The Rising Sun: Episode 5 (13 page)

Eol was dead. Killed by his own brother, a
cold, merciless creature.

Make this stop.
Ion pleaded.

But it didn’t stop … The agony went on as Ion
knelt there, hoping that this was all a dream, hoping he would wake
up from it anytime now. But he knew this was as real as it would
ever get: The dream had stopped…

And this was the moment of awakening.

“
You killed them … you killed our parents
… you killed what they stood for.”

As the words replayed inside his head, they
seemed to engrave upon his soul…

Suddenly, everything Ion had always known was
gone… eclipsed by a storm of guilt, and grief.

What have I become? … What have I done?

His hand trembling, he slowly reached for his
brother’s hand, and pulled the parchment off. The poster … of the
deadliest assassin in the spectrum.

Unrolling it with one hand, he let his eyes
fall on the ghastly picture he saw, and he almost felt like
something inside of him had been carved out by a sword.

For the first time, Ion wished he could cease
to exist. He wished to die … for he couldn’t live with himself. He
couldn’t live with what he had become…

An upsurge of remorse stronger than any
emotion he had felt his entire life shook him from within.

Haphazardly folding the poster with one hand,
Ion stuffed it into his own pocket and continued to sit there with
his brother’s body in his arms.

“
You killed what they stood for.”

His vision blurred, Ion stared down at the
lifeless face of the last of his family … the family that he had
once loved. And the family that would torment him forever now. For
he had, as Eol rightly said, killed them. They were ideals that had
survived after their death, but Ion had seen to it that they were
undone even there … Ion had killed them. He had killed his own
brother. And he had killed his parents as well.

And right then, all of the grief and pain
vanished in the split second. And another emotion came surging up
within him like a cataclysmic, volcanic blast…

Rage…

Ion now realised who was responsible for
this. For what he had now become…

Vonayz and the hunters.

Ion went rigid as iron as anger like nothing
before came coursing through his veins, pumping venom through
him.

Vonayz and the others were the ones who had
lured him into this life. They were the ones who had made him adopt
this lifestyle …

They were the reason Ion was what he was now
…

They were responsible for all the innocent
lives Ion had shattered over the past few years he had lived with
them.

They were responsible for Eol’s death.

And now, thought Ion, his insides ablaze like
an inferno … They would share his pain.

They would die.

The hover car glided smoothly into the
planet’s atmosphere, dropping through the first layer of the sky.
It was night and apart from the clouds spread over in large,
shadowy masses, the scene outside of the hover car mirrored the
look of space. Inside the car, Vonayz kept one hand on the steering
wheel and the other on the seat beside him.

As the car dropped in altitude, the Plasmon
shield cloaked the effect of inertia. Nullifying the weightless
falling sensation he would have otherwise felt. The hum of the
electrical engine was now mingled with a sound of wheezing wind as
the vehicle streaked down the airy skies.

Now that the job was complete, the thrill and
adrenaline slowly melted away. Leaving Vonayz’s mind free again.
When on any job, hunt or assassination, he would feel a chilling
mixture of steel and thrill pulse within him. Only allowing him to
settle to a calm when the job was finished. But this senseless rush
of adrenaline was the very reason Vonayz was what he now was. Did
what he now did. Hunting and killing. And he knew he would go on
doing this for the rest of his life…

A squeaky, muffled sound drew from behind
him.

“Keep it down, now.” Vonayz called without
turning. “We’re almost there…”

He threw a half glance to the backseat of the
car behind. Where lay an Iveling bound tightly in ropes, with his
mouth gagged.

This was a target Vonayz had been hired to
hunt by a mafia living close to this planet. It had been a rather
easy affair, finding and bagging him. It had taken no longer than a
couple of hours. Vonayz would deliver him to the mafia the first
thing tomorrow.

As the ground came zooming upward, Vonayz ran
his gaze through the large, empty expanse. He spotted their hunt, a
meek dot on the giant earthen floor, and directed the car towards
it.

A few seconds later, the vehicle floated to a
gentle stop by the side of the hut, where the vehicles of the other
hunters lay. As the engine died, Vonayz twisted around to look at
his target, the gagged, bound man at the back of the car.

“Well, I promise you’re gonna have a good
night’s sleep here in this car.” he told the man, who stared back
at him with widened, terrified eyes. “I hope you do … it’s gonna be
your last.”

Laughing cruelly, he exited the car, slammed
the door so that the man lay locked inside of it, and then strode
over to the door of the hut. Tossing the door open with a lazy push
of his right hand, he walked in. The inside of their large hut was
the same as he had always known it. The rest of the hunters were
apparently away with their own hunts: the place was empty. He
jumped to the bed by the right and threw his sheathed sword by the
side.

Stretching his arms in a tired yawn, he
leaned against the wall behind. He sat relaxed for a moment,
allowing his mind to de compress. It had been a long day. As usual.
And he took advantage of the solitude and silence to ease his
fatigue.

“I’ve been waiting.”

Vonayz jolted back up with a start, his head
snapping around to the back of the hut.

And there, he saw something he had missed
earlier: a cloaked figure, his hood drawn, sitting at the corner
over a group of large cushiony pillows.

Jumping out of the bed, Vonayz stared with a
tilted head at the strangely eerie sight.

“Give me a heads up, before doing something
like that next time, won’t you?” he said. “You almost gave me a
heart attack!”

Ion slowly pulled his hood back with both
arms. His eyes were latched to the floor in front of him. Very
slowly, he lifted his gaze and met Vonayz’s eyes. His burning
orange eyes had a molten glow that Vonayz had never seen in them
before. That, together with his crazed red hair gave him a near
deranged look … For some reason, as Vonayz held his eyes for the a
quiet span of seconds, a very faint squirm occurred inside of him.
Very mildly faint…

Ion’s face re arranged in a strangely twisted
smile.

“Sit back down.” he said so softly, Vonayz
hardly heard him.

Something very odd was happening, and Vonayz
could sense it like smoke burning in the air. Very hesitantly, he
took a step forward, and asked, “Ion, is something wrong?”

Ion continued to look at him with his fiery
orange eyes, his legs stretched before the large pillows he sat
over.

“Where’re the others?” Vonayz asked him. “My
brother, Monaz and Sidro?”

“I don’t know.” said Ion, a bite of fury in
his voice. “Right now, you are my concern. And I’m yours.”

Vonayz stared. “What?” Frowning, he took a
deep breath. “Listen, I know something’s going on with you. I
sensed it when you came back from the hunt earlier on. Whatever it
is-”

“What did you see?” Ion’s voice abruptly cut
him across.

“What?” asked Vonayz.

Ion continued to hold his gaze, unblinking,
and let silence crawl on for a few seconds.

“The day you met me,” Ion said slowly. “what
did you see in me?”

His voice was strangely colourless … dark.
Vonayz felt an unfamiliar twitch at the base of his stomach.

What the hell is this?

“What’s going on?” he demanded, feeling his
frown sink lower. “What’s this all about-”

“Cause if you saw something like
you
,”
Ion rose from the pillows he’d been sitting on and stood facing
Vonayz. “Then you were dead wrong.”

Vonayz stood on the spot, feeling his entire
body tense. The air around them seemed to swell with a nasty
unpleasance.

He then turned to the side of the hut as
something suddenly occurred to him. Something that made a tingle of
horror emanate from within him.

“Wait,” He turned back to Ion, his heart
speeding. “When I arrived, I saw the others’ vehicles parked by the
side of the hut.” A sharp silence sank into the air. “Ion …
where’re my brother and the other two?” He could the tenseness in
his voice. “I saw their vehicles outside when I came.”

The same twisted smile crept over Ion’s face.
He slowly turned and heaved one of the large pillows he had been
sitting on. And he tore off the top of the cover to reveal a dead
face that had been concealed inside the sack all along. It was
Monaz. Throwing the sack with the dead body on the ground before a
mindfreaked Vonayz, and turned to pick up a second sack. He tore
off the top to reveal a second dead face. It was Sidro.

“He put up a good fight, Vonayz.” Turning,
Ion scooped up the last of the three dead sacks … and ripped off
the top to reveal…

… Alcrox. Lying dead inside of it.

“But sadly,” carried on Ion, his voice
horribly sweet. “in the end, the better man won … the better
mystic.”

He hurled the sack with Alcrox right to
Vonayz’s feet.

Something seemed to have scooped out Vonayz’s
insides as he stood rooted to the spot there. Gaping at the sack
lying by the front of his feet, with his brother’s body inside.

“Share my pain, Vonayz.” hissed Ion, an edge
of madness in his voice. “Because it was all
your fault
.
That day, when you found me in the Naxim station, you should have
just left me alone … for both of our sakes.” His horrible smile
went wider. “And now, you join me in burning for our sins.”

But Vonayz wasn’t listening. His widened eyes
lay clasped to the body by his feet … and the world seemed to
revolve around him. He raised his gaze slowly, and watched the
crimson haired, wild eyed creature standing before him.

And suddenly, a red hot, lava like substance
came gushing up within him. It was rage like Vonayz had never known
before … and never would.

And it was directed at the boy before him …
who had once been his best friend.

“
What … have you done
?”

“I killed them.” said Ion, his orange eyes
blazing with madness. “I killed them all. Because I saw that we
were all wrong … And things that are wrong in this world need to be
set right. I’m setting everything right, dear old friend.”

Vonayz’s breaths grew racy as he stood there
with his fists curled, his jaws locked.

“You … killed him.” he said, his voice a bare
hiss. “You killed my brother.”

“And I’m not finished.” Ion said, shaking his
head.

“You killed my brother … I’LL KILL YOU!!”

In a flash, Vonayz had snatched his sword
from his bed and unsheathed it. Ion had his out and ready as Vonayz
launched over him, and a dazzling orange flare lit the inside of
the hut as both their blades ignited as one.

Cling!

The steely ring of their swords meeting cut
the air, and the two of them stood facing each other, their ignited
sabers knotted in a deadly clash.

Ion stood there, his teeth ground, his nerves
coursing with an electric fury. He could feel a raw sense of hatred
and power emanate from Vonayz as he stood there rigidly, holding
his ground against Ion. His eyes were lit with a maniacal
gleam.

Uttering a savage war cry, he thrust all his
strength forward, pushing Ion off balance. And then he struck, his
blade as fast as a furious orange blur. Ion swiped his own across
the air, so that he parried the shot only at the brink of the
moment. Sparks showered around them as the blazing swords clashed.
Ion jumped to the side and slashed his sword across the air, aiming
for Vonayz’s side. But the other was, as he well knew, far too
fast. He twisted about and caught Ion’s sword with his own, before
moving faster than Ion thought possible … and jabbing at Ion’s
torso.

Ion followed the blade as it came gliding in
towards his exposed stomach, feeling his eyes widen. He threw
himself back, but his enemy’s blade came swiping the air from the
side … and the tip of the blade brushed his stomach. Ion felt the
air rush from his lungs as a sizzling, white hot pain cut open his
skin where the blade met it.

Feeling a guttural gasp escape him, he landed
with a heavy
thud
on his back, the force of his leap having
carried him to the end of the hut. His sword had flown off his
hand, and through the corner of his eye, he saw it land by the
corner of their hut. Unable to rise, he clutched the front of his
stomach, where the sword had cut it. Though not too deep to inflict
a serious damage, the wound burned like fire compressed within him.
And Ion’s eyes stung painfully at the agony of it.