Dododex

ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

The Omega Timeline Chapter 50: …Comes Great Responsibility

Erica lay there on the stone cold ground. She heard distorted voices coming from, her head spinning and her eyes still closed. She remembered the fight and having a blade pierce her chest, that she screamed and everything went black. She felt her chest where the blade pierced, expecting to feel the large gash as her last few moments of life. But she didn’t, she didn’t even feel a tear in her armor. She opened her eyes to check where she was injured at, only to be welcomed to children huddled around chatting with a slightly taller person with red curly hair. All except for two of the kids were wearing Tek armor and seeing one of the kid’s with a rifle in hand. Erica’s eyes bulged as she sat up to see this.

“So what’s the plan again?” Jay said,

“Do we have to do this again Jay? The plan is very simple and short. Why don’t you listen to him instead of thinking of what you can do in this gear.” Jack retorted,

“Well I’m sorry for having thoughts Mr-” “It’s fine Jack, I can say it again. Okay, so by the sound of it, all’s quiet on the Western Front and the enemy has retreated. But it most likely won’t stay like this forever and they’ll return to overwhelm everyone up there again. So what we’ll do is wait in the stairwell for the fighting to begin and come out in the middle of the battle to relieve our forces and overwhelm the enemy and win this once and for all!!”

“Like hell you will Sylas!!” Erica shouted as she stood up, wobbling as she got her footing.

“Erica!!! You’re okay!!” Sylas said excitedly, rushing over to hug her. They embraced for a moment before she pulled him off.

“Yeah, I’m okay. But what are you doing Sylas?” Erica asked firmly.

“Uh…” “Sylas was going to make us into Iron Men.” Moonhigh blerted, cutting off Sylas.

“What?” Erica said in confusion,

“Well see, he was-”

“I know, he only brought it up ten times before to me! You cannot make these kids soldiers!!” Erica cut off, taking the rifle out of Jack’s hand.

“Take off that armor Sylas.”

“You got your own over there Erica, all of this is ours.” Sylas said trying to distract and pointing, she looked to see the sleeker Tek armor stack on top of one another with her sword. She walked up to it, taking off her Tek Claw bracelets as she touched the helmet. Instantly the whole front of the suit opened up and she stepped in backwards as it closed behind her and closed behind her. It adjusted to her size and the visor disappeared to show her face.

“Thank you, now take that armor off Sylas. And you kids do the same thing. And what is the dodo doing?” Erica said, everyone turned to see Star trying to access the terminal.

“I don’t know what he’s doing.” Sylas said, Star immediately turned and started squawking at him in an angry manner.

“Woah!! I’m sorry, I can’t tell the difference between a boy bird and a girl bird!” Sylas said, Star huffed and flapped her wings in irritation.

“Stay in here everyone, you’ll all stay safe that way. Try not to offend anyone else Sylas. I don’t want to find you beaten up because you offended someone else.” Erica said before she ran out of the room. The five stood there in silence, unsure what to do next.

“I guess we should take these off then.” Jack said,

“No...” Sylas stated.

“What?”

“No, Erica’s word of caution doesn’t change a thing. She’s one of the most stubborn people I’ve met and she’s always overprotective. And it’s time I stand firm and fight with the other instead of cowering in fear. Now if you kids want, you can stay safe in here. But I think you all want to help fight too, so who’s with me?” Sylas said, the kids huddled together and Sylas heard whispering for a moment before they all turned around.

“Both of us are in!” Jay said,

“So are we!” Sunhigh included. A squawk came from behind Sylas and Star waddled over to the others. Sylas smiled.

“Then let’s prepare for this! And let’s get some dyes in here. Who wants t-” He said excitedly before it turned into screaming pain, pain he had never felt before. His implant went red and pulsed at an alarming pace, but just as fast as it came. It disappeared again.

“Sylas!! Ar-are y-you okay?” Jack said in panic.

“Yeah, yeah. I don’t what that was.” Sylas said as he sat down on the ground.

“Do you guys still want to paint your armors?” Sylas chuckled.

~

After the stirring events with the King Titan and Tago saving Andrew. Darkhide, Emerald, Tago and Andrew reconvened and returned to the mansion (and gained their hearing back as they did). But no one spoke.

Andrew walked behind in pain and fear, as this voice continued to repeat the same thing over and over. Find the dagger, become a herald of light. It tormented him as he tried to ignore it, to a point that it began to become painful as he did. He didn’t want power, he was failure with what power he had. Letting anger and pain control him in scenarios like what happened back there with that monster.

‘How did it know anyway? Was it from the same universe as me? But how could it know what happened to… Reuben. It doesn’t make sense!! What is all of this!!!’ He thought in his head.

“The Dagger. Find the Dagger.” The voice said as more pain struck through him. Andrew felt like he was losing it all again.

“WHAT DAGGER!!” Andrew screamed, the other’s looked at him. Tago looked at him worriedly while Darkhide and Emerald looked at him confused.

“What are you doing?” Darkhide asked rigidly,

Andrew pulled his hair in anguish. This pain was getting worse and worse.

“Nothing. Let’s just get back to the mansion.” He said as he ran passed. And so did the other after this. They all ran to the mansion. When they got there and went inside, they saw that three groups were there. Aragorn’s, Sheeri’s, and Nova’s. Erica was there too, though none one else with her. She wore now a Tek Suit, more crude and less sleek than his but had a helmet. He almost didn’t recognize her without her hair out.

“Can someone explain to me what happened? Where did they all go?” Erica asked,

“That’s just it, we don’t know. They just disappeared from here after the moon turned to blood.” Freya said,

“Same with us, they just vanished. One was in ice when it happened and it left the block of ice with a bubble inside.” Queen Sylveevee said, their crew exhausted as they sat in the dining room.

“We had one pinned against a building as the blood moon happened and when she vanished a little bit later, we all fell into rubble. It must’ve been some bloody magic trick to happen to all of us.” Aragorn added.

“Whatever it was, it didn’t happen to us. Our’s escaped, it caught us off by surprise.” Andrew said,

“Yeah, whatever our thing was, it was powerful and durable.” Emerald said,

“Did nobody else see the bat from before grow to the size of a building out there when the moon went blood red!! Does anyone know what that was about!?” Sheeri said, panic and fear in her voice.

Andrew glanced at her for a moment, a statement the voice said to him as the blood moon rose. “For the Herald of Darkness has arrived…”. The bat must’ve become the Herald for the Darkness. He looked over to the one table and a weapon sat on top of it. A dagger, a black bladed dagger with a white hilt. He didn’t know how, but he knew this was what the voice was telling him to grab. He walked over to the table and stared down at the blade.

“Maybe it was something like what we did to bring ya’ll back here to the mansion when you and the other three were getting attacked.” Aragorn noted.

“That could definitely be what happened and if that’s the case they might be a planning a final attack.” Yang said,

“What do you think our next step should be Andrew?” Erica asked.

“Where did you found this?” Andrew said, not answering the question. The other’s looked at him puzzled.

“I found it where we were fighting while looking around the area where the villains disappeared from. It was laying on the ground near where the giant dragon fell. It was strange because I don’t remember any of us having a dagger.” Skyocean said, Andrew nodded thoughtfully as he looked back down at the dagger.

“I agree with all of you, they are most likely going to attack us again. And we should prepare for another attack. But where are the other’s?” Andrew asked, his tone more blunt but worried.

“We aren’t sure yet, but I’m sure they’re fine and will be here soon. If you want we’ll go out and look for them?” Drake said,

“No, no, if you think their fine. But call me when they return and will prepare our plan next step of defense… I need to get some rest though.” Andrew said as he walked up towards the stairs and went upstairs.

As he walked away, the other’s watched in concern and suspicion.

“He’s been acting strange ever since the battle with that beast.” Darkhide said,

“He seemed to be in pain and had something troubling him ever since I saved him. Maybe it has something to do with what the beast said?” Tago continued,

“What did the beast say to him?” Erica asked,

“It said something about a beast of Andrew’s that died under his watch.” Tago said, Erica stood there confused. ‘I thought he said he didn’t know how to tame creatures. Huh…’ She thought to herself.

“Don’t read into it, he was probably just stressed and tired from the whole situation. We’ve never had to do something like this. This whole place is alien to us.” Erica said,

“Agreed, I know that I am. It’s just curious to me how he yelled about a dagger out there and in here found a dagger that peeked his attention.” Emerald said.

“Let’s just take this time to rest while we wait for the other’s to arrive. I can say I’m bushed.” Nova said,

“Yeah, I really need to rest for a moment.” Buddy agreed, Moonbeam and Orbit were already gone from the room and went off somewhere in the house. And the other went off to go find place rest and relax for a spell. All except for Aragorn, he couldn’t stop thinking that something was off with how Andrew reacted when he saw the dagger. He grunted quietly in suspicion as he walked over to the table and saw that the dagger was no longer sitting there.

“Don’t read into it, huh.”

~

Andrew walked into his room and breathed deeply. He turned as he shut the door behind him to see the room looked nearly identical to his old room back at the house.

“This place gets weirder and weirder.” He said to himself. Almost instantly, pain shot up into his head as he began to cry from the pain.

“The Dagger… grab the dagger and become The Herald of Light.” The voice said,

“I have the dagger in my hand right now!!! What more do you want from me!!?” He sneered.

He looked down at the dagger in his hand and realized something. He had his gauntlet on, maybe it needed a bare hand to work. He put the dagger on the bed and he flipped the switch to his chestpiece and it deactivated into a vest. He flipped the switch then on his right gauntlet as he flipped the switch on his vest back to on. The gauntlet deactivated and turned into a fingerless glove. He turned back to the bed and grabbed the dagger.

“Become the Herald of Light, Andrew.” The voice said,

“Look… I don’t want to become the Herald of Light, I didn’t ask to be a leader at all. I just… want this pain to stop.” Andrew cried quietly.

“Then become The Herald of Light, and your pain will be lifted.” The voice said to him.

“Then How? How do I become this ‘Herald of Light’ then? If this is what I have to do then so be it.” Andrew said,

“Kill the bat with this dagger, kill the bat and you shall become the Herald of Light Andrew.” The voice answered. For a moment, Andrew sat there in silence.

“Kill the Bat? The Herald of Darkness? With this dagger?” Andrew responded,

“Yes Andrew, that is all you have to do. Kill the Herald of Darkness with this dagger and you shall become the Herald of Light and be relieved of this pain.” The voice said slyly.

Andrew sat there and thought about this task he was given. It seemed wrong, yet the more he thought about it. The more he thought that it wouldn’t hurt. It’s even get rid of a problem they had. It wouldn’t be hard either. His bow should be able to kill it. He sat there and these thoughts kept building in his head. He thought it would be such an easy task too…

‘What, am I thinking! All this thought for killing a life!! Why?’ He thought to himself as he broke from his pain talking.

“No, and if that is the only way to get rid of this pain. Then this isn’t a good thing. Why would good kill somebody for its own power and benefit.” Andrew stated.

“But, the dagger-” “Is nothing more than a weapon of evil if that is the case.” He said as he dropped the dagger on the floor.

“I won’t kill anyone without giving them a chance to live. I won’t kill unless mine, or someone else’s live is at stake for this. And if I have to fight through pain in this next battle so be it.” Andrew said as he walked to the window to open it. He needed the air.

As he did though, the dagger’s blade glowed and light began to emit from it. Andrew opened the French door windows and turned to see the light coming from the dagger. He cocked his head and looked at the dagger for a moment before walking up to it, bent over and touched it.

Then the light shot up like a flurry of fireflies from the dagger and the dagger turned gray. The light hovered in front of Andrew’s face, glowing pure white. Andrew smiled at it curiosily. It was stunning. The flurry of light began to swirl around him and as it did. More flurries of light came swirling into the room from the window. Andrew shot up in panic and quickly went to close the windows, but they didn’t budge. He yanked as hard as he could but to no avail. The room filled with this flurrying light, to a point that it getting hard for Andrew to see where he was. Then the light began to ball in around him closely. He could feel energy and power, hope and kindness flow through him at astonishing speed. The light though continued and so did this feeling. It filled him up with happiness, but it was becoming too much for him. Too much power and good for his body. It felt like it was tearing his body apart. Then Andrew looked at his hand and was appalled to see what was happening. His fingers were slowly disappearing into the light, leaving his veins there. He began to scream in fear.

~

Aragorn walked up the stairs and entered the hall. As he got to Andrew’s door, he could hear some ruckus inside. Not wanting to intrude on something that he shouldn’t be intruding upon. He knocked.

“Andrew, are you in there?” He said, nothing. He knocked on the door a little harder.

“Andrew. Are you in there? Look, I know you have the dagger. I just want to know why you wanted it.” He said, then he heard a scream from inside and his being polite went out the window. He opened the door to see nothing but light, it was so bright, Aragorn had to close his eyes. He he put his hand in front of his eye and opened, he still could only see light, but his eyes began to adjust and he saw Andrew in the center of the light. He was screaming and crying in fear. His eyes glowed white and his one hand seemed to be missing. Andrew look over at him and fell to his knees.

“ARAGORN!!! WHAT DID I DO!! WHAT DID I DO!! HELP ME!!” He cried out in fear, before he threw his head back and the ball of light exploded. Launching Aragorn back into the wall of the hall. Dazed, Aragorn got up and ran into the room, to see nothing. No one. Andrew was gone, and that was left was a piece of his bow, his gauntlet, a strange cylinder that looked like a handle, and the dagger. Aragorn picked up the dagger to look at it. A gray blade with a gray hilt. He was confused why he wanted it so bad.

“Andrew?!” He yelled to hear nothing. He looked out the open window yet didn’t see anything but the garden area. He closed the window before looking at the bow. It was broken in half. Aragorn’s heart sank as he a thought came to him. Could he have died?

“Andrew!! Where did you go!?” Aragorn yelled in a panic.

“Andrew!!”

~

“Behold, The Herald of Light is Born.”