Drake Cage, the Golden Armed Knight
Tales from the Armory
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
FRIEDRICH NIETZCHE, “Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future”
Aboard Talon [Class V Light Cruiser]
Hyper-lane [traveling through the interconnected hyperspace highway]
5 December; 20:11:50 Hours
A sharp, high-pitched ringing shot through Drake’s ears. He frantically grabbed either side of his head and stumbled forward where his eyes pinched shut and teeth gritted. The ringing seemed to get louder and louder, and Drake continued to stumble where he slammed into the steel table to his left before nearly falling over. But, in an instant, it all stopped.
The heavy sound of Drake panting reverberated through the entirety of the common area of the cruiser, nearly gasping for air as he slowly reopened his eyes. Then, he just as slowly lowered his shaking hands from his head. He was experiencing double vision, still wobbling as he tried to remain upright but dropped to his knee nearly several times before quickly shooting back up straight.
“Hey… Hey, Drake… Hey… you oh—” Drake heard someone calling to him just before he violently gasped, his eyes rolled back into his head and it was as if he was thrust through a flood of colors; green, gold, crimson, and blue with what sounded like a million more voices calling from all around him.
“We have to move, Amaehun! We can’t stay here! Come - Abahaet won’t have died in vain!”
“Where is she? Answer me, dammit… Where… is… she?!”
“I don’t want to— I love you!” a familiar voice cried before another voice he knew but couldn’t place his finger on whose, said to the other.
“You prom-promised me - It’s okay. It, it’s okay. Don’t, erhmmmm, don’t cry. Puh-please… This, it’s something that, that’s, that has to be d-done… For the good of the U…”
Then he felt the intense pull that yanked him through the wash of colors, and a voice grew clearer and clearer as light broke through the colors while his vision cleared.
“How dare you! How dare you question his rule…” Dax barked from just beside a quad-piked marble throne.
“His rule? We, we vowed to fight against tyrants!” the single most familiar voice he heard yelled, and Drake laid eyes upon an older sight of himself while he loomed overhead of what was unfolding. “Not take their seat!”
There, sitting upon the throne beside his wife was Theo, and to his left, barely peering around the throne was a thirteen-year-old, raven-haired, olive-skinned girl. She wore a peacock blue robe that had ivory lace sleeves and adorned a glistening silver circlet upon her head. Dax, though, did not back down from Drake’s older self, as she quipped.
“He only took what was his… His BIRTHRIGHT!”
Drake then found himself standing beside this older version, watching him recoil at what she said, even looking away from the three before he grunted and took a step forward. The soldiers, King’s Guard, who adorned silver armor from head-to-toe with crimson capes that hung from their left shoulder had matched Drake's aggression as they stepped to him. Drake immediately stopped where he raised his golden robotic left hand, conveying he meant no harm. He quietly pleaded to Theo, “Hey… brother… will you look at me? Please. Please. Are you hearing what she’s espousing? It’s what WE promised to fight against… Come on—”
Theo’s head slowly rose, the sun shined on the blackened spires that orbited his head - a crown of darkness, and he looked into the older Drake’s eyes. Drake took several steps forward, through himself as he now stood between the two, where he watched this twisted vision. He shivered at the darkness that now sat dominion in the eyes of the man who he called a brother, only the iris in Theo’s left eye remained while pitch blackness consumed all else.
“The U needs order,” Theo spoke, “and I could not sit back in good conscience and allow an even worse evil to fill the void that WE created. So I decided—”
“To become that evil?”
“SILENCE, NAEXU!” Dax hissed at Drake.
“No, to become that order we both believe the U needs.”
“Don’t…” Drake softly warned.
A small grin spawned out the right side of Theo’s mouth. “Don’t what… brother?”
“Heeeeeh… Don’t make me have to stop you.”
“We all do what we must,” Theo sighed, raising his arms out to his sides as he now leisurely sat back on the throne.
Drake could see the older version of himself’s face contort with fury and disgust seconds before he reached behind his back, but before the unfolding events went on any further, Drake was yanked back through the rushing colors again. Though unlike before, Drake gasped for air and his eyes popped wide open as he felt his knees hit the ground. A woman placed her hand upon his back as a man crouched down in front of him, saying, “Hey! Hey! Are you okay, brother?”
He blinked several times fast, his vision was still a bit blurred but slowly cleared as he regained sight with Theo in front of him, smiling. Drake then frantically glanced over his shoulder, looking at his wife, Sarah, whose eyes were teary and a bit sunken from the fear of the state she just witnessed him in. His eyes continued to dart around, scanning the common area as he saw Cole who watched on from back behind Theo before he heard Theo again.
“What happened? You okay? You just… just blanked on us.”
“Yeah, what the hell?” Sarah said as she nuzzled her forehead into his shoulder.
Drake gulped and hesitantly nodded. “Y-yeah. I’m…We, we're okay… for now.”
Rael’aek [castle]
Daeobet [capital, mega-city], Endul [planet], Dasihik Galaxy, Sector-0000, Aen’Goor [kingdom]
5 December; 11:11:11 Hours
Unknown point-in-time
Clang, shink, clank, clang, shink, and high-pitched hums and booms roared from the hall leading to the throne room. Each time they grew louder and closer as the eight King’s Guard stepped forward from their positions at the columns lining up to the throne. Their crimson-tattered capes swayed slightly as they positioned themselves ready, their blue t-visors of their silver helms glowing and the front four gripped their Kramat TAK02 rifles tightly. This all while upon the throne platform; a young raven-haired girl turned to Theo who sat on his throne as three small Kalber orbs, Gaundraes, orbited him, and the girl then glanced over at Dax who stood beside him.
“Abahaet? Amaehun?” her bottom lip quivered as she called to them, her peacock blue eyes darting side-to-side, but then there was a thunderous bang as the doors rattled. “<What’s going on? Who’s coming for us? Abahaet? Abahaet? Amaehun… I’m, I, I don’t understand!>”
Theo’s attention remained on the doors though, his eyes narrow, hands clenched tightly as several screams could be heard from just outside before an eerie silence followed and consumed the chaotic uncertainty of moments prior.
“Abah—” the young girl went to call again, but the throne room doors flung open and banged against the walls.
No sooner than they did, an Elite, one of the hundreds of millions of clone soldiers who formed Theo’s powerful and universe-shaking army flew into the throne room. The Elite slammed upon his back and slid across the marble floor to a stop with crimson now covering his sliced chestplate. Smoke soon followed as it wafted in from the hall. The air had become staticky with a tenseness as a silhouette stepped into focus and caused the King’s Guards to take aim.
One glowing gold eye pierced through the fog before a golden robotic left hand raised and signaled to wait, before a voice called, “If I remember correctly, an old friend once told me that if you want to be heard… you need to make sure that you’re heard.”
The man, Drake walked forth with the King’s Guards not breaking their aim on him. His tattered tan cowl flapped behind him as he approached the throne. Though the young girl was quick to hurry behind her father where she peered out from behind one of the four pikes, watching Drake as he stopped forty feet from the platform.
“How dare you!” Dax snapped, stepping up to the edge of the platform where she looked down upon Drake and violently motioned her hands out to her sides. “You siege Rael’aek and then demand an audience?”
“No one has done that better than Theo,” he quipped.
She grit her teeth as her light blue eyes lit up intensely.
“Speaking of whom,” Drake’s attention shifted from her to his old friend who sat with his head slightly bowed, and he said with a deep reverberation, “What are you doing?”
“How dare you! How dare you question his rule!” Dax yelled.
“His rule? We, we vowed to fight against tyrants… Not take their seat!”
“He only took what was his!”
Drake’s eyes narrowed as his left eyebrow raised slightly. “His?”
“His BIRTHRIGHT!” she said loudly with overwhelming pride, but Drake’s eyes now closed and sunk as his gut turned.
Though he then grunted and took a step forward with the four King’s Guards who stood before him each matching Drake’s aggression as they stepped to him. Drake quickly stopped, he raised his golden robotic hand again as he reiterated his position from earlier. His attention then shifted back up to Theo who he quietly pleaded to, “Hey… brother… will you look at me? Please. Please. Are you hearing what she’s espousing? It’s what WE promised to fight against… Come on—”
Theo’s head then slowly rose with the sun shining upon him and the blackened spires that orbited his head - a crown of darkness, and he looked into Drake’s eyes. Drake couldn’t help himself as he gulped and winced at the darkness he saw that now sat dominion in the eyes of the man who he once called a brother.
“The U needs order,” Theo spoke and his voice rumbled through the throne room, “and I could not sit back in good conscience and allow an even worse evil to fill the void that WE created. So I decided—”
“To become that evil?”
“SILENCE, NAEXU!” Dax hissed at Drake.
“No,” Theo’s voice up-ticked before growing even deeper than before, “to become that order that we both believe the U needs.”
“Don’t…” Drake softly warned.
A small grin spawned out the right side of Theo’s mouth. “Don’t what… brother?”
“Heeeeeh… Don’t make me have to stop you.”
“We all do what we must,” Theo sighed, raising his arms out to his sides as he now leisurely sat back on the throne. “And I can see that you came here to do exactly that.”
Drake’s left hand moved behind his back where he grabbed the hilt of Namagun, his tanto blade. Everything, though, appeared to slow down as his perception lagged while his grip tightened; he saw the four King’s Guards who stood at the ready in front of him each draw one of their twin long sabers, Dax’s attention shifted to Theo who Drake could faintly hear her speak to but was too soft for him to understand, and then he looked to the girl who now looked at him with a fury that burned in her eyes. Drake’s eyes narrowed with confusion, but he was forced to act as one of the King’s Guard charged him.
“Ah shit,” he mumbled as he realized what he had allowed himself to be distracted from.
Despite their armor, the King’s Guards’ speed seemed unreal to Drake. His right eye opened wide at the Guard who closed the twelve-foot gap between them in a near blink, and Drake immediately raised Namagun to meet the Guard’s long saber which let out a thunderous clang. He grimaced for a moment as they tried overpowering one another, but then Drake managed to push up before delivering a vicious front kick to the Guard that sent him sliding back several feet.
Drake then spun and swung his tanto blade up to his left where it now met the downward swing of another Guard. He used the force and momentum of the two blades meeting along with his explosive follow-through in order to spin back around where he met the third King’s Guard. This Guard had unleashed all of his force in an overhead downward swing upon Drake. Clang, boom erupted as a shockwave released and pushed out from the two. Drake dropped to his knee where he struggled to keep his tanto blade steady as he blocked the long saber.
But Drake’s attention shifted yet again, he glanced to his left and then right where he saw the other three moving on him.
“Dammit,” he growled, reached into a pouch on his belt where he pulled a small plasma charge that he squeezed just seconds before he tossed it toward the two Guards marching at him from his left.
A loud high-pitched beeping chirped out, growing faster and faster as the charge flew through the air toward its targets but also at the throne platform. Dax’s eyes now grew large as she realized the charge was mere seconds from detonating in the air, and she quickly glanced at their daughter before looking at Theo who she screamed for.
“THEO!”
“Amaehun?” their adoptive daughter, Cortana looked to Dax and saw the uncertainty in her mother’s eyes that caused her to grab her father’s shoulder as she panicked, “Abahaet? Abahaet? Abahaet!”
Yet he didn’t move an inch even as the charge now detonated, it let out a thunderous roar with a bright purple light that flashed before the plasma energy exploded in all directions.
A high-pitched ringing consumed the throne room as Drake’s vision slowly returned, the purple glow dimmed, leaving him in disbelief as he found his effort had failed. The Gaundraes that loomed around Theo and his family had broken his orbit and intercepted the charge, through generating a forcefield that contained and neutralized the explosion. Each orb then absorbed the energy, with the purple glow fading within them, only for each to return to the sides of Theo, Dax, and Cortana.
Drake’s eyes immediately sank as he saw a small grin creep over Theo’s face, but Drake then flew backward onto the marble floor where he grimaced. He glanced up to see one of the King’s Guards standing several feet in front of him before looking at himself where he found a cut across the chest. Drake panted, blood began to cover the chest of his gray survival-mail, and he slowly looked back up to the Guard as he let out a thunderous yell and jumped up to his feet.
“RAAAH-AHHHHHHHHH!”
Drake twirled Namagun around before swinging it down on the Guard who had sliced him. There was so much force behind him that when his blade met the other it unleashed a shockwave so powerful that it slightly cracked the marble floor. The King’s Guard was now dropped to his left knee and Drake quickly raised Namagun above his head to unleash upon the Guard, but before he could, he stumbled back several steps as he was struck twice by bright blue charges in the upper left pec and the bicep from one of the other four King’s Guards.
Before Drake knew it, he was sliced on the left thigh by one of the first three Guards. He grimaced and twirled his tanto saber around in an attempt to put distance between himself and them but was met with another swing of a Guard’s long saber. This time, sparks exploded and Drake tried to block and dodge the third’s thrust, yet the blade of the Guard’s long saber cut him on the side of his head.
“Er-AHHH!” he groaned, then collapsed to his knee when two of the King’s Guards kicked them out from behind him.
Everything went hollow to Drake as his knees hit the marble. He felt his body shake from within, he could hear his heart pounding and his heavy panting before the high-pitched clang of Namagun hitting the ground beside him. Drake’s vision was blurred again, but this time as he was trying to realize what went wrong. It wasn’t until he heard the deep hum which ended with a high beep that he came to, he looked down in front of himself where he saw neutra-restraints had been strapped onto his forearms and locked in place.
“I want you to realize, brother,” Theo’s voice called and Drake looked up to him as he rose from his throne and subtly shook his head. “After what had happened… heeeh, this, it, it didn’t have to be a nightmare - No, you chose this. You decided this fate… and now—”
“WHAT?” Drake barked, struggling as two of the King’s Guards held him upon his knees. “What now? What now, huh? You going to have me killed TOO? Huh?”
Theo sighed before he turned his back to his old friend, folded his arms in front of his chest, and ordered, “Take him away.”
The Guards yanked Drake to his feet before they began to drag him backward toward the throne room doors, all while he struggled with them to break free. Yanking and pulling with his arms locked in front of him, Drake grit his teeth as he saw Cortana run over to her father who she hugged so tightly, though the fury within him ignited brighter as he caught sight of Dax who grinned at him before she stepped beside Theo who she wrapped her arm around his waist and rested her head upon his chest.
“This isn’t over, Theo! This isn’t,” he exclaimed as the doors slowly closed before him, “This won’t be my nightmare! It won’t! I swear it, dammit! This won’t be my nightmare, THEEEOOOOOOO!”
Iop-71A [planet], Velmurrk Galaxy, Unmapped Sector
6 December; 11:02:32 Hours
Thunder rumbled through the sky as lightning flickered like the dancing tails of Bel’a’toore, and standing there in the pouring rain was a bruised and battered Drake who gazed deep above. His mind could not remain calm as he continually returned to Endul, watching himself fall before his old friend. Drake’s stare intensified as he thought of his inability that day to free himself, yet there he was on the forest planet, standing in the rain - free.
“Honey?” Drake heard a soft voice call to him and he spun around to Talon, the Class V Light Cruiser.
“Sara?” he yelled and took off running straight into the cruiser. “Sara? Sara? Where are you? Sara, please!”
Drake looked around, frantically turning from his left to his right before back again. He was panting like he couldn’t catch his breath when he closed his eyes, dropped to his knees, and slammed his fists off the floor. Drake let out a primal yell that reverberated through his body but as he looked back up, he was no longer on the cruiser and instead was being dragged down one of the hundreds of halls of Rael’aek. Glimpsing so vividly of his fall on Endul, Drake could feel the King’s Guards’ tight grip on his biceps and his legs dragging across the marble floor.
“Shao de mai’teh,” one of the King’s Guards said with his deep and augmented voice as Drake’s head dropped again and he looked at the glossy floor beneath him.
“Kei’ndeh ba—” another was beginning to respond when he let out a death-rattling gasp and Drake found himself falling to his left.
Within seconds, he was completely on the ground, Drake rolled over onto his back where he looked up to find the several King’s Guards battling others but these were different. The Guards that had taken blades against the King’s adorned crimson from head to toe. Their visors glowed a deep scarlet as the ten outnumbered the ambushed and were quick to strike with deathly precision in the King’s Guards’ confused encounter with them. Drake, himself, looked in shock as he watched Kalber meet Kalber before the white armor quickly turned blood red and the floor became a marble display of death where the five King’s Guards lay forever gone.
Drake’s head pounded as he winced and his vision became staticky, he only managed to see these crimson donning Guards turn their attention upon him before he gasped. He found himself yanked back to Talon as the soft voice again called to him, saying, “You must finish what you started! Drake, you must!”
“Sir?” another voice then called as the lights in the common room flickered on, “Are you alright? Your vitals spiked to a concerning degree, and your heart rate is still at a bloody dangerous level.”
“I’m, I, I’m fine… Edmund,” Drake stammered as he stood up.
“Have I ever mentioned how terrible you Humans are at deception? Master The— Heeh, I mean, sir, please do not lie about things I can detect. Especially when you look like you’ve seen… What is that saying? Like you’ve seen a phantom?”
“A ghost,” Drake rolled his eyes as he corrected the AI who was like an old friend to him, “Like you’ve seen a ghost - That’s the saying.”
“Oh, yes, of course.”
“Have you completed the scans of the planet?”
“I have, sir.”
“And?”
“Well, there has in fact been life detected but it’s of the indigenous fauna. Nothing that reaches sentient intelligence, sir.”
Drake sat down at the table where he opened his leather satchel, pulled out a cylindrical device that he pressed the button of which erected a needle, and then jabbed his right thigh with a high-pitched hiss ripping free. “That, that’s good to, to hear.”
“Well, sir, this is an unmapped sector.”
“I’m very well aware, but you never know who else could’ve stumbled upon this forest rock.”
“Quite true, but I did want to ask,” Edmund said, and Drake again rolled his eyes.
“Heh, go on.”
“How did you come across this planet? It’s not normal for anyone to just have the bloody coordinates of a planet in an unmapped sector of the universe.”
“It’s, uh, it’s,” Drake mumbled as he returned the device to his bag, but something caught his eye as he reached in and grabbed it, “it’s a long story.”
“A long story?” Edmund said with a heavy dose of curiousness.
Though Drake slowly opened his right hand, his gaze setting upon his wife’s gold wedding band and again he heard the soft voice as if it whispered into his ear, “You must, Drake. You must end this. You cannot allow his darkness to spread. You can’t…”
Flashes of the hall on Rael’aek and then him piloting off Endul before him locking sights with the darkness that sat dominion in Theo’s eyes, Drake clenched his hand tightly and whipped his head up as he finally could make out what Edmund now said for the fourth time, “Sir? Sir, are you alright?”
“Set course for Titus,” Drake ordered.
“Titus?” Edmund’s voice upticked. “Have you bloody lost it?”
“Just set course, Edmund,” Drake snapped as he marched into the cockpit, “We’re leaving now.”
Aboard Talon [Class V Light Cruiser]
Hyper-lane [traveling through the interconnected hyperspace highway]
6 December; 13:24:02 Hours
Bright white streaks and raging colors shot past the view shield of Talon before everything appeared to pull forward, and a beeping alert sounded that caused Drake to flip a switch and manually pilot the cruiser as they now set their sights upon a planet in the distance. There was a haunting aura that radiated what was once the home to a kingdom that was feared across the universe. Drake’s eyes were locked upon Titus, even as he could hear Edmund going on and on about what they were headed into.
“Sir, please listen to me! My probability analysis is clear, and there is no justification for this lunacy!”
“I don’t care what your probability analysis tells you, Edmund,” Drake snapped through his teeth before motioning his right hand around. “How many times did you tell us that we had like, what? Like a six percent survival rate, or that there was only a ten percent chance of success AND every time we did exactly what we were supposed to!”
“Exceptions! Those times were obvious exceptions, and let us not forget that when KoG was active, there was no way to have all the variables on targets and missions! We have that here!”
“Edmund…”
Edmund didn’t stop as Drake had tried to warn him to watch what he said, and he went on, “Sir, you’re going to see the Baroness of Gal’telk! This isn’t some warlord terrorizing a small portion of a star system that you, Master Theo, and Sara—”
“ENOUGH!” Drake roared, flipped the autopilot switch, and shot up from the pilot chair where he looked up to the ceiling and fumed. “I have no goddamn choice, Edmund! None! Do you think I want to search out one of the most dangerous people in the universe to beg for help? Do you? Theo must be stopped… And, and at this point, I don’t care what the costs are.”
“Very well, sir…” Edmund acknowledged before going silent, leaving a thick and staticky tension in the air as Drake glanced to his left and caught sight of an old worn photo of the Knights of Old Glory that hung on the upper control panel.
***
Long Gwurd Palace
Kal’druv [floating mega-city belt], Titus [planet, ruin], Jeppa Galaxy, Sector-0002, Aen’Goor [kingdom]
Moments later…
The thunderous crack and creek of the massive throne room doors opening bellowed through the wide open chambers, as a Royal Caller slammed his staff upon the wooden floor several times before announcing, “<My Baroness! My Baroness! I announce to you, a guest seeks your eyes…” and escorted in by four crimson donning Empress Guards was Drake, “… The Golden Armed Knight, Drake Cage!>”
There, sitting upon her dual-pronged throne was the deep-tanned-skinned woman whose name was whispered across the universe - Niyuuh Dahbyrt. She adorned black survival-mail with gold armor-bands, but specifically a deep purple cape that draped over her as she quickly arose from her seat and smiled at Drake. Niyuuh raised her arms out to her sides and then slowly licked the corner of her lip before motioning him to come.
“<My, oh, my! My knight of my dreams has finally come back!>” Niyuuh softly called.
“Baroness,” Drake nodded as he stopped at the foot of the throne platform and slightly bowed, saying, “It is good to see you again.”
“<Come? No hug for me?>”
“I don’t come on pleasure, Baroness… I’ve come for a favor.”
A small smirk cracked out the left side of her mouth before she turned her back to Drake. “<Oh? A favor? Would this be due to the fact that your crusade upon the Stark King failed? Failed as I warned you it would?>”
“Heh, I may have failed but I did not go that day to slay my friend.”
“<Of course not,” she giggled, “because if you had, then Aen’Goor would have crumbled.>”
“Listen here!” Drake snapped and clenched his robotic hand tightly, but he was quick to ease off as the Empress Guards who had saved him now reached for the hilts of their blades to raise against him. “Please, please hear me out… Baroness.”
Niyuuh slowly turned around with big puppy dog-like eyes, whispering, “<Anything for you, my knight in golden armor.>”
The crimson-armored Guards completely returned their blades and stood at ease as Drake now slowly ascended the steps to Niyuuh. He slightly winced as he stood before her and she moved so close to him that her chest slightly grazed his, and Drake closed his eyes for a brief moment. He then looked deep into her golden eyes, saying, “I need your help in stopping Theo… Please.”
“<Now,” she whispered as she gently ran her hand down his chest, “you would like my help in ripping the Stark King down from his throne?>”
“Yes.”
“<And what will I gain from risking my life to help you, my knight?>”
“Anything,” Drake sighed, “I’ll, I, I’ll do anything at this point.”
“<Anything?>” Niyuuh’s voice grew low as she now leaned in toward Drake as if to kiss him but at the last second moved next to his ear, and said, “<I will grant you your favor, but upon one requirement…>”
“Okay, name it!”
“<A blood bond.>”
Drake’s left eye narrowed. “Go on.”
“<A simple blood bond, that’s all.>”
“And what of this blood bond will you want me to fulfill?”
“<Once you kill the Stark King and Aen’Goor crumbles,” Niyuuh proudly said, “I want you to take me! You will ascend as my Baron and we will rule the universe together!>”
“Wuh-what? No!” Drake stammered before he chuckled and shook his head at her. “Why would I kill my friend who’s allowed this darkness to consume him and is on the verge of taking complete control of the universe, only to do exactly that myself?”
Niyuuh’s eyes appeared to intensify as she looked Drake deeply in his own, as if she was gazing into his soul and she said, “<Because you’re not like him… Are you?>”
“Honey,” Drake then heard the same soft voice again, “Theo must be stopped… You can’t allow him to spread the darkness… You can’t!”
“Fine,” he muttered as a single tear ran down his right cheek. “You have a deal, Baroness… You have a damned deal.”
“<That makes me very happy, my Baron,>” Niyuuh said with a smile as she gently placed her hand upon his cheek before wiping the tear away.
Aboard Talon [Class V Light Cruiser]
Mytejur [planet], Mu-5 Galaxy
Years ago…
“Dammit, Theo!” Drake yelled as he followed Theo out of the cell corridor and into the common area where Dax, Sara, and a six-year-old girl were standing around talking. “We can’t take this risk! We have to kill him!”
“Honey!” Sara snapped and nodded at the girl as she quickly covered the girl’s ears. “Watch it!”
“No, Sara,” Drake continued his frustration as he now pointed at Theo who removed his tattered crimson cape, saying, “He’s going to let him live! He’s just going to do nothing!”
“Nothing?” Theo scoffed.
“Yes! Nothing!”
“El’terih bae boorimuh,” Dax hissed in her native tongue as she rolled her eyes, but Theo was quick to raise his hand as if to tell his wife not to escalate the situation before he turned to Drake.
“Enough, please. We’re not killing him.”
“Why? Tell me why he deserves to live! Tell me!”
“Because,” Theo exclaimed with a tone of frustration and exhaustion, “we’re just not, brother! We’re not!”
Drake threw his arms up as he looked around the common area. “This is madness!”
“<… My Baron? Excuse me? Excuse me?>” Niyuuh called to Drake who finally shook his head, snapping free of his memory’s hold before he looked to her as she stood several feet in front of him with her arms folded and head tilted slightly. “<Are you alright? Second thoughts, perhaps?>”
“N-no, no, I’m, I’m fine,” he said and continued down the hall toward her, “I’m having no second thoughts! Let’s just finish what we started!”
“<Ohhhhh, you don’t have to tell me twice,>” Niyuuh said and licked her bottom lip before she turned to the colossal steel containment door and the numerous Empress Guards who stood guard in front of it.
Boom, crack, clank, clank, clank erupted as the massive gears rotated and the door began to open from the middle at four separate points, each portion of it turned counterclockwise and retracted. A gigantic cell was what Drake and Niyuuh stood in front of, and it emanated a heavy gravitational pull that felt like the ground was slipping away from under Drake’s feet. He instinctively took a step back, he looked at his hands that appeared to vibrate, and his eyes fluttered which caused Niyuuh to chuckle as she looked at him.
“<Is the neutro aura even too much for you, my Baron?>”
“I’m very familiar with this technology, but, but this, it must be emitting unimaginable levels.”
Niyuuh smiled from ear to ear before she turned back to the cell and approached the opening that was protected by a forcefield. “<Prisoner-T024 demands such.>”
“Perhaps.”
“<Oh no, there is no doubt and I know that you know this.>”
“You can’t play mind games with me, Niyuuh.”
“<Play mind games with you? Me? No, I would never dare enter the mind of my Baron.>”
Drake’s brow furrowed as his eyes shrunk to near pinpoints. “Do you take me for a fool?”
Niyuuh simply looked at him with her eyes double what they were.
“Understand that I only agreed to our deal because my mission is too important.”
“<Well then,” her face relaxed and the forcefield dematerialized with a sharp hiss as she motioned Drake in, saying, “What are you waiting for?>”
Everything appeared to converge for Drake at that moment, as his vision locked into the cell where a single dim scarlet light shined from overhead onto a man who was upon his knees at the center. There were massive chains that stretched out and restrained him from the wrists and neck while Prisoner-T024’s ankles were locked to the cell floor. Drake slowly walked forth and into the cell where he stopped ten feet from him, and the thunderous ringing of silence was dominion before he finally called out, “I have an offer for you…”
Still, there was nothing but silence as Drake’s eyes twitched with the man not moving a single muscle.
“I said that I have an offer for you… Your freedom.”
“Bodeekil,” his deep and raspy voice bellowed. “<I would never take an offer from Aen’Goor scum.>”
Drake let out a laugh. “Aen’Goor? Oh, please! I’m not Aen’Goorian, not even close!”
“<You’re here, are you not? You sound like Aen’Goor scum. You even move like him.>”
“Well, maybe if you’d look me in my eyes you’d see the truth standing before you.”
Again he went silent and still refused to move an inch.
“Heh, okay,” Drake said, “Again, I have an offer for you; an offer that will grant you your freedom; an offer that will deliver you vengeance.”
The atmosphere changed in that moment with the chains letting out a slight rattle as they tensed up, and now Drake smiled. “You will have your freedom if you help me… Help me kill Theo Walker.”
Slowly, looking up with his piercing emerald eyes glowing in the darkness that shrouded his face, Tavvuk said, “<Unchain me…>”
***
Aboard Talon [Class V Light Cruiser]
Mytejur [planet], Mu-5 Galaxy
Years ago…
The blue haze of the containment cell force field shimmered as Tavvuk slammed his fists against it over and over, yelling each time as blood covered his mouth and his broken nose. His mail was tattered, scorched, and destroyed in various spots but he refused to let his battered state stop him as he slammed the barrier harder each time. Tavvuk’s voice could be heard roaring from down the hall, “<I will spill all of your blood! I will not stop until I slaughter every last one you love - Like you did to me! Like you slaughtered those I loved! Do you hear me? Do you hear me, Beelezika? Do you?>”
“You hear him? You hear what he’s saying, brother?” Drake whipped back around to Theo who looked at him with eyes that appeared light-years away, and he told his friend, “He’s killed Cole! He’s taken the spirit from ‘Melia! Hell, he even brutally maimed Klaus, Theo! We have to put an end to him NOW!”
Sara, the young girl, and even Dax looked to Theo who was standing with his eyes closed and head slightly bowed. He didn’t say anything at first but then softly said, “I won’t.”
“Dammit, Theo!” Drake yelled again, but this time Dax gently grabbed Theo’s wrist as she leaned in toward him and whispered.
“Yai Emoor, perhaps Midas has a point here—”
“No, Sparky,” he now denied his wife, before saying to them all, “I will not kill him. I won’t. I have already wiped out every other Titan there was… I will not slay the last, too!”
Drake took a step toward Theo and Dax where he pointed at him. “Then you better hope, Theo, you better hope he doesn’t come back to haunt you one day.”
Aboard Talon [Class V Light Cruiser]
Hyper-lane [traveling through the interconnected hyperspace highway]
7 December; 08:25:53 Hours
Click, the sound of Tavvuk’s belt buckle locking around his waist as he looked himself over. He ran his hand down his chest, feeling his gray survival-mail for the first time in nearly seven years, and his glowing emerald eyes slowly panned over to Drake who sat at the table. He let out a deep breath from his nose, then grabbed pouches that he clipped onto his belt, he at first chuckled but his tone grew more solemn by the word, “<I cannot tell which it is; if you’re stupid, or if you have a death wish.>”
“Depending on who you ask,” Drake laughed, “I’m both stupid and I have a death wish, so.”
“<You wanted me dead; you wanted Beelezika to plunge his Kalber through my chest; you begged him to snuff me out!>”
“I did.”
“<And now, now here we are.>”
Drake nodded before he stood up and stood nearly toe-to-toe with Tavvuk. “You’re right about it all. I wanted you slaughtered like the animal you are…You killed and maimed friends who were family to me, but now I need that animal you are. Simple.”
“<Short-sighted, wouldn’t you admit?>”
“Yes.”
Tavvuk chuckled. “<Who did Beelezika kill of yours?>”
Drake didn’t answer him, he just stared Tavvuk in the eyes.
“<It’s always that simple. Heh, hah, Humans especially - You don’t care about the horrors that are committed, no, not until those horrors come slaughtering your own.>”
“You’re familiar with that though, aren’t you?” Drake now growled at him. “The slaughtering part.”
Tavvuk let out a deep growl back as he gritted his teeth and watched Drake now head toward the cockpit of Talon. However Drake stopped halfway and raised his left robotic index finger in the air, warning, “You have your freedom, just don’t be stupid and try what I’ve already glimpsed you’re thinking of trying… It’d be a waste of you.”
Slowly a little smirk cracked out of Tavvuk’s cold and stern expression.
“Edmund,” Drake then called.
“Yes, sir?”
“Set course for Metrog.”
“<Metrog?>” Tavvuk’s eyes grew massive as he barked at Drake.
“Very well, sir,” Edmund called back, “Travel course is being set to Metrog.”
“<Metrog - That’s nowhere near Beelezika!>”
“Yes, I’m aware of that.”
“<Then WHY?>” Tavvuk stepped up toward Drake who still had his back to him, yelling, “<Why are you wasting my time? You freed me to kill him! You freed me for that purpose, and that purpose alone! And now you are wasting my time when I could be hunting him down and getting my vengeance!>”
Simply, Drake glanced over his shoulder to Tavvuk with his right eye narrowed. “Wasting your time? Heh.”
“<You think this is funny?>” Tavvuk seethed as he now reached for the hilt of the dagger on his belt.
Though in a blink, Drake spun around while he simultaneously drew his tanto blade that he forced up against Tavvuk’s throat. “Funny? Do I think that this is funny? Heh, heh, no, I think that this is all a waste of our time! That’s what I think this is!”
Tavvuk’s left eye twitched and he let out a breath before slowly easing back his hand from the hilt. He then softly asked Drake who pulled back his blade, “<Then why are we going to Metrog?>”
Drake chuckled as he turned and walked toward the cockpit where he stopped while sheathing Namagun, there was a hiss as the door slid open to the right, and then glanced back to Tavvuk. “We’re gonna need a Light Slayer…”
Rael’aek [castle]
Daeobet [capital, mega-city], Endul [planet], Dasihik Galaxy, Sector-0000, Aen’Goor [kingdom]
7 December; 19:24:09 Hours
“Four!” Dax yelled as her eyes glowed bright blue and a faint shimmering aura of Shine pulsated off her. “Four fallen King’s Guards! Four! Midas had help, Aaela forsaken! We want him to pay! We want him and whoever lent him aid to suffer…”
There before the throne platform stood the near lifelike holograms of two of the three Envoys of the King; Talmik Komm, the Grand Lord of Bael’drie, and Baesh’lae Faedyv, the High Lady of Skies Edge who both had their heads bowed to their Queen and King. There was a tension that consumed the throne room like the intense radiation of a giga-star in flux while Dax was beyond animated in her hatred-fueled tirade. However, Theo remained silent with his left index and middle fingers pressed against his temple while Dax sat on his lap.
“… We do not care what lengths must be gone to in order to bring him to justice for his acts of war,” Dax ordered as she now stood up and approached the edge of the platform where she stood in her lace dress adorning gold bands around her biceps, forearms, and wrists. “Do you understand?”
Talmik who was a giant compared to Baesh’lae, standing nearly seven feet tall, looked up to his Queen with solely his eyes while his partner lifted her head. However, before either could answer, a third hologram materialized between the two, and finally Theo’s attention appeared intrigued as they all watched Niyuuh come into focus.
The Baroness of Gal’telk bowed and motioned her hands out to her sides, saying, “<Please, my King, forgive me for my rudeness. Matters required me elsewhere.>”
“<Matters?>” Talmik growled as his eyes narrowed and nostrils flared.
“<Where have your knees been bent?>” Baesh’lae hissed but Niyuuh gave her not even a glance.
“<My King, please, my Empress Guards have been hunting this rogue knight who eludes your greatness,>” Niyuuh instead continued her plead, “<I was lending guidance to assure his demise.>”
Baesh’lae immediately began laughing at Niyuuh, “<Lending guidance? Lending guidance? To Empress Guards? To your elite Elite force? Do you take us as foo—”
“<Watch your wet-tongue when you speak of me!>” Niyuuh snapped as she spun toward the High Lady of Skies Edge.
“<Or what, knee bender?>”
“ENOUGH!” Theo roared and slammed his fist upon the arm of his throne. “I have had enough of your two’s bitching and nipping at one another! I care nothing for my enforcers to be at each other’s throats, dammit!”
In an instant, Niyuuh and Baesh’lae both bowed their heads to Theo who now arose from the throne. Dax smiled and wrapped her arm around his waist as he stood beside her, listening as he now ordered his three envoys, “I want him alive! I want him back before me; king before rogue; knight before knight; friend before friend… This will all end then! Do you three understand?”
“<Very well, my King,>” Niyuuh quickly accepted and bowed to him yet again before Talmik placed his fist over his heart and echoed the understanding.
“<It will be done, my King. I will make sure of it.>”
Baesh’lae though, glared at Niyuuh out the corner of her eye before she finally acknowledged, “<Understood.>”
Then as Theo returned and retook the throne, the Envoys’ holograms all dissolved. He let out a short chuckle in his moment of realization of the position he was in, but as Dax turned to him, she tilted her head before quickly hurrying to her husband. She dropped to her knees and grabbed his face, asking in a bit of a frantic before wiping a black tear that ran down from his left eye away.
“Yai Emoor, are, are you alright?”
“I’ll be fine, Sparky. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”
The Hole [deep dwelling black market district]
Metrog [planet], Condor Galaxy, Sector-0003, Aen’Goor [kingdom]
10 December; 01:02:24 Hours
Deep within the steel and glass giant, nearly thirty stories below the bustling surface yet the glimmering light of the stars could still touch the deep within the Hole, Drake and Tavvuk carefully navigated the maze of dark alleys. Both wore their cowls with hoods up, hands firmly gripped the hilt of their daggers as their eyes darted from side to side while they passed numerous killers, crime lords, slaves, and dark vendors. There was a thickness to the smoke and musky tainted air, as Tavvuk’s lip twitched and his eyes began to narrow with the growing frustration that they had been walking for over an hour.
“<Where are they?>” Tavvuk growled.
“We’re almost there,” Drake groaned.
“<You’ve said that several times now! Several!>”
“And I’ll say it several more, dammit!”
Tavvuk grit his teeth and spun around in front of Drake, his glowing emerald eyes piercing through the darkness cast by his hood as he looked Drake directly in his. “<You had me freed for one reason and yet you seem to be taking your time on bringing me anywhere even close to accomplishing that reason… I will not be slowed down from getting vengeance! I won’t! Do you understand me?>”
There was a long pause as the two just stared at one another, but then Drake let out a brief chuckle before he walked around Tavvuk and toward the massive entrance to their right. Several holo-boards were around the double glass doors, each one advertising a fight; the right holo-board displayed a gigantic hulking man flexing and taunting, while the left played footage of this man’s previous fights where he brutally killed each opponent, and the top read like an introduction, “The Undisputed Champion - Od’igon, the Terrible!”
Tavvuk slowly turned after Drake where he saw the boards and the advertisements, his eyes narrowed in a bit of confusion as hundreds of Astronauts were flooding into the giga-arena. In the flood of heads, he almost lost sight of Drake who melded into the crowd and entered along with the rest, which caused Tavvuk to let out a loud grunt before he too quickly joined the lines. Tavvuk though kept his attention high, watching those around him and scanning everything he could as cheering, booing, and talking grew louder and louder by the step.
Drake slowed up and turned to find Tavvuk in the crowd before he nodded in the direction of the fight floor which Tavvuk subtly up-nodded to. Bright lights whited out anything beyond the threshold with Astronauts passing through, and oddly Drake slowed to a complete stop in front of it where those behind him pushed right by and into the fight floor.
“<Move!>” several Astronauts barked, who were in line behind Drake, while others hissed at him as they purposefully bumped into him as they cut in front of Drake.
“<We have a fight to watch!>”
“<I don’t want to miss Od’igon slaughter this one!>”
“<Come on, backwater scum! What are you waiting for?>”
Tavvuk stopped beside Drake and said to him, “<What are you doing? Are they not here? Did you waste more of my time?>”
Drake didn’t say anything though, instead, he just motioned in and without hesitation, Tavvuk walked through the light and onto the fight floor while Drake closed his eyes tightly as everything seemed to be pulsating to him. However, Drake shook his head and followed right on in.
“<NOOOOOO!>” an Astronaut off to Drake’s left yelled.
“<This can’t be happening!>” he heard another in the opposite direction shout, “<I bet my second life’s savings on Od’igon! This must be rigged!>”
Drake looked all around, seeing the fight floor in its whole as everything slopped down to the fight zone with thousands in attendance as they watched the gigantic Herculean, Od’igon who was the Undisputed Champion, struggling to get up to his feet. He had several gashes across his chest, back, and thigh while his opponent looked untouched. Tavvuk stood several feet in front of Drake, who walked up beside him and Drake pointed down to the opponent.
“There.”
“<There?>” Tavvuk nearly gasped as he slowly looked at Drake. “<That? That is the Light Slayer?>”
“<What a disgrace!>” a short and quadarmed Teltekian woman screamed as she watched Od’igon rise only to collapse back to his knees.
The entire aura of the arena changed, as the cheering for the Undisputed Champion transformed into thunderous boos, and now his opponent, the Light Slayer that Drake and Tavvuk came looking for, twirled her Gungnir, that was called Laehlux, around before finally thrusting it directly into Od’igon’s chest. Drake cracked a small grin as he watched Tavvuk fold his arms and closely watch her twist the hilt shaft which caused Od’igon to cough up blue blood.
Drake patted him on the shoulder as he continued to smirk. “Impressed?”
Tavvuk didn’t budge, he instead continued to watch her as she now yanked her Gungnir free and kicked Od’igon to the sand-covered fight zone floor. The entire arena went silent while everyone watched in shock, it was as if the sound of Od’igon’s body hitting the floor echoed while the Light Slayer let out a thunderous primal roar and thrust Laehlux in the air as she did. Drake, though, began his descent down the steps several men, each a different Astronaut, hurried out onto the fight zone floor where they circled Od’igon before they then conversed amongst each other.
Then, concurrently, they announced to the thousands in attendance, “<ANNNNNNND YOUR NEEEEEEEW UNDISPUTED CHAMPION… AHEMESHA KIIIIIIIIIIIIIDAAAAA!>”
Thunderous cheers erupted as nearly everyone in attendance shot up to their feet and celebrated. Ahemesha stood at the center of the fight zone floor panting as she glanced around smiling, but her eyes narrowed and her head slowly tilted to her right. She caught sight of Drake who now slithered his way through the ground crowd who reached up to Ahemesha, begging for her to acknowledge them.
Clink. Chink, chink, chink, as Ahemesha’s Gungnir collapsed to a simple six-inch hilt rod that she returned to her utility belt. Before she could head off after Drake who now began to push his way back through the crowd toward the other stairs, the three announcers grabbed her and began to interview the new champion, “<Ahemesha Kiida! Ahemesha! How do you feel after that absolute clinic you put on?>”
“<Ahemesha, are you ready for your next challenger? Tregah, the Formiddable!>” the taller of the three, a Feldoouhrian, wrapped his arm around Ahemesha as he asked and put his microphone in her face.
“<Stunning Kiida,>” the last snatched the microphone and got on one knee before her, as her lips puckered and head clocked back, listening as he said, “<Your people want to know how you keep yourself in such ravishing shape! What do you do? WHO do you do?>”
Instead of answering any of them, Ahemesha pushed past them all, and in doing so, she purposefully knocked the last announcer onto his back which caused the crowds to erupt in laughter. Her attention was locked on Drake, seeing his tan cowl as he pushed his way up the stairs through the crowd and toward the back exit. But as she now made her way to and started up the stairs after him, the Astronauts started to flock to her, calling her name, begging her for autographs, and some even offering her their young child.
“<MOVE OUT OF MYWAY!>” Ahemesha snapped, yet they barely listened as she then had to start shoving her way up.
Boom, the emergency exit door slammed against the wall as Drake threw it open and ran out into the dark alley. He placed his hands on his knees, hunched over as he panted and chuckled, “Now this brings back some memor—” but before he could finish, Ahemesha had him by his robotic shoulder and threw him against the wall where she pinned him by the throat with her left hand.
“<Who are you?>” she growled. “<Why are you stalking me?>”
“You seem quite spooked for a powerful woman who just slaughtered the reigning undisputed champion with ease,” Drake laughed but she tightened her grip on his throat which caused him to choke briefly.
“<Who are you?>”
“Who do you think I am?”
“<You’re about to be a dead man!>” Ahemesha hissed as she grabbed the hilt of the dagger on her belt.
“<Don’t think about it,>” Tavvuk’s deep voice growled into her ear as the cold steel of his blade pressed against her throat, and Ahemesha’s brow furrowed as she grit her teeth.
“<You lured me here!>”
Drake chuckled. “I’m kinda shocked myself at how easy it was, huh Tavvuk?”
“<And you want her to join us?>”
“<Join yous?>” Ahemesha scoffed as she yanked her hand away from Drake. “<A Backwater-ape and, and a… a Titan?>”
Tavvuk slowly pulled his blade back from her as a smirk crept over his face.
“We thought,” Drake shrugged and finished, “that you’d want to kill the Shimmer Queen.”
The Hole [deep dwelling black market district]
Metrog [planet], Condor Galaxy, Sector-0003, Aen’Goor [kingdom]
10 December; 02:59:00 Hours
“<K-kill, kill her? What?>” Ahemesha gasped and took a step back from the two whom she glanced back and forth at.
“<I know he speaks a backwater tongue,” Tavvuk growled, “but you understood what he said!>”
Ahemesha’s attention turned solely upon Tavvuk now as she brandished her teeth and squared up to the Titan. However, Tavvuk didn’t flinch and instead, he cracked a small grin as his feet pivoted slightly.
“Enough, both of you,” Drake sighed as he rolled his eyes, “And yes, kill her.”
“<Why?>” Ahemesha scoffed at him.
“Why? What kind of question is that?”
“<Why would I join you two? A backwater-ape and the last of his kind, why would I join you to kill her?>”
Tavvuk laughed. “<Because we can see how well you’ve been doing deep down in this… Hole.>”
“<I don’t get it… Beelezika is feared across the universe yet he couldn’t kill the likes of you.>”
Tavvuk’s eyes now shrunk to near pinpoints as his brow furrowed and he growled while his grip on the hilt of his blade tightened but before either could take a strike at the other, Drake snapped, “Live up to your name… Light Slayer!”
She glanced at Drake out the corner of her eye as horrors came flashing back to her from her childhood, but her attention as did theirs immediately shifted to the exit door that they’d come through moments ago where now a frantic flood of Astronauts came exploding through. People were pushing and shoving one another to get out as they went running down the alley, many of them yelling and screaming while Drake and Tavvuk looked at one another with their eyebrows raised.
“<Get out of my way!>” several Astronauts exclaimed while others yelled.
“<They never venture down here!>”
“<I don’t know who they’re after but I’m not getting killed!>”
“<Why was there no warning they were coming?>”
“What’s going on?” Drake called to Tavvuk as Astronauts pushed past between the two.
“<I don’t know,>” he grunted before grabbing one of the young men by the back of the neck and yanking him into the air, barking, “<Why are you all running? Who are you trying to escape?>”
The Meltonian, a species who had tan skin and four eyes with a long feeler nose, sniveled and stuttered, “<The-they’re coming! They, they, they’ll k-kill us, kill us a-all!>”
“<WHO?>”
“<Oh no,>” Ahemesha gasped, “Aen’Goor!”
Drake instantly spun around to her, his eyes were open wide as he asked, “What are you talking about?”
“<The Grand Lord and his guards!>”
Tavvuk tossed the Meltonian to the ground before he rolled his shoulders and chuckled. “<Good! I’ll get to warm up then!>”
“<No,” she denied him before she tried to explain, “you don’t understand! Grand Lord Talmik may not be Beelezika, but he is far more dangerous than you could imagine! And, and his Grand Guards… Only King’s Guards are more deadly!>”
Drake rubbed his brow as he was frustrated that he hadn’t glimpsed this happening, that he hadn’t received even a vague warning of what they might end up coming face-to-face with. Tavvuk smiled and started to walk toward the exit door as the flood of Astronauts had stopped, and he wanted blood.
“<Stop! We must leave! We must get off Metrog now!>” Ahemesha screamed.
“<No!>” Tavvuk yelled as he turned back to Ahemesha and Drake. “<He freed me for one reason! And this will only be the start of it!>”
“No, we must leave,” Drake said before tapping the earpiece in his right ear. “Edmund?”
“Yes, sir? How has the hunt for the ravishing Light Slayer gone?”
“Ping my live-time location and be ready to rendezvous…”
“Oh, bloody hell, I assume it hasn’t gone as planned?”
“… Stop with the smart-ass remarks - Just be mobile and ready to lift us, we gotta get out of here ASAP!”
“Very well, sir.”
Tavvuk thrust his index finger at Drake, barking, “<I am not running from some Aen’Goor boots, nor some Grand Lord!>”
“We’re not taking any unnecessary risks, dammit! We have a mission! A mission that you were freed for,” Drake yelled back, “And you’re not going to jeopardize it so that you can refresh your blade with Aen’Goorian blood!”
Tavvuk was nearly panting as he stood a dozen feet from Drake, the two’s eyes were locked as if they were ready to clash Kalber with Kalber but Ahemesha butted in, frantically saying, “<I know of a hidden way! A way to a docking port, it’ll be fast and, and we won’t run into any chokepoints that they might’ve set up!>”
***
Thump, thump, thump, thump echoed through the vast and empty streets of a long-ago abandoned section of the Hole. Massive apartment sectors, entire business districts, and even a school that all existed in a perpetual shell of what was as the three ran down the street. Only the light from the lumen-strips on their survival-mail illuminated them in the near pitch blackness.
“What, heh, huh, what happened here?” Drake asked as he was running almost directly beside Ahemesha who glanced at him.
“<This was one of the original portions of Metrog,” she explained, “but the Steel Giant in its terraformation built atop it and grabbed for the stars!>”
“<How far?>” Tavvuk snapped from their rear, as he didn’t care about the history lesson.
“<Not far,>” Ahemesha said.
“<That’s not an answer!>”
“<We’re almost there!>”
“<How long?>” Tavvuk now yelled, and this time, Ahemesha spun around to him as she stopped and again the two squared up to each other.
“<Watch your tone, Titan!>”
“<I wish you would,>” he bellowed as his right hand reached for the hilt of his blade. “<Give me a reason! I just need a reason, because we don’t really need you! I can get my vengeance without some Light Slayer killing his queen!>”
“I’ve already said enough!” Drake stepped between them, raising his hands at them as he yelled, “If either one of you thinks you can kill Theo OR Dax, you’re both lying to yourselves!”
Though laughter sounded from the darkness around them, and the three began looking around to see from where when a voice could be heard, “<Perhaps we should allow them to kill each other?>”
“<No, the golden armed and the Titan are of no concern to us but we must ensure she does not leave the world alive.>”
“<Then we better act quickly or the Grand Mane will not be pleased if we fail,> a deeper and solemn voice said before the lumen-strips of several mails ignited and men emerged from the darkness in front of the three.
Drake’s left eye narrowed as his head clocked to the side. “Grand Mane?”
“<These are not Aen’Goorian,>” Tavvuk growled.
“<I don’t care if they are or not,” Ahemesha hissed, “but they die right here!>”
The four each drew blades as they started to spread out, but the one who spoke with a deep voice locked eyes with Drake as he now urged, “<Go, leave here now and we will do you and the Titan no harm.>”
“You’re Claws of Shaomhav,” Drake acknowledged.
“<And you are the Golden Armed Knight, the Grand Mane wishes you no undue harm.>”
Clink, clink, shink ripped through the quiet as Ahemesha constructed Laehlux and spun it around before cracking a smile. “<Warlords, Undisputed Champions, Claws or Manes; you don’t scare me!>”
The air got thick with a staticky tension as the high-pitched cry of Tavvuk’s blade leaving its sheath followed and he stepped up beside Ahemesha. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye as she let out a shocked sigh, and he chuckled, “<You’re not Beelezika’s creed, but I’m willing to make an exception!>”
“<The Stark King is no friend of Shaomhav but His rule is acknowledged by the Grand Mane,>” the Claw said and Drake shook his head. “<So step aside or fall with her!>”
The other Claws now nearly circled the three as Drake sighed. He closed his eyes for a brief moment but then unsheathed his tanto blade, Namagun. Drake then looked over his shoulder to Tavvuk who he shrugged at and said, “Well, what are you waiting for?”
In a blink, Tavvuk charged straight at the Claw in front of them and swung his blade down on him. There was no time to react as Tavvuk moved faster than any of the four could have prepared for. The power he unleashed behind his blade was so intense that the sparks from his blade cutting through the mail of the Claw briefly illuminated the area as he split him in two. All of the air seemed to be sucked away as the other Claws’ eyes were locked on their brethren falling to pieces with the eerie sound of the right portion of his torso and the rest of his body thumping off the ground like an explosion in the gap of emptiness.
Slowly Tavvuk looked back with his glowing emerald eyes piercing through the dark at them, and a grin of horrific satisfaction reigning upon his face.
“ERRRRR-AGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” one of the remaining three yelled as he took off in a blitz of rage at Tavvuk, though the Titan didn’t flinch as he instead stood up straight and awaited the Claw with the grin still firmly upon his face.
However, the Claw was forced to stop midway where he blocked Drake’s tanto blade that he swung horizontally at him. Clang. Sparks exploded and again lit up the darkness of the area around them before both men spun around and unleashed tremendous swings at the other, which clashed, and a shockwave ripped free that cracked the ground beneath their feet. Blades interlocked in a challenge of power that was quickly becoming clear was one-sided. The Claw looked Drake directly in the eyes but only for a moment as his attention then quickly shifted to his left where he saw his two brethren fighting Ahemesha, who appeared to be fending them off with utter ease.
The Claw’s pupils dilated as a sharp ting sounded. He then gasped as his attention shifted back to Drake only to find that Drake was no longer in front of him, and his eyes immediately pinged back and forth in an attempt to find where he had gone. However, the Claw let out another gasp but this time he felt a sharp pain shoot through his chest as Drake had managed to spin behind him where Drake thrust Namagun through the Claw’s back. Drake then yanked his tanto blade free and the Claw instantly collapsed with Drake rolling his shoulders and breathing heavily.
“You must get out of there,” Drake heard the familiar soft voice whisper past his ear, “Please, Honey! You must get out now!”
Drake frantically glanced around as his chest puffed out and contracted over and over again. Tavvuk came walking up beside him where he looked Drake up and down before he went to head toward Ahemesha and the last two Claws when blaster fire nearly hit him. Tavvuk spun to his left, twirling his blade around and deflecting several more energy-nails, and both he and Drake could now see the oncoming Grand Guards as they pushed down the street. Their glowing white t-visors lit up the darkness like torches in the night, but it was the thunderous pounding of their armored boots that sent an ominous warning like a haunting wailing horn.
“<Ahhhh! Now the fun begins!>” Tavvuk chuckled.
Drake grabbed Tavvuk’s bicep. “No! We have to get out of here now!”
Tavvuk growled as he looked at Drake’s hand before slowly up and into his eyes, snapping, “<Release me!>”
The blaster fire continued as several of the energy-nails struck one of the Claws just as Ahemesha thrust her Gungnir straight into the side of his head. “AHHHHHHH!” she screamed out of frustration, yanked free her weapon, and finally turned in the direction of the oncoming fire.
Ahemesha gasped. She could see at least twenty-five t-visors glowing within the dark that grew closer and closer by the second. Out of instinct along, though, Ahemesha spun around and raised Laehlux horizontally up in front of herself where she blocked the final Claw’s blade before delivering a fierce front kick that sent him tumbling back across the street. She then whipped around to Drake and Tavvuk who were nose-to-nose yelling at one another.
“<You’re not going to stop me!>” Tavvuk barked.
“You’re being shortsighted, dammit!” Drake shouted. “The mission is clear and these boots don’t matter!”
“<If you attempt to stop me… Your mission will not matter!>”
There was a brief pause between the two that felt like several hours dragged by, but then Tavvuk yanked his arm free as he chuckled and turned to the oncoming Grand Guards. With an elegant twirl of his blade, Tavvuk smirked and took two steps in their direction. However, everything went dark for him as Drake delivered a ferocious left elbow to the back of Tavvuk’s head which knocked him unconscious.
Ahemesha gasped yet again as she hurried over to the two. “<Wuh-what have you done?>”
“We need to get off world NOW, and we’re doing it any way possible!” Drake made clear before picking Tavvuk up off the ground and tossing him over his shoulder.
Clang, the Claw plunged his blade into the ground which he used to push himself up to his feet where he could manage to see Drake and Ahemesha disappear into the dark distance. He grimaced as he looked to the lower right of his abdomen where he found Ahemesha had cut him, but his blood ran cold as several deep hums ripped through the silence. Ting, ting, ting, ting reverberated as the Claw’s right hand trembled and his blade repeatedly nicked the ground.
“<Death to ty—” the Claw started to yell as he spun around with blade in hand, but one of the Grand Guards struck him in the face with the butt of his Kramat TAK02 rifle.
In a blink, the several golden-armored Grand Guards overpowered the disoriented Claw. They restrained him upon his knees, holding him by the arms while two stood behind him with their boots upon his ankles and hands on his shoulders. The Claw screamed and yelled, “<Release me! Aen’Goor has no power of a Claw of the Shaomhav Quarter! You are enacting war! Do you hear me? You are enacting war!>”
“<War?>” a deep voice called from the distance, the Grand Guards who stood at attention parted and Talmik approached. “<You dare conduct covert operations in Aen’Goorian domain, and then cry war because you failed?>”
“<Guh-Grand Lord Komm?>” the Claw stammered.
Talmik chuckled as he stopped in front of the Claw. “<You cost the Stark King his prize.>”
“<We wanted nothing of the Golden Armed Knight! The Grand Mane just wants the Light Slayer dead!>”
“<Light Slayer?>” Talmik asked as his left eye narrowed.
The Claw nodded. “<Yes, we wanted nothing of the two others!>”
“<Tell me more of this… Light Slayer.>”
“<You, you don’t know of her?>”
Talmik’s nostrils flared, he reached out with his gigantic hand and grabbed the Claw by the jaw, snapping, “<Who is she? What does Shaomhav want her dead for?>”
“<No,” the Claw laughed, “I will speak nothing!>”
Talmik’s face went stone cold as he stepped back from the Claw and turned his back to him. “<Then you will die.>”
“<Then kill—” he went to taunt the Grand Lord but one of the two Grand Guards who restrained him from behind quickly grabbed him by the chin and back of the head before violently twisting his head, and snapping the Claw’s neck.
Aboard Talon [Class V Light Cruiser]
Hyper-lane [traveling through the interconnected hyperspace highway]
10 December; 09:03:22 Hours
Boom, Drake slammed his robotic hand down on the steel table in the common area before he took in a deep breath. The table had dented under his force with the eerie mechanical sound of his hand relaxing for a brief moment before he clenched his fist tightly again. His pupil had shrunken to nearly a quarter of its size, his brow was furrowed, and his nostrils proceeded to flare before he began to pace back and forth. The thickness of the air was staticky with his frustration, but then that fiery fury pulled in on him as his attention directed to the three-dimensional hologram that materialized at the center of the room.
“<I’m surprised, my Baron,>” Niyuuh cooed as she fluttered her eyes at him, “<I didn’t expect for you to call for me so soon—”
“You set me up!” Drake yelled as he vigorously pointed his robotic finger at her.
Niyuuh’s eyes opened wide and she took a step back. “<What?>”
“You heard me! You set me up, dammit!”
“<I have done nothing of the sort, my Baron! What are you speaking of?>”
“We were just nearly taken out by the Grand Lord and his boots!” Drake barked as he stood there with eyes locked onto her and he panted.
Her eyes narrowed and her voice upticked as she asked, “<The Grand Lord? You, you crossed paths with Talmik?>”
“Is that not what I just told you?”
“<I did not set you up, my Baron,>” she assured him, “<I couldn’t. Our blood-bond would not allow me to do such a thing!>”
Drake walked right up to her and grabbed her by the throat, despite his hand going into the hologram, and he whispered, “Then how did he know we were on Metrog? How… did he know… we… were there… for the Light Slayer?”
“<Light Slayer? What are you planning, my Baron?>”
“Answer me!”
“<If you would’ve told me that you were going to the soul of Talmik’s sector, I would’ve warned you of his Kalber-clad stranglehold on Metrog.>”
However, it was as if Drake now ignored her as he yanked back his hand and stormed over to the table where he again slammed his robotic fist.
“<You know what must be done…” Niyuuh softly said with her voice reverberating through the common area as Drake whipped his attention back to her.
“What? What must be done, huh?”
“<You must take the last Titan and the Light Slayer to Skies Edge, my Baron, and kill the High Lady!>”
“Are you insane?” Drake snapped and turned completely toward her.
Niyuuh’s eyes began to glow a burning gold as she walked up to him where she placed her hand upon his chest, and she looked Drake deep into his eyes as she assured him, “<If you successfully take out one of the Stark King’s Envoys, it will destabilize him. Her fall would also serve to distract Talmik and thus lessen any unforeseen variables, my Baron.>”
Drake rubbed his brow and closed his eyes tightly as he heard the soft voice again, whispering to him, “It’s the only way, Drake. You have to do anything you can to stop Theo. You have to.”
“Fine,” Drake sighed. “I’ll do it - I’ll take Tavvuk and Ahemesha to Skies Edge, and we’ll snuff her out!”
“<Very good, my Baron. Very good,>” Niyuuh again cooed before her tone grew solemn, “<Soon the Stark King will fall and Aen’Goor will crumble, and we shall ascend as the rightful rulers of the universe!>”
Drake just stared at Niyuuh as she smiled and ran her fingers down his chest. His bottom lip quivered as an unconscious display of boiling frustration that each day continued to build up within him, only for Niyuuh’s hologram to slowly disintegrate as she ended her connection and left him standing alone at the center of the common area.
***
Several hours later…
Boom. Boom. Boom echoed throughout Talon as the blue haze of the forcefield shimmered under the force of Tavvuk’s fists after each thunderous slam. The Titan’s glowing emerald eyes were nearly bulging out of his skull as he gritted his teeth and continued to whale away until the containment room’s door hissed and slid open with Drake walking in. The two locked eyes for a moment before Tavvuk growled.
“<Coward!>”
Drake scoffed. “Coward? You would’ve had us all die right there on Metrog, and then what?”
“<You’re weak! You deep down fear Beelezika! You fear him so much that you’re not even willing to engage his hands and their boots!>”
“I fear him? You know… Maybe I do, but last I checked, the last time you came into contact with him, you were in the same spot you are now.”
“BODEEKIL!” Tavvuk roared as he slammed both fists off the forcefield and it trembled under his explosive force.
“<Both of you need to stop!>” Ahemesha snapped as she walked in beside Drake, where she looked at the two. “<If we’re to kill the Shimmer Queen and the Stark King, we cannot do that if you two continue to go for each other’s throat!>”
There came a moment of pause between the three, despite Drake and Tavvuk still staring at the other. However, Drake stepped forward and typed in a code to the touchpad which caused the blue forcefield to dissolve outward from its center.
“<Drake is right, though,>” Ahemesha said as Tavvuk exited the cell, “<We all would’ve died if he wouldn’t have done what he did back on Metrog.>”
Tavvuk slowly looked at her as he chuckled, “<All I’m hearing is the sound of your tails tucking between your legs.>”
“<You will die with that logic.>”
“<I am not afraid to die,>” he bellowed as he explained, “<I have seen and experienced much worse than death… Have either of you returned home to find your wife, daughter, family, and entire world blackened? Huh? Tell me! Have you?>”
“<Not blackened, no,>” Ahemesha responded as a tear welled up in her right eye.
“<Then I don’t want to hear your weak excuses!>”
Ahemesha, though, grabbed Tavvuk by the wrist as he went to storm past Drake and her, and she growled at him, “<I witnessed the Sovereign Kingdom of Wendale invade my home world; I witnessed the Shimmer Queen, though she was only a young teenager like me then, murder my two older brothers; My mother, my sister and I were then taken into custody and enslaved for years until I was able to escape… but, but my mother died in my arms not even six months after we were conscripted to serve Lord Waelum, and my sister sacrificed herself so I could see freedom! Don’t dismiss my knowledge of the horrors that we’re confronting! Don’t!>”
Tavvuk gently placed his hand upon Ahemesha’s cheek and her eyes grew large with disbelief and confusion before he softly told her, “<I am sorry for the horrors that befell your blood. I truly am.>”
“Edmund,” Drake called out.
“Yes, sir?”
“Set course for Skies Edge,” he ordered and immediately Ahemesha and Tavvuk spun to him.
“<What?>” Tavvuk barked before Ahemesha nearly screamed.
“<Have you lost your backwater-ape mind?>”
“Sir, oddly I understand the two’s anger and confusion,” Edmund noted. “You wish of me to set course for the High Lady’s home sector? Why?”
“Because we need to destabilize Theo, and killing Baesh’lae will do just that,” Drake rationalized which caused Tavvuk to rub his jaw while he looked down off to his right in a moment of understanding, but Ahemesha wouldn’t have it.
“<You just knocked out Tavvuk and imprisoned him because he wanted to engage Talmik and the Grand Guard,>” she hissed, “<And now, NOW you want to go directly to the High Lady’s proverbial home and kill her! That is ludicrous!>”
“No, engaging and killing Baesh’lae will kill two birds with one stone.”
“<Two what? With, with a stone?>”
Drake sighed before he motioned his robotic hand out to his side, saying, “Talmik would’ve gained us nothing but death if we had engaged him back on Metrog, he knew we were there and so he had the upper hand… but Baesh’lae has no such thing. And WHEN we kill her, her death will destabilize Theo AND distract Talmik enough for us to accomplish the mission.”
“Course is set, sir,” Edmund announced.
“Good,” Drake said before he turned and headed out of the containment room, but Tavvuk and Ahemesha lingered for a moment as the two slowly looked at one another with narrowed eyes.
Asgyr Palace
Skies Edge [mega-floating city], Dawma [planet], Elysium Galaxy, Sector-0004, Aen’Goor [kingdom]
10 December; 23:44:09 Hours
“<High Lady! High Lady!>” a stunning, slim woman cried as she came running into the throne room of the palace with the wailing sirens echoing off in the distance. “<There’s been several explosions across the city-belt! Concurrent explosions, High Lady!>”
Baesh’lae leisurely laid on her tri-pronged marble throne with her legs crossed as High Guards stood guard beside her and she looked to Mara Jix, who was her right hand, and she sighed, “<Yes, Mara, I am aware.>”
“<But, but High Lady, this has never happened before! Never in the city-belt’s history! Especially under Aen’Goorian rule!>”
“<Watch your tongue, Mara,>” Baesh’lae warned with Mara immediately dropping to her knees and bowing her head.
“<Forgive me!>”
“<Now is not the time… Do know that I am in fact aware of the diversion.>”
Mara’s voice upticked as she looked up. “<Diversion, High Lady?>”
“<Yes, a diversion, and I’m quite disappointed at how childlike of one it is.>”
“<A diversion from who?>”
“<Mara, go - Send word to King Theo of the bombings and an attack on Skies Edge.>”
“<But High Lady—” Mara stood up as she attempted to refuse Baesh’lae but the High Lady cut her off.
“<Go, and make sure King Theo is aware that I am personally handling it!>”
Mara pushed strands of her long red hair out of her face as she looked up to Baesh’lae with her deep indigo eyes large while her lip quivered ever so slightly. Baesh’lae shooed Mara off, which she reluctantly did with the High Guards pushing her along before they closed the massive throne room doors behind her. However, upon the doors shutting, there came a thunderous explosion that not only rumbled through the entirety of the palace but blew the doors off their hinges and sent shrapnel, smoke and other debris blowing forth.
Several of the High Guards who were on the floor and walked Mara out were taken down by the explosion as a glowing mist lingered in the smoky air, the remnant of a Shine-charge. Baesh’lae didn’t move despite the explosion but her direct detail did, the four High Guards who stood at her side stepped forward as did the remaining three on the floor. An eerie silence followed the thick smoke into the throne room which the guards each stepped into and only left the white glow of their t-visors to find where they were, but one by one they went out.
Now Baesh’lae’s attention was peaked. She slowly sat up upon her throne, her eyes narrowed as she gazed deep into the curtain of fog before them, and her detail descended the throne platform to the room floor. The High Guards’ dark blue capes swayed as they approached the smoke and soon they too disappeared within the void. Clang. Chink. Clang, shink sounded as sparks erupted into the air before raining down around the silhouettes of the High Guards, only for them each to go down with their t-visors dimming to darkness. Then there was a high-pitched whistle that let out before another skin-crawling screech of Kalber cutting armor when the final High Guard’s helmet-donning head rolled across the marble floor and stopped just in front of the steps of the platform.
Baesh’lae laughed as she looked up from the helmet to see a glowing gold eye within the smoke. “<Bravo! Bravo! The Golden Armed Knight has come to kill me first? What friends have you brought to do such a suicidal task?>”
Yet Drake said not a word as he emerged from the smoke with Namagun in hand.
“<Come now, you would not have made it this far without help!>”
And still, Drake said nothing as he slowly approached the throne platform.
Baesh’lae’s upper lip curled as her nostrils flared. “<WHO? Who has the righteous Golden Armed Knight of song brought to help him take out the High Lady of Skies Edge?>”
Drake was less than thirty feet from the stairs when he had yet to say anything, but now he cracked a smirk which infuriated Baesh’lae and caused her to grab her tanto blade, Daikon that leaned up against the throne.
“<Huh?>” she screamed, “<Who have you brought with you to di—” but Baesh’lae twirled Daikon around mere seconds before raising it where it met and blocked Tavvuk’s long curve blade as he came flying through the air out of the smoke up to her.
Clang rang through the throne room as their blades interlocked and sparks rained upon the floor while they struggled with one another. Baesh’lae’s eyes dilated and her mouth drew agape, so many things began to make sense as she looked up to Tavvuk in the glowing emerald eyes. However, she glanced to her right as Drake now charged her and forced her to tap into her blood ability of Quicken which slowed both Tavvuk and Drake’s perception, and she quickly thrust forward with Daikon that sent the Titan tumbling backward before she spun her tanto blade around and blocked a barrage of strikes from Drake.
Clang, ting, clang with each strike of their blades before the two’s locked, and Baesh’lae growled, “<Ohhhh, it’s all making so much sense now; how you managed to escape; how the Last Titan is here… My King will find this all to be greatly interesting!>”
Again, perception slowed for Drake as he could see her pull back Daikon and despite how much energy he exerted to swing forward at Baesh’lae, it wasn’t enough as she unleashed a shuffle kick that struck him in the chest and sent him flying onto his back. She then twirled her tanto blade around with it passing behind her back where it blocked Tavvuk’s blindsided swing down upon her before she spun around and sliced him across the chest. Tavvuk rolled to his left and hit the ground where he grimaced before placing his hand on his left pec, only to look to his palm and find his royal purple blood.
“<Do know,” Baesh’lae laughed as she again exchanged a flurry of strikes with Drake who now pushed her toward the platform stairs which she climbed several of in the final two strikes, “I’m going to take great pleasure in watching my King crush her—”
Though Baesh’lae’s eyes grew ten times their size with a sharp and quick pain exploding through her chest. Baesh’lae’s attention fell upon Ahemesha, who had launched herself through the air from the smoke-cloaked entrance and across the chamber where she plunged her Gungnir through Baeh’lae’s heart. Blood ran down from her nose before she coughed it up, with Ahemesha front kicking her in the abdomen and pushing Baesh’lae free from Laehlux.
The three watched Baesh’lae as she stumbled up the last remaining stairs before she fell backward against the throne, where she struggled to breathe only for her chest to completely contract. Her bright blue eyes appeared to fade to a muted gray with the pitch-blackness that had controlled the whites of them leaving and now black veining spidered across her brow and cheeks. Baesh’lae’s limbs then followed as they went limp as her right arm fell to her side, but that was the very moment when a staticky tension quickly pulled back over the atmosphere, with the Kalber band that was adorned around her forearm unlocking before it fell free only to then crumble into a sand-like quality in front of their eyes.
Ahemesha’s Gungnir collapsed to its hilt-rod form as she turned and walked down the stairs to Drake and Tavvuk, telling them with a sternness to her voice, “<He knows… The Stark King knows one of his Envoys has fallen.>”
Rael’aek [castle]
Daeobet [capital, mega-city], Endul [planet], Dasihik Galaxy, Sector-0000, Aen’Goor [kingdom]
14 December; 05:13:59 Hours
Gaundraes, the tri spheres existing completely of Kalber, orbited Theo as he sat on his quad-pronged marble throne staring at one of the spheres which levitated in front of him. His pupil was nearly a pinpoint as his nostrils were flared wide and the upper right corner of his lip quivered. The atmosphere of the throne room was heavy and cold matching its master, so much so that as Cortana hid off behind one of the columns where she watched her father, her breath was visible in the air.
The thirteen-year-old, her peacock blue eyes were large and slightly sunken while her bottom lip curled down in a sad and confused sense. Cortana rubbed her right eye with her closed hand, wiping away the tears that welled up as the urge to go check on her father grew by the second. However, before she did, a thunderous creak ripped out as the throne room doors opened. Her attention quickly shifted to her right where she watched her mother storm up the aisle while she angrily snapped.
“Why haven’t we done anything? Why, yai Emoor? Why?”
“Sparky—” he attempted to speak but she continued while climbing the stairs.
“Midas has not only taken out Kings’ Guards but now he’s extinguished an Envoy! He’s beginning to chip away at our Aen’Goor! He’s going to—”
Theo roared and slammed his fist upon the arm of the throne. “ENOUGH! Can you not see that Drake has an invisible hand assisting him? Can you not?”
Dax stopped before her husband where her eyes now grew large and her head slowly bowed slightly. The Gaundraes now all shifted as Theo rose from the throne and stepped up to Dax where he looked deep into her light blue eyes with his narrowing. His presence had grown overpowering with the shadows of the chamber having pulled in his direction, and he reiterated to her, “Can you not see that, Sparky?”
“His escape? His siege upon Skies Edge?”
“Yes, Sparky. Yes.”
“Then, then we have a traitor, yai Emoor?”
“Heeeeh…” he pushed one of her white dreads out from her face and behind her ear before he answered, “… Yes, an invisible hand reaches out from within Aen’Goor on his behalf - Drake is smart and powerful, I will not sully his capabilities but not even he can accomplish what he has without an invisible hand betraying us.”
“Who, yai Emoor?” Dax softly asked as she rested her hand on his chest.
“I, I don’t know.”
“My, my, I never thought that I’d still be running to witness the anomaly reoccurrence that Master Theo would admit to not knowing!”
The shadows retracted back to their origin, Dax and Cortana both looked around in confusion, but Theo cracked a smile at the voice that was all too familiar to him and he chuckled, “Edmund?”
“Edmund?” Dax repeated her husband in a tone of disbelief as she spun back to him.
“Yes, Master Theo,” Edmund confirmed. “I’m afraid that it has been too long.”
Theo leisurely retook his throne. “What do we owe this pleasure to?”
“I feel obligated to warn the man who created me, even if I still do not bloody agree with what he has become.”
“Warn me?” Theo’s eyes narrowed and his head tilted slightly to the left as he asked, “Warn me about what?”
Edmund’s tone grew solemn as he proceeded to say, “He has returned to where it all began, Master Theo… and he’s not alone.”
“Where it all began?” Dax asked as her eyes moved around like she was searching for Edmund.
“Correct, your Highness.”
“He’s retrieved Tavvuk, hasn’t he?” Theo said without hesitation, which caused Dax’s attention to return to her husband with her eyes now growing large.
“Ah, there is the Master Theo that I know!”
“Tavvuk? The Last Titan?” Dax uttered while she subtly shook her head.
Though Theo ignored her as he pressed Edmund. “There’s another, isn’t there Edmund?”
“You already know the answer to your bloody question.”
“Who is it?”
“I can’t tell you that, Master Theo.”
“But you just did, Edmund.”
There was a brief silence before Edmund spoke with a dryness to his voice, “You know, there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t wish that I could’ve stopped you.”
“There was nothing you could have stopped, Edmund,” Theo confided.
“Heeeeh, I know and I’m bloody sorry, Master Theo. I am.”
“There’s nothing for you to be sorry for, old friend. Nothing.”
“Goodbye, my friend,” Edmund signed off with a deep and heavy silence falling over the throne room.
Cortana placed her hand over her mouth as she felt the sorrow that she could see in her father’s eyes while her mother’s lit up bright blue. Dax clenched her fists tightly with her chest expanding and then quickly contracting as she breathed heavily, and then shattering that silence, Dax screamed.
“NEAXU! She was to be an Envoy, NOT a traitor!”
Theo again rose from his throne as he walked to the edge of the platform where Dax was quick to grab him by the hand and turn him back toward her. She shook her head at him, saying now in a frantic, “No! W-what are you doing?”
“What I must,” he softly answered and she hugged him tightly, burying her head into his chest.
“You can’t, yai Emoor! Please! It’s a trap! It’s a trap!”
Theo closed his eyes for a brief moment before whispering, “When has that ever stopped me?”
North east of what was the United States
North America, Earth [planet], Sol [star system], Sector-0001, Aen’Goor [kingdom]
16 December; 12:33:21 Hours
Lightning cracked in the distance with thunder rumbling across the sky above as Drake stood at the top of the steps that led up to an old and ruined school. Drake looked down at Theo who stood just at the bottom as Theo slowly turned his gaze up to him with the rain pouring down upon them. Another bolt of lightning erupted but off beyond the school which cast Drake out in an ominous silhouette while only his glowing gold robotic eye remained. The tension that existed as the two locked eyes was itself enough to explode into its own charges of electricity when Theo broke the silence.
“Back here?” he assessed before chuckling, “Heh! Not exactly where I thought this would come to its end.”
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