Chapter LIII - Cocytus Beckons ~Naaro

Naaro sat in the passenger car of the Spectrum boredly. Rynn was asleep on his shoulder, Kai in her arms and also asleep. Vector was sitting in one of the seats behind the two, and Ian was next to them, fixing an electrical panel under the floor. He had no idea where they were going, or when they'd get there. He really didn't know anything about this trip, other than he was a 'hero' who had, for some reason, been recruited by this band of robots and the one peculiar fellow who people called 'CR'. Ian also puzzled him...he was hardworking, to say the very least...a bit too hardworking. As he boredly stared out the window, his eyelids began to increase their weight. Realizing that there wasn't much reason to stay up, he went to sleep as well, joining Rynn and Kai in the dream world.

As he slipped into the dream world, he was returned to Cocytus. A strange crimson mist swirled around him, and in front of him, savage beasts wearing the skulls of their long-dead victims danced around a burning corpse. The sky crackled with lightning, and, in the distance, atop the pyramid he was now so familiar with, a serpentine figure held his hands to the sky, his form silouhetted against a blinding blue sun. He shielded his eyes from the sun, and examined the figure. Lightning crawled over the figure's body, a constant bolt feeding his body with the electricity. The figure bent over, and the electricity left his body. The black clouds above gave way to a red sky, and the crimson mist swirling around Naaro took a demonic form. Naaro backed away, the creature bringing fear out from every corner of his body. The mist creature then pounced, gripping the Karmali as if its mist body were solid. Naaro felt his mouth be forced open by an invisible power, and collapsed as the mist entered his body. His dream then went black, then to red. His eyes opened, and a bright light suddenly blinded him. He shielded his eyes, and felt his body be torn from its seat...

Naaro slowly opened his eyes, only to see a dark gray tile.

"Looks like he's up," a voice announced behind him.

Two hands took his arms, and he no longer smelt the strange concrete-like material of the floor tile. He got to his feet, and looked at the two who had helped him up: Vector and Ian.

"Thanks..." he said, rubbing the back of his head, which was strangely plagued by an annoying itchy feeling.

Vector and Ian nodded.

"Baby? You're finally awake?" Rynn's voice asked Naaro, coming from behind him.

He turned to see Rynn sitting with Kai against the wall, near an array of strange yellow bars that covered the exit. He nodded to her, then looked at the room they were in. It appeared to be a cell, with walls of fuchsia brick. Lining the walls were several small, golden spikes.

"What's going on?" he asked the other three.

"That's what we were planning to ask you when you got up," Vector replied.

Naaro turned to Vector. "Why do you think I'd know?"

As Vector was about to reply, Rynn intervened. "The man who threw us all in here said he was going to take you to Cocytus...wasn't that the planet in your dream?"

Naaro nodded.

Vector rejoined the conversation, asking, "What dream? What's Cocytus?"

Naaro looked over at Vector. "I take it you want an explanation."

Vector nodded, saying, "Well, if I'm going to this place, I'm gonna want to know about it...that ain't too illogical is it?"

Naaro nodded, taking a seat beside Rynn. "Alright...Cocytus is a planet which I've been seeing in my dreams lately. It's called 'World of the Black Priest', for reasons I have yet to discover. If my dreams are accurate, there is a powerful weapon there, as well as an intense concentration of dark energy. It's an evil planet, that much is for sure."

Vector nodded, letting this all soak in. Ian had been quiet the entire time, tinkering with some mechanical object.

"So," Vector began, "we're going to this Cocytus place, where there's plenty of dark power as well as a really strong weapon?"

“Yep," Naaro acknowledged.

"Pah, that's nothing special," Vector scoffed.

Ian finally spoke. "This weapon...maybe it's one of the weapons we're searching for, eh?"

"The Creation's Weapons, you mean?" Naaro said.

"Yes, that's what I mean," Ian replied.

"Maybe..." Naaro muttered.

The party went silent after that. Ian went back to work on the object in his hands, and the others sat down beside the walls.

"Ah, got it!" Ian cried triumphantly.

It had been 5 hours since the last word had been spoken. Rynn, Naaro, and Kai were all asleep, and Vector was boredly drawing on the wall with a piece of chalk Ian had lent him.

Vector looked over at Ian, asking, "What did you get?"

Ian smiled, and replied, "Finally completed this Micro Entertainment Center."

He set the small mechanical object in his hands on the floor and pressed one of the several buttons on top of it. The small box then projected a wide-screen image of a television screen.

Vector sighed. "I thought you were working on a way to get us out of this cell..."

Ian looked over at Vector. "You wanted out?" he asked.

Vector nodded, and Ian chuckled. "Don't worry about getting out...I'm pretty sure this planet we're going to has a Creation's Weapon on it. That's what you joined us for, right?"

Vector slowly nodded.

"Good then," Ian said, "we can just get there the easy way. Not much place we can go anyway."

Vector shrugged. "All right...it'd be nice to have some room to give my legs a workout. This just isn't enough space for me to run."

Ian was already working on the Micro Entertainment Center once more. Vector sighed, and folded his arms behind his head, laying back against the wall and waiting for them to get to Cocytus.

All was silent. The only sound was its breathing. It felt warmer than usual...the coldness of its realm was strangely absent. Had it possessed a mouth, it would have squealed with delight. It knew. It was aware that the part of it that had been missing for so long was drawing near. Soon the reunion would occur. Soon it would seep into the fabric of reality and devour everything in its path. Soon the balance of good and evil would begin to teeter on the brink of annihilation. Its minions were setting in motion the events that would lead to its manifestation, and it was nearly time for its minions to succeed in their mission of returning their master to reality. After waiting for billions upon billions of years, it was only a matter of a few decades before its triumphant return to reality. All throughout history it had been the force that drives killers to kill, conquerors to conquer, and destroyers to destroy. Now its time is coming, and no one will be spared from its wrath. It continues to wait patiently, waiting for the moment when it will become all too real...that moment is near. As Rexxor takes his prisoners to the World of the Black Priest, that moment draws even closer...Cocytus beckons.