Chapter Twenty-One
Armageddon’s Beginning
Armageddon’s Beginning
“So we all are gathered here today to combat the growing evil that has been surpassing our intelligence for quite sometime now,” said Lord Golbez.
He had brought everyone he knew together to discuss what was to be done about the Goddess of Death. Firstly, he suspected that her plan was being put into action because no one had actually encountered her for the past few days now. Lord Golbez, Aerith Gainsborough, Mitsuki Naoki, Julius Argexis, Filden Gurito, Fifi Gurito, Mercurial Lamont and Rydia Ebla were in the private chambers in an emergency meeting to finally form a plan in their part of saving the universe. It was a big responsibility, but with the power and knowledge they all possessed, it could be combined to eventually make a difference.
“Prophecies foretold that only Faith can stop the Goddess of Death,” assumed Filden, taking the lead without confronting Lord Golbez. Regardless, he was given the benefit of the doubt and allowed to speak. “She is the Saviour, destined to defeat the Destroyer – which is our favourite monster. But that same monster has stolen Faith’s appearance. She has her face, memories, powers … and anything else you can think of. Fortunately, there’s only one person in this room that can separate the two of them and that’s me.”
“What makes you so special suddenly?” asked Julius suspiciously.
“Like Faith is the Saviour and Nexi is the Destroyer, my brother is the Guardian,” replied Fifi in a cold manner to combat his reservations. “He was the first to see that Nexi wasn’t really Faith and could spread the word around once Frisk saw it for herself.”
“I think I can recall many roles were handed out on a silver platter,” piped up Rydia.
“‘Faith is the Saviour, Filden is the Guardian, Frisk is the Vessel, Saix is the Keeper, Rene is the Avenger, Mark is the Judge, Riku is the Warrior, Mercurial is the Ambassador …’” said Filden. “‘Even Eve is the Chosen.’ Now even with all these roles, what are they meant to be? We know Faith is meant to stop Nexi, I’m meant to protect Faith somehow … but I can’t be sure about the others.”
“Why didn’t I get a role?” mumbled Fifi to herself.
“I can see why Mark is the Judge,” said Julius, remembering the burden that had been placed upon his heavy heart. “He possesses the power to apparently wipe out every atom in existence.”
“No, he used that as a threat,” Aerith shook her head. “I had another dream last night, although it didn’t appear as terrifying as the others I’ve been having.”
“Another dream?” Mitsuki asked.
Aerith nodded her head, confirming it. “I can sense Mark fighting desperately hard against Ecru’s wicked deeds. The two personas are fighting for control of the body, but Ecru has emerged victorious so far. The dream I had … I don’t think it was a dream now. Perhaps … just maybe … it was taking place in the present time when I blacked out.”
“Lucky that I found you, sis,” stated Julius, coming to her side. “I was beginning to get worried when you never arrived to greet our visitors.”
“And Aerith is always the meet and greet type, too,” grinned Mitsuki.
“Ecru is threatening to destroy humanity itself,” continued Aerith. “He was face to face with Faith and a girl I can’t quite identify. But then suddenly, she attacked Ecru and he threatened to destroy her. Fortunately, the girl disappeared and then Rene arrived moments later. His exact words were, ‘if you stand in my way, Faith Crest, then I know just how to completely erase you from the face of the planet.’”
“Ecru wants to wipe out Faith?” gasped Filden, quite unable to believe how deeply sinister Mark’s other personality really was.
“Then that means the present could change at any minute,” said Mercurial, taking charge of the conversation. Lord Golbez looked curiously at the newcomer, but did not say anything. “Because if I’m correct, then that means everything changes. Faith is at the centre of everything. Without her, we won’t be here right now. Without her, there is no Goddess of Death.”
“And hopefully no Saix and Frisk relationship?” chuckled Fifi. Everyone stared. “What? Am I the only one who despises it, anyway?”
“So there is no Eve and no Fantasy Freedom Fighters either,” realised Filden. “Even without Faith, there’re still superhumans and evohumans.”
“But with no one to go through the growing pains,” Julius kindly pointed out.
“Ecru is, but no problem as of now!” exclaimed Lord Golbez, cutting in. “We still have to defeat the Goddess of Death if we are to remain … alive.” He looked towards Aerith, Mitsuki and Julius. “I am entrusting you three to track down the Goddess herself, see if we can learn her strengths and weaknesses alike.”
“But that’s quite easy,” Rydia spoke up. Everyone now turned to face her. “If Nexi has really taken on Faith’s form, her face and powers, then we know them. In her own words, she’s basically an upgraded version of Faith herself. We just have an evil goddess with her powers, mimicking everyone else’s powers and no fear. But what about Faith’s weaknesses? If Nexi is really her twin – presuming that’s how we’re going to refer to her as – shouldn’t we be focusing on everything Faith Crest?”
“I’m with blondie here,” agreed Mitsuki. “Nexi really picked the wrong girl to turn into, didn’t she?”
Filden watched everyone converse with each other to discuss what plan of action was the best to undertake. He glanced at his older sister Fifi in an attempt to tell her what he knew. She nodded back at him, looking at Mercurial and Rydia for an approved expression. The two former members of the Red Rose Movement now looked towards Filden as their symbol of hope.
“I’m her childhood friend,” he told Fifi. “Don’t you think I know her better than everyone here?”
“Except for me, obviously,” muttered Fifi. “Bet cha didn’t know that she stole your Action Man when she was six, right?”
“My Action Man? I thought he was really dead!” gasped Filden.
“Of course she stole him,” she smirked. “Remember how she used to play dress up with Barbie and Ken? Her Ken went missing and she blamed Abigail all over again. So I remember her sneaking into your room once and taking Action Man. Sad to think that you know her, isn’t it?”
* * *
After passing through the gateway, Faith Crest and Rene Skylar were hurtling towards the ground quicker than they originally thought. Faith grabbed Rene’s hand and they were now flying effortlessly in the air. They came to an abrupt halt, however, when they noticed that the small town of Marwick – previously home to them both during their adolescent years – was below. Feeling the warm touch of Rene’s hand through her fingers made Faith feel untouchable. She smiled brightly at her former flame, the first genuine smile in many months. He beamed back at her, unable to suppress the delight on his face.
With Ecru nowhere to be seen, the two descended upon the forest – the same forest that Saix had landed on during a meteor shower almost three years ago. Rene commented on how the forest was somewhat different to how he remembered it, but Faith was focusing intently on the house half a mile away. She walked forwards with Rene following in her wake. Despite his efforts to demand why she was going there, Faith ignored Rene. The very house had overwhelmed her in just a few seconds.
“I grew up here,” she said finally after he didn’t shut up for a while. “This is my house, remember? My family are in there right now –”
“Faith, we’re in the past,” he gulped hard, noticing there was a battered newspaper on the floor with the date of July 26, 1993. “This is nearly fifteen years ago.”
“What date is it?” Faith questioned curiously, refusing to take her eyes off the house.
“July the twenty-sixth, nineteen ninety-three,” replied Rene, showing her the newspaper. “We were four years old back then. Wow … nineteen ninety-three. That was one heck of a year, all right.”
“What happened?”
“It was the year that my sister, Lily, was born. I already had another sister called Kara, who was two years younger than me. You’ll probably remember them when you get to that part. They came to Marwick with me after the last foster home was knocked down to make way for some apartments. There was an orphanage in Marwick, one of the final orphanages in England. You see, it’s rare to find one nowadays … Kara, Lily and I refused to be separated. We would always stick together and find one another no matter what happened.”
“Must’ve been a big year for you, but this year … this very day of the month was the most important time in my life. Today changed me forever.”
“How?”
Faith turned to face him.
“It was the day that I was handed over to the Crest family,” she replied. “I used to believe for sometime that Patricia was the one I spent my life with. But now that the memories have started flooding back, I’ve come to realise that it was with the Crest family. My parents and brother … wow, it’s been years since I last seen them.”
“You can’t jeopardise the past for the sake of the future, Faith,” assumed Rene. “There’re some things I want to change, but I know that’s not possible now. I’d love to go back and save my sisters from the canal … yet it isn’t possible. We didn’t come here to have a Jeremy Kyle style chat, anyway! We have to stop Ecru from wiping you out completely. Do you remember the events of the night?”
“Like it was yesterday,” nodded Faith. “Ok, let me think … Patricia was my godmother in Blackstone, my appointed one … she overheard that the guy in charge was going to use me as a weapon, so she decided to bust me out. Then they started chasing her down the road when she got out. She had a partner in crime with who she exchanged cars with … Kai Owens.”
My godfather, thought Rene and kept his thoughts extremely private from her. “So the same Kai that was working for the Red Rose Movement was working with Patricia as well? Guess that counts towards the whole working relationship thing.”
“When she exchanged cars with Kai, Blackstone chased him instead and believed I was still in the back of the car. But Patricia was in another car and left me with the Crests, also leaving a letter that they’d give me to when I was fourteen. The Crests knew about my superhuman origins, but decided not to tell me until I was old enough to understand. Patricia once told me that she watched over me during the years, whilst still avoiding Blackstone.”
“But what happened to Kai?”
“Beats me. But I’m going to gamble my money and take a guess that Ecru is going to intercept the car – whichever one of them – somewhere along the line. Maybe he’ll damage Kai’s car because that’s the one that does take me to the Crest family?”
“Good idea, we should start timing ourselves because these events are going to happen pretty soon,” said Rene, glancing at his watch since the time had changed according to what it was in the past. “Do you remember when you were busted out?”
“Between seven and quarter past seven,” answered Faith. “She was being chased for over half an hour, plus I know Kai was set to meet her at eight by the abandoned farm just ten minutes away from here.”
“How is it that you know what’s about to happen, anyway?”
“If you think I overanalyse the situation, then you’re wrong. I don’t actually remember much of what happened of tonight because I was really traumatised when I was just four – foggy details of Blackstone – and Patricia explained everything to me when it was safe for her to appear in public.”
* * *
Damon smirked triumphantly, not daring to take his eyes off his latest prize. The Kadzaer crystal, now gripped tightly in his strong hand, was the only weapon that could be used to hold Nexi down. Although she’d been able to resist his charms for such a short time, the Goddess of Death was now fixed firmly on the ground against her will. Sweat poured down her forehead and she groaned in pain, as the crystal physically weakened her body. She looked pleadingly at Damon, who refused to allow Nexi to leave. After all, she was the big bad that everyone was afraid of, right?
He tossed the crystal up and down, knowing full well that only Faith could rightfully hold it and banish Nexi to the Kadzaer Dimension for good. Although it may have been what she wanted, Damon wasn’t so sure about sending her there. She deserved far worse than being cast off to another dimension, where she would be endlessly tormented and tortured by the phantoms there for an eternity. It had been what Faith had endured, but Nexi had done much more than just send Faith into the Kedzaer Dimension, too …
Blood was on Nexi’s hands, something that Damon would’ve lied about if he’d said that he didn’t know it would happen. It was only inevitable that the dark and despicable creature could take a life at the snap of a finger. Death was what she was. But looking at Nexi now, Damon felt tempted by the look she was giving him. She represented his ex, but knew that was not she since her inner core was death itself.
“You think you’ve got me figured out,” he told her emotionlessly.
“Men are just the same subspecies aiming to get women to do their bidding!” hissed Nexi angrily. “You represent truth and justice, but what is there behind closed doors, Damon? What are your real motives? Hmm?”
“Piss off before I get you incapacitated piece by piece,” growled Damon. His victorious smile had all, but faded by now.
He didn’t want to admit it, but the Goddess herself was beginning to irritate him greatly. Being here in the abandoned farm just ten minutes away from where Faith’s family house was didn’t do any wonders either. With his charm, he had been able to manipulate Nexi into acting normal when they were outside and buying food. But in the past day or so, she’d been able to see through the charm and almost escaped barely hours ago. Thankfully, Damon had discovered that the Kadzaer was in Nexi’s belongings. As opposed to telling Faith that the crystal was gone, she actually had it in her possession. Damon had charmed her into telling about her confrontation with Faith, revealing all the deepened details.
“Armageddon is just beyond the horizon and you know it!” Nexi cried out in pain when he thrust the Kadzaer nearer to her damaged body. It felt worse than cracked ribs, but she decided to take the pain to appear brave. “This body … Faith … they call her heartbreaker. Eventually, she will break your heart!”
“Already gone down that road and she did it to protect me,” Damon said fiercely. “Put yourself in her position – well, that’s not hard since you technically are her – to think about the consequences of remaining to be my girlfriend. Your powers are spiralling out of control, you have to hide them from everyone … do you understand how dangerous it is? Her own family could’ve been in danger! It’s lucky that Miguel and Jennifer were able to calm her down or else Rafael would’ve been nothing more than dust in the air.”
“She could’ve easily done that, but her parents were also afraid of her!” she shouted furiously. “Anyone would be scared of a fourteen-year-old girl that can move things with her mind and read minds as well! She almost ripped Filden to pieces … luckily, he thought he was hallucinating. Perhaps she should tell him about the Action Man incident, too?”
Of all the things she could come up with, it had to be the Action Man thing, he thought and rolled his eyes. I can’t hold her down for much longer. Faith, where the HELL are you?
* * *
“Armageddon is beginning, isn’t it?” chuckled Rene.
“Rene, you really are on crack, aren’t you?” Faith sighed irritably.
“Fil asked me that a while ago and I should’ve said yes,” he shrugged. “But I’ll say yes for the record. Wow, imagine that! Admitting I’m on crack the first time I time travel.”
“The first time’s always the hardest one,” she grinned. “I remember ending up too far in the future once. Come to think of it, I don’t even know if that future’s even possible anymore.”
“What did you see?”
“Darkblade was alive and dominating over all universes. Let’s see … Saix and I were dead, the rest of FFF was in hiding and my family were slaves like most of humanity. Maybe this is Ecru’s vision of the human race? If he’s really drawing inspiration from Darkblade, then he’s surely a lost cause. It was a shock to find that my own cousin was doing it, but now one of our closest friends from Earth? The world’s gone mad.”
“Thought it already was, Faith. Finding out you were psychic was just the beginning.”
As soon as Rene’s last sentence was uttered, they both turned towards where Kai was standing near the abandoned farm. He had a gun behind his back – concealed very cleverly with his coat – and a knife hidden underneath his pants on his right leg. He seemed awfully calm tonight, just like he appeared to be in the future before the Fantasy War had taken place. But the time of the Fantasy War was to be forgotten for now. After realising that destroying the car that Patricia was in with the infant Faith would be useless for Ecru, both the future Faith and Rene had ultimately decided that Kai was an essential part in Faith’s survival towards the future – and Rene’s destiny to defeat Darkblade once and for all.
And then just as expected, Ecru was seen walking towards Kai with a murderous look on his face. Faith thought Rene would dive forward to attack him, but was pleasantly surprised when he remained in the same position, keeping his eyes firmly fixed upon Mark’s superhuman persona. Kai noticed that Ecru was coming and was wearing a wicked curved smile on his face. His hands were not reaching out for his weapons just yet, however.
“What can I do for you, my friend?” he kindly asked.
“You do not appear afraid of me,” Ecru said emotionlessly.
“That is because I know what you are, Ecru,” Kai smirked darkly. He unfolded his arms and started walking towards Ecru, who remained frozen in the same spot. “It was foretold that you would come back to the past and try to destroy what will affect at least the next twenty years or so. But you cannot do this. It was predestined you would fail, Ecru.”
“You are Rene Skylar’s godfather, no?”
“Correct. I am, Ecru. And I also know that the humanity within you has not diminished as you once told my godson and Faith Crest. You lied in their faces. Mark is still alive and kicking in there, he is … just struggling to come around right now.”
“Imbecile. Do you realise how futile your words are?”
“Actions speak louder than words, I’m afraid. Perhaps you’re mistaken. Faith Crest is meant to live and you, Ecru, are meant to go back down to the surface where you belong. Although you are the true superhuman beneath him, Mark is the one that was born in this body and earned the birthright to decide his destiny. Therefore, you mean nothing to history.”
“You fail to understand, Kai Owens. Ensuring that Faith Crest dies is the only way that this can all be avoided.”
“Perhaps, but you didn’t count on coming here alone now, did you?” sneered Kai.
He turned towards where Faith and Rene were hiding before looking back at Ecru.
“The choice is yours to make, Ecru. Leave this time period or feel hell itself.”
“Kai knows we’re here,” Faith whispered to Rene. “I need you to do me a very big favour because I think I’m the only one that can handle Ecru. Um … I know it’s the past and all, but … don’t worry about the legality of this favour, ok? I need you to steal a car.”
“Steal a car? Are you deadly serious?” he hissed in her ear.
“More serious than seriousness itself,” she groaned, rolling her eyes. “Go and steal a car. I’ve got a feeling that Ecru’s about to get rid of this one.”
As soon as she said that, Ecru had already sent a huge wave of fire towards Kai’s car. The car went flying into the air and landed with a loud thud on the ground. Kai himself had flipped sideways to avoid being caught up in the blast. Rene’s eyes widened and he turned to face Faith again.
“One stolen car coming right up,” he said disbelievingly and hurried off through the cornfield behind them.
Faith now rose to her feet, revealing her presence. Ecru’s eyes immediately were turned to her. Kai smiled pleasantly.
“So lovely to join us, Faith,” he said. “Now will you please defeat this nuisance?”
“With pleasure, Kai,” Faith kept her voice even, walking to his side.
“So you and Skylar managed to fall through the gateway as well? Excellent,” Ecru smiled nastily, his evil intentions ready to pick up at any moment. “The world needs to erase your existence, Faith Crest. If I do not do it, then who else can? It is only righteous that another superhuman destroys you. Destroying you would be useful for my plan, but the past you will be arriving any moment now. Going over there to wipe out your meaningless existence will be useless, considering Musso will suspect something immediately. And we all know about how persistent Blackstone are, surely?”
“How are we going to get your past self to your family?” murmured Kai.
“I’ve got it worked out, don’t worry,” said Faith. “Your replacement’s coming.”
“Here we are at last, Faith Crest,” said Ecru, now back to his usual emotionless self and cracked his fingers, almost as if he was ready for a fight. “It would be too clichéd if I said this was predestined. But I could feel it in every fibre of my existence that fate would bring you here to defeat me. Or shall I say that … I will defeat you instead?”
“No, I thought it was right the first time around,” she said gravely. “Once upon a time, I was willing to risk my humanity to become the heroine I was destined to become. Maybe that’s what I have to do now. But if Kai is right and there’s any part of Mark in there, then he’d come out and stop me. He wouldn’t want me to have blood on my hands after all.”
“You’re going to kill him?” snarled Kai angrily.
Faith solemnly turned towards Rene’s godfather. “If that’s what it takes, then I suppose that’s what I have to do.” However, she was soon cut off when Ecru telekinetically pinned her into the wall of the abandoned farm. The wall collapsed because of the tremendous impact and she went hurtling inside, coughing loudly. There was blood dribbling down her nose now when Ecru appeared in front of her, hovering over her weak body. “Wow, you … don’t seem to … play fair.”
“I was never one for the rules myself,” stated Ecru. He raised his finger and smiled nastily. “It’s time to reopen that pretty face of yours. A shame that the phantoms didn’t finish you off.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” snarled Faith, but was shut up immediately.
“Of course I would.” And with that, Ecru slowly moved his finger to the left. The stitches on Faith’s face began to reopen, causing her to scream silently, and blood dripped down on to the farm’s wooden floorboards.
* * *
Eve opened her eyes, fed up with teleporting in fear that Ecru would find her, and found that she was back at her father’s lair. She put her hands on her hips defiantly when she noticed that her parents were kissing lustfully on the bed. How typical was this? She didn’t need to be seeing this right now, considering that the world was about to end and it wasn’t even her dad this time. It had been him the first time around, but now that Nexi was on the loose and missing, she had every right to be worried.
When Saix sat up on the bed to take a breather, Eve quickly hid behind the dark curtain to avoid being seen. Faith had told her that it would have broken the rules of time travel to tell them that she was actually their daughter from the future. But with the stakes even higher than ever, what was the point of concealing the truth anymore? Pretending to be Faith’s daughter hadn’t even lasted five seconds! However, the more she watched her parents kiss passionately, the more she fell in love with them herself.
“We have ourselves a pervert in the room,” announced Frisk.
Before she knew it, Eve was being hurled away from the curtain by Saix and pushed on to the bed. Frisk smiled proudly – having taken advantage of her super speed and saw the girl around the curtain quicker than normal time when she suspected someone there – of her newfound discovery. The girl had been here before, but they didn’t know her name. Just what on earth was she doing here, anyway?
“Are you a stalker? If you are, then I’ll electrocute you to death!” hissed Saix angrily.
“Aaaahhh! Don’t electrocute me!” Eve exclaimed, almost screaming in the process and making Frisk jump. “In the future, Nexi did that to me once and my hair was fried for days. For days! Honestly, I don’t want to go down that path again. I just –”
“Nexi fried your hair?” repeated Frisk.
“Just who exactly are you?” snarled Saix.
The rules of time travel state that you do not go back in time for personal gain – you should go back for the sake of the world if you need to, thought Eve, feeling eternally grateful her parents weren’t telepathic and that she wasn’t in the presence of Faith right now. Crying out loud! Why can’t they notice what’s going on? I’m their daughter! God, someone help me out here …
“She’s the quiet type,” Frisk observed. “How about I send her one of my energy blasts? I could always need the practice –”
“Super speed and energy blasts? That’s a lot for an evohuman with superhuman blood!” exclaimed Eve, surprised to her mother’s involvement in everything unnatural. She covered her mouth, realising she had unintentionally blurted it out. Saix cast a suspicious look at her, whilst Frisk was really considering target practice after all! Were her parents really this mad? “Ok, I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I just might tell you who I am if –”
“We don’t take kindly to offers!” snapped Saix, shooting an electric spark from his finger to the wall. It made Eve jump, noticing the scorch mark. “Now the minions will have something useful to do in their spare time.”
“Let me put this way,” their future daughter said calmly, raising her hands. “If you kill me now, then you’re jeopardising everything you’ve ever worked for. I won’t be able to get the chance to know you how I should! I don’t want to go back into that world without you two alive!”
Saix and Frisk exchanged dark looks before looking back at her.
“Who are you?” they chorused.
Eve took a deep breath and sighed sadly. This really was like a soap opera, wasn’t it?
“I’m your daughter from the future. Twenty-one years into the future, actually.”
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