Did you guys really think i was gone for good? I've been working on tons of stuff, but i can't forget Artini...and how i'm probably going to utterly screw him over....

Here’s part of the final chapter: Revelations of my past

Darkness...all around me...that was it, purely darkness, I couldn’t see a thing and my mind was working in overdrive. The second word that came to my head, disaster…what the heck was I doing? This whole mission was leading to disaster and I had no idea if I could handle it. The third word, guilt; what was going to happen to my squad? Yes, MY squad? My friends, and ultimately my family. Was I going to get them killed? As we walked further Voltix tried to lighten to mood. He talked about things that had happened in Haven, or the funny things he had seen some snipes do when they were fighting over a nut he threw to them. Honestly, it was appreciated but it didn’t help at all. I stopped, and turned to my friends. I looked in all of their faces. Cryptus, who was our squad veteran, and my mentor. Voltix, my brother in arms, and the one who I got along easily with. Finally, with Blue, who was like a mother to all of us, and who I secretly thought had feelings for Cryptus, which I more and more believed the longer we were in the clockworks.

I stared at them and finally said, “This is not the end, our hope looks like it dies in this place, but I know, we will look back on this, and think of our victory. This, I promise each of you from the bottom of my heart. I hope you can believe me when I say this.”
Blue did something I that surprised me, she kissed me on the cheek saying, “We know Artini, and you know we trust you.”

I blushed, and I think Cryptus did too, jealous? I remember reminding myself to talk with him about her after, you know, getting the truth. Anyway, I looked at Voltix, and asked him to contact Tairatu, telling him we were at the starting point.
What happened next was haunting. The radio went dead. “Bzzt…..contacting….Bzzt….Bzzt…Kshk!” Then nothing. Voltix tapped the radio a few times and looked to me worried, “Nothing, it’s like it just dropped dead…”

I was surprised…did I actually write that? OF COURSE I WAS SURPRISED! I was scared out of my mind! I slowly turned to Cryptus and said, “S-Shoot your blaster towards the front of us, we can use it as a light before we start wasting our batteries.”
Cryptus slowly charged his gun, then shot the large, bright, bullets into the void….revealing all horrifying eyes of the demons who awaited….

I....HAVE...FINISHED!!! Guys I can proudly say i have finished Artini's Journals! I finally sat down and finished it, tanking the entire fourth entry which is my longest one to date.

Before you read, i just want to say thank you to a few people:

Frostex, Atgatg, and Isis: For your character apps, and your support

Happyapathy: For just being a legendary treasure valt contributer, inspiring me to use spiral-spy, and for inspiring me to make this fanfic, without you, there would be no Artini

Psychodestroyer: for inspiring me to write my own fanfics, i hope to be as good as you Psycho :)

Venrock: For being an awesome sk friend, and reading my stories and giving feed back, you are a true friend dude! Sorry i'm not in Zhraco anymore :P

The rest of you: To all the people who have read my stuff but never comment i thank you for reading and encourage you to comment and critique. It was a magical moment one time when someone i didnt know come up to me and say, "oh! its Varsian! i've read part of your fanfic!" I am honord to say the least.

Without further stalling, i give you the finale, and leave you with five small words: "This is not the end."

Happy reading guys.

Journal Entry 4: Revelations of my past.

I’ve changed. That’s the only way to put it. There is so much to think about. I’ve also realized I’m not alone anymore. My life is taken one huge step backwards in tragedy, and now I am slowly clawing my way back to reality…my reality. I have one question above all others. What’s next? What is in store for me after this whole thing? After accepting my suicide mission I have no idea what could possibly throw me off now.
After going Tairatu told us about our mission, I walked home in a daze. Voltix tried to comfort me. Nothing really helped. Falling asleep I had yet again, a nightmare. A vivid nightmare that I couldn’t describe, and still can’t. In it, I was looking at eyes. Eyes of different colors, just staring back at me. Nothing happened for a while and suddenly I was falling, then…nothing. I woke up on cold sweat. I had no idea what this meant. Usually my dreams had snip-its of my memories. This was nothing. I couldn’t take it. It was very early in the morning, but I needed to think. I walked down to the training hall in haven. I needed to think of a plan, I needed to think of a goal for myself, and most of all, I needed to remember.
As I walked into the Training Hall, I walked over to the training drones. Unsheathing my ascended caliburs. I unleashed a torrent of strikes on the drones. Up, down, left, right, stab, slash, stab, it was a bloodbath, at least, if the drones could bleed. I went over all my moves, some made up, some that I learned from Cryptus. Jumping double slashes, whirlwind strikes, ground sweeps, and more. My mind went blank, and I kept going. As I went on I was a killing drones two at a time. As I slashed one, I stabbed another. As I cut one in half, I kicked one into another and watched as they both were knocked into one of the boundaries.
Eventually all that was left was a pile of scrap. I walked out of the fighting square, as little sweeping robots the training hall was supplied with cleaned up the parts. As I sat down on the bench I had the feeling that someone was in the room with me. At first it was nothing, then the feeling grew. Finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I jumped up and spun around. I was met with an old man. He was wearing a Chapeau of the Red Rose, and a Grey Feather Mantle. He looked surprised as he said, “D-Don’t mind me young one, I was just coming here to see what the commotion was.”
I relaxed and said, “Sorry about that, I tend to get carried away.”
The man smiled, “You sure do, I was watching you for awhile. That…that is a strange style of fighting you has their son. You remind me of a man who has lost his way.”
“I do?” I asked.
“Yep, so tell me, have you lost your way?”
“I, I don’t know. I was recently promoted to leader of my squad, and now we’re on a mission to the core using a little known path that was recently discovered that could be suicide; I have no idea how to lead a squad, I have no memory of who I am!” I was getting worked up, and I wasn’t planning on stopping anytime soon, “I don’t remember the crash, I don’t know who I am, I have no relations with anyone, I’m being thrown into a hell hole that I have no plan what-so-ever for, I’m having more and more nightmares, the pressure is building more and more, and I…I…I”
I stopped and put my head in my hands, it felt like the world had come crashing down on me. I had enough, and I had to get it all out. The old man sat beside me and said, “My names Jared. I have been part of the Spiral Order for a long time. I was a veteran before the skylark crashed, and I’ve seen lots of things in my day. You want some advice?”
“Sure,” I said, “anything, please”
“Take life as it comes, everything happens for a reason son. Nothing happens without something driving behind it. When things get hard like this, look for your light, your reason, your hope. I’m sure eventually things work out in the end for you.”
I looked at him, and he smiled back at me saying, “Your not alone son, you’ve got your squad, and I bet there are more people around you that are going to enter your life before you even know it.”
He patted me on the shoulder and asked, “What’s your name son?”
“Ar-Ar-Artini,” I shakily replied.
“Well Artini, I hope you find what you are looking for.”
He patted me on the back, and with a short goodbye, he left the training hall. I remember sitting there for another few hours until dawn. I don’t remember getting better advice from anyone ever, before that faithful morning.

I walked down to the arcade, mumbling to myself and thinking of my conversation with Jared. Voltix was probably wondering where I was, but I didn’t think of it as much of a problem; he would find me in the arcade soon enough.
I walked down the left path and up the stairs of the town square. I looked around and absorbed all the different sights I had learn to call home. The wondrous fountain in the middle of haven, reflecting many different colors in the mist that it shot into the air in a spectacular display, the small courtyard to the side of haven with a neat little statue of a gun puppy; I would sit there for hours thinking about who I was in the evening when I was training with Cryptus. There was the auction house where I haggled for my ash tail coat recipe from a very stubborn knight. There were so many sights and sounds that I had grown to love and felt so at home, so why did I have the strangest feeling it was all going away?
I jogged up the steps and walked down the tunnel into the arcade. My squad and I were going to meet with Tairatu in a few minutes, which gave me some time to look over the vast expanse of the clockworks. So many tiny gears and pulleys were at work, doing the constant job that they were assigned to do. I saw small sparks and flashes, and what looked like lightning towards the bottom. The clockworks stretched on as far as I could see; there was no end to it. I could go crazy staring into the abyss; I almost did that day.
Finally I stepped away, just as Blue and the rest of them walked into the arcade. I looked at each of them, filling my eyes with the very essence of their being. I know, it sounds like I went a little crazy there, but I had no idea what was going to happen.
I jogged up to Tairatu asking, “Are we ready?”
“Yes, it’s high time you four step into the abyss!” Tairatu exclaimed with a smile, that statement could not have been more ominous.
Blue came up to me and patted me on the shoulder saying, “You ready? Because I think none of us are, ha ha.”
I smiled, and replied, “Well come on, a quick run to the core right? How hard could it be?”
We all walked to the elevator as Tairatu ran off the information to Voltix who was frantically scribbling it all down, “This elevator is hotwired to go straight to EmberLight, after that, type in the coordinates to the elevator located in that sub-town, once you succeed in typing in those coordinates that I gave you last night, you should be able to reach the path marked on your scanner. Remember, there is no stratum here, so be ready for anything, guns, swords, and bombs, you need it all. Good luck you four, you’re going to need it. I would say goodbye, but I’m afraid to say it this way, so from me to you, safe travels.”
Looking back, that seemed like the right time to punch Tairatu in the face, but I knew he meant well. Tairatu stepped back and punched the buttons in to shoot us towards EmberLight. It was around two hours of flying down into the clockworks. Before I continue I have to say, that the view from the elevator is both scary and amazing at the same time. As a traveled down into the depths of Cradle, I saw so many things. The clockwork tunnels and bridges spanned like a web in some parts, and in other parts I could only see one or two. I saw openings in some pillars that led to who knows what, and in the distance I caught a glimpse of the Aurora Isles, like a shining beacon in the distance.
I could see for miles, and didn’t want to stop, but had to stop. I walked over to Voltix and sat down, he was busy writing down all he could about our mission and other things. Without looking up he said to me, “It looks like Cryptus is finally making a move on Blue.”
I chuckled, “What did you say?”
“See for yourself.”
I looked up and saw Cryptus talking to Blue; both of them close together looking at the clockworks. Cryptus had his arm around her, and Blue didn’t seem to mind. It was such a romantic sight, and I’m not good with that, so I quickly dug out my journal and started doodling in it.
An hour later we landed in EmberLight, without wasting anytime we ran over to the elevator. Voltix punched in the code muttering about numbers and letters.
“I hate punching in new code like this, it’s so tedious.”
Cryptus sighed, “Can you do it or not? This is more exciting than patrolling and mining I can tell you that.”
“Yeah, yeah I got it, you just have…to…almost…aha!” Voltix pumped his fist, “Score! I got us the elevator coordinates, hop in guys!”
I stepped on the elevator, and looked down. There were no lights, no flashes, nada. Just the abyss that waited for us.

Darkness...all around me...that was it, purely darkness, I couldn’t see a thing and my mind was working in overdrive. The second word that came to my head, disaster…what the heck was I doing? This whole mission was leading to disaster and I had no idea if I could handle it. The third word, guilt; what was going to happen to my squad? Yes, MY squad? My friends, and ultimately my family. Was I going to get them killed? As we walked further Voltix tried to lighten to mood. He talked about things that had happened in Haven, or the funny things he had seen some snipes do when they were fighting over a nut he threw to them. Honestly, it was appreciated but it didn’t help at all. I stopped, and turned to my friends. I looked in all of their faces. Cryptus, who was our squad veteran, and my mentor. Voltix, my brother in arms, and the one who I got along easily with. Finally, with Blue, who was like a mother to all of us, and who I secretly thought had feelings for Cryptus, which I more and more believed the longer we were in the clockworks.
I stared at them and finally said, “This is not the end, our hope looks like it dies in this place, but I know, we will look back on this, and think of our victory. This, I promise each of you from the bottom of my heart. I hope you can believe me when I say this.”
Blue did something I that surprised me, she kissed me on the cheek saying, “We know Artini, and you know we trust you.”
I blushed, and I think Cryptus did too, jealous? I remember reminding myself to talk with him about her after, you know, getting the truth. Anyway, I looked at Voltix, and asked him to contact Tairatu, telling him we were at the starting point.
What happened next was haunting. The radio went dead. “Bzzt…..contacting….Bzzt….Bzzt…Kshk!” Then nothing. Voltix tapped the radio a few times and looked to me worried, “Nothing, it’s like it just dropped dead…”
I was surprised…did I actually write that? OF COURSE I WAS SURPRISED! I was scared out of my mind! I slowly turned to Cryptus and said, “S-Shoot your blaster towards the front of us, we can use it as a light before we start wasting our batteries.”
Cryptus slowly charged his gun, then shot the large, bright, bullets into the void…. revealing all horrifying eyes of the demons who awaited….
The next hour was horrifying to say the least. Shadows attacked, that is the only way I can put it; I was attacked by shadows. I don’t know where they where they were form, they could have been my mind, but I saw my three companions fighting the same images I saw as well. The worse thing about it was that they shifted, one would be a gremlin, morph into a retrode, attack, then morph into a zombie. It was one thing to fight enemies, but it’s a whole ‘nother thing to fight what I can only assume is your mind.
“RUN! Everyone we need to get to an open space! All lights on!” I yelled at my squad.
We ran, cutting at the shadows with every step. I slid under one and stabbed it in the back when I came up, and it just broke apart and melted back into the darkness. I couldn’t keep doing this!
We finally reached a wider segment of the path. There were shadows coming at us form both ways. Looking back, I should have thought it through, the bridge we were standing on was old, and it looked like scrap. One of the shadows morphed into a retrode and fired.
Cryptus yelled, “SHIELDS!”, but it was too late. It fired, and Cryptus, Voltix, and I rolled to the left; but Blue rolled to the right. I should have jumped up and ran over to her, but I was in shock. The bridge, it started to shake; the retrode’s blast had weakened the bridge to the breaking point.
Cracks appeared in the metal, there was a huge groaning sound. Cryptus saw what was going to happen and yelled, “BLUE! GET ONTO THIS SIDE OF THE BRIDGE!”
Blue looked up and started to run but just as she set her foot down, the right side of the bridge started to moan. Steam came out of the hydraulics that helped hold it up. Cryptus jumped up, “BLUE! RUN!”
Blue looked at us with eyes of pure fear, she knew what was coming. As that segment of the bridge started to fall, Blue dug into her armor and frantically brought out a letter, and threw it like a discus at Cryptus yelling out to him, “I’m sorry!”
Right when she said those final words the bridge let out one final grown, as if giving up on its effort, and collapsed, taking Blue and a large portion of the shadowy army into the void.
I grabbed Cryptus and we ran to the other side of the bridge. Voltix was behind us shooting at the remains of the enemies. Finally, we rounded a corner and collapsed on the ground. Cryptus took out the letter Blue threw at him.
Opening up the letter, Cryptus let out a weeping sob. He looked at the letter and finally stuck it back in his pocket.
“W-W-What was it?” Voltix asked shakily.
“It’s my tier three squad promotion letter. I had given it to Blue on the elevator down saying that I would never leave her, or this squad, and I wanted her to keep it. If she gave it back to me that can only mean she wants me to move on,” Cryptus unsteadily replied.
We all sat there quietly after that, taking in everything. I had no idea what Cryptus was going through, but it made me wonder, did I have someone like that? Had I simply forgotten her? I couldn’t keep thinking like that, dwelling on memories was something I could not be doing at that time.
Suddenly Voltix yelled, “Artini! Move!”
I ran forward into him; right next to where I was sitting was a shadowy gremlin just about to stab me. I brought out my caliburs and lopped off his head as quickly as I could. “We have to move! Now!” I yelled. Just as I said that, a phantasmal Spiral Knight, who looked hauntingly like Blue, shot its blaster at me.
Time seemed to slow down. I could see the bullets come towards me, I closed my eyes prepared for the worst. Did I get the worse? No, what happened after was something worse than my death. Voltix, had run forward and dived in front of me. Taking the blast of weapon. Cryptus spun around and peppered the knight with his gun, but it was too late.
I knelt down with tears in my eyes. Only one question came to mind, as I rolled over Voltix so he could see me.
“Why?!? Why Voltix?” I demanded.
Voltix’s eyes fluttered open as he replied, “*Cough*…. It was the right thing to do….I….see…*cough*…you are…more…contribution….to…bigger…scheme…that…Order…has… *cough*… planned…d-d-don’t…regret…*cough*…I…see…Blue…and…I…”
Voltix faded off; I closed his eyes. Being there I can fully say that he died with a smile on his face, I thought it was fitting.
Cryptus picked me up, and we started down, it was only then when we realized the shadows had made a full circle around us. I drew my swords, and nodded at Cryptus. We were prepared for the end. Cryptus drew his avenger, its glowing light sweeping over the both of us. At once, student and mentor, brothers in arms, we charged at the enemy.
The fight lasted awhile, I slashed and hacked; I dodged and twirled, I did everything I could to keep moving and striking. Every so often I would see a flash of light, and a few shadows go flying off the bridge; I knew Cryptus was doing his “Avenger thing” with his sword.”
I spun, I lopped off heads, and I was struck countless times as well. My arm had a gash, my leg was bruised, but I had to keep going, this was life or death, literally. Finally, FINALLY, the enemies were mostly cleared, the ones that did not get killed where fading back into the darkness, waiting.
I thought myself lucky as I sheathed my swords. I looked over to Cryptus and nearly had a heart attack. Cryptus was dying. He had one void like sword through his stomach, and was bleeding out of many different spots. I stumbled over to him.
“Artini,” Cryptus rasped at me, as if not believing I was there, “go, run, get out of here, return to Haven, please, we won’t be forgotten and you won’t be disgraced but please go back.”
He thrust something into my hand; I looked down and saw it was the letter Blue had given him. Sobbing, I put it in my pocket. Cryptus then put something else into my hand, his Avenger.
“Take this, it carries our legacy. Take Voltix’s sealed sword as well, I know he would have wanted you to have it. Remember…you… must… remember…”
Cryptus stopped for the last time. I took his Avenger and put one of my Caliburs in his hand, I thought he would want a sword, wherever he was going. The Avenger hummed in my hands, and left a trail of golden light when I swung. I promised myself, I would never forget my friends, and I would make it out of here, I HAD to.
There was no time to lose. I ran back, stumbling over myself. I stopped at Voltix’s body, weeping, I looked over to his hand where he held is Sealed Sword. As I took it, I could have sworn he let out a sigh of happiness. Whatever it was I knew, he meant for me to have the sword.
I ran back to the elevator, surprisingly not many shadows tried to attack. Finally, I saw the two spotlights that marked the elevator. It was when I saw it, that the shadows launched their final attempt at keeping me in the clockworks. I didn’t know how the use the Avenger, but I had to try something. Facing my death, I thought of one thing, hope. Hope that I could go back, and see the light of day again, hopes that I COULD carry my squad’s legacy. Hope that I could remember this day with pride. I swung the sword in front of me with a yell of defiance, and before my eyes, a golden sword appeared. This wasn’t like the Avenger’s shape. It was more elegant, and powerful. The sword shot into the crowd of shadows, and exploded in a showery display of holy energy. I fell back into the elevator, and hit the one button that I hoped brought me back to the top: the large blue “up” button.
As the elevator slowly rose up to speed, I collapsed onto the floor, clutching the Avenger, and Sealed Sword as hard as I could…

-Epilogue-

Mkelican woke up at the crack of dawn as he usually did. He smiled to himself, as he threw on his Nameless Poncho, and topped it off with his Nameless Hat. He reached for his Callahan, Argent Peacemaker, Valiance, and finally his Shadow Driver.
He stepped out into Haven and breathed in the fresh morning air of Cradle. He closed his eyes and listened to the snipes calling to each other and the Strangers talking to knights who had already woken up.
Suddenly he walked to the Arcade with a purpose. He had no memory, but some of it had returned, enough to know that he had to find out the identity of one person. This person would open to key to everything else.
As he stepped into the Arcade, Tairatu greeted him with a smile saying, “Ah! Mkelican! How’s your amnesia? Has it gotten any – agh!”
Mkelican thrust him against his console, and with a growl said, “no more games Tairatu! I’m done! It’s time I get answers for real this time! Do NOT say that my loss of memory is an accident! Now, I will ask this only once, and if I do not get the right answer… well I’ve always wanted to see how powerful my Callahan is at point blank. Now, Tairatu, who is Artini? Who…is…my…Brother?”

really? no one has any feedback? does my writing just suck, and is boring now?

does anyone have any suggestions or comments? As you've read above, the story isnt over, in fact, its just beginning, any comments on how i should do it?

my guild likes to troll me, and Cor-tana is no exception -.-

it seems everyone is commenting on everything else in the treasure vault but my fanfic