An Old Friend

I walked towards the palace. Luckily, it wasn't such a long walk like the others. I kept a fast pace as I stomped my way to the palace. I entered through the double doors and went up an elevator. I reached the last floor and went out of the elevator. I found myself behind a man. The man was dressed in a blue military coat and only had hair on the sides. He was holding a red staff and wore tight boots. He looked like some sort of general. But when he turned around and looked at me, I recognized him right away. It was Count Veegor, from the council. We had met before, I he also recognized me right away.

"Erol! Great Mar, you're alive!" he cried.

"Yep" I said nodding.

He hugged me and I patted him on the back. We were good friends for some while. But we hadn't seen each other since I joined the Guard. He was smiling cheerily when he looked at me, but now his smile began to fade. I got a bit nervous. I knew something was wrong for a smile to fade away so fast.

"What is it?" I asked concerned.

"It's just...what happened to your face?" the bald council man asked me.

"It was the consequence of crashing with the Eco" I explained looking at the floor disappointed.

"Oh" Veegor replied.

"So what brings you here?" I finally asked after a short term of silence.

"I just have some matters to attend to with Ashelin" the bald man told me.

"What brings you here?" Count Veegor asked.

"I also have some matters to attend to with Ashelin" I admitted.

Smiling again, Count Veegor looked at me in the eyes and spoke once again.

"Oh, then perhaps we can sort both of our matters together" he suggested.

"Perhaps..." I stated.

Right then, a man in a fine tuxedo walked by and looked at us.

"Ashelin is ready to attend you sir" he told Veegor.

Then the man looked at me in confusion. He seemed a bit startled when he looked at the half of my face that was now stone. Added to that ugliness, the eye in the half of my face that was stone was yellow. Shocked at this, the man opened his mouth to speak; but nothing came out. After gasping a little, he finally spoke.

"And...you...are...?" he managed to ask.

I opened my mouth to tell him who I was and what I wanted, but my old friend Veegor interrupted.

"He's a friend of mine, he also wants to talk to Ashelin" Veegor explained.

"Fine then, follow me" the man said bowing.

We followed him into a large room. The room was filled with paintings of old rulers of Haven City and in the far end was Ashelin sitting on the throne. We followed the red carpet on the floor until we reached Ashelin. The man in the tuxedo bowed and spoke once more.

"They are here ma'am" the man told Ashelin.

Ashelin dismissed him and he exited the room. Leaving Count Veegor and I, to deal with our matters. Ashelin was surprised when she saw me. At first, she didn't recognize me because of half of my face looking like stone; but when she did she was speechless. After the shock had left her, she looked at Veegor and spoke.

"So, what news do you have from the council?" she asked firmly.

"We have enough authority to bring you down and rule the city already" the bald council man declared.

"So will you?" Ashelin asked nervously.

"Maybe..." Veegor teased.

"What do you mean!?" Ashelin demanded.

"Unless you give Erol his position as commander back, I'll take over the city and send you to prison!" Veegor blackmailed.

I was startled at his statement. How did he know I wanted to get my position back? How could it be possible that he knew? Had he read my mind or something!?

"So it's blackmail huh? You know I can have you arrested for trying to blackmail your authority" Ashelin warned the bald man.

"I don't think so. Heh heh, you don't even know how powerful the council really is" Veegor mumbled.

"Well then, I refuse. Take over the city, I don't care. But I'm not giving this psycho so much power back as commander!" Ashelin snarled.

"Fine, then I will make sure Erol at least goes back as general and then we'll take over the city anyways!" Count Veegor spat.

Then Veegor and I made our way out of the room. Just when I was going outside, Ashelin called me.

"Yes?" I asked turning around.

"Your face looks like crap" she told me with a grin.

"Whatever" I said leaving.

Later, I was in a special limo zoomer with Veegor. I didn't even know where we were going, so I asked.

"We're going to the Bazaar" he told me.

"What for?" I asked.

"We're going to see Onin" he answered.

"I just went there" I commented.

"Well, you're going again. I already called a few Guards to wait for me in the Bazaar" he said.

"Is it going to get violent or something?" I asked, now I was getting worried.

"I'm going to force Onin to tell me the future. To tell me if I will conquer the city or not, and if she doesn't I will use my 'intimidation' methods" he growled.

This was getting out of hand. I started to think about what Onin told me. Maybe I should've escaped the city before the civil war and the Metal Heads' invasion got ugly. But I didn't leave; I wanted proof that Haven City was really a dangerous place first. We got to the Bazaar fast. When we got off the limo-like zoomer, we were greeted by five Krimzon Guards. These Guards were blue. They were high-rank Guards to be blue. Red were the less- experienced, yellow were the mediocre ones, and blue were the pros. Unless one was a commander like I used to be, one would have to be in a blue suit if they were high-ranks Guards. Anyways, the Guards greeted us and we all entered Onin's tent. This would get ugly, and I knew it.