Aeon Legion: Labyrinth (49 page)

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A thick jungle faded into
Terra's view. Her shieldwatch beeped. “Trial of Keys complete,”
came Minerva's voice. “Two of twelve Trials completed. One hundred
forty hours and seven minutes remaining.”

Her shieldwatch beeped again.
“Trial of Survival beginning,” Minerva said.

Terra sighed. “Didn't we do
this already?” She looked up to see the underside of Saturn City
still looming overhead. However, she noticed the pillar of light was
closer now. Terra guessed each trial brought her closer to that
light. After taking a deep breath she began exploring the forest.

Terra learned a lot in a few
hours, like how all the fruit here was poisonous. She also learned
that, much like the cretaceous, there were giant crocodiles here as
well.

Another thing to be careful of
here was water. Every time she stepped in even the smallest puddles,
all kinds of horrible things crawled out of the muddy bottom and
tried to chew their way through her boots. The parasites were in more
than just the water. After tracking a large ice aged predator, she
stunned it with her aeon edge only to discover its entire body
infested with parasites.

This salient crawled with
predators. Though each came from different time periods, all seemed
hungry.

She glanced to her shieldwatch
again to check the time. One hundred thirty eight hours left. Shadows
lengthened as night drew close and Terra knew searching for the next
gate would become harder. Even worse was the knowledge that larger
predators would be out after dark.

After night fell, it turned
out her assumption was correct, though not from the predator she
expected.

Terra felt a force of energy
move through time even before she heard a gunshot. She Sped her
reflexes and dropped to the ground to dodge a bullet that nearly
struck her head. Terra rolled in a nearby cluster of thick foliage
and hid.

She waited, watching. Terra
saw no one and moved away, escaping the area. After an hour, the
cover of darkness gave her enough confidence to search open areas for
an exit or maybe another a gate puzzle. This time she was more
careful. When she arrived in the middle of a glade another shot came
at her. Terra dodged again.

She hid for another hour. The
moon shone a pale blue light over the jungle, the night sky partially
faded by Saturn City overhead. Terra moved again when she heard shots
elsewhere in the salient.

While
the shots rang out in the distance, Terra ran until she entered a
clearing and stopped upon seeing something ahead. A metal cylinder,
large enough to fit a person lay cracked open in the glade. Numerous
chains and bonds lay broken on the surrounding ground. Terra paused
to inspect the pod.
LXXVI
was inscribed on the top. Another smaller pod lay nearby with
containers strewn upon the ground around them. Inside each container
was a cushion material with the indentation for a firearm and
ammunition magazines. Terra noted with displeasure the sheer number
of empty weapon containers.

“Sorry,” came a voice
behind Terra, “none of those guns are for you.”

Terra spun to face a figure
who walked out into the moonlit glade. His face was pale and
possessed an amused grin. Dark eyes regarded her. Long messy hair
matched his long black leather coat. However, the thing that drew
Terra's eye was the large brown glass sphere lodged in his chest.

Terra drew her aeon edge. “Who
are you?”

The man smiled a wide toothy
grin. “Why I'm Santa!”

Terra raised an eyebrow.

The man continued to grin.
“Really? At least one person every year gets that reference. Oh
well. You may call me by my alias, Samael.”

Terra edged back from the man.
“Well, Samael. What do you want?”

“To kill you,” Samael
said, still smiling. “If that's okay?”

Terra didn't hesitate. She
lunged at Samael, slashing the man's chest with her aeon edge. The
blue edged blade passed through him leaving a grayed out area as it
passed. The man fell to the ground, but Terra didn't hear a loud
thump when he hit.

Samael grabbed his chest while
he writhed on the ground. “Oh you got me. You got me in the heart,”
he said before he stopped and stood. “Just kidding.”

Terra's eyes went wide as she
saw the gray area on his chest shrink and disappear.

Samael then pointed to Terra's
aeon edge. “Oh no. No one's ever thought about using an aeon edge
against me before. How original. I'm sure it will work if you try
again.”

Terra sheathed her aeon edge.

Samael shrugged. “Don’t
feel too bad. Everyone makes that mistake. Even a lethal aeon edge
wouldn't hurt me. Now why don't you run along so we can get the chase
started? I do enjoy a good hunt.”

Terra assumed a hand to hand
stance.

Samael smirked. “Oh?
Fisticuffs it is then? Well I'm sure that th–”

Terra charged. With a few well
placed blows Samael was on the ground, though once again he landed
without a hard thump. She took two paces back, regarding Samael's
unconscious body. After a moment she sighed and relaxed.

“I finally got you!”
Samael said as he stood as though nothing had happened. “You
thought I was dead!”

Terra resumed her defensive
stance.

Samael laughed. “It's a
shame they only let me do this once a year.”

Terra attacked again. Samael
countered every blow with ease. The few blows Terra landed didn't
even force him back. She tried Speeding her movements with her
shieldwatch, but it didn't respond and she felt her connection with
time weaken. When she looked down, the face had gone dark with the
device non functional. It turned on again when she stepped back away
from Samael.

“You're good,” he said
before striking Terra in the chest with his palm.

The blow didn't hit that hard,
but the area he touched turned a dull gray in hue and Terra's heart
rate plummeted. She stumbled backward as her muscles weakened and
gasped for breath.

While she wavered, Samael
flicked Terra's forehead. Suddenly her vision became gray and
everything slowed. No. She slowed. Her entire body seemed sluggish
now. Terra fell to the ground, gasping.

Samael stretched. “I hadn't
had a good melee like that since I fought Silverwind.”

It was then, while still in
the middle of a dull haze, that Terra remembered the name Samael. He
was a member of a group of rogue time travelers called the Forgotten
Guns, powerful assassins who could match the Legendary Blades.

“Well I guess I should cut
to the chase,” Samael said as he drew a six shooter revolver. “I
suppose literally in this case.”

Terra raised her shieldwatch,
in spite of the dullness, as Samael fired. The stasis shield absorbed
the bullet, freezing it. The dullness began to fade.

After Samael emptied six
rounds at her, he tossed aside the gun. “I miss my old null tech
gun. It would have punched straight through those bothersome stasis
shields,” he said as he drew a second gun and advanced.

Terra ran, grabbing a case
lying on the ground before heading into the jungle. She hid in the
foliage and opened it just as the last of the dullness wore off and
her heart rate returned to normal. Terra inspected the contents of
the case. It contained a small handgun with a magazine inside.

Terra drew the weapon and
loaded it. “I guess I can't complain about historical weapon
practice anymore,” she said as she pulled the back of the gun which
chambered a round.

It didn't take long for Samael
to come walking along behind her. He made no attempt at stealth,
stomping along the path near her. When he was a few paces away Terra
jumped up in front of him, leveled the pistol, and fired.

Samael stood there,
unblinking, as the loud gun fired at him.

Terra lowered the weapon.

Samael rolled his eyes.
“Really? You just tried to cleave me in two with an aeon edge and
you think a dinky little pistol is going to stop me?”

She gritted her teeth before
firing again, this time while Speeding her vision. The bullet spun
towards Samael, but when it drew close to him the glass core on his
chest glowed. As it glowed, the bullet slowed before falling to the
ground at his feet.

Samael pointed to the glass
sphere in his chest. “Seriously, what do they teach you kids in
school these days?”

Terra
remembered now. Null tech was singularity technology used by the
Forgotten Guns. It could nullify kinetic force and even other
singularity technology, including her shieldwatch. She understood
now. It wasn't possible to beat Samael in a fight. She had to flee.
She had to
survive
.
Terra ran.

Samael did not run. Instead he
followed her as she outpaced him. However, when Terra slowed he
always caught up with her. After it happened again, she hid and spent
more time covering her tracks.

“Aw,” Samael said in a
disappointed tone while searching the small glade Terra had just
left. “I wanted a chase, not hide and seek. That game is lame.”

Terra watched Samael search
the area.

“Don't make me sing!”
Samael yelled.

Terra sighed. “At least he's
loud enough to not lose track of,” she whispered as she looked for
a new hiding place.

Samael continued to search.
“Seriously I am tone deaf. The horror of my singing voice will
drive you from your hiding place to face me. It's a last resort.”

As Terra's gaze passed over
the area, it was then she spotted it. Another gate lay just a few
paces away in another open glade.

While Samael still searched,
Terra moved in the shadows. As she reached the gate, the symbols
appeared again though in a different configuration this time. After
working fast, she aligned the symbols, but the fadeline didn't form.
Instead a holoface with a timer appeared near the gate.

Terra scowled.

“There you are!” Samael
said, stepping into the glade. He took no notice of the gate.

Terra clinched her jaw. She
had no choice now. She couldn't risk the gate drawing Samael's
attention. After gritting her teeth, Terra turned to face Samael and
moved into a defensive stance.

Samael grinned. “Oh? What's
this? Are you seriously going to fight me again?”

Terra's eyes narrowed as she
prepared to attack. “I don't know what your problem is, bu–”

Samael's expression lit up as
though someone had brought up his favorite subject. “Oh! Yes. My
problem is that I hate the Aeon Legion and that they are still
breathing. Bastards.”

Terra hesitated. She could
fight him, but Samael seemed to enjoy talking too much. Terra
preferred a blathering Samael over a murderous Samael. “What's
wrong with the Aeon Legion?”

Samael frowned. “Really? You
don't know? Typical brainless tiro. Even still, you should be able to
figure it out yourself.”

Terra held her ground,
resisting the urge to check back on the timer. “Figure what out?
The Aeon Legion tries to protect history from being destroyed. What's
bad about that?”

Samael scowled. “What's bad
about it? What's bad about it! Are you completely stupid? Protecting
history! Don't you even know what that implies? Have you ever
considered that not all history is worth protecting?”

Terra
grimaced.
That was
a good point
,
she thought.

Samael twirled the gun in his
hand. “We of the Forgotten Guns grew tired of status quo. History
is full of monsters and tyrants. Ever heard of Devin, President for
life of the United States? What about Emperor Ajam, the Eviscerator?
Or Judoc the Terrible, slayer of a thousand tribes?”

“No.”

Samael pointed his fingers
like a gun and put it to his head. “Of course not! Because we
killed them! After the Final War, I began time traveling. I arrived
at Saturn City during the height of the Kings and Queens of Time and
witnessed their many atrocities. However, my time at Saturn City was
not wasted. I found the Archives quite enlightening. Although the
Archives had extensive records of various dictators throughout
history, the details I needed were unavailable.”

“Details?”

“Yes. I needed specific
information on their whereabouts in various places in Time so I went
to the Legacy Library,” he said with a shiver. “Barely made it
out of that place alive, but I found what I needed.”

“What was that?”

Samael smiled. “Case files
and detailed biographic information on every dictator, tyrant, and
serial killer in history. Armed with that knowledge, I formed my own
group of assassins and we took a little trip to their times. We ended
their careers early before they became a problem. The Forgotten Guns
were going to wipe out every bit of scum that made history miserable.
Every would be king and tyrant who crushed their subjects under their
boots, every monster who tortured people for fun. No one could stop
us! We fought against the Legendary Blades as their equals. Then
Silverwind went and found that despicable squire of hers!”

“Silverwind's squire?”
Terra asked, still trying to keep Samael talking.

Samael's expression darkened.
“I don't speak her name. She killed most of my companions. I don't
even know how many are still alive, but I know some of us escaped.
One day they will come for me and when they do we will rebuild the
Forgotten Guns and finish the job. Then we will take down the
ultimate tyrant. The Aeon Legion,” he said, aiming his pistol at
Terra.

Samael fired while Terra
blocked with her shieldwatch. As he drew closer to Terra, her stasis
shield began fading. Right when her shieldwatch shut down the, gate
beeped and activated the fadeline. Terra jumped back into the
fadeline. Samael's image faded and was slowly replaced by a snowy
forest.

Snow flakes fell around Terra.
The silent surroundings brought her fatigue to her attention. Then
the silence abated when Terra heard a whistling noise overhead. She
looked up, but saw nothing. Her eyes widened when the whistling grew
louder and she recognized the sound.