Chapter CLXXX: The Test of Courage - A Fa’dieli Saying ~Lich/Markior

Ark woke up to find himself in Artanis’ chair in the Scout, and decided that it would be best for him to keep pretending he was knocked out.

Damn the Left Path, he thought.

He noticed the Scout was not moving, and he could feel the presence of a planetary gravitational force. They had landed somewhere - somewhere dusty - but where?

Voices came to him through the doorway of the craft and he began to identify them.

“Either he’s disappeared, or I’ve made him so flat I can’t see him…” Kyanosa. “I totally wasted him. Did you see the look on his face when I was about to fall on him? A true Kodak moment-ow, watch it!”

If he was around, then who else was there?

He searched on the Mana Field for presences: there were five- no, four. Kyanosa’s peculiar bisected presence was closest, next to Artanis. The fifth he had suspected was Artanis’ healing technique. A tall one near him was Naaro - the power of Kamar gave it a strange resonance. But the last one…

The Protoss had tricked him. Lich’s all-too familiar presence, the mountain with the spur created by the Boomerang, stood out on the Field like a redwood on a grassy plain. His fears mounted again - Lich would know that he was there, it was inevitable. He moved in the chair, but stopped - what if Lich came and tried to talk to him? He wouldn’t be able to help himself. He decided to keep the act going and remain still, controlling his breathing.

"Ready, guys? Let's revive Markior!" came his voice.

Markior? Revive? He was on Aiur, or so Lich had told him. He had seen the ruins of the Lair…but never the Yoshi Guardian. He was powerful; he knew that - Drepatos, every grace at mealtime was directed to the Elementals, Luna, and him; him for his resurrection of their race millennia ago. He had met Luna, albeit briefly, yet Markior…he still retained that mysticism, that distance that seemed to demand that fear that causes people to worship. If he would not show his face to him as he had supposedly shown to Lich, then how would he really know that Markior was approachable? Was everything that Lich told him about a lie? No, the Boomerang had shown him evidence before, the Hydralisk guarding home was definitely real, Nessie’s recollection of the crash into the mountain where Markior supposedly found them and Lich’s knowledge seemed to ring with truth.

But what if it was all a lie? What if the images were fabricated, Todd obtained through the black market or other links, Nessie’s tale an elaborate lie or false memory and Lich’s knowledge obtained through the Interworldnet or other means? Anything could be possible - it seemed so surreal.

“I want to speak to the keeper of the Nexus,” Lich’s voice rang out. “I want to revive an immortal soul.”

Suddenly, everything had their colours washed from them - everything turned grey. Ark sensed the Mana Field once more, and was almost mindblown again - the largest presence he had ever detected was now present. It was painful for one attuned to Mana fluctuations to be around the presence - he was thankful when everything regained its colours and it disappeared, along with Kyanosa, Naaro, and Lich.

Ark gathered that they had been taken somewhere to revive him, but his thoughts were subsided as Artanis’ presence moved, followed by metal footsteps on the wing of the Scout. He immediately fell limp and began to control his breathing again, taking shallow breaths. The Praetor entered the craft, Ark tracking him. A hatch was opened, and rustling noises ensued, before Artanis approached him.

Keep calm, keep calm, he ensured himself.

Suddenly, his legs were moved backwards, and the wrapping of something narrow around them alerted him to his being tied to the chair. He felt for the Spear, only to find it outside. Bemused, he allowed Artanis to finish tying his legs to the chair, then had his arms pulled back and the process repeated, his wrists tied.

Artanis then left the Scout. Ark growled mentally, then thought, How did the Spear get outside?

Because a Shadow controlled me, came a strange voice in his head.

Ark was taken aback by this mental invasion - the voice was two-toned, one sly, the other lighter, both intense.

“Who are you?” he whispered.

You do not know? You’ve held me for a long time, now.

“You’re the Spear?”

Not quite. I might seem to be what you call “the Spear”. But I am the essence of Eriuch, creator of the Zen’Xi Ara.

“Zen’Xi Ara?”

What one of your mentors named “Ebony Lance”. The Zen’Xi Ara has had many names, it has been through many hands - there was one with your very name on a world called Earth. It feels strange to get to know another Ark, even though the other one did not respond well.

“Why do you talk to me now?”

For I have been awakened after millennia of sleeping. At last, a Shadow linked to me, and he unlocked many powers that have lain dormant. Yet have I had many dreams, while I slept. On your homeworld, underground, I dreamt that I met my counterpart.

“Underground? With me?”

No, two of your centuries before, in the place where small people live. It was a long dream, and it started there.

“What was this dream?”

I had touched the Xol’Arago.

“Xol’Arago…that is my bro - the cyborg claiming to be my brother’s weapon!”

Indeed. I touched it again, underground, in a robotics laboratory. And, lo, what is this about a brother?

“It pains me to say it.”

Then don’t, for I know your pain. Speak no more until I am in your hands, I fear that your anger may be heard.

“…Eriuch,” Ark spoke, too loudly.

He winced as he felt Artanis’ presence move from watching the Spear. Ark fell limp again as Artanis paused at the wings as the dust accumulating in his nostrils reached a critical point. As the Protoss looked in, he sneezed.

Ark winced again. The anger started to build - how dare he trick him!

“I hope you realise that I’ve been awake for some time now, ‘Toss,” he sneered, his eyes now open. “And, I'm not particularly pleased that you flew me to the same place where my bro- that cyborg would be.”

Metal footsteps ensued, followed by a hum. Warmth began to fill through the craft. Suddenly, there was the tip of a psi-blade pointing at his neck.

Silence, the Praetor commanded. The price to pay for treason is forever high.

Ark let himself ride the adrenalin curve. He laughed menacingly and cooed, “Whose treason are we talking about here? Yours or his - its? I suggest you deactivate those psi-blade things; my skills in Salamando, as my teacher said, are remarkable.”

Yours. And do not think I fear your Right Path abilities. I know that your spells require more time to cast then my arm needs to strike forwards.

Still mid-curve, Ark smiled. “Oh really? How did I betray you, then? Everyone seems to betray me, but that's really funny that I should betray them. You knocked me out when I told you - or at least strongly implied - to get away from my - the cyborg. That sounds like treason if there ever was.”

You ordered me by force, threatening with my death, came Artanis’ cold, condemning voice. You're blinded by your fear and desperation, but that is no excuse to do the things you did. You are not betrayed, but you are betraying your friends and allies due to a simple experience as fright.

His confidence ran out, and adrenalin was all Ark had to rely on. He became very uneasy, and resorted to anger. “Fright? Fright? I don’t think that covers it.”

Where to go, where to go…

“I don't suppose you've had someone that you put your trust in and you've loved for your childhood, only to be forced away from him,” the tears began to well, “and come back to find he's gone and corrupted himself by your absence. No, you wouldn't know that, would you. I've heard of you 'Toss. ‘For Adun’ this and ‘My life for Aiur’ that... It's all you care about. Your homeworld and your narrow-paved Khala. Why? To stop you from going at each others throats.”

Artanis’ eyes glowed. Whenever a Zealot dies, his remains are placed within a Dragoon exoskeleton. Many friends I've had have become Dragoons, and continue to serve Aiur. So yes, I know.

Ark’s hatred grew. “Yes. To continue to serve Aiur. You don't even let the dead rest in peace. No, they've got to be utitlised ‘for Aiur’.”

Artanis growled, and the Psi-blade was pressed against his neck.

They are not dead! he yelled. Not until their last kinetic energy leaves their body! Until that happens, we can save them, and we do!

Ark was shaken by this outburst, doing his best to disguise it.

I do not see how your brother did any differently to my brethren. To continue to serve for what he believes his right, he had to enhance his body.

“Take the Cyan Arc away from him, what does he believe in?” Ark asked, pausing. “Getting it back. It's all he cares about. It takes precedence over me, sharing his blood!”

The welled-up tears reached breaking point.

“My brother loves me!” Ark cried. “Not a weapon! That...that...thing loves a weapon! My brother is dead!”

You are his brother, Ark, Artanis said, threateningly. Until you start acting like it, I see no reason why I wouldn't treat you as another prisoner of war. If your brother wouldn't love you, he wouldn't have broken down crying after you fled for the first time. And believe me, true androids do not cry.

Ark was unnerved. “What first time?”

From your homeworld, Ark. If you were truly his brother, you would not flee, but stand open to his choices, and accept it. If you want your brother's love...earn it. Instead of fighting him, and fleeing from him in terror. You disgust me.

“I disgust a lot of people, what’s another?” came Ark’s automatic reply, said weakly.

What if that other person loved you so much he undergoes hours of pain and suffering so that he could love you? Think about it. I expect your answer when he returns.

Lich found himself staring out into the painful Grey cloud once more, until a respite from its glare came in the form of Demenoz’s Eye shimmering and fading in to hover before him.

You have been chosen for the test of Courage, the Eye psychically boomed. To prove yourself as a mortal, you must face your greate-

“My greatest fears, right?” Lich asked, sardonically.

Yes.

“Everyone says that in these sorts of situations and quests.”

Stop playing with me, for I do mean ‘your greatest fears.’

Lich paused, and drew a breath.

“Right. I see. How do you know what these are?”

I know what they are for I can see into your mind. For example, one of your fears is the fear of the unknown, correct?

“Well…yes, but isn’t that in everyone?”

That is not important. You have it. Then let me feed it.

Demenoz’s Eye quivered.

You do not know what half of your fears are, it said in a cold, echoing voice. But I shall reveal them to you.

After a lengthy, disconcerting pause, and with no announcement, the Grey subsided in the blink of an eye, and he was standing on an open pedestal in front of everybody he knew, all seated in tiers as far as he could see. He looked around and saw his parents, his friend Nase, his Aunt Tia, other Guardians, the Yoshi Gods and Goddesses, Eight Elementals of Fa’diel, Shero, Dogo, his childhood bully, and the Gr’tokoru and B’ralku families, and all the other people on the Spectrum, and Multehx.

There were even those there who had died: Keroco, a tormenter in his childhood and father of Returin, his first friend who had died by his foolishness, Syoro Yarapren, his school teacher, Tob, those of the Gr’tokorus he had killed to save the B’ralkus; even Markior was present. There were many other people there, yet one stood out like a sore thumb - in the middle of the lowest tier was his brother.

“Ark!” he called, and began to walk towards him.

He was thrown back by an electric forcefield, and he finally saw the expressions on everyone’s faces: they were all angry, and whatever weapons they had, they were drawn. They all began to shout lewdly at him about different subjects, the cacophony deafening - all his dark secrets had suddenly been revealed to them…except one.

“Please stop! I hear you! One at a time!”

The shouting grew even louder in reply, and he covered his ears. He then felt a strange feeling in his arm - inside his arm.

“Please!”

He could feel something moving along the wires and tubes that comprised his throwing arm. He shook his arm, hoping that it was a passing feeling, but it persisted.

There’s something inside my arm, he thought.

His voice in his head was definitely louder than usual - it was being broadcast to them. For the first time, he noticed video cameras - who else was watching?

The thing in his arm wiggled, sending a chill down his spine. All of these people, all of whom he did not want to know about his arm - he would have to get whatever it was out.

He turned to run, only to find himself pushed back by the forcefield, completely surrounding him. He searched for a way out, the shouting becoming nearly demonic as he turned his back to them, only to have his hand zapped and pushed back.

The thing in his arm started to inflict incredible pain. He grabbed his arm and shouted from its intensity.

I have to get it out…but not here…not here…

The pain crescendoed, and his other hand was suddenly holding the small bag in which his emergency kit for operating on his arm was kept in. Before he even realised it, he was crouching and undoing the dreaded clasp.

“No!” he cried in pain, struggling to regain control of his arm as it reached in and withdrew the skin-remover, much like Shero had used on him during his recent visit to Fa’diel.

If the yelling was deafening, the silence that ensued was even more so as he pulled the device along his arm, shoulder to fingertips, tears rolling down his face.

“Cyborg!” Ark’s deafening cry ensued.

The yelling restarted, even more intense than before it stopped. And, as it moved from where he could not see along his mechanics to on top of them, he received a shock as he saw what was in his arm.

A large spider, its sharp, pointy fangs dripping from venom, leapt from his arm onto the top of his nose, staring right into his eyes.

Lich screamed and began to shake his head madly from side to side as the spider sank its fangs into his zinc-covered nose. He tried to bat it away with his hands, only to find his fleshy left one receiving another excruciatingly painful bite, and his right one falling to pieces with his excessive movement, his shoulder dripping lubricant and hydraulic fluid.

Suddenly, everyone rushed towards him, their weapons drawn. They began to beat him, stab him, cast spells on him until he was a bloody mess of flesh and metal on the floor, yet he was alive to feel the extraordinary, near-impossible pain of the state of his body. He had no vocal cords from which to scream - his brain was miraculously connected to his eyes, ears and nostrils so that he could see, hear and smell the gory mess of his remains, until there was a flash of light.

He was completely healed, and standing on a narrow platform above what appeared to be a bottomless pit. The edges of the platform were defined in grey for a moment, until they receded into the blackness, and he could not see where platform stopped, and empty space began. Lich checked his body, and found that everything was in place and everything seemed to be functioning.

Ark suddenly materialised in front of him, his face in torment.

“There you are, I’ve been looking for you,” he sneered.

“Ark!” Lich called. “Why can’t you see past your anger?”

“I can see past it, thank you,” he retorted him, then sighed, his face becoming sorrowful. “Brother, I want to make amends. I’m sorry.”

“You are?”

Ark nodded, and approached him.

“I was just angry, and you know what I’m like when I’m angry. Common sense just seems to switch off, you know?”

They smirked as his Ark came nearer to him.

“Dy, my dear brother,” Ark smiled as he stood before him.

“This is a dangerous place, we should go.”

“No, here will be fine,” Ark said.

He reached out, and embraced Lich, who returned the gesture, only to find immense pain stemming from the middle of his back.

Ark laughed. “You’re so gullible!”

Lich fell to the platform as he saw Ark holding the Spear, its head dripping with his blood.

“…Why?” Lich gasped.

Ark laughed again, grinning. “You know why.”

“No I don’t.”

“Time flows like a river, and history repeats,” Ark recited in Pandoran. He returned to Yoshian to say, “It is how Destiny works. She can be cruel, she can be kind. She’s cruel to you, and she’s kind to me.”

Ark stabbed Lich’s shoulder, the pain shooting to his head, making him cry out once more.

“Destiny wants me to avenge your betrayal,” Ark grinned, and began to use his rushing attack on him.

Lich cried out as the attack grew in it intensity. It suddenly stopped, and Lich looked up to see him grinning once more.

“Eriuch made the Zen’Xi Ara, just as Tarabach made the Xol’arago,” Ark explained. “Eriuch was the one who killed Tarabach. And now I will kill you, as Destiny wants me to.”

Everything began to slow down. Suddenly, Lich’s body began to stand up, his arm reached for the Boomerang, he pulled back, and projected it with incredible force. In less than the blink of an eye, it severed Ark’s head from his body, his crimson blood spurting all over Lich as Ark’s head fell into the abyss.

Time regained its normal speed, and Lich sank to his knees, holding the Cyan Arc, and screamed “No” in Pandoran. He began to cry into his bloodsoaked hands, then screamed as the platform gave way.

He was falling - he tried to open Icydoom’s Pokéball on his belt, only to find it unresponsive. He kept pressing it madly, but to no avail.

A charred, metallic ground was coming up to meet him fast. He closed his eyes and braced himself for the impact, only to find himself still alive, standing where the fight with Pyrak was about to finish.

As Pyrak began to glow a lucid green, Tob shouted, "Get the hell out of here!"

"Where?!" Lich cried.

"Anywhere!"

With that, Lich opened his Dragonite's Pokéball, only to find Tob and Ark already on Nessie. Beams of light began to pour out from the maniacally laughing Pyrak.

"Ta…ta…" he uttered, before his legs exploded.

Tob pulled Nessie's antennae and the three were off through an open wall.

“Stop!” Lich cried, turning to Pyrak.

“I cannot stop,” Pyrak sneered.

Lich began to run as fast as he could, leaping from one piece of wreckage to another - and failing, falling onto his front. He looked up at the retreating trio, his sorrowful gaze meeting Tob’s.

"No!" he cried, before the blinding flash of light and the heat wave from Pyrak's fiery explosion shot out.

Darkness…cold…moving…

Lich gasped for air as his head appeared above the water. Looking around, he saw the inverted-conical trees rush by him. He was being propelled along by the unconquerable current in the flooded river.

“Oh, no…not here,” he muttered.

He tried to fight the current in vain, then tried to swim to shore but a sudden yell stopped him: Ark.

Looking downstream, he saw his younger brother's thick blond hair, a contrasting yellow beacon in the sea of grey and driving rain, disappear behind a rock. Lich started to swim with the current, pursuing Ark. He knew where the water led: a waterfall into a hole in the ground, its contents practically unreachable due to an overhang. If Ark went down there...if he went down there…

Lich was slammed against a rock, scraping a layer of skin off his left side. He winced, then continued his swim through the raging waters. The trees went by as if he was on a merry-go-round.

For a moment, Lich felt like he was falling about a metre and a half, and his head went under. As he surfaced, his brown hair plastering itself to his scalp, his location became clear: he just passed Letreh Undren, which translated into Yoshian, meant "Approach Falls"; the approach to the hole.

Ahead, Ark reached out and grabbed the end of a log, and as he looked at it, he saw it was wedged between a few rocks and went virtually clear to dry ground. Ark spun around, and his feet pointed downstream. Lich aimed himself towards the log -luckily for him, it was on his side of the river- and swam towards it. The log loomed closer as he approached, and soon enough, he reached for it with his arms…and missed.

He grabbed again, and was holding on to the end of it, to find Ark above him, looking down at him.

“Ta ta,” he said, and shook the log.

“What are you doing?” Lich asked, struggling to hold on.

“Time flows like a river, and history repeats,” Ark grinned.

A sudden gush of water swept through, and he lost his grip. He tried to swim against the current, but it was far too strong.

Then he was falling, and felt his body shatter against the rocky overhang that covered the hole the river fell into.

Darkness…

Laughter…

It was all darkness save The Dark Lich, floating before him, outlined against it.

“Blasphemous one!” he yelled, then fired a beam at his feet.

As Lich looked down, he saw a cold grey begin to climb up him from the soles of his tongs, Dark’s laughter ringing in his ears. Lich tried to move, but found it impossibly as the stone reached his shins, climbed over his kneecaps, then traveled up his thighs to his hips, where it spread out to his tail. It rose up his stomach and chest, then shot out to his frantically moving arms. Then, it was as if a veil was pulled up over his head as the stone claimed him, hearing lastly Dark’s continual laughter.

I am impressed, mortal, came Demenoz’s voice.

Lich opened his eyes to find himself back in the glaring Grey.

“I’m…I’m alive?” he asked, unsurely.

It would seem so. This means only one thing. Where other mortals would have surrendered in mental desperation, your mind did not give in to even your darkest fears. Your request has been granted - with your return to the Xel’Naga home world, the one called Markior Archonius Xel’Naga shall return from the Nexus. But, beware…as is said on your homeworld, ‘Time flows like a river, and history repeats’. Remember it well.

“I will.”

And he was gone.

Strangely, there was no effect of Heratu’s Syndrome as Lich arrived back on Xel’neh-mi, Naaro on one side, and Kyanosa on the other.

I see you’re back, Artanis called. Congratulations. I believe someone here has something to say to you.

Lich turned to see Ark’s jade eyes peer out of the gloom within the Scout, widening with fear in unison with his own sapphire ones.

Are you two alright?

The two of them stood rigidly still, until a scream unnerved them, making them turn towards its source.