Ch. 22 "EAGLE"

*Dome of the East*

On top of the walls a man sits peacefully watching as cannons kept firing towards the horizon trying to stop a supposedly large horde of Demons.

"My name is Kurt Williams, 6 years ago I was chosen to become a test subject of a very powerful Star. It was after I graduated from military training a man in full black suit suddenly arrived at our training camp, we were based at the north-eastern area but we were much closer to the dome of the east than that of the north.

After the man arrived he immediately walked towards our instructor and after a few words we were immediately ordered to form a straight line, the man in the suit began to walk in front of us and began tapping the shoulders of a selected few. We were not chosen were immediately sent back to our resting tent, as I child I glanced back at those who were chosen and saw them walking towards a military truck.

Three days after that event, as all of us were resting from too much training the man returned, I watched him as he walked towards our instructor. I tried to mimic what they were talking about but was unable to, all I saw was the face of our instructor which suddenly turned horrified after the man spoke a certain word, immediately we were again ordered to form a line but this time...

This time the man stood in front of me, he glared at me with eyes as black as the night sky without any stars I felt shivers on my spine when he suddenly raised his hand, my body felt cold and I was about to faint when he suddenly tapped the shoulder of the man beside me, the man beside me celebrated in joy as he was assisted by our instructor to enter a black vehicle.

They left along with our instructor, we were all left standing in a line, all of us knew that if the instructor has not given any other order we were not allowed to act on our free will. But for the others it was a chance to be a delinquent an as free as they could, as time passed and the numbers of those who were still on the line began to decrease.

The next day, only five of us were left there standing in hunger. As the sun was up in the sky the car had finally returned, but only the man in black suit returned everyone suddenly returned to their lines in a hurry realizing that their actions were to be punished. Five other people got out of the car, they were all wearing black suits, the people around me began to murmur "where's the commander?" while I stood there in silence trying to focus on not feeling my hunger.

In a blink of an eye every person in the vicinity had been killed, blood had splattered everywhere, my clothes was drenched in their blood it was a total massacre that no one was able to anticipate. Slowly the man walked towards me and stood in front of me, my body was weak from dehydration and hunger that after he tapped my shoulder I immediately fainted.

I woke up strapped on a surgical bed where I was surrounded by people wearing whole body suits my vision was a bit blurry but I knew I saw someone waving at me from a distance, the person stood behind a giant wall of glass and watched at me being operated. I saw the people placing something on my arm and with a sudden bright light I was blinded.

The next thing I knew was that I was soaring in the sky, it seemed that I was using the vision of what seems to be that of a bird and there I watched a world slowly being devoured by black flames. People were running all around trying to escape humongous black demonic like creature.

As I flew further I saw it, in a distance where no plant grew was a throne-like chair and there it sat a white haired figure with a body slowly being swallowed by darkness as I thought that it was about to devour its whole body it suddenly stopped mid-way, it then glanced with eyes that were as red as blood.

It seem that those eyes had an effect on me that I eventually woke up in a pitch black room where only the moon light lit the room. And across me was a man with white clothes and blue eyes staring at me"

"It seems you have awoken, do you feel pain in anywhere in your body?" the man asked me.

I sat in silence as I stared at the man trying to figure out why he wore the same clothes as that of my instructor. The man noticed that I was staring at his clothes, he suddenly stood up and walked to the side of my bed.

"I guess I haven't introduced myself, my name is Rylee Ashton, I am now your commander, welcome to Squadron III" He spoke.

I didn't know why but tears began to run down from my eyes it was as if I was staring at my savior, the man then shook my hand with a smile in his face. As he held my hand my head began to ache and a voice kept whispering to me...

"Find Altair... Find Altair..."

I was unfamiliar of what the voices were whispering so I immediately spoke to the guy who introduced himself as my commander.

"Sir, do you know what Altair is?" I asked as I held my head due to the pain.

His face suddenly shifted and became emotionless, I thought that I may have spoken a sensitive word or something that may have offended him, but suddenly he held my hand tighter and kneeled on the floor.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" He kept apologizing.

I didn't know why he kept on apologizing so I tried to calm the situation.

"AH! Please stand up. I don't know what seems to be happening but please stand up, Sir Commander"

He stood up and stared at me with his eyes and then he spoke.

"Someone will talk to you and explain the situation" he said before walking out of the room.

I watched as he left the room and realized that I was laying down on one of six beds, suddenly a person entered the room but this time it was a woman, she was quite small I stared at her as the moon light revealed her face as she walked towards me, she suddenly sat on the bed beside me.

"Do you have any question that you would like to ask?" She spoke with a soft voice.

"Where am I?" I immediately asked.

"You are currently at the laboratory of the Easts" She answered.

There I remember what had happened, my head began to hurt more, the voice that was whispering got louder and louder that I thought I was about to lose my sanity.

"Don't worry, everything will be alright" She spoke as she held my head.

I began to cry and eventually fall asleep. I woke up the next morning with a girl staring at my face.

"Commander he's awake now!!" She yelled.

"g-g-good m-morning" I spoke.

She simply smile before walking to the commander who was sitting on the couch.

"Good morning Kurt, would you like breakfast?" He asked me.

I simply nodded, he then stood up and I followed him after a few minutes of walking we eventually arrived at a cafeteria there were only minimal amount of people there while there were four people at the kitchen. The commander then asked us to sit down on the chairs which me and the girl did, I sat down first and she sat opposite to me the girl seemed really calm and relaxed that I wondered if she lived at the laboratory for a while, the commander then arrived back at us with a tray filled with delicious food that drool immediately came out of my mouth.

It was a silent breakfast for the three of us, suddenly the commander spoke.

"Kurt why don't you introduce yourself?" He asked me.

I nodded and then introduced myself to the girl.

"Hi, my name is Kurt Williams" I said before I held out my hand.

She glanced at me before ignoring my introduction she simply began eating again.

"Cecelia, please introduce yourself, what you did is really rude" The commander spoke.

She sighed before letting go of his utensils, she held my hand and gripped it really hard before shaking it.

"My name is Cecelia Arthurs, the first ever member of squadron III, holder of the Star Betelgeuse, and the future wife of Rylee Ashton!" She declared.

For some reason I thought of it as a joke, simply because their appearance doesn't really match plus I thought the commander is over his twenties, I laughed a bit thinking about how they look, I immediately earned a knuckle to the head from Cecelia.

"Ah please, don't hurt him Cecelia" The commander said.

The day went by with the three of us together as the commander toured me around the laboratory. Three months after I arrived at the East I had the same dream that I had when I first came, it was the very same scenario it was terrifying the more I got close to the people of the dome the more I realized how horrifying that dream was but for some reason the dream ended the same way and the moment I woke up the voices began to whisper again.

"What the hell is Atria?" I whispered to myself.

It was morning and the sun was about to rise when suddenly a siren echoed throughout the laboratory.

"A-CLASS ALERT! A-CLASS ALERT!"

It said, I wondered what the commotion was about, I eventually walked out of the room and was eventually pulled back inside by Cecelia.

"What are you doing!?" She asked.

"Huh? I just woke up"

"I don't care get dressed!" She scolded.

I stood in silence trying to figure out what clothes should I wear, she then took a brief case from under a bed and immediately took off her clothes.

"W-w-what a-are y-y-y-y-you do-do-do-doing!!" I screamed.

"Haa?? Are you an idiot or something? Can't you seen I'm changing clothes? Go under your bed and get dressed, idiot" She yelled.

I walked towards my bed and was about to get the briefcase when a shadow appeared from our window, I lifted my head and saw it a large black figure was right in front of the walls.

"Demon!!"

It was the first word that came out of my mouth, I stood frozen as the demon lifted its hand and was about demolish the wall.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? I SAID GET DRESSED DAMMIT!"

Cecelia kept screaming I didn't care, I was being swallowed by the fear from the demon, I was almost about to piss myself when suddenly a man in white uniform arrived at the walls. The demon tried to crush the wall but was unable to, and there stood another person who wielded a giant war hammer, I realized what had just happened.

Cecelia thought of me as dead weight and left me at the room, she broke the glass and rushed to the commander. I then stared at the bracelet that I had on my right arm, I felt scared and weak but despite that I rushed to help them I was unable to call out my Star so I climb the stairs but as I reached the top the demon had been defeated.

"You're late idiot" Cecelia glared at me with disgusted eyes.

"Hey, don't be like that Cecelia" the commander said.

Eventually we all went back inside the laboratory where the commander explained to me the reason why Cecelia was such in a bad mood.

"You see Kurt, our world is infested with destructive beings which we call Demons, each one of those creatures despite their sizes can easily crumble the dome that's why as the military we are to never allow the demons to destroy the dome" The commander explained.

And with disappointed eyes I apologized, but the next thing the commander said made my heart drop.

"But that wasn't the real reason she got mad, this is actually my fault" He spoke.

"Huh? What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well you see, because of my incompetence as a leader the former member of my squadron died, I was acting too much high and mighty that one demon ended up slaughtering my whole squadron. And one of those members was Cecelia's mom, after I broke the news to Cecelia when she was 8 she immediately hugged me and said that she'd forgive me but I should never do things on my own. But well you saw what I did, I tried fighting that demon on my own which was the reason she got mad" He explained in a sincere tone.

I was speechless on what he had just explained, my mine was blank and a voice whispered to my head that I unconsciously blurted out.

"Vega and Altair shall become one"

The commander's face suddenly turned grim, he tapped my shoulder and pointed a room.

"Should I go there?" I asked.

He nodded without giving answers before walking away, I did as he ordered and inside there I saw it, The Star Altair locked inside a glass box, I felt like my body was being pulled towards it. Slowly I felt the eagerness to break the glass and take it.

"That might kill you if you try and take it" A voice called out to me.

It was the guy who was supposed to be the Star Engineer of the east.

"Are you the current user of Vega? Rumors had it that all the past test subjects had always blurt out that they want Altair, but I doubt a normal human would be able to receive two Stars" He said.

I felt a shiver in my spine whenever he opened his mouth, for some reason I had a bad feeling around him. I smiled at him before walking outside the room, I was about to exit when he suddenly said something.

"The Star will consume you"

*Present*

"It will consume you huh?" Kurt said.

He then heard a humming coming from behind him, he looked back and saw Cecelia walking towards him.

"How's the commander?" he asked.

"He's resting at the central" Cecelia answered.

"Cecelia, have you ever felt the eagerness to receive another Star?" Kurt asked.

"Huh? No I haven't, why'd you ask?' She answered.

"No reason, it just suddenly popped out of my head"

"Is that so? Why not ask the professor?"

Kurt thought carefully if he should ask the commander but felt that it was not that much necessary.

"Oh right, have you heard? The Dome Generals are about to have a meeting a few days from now, I heard you were invited, is it true?" Cecelia asked.

Kurt smiled a bit while thinking "I'll ask them to give it to me"

"Yes, its true me and the commander will be going to the meeting" He answered.

Kurt once again heard the whispers that haven't been bother him for a while.

"VEGA AND ALTAIR SHALL BECOME ONE"

[Chapter End]