Chronicles of Zeta: Pandora

Chapter One

     I looked up in the now forest green sky. A smile crept up upon my face, I love seeing our two moons in the sky. They're both full tonight, contrasting with each other. The ever pale lavender and ravishing royal purple consumed the sky of blue jewels and green robes. I stopped at the corner light. I looked down, seeing the multiple levels of the city. The buildings, with sidewalks, were built on top of each other. Our vehicles used our moons gravitational pulls to 'fly,' along with Sonosaphian technology. There was two vehicle industries on Zentura, Sono Waves and Grav Tracks. They use the same technology, but originally used opposing ones. I work for Sono Waves, as an industrial worker. I've been living here for a couple years now. I, unlike most of this world's inhabitants, am a human. One of my best friends, Riamu, was from No Where. I had crashed at his place for a while, and boom. Entered through my dreams. Apparently it happens quite often to animals around those from No Where. I eventually decided to move there physically cause Earth, and that dimension, weren't working for me. When the uprising happened in the Kingdom of Zaturnerax, Riamu dragged me along to Zentura.
     We have been living together for about a year now. We have this, strange to say the less, relationship with each other. We're kinda like lovers, in the sense that we kiss, share a bed, live together, and have pet names for each other. Unlike a relationship beyond that, we're just friends. No sex, no expectations of sex, no sexual fantasies of each other. Asexual, that's the word. Life here has been... Nice. My life at home is peaceful, Riamu and me are completely comfortable together, material and emotional wise. Work is tiring, but worth it, I get paid fairly, and my coworkers are funny beings. Beings, how funny, I've gotten so used to not saying people, cause people means humans and my coworkers were far from human. That didn't mean they weren't, by definition, humane. They are all really nice and funny, I'm accepted. This world is accepting. That's what makes it so much more pleasing. My thoughts are fast, like any ones, and the light changes, the cross walk forms. Its a bridge made of pure energy, glowing as blue as the stars above us. I get across and make my way down to my apartment building when I hear the siren. My eyes open wide as I run to get inside for safety. Acceptance is nice, fair pay and a roommate whom you got along with better than anyone else is too, but the one down side of this, and the other Daemon run worlds, is the Gavialent raids.
     A Gavialent is a species similar to that of an angel, but not as sweet. Most are of the mind that they are a higher being than others, looking down upon them. They enslave many weaker and submissive species. Daemons and Gavialents have been at war since they were created in this vast universe. They were both 'born' onto a world that no longer exists. Their fighting and war ravished the planet, corrupting it, and in the end, destroying it. It's name was Goden. The species had evolved around each other, competing for resources, and when they started to evolve to great beings, began to rage war. Different beliefs and morals. I guess that's why Earth has so many wars on it. Gavialtion bombs could be heard outside, I quickly went up stairs to see Riamu looking relieved to see me. His bright blue eyes held relief and joy in them, but a touch of sorrow. His arm reached behind him and rubbed the back of his neck, caressing the short, fine, black hairs on it. I give him a smile as he gets up and hugs me. I smile again, his hugs have always held a soft spot in my heart, since they were rare until we moved here. He released me from the embrace, and held onto my arms, looking at me. "What?" I say, and he snickers. He smiles and leans in, pressing a soft kiss on my lips. "Just worrying about ya was all." With that he let go of me to sit back down.
     Eventually another siren goes off, but we don't completely notice it, we're distracted by laughing and eating our food. Another thing, Zentura has no televisions. Beings talk and hang out during meals. They use their imaginations to entertain themselves, or read a book. Stuff like Humans did before T.V. He grabs our dishes and puts them in the sink, and I get up to head of to bed with him. I strip of my soiled robes and into crisp clean pajama bottoms. I slip in next to Riamu, curling next to him. I feel his arm wrap around my waist, and his lips brush against my forehead. I swiftly fell asleep in his arms, whimsically dreaming of Earth and No Where, my old family and friends.
     I awakened with a start. I glance at the windows, there is barely any light fluttering through them. I look the clock, 13:66. The time difference here was odd, an extra hour and ten minutes a day compared to Earth and No Where. I slump back down, careful not to stir Riamu. It doesn't work much, as he grabs in the cold midnight air for my missing presence. I'm not one to complain, I quickly return to my niche in his arms. That dream was horrifying. A normal being would call it a nightmare, but with what I've seen and been through, I say otherwise. My life was all but perfect on Earth. And, the wars and battles in No Where could cauterize your eyes. This was high on my rector scale, but not at it's peak. I snuggled into Riamu's embrace and sigh. I hope I get some worth while sleep the rest of the night.

     I could feel hands tight around my arms. I tried tugging my arms to get free, but my hands were bound behind me. I couldn't see at all, the blindfold over my eyes seems to be quite effective. My thoughts are running, where am I? What's going on? How did I get here? All I remember is going to sleep with Riamu, then I awoke in a cell. My mind flashes back in time. The walls were musty, covered in drawings, and I could hear voices echoing through the halls outside of my cell bars. I heard footsteps coming closer, or were they further? I can't tell. It's dark, the only light from candles outside my cell's enclosure. Closer, yes, closer. The voices are coming closer, I get up and go to window of metal bars to see who it is. The beings were in robes of black, or was it dark grey, and red, blood red perhaps. They bore masks of Daemons faces, similar to that of the ancient Japanese demons faces in style. The eyes were blacked out, or did they even have eyes? They stopped at my cell, still facing as if they would continue walking. 

     "You have been chosen as the sacrifice for our lord, Ataksuki.  You should feel blessed to be slain for such a magnificent being." With that the three robed figures turned to face me. I fell backwards onto the stone floor. One waved his hand in front of the cell's bars and they began to move over, opening. I scurried backwards and up, slamming against the wall. They entered the room and it seemed to become colder and darker, as if the heat and light were being devoured by their very presence. All in one instant, I lost my breathe completely, falling to the ground with a silent scream. My world became foggy, then shady, then nothing. 

     I snapped back to the present as one tugged on my arm, telling me step up. I did as told, fearing what they could do. The air, the heat, the light. They were scary. I climbed up three steps and walked out into what sounded like a stadium. I could hear voices all around me, chanting something. "May the red liquid be spilled at the ripening of a quarter decade. His life as he knows it will be slain, to resurrect the life of our Lord. His blood will be spilled, so he may be branded with our Lord's crest. He will lose his mind and soul to become our Lord's new host, and with that he will be gone. May our Lord Ataksuki rise with the fall of another."

     I could feel my eyes widen as I began to understand what their words meant. I was going to be killed, sacrificed, to bring back their 'Lord'. I struggled to break free from my bondage, but my attempts were futile. I was brought up another few steps and knelt down. They took off my blindfold and I began looking around me. I saw another being in matching robes, except the boarder lines were white, speckled in the crimson red. This registered in my head, and I tried to scream, but they gagged my mouth with the blindfold. I glanced up at the man, as he shuffled with something in his sleeve. He began to pull out a glimmering object, and at full view I realized it was a dagger. Intricate this dagger was, it looked ancient, and was crested with rubies. At least, they looked like rubies, I remember seeing flowers that looked like those in No Where. The flowers were like roses, the petals made of red diamonds, and the stems of black steel barbed wire. Beautifully dangerous, Riamu got me a ring that was made of one. The man knelt down next to me, his mask of blue fire and shadows gleamed in the light of the moon. Then it hit me. One moon. One blood red moon. The robed man next to me started chanting with the others now, and suddenly I howled. The intense pain in my forearm was unbearable. 

     I screamed again, but it soon became a gurgle compared to the chanting. The lights that were too bright, the sounds that were too loud, the pain that was too real, soon became numb when I felt something else. Darkness, death, could it be you? I struggled to remember everything. I couldn't think. I felt like a scared animal, surrounded, trapped, and injured. I noticed something glimmer in my view, it was the ring Riamu gave me. I wore it on my ring finger, not cause I thought it meant anything like that, but because that is what seemed right for it. Riamu, where was he? He was with me, is he safe? Another ruby glimmer and a pain so unreal that I didn't scream, I shrieked at the intense feeling. The ebony flames around me began to consume me and I fell into darkness. 

     I woke up screaming, wrestling around myself. Riamu jumped back, ready to fight someone or something, but only saw me. He frowned, walking over to my breathless body. I was gasping for air, tears trying to break free from my hazel eyes. He held onto me, caressing my dark black hair, shushing me into a soothed state. I felt my eye's beg to release their precipitation, and I complied. I was bawling into his shoulder. Eventually he hushed me enough to breathe normally. I moved back some to look into his eyes. He looked back, staring intently, then leaned in to kiss my nose. "It'll be alright Pan, it was just a nightmare." I could feel my eyes water up again and he brushed the pre-shed tears away. He laid me onto the bed again, and curled himself around me. I clung to his presence. I know he'll ask what had scared me so much in the morning, even if it was my birthday. My birthday, I had almost forgotten, it was today wasn't it? I was turning twenty five today... "May the red liquid be spilled at the ripening of a quarter decade." I shivered, and held to Riamu tighter. Sometimes I loved this big lug, even if it wasn't the conventional form of love. He is always there for me, and hopefully, always will be. I don't think I could deal with the past and these dreams if it wasn't for him. He understood them. He shared my dreams. I slowly began to nod of to sleep when I heard it again. "You have been chosen to be sacrificed for our Lord, Ataksuki." My eyes flew open. I wasn't going to sleep the rest of the night.
     My eyes left like lead. I hadn't slept at all last night since the dream, and wasn't about to have a repeat. I could feel myself nodding off again and shook myself awake. "No, I have to stay awake. Riamu is making me my favorite breakfast. Have to stay awake." Every time it was the others birthday, we'd fix the other their favorite breakfast, and dote upon them the whole day. It was cheesy, but it was nice. Today he promised to take me out and around the city, see the little shops an such. I'm so excited, but I don't wanna ruin it by not being coherent. My eyes are closed, but I can tell Riamu has stopped cooking. I hear a plate slide in front of me and I open my eyes. I see Riamu sit down as I smile. Swedish Pancakes. My family has made them for generations. It was like a family recipe by now. I coated them in syrup and began to enjoy the delicacy. I will enjoy this day, as I always do. Just Riamu and me, walking together and exploring like we used to. The memories.
     I think back to No Where. The Dark Wood forest, the Ebonic Castle, and everyone there. I can still imagine all the places and faces. I remember Rex, Sooki, Fu, and Zeta. Zero was always tailing us with Zen and Pasha. Those three would always stalk us! Until of course... When the rebellion to that tyrant of king, Riamu and his siblings father, happened. The king was killed, along with the queen. Riamu didn't stay for long. He didn't want the power. Rex stayed, but had Zeta take the others back to earth. I don't know what happened to anyone else beyond that. I shivered. The cruelty the rebels had... They would kill anyone in their way, like savages.  I tried to block the thoughts and think further into the past. Riamu taking me to see his little brothers and sisters. He introduced me to the family a very long time after we knew each other. He never wanted to come to No Where, he seemed to hate it, then it seemed to change suddenly. I questioned why of course, and confronted him about it one day in Dark Wood.
     "What's going on with you, Ri?" I looked at him pleadingly. He shrugged me off, "Nothin' man." I looked at him with a raised eye brow. "You're lying. I can tell. You hated even mentioning this place, but now you love coming here. We live here now for god's sake! Together!" He looked at me with hurt eyes, and I cringed. Did I hurt him, oh no, please no. I quickly ran over to him and hugged him. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." I kept nuzzling my head back and forth on his neck. He looked at me and finally spoke, "It wasn't you. No reason to apologize, my Dear." He kissed my forehead and caressed my cheek. I remembered how hot my cheeks felt.
     I chewed on my last bite of pancake and smiled. Today Riamu and I get to mess around and have fun. I love the weekend like days. They're not really a weekend, we just have work schedules that give us three days off. Four days of ten hour industrial work, then three days in between to relax. Riamu and I shared two days, and took the other as our 'Me Day'. Riamu took my plate and smiled at me, his blue eyes shining. His black hair seemed so perfect and soft today. I grabbed my jacket as we headed out to enjoy the strip mall and it's offspring of hole in the walls and stands. We walked down the dark grey side walk holding hands. We spun around when we heard someone scream. A girl had fallen of the ledge, but she was just suspended in midair, near the cars. She slowly began moving toward the sidewalk again, and was back on land. What an invention, I began to think, force fields that slowly repels things back. Deaths were too common back a couple hundred years ago cause people would fall off a ledge like these ones.
     In order to reduce the death toll of their building style, they had to invent a way to keep people from falling. Willingly or not. Anything could break railing in this world, so a force field was the only option. The very first try reflected beings back to fast, causing injury and death. They were eventually able to realize how to slow down this process with a still fast, but slow reflection. It only took about thirty seconds, but was still a slow pace. All cars, when parked on the side to pick someone up, had to use a technology that is as impressive. It opens the field slightly, but has one formed around the car doors. These fields fuse until broken away and they return to there solid form. All vehicles have force field technology around them, as to stop people from jumping out of them while on the road. There is one catch, the lanes closest to the side walk have there force field off on that side of the car. Beings could jump out, and go through the force field to end up on the side walk again. Car's didn't stop, you jumped.
     During a bombing, these force fields are completely useless. The Gavialents have specially made their bombs to go straight through these fields. Luckily, most of the city has a much strong, but thin force field around every building. One minute after the bomb warning goes off, also known as right before the first bomb explodes, the doors remain open. After that, the doors lock, no going in or out till the siren rings again. All those outside are stuck there. Riamu and I had to face that scary fate once or twice. The force fields come up around the buildings, engulfing them in their protective blanket.
     We continued walking, the scene over with.We headed down to the strip mall, an outside and inside bizarre. Its a wonderful place, full of laughter and fun. My favorite place to go there is this hole in the wall antique store. That is the first place, the third place, the seventh place, and the last place we go. The items thy have there constantly change, so if you want something, better get it then. We go inside the small building for the last time, smiling at the shop owner. He is this little purple man, with small spikes sticking out of his head and arms.  The tips of these spikes are a dark blue in hue. He smiled back, and welcomed us again, commenting how, 'Didn't I just see you both a hour ago?' We all chuckle a bit, and I go wondering around this wonder of a shop.
    I stopped when I saw something that struck a cord. The dagger, the dagger from the dream. The rubies embedded in it, the designs engraved into it. I picked it up, but cringed as I dropped it. I accidently cut my finger, and now the blood dripped on the blade lightly. The shop owner nearly jumped out of his seat, next to my side. Riamu was already helping me with the little cut, when the shop owner looked me straight in the eye, saying, "I am so sorry for this." The next thing I knew I was on the ground. The purple shop owner's clothing changing into a dark grey robe. The blood red trim seemed to reawaken the fear inside me, and Riamu stepped in front of me, but he flew backwards. He landed next to me, purple-blue spikes in his chest. He can shoot them? What the hell is going on? I was frozen with a fear I never knew I had. With a simple step over Riamu's limp body, the robed shop owner was above me, the dagger butt raised up, and hit me in the head. The force was so intense. How was anything this strong? It felt like my head would crack open when I faded from consciousness.