Ch11-5: Full Circle
The ground trembled, sending Ben stumbling against the wall of the hallway. A terrible, inhuman sound rang through the very core of the Lunar Fortress. Something about it left him shaking all over, a cold pit of dread filling his stomach.
“We’re not going to make it!” Edge shouted. He, too, was thrown on his face, jolted by the sudden motion of the earth.
Somewhere in the back of Ben’s mind he could sense the final release of power. Perhaps it was due to the last thread of connection he had to Incrytan, but he knew when the Moon Crystals were no more. The air crackled with energy as Ben pushed himself back on his feet, peering around with a questioning look. He had the itchy feeling that something important was missing.
Everything became absolutely still. Aside from the occasional rain of crumbled stone from the walls above, there was not a sound to be heard in the Lunar Fortress. One by one, his companions began to rise, heads shaking with puzzled frowns.
“Is it over?” Cecil asked coughing out a stream of sand-dust.
“I think so…” Ben nodded slowly.
“The Moon Crystals?” Rydia asked with a stunned face.
“Gone,” he answered.
“But then… why are we still here? How is this place standing?” Edge brushed off the front of his tunic with a frown.
“I don’t know,” Ben spread his hands.
“It can’t be just luck,” the Ninja fixed his bandanna. “That place was falling apart in there. Something has to be up.”
“We should go back and look,” Cecil took a few steps back the way they came.
“Wait…” Ben’s voice wavered as everything clicked. He knew now why he had felt as if something was wrong. “Where’s Chase?”
“He wasn’t with you?” Rosa’s eyes widened in concern.
“No… Cecil? I thought he stayed back with you?” the Master Wizard’s face paled.
The Paladin gave a quick breath, “He was. But I haven’t seen him since Joran appeared…”
“Oh no!” Ben hissed. A million terrible scenarios ran through his mind – images of the poor child being crushed to death. Or burned away in the vortex of flaming energy. Or swallowed up by a crack in the floor. So many things that could have happened. All of which sent him dashing back the way they had come without a second thought.
The others followed without an argument. The way to the once-Crystal Room was littered here and there with fallen stone and tipped furniture. But overall, the damage that was done was far less than it should have been. Especially when he had hardly expected the fortress to be left standing after the destructive impact of all eight Crystals.
Ben rounded the final corner to find the hallway leading to the chamber coated in a fine crystal dust. The room was far dimmer now with the painful lack of Crystals to illuminate it. It was replaced by a flickering shift of light flowing in a wide ovular pattern at the far end of the room.
A rift? Here?
The room was silent. There was no sign of Joran or Incrytan. Nothing left of the living stones that had once rested there. A lump caught in Ben’s throat as his footsteps echoed dully from the buckled walls.
“Chase?” he called into the dimness. “Chase, where are you?”
He has to be here somewhere. I saw no trace of him in the hallway. Unless he was taken. Or completely…
His mind shied away from such a terrible thought, heartbeat coming faster in his chest. Time and time again, Ben had argued against allowing the boy to come with them. Had argued the dangers of their quest. He had feared for the safety of the boy and now the worst had come to pass. But somehow, the boy always slipped through the cracks.
“Golbez!” came a call from the other side of the room. Edge was stooped over, reaching down behind one of the pillars. “Over here!”
Scrabbling through the Crystal dust, the Half Lunar rushed over. The Ninja was brushing dust and debris from the pale and limp form of a young boy.
“Chase? Chase!!” Ben dropped to his knees right there, using his cloak to clean the child’s face. There was just one tiny trickle of blood along his forehead. But to the Master Wizard’s relief, he could feel the faint rise and fall of breath within the boy’s body.
At the sound of his name, Chase began to rouse. He gave a hoarse cough as his gold eyes slowly opened, focusing on the face above him. Then he smiled. “Ben..?”
“I’m right here,” the Half Lunar answered, gently lifting the boy up in his arms. Cradling his head and stroking his hair. “You’re safe…”
“Is everybody… okay…?” his little voice creaked.
“Yes. We’re fine. Everyone is fine.”
“The castle…?”
“The fortress is still here, too,” Ben gave a soft laugh. “You should be more worried about yourself.”
“I’m glad,” Strangely, the boy just smiled all the more. Then his head turned in the direction of the rift. “Ben…”
The Master Wizard paused, following the boy’s gaze with his own. The light tripped and wavered in a rippling pattern. A rift still very much open. Left open for a reason.
“She took Incrytan there,” Chase struggled with the words. “To the Red Moon. Where Luccious will be.”
Ben wasn’t sure how the boy knew these things. But he had learned not to ask… to simply trust and accept the truth for what it was.
When the Half Lunar didn’t respond, the boy urged, “You have to go there. Joran is in danger.”
I know…
He took in a ragged breath.
But what can I do? I’ve already failed her… she’s been taken by Luccious.
Ben rose to his feet, gathering Chase up as he did.
What can I do? We can’t hope to fight him as only a half Sygnus. And Cecil. He’s the hero… he should be the one.
“He is right. You must go,” the soft voice of Sparrow rose in the chamber. The winged girl now stood by the rift, her dark eyes glittering. Where she had been during all that had just happened, Ben didn’t know. She had a way of coming and going at her own whims.
“Golbez,” Uncle Fu murmured. “Bring the human child here. I will look after him.”
The Half Lunar felt something in his throat tighten. But he nodded and slowly carried Chase over to where the ancient Lunar stood. Then wrapping the boy in his cloak, Ben set him down, propped against the wall. He could only stare down with a deep reluctance.
“Don’t worry, Ben. I’ll be fine,” Chase smiled encouragingly.
Still, Ben gave a long, regretful breath.
“Go… fight with the blessings of your father’s people,” Uncle Fu spoke, unexpectedly.
The Master Wizard’s shoulders straightened in response. And he felt the touch of his brother’s hand on his arm. As their green eyes met, neither said a word. There was nothing that needed to be said. Just the two of them and the unknown that waited before them both.
The moment was broken at the sound of Edge’s sudden exclamation, “Alright! Let’s go rescue your girl, Golbez, and kick some Sygnus ass!”
Rydia just groaned, planting her face in one palm.
“He sure knows how to put the hero in the heroic, doesn’t he?” Kain observed drolly.
But the Ninja didn’t hear. He was already moving towards the rift.
As the rest began to follow, Ben took a glance back at Uncle Fu and Chase. Just one look. It was met with a soft, reassuring smile from the young Page boy and the bristled-eyebrow determination of the ancient Lunar.
For them…
Ben drew in a deep breath, turning back around. He did not look back anymore.
For them. For Joran. For the people of the Blue Planet.
His thoughts scattered as the cold white light of the rift spread over his body. For just that solitary moment, the familiar feeling of displacement. Of shifting through space faster than one had a right to. Then his footsteps on the gritty pitted floor as he came through the other side.
The Red Moon…
This place, too, was familiar, colored with memories of darkness and battle. The core of the Red Moon. A place that had meant the salvation of the Lunar people as they escaped the fiery destruction of their home world. For Golbez, it was the place that he had gone, expecting to face death. It was where he had taken up arms against the Hatred, Zeromus.
Miraculously, he had survived. But in surviving, he had found himself faced with another problem. The Blue Planet would not welcome him home. Not after his treachery. So he had chosen to depart, to be placed into fitful slumber with the rest of the Lunarians.
There was a time and a place where he may have hoped to have slept forever. To never wake. A time when the only thing he could see before and after him was the darkness of his own deeds. But the story was not content to end that way. And he had found himself stepping into the realms of impossibility… returning to the blue living world. Returning to face those that had once held him as an enemy.
There, Ben had found pieces of himself that he never knew existed. Pieces that were lost to the shadows of a past he could not remember. Emotions that were nurtured through the unexpected acceptance and friendship of humankind. And he had earned the love of a young Lunar girl.
He carried within his heart the final message that his father gave him. Ben knew now that whatever should happen, he would do everything within his power to protect the ones he had learned to love. That was his one true purpose.
Nothing was the same. Not him. Not Cecil. Not the humans or world around him. Nothing that he did could ever reclaim what had come and gone, he realized. Not his innocence. Not his darkness.
Ben had come full circle, to the core of the Red Moon. And Joran now stood before him.