BANG!
The blood feels scathing hot on your skin, almost like acid melting and gnawing at your bones. Until you realize the crimson liquid comes not from the dead girl lying at your feet but it's yours, that the pain in your right shoulder is because the bullet that pierced straight through her skull grazed it.
She is dead. You don't even know her name and yet she took a bullet destined for you like it's nothing. She is dead.
And it's your fault.
"I've would preferred to take her alive." The scar-faced captain scoffs before he looks down at you with an infuriating smirk. "This is what we are going to tell the higher-ups: 'We, His Highness's personal unit, found the terrorist base and destroyed it. However, the hostages had already been executed by the time we got there'."
First Suzaku. The two of you finally met after seven years, only for him to be killed because he refused the order to shoot you.
"What do you think about that, boy? Tragic, but so it's life."
Then those innocent Elevens, slaughtered like cattle because you escaped with the girl. Now she's dead too, and soon you will die too.
The last in the long list of failures that was your life.
When you demanded the Emperor to avenge your mother's murder exile is all you received.
When Suzaku became your friend Japan was taken by surprise by Britannia because your value as hostage was completely disregarded.
When you met Suzaku you lost him again almost immediately because the idiot refused an order for your sake.
A complete stranger sacrificed her life to save yours, and you don't even know how to feel about that.
"What's going on, cat got your tongue? That's fine I guess." The captain aims again his gun at you.
Failure after failure after failure. Everything happened because of you, because you were too weak to do something.
And now you're going to commit your last and most ignominious failure. You're going to die here, without being able to do anything.
Leaving your sister alone, blind and crippled in a world without respect for the weak and her heart broken because she has only you to rely on.
It's all your fault, because you are
weak!
"Any last words boy?"
"How about 'look behind you'?"
The sound of tearing flesh, and you feel the crushing despair and self-loathing that plagued your mind take a backseat at the utterly bizarre sight of a pair of
giant fangs popping out of the scarred captain's chest.
"Surprise! Go get them boys!"
The soldiers don't even have the time to react to the gruesome death of their commander before forms shimmer into existence like holograms and attack them with such speed and ferocity all they could do is scream in agony.
You watch in horror, and a little bit of awe, as the forms turn out to be giant spiders the size of a grown man, their bodies covered in silver and green fur and their limbs more akin to swords than something supposedly made of chitin. They savagely stab the soldiers before biting their throats and ripping them off, chewing a few times before swallowing. Then they lower their heads and suck the spewing blood.
It's too much. "Bluaarh!" You fall on all fours and empty your stomach.
"That's enough boys." A strong, rugged and authoritative voice barks. The spiders stop their carnage and part away, allowing the owner to slowly move towards you: it's another giant spider, maybe a bit bigger than the rest, its fur colored green and black with some patches of white near the head that, somehow, bring to mind the image of an aged veteran. Seven pupiless red eyes stare right at you, the eighth one white from a scar, a cold and calculating intelligence emanating from them. Around its abdomen it wears a belt covered with pockets.
You don't even try to move, too entranced by the strangeness of everything to even contemplate doing something that it isn't kneeling in a puddle of your own vomit. The monstrous being comes a few feet from you and stops, your nose picking a faint smell of cinnamon and...tobacco?
The spider uses its front limbs, each with a three-digited claw at the end, to take out from one pocket a lighter and a cigar, putting the latter in its mouth before lighting it up. It takes a mouth full of smoke and blow it in the air before looking back at you.
"Sup, lil' wuss. Done wasting perfectly good food?"
Your brain kind of short-circuits. "
WHAT?!"
"I mean this." It grabs a piece of half-digested hamburger you had for lunch before tossing it behind, where one of the spider catch with its mouth and swallow. The sight is enough to set off your stomach again, but you are interrupted by the spider slapping you.
"Stop it. You're too skinny to think you can diet."
That's the last straw. You push yourself back on your feet and try to kick the monster. It dodges effortlessly. "Who do you think you are?! What are you?"
The spider chuckles. Seeing a spider doing something so human-like it's totally
wrong.
"Name's Seyrun kid. And for what I am..." It takes another long drag from the cigar before gesturing to the other spiders, who are watching in silence.
"I am the boss of those good boys here." They cheer. It exhale the smoke.
"I'm also someone with an offer for you."
"An offer?" You reply, now cautious.
"You don't think I saved your ass out of the goodness of my heart, do you?" Seyrun chuckles again before its voice takes on a more serious tone, like it's rehearsing a speech repeated a thousand times.
"On behalf of my masters I am here to offer you the power to right your failures and reclaim what is rightfully yours."
Too good to be true. "What's the price?"
"Not your free will if that's your fear." It stops to smoke again.
"Simply put, you will work for my masters. You'll be given orders and you'll be expected to follow them. You'll be held accountable for failures. Beside that you can do anything you want. I scratch your back, you scratch mine: that sorta thing." It tilts its head.
"Savy?"
Your eyebrow twitches. This...thing-Seyrun is really starting to get on your nerves. "Who are your masters?"
"They created the world."
"Are they Gods?"
"No. They made the Gods. But I don't think you'll recognize something even if I start listing all the details." It sighs with a hint of...sorrow?
"Creation has changed so much. So, so very much."
"Creation?"
"How the world was called in the past. Because it's the creation of my masters."
"Do they have a name?"
"The Yozi. They who once were the Primordials."
"Were? What happened to them?"
Seyrun shifts uncomfortably, mirrored by the other spiders.
"They were betrayed. Those who were meant to serve them conspired with two traitors. Together they made things tailor made to defeat them. Things that make the impossible possible. There was a great war. Some died, the others were imprisoned. What I am offering you is one of those things."
You consider it. Seyrun's tale is outlandishly, yet you saw with your own eyes the strength of those creatures. Either teleportation or invisibility, it's a power Britannia would have no countermeasures against. To be able to wield it yourself... "What is the overall nature of my contract? There is no way they are offering away something so powerful just to get a new soldier."
"A smart one. I like that." It smirks before taking a long drag from the already half-burn through cigar.
"To free and restore them to their rightful place. That's the end goal, but we're all doing our parts already. We call it the Reclamation."
Cigar held in a claw Seyrun release a cloud of smoke.
"And what exactly is your part...Well, I was told you have a certain bone to pick up with the place those suckers are from." One of its rear limbs stabs straight a soldier's severed hand.
"Isn't that right, Lelouch vi Britannia?"
You recoil as if slapped. "How do you know that?"
"The one who send me and my boys here told me." It frowns. At least you think it's a frown.
"Said you would need help. He was right."
"Who is he?"
"One of my masters. Don't ask me his name!" It shouts.
"I don't want to jinx myself."
You frown. "What else he said?"
"He knows you wants to take vengeance against Britannia." The cigar is almost completely consumed.
"He is okay with that. Britannia is our enemy too. You will be given power, information and all the resources needed. How you deal with it is up to you...but whatever is left will then serve the Reclamation's goals. You will become a general. He said you have the brains for the role." The way Seyrun is looking at you, it's almost like it's raising a non-existent eyebrow.
"Do you?"
You scowl. "Of course." You pause and think. "What happen if I say no?"
It shrugs.
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Nothing. We just pack up and leave you here."
"Which happens to be a warzone." You glare at the spider. "It doesn't look like a great choice."
"At least you have a chance to survive, albeit small. Unlike me."
"What do you mean?"
Seyrun points at itself.
"That thing I said? It's inside me. It's killing me. Setting up our meeting took a lot of time. If you refuse I will not have enough time to find another candidate before blowing up. And believe me, I am completely replaceable so no safety measures."
You swallow, unnerved by how calm the spider is while talking about its death. "...It's not fair."
Seyrun shrugs again.
"Life is not fair kid. Never was, probably never will be."
You look at the other spiders. "What will happen to them?"
"If you accept they will serve you. I asked and was granted this boon." It smirks.
"They're good boys. Hunters and killers, the best of the best." The spiders cheer again.
"Also good at sewing, in the case you need it."
"Sewing?"
"Spiders."
"Oh."
And then silence. You let it drag out for a full minute before posing a final question. "Why me?"
"Because you have potential kid." Seyrun replies.
"And the Yozi want it."
That, more than anything, settles it. "Very well!" You shout, your open palm pointed forward. "I hereby accept the terms of your contract!"
"Good to hear." Seyrun looks at its fully consumed cigar, sighs and tosses it away.
"I'm going to miss it."
Then it jumps at you, turns outside out and wraps around your body, plunging you into darkness.
{====}
The spiders gather around and stare at the quickly forming cocoon.
"Is this going to take long? We aren't exactly in a safe zone." One of them asks.
"Don't worry. I heard it once took five days, but now things are better and it only takes fifty minutes." Another replies.
"Look at this!" A spider is holding a machine gun in its front claws.
"This is the biggest firewand I have ever seen!"
"You dumbass! That's a gun, not a firewand."
"What's the difference?"
A shrug.
"No idea."
In that moment a Knightmare Frame bursts into the hangar. "What happened he-Oh my God what are those things?!"
All the spiders turn to it.
{====}
You dream.
You dreams of darkness. A great oily abyss, the shadow of some great foul dragon slithering at the edges of your perception. It whispers of dark secrets and corruption, of worthless virtues and the power of lies over a cold, harsh and uncaring reality. A part of you resonate with those words, frightened by the dragon's presence and yet drinking deeply from its wisdom.
Yet the rest is not.
You feel another presence approach, the dragon slithering away. If in fear or something else, you cannot tell. You fall out of the darkness, the part of yourself that didn't resonate with the dragon reacting to the new presence.
And so you dream of...
[] Rage
Malfeas
[] Law
Cecelyne
[] Hierarchy
She Who Live in Her Name
[] Obsession
Adorjan
[] Depth
Kimbery
[] Birth
Cytherea
[] Consumption
Metagaos
[] Reflection
Szorney
[] Gravity
Isidoros
[] Stories
Elloge
[] Chaos
Hegra
[] Paradox
Oramus
{====}
OOC: The merit to this idea's conception goes to
Touhou Ranfuku and other great friends with whom I discuss Exalted with. And
Crow too, whose quest inspired me.
Considering my past experiences with Exalted quests I am going to try to keep things as simple as possible so that even players with just a passing knowledge of Exalted can play and enjoy my quest. There will also be homebrew rules, as you will see once I put everything up.
