Artemis smashed the butt of her rifle into the skull of yet another skeleton that had reached out to attack her, there'd been so many skeletons filling the caves that there easily must of been hundreds, had every one of them once been someone hoping to find the manifest as well?

Artemis shook her head, she couldn't think about that right now and afford to get distracted as the skeleton crumpled before her, her head shooting in every which way she could, her enhanced eye's seeing faint traces of light down one tunnel.

But as much she had wanted to follow that tunnel, she and her group still had to locate the two other members of Jenvis's trio, apparently there were two more who had entered these tunnels before hand, but Artemis imagined that if they were already dead-then there wasn't much point in trying to save the two now.

However her gut told her that her first target was nearby, she couldn't say how she knew, but her gut told her that she was nearly right on top of her objective.

Scanner was holding a pair of ancient energy blasters in her hands as she fired bolts of purple energy, breaking apart the skeletons with ease as she slammed one more into a wall-crushing it.

"damn-there's no fucking end to them!" cursed Oni besides her who had shook one off by slamming the butt of her own rifle into it's skull, cracking it and causing it to fall to the ground and with that it smashed into dozens of fragments.

Her red eye suddenly glowed red briefly before her hand raised inhumanly fast and in one smooth motion had decapitated another skeleton, faint red energy covered her hand as it faded, the skeleton falling to the ground in a heap of bones and dust.

Artemis nodded as she called out.

"We're nearly there-everyone status report!" she said.

Oni simply nodded in response to indicate she was good to go.

Raven was located off to the side, the room was too narrow for her to properly use her sword without it hitting the side walls, so she elected to using her modified metal gauntlets to smash through the ribs and skulls of any skeletons who came near her.

Her mask-an ancient symbol of her clan resembled a birds skull, which greatly hid her narrowed red eyes, swinging a clenched fist, she smashed a skeletons skull into powder as she responded.

"I'm fine, tell me you got eye's on our objective!" she said sidestepping a wildly swinging arm belonging to yet another skeleton, only for it to be also destroyed much like it's undead comrades.

"We should be yes!" responded Artemis as she pushed past another skeleton and scanned the room in front of her with her eye's.

At the back of the "room" she spied a hunched over figure leaning against the wall, they laid unmoving and seemed to be clutching objects in their hands.

"Got eyes on possible objective, let's move!" said Artemis, quickly moving forward.

Scanner replied as she smashed through a skeleton.

"Be careful Artemis, you don't know what traps they might of laid!" she said as Artemis sighed slightly and slowed down.

Eventually the four managed to make an opening in the line of skeletons and made their way into the room.

The room was big enough that each of them easily had their own space to walk around in, a cluster or rocks laid lazily off to the side as if a tunnel has collapsed in on itself, Artemis heard a "crack" and she looked down to see her boot crunching a already cracked rib-cage that she had stepped on.

Narrowing her eye's, she took note of what seemed to be a large number of skeletons, their bones spread all throughout the room, as if something had destroyed them.

Seeing as for the moment they had no more skeletons to deal with the four regrouped and took note of their surroundings.

"Seems like someone was busy here.." commented Oni.

"yes..but who?" asked Scanner.

"I think I know who..over there" said Raven pointing with a finger to the corner of the room that seemed to be simply a large pile of bones.

Artemis looked closer and noticed what seemed to be glints of silver peering out from under the pile, walking forward slowly and keeping her rifle raised, she knelt down and began to sweep the bones off of whatever was under the pile of bones.

Her breath hitched ever so slightly as she found herself staring at a dwarf, clearly a male dwarf.

His eye's were closed peacefully, but his face seemed to be slightly edged and winkled, as if he was angry or focused on something.

Despite that he was clearly dead, if the clawed skeletal hand buried deep in his chest was anything to go by.

Piecing the parts together she quickly figured out the story

"He died fighting it seems..if what Jenvis told us is correct-this must be Gregix, seems like he wasn't one to back down from a fight.." Artemis mused.

"if he was surrounded by these skeletons and his only other route was blocked off..didn't seem like he had much choice..good thing he was-at least a dozen skeletons are laid out around him in inanimate piles, he went down fighting alright.." Oni mused in return.

Artemis had moved the last of the bones off of him and felt his neck to confirm that he was indeed passed.

"Scanner, can you carry him to the surface after we find Karina?" Artemis asked 

Scanner looked at her and nodded after a few seconds of hesitation.

"No one deserves to be left down here.." she said quietly to herself, though it wasn't impossible to hear her if you were close to her.

Making their way out of the cave with Scanner gently carrying the fallen dwarf, the group turned and noticed another unexplored tunnel.

Nodding to the group, Artemis slowly made her way into the next room, quickly spying yet another scene.

"This must be Karina.." said Raven quietly.

"It seems so, secure the area and let's get out of here" replied Oni.

Artemis nodded and knelt down, her eyes quickly picking out the remains of the female human.

She noticed right away her wounds that had killed her, where as Gregix clearly had died in combat with the skeletons, what had killed Karina had disturbed her a lot more.

Two clean holes had been punctured straight through her chest, unlike Gregix's more blunt wound, hers was akin to that of a oversized blade wounds, like a Claymore sword or similarly large sized blade had made two extremely precise cuts directly onto her chest, on top of that her eye's were dull, as if even her soul had been sucked out of it.

Artemis also took note of how her pupils were dilated.

They were mere silts, and told her right away that something had scared her, scared her so much that it shook her to her core nearly right before she had died.

Putting a hand on her chin for a moment she sighed and nodded to Oni-the second most physically strong of the four who began to carefully pick her up, the two shared a glance with each other when Oni spied the wounds as well.

"Alright, that's both of'em, I'll contact Sandman and let him know that we found them and are coming up" Artemis nodded to the groups nod.

"Sandman, this is Artemis, we got the two fallen secure and are making our way back up, no sign of any remains for Adam and James, we're all accounted for..nor have we found any sign of that guardian, over" she responded.

For some reason the radio felt oddly one way as a few seconds later a response came through.

"Copy"

For most people this would be enough of a response-but Sandman wasn't like that, he wasn't gonna just respond with a very monotone "copy" and say nothing else.

"Sandman?, Sandman you okay?, come in Sandman-this is Artemis-do you read?, over" she said, drawing the confusion of her fellow group members.

"I don't know...somethings really off with his response..I don't like this-wait-movement to our left-!" said Artemis suddenly, quickly turning around and aiming her rifle.

Since it was both Oni and Scanner carrying an individual, they were both stuck to drawing sidearms as Raven raised her sword-since the room she was in was more then big enough for it.

"Scanner-you see anything?" asked Oni.

"I..don't-Artemis, are you certain you've spotted something?" she asked in a concerned and confused tone.

"What?, there's a figure roughly five feet in front of me-" she asked looking back to her comrades and then back to in front of her, clearly seeing the faint outline of a slender figure in front of her, mostly covered in shadow.

"I don't..see anyone-" said Raven.

Suddenly Oni spoke up.

"WAIT-DON'T MOV-" she began.

"Ah, such a brave group of warriors, I respect your skills, dealing with my army was no small feat, their bones could resist even a strong blow from a normal human, recovering those two even though they weren't from your own country or organization, I respect that..as well" said a voice suddenly

 This voice sent the four of them into hyper-alertness as they all shot looks every direction.

"Who's talking?, show yourself!" said Raven.

"Such..courage..if only you had been the ones to find my masters work first..perhaps I would've been far more fair..unless you too would sell his work for material gains.." the voice continued, largely ignoring Raven.

"your masters work..your the guardian of the manifest!" said Oni.

The only response was a faint giggle, as if it was the wind itself.

"Alas..as much as I respect your skills..I can still see into your mind..your very soul..are mine to read, I see what makes you..you..you are truly unique..and even kind souls..but my book is missing..and I must find it..which is why I hope you will..forgive me dear Artemis.." said the voice quietly.

"huh?..what do you..mean...?" Artemis began, but her blood froze as the figure in front of her revealed itself.

A tall, slender and attractive female revealed herself, long light blue hair went down to her lower back, kind eyes looked at her as a small grin spread across her lips.

She was oddly dressed in torn and ragged clothes, filled with holes and burn marks as she spoke softly.

"I've returned..my dear sister" said the girl.

"Artemis what's wrong?, Artemis what is it!?" asked Oni quickly.

Artemis had completely frozen in place, her pupils tiny specs on her eye's as her lower jaw began to quiver, her arms and soon her entire body began to shake more and more.

"s-s-sister-?" she stammered, her voice barely a whisper.

"Artemis-there's nothing there!" repeated Oni.

But Artemis couldn't hear her, her mind raced, cold sweat drenched her forehead as a legion of thoughts and memories entered her mind.

images of chains, dark walls, torches, dried splatters of a dark liquid covered walls and corners, before the bodies came.

Bodies, long since dead, hanged from hooks and were piled in cages, in the background, laughter echoed, as if someone was having a party.

Besides her laid her sister, alive, but breathing lightly, bruises covered every visible part of her body, as she laid there barely moving.

Her own hands were cuffed, she was hungry..so hungry, her throat was so dry it hurt to swallow, her eyes were so droopy that she could barely keep them open.

As a door opened her heat began to beat faster..and faster.

A shadow of a man loomed over the two of them, followed by two more figures.

"this the two?" asked a distant gruff voice.

"Aye, but the taller one is just about done, can't get much more out of her, afraid she's'bout expired, shame, she was a favorite with the customers" said a human regretfully.

Her breathing hitched as a gunshot rang out clearly in her mind.

At the same time Oni screamed.

"ARTEMIS!" 

She blinked once and only had a second to process anything as a skeleton leaped out of the space were her sister had once been, striking Artemis across the face.

Blood splashed from her as the boney claws sliced her, knocking her down, but even then she barely made a sound.

"Artemis!!" yelled Oni as Raven in a blur of speed smashed the skeleton into shards.

Lying on the ground feeling nothing but numbness an pain, she couldn't move, she could barely breathe, her body wouldn't stop thinking.

No matter what she tried to do, her mind was trapped on the chains, those figures, the shadows, the blood, the bodies..

Her eye's remained barely blinking as Raven rushed over to her side.

"Artemis, Artemis can you hear me!?" she said.

But Artemis barely seemed to notice her as she said quietly.

"sister..stay away from my sister....no..sister.."

"sister..?" asked Raven tilting her head, before it struck her.

""It attacks you through your mind.."" Raven said repeating Fotus's words as she snapped to Oni.

"We need to move-now!" she said.

"what's wrong with her!?" asked Oni.

"Trauma shock, emotional overdrive, she's in total flashback stage right now, whatever happens we need to get her the hell out of this cave, and before those skeletons and the guardian returns." she said quickly.

Hearing those Oni felt her eye's widen, she knew all about Artemis's past-better then most anyway, she knew just what memories she was seeing right now.

Staring down at the three large bloody scratches that covered her face now, Oni growled and nodded.

"Roger, we need to move-dammit if only someway we had a way to contact the surface-but nothings working-" she said.

"don't worry master, I can summon enough strength to send out a signal, and a psychically  delivered message to one individual, but after that I'll be unable to do much till I can recharge" said a voice in her head.

Oni smiled and mentally smacked herself-her demon soul-of course!

Oni was originally a human, but after a mission with her former mercenary group, she had found and had taken on a demonic soul that had been exiled from hell as it had lost it's lust for humans and instead wished to simply exist alongside them, seeing no other choice at the time she had accepted the deal, and he imbued her with his powers, but as a result was cast out by her group and betrayed for being a "Demon"

Her demon soul could do plenty of handy things-such as sending messages through blocked zones were radios and even telepathic and other magical forms of communication couldn't get through, it took up a lot of his energy-so he often had to rest afterwards though, so it was rare that she used it.

"copy that!, hold on everyone, I'm sending a emergency message to Sandman-" said Oni.

"Huh?, my, oh my-a human with a soul that's half demon?, I haven't seen that in millennia" said the guardian quietly.

A few minutes later a pulse of red energy echoed out from Oni's body and screamed through the tunnels, the few remaining skeletons that were in said tunnels seemed to watch in confusion as a red pulse flew past them.

"Raven..let's get everyone out of here..we need to leave this place" Oni said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sandman had just finished chatting with Samia, the camps leader.

The man was extremely grateful for their help, and that they had managed to make history by finding the manifest, he was all smiles and shaking his hands and everything.

Sandman was polite in his responses, but he really didn't need all this attention as Nova shook his head and sighed at the scene quietly.

Eventually Sandman had managed to get away from the man, and distracted him by talking to Jenvis.

Jenvis gave quiet and short answers as he went, but Sandman noticed that Samia was eyeing the book a bit to much for his liking.

Before the solder could comment on that, a red flash caught his eye as he quickly looked over in the direction of the caves.

"What?" he asked himself tilting his head.

Before Nova could ask him what was wrong he spied a pulsing red cloud heading straight for him.

At first he thought it was an attack of some sort, you never knew on Chaknaka, but has he watched it further his eyes widened when he realized what it was.

"shit.." he cussed quietly as it entered his mind.

Oni's voice rang clearly in his head.

"mayday, mayday!, we've located Karina and Gregix and have their remains, but Artemis is hit and is unable to assist herself-we have injured-extreme emotional shock and physical injuries, we require immediate assistance!, normal forms of communication will not work down here!, the guardian made it's move!, I repeat-Artemis is down and we require immediate assistance-any kind will do-it's gone to shit down here!" said Oni's voice in his head.

Right away that sent Sandman into a deep focus, filled with anger and a desire to protect his injured comrade.

"What is it Sandman?" asked Nova, noticing his now stiff posture.

"I'm contacting Fotus right now-Artemis is injured and they require immediate assistance" said Sandman quickly, and as Nova nodded, taking the news in Sandman radioed Fotus.

"Fotus come in-Fotus do you read?, this is Sandman, shit just went bad here!" he said into his communicator.

"Sandman?, what do you mean?" came the response.

"Oni just sent me a message using her demon soul, they require immediate assistance, Artemis is injured and under extreme emotional shock, they have the remains of Karina and Gregix, their both KIA, I repeat they've found the two's remains, but Artemis is hit and out of action for now-they need immediate assistance, but normal forms of communication won't work down there!" said Sandman.

Fotus cursed and said seriously.

"Roger, I'm having Jaggedjaw and Earthape move on them Asap, Sandman you move with them too, Nova you remain with the campers, let them know what's going on and expect for shit to get active soon, have Tomb breaker on standby for immediate evac" ordered Fotus.

No one would hurt the ones he cared for and imbue nothing in return.

"copy that" responded Sandman as he looked over at Nova and said.

"Fotus ordered the two beasts and myself to move to the caves, he needs you to inform the campers of the situation and to hunker themselves down, they may have unwanted visitors here soon" stated Sandman.

Normally Nova would sigh or maybe even argue the order, but sensing the gravity of the situation, Nova simply nodded in response.

"Sandman, we speak to you from beneath the sands, myself and Earthape are moving into position now and await the order to attack, just give us your word and we will spring our trap" said a slightly robotic female voice.

"understood Jaggedjaw, over and out!" said Sandman as he and Nova shared one last glance before rushing off at a dead sprint to the caves entrance to get his comrades out of the darkness, Nova watching without a word as he looked back to Samia.

With Sandman-no ally of his would be left behind.


Authors note(s):

(I was originally gonna add more onto this chapter, but I felt that that last portion above was actually a good place to end the chapter instead, and would allow me to start fresh for the next portion of the caves arc you could call it.)

Anyway, here's a bit of Trivia about some of the characters

1. I originally made Artemis with no siblings, she originally was an only child, but to help the impact in this chapter, I created an older sister for her named "Amaria" who as shown in the flashbacks- was killed before Artemis joined the NSCR.

2. Oni's demon soul is immortal, but cannot exist outside of a host, so if Oni dies, he must find a new host within 24 hours or he will simply cease to exist.

3. The guardian attacked the four due to their connection to the previous group, I.e Karina, Jenvis, Gergix, Adam and James, and didn't know if it could trust them-plus they had destroyed a large number of his minions, despite that it genuinely does respect the groups abilities.

4. Oni and Artemis have a fairly sister-like relationship with each other

5. I had originally planned for Raven to also be attacked by the guardian, but I decided against it..for now :3

6. Scanner is the most resilient against the guardians attacks, as she lacks the number of emotional attachments as the rest do