Dawnbreaker: The Vaults of Malta, Chapter 1

"Believe it or not, this was the last chapter I wrote. Well, re-wrote. Again."
-Arcturian Aru
Chapter 1: Prologue (Oh wow! Trauma!) is the first chapter of Dawnbreaker, The Vaults of Malta. The chapter was the fourth written, following Chapter 2, Chapter 32, and the decanonized Alpha Prologue. It also carries the most unfortunate crown of being the most re-written, with at least 24 revisions. 
The chapter is a flashback centered around a five year old Aaron Bright, as he navigates the destruction of Washington D.C., and the realities of the Post-Convergence world he lives in. 
== The Text ==
=-=-=-= January 10th, 2110 AD: Washington D.C., America =-=-=-=
‘In, and out. In, and out. In… and… out.’
Aaron took deep breaths as he tried to calm his pounding heart.
Sweat clung to his brow, and his bare feet shivered with adrenaline. ‘Come on A, you can do this. Remember what mom said! You can do anything. All you have to do… is run.’
He looked up at the crimson sky, where the ashen hurricane shook with lightning.
Aaron took another breath… and ran.
=-=-=-= A Few Minutes Prior =-=-=-=
Aaron’s eyes jolted open with a start. His brown irises darted around the darkness of his bedroom as he looked for things that went bump in the night.
Nothing. Of course there wouldn’t be anything. Breathing a sigh of relief, he shuffled back into his bedsheets. He was six now! It was time for him to grow out of such superstitions.
However, as hard as he tried, he wasn’t able to close his eyes. Something still seemed to cling to his mind. A certain… unease. A feeling of wrongness.
Aaron grabbed his glasses and threw off his blanket. He thought about going to his parents’ room, but they were out, having gone to the hospital with his brother Jason because of an allergic reaction… oh but Zachary was still here!
Aaron shuffled through the dark hall, and pushed open the door to his little brother’s room. The first thing he noticed… was the smell. An acrid stench, warm and wet, assaulted his nose, and he instinctively ducked away. He tried looking around, but couldn’t see anything. The shadows seemed to envelop the dim square of light of the doorframe like the maw of a beast.
Aaron swallowed.
As he walked over to his brother’s bed, his foot touched something soft. He could just barely make out the shape of a little mouse plushie, Zachary’s favorite toy. Aaron reached down to pick it up, but when he did, a shiver went up his arm. The toy was ice cold, and sticky.
Aaron’s head shot up. “Z-Zach?”
As if a dark veil had been lifted, the shadows began to vanish. Something lay at the foot of the bed. A small figure, delicate, yet… torn. Broken. Red. A bone-chilling terror went down Aaron’s back. There, in a pool of blood and tears, lay the body of Zachary Bright, aged four.
Aaron gasped. He… he couldn’t see. Couldn’t think. “W-w-whuh…”
A snarl echoed through the room, and he whirled around. Above the door frame hung a creature, its six limbs gripping the plaster. Its humanoid face drooled down on him with a twisted malice, its shrunken eyes glaring at him hungrily. The creature's deathly skin was completely too small for its body, as if someone had tried stretching a child’s sock over the foot of a man. With each twitch and turn, new tears tore open on its flesh. The creature craned its giraffesque neck, and Aaron froze up. His lungs seized, and he couldn’t breathe.
What was that thing?!
Only then did it hit him.
The noise.
A wailing chorus filled his ears like the symphony of a thousand tortured souls. The city was in an uproar. Shrieks of terror echoed across the antique rooftops and neat, patchwork lawns of America’s capital. What was going on?!
The aberration grinned, and its limbs tensed up. Slowly, like a predator stalking its prey, it descended the wall. Aaron stumbled back and grabbed his chest. It felt as if his heart was going to burst at any moment. When the beast finally loomed over him, it reached out with its arms. Slowly it began to encase its prey. Aaron screamed, and tried to yank himself free.
“N-no! Mom! Dad!” he wailed as the monster’s ice-cold grip clung onto him like a vice.
The creature placed its ice-cold nose to his forehead, and breathed in. “It… you… you… have… ch-chosen… for the lord…” it stammered.
Before Aaron could even question its words, the aberration jolted out into the hall. The creature gleefully tore the screaming Aaron down the steps, and right through the front door.
Aaron gasped with horror as he saw the scene outside. Blood poured like water as people ran in terror, chased by horrific monsters that broke through doors and shattered windows.
Fires raged across the city. The once well trimmed trees of Washington were burnt to cinders as old houses collapsed into bricks and dust. Smoke choked the sky, and screams tore through the night like knives through flesh. The air was solemn as a stillborn child. There was no wind, not even the faintest breath. Despite that, a storm twisted high above. Dark clouds circled in the sky, blotting out the moon and stars like a muffling blanket. Blood red lightning arced its way across the city, igniting houses and casting a crimson red glow.
Aaron could do naught but stare in shock. Where was the army? The police? The DMA?! Only yesterday they had been boasting that America had never been safer!
A gasp made Aaron’s head turn. The elderly Wilkins couple from next door stared at the beast that held him, wide-eyed as they tried to get into their car. “D-dear! That thing has the neighbors’ boy!” Mrs. Wilkins exclaimed.
The older man raised his cane. “Y-you! Monster! Release that child at once!” he shouted.
The creature grinned. Every muscle in its body was oh so ready to maul the old man, but just as it took a step, it was yanked away, as if tugged by an invisible collar. It growled, but acquiesced. The monster turned in the other direction and ran, taking Aaron with him. The wind roared through his hair, and Aaron squirmed desperately as the creature tore down the street.
“HELP!” he wailed as the creature carried him deeper into the chaos.
=-=-=-= 
Raging flame and crumbling buildings swung past them like blurred afterthoughts as the scent of blood and death grew ever stronger. The creature suddenly whipped around a corner, and with a force that knocked the wind out of his lungs, it skidded to a halt.
Aaron opened his eyes, and gasped in horror when he realized where he was: downtown.
The White House burned. The Capitol’s gleaming white dome, once a monument to democracy and the western world, was nothing but a pile of rubble. The National Mall had been reduced to an ashen crater the size of a meteor strike.
As they approached the center, eight cloaked figures came into view, their hands raised in a ritual chant. Crimson lightning arced down from above, and struck their fingers. Aaron could feel it. The sheer power in their hands. The energy of ten thousand souls.
In their midst, a black sphere emerged. To Aaron’s horror, a being -no, a man- appeared. His ashen, carapace-like skin was pulled tight over an imposing cobblestone wall of musculature that shone with pure power beneath his silken tunic. The demon’s eight eyes sat like obsidian gems in their arachnoid sockets, and eight spider legs burst from his back.
Immediately, the cultists dropped to their knees. “Karsus, great spider lord. I welcome you back to the waking world. Please, accept this gift. My master could not be here today, but Angra’s Hand bid me to present you this meal, to regain your strength,” one hissed.
Aaron whirled around. Gift? What- oh. Oh no.
The demon glared down at him, his obsidian eyes boring into his soul. When he spoke, his words buried themselves into Aaron’s conscience, causing the boy to shudder. “Summoned by a group of humans? Intriguing. And here I thought my name was lost. And they provide me with a welcoming meal! How courteous!” the beast said excitedly. The beast’s chelicerae shivered with excitement, spewing foam from its mouth.
The creature raised his hand, the claws on its armored hand shining like blades.
Slowly, the creature reached down. His clawed hand filled Aaron’s sight like an eclipse as a heart-stopping fear grew in his eyes. N-no… th-this- this couldn’t be happening… Mom…
“Not so fast,” a Southern accent called out.
Aaron breathed in deeply as the spell was broken. The creature looked up, and Aaron whirled around. A new figure had appeared in the crater, a woman with skin like milk chocolate. She appeared to be in her mid 40s, with an artful bun of caramel hair, and golden eyes. A tan trench coat fell from her shoulders like an elegant gown, and aviator shades adorned her face like a mask, shining beneath her tan sunhat. She smiled, and the cultists reared back.
“Camille Maxime, the Queen of Orleans. Retirement not suitable for you?” one growled.
The woman’s expression darkened. “Oh Lord it does. But when some two-bit cult razes the capital of the United States to the ground, it would behoove me to set aside my beachside martinis and put you. In. Your. Place,” she hissed through her teeth.
The cultists looked at one another. “Get her!” one shouted. The monster that held Aaron let go and charged toward Camille, the cultists in tow. Crimson lightning crackled at their fingertips, but the Queen of Orleans simply raised her arms, and clapped her hands together.
With a gust of wind that almost blew Aaron over, nine portals ripped open, and swallowed them whole. Without as much as a word, they were warped away.
Madame Maxime lowered her arms, and approached. Despite not glowing at all, the woman shone like a golden light against the burning city, like a valkyrie that had come to deliver him from harm. Never once breaking line-of-sight with the demon, she reached down, and placed a firm hand on Aaron’s shoulder. “Hey sugar. You alright?” she asked.
“Y-yeah…” Aaron whispered.
Camille nodded. “Good. You should run. This ain’t a place for a soul like you right now.”
Aaron tried to get up, but each muscle in his body shivered with stress. “I- I can’t-”
Camille squeezed his shoulder. “I’d move you myself, but I’m not the woman I once was. You can do it kid, I believe in you. Deep breaths.”
Aaron heaved in deeply, trying to breathe life into his body.
‘In, and out. In, and out. In… and… out.’
Aaron took deep breaths as he tried to calm his pounding heart.
Sweat clung to his brow, and his bare feet shivered with adrenaline. ‘Come on A, you can do this. Remember what mom said! You can do anything. All you have to do… is run.’
He looked up at the crimson sky, where the ashen hurricane shook with lightning.
Aaron took another breath… and ran.
=-=-=-=
Aaron jumped over some rubble, and came to a halt. He had reached the edge of the crater. Though every nerve and synapse in his body screamed at him to keep running, his lungs just couldn’t keep up. His feet -torn raw from glass and rubble- ached and begged him to stop. He took a deep breath, and stepped up onto the unbroken asphalt. He turned around.
Camille had stood up to face the demon. The spider, -having stayed quiet so far- finally spoke. “Touching. Even across the breach, humans will foster the weak. Do you not know you perpetuate your species’ inferiority?” the demon pondered.
Camille smiled sadly. “Karsus, was it? Sorry to ruin your fun, but I can’t exactly have you rampaging through the city. The ribs from the smokehouse down the street are just too good to let them get spoiled by a corpse that refuses to die.”
The demon laughed. It was a terrible, manic sound, like that of a person whose mind broke a long time ago. “Well, let us see if your confidence is warranted! Come, mage, and may Keshet guide your blade!” he snarled.
Silence filled the city. It was as if all screams had halted, and even the thunder from the hurricane above seemed to hold in its violent breath. The calm before the storm. Even from here, Aaron could feel it. A certain shift in power as they seemed to suck in the world around them.
Then in an instant, it was over.
The demon vanished, along with Camille. They reappeared not far away, then vanished again. Fists and spells flew through the air like bullets, annihilating everything in their path.
The demon fired off a spell. Camille jumped away and held up her hand, summoning a multitude of portals appeared above her. She pointed her outstretched hand at her target, and they flew through the air like knives, their edges cutting everything in their way.
The demon dodged, and stretched out his hands. Thin, wispy webs shot out from them and flew towards Camille like a wave, enveloping everything they touched. In response, she opened a portal and leaped through just as the webs were about to reach her. The webs flew past her, and attached themselves to the nearest structure: a chunk of an office building.
The demon tugged at the chunk, and ripped it right off, windows, stone, and everything. He swung the chunk around and threw it at the mage. She dodged once again.
“Alright, how about THIS!” the elder demon shouted. Balls of fire formed in the palms of his hands. They burst through the air like torpedoes, right towards Camille. She responded by opening a portal, and fell through it. “Come on. You’ll have to try harder than-”
The fireballs spun around, and an explosion rocked the ground where she stood. Camille reappeared a few feet away mostly unharmed, except for her shades, which had been knocked off her head. “Hey! Do you have any idea just how much those cost?!” she shouted.
The two vanished again. Webs and spells flew through the air with the fervor of two predators locked in a duel to the death, creating a whirlwind so powerful Aaron couldn’t keep up.
Madame Maxime growled, and stretched out her arms. A portal appeared between her fingers, and began spinning. Aaron felt another shift in the energies around them, and with a horrific scream, Camille pressed down on the disk. Her fingers clamped down on it so hard her arms shook, compressing the whirling disk into a bullet. As it grew smaller and smaller, it began sucking in everything around it like a black hole. Sweat tore off her brow, and mixed with dust and rubble as everything surrounding her was torn into the hole.
Camille roared, tore her arm back… and punched it. With a sonic boom akin to a volcanic eruption, the bullet shot forward, tearing the ground with it. Karsus’s eight eyes widened. The bullet struck the demon square in the chest, and flew out on the other side.
Aaron almost cheered, but then stopped when the demon laughed, and spat out some blood. “Wonderful! So predictable, so WEAK! And now, you are out of magic, are you not?”
Camille’s head drooped, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath.
Karsus held out his hands, and a veritable tsunami of binding webs shot toward Camille.
Madame Maxime gasped, exhausted. “Ugh, please. I’ve lived for over a hundred years now. You don’t think I’ve experienced low magic at all during that time?”
Just as the webs were about to hit her, Camille raised her hands, and screamed in pain. Her hands suddenly turned ashen black, as if touched by a deathly sickness. Then, thousands of tiny portals opened up around her like a shield. The webs shot through them… and right towards the spider demon. The tsunami struck him from all sides, enveloping in an inescapable cocoon.
Maxime raised her hands, like an actor expecting applause. The sickening darkness on them ripped all the way up her arms, turning her beautiful tan skin into a charred mess.
A portal opened. Then another. And another.
Suddenly, a ring of portals stretching from the White House all the way to the Supreme Court surrounded them. Maxime clenched her fists, and they collapsed into bullets.
The spheres pierced through the air, and riddled the demon like machine gun fire. His legs gave way, and he fell back. The moment he hit the ground, the horrid tempest above sucked in air and dissipated, replaced with a faint breeze and the golden light of dawn on the horizon.
Camille smiled, but then lurched forward and threw up a volley of blood. She wiped her mouth, and broke into a serene smile. “It… appears I’ve won,” she said with an exhausted gasp.
“Thank you,” the demon whispered, its voice clear and normal, like that of a man that had awakened from a long nightmare.
“Hm?”
“Thank you, for giving me one last fight. I think… I think I’m ready to go now…”
Camille nodded. “Go in peace. I’ll see ya in the next one.”
“Likewise.”
And with that, the demon dissipated, naught but ash in the wind. Aaron raised his fist and cheered. Cheers that were soon drowned out by a city’s worth of celebrations.
=-=-=-= 
Aaron tapped his feet impatiently. A few hours ago, some EMTs had taken him to a hospital in Baltimore, the closest clinic with the bed space to treat his scrapes and fractures.
He didn’t like it here. The hospital reeked of medicine, the lights were blinding, and it was jam packed with doctors rushing around in a panic. Well… the capital of the United States DID just go up in smoke though, so he kept his thoughts to himself.
Aaron was ripped from his thoughts when he heard a shrill ranting out in the hall. A tall, half-Japanese woman burst into the room, flanked by a small man. The woman’s hazel eyes shone with worry and panic. She leaped through the overcrowded infirmary like a pro athlete, and practically threw herself onto him. “AARON! HONEY ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!” Laura Nishimura-Bright screamed. “Pleasetellmeyourokyou’renothurtanywhereareyou?!” she ranted.
“OW! Mom! My tummy!” Aaron said through gritted teeth.
“Laura please, let go before you make his injuries worse,” Winston Bright said.
The woman glared at Aaron’s father through tear stained eyes. After a moment, she acquiesced, and let go. She and her husband sat down on the hospital bed. Laura cupped Aaron’s face with her hands. “Ok honey. Please tell me and be honest. Where is Zachary?”
Blood. Monsters. Death.
Thoughts Aaron had repressed suddenly burst to the surface, and his eyes widened with shock. The tears that formed at their edges told the Brights all they needed to know. 
=-=-=-=