Chapter CCXV: Boxed In ~Ark/Havering

Ark walked along the corridor that served the sleeping quarters of the Spectrum. It had been the first time since he had got back from his misadventure in Artanis’ Scout that he had been out of the hangar and in the body of the train, and he was definitely feeling the effects of it. He hadn’t eaten a proper meal since breakfast of that fateful day on Fa’Diel, and his stomach’s growling assured him that it was a very long time ago. Two things were on his mind: eating, and finding someone to help heal Dy. He looked up to see a tall figure coming towards him, and decided that they may be able to help with the second.

“Uh, hello? Could you help me out here? My brother needs someone to-oof! Nnngh...!”

“Hello, Ark.”

The figure was dressed predominantly in purple, wearing an extremely ornate helmet. There were unusual types aboard the Spectrum, that was for certain, but what surprised him was the extra pair of arms, one clawed blue hand of which was pinning his throat to the wood panelling, and the fact that...

“How do you know my name?” Ark asked, struggling to free himself to no avail.

“It seems that the Rip Watcher has done a good job with your memory.”

Ark looked into the figure’s face. The blue skin didn’t strike him as odd – there were plenty of blue-skinned Yoshies on the Archipelago. There were many things that did, though. This figure was rather lacking in the olfactory department, and as he grinned menacingly, he could see an array of extremely sharp fangs. Then there were the eyes: lacking colour, one would consider them to be very hauntingly clear. As Ark studied the being’s eyes, they turned an incredibly dark blue, making him shiver to the soul within. Something in the back of his memory was screaming at him that he should be very wary and very afraid of this face.

“Wh-who are you?” Ark managed to blurt out.

“I am your past, your future, your beginning, your end. I am Sir Pseudo Havering.”

Ark tensed as he recognised the name of whom the Wanderers had been trying to prevent from being raised, now standing before him and looking very real.

“What do you want with me?”

“Now, now, you recall the rules, traitorous lizard,” Havering cooed. “You kill him, or you face me. That was the agreement.”

Agreement? What, by Drepatos, did he mean by that?

“I beg your pardon, Syoro, I don't remember any agreement. I don’t remember mee-“

He flinched as Havering’s grin widened and the claws of another hand dug into Ark’s neck, not enough to draw blood but enough for the pain to be noticeable.

“Oh, think hard, think very hard indeed,” he sneered and chuckled, exposing his pointy canines. “You do recall it, I believe.”

Ark shut his eyes and gulped, trying to remember anything about him. He knew he was with Dark for some time, but then he went to sleep one evening, woke up on the surface, and felt strangely free of Dark’s influence. During that time he was supposedly on Zolott, and with Havering standing before him, corporate, its truth seemed to ring clearer. However, he could not remember anything, just taking all that happened during that time as truth from Lich. Havering was expecting him to draw out of a blank. He could not do it.

“I don’t remember anything!” he wailed.

Havering’s smile morphed into a frown and he raised an eyebrow. The chill his eyes took on now would have been enough to stop Krakatoa in its tracks. Even the temperature around them dropped a few degrees.

“Brains are not your strong suit, are they?” he growled. “I nearly ruled it all; I could have had the multiverse if it wasn't for your brother's interference, time changing on me, and your damned mutiny!” He tightened his grasp and snarled, “Rhacht eoh noch lictae, Ark Beruga Yoshi, Rhacht eoh noch lictae..."

Havering’s key turned in Ark’s tumbler. He had heard those words a few years before…”Fear your dark fate”, they spoke. It was Havering who had said them; he said them in a small underground…castle...Ark’s castle, given to him by Dark and Havering when he came of age…

“This is yours, Ark,” Havering’s voice surfaced in his memory as the Spear appeared and clattered to the floor before him…

His mind’s eye saw a room…metal walls, floor…a bed, with straps…robots he had made to kill…Dy…Dy was strapped in…

“I’m an Immortal now,” Havering’s voice echoed through his memory…he was speaking to Dy…“I crushed Miss Prism, as well as Mister Opty, and now, Ark kills you. You're dropping like flies, you little whelp. You're killing yourselves, cretins. I'd tell you to turn back and spare your life, but my friend Ark here is about to do something very, very nasty to you. Enjoy your last moments…"

A final sentence passed through his brain:

"Ark, kill him, or you face me."

“I…remember now…” Ark muttered. “You gave me…the Spear…”

“Very good lizard, I think you’re able to solve most connect-the-dots puzzles now,” Havering sneered, dripping with sarcasm. “Do recall turning traitor on me; I prefer you know what your sins were before being a martyr to keep me calm.”

The dam that C.R. built in his mind was being broken as a flood of memories swept through his consciousness. Markior arrived as Havering left that room – so he had met him before – and then he’d gone and rescued an amazonic Yoshi, and a Koopa – by the Elementals, he’d met Tob? – and then the Genesis appeared and he’d flown on the back of Dragon – so he’d met her too! – across from the Gantrithor II and it crashed into the Underworld and he’d fought that Pyrak Infect and then…

“I…I was protecting my own flesh and blood…” He thought a moment. “Well, what was left of it…”

The Twilighter scoffed and let one of the hands on Ark’s throat drop. “Pah!” he spat. “You mortals are such cowards; not an ounce of courage in you! And look, I even note the splendid weapon I have bestowed upon you has gotten a bit of lip now. Tsk, everything you mortals touch is ruined, it does appear.”

He knew that?!

“It tried to kill me!” Ark exclaimed.

Havering frowned and his eyes turned clear again as he raised a hand to his chin. “It seems to be tainted.”

He turned, still clutching Ark’s neck, and dropped the Yoshi on a nearby couch.

“Go fetch it and bring it here. I will start by draining that unruly presence out of it, and follow by draining its power to further mine along. After all, that is a rather nice weapon of darkness, its power should aid mine well.”

Ark recoiled in shock. He hated the Spear, but he made vows to Guard it. It was his job!

“I can’t do that! I’m its Guardian!”

Havering clenched a gloved fist as his extra arms retracted. “Just fetch it,” he snarled quietly, “or we shall see how well you guard yourself.”

Seeing that the way to the rest of the train was blocked by the Twilighter, Ark slunk into the hangar and shut the door behind him. He leaned his back against it and heaved a sigh, his eyes falling onto the Spear, partway up the wall where he threw it.

Eriuch had tried to kill him. Havering was offering the same.

The Zen’Xi Ara had mind-controlled him. Havering was capable of the same.

The Ebony Lance wanted the power of the Xol’Arago. Havering wanted the same.

The Spear of Darkness pursued his brother’s death. Havering’s goal was the same.

Which was the lesser of two evils?

Although he was more intelligent than his brother, in dire straits, Lich won. Ark chased the first thing that came to mind – block off Havering, and slip out the hangar doors. Scattered around him were the waylaid drums and crates from the tremendous attack earlier; he began to roll them and push them up against the door, the metallic floor giving away his plan.

“Whyr, you are a pathetic one,” Havering’s voice could be heard groaning, before continuing with a threatening: “Now bring me that Spear; I am getting a tad cross with your childish games.”

He put a drum on top of a crate in the stack, and then turned, his eyes falling on his makeshift laboratory.

“Robots are not to harm a person…” he reminded himself out of habit.

Slowly, an anger that had been instilled in him during his years of adolescence bubbled to the surface of his consciousness, and twisted itself around.

“He is not a person.”

Ark ran to his desk, the papers and parts still scattered around it from his earlier outburst. He checked all of his working creations – the carrying robot would do him no good, nor would the experimental person recognition robot, the harmoniser, the pair of legs and the Seek, Search and Beckon Mark 6. He grabbed the last of them and put it into his Mana Storage – surely it would tell him where C.R. or Markior had got to, the only ones powerful enough to be safe around. But, with a sinking heart, Ark realised that he didn’t really have any robots that were capable of stalling someone, let alone the Time Bender himself.

“…I have nothing…” he muttered.

I am in danger, am I not? Eriuch asked, half as an honest question, half accusingly.

Another groan could be heard followed by: “Really, you are taxing my last nerve! I’m growing impa-a-atient!”

Ark looked at the door. He realised the futility of the barrier against Havering.

Looking up at the Spear, he shuddered as he remembered its mind-control, and the horrid sensation he felt as he could do nothing but see and hear and speak in his mind. He backed away from both towards a corner.

“Seriously, now,” Havering growled, “do what I command!”

He looked at the Spear again. Somehow, that long, shiny length of metal as dark as a moonless night, just before the sun first licks the horizon, was alluring. He’d been able to beat its powers over him once before. Havering, on the other hand…

You are my Guardian! Do your job!

That sealed Ark’s decision in stone. He ran towards it, and jumped for it, his fingertips just scraping the shaft, and landed Spear-less. He’d thrown it out of reach.
Unlike his brother, Ark had more time to practice one of the more complicated manoeuvres of his race that some creative force had decided to bestow them with. He leapt, and at the split second just after his feet came over the crest of the parabola, he kicked them with tremendous speed, his arms out to his sides and waving likewise. His legs continued along the curve for a moment, before gravity relinquished them as he created enough upward draught. His body gave out from the burst of incredibly flurried activity as the aching climaxed, but he still headed upwards, enough to reach out and wrench the Spear from the wall. As he landed, breathing heavily, he turned and pointed its tip at the door. Had Eriuch a mouth, he would have grinned.

There was a clink of chains on the other side of the door, before Havering warned: “I wouldn’t try it…”

“I must do my job!” Ark yelled in return.

“Then do your job and start obeying!”

“I obey the Oaths!”

As Ark spoke, there was a jangle and the door smashed open, the pile blew apart, and the Noch Thalt’s blade sped towards him. The kama’s chain wrapped around the head of the Lance and hooked it in one of its links. Its natural want of retraction came into play, and the Spear started to slip out of Ark’s firm grip. He clenched his hands around it tighter and the tug-o’-war began.

He looked up to see Havering yawn mockingly as the Thalt crackled with its dark energies, trying to win over the Spear’s, and pulling against it wildly. Ark was steadily losing ground as he tried to gain purchase on the smooth metal floor.

He could remember Eriuch using him to flick the Lance’s head with his finger to increase its strength. Ark did so again, and darkness began to pour over the Zen’Xi Ara. The increased power equalled the Noch Thalt’s pulling, which Havering could feel.

“This is futile,” the Time Bender muttered in the frame of the door. He jerked his wrist and the blade unattached itself from the Spear, and retracted to its normal form. “But I have a better idea.”

Ark spun the Lance madly in front of him, forming a shield much like his brother’s variation, except this was more in the shape of a cross. As he backed away slowly as Havering advanced, he could see him close his eyes and raise his right hand of his normal right arm. Blackness formed around his hand, before it elongated itself and bent in the middle. A red orb came into view at the bend as along the length it grew small, squarish offshoots, before it turned a silver colour, the offshoots gold. It was the Cyan Arc.

Havering opened his eyes and sneered, “If I can’t have my spear back, then I'll just take this. It causes you so-o-o much grief, does it not? Ruins your dear brother so in order to use it.” A grin spread across his face, cruel and lecherous. “Yes, you would not mind me taking this, I would say most confidently – I can see it's what your mind wants. And, it wouldn't offend that wretched presence in the Spear, now would it?”

No! It is mine! Eriuch shrieked, aloud.

Ark was surprised by Eriuch’s sudden lack of reservation, as was Havering for a moment, before the Twilighter tilted his head, still grinning.

“Oh, it speaks, does it? Well, what will it be, lizard? Going to let the Spear run your life for you, or going to live and follow your dreams and desires? Of course, you could be a slave to your job. Though...I seem to recall something that acts the same...”
The grin suddenly had an evil edge to it. “Ah yes, I remember what it is: a robot, I do believe."

Ark frowned. “My desire is to protect the Spear. And to make robots. And to discover Artificial Intelligence.”

Havering narrowed his eyes. “Convincing. You could fool anyone else with that. But your tongue is a hypocrite spokesman for your heart.” He folded his arms. “Best stop lying – I might be offended and get cross or something.”

“Be offended then. I might not like my job, but it is my job. I have found my life to have some meaning, some purpose, some role in the multiverse and I am not going to have it taken away from me, not ever!”

Ark lunged for Havering, his eyes misty, the Spear already crackling with its rushing attack before he even reached him. It was a futile effort considering he could not penetrate the domed forcefield around the chuckling Time Bender.

“You weren’t there last time, so I don’t expect you to know,” he smirked, waving his hand. The Boomerang vanished. “I guess you just wish it to remain. Fine, whatever,” he shrugged. “I was just doing you a favour. In your heart, you know your brother loves this more than you, and it will continue to predominate his mind each waking moment it is with him. But enough time wasted on you.”

He chuckled and turned towards the door as Ark stopped rushing and began to glare stonily at him, pointing his weapon at his throat.

“I have matters to attend to. I’ll finish my business with you later.”

“Get away from me, demon, and never return,” Ark snarled through clenched teeth.

Havering passed through the door and stopped, and half-turned his head to him, his grin exposing his canines. “So you’d pray, and hope, and wish with all your might,” he sneered. “But, fool, I am never gone from the lives of those I have scores to settle with. Remember that.”

He continued his pace along the hallway. Ark kept the point targeting him, ready to fire should the Twilighter enter his brother’s room. He had no need to as Havering seemed to vanish past it.

He released a deep breath, and let the Spear clatter to the floor, its increased darkness fading. Those feelings of hatred and remorse towards his brother began to creep back. Ark mentally clenched their advance, and sat down.

It seems he thinks as I do, regarding your brother, Eriuch said, sensing his feelings. We must get to your brother before he does.

Ark sighed, and muttered, “Leave me alone, Eriuch, please.”

As you wish.

He sighed once more, shook his head, and closed his eyes. He arrested his thoughts about his brother, but he knew that Eriuch could sense them. He had a gut feeling that Havering could sense them, too.

What about Dark? He knew that the undead sorcerer would creep up on him unexpectedly at one stage or another and see the progress. He still did not know if he was working with Havering or by himself. If not, it was a third front.

Then there was Dy himself. Sooner or later he would know that he was being willed by the other three to kill him; what would be his reaction?

The square closed around him. He hung his head, remorseful, hungry, and miserable.