(First story. If you like it, tell me. If not, bugger off!)

DARK GAIA'S VENGEANCE

Created by DeathRow

HISTORY:

Dark Gaia, one of the two forces of the planet earth, had once conspired to dominate the entire world. He had grown stronger than Light Gaia, and began openly defying him. There had once been a hero who had challenged him, but died in the attempt. But then came another....

One of his own creations, the darkside "copy" of the surface-world's hero, known as "Ark" had been trying to ressurect the world that Dark Gaia had cunningly made him destroy. Dark Gaia foresaw this problem, and entrusted a darkside version of the beginning of humanity, frozen in a completely non-evolved status, a create known as a "Yomi".

During his quest, Ark found 5 peices of the "Star Stones" which were each a part of heaven, fallen to earth. He seeked the grave of his Lightside, deep in the frozen hell of antarctica. In those miles of tundra, he found one place. It was so barren that not even the snow would touch it. Then he saw them: The legendary five gigantic skull altars, from which the spirit of one passed from the mortal coil could be torn from its place in eternity and returned to the material world of earth. Using the immense power of each of the Star Stones, he ressurected his Lightside, or at least his Lightsides' soul, and merged his and his lightside's souls together, creating the eternal hero, the one destined to destroy Dark Gaia.

Dark Gaia eventually found that Ark had progressed too far in his quest. He instructed the Darkside Yomi to kill ark to finally end any possibility that he could be defeated. However, another one of his creations, Ark's lover, betrayed him and destroyed the Yomi, but dissapeared into the unknown afterwards..............

When Dark Gaia realised that he would be defeated in his inevitable combat with Ark, he undertook one final act, to insure he would not be truly defeated in the combat to come. He created a tear in the continuim of space-time, and using most of his power, sent his soul back, thousands of years in time, to sleep for millenia, waiting for a time to re-emerge and exact his vengeance......

In the next few days, Ark engaged in combat with Dark Gaia. After a whole week of fighting, Ark defeated Dark Gaia, banishing him from the world and restoring some form of balance to the world. However, he doomed his world, and thus, his soul and body, to be annihilated.

After Dark Gaia's defeat, ark and his entire world de-materialised..... But he knew that one day HIS world would be restored.... with the return of Dark Gaia. And with Light Gaia's help, he prepared himself for that.... Or at least he hoped.

Ark's soul existed in eternity, drifting in an endless "sea" of nothingness. Time passed, maybe in thousands of years, but Ark's soul did not notice. It simply observed. It viewed every event in all his lives, in endless repition, waiting for the day it would one day return to the world.

However, Ark's soul was also semi-sentient, and "it" could think. He could almost cause himself to manifest in the lightside world... not almost. He could.

Once in a previous time, he had managed to, for no more than a second, exist on a world. But it was not lightside.... it was dark.

Once again, it watches its former hardships and happinesses play by. Each one of them could take years or minutes, but it could tell no difference.

Suddenly.... it felt a strange tearing at itself, as if it was being crushed and torn apart at the same time. The eternal void seemed to fall away from it, and suddenly... there was a flash, and then black.

That one thought flashed through its head, before it became totally insentient.

----

"Ark..............Ark...."

The voice awoke ark from his sleep.

He lay there for what seemed to be eternity. But then he realised something........ He was ALIVE!

When he finally opened his eyes, the lightside elle's face was there to great him.

"Awake, at last!" she said, slightly irritated.

Ark sat up in his bed, disorientated. "Where am I?" he said, slightly stupid-sounding.

Elle laughed at this, but ark failed to see the humor. "Your in Loire, of course!" she stated, half-laughing during saying so. "You're supposed to be going on a long journey today, and I came here a few nights ago to see you leave.... don't you remember?" she said. Ark thought deeply, and suddenly a rush of memories returned to him. He had fallen in love with the lightside version of his lover, Elle, after darkside Elle's disapearance. During the last few months, he had been over most of the world and found Five "peices of heaven" known as StarStones. Strangely, it seemed as if he had already "seen" every event before, even him leaving the Loire port."Of course I remember!" said ark, laughing slightly as he finished. "Well, I hope you get ready soon... the ship leaves in an hour!"

Ark got out of bed and stood up, and was suddenly immediately aware of his surroundings. He knew the entire layout of the city. Somehow, he wasn't suprised by this..... He grabbed his magic box, dubbed the "Pandora's Box" and stepped outside of the inn he had been sleeping at. He walked up to a nearby street vendor, and bought a croussaint and cider. While walking down the street and munching on the croussaint, he recieved another "flashback" this time, it was all his memories. They flooded back into him, and suddenly he knew everything of his past... and more.

The loud honk of a boathorn awoke him from his memory-induced trance, his crew signalling him to quickly get aboard the leaving ship that he had been given. Half way up the gangplank, he heard Elle calling out to him. "Wait!" she yelled, running past a crowd of townsfolk. She ran up the gangplank and embraced Ark. Quietly, she said to him : "Ark.... make sure you come back, or i'll be awfully angry with you!"ark whispered his reply : "Don't worry, Elle. I will...." after that, they leant forward, and kissed.

Elle then turned, and returned to the Loire dock. As the ship left, she waved to ark, and silently, hoped that he would come back unhurt.

---

The trip to antarctica was long. Many of the sailors had asked why he had decided to take an indirect route, but they discovered why later: He had decided to visit the mermaid's tower, to get their blessings on his rare and dangerous journey. After all, the mermaids had been the ones who told him the legends of the lost hero....

They finally reached the hidden part of antarctica, behind the massive mountain ranges of snow and rock. As the mermaids had said, there was an ancient, hidden dock there. The dock was of strange construction: Perfectly created, and seemingly un-damageable. It even seemed to repell the snow itself.... There was a building, also perfectly constructed, and warm inside.

Ark walked off to the north, telling his crew that they would have to stay behind in the building. They had years worth of food, and only two of his crew objected to such an idea: Ark had become a good leader of his crew, and few doubted his words, no matter how insane they seemed.

The cold was excrutiating, and Ark's only way to survive was to continously retreat to his magic box, and use his Fire Pike to keep himself as warm as possible. Finally, he found what he seeked: The lost five skull altars. The moment he walked close to them, a loud, audible crack peirced his ears, and something strange happened with the environment. He was no longer blinded by snowstorms: in fact, the temperature became quite warm. When he looked down, he was standing, not on snow and ice, but instead on ancient, cracked dirt, rock-hard from lack of moisture. He knew what he had to do, as if it was a sixth-sense....

He walked to the first altar. He took a Star Stone in his hand, and held it at full arms length towards the altar. There was another loud, low "crack!" in Ark's ears, and when he next looked, the starstone had dissapeared. The skull's giant eye sockets had been replaced by flaming orange spheres, and Ark had an strange feeling that the skull was watching him. Instinctively knowing what to do next, Ark repeated this with the next three altars. Finally, he approached the last altar. As he raised the last Star Stone, he noticed it was glowing. Suddenly, it exploded, an incredibly high-pitched crash exploded into his ears, causing his vision to become red with pain!

He opened his eyes just in time to see the Star Stone shatter in to thousands of peices, and dissapear.

And then.... he heard a voice... one which he had dreaded to hear ever since he had DEFEATED him.....

"NEVER!!!" roared ark, readying his weapon.

A mere few metres in front of ark, a giant, 10 foot figure materialised. Carrying a huge, double-handed sword, and wearing armor that could only be designed by a truly twisted smith, Dark Gaia appeared.

Dark Gaia then looked directly at ark, his mad red eyes boring into ark's very soul....

"YOU HAVE DEFIED ME FOR TOO LONG. YOU DIE HERE TODAY." he roared, lifting his massive blade.

Ark said nothing. Instead, he charged with his spear.

"FOOL! YOU CANNOT DEFEAT A GOD WITH SUCH PUNY WEAPONS!" Dark Gaia roared.

Ark's spear shattered like glass on contact with Dark Gaia's armor, and the splinters de-materialised after a few seconds.

"NOW! WITNESS MY POWER!!!" screamed Dark Gaia, madly. Dark Gaia's off-hand glowed brightly, and suddenly, he brutally uppercutted Ark, sending him flying for half a mile across the tundra. Ark landed heavily, but did not die. He tried to rise, but Dark Gaia quickly ran over to him, and slammed a massive fist down, onto Ark's back.

Ark was still not dead, but Dark Gaia knew that. He leant down and grabbed Ark's Magic Box, and crushed it with his hand. "But.. how?......" said Ark, weakly. "Never underestimate ME! There is no longer TWO forces on this earth. There is only ONE! ME! I AM YOUR GOD!!!!!!" Dark Gaia roared insanely. "Never....." said Ark, as Dark Gaia de-materialised.

Ark tried to rise, but couldn't. He slowly felt his body freeze in the snow. Suddenly, he felt a strange feeling of warmth cover his body, and he became tired. He closed his eyes... and fell into the Abyss.

THE END?

(DUH! hell no. I couldnt end a Fan Fiction like that, could I? Expect a rather cool conclusion or continuation later.)