Star Rebellion (13 page)

They glared at each for a few more seconds before turning away. Well, at least Vladimir did. Firestar still stood aggressively, ready to continue fighting. “Water, I’m sure you believe that he wouldn’t hurt you, but I had a vision about him. He showed me how to get down here, but I had sensed an immense evil about him. The only difference is that the guy in my vision looked older and had horns.”

I looked at Vlad then at Fire. This was getting interesting, if nothing else.

“That was my father, Lucifer. I have no clue why he would show up in your vision on purpose, but it wasn’t me, whether you believe that or not.”

Fire didn’t take his eyes off of Vlad. “What about Darkstar? What happened to him?”

Ahh, crap, I had forgotten Dark… again. Damn was he going to be pissed when he woke up.

“I had attacked him when I had still thought that he and Water were my enemies. I’m sincerely sorry about it.” Vlad let his voice uneasily drop off at the end.

Firestar still looked extremely pissed, but bumblebee girl came over. “He'll be perfectly fine once I get my hands on him. I'm one of the best healers in the Rebellion, which figures since my primary is healing. Let me handle this.”

I was about to stop the girl from walking over toward my friend, because really, who did she think she was, but Fire shook his head at me. I raised an eyebrow but he didn't say anything, just motioned for the girl to go over to Dark. I followed Ms. Bumblebee and just then realized that I come up with a bajillion names for people I don’t know, but I mean, her dark hair had horizontal yellow stripes, what else would that make you think of?

“I’m Sunstar, by the way, you must be Waterstar, right?” She gave me a confident smile. I ignored it and simply nodded my head. I can be pessimistic and cold-hearted when I want to; it just doesn’t happen often. Okay, maybe it does. Maybe I am a completely rude person that judges people quickly and has negative opinions on most people that I don't know. But maybe, those people should stop being so stupid and learn to be more awesome like my friends.

I stood to the side as Sunstar started to examine Dark’s injuries; her small hands lightly flitting over his body. Damn was she terrible at this. Just by watching his breathing I could tell that he was definitely okay, he just needed an extra… kick.

I pushed Sun out of the way; I knew she was probably glaring at me now. Who cares what she thinks? I then sent a swift kick to the side of Dark’s ribs and he immediately jerked up.

“Gee, thanks for remembering me.” He said sourly. Yup, he was pissed.

Sunstar immediately helped him up. “Wow, way to add on to his injuries!” She sent another glare at me. “Are you okay? Do you need anything?” She placed a hand over his ribs where my foot had made connection, and I saw a glowy yellow surround the area under her hand.

“No, I’m fine.” He pushed away Sunstar's hand. “I like my bruises to heal on their own to remind me of my stupidity.” Aw yeah! That’s my friend! Dark could freeze someone in their tracks with just his voice, when he wanted to. My friend noticed my smirk and turned his darkness on me. “Though I wouldn't have those bruises if someone had paid more attention and revived me earlier.”

Sunstar was a bit too upset at Dark to smirk about me getting reprimanded too. I took his rath a bit more good naturedly, and settled for flipping him off. Darkstar rolled his eyes. Sometimes I think he thought that I was a bit more immature than I should be for seventeen years old.

“You guys need to go to the Underworld Gates, right?” Vladimir broke the silence. Fire, Dark, and I nodded our heads, but I saw the others shift uneasily.

“I can’t go much further than this; this fort was built because I wanted a place away from my father. If I were to leave, he would question it greatly, and that would reveal you. If you follow those doors, the path will eventually lead to the Underworld, and I’ll send a guide with you.” Vladimir was all business once again. It was kinda annoying how easily he could switch personalities.

He turned to the side so that he wasn’t facing any of us. “If I were you I would close my eyes.” His voice was only loud enough for us to hear him. We all did as he had said, or at least, I’m assuming so, my eyes were kind of closed.

There was an insanely bright light and I heard a few muttered curse words. I guess someone kept their eyes open. Buttmunch. “Okay, you can all open your eyes now.” Next to Vlad was a solid black cat that looked as if it were made of shadows. The only other color on her was a small bell that was tied to her collar, which shone brightly compared to her dark fur. “This is my companion, Kuro. She can lead you through the Gates and to the Mystic Animals.” I didn’t even ask how he knew that we were looking for them.

Vlad knelt down until he was face to face with the cat, who was perched on top of the vent. “Kuro? Will you please take my friends to the Animals, our way?” The cat blinked her eyes before jumping off of the vent and walking to the doors that Vlad had come through earlier. There she sat down and waited, her tail twitched every so often.

“Follow Kuro, she will take you where you need to go. The path she follows is rough at points, but it is a lot safer than going the normal route. Oh, and Darkstar? I apologize for hurting you earlier.” Dark just nodded in the moody way of his. It was better than nothing though, and I knew on the inside Darkstar was forgiving him. He wasn't one to keep a grudge, everything just seemed to flow past him.

“What if we don’t agree to go? We had only said we would come down here to rescue Water and Dark, not go all the way to the pits of Hell. Only raving lunatics would agree to that crap.” Foreststar was the one who had spoken, and next to him Sunstar shifted uneasily. Whimps, but understandable.

Before Fire, Dark, myself, or even Vladimir could say something, Ice replied curtly, “Then stay here, no one is forcing you to go. I’ll be with the Mystic team though, so you won’t have a ride home.” He shrugged his shoulder and joined my team next to Vlad. I gave him a small smile and he looked away from me. I couldn't tell if it was because he didn't care for the smile or if he was embarrassed, but the last one didn't make sense. I guess it was just his anti-social tendency.

“I’ll go too, you guys might need my knowledge with the Animals, they are part of the environment after all.” Sunstar. Damn I really hate that chick, but she followed Ice none the less.

Forest glared at us all for a few more seconds before he uncrossed his arms. “Fine. I’ll go too, but only because I don’t want to walk back to HQ in this blasted rain.” We all kind of flinched at the sharpness in his voice, but Firestar nodded his head contentedly. Apparently he was glad that the new guys were following us to their potential death.

“So, just follow the cat,” Darkstar said the question as a statement, but Vlad nodded his head anyways. We all started to go to Kuro, but just before I was out of arm's reach Vladimir grabbed my hand.

“Two things, firstly, your pack must stay here,” Vladimir said seriously, already as if he knew I would protest.

“What the hell do you mean? I don’t go nowhere without that.” I already had a hand on my hip, full sass mode activated.

“I have my own reasons, but trust me, it needs to stay here with me. If you need any weapons, feel free to grab them.”

“What? You think I can simply strap a bajillion and five weapons to my body?”

“No, but you can keep some knives, can’t you?”

“Whatever, I already have a few on me, so just keep the pack. Buttmunch.”

I was about to leave with that being my final goodbye when he said, “Remember, I had two things to say. That was one.”

Of course that made me turn around again. “What else do you want?”

“Waterstar, please be careful.” Underneath his shaggy hair, I could see Vlad’s electric blue eyes; I couldn’t read them, but I could tell that whatever emotion they hid was foreign to Vladimir.

“I’ll try my best,” I said hesitantly, as if I already something would happen.

Vlad bent closer to me and whispered something in my ear. I looked back at him in surprise. “Are you sure?” He only nodded his head solemnly.

“Come on Waterstar! We’re wasting time!” The shout had come from Firestar; there was a certain edge in his voice that made me think back to the when he had asked me to be careful also. Look at how well that had turned out. Maybe I should one day listen to them.

I shrugged my shoulders as I jogged to catch up with the others. I could figure out my own problems after we had finished our mission. I had almost added an if to that thought. I didn’t want to think about the deadly real possibility that we could all die down here.

“Remember! Don’t stray off of the path!” Vladimir shouted the warning from behind us. We had all grunted our understandings as we reached the doors and Kuro.

“The fun begins.” I said in a slightly sarcastic voice. Alright fine, it was really sarcastic.

DARKSTAR

I was in lead of our dreary line, or well, in lead of the Rebels. Kuro was in front of me, being the guide.

“How long is this going to take?” Forest asked from the back. He still wasn’t exactly eager to be going down to ‘the pits of hell’, as he had described this little adventure of ours.

“Oh, I dunno, a couple of hours? The times I’ve been down here before I never really paid attention as I merrily skipped down the pwettiful paths.” I shot back at him, my voice was already pissy ‘cause this guy wouldn’t shut up.

“You’ve been down here before?” Sunstar questioned.

“Oh yea, loads of times.” I rolled my eyes even though she couldn’t see.

“Really?”

“No.”

I think I just hit the “top five hated list” for her. Good, I didn’t need her making doe eyes at me.

“Darkstar is right, only a few more hours if we don’t hit any nasty surprises.” The voice rose from around us and was obviously ignoring our arguments.

Wait… whose voice was that?

We all stopped in astonishment. The voice wasn’t from anyone that was in the Star Rebellion. I looked at Kuro, who had also stopped and was looking at us.

“What? Just because I’m a cat you don’t think I can talk? You mortals really are ignorant!” Kuro flicked her tail at us and continued down the path.

A laugh pierced the dark passage as someone brushed past me. Before I could attack, my brain registered the laugh as Water’s; the only one that was insane enough to laugh at a time like this.

“Kuro, I officially love you.” She said as she followed the black cat. I looked back at the other guys before Fire and I followed Water. The others soon joined us; obviously the newcomers didn’t know her that well.

“Why didn't you say anything earlier?” Sunstar questioned. From the rising tone of her voice, it sounded like she was mad about this.

Kuro looked at the girl for a minute, the only communication was blinking. “It wasn't necessary.”

“How long would you have waited before speaking if this hadn't come up? What if we had a question, but didn't know you could speak, and therefore didn't ask it?” Sunstar was looking a bit like Water with how her hand rested on her hip, and man was she getting worked up.

Before Kuro could reply, Icestar stepped up to his friend and placed a hand on her shoulder. He made sure to obstruct her view of the cat. “Sunstar, chill. It's fine, we're fine. Nothing bad has happened.”

Sun pushed her way past Ice and looked at him incredulously, like she was betrayed. “Fine, take their side!”

“I'm not taking sides.”

“Then don't tell me to chill. Don't pull you zen attitude here. I know I'm right that it is important that the cat can speak and that it didn't tell us.”

“The cat has a name.” Waterstar pushed her way past Sunstar and that ended the conversation. Well, Ice's restraining hand to keep Sunstar from going after Water helped end the conversation too. It seemed like the guy had a bit of a calming effect on his temperamental comrade, though it seemed that she digressed from him too. An ego like that must not be good at making friends, one would think she would cherish her relationship with Icestar.

FIRESTAR

Ya know, when we first started this journey, I had thought it’d be a lot more fighting off demons and being brave heroes legends are written about, and a lot less trudging through muck. Really, was knee-deep mud necessarily while we were trying to cross this one area called the Shadowlands? It was a place between the civilized worlds and Hell, according to Kuro. The cat seemed to like Waterstar best, but didn't really have opinions on the rest of us. More so just watched as we talked among ourselves, and would answer any question we posed. Sunstar was warming up to the cat a bit more after the earlier drama, but she still seemed a bit moody towards Ice. He was just trying to look after her, and she blew him off. Nice girl, wasn't she?

Kuro also laid out how exactly this place was mapped out, which was very exciting to me. I liked maps and knowing where I am, it helped calm me down during battle. While we were in the tunnels walking out here, she said that the Shadowlands would basically be a vast plain, with mountains toward outright. Eventually, the path would lead into those mountains which would then lead to the Hall of the Gates. Some guardian dog was there that we'd have to take out, then vola. We were in demon-central, perfectly on our way to where the Mystic Animals were awaiting their heroes.

When we finally exited the tunnels, we were outside just as Kuro had said; the sun was an unmoving dim orb off to one horizon and fog hung five-ish feet off the ground. Everything was dead, including the few people we had seen. They were rotting skeletons, often missing bones or still had pieces of flesh attached. Various weapons would occasionally be featured in one of their decaying hands. Not a vacation I would suggest.

After a merry obstacle course of avoiding dead people, we got to a gulch where Kuro demanded to be picked up. Water happily did so and walked into the gulch as Kuro had instructed, and then she disappeared. We all started panicking until she reappeared right in front of us. “Get in the gulch!” Was all she said until she once again disappeared. We all followed her and sunk about a foot into the mud before hitting somewhat firm ground.

And that is how we all ended up in knee-deep mud. Well, all of us except Sunstar, who was still on the banks arguing with Kuro.

“Sunstar, just deal with it.” Icestar finally cut in as he got out of the mud. Dark was nodding his head behind him, even though Sun couldn’t see that.

“Just let her walk on the banks, if she gets screwed she gets screwed; we’re invisible down here anyway, right Kuro?” I said impatiently.

The cat nodded. “The mud has magic that Vladimir had stored within it. Nothing can detect us down here except Vladimir, myself, and Lucifer.”

“Well, let’s just hope that we don’t encounter Lucifer, ‘cause then we’re
all
screwed.” Forest’s comment actually got a smile out of everyone, well except Sun, who was currently glaring at Kuro.

“Fine, I’m staying up here as you all take dirty mud baths.” Kuro nodded her head. She took a pawful of mud up and splashed it on Sun. “What the hell?!” Sun’s shriek pierced the area.

“Shush, and it’ll let you see everyone in the mud, and hear them. It won’t work if a random monster did that, but I infused it with my magic so it will.” Kuro jumped back into Water’s arms, clearly looking annoyed. Sunstar looked at the patch of mud that was on her flower printed dress before walking next to us on the banks.

Our feet made a weird squelching sound every time we moved them out of the mud. “They wouldn’t even need to see us; they could just fire arrows at the sound.” I muttered after a particularly loud squelch.

I heard Waterstar giggle in front of me, and I felt a smile spread across my face. Even in the worst situations, she wasn’t afraid to laugh or act as she normally does.

A few squelches later, Forest broke the somewhat silence. “When do you think we could eat? I’m starving.” His voice was a little hesitant cause of how many times Dark had told him to shut up.

“I think we’re all a bit hungry, it has to be hours since any of us last ate,” I said with a reassuring smile. An important quality of any leader is to make the others feel okay about doing or asking stuff.

“I see some fruit trees over there,” this time it was Sunstar. “I’ll be right back.” She left before anyone could stop her.

Kuro’s voice was the loudest out of all of us. “Don’t wander too far off the path!” Sunstar looked back and there was a spark in her eye as she remembered Vladimir’s warning. She started to come back, but by then it was already too late.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

By now everyone was shouting for her to run back, even Waterstar. I twisted my head up to look at something that was darting in my line of vision; a spiked tail was shooting across the sky towards Sunstar. I felt my voice crack as I shouted her name. The tail swung around and pierced her in the back, going through her entire body, and the spike emerged from her chest. Blood splattered her dress and coffee-colored skin. My eyes widened as her shriek echoed in my head, then gurgled off. I knew I'd remember the sound for years.

Sunstar was lifted off the ground as the tail was pulled back to its master. Her blood trickled down on us as she was dragged between our ranks. I heard someone gasp as arms wrapped around my waist. With the little strength powered by fear, Sunstar held onto me. From this close I could see the blood sliding from the side of her mouth; the tail had punctured a lung.

I felt my legs being dragged out of the mud and panic flooded my mind. Sun was going to take me with her to her death.

A screamed pierced the fuzz in my brain as I saw someone clawing at Sunstar. “No way are you killing him, you messed up prissy bumblebee!” It was Waterstar, her blond hair was swirling around her and the blue streaks looking like the sky to my fear-filled eyes, and oh angels, was she pissed.

Fresh blood dripped from Sun's mouth as she finally let go of me. As her arms released me, I saw blood sprouting from the cuts Water had left on her skin. I fell backwards into the mud and I felt Water beneath me. We all watched as Sun was dragged into the shadows of a mountain, limp the entire way. Not long after she disappeared from sight, I put my head in my hands, still trying to grasp what had happened.

“There wasn’t much that could’ve been done.” It took me a few seconds to realize that Icestar had spoken. We all looked over at him in surprise. He was staring off to the mountains where his friend had disappeared, his expression as unreadable as ever. No one could form the words to reply to this.

After the silence endured a few moments, Kuro’s voice was like thunder. “We better get going, at the end of this gulch there’s another tunnel we must go through to reach the Gates.”

We all nodded our heads, subdued and afraid. I pulled Waterstar close to me and whispered, “That was terrifying.” I felt her nod her head against my chest and realized that she was crying.

“I-I thought I had lost you.” I pressed my cheek against her head. She didn’t resist the hug. After a few seconds, I pulled away from Waterstar, messing her hair up like usual.

“Come on, we’ve got some animals to rescue!” I said with a grim smile and helped Water out of the mud. Somehow, Darkstar had ended up with Kuro while Sunstar had been… captured. The cat was still amazingly mud-free.

“I’m sorry for dropping you, Kuro. Can you please forgive me? I promise it won’t happen again.” Waterstar held out her arms and Kuro immediately leapt into them. A wide smile spread across both of their faces, or well, Kuro’s was as smiley as a cat can be.

I surveyed the condition that my team was in. Water was the worst; she was completely caked in mud, even her hair, which had always been in tip-top condition. Darkstar looked a bit gloomy, then again he always did unless he was fighting. Icestar had seemed to have taken Sun’s death the worst. His normally expressionless face was pulled down into a frown and his eyes were focused on the mud. Foreststar, well he refused to look at any of us, and his eyes kept darting back toward the mountain. So basically, we didn’t look so hot.

“Come on guys, even though we can’t be seen, we shouldn’t stay here much longer, we’ve got some business to attend to.” I took leader status since no one else was going to.

We all started trudging through the muck again, and I slowed down until I was even with Icestar. “Hey, you okay? I know you and Sunstar were close.” I put my hand on his shoulder.

Ice nodded his head. “I guess you could say that we were close. She had always come down to the garage with snacks, and I had started to think of her as a little sister. I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not mad at Waterstar for making her let go of you. Better one gone than two.” Ice looked at me with his grey eyes and I knew he spoke the truth.

I was silent for a moment. “We all try our best. Here, at the base, in the Barrens. Despite how hard we try, there are many things we still can't accomplish. Today has shown that in a cruel way.” I looked ahead to see the cavern in front of us, it's foreboding entrance seemed to amplify my words.

WATERSTAR

“This is the last stretch,” Kuro said from my arms.

“Whoop-pi-doo,” Darkstar was glaring at the cavern as if it had stolen his favorite piece of candy, which was rather hilarious.

Before I could say anything about that, Foreststar also spoke up, “No use just standing out here; let’s go in.” I think it was Don’t-Let-Water-Speak day. I mean,
seriously
! I settled for rolling my eyes before climbing up the side of the gulch, but I don’t advise holding a cat while trying to climb. Just don’t do it.

Once we had gotten to the top, I set Kuro down. “Come on people, let’s follow the leader.” I was a little surprise that my voice was as perky as it usually is. I mean, seriously, I had to pry some little idiot’s fingers off of Firestar and now we were about to merrily skip into some dark cave that could easily kill us within seconds. It isn’t like saving Calsh is a walk in the park, you know.

Before we entered the cave, Kuro turned around to face us. “This cave will be extremely dark and the pressure of the air muffles voices, do you have another way to communicate with each other?”