Author’s Note: This is a shorter transitional chapter.

Episode-08: What Really Happened

Date: November 26, 3007
Time: 11:50
Location: Orbis

~Mikhail~

Fear and panic in the air. It blanketed the white marble buildings, engulfing every living soul in the pure city. The sun beat down with an unparalleled intensity, trying in every way to fry the inhabitants below. But they pursued their goals relentlessly, driven blindly in a futile direction. The gunfire was deafening.

Mikhail Shale gave the trigger of his pistol a gentle squeeze and instantly released the bullet waiting in the steel mouth. With a sharp crack, the gun cocked back, sending the piece of steel hurling at twice the speed of sound directly into the head of another soldier, effectively blowing apart the back of his head.

As the red mess sloshed onto the floor, Mikhail was already firing away at another target as if he had an automatic target finder installed in his brain. Grinning in a mad frenzy, he felt a slight pang of surprise when the breech echoed empty.

Instantly, he dropped the now useless weapon and whipped out another from inside his black combat vest. The pistol was as deadly as the largest machine gun in Mikhail’s skilled hands. Roaring heartily in excitement, Mikhail leapt on top of a shot-up car and began plugging his enemies full of white hot steel.

“Mikhail, there’s too many of them!” Mikhail’s earpiece suddenly crackled, revealing the voice of one of his most trusted captains.

“Pod, shut up and fight!” Mikhail roared back without ever pausing; his gun clanged empty again and he quickly switched it out with another. “You know our motto!”

“Yessir,” Captain Pod replied as his intercom was overrun with the sounds of automatic weapon fire again.

In Mikhail’s mind, the EDEN motto ran wildly like the automatic setting on his pistol. To the Death, to the Death, for honor and glory, not heaven but hell, to the Death to the Death. His mind raged on furiously as the bullets whizzed by, miraculously missing him or rebounding off of Mikhail’s almost depleted shield. It was only a matter of time now.

Then, Mikhail heard a crackle in his communicator. Straining his ears over the gunfire, he hopped off the roof of the car and took shelter behind the piece of scrap metal. As he pulled out yet another pistol from his seemingly endless supply, Mikhail turned the volume of the earpiece up; the static crackling crescendoed. He looked up.

“Ah nuts…” Mikhail disappeared just in time with the remainder of his company. Moments later, the entire city of Orbis was flattened by a tactical nuclear missile. The sky lit up with pure white energy for a brief second before fading to yellow, to orange, and then red. A mushroom cloud roiled over the city, climbing infinitely into the stratosphere, erasing the contrail as well as all other patches of cloud within a twenty mile radius. All residents of the city, all living souls, became silhouettes in the infinitely bright light before disintegrating into nothingness.

In that second, Mikhail concentrated harder than ever before, for teleporting miles on end out of a radioactive zone was not a walk in the park. Feeling the wind rush by, slashing at his face, Mikhail sped through space and time. The explosion of the nuclear missile never reached him, for when the shockwave finally hit, Mikhail was already out of the city.

As the world rematerialized in front of him, Mikhail felt his lungs take in the cold tropical air once more, rejuvenating his shriveled lungs from the prolonged teleportation. Collapsing onto all fours, his palms hit the white sanded beach. Mikhail’s fingers curled up, grabbing the soft pellets, feeling their smooth texture; he had never been more thankful to be back on Navasota Island his entire life.

And yet the Dominion was done. Their headquarters were destroyed, along with the entire city. Mikhail’s crusade had finally come to its end, going out with the explosion of a nuclear weapon. It had been a long couple of decades, but now it was done. A weight lifted off of Mikhail’s chest and for what seemed like the first time, tears of joy crept into his eyes. With faint pops, the surviving EDEN appeared on the beach alongside their master.

“Well done boys,” Mikhail said shakily as he straightened himself up, his cheeks flowing with unashamed tears, “Well done…”

Date: November 24, 3008
Time: 12:30
Location: Navasota Island

~Felix~

Jumping back in a horrific surprise, Felix cursed loudly as his eyes stared at the reincarnated dead. “Sh** Mikhail!”

Mikhail Shale stood proudly, tall and strong, as if he had not been flattened by Nova’s nuclear strike. After not seeing him for a year, Felix didn’t know what to expect. Mikhail’s facial features were the same, with the identical maniacal glint in his eyes like a year before. His chin ended with a cleanly shaven goatee, which seemed to have been very carefully groomed. As Felix recovered from his shock, Mikhail let out a hearty bellow, the same exact laugh as Felix had remembered it.

“Felix, my boy!” Mikhail exclaimed as he clapped a meaty hand on Felix’s shoulder. His grip seemed to have gotten stronger since the last time Felix had met Mikhail.

“Ah, and Michael and Maldran!” Mikhail turned to face the two, “Rejoined the Army, I see!” Felix rolled his eyes at himself; it had to be foolish to not be surprised at Mikhail’s omniscient mind. Somehow, he could bet a million dollars and a left arm that Mikhail had found some way to track every one of them down.

Finally, he turned to Nova, who was standing closest to the back end of the shale portal. “November Alice Zerra,” Mikhail exclaimed with a broad smile, “Now before you say anything, there’s no need to apologize. What you did had to be done, and I’m glad you did it. Guess we won’t be seeing that Fenris anymore!” Mikhail guffawed with gust.

“Mikhail,” Nova managed to whisper out as if something was choking off her voice box, “What…how… how did you escape?”

“That’s really irrelevant at the moment,” Mikhail said as he guided Nova into the entrance hall, “What matters now is that you get up to date on all that’s happened. Much has occurred over the one year since we’ve last seen each other.”

Felix followed Mikhail, Naz, and Lily through the great hall. As soon as he stepped into the brightly lit room, he flinched yet again. The ceilings were impossibly tall, supported by arching buttresses. His guess was that the windows which were letting bright rays of sun stream into the room were enchanted to do so by whatever magic this island kept from the human race. Paintings of magnificent flair hung boldly on the august walls, giving the entire room a castle-like feel.

Mikhail pushed open two intricately decorated double doors at the back of the room, revealing a set of halls leading off into different parts of the lair. Apparently, Mikhail had redecorated substantially. Nothing seemed as it was before; everything was foreign. As they twisted and turned down halls lined with many unusual doors, Felix began to wonder whether or not they were still on Navasota Island.

But then, as Mikhail ushered every one in through a final door, Felix felt a blast from the past. Before his eyes, laid a simple wooden desk in the middle of a plain room, with black leather seats lining the edges. It was exactly as he had remembered it, the room where Mikhail had given his last briefing before they went into battle.

“Like it?” Mikhail grinned as everyone settled down. Naz and Lily took their places on the left and right sides of Mikhail, who stood at the front podium.

“So, I take it Naz has filled you in on most of it?” Mikhail asked as he scanned the room. To his right, Naz nodded affirmatively without a word.

“Right,” Mikhail’s eyes narrowed on Nova, who Felix noticed, was trying to avoid all eye contact with the man. “As for Nova…”

“Nova looked up and stared directly into Mikhail’s black eyes. Warm met cold, and for a second, Felix felt as if he was going to explode from the tension building up in the room. But then, Nova snapped away, apparently unable to take the past memories.

“Damiver is in no immediate harm,” Mikhail’s tone suddenly became very soothing, “However, it is in his best interest that we get to him right away. He is being held captive by the Ancient Templars for a reason beyond me. I would ask Naz and Lily, but they haven’t got a clue. All we know is that they have unleashed their pet upon our world. I believe you all know much more about that than we do.”

Felix briefly relived the terror of the initial collapse of the Tower of New Leaf City. He remembered the chilling roar of the monster as it tore through concrete as if it were paper. Pushing his memories into the back of his mind, Felix forced himself to concentrate on Mikhail, but for the rest of the briefing, he found himself wandering back into New Leaf City. In Felix’s mind, he knew he would never escape from his own nightmares. He planned to bear them for a long time.