For Darkness They Called

"Just exactly what the hell are you proposing?" A well aged man in his 30s wearing a freshly ironed suit said, clutching a smoking cigar as he looked upon the 20 year old with a blindfold over his eyes.

"Hah, my proposal is simple. We need some of your funding for a project required to get a little…assistance." The blindfolded man said. He leaned onto the desk and tapped his finger against it. The middle aged man broke a bit of a sweat, there was obviously more to bargaining with this, what he thought at the time was a freak.

"Sir, if we don't get help you know that your little 'problem' is only going to get worse."  The blindfolded man proceeded to say after that. The man slumped back and stared at him.

"How the hell did you know about that…fine, I'll get you your funding, but you and your damn carnival of freaks better solve the problem or you won't see the end of it!"He said, putting the smoking cigarette in his mouth and turning his chair around so he would half to look at the strange person. This made the blindfolded man smile.

"I knew you would co-operate. I leave you be." He said, starting to turn around to leave. The stranger had exited the room and shut the door. A servant who had been quietly standing in the corner had then walked up to his desk and prepared tea without saying a word. It was only until the middle aged man had decided to break the silence that he looked up.

"Anthony Dyson…" Was all that he said. The servant said nothing and finished preparing the tea, then left the room.

"…I need that cure…"

----
Three Months Later
----

Azith, the quite unfortunate Ebon Knight, had finally found some peace and quiet within the dark cathedral, sitting on the bench looking up at a statue decorated with black and red. Despite the morbid moodiness, this was quite possibly the only place in his whole world he could ever call home. He moved his gaze down to the stone floor, letting out an unfortunate sigh spotting his familiar sword leaning against the bench right next to him. Azith took it and strapped it to his back and stood up, looking back up at the statue, then at the rest of the cathedral. Oddly it was empty, and rather silent.

It wasn't until he heard a knock at the door that he was broken out of his own gaze. Knowing that no member of the order knocked on doors, he drew his sword and backed against the door. Sword raised, he slowly pushed the door open, but without a moment's notice, the door blew open and sent him a few feet back and onto his knees. He stood to face his opponent, but before he could even see who had broken the door he felt a sharp pain in his neck and a quick drowsiness that suddenly overtook him. Despite his efforts to fight it, he succumbed to what he thought at the moment was poison, and fell to the ground, defeated.

----

The Blindfolded man awaited eagerly in a room filled with cords and circuits everywhere, awaiting his 'assistance' from an open portal. In a few meager minutes, a group of four, consisting of two dragons, a gryphon and a phoenix came through holding the armor clad ebon knight on a stretcher. The blindfolded man was delighted to know they had finally come back, hopefully with a prodigious dragon like they had hoped from the strange world their project had found. He clapped his hands together and walked towards them.

"Wonderful, take him to the testing room, I want to see he is informed of this world myself, and leave him with his sword, that sedative will keep him down for a few more hours." He said with a smile and then led the group through several metallic hallways until they were inside a large silver room. Barren, but polished. The group had put the ebon knight down and left immediately with the stretcher. This left the man standing before the limp body awaiting this dragon to awake. It didn't take long though, as Azith had begun to stir.

"Ah, thankfully you are up. I'm glad that sedative worked as it was supposed to."

Azith, still groggy, slowly sat up and looked at the blindfolded man, staring at him still hardly able to comprehend what's going on.

"Oh, I'm so terribly rude. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Anthony Dyson, I am a psychic working for an organization determined on keeping the secrets this world deems mythological…a myth" The psychic said to the half-awake dragon. Azith took a couple of minutes trying to unscramble what he said, still dizzy.  

"What the…" Azith said, now realizing he wasn't in the cathedral anymore. He looked towards the blindfolded human.

"Where am I? Where have you taken me!?" Azith yelled at Dyson. The psychic sighed.

"You're in an underground military complex. We have several advanced weapons set up through the entire place. I know about your abilities already and unless you wish to have the equivalent of one hundred arrows going through your body I suggest you don't leave the room." He said, this seemed to get straight through to him.

"Then what the hell do you want with me?" He asked again, a little quieter, he began to stand up to look at the room, despite there being nothing to see.

"I want your cooperation Azith. You have powerful abilities and for what I have to do you are perfectly suited for it." Dyson said to Azith.

"…Just get to the point"

"We want you to come with us on a mission. If you do good…we'll think about sending you back to your own little war-torn world, if not…well, let's just say that you will have a very, very bad day." Dyson said with a smile, getting only a glare from Azith. But with an unfortunate sigh, he lowered his head.

"Now then…follow me." The psychic said walking towards the door, the Ebon knight not too far behind. The door opened automatically for them and they had walked out, passing by two guards as they began a long tedious walk through many steel hallways. After 15 minutes of steel boots making clicks against the floor, they made their way out of the entire complex, walking up a flight of stairs and through another door until they found themselves in a large forest, a dirt road passing just beside the entrance. Azith walked up to the road and kneeled down, examining the road.

"I have never seen such a path before…" Azith said, suddenly jumping to attention as he heard a rumbling sound from down the road. He quickly jumped back and drew his sword, awaiting this thing he never heard before. In a few minutes and a lot of ear strain on the poor ebon knight's ears, a vehicle, an armored hummer to be more precise, stopped beside them. The door opened up from the inside.

"Come on Dyson, we don't have all day." A voice from the inside of the vehicle had claimed, getting the psychic to quickly hop inside of it. Azith though, was still glaring at the van, sword out ready for anything.

"Just get in here ya damn dragon" A more gritty voice said through a speaker. With a bit of hesitation, the Ebon Knight sheathed his sword and got inside the vehicle as well, trying to sit in a way so he wouldn't sit on his tail. Once he got comfortable, another person across from him reached for the door and shut it, the van quickly taking off.

"So Dyson, this is the help you got? I was expecting something more…Subtle" The man who had shut the door said, looking over Azith. The Ebon Knight glared at the man, obviously not impressed.

"Don't worry; he's exactly what I need. He's more than capable of anything." Dyson said back at the man. He sighed and handed a folder to the psychic.

"Here's your authorization for the little stunt you're pulling. Once you get overseas and give us the signal, we will pull all satellites and shut down any other security devices in the area by the EMP from your agent. You'll have exactly one hour to go in, get the cure and get back out, that's all the time you'll have cause that's about as much the government said they could cover up." He said as the psychic looked over the papers.

"Hopefully your big dumb dragon can handle it" The man said to Dyson, only making him sigh. This put a park in Azith, and he had grabbed him by the throat, squeezing gently, enough to make the man try and scream.

"I am not dumb; you are the one that lacks intelligence. I am trained to kill with a blade and murder with the forces of the world. And as a matter of fact, dumb does not mean that a person is lacking thinking ability, it actually means a person that cannot speak. So I suggest you keep quiet." Azith said to him, letting him go. The man grabbed his throat and coughed for a bit, before regaining posture.

"All right then…" was all that he could say. For the next few hours, they had ridden silently within the vehicle, not saying anything to each other until a voice from the front came through a static-laden speaker.

"We're here, Dyson and…whatever the hell your name is, you get out first, dragon comes out last." The voice said getting a growl in response from Azith. Once the vehicle stopped, the door opened and Azith and the man had gotten out first. Then Azith had climbed out of the vehicle to be greeted by 10 U.S. soldiers, obviously scared out of their wits, but stood their ground and pointed their rifles at Azith. This obviously confused the Ebon Knight and he examined the rifles, quite interested in the make.

"Hmmm… There are weapons similar to this in my world but had been outlawed long ago… Different standards I guess." Azith said still looking over the automatic rifles.

" Can I see it?" Azith asked outstretching his arm touching the soldier's gun. He jumped back and pointed it up at Azith's head.

"Stay away demon!" the soldier yelled, the ebon knight just now noticing the cross around the neck of this person. Azith looked at it for a bit, then scratched his head.

"There are demons here? I never thought there were here, I would have seen them already…" Azith said looking around. The soldier merely stayed his ground.

"All right, enough of this non-sense." Azith said suddenly changing his tone to a more serious one, "Dyson, you wanted me to do a job in return for taking me back to my world, that was what was agreed on right?"

"I said I would think about it. Soldiers, go to your…" Dyson began to say before he was interrupted.

"My god, a dragon! Squad 5, capture and detain it to sect 6." A human general had said from a distance, the voice obviously female. The soldiers now with their orders, moved closer to Azith, slowly, the Ebon knight drew his sword and held it with both hands, prepared for a fight.

"General, lay off, he's with me." Dyson said, the soldiers now getting confused with what their supposed to do. While they were distracted, Azith walked over to the psychic.

"No!"

"I will strip you of your rank general, go back to your duties or I will relieve this entire base of duties!" Dyson yelled at the general. The general had run off pretty quickly which made Azith assume Dyson had some kind of authority in this world. The soldiers who 'greeted' him had all but followed the general, also the man that had been with them seemed to have disappeared.

"Ok…Let's go Azith, onto the cargo plane." Dyson said proceeding to walk towards a fleet of large planes.

"The cargo what?" Azith asked following the psychic.

----
3 days later, in the dead of the night.
----

The plane landed on the southern coast of Africa, within the borders of South Africa, Azith not having the brightest clue where he was.

The Ebon knight had taken a handful of red soil and let it slip between his claws, watching it fall back to the ground.

"The soil is red here… Why does this remind me of death?" He said to himself, the psychic thinking scratching the side of his head, not enjoying the heat.

"Don't worry, we won't be here long." Dyson said taking out a cell phone and making a call to somebody. He held it to his ear for a few seconds until someone answered.

"Dyson?"

"Yes, it's me, pull the satellites, we are going in."

"Loud and clear, commencing the plan" The voice on the other end said, Dyson flipping the phone closed and pocketing it.

"Ok, time to go. Keep low for as long as possible." Dyson said it, Azith sighing and following him. They had trekked into a valley and headed into an outdoor complex, several guards scattered around in various areas. Luckily, Azith was able to slip by undetected, the psychic just ahead of him, guiding the way. After several close calls and guard dodging, the two had come across a building which had been prestigiously decorated, and had the most guards too.

"Damn, we need to get by them" Dyson complained looking at the situation.

"I can distract them, don't worry." Azith said with a grin, he summoned up dark energies and raised a skeleton from the ground. Even though skeletons still ran chills down his spine Azith forced it to walk out in front of the building, quickly catching the guard's attention, then running off with the guards tailing it closely. Azith then run up to the building with Dyson following behind, watching the now prancing skeleton run off with the guards following it.

"I think I made the right choice…" Dyson said to himself. Azith wasted no time and kicked the door to the building open, and scouted the room for anybody, the psychic already looking for a way to the basement.

"Where would the stairs be.." Dyson said now pondering to himself as he mentally scanned the building. Azith in the meanwhile walked across a rug and heard a hollow sound echo from the floor. Without a second thought, he kicked it opened and pulled it up, revealing the way down.

"Hurry up, I found the way down." Azith said to Dyson, the psychic a little dumbstruck that Azith found the way down before he did. Unfortunately, there was no time to complain as the Ebon knight dropped down and ran further inside of the building, followed swiftly by Dyson. Fortunately, the building below was empty, only a few bottles of some kind of liquid left on the counter. Dyson quickly snatched them and ran back for the exit followed by Azith. Once they made their way back up the ladder which they failed to notice when they dropped in, the two were in the center of the building when something on Dyson's person went off. He pulled out his cell phone and answered it.

"Dyson." The psychic said answering his phone.

"The government is coming in on you and the satellites have been hacked. They will be on your position in a minute." A voice said, obviously hurried. "You have no time, get out of there now Dyson!"

The psychic closed the phone and swore.

"Azith, we have no time"

"Can it, I heard they call, my ears aren't pointed because I'm deaf." The Ebon Knight said, wrapping his arms around Dyson while unfurling his wings. The dragon ran through the door and took flight immediately, just out of range when a line of armored vehicles and tanks closed in on the area. Once they were back at the cargo plane, Azith landed and let out a deep sigh.

"If that was all you needed, you could have bloody asked the order, we have stealth specialists you know." Azith said to him letting the psychic down.

"I was expecting you to get caught being the way you are, but never mind that, back on the plane." Dyson said to Azith who begrudgingly walked onto the metal flying thing, followed by the psychic. In only mere moments, they were in the air and back on their way back across the ocean.

----
5 Days later, in the mid afternoon
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Dyson walked through a small manor holding the vile in his hand, walking up a flight of stairs straight into an office like room, where the man who had funded the psychic's project was sitting, though now he looked more deteriorated than anything.

"The cure?" He said weakly, Dyson replying a yes to the man. He walked up beside the man in the chair and placed the vile in his hand, the man feebly taking the cork off and swallowing the liquid, coughing like mad but in mere moments the once deteriorating human began to look better in moments.

"Thank you Dyson. Thank you." He pleaded, now looking more like a man in his twenties fresh out of college.

"Not a problem, you funded the efforts."

"Just make sure that dragon is treated fairly, I heard about the little ruckus you went through to get him there."

"Don't worry, he will be treated fairly, may not be what he wants but he will be treated fairly." Dyson said to the man walking out of the office, hoping he wouldn't have to deal with the man again.

----
The next Day, high noon
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"Hello, Azith!" Dyson yelled out, walking through the same complex Azith first came to. With a bit of mild searching throughout, the psychic finally found him in the white room they had kept him in after he was transported to this world.

"Can I go home yet?" Azith said, a dry bitterness in his voice as the psychic approached him. Without second thoughts Dyson stood in front of the dragon.

"I would love to send you home, but frankly, I can't do that. You see, you proved yourself to be very valuable during that little fiasco and my employer wants to keep you here for the remainder of your life. It's now my decision…" The psychic said, answering the question. Without warning, Azith grabbed him by the neck and lifted him in the air, choking him.

" You take me, here, to a land where I am alone. You force me to do work I never agreed on and now, you deprive me the right to even go back to my own world! My Home!" Azith yelled at him, then swinging him around and launching him into the wall, causing it to cave in. The Ebon knight was pissed off.

"All I want to do is bloody go home, when you try to force me to work for you. And for what, Protection? I can defend myself. There is nothing I owe to this world and I hope you will burn." He said, summoning up a gigantic, gruesome skeletal hand, forcing its way through the floor and going straight for Dyson at a fast speed. But before it had made it to him, the skeletal hand crumbled to pieces and fell to the ground.

" I need help, and you are the best I can find, I can offer you the world Azith." Dyson said picking himself up

"I don't need your bloody world; I just want to go home!" The Ebon knight yelled jumping at Dyson and slashing at him, the psychic moving out of the way of the blow and jumping to the side, Azith slashing at him again intent on making him pay.

"Think about this Azith, you're throwing away a lot of opportunities." Dyson said jumping out of the way of another slash from the sword.

"I don't care if I can get everything out of this world. I just want to go back!" Azith yelled again, throwing blasts of pure darkness at the psychic, who blocked the attacks with his own mind abilities but fell to his knees from the power required to stop such force.

"Bastard." Azith said at Dyson, walking up to him brandishing his sword and walking slowly up to the psychic.

"Whether you may not think my world is better than yours, my world is my home." He said picking him up and putting the blade tip at his throat. "I just want to go home, and from what I've seen of you, you probably haven't had much of one. If you want to understand how I feel, go and make a home for yourself, maybe raise a few hatchlings and then have it all taken away for just a couple of weeks, then you will understand."

Azith kept the worn down psychic at blade point when a portal had opened behind him, a head popping through.

"Azith!, Where were you! You missed the whole celebration" a fellow ebon knight said to him.

"I was…" Azith began to say, throwing the psychic to the ground, walking over to the portal "busy"

"Luckily, we saved the best bottle of rum for you, since we know you love it so much." The ebon knight said to Azith again as he walked through the portal.

"Thanks, I'll need the whole thing." Azith said to him just as the portal closed. Now that that was over, Dyson lay his head against the floor.

"Well, at least I didn't get beaten to a pulp…" He said just before passing out on the floor, leaving the encounter a mere memory now.