Renegades (The Slingers Trilogy, Book 3)

Chapter 42

The first thing Nolun noticed when he woke up was that he was floating. He thought that he was having another vision at first, but when he saw Andress's face above him, her red hair flowing over him, he knew it wasn't. "What..." He said, then felt Andress breathe out. "Thank God...you're ok. Gottlieb got you pretty bad..." He looked around, and saw that they were in a small room, and in front of them was a circular door, with seven shapes in it, that looked like the Dorado Pieces. "How did we...?" Andress shook her head. "I don't know. We started falling, then I blacked out. I woke up here, and saw that we were floating." Nolun then started to feel the pain, and grimaced when he tried to move his right arm. Andress looked at the motion, then smiled. "Hey...did I ever tell you how I lost my arm?" Nolun looked up at her and shook his head. She then sat down, the floating temporarily gone for her. "It was a few days after we had escaped Gottlieb and the GDF....we were living on a backwater planet, the middle of nowhere. One night, they had somehow managed to find us. We came under fire, and I saw a sniper a few yards away. He was about to hit Koil, I knew it, but I didn't have enough time to shoot. So I did the one thing I thought to do. I dove right in front of him, and took the bullet. Hit my arm, and severed almost every nerve in there. It was lodged deep in there. When we finally managed to escape, Bunker took me to Rust, and that's where we met Thadeus. He patched me up, and made me this." She held up her robotic arm and flexed it. It had been damaged in the fall, so now only a few fingers moved. She then unstrapped it from her hand, and it fell to the ground. "Not much use for it now." Nolun got up and moved next to her, her right side now armless. "Well, now I kinda know how it feels. No wonder you were so cranky when we first met." She laughed, and it echoed around the cave. Andress looked over at Nolun, and stared into his eyes. "Can you believe it was that long ago?" She then leaned her head onto Nolun's unhurt shoulder, and Nolun sighed. "Nah. Feels like it was yesterday."

They both sat there, wondering how they would get out of here, or if they would be trapped here forever. The room was filled with rocks, and had no ceiling, but no sign of any other light except for the ones coming from the door. After a while, Nolun got up, and started to dig through the rocks. "What are you doing?" Andress said, and Nolun looked back at her. "Just got one of my feelings." Andress's eyes widened, and then watched as Nolun pulled out his bag, and the two cases from the rocks. "But...how...?" Andress said. Nolun looked over at the door. "It's the end. And I think that nothing's gonna stop them from seeing it through. Help me." Andress got up, and helped as much as she could, and began to place the different Pieces into their places. As they got to the Diamond, they saw that there were two places left, but only one Piece left. Nolun cursed out loud. "I don't understand! There are 7, there were always 7! The last ones were supposed be here, I know it!" Andress placed her hand on his shoulder. "Maybe the GDF already got to them before we got here..." Nolun looked down, considering this, then he suddenly felt something tingle up his spine. He began to move the symbols on the Diamond around. Then, the glowing beam of light shot out of the top...and right into Nolun's jacket pocket. He pulled it out, and saw that it was Merrick's journal. Andress was looking at him with surprise and confusion, then Nolun opened up to the last page. The quote that Nolun had seen was now glowing with light. 

The secret of the final Piece is in this journal. Find it.

Nolun thought for a second, then looked at the symbols around the journal. Suddenly, everything clicked into place. "I thought about this all wrong...he didn't mean there was something in the journal that would lead me to the Piece...he literally meant, the final Piece is in this journal!" Andress looked at him, her eyes wide. "How?" Nolun looked at the symbols, and then found that they could be moved around, like the ones on the Pieces. When they were moved into the correct combination, the journal began to glow. Then, the rings where the symbols were on the cover began to float out of the journal, and then soldified into a solid gold ring, that was covered in symbols. Nolun stared at it, then breathed out his words. "The Ring..."

Looking at Andress, he placed the last two Pieces into the spaces, then the door began to shift, spinning in several places, the Dorado Pieces moving along with them. As they stopped, Nolun noticed that they were in the same combination that the symbols were when they were used to find each other. When they finally stopped, the centre of the door opened, and bright golden glowing light was shining out of it. Nolun and Andress shielded their eyes, and Nolun looked into it. He then began to reach out his hand, going into the light. "Wait!" Andress said, and pulled him back. "You don't know what's in there...you could die..." Nolun looked at her. "If I do...I can die happy by knowing I did this." He pulled her close and kissed her, holding her in his arms. Andress was surprised, but then returned the kiss, and finally broke the embrace. "What took you so damn long?" She said, smiling a bit. Nolun smiled back. "See you soon?" Andress nodded. "See you soon." Nolun turned back to the door, and stuck his hand near the light, placing it inside slowly. It felt almost...calming. Like sticking his hand into warm water. Then, the light filled up his entire vision, and everything else seemed to fade away. 

He was here once again, only this time it was different. He felt much smaller, and looked around to see what was around him, if anything. He was then shocked by seeing several of the beings that had shown him the way here in the first place staring down at him, now the size of behemoths. Please, whatever you are, don't hurt me. He said, and almost cowered before them. Then, what sounded like several voiced melded into one rang through his head. We do not wish to harm you. If anything, we wish to congratulate you, Nolun Metreo. He looked at them. How do you know my name? The beings pointed at him, their long fingers almost touching him. We know all. We see all. We come from a place that is beyond what you know. Time is irrelevant to us, but to you, we come from the future. He stared at them, his eyes wide. How is that possible? One of them shrank to his size, and walked forwards, close to him. Come. It is time for our tale to be told.