[Dark Elite_H2]

Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout, Lobo!
Ok, then. As a treat fer you postin', 'ere's back to the story!

DAY FIVE...



Wake up...wake up...
'Why?'
You promised...
'Promised what?'
You promised...
A young girl's voice called faintly through his mind.
Stranger's eyes fluttered open to a dark black environment, only a white pile of snow far ahead of him adding color. He began to move around cautiously through the unknown territory he'd suddenly landed in.
"Hello?" he called loudly, his neon-green eyes flashing nervously.
Wake up...
The voice said.
Stranger's head snapped to attention ahead.
A dissolving body began to shroud in front of the snow, holding its arms behind its back.
"Who are you?"
You promised...
Stranger stopped for a moment, blinking hardly at the figure ahead, only a faint outline showing.
It was familiar. The figure was familiar-looking. Even the voice, too. But it was so youthful...
The hell... his mind raced.
The figure spun around, a wave of golden-blonde hair whipping across its back. As it ran off in to the distant blackness, it began to disappear, slowly and gradually.
"Wait!" he stuck out an arm, moving forward faster.
But the body was gone. Gone from his sight.
He stopped from running, but his foot broke in to the packed snow pile.
He stood frozen, staring down at where he had landed now.
What is going on? he thought to himself.
Then, a sudden coloring of the snow turned to a blood-red, touching his boot wetly.
He stepped back in the snow, only to realize that the snow was bleeding.
"What in Odd's name?" he spoke aloud, stepping further back from the red color dying in the snow.
He stopped at the end of the first tentacle of the red streamers, staring down at the source of where the blood seeped.
It was one large body of blood, almost shaped in to a familiar body.
His eyes narrowed down at it, curiously stepping back up. But he stopped abruptly, when the body he had seen suddenly began to vanish back.
But this time, it was clearer.
He felt his heart skip a beat, as the body turned out clearly.
"Oh no..." he croaked.
Laying face-down in the snow could only be one he knew.
"What...what's going on..." he cried, kneeling down to the corpse.
Was he dreaming? Or was this reality?
I'm dreamin'...this is only a dream, Stranger... he told himself in his conscious.
"To whom may think this is a dream..." a deep voice spoke eerily slow though his mind.
"Believe it...for this is reality...only shown through yourself..."
Stranger ignored the echo of the voice, holding a shaking hand over the shoulder of the body.
His lip quivered sadly, eyes filling with tears.
He placed a hand on the shoulder of the body, and slowly turned it face-side up.
Horror struck his face blindly.
He shook his head in denial.
"No...no...this ain't real..."
He looked in to the eyes of the human. The human known as Umi.
"Steef..." the voice said droning in to an echo.
"You musy know the inevitable...you must look it straight in to the eyes..."
Tears flowed down his cheek, his hand stuck right on her shoulder.
Her face was pale, and her eyes wide open to two dialated pupils under a pool of white-blue eyes.
Her body was torn of hot bullets through her skin. She still bled weptfully.
"...and this... is no dream...The one you knew as the human..."
The dissolved body so faint stood in front of him.
It laughed lively, running away from him playfully.
"...will die..."
The body disappeared back in to the darkness.
Wake up...
The voice chanted again.
You promised...
Stranger cried, bringing the limp head of his close friend up to his face.
No. Not his close friend.
His child.
Stranger...wake up...
The voice said more firmly.
You promised.
"Stranger!" Umi shook his arm.
He groaned mournfully, his teeth clenched tightly.
"Wake up! You promised!" she put her hands on her hips.
"No...no..." he said distantly.
Umi's eyebrows furrowed angrily.
"Don't you say no ter me!"
She began to shake his arm more tensly.
"Stranger!" she yelled.
"C'mon! You promised, and it's passed the morning!"
Stranger's eyes popped open with a sharp gasp. He snapped up on his arms, his eyes wide with shock.
Umi stood away from the bed, also staring at him with a certain shock.
His head moved over to where she stood, a feeling of relief swept over him.
"Oh my odd..." he sighed.
"It was only a dream..."
"Huh?" she croaked.
Stranger looked over to her, suddenly scooting to the edge, and grabbing her in his arms.
"I'm just glad it was a dream..." he mumbled near her ear.
Umi's eyes widened, quite surprised at his actions.
'Dream?' she told herself, but gave a soft smile.
"I guess even the most bad-asses have bad dreams, huh?" she said perkier.
Stranger pulled away from her, brushing her hair back with a relieved smile.
Umi rubbed her cheek on his arm, cooler than yesterday.
"I love you, too..." she whispered.
Stranger nodded in agreement, keeping his hand on her cheek.
She cocked back from his arm, with a crafty grin.
"So..." she began.
"You promised we'd go outside today?"
Stranger kept himself silent, thinking back to the dream he had.
It was his innate instinct to protect Umi, from whatever was out there to harm her. But he knew he couldn't be so protective over her forever. She'd needed to go on her own. Yet, she was so young, and still needed to learn things that he needed to tell, confused of the wonders of Oddworld yet to behold...
"Alright..." he smiled softly.
"A promise's a promise. Go dress, warmly," he told firmly.
Umi's face brightened happily, jumping straight up from his arms, and running in to the wardrobe bedroom, shuffling around swiftly.
He chuckled playfully, awaiting for Umi's appearance back to him.
She returned, with her long denim jacket and her long jeans on, with an excited smile up to him.
"Ok! Let's go!" she said.
Stranger laughed at the child's giddiness. He led her outside, she running down the hill to the playing Grubbs.
He was too glad to become the human's legal guardian. And he couldn't wait for the final day to come.
But the dream kept him in shock. What was so ominous about it?
The invader? The voice that spoke to him.
But how?
It could've been something kept in the confines of his brain, but it felt too real to be a dream...
Something was connecting him, psycho telekenesis. And whatever it was, it was probably showing him the future, of something horrible...