Chapter 48 - S.O.S.
Two more guards lay in a pool of their own blood and other bodily fluids as I hack a terminal that’s controlling a wall of trip lasers. Simple enough; just a weak firewall. The terminal opens itself up to me as I bypass the firewall, I shutdown the lasers and lock the computer down. One quick look over the schematics I downloaded and I’m just a few corridors away from the main control room that Kim Jong Un should be hiding at.
I peek my head around the corner to see two staircases with a loft in the middle jutting out-wards, leading down to a landing. I crept my way up to the railing and looked over, two guards having a smoke break; chatting among themselves as they stood there. The drop was only fifteen feet. My plan is simple, toss my knife into one of their skulls mid fall and use the second guard to break my fall.
“Enjoy your last smoke, boys, it will be your last.” I think to myself as I hop over the railing.
My knife anchors itself into the top of the guard’s skull on the right, he falls over dead; startling the last guard. He looks up to see my boot in his face, he doesn’t have enough time to react as his neck snaps with the full force of gravity and my mass bears down on him. I roll as I land, I look behind me to see my handy work, and I’m pleased by the results; Murphy's Law finally didn’t bite me in my ass. I hear footsteps rushing towards the commotion and I duck behind the stairs, a flash brainfreeze cripples me; I bang my head against the staircase as the brainfreeze only grows stronger.
“27, wake up!” Cold whispers fly into my ears, yanking me from my memories.
- - -
I awake to a cold room, my window is open and moonlight leaks through the parted curtains. I see a shadow creeping towards my head, just in striking range for Tail. A yellow glow highlights the shadow’s head, tail slithers under the covers and wraps around the glowing horn. The unicorn’s horn burst into a bright flash of yellow, blinding the both of us, my intruder escapes from tail and stumbles over himself.
My eyes re-adjusts to the darkness before my intruder can reclaim her footing, I roll off the bed and onto the unicorn. I strangle her as I slam her against the wall, tail is kind enough to flip the lights on, revealing a mare unicorn with a frightened look.
“Who are you and why did you sneak into my room?!” Her horn flares up and projects herself into my mind, taking me along with her.
- - -
“Come out from your hiding, spawn of Nightmare Moon!” She calls out.
“You dare enter my head without permis-.” Her horn overcharges to a dark yellow, and impressions me in shackles.
“By The Secret Order of Sol, I condemn you for housing a spawn of Nightmare Moon!”
“Justice will be served! I’ll purify your soul after I’ve dealt with this Minion of Darkness.” The unicorn trots up to me, her face still steady and stern.
“Purify my soul? What the hell are you talking about?! Who are you and why are you looking for Fade?!” I struggle to break my shackles, but they don’t budge.
“Struggle all you want, your restraints won’t falter as long as I’m here. The Secret Order of Sol has been tracking your movements since the day you escaped the facility. Nopony has been able to do that until you came along. We have evidence that you’re harboring one of Nightmare Moon’s minions, the one you call Fade.” I thrash around even more, but my chains still won’t move.
“Evidence? What are you talking about?” Her eyes narrow, locking onto mine.
“Your soul has already started showing the signs of the initial stages of merging. I pity you. Your ignorance is going to be the end of you.” She shakes her head and sighs.
“And what happens if our souls fully merge?” She lets out another sigh before answering.
“The Secret Order of Sol has very little knowledge on this particular minion, but, normally after said host and minion merge: the host is usually fully consumed. In addition to this, if the minion is in close proximity with Luna, Nightmare Moon will rise again. In the extremely unlikely case of the host and minion both living together in harmony with one another, they both gain unimaginable power: if two males merge, their power soars while their defense is only slightly increased and they can only be killed by somepony of equal or greater power. If two females merge, they're essentially invincible due to their extreme regenerative abilities and magical stamina. If you come out of the merger being the dominant one, you’ll be overwhelmed by an all-consuming desire to kill any living thing in sight, even killing your loved ones. But, if opposing genders become merged together, if they can coexist without destroying each other... Well, The Secret Order of Sol doesn’t technically have anything like this on record... We don’t truly know what will happen if you and this ‘Fade’ of your merge together.” She calmly states.
My breath becomes heavy as it hangs in the air around us in the Darkness, my arms start to shake as unknown powers start to awaken deep inside of me. This agent for the S.O.S. has no idea what unforgetable hell she’s in for. The Horror side of me starts to rear its ugly head as the only thing I wish to do right now is feast upon this unfortunate soul that decided to intrude in my little happy place. My shackles start to corrode and turn to dust as the Horror in me starts to mix with my newly-awoken power.
“I made a promise to Fade, that I’ll make sure she’ll never be alone again... If that means giving my soul completely over to Fade, I’ll do it in a fucking heartbeat. I love Fade and if anyone thinks of purifying my or her soul, they’ll forfeit their lives and their souls.” The unicorn backs up and her horn flares up as the chains dissolve into nothingness.
My hand makes contact with her horn, I snap her horn at the base, causing her spell to backfire. She cries out in pain as she’s kicked out from my Darkness, and I give chase after her, I’ll make this arrogant unicorn suffer for even thinking about tearing Fade and I apart.
- - -
I see the unicorn running for the window, but Tail grabs her by the rear hoof and yanks her back into the room as she leaps for the window.
“I would have forgiven you for trying to assassinate me, I would have even forgiven you for entering my mind without permission. But, if you honestly think that you can harm Fade, well, let’s just say that this is one thing I won’t forgive you for.” Tail tightens around her hoof, causing the bone to fracture.
Tail raises her to my face and turns her around to face me, her bold, calm face turned to a mixture of terror and regret. I lick my lips before opening my mouth wide, the scales on tail raise up and start to vent. The unicorn flails about as I hear her bone crumble into dust underneath Tail’s immense pressure.
“Your soul is now mine!” I bite down into her neck, her blood runs down my chin and onto my neck as I devour her soul for myself.
I feel the warmth leaving her body and I pull away so I can watch her eyes glaze over as the life escapes from them. Her soul now belongs to me now, her memories, knowledge, everything. I can feel my damaged soul starting to fill in the gaps as I toss her carcass out the window.
- - -
“Fade, you okay?” I call out into the Darkness.
“Yes, so, tell me, how was your first taste of soul?” She appears in front of me with a smile on her beautiful face.
“Interesting, to say the least...” She giggles in response.
“Fade, I meant everything I sa-.” She places her finger on my lips, silencing me with ease.
“What that agent said is true 27... But don’t worry, I won’t let any of those horrible things happen to you, but I am interested in seeing what happens when our souls fully merge.” She giggles once more.
“Go-.” I try to speak past her finger, but she shuts my lips.
“I love you too, 27.” She removes her index finger and gives me a kiss before kicking me out of the Darkness.
- - -
Tail closes the window and locks it as I crawl back into bed, my mind swarms with new information; I focus on one thing for now and that’s this organization that goes by the name of The Secret Order of Sol. My new memories tell me that this organization has been hunting down all of Nightmare Moon’s creations during the Dark Time. The S.O.S. defines the ‘Dark Time’ as the reign of Nightmare Moon during the five-year-long night that followed Celestia’s defeat but before her banishment to the moon by the Elements of Harmony.
Nightmare Moon didn’t create her minions until the second year of her reign of terror. The organization was created by the first Celestial Knight to hunt down all of the minions and “purify” them. Just a handful of minions are left and Fade is one of them; she’s considered to be a ‘Shard of the Nightmare’. Nightmare Moon used a piece of her own soul to create Fade. They believe if she becomes fully restored that she’ll have the power to reawaken Nightmare Moon once more.
Because Celestia found the Elements of Harmony in the first year of the Dark Time, she was able to mold herself into the perfect bearer of only five elements. While she was able to defeat Nightmare Moon with the elements and banish her to the moon, the banishment wasn't permanent since the Elements’ power was not complete. The reason for this was that Celestia was not able to find the Element of Magic. The banishment only lasted for a thousand years before ending. The elements don't destroy, they purify. So they didn't outright kill the Nightmare. Instead, they shattered its 'soul' and power.
“Wait, banish Nightmare Moon to the moon? I don’t even...” I shake my head of this strange fact, before continuing on with my new found memories.
“Huh, so if Nightmare Moon was banished for a thousand years... And this ‘Dark Time’ lasted for five years... Fade is roughly one thousand and three years old...” Before I can continue on with the memories, I’ve fallen fast asleep.
- - -
One of the three guards lay on the floor drowning in his own blood, the second one raises the but of his assult rifle to eliminate me. I sidestep behind him and turn him into a meat shield. The third guard trains his iron-sights on me, his finger just barely touching the trigger. My meat shield struggles to break free but I have his arm so far up his back if he tries to do anything; his arm will break instantly.
“항복! 여기서 살아 나갈 확률은 전혀 방법이 없어!”
“Surrender! There's no way you're getting out of here alive!” His commands tickle me so.
I reach behind my back and grab my spare combat knife, his sights still trained on me so I’ll need to act quick to beat a bullet.
“무기를 내리고 여기 네 친구를 공개할 것"이라고 말했다.”
“Lower your weapon and I'll release your friend here.” The guard hesitates at first, but he lowers his sight just by an inch and my blade finds a new home right between his eyes.
The last guard struggles again, and his arm breaks with ease, his screams are muffled by my hands as I snap his neck, his body falls to the floor and I reclaim both my blades from the corpses. I round the corner to see two sentry guns hanging from the ceiling, they quickly lock on to me and fire, I duck back as the bullets embed themselves into the wall I was just standing near.
“I really hate sentry guns... More than attack dogs...” I bring back the schematics to see if there was another way around, nope.
I walk back to the bodies and search there them, nothing too helpful; pack of smokes, 9mm pistols, ammo... And two frag grenades, this could be messy... I take the pistols and the ammo, double check to make sure they’re loaded. I also take the grenades and grab the biggest looking guard to use him as another meat shield, I bite down on a pin of one of the grenades and hold down the plunger. The sentry guns open fire onto the carcass, bullets sink in the body, a few penetrate deep enough to rip through it. I release the trigger on the grenade and count towards two before throwing it at the sentry guns, I drop the body and dive behind the corner again. The grenade blows up as it hits the wall behind the two turrets, sparks fly as metal becomes twisted in flames and smoke.
“Turrets zero, Arkis one.” I laugh as I strut down the last hallway leading to the control room of this facility.
I open the passcode panel and before I can plug my PDA into it, the door slides open. I back up in confusion and peek my head in; there sits Kim Jong Un in front of a massive computer facing the door.
“You’re a tough man to find. Please, come in.” I take a quick look into the room, all I see is the computer and him.
“You’ve been expecting me?” He smiles at me as I step in, the doors close behind me and he just sits there.
“Yes, one might say that. Do you wonder why it was so easy to penetrate my facility?”
“I just assume you needed to make some cutbacks.” He just laughs in response as I continue to look around the room.
“There’s no cameras in here, no turrets, just this computer, you, and I. Please, tell me what your ‘employers’ told you about your mission? Did they just simply pay you to come assassinate me before I can expose them for the lying backstabbing whore mongers they are? Or did they send you here for this?” He swiveled in his chair and clicks a button, bring up blueprints and formulas onto the monitors.
“You have my full attention. If this is how you wish to spend your last moments before I shepherd you to the Abyss, than so be it.” He swiveled back around as I look up at the monitors.
“These formulas here are the improved version of the virus that’s coursing through your veins. I have no clue how you’ve managed to survive this long without turning; but this doesn't matter.” He presses another button, another monitor comes to live as it plays newsreels of the fall of Germany.
“Germany has already fallen to the Horror Virus. The neighboring countries have locked down their borders and started to seal Germany off from the rest of the world. None of that matter since the virus will find a way into the rest of Europe.”
“And why are you telling me this?”
“Why do you think your ‘employers’ sent you to that bunker in the first place?”
“I don’t ask questions, as long as the pay is good, I’ll be willing to accept any mission.”
“Your blind eye is going to be the end of us all, President Hu Jintao as already sealed away China from the rest of the world. He employed someone you know to steal the virus from Germany. Because of this, President Hu Jintao has perfected the virus and is going to infect the rest of the world with it.” He leans back in his chair and lights a cigarette.
“And what does this have to do with me?” He takes a drag from his cigarette and blows it out his nose before answering me.
“Wouldn’t you like to know what your ‘employers’ have planned for you?” He takes another drag from his cigarette.
“Why not?” He laughs as he tosses the butt of the cigarette into the room after he finishes it.
“They plan on reuniting you wi-.” A red dot appears on his forehead as his brains splattered onto the monitors.
“He’s a talkative one, wasn't he?” I turn my head to see Ice Cube standing in the doorway with a silenced 9mm.
“It’s been awhile, Ice.” I plug my PDA into the computer and download all the files.
“Sure has, Arkis. Come, my friends have another mission for you that’s quite urgent.” My PDA downloads the information in just a matter of seconds.
“Alright, lead the way.”
- - -
I wake up to a cold room, I nuzzle my head into my pillow as I enjoy the cold morning. I’ve manage to to kick the blankets onto the floor, but I don’t care, all I need is this incredibly soft pillow and this incredibly icy room.
“Good morning, 27.” A lovely voice whispers into my ear, I don’t bother to un-bury my face from the cold pillow.
“Good morning to you too, Fade.” I open my eyes as I realize that I wasn't in the Darkness.
“Wait, Fade?” She laughs as I realize my pillow wasn't a pillow.
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