Previous part: Origins of the Whirlwind, Part seven: Beginning of the End
Alright, now let’s start
Before the war truly got underway, back in the meeting between Khaita and Tyrrahn, and the great being Ekimu, Tyrrahn knelt as Khaita’s ship flew away. “Whatever this mission may be, I will gladly accept. It is an honor to serve you, Ekimu.” Tyrrahn said, and Ekimu nodded.
“Please, stand” Ekimu replied kindly. “Khaita has much potential, and I do not doubt that they can become powerful enough to defeat this threat, even without the elemental stones. However, I worry that their feelings are too strong, and may get them into trouble, especially with the mission I give to you” Ekimu’s words were serious, and the anticipation of what this mission could be sent Tyrrahn’s mind whirling. “Might alone will not win the coming war, we must be cunning as our enemies. Tyrrahn, you must infiltrate this coalition of villains, and you must ensure that only you and I know the truth. Anyone else knowing could jeopardize your mission.” At that, Tyrrahn made to interrupt Ekimu, as he did not want to betray Khaita again, but Ekimu quickly cut him off “especially, not Khaita, as they are too emotionally invested in you. Do you understand Tyrrahn?”
“I understand” Turrahn said, then they turned toward their ship to begin their mission. Plans on how to invade the ranks of the smartest, most vile people in the known universe were already whirring through his head, and in the back of his mind, he tamped down the heartache of betraying the one he loved once again…
Now, back in the present.
Caesar stomped through the halls Tyronia Maxus, the Villain collective’s starship base of operations. As always, he was angry. Angry at that slimy Traitor Toa Tyrrahn, the man who had taken his place as head strategist and engineer. It wasn’t fair, Caesar was one of the greatest evil minds out there, yet he was overshadowed by a darned toa! But finally, amongst the chaos of this final battle, he could get his revenge and finally kill that wannabe villain and pretend it was a casualty of war. Caesar turned a corner, and there he was, Tyrrahn “the Shadow” himself… and a toa in green and gold. Quickly, Caesar lifted up his arm-mounted disintegration beam at the mystery Toa, but the two of them had already noticed Caesar. Faster than Caesar could even scream, the green and gold Toa appeared in front of him as though they had teleported and sliced clean through Caesar’s torso. As his body fell cleanly into two parts, Caesar coughed up on final question “who are you?!” He graveled as blood filled his mouth. But the green and gold Toa was already gone, and Tyrrahn just ran right over Caesar, stepping on his face before everything went black. One final insult was the last thing that Caesar thought.
Pictures of Caesar:
As Tyrrahn and Khaita approached the bridge, Tyrrahn got a message over his intercom.
“Tyrrahn, are you there?” It was Selena, leader of the villain collective. Tyrrahn signaled for Khaita to stop, then activated his com to respond.
“Yes I’m here, what is it?” His voice had dropped back into that cold, robotic drawl that Khaita had first heard him use in the launch bay.
“I’ve lost contact with Briselda and Hexadrone, I’m worried we’ve been infiltrated. Have you seen either of them?”
“I was with Hexadrone in the launch bay 19.5 minutes ago, but since then I have seen neither of them.”
“Understood, report to the bridge immediately, we must reconvene and prepare for this threat. Silence for now, off” and with that, her communication with Tyrrahn ended.
“It appears our antics have finally been noticed” Khaita said, a small smile creeping onto their face. In the nearly twenty minutes they had been creeping around ship, the two had started to loosen up, become less awkward with one another. They had even started to have a bit of fun. Even so, they both knew the implication of this conversation, and began to strategize. They figured that Kruphix had likely had a similar conversation and would also be in the bridge, meaning it would be a 2 on 2 rather than a 2 on 1 fight. There was also the potential that it was a trap, and that Selena knew that Tyrrahn was a traitor. They decided that Tyrrahn would go into the bridge normally, while Khaita snuck in through a vent. Once Khaita was in place, Tyrrahn entered the bridge.
Khaita
Chaos erupted immediately, as Kruphix came from the side in an attempt to grab hold of Tyrrahn. Fortunately for Tyrrahn, he had been expecting this as a potential and activated the jet on his axe to launch him out of the way. Then Selena came from the other side of Tyrrahn with her sword, which clashed with Khaita’s shield as they teleported between Tyrrahn and Selena using their Kualsi. Tyrrahn drew his axe and created two illusions of himself as Kruphix took an aim with his energy blaster. Tyrrahn charged and created more illusions to throw of Kruphix’s aim, sending several blasts of shadow as return fire.
Tyrrahn:
Meanwhile, Khaita was surprised by Selena’s strength and was knocked back by her attack. They then teleported behind and above her and slashed down with their sword only for Selena to disappear into thin air. Before Khaita had a chance to land from the aerial attack, the felt pain as a sword clipped their shins, which caused them to reflexively teleport across the room to avoid major damage. When they saw that Selena was nowhere to be seen in the room, and that attack had seemed to come from nowhere, Khaita realized that Selena must have some sort of invisibility power, which would explain in part how she got away from them the first time. With that, they unsheathed their wind daggger with the air stone on it and threw it, using air to spin the dagger around them faster and faster, making head on attacks nearly impossible, then they honed the wind around them so that they could sense if Selena attacked them.
Selena:
As Tyrrahn and his illusions got closer and closer the Kruphix, he began to retreat out of the bridge, which was a relief for Tyrrahn, as he was afraid that Khaita’s wind dagger might go out of control. However, then the smaller hallway, his illusions were not nearly as helpful, and Kruphix sneered as Tyrrahn followed him the trap. Kruphix then began charging his weapon to prepare for as large attack that would take up most of the space in the hallway, leaving no way for Tyrrahn to dodge. But Tyrrahn, who had been with the group for so long knew about this capability of Kruphix’s weapon, and had prepared for it. Knowing that the weapon was light based, Tyrrahn created a shield of darkness that would sallow up the light of the attack, right before Kruphix released the blast. Kruphix looked at what he expected to be just ash as Tyrrahn made a mad dash toward him, propelling himself using the jet on his axe. Kruphix barely dodged a lethal attack, but one of his wings was cut off by the attack.
Kruphix:
Khaita slowly walked across the room, focusing on the wind around them. Then they felt it, an attack from above, they moved to block with their shield then attack with their sword, but once again Selena’s strength and speed caught them off guard and the staggered back, missing their slash as Selena dodged out of the way. Khaita could feel that she was still within their air field, too close for the spinning knife to cut her. Khaita began moving the spinning knife closer in an attempt to flush her out, but she made one more strike at their head before leaving the circle , which Khaita barely dodged, sustaining a small cut on the cheek of their mask. Selena made another aerial attack, but this time Khaita was ready. They teleported directly behind her (as far as they could tell from the wind they were focusing on) and slashed down fast, using the wind to speed up their blade. They contacted something hard, with no indication of damage despite the powerful attack, likely meaning she had block their strike with her shield. But Khaita wasn’t done, and continued to fall right on top of her, boxing her in with their spinning dagger. They sped up their decent with wind and fire and pinned her against the ground with their shield.
Meanwhile, Kruphix had begun raining down attacks on Tyrrahn with the crystal blades on the ends of their upper arms, and Tyrrahn could do nothing but defend using his axe and one of his slasher hooks. Kruphix was trying to keep him in one place while his weapon recharged, and when it did, Keuphix was distracted for just a moment. But with that tiny opening Tyrrahn activated his jet axe and launched it into Kruphix’s side, taking a glancing blow from in of the crystal blades to his shoulder. Kruphix screamed and Tyrrahn took this opportunity to slide under Kruphix and slash up his spine with his slasher hook. The light in Kruphix’s eyes flickered out and he fell to the ground. Tyrrahn retrieved his axe from Kruphix’s side as he stepped over his body and ran back to the bridge to help Khaita.
Khaita thought they had won, as the prepared to take the finishing blow, but for the third time, Selena’s strength amazed Khaita, as she shoved them off like they were nothing, tossing them against the wall of the bridge, causing them to lose concentration on the gust dagger, which flew off wildly, slashing Selena’s leg and sticking into the ceiling. Khaita lifted their head up and tried to recover from the heavy blow, but Selena was on them as fast as a cheetah. Only this time, Khaita could see the blood leaking out of the gash on her leg. They rolled out of the way of the attack, which slashed deep into the wall, then teleported to the other side of Selena, standing up as they did so. Khaita kept using their Kualsi to dodge Selena’s attacks but couldn’t seem to find an opening in her guard, despite being able to get a better visual sense of where she was. The Tyrrahn came back into the bridge, and now it was two on one. Realizing her situation Selena covered her wound so was to be completely invisible and began a tactical retreat.
But Khaita was ready. They had just retrieved their gust dagger and Tyrrahn was using hand signals and calculations, telling Khaita when and where to throw the dagger. Then, he gave the signal, and Khaita’s aim was true (partially due to the aid of some wind). The gust dagger went straight through Selena’s heart, causing her invisibility to drop. She gasped and fell to the floor, barely a foot away from the bridge door. She stood back up as Tyrrahn and Khaita approached her and she assumed a fighting stance. But with her mortal wound, she stood no chance, and the two easily disarmed her and knocked her back to the ground.
“Call off your armies” Khaita growled, placing their sword by her neck. Selena laughed, not like someone who has gone crazy, but like someone who knew something you didn’t. Then she wheezed and laughed up blood.
“No, because They will be here soon, and they will finish what I started.” Selena declared, her words beginning to slur. Then she breathed in heavily, laughed one last time, and then the light in her eyes flickered out. Tyrrahn and Khaita looked at one another, then back at the sparking corpse of Selena.
“Let’s hope that was bluff, one last desperate act of a dying leader to scare us” Khaita said warily.
“Yeah, because this they could imply more than one thing, and frankly I don’t like to think about that.
…
In the darkness, a figure sits on a throne, flames flickering around them. They press a button on the armrest of the throne, and a massive fiery red hole rips open in space beyond the glass window of the bridge. The space ship begins to move toward the hole, and the figure chuckles. “Last one”
