Legends of Amacia Heart of Darkness

Meanwhile, deep in a secret area of the dungeons of the Black Fortress, the feline Xenian carried Hanna’s unconscious form through the dark passages. As the Xenian walked, Hanna started coming to. She looked up in a haze of searing pain, seeing the feline Xenian carrying her like a child. Noticing Hanna slowly waking, the Xenian cat murmured, “Relax, my friend. You’re safe for now.”

Hanna’s mind shattered by the pain of her wounds dredged up the dream Hannibal had just before waking the second time as a woman. The situation felt vaguely familiar because of the dream she remembered. She moaned and slipped off into unconsciousness again as the Xenian continued into the deepest parts of the dungeon.

Minutes later, the feline Xenian carried Hanna into a large hidden chamber where the jailer, a handful of guards, six other men with ample medical supplies, and another Xenian were waiting. This particular Xenian was different from the other Xenians, including the feline Xenian. The creature was a giant compared even to the feline Xenian. Being a fusion of man and a giant prehistoric bear, it stood nearly eleven feet with great rippling muscles covered by a soft brown fur. It had two arms, one of which was cybernetic and the other organic. The organic arm was long and had seven-inch retractable claws on the end of the fingers. The cybernetic arm was like the cybernetics of the other Xenians, top of the line and capable of becoming anything the bear wanted from a hand to any weapon. The bear’s head, like the feline’s head was cybernetically enhanced as was his chest and legs. The head had a cybernetic eye on the right with the machine arm. The Xenian bear was a formidable sight, even more impressive than the feline. The feline Xenian brought Hanna forward and laid her on a stone table in the middle of the room under a soft light.

“Were you followed?” the Xenian bear growled.

“No. I was able snatch her away after the blast that killed the outlander Hades. After getting her, I came by way of the secret passages from the Arena,” the feline Xenian replied.

“Good,” the bear returned, looking over Hanna’s mangled and burned body, scanning her with its cyborg eye. A disapproving growl rumbled from the Xenian. “This is bad. She’s seriously injured with many broken bones, bruised internal organs, and severe burns.” Turning to the jailer, and his men, the bear ordered, “Be careful in how you move her. She has three fractured vertebra, so you can’t handle her roughly.” With that, the Xenian bear listed Hanna’s injuries, including the broken bones. “Because of the severity of her injuries, I cannot use my nano-splints to stabilize her bones. She’s not capable of surviving the operation. Therefore, set and bind her broken arm and legs to keep them from getting any worse. Find something we can keep her back stabilized with too and see to her other wounds the best you can. Use this ointment on the burns. I’ll give her some painkillers to deaden the pain.” The bear handed one of the men a large tube of medicine.

“Yes, sir; I have just the thing for her back in our medical supplies,” the jailer replied, taking the tube of ointment. “Okay guys; let’s get to work.” He and his men surrounded Hanna and started working on her, first carefully cutting the charred teddy and leggings off her with a scalpel, throwing them aside.

The bear turned back to Hanna and touched her on the neck with its mechanical finger, delivering a shot of high-powered painkillers and a sedative to keep Hanna unconscious while the jailer and his men worked on her. Touching Hanna gently on the head, the bear said softly, “She surely is lucky; this man-turned-woman by the Emperor’s rage. Tell me, how did she fare in the Arena, Magnus?”

“Well, I’ve never seen anyone fight like she did,” the feline Xenian Magnus replied. “In the first melee, it was ten on one with her unarmed. She apparently took my advice on the spider because the first thing she did after killing a gladiator with a splintered femur on the Arena floor, she took the sword from him and slew the spider outright before it could get to her. I saw her single-handedly kill all of them in two minutes. If the Emperor thought changing his sex would stop this man, it backfired badly.”

The bear’s eyebrow rose at the news with intrigue. “Really; two minutes and without initially being armed?” the bear asked.

“Yes, sir,” Magnus replied. “Afterwards, she mocked and taunted the Emperor, who then set two saber cats upon her. She killed one and befriended the other, who then helped her when the Emperor sent thirty-five of his best guards after her. About half-way through that battle when it became obvious she was gaining the upper hand, the Emperor went into a rage and sent in his pet tarok to finish her off with the guards locked in the Arena.” The bear’s eyebrow rose at the news.

“She rallied the remaining guards to her when they realized the Emperor meant to sacrifice them as well to the tarok,” Magnus reported, “The saber cat attacked the tarok first with Beowulf and the guards following, trying to take down the beast. It killed all of them except for her and one guard whom she saved from the tarok with the most potent elemental earth strike I’ve ever seen generated. The floor of the Arena rose up in huge, 20-cubit tall razor-sharp stone sherds that impaled the tarok. I’ve never seen any human generate that kind of elemental power without the assistance of the Dark Powers. There’s something very strange going on with this man-turned-woman; something I can’t quite put my finger on. Unlike the Cadre, she seems to be using this power by instinct, as if she didn’t realize she was using it. I’m not sure if she truly knows how she’s accessing this power.”

“Did she use this elemental power repeatedly in the Arena?” the bear asked, very intrigued by the news.

“Yes, she did,” Magnus stated categorically. I saw her use it at least three times with the most powerful blast being the one that killed the tarok. I’ve never seen anyone fight with so much passion and outright brutality. Beowulf is a slumbering giant with immense power waiting to be awakened. I wouldn’t want to be the Emperor when she finally realizes her full potential.”

“Indeed,” the bear agreed. “So how did the opportunity arise to retrieve her?”

“After killing the tarok and being electrocuted by the Emperor for killing it, Hades begged the Emperor for the chance to kill her,” Magnus stated. “He consented, and Hades fought Beowulf in the Arena. I’m amazed she could fight at all after all the punishment she’d taken. But she and Lord Hades went at it in a knockdown, drag-out battle. After ten minutes of fighting, she disarmed Hades and rather than finishing him off as the Emperor demanded, she refused, choosing to walk away rather than slay a helpless unarmed opponent. She went back to the saber cat she had befriended earlier that was killed by the tarok and stroked the animal, apparently grieving over the loss as if it was a friend. At that point, Hades recovered from the stunning kick he’d received from Beowulf after being beaten, called upon his black power, and tried to incinerate her with a hellfire fireball. It was amazing to watch. Beowulf had her back to Hades when the fireball was thrown. In an instant, almost as if someone warned her, she grabbed a sword from one of the dead guards crushed by the cat’s body and threw it at Hades. The sword penetrated the fireball, disrupting it somewhat, and then it ran Hades through as he was generating another fireball. The sword struck in Hades’ chest up to the hilt and he was over fifteen cubits away. The strike caused Hades to lose control of his power. He exploded in a huge ball of infernal fire and smoke. In the middle of the chaos of the explosion, I found my opportunity and availed myself of it.”

Magnus’ account impressed the bear. “This man-turned-woman is indeed lucky,” the bear stated. “No one in my lifetime has survived such an encounter in the Arena as a man, much less after being turned into a woman and ravaged on the sex floor beforehand as I know she was. Most die in the initial fray. However, not only did she survive, but managed to taunt and aggravate the Emperor in the process. You realize that she cannot stay here. Knowing the Emperor, he’ll want her skull as a trophy. When he finds no pieces of her and your prints in the Arena, this place will be turned upside down. We have to get her out of here.”

“You’re right, Nemesis,” Magnus replied to the bear. “We have to get her away. She has friends on the outside, I’m sure of it. They’ll be looking for her.” As he spoke, Hanna moaned, attracting their attention.

“She’s coming around,” Nemesis stated. They pushed in around her as the jailer and his men finished binding Hanna’s wounds, including her broken bones.

“We’ve done all we can,” one of the men said as his friends slipped a sleeveless tan bodysuit with high-cut legs on Hanna to help secure her bandages and back brace. “The wounds are severe, but not life-threatening at this point. She won’t be pretty, but she’ll survive.”

“Are her limbs and back secured?” Nemesis queried as a formality.

“Yes,” the jailer replied. “Her broken limbs are set and splinted and her spine is stabilized by one of our spinal braces and the bodysuit. It should allow us to move her now without risking further injury.”

Nemesis nodded and said, “Good; I’ll take it from here.”

Hanna moaned again and slowly shook her head from side to side as she opened her eyes. At first, her eyes were blurry and she could only see shapes. “Where am I? Am I dead?” she whispered.

“Not yet, my friend,” Magnus replied as Hanna painfully raised a hand to rub her eyes.

“Wait a minute...I know that voice,” Hanna said as her vision cleared. She looked up once her eyes had cleared and saw the feline Xenian hovering over her with a monstrous cyborg bear staring down at her as well. “I remember you. You visited me in the cell before I was taken to the sex floor while I was locked inside that clone girl,” Hanna murmured slowly; still dazed from her injuries, the painkillers, and the sedative given her by Nemesis. “But you; I don’t know you. Who’re you? Are you a Xenian like him?” she asked of the bear, immediately noticing its male orientation.

The Xenian bear growled softly and replied, “Yes, I am. I am the Nemesis.”

Hanna cocked her head to one side to get a better look at the bear, and said, being impressed with the formidable nature of the bear, “I can see that. Are you a prototype like the cat?”

Nemesis nodded and said, “Yes.”

“Then I guess my next question is why I’m here and not dead?” Hanna asked in a whisper. Moments later, she realized both her legs and her right arm lay immobilized with splints and bandages. Hanna also felt something supporting and immobilizing her spine from between her shoulder blades to her hip. Her fingers and toes tingled. Bandages also wrapped her chest, hips, legs, arms, neck, and part of her head. A snug sleeveless tan bodysuit with high-cut legs covered her core fully, holding the back braces and bandages in place.

“Magnus snatched you away from the Arena in the midst of the explosion caused by the death of Lord Hades,” Nemesis replied.

Hanna thought for a moment and then said, “Ah, I remember now. That prick Hades tried to burn me and I skewered him with a sword I picked up.” A surge of flaming pain raced through her chest, slowly subsiding. She clenched her chest briefly with her left arm, which enhanced the pain, forcing her to back off. “Damn. It looks like the little shit did burn me,” she groaned. “I guess I should thank you, my friend. Magnus is it?”

Hanna offered her hand to Magnus, who shook it, saying, “Yes; my name is Magnus. I told you that you had friends in unlikely places, so here they are.”

Hanna tried to sit up, and growled with pain as she did, feeling the back brace not giving; however, her strength was non-existent and she slumped back down on the table. Tears ran down her cheeks from the searing pain. “Oh, hell,” she moaned in intense pain, “I should have known better than that, especially with whatever you put on my back.”

Nemesis leaned over Hanna and looked into her eyes. “You should not try to move,” he ordered. “You’re gravely injured with several fractured vertebra. The brace and bodysuit are there to keep your spine from slipping and severing your spinal cord. The splints are on your arm and legs for the same reason. Here, let me help you with the pain.” Nemesis touched Hanna on the neck with his mechanical finger, releasing another measured dose of painkillers into Hanna’s system that immediately quieted her pain. “There; is that better?” he asked.

Hanna sighed in deep relief. “Yes,” she murmured. “I’m no longer on fire, just a bit tingly. It seems I’ve nothing left. I can’t even sit up.”

“It’s okay,” Magnus replied. “After everything you’ve been through, it’s a miracle that you are still breathing with an intact mind.”

“True,” Hanna whispered. “For the life of me, I don’t know how I survived it or how I did that crazy shit in the Arena. All I can say I that the Lord must still have work for me to do.”

“That may be true,” Nemesis rumbled. “But we still don’t know who you are, my friend. Would you be so kind as to tell us who you are and who you were before the Emperor’s alteration of you, if you can remember it?”

“Fair enough,” Hanna murmured, wheezing from her wounds. “When I came to this cursed land from the surface and before the Emperor caught me and Selina, I was known by several names. The name I prefer is Hannibal Smith. It’s my birth name, but there are those who, like the Emperor, know me as Beowulf. That’s a name I took when I became a master of the Dark Arts: a seventh-level wizard assassin. I gave up that name when the Lord God of Heaven, the Ancient of Days as I’ve heard him called in Arionath, dragged me out of the Darkness. When I forsook the legions of Darkness, I took my old name back, Hannibal. Now, thanks to the Emperor’s wrath and science, I’ve been mutated from a man into my female counterpart and have been forced to create a new me in order to survive this hideous nightmare. Therefore, as the woman you see here before you, I am Hanna. Hannibal is still part of me, my male persona, and if I ever find a way to reverse this condition, I will be Hannibal once more.” By now, Hanna was struggling to talk, her chest starting to ache.

“Don’t talk too much, Hanna,” Nemesis ordered. “You have several broken ribs from the impact of Hades’ fireball and the other battles. Because of the severe damage done to your chest by the fire, I cannot stabilize those ribs or your other broken bones as they should be. The strain would be too great on you. The elastic wrap, bandages, back brace, and bodysuit around your ribs will have to suffice for now.”

Hanna nodded and whispered, “Okay.” Looking at her bandaged form, a feeling of gratitude rose in her, especially when she saw the bodysuit covering her nudity with the bandages. Sighing, she looked around and saw the jailer, several sympathetic guards, and hand a handful of other men she didn’t know around the table. Upon seeing the jailer, she smiled wryly and whispered hoarsely, “I thought you were one of us. Thank you for the good luck in the Arena.”

The jailer smiled and said, “Luck has nothing to do with it. You’re the Promised One...the Last Caverias. Only someone with the Almighty on his side could have been turned into a woman, ravaged, and then survived such a vicious attack in the Arena. I hope you don’t blame us for what happened to you.”

Hanna shook her head. “No, I don’t,” she answered. “It’s the Emperor that’s the problem here, not you or your friends. Did that fella I saved from the tarok get away?”

“Yes,” the jailer stated. “You saved his life twice, and now he’s your friend forever. We’re keeping him hidden because he defied the Emperor when ordered to kill you.”

“That’s good,” Hanna murmured. “Just keep him away from the Emperor. I’d hate to see him killed by that beast.”

“Don’t worry. We can conceal him,” the jailer stated.

“But we can’t conceal Hanna here,” Magnus declared. “The Emperor will want a trophy and when he doesn’t find Hanna’s head in the Arena, he’s going to go ballistic. We have to get you out of the city, but where do we go? The attack is on for Arionath. I heard just before you went in the Arena that the main force was about to breech the valley. If you have any idea of where to go, it would help.”

Hanna looked around suspiciously, and whispered slowly, “Yeah, I have some idea. However, knowing my friends, they’ll send someone here to get me, even though I wouldn’t approve of it. Since you guys are trying to get me out of here, who’s going to take me?”

Magnus and Nemesis looked at each other for a moment, and then Magnus said, “I am. I’ll take you to your people.”

Hanna looked Magnus in the eye and saw the desire within him to quit Amacia altogether. “What about you, Nemesis?” Hanna asked.

“I can’t. I must keep an eye on things here, especially on your wife,” Nemesis replied. “There are many here who long to be rid of the Emperor’s tyranny. Besides, you’ll be back for her, won’t you? I can do more good here than going with you to wherever you’re going.”

Hanna got a faraway look on her face as she breathed softly, “Selina,” considering the ramifications of leaving her behind. She so wanted to go and break Selina out of the Harem but knew that it was impossible in her present condition.

Nemesis looked at Hanna with some intrigue and asked, “You love her more than your own life, don’t you?”

Hanna looked up at the mighty cyborg bear and said, “Yes, we are soul mates, intertwined in soul, mind, and body; mated by the Almighty himself before any of this ever happened. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me. The thought of having to leave her here is like having someone run me through the chest with a red-hot sword; but I know that I cannot help her now, not at the moment. I’m much too injured to even move, much less go after her.”

The bear squatted down to look Hanna in the eye and said with the utmost sincerity, “I swear by the God you serve, even though I don’t know Him, she will not be harmed. I’ll personally watch over her. I have already assisted her once by mending her ribs and leg she said was broken in a psychic dream where the Emperor tried to kill you both. Besides, she is in the safest place right now. As long as the Emperor believes you’re dead, he’ll be distracted with his plans and not be inclined to hurt her or anyone else in the Harem.”

“You’ve helped her?” Hanna asked softly, not having known about the helping hand Nemesis had already given Selina.

“Yes,” Nemesis stated, “I was called in by Myra when Miss Chizu was dying from her bindings. Selina freed her of the ropes and helped direct the other women as they stabilized Chizu’s condition before I arrived. After treating Miss Chizu, I noticed Selina was not well and found the source of her complaints, helping to treat them so she wouldn’t slowly perish.”

Tears rose in Hanna’s eyes. “I didn’t know,” she wept. “Thank you for helping her when she needed it. Will watch out for her in my absence? Will make things ready for my return?”

Nemesis held out his organic hand and sliced it with his mechanical fingers, drawing blood. “I swear it by your God and my own blood, she will be watched over until you come back,” he swore as he held out his great hand to Hanna, who knew what he wanted.

“Magnus, if you please,” Hanna said, holding out her left hand. Magnus sliced Hanna’s hand with his mechanical finger and Hanna said to Nemesis, “By my blood, the Ancient of Days, and all that is holy, I will come back for my wife and all those who want to leave this hell of the Emperor, even if I have to return as a woman to do it. I swear it with God as my witness.” She grasped Nemesis’ giant hand with some difficulty because it was almost three times the size of her hand. “Blood brother and sister, Nemesis, until the end of time,” Hanna said with the great warrior queen’s spirit showing on her face.

The oath impressed Nemesis, who said, “Go now, my sister. We’ll clear the way for you. May your God guide your way and help you find your friends quickly. Just one thing, which way will you go?”

Hanna thought for a moment and the Holy Spirit, which had been quiet for almost two weeks and the whole time she’d been mutated, spoke to her telepathically, saying, Go west.

“We’ll be heading west,” Hanna declared as the jailer dressed the cut on her hand.

This shocked everyone present. “You’re insane!” the jailer replied. “Did the Arena knock the good sense out of you? To the west is Tartarus.” He then put a sling around Hanna’s neck, placing her broken right arm in it for support.

Hanna’s eyebrow rose and she asked, “Did you say Tartarus?”

One of the guards spoke up, saying, “Yes, Tartarus; it’s the infernal regions where the Cadre do their most wicked works. Just ask Magnus and Nemesis. They came from that cursed place.” Hanna looked at Nemesis, and then Magnus and they nodded.

“Yes, it’s a hellish land with fire and ash and blistering wastes. It is the most desolate and bleak waste you can imagine. There the Cadre can perform their experiments without fear,” Magnus reported. “Are you sure that’s where you want to go?”

Hanna nodded and said, “Yes. The Lord says west, so west I go. Who knows what I may find: maybe friends or maybe my death. But I won’t know until I go.”

Nemesis smiled slightly, seeing Hanna’s courage and faith in her comments. “Your faith in your God is impressive, Hanna. Go then, sister. We’ll await your return,” he ordered.

Hanna nodded as Magnus gently lifted her off the table, careful to support her back. “Looks like you’ll have to ride for a while, little sister,” Magnus declared.

Hanna looked up at Magnus and gratefully whispered, “Seems so. Thank you, my friend.” Calling to those whom she was leaving, Hanna said, “Be safe my friends, and watch you backs.” They returned the farewell and Magnus carried her away.

“Make sure their way is clear out of the city,” Nemesis ordered the jailer. “I’ll go and check on Selina.” At that, the jailer raced after Magnus and Hanna with the guards following closely. The others split up, leaving the secret chamber behind. The jailer and guards quickly caught up with Magnus and Hanna.

“Wait up,” the jailer called as they caught up to them. Magnus and Hanna stopped and turned to the jailer, who said, “I know a secret way out of the castle. Follow me.”

Magnus and Hanna looked at each other briefly, and then Hanna said, “Lead on, my friend.” With that, the jailer led them deeper into the dungeons, taking them through a secret escape route not used for tens of thousands of years.