by Nathan Parks
“Yes, but it is either both or neither; and if we take Lano out of here right now, he could permanently be affected by Legion!”
“Ah . . . the great and mighty Leah!” Legion’s voice rang out. “You are also wise.”
Shadows and darkness rushed inward through the doorframe of the room in which Tori was as Legion took form in front of her. “You still have an option that will allow you to live, Alliance Leader!”
She stood trying to catch her breath. As he spoke, she noticed that the other segments of him were not fighting. They were standing still, and all were looking at her. “He can’t hold his form and fight at the same time!” she thought to herself. “He has to concentrate to pull himself into his manifestation because he is not all here.” She hoped that Zarius would realize this, also. This could give him a chance to rescue Lano. She had to make sure she kept Legion focused on her.
“I am no longer an Alliance leader, Legion.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Oh? Now, why is that? Too many losses for the precious Arch Council to look past?”
“No, it was by choice. I no longer had faith that they could find the best in humanity, and I could no longer stand by and watch your kind destroy that which I have sworn to protect!”
“To protect? Is that what you call it? Did you protect Joan? Have you protected Tori?” He nodded in the direction where Tori’s body lay. “It seems to me that it is you who can no longer do what is best for humanity.”
“Taunt me all you want,” she quipped. “I had to learn what Tori had to learn: I had to forgive myself. I have done that.”
Zarius was standing inside the room, holding Lano. The little boy was zombie-like. His eyes refused to blink, and there was no response to anything Zarius said to him. “For the sake of Jah and all that is good, please, please, come back to us!” he begged.
He felt a small body press up against him, and he looked to see Lada. She had crawled on her hands and knees past Leah and behind the other segments of Legion and came into the room very quietly. Zarius held his finger to his lips. “Shh . . . be quiet.”
“Is my brother ok?” She reached out and began to pet his head.
“I don’t know, Lada.”
“He will be ok. I know it.”
She bent down and gently kissed her brother on his forehead. “Lano, wake up.”
Zarius could not hold back the tears. They flowed like faucets that had been under a lot of pressure. His body shook silently as he held the young boy.
“Lano, I want to go home. Please, can we go home?” Her voice was quiet, soft, and loving. Her hand continued to caress her twin’s head.
“I’m afraid he isn’t coming back, Lada.”
“He is. We are going to go home together. I know, because I listened to Momma and never left Ms. Leah. I obeyed.”
Zarius leaned his head against Lada’s, his tears wetting her hair. “Yes, Little Girl, you did.”
Lada quietly and gently kissed Zarius’ cheek and then turned to her brother. She placed one hand on each side of his head. Words began to flow from her lips. They didn’t even sound as if they were coming from a little girl. They were words of ancient origin, words of power. “Teacht ar ais chugam, Dearthair. Teacht abhaile liomsa, Lano.”
Zarius sat back, unable to move or speak. Her words wove deeply into the fabric of Zarius’ being, and he sat in awe as Lano’s eyes began to blink. Even in the darkness, he could see color coming back into the boy's skin. Lano sat up and rubbed his eyes.
“Is the monster gone?”
There was only one response Zarius could think of at that moment. “Leah! NOW!”
Legion’s head snapped to the direction of Zarius’ voice. Leah grabbed her blade and, with a swift motion, cut a gash into the palm of her hand. Legion screamed out; and just as quickly as she was able to cut her palm, he vanished. Every segment around them rushed in on Zarius and the twins. The room was black as Lucifer’s soul!
◆◆◆
“Look at Leah’s hand!” Serenity yelled out.
The room where the group was sedated was chaos. There were bloody bandages on the floor and fresh ones that were being applied as quickly as the team could administer them to Zarius, Leah, and Tori. Serenity had been administering different medications to Tori as they watched her body convulse in agony. Her heart rate had spiked numerous times, and now Serenity had been doing everything she could to keep her from flatlining.
She had begged Gene to wake all of them up, and he had refused. He reminded her that everyone was aware of the risks of what was taking place and even the bigger risk if it was not successful. He had made it very clear that the only ones to be awakened were the twins, but only if he or Ann gave the order.
Gene looked over and saw that a cut had opened on the palm of Leah’s hand. “Wake the twins NOW!” he yelled.
Serenity threw a vial of medication to Ann who already was grabbing two syringes to inject the medication into the I.V. bags. Gene moved quickly over to where she was standing between her sleeping children. “Give me one! We have to get them awake!”
“What is going on?” Serenity was so confused. “Can someone help me with Leah, also? We need to bandage that cut.”
“It can wait!” Gene yelled back at her. “It was an agreement.”
“An agreement?”
Ann looked over at her as she finished injecting the bag of fluid for Lada. “We had agreed with Leah that if things became too much for the twins that she would give us a sign that would let us know to wake them up immediately.”
“The sign was to cut her hand?”
“Yes . . . more specifically her palm because, if she was fighting, that would be one area most unlikely for her to get cut.”
Both Lana and Lado’s bodies were ridged; and as the effects of the sedation wore off, both of them awoke suddenly, screaming, their eyes wide in terror. Ann put an arm around each of them as they hung on to her as if their life depended on it.
“The monster is not gone!” Lado was screaming.
“Help!” Lana screamed.
Coming out of such sedation was hard enough most times for an adult, but the young kids were very confused. They both focused on their mother and clung to her like baby cubs.
Gene grabbed some gauze and moved over to wrap Leah’s hand. “How is Tori doing, Serenity?”
There was no answer. He looked up and saw a look of deep concern and almost fear on Serenity’s face. “Serenity!”
She snapped back. “I’m sorry. I was responding in my head. I didn’t realize I wasn’t talking out loud.” She looked down at Tori and at all the bruising that had formed. There was blood that had crusted around her lips. Large gashes covered different portions of her body, and Serenity was doing everything she could to control the bleeding. Her breathing was very shallow, and Serenity had to keep looking at the monitors to see if the young woman was still alive.
“I am not sure what is going on, but she is not doing well at all. Should we wake her? I can’t do proper medical care if I don’t know what I am treating.”
“NO!” Gene stated emphatically. “They had to have made contact with Legion, and we could lose all of them if we wake them up at the wrong time!”
“Come on, Tori, stay with us!”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Ann checked over her children and could find no injuries, at least physically. They both started rattling off stories about weirdly-colored grass, creepy toys, a dark building with rooms and walls that would appear, and dark monsters that wanted to kill them.
“Lano left Ms. Leah, Momma,” Lada tattled on her brother.
“Nuh-uh, I did not.”
“You did! You left her, and the monster took you away!”
Ann’s eyes widened in horror. “Lano! You made me a promise!”
“The lady was friendly, Mom. She then became a really mean man. He told me he would kill me.”
She kept the tears inside as she gave her son a huge, protective hug. “
Thank you, Eden, for bringing my children back to me,” she whispered under her breath. Looking at Lano, she directed her instructions, “Momma has to help Mr. Gene and Ms. Serenity get everyone back, ok? You both stay in your chairs. You understand?”
They both affirmed that they understood, and then Lada spoke up. “Momma, Tori isn’t coming back, is she?”
Gene and Serenity looked up from what they were doing. They looked at each other, to Tori, and then to Lada. “She is, Sweetheart. Serenity is going to wake her up in a little bit.”
Lano shook his head. “No, I heard her screaming, Momma. She also told the monster that if he would let me go, she would let the monster take her.”
Ann looked over at the other two as she gave her children another hug. “We will see, Kids. Let me help Gene and Serenity.”
They each watched as their mother moved over to Tori. She bent down and kissed the teenager. “Thank you.”
“Lada?”
The little girl looked at her brother. “Yeah?”
“You didn’t have to tell Mom.”
“I know.”
Her brother flopped back in his seat and rolled his eyes. “Also, thank you for loving me.”
His sister smiled and looked down at her palms. “It can be a hard thing, sometimes.”
◆◆◆
He saw Tanisha in front of him, but he knew she was not there. She was calling out to him, pleading with him to return to her. He was trying to reach her, but he couldn’t. “Zarius, I am not ready to let you go. We still have so many dreams to chase together.”
“I know, My Love. I have no more strength. I am worn out. I am weary. I hurt.”
“I know you do but let me help carry you. Eternity is not yet for you or me. My Warrior, my Soulmate, the desert is calling us both back. Remember our home. Remember the love that has built it.”
“This is my time. I have done what has been asked of me. I am sorry that I have let you down, Sweetheart.”
She reached out to him. “You have let no one down, Love. You are braver beyond anyone I have ever known. You chose to live, and living takes courage. You chose to love me, even with all my flaws and my aging.”
Her voice was fading away . . . or was it that he was fading? “You have no flaws, Beautiful, and you never seem to age.”
There was nothing left to give. For ages, he had secretly longed for this moment . . . the moment where the end would come and everything would be complete. “Tanisha?”
Through the darkness, he could hear her. “Zarius, I love you. Come home.”
◆◆◆
Leah took advantage of Legion’s rush towards Zarius and the twins. She shoved her way through the mass of darkness, allowing her blades to find anything soft they could rip through as she reached the room where Tori was lying. She fought her way to her side. “Tori! I’m going to grab you; and if you have any strength at all, I need you to use it to hold onto me. I’m getting you out of here!”
Tori could hear Leah’s voice but could not see the Vapor. It was hard to see from the swelling around her eyes. She was struggling to speak and acknowledge that she had heard Leah’s instructions.
Leah grabbed Tori’s arm and tried to pull her up in a way that would allow her to get underneath the teenager. “Tori! I need you to help me. I can’t fight these damn things off and pick up your dead weight!”
There was no reaction or response to that statement. Leah slammed her boot into the demonic and twisted face of a segment of Legion. She was able to prop Tori up to where she could squat down and put her arm around Tori’s waist.
She looked at Tori and realized that she was a lot worse than what she had expected. The girl had taken a beating beyond anything that most could have handled. Blood was coming from everywhere and causing everything to be slippery and hard to hold onto. Her left arm was hanging limp and useless by her side.
Leah pulled out the metallic blue disk that she had checked before and firmly placed it in Tori’s right hand. She wrapped her fingers around it and placed her index finger through a small ring. “If we can’t make it, then I want you to pull your finger back. I don’t care how painful it is and I don’t care how much strength you don’t have. Trust me! It will be the last thing you will need to do.”
Leah grabbed a big handful of the young women's waistband and got underneath Tori’s arm. She tried to carry and drag her toward the door, at the same time feeling blows, bites, and cuts from a force determined to not let them get out.
“She is ours! You are ours!”
“Yeah, go to hell!”
They reached the hallway, and Leah couldn’t see Zarius from the onslaught he was going through. “Zarius!”
Tori barely could lift her head; but through her swollen eyes, she could see the fight that Zarius had on his hands. She tried to speak above the noise of the chaos, “He isn’t going to make it, Leah.”
Leah could not hear her. Tori felt a laceration across her lower back. Leah turned and with one swing they were splattered with the liquid of battle.
“Leah,” she was able to get it out a little louder, “I am sorry!”
“What did you say, Tori?”
Tori mustered every bit of energy that she had left within her shattered and broken body. She stood on her own and shoved Leah toward the doorway of the room where Zarius was being swarmed and attacked.
This caught the Vapor off guard, and she tripped over the creatures at her feet. As Tori shoved Leah, she herself fell backwards into the room that she had been pulled from. “Come get me, Legion!”
The dark figures all turned in unison and saw her lying inside. There was the sound of rushing wind as Legion once again manifested himself. This time, though, there was no other creature left. He had pulled every segment together and towered over Tori’s body.
He grabbed her right leg, pulling her further into the room. He stood over her, leering and drooling. “You have no idea how much more pain I can make you suffer, the madness I will bring to your existence.”
He knelt over her and grabbed her by a fist full of hair. He picked her head up and then slammed it down. Blood splattered as the back of her skull split open. He pulled her head back up and held her face-to-face with himself. “I will say, Tori, you took more than I ever thought you could take. You not only have taken everything I have thrown at you, but you managed to forgive. Too bad, it took you so long to figure it all out. You are stronger than you know; and if you had figured that out before, I would have never been able to take you over.”
She tried to open her eyes but could not. She could imagine him, though. She felt his body weight, and his breath was hot against her cheek. “Maybe I should have figured it out before . . .,” she fought to say, speaking every word with immense struggle and pain. “The truth is, Legion, it is never too late to change and never too late to forgive yourself. So, all you have done to me, I actually give back to you; and with that . . . I win!”
As she pulled her index finger straight, she felt the ring become free from the device that Leah had placed in her hand. She had nothing more.
She didn’t need anything more. She was free. She was free from bitterness, from self-loathing, from the feelings of being abandoned. She had freed herself from being a victim. There was no sound; just a bright light that overtook everything within the room. She felt her soul separate from the broken and torn shell in which she had resided.
◆◆◆
“NO! Come on, Tori! Come on!” Serenity kept her chest compressions going on the girl as she watched the monitor. “Gene, she is still flatlined!”
Gene rushed over while yelling for Ann to take the children out of the room. “Get Chad in here now!”
“1, 2, 3, 4, . . .” She could feel the crunching of the ribcage as she compressed down, but there was no response.
“Get the defibrillator. We need to shock her.”
Chad had heard Serenity’s orders as he ran in. He grabbed the crash cart and prepped it. “What is she doing o
n the floor?”
“We had to move her when her vitals crashed so I could do CPR.”
They made several attempts, but with each jolt of electricity, Tori’s body remained lifeless. Even in the bloody and bruised state her body was in, there was a peaceful expression on her face.
Serenity started screaming and rocking back and forth. “No! She was supposed to win! She was supposed to win!”
Chad wrapped his arms around her, holding her. She continued to rock back and forth, unable to control any of her emotions.
◆◆◆
Leah fell back against the wall. She couldn’t move; she couldn’t speak. She had heard the screams of Legion as the device had gone off in the other room. Her chest quickly rose and fell as she attempted to catch her breath. Her left hand rested on Zarius’ bleeding chest just to make sure he was still breathing.