NOTE - you need to read this to understand what happens in DaN part 3. If you’ve read part 2 you’ll know about the mysterious Ace…

There was no way of telling the time here; Ace just went by what his gut told him. He had been in hiding for at least a week, and was growing increasingly hungry. On the plus side, he hadn’t been found and destroyed by creatures from some other realm.

He was sat, his back against a wall, with his knees pulled up against his chest. He was thinking about Artemis and Holly. If he hadn’t convinced him to go into Holly’s sleeping mind, he wouldn’t be in this position. It was all her fault!

He decided that enough was enough. He got up and left his hidey-hole, keeping on the lookout for enemies. He skirted the main urban areas and kept to the alleyways.

As he was packing a discarded hunk of cooked meat into his bag, he felt two massive gauntleted hands on his shoulders. He was picked up and carried, swearing and kicking, out of the alley. The black-clad monstrosity dragged him by the arm to the centre of a huge symbol on the ground. It comprised of a ten-pointed star with a marking made of circles, lines and semi-circles in the middle. He was thrown roughly onto it, and almost immediately was raised into the air. He was surrounded by a green glow, and was being levitated several metres above the ground. He saw a dark, hunched, tall figure in a cape emerge from the shadows. It was holding a staff in one hand and the other was holding the cape shut around its form.

“…So, you are the heroic rescuer of the one called Short…” it said, in a grating voice that sounded like it had swallowed a bucket of iron filings. “…But you regret it… do not deny it, i can see into your very thoughts… you blame her for your incarceration here…”

Ace managed a shuddering breath; the magic was crushing his chest like a gnome crushing a peanut in his back teeth.

“That is true” he managed. “I blame her…”

The figure laughed, again a grating noise that sounded like sandpaper on metal.

“…well, then, I have a proposition for you… join me and you shall have vengeance…”

Ace had to admit that the offer was tempting. Vengeance against that little elf scum…

“Very well, I accept your offer!”

The figure laughed.

“Of course you do. They all do.”

And that was when Ace realised that he had let lust for vengeance cloud his judgement. The figure threw off his cape, revealing a mechanoid body. He stretched up to his full height - twelve feet. He threw his arms wide, a crackling energy bolt blasting from the marking on his chest straight to Ace. He screamed as he felt his flesh melt and reform; metal components were being hybridised with his flesh and bone. He openly wept as he felt his body become cyborg, from his toes right up to the top of his head…

He opened his eyes. The figure was cloaked again, and standing over him again.

“You are complete. Rise.” it commanded. Ace did so, feeling invincible in his body. He looked at his hands - robotoid. They still resembled his hands, except they were larger and they were metal. He stumbled past the figure, and saw himself reflected in a puddle.

At first he grasped at the metal face he saw, then he realised it was his. His mouth did not open; when he spoke, the sound drifted from slats in the front. His entire body had a skeletal look to it, except that it was extremely thick and plated. The figure appeared next to him.

“Take this weapon and kill the elf.”

It handed him a long shafted weapon with a mighty blade at one end and a glowing energy core at the other. He hefted the weapon.

He could not feel love.

He could not feel remorse.

He could not feel a sense of fairness.

He could only feel hatred and anger, boiling up like vole stew in a pot.

“I will destroy her…”

Some other stories by LEP-recon124:

• Probably the coolest thing ever (Part one of a series that I have no idea when will finish)
• World War 3 (Part 1)
• LEP-centurion001 part two
• LEP-centurion001
• Death (alternate ending)