FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"No...no morning. No morning left for us."

"Gerald. Don't. Ah need you to be strong okay? Just...just stop thinkin' aboot the fire, that wuz JUST a dream, th-that means nuthin'!"

"No. N-no it wasn't Mary. I know when it's a dream and what's not, it's...Pangaea's calling me."

"YOU HAVE TO FIGHT THIS, PLEASE!"

"I can't."

"Why!? Why are you so afraid to run!?"

"The fire...it calls me...I've seen this in my dreams...I knew this would happen, always I knew."

"IT WAS JUST A DREAM GERALD! A STUPID DREAM, YOU CAN'T LET IT TAKE YOU!"

"Pangaea save me...may my ancestors bless me with food and shelter before the storm, before the dust comes and takes the sun away-"

"NO! I WON'T LOSE YOU, YOU'RE NOT AFRAID GERALD, I KNOW YOU'RE NOT! WHAT ABOUT OUR SON!?"

"The fire's calling me...I've always heard it calling me...everytime I sleep...I have no life beyond this...he'll have a better life with you."

"I don't WANT a life with him I want a life with US! ALL OF US TOGETHER, PLEASE GERALD STOP THIS! I can't leave you Gerald...I don't want to leave you, please don't let them win, don't let the fear take you Gerald! PLEASE!"

"I'm sorry...I'm s-sorry Mary..."

"...I can't leave you...why...why? I thought you were stronger than this."

"I was always weak...don't fool yourself. I could never be as strong as you."

_"No...n-n-no Gerald, Gerald you can't GERALD! GERAAAAAAAAAAAAALD!" _

James opened his eyes seeing the room at the orphanage. He struggled for a moment, feeling as if he were waking from a coma, his body stiff and atrophied as he tried to crane his head.

"Hey there."

The raptor songstress was at the foot of his bed dressed in purple robes.

"Um, h-hey Ms. Reiki."

"How are you feeling?"

"I uh...okay I guess."

"Now...might just be me but, you probably wanted to ask me something yeah?"

"I...yeah." The boy looked around the empty room of the orphanage. "That stuff...didn't happen, did it?"

"No." She shook her head. "You felt it too yes?"

"Like...s-someone's memories were gettin' stuffed into my head. A lotta stuff wuz me, the stuff I did with Ashwin, the fights an' all the fun things. But, all the scary stuff wuz like...not me."

"Very good," she nodded gently, "was wondering when you would catch on."

"So...wh-who are you?"

"A friend of his family. Someone who needs help, needed it for the longest time but nobody came for him. Until now."

"Why is he..." he tried to sit up with a woozy head, "why is he here with me?"

"Because he knows you. You know him too yes, you felt the love he had for you."

"I-is he...um, is he my dad?"

She nodded once more before standing up, offering her hand to the raptor.

"Come with me."

"Why?" he slipped out from the sheets and took her claws. "Where are we going?"

"To help him. Help him after all these years."

Reiki touched at the window beside his bed which suddenly unfolded like a box, crackling glass and brick that formed a staircase out into the streets of London that they walked down upon much to the child's disbelief. Something was wrong. Something that made him feel like he was still dreaming. Silence. Not a single car, bus or person could be heard or seen within the streets. Not even shadows existed in this world turning every shape of every building to an odd flattened structure that forced them to walk upon a two-dimensional plane. Landmarks stood in different places, swapped round to disorient James with the clock tower looming above the orphanage, the houses of parliament sunken halfway into the Thames and the old observatory now but a gigantic hollowed shell that formed the moon in daylight above.

"Why do you need me?" asked James following beside. "You can't just help him on your own?"

"If I could then I would," said Reiki with a sigh, "but his sorrow runs too deep, the fires that trap him keep me away and I need someone who can reach out to bring him back."

"Bring him...back?"

"From the cage that was built by his family. His heart is trapped inside and I must help him, WE must help him."

"I...but why me?" James gulped licking his lips. "Why not somebody else?"

"Because you are his family." She looked down to him. "He can let you in. He knows you, he wants to see you, that is why he was haunting you."

"Oh...s-so he really wants my help?"

"He may not realise it, but he does. He's frightened, but he needs you."

"But he...k-kinda scares me, the things he did th-they were..." James stopped for a moment and bent his knees, "is Ashwin here?"

"Ashwin is safe," she assured him with a squeeze of his hand, "all of London is safe, but we need to find your father and break him free."

"Is he in prison?"

"Worse."

"...nothing's worse than that."

She stopped and turned to him fully. Reiki knelt down and hugged James tight with a shiver of warmth that burned from her heart.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry you suffered so much."

"I-it's okay. I wuz bad too."

"You didn't deserve that."

"N-no but...I was still bad." His voice took on a stronger depth. "Even if what happened to me was...b-bad, and it might even have made me worse...I still went too far."

"Yes." She whispered with a kiss. "God I'm so proud of you."

"H-huh?"

"Um, n-never mind alright let's keep going."

They walked down the streets that he once knew, turning greyer with each step he took whilst buildings loomed above them, silent windows judging with piercing eyes that made James feel smaller than before. Reiki never let go of his hand no matter how far they walked, taking him through alleyways and byways he vaguely recognised as the world lost its colour bit by bit. Their steps became quieter on the tarmac, fading out with existence as James' memories started to cloud over with a tender light fogging his vision.

"Where are we going anyway?" he asked firmly. "You never said-"

"To the end of the world," she said, "the end of your world that is."

"H-huh?!"

"You said you wanted to leave this city, yes?" She smiled back to him pulling the boy against her side. "Then we leave this city."

"But, wait w-wait I wanted to go with Ashwin!"

"Don't worry James, you'll meet everyone again."

"W-wait, everyone?!"

"Well of course, once we help your father."

"R-right...okay so, how do YOU know him?"

"I don't know him personally, just someone who wants to help him." She touched her chest with a soft gulp. "Someone who...promised to be with him."

"Someone who...oh, o-okay."

"I'm sorry I can't tell you much, it hurts me to-"

"No it...it's okay." He nodded up to her. "I understand."

The outlines of London's streets began to fade like pencil sketches, the world becoming a blank canvas behind them until they finally reached a single door. James recognised this street vaguely, from the long trip they took compressed by the world's unexistence to end up at in the region of Wimbledon. The park was fractions, the theatre twisting spools and the lone door stood imposing above him. Savile Close.

"I...I-i lived here."

"You remember?"

"Yeah...they...th-they said the firefighters, they found me in a laundry room all huddled up and safe cuz...my mum-"

"Exactly," said Reiki with a hand on his shoulder, "he came back to this because he had noplace else to go."

"He...h-he's haunting it?"

"You could say that, yes."

"A-are you coming too?" he asked looking back to her.

"I'll do my best. But you have to take the first step, he won't allow me in but he will allow you."

"W-why?" he stared back at the portal.

"My heart is not whole...it cannot reach him fully. But yours is. Your heart, he can sense it."

She demonstrated by walking towards the door and grabbing its handle, but no matter how hard she turned and shook it the door would not yield to her presence. Reiki stepped down and invited James to try as the boy gripped at the handle. It opened to his touch with a mournful creak as the raptors stared into darkness, a hot burning whisper coming from within that crept through their skin.

"What...what do I do when I meet him?"

"Fight him," she said, "break through his defences, no matter what he says, no matter how hard he cries or screams or rages against. Do not be fooled by appearance, he wears all but cages around himself. Find his heart, and free it from his cage."

"A-al...alright I'll...I'll do it."

"I know you will. I believe in you."

James stepped inside with a strange resolution he had never felt. A part of his mind wondered if this was all a dream in itself, but his body walked on into the darkn as he felt London disappear. There came a scent beyond the smouldering flame, a flicker of warmth that his mind briefly caught.

"F-father?"

His voice was not his own, deeper and rasping as he walked inside to a quiet darkness, one that did not rob his vision as he felt the sun touch its walls through unseen cracks. The sounds of a rumbling depth burning in his ears and the fresh scent of seawater beyond the dark. His body stiffened as light returned to an odd metallic room rectangular in its shape, windows to one side showing nothing beyond as he caught sight of a raptor's body. A feral beast, with bloodied hole in its skull and an old rusted handgun beside it.

"Is...who is...where am I?"

"H-hello?!" a voice called out to him. "Can you hear me?!"

He caught sight of a creature in the window and stopped in his tracks. An adult raptor who had the same body as his, but no purple markings. They stared at each other before he spoke first in the strange voice.

"Who...who are you?"

"Huh?" the adult asked him with James' voice. "Wait, who are YOU?"

"My...my name is...m-my name is..." he rubbed his head looking at the floor, "...I cannot remember."

"But...wait..." the one in the window clutched his head, "I can't remember my name either."

"Where did you come from?"

"I...I-i think it wuz a city, lotsa buildings a-an' all these people but I can't um...I-i don't really know where."

"I come from a nest. I remember the nest. But not where it was."

"So...why are you here?" asked the adult from the window.

"I heard someone needed help," said the child with beastly voice, "someone who...someone has been hunting me."

"Hunting you?"

"When he was near I...I kept screaming about the fire, it was hurting me so much that I was...frightened."

"Really? HEY, I know someone like that!"

"R-really?!"

"Yeah he's right through there!" he pointed to a door that appeared beside the window. "Y-you can find someone who's got the same problems as you, he's nice but he's kinda sad."

"Does he know how to stop it?"

"Um...I-i don't know. But you should help him too, he really needs someone an', yanno, maybe he might know sumthin' you don't!"

"Alright. Thank you." The boy stepped towards the door. "What about you?"

"Oh don't worry, I'll be back soon," the adult smiled with pearly teeth, "this isn't about me, it's about him so you should go meet him."

"But if you need help, I do not want to leave you."

"I don' need help. I'm just a little lost, I'll be back to my family soon." He waved to the child happily. "Hope you guys sort out yer problem, see ya!"

"I hope so too...thank you, goodbye."

Stepping through into another darkness, James felt the tunnel widen either side of him as the sounds of the ocean came nearer, almost booming from the other end with a deafening shudder that shook through his body and made him clutch himself tight. His head became dizzy as he stumbled onwards to push against the roar of the sea, a snarling depth as he felt the ground beneath his feet turn into mud. He struggled to push against the thick sludge, his legs burning with exertion as he kept his balance with his tail above the thick swamp. It stung around his ankles with an increasing heat that irritated his skin, biting his lip as he forcefully ran towards the growing light at the end. It was then that he saw the river of ash he had been wading through just before the light consumed him.

"...what...the hell?"

A village consumed by weeds greeted him. Red bitter weeds in every direction that crept upon houses ruined and crumbling, boarded up and devoid of life as he tried to peer through the windows hoping to see someone, anyone inhabiting this place. He saw a town office, a museum and a coffee shop, all of which were vacant but had open doors at least to let him inside. The office had papers decomposed where old and tattered leaflets showed missing villagers, dogs and boars and a half-torn raptor; the museum had been emptied out of all its precious treasures with only a bloodied ankylosaur tail left behind in its fossil record; lastly the coffee shop where all its sundries had been scattered across the floor into a bitter pile of mulch that burned into the wood like acid.

He saw the ocean at the bottom of the village, the red weeds stopping at its shore despite choking the entire small stream that separated the township in half, broken glass bottles littered the beach with torn pieces of paper whistling past his feet. The tide wasn't moving, the sea was dead. The wind picked up slowly as paper fragments danced before his face, spiralling across the breeze and bringing him back towards the village where he caught sight of a shadow.

"H-HELLO?! WAIT, w-wait tell me where I am, I'm lost, h-hello?!"

Dashing from the shore he leapt over the weeds and tangling knots as the shadow fled from his sight, James stumbling between houses that creaked and shuddered from his touch. The wind stopped. He turned a corner to find a piece of the village he had not seen in passing, nestled against the high rocky cliffs that surrounded this pathetic place. A tombstone, marked with a name he could not read within a small cluster of trees that swayed softly in the breeze.

"You finally came."

A dog sat on the tombstone with his back towards him.

"M-mis...mister K.K.?" James stepped back.

"Mmhmm. Hope you're not too disoriented by this."

"U-um...so, wh-where am I? Why's this place all awful-looking?"

"It's the memory of someone's past." He turned himself round slowly with guitar in his hands. "One that I am a shadow of, a fragment to help guide you."

"Wh-what? What you mean a shadow?"

"I'm not who you think I am." He strummed a single chord that cut through the air. "I'm a fragment of a memory, one that she's fed into the darkness here so as to let you inside, a foot in the door that he would take as a stranger with a voice to breathe."

"Her?" James walked closer to the canid. "You mean, Reiki?"

"Mmhmm. I don't even exist here, I'm a part of a memory that she knew from when she first met you."

"W-wait, wait, when she FIRST met me?"

"Come closer and I'll tell you. This story you're in is about to end and you need to listen. Come...open your heart."

The dog offered his hand towards the raptor as he saw the trees bend slightly away from him. He walked forwards onto the gravedirt as the musician started to play.

"His world was once connected. Tied to a darkness. One that completely eclipsed it."

"Whut? Whut world, th-this village?"

"He knew what lied beyond the door, and still they pushed me through. There was so very much to learn. I understood so little."

There came a sound from his guitar that disturbed James. Each pluck of the string there came a rasping sob.

"I thought that those who knew nothing could understand nothing. If anything, I knew too much."

"Who, wh-why are you talkin' weird?!"

"I have watched your dreams and they are the same as mine. Your ancestors always dreamed of returning back to the old world and yet you yourself are a future that lives within it. You inherit my dreams even though they mean nothing to you, but a future...a future that occurs long after this family has died and yet so many...many years before it. The great fire that would come and the dust that took the sun away."

"S-stop, stop it, th-this is weird I don't LIKE THIS!"

"I see only fire. I can't stop...seeing fire. I can only hear Cxulubcah. Cxulubcah. Cxulubcah. Cxulubcah. Cxulubcah-"

"S-s-stop, STOP IT!"

The dog stopped strumming his guitar, but the sounds of weeping continued unabated. Then he saw K.K.'s tears drip from his eyes as black oil that dripped off his cheeks.

"Cxulubcah."

He spoke once again but this time other voices joined him. The red vines slithered and twisted into distorted shapes that resembled people to the raptor, dogs and cats, humans and horses all with hollow eyes, all with the same single word uttering from their throats as a chorus of the damned that blocked his path with a sea of blood.

"Cxulubcah. Cxulubcah. CxulubcAh. CXuLuBcaH."

"S-SHUT UP, SHUT UP S-STOP IT STOP SAYING THAT!"

Cxulub...cah.

The deepest voice came from the dog who pulled out a match from his fingers. Striking it alight on his cheek, he dropped it into the soundhole of his guitar as fire started growing, flickering from inside and lapping across the wood.

"You must accept your purpose."

He stood up and walked across the grave.

"Our ancestors, their lives become trapped within an instant of eternity."

Flames crept between the strings.

"A second of purest light that erased all of life from their world. Blood becomes ash. Ash becomes light. Bones become dust and so you too, shall know the great fire."

"S-s-stop it, STOP FREAKIN' ME OUT!"

The body of the guitar twisted and creaked as the dog kept walking forwards.

"I take you now, to the lands where we once walked as kings, where darkness never came and the cold never stayed, never touched...until the great fire burned its dust and took the sun away."

The fire now reached the neck of the guitar, burning through his fur and singing it to black without ever changing his expression. James tried to back away with tingling fingers of fear as the red faces continued to chant behind him. They wouldn't let him pass, closing up against each other as the one disguised as K.K. continued to speak through the popping bubbling heat that rippled along his skin and peeled back the layers of fur.

"The fire shall cleanse you my son. The fire shall hurt you, but you must respect it. If you do not respect it, the fire shall scar you, it shall wound you, and so you shall join our ancestors for their insolence to the ancient gods."

"Sh-shut up, g-g-get away from me!"

"Once we had become as gods, and so we paid the final price. Believe in Pangaea, believe not in ourselves but in Cxulubcah, for it is by His grace that we are born anew into this world."

"S-STOP, SAYING THAT!"

"Respect the land, respect the fire," his arms now burned to an ashen smoulder that crept towards his throat, "and to walk amongst mortals as equal! Cxulubcah! CXULUBCAH! CXULUBCAH!"

His hands swept outwards as the fire suddenly burst free from his instrument, swarming his body with the wretched sound of crackling skin and melting blood that popped and sputtered before the child who cowered in fright at the rising flame. Fuming from within his charred limbs, a porous flame dripped down the flesh of his arms like the sleeves of a prophet to spread across the weeds that sent wildfire throughout the village. Within moments the world itself had become consumed with fire as tongues of burning ember raked across the earth, houses devoured, the creatures of red weed melting to ash as the stone walls around the village began to fold like burning paper. Beyond them was the old steel ruins of a laboratory, half-decaying with twisted metal and broken stairs amongst an ancient forest where primordial trees grew to blot out the sun. The ground beneath had turned to rust as glass shards littered the earth, the chanting of voices continued as a dull murmur like the coming storm as he turned back towards the burning canine.

His skull now revealed itself as his flesh became shrivelled, his eyes melted before the fire shed itself from his body like a serpent's skin. What he saw of the dog's skeleton started to change, the skull cracking forwards with a jutting snout as his paws twisted into smaller limbs, his feet snapped violently to a feral bent as toes stretching into the curve of sickle-shaped claws as his body rose above him to a height of almost 8 feet. James started to scream. The raptor's skeleton did so too.

"A-a-a-aaaaa_AAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIGH!_"

"AaaaaAaAAaAAAAAARRRGH!"

He fled from the monster as it crunched the earth beneath its feet, blackened smoke rising from the cracks as James stumbled with panic-stricken eyes towards a broken wall for shelter. The monster spoke in two different voices, one guttural with fear, the other laced with hatred.

"C-CoMe oN oUt! I'M nOt aFrAiD oF YOUUUUU!"

"Your brother didn't cry...when he walked into the fire."

The wall suddenly peeled back with a crunching scream as James scrabbled faster away to hide under the stairs, the monstrous firebeast chased after him with staggering gait and a crippled walk that hunched its shoulders of blackened bone, claws raking across the air with wreaths of smoke in its wake that grabbed at the broken stair and threw it off of James.

"N-NO, NO, G-GO AWAY, GO AWAYYY!"

"All I ever wanted was a son who would RESPECT our heritage!" The beast slammed its fist through the floor as James dodged out of its path. "I brought you into this world as a GIFT to my people!"

"GeT tHe fUcK OFF!"

Further the raptor ran through the ruins of the great forest, hurling rocks at the burning monstrosity that snarled with hollowed eyes and a crooked tail of twisting bone that shot forth at the child causing him to fall and scrabble through doors into a broken old lab where there came the sound of thunder, booming on the horizon beyond the trees that shadowed over their heads.

"You HUMILIATED our family in front of our ENTIRE ANCESTRY!"

"I mEaN iT! StAy bAcK oR i'LL sHOoT!"

"I would rather watch you DIE than ever call you my SON!"

"F-FUCK OOOOOFF!"

Hurrying through desks and broken tables, the raptor screeched back at the creature as he stumbled and leapt over obstacles that the beast tore aside with flimsy ease, hunting him down with its twisted snarl creeping along its teeth. James managed to reach a large pile of debris from a fallen roof and scoured for something, anything for a weapon amongst rebars and broken pipes that he threw at the creature's legs. Then he found something. Something black, cold and heavy as the monster grabbed him by the tail with searing hot fingers that threatened to scorch his skin.

"YOU WILL LEARN TO RESPECT CXULUBCAH, AND YOU WILL LEARN, TO RESPECT, ME!"

"I SAID GET BACK!"

The gun fired off in James' hand, piercing through the creature's skull as his voice suddenly melded with the monster's deeper voice. Blood poured from the back of its skull, dripping from the bullet wound as the skeleton crumbled into a pile of molten ash, the smoke from its body filling up the room until a deep fog consumed all within seconds. The raptor felt a cold stream of water come rippling past his feet, glass shards scattering off into the abyss as he heard a familiar voice call out to him.

"I'm sorry Jim." A dark shadow came from the mist. "I failed you. But not this year."

"A-a-...A-ashwin?!"

"I know you're frightened," said the shadow with a second voice, "but I can't leave you, you know I can't."

The fog started to clear showing a city now risen above him, tall looming skyscrapers that stood black as night with faint windows of lights and lost lives within as the flood continued to gush between his feet. He looked up further to find that the sky was now replaced by a cavernous roof, and there beyond the buildings he saw giant holes in its wall that stared out towards the ocean, thunder crackling upon its torrential fury as it lurched and poured its thickening volume through the streets and drowning half the buildings including the one that James and his opponent now stood upon facing each other. His friend Ashwin, sculpted in smoke yet sometimes his face would change vaguely to that of a larger head with three horns instead of tusks.

"I know you feel that you can't escape."

"There's nothin' for us 'ere anyway."

"We can finally live oot our lives the way WE want to."

"Yer my only friend 'ere. Oi don't want you rottin' away in juvie."

"W-wait...wait, n-no you're not..." the raptor backed up seeing its arm stretch into a wicked blade, "n-n-n-no, no, no no Ashwin please, ASHWIIIN!"

The smog-ridden beast lunged forwards with its long cruel knife as James stumbled back to fall in the shallow water. Cold torrents of the sea raked his hide as he tried to keep his distance, the gun he previously had somehow replaced by the giant pair of scissors he vaguely recognised and struggled to hold up with both arms against the long gleaming steel that formed the smoke-creature's arm. The constant deluge of water across the roof made it a struggle for James to move, pushing against the current which barely affected the phantom as it reached forth with a ruthless thrust. James struck against it with a sudden memory, resonating through his arm and pushing back the spirit of his friend, sometimes the head of Ashwin, sometimes the head of a three-horned spectre with mournful eyes in its semblance.

"I won't let them come to you."

"I want to keep you safe Jim."

"You have no right to say what you don't deserve."

"I don't know anything about how to stop it, or how to help you."

"SHUT UP!" James clashed against its blade. "YOU, Y-YOU'RE JUST, YER NOT REAL!"

"I'll make sure your family never come again."

The spectre forced him back with a sudden strength that sent him rolling back through the water and almost falling off the roof, grabbing onto the edge and struggling to pull himself up against the constant surging fury that washed across the roof as buildings started to lean, crumbling and falling to the ocean's might as it picked up greater speed to become a force of white lightning. The giant cavern surrounding the city loomed ever greater as the raging sea roared like dragon's breath, sending more buildings falling as The shadowed smoke came closer towards the edge as James tried to force himself up with a screaming burn in his limbs, clenching his eyes shut against the torrent before the waters washed him away. Falling through the abyss, the world became a deafening shudder that rotated itself, the cavern's holes towards the sea now above him in the roof as waterfalls flooded the city faster. The raptor landed upon a building, a skyscraper slanted diagonal where rivers came pouring from the top of its tower across broken windows that filled quickly with furious spouts. Suddenly from behind the spirit grabbed his throat, pulling him up hard to keep him dangling in the air and choking him softly with a threatening clench of its semi-solid fingers.

"GUH, NNNNGH! ASHWIN! TH-THIS ISN'T, TH-THIS ISN'T HAPPENING!"

"If you stay with me...that's never going away."

"IT'S NOT, I-IT'S NOT REAL!"

"You're better than this...I know you are."

"S-SHUT UP! SHUT, UUUUUP!"

The monster screamed when James slashed across its face, swinging his scissors sharply as the phantom released his grip with the child becoming more incensed to fight, planting his feet into the waters that raged from above.

"This...th-this isn't real. It's not...real! NONE OF THIS IS REAL, SO STOP IT!"

"I can't leave this place without you."

"Prove to me that you've got wot it takes."

"Cuz if I do, that's just as bad as me killing you myself."

"SHUT UP! YOU'RE NOT ASHWIN, YOU'RE NOT GONNA HURT ME AGAIN, REIKI SAID I HAD TO HELP YOU CUZ I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN!"

"I know wot my future's gonna be."

"I just want you...to save yourself."

Despite its words the spectre swung its sword towards him, striking against the scissors as James countered back with a hard parry that glanced the steel arm over its surface, rushing forwards to frantically stab the creature's core as it deflected fiercely in backing off from him. The raptor pushed further, forcing the entity backwards up the sloping building as its face kept twisting between tusks and horns with its ever-changing voice. The slicing carve of its long steel became weaker as James became more aggressive, pushing against his fears as its soulful gleam cut a crescent above his head with sudden cleave upon his skull, forcing him to dodge left and strike hard in an upwards strike that sent it staggering back. The more he fought and countered it, the more solid its body became and once he realised, the raptor made a violent swing of his body to spinstrike hard through the entity's guard and cleave straight through its body. Gasping with a far-distant scream it tried to counter back, with a soft thrust of its lancing arm but James cut it aside and severed its other limb to cause a burst of thick blackened ash, pouring from its wound like oil that consumed its body like a thousand insects devouring the flesh. James stepped back, hearing the sounds of silt shivering hotly all over its body that became more solid by the second, devouring the smoke into a vaguely human shape of constant unsettled flesh that resembled the scales of a raptor. Suddenly its claws reached out to grab his throat, and pull him through one of the windows of the slanted building as darkness overwhelmed him briefly to the sound of a hundred screams.

He burst through a set of doors that creaked with ancient wood, falling over the steps and onto a crumbling old bridge before he stood up fast to swing his weapon in all directions. The howling typhoon burned his ears from above him, harrowed trees torn and shrieking against the furious storm as the raptor saw the ancient pagoda mansion that he saw from his dreams a year hence, now twisted to show a horrific set of faces screaming inside its walls. Then the monster returned as a cloud of ash burst from the darkened doors reforming its shape, further solidifying into a large feral raptor only slightly smaller than the skeletal creature he first faced.

"You know whut ah luv aboot you?"

Its voices became female as its ashes turned to flesh.

"I know it is still you."

Hard scales wrapped around its body.

"You care too much. Too much aboot me."

"Even when you wield that fire against me...I know it is still you."

The head became fully formed as a green-eyed saurian almost exact to that of James, a soft mournful look forever etched into its complexion. Its ashen burden suddenly thickened to become a white cloak that coated its body, long shimmering claws that resembled scalpels snaked out from underneath as James gasped with scissors faltering.

"Th-this...whut are you-NNNNGH!" His head suddenly shook with a burning pressure. "A-AAAAGH!"

"Ah don' need sumbody to take care of me."

"Look at me...look at me please, remember me."

"Ah just need someone to tell me that ahm daein' alright."

"I cannot lose a mate to the hairless again."

"N-NO! NNNNGH, NNNNRRRAAGGH, M-...MOTHER!?!"

Memories twisted in his mind as he struggled to see the creature, shifting between two different minds as his voice felt deeper, stronger with a twist in the tongue and the scents of the jungle burning in his nostrils. Scents he never knew and yet he had always known before he snarled with gritting teeth and braced his weapon to fight as the monster leapt for his face. He dodged back with a striking swing cracking its jaw before trying to thrust forwards, but the feral dodged with surprising speed and snapped its jaws at his side forcing him to turn and swing. The beast ducked fast and jumped with a ruthless kick of its long-clawed feet, talons raking at the boy's face as he screeched and shoved back against the everchanging entity, the wrathful storm tearing the roof of the mansion to start flying towards him with crumpling lacquer slate that tumbled and crushed against the trees and severed the beams of the bridge that groaned in its struggle to keep stable.

James swung his twin blades high and came crashing down against the taller creature, but its movements were too swift and the third time he tried to strike it lunged to pin him hard beneath its body. Slathering jaws with a faint smoulder on its breath, the entity's face never changed its saddened expression as it tried to bite at the young raptor's face, before he blocked with the scissors quickly as crunching teeth came against hard steel. Both wrestled briefly with frantic desperation until James managed to throw the beast aside by a brutal slamming twist of his weapon, wrenching at an angle to punch the handle against its head and kick both his feet into its chest with all his youthful might. The monster rolled twice before landing on its feet, tightening claws scraping the dirt before it charged at him once again with its oddly soft voices resonating above the shrieking maelstrom.

"Perhaps we are equal then?"

"When I'm near you, all the anger just fades oot o' me when yer here besides me."

"My mate was strong, so surely they will be too."

"Ah want tae stop, tae sit, an' grow auld with someone who can hauld me back."

"I need you too...Oddscar."

"I need you because...you make me feel normal."

"M-m-muh, mother no, MOTHER NO I DO NOT WANT TO-AAAGH!"

With no choice but to defend himself, the raptor struck out at the ashen beast in a fast diagonal cut that slashed over its eye before it headbutted him fierce against his chest, slamming him down and getting ready to pounce upon him once again. James felt a burning regret in his heart, something twisting in his stomach from the creature's voice that made him struggle to fight, his blows turning weaker as he cut at the feral's face with open blades. It grabbed at one of the scissortips with a snap of its teeth, yanking him hard to the ground as James frantically punched it in the eye to keep it back before it suddenly opened its mouth and blasted a cracking boom of fire that crushed against James' chest, sending him rolling across the mansion bridge as he heaved with gasping breaths and a burning in his ribs. The monster maternal took a deep breath once more with volcanic shriek and fired another tremendous ball of flame that tore through the land and burst into the mansion's doors to set it ablaze in a violent explosion.

The raptor gripped the handles of his blade and made a desperate charge over the bridge, scissors hung low through his muscular memory as the creature fired again with gasping screech. James dodged fast in a sideroll whilst still running, his claws tightening on the wood as he thrust his blades fast against the entity's throat before it stepped back and swung its long tail in a whipping strike to throw him down. Fire burned across its teeth as it took aim once more forcing James to dodge in a hard roll to pull himself back up, strafing a second time on his feet as the blazing orb of flames whisked past his cheek straight into the pagoda, crackling with volatile force that sent the mansion up in flames wafting higher and higher amongst the raging typhoon. He stepped forwards in a feinting thrust, dodging when the creature tried to step back before making a second rush at its side by swerving around its body and plunging straight towards its stomach. The ashen beast tried to whipstrike him again with its tail but this time James was ready, ducking low with spreading legs and a cutting thrust straight towards its underbelly. The entity screeched as blood burst from its belly and pooled around James' feet, pulled by the gales of the moonless night to become a shrieking tornado of pure crimson that sucked both of them inside and tore across their bodies with increasing velocity. The red storm burned inside his ears, almost deafening him entirely as the mansion faded from existence, the cold night winds suddenly turning hot and arid with a blistering scrape as James shielded his eyes as best he could.

The monsoon disappeared to reveal a desert full of desiccated houses, shaped like broken shells with the skeletons of turtles littered across the sands all of whom stared at the raptor with eternal judgement. The feral ashen beast stretched its arms towards the bones as they lifted out of the dirt, pieces ripped from each body as the creature formed a composite skeleton of a large tortoise with cracked shell and burning eyes of red.

"Why do we fall James?"

The creature cricked its neck with two male voices.

"Whit's it gonna be lad?"

"We fall, so we can learn to pick ourselves up."

"I'm not...n-not gonna stop," James gulped raising his weapon, "I-i'm here to help you. I know you're suffering, I-i wanna help you!"

"Even the neds she brought hame were bigger than ye."

The shell-beast put up its fists and charged with whipping punch, cracking its white knuckles against the raptor's blades to punch them aside and hook James hard in the face to reel him back. The gasping winds scorched his face as he tried to block the second fist, but the skeleton's strength batted it aside once more with another hard crunch following into his snout that sent him rolling backwards through the sand. He grabbed the leg of a bone and hurled it at the phantom, the creature staggering from the crack to its skull giving James time to stand back up and come swinging with a baseball swing of his scissors. He swung too slow and hit the entity into its belly, throwing it onto its back as it rolled to its side and sweeped its leg immediately to knock James down.

The turtle threw itself on top of James and started savagely beating him, hollowed eyes staring into his with tightened grimace upon its pale beak. Whitened fists bleached from the desert sun crunched into his cheeks from both sides until James grabbed one of its arms and viciously elbowed its jaw to knock it back, before kicking its shelled front off and swinging his scissors in a spincut strike that came down vertically upon the skeleton's head. The entity dodged back out of its range before suddenly leaping forwards like a spring with flying kick that crushed its foot against James' head, throwing him down once more with bruises ever growing as the raptor stumbled against a broken house. Then the skeleton lifted its hands and slowly rose up above the wastes, the howling shrieks of the land flowing around its body.

"Yer nae ready fer mah daughter."

"If you ever break my son's heart again."

"Whit makes ya think she'll nae stand by you now?"

"I will make you pay for it dearly."

Bursting from the desert sands came two pale serpents of twisting bone cracked and pulled together from the many corpses sucked inside of their being, rising to the height of 20 feet. James was horrified, his legs shaking with fear as he watched the monstrosity loom closer towards him with spinal tendrils connecting to the one singular turtle-beast. He dodged when the first serpent struck and buried its head into the crumbling house, walls cracking and furniture crunching as James ran desperately towards their master. The second serpent came slithering across the ground with Frankenstein jaws gaping towards him as he rolled fast when it lunged straight past, jumping towards the connecting cords to try and cut either of them, but the the entity struck first by landing hard with a solid thud and bullrushing James with a frantic five-hit strike, punching his blades four times before ending on a turning kick that crunched into his stomach to send him back.

"NNNNGH! S-STOP, STOP IT!" he cried with a stronger voice. "STOP FIGHTING I WANT TO HELP YOU!"

"You can't fight everything."

"Yer pretty words mean fuck-all in mah hoose."

"I DO NOT WANT TO HURT YOU, I WANT TO HELP YOU, G-GERALD! GERALD, Y-YOU ARE MY FATHER YES?! YOU, YOU KNOW WHO I AM!"

"You don't think I know the feeling?"

"You wanna gies mah lassie yer heart."

"You have to learn that lesson too."

"You best be prepared tae open it up tae us."

"F-FATHER, STOP THIS!" James swung out against its fists crunching on his blades. " KNOW YOU ARE SUFFERING, I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!"

"I have dealt with people who have given me empty words."

"Ah dinnae wan' any secrets."

"And you will NOT be one of them."

The skeleton grabbed his scissors and slammed them to the dirt, roundhouse-kicking James across the face and pulling back one of its serpents to strike deep into the sands from above. The raptor rolled fast and frantically stabbed into the python's spine, hearing it screech with an echo from the sky as he leapt onto its back and ran straight towards its controlling possessor. The tortoise-beast commanded its other bone-snake to attack him, shrieking from the side as he rolled forwards along the back of the first one's spine with a flying leap and struck down with cleaving force upon the first tendril. The serpent underneath shuddered with gasping wheeze as the entity lost control of it, crumpling down into the sands as James leapt immediately towards the second tendril and slashed it with a rising uppercut forcing the skelebeasts down to solid earth.

James felt his spirit strengthening, forcing himself to stand with a heavy breath and charging with a double-spin cut that went high then low to block both fist and foot from the creature. Slamming with a boot kick, the raptor threw the beast onto its back and lunged with a downwards stab to crush through the damaged shell-front and impale its core. The skeleton stopped moving but the world did not, the sands scarring across house and bone.

"WHERE ARE YOU?!" James screamed pulling himself up. "F-FATHER, WHERE ARE YOU, LET ME HELP YOU PLEASE!"

"I had my doubts when you came back."

He turned back towards the turtlebeast.

"All the others my daughter's been with, none of 'em were good enough."

"Everything about you, nothing seems particularly standard with you."

A giant column of flames suddenly burst towards the sky from its being.

"But you...you never left her side, nae matter whit. So ahll only ask one thing."

"You are the fine upstanding hero my son has always believed."

"Promise me. Promise me you'll keep my girl safe."

"Wh-wha-...what is..."

His eyes widened as a familiar scent drifted across the land as the fire grew greater, burning everything in its path as the sands turned to black, the houses razed and the skeletons become ash. Fire washed over him with a sudden heat that for a second burned him with snarling rasps across his skin that made him gasp and clutch himself hard from the lacerating chars over his wounds. His eyes closed to protect himself against the firestorm briefly, but when he opened them once more, he saw nothing but the dust howling like winter's night. Ashes to darkness, snow become bitter with grey that blinded him constantly.

"Gerald. Don't."

"Step into the fire, Gerald Campbell."

"Just...just stop thinkin' aboot the fire, that wuz JUST a dream, th-that means nuthin'!"

"Pangaea is calling you Gerald. Cxulubcah summons you into its burning embrace."

The voices guided him. He put a hand over his face and pushed himself forwards feeling the pull of someone's aura, an energy of need. Desperate sorrow as the further he walked against the horrid burning winds the louder the voices became.

"Become our tribe once again. The prophecy shall ring true within your veins, the blood of ancients shall SING for your strength! Join us child, become what once was gods now given mortal flesh!"

"IT'S NOT REAL! IT WASN'T REAL IT WAS JUST A STUPID DREAM!"

"Pangaea CALLS YOU! NOW WALK, FORWARDS!"

"YOU HAVE TO FIGHT THIS, PLEASE! DON'T DO THIS TO ME NOW!"

His eyes stung with tears as he struggled to keep them open, his claws digging into what felt like wood crumbling beneath his feet. Warm and crackling as he saw someone's shape.

"DO NOT, FALTER, IF YOU COWER BEFORE THE FLAMES THEN CXULUBCAH SHALL DESTROY YOU!"

"IT WAS JUST A DREAM GERALD! A STUPID DREAM, YOU CAN'T LET IT TAKE YOU!"

"Pangaea save you, may our ancestors bless thee with food and shelter before the storm, before the dust comes and takes the sun away-"

"NO! I WON'T LOSE YOU, YOU'RE NOT AFRAID GERALD, I KNOW YOU'RE NOT! WHAT ABOUT OUR SON!?"

The scents became stronger the closer he came towards the spirit's shape, the hot roaring winds forcing him back as best they could but he stabbed his scissors into the ground and pushed himself forwards with its leverage as the spirit hunched over suddenly. Things he remembered came as brief flickers to his scents. Soft clothes freshly cleaned. Fire all down below. Burning wood. And burning flesh.

"THE FIRE CALLS YOU GERALD, THERE IS NO BETTER LIFE THAN THIS!"

"PLEASE GERALD STOP THIS! I can't leave you Gerald...I don't want to leave you, please don't let them win, don't let the fear take you Gerald! PLEASE!"

"YOU PATHETIC WASTE!"

"I thought you were stronger than this."

"YOU SHALL SUFFER IN THE FLAMES OF DEATH FOR YOUR COWARDICE!"

"GERAAAAAAAAAAAAALD!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The ash soon parted with a world-rending scream.

"MAAAAAAAAARYYYYYYYYYY!"

The world began to burn as James saw nothing but fire. An old apartment consumed by flames, broken furniture and charred kitchen tops, the burning wreckage of a helicopter crushed halfway through the central living room where beyond the window he saw nothing but the great death beyond as a burning meteor within the sky, looming above a forest where the rivers laid barren and the trees had long since died beneath the clouds of ash. But in the midst of all this was Gerald himself. A lone creature whose entire body was trapped within a suffocating cast of burning steel with chains wrapped round his limbs.

"I F-FAILED YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"

With a scream he burst a tremendous shockwave of fire throughout the apartment, burning everything once again with fresh flames as James frantically ducked behind one of the kitchen tops to shield himself. Gerald clutched his metal-covered head with frantic spasms shivering in anguish, every utterance he made causing even greater flames to burn around him.

"I'M SORRY MARY, I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY DADDY PLEASE, PLEAAAAASE NO, D-DON'T MAKE ME GO IN THE FIRE, IT BURNS DADDY, D-DADDY PLEAAAAAASE!"

The windows shattered again with a violent crash, glass scattering across the floor as James stood up trembling through his being. The burning figure shuddered with sobs but the moment he saw James he swung out with chains of vicious black that sent rippling arcs of fire towards him.

"G-GERALD!" James dodged between the flaming strikes. "F-FATHER, S-STOP THIS FATHER I AM HERE, I CAME TO HELP YOU!"

"I FAILED YOU! I FAILED OUR SON, I FAILED OUR FAMILY, I COULDN'T DO IT!"

"I CAME FOR YOU FATHER, PLEASE, STOP THIS!"

"YOU NEVER WANTED ME, YOU ALWAYS CALLED ME WEAK!"

He slammed the ground hard with iron fists as the floor ignited, bursting shards of wood and glass into the air that came hurtling towards the son who frantically struck back with as many strikes of his scissors that he could make, cutting blocking swipes a dozen as splinters and shards raked his flesh, pushing forwards through the shrapnel as Gerald slammed his fists again to send another volley towards him.

"I WAS ALWAYS WEAK!"

James pushed hard against the wave with his blades pinging glass and wood.

"TH-THE FIRE, IT SCARES ME, IT'S BURNING ME, P-PLEASE DAD LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT PLEAAAASE! AAAAAAIIIIIIIAAAAARRRGH!"

Gerald's scream formed a shockwave throughout the entire scape, throwing James back hard enough to crush him against the wall as he groaned pushing himself up, hobbling towards the phantom with a wounded leg, burning chains whipping across the room that he rolled forwards underneath. The first lashing strike missed him entirely, but the second he countered with a hard crack of his blades that snapped it against the ceiling. Gerald felt his son's presence, his eyes darting from beneath his burning helm as lashed forwards with frantic whips, a scorpion's tail that sang with flames reaching across their bodies. The child struck one chain and dodged the other before it suddenly switched direction like a cobra and struck across his face with a hard raking scar over his snout.

Gerald came forwards with a crunching step that shook the room with a smoulder, sending chains out to crackle and boom with sharp sonic strikes that sent whipping gales of fire across the room that slashed at James' face, hot flaming burns that tore at his skin and singed his scales. Gritting his teeth through the pain James made a sudden charge when Gerald reached back for a devastating lash, the younger raptor slashing upwards against his steel-burnt armour to crack through and reveal some of the body underneath. The phantom shivered as he tried to slam down a mighty fist that James quickly avoided by leaping onto the wall and kickjumping off to strike down upon the iron mask, cracking it in half to reveal his face within as a lone grey pupil stared out towards his son. They stopped briefly as James tried to raise his hand, watching the tears drip endlessly from his father's face.

"F-father...f-father please, l-let me h-help you."

"Blood becomes ash, ash becomes light, bones become dust and I too know the great fire."

"I...I know you need me! I-i feel you...I feel you f-father, please s-stop!"

"Take me to the lands where we once walked as kings, where darkness never came and the cold never stayed."

"FATHER PLEASE STOP!"

"The great f-fire burned its dust and t-took my SON AWAYYYYY!"

Explosions rippled throughout the apartment as James rolled underneath a fallen table, blasting walls with crumbling mortar that cracked and fell into chunks with Gerald's shuddering howls making them vibrate powerfully. The raptor quickly curled up against the table's side as plaster and metal burst like gunshots throughout the room, crackling pieces that buried into the floor and ceiling as Gerald turned towards the helicopter's blades beside him.

"The f-fire...shall cleanse me. The fire hurts me, but I must respect it."

James briefly looked up to find his father disappeared.

"If you do not respect the fire, the fire will scar you."

"F-father?! Father n-no, father stop, I came here to help, I HEARD YOUR CRY FOR HELP!"

"Once we had become as gods, and so we paid the final PRICE!"

He dodged just before the crooked blade came down upon him severing the table in half. James swung out his scissors by a deep-bred instinct as he stared upon the burning ghost wielding two pieces of the chopper's rotor, his lone single eye shivering with sorrow.

"Believe in Pangaea...believe not in ourselves but in Cxulubcah for it is by His grace we are born anew."

"S-STOP IT, FATHER YOU DO NOT NEED THIS FIRE ANYMORE, I CAN HELP YOU JUST LISTEN!"

"Respect the fire, and walk amongst mortals as new rulers of the land! CXULUBCAH! CXULUBCAAAAAAH!"

His blades came down together as James struck against, whacking both to the side and backing off before Gerald thrusted savagely twice towards him. His movements were slow but with immense force as he swung one rotorblade towards a kitchen counter and severed clean through its steel formica. The son quickly skirted round the burning beast as he turned to swing behind him, the raptors clashing fast as Gerald screamed with a heavier blow that crushed upon James' scissors and threw him down onto his back. James quickly rolled and struck against his father's leg as he staggered with a gasping sob, the metal plate coming off to reveal his leg before screeching with a hard swipe of his chain to send a rippling beam of fire vertically across the room that caught James by the shoulder and burned him severely.

"A-AAAAAIIIIIGH! F-FATHER, PLEAAAAASE!"

"CXULUBCAH! CXULUBCAH! CXULUBCAAAAAH!"

Gerald was deaf to the world as he swung out two more flaming arcs, his bladed rotors now set alight with melting steel creeping down his fingers as he slashed in a heavy X-strike the raptor dodged twice and clashed with scissors horizontal against him. The flames rose higher until they swarmed the ceiling with rippling tongues, peeling the walls that still remained as Gerald screamed with a blasting zone that threw James back against a crumbling sofa before he stumbled after with painful rictus in his legs. James pulled himself up waiting for the next attack, with each step the spirit took the ground shook with rumblings of fire that spread out in all directions until he flew with double strike, cracking upon the scissors once again but this time James parried with a slanting cut to let Gerald's blades slip off before he frantically slashed his belly. More of his armour came off showing burnt office clothes and the remainder of his legs, but the father threw him back with a hard knee to the face as James slammed against the side of the helicopter that laid through a third of the room.

"I can neVeR eScApE." He raised one of his blades up high. "No...LiFe bEyOnD tHiS!"

He thrust deep into the copter's side as James dodged underneath and swung for the back of Gerald's leg, the phantom shuddering as he stumbled briefly once more before wrenching the chopper itself with ungodly strength and twisting muscle in his black wretched arms. The crunching steel twisted with the sounds of crumbling motions beneath James' feet, the copter pulling upwards from the floor which in turn started to tilt with a shuddering of the world around them. He tried to grab for something but his claws gained no purchase, throwing himself to the floor to hang on as the room itself became a steep diagonal slant, furniture falling past him with raining glass and wooden ash as Gerald kept hovering above him. The window became the ceiling, staring towards the face of extinction, the burning meteor that seemed to almost scream with Gerald's roar as he further pulled the helicopter's remnants anchored to the room itself, turning even farther as James desperately dangled with claws in the floor until the broken TV cracked on his head, falling straight into a closet where an old pile of clothes broke his fall.

"A-AAAAAGH!"

Pushing himself free from the fabrics, he felt the back wall start to bend and crack under his feet as the clothes started to give way. Grabbing onto the tumble dryer moored against the wall, he felt it give way under his feet just before he leapt for the doorjamb as the appliance broke off from the wall and fell into the back. The world fell apart from underneath him as clothes scattered towards the dark wind of the screaming abyss that threatened to pull him inside. The fires from above spiralled like a tornado towards him from the living room as he grabbed a blanket fluttering beside him to cover his face. The fire stopped dead in its tracks, buffered against the blanket's fabric as it burst outwards briefly before being extinguished as the raptor pulled himself from the howling vortex and back into the central room which had now completely rotated to upside down and almost bare of any furniture. All except for Gerald and the burning wreckage.

It was then he smelt something stronger than the flickering flames, something from the blanket he held tightly to his chest. A tender warmth that hugged him with the scents of someone he knew. Someone Gerald also knew.

"...F-father?" He raised up the soft white blanket. "Father it...i-it's okay. I'm here."

"My...fAtHeR wAs OnEsiPhoRuS CaMpBeLL."

James walked slowly towards him as he raised his blanket.

"A nAmE tHaT wAs fEaReD."

Gerald struck out with his burning chain as the blanket stopped its flame.

"My...fAtHeR wOuLdn'T hAvE sToPpEd."

He struck at James again but the blanket kept him safe.

"I fAiLeD...eVeRyOnE."

"No...father it's...it's alright. You didn't-"

"JuSt aS mY fAtHeR sAiD I wOuLd!"

Slamming his fists into the ground he sent rippling bursts that James pushed against, the soft warm cloth shielding him as he kept walking. Gerald punched the earth once more with screams unending, sobbing roars that shook through the world but still his son resisted as glass crackled beneath his feet. Then he came upon him with the rotor blades, slashing with huge swings against the tender cloth but it never yielded, no matter how heavy he struck or how thick his flames grew as he screamed upon his son with crushing steel force that pushed him hard into the ground. James stood firm, his legs tightening with blanket spread between his hands as Gerald's vicious blades pummelled again and again upon the impervious cloth, until finally he exhausted himself.

"I...I am here, father." James struggled to speak with shaking limbs. "It's alright. It's okay."

The phantom stared at the blanket. His eye turned gentle with a twitch of faint remembrance, his arms falling to his side as the flames became quieter in the midst of the broken room. There came a scent from the fabric as he gasped with breathless sobs.

"James...J-james my......h-hoh James."

"I'm here. It's alright father. I'm here."

"M-my son...my son I...M-mary...Mary f-forgive me."

Gerald went on his knees clutching himself, shuddering with a sudden cold as the fires ceased and left the room a hollow waste. James looked to his father and hugged him with the blanket.

"I remember...wh-when I first held you."

He wrapped his arms around his son.

"Y-you...you were the only thing I could give to the world...that came out right."

"I...I'm sorry father." He looked up to him. "I-i should've...been a better son."

"I should've been a better father. I...I knew I had the power to be strong but...the fire scares me. It's always frightened me and when that moment came, the riots down below and the flames rose up on the walls I-i was...I-i was trapped. I was always trapped."

"I forgive you. I...I don't blame you for what happened to us, you were frightened. I get frightened too."

"James...I-i'm so sorry."

The two hugged in a tighter embrace, Gerald's shackles slipping from his limbs as he sobbed against his son's shoulder with the blanket between them in a gentle rocking. Darkness filled the room, but the two of them were safe within a ring of light that shone from the heavens. James said nothing, smiling with his own tears trickling down his father's chest feeling the kisses on his head as the remains of his armour had disappeared, leaving him in his office clothes.

"Th-thank you...hoh, g-god thank you James, you...h-how did you find me?"

"I...th-there was a nice lady, she...she helped me."

"Who?"

"H-her name was...Reiki."

"Gerald?"

They both heard the same voice, turning to see another glint of light in the dark. Dressed in pale robes of softest blue, a raptoress spread open her arms as Gerald's heart stuttered with shock.

"M-ma-...M-mary, MARY!"

"GERALD!"

"M-MOTHER?!"

"...ohhh...oh James! G-gerald!"

The boys rushed to her immediately, grabbing her together as they shivered with hot tears for the next few minutes, savouring the warmth of their family together again. Mary simply smiled upon them with angel's grace, kissing both of them as Gerald felt shivers through his being as his body began to heal his wounds.

"I-i-i...I'm...s-sorry-"

"It's alright. Ah found you...ah told you we'd be together."

"H-how did you...where...where are we?"

"The boundary between dreams an' the afterlife. Where spirits an' dreams cross over tae each other. Ah spent all this time lookin' fer you, praying that ah would find you."

"B-but...but I...f-failed you-"

"Ahm no' gonna blame you Gerald. Your family did this tae us, not you...never realised how traumatised you were."

"I-i wish I had been stronger."

"You don't need to be," James nuzzled his chest, "you...y-you...you just have to be you, f-father."

"But...but I despise me."

"But I don't."

"Neither do I." Mary pulled him up to kiss his lips. "Since the day ah first met you, you were perfect tae me. And you gave me the most wonderful son I could ever have."

James shuddered at his mother's touch, her hand stroking lightly down his neck as he started to weep with joy in his heart that he shared with his father.

"Thank you...th-thank you, both of you for being with me."

"Ah would never stop searching fer you," said the mother embracing her husband full, "wouldnae believe how boring death is withoot you."

"H-hah..." he buried his head into her bosom and started snickering from relief, "hhhhahahaha, n-no come on I'm much more boring than that."

"Ah beg tae differ. Come on. It's time tae leave."

"W-wait...WAIT!" James grabbed at their hands. "W-whut about...me?"

"Oh...sweetie no, it's nae your time yet."

"Wh-what?! B-b-but I'm here, I-i'm with you now!"

"Aye, but in yer dreams, no' reality. We're already gone, we cannae bring you with us."

"N-no...NO!" he whimpered pulling them back. "I-i don't...n-no don't leave me alone, d-don't leave me again!"

"James, ahm sorry but-"

"You should be happy." Gerald turned to his son with a hand on his shoulder. "I wish we were still alive, the things that I got to do with you and Mary, I would...I would give everything just to be back with you two again like that."

"B-but, but we can be together!" James hugged his father's leg. "We can be together forever!"

"No. No James, not like this." He knelt down before him to stare into his eyes. "I want you to live a full life, one where you'll grow to be strong and kind."

"I-i...I don't...I don't wanna be alone again."

"You won't be." Mary smiled kneeling beside them. "We'll come visit you in your dreams, when we can. So you better be good alrigh' James?"

"I-...o-o-okay."

"One day you'll join us, but that's many years away after you've lived a long good life, so ah want ye to promise me. Promise you'll live your life."

"I-i promise," said James at the edge of tears, "p-please don't leave me."

"I won't." Gerald kissed his cheek. "I'll come back in your dreams, I promise."

"I will too." Mary kissed his other cheek. "Be a good boy, alrigh' James?"

The boy nodded, too upset to speak for fearing his next words would break him down completely as he watched his parents stand up and walk towards a a pale fog of convalescing colours. The farplane existed just beyond his vision, the world gently parting the fabric of sleep. He tried to follow them, but a barrier kept them separate as he pressed his hands against the edge of his dream crying out to his family.

"M-MOTHER! F-FATHER!"

They stopped to look at him once more.

"I...I-i love you. I'm sorry f-for...things."

"We know James." Mary smiled. "We love you too."

"You'll always be our son," said Gerald nodding. "No matter what happens...we believe in you."

He wanted to cry out, beg them to stay, beg to be taken with them even more but the dream soon ended. The fog consumed them as they kissed, and James felt his heart torn between sadness and joy to the point he fell on his knees and felt his head burn with a blinding strength, the world becoming consumed in a piercing white.

"HEY, wake up!"

Oddclaw opened his eyes, staring towards a dark metal ceiling.

"Wh-what...what...where am I?"

He sat up and immediately regretted it when the room started to spin.

"Woah-woah hey hey, relax." The charizard gripped his shoulders to steady him. "You alright there?"

"I-i-i...no." The raptor gripped onto Red's arms with his eyes swimming as he blinked. "W-where, we are?"

"Some old abandoned human base, Angela's checking the perimeter, you just suddenly passed out so I kept watch over you."

Looking around himself, Oddclaw saw the remains of an old hangar, the crumpled burning husk of a helicopter to one side against a broken set of giant doors. Shelves with old toxic materials sat by themselves mostly-sealed.

"Um...did something happen?" he asked Red.

"Yeah you don't remember?" Red helped him up. "We fought Osborne and Maria, then we tracked out something here and then you just passed out for no reason."

"I...y-yes...we were hunting...those...thieves-WAIT!" He grabbed the charizard with a sudden fear. "H-how long was I asleep?!"

"Woah jeez calm down you were only out for maybe twelve hours."

"Wha-...n-no, no that cannot be true."

"What you think I'm lying?!"

"No, no I just...I-i-i......half a day?"

"Yeah dude sheesh, what's with you?"

"I do not...know." Oddclaw stepped back to hold his head and gently pace in a circle. "I had a...no, no I want to say it was a dream but it felt too...felt...you are CERTAIN it was only half a day?!"

"YES!" Red spread his wings annoyed. "I know how time works what is your deal?!"

"I, f-forgive me I just..." the raptor stopped to rub at his eyes, "where is...A-angela?"

"She'll be back soon, she said when you woke up to take you outside an' get you some fresh air."

"Yes, yes I would like that thank you."

"Also gotta get you back to your family, we promised we'd get you home right?"

"Yes...my...my family."

Following the charizard out the base, Oddclaw stumbled carefully feeling his legs much stronger than usual yet at the same time more weary to the point he was almost dragged out on his feet. Past the desiccated remains of a tyrannosaurus rex that laid amongst the scattered fragments of a generator, he looked upon the few raptors that laid crushed and twisted alongside the greatbeast. His mind struggled to recall in that moment the significance of this place, and until he would make his journey home it would not fully hit him. The dawn had risen with a searing light that almost burned the sky, making Oddclaw shiver against Red as he held him tight the moment they exited the building.

"Jeez you alright? You look like you been through shit."

"I...I-i wish I knew."

"What you have like some kinda dream?"

"Maybe...it...I dreamt that I was someone else, for an entire cycle I believed I was...a child."

"Wow, that like a year?!"

"I believed I was him...I forgot who I was, now I do not even know."

"Aaaah," Red patted his back, "you'll get back to it, just do a few hunts, see your family again, you just got too deep. I once dreamt I was a lapras fighting a sea monster, it was crazy, I actually felt the water and it freaked me out!"

"Hah..." the raptor looked up to him with a weakened grin, "dreams are just...dreams, yes?"

"Yeah Odd. Totally."

Unbeknownst to them, the one known as "Angela" had been standing in the corner of the old hangar invisible. Her body stepped from the wall with a ghastly essence behind her as she walked over to the white circle of salt that had now been left broken from where Oddclaw slept in it, shining with three trinkets.

"It is done." She picked up two rings and a small black-stone pendant. "The plan is set."

Very good.

A voice came drifting to her mind from beyond the world.

You have done well, Kirie.

"Don't say that," she barked, "I'm not your minion, I just paid you back for helping me."

And in turn you can attain your vindication.

"I already did," Kirie tapped at her chest, "her heart gave me that, not you, the half she gave me that brought us to Gerald."

Indeed...I must admit, replicating Oddclaw's father's memories within a dream is an inspired notion.

"Yes I'm such a clever little thing aren't I," she snorted rolling the rings between her fingers.

I would appreciate less of your tone considering the guidance I give.

"And I would appreciate a warning before that energy portal sucked us up into this world, Noh'jin."

You know as well as I do that their science is unpredictable.

"But I know that YOU know where it goes," she tossed the two rings in her hand before catching them, " you could have warned me the day before."

I have many projects at hand, not everything revolves around you.

"Are you talking about yourself?" Kirie flicked her hair with a smirk. "Now is there anything else I must do?"

Your work is done, for now you may return your friend home with the humans' assistance.

"Good. So did you ever find out what happened to the Ultra Beast?"

It appears to have been killed.

"...what?" She turned to the corner of the room with clenching fist. "Are you se-...k-killed?"

Its vital signs ceased after your victory against Osborne. I will dispose of it come our end of the plan.

"...oh sweet...mother of Arceus what, kind of creature could kill an Ultra Beast?"

That is not our concern, the less we engage with this world's inhabitants the better our success. For now return with your friend, and the rest of this plan shall go smoothly.

"I thought your kind weren't allowed to interfere," Kirie looked up towards the ceiling.

Which is precisely why I will not. However, YOUR interference as a non-living entity is perfectly without our rulings.

"So you've said," she snapped her fingers as a smouldering darkness consumed her body. "So long as this world remains safe I shall do what I can."

You have done plenty. For now we must not alert anyone to the Five Hearts until the time is right.

"That won't be a problem...after all."

She turned to a purple cloak that smiled with floating hands.

Oddclaw is one of them...he knows how to keep a secret.