WARNING: Destiny Calls Spoilers!

Also, a long awaited chapter is here! :D I died so many times trying to write secretly while being grounded.

Grasping Fate

Chapter 14

"Doing nothing for others is the undoing of ourselves."

"We are completely lost! Setooooo, you said you've been here before!" Tyler whined.

"Well..., yeah, but only a short visit, I honestly don't know where the rebels may have docked."

"Ugh!"

"Quit whining, that won't get us anywhere." Alesa smacked Tyler on the head who glared quietly but shoved his hands in his pockets as they continued walking through the forest. It's been two days since Alista dropped them off. They've been wandering the forests trying to make sense of where to go, and so far..., no luck.

Tyler perked up causing Seto to glance at him curiously as he said, "Hey! Look, I think I see something over there!" Tyler started running and Alesa reached out to stop him and missed. She huffed and ran after him. Seto, with little time to think panicked and stumbled to follow. He tripped and fell on the roots. Tyler and Alesa stopped running, "You ok?"

He groaned and sat up holding his staff, "Y-Yeah!"

"Hurry up then!" Tyler started to run again and Alesa ran after. Seto placed his hand against the closest tree and leaned on it as he stood up. The pain was already subsiding, so he believed it was just a small bump or scrape, nothing sprained.

From his peripheral vision, he caught sight of something strange, something gray on the tree he leaned on. Seto took one, no two steps back and his eyes widened. Part of the tree was stone.

He was shocked, and a little in awe, he wondered who could've done this, and how. It had to be some sort of magic, something that seemed odder than odd.

"Seto! It's a house! Looks abandoned, and there's a village nearby!"

Seto looked to see Tyler waving through the trees and beckoning him over, he left the odd tree without another glance and made his way to Alesa and Tyler.

"Looks like it's been abandoned for sometime now," Alesa commented as she peered through the window.

"You think so?" Tyler said.

"But hey, aren't those footprints. In the dusty floor, see? It looks like a lot of them," Seto pointed to the ground inside the house, this caused Tyler and Alesa to look inside again.

"Yeh, you're right! I wonder who they were--"

"Hey! What are you lot doing! That house is taboo, you best stay away from it!"

They turned to see a man, old and small, about Seto's height. He wore a scowl on his face and his arms were folded behind his back.

"Ah, sorry sir! We're just lost and saw the house. We inspected it to see if anyone was home, we didn't mean to pry."

The old man was silent as he walked over to Seto. Seto gulped as the man peered at him closely, "I suppose you're forgiven, you must be outsiders anyway. No one in the village would dare come here."

"Why is that?" Alesa asked.

"It's none of your business. Now why are you 3 here in Duhita anyway?"

"Huh? What do you mean? Aren't we allowed to travel the realm?" The 3 followed the old man as he hobbled out into view of the village. The village was set in a clearing outside the forest, but bordered on one side by it.

"Yeah, I suppose, you don't seem like the greedy types. But I asked to see if you were one of them." He gestured with his head towards some strange looking people. Strange in the sense their clothing was not Duhitian styled at all. They seemed to be loitering and talking amongst each other.

"They don't look bad," Alesa said.

"That so? Well the only reason they're here is to try and meet up with the new king. After every coronation the new king travels to the villages to listen to the people. The king is now currently here."

New king? But that would mean...Mitch? Right? "Sir, where is he? The new king I mean."

The man narrowed his eyes, "You are like them aren't you, greedy fools thinking they can bide their way into friendly terms with the nobility here."

"N-No, no, not at all. It's complicated, but I just figured....." Seto trailed off, "that as the king, he could help us! Yes, we are currently looking for uh...s-something. So he must know since he is the king and all."

The man sighed and raised one hand and pointed to a clearing in the middle of the village. A man sitting on top of a horse was surrounded by many villagers. There's no doubt about it, it really was--

But Seto couldn't finish his thought.

There were sounds that were far away, but loud nonetheless. Explosions. Sudden and terrifying. Smoke and dust already billowed in the air and he gasped as the town around him noticed the commotion. They looked around them unsure of where the noise came from. It was then the new king spoke.

"Your highness! There's been some sort of explosion near the gateway! What do we do!" a villager cried out.

"Remain calm! I will immediately leave to asses the situation," The king's horse reared up in anticipation before stomping its hooves to the grass covered ground.

Seto, Tyler, and Alesa were running forward, "Mitch!" Seto yelled.

It was then that the king turned his head, he was surprised to see the short, pale-skinned boy who left on a journey a few weeks ago here out of random, "S-Seto! What are you doing here!?"

Villagers moved out of the way to let the boy through, it was obvious this small and scrawny kid knew their new king, "That doesn't matter, that was an explosion, right? I want to check it out!"

"What! No, stay here and be safe--"

"I'm coming with you." And without hesitation Seto pulled himself up. Mitch shook his head, he kicked and the horse galloped off.

"S-Seto!" Tyler yelled, something was up, that wasn't like Seto at all.

~~~~~

Why did he do such a thing? In all honesty, he did not know. He had this sudden feeling, like he was filled with the urge to do something.

Was it some sort of odd feeling of heroism? Or maybe it was his weird 6th sense, future seeing power telling him to do so. The steady beat of the horse's hooves as he and Mitch made their way to the place of the explosion was numb to his ears.

There was a splash as they crossed a violent river, but it hardly stalled them. Smoke and dust still billowed in the air. A set of ruins could be seen, a frantic purple figure in a green shirt, and an odd black frame with swirling purple in its center.

"Wh-what is that...?" He asked, but not to Mitch, to no one really.

The purple figure with a panicked expression turned to look at them as they rode up to him and stopped. It was a morvic, a purple lizard perhaps?

"You there morvic, explain what the nether happened here? There were reports of explosions in this area!" Mitch dismounted from his horse, holding the reins in his hands. Seto dismounted too and stood beside Mitch as the lizard man spoke.

"I's...I's don'ts knows! My friends he wents and foughts crazy mans and they fells throughs that gate-portals things. Ands, ands thens my others friends wents in to save hims, I don'ts know what to do!"

Mitch was quick to respond, "Stay here, I will go in and retrieve them, Seto, you--"

"No! I just got my magic back, maybe I can help!" Seto interrupted, he knew what Mitch was going to tell him.

"You shou--"

"Mitch I have to help, I hate having to sit on the sidelines all the time! I need to start doing something!"

"Fine, just try to keep up!" Mitch hurried to the portal with Seto following behind him. He hesitated as if struck by some fear, he brushed it quickly off and leapt through.

At first he couldn't make heads or tails of where they were. There was swirling purple, then red everywhere he looked.

"We need to find them quick, we shouldn't stay in a place like this for too long." Mitch moved quickly. He noticed Mitch's stiff and guarded walk, as if this place put him on edge. He wasn't sure why, he tried to recall anything from his knowledge that could give him a clue as they walked. The first thing they did in this odd place was travel down a flight of stairs that met immediately with a hallway. The first thing they noticed were a set of double doors opened to reveal a dark and empty study. A desk with shelves of books lining the wall. Seto was curious why something like that existed in a place like this.

Twinge.

Seto felt his body stiffen, what was it, he thought. Was there something wrong?

He shrugged it off, there were faint noises coming from much farther down the hall, likely around the upcoming corner.

"Hello~?" Seto called out.

Mitch slapped a hand over Seto's mouth, "Seto, shh!"

Seto glared and pulled the over cautious hand off him, "Sorry Mitch, but how else are we supposed to help!"

"Gah!" Mitch grumbled at the shorter male, "When the nether did you get so moody!"

Was he moodier? Was it perhaps because that now he remembered his younger self having magic it felt like he had magic for years and not months as he previously thought? He was told that sorcerers had more uncontrollable emotions, so it was quite possible that since recovering his memories he was a little different.

"Where the nether is meek little Seto!"

Seto felt himself roll his eyes, "Let's just focus on finding that morvic's friends."

Seto turned the corner moments later and stopped, "Oh, Mitch look, I found them!" Seto pointed, almost childlike at two figures standing against the red-brick wall. Like they were trying to hide, but doing a terrible job at it. A somewhat tall man with a horn gasped in shock when Seto pointed them out.

Just then, Mitch walked around the corner and stopped next to Seto, "Seto, are they trying to hide against a dark red wall? Or are they just dumb? I mean only one of them has red like clothing, but even they don't match the color scheme, not to mention 3D lumps on a flat wall are pretty noticeable..."

Seto felt himself shrug, he took two steps forward and gently asked," Excuse me you two, are you perhaps the purple morvic's friends?" The horned morvic nodded, the other person was indeed human with a red beanie styled like that of a dinosaur, "Oh good! We have to head back to the overworld, your friend is worried!"

"We can't, not without our friend Max," The horned morvic pleaded

"There's another one of you? Oh my Notch! I don't want to spend another second in this cursed place of Herobrine's!" Mitch exclaimed throwing his hands up.

"We can't leave without him! He's fighting someone, and we need to help him before something terrible happens!" This time it was the human with them that spoke.

"Mitch, come on, we have to help. A few more minutes of searching can't hurt," Seto looked at Mitch shivering in response.

"Fine."

The four spent another 10 minutes looking and calling out to their friend Max, but there was not a trace of him or his attacker. It was like he truly had vanished into thin air. In the time Seto learned the two strangers name, along with their companion waiting on the other side of the portal. The horned man was Ross, the human was Red, and the purple lizard was Barney.

"We have to head back, it isn't good to stay here. This place is cursed," Mitch insisted after 10 minutes of searching.

"But," Ross looked downcast, Seto felt bad. This Max person must be a very close friend of his, and then there was this small hint of guilt in his eyes. He looked regretful.

"Don't worry, if he really fell through here, then he must be here somewhere. We can find other ways to figure out what happened to your friend, I know a great person who knows a lot about the magical, let's leave and return later with more knowledge." Seto suggested, in this case he was referring to Wag. Ross looked at him and searched his face.

"Come on Ross, I know Max won't give up that easily against a prick like that, we'll find him, Seto is right," Red softly spoke, Ross sighed and simply nodded. They walked back the way they had come, Mitch taking the lead, and Seto taking the rear.

They passed that empty and dark study. Seto looked to it again and there was a flash in his mind. He frowned, what he saw was odd. And confusing.

The room with an empty desk and shelves of books lining the wall was dark and the doors were closed. There was a noise, two people came tumbling down the set of stairs Seto himself was just about to walk up. A golden sword lay out of reach.The door of the study was slammed open by the force of the two tumbling figures. One with red hair and one with blonde hair and black streaks.

The redhead slammed against the desk and it seemed the other fellow overflowing with rage screamed and strangled the man.

There was little struggling, and soon what little fighting there was ceased, the redhead went limp.

The vision ended and Seto knew the others had already leapt through the portal.

What confused him more than anything is that the redhead matched the description Ross and Red had given him and Mitch about Max, yet why did he see such a thing.

It was like all his other visions, but a little clearer with more detail. It didn't seem that odd in that aspect, but what was odd was he was told by the Nyx himself that he could only see the future.

If what Ross and Red described was true, then their friend Max was fighting a man before falling through the portal and vanishing. They followed after and found no trace of their friend or the mysterious man, and if he was only able to see the future, why did he see the future of two people who should already be here.

He didn't understand, for now, he leapt through the portal and shielded his eyes due to the sunlight. That place was darker than he realized.

"Huhs! You ares backs alreadys! Where's Max!" 

~~~~~

Yes sirre! Things are getting good! And to you DC readers, things just got more confusing, right? Maybe? Who knows! (other than me of course)

You can start laying down some theories here.

And now I'm off! I so close to being down with GAME OVER plans