Dododex

ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

The Omega Timeline

Chapter 47: History Repeats Itself - by Ben

As Aurora stared at the transformed Herald of Darkness, his wings flapping in the sky, a bolt of fear struck her heart and she slowly began to back away.

“What IS that?!” Aurora thought to herself as her eyes began to waver.

Before she could have time to reflect, Prince Caldren ran up to her and slammed his mace downwards. Snake rushed in and quickly pounced on her, pushing her out of the way of the attack. The mace slammed into the cobbled road, causing rock and stone to fly everywhere. Snake was panting for air and quickly got off her.

“Can’t rest now,” Snake reminded her, “The battle isn’t over yet.”

Prince Caldren let out a roar to assert his dominance. He clutched onto the mace with both of his hands and swung at the side of Snake’s body. She quickly jumped over the mace, and the weight quickly shifted to the end of Caldren’s mace, causing him to stumble forward. Rage rushed in from behind and kicked him forward. He tripped and landed smack dab onto the ground. Rage quickly regrouped with Snake and Aurora, who had recovered from the floor.

“YOU DUMB RAPTORS WILL PAY!” Prince Caldren screamed, his voice muffled. He got up from the ground, and dropped the mace to the ground. He pounded his fists into his chest like a gorilla and charged forward. The three just stood there, looking on like deer in headlights, when Aurora shouted,

“NOW!”

The three quickly dived out of the way, and Prince Caldren was unable to stop in his tracks. His eyes widened as his body plummeted right into a building. His body crashed through the plastered walls, and he let out a fierce roar as he tried to pull himself out. It was no use though. He had gotten himself stuck. Aurora let out a sigh of relief.

“That was close,” Aurora sighed. Rage looked down at Aurora.

“Who taught you how to fight?”

Aurora smiled at her words,

“Freya did. She’s a great fighter-”

“She must be a bad teacher then because you almost died,” Rage snapped, a venom to her words. Snake playfully slapped her tail onto Rage’s body.

“Hey, she did great,” Snake affirmed, “She just doesn’t have the right mindset, that’s all.”

Aurora turned back around to stare at Drain. He was still cackling, his wings flapping in the air. He seemed to be high off the power he had gained. He wouldn’t be a threat… for now, at least.

“Okay. We should go help the others fight then-” Aurora was interrupted as a street pole suddenly slammed itself into Aurora’s stomach. Aurora let out a gasp of pain as the street pole burst through Aurora’s torso and jutted out like a sword. Blood dripped from the end and Aurora’s eyes began to water.

“Not so fast human,” Lieutenant Felswand snarled, his hands gripping tightly on the street pole, “Have you forgotten about me?”

Snake let out a snarl and quickly dashed at him. Lieutenant Felswand dropped the pole and delivered a right hook to Snake’s jaw. Snake was sent flying backwards, tumbling around and hitting her body against the glass doors of a convenience store, causing it to shatter upon her. Rage quickly followed up, trying to attack him before he had a chance to react. Rage was successful, and she managed to chomp down on Lieutenant Felswand’s left arm.

“OUCH!” Lieutenant Felswand howled. Rage lashed back, tearing a chunk of his arm off. Lieutenant Felswand cried out in pain. Rage quickly opened her jaws and then bit down on his left arm again. Felswand winced in pain, but knew how to counter her now. Felswand turned around, disorienting Rage as she continued to clamp on, and then slammed his arm into the ground, causing Rage to let go and crumple, defeated. It wasn’t enough. Lieutenant Felswand was much heavier than the raptors and his punches hit harder too.

“It’s over now, you’re all not enough to stop us,” Lieutenant Felswand snarled.

BAM!

Joe Kong came rushing in and slammed a bowl of berries into Felswand’s face. Berry juice splurted all over his face, and he began to blink his eyes rapidly, unable to see.

“Take that you fiend! That’s for punching me in the face!” Joe Kong jeered. Felswand grabbed at the bowl stuck to his face and tossed it off, but as he did Joe Kong readied his fist and slammed it right into his cheek. Felswand’s head snapped to the side, and Joe Kong let out a roar as he wrapped his arms around Felswand’s body, picking him up with all of his strength and pulling him to the ground. Felswand began to struggle as Joe Kong wrapped his legs around Felswand. Joe Kong began to twist his arm. He was applying the Forbidden Indian Burn Technique.

“EMBER! HELP ME!” Lieutenant Felswand cried out for help. Joe Kong smirked as his head jolted around. The old terror bird was nowhere in sight.

“Heh, looks like he ran away,” Joe Kong taunted him. Lieutenant Felswand suddenly stopped struggling as he realized his boss was not there to assist him. He seemed almost disappointed in himself.

“What was I thinking about working for him…” Lieutenant Felswand murmured. Joe Kong pitied him. As he slowly loosened his grip on him, he realized he was going nowhere. Joe Kong let go of Lieutenant Felswand, and he crumpled to his knees. Joe Kong got up from the ground and brushed the dirt off his hands. His heart still pounded against his ape chest. His first real fight…

“I didn’t do so bad,” Joe Kong thought. He looked around at Rage and Snake, who were slowly picking themselves up from the grounds. They seemed to be doing okay.

But as he turned around and spotted Aurora, his smug smirk turned to a gasp.

“Human!”

~

June wandered the dark forest, the dead trees surrounded her crackling with the smell of nightmares. If nightmares could smell, that is. She took in her surroundings. For a while, it had been nothing but endless forest. There was nothing more to this world, it seemed, other than the glitchy air and the grim nothingness.

Just a few moments ago, the sky turned red and she heard an evil cackle in the distance. She did not know what it was, but she did not care either. All she wanted was to find who she loved.

“Oh if you’re here what could you possibly be going through?” June wondered to herself, placing a hand on her heart, “I hope those strange creatures did nothing wrong to you. Otherwise…”

Fire crackled from her fingers and exploded in a display of sheer power. She turned around. An ominous castle lay in the distance, with the Black Obelisk seemingly gone.

“Perhaps we shouldn’t take any chances huh?”

June walked over to a nearby tree and the fire jumped off her hands and onto the tree, lighting it ablaze. The fire jumped to tree after tree, slowly making its way over to the Shadowkeep. June smiled to herself and turned around, continuing her trek.

But as she walked, her eyes pinned to something in the distance. There seemed to be buildings of all kinds just a mile away. She squinted her eyes at the mysterious metropolis. Then, fire burst from her legs.

“I should check it out,” June whispered to herself. She jumped up, the fire from her legs shooting her into the air and toward the city in an instant. Her feet slammed into a random building, and the roof almost collapsed in. She took a moment to look around, until her gaze landed on a bar. The lights inside were on, unlike the rest of the buildings in the city. She could still hear the sounds of fighting and the evil cackling of the bat.

Wordlessly, she hopped off the building and made her way to the bar.

~

Neddy, Ruby, and Emma were chilling at the bar. They were sitting at one of the booths, watching over the unconscious prisoners and the unconscious Ben cautiously. The lights were buzzing above them, and the mood was quiet and somber.

“So shouldn’t we go help the others fight?” Neddy asked, looking around nervously as if someone could barge in at any moment. Ruby put a hand on Neddy’s arm.

“I think we should rest for now and keep an eye on those guys,” Ruby said, looking at Michael and Lil Jack. Their passed out bodies were on the hardwood floor. After taking them captive they had bound them with a bunch of rope, so if they woke up they wouldn’t be going anywhere. Emma couldn’t help but smile at the two. They reminded her of her and Andrew’s relationship.

“I hope he’s okay, wherever he is,” Emma thought to herself. She looked to her left, where Ben was sleeping. His head was resting on the table, and his body softly rose up and down. He had a bump on his head from the rock Lil Jack had dropped. Emma squinted her eyes, trying to activate her medallion once more to peek into his past, but it didn’t work. Her medallion power was still spontaneous.

“Neddy and Ruby know him, I think,” Emma thought, “So how is this man in my ‘time’?”

Emma wasn’t too sure of it. She could hear Ben mutter someone’s name under his breath. He almost seemed sad saying that name. Emma tried to listen in, but everytime she did, Ben would stop talking. It was almost as if, subconsciously, he knew someone was eavesdropping. All Emma could pick up was the fact that the name had two syllables.

The blood moon had risen a few minutes ago. It was quite the hectic situation, but the three had reasoned that they probably couldn’t do much about the evil bat and would leave it to the others.

Before Emma had any more time to think, Ben suddenly shifted in his sleep. Neddy flinched at the sight, and Emma scooted away in her seat. Ruby took out her crossbow, aiming it at Ben’s face.

Ben groggily lifted his head from the table, his eyes weary and his expression especially somber. He looked around warily, and then his eyes spotted Michael’s. Neddy quickly got up from the booth and stopped Ben.

“Alright we aren’t going to try killing him, he might have valuable information we could use,” Neddy told him. Ben looked past Neddy at Michael and grumbled. He slunk back in his seat, miserable.

“What’s the point,” Ben muttered, “Of killing him. He’ll just come back.”

“What are you talking about?” Ruby asked, shoving the crossbow closer to Ben’s face. Ben ignored the crossbow and his head dropped to his hand, propping it up and looking at the fridge behind the counter.

“If he’s not the Michael I know there’s probably ten other Michael’s waiting,” Ben mumbled, “I can’t kill them all so why try.”

Neddy’s eyebrows furrowed in regret. He sat back down at his booth, looking at him in worry.

“Dude what happened to you man? You didn’t look this miserable last time we met. Last time-”

“Just be quiet man,” Ben replied, as he closed his eyes again, “I’ve been here for like ten years and there’s no way out of course I’m like this.”

Ruby’s eyes widened, and she lowered her crossbow.

“H-how long?”

Emma’s heart dropped at his words. Ten years, perhaps even more stuck here?

“Is there really a way out?” Emma thought, her eyes wide with horror. She suddenly began to panic, “Will I ever see Andrew again? Josephina, Jaquin? Emelia? What will they think if we-”

“HEY WHY AM I TIED UP?!” Michael suddenly exploded from his spot. All eyes (except Ben) turned to him as he began to struggle around, moving his body and pushing at the rope around his body.

“THIS IS INSANE!” Michael screamed, “I’m the mayor of Tortuga damn it! I should have you all hanged-”

“Shut it up will you!” Neddy shouted at him.

“Yeah dude, nobody likes you,” Ruby snapped, “You’re annoying and not even that strong.”

Michael glared at the two of them.

“You two idiots don’t know who I am!” Michael shouted. He looked at Emma, “Emma! Get me out of here right now!”

Emma ignored Michael and looked onwards at Neddy and Ruby.

“Emma? EMMA! I know you can hear me! I said to get me out of here…”

“Right. NOW!”

Bump!

The fridge suddenly shook. Everyone looked at the fridge, even Michael. They could hear the humming of the fridge for a moment, but no noise came out of it afterwards.

“That was weird,” Michael muttered, “Anyway Emma stop with this ‘playing hard to get’ game and get me out of here-”

The doors to the bar suddenly burst open. They heard the gasp of a woman.

“Ben?”

All eyes turned to the bar entrance. A woman with long orange-brown hair and flak armor was standing at the entrance, her jaw open in surprise. Nobody there seemed to recognize her. Ben squinted his eyes.

“Who are you?” Ben asked. Then, he suddenly got annoyed.

“Ben! It’s me, June!”

June stepped forward. Neddy and Ruby didn’t seem to think anything of it, but Emma was suspicious.

“Is she friend or foe?” Emma thought, “And if she's a friend…”

“Why doesn’t Ben seem so pleased to meet her?”