The lights slowly flood into the room as Luke groggily comes to. I can't move my- Luke starts to think. "I can't move!"
"Of course you can't move, I've tied you down," a voice echoes out from the room.
"Who the hell are you?"
"I can't believe you wouldn't recognize me… Especially since I was the one you were looking for, after all."
Luke's vision begins to stabilize as he continues to look around the room. He notices that he was in the same place that he and Adrian were before being knocked out. "I knew you would backstab me you traitorous ba-"
"There were a couple of times you almost saw through it, but never bothered to figure it out. Actually, I think you did know."
"Know what?"
The man causing the voice steps out from under the shadows, and it appears to be Adrian, except a small glitch effect washes over him, removing his disguise as Adrian.
"You…" Luke says. Luke attempts to jostle his way out of the chair, only to find out that his hands and legs are tied to it. Luke then tries to concentrate his flame aura towards his wrists in an attempt to burn the rope.
"Fireproof," the undisguised Adrian says, "I of all people would know your tricks."
"What do you want from me, Narrator?"
"I'm glad you finally called me by name."
"If you're going to kill me, don't even try. You'd be dead before you even lay a finger."
"Don't count on your dad to save you. I've already disconnected the positioning system, so he doesn't even know where you are right now."
"I don't need him to kill you."
"Of course. Oh, and I'll take that amulet around your neck, as well as that one you plan on giving to Nashi."
"How do you-"
"That's for me to know, and for you to never figure out."
The Narrator reaches over to grab the amulet off of Luke's neck, but Luke reels back and headbutts the Narrator in the forehead, sending him tumbling.
"You son of a-" The Narrator starts.
Luke, after causing enough of a distraction, starts violently moving back and forth trying to break the chair he's sitting on. "Come on, damn you," he says. Eventually, he breaks one hand free and attempts to reach for the sword on his back.
"Looking for this?" The Narrator says, wheezing still from the blow from earlier. He holds up the sword Luke was trying to grab. "You think I'd be stupid enough-" The Narrator pauses for a moment, "-to let you keep this?" Luke reaches over to his other hand to try and untie the ropes binding his other arm, but the Narrator holds out his free hand and applies a force energy to Luke's free hand to hold it in place. "Why… Why did you join him?"
"I'm loyal to my father, and even more so to my Lord," Luke states.
"He's brainwashing you, and I'm trying to help." The Narrator drops Luke's sword to the ground. "Just give me the amulet."
"Let go of my hand first."
The Narrator obliges and releases the energy-hold on Luke's hand. Luke then, slowly, reaches into his pocket. The Narrator tenses up slightly, expecting a double-cross.
"This is such a barren planet," The Flame Lord says, landing his fighter ship, "Now where's that city that Luke reported he took over…"
After exiting the ship and flying around the planet for a few minutes, the Flame Lord comes across a desolate city. After moving around, he notices no police or military type people alive or any bodies on the ground, and not many people are roaming the streets.
"You there," the Flame Lord says to one of the passing citizens.
They seem to pay no attention.
"Hey! I'm talking to you. Do not disrespect your new Lord."
After a few minutes, they've already walked away,
"Nobody ignores the Lord of Flame." the Flame Lord says, now approaching the person. "Did you hear me! Do you have cotton in your ears?" The Flame Lord goes to place his hand on their shoulder, but it passes right through them.
"What the hell?" The Flame lord says, mildly shocked, "Wait… Him. This is all his work! He fabricated this city just to lure me out- And now he has my son…" The Flame Lord pauses for a moment before pounding his fist in the street pavement. "He can't be far from here…" The Flame Lord flies off from the city searching for where his son was taken.
Luke holds out a medallion with pitch black gem in the middle, resembling an onyx gem that's been charred to be blackened even more than it should be.
"Interesting," the Narrator says quietly. The Narrator slowly walks up to Luke and takes the medallion from him. "Very interesting. I presume you were going to use this on your sister, to make her act like you. And him, of course." The Narrator taps the back of the medallion three times before setting it down on one of his workstations. While the Narrator sets down the amulet, soft metal scratches can be heard, as if coming from the amulet itself. "Alright Luke. I've prevented you from getting to Nashi, now it's your turn to be saved."
"Get the hell away from me!" Luke yells.
The Narrator walks over to Luke and holds his hand out. Energy envelopes his hand and it begins to glow a pure white. Luke struggles to break free from the chair as the Narrator reaches toward him.
"You won't kill me!" Luke yells.
"I won't kill you," the Narrator says calmly, with the purified energy still in hand, "I'm going to purify the evil in that amulet of yours."
Luke, thinking quickly, starts trying to untie his other hand. Eventually, when the Narrator is mere inches away from Luke, he manages to untie his other hand and shoots a pulse of fire out of his newly freed arm. The recoil from the blast is enough to knock both Luke and the Narrator away from each other. Luke and the Narrator both slowly get up.
"I'm trying to help you Luke, don't you see!" The Narrator shouts. The Narrator fires a ring of purified energy at Luke, which he swiftly dodges.
Luke starts pelting beads of fire at the Narrator, which promptly explode on contact. After the initial explosions, a beam of white energy cuts through the smoke of the flames barely grazing Luke's arm. The pure energy leaves a scorch mark on Luke's shirtsleeve. Luke swipes his hand across the air, and a wave of fire approaches where the beam fired from. The wave of fire connects with the smoke and dissipates on the other side. Then, the Narrator jumps out from behind Luke and grabs him in a nelson hold. Both Luke and the Narrator fall to the ground, and the Narrator attempts to rip the other amulet off around Luke's neck. Luke tries to elbow the Narrator to get him to let go, but it doesn't work and the Narrator grabs ahold of the chain attached to Luke's necklace.
"Take it off!" The Narrator yells.
"Never!" Luke retorts, "It was a gift from my father, the Lord!"
"That's the problem!"
The two continue to wrestle on the ground, the Narrator trying to pry the necklace off of Luke. The Narrator manages to lift it off, but then a few black, slimy, dark tentacles protrude from out of the black gem in the center and pierce through Luke's chest, and the amulet pulls itself back to Luke's body.
"Damn it Luke, this thing is going to kill you!" The Narrator pleads.
Luke whines in pain as the tentacles from the amulet dig further into Luke and lock on to every fiber of muscle and tissue. What the hell is happening to me? Luke thinks.
Luke stops fighting and collapses fully on the ground, face up, with tears beginning to form in his eyes. "Help me," He starts, "Someone… father…"
The Narrator, now off of Luke, attempts to pull the amulet off of Luke's chest. However, the amulet is fully embedded in Luke's skin.
"Damn it," the Narrator says. He charges a beam of purified energy and charges it, pointing it to the amulet. The Narrator fires it, and Luke cries in pain even more. "Damn you," the Narrator says to the amulet. Before he can continue, he hears a blast up ahead of him. "Shit, he's here," The Narrator says, before bending his energy to create a portal gateway.
"Luke!" The Flame Lord yells while blasting a boulder with a concentrated explosion. "Where are you?" Continuing to scan the area, he notices a hatch in the floor. "There you are you rat ba-" the Flame Lord starts before shooting a concentrated beam of energy at the hatch. The Flame Lord flies down toward the hatch and enters it.
After climbing down the ladder, the Flame Lord sees Luke on the ground, writhing in pain. "Where are you, Narrator?"
He gets no response.
"Father… please, help me," Luke says, weakly.
"Right…" The Flame Lord says in an unforgiving tone.
The Flame bends down to meet Luke face to face, and looks at the amulet. The Flame Lord can barely see the tentacles writhing underneath Luke's skin, and he grabs ahold of the amulet embedded in Luke's chest. Then, carefully, the Flame Lord quickly yanks out the amulet, and it, along with the blood covered tentacles. The appendages writhe around as the Flame Lord holds it, and he uses his other hand to shoot blasts of concentrated dark energy at it. The tentacles wither and fall off the amulet, and it resumes its charred, dark luster.
"Get up," the Flame Lord commands Luke.
Slowly, Luke rises to his feet, shaken by the events that have transpired.
The Flame Lord tosses the amulet back over to Luke. "Put it back on."
"But-" Luke starts.
"Put it on Luke. That's an order."
"That thing almost-"
"That's an order Luke, from your father."
"Did you not see the-"
"Put. It. On."
Reluctantly, Luke slides the amulet back around his neck. When it lands on his chest, a small amount of energy pulsates out of the gem in the center.
"Do you feel better?" The Flame Lord asks?
"Yes, much better."
"Good. I've imbued more energy into your amulet to make sure such an incident cannot occur again."
"What happened? I don't remember much from the altercation."
"The Narrator charmed your amulet to release the energy in your amulet." The Flame Lord is stone-faced while saying this. "He made it take physical shape, and used it against you. He wants you dead, Luke. He wants all of us dead." The Flame Lord looks down and away toward the floor, and flashes a small grin to himself, that only he can see. He then sharply turns back to Luke. "Did you see where the Narrator went, Luke?"
"H- He opened a portal, and left."
"He… left? He left!" The Flame Lord tries to hide his anger, but to no avail. "He was right there, and you let him leave?"
"I'm sorry, but he took me by surprise."
"I didn't have you trained by our finest military officers for you to be taken by 'surprise', Luke! We'll capture him another day. For now, Luke… Get that amulet around Nashi's neck." The Flame Lord looks over toward the amulet that the Narrator left over on his workstation.
Luke walks over to the amulet and picks it up. "Yes… father."