Abyss: Chapter 3

The fire died out as I entered the abyss. The orchid flew back into the pendant. I hit the ground pretty hard, and I was laying down. 
I quickly got up and began to walk. I walked for a while until I heard someone say "FREEZE!"
I whipped around and took out my art book. I waited as they took out a device, but I stabbed the pendant ever so slightly. The flames took all my energy to keep in check. The device began to whir as it scanned me so I could be identified. The device chirped.
"He can't be identified. He must be a...! SHOOT HIM! BLAST HIM! I WANT HIM DEAD!!!" 
That was all I needed to hear. I let the flames loose and shot them as a cannon towards two of the seven soldiers. They fell down instantly. I saw the rest of them shooting at me, but the fire was burning the bullets. I opened my sketchbook and breathed fire on the page. The drawing of the dragon came to life. The dragon constantly roared and breathed intense violet flames. The flames killed the all but one who was behind me. 
The flames weren't covering me! If he shot me, it would be the end. I quickly turned around to guard myself when I saw him lying dead. He was slashed on the back and stabbed. I looked around for the culprit, and then noticed a shadow right behind me, and it wasn't mine. I yelled, "Get back!", and flames erupted all around me. The figure jumped back, and I could notice he was a boy. 
"Who are you?' I asked. No answer. Suddenly I was thrown over to another area into the Abyss.
"This place is for the disgraced," the boy whispered. "If you're thrown out of the dome, or out of Heaven, you're supposed to get a second chance. But you're turned away. Because everyone's afraid of you." I felt sorry knowing that he was one of them. "But what did you do to make them throw you out?" he asked.
"Nothing." I said
"What?" 
"I said I came here by myself." I stated plainly. "I'm not telling you why."
"I wasn't going to ask. Where are you headed?"
"Tom's."
"No surprise." he sighed. Did he know?
"Wait! What's your name?
My name is Z. It isn't my real name, but it's the one I chose so I could forget......"
"I'm Toby."
"Never mind the pleasantries. Just break out that fire magic of yours and let's go."
"Yeah, got it." I was about to break the pendant when I noticed something.
"I can't."
"What?! Why not?"
"I used up the orchid too much. We can get there another way."
"How?"
"My sketches!" I took out the book, but it was empty. "Damn." Then I thought about what I did with Kendall.
"Z, is there anyone here everyone else wants gone?"


A few minutes later I am traveling through the rivers as electricity, only coming up when I want to fly.
"You are terribly weird," Z notes. 
"It isn't my fault I was born this way." As we are flying, something comes to me." 
"Z, did you ever have friends?" With this he is silent.
"I used to. Until I left."
"What?"
Z sighed, near tears. "It was three years ago. I was living inside the dome. I was curious about what was outside the walls. So I left and I didn't come back. I was twelve when I left. When I came back, everything was different. I learned a secret about he dome. Time runs faster inside than outside. Nine hundred years passed. I couldn't go back because I had nowhere to go. I've been looking ever since for somewhere that I belong. Everyone I knew passed away. I was basically a fallen angel. No one thought of me. I was easy prey for demons and the police. I had to survive. That's when I awakened my sword."
"Three years ago.....my father passed away that year. That's when I found the pendant in my father's room. Do you think they're connected?"
"Two separate times increments? I don't think so. We need to keep moving." We were silent after that.

After, four days, something happened. "LOOK OUT!" I draw my sword and a sphere of  flame covered Z and I. As the flame died I dropped to the ground.
"Demons!" Z cried. He took out his katana and rushed to the ground, splitting one of them in half. These demons were easy to take out. I prepared a whole plan to take them all to Hell. I would create a decoy of myself, then disappear behind the demons, then create lightning bolts to electrocute them. Just as I was about to execute my plan, I noticed that Z had beat me to it.
His katana shone with a brilliant light as a circle of light was on the rocky floor. I dashed away. His katana struck the ground, and a pillar of light rose from it, incinerating the demons.
"Too slow," he said with a snicker.
"Showoff," I retorted. I turned the orchid off. "Let's go. I need answers."
"To what?"
"My abilities."

A month later, we come across what appears to be a gate. "I know what this is," Z says. If you are deemed worthy enough by the Keeper, he lets you pass into a new realm, but everyone forgets you even existed on the other side."
"Let's head through!" I state clearly.
"We have to wait for the keeper to judge us!" Z says.
"Oh, indeed, indeed!" We see a black door, and a young man comes out. "I am the keeper of this gate. I judge based on your past and your power. if you-" he looks at me in shock.

Then, with a grim expression on his face, he says," New test. If you want to go through you must defeat me."
"Why?" Z asks. "This isn't the test!"
"For you and Toby, it is!"
"What? How do you know me?"
"I know everyone who dreams. You in particular."
"Then- YOU were the one in my dream! You're the Masked Man! Tell me right now! What is happening to me!"
"First, you must fight." The man would not change his mind. I grew more angry by the minute. "That's it! Fine! You want a fight?! You got one!!"
"He smiled evilly. "This is it, then. Turn away now, turn away forever."
"I'm not giving up! Me and Z came this far! Neither of us are in the position to flee!"
"That's the answer I was hoping for." Z draws his sword, I break the pendant, and the violet flames engulf my body, and my sword appears in my hand.
This answers both our hopes, and we charge toward the Keeper with determined looks.