14 Celestial trail (part 3)

"Holy £@/#!!" shouted James as the group appeared out of nowhere.

"Surprise! We're back!" said William sarcastically. The group then explained how they each awoke in their own trial, had to defeat a clone of themselves to escape and got their own celestial weapon. They then looked at each other's weapons. Izzy's daggers were mostly a yellow metal with lines of silver that conducted her electricity. Liam's hammer was a large two handed hammer with the top of the hammer having braced corners and placed had carving that made it lighter. William's trident was a dark blue with two spirals of gold going in different direction that stopped at the base of the prongs and split off into three to make golden tips of the spikes. Ben's spear was light blue with a golden point like William's but there were holes near the end that revealed the spear was hollow. Edward's was a glistening white bow with leaf like patterns on it but there was no string. James and Josie admired the weapons like children in a sweet and then asked if the group knew why they didn't go through a trial. Edward turned to William expecting him to take lead but saw that he wasn't making any attempt to speak. Izzy then took lead and explained how the weapon of fire was lost and the weapon of darkness was hidden.

Once back on the ship, Aiden began to question them constantly about their trials but for some reason they could remember their trials. They did remember their trials but every time they tried to explain them they forgot. They gave up trying and decided to just head back to base to practise using the celestial weapons. The ship rose once again and began to fly out into space but a metallic 'thunk' was heard, all the electronics went out and the ship went back down. The group were no aware they weren't alone on the planet. There was an explosion behind them and the door was blow off and hundreds of soldiers dressed in black, armoured suits with helmets swarmed the ship and held the group at gun point. A slow clap could be heard getting closer and closer until it's source was standing in the doorway of the cockpit. It was a tall man with dark red hair, brown eyes and a scar that ran down his face and neck. He wore a black trench coat with the buttons undone and a blue shirt underneath. He had black trousers with short belts wrapped around the legs and black leather boots that made him tower over the soldiers. He then spoke with a deep and menacing voice:

"Take them to the ship's cells. Put them in different ones and take the weapons to my quarters." he waved his hand and the soldiers quickly went to work handcuffing William then Liam followed by the rest and marched them out of the ship towards a massive, black, planet sized war ship with hundreds of tiny ships flying around it. There was six black, metallic cubes with restraints on the walls inside. Everyone from the group was put into a different one each but things went south as they tried to put James inside one. There must have been an abilities dampener that brought Josie and James' energy to equal sizes because as James stepped in Josie was flung out of his body and she fell to the ground. The last James saw of her was The man with the scar shooting her with a strange device that knocked her out. The door to the cube then shut and it was complete darkness. Something was injected into the back of James' neck and he slowly lost feeling in his body before falling into a deep sleep.

James awoke with a start and looked around frantically. He was inside a strange cell and was on a hard bed with no pillow or blanket. There was a bucket in the corner of the room and all the walls were solid, black metal. He got off the bed and walked up to the cell bars. He grabbed one and a large jolt of electricity set him flying across the room and he hit the wall. He then heard footsteps walking down the hallway outside the cell and slowly got up. He was greeted with the scarred man.

"The first one awake. Normally it take another ten minutes before the drug wares off." said the man.

"Where's Josie you freak!" shouted James in disgust.

"Now now, there's no need for that kind of language. Please, call me Jack."

"That doesn't answer my question!"

"Ok, ok. I'll take you to her."

"Finally."

"But first." he held up a picture and past it to James through the bars. James took the picture carefully and looked at it with shock.

"I'm guessing from that expression you know who that is." said Jack with a grin.

"I-It's my dad." replied James. He clutched the photo of his dad's corpse with a large stab wound in his torso. He crumpled up the picture and threw in at the bars but on contact it burst into flames.

"Hey, try to respect the environment!" joked Jack.

"You killed him didn't you! I knew it wasn't a mugging gone wrong!" shouted James, beginning to cry a little.

"Oh no" Jack chuckled a little "I didn't kill him. But I do know who did. They'll also be waiting for you." Jack entered a code into a panel on the wall outside the cell and the bars quickly fell into the floor. Two guards walked into the room and handcuffed James and grabbed him by the shoulders. Jack started walking back the way he had come and the guards pushed James along. They past the cells that William, Edward, Izzy, Ben, and Liam were in. They were all asleep on the beds in cells identical to James' but there was something on the wall of Ben's cells underneath his bed 'Count to 60'. James looked at Ben who quickly winked at James.

James, Jack and the guards continued to walk through a maze like ship layout with elevators and stairs until they reached two large doors Jack opened one and went in first. James could just make out "He's here my liege." Jack then nodded to the two guards and they brought James into a large rectangular room with a long table lined with men, women, and other aliens in uniforms and regal clothes. At the head of the table was a large leather chair with the person sitting in it sticking their arm out the side and holding a large scythe. It was mostly black with the bottom part of the blade polished metal and streaks of red on the upper part. Thirty. James had been counting in his head the whole time. Jack grabbed James' head and pushed it down to force James into a kneel.

"Show some respect in front of the leader of the darkness nation!" spat Jack.

"It's fine, let him stand." said the person in the chair. Their voice was feminine and sounded familiar but James was too focused on counting and wanting to know where Josie was.

"Where's Josie!" demanded James but he was slapped by Jack.

"Were you asked to speak scum!?" said Jack.

"Jack, what have I said before?" asked the woman.

"Don't act that way with you present." mumbled Jack.

"I'll only once more! Where is Josie?" asked James. The chair began to turn to reveal the person sitting in it. It was a woman with short, ginger hair and green eyes. Her lips were as red as blood and she was wearing a black dress with sequins placed across it to resemble the night sky. She laughed.

"Josie's right here." the woman waved her hand over her face and it was engulfed in a dark cloud before it dispersed. Her face had changed into...Josie's face! James froze in shock.

"Sorry James, but your precious Josie was nothing but a lie. My name is actually Alice. I didn't completely lie to you though. I did fight on that planet and we were gaining ground quickly but the light nation started to fight back and the only way to win was by wiping out the planet. That's the fun thing about this celestial weapon, the other celestial weapon users locked their's away before unlocking it's true potential. I, however, kept mine and now have ninety percent of it's power under my control. It keeps me young but taking the life of others." explained Alice.

"B-But why would you help me?" asked James. Alice sighed and waved her hand over her face again to put it back to the way it was.

"Your father, I was the one who killed him. I was looking for the celestial weapon of fire but he said he had hidden it where no one would find it. I went back to earth, exploded my ship on the way down and I saw you. Well, to be more specific, I saw what was inside of you. Your father had hidden the weapon inside you." Fifty. Ten more seconds. "It was when you were able to master blitz so easily that it confirmed it. All I needed to do was give you a motive and bring you back here but a few road bumps were encountered. Sadly, I gained feelings for you so I couldn't kill you but-" Alice was cut off by the door behind James being smashed open by Liam with his hammer.

"Sixty!" shouted Ben. Alice rose to watch. Izzy and William came in from the ceiling and Edward appeared from behind Liam and drew his bow with an arrow of light.

"You alright James?" asked Liam without breaking eye contact with Alice. Alice laughed.

"Oh my. You've all come together to save your friend. How predictable." said Alice and she tapped the floor with the bottom of her scythe. Chains of dark energy came from the floor and wrapped themselves firmly around Liam, Izzy and the others. They struggled to break free but they couldn't. A woman entered from a door behind Alice.

"We have reached our destination my liege." said the woman and she left.

"Bring them, and put their weapons somewhere more secure this time." said Alice and she walked out the door the other woman did.

Once outside it was clear to everyone where they were. They had landed on Asuria. The home of the omni-crystal. They walked up to a large stone entrance to a tunnel and Alice signalled from her troops to kill all the guards standing in the way. They walked down the tunnel and it didn't take long before they reached the core. It was magnificent. The omni-crystal illuminated the whole cave with a shower of colour and light. The group was sat down in a line like a sort of audience. Jack followed Alice up to a platform.

"What are you planning on doing?" asked Liam, struggling at the bonds.

"Destroy the omni-crystal, obviously." said Alice.

"But how? It's so strong only small pieces have been able to be extracted!" exclaimed Edward.

"Yes, using mortal methods. However, using a celestial weapon or two is just enough power. And we have the two we need in this room right now." Alice gestured to James and two guards picked him up and took him over to Alice.

"The celestial weapon of darkness has the ability to absorb quite a bit of energy. Using it I can weaken the omni-crystal. The celestial weapon of fire was quite the special one too as it was infused with a small amount of power from the Goddess of war. That means it has enough power to destroy the omni-crystal." said Alice, eyeing James.

"But if you destroy the omni-crystal then all our abilities will disappear. Including yours!" shouted Izzy. Alice smiled and turned to the crystal.

"That would be the case normally but by absorbing it's energy with the weapon of darkness I'll have control over all the Asurian power in the universe. The darkness nation will rule over all. And I'll make sure that the first planet taken over by the new government in Earth, just for you." mocked Alice.

James couldn't believe he had helped a monster like Alice take over a civilisation's energy source. He felt so angry with himself that he had even left his own mother on earth with her memories wiped because he was so selfish to get super powers. He was angry with himself because he had let down a group of people he had just met who were fighting to save this civilisation. He felt...angry. But not like he felt before with blitz, this was whole new angry. This was an anger of hundreds of generation that had fought for glory on earth...those who had fought with a sword past down to them by their father...this was an anger of those who had held the weapon inside him. This was the power of God's sword. Alice prepped herself to strike the crystal with her celestial weapon and brought it up into the air. It was now or never. James broke his restraints and grabbed Alice's arm as she brought down her scythe. He looked into her fearful eyes but all she saw in his eyes was a thirst for vengeance. Alice twisted round and kicked James in the face but he barely flinched or moved. Instead, his grip tightened and he threw Alice across the cave who landed sideways on the wall and pushed off back towards James with the intent to kill him like she killed him father. In a fraction of a second, James twisted round and dodged the attack as a column of fire burst out of the ground and engulfed James' whole body. Alice rolled and flipped before coming to a stop on her hands and knees. James felt no pain inside these flames but instead felt even more powerful and alive. He stepped out of the flames and felt something in his right hand. He brought his hand up to find a long, bulky sword with triangular holes in the blade that made it lighter, a red flames pattern down the sides of the blade, and on each tip of each flame in the pattern was a name. Each name was of a previous holder, Arthur Pendragon was at the top and at the bottom was James's name underneath a name he could never forget 'Arthur Kendrickson', James' father.

Alice looked at James with fury. She forgot all about her feelings for him and yelled as she charged at him for another attack.