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Chapter 9 - The Rat in a Cage

Location: Everonth Mountain Excavation Site

The rain heavily pelted the landscape, morning had come and the rain had still not subsided. The continuing storm seemed to be a lot heavier then was usually expected for that region of Terra.

Eclypse climbed the treacherous cliff face, the wind daring to knock him off into the abyss of trees a few hundred feet below them. He had objected when Freya had suggested climbing up the mountainside to gain access to some shelf on the mountain.

He still had no idea what he was doing here.

Freya had been almost reclusive and quiet with her thoughts since they left Eastvale. She never had been like this before, it was suspicious. However Eclypse owed her so much and trusted her so completely that he would follow and protect her with unquestioning loyalty.

Eclypse used his long, worm-like tail to steady himself as he climbed up the rock-face. Something had happened here and it had been recent. He could smell the smoke in the air as he climbed.

He did not like the feeling of this at all.

Freya was only slightly ahead of him, climbing fast. The expression on her face showed her sheer determination. She did not bother to look down at Eclypse who was struggling to follow her up the wet cliff-face.

They had come unusually out of the way just so that Freya could satisfy her curiosity about something on this mountain. Eastvale was in the country of Gia, which was about 600 miles away from Chentrilla Country where they were now. It was separated by a small sea but there was a frequent train service that run under the water from one side to the other. It had taken them almost a day to get here.

Freya put her hand up at Eclypse in order for him to stop as she approached something along the mountain. Eclypse stopped, allowing himself to dangle almost two hundred feet in the air from the trees below that looked like a large green mesh for all the eye could see. The rain and storm-clouds lashed his muzzle as he climbed up to level beside her.

What he saw absolutely amazed him but began to feel strangle familiar. He stretched out his eyes looking at a very short, cracked platform which Freya and he climbed up to and sat down on it. The platform was one a few meters wide and sitting on it would dangle ones feet over the edge.

There were indications that this platform used to be a lot larger then what it was now. Military fences lined something behind them, a huge chunk of metal that seemed to be all that remained of the Valkyrie.

The rain was getting quite intense now as thunder and lightning clapped the sky above, occasionally adding deeper illumination to the field. The most terrifying thing was not above them but below them.

As Eclypse looked down he gulped instinctively. From their position on the mountainside he could see a colossal great crack in the earth below. A huge chasm that glowed an ominous red as molten rock poured out from it deep into the planet. The chasm seemed to stretch on for miles, Eclypse had never seen anything like it. It beguiled even him how this could have even had occurred naturally or even artificially. It was just so...

"Huge."

"Ok... Freya... if you've dragged me out here just to look at that you'll... Freya?" he started, looking around to see where his female companion had gone. She was no longer sitting beside him but was instead further to the side, where the platform was thick enough to stand on. She appeared to be "looking" for something the huge chunk of metal that appeared to be embedded in the mountain. "What are you doing!?" asked Eclypse knowing how dangerous this climb had been and how clumsy Freya was. One wrong move and she could fall to her death.

"I'm looking for..." pulled back Freya, shouting against the rain and he shimmied his feet over to her position. She pulled out a glowing orange orb that appeared to buried under the metal which she lifted with ease.

Eclypse could hardly believe what he was seeing, a girl... like Freya could move entire huge pieces of metal with just he strength alone. His large, beady eyes fixed on her as he watched her move a piece of metal twice as big as her without so much as a groan.

"Ah here..." she said, smiling and looking over at Eclypse. She produced the glowing orb that looked like a flame that had been contained within a ball. It was magnificent and defied explanation. A beautiful crystal orb that flicked with the glory of a fire within its heart.

"Good... they didn't find it..."

"Find what!?" shouted Eclypse against the rain. "What is that thing?" He did not understand any of this, how could she have "a" known that was there? and "b" come out all this way just to find it?

"Oh Eclypse..." she smirked, looking back at him with a darkness that he had never seen before. "Trust me, its better if you don't know..."

He just stood there, annoyed with her inability to trust him after all these years. Somehow, this woman standing before him was not his Freya. It just did not seem possible that she would keep something like this from him. He readied his claws behind his back.

He did not like the look of this.

"So we came out here just to find that?" he squeaked. "What the fuck is going on Freya? What's going on with you?"

Freya looked over at him as if she was trying to assure him of something. She stared at him blankly and suddenly let a malicious grin spread across he face. Eclypse instantly knew that something was terribly wrong here.

"You look uncertain" sighed Freya as she placed the strange orb into the bag. She then looked back at him with a certain cheery smile that he had always come to appreciate. "I guess I owe you an explanation."

"I guess so..." jeered Eclypse as he pulled up the cover of his jacket to protect himself from the rain.

"I have been acting a little strange lately..." started Freya with a strange, glowing light in her eyes as she spoke. "When we were watching that news report... it was like... well... it wasn't like anything. I just felt that we had to come here and retrieve this... But I keep feeling strange..."

Her words were a little strange as she spoke. The sound of her voice strumming through Eclypses's mind as he watched her sit down on the ledge.

"Its so strange... its like there is someone else here... pushing me to do things. I'm just not sure if I can... eh... Arghhhhhh!" she clutched her head in pain.

"Freya!" shouted Eclypse and he rushed to her side, propping her up and running his fingers through her soft, damp fur as the rain poured overhead. "What's wrong?" he squeaked.

Her eyes gave him a distant stare as she looked up at him. Her whole perception was changing, she suddenly felt like she was being locked away inside her own mind. She tried to call out, but something inside was pushing down on her... suppressing her within herself.

Nevertheless, she clung on to her mind, wondering if she was loosing her insanity. She had been scared since the whispers started, the distant voice that she confused for her own thoughts, whispering in a language that she could not understand.

She was losing herself... This parasite was growing stronger and stronger, binding with her and was almost at the point were she had complete control.

But a confused and frightened target like Freya was a easy victory.

"GET AWAY!" she shouted out in vain, between her loud breath and screaming as she threw herself out of Eclypse's embrace. She suddenly felt the coldness of the world around her and a somewhat chilling sensation filled her soul.

Eclypse rushed heavily to his feet as he watched her near the edge of the platform. He knew that over the edge and a fall from this height would kill his beautiful romantic interest and lifelong friend. "Freya.... DON'T!" he shouted, his voice going pale from fear.

Freya dropped to her knees just before the edge. She had to resist this change... every fibre in her soul was telling her to resist but she did not know how to. She felt herself being pushed in her mind further and further away.

Finally it was over.

The rain stopped, only little trickles now falling on the already sodden mountain. Freya allowed the trickles to wash over her like a loving embrace. She felt the seduction of the presence.

The sheer power.

She rose to her feet, her hair soaked as if weighting down her head, looking at the ground. She turned round to face Eclypse, her eyes had changed colour to a most brilliant shade of green. The rat looked up at her in shock as all that was heard was the wind as it lashed the mountain.

As Freya spoke, her voice had changed from the usual timid girl that had been there before to the adult voice of a sultry female. "Eclypse..." she smiled darkly.

Eclypse was not sure what to say. Something terrible had happened to the sweet little orphan girl from Gia but he was not sure what. He did not believe in ancient tales of possession and hocus pocus... this was the real world.

No... it was all just a bad dream? Was it?

"Yeah?" he asked with a note of caution, watching the frame of Freya walked towards him with more seductive confidence then he had ever seen in his life.

"All this time, I never appreciated what a handsome person you are..." smiled Freya seductively as she neared him. He rose to his feet immediately but he had no chance of getting away. He was on a mountain shelf more then one thousand feet in the air and with just solid rock behind him. He was not going to escape.

She approached him and touched him down the chest. The sensation alone was enough to make his fur stand on end. "Who am I kidding?" he asked himself. "I've always fantasised about this but... its just not right..."

He immediately tried to look away but keep his large eyes on this new Freya who was stood before him. "W-who are you?" he asked uncertainly.

"I am what you've always secretly desired..." explained Freya as she attempted to give to join their muzzles together. Alarm bells started ringing in Eclypse's head as he shot his head away.

"You... are not my Freya!" he exclaimed... looking her straight in the eyes. For a moment, he could see the anger that now existed. Some kind of ancient anger that was almost as old as time itself. Something had his love and that something was pure evil... he could sense it.

"Who else would I be?" tried the changed Freya. She was almost desperate to convince him that she was still the same woman that she was two weeks ago but she knew that it was just not going to wash with him.

Eclypse bolted quickly and managed to get a few feet away from her. He was desperately confused about what was going on. What was all this about. He just wanted a simple life, with Freya. He wanted her back, this new woman was scaring him. "Your not her! Now give her back!"

Her words echoed in his head as she began to speak candidly with him. "Now don't you remember? We have met before..."

Eclypses's mind was suddenly ablaze with negative feelings about this person as he struggled with his turbulent emotions. He knew this lady... he knew that voice but it just was not possible. He was sure he did not know any being that went around possessing innocent woman. But he could not explain these feelings.

"How nice it is that you forgotten me already... they obviously did not build you with all of your parts functioning this time eh?"

"What are you talking about!?" exclaimed Eclypse, trying to ignore the chill of the wind on his whiskers. Mountains were hardly a suitable climate for rats. "I don't know you..." somehow he felt that was a lie. "And what hell do you mean by... "build me"...!"

Freya let out a laugh that was so completely out of character to made Eclypse wonder if there was any part of her left. This was quickly turning into a bad day.

"Very well... I'll do you a favour and let them explain it!" shouted Freya. She held out her hand. Eclypse felt this incredible invisible force pick him up easily, like a rag-doll. He struggled helpless against her vast telekinetic powers.

"This day is just getting worse" he thought to himself as he struggled helplessly. Like a rat in a cage. "This is all a bad dream, none of this is real... nobody can do that... hell I've never seen anyone..." his mind went off on a wild tangent before turning to the matter at hand.

Freya shot out her hand and sent Eclypse easily flying off the cliff. He felt a strange feeling as he realised that he was going to die. He really had no time to think, or react. Nothing he could do could save him so he was just going to have to accept death.

The one thing he hated most was that instead of answering his questions, this mysterious force that had taken over Freya had left him with more questions then he started with. This had truly been a very bad day.