Chapter 2   Captured!   authors: Overlord - red , Veyanne - yellow

Darkness. A fresh breeze rustles in the trees. The air is filled with the smell of damp earth. Far away an night creature cries out. Then complete silence covers the night. The clouds move away, revealing a shiny silver disk. The landscape lights up, a darkish blue with silver edges. On a hill, two lone figures standing, looking at the rim of the forest. Motionless. Then the tallest, a man, stretches his hand out in front of him. Very slowly. The air is filling with the smell of electricity. The long hair of the smaller figure, a woman, rises up, waving like dark flames on her head. A sudden gush of wind rushes over the hills. The grass moves in silver waves, like an ocean of mercury. A crack of thunder splits the scenery in two. A pillar of lightning plunges into the ground, right in front of the man and the woman. They are lit up by the white light, covering their own eyes against the brightness of the thunderbolt. It spans the vast distance between earth and sky. It stays there, a wobbly dancing pilar of white fire.

The air hisses and crackles. The ground starts shaking under the endless beating of the thunderbolt. Then the tall man stretches his arm out further, sticking his red-glowing hand into the fire-stream. For a moment all sound disappears, only to violently return with another thunder-crack. Seemingly untouched, the man thrusts his hand deeper into the light. The beam becomes wider and more furious in it's movement. The beam becomes a crack, an impossible opening. The woman clings to the man, shivering in the violence of events. He stretches out his other arm and seems to grab hold of both sides of the crack. Then he starts tearing it open. The wind grows to a small tornado, pulling out trees, throwing rocks into the sky, howling and thundering around the two small people at the center of the cataclysm.

Then, as the crack opens wide enough, they go through. A simple step, followed by a deafening clap which shakes the earth, rolls down the hills, beating at trees and rocks. Then the air implodes and sound itself seems to turn inside out. The column of white fire disappears instantaneously. The storm fades soon after, leaving the scenery shaken, but at peace once more. There is no more trace of the two visitors.

A hallway, dimly lit by small shiny tubes. The floor is wet. Water drips down the ceiling. The Overlord looks at the woman next to him. She smiles back at him, still shivering.

"Are you alright?"

His voice is soft, reassuring. As she nods, he smiles.

"Now you know why I could only take you along with me. No other, man or demon, would have survived the transition into the opposite timeline."

His hand caresses her cheeks and his lips touch hers for just a moment. Then he straightens up, eyes staring into the distance.

"We are noticed."

The Overlord grins and next to him, the Temptress chuckles. They both start moving, deeper into the underground network of hallways and chambers. As they turn around a corner, a sentinel jumps up, raising his gun. The Overlord severs the head with a single blow of his right hand. The two Nemeses continue their pace without the slightest hesitation.

A new corner reveals three more sentinels. They manage to fire their guns, but were not ready enough to aim properly. Leaving the torn bodies behind, both the Overlord and the Temptress continue their journey with laughter. The excitement shows on their faces as the bloodlust gets a hold of them......

Meanwhile, in the land of the eternally repressed the sorceress stalks her prey...

There she was, the warrior the sorceress sought, in battle as always. The sorceress watched her, admiring her skill. But the warrior was not always courageous. She often ran when the fighting became too intense. Seeing that disappointed the sorceress. She would need the warrior to be strong to face the overlord. He did not appreciate weakness.

Once again the warrior was backing away from another fight. She decided to come to the warrior's aid. With a wave of her hand the sorceress appeared amidst the fray.

The sorceress raised her hand. A glowing wall appeared halting the charge of the warrior's enemies. The sorceress nodded her head. Their warrior's enemy's weapons flew back upon them. In fear they recoiled.

The warrior was not pleased to see the sorceress.  She looked at the sorceress as if she were an enemy. In a way she was. They had met before. They had fought. The sorceress wanted the warrior to leave her master. The warrior's master was strict and demanding. He gave her no freedom. He suffocated her. But still she loved him. She needed to serve him. She defended him as best she could. She even defended his worst transgressions even though it pained her to do so. She felt it was her duty. The sorceress urged her to go out on her own but the warrior was too afraid. The fight ended with the warrior running away.

The warrior's fear reared once again. "I distance myself from you!", she exclaimed and accused the sorceress of violent intentions. She did not wish others to think she was allied with the sorceress. The sorceress was considered truly evil in this part of the world. The warrior backed away.

The sorceress sighed. She saw that the warrior was not as brave as she'd hoped. She tried to provoke her, "You see yourself as a warrior, but your actions are those of a coward. You run in fear so easily."

The sorceress implored the warrior to be strong and stand together with her. The warrior did not trust the sorceress. She demanded that the sorceress atone for her attacks against the warrior's enemies. Only then would she consider trusting her.

The sorceress was dismayed. She saw that the warrior would sooner seek an ally in an enemy than an ally in her. It saddened her. She knew the warrior fought as many battles on the inside as well as the outside. The warrior lived in turmoil, trapped between her need for freedom and her need for her master. How could she show the warrior that her need for her master was built upon fear? It was no use. The warrior would not listen to her.

The sorceress returned to her fortress feeling depressed. She had failed in two ways. She failed to give the warrior the courage she needed to be strong, and she had failed to deliver her gift to the overlord. She needed time to herself to plan her next move. Time was what she did not get.

Pain coursed through her body. It felt like someone had plunged a thousand needles into her. She tried to put up a defense but the magic did not flow. The pain grew worse. It felt like she was on fire. The sorceress collapsed to the floor. As she lost consciousness she saw a figure in the corner of the room.

Standing in the shadows was a man dressed all in black save for a silver cross upon his chest. He held some strange weapon. He walked over to the sorceress' crumpled body. "So, you hold the secrets of the overlord's weakness do you? That will be of great use to us."

The sorceress knew that she had failed again. She had betrayed the overlord. She knew her fate was sealed. She hoped that she would die before awakening.

The Overlord suddenly looks up from the fray and grabs the arm of the Temptress.
 
"What is it?" she asks.
 
"I sense something. They have..... We have to hurry or all is lost."