Holly, Tanya, Robin and Blake wake up as a sack was taken off of their heads. They were tied to metal chairs which were bolted down to a cement floor in a dark and barely lit room. They couldn't see where the room began, the door the ceiling or where the room ended. All they could see was each other, their chairs, the floor and Jacob McNamara. Though, all of their vision was slowly becoming more and more blurry as endo-poisoning was setting in. "Where are we?" Blake asks in a tired tone. "How did we get here?"
"I assure you, taking you out was but a simple task" Jacob says. "Especially as it seemed you're all dealing with endo-poisoning. To think you'd spend a day inside Dead Crater. Nobody can survive down there for that long, and we certainly don't have any suit that can filter something like Endoindustria. So, tell me... I'm dying to know-" Jacob then slips on leather gloves that had armor like metal plates around the knuckles, fingers and a flexible metal pad with a charm carved into it on the palms. "I would like to know what you found down there."
"Bite me" Holly says without hesitation. However, Jacob responded to Holly's attitude immediately with the back of his hand, slapping Holly across the face so hard that she would've fallen out of her chair if it weren't for being bolted to the ground. "Fuck you" Holly spits as blood starts to slowly drip from her lips.
"It's a shame too" Jacob says. "We have the equipment here to cure your poisoning. But I'll be damned, I'm just having a hard time feeling motivated to go fetch it."
"I really don't have the patience right now for this" Tanya says. "Can't you just let us die in peace?"
"Die?" Jacob asks. "No... no... you're gonna go through much worse than death."
"What is your aim?" Holly asks.
"You really want to know what was in that dump site so bad?" Tanya asks.
"Dump site?" Jacob asks. "Oh, you mean Dead Crater? I don't give a shit about Dead Crater. Not anymore, at least. No, I was just a little curious what you saw. I know that pretty much all that's down there is trash and rubble. No, we have plans for you. You're going to be our lure for bringing The Six Guns out of Omnia and out of our way."
"Jokes on you" Holly says. "If you're expecting them to come to our rescue, then I'm afraid it's not going to happen."
Jacob grabs Holly by the throat as his gloves began to heat up with elemental magic. He starts burning the skin on Holly's neck as he grabs on tight. "You better hope they come for you" he says as Holly screams from the immense pain. "Because if they don't, you'll be stuck in a true hell for the rest of your life." Jacob finally releases Holly's neck and the rest could see her neck was a bright red with a blackened hand print around her throat as some of her skin received third degree burns on the surface but second degree burns everywhere else. The reality of their situation began to settle in as Holly, Robin and Blake began to hyperventilate. Holly, from the sheer pain she was in, as tears rolled down her face from the agony and frustration. Robin and Blake though had let fear take control. Tanya on the other hand, studied all of Jacob's movements as kept her eyes locked on him, trying to remain calm.
Jacob eventually left the room. A large metal vault-like door opened and bright light filled the room for a short moment. However, the team couldn't see the room was a cement box with no windows and minimal, computer controlled ventilation. When the vault door opened, the light was too bright and caused all of them to close their eyes from the sudden pain. After they finally opened their eyes, that's when they noticed that when Jacob left, the only source of light they previously had left with him. After another day, Jacob McNamara returned, entering through that vault door. The crew was starving and sick. The poisoning was getting worse and worse. However, Jacob walked up behind each of them and placed a cold slab of aluminum in each of their hands. The aluminum had some strange charm etched into it, but holding it in their hands strangely made them feel just a little better. Just to the point where they could open their eyes. Jacob walks in front of them, his light spell lighting up their faces as they winced in pain from the light. One look at Holly, and Jacob immediately says "Damn, look at the mess you made." Holly coughed as she found it hard to reply. "Not talking now, are we?" Jacob says with a smile.
Tanya looks over at Holly and saw small yellow blisters all over her neck from the burns. "Oh no..." she says softly.
"In case you're wondering about using those charms to get out of here" Jacob says as he looks at all of them, "don't. What I placed in your hands is a siphon charm. It only works on a very small scale. However, it will be just enough to keep the poisoning from killing you... but not enough to make you stop being sick. So, without further ado, let me become more familiar here." Jacob takes out some papers as he reads over it. "First off, we have Robin Hood. Ah, yes. We know all about you and your father. Garreth Hood of the late Mages Guild. A strong government force that you helped destroy. Tch tch tch... then we have Blake Russel. You're from... Creedey? Wow, talk about remote childhood. One of the islands off the coast of the mainland in Creedey, a small location called Yeisha. You sound like you had a sheltered childhood. Then of course there Holly Jeong. Born in Seoul, grew up practically all over the place as the infamous hacker, Holly. You've made quite the track record. We had an absolute field day pulling your records. And, last but not least, Tanya Branely... quite the mysterious one, aren't we?"
Tanya replies with an unenthusiastic "Hah..."
"Only records of you are from your daughter's birth certificate. We don't even know if Branely is your real last name. Hell, we don't even know if Tanya is your real first name. So, tell me, what is your real name and who are your parents? Where did you come from? Who are you really, Tanya Branely?"
"Bite me" Tanya scoffs.
Jacob back hands Tanya across the face so hard that her neck makes a quiet pop as he spine was readjusted. "I will ask a second time" he says. "But I will not ask a third time... your real last name. Give it."
Tanya pauses, then says "Mehauf..."
"Mehauf?" Jacob asks. "How do you spell it?"
"M... E... H... A-U-F" Tanya answers as blood drips from her mouth.
"First name" Jacob asks.
"Jack" Tanya says with a smile. Jacob brings his hands up to his nose and rubs the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Jack Mehauf. Y'know? If you wanna learn how to spell it, first you can take your hand, and go fu-" Suddenly, Tanya was interrupted by being slapped again.
Jacob then grabbed Tanya's leg and electrocuted her with elemental magic. He kept holding onto Tanya as she convulsed for almost a minute, until he finally let her go and she passed out. "Real funny..." he says. "Anybody else got some jokes?" Jacob waits a few minutes as he looks around. He then grabs the aluminum charms out of their hands and leaves the room again. A long time passes before the crew is woken up again with a bucket of ice-cold water being thrown onto them. "Wakey wakey" Jacob says. "I know you guys like jokes, so I thought I'd cheer you up with one. So what's the difference between a Six Gun and a knife stand?" The room was silent as all their heads hung low from the effects of the poisoning getting worse. "No?" Jacob asks. "Nobody? You see, the punchline is-" and Jacob immediately drives a Kabar knife into Robin's thigh. Robin screams in horrible agony as the knife is left in his leg, blood slowly leaking out from between the torn skin and the blade. "A knife stand doesn't scream!" Jacob yells over Robin's screams. "It's funny, no!?" The room was still silent, aside from Robin's screams. "I get quite bored, having to look over you four" Jacob says as he tosses the aluminum siphons on their laps. "At the very least, I want you to help me pass the time. Do so, and I'll use more potent siphons to remove more of your poisoning. Don't comply, and I'll slowly tear you limb from limb. ¿Comprende?"
"You must be a really lonely man, McNamara" Blake says.
Jacob leaves the knife inside of Robin's leg and walks over to Blake. "Mr Russel" Jacob says. "Do you know how many ribs the average human has?" Blake was silent as Jacob continued. "Because the average adult has twenty-four ribs. Twenty-four! Isn't that amazing." Jacob then jabs Blake in the side of his abdomen with his fingers and grabs onto Blake's ribcage. "You, however, Blake Russel, are less than average. You only have twenty-three!" Jacob then twists and pulls at the same time until a loud snap could be heard. At first, Blake was silent with his mouth open and gasping for air in horror, until the pain finally took hold, and he began to scream in pain. "I'm getting tired of this!" Jacob yells at them. "I just want some small talk to pass the time as I wait for your stupid little crew to show up and play hero! Unless you want to end it all and tell me where I can find them, you'll never see outside of these walls!"
"It's not that we aren't giving you information that's making you angry" Holly says gently as her throat throbs in pain. "You're just mad that you're losing the fight and you can't even find the rest of the crew to stop them." Jacob grew visibly more stressed as Holly continues. "Think about it, we were all the way here in America while the rest are fighting somewhere out there. They don't even need us in the fight. Plus, what makes you think they're even needing to fight back against the likes of you? You're nothing... you'll always be nothing. Just another man that lost a war. Meanwhile, you're losing to a country that doesn't even have a government or a military anymore."
Jacob raises his hand to slap Holly again, but Tanya interrupts him. "Man, imagine losing to a bunch of rednecks with guns. Omnians are definitely bred from Americans. Rednecks with guns and no government restrictions."
"We are their government!" Jacob yells as he starts to lose control on his anger. "We are their military!"
"And you're still losing? Damn, talk about a loser."
Jacob uses buff magic and punches Tanya in the stomach so hard that the bolts on the chair broke as you could hear a snap from one of her ribs breaking as well. "American people have a naturally higher capacity for magic than anyone else!" Jacob yells. "If there's any possible reason we'd be losing a war, it's either because of your crew or other Americans. Those are the only people that can defeat us! You better watch your mouth when talking to me, because your little captain of your misfit crew? He's next!"
Jacob storms out of the room in a fit of rage to cool off. After he leaves, when the crew finally stops screaming from the pain, they took a while to collect their breath and try to assess their situation. Tanya found that she could now move her chair, but her hands and legs were still tied to the chair with a thick rope. Feeling around with her feet, she noticed that part of the chair's legs at the base bent outward and had little holes in it where the bolts screw into the floor. However, because of Jacob, some of those were snapped. And snapped or torn metal has a sharp edge. She started fidgeting with her legs to slowly move the rope down further towards her ankles. After a while, Holly noticed this. "What are you doing?" She asks.
"Whatever I can" Tanya says. "What's it look like?"
"We don't know if he's coming back" Holly says.
"Well, we're dead if we try, and dead if we don't" Tanya says. "Shit in one hand and piss in the other. Which do you prefer?"
Holly thinks for a moment and then remembers. "Hey, I'm not sure what you're doing" Holly says, "but if Jacob left so quick, do you think he left that knife in Robin's leg?"
"I can't see it..." Robin says between sniffles, "but I think it's still there... I don't want to think about it right now..."
"It's too damn dark!" Tanya complains. Suddenly, Tanya felt a tug as the rope got tighter but angled lower. She finally caught part of the rope on the sharp part of the metal. She starts tugging back and forth for hours on end. Slowly, strand by strand, the rope was breaking. Eventually though, the rope snapped on one leg. She then used that leg to break the other rope faster. She was finally able to stand up, but her hands were still bound to the chair. Unable to move even her fingers, she waddled her way around the room, kicking around gently with her toes, and feeling where the rest of the crew was. When she kicked one leg, she heard Holly respond. "What the hell?" Holly asked. "Wait, you can move!?"
"Shhhh!" Tanya harshly whispers. Tanya moved to the next chair, feeling around the room with her toes until she accidentally kicked Blake. Then she made it over to Robin. "Robin! Robin!" She says. "I need you to listen to me very carefully. I'm sorry for this, but we're going to have to remove the knife from your leg. Are you ready for this?"
"What am I going to need to do here?" Robin asks.
"I can only move my feet" Tanya says. "So, I'm going to have to use both of my feet here to quickly pull it out. I know it's gross, but can you hold the knife in your teeth with all of your life?"
"You're going to pass the knife up to my face in the dark?" Robin asks.
"Do you see any other option?" Tanya asks. "Are you ready?"
"I'm ready" Robin replies.
Tanya sits back in her chair, facing Robin and quickly yanks the knife out of his leg. Robin briefly screams in pain, but his screams helped Tanya better find where his mouth was. She sticks the knife in his mouth, placing the handle in his mouth sideways. Robin bites down hard, hyperventilating and growling from the pain, but sticking with the plan to the best of his abilities. Tanya gently feels the blade sticking out of the right side of Robin, and she stands up and walks to his side. "Bite down hard" she says. "I'm going to need you to cut me out of here! As soon as I'm free, I can use magic to cauterize and patch the hole in your leg! Just hold out for me!"
"They took our charms though" Blake says as he reels back in his chair, disheartened by Robin's screams.
"Not all of them" Tanya says. "They couldn't confiscate the charms tattooed on my shoulders. But I can't used magic if I can't even feel my hands or move my fingers."
"Come on, Robin..." Holly says hoarsely. "You're our only hope right now!"
"I think I'm finally starting to wake up" Siran says as he still lays in Valhalla. "But, I still have a burning question on my mind. Or rather, a couple. Why did Chronos split himself up?"
"I do not know of that man's goals" Gaia says. "I can't tell what he's thinking at all."
"So, his motives are unknown..." Siran says. "But, where has he been during all of this?"
"Honestly?" Gaia asks. "I don't know, and that only scares me more. But, he was the one that unbound Naris from me after I was taken to Valhalla by Odin and Nyx."
"He what!?" Siran asks.
"I have no idea what his endgame is" Gaia says. "He's always passed everything off as boredom or any small thing like that, but a man like Chronos only always has an ultimatum."
"I haven't seen him make a move though" Siran says.
"You never do" Gaia says. "Nobody does. Chronos is just like that. Always moving in the background. Perhaps, Nyx can understand him more, but... she's protecting Valhalla. Her hands are full as we speak."
"I'm not interested in getting more involved" Siran says. "Still invested in the process of removing the gods' involvement with humans. Ares is at the top of my list for now."
"Be careful" Gaia says. "That list just might go higher than you could imagine... we don't know yet why some gods started moving on their own or how they got away from Valhalla."
"I'll keep that in mind." Siran says. "Thanks."
"If it still means anything..." Gaia says, "I still love you, and the many versions of you."
Siran suddenly hears the sounds of machines making continuous beeping noises as he begins to open his eyes. The room at first looked like Valhalla, as any amount of light would immediately obscure Siran's vision as he's been asleep for a very long time. Siran tries to move his arms, but he felt suddenly really weak and sick. The muffled sounds of talking could be heard as a series of blurry figures surrounded Siran, all loudly talking in surprise and shock, but Siran couldn't understand any of it. He passed out for another five minutes and woke back up. This time, he could see the figures clearly. There was Benjie, Demetri, Silas, Carl, Dana, Ali and John Frueder. "What the hell?" Siran asks. "What the hell is going on?"
"Dad!" Silas says. Silas looked a bit older than Siran last remembered. Siran was confused but mostly numb all over.
"It's about time you woke up" John says. "You owe me a favor, and I want to cash that check right about now."
"What are you talking about?" Siran asks.
"You've been gone for too long" John says. "The world's messed up, and I want you to help me out for letting you hide out here. Especially since nobody can seem to find Zia."
"What... what?" Siran asks in disbelief.
"Siran, do not panic" Demetri says. "Focus. How many fingers am I holding up?"
"Three" Siran says. "W-what's gong on?"
"You were in coma" Demetri replies. "It has been... two years." Suddenly, the beeping on one of the machines rapidly grew faster as Siran began to panic and his heartbeat increased. "A lot has changed since battle with Zeus. There is a lot that you should be caught up on. Zeus and Eris are dead. Ares is at large. Thomas Holland, British Secret Service agent is dead. The crew is mostly split up. America is losing the war in Omnia as other Americans are joining our side, but the world is still covered in black skies. Also... Zia, the one who took down Thomas Holland... went missing. Nobody has seen her. She's now been gone for about one year, and we are in Vega now."
"Rise and shine, shithead" John says. "You better wake up and stretch soon. You have work to do."