The Heroes' Last Stand

Chapter 9

Deceit

Reach for me and take my hand, for your life is now in my command. There is no hope you see, a doomed future is what you'll be.

Time- 12:20 A.M.

Red and Blue's walk down the hallway was long and challenging, being faced with many spider webs, rats, and poor air. Red, on many a times, had to stop and gasp for air from the dwindling supply, all while the girl lead them through thinning passageways once lit with torches yet now dark.

Each time Red stopped, Blue stopped as well to rub his small lovers back in support. He'd never admit it, but it was getting very difficult for him to breathe now as well. The girl was forced to stop as well to await the breathless couple, watching with a sweet smile on her face as she simply floated there. She was glad she didn't need air, because she remembers her times traveling through these very tunnels and not being able to breathe.

The first time she traversed this tunnel, she collapsed from oxygen loss from her being only 4. Her mother was thankfully with her, and she quickly was able to pull her child out before it ever became a permanent problem.

Now the ghost girl just watched the two suffer on their own, wondering if they would even be able to make it out alive at this point. She continued on her way with a sigh, but beneath that sigh was a smirk. She hoped they wouldn't die so easily.

Red watched her float for a few more moments before deciding he had some questions to ask her. He took a deep and raspy breath before asking, "Hey, um excuse me, would it be too much to ask why you all died?"

The girl paused for a moment, frowning a bit before fiddling with her hair nervously. "No like bringing it up, sad tale. Mama cry each time she recall." she whined softly, and Blue let out a small huff. "Well you'd want to get it off your chest to actually living things right? Who knows, it may help you move on from this damn hell hole!" he pondered, and the ghost girl simply gave a small giggle.

She tapped her finger to her chin in thought, then smiled happily and nodded. "Me guess so! It long story though for small air passage, but me think I can say."

Red clasped his hands together and nodded eagerly, still rasping yet excited none the less to hear a story as they continued their way through the halls. "Well mama and I live long time ago! We rich and noble, grammy and papa very important," she cooed, "I get lots of nice stuff! Mama too!"

Red and Blue listened in interest. This house was quite big, and in its prime it would probably be quite the magnificent sight to behold. The girl smiled as she continued on. "The house overflowing with workers, it quite a chore to clean and make spiffy. Me help workers sometimes, me make bed and pick up toys!"

It was quite cute as she held her head high, proud of the fact that she was an aid to the already hard working maids and butlers. Even if the task was so small, she still held her child aspirations high. Red smiled at her, and being experienced with children said, "Wow! You must have been a big help around the house!"

The girl nodded and bounced a big, even squealing a bit from happiness. "Yeah yeah! I get candy for hard work, it always good!"

Blue couldn't help but let a smile onto his face. His lover and the way he handled the little girl was indeed adorable, and Blue honestly wouldn't be able to ever say anything like that due to his pride. Another way those two were like yin and yang, balancing each other out in strange ways.

The girl continued down the halls before clearing her throat again, her smile slightly dropping as he said, "Times were good, till fighting between two places broke out. We caught in middle, grammy and papa in clash with bad guys!"

Red and Blue saw her smile drop, and instantly felt a bit bad for her. She was presumably talking about the war between east Hyrule and west Hyrule, where the nobles in charge got greedy and wanted more land to themselves. It was then easy to assume that this young girl's grandmother or grandfather was one of the said nobles.

Red and Blue remained quiet as they continued to listen and walk, not even daring to interrupt with rasping breaths. "Fighting always heard in background, coming closer each day. Mama got worried fast, and workers started moving," she paused, taking a deep breath before restoring her smile. "But good thing came out of it, we got doggies!" she giggled, clasping her hands together. "Me loved the doggies!"

Red smiled once more and nodded to her. "That's good, at least you had companionship after that!" he said optimistically, and the girl smiled and nearly broke Blue and Red's heart. "Yeah, but doggies always outside. Mama said they liked outside, but they never let in. Occasionally they growl and bark, and mama always got up and lead me down into this passage! We play hide and seek, it fun!"

Red could only muster up a weak smile, nodding to her. "Yeah, that does sound fun."

Apparently the fighting grew to the point where they needed guard dogs, and the poor girl was oblivious to the knowledge that it was the case.

She simply continued on with her story, however her smile was gone as she just looked at her transparent feet as she walked. "It was, until doggies one day stop barking outside. Mama looked scared, she led me down to tunnels again. She told me go and hide, and no matter what don't move. I did, and hid for long time. I hear footsteps upstairs, yet remained where I was as mama left. I wait even longer, and then big bang! I hear sound of things breaking, and then I heard mama scream."

Red and Blue were on the edge of their seats as they listened, the girl starting to look very afraid as she recalled. "I grew confused, me then go out of hiding place. I walk back, and there were lots of men. They held mama by her hair, and she stabbed many times. They were chanting something about a witch, or devil, and mama just sit there. Eventually men drop her onto floor and go through house, and I run over to mama. She sleeping, must've been tired. I poke her few times, but she never move."

Red, at this point, had to wipe away a tear. The girl never knew her mother was dead, and she must have been so confused at that time. Blue had to rub the small of Red's back as he cried silently, and the girl let out a long sigh.

"Guys eventually come back, and grab me by hair too. I stabbed many times too, it hurt so bad." Her form started to wrack and shake as she recalled how it felt, clutching her chest as if the wounds were being inflicted all over again. "I sceam so much, the men just laugh and call me devil child. I must have fell asleep too, it not fun game."

All was silent now as her words sunk in, Blue even having to wipe a tear away. However she smiled again, twiddling with her hair again. "But it okay, I woke up soon and could float and fly! Mama there too, it was nice. I couldn't really touch things without getting tired, but I was with mama so I okay. Mama talk bout coming back, whatever that meant, and told me wait.

"I waited for long time, really long time! Then you come, mama said we come back now." she cheered with a smile, and Red and Blue got very nervous at hearing that. She glanced back with her socket less eyes, however her smile lit up her face and made her look like an innocent child like when she died.

Red could only smile back, despite his nervousness, and Blue simply scoffed and nodded, his arm placed around Red's shoulders. Red just had to ask, being the animal lover that he is, "What about the dogs? Why are they in the basement?"

She tapped her finger against her chin, then snapped her fingers in recognition. "Oh, men brought in doggies, they all sleeping too. He throw doggies in basement, one of first time doggies inside!" Her smile seemed to never falter. "The doggies then wait with us! They grow scary though on outside, inside though they still my doggies!"

Red lowered his head and nodded. He supposed he should have expected that.

Blue was the next to ask a question after that. "If you're being so nice now, what about when you tried to possess Red? I can't just pretend that didn't happen!" he said with a hint of growl in his voice, and the girls smile finally faltered. She lowered her head in what seemed to be shame, fiddling with her hair. "Mama say I get body till I get back, she told me go to you."

"I just following what Mama say, I don't mean hurt you!" she pleaded, looking indeed guilty for what she did. Red, being the forgiving and caring individual as he was, smiled weakly and gave her a thumbs up as he coughed and coughed again. "I-It's alright, I forgive you." he tried to say with cheer in his voice, yet only begun another coughing fit.

Blue, satisfied to at least a point with the answer, rubbed the small of his lovers back as they continued on their way through the dark, damp, and moldy hallways. He was sure they were breathing in lots of things they shouldn't, and the compression in his chest was more than likely confirming that, but what other choice did they have?

Finally she turned and smiled after a few more minutes, her arms crossed and pointing towards a large door. The air had gotten much better, so they suspected they were getting close. Red was panting and gasping in relief at that time, and Blue's breath had also grown labored.

"There there! Freedom!" she squealed, yet was confused when the two heroes looked at each other and smiled. "We need to go back and show Vio and Green then!" cheered Red, holding Blue's hand while rubbing his nose against the others.

Blue scoffed at first at the thought of going back to their potential deaths, a sigh escaping his lips as he eventually and flusteredly rubbed his nose back. "Those passageways were a bitch though…and I wouldn't want to have to go back and put you in danger!" he stated, squeezing Red's hand protectively.

The ghost girl winced and stuck her tongue out, innocently saying, "Ew icky! You both are boys!"

She was raised in a strict and 'proper' family, being taught quite old school and almost disgraceful and offensive lessons. The two boys looked at each other in embarrassment, and then eventually pulled away with a hesitance. She WAS a little girl, even if she was a ghost, so they should be more considerate and careful.

She then addressed the second topic she thought, pouting and crossing her arms. "It dangerous with mama and doggies awake, I go instead to get friends!" she suggested with a smile, and Red and Blue both smiled at each other and nodded. "Yeah, that sounds fucking awesome to me!" Blue said while Red nodded happily.

"Thank you very much! We owe our escape to you now!" Red said in thanks, his smile wide as he bounced eagerly from foot to foot to get out. The girl simply smiled and nodded, pointing to the door. "Wait for friends on other side of door! Air fresh in there."

Red and Blue obliged happily as the ghost girl floated back down the hallways, translucent and quickly blending into the dark of the musky hallway. Blue eyed the door for a moment, a frown on his face as he tried to think about what would be wrong about this. Red eventually stepped up to the door, turning back to Blue with a warm smile.

"Come on Blue, we shouldn't just stand around and wait where something could get up!" he beaconed, holding his hand out for Blue as his other hand rested onto the dull knob of the barley intact door. Blue, unable to find any reason why he shouldn't go in, took Red's hand with a smile.

If there were monsters, he could easily take them down. If it was a trick, he could use his awesomeness to escape no problem. If all else fails, well it won't since he was so awesome. This was Blue's logic, and everyone knows Blue's logic is flawless.

Red and Blue opened the door, and instantly the color was sapped from their faces. This wasn't outside, not at all! Instead it was another room of the basement, one hidden behind walls and stone. Inside there was blood, dried and decaying blood and bodies of sacrifice everywhere. Some looked fresh while others looked like they were laying there for years.

Red covered his mouth, tears rolling down his cheeks as he gazed at the room in all of its glory, his entire body shaking in fear and nervousness. Blue looked around, feeling sick to his stomach as well. He, being the idiot that he was, walked in for a closer look. Red grew extremely panicked, trying to motion Blue to come back.

"Blue, get out of there!" he pleaded, and Blue picked up different bottles and substances to examine them. "In a damn second Red, if this is that crazy bitch's witch lab or some shit there has to be something that could kill them, or at least make them physical so I can beat their asses into the ground!" he said with a grin, overjoyed at the thought of getting his horrible revenge on the mother.

Red shivered like hell as he slowly stepped in as well, gazing at the bottles upon bottles lining the shelves. He knew they should be getting out of here as fast as they could, but if Blue was staying then it had to be safe? He just didn't know, so he decided to stay with Blue.

Finally a bottle caught his eye. He stood on his toes to reach it, and eventually managed to secure it into his hands. However in the process he knocked over another bottle containing an eyeball, causing it to splatter its contents and fluids onto the ground. Red winced hearing the shatter and turned sheepishly to Blue, who had his arms crossed and was tapping his foot onto the ground.

"Oops?" Red giggled hesitantly, stepping away from the shelf in embarrassment. He looked at the bottle and instantly his eyes flew open. Floating inside was a swirling purple and black mass, moving in a circle around the bottle. It had a familiar presence, and Red instantly recognized it as Shadow's. He turned to Blue with wide eyes, running over with the bottle and presenting it to Blue. "Blue, this looks and feels like Shadow's spirit!" he said in alarm, and Blue only cocked an eyebrow.

"Red what the fuck, Shadow isn't here and even if he was why the hell would he be in a jar!" he pointed out, causing Red to lightly pout his lower lip. "I dunno, but isn't this strange!"

Blue rolled his eyes and took the bottle, examining how the swirling mass did look a lot like when Shadow was blending back into the darkness or teleporting. Who's to say that it isn't? Well, Blue is saying that it isn't so that must be how it is.

The two continued to stare at the bottle, its contents continuing to lazily float around. But in an instant its movements became frantic, bouncing off of the walls of the bottle and sparking a bit. Red and Blue leaned in closer to watch, their faces both lit in confusion as to why it was acting like that.

Behind them the door slammed shut, and the innocent laughter of a child was heard.

Time- 11:59 P.M.

Green had his arm around Vio as the pair made their way back to the stairs, Green still crying as he felt the presence of his friend slowly draining through his body and onto the floor on goopy red streams. He was still in denial about the entire situation, refusing to believe that this could indeed be the end of Vio, Shadow, and the others as well.

He didn't even know what had become of Red and Blue, all he knew is that Vio was dying, Shadow was dead, and he was more than likely to die. If he didn't die, he could guarantee that he would go insane by the time this whole ordeal was over.

They made their way to the stairs, Vio's limp getting worse and worse as time went by. Looking down to the daunting set of rotting stairs, Vio wasn't sure if they would hold their weight again. But what other choice did they have? He let go of Green in favor of the hand rail, all but dangling off of it as he took his first few steps.

The wood groaned and cracked under his weight, and the hand rail felt close to snapping. Oh how Green desperately wanted to run down and help his friend, but Vio was already heavy enough. If any more weight was added to the already failing and strained wood, Green was sure it would snap and send them both plummeting down into who knows what.

Vio took deep breaths to try to stabilize himself, yet soon a scream escaped his lips as another wave of the drug attacked his system, causing blood to ooze out of his nose, ears, mouth, and even eyes at his point. He fell to his knees, and Green nearly screamed.

"Vio!" he shouted out, Vio not replying for several seconds. Green was about to run down, despite the stairs weakness, to aid his hurt and possibly dead friend. However as he was about to go down, Vio shifted and forced himself to his feet, a puddle of red below him.

He didn't dare to turn to Green and show him his bloody face, so simply resorted to a weak thumbs up to signal that he was okay.

He limped his way down a few more stairs before a large snap was heard, sending Vio plummeting down with a scream. But he didn't get far, as his frantic thrashing sent him to the next step, landing him right in between his legs. His eyes instantly watered up as the hard wood dug into his sensitive groin, and instantly he regretted ever making fun of Blue for the first step of the house.

His voice rose to a pitch as he just sat there, his loins burning like hell at this point. Green could only wince as he saw the low blow, meekly rubbing his neck. "Are you, uh, okay Vio?" he asked in sympathy, and couldn't help but chuckle as Vio responded with a high pitched keen. "Yes…quite so. Having my lower regions pressed so brutally by a wooden plank would indeed result in me being hip-hip-cheerio."

Green could only shrug and chuckle a bit louder, smiling at him while he said in a humorous tone, "Wow Vio, even when you took a nasty hit to the "lower regions" you still seem to be talking fancy as ever."

Vio could only roll his eyes as he wiped the blood off of his face desperately, forcing himself up with a labored grunt, his groin still hurting worse than anything he had ever felt. "Yes, I do still fancy my choice of tongue, even in moments of pain and discomfort." He whined, tempted to just curl up and die. He had an even worse limp now, putting almost all of his weight against the railings. "I'm not sure how well you shall fare on your way down…" he rasped out, half way down at this point.

Green could only smile weakly as he recalled all of their trouble from the get-go down to here. The house seemed innocent enough, where did it start going so wrong? Oh yes, when Red suggested they split up and eventually ran off anyways.

But why did there have to be death? What did they do to deserve such a fate? Green pondered this and sighed, burying his face into his hands to sob out the rest of his tears, depression taking over his form again.

Vio glanced back and couldn't help but frown; he didn't want to die in his leaders arms and put that stress on him. But even now he could feel his body shutting down, his limbs growing more and more shaky and numb than before. It wouldn't be long from now, and he knew it. But for Green's sake he would continue putting on an act of false bravado.

He finally stumbled down the last flight of stairs, falling to his knees at the end and panting hard. He felt blood and drug rolling down his face, not to mention coming out of his mouth and ears. Was that tears coming out of his eyes? Or maybe blood as well? Hell, it probably was both for all he knew.

He felt like utter hell, and his entire body may have just been on fire. He looked back up through the darkness up at Green, and apparently his leader couldn't see him at this point from how dark and far down the decent was.

"Green, I have made it to the bottom at last, you may now proceed to make your way down to this hero." He panted, and Green cocked an eyebrow at this part. He couldn't help but smile; Vio had the cutest habits sometimes.

He pressed down experimentally on each stair, wincing from the loud cracks issuing from each step. He was making his way down, his vision excellent yet still quite shaky in the darkness of the basement. What ever happened to that fairy anyways? Did Vio let it go or forget about it?

Either way, he was to the step that Vio broke and Green quickly realized that these steps were a bit bigger than expected, and it didn't help that two steps took the fall. He gulped as he tried to step over the gaping, 4 foot hole. Finally his leg wouldn't reach the other side, and he sighed as he realized he would have to jump since pressure on the edges of the wood would cause it to collapse again.

Gathering his courage, which there wasn't much left of, he took a great bound. The stairs creaked and groaned loudly as he kicked off then landed on the other side, taking a deep and shaky breath as his foot almost slipped down into the large hole created by his 3rd person speaking friend.

He had to even pat himself down just to make sure he was all still there, and once he was satisfied all of his parts were there he turned to Vio, halfway down the stairs with a smile. "Success!" he cheered, then instantly his eyes caught something in the hindmost of the basement, crawling its way out of the piercing darkness.

A skeletal dog never made it upstairs, and this one looked to be even more brain-dead than the others. It stumbled from foot to foot, becoming more and more clear to Green's vision, its sight set on Vio. It was drooling and oozing black sludge that made Green sick to his stomach, and some of its organs were still intact and hanging off of the ribcage or spine. If one looked close enough, they could also see the decaying, still intact brain of the beast.

Green was frozen in horror at the sight as the dog limped closer. It was mere feet from Vio now when Green finally gained his voice, screaming out to Vio as the dog reared back to pounce. "Vio! Behind you!"

Vio, with a slow reaction, turned to face the dog before his eyes widen and a scream left his lips. He tried to stand and run; apparently this dog didn't care about the drug.

The creature let with a loud roar, latching ahold of Vio's arm and taking a chunk out of the screaming and crying boy. Green was instantly at Vio's side, charging down the stairs at top speed before slamming and slashing the offending dog with his sword, causing it to yelp and stumble back.

The dog collapsed onto its side, more sludge oozing out and spraying everywhere at is began to let out horrendous howls and screeches, standing back up with Vio's tainted flesh in its mouth. It was drooling the sludge onto the already infected meat before lifting its head, snapping and chomping on it before swallowing it, and Vio could only watch as his stomach began to churn again.

It was eating him; he was watching his own body, life, be eaten by this horrendous beast. Just then everything became all too real. Blood was spurting out of the chunk in his arm, the pain not even there as his blue eyes could only watch the skeleton swallow the offending chunk. This was real, this was not a dream.

Although its stomach hadn't been used in ages, the taken flesh revived its internal organs. It snarled at them with a bloody maw, the drug dripping from its teeth as well as leaking from its bones. Its organs and beating heart was a disturbing sight to see, and Green nearly threw up from the disgusting and unreal sight.

After a few more moments of silence, and Vio starting to question his state of mind, he could only grin as he realized that the dog had been affected by the drug as well, holding onto his harshly bleeding arm and growing more and more light headed. The dog charged at Vio while snapping its jaws, hungry and wanting more.

However before Green could panic, before the dog even reached the two, it's sickening and terrified shrieks filled their ears as smoke slowly began to enflamed it, the drug taking its toll on the creature that wasn't meant to take it. The living could take it and live much longer, but those who are already dead would become unanimated again, cursed for eternity to never come back among the living.

Its bones and organs fell to the floor in heaps, and its screeches and howls were frantic. Its heart was pumping so fast that it couldn't handle it, bursting clear open in a gruesome mess of sludge and drug. The heart slowly ceased its beating after the burst, and the dog was stilled as sludge poured out of its mouth. The bones and organs eventually disappeared as well; smoke wisping up from the offending area before disappearing in a faint whisper of death.

Vio was still shaking as blood poured out of his arm, making a large and almost glowing puddle beneath him. On account of him already being pretty much dead, bleeding bad out of every other available spot in his body, one wound such as this would be fatal to the teen.

Green looked down and nearly screamed as he saw Vio. Blood, all he saw was his dear friend's blood pouring out of his arm, the multitude of cuts he received, his ears, and nearly cried when he saw the blood running down Vio's eyes, almost feigning the illusion of him crying tears of blood.

He fell to his knees in front of Vio and pulled the teen tightly against his chest, letting out a multitude of sobs and cries as he realized that Vio may die right here, right now, in his arms.

Vio looked up in pity to Green, hating to see his leader sad let alone cry so much. He was getting dizzier and dizzier by the second, yet managed to hold on to dear life with all that he had. "Green, please cease such crying as it is unjust in this situation. Red and Blue are in unknown locations, we must locate our efforts to searching down here first and immediately going to search for them." He wheezed and rasped out with a raw throat, tasting the metallic sting of blood and drug in his mouth.

He had to hand it to himself, despite being unable to function properly and feeling the claws of death gripping him, he still managed to not falter in his voice.

Green could only cry harder as he held Vio close, unable to stand the sight of his friend like this. "Please Vio…" he said in complete misery, "I don't want you to die on me, what would we all do without you!"

Vio was touched by Green's simple yet powerful words, tears flowing down his cheeks as well to stain his cheeks and mix with the blood, holding Green weakly as blood continued to rapidly leave him. Missing a large chunk of his arm wasn't helping as well, and he felt so dizzy that he couldn't really think at this point.

He let out a dismantled grunt, laying back in Green's arms and just focusing on his breathing. He was going to stay awake, no matter what. He felt something like cloth be tied tight around his arm perhaps? It was so tight that it hurt, yet he could feel it was Green's desperate attempt at saving him. He knew the cloth was filling with blood rapidly, and not doing much else.

He hissed a bit as it was tightened again, no circulation reaching his arm at this point. But that seemed to do the trick, as the lightheadedness he was receiving ceased from getting worse. He was in even more pain however, nearly unable to move his arm as his fingers started to turn purple.

He figured though it was better than bleeding to death on the floor, and he simply closed his eyes for one nap…just one nap.

He heard Green's frantic shouting, but it was muffled and much more quiet than usual. Vio started to even his breathing out as well. He was so tired, a nap wouldn't hurt. However the world soon went black as Green's yells turned into screams, then silence.