As the night grew late, everyone began heading to bed. The Guild Master, Polaris and Hexxit stayed up tending a fire on the beach.
"I really hate to ask this. I know it will be painful, but could you tell me what happened? To the others?"
"Polaris you don't..."
"We were training in the fields near our old wooden fort... It was just like yesterday...."
Polaris's voice fades into a flashback playing in his mind as he told the story of that faithful day....
"Come on Polaris! Is that all you've got?"
"Belvidere, shut up!" Laughed Polaris knocking his friend to the ground. With a hand, Polaris pulled Belvidere up.
"Seem like yesterday we were stopping a horde of demonic monsters."
"That it does. Hardly seems like five years have passed."
"Maybe for you! Not all of use live as long as the stars do."
Polaris and Belvidere laugh as the others race towards them.
"Anomaly detected! Polaris! Belvidere! GET READY!"
As the Wilderness Initiative draw their weapons and ready their magic, a portal opens and out steps a man.
"My name is Flynn Jameson. As of this moment, you are all property of Flight-Tech Industries."
"You mean slaves? Pal, you have no idea who we are. We are more than capable of taking you on."
"No... You're not."
A green wave of energy leaves Flynn's body and knocks almost everyone out. Scientists exit the portal and behind dragging members of Wilderness into it. Belvidere was tossed next to Polaris on the the cold lab floor. She opened her eyes to see Polaris slaughtering scientists to keep them away from her... away from everyone. Powerdrive threw a soldier through the glass of the lab. Hexxit healed her. Once she way on her feet, she saw the cruel horror of this Flight-Tech Industries. Her friends were being hacked into pieces, used as lab rats, used as experiments. Many had already died. Her lover, Polaris, was fighting this Flynn Jameson. With his a simply movement, he shielded her as Flynn tried to kill them both. In a desperate move, Polaris shoved Belvidere into the portal and once he was sure she'd made it, sliced the portal ring into pieces.
"You... Will never set foot back on those lands."
"Maybe so, but thanks to your little resistance, I now have blood and gore to clean up. Soldiers, take those not in chairs, active experiments or dead into holding cells. I will deal with them later."
Polaris tried to fight them off, but he was severely beaten, bruised and bloodied up. Kbar helped move him to a cell, then had his eyes beaten for helping.
Months went by and their numbers dwindled. Polaris was forced to train the few elementals that Flight had brought in from his dimension. Polaris was beaten and scarred worse than when he'd first arrived at Wilderness's doorstep. Ten years went by and only Polaris, Archimedes, Hexxit, Veldspar, Arris and Powerdrive were left alive. The day they were to be killed, the World Government raided Flight-Tech Industries and rescued the six still alive. Flight and the Troopers claimed ignorance to any wrong doing and were never tried. The Nellis Compound was shutdown for good, and the six forced to live under the eyes of the government. However, in the last five years they were there, the government suspended the supervision, allowing Flight-Tech to take over where they had started....
After fifteen years, we came back here expecting to see everything as it was... Only to find that generations had passed. I still have no idea as to the fate of Belvidere, nor those who weren't taken.
The Guild Master lowered his head. "Allow me...."
"Belvidere lives in the capital, aiding the King in monitoring for such disturbances that robbed her of all of you. As for the others.... Nobody wasn't taken. This Flynn Jameson you speak of, returned until he was sure he'd captured enough. Then one day... He never returned. All 87, minus Belvidere, making 86 of you, were captured and killed. You six and Belvidere, are the last heroes of Wilderness. My father told me to keep up hope that all of you would return. I won't lie when I say that it became harder and harder to believe..."
"I don't blame you. We never anticipated this."
The four others joined in on the conversation. Veldspar passed out bottles of his own vodka.
"A toast... To friends lost, friends found and friends soon to be returned to us."
"To all of you... May your souls rest in peace."
They all drank then sat in silence for a moment.
"What will you do now?"
"I will venture to the capital. I must tell Belvidere that we survived."
"Wait, she's alive?"
"Yes. As a dark elf, she is the only one who can try to match Polaris here in lifespan."
Polaris stood up in silence and went to his room. Passing out for the night.