulation of the Traveler. I was once one of those fools who were in awe of it, but I woke up…” “You didn’t wake up, because you were never asleep. You knew exactly what you were doing all along when you were a pupil under the Traveler. We both know it doesn’t own us, as it never has or ever will. You forget your place and lost all perception of right and wrong-” “Don’t patronize me! Assigned you to oversee my actions, they did. A wolf to stalk a jackal…” “You couldn’t comprehend, let alone my history. For all your ‘power’ and ‘knowledge,’ you have no wisdom. More hyena than jackal, though you shame both.” “I was trying to be modest. I know enough of you, enough to get us both in trouble. I know you’ve killed no humans. Not one. Some petty moral code you’re trying to adopt. I know you don’t enjoy killing. The hurting of individuals is despicable to you isn’t it? But then again, there is something about the thrill of the hunt that you just…just can’t get enough of.” “You know little of me. Be careful where you cast your web. You may just catch something that you can’t handle.” “Having error code problems again? Pity you can’t beat the system. The Traveler’s got a hold on you that you’ll never be rid of. You and Ithamar share a similar mind. Both of you have a PTSD of some kind. Poor things…” The silence was unnerving. No reply nor comment was made from anyone. “So quiet all of a sudden. Come, come now Charles. You, Ithamar, and I have a lot in common. Something Henry and Max could never understand! Well…Henry might be more related to us than I know.” “Cicatrix, stop this madness,” John yelled. “That’s an order!” “So presumptuous,” Cicatrix’s voice echoed around us in the dark. “So fragile, you all are. You all cling to your loved ones and memories like they can save you from the inevitable darkness that approaches. Look at me…look closely…and witness my newfound strength. NO, my newfound power.” Cicatrix stepped out of the darkness like a monster out of a closet, dragging the body of a dead soldier in his right hand. In his clawed left hand, he held the heart of the soldier out to us. The heart turned black and turned to ash as Cicatrix crushed it in his grasp. Cicatrix let out a fading sigh, like that of a last breath taken, as the heart turned black and became dust. Charles and I drew our weapons as fast as we could, but Cicatrix was faster on the draw. Dropping the body, he threw his claw in a horizontal motion. Ripping part of the wall away, he slammed Max, Charles, and I up against the opposite partition. Before we could do anything, the wall became moist like cement and it absorbed us in and dried quickly. Cicatrix sent one of his ball-bearings flying John’s direction. Forming it into a serrated disc, he cut John’s throat before any action could be taken. He fell to the floor grabbing his neck, gagging on his own blood as it seeped between his fingers. Cicatrix walked by him, brushing the back of his left hand along John’s face. “Julia, run!” Henry yelled, pushing Julia behind him and turning to face Cicatrix. Henry was knocked back without anything even touching him as Cicatrix approached. “I can’t move!” Max yelled. “Shut up and get to breaking yourself free!” I yelled. “Just glad he didn’t take the time to harden it or change it into another element.” It wasn’t too hard. We were breaking free as fast as we could, but it wasn’t quick enough. “Come here little mouse,” Cicatrix said furiously. “No!” Julia cried. Cicatrix dragged her along the floor, kicking and screaming, from where she had been trying to get away. He brought her close to him so that they were face-to-face. “Your father was a menace…” “No he wasn’t. He was standing up to monsters like you.” “Monsters?! Imprudent child! It feels like an eternity since I first started this task. Your father’s work for the Vanguard has been very taxing on Mr. Dudley’s operations, so he wanted me to eliminate James Wess and his daughter so that no legacy would carry on to avenge him or finish what he started. Ha! Well, your daddy can’t save you, Ithamar can’t save you, and God is unable-” “Hey!” Jk-Bx and Bm-Bx yelled. Cicatrix turned and saw John pointing “Golden Gate” directly at him with one hand on his bleeding throat. The shot rang out sharply, and it all happened as if in slow motion, though it all occurred in a matter of seconds. Cicatrix held up his right hand in an attempt to stop the bullet, but to both his and our surprise, it punctured his hand and struck him just above his left eye, close to the forehead. A dark hole was made in the mask and cracks began to fill his face; a sharp cracking noise sounded as well. Julia fell to the floor as Cicatrix’s trembling hands reached for his shattered silver face, letting out a gasp of hollow air. He stumbled around like a cripple for a moment, falling on his knees and leaning against the wall. Like a broken puppet, he sat on the ground tangled in his frustration and horror. As his hands moved over the cracks and bullet hole, he let out a harrowing shriek. If it was from pain of shock, I did not know. Then, without any warning, a dark cloud materialized behind Cicatrix and Mr. Dudley appeared behind him. It caught even me off-guard, no one suspected Cicatrix to be rescued by a Crime Lord of the Golden Age. “Come on!” Mr. Dudley yelled, grabbing Cicatrix by the shoulder. “The end is nigh!” Just as mysterious as he had appeared, Dudley disappeared and Cicatrix was nowhere to be seen. My last glimpse of Mr. Dudley was his mask’s eye holes, which glinted like stars. I was sure that behind that was visible, his eyes were full of determination. However, more fascinating to me was what I witnessed in Cicatrix’s: Within the darkness of his mask’s eyes, I saw two faint violet ones. “What the-!” Max exclaimed. “How’d he-? I don’t get it.” I ran over and picked Julia off of the floor the second I was free. “Julia!” I exclaimed as I held her in my arms. I brushed her hair from her face as I scanned for a heartbeat. She awoke with a cough as she woke up, her eyes full of fright. “He’s gone now. He can’t-” “John, hold on!” Max said, running over to him. I set Julia down on the ground. We both stood as Max turned John over. “No, no, no; you don’t do this to me! You’re not allowed to die here!” Henry exclaimed as he attempted to revive John. It was, however, too late. The light had left Johns eyes. Henry fell back against the wall and pressed his hand against his forehead, smearing John’s blood across the left side of his face. Max just looked at John’s body without comment. Charles reached down and picked up “Golden Gate”, opening the cylinder. “Glorian rounds,” Charles said. “Won them from me. Glad to know he put them to good use. Unusual that Cicatrix didn’t stop it midflight like he usually would.” “What do we do now?” Max asked. Charles and I looked at one another. “We keep going.” “Wait, what?” Max bellowed. “Press on? That’s it? Why don’t we go back there and teach those things a lesson; wipe them all out?” “We have no idea how many there may be. And we must keep Julia safe.” “Since when did you grow a conscience? Huh? Why do you care for the welfare of Julia?” [b]Continued below[/b]

“Why do you care John is dead? I don’t get emotional over death. For it is only a phase of life.” “’A phase of life’, as if this was natural at all. You’re so insensitive.” “No, you are just immature.” I knelt down to John and removed his personal belongings. “What do you think you’re doing?” “We can send these to his family after we escape.” “What? We’re leaving his body here? To be hewn upon by those beasts? How are we even supposed to get away from here?” I glanced up at Max. “You are supposed to be a professional security escort, not a coward. We will find a way to escape. Besides, we already have a plan.” “I’m no coward. It’s just that Julia’s odds of survival are so small.” “Never calculate the odds. Just do your-” Charles began to say. “Error, target identified.” Charles’ HUD warmed up again. Charles drew his knife and lunged at me with great speed and accuracy. I managed to dodge the attack however and get out of his way. “Charles, what are you doing?!” Henry shouted. He threw his elbow into Henry’s face, knocking him back. I grappled Charles’ arm with the knife in an attempt to take it from him, but he was too sleight of hand. In the blink of an eye, he snatched the black blade out of the air before it hit the ground. He then attempted to thrust the knife into my chest, but it didn’t do anything but make a faint, diagonal scratch. We forced each other onto to the floor where we wrestled one another until I pinned him. “Charles, stop it!” I ordered. “What is he doing? Someone scan his him!” “Righto!” Bm-Bx and Jk-Bx said in unison. “I can’t get anything,” Henry said, getting up off of the floor. “Just static.” “What’s the matter with him?” Max asked. Nothing but static came from Charles’ vocals as well. “I’m going in!” Bm-Bx proclaimed. Jk-Bx had gotten close to Charles. He suddenly wasn’t so eager to get inside of Charles’ head. “Whoa!” Bm-Bx exclaimed. “He’s so messed up in here! Data missing, memory scars are present, a whole lot of data corruption, I’m trying to piece it all together…” “Got a really good firewall system in there,” Jk-Bx said. “I mean Traveler grade stuff. Leonard would kill to have this kind of information, literally.” “YEOW!” Bm-Bx yelled as he stepped back and grabbed his head. “I tried to pierce the fire wall. BIG MISTAKE! I think I need to lie down.” “Eh, he’s had these before, he’ll get over it,” Max said. “It’ll pass…” “This has happened before?” I asked. “Yep,” Jk-Bx said. “The last one was over a year ago. That’s when Yo-Yo vanished. Thought he would be much better by now. Oh, Yo-Yo was just like you Ithamar: An Exo who was trying to do his job, but then he disappeared mysteriously.” “Really?” “Yeah, he used to lock himself up in his room. Thought he was over it though.” Charles suddenly spoke. “Let me up,” He growled. “Why should I trust you?” I asked. “I have no reason you should trust me,” Charles said. “You have no reason to trust me.” I didn’t like these situations, but what Charles said next got even me thinking about what he used to do before he became part of Wess’ security team. “Ever have to follow orders, and the orders just keep…repeating?” Charles asked, no longer struggling. “Ever wonder who you are and where you come from?” “I understand what you mean by following orders and how they keep repeating.” “Then you’ll understand that it can take a while to shake it off…if you can.” I was still uncertain, but he had a point. I let him up, but I wasn’t looking at him the same way anymore. We looked at each other briefly. His eyes were unmoving and full of frustration. We all agreed to move on, leaving John’s body where it lied; though I knelt down one last time to place john’s hands on his chest. “Here,” Charles said, kneeling down beside me. “John would want us to do this.” He placed a small looped wire around John’s thumb that led to a small explosive device Charles placed under his back. “He won’t mind. Besides, you really want them to chew up his body?” “No.” We waited but a second in silence. “Good bye John,” Charles said. I didn’t have anything to say. John was gone. Talking to a corpse wouldn’t help anything. I would however return his belongings in the future…including his white cowboy hat. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [i]One hour later…[/i] “Hmm,” Charles hummed, thinking to himself. “What happened in here?” He was standing in a doorway leading to a cafeteria. Two bodies, not too old, lied on the ground before us. Both looked like men. “Well, someone smashed their suits visors, exposing them to some kind of vacuum,” Henry said. “Air must have restored to this part of the base recently.” “No crap Sherlock,” Max snapped. “Give you three guesses who did it.” I walked over to one table and set Julia down as we investigated. Dark. That was the only way to describe the area. The walls, ceiling, and floor were scorched as if they’d been burned from a fire. A silver case was on one of the tables, and it looked like it was a cooler of some sort. “What is that?” Max asked, standing at the door and pointing at the silver case. “I don’t know,” Henry said as he turned the case in his direction and, reaching into it, removed a transparent vial. “Something appears to be left in the second one.” “These two were from Shoo-Lawn Industries,” Charles said. “What were they doing here, I wonder.” “Delivering something, obviously.” Max remarked. “But what were they-” The container slipped from his hand and the glass shattered on the floor. “Dang it,” Henry said. “Dropped the vial; at least I’ll get a better sample of-” Henry reached down and picked up a piece of the glass with a black substance on it. “Idea of what?” I asked. “You don’t know what is inside of the vial?” “I don’t like the readings. I’m destroying the sample.” Henry’s grey hand turned yellow as he tried to burn it off, but the black matter stood out like a crack on his hand as it began to grow larger. Henry started to shake his left hand in an attempt to remove the black material. “I can’t get it off!” Henry yelled, his hand glowing brighter, almost white, as he increased the temperature. “It’s not working, I can’t burn it off!” Charles grabbed his arm and cut his hand off below the wrist. Hydraulic fluid and sparks were emitted briefly. “What’d you do that for?” Henry inquired angrily. Charles ignored him and just looked at the hand throb around on the floor. It went from red to gray and it appeared to grow scales, and it began to turn into a claw, very similar to that of Cicatrix’s left hand. “Well, there’s something you don’t see every day,” Jk-Bx said. Henry’s hand patched up itself up quickly, sealing off the leaking fluids and sparks. “Great, now I have to get a new hand. Better than a claw, I have to admit.” “What kind of readings did you get?” Charles asked. “I got a, abnormal biological reading; DNA strands that I couldn’t recognize. Very sporadic and it was trying to bond to anything it could get a grasp on for a host.” “Okay…” Max said. “Is it toxic?” [b]Finished below[/b]

“Yes, extremely.” Bm-Bx retracted his hand, deciding against touching the claw. Henry looked at where it used to be. “These toxins are worse than what was in the air. What’s more intriguing is that it even affects metal and A.I. cores. Yes, it was trying to get inside my head when I touched it…instantly.” “So there are monsters in space,” Max said as matter-of-fact tone. “More than you know,” I thought to myself. Once again, new questions were brought to mind about what Cicatrix was into. However, it was not the time to sit and marinate on him and his dark deeds. We left the cafeteria in a rush, through with the slow walking. Picking up Julia, we sprinted to the hanger in a record breaking twelve minutes. We found a ship, fueled it up, and bringing us some unwanted attention, and blasted our way out of the hanger. When we were a mile away from the meteor site, a Vanguard frigate arrived and destroyed the remains of the base. Our time spent on the meteor was brief, but it seemed like a week before we left. All the staff and personnel of the secret meteor base were lost; more than 2,000 men and women, including Ambassador Wess and Captain John. Cicatrix vanished without a trace as a result of Mr. Dudley’s mysterious abducting of Cicatrix. Shoo-Lawn Industries declined to comment on the matter of sending two of their personnel. Leonard refused to reveal any information regarding his experiments that involved foreign substances. Charles, Max, Henry, Jk-Bx, Bm-Bx, and I were reassigned… -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [i]Location unknown, XXXX Date and time unknown[/i] “Cicatrix,” Mr. Dudley said. “Can you hear me?” The words sounded distant and echoing. He could hear the laughter of children and cries of war. Looking around the blurry room as it slowly rocked, his mind droned with words and sounds he couldn’t remember. Dudley’s mask appeared in Cicatrixs’ visual gradually as he regained full consciousness. “Did you see him?” Dudley asked. Cicatrix observed the medical room. He was alone with Dudley. Knocking his host out of the way, Cicatrix looked in the mirror at his once finely polished face. “Cheer up, mate. My little experiments with Dark and Light energies were a success, not to mention that you’ve progressed as well. Unfortunate though that you didn’t know you are unable to manipulate Glorian or Opaquian ore, perhaps your face would have been spared.” Cicatrix just stood staring into the mirror. “Come, let me show you,” Dudley indicated with his staff, pointing to an operating table. Dudley drew out a large surgical blade, like a long scalpel. He pulled back his sleeve to the elbow and drew the blade across his flesh, opening up his arm. Through his own tissue and into the bone he cut deeply, spilling his blood all over the table. However, the wound ceased to bleed mysteriously and the flesh, tendons, and muscle merged back together like nothing had ever happened to it. “It won’t work on Exos or certain animal species, but with all your ‘lifeblood’ splicing, we may fool your DNA into accepting what I did to mine.” The room was silent, aside from the hum of the lights above. “Why so quiet? You’ve done a fine job. No witnesses and no complications. Sure, Julia Wess is still alive, but who cares. Those ‘hive-like’ beasts will be the death of her yet, and so what if Ithamar is around. We’ll think of a way to get into his head. Just you wait and see. As for our experimentation and research, we can share our discoveries and make our enemies cower before us! With our combined skills, just imagine that we will be that much closer to being immortals. Gods even!” “You’re forgetting something.” “What would that be exactly?” “Gods don’t bleed.” [b]End chapter six.[/b] Thank you for reading. Comments and feedback are appreciated. Domitoris Awakening Anthology- https://www.bungie.net/en/Clan/Post/39972/98982257/0/0

I liked this chapter a lot. Tons of exciting and unexpected content that significantly impacts Ithamar's story. Well done!

Thank you, It's been a while and I'm thrilled to finally post this chapter. Which of the significant changes surprised you the most?

I always expected a conflict with Cicatrix to occur, but I wasn't anticipating one so soon, and I didn't expect him to get so twisted before he attacked the group. But the most significant one had to be when Ithamar had to decide who to save.

Why do you think he made the decision he chose? Do you think it will have consequences in the future?

Every decision influences something, whether good or bad, so i'm eagerly waiting to see what the ramifications are. As for why, I think some part of Ithamar realizes it was a difficult balance, but the moral thing to do was save the child. Overall though, I expect he doesn't entirely know himself and will discover it in the future as he pulls away from the analytical, machine's frame of mind and comes to grasp the mentality of a human being more.

Alright, we'll just have to see how human he gets. Do you think Charles has some potentially hazardous issues?

He does, like outdated software, he's falling apart from the inside. The question I ask is will he ever find the cure or will he continue to degrade until an unfortunate and difficult end awaits him?

One of those things that requires the right kind of medicine or machine, you'll see. Let me ask you this. Who do you think is older? Ithamar or Charles?

It's hard to say. They both seem older than either of them may realize. At the moment though, Charles seems older due to his condition.

Hmm, interesting theory. What did you think of the "sauce" Henry found?

A distinctly mysterious toxin for sure, being able to attack inorganic materials and invade artificial intelligence systems. It seems like more of a parasite instead of a toxin though. I think it'll be a dangerous threat, not just to Ithamar and his team, but to the entirety of humanity and its affiliations. A bio weapon of sorts.

Bio weapon...I like that. Do you think it is of Hive decent?

Maybe it's not accurate to say bio weapon, as it attacks more than organic tissue. Maybe a matter weapon... I can't say for sure. I would imagine it would at least be close to that nature, since they seem like very corrupt and demonic creatures, and we can see what exposing matter to this substance does to the body, whether organic or inorganic.

The Hive and Darkness are different in my story. One may be more demonic than the other. What did you think of Cicatrix's partial origin? And his relationship with Charles?

His origin still seems like a mystery to me. He has a very close relationship with Dudley for a yet to be discovered reason. Maybe it concerns his past and crimes. As for his relationship with Charles, I predict that they were once close. Maybe even good friends, but at some point a split occurred, which would explain why they know each other so well and why Charles could tell Cicatrix he lost all perception of who he once was. So at the very least they have had a history that goes back relatively far.

Hmm, that is true. What did you think of the part where Charles and Ithamar synced?

Pretty awesome. Only war machines would be able to do something that unique and cool. I like how calculative it was too.

Great, glad you liked it. It wasn't exactly what I planned, but it will do for now. Did you happen to have a favorite scene?

Thanks for writing it. John's final goodbye gift to Cicatrix by far. Couldn't have written it any better.

What did you think of Cicatrix's reaction to being shot?

I wouldn't have wanted him to react any other way. In agony and panic as an unexpected answer to his cruel methods hit him in the face. Reminded me a bit of when the Nazgul leader was killed in LOTR.