He shook her awake the morning of departure...

“Hey sis, we gotta get going so we can get ready to board the ships.”

“Already?” she said groggily, lazily moving her sheets off.

“Come on, these are the last set of ships. If we miss them, we’ll be stranded here. Get your stuff.”

“Alright, Alright.” She mumbled, getting up and grabbing everything she owned, which wasn’t a lot, to stuff into the bag her brother had left her on the desk.

“Drake and Ken are on their way here, so hurry up.” He advised, and then added, “Breakfast is waiting outside.” He flashed a smile before disappearing out the room. Dawn grabbed the last few of her belongings, a few scrap materials that looked funny or cool, her blankets off her bed, her favourite sword, a Final Flourish and a picture of her and her brother standing in front of the Haven Auction House, the memory making giving her a sense of joy for a moment, before she caressingly stowed it away with her various other possessions.

She finished packing and took a last look at her small room before leaving to join her brother for breakfast. She sat next to him, eagerly gobbling down her meal. A knock on the door signaled their friends’ arrival.

“Hi-dee-ho! Ready to set off?” Ken greeted them, opening the door without waiting for it to be opened.

“Hey Dusk, and Dawn, you guys look comfy, but we can’t afford to spend a second more of time here, we have to go! We can’t risk not being able to get on the ships in time. You know how it is, last couple of ships and everything going hay-wire outside.” Drake crossed his arms and speaking to no one in particular added in a distant voice, “Nobody wants to be stuck here.” A rumble rocked the room, startling the inhabitants.

“Hate to be a party breaker, but I think we must agree with Mr. Grumpy here, we may have given ourselves quite the time to get to the ships, but I don’t think it’ll end up as a good time just chilling here any longer!” Ken said, trying not to lose his balance as the room continued to shake.

“Agreed, let’s get out of here. Come on Dawn, quickly!” Dawn stood up and every ran out the door.

“So where are the ships departing from today? It must be a pretty stable area if they are risking having the ships wait for so long, even if these are the last ones to pick up anyone left.” Dusk asked.

“Worry not, I got this little baby!” Ken bragged, holding up a strange device resting in his palm. “Got it from a friend just before he left, wanted to make sure that I would be able to reach the ships even if I get lost!”

“Well be careful with it, the shaking hasn’t stopped, and if it gets any worse, that thing will fly out of your hands!” Drake said.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll put i-” A giant boom resounded through the air as the ground erupted, a giant gear smashing through the ground and tearing the area apart.

“DAWN!” Dusk cried, grabbing her hand as the ground below them vanished, flying into the air around them, hurtling the two siblings down into the abyss below.

It all started about two years ago.

It was routine stuff, Knights still scouring the Clockworks, trying to find more secrets about the Core, trying to find a way home. One day, a recon team, reported that the core was giving off phenomenally large quantities of energy, only detectable from the actual area above the core. However, a day later, the readings subsided and it was presumed that it was another anomaly that couldn’t be solved.
However, through the subsequent weeks, Knights reported unnaturally high leveled monsters appearing over all levels, and acting strangely. Some would attack on sight, hoarding around Knights, others would freak out and run away, no matter how strong they were. Some levels were devoid of creatures all together. Strangely, the intelligent inhabitants also disappeared. Gremlins vanished almost instantly, Emberlight becoming more of a ghost town then Moorcraft Manor. Devilites also began reducing in numbers, abandoning their offices. Then came the Clockwork breakdown.
The Clockworks broke down all at once, faster than anyone, even Spiral HQ, could have estimated, completely unforeseen. The levels began to become completely random one day, no matter how many minerals were deposited into the Arcade. Then the next day, the entire Arcade shut down, and all of Spiral HQ’s connections to the Clockworks, sensors, locators, even Knights, lost access. The Knights trapped there had no way out, because the teleportation system had failed. After a week, the Arcade seemed to come back, but only slightly. The levels were still completely random, and it took a ridiculous amount of minerals to hold onto a certain levels. But no one wanted to go into the Clockworks anyways, everyone was too scared. Only veterans and the daring entered, and those that returned reported that all creatures had either fled or met some other fate. That the paths themselves never stayed put, always changing even as you traversed the levels. The various components that had once governed the Clockworks were failing; gears, axels, cogs, all crashed into each other with no discernible pattern at all, the blue sky above Wolver Den’s a cracked ceiling constantly raining debris on however was in it, structures were collapsing and the bosses of the Clockworks also gone, chaos reigned. But that was only the beginning.

The rapid destruction of the Clockworks was immediately followed by the destruction of Haven. As the inside of Cradle started falling apart, the outside was destined to fall with it. Spiral HQ knew they hadn’t much time left and abandoned the search for a way into the core, and any further interaction at all with the Clockworks. Fortunately, one scientist discovered that by combining the six mysterious minerals that knights had collected throughout the Clockworks, they could produce a pure white crystal that emanated immensely strong energy, stronger than any source of power found before. An order was issued out, that all minerals were to be handed over immediately and without question to Spiral HQ. With all the remaining resources they had available, The Spiral Knights reconstructed a brand new Skylark, though not as big as the original. The ship carried as many young or inexperienced knights as possible, including most of the high order, Feron leading the evacuation. They gathered all the Strangers, who readily agreed to flee the crumbling planet, and of course every last Snipe in Haven. Then, it was time for the launch of the new Skylark. Tensions were high, but to everyone’s disbelief and wonderment, the new power source, dubbed Larkuim after the Skylark, released an incredible blast of energy which reverted and repelled the strange pull of Cradle. Adding the energy of the ships engines, the Skylark easily soared off of Cradle’s surface. Many smaller ships were also built, each of which left in groups, gathering as many Knights as possible each group, to maximize the amount of survivors recovered. That was how I, Dawn, my brother Dusk, and our friends ended up in this situation. Being more experienced, we were to be one of the last to leave, and with the planet so unstable at this point, how could we have known? But now, we’re falling, falling down into the Clockworks, falling into our doom.

Dawn groaned, pushing herself to her feet. She was aching all over, how had she survived the fall? She waited for a moment before she could focus properly and then notice that she was in some sort of patch of grass. She looked up and could faintly see the glow from outside where they had come in, occasionally the light dimming from nearby gears moving in the way, no doubt one of the gears causing their sudden predicament. The thought snapped Dawn back into reality. Where was everyone else!? She look around, she was on a shattered section of land, the other a jump away. Dawn began to worry that the others didn’t survive the landing, or fell further down. No, fear would only make it worse. She leapt over the gap and tripped on something warm.

“OW!” but the cry didn’t come from Dawn; she got back up and turned around to see Ken lying on the ground, dazed. “Did yah hafta do that?” He grunted, and then stood up with his hands on his hips creating a very humorous feminine pose. “And I suppose now that we have just dropped down into the Clockworks for a quick little good bye?”

“Bro, it’s not like it’s my fault, now let’s go find the others.” Dawn said, drawing her Flourish and turning around.

“I never said it was your fault, besides I was jokin.” Ken replied, putting his hands up in a gesture of innocence.

“So was I.” Dawn replied as the two set off.

They hadn’t been in the Clockworks, ever since it was declared that the Clockworks were in a state of ruin, but now they could see it was more than ruin, it was complete chaos and destruction. With every step they took, the area became more and more dangerous.

“We can’t find them! We mind as well just get outta here while we can. I still got my lil’ navigator device, so let’s just go, we have like, five hours left!” Ken said worriedly.

“No. We’re going to find my brother and Drake, we can’t leave them here!” Dawn snapped back.

“There both toughies, I’m sure they can find their way out themselves.” Ken persisted, clearly not wanting to stay a second longer in the Clockworks. Ken looked back down at the device of his, plotting where they would have to go when Dawn stopped and held out her arm suddenly, causing Ken to bump into her. “Why’d yah sto - oh.” Dawn had stopped them from walking out onto a platform that had broken apart as they approached.

“With the area around here like it is, I don’t think it’s even traversable, and if it weren’t for your navigator, I don’t think we’d have any idea where we are. So we’re going to find the others.” Dawn said defiantly, staring down at the abyss in front of her.

“Or they could find us.” Ken replied simply, already walking back.

“Huh?” Dawn turned around to see Dusk expertly clambering over to their location. “Dusk!” she called out joyously.

“Dawn! I’m so glad to see your okay! But we have to get out of here, now!” he said, pulling her in for a quick hug. “Can’t you feel it? This place hasn’t got much time left before it’ll completely crumble!” Dusk pointed back the way he had come, Drake and I found a somewhat stable passage back there, and he sent me over here to try and find you guys. Besides, it looks like this way is a dead end.” Dawn looked back at Ken with a mocking smile,
“Some help your navigator did us.”

“Hey, the ships are located over there,” Ken pointed beyond where they had been heading, “And the maps on this thing are outdated, we should be glad it can at least track our location and give us the correct maps depending on where we are!” Dusk shrugged, I was better than nothing.

“Now follow me, we mustn’t waste a second more.” With that he turned around and ran back through the broken passage.

“We have five hours.” Ken restated to Dusk as he and Dawn followed.

“Five hours isn’t a lot of time.”

When Drake saw the three coming he perked up, no more waiting.

“Where to now, navigator boy?” Drake said when the group arrived. Ken threw him an annoyed glance, but ignored it.

“According to this... there is a path that could potentially lead us to the surface, pretty close to the ships whereabouts, but...” Ken looked a bit unsure.

“But? But what? And what do you mean ‘could, and ‘potentially’?” Drake pressed Ken, he was tired of all this. What had began as a simple trip, had became a grueling and puzzling escape.

“Well, the passage... Okay, the passage that we’re on is supposedly connected to a series of other passages that slowly head upwards, close as we can get to the surface of the Clockworks from in here and I’m sure with all this craziness, we should be able to climb out of with all the holes on the ceiling, but for the same reason, we can’t be sure that this path is even correct anymore, let alone even remotely accurate. What’s worse is,” Ken paused and looked around, despite his usually carefree disposition, he sounded quite worried, “Part of the route, a big part actually, is unmapped or cannot be found or something weird like that.” Ken finished in a rush. The others just looked at him.

“Well that got ridiculous quickly.” Dusk finally said. “We go from getting ready to leave with plenty of time to spare, to struggling just to stay alive in a screwed up death zone, with no secure path out.” Dawn nodded in agreement with her brother, everything just seemed so sudden and was too much.

“I suggest we begin our journey out of here. You guys are right; a minute more here, is a minute closer to death.” With that, they rapidly sped
down the path under Ken’s guidance. They headed down passage after passage, dodging collapsed and collapsing structures, swiftly moving about the ruble that was once the grandeur Clockworks. They had traveled a surprising duration of time when they arrived at an open area, what once might have been a battle arena. Drake’s eyes caught something and he cried out,

“Wait what’s that!?” Drake pointed at a dark object slowly creeping towards them, “It’s splitting into two!”

“No, there’s more of it! And they don’t look like the welcoming comity...” Dawn pointed to other creatures emerging from the cracked ground and ruble. “Behind you!” Dawn lunged with her Final Flourish, piercing a creature which had mysteriously teleported behind Dusk, the menacing thing dissipating mysteriously.

“What the?! Are they some kind of Wolver?” Dusk wondered aloud, slicing another clean in half with his Voltedge, the thing too vanished. “They just disappear when you hit them, but there are a lot more of them coming! Looks like we have to fight them or risk finding out what happens if we don’t.” Dusk warned. The four launched their counter attack, swords dancing, guns flaring, but the strange creatures never seemed to decrease.

“I don’t think they’re Wolvers, their bodies seem more like a blob of darkness that never stays solid, and they can also fly as well!” Drake observed, sweeping his Barbarous Thorn Blade through three of the monsters in a flash. He turned and saw one of them seemingly dissolve, but not into nothing. It rather dimmed, as if to turn invisible, but the floating dark patch gave it away.

“Watcha looking at Drake? This isn’t a good time to daydream!”Dusk called over the sounds of battle, clanking sounds, blasts of gunshots and hissing of darkness. Dusk completed his third swing, smoldering another two with his sword, when he saw it. A dark patch before him darkened into one of the creatures, Dusk had no time to react. He braced for whatever the monsters would commit, but then a flash of blue exploded right in the creature.

“Now who’s the one daydreaming?” Drake said, smirking, aiming his Polaris for another shot. Dusk smiled and nodded his thanks before he flipped around and slashed at another incoming group of the creatures. The four continued fighting to no avail wave after wave, the monsters would relentlessly appear, seemingly out of nowhere, or rather, everywhere! It was well into the battle when Ken called out,

“Guys! We’ve got four hours on the clock! We can’t fight them anymore! It’s useless, mah arm’s gettin tired, and it looks like they’re not!” Ken peered at the others, Dawn was breathing heavily, swiping her Flourish frantically, but her exhaustion was evident. Dusk was at her side, unleashing charge after charge from his trusty Voltedge, but even together, the two had their limits. Ken then noticed how Drake seemed to be fighting like he wasn’t tired at all. His eyes were burning with power, maybe even anger. Then Drake’s eyes flicked over to Ken’s and then a smirk crossed it for a brief second. Abruptively, multiple explosions of blue rocked their small battle field, eliminating all of the creatures.

“Go!NOW!” Drake ordered, furiously firing his Polaris, creating a wall between them and the enemies. He pointed down the passage briefly before continuing with his attack. Drake switched to his Thorn Blade and lunged at the enemies; almost like a dance he abolished them, one after the other. “Please! I’ll hold them off as long as I can, so you guys have GOT to get out of here. Don’t waste this opportunity.” The look in Drake’s eyes softened, he was giving it all he had to make sure everyone could go on.

“Drake, no, we - we can’t leave! Come on Dusk, Ken, we gotta keep on fighting, back him up!” Dawn persisted, but Dusk shook his head, him and Ken already heading down the hall.

“Like he said Dawn, we can’t waste this chance that we’ve got. This is his choice.” Dusk grabbed his sister’s hand as they raced down the passage, following Ken.

“I’ll meet back with you guys later!” They heard Drake yell back to them.

“You can bet on it.” Dusk called back.

They continued down another series of passages in silence. Dawn finally broke the silence, a grim tone was evident.

“He... Drake’s not going to make it, is he?” Dusk slowed down a bit looking at her with sad eyes.

“Well, Drake’s one of the best fighters out there. I mean those things, they weren’t too difficult to handle, after all they do just disappear after you hit them, but there was just so many, we’re just worn out.”

“And we’re running out of time. Besides who knows, Drake’s not someone to go down easily. He’d rather listen to me all day then go down in a fight.”

Ken reassured them. Dawn smiled, maybe just maybe.

Ken turned a corner, and as the others followed they bumped into him.

“Watch it! Man, be more careful.” Ken peered down the path, then back at his navigator.

“Well, why’d we stop?”Dusk asked, trying to look ahead, as if to see the reason presenting itself.

“This is the place.” He replied simply.

“What? This is where we can get out of here?!” Dawn couldn’t hide her excitement.

“Sorry, ‘fraid not. This is where the map cuts off. Or, at least it’s supposed to.” Ken looked around in confusion. Dawn stared at him for a second.

“Well, what’s wrong? There’s a path so let’s go!” Dusk said urging everyone down the path, but then Dawn snapped her fingers.

“You’re right!” Dawn said. Dusk looked at her puzzled.

“What do you mean?”

“What she means, is that I’m confused as to why this is, like, this. I mean, the paths that we took to actually get here, they’re different from the paths here. The navigator showed that everything we ran through to get here was right, in the sense of which way to turn and all that. But the place seems just slightly different from the actual image on the navigator.” Ken explained, still looking around suspiciously. “Dawn was always good at reading people.” Dusk just looked at him, tapping his helm; Ken had never made any sense to him.

“Bro, Ken’s saying that this probably isn’t the same area as the area the Knight went to, to make the map.” She gestured around her. “Have you noticed yet? Ever since we left that, battle arena thing, barely anything is broken down like it was before it, this place is... stranger than everywhere else. I guess I really only noticed it now, but I knew something was off. Whatever’s up with this place, it cannot be good.”

“Well, so we just head down this path? How do you know if the two passages even connect, if the area has no data?” Dusk questioned Ken.
“For one, there’s this big black box right where we are supposed to be now, and there are only two passages that go in and out of it.” Ken held up the navigator for Dusk to see.

“Wait, I think I just thought of something.” Dusk tapped at his helm again. “That arena, you guys say that as soon as we left it, the area wasn’t a total wreak? Ken, you also said that this area is the same but strangely different from the map? Well, if you ask me... That place where Drake is now,” Dusk purposely didn’t use the past tense, “Is like some kind of guarded area, and wherever we are now, was not here when the map was made. Or at least, it wasn’t the exact same place; it may have been used to...” Dusk paused, thinking hard, “used to trick intruders! With all the stuff going on in the Clockworks, this place must have shown up by accident or something.” Dusk leaned against a wall, tired after from throwing out his assumption.
“It all makes sense then! This place we’re in, it must be extremely important in some way. It’s no coincidence that this place doesn’t appear on that device, that the area in here isn’t in ruin, and that the area right before here was begin guarded by strange enemies. I have a very bad feeling about this place, so we have to be on our highest guard. Whatever is here, it must be pretty important, and there could be more of those creatures here, or worse.” Dawn concluded triumphantly.

“Well, I have no idea what’s here, but I agree with Dawn. We need to be on high alert, let’s go guys.” Ken stuck out his hand in a thumbs up and nodded, smiling. Then the three of them headed down the passage to wherever it would lead. They immediately saw a large structure coming into view.
“Woah, I bet that’s it.” Ken said, as the group slowed down.

“Hey, look what does that say?”Dawn exclaimed pointing ahead to where the passage lead inside the building. The entrance was a simple doorway, with the exception of having no door. Above the entrance, there were some words, but time had faded them and they were illegible.
“I can’t really make it out, but I think it says Clockworks.” Dusk examined.

“I think there are more words but I can’t read them, not like it matters, we’re wasting time so let’s go!” Ken said ushering them inside. The inside was a stark grey, the only illumination coming from overhead lights every few metres. They proceeded through the hallway, until they reached a door, which they all stopped at, looking at each other nervously.

“We have to go inside either way.” Dusk stated, no one argued, because he was right. “I’ll open it, you guys prepare for whatever could be inside.” He slowly reached for the doorknob, and then in a quick motion, flung open the door. Ken leapt in and aimed his Silversix at anything that could be a target, with Dawn at his heels holding her Flourish out. The room was a small area with nothing but a computer terminal on the opposite side of the wall with the door.

“What? This is it? This is what they guarded? A computer? And how come there’s only one entry point?” Dusk said entering, gawking at the room.

“Maybe there’s more to it than meets the eye.” Dawn said, heading over to the computer. The thing looked like it had sat there for ages untouched, but the technology was surprisingly advanced. At first Dawn worried it wouldn’t work, but the blue glow that filled the room proved her wrong. “Strange, there’s nothing on this thing but files with... video voice recordings?” Dawn continued to ponder over the computer as Ken and Dusk searched for a way out of the room besides the door they had gone through. Suddenly an alarm sounded, blasting it’s siren in low tones, as the Knights frantically looked around for the source.

“Where is it coming from!?” Dusk shouted, but was barely heard. “It seems to be coming from nowhere!”
“Thank you for telling us that, I greatly appreciate you stating the obvious.” Ken shouted back sarcastically. The blaring continued for a minute before stopping. Then the wall to the right of the computer moved out, exposing a brand new hallway, the new one was darker and smaller than the last.
“So what just happened?” Dusk asked looking over to Dawn.

“I-I don’t know, I selected the latest video file, then what I think was a not popped up, but then the power just turned off and then that siren went off.” Dawn explained. “The computer also ejected this.” She held up piece of metal with strange markings covering its surface. “I think it might be important, but what we need to focus on now is getting out. I guess I opened a path, so come on.” Dusk nodded in agreement and they once again ventured into another hallway. Ken moaned a bit as they left saying,

“I’m tired with all the walking; it’s getting a bit repetitive.”

The group came out the other end in what look like a courtyard, there were walls surrounding them, but the sky, or rather the surface of Cradle, was exposed.

“Almost there guys.”Dusk looked back at the group, “Let’s hope nothing goes wrong.” And as if on cue, a new alarm started sounding. “So much for hope.” The new alarm was different, sounding quieter, but any alarm would have sounded loud in the small room. It was also slower, but threatening all the same. “Now what?” Dusk groaned agrivated.

“Uh, what’s that?” Dawn said fearfully, looking ahead. Two glowing crimson eyes had appeared at the other end of the yard, blocking the connecting hallway.

“Judging from its eye position, it’s pretty big. Maybe as big as Vanaduke!” Dusk said, backing away.

“Aw come on guys, we don’t have time for this. The bigger they are, they harder they fall. The bigger they are, the easier it is to hit them.” Ken implied with carefree expression, he fired multiple rounds at the glowing eyes, but they bounced off, leaving metallic ring in the air. “Hurray it’s made of metal that can withstand bullets.”

Abruptively the thing jerked forward, and the entire area lit up, revealing the creature. It had a large metal body, with what appeared to be two ropes of metal connected to where its arms would have been. It also had surprisingly stubby legs for its body mass. It jerked forward again and stopped. The whirring of gears could be heard, and then it spoke.

PROCCESSING... INITIATED. LOADING DATA FILES... ERROR. ERROR.

The way the thing repeated the word terrified Dawn.

CORRUPTION. LOADING BACK-UP PROCCESSES... LOADED. SEARCHING FOR NEXT ACTION... WARNING. WARNING.WARNING. DATA UNCOVER. REINTIATE RESULTS.

The knights looked at each other in concern, what was this thing, and what was it doing?

UNEPECTED TERMINAL DATA... PROCCESSING... ACTIVATING PROCEDURE 25184EP. LOGGING AS LR3. BEGIN 25184EP... TERMINATE DATA. TERMINATE DATA. TERMINATE DATA. CLOCKWORKS EXPERIMENT CORE PROSSECOR 2-C. UNEXPECTED RESULTS. TERMINATE DATA.

“What!? What did it just say!?” Dusk exclaimed.

TERMINATE DATA.

The mechanical voice dropped, as if it had been turned off. There was a pause, but then a high speed whirring of gears once again emanated from the machine, except much louder. The metal ropes connected to it started glowing, drawing the attention of the three knights. Then in an eruption of electrical sparks, the two ropes flashed and arcs of electricity snaked along the course of them, snapping and crackling menacingly. The machines dark red eyes focused on them, and in unprecedented speed, it whipped the electrical ‘rope’ at Dawn. Dusk immediately flew in the way blocking with his Voltedge. The whip greedily wrapped around the blade and with a loud pop, the whip discharged electricity into the blade.

“Dusk! Are you okay? What were you thinking!?” Dawn cried out, rushing to her brother. But he was unfazed; the Voltedge had absorbed the attack.
“I’m fine, but neither I, nor any of us will be if that whip hits us, or if we don’t leave. NOW.” Dusk emphasized the word sternly.

“Couldn’t agree with you more buddy.” Ken said already positioning himself to run around it.

“No! Those whips move fast, and who knows what else it can do?” Dusk pointed to himself, “I’ll distract it so that my Voltedge takes the grunt of the attacks while you two sneak behind it. Then-” Dusk was cut off as it whipped at them again with its other whip, this time aiming straight for Dusk, who blocked it with his Voltedge. The machine retracted its whips, which loosened and released their grip from Dusks weapon. It suddenly switched targets aiming at Ken, who put up his Crest of Almire to try and protect himself. The whip slapped the shield, and an onrush of electrical current blasted through the whip, the discharge shattering Ken’s defence, but the shield had saved him.

“Hey over here, you big battery!” Dusk yelled, waving his arms. The machine pivoted on its stubby legs and whipped at Dusk with both of its whips. “Go! Now, get behind it while it’s distracted!” he commanded. Dawn and Ken quickly ran past it to the other side. Dusk held his ground, clenching on to his Voltedge as the machine released its discharge of energy, but this time, it was too much. Dusk fell forward as his Voltedge was ripped out of his hands and flung across the room.

“Arg! My Voltedge!” Dusk cried out, sprawled on the ground.

“Why do you and Dawn only carry one weapon? This is why you should carry two!” Ken advised in a disdainful tone. Dusk was pushing himself back up when the whip flung out and latched around Dusk’s arm.

“No! Dusk!” Dawn cried out as she watched helplessly, she knew that even if she had somehow reached Dusk in time, the other whip was still awaiting to strike.

“Get out of here without me!” Dusk shouted. Dawn’s breath caught in her throat. Just then, a shout came from down the hallway they had come through, and Drake flew in and wrapped the whip around his Thorn Blade, the spinning motion of his Blade forced Dusk free, and he stumbled back towards the entrance, but before anyone could react, Drake launched his Barbarous Thorn Blade into the machine. The Blade somehow managed to penetrate the outer layer of metal on the machine, sinking the Blade halfway to the hilt. At that moment, the machine surged, releasing its electricity, and unleashing its doom. A giant explosion rocked the area, larger than any Polaris shot; volts of electricity flew through the area electrocuting everything. Dusk got onto his feet as the smoke cleared, arcs of bright white electricity still coursing through the ground.

“Guys? Is everyone okay?” Dusk was beginning to panic, everything was just too much; he felt utterly overwhelmed.

“Dusk? You’re okay!” Dawn yelped out, rushing over to embrace her brother. He hugged her tightly, it seemed no matter how far they went, the danger just got worse and it worried him. But for the moment, having his sister in his arms, he relaxed; he would do anything to keep her safe.
“Well, would yeah look at that? Drake comes darting in like a hero and in now you two are hugging each other like if yah let go you’ll both disappear.” Ken joked, but then he saw something and he froze, he nearly dropped his navigator. “D-Drake?!” Ken ran over to him. No one had seen Drake’s condition before he arrived, but now he was worse. His emaciated body laid just a few metres from the now darkened and smoking machine. His arrow was cracked and broken in some places, shattered in others. He could barely breathe. “Drake? Are you okay?!” Ken grabbed him and tried to transfer half of his health energy to him, but it fizzled before it reached Drake’s body.

“Doesn’t work,” Drake coughed, a horrible effort on his body. “Like that here.” He paused to take a breath. “Well, I found out what happens when those dark creatures reach yeah, they grab onto you,” Drake motioned to his broken armor, “And then try to leach your energy, as they do, they get stronger, and become more solid, at which they start assaulting you with claws.” Drake paused again to take a couple of deep, forced breaths. “I managed to eventually kill them off, but I guess you guys can’t go a minute without my help.” Drake attempted a smirk, but he winced in agony.

“A minute? Really, we went on much longer than a minute!” Ken tried to lighten the situation with his jokes, but he frowned, he then glanced at his device and his eyes widened. “We have one and a half hours left! We’re almost there so let’s hurry!” Dawn looked at him as if he just proclaimed that he wanted to marry the machine that had just torn apart the area.

“And leave Drake!? He saved us twice! We can’t just leave him here!” Dawn protested, but her brother, but his hand on her shoulder, cocking his head towards Drake in silence. Drake had began to slow down his breathing, and he was barely moving. “Drake?” Dawn crouched down to him, but he made no effort to move or acknowledge her. “Thank you for saving my brother.” Drake smiled.

“How did you find us anyways? And how did you get here so quickly, and how on Cradle did you manage to pierce through its metal armor? Even Ken’s bullets didn’t go through! You have some luck my friend!” Dusk said in awe. Drake closed his eyes, and then opened them again, tears glistening.
“Yes, it may have been luck. Or it could have been something more.” Drake stopped moving completely.

“Thank you Drake, you were an awesome friend.” Dusk whispered. They all watched Drake for a few moments, as sparks of electricity jumped from him to the ground, the explosion’s effects still prominent.

“We need to go.” Ken said quietly, and he turned to leave; the others followed. As they walked past the broken down machine, they saw that the Blade had pierced into something they hadn’t spotted before, a small patch of metal, now noticeably darker than the surrounding.

WARNING.ERROR.WARNING. MAJOR INTERNAL BREACH. ATTENTION. RESORTING TO PROCEDURE 000ER. COMMESING CLOCKWORKS SHUT DOWN. WARNING. ATTENTON. COMMENSING CLOCKWORKS SHUT DOWN.

The three jumped back in surprise, completely stunned.

“What did it just say!? But I thought it was destroyed! How could it have survived that explosion!?” Dawn exclaimed fearfully. Then, the entire area began to quiver, then rumble, and then the whole place began shaking, the ground starting to crack and break up underneath them.

“We leave NOW. Ken said holding his navigator up as he sprinted down the hallway, not waiting for the others. They ran and ran as the entire level began breaking apart as the entire world rocked.

“We’re out of the blacked out map! Just a little while longer and we can get out!” Ken announced, not ceasing to run. An ear splitting screech erupted around them and with profound horror and terror Dawn watched as her brother was knocked over by a collapsing beam that was right behind them. Crushing the metal passage, it completely fell over and pinned Dusk onto the ground, his scream of pain tearing Dawn’s heart.

“NO! DUSK!” Dawn screamed throwing herself at her brother. He was caught from his lower back down, as the giant beam had fallen on him diagonally, leaving everything from his hip up exposed. “No, No! This - No! Dusk please, we have to get out of here!” Dawn was grasping her brother’s hand, tears flowing out of her eyes. “I can’t leave you, I can’t! Please don’t - don’t - don’t leave me! We have to go!” Dawn’s sadness brought her to the verge of sanity; she was breaking down, her heart gone. She had never felt so much pain in her life. Her brother had been the one to protect her, he had been the one who was always there. He had been the one to love her. But now, trapped as the world fell apart around him, Dawn could do nothing to return his kindness. All she could do was hold onto him; cling onto every moment that they had spent together. Her heart wrenched, caught between sadness, knowing that every second passed was a moment closer to losing her brother, and every second passed was a moment still being able to be with him.

“No, I’m sorry Dawn, I can’t do anything now, please, go with Ken, you guys need to get out of here!” He grunted in strain as he reached behind his back to grab something out of his Arsenal. “I didn’t know when to give this to you, but I guess now’s as good as time as we can get.” He placed something in her hand, but she stuffed it into her bag without taking her eyes off of him.

“I’m sorry Dusk, I’ve been so stupid, how...” she trailed off, more tears falling down her face, as she looked into her brother’s eyes. They too had begun to cry. “I’m sorry I can’t do anything for you – I – I.” Dawn struggled to speak. She couldn’t focus on anything, only her brother, he was the only thing left in the world to her. She felt as if she were the one trapped under the beam, multiplied by a million. Dusk looked into her eyes, his own distant and airy.

“Dawn, you have to go. You’ll understand one day, but right now you have to go. Please, leave now with Ken, my time is up. So don’t waste your time, you can still escape with Ken, your almost there. So please, leave now.” Dusk pleaded.
“NO! I can’t leave you behind, I just can’t!” Dawn couldn’t feel anything anymore, just the warmth of Dusk’s hand against hers and the determined look in his eyes.

“Please! You have to leave!” The abrupt strict tone shocked Dawn, “Go now! You'll be returning the favour; you don’t have to save me, only yourself, please, just go!” Dusk begged, then he said one last thing. “Do it for me.” The words tore apart Dawn and she felt eh world spin around her, she wasn’t sure what happened afterwards. Dawn did remember being dragged by Ken as he pulled her away from Dusk, away from her brother, away from her family. Away from her life. Then she was once again running, it felt like running was the only thing that she could do. Then Ken called out and they climbed up a slanted axel that had crashed through the ceiling.

As they clambered onto the surface of Cradle, the sun warmed them, but did little to comfort Dawn. Ken pointed in the near distance where two enormous ships sat on the ground, their docking platform open.

“We have around less than thirty minutes, but we can still make it!” Ken reassured, but then they felt a rush of air blast past them, and watched in absolute astonishment as one of the ships gunned its engine and shining white light poured out its engines, lifting it off the ground. The thing was already about a few feet in the air, but the docking platform was still open, but then as it began picking up speed, it started closing.
“Oh no! No! They’re leaving! It must be all the shaking, I’m not surprised if they believe that this planet is dying with all this shaking, cause’ it is!” Ken yelled. They had made it over three quarters of the way there, when they felt another rush of air and the familiar glow of the engines starting, but now they were much closer. “We might not make it!” Ken cried out, as the two began running all out. Dawn just put all her strength every last ounce into reaching the ship. She had no strength left to even think about Dusk. She glanced over at Ken, whose eyes had become dulled, like he had been told that he wasn’t actually funny, and believed it. They ship began rising off the ground as they approached it.

“We can make it Ken, just a little more!” Dawn said, encouraging him, but when she looked back at him, he was smiling, but his eyes looked different, like a knight who knew that what they were doing was something crazy, but was for the best in the end. He looked over at her and nodded, and she nodded back, not entirely sure what he had meant. They reached the ship as it was about seven feet off the dusty ground. Dawn was about to say something, but was cut off when she had the sensation she was moving up. She frantically looked down to see Ken had picked her up, and before Dawn could speak, she felt herself flying through the air. She extended her arms and grabbed the end of the dock. She shoved herself inside, and looked back out. It was too late, they were far from the ground and the dock was closing. For the first time in his life, Ken stood silently waving, saying nothing.
“Ken!” Dawn called out as the dock shut closed.

She had no idea how long it had been. Hours? Days? Years? It didn’t matter. Everything she had was gone. Drake, Dusk and even Ken, had gone, given themselves up to ensure she made it here. She had been crouched up against the side of a wall, when she woke up, eyes sore from her tears. A blanket, her own, had been laid across her and she pulled it up, to block out the cruelty of reality. A while later, someone spoke to her.
“Um, h-hello?” Dawn removed the blanket from her head and looked up. A knight, his eyes glowing with concern, and something else that Dawn couldn’t tell was standing over her. Dawn thought he looked familiar. “I saw you, just as the ship was taking off. I tried to stop them, but they said that if they had stayed another second on that ‘wretched’,” he emphasized the word with disgust towards whomever he was speaking of, “Planet. Then I had gone to see if I could help you, but that other Knight already threw you onto the dock. I was too afraid to come near you because you were just crying, so I,” he paused, then smiled nervously, “you well, dropped your pack, so I took out a blanket and put it over you, sorry if you didn’t want me touching your stuff.” Dawn stared at him blankly, then said,

“Oh, ah, yes, thank you.” Her voice was hoarse from everything that had occurred.

“Oh, I’m glad I could help.” He smiled genuinely.

“So, I think I’ve seen you before, your names, uh, Tam?” Dawn asked.

“Oh! Sorry, My name’s Sam. Forgot about that.” Sam looked away nervously.

“I’m sorry; a lot has happened to you, I can tell, I’ll just, er, leave you alone. If you want anything, I can get it for you.” He walked away briskly. Then Dawn remembered the object that Dusk had given to her before... she sighed. She lifted up her pack and reached inside, and pulled out the object.
It was a small necklace, with a glittering star made of Sun Silver for a pendant. On each point there was a diamond of Cradle’s minerals, cut sop that the light reflected their essence perfectly. Starting on top there was a blazing Crimsonite, then to the right, a shimmering Luminite. Next to that there was a calm tranquil Valestone, with a twinkling moonstone on the fourth point. And on the last point there was a Dark Matter that seemed to emit a mysterious darkness. Then in the center, was a brilliant pentagon of cut Larkuim, the cost would have been substantially over whelming. She turned it over and saw that some words were inscribed to the back of it. A haiku.

Fading Light of Sun,
Darkness overwhelming all.
Saved by the true Dawn

A single tear rolled down her cheek. She now understood, she was the light of say, she was the one to continue in everyone’s hearts. She was Hope. She clutched the pendat close to her, and then put it on.

She stood up, putting her blanket back into her Arsenal, then equipping it, when Sam returned with a cup of water.

“Here you go.” He handed her the cup and she smiled in thanks. He turned away blushing.

“So Sam, Why do you seem so nice to me?” The question took Sam abck and he turned away, clearly embarrassed.

“I-I-I just really.... like you.” Sam turned back and smiled. “I remember seeing you a long time ago and thinking how beautiful you were, then I heard that you name was Dawn and I was just...” He rushed all at once, but then sighed.

“Don’t worry, I like you too.” She grabbed his hand, which immediately made him look away again.

“Heh, well, I’m sorry if I’m acting weird, why don’t we get something to eat?” he began walking while still holding hands with Dawn.

Dawn smiled, she was the hope, and she now she was going to shine the light of Hope, upon her future, for everyone. She was Dawn, she was Hope.