(17) Shortcut...

Meanwhile, in Eltemu...

The Darkness arrived a shortwhile later, severely disenchanted.
His energy was almost completely extinguished.

As the dark Rufus approached the ruins, Rufus himself experienced a brief moment of reclamation from his captor's control. Staring ahead at the abandoned dig site, his mind raced.

What is wrong with me? he thought, I cannot control myself. Am I dead?
The events of the past day flooded back into his mind with an aching subtlety.

The Darkness, it took over my body...
His thoughts blurred again, as the Darkness regained its hold on him.

No...

The Darkness shook off this momentarily lapse in control. It had to focus on the task at hand. That task was to get to the Jay. But it has no choice but to do that which it feared most - reenter the warpgate of its own will.

As it neared the pedestal, the Darkness detected a familiar energy source lurking nearby.

"The artifact..." it hissed, scanning the ground for the item. He saw it near the second building.

Right where he dropped it, the Darkness realized, accessing Rufus's memories at will.
Rufus had, in fact, dropped the artifact when he saw the Darkness in its disguise as a deceased Jay.

This object must never again see the light of day, the Darkness swore to itself, wedging the artifact deep inside its own dark matter exterior.

It was then that the Darkness recalled another of Rufus's memories. This specific memory reminded him that the warpgate would only activate at a certain time of day, when the sun was at a specific angle.

I will have to compensate, it sighed, because I must use it as a means to an end... the end of the Jay.

Shooting three gigantic tentacles of dark matter at each of the ruined buildings, the Darkness concentrated hard. After a few seconds, it successfully reflected sunlight off of its slick extremeties, down into all three glass panels, which immediately sparked to life with an eerie sizzle. The three beams of light met, and instantaneously the warpgate was visible, humming with energy.

"It is time!" the Darkness screeched, plunging into the void, its outstretched extremeties following it inside.
The glass panels fizzled out immediately, and the warpgate vanished into a literal puff of smoke as the Darkness dissapeared within.

...

Now hurtling through the void which he despised, the Darkness attempted a scream of anguish, but with no oxygen to carry the sound of its voice, the scream remained silent.

I shall never enter this place again, it swore to itself.

Shaking off its disgust, the Darkness yanked the artifact from its dark torso and pitched it with every ounce of force it had into the darkness behind it.

Finally, the artifact is gone, the Darkness thought with glee. Now and forever.

Moments later, it did a face plant into the icy cold whiteness of a snow covered field. Instinctively, it countered the impact with a plethora of well placed tentacles. After regaining its bearings, the dark Rufus stood, grinning mischeviously at its surroundings.

The Jay... He is close... Very close...