Part Three: Chaos [POV Detected: Jules Smith, Jay]

[Jay POV detected]

Incitatus has finally challenged Darknight to avenge her father. I wondered how long it would take… and now here we are, flying towards the battlefield, heroic music playing in the background, Darkling’s hand in mine… okay, scratch the music, but the rest is accurate. We zip through the sky, darkness swirling around us as Darknight and Darkling use their powers to keep us in the air. I don’t even have to use my wings. The Dirthawkers fly alongside us REBELs, Peri’s expression is unreadable, but I don’t have to use my cybernetics to know that she’s worried for Darknight. I am too, but I decide not to mention it.

“There,” 12 says, pointing. I see Incitatus standing in the middle of a large clearing, as big as half a football field, but set in the middle of the woods where no-one would find it normally. We land at the opposite end of the clearing that she’s standing in. The people from Serephimbia arrive also. Pitch and Quiver land, weapons undrawn, but ready to fight. Gena is nowhere in sight, but there is a snowy owl sitting in a tree nearby. Is that her? Talon arrives, weapons away, outwardly relaxed, but I see that she’s covering up her nervousness inside. Crescent arrives last, with a camping chair.

“Seriously??” I ask her.

“What? This is going to be great entertainment!!” she responds, faking innocence. I shake my head and turn my attention back to the matter at hand. I see figures in the trees, officials. She brought them to protect her… and fight the rest of us. Darknight steps forward, clutching his darkness sword. Dove has his broadsword, Darkling has his darkness longsword, Peri has her macesaber, 12 has his blades, Spar has his sword, I have my ice-sword. The Eagle lands next to Peri and Dove, holding her own sword. Darknight nods at her, acknowledging her presence, before he turns to Incitatus.

“You called us here?” He says it like a question, but we all know the answer.

“Yes. It is time for you to pay for what you did to my father,” she practically snarls, raising her thin, single-edged blade. Darknight raises his own sword, meeting her glare with a cold, emotionless gaze. I see an expression of doubt and nervousness briefly cross her face, but she shakes it off and charges. Darknight runs to meet her. Their swords clash in the middle of the field, shards of darkness zooming off in every direction. One of the shards bites into Incitatus's arm, causing her to wince and retreat a couple steps to regroup. Darknight doesn’t give her a single second of rest, though, he’s on her in a moment, and I can see something in his eyes, the same dark creature that made him hurt Darkling and 12 has taken him over again, and nothing can stop him from reaching his goal.

Every time their swords cross, dark-shards fly. One strikes the ground inches from Dove, who is grappling with three officials. Two of them pass a hair-width above Darkling and Peri’s heads. 12 dodges another. A fifth skips across the back of my hand, leaving a scratch that doesn’t sting. The shard dissolves when it touches my blood. For some reason, the darkness that is absorbed into my hand doesn’t worry me. I watch, detached, as Spar and Wilson square off with no less than ten officials. Darkling battles another three. Quiver and Pitch are back to back, doing complicated double-team maneuvers. The snowy owl has transformed into Gena, and she’s now taking down officials from above. Talon is picking off officials faster than anyone else, her powerful guns aiming and shooting almost at lightspeed. Crescent is sitting in her chair, clapping and cheering for us. Dove has dispatched his opponents and is steadily fighting his way towards Darknight and Incitatus, who strike and duck and weave back and forth in an intricate dance. The Eagle, Arke, helps Dove fight off a particularly strong official, then proceeds to take on fifteen of them alone. I watch silently as Dove makes his way to the main fight, the primary attraction, which draws my attention when Darknight shoves Incitatus away from him. Dove dodges her and she hits the ground behind him. Before Dove can recover, she’s on her feet, eyes flashing, sword flashing, blood flashing, and Dove falls, falls, and Darknight falls as well, but in a different way, and the world dissolves into darkness and screams.

[end POV]