[h1][color=ed1c24][b][center]Dong & Cactus[/center][/b][/color][/h1]


Burning. Something was burning. Screaming. The screaming was so loud. Tacticus jumped up eyes closed tightly and jaw clenched as if a bomb had gone off. It stopped. Tacticus opened his eyes slowly. There was ash raining down all around him. He took his hands off his ears and listened for the screaming, it was gone. Infact it was quiet, so quiet it was almost deafening. the only noise was of the ash hitting the ground and his own breathing. Tacticus started panicking before he realized there was nothing around him at all. There was nothing but ash and dead trees all around him. There was also a light fog to the clearing he was in, though the fog extended well past the clearing and eventually obscured what he guessed were more dead trees. Tacticus managed to compose himself but something..... some.... feeling just made him want to fear. Once more he looked frantically around himself, nothing. He brought his hands to his face quickly and tried to rub out the nightmare. When he pulled his hands away they were black and burned, his skin peeling away to reveal charred tendons and muscles.

This  inferno was like something strait out of hell. First there was just  silence, almost serene. But than came the flash, and the sounds. The  screeching of metal, screams that echoed in Donny's ears. He couldn't  even got a chance to look around before he was knocked off his feet. All  he could see was red. By the time Donny woke up, everything was white.  His vision was blurry and everything was hazy. He thought it was snowing,  but it wasn't cold. He smelled blood and fire, and felt ashy and  sweaty. When he could see clearly, he was surrounded by ash. Crawling to  his feet Donny tried to find his way around. He could only see ash, and  occasionally a tree. It never occurred to him he was stuck in a obscuring fog. He never noticed how badly burned his body was; he was practically a walking skeleton at this point at this point.

Tacticus's eyes grew wide and the screaming returned. It was as if million of voices were all screaming at the top of their lungs. The sound was so intense it made Tacticus collapse to his knees and press his hands tightly over his ears. It did nothing to dampen the sound and Tacticus started yelling back at the screams, as if it would make them stop. He shut his eyes tightly again, then it stopped....again. Breathing heavily and incredibly concerned Tacticus opened his eyes again. There was a large, white, and vaguly humanoid shard in front of him. Tacticus struggled back tears at how bright it was. But, there was something that made him want to look at it. Like maybe if he reached out and touched it this would be over. Still on his knees he reached up and tried to touch it. It suddenly reached out and grabbed his forearm and the noise started again. But this time it wasn't a scream it was a high pitched whine which began jumping up and down in frequency. Tacticus tried to bring his hands to his ears but the shard would not let his arm go and grabbed his other arm. Tacticus began yelling at it aswell as fiercely as he could with tears running down his eyes from the brilliance of the being. It began leaning towards him and suddenly began to get bigger....and bigger. The noise became suddenly low pitched and large tendrils of light arched up out of it's back as the white began to engulf his vision.

And than came the screaming. It was so much worse this time, like... Like a thousand voices that were once silent, now free to unleash their eternal anguish. Donny tried to cover his ears it but was like he was trapping the voices in his head now, rebeating against his hand and skull. [b]"Stop, shut up, SHUT UP!"[/b] Donny's own screams joined the chorus of agony in his head. He started to run as though he could flee from the screaming.  That's when he saw... Him? Her? It was a white silhouette. Donny couldn't even look at it directly, as it was so bright. The screams in his head and the light from this thing was driving him mad. He swung blindly in front of him as though if he could just strike the being, this nightmare would be over. But instead it reached out and grabbed his arms. The screaming stopped, but a new noise replaced it. It was low at first, but than reached an extremely high decibel. It was like a screech, but not from any human or voice. It was so loud, and this being so bright, Donny struggled and fought to be freed, but he just couldn't manage it. He was engulfed in a white light before he could even cry for help.


Tacticus was laying down again. He blinked as the ashes began raining down into his eyes. He sat up out of the soft layer of ash he was laying it. The trees and the ash had returned, he was relieved. There was something different this time. A metal bench that seemed to be made out of one solid piece of smooth metal with no breaks was protruding from the ash. Yet none of the ash was landing on it nor was it covered in ash. Tacticus stood up and walked over to the bench. He placed his hand on it just to make sure it was real and then sat down, looking at the dead trees and ashes.

Donny was flat on the ground once more. He coughed and hacked as the ash got into his mouth. His throat was so hoarse and dry. A layer of ash had covered his body. There was no more fog, just ash and trees as far as the eye could see. But there was one new thing: a metal bench that seemed to be carved from a single slab, like a giant rock. But despite the ash raining around him, the bench had no ash on it itself, like the ash simply would not lay there. Curious Donny want over to this bench, carefully nudging it with his foot to ensure that it wasn't just a trick of his mind. Once he could feel the solid resistance Donny sat on the bench and took in the scenery around him.

Tacitcus felt a feeling of calmness wash over him as he watched the ash dance around each other and catch the air in a certain way that made them randomly change direction and speed up their never ending process of falling. He closed his eyes and leaned back over the chair which only came up to about his mid back and breathed in deeply. The air was silent and warm, it was so peaceful in fact that Tacticus wanted to stay there on that bench forever. He even heard the laugh of young Turian children over to his right, he couldn't even remember the last time he saw what he was fighting for. He looked over but did not see children. Instead there was a Turian women in full armor which looked old to him, he was also facing an Asari who looked to be in similarly advanced armor. "I don't care if you think your children are still alive! I watched them die and if you don't come with me you will join them. I refuse to allow that!" the Turian was yelling loudly at the shorter Asari.

It was strangely peaceful, sitting here on this mysterious bench. He watched the ash fall from the skies like snow, twisting and turning, fusing and falling. No matter which way they went or what happened to each flake they never fell on the bench or Donny. Relaxed he laid on his back, extending his hand to catch the ash that seemed to avoid his touch. Compared to the chaos and pain before, Donny liked this calm much more, and would have liked to do nothing but stay there forever. He heard the sound of children to his right, forgetting all about what just had occurred. But when he looked he saw no children, but a group of men, armed and armored, crouching in the ash. They seemed to be waiting for someone, and than one of the men shouted. "Go, stop them here before it's too late! We can't let them get the kids!" Than the rest of the men stood up and started shooting.

"If they were yours you wouldn't  be so quick to leave! We arn't leaving until I go get them!" The Asari was crying and in rage began to glow with biotic energy and threw the Turian several meters and she landed and skidded on the ground into a tree. Obviously out of breath the Turian began reaching out to the Asari unable to muster words. Then fire erupted from the ground and the Asari took a run at it. The Turian began crawling back towards the fire when the screams of an Asari started. 

"There are too many! We... We should go back, and protect the others!" Said one of the men. Soon, one by one, the men stopped shooting and ran, despite the protest of the one who Donny assumed was their superior officer. The man shouted at them, looking hesitantly back and forth between the enemy that Donny could not see, and the direction the men ran towards. Soon there was fire erupting around them, and the man dropped his gun. He looked scared, almost as though he was going to run himself. And than he pulled out a knife.

"Spirits damn it! Why!" The Turian yelled out clearly emotionally distressed. Then a large crashing noise and then an extremely loud fog horn sounding noise came from further in the same direction the Turian and Asari were in. The Turian looked further into the gray blackness and punched the ground in fury. She picked an assault rifle out of the ash and began running towards Tacitcus. But then he noticed something the Turian looked familiar. And as she drew closer to him time began to slowed down it finally clicked.

"I can't let them pass... I'm the only one left." The last man was obviously scared. He could barely stand his ground, let alone hold his weapon. But despite that, he gripped his knife and walked forward. A loud roar echoed in the landscape, like the last sound he heard before he had awoken moment's before. That's when the man turn towards Donny. Did he see him? Was he looking at something else? Regardless, the man ran towards Donny, holding his knife with the intent to us it. But as he came close, Donny noticed something... Familiar.

"G-grandma?" Tacitcus said as the two made eye contact. The fog horn noise kicked up again but this time so loud Tacticus felt his teeth chatter. He put his head between his legs and began yelling to try and dampen the noise but nothing came out. The noise just kept getting louder and louder but this time the noise sounded like it was omnipresent. No direction, no source just existing. Then the noise suddenly became less loud and the source of it moved in front of him. He looked up hands still covering his earholes and saw  2 pairs of 3 eye clusters made of light above the ground out in the darkness. Then the noise stopped. Then an incrediably powerful and deep voice said "Breach". Then a wave of fire began consuming the area in front of him. It was like a wave made of fire that rushed up to greet him. It hit his legs and burned them to but bone, his hands moved slower and Tacticus had time to watch the flesh and muscle burn and then rip itself from his hands. Then a shockwave knocked him up and out of the chair into the air. It sent him spinning and inbetween two trees. 

He landed face first into a pile of ash and got some of it in his mouth which he then quickly spat and coughed out. He grabbed his side in pain and then craned his head to look in front of himself. He was staring face to face with a human.

"Grandpa?!"  Donny looked into the eyes of his grandfather. The loud roar echoed  again, so loud that Donny could feel the vibrations through his body. He  grabbed his ears and pushed his head against the stone bench, as if it  was somehow suppose to make the roar softer. Donny screamed in pain and  thought his ears were bleeding. His head felt like it was getting  crushed by a rock, or getting torn apart in a blender. Donny turned to  see if he could find his grandfather, but what he saw instead was a set  of glowing eyes. The moment he saw them, the noise stopped. Instead it  was replaced with a deep and intimidating voice. "Breach." And once  more, the world was turned into fire and ash. Donny felt his skin fry  and his blood boil, like his entire body was going to become liquidifed  in this inferno. The blast of fire was so intense that it caused an  explosion that blew Donny off the bench and deeper into the forest.

He was thrown onto his back, causing a small pile of dust to build up on him as he slowed to a stop. Donny could hardly feel his body at this point. He wasn't sure if he even had one. But sure enough, as the pain continued to surge through his body, he was able to at least move his head and take a look around him. Then he found himself staring face-to-face with a turian.