“There are hundreds here!” Noata yells.
“Unlike your planet some worlds have the power to fight back, these stop that from happening.”
Noata glances at Wilker.
“It’s sad, the Astrons have perfected their process while we are left with this mess,” the Overseer says. It’s weird, he doesn’t show any hint of emotion as he rest his hand on the angel.
“I guess you’re not gods after all. You’re just like us,” Wilker says.
“I have touched the face of god, the face of the sky, only to learn that god was not there. There was no god or gods, only the stars themselves, resting eternally in their senseless bewilderment,” the Overseer states.
There is a ding. The overseer steps back.
“We are not gods, we are mortal like the rest of humanity. How can you blames us for attempting to be something more?” the Overseer asks.
The platform the angels lies upon moves. The legs snap together, the tops of the Y snaps into a T shape. The Overseer turns to Noata and Wilker.
“Don’t you have a species to save? We designed this ship to move on its own accord. It’s going to launch soon.”
“Shit!” Wilker screams as he runs out. They have an important mission to do.
“What do you gain by helping us?” Noata asks.
“I’m not helping you. We are all not as loyal to Leif as the bottom feeders. My loyalty falls to anyone who can save us from the Three.” The Overseer stares into the Angel’s eyes.
“The three what?”
“This ship is a fine beast. I hope you’re up for the challenge.”
“Noata! For fuck sakes!” Wilkers yells echoes through the door. Noata for the door. Looking back he sees the Overseer disappointed face staring toward the ones who failed to become gods.
Wilker and Noata run into the cockpit of the Starkiller. It’s a small curvilinear room. Hundreds of buttons and levers are on the walls besides them with a single seat in front of them. There are no windows or glass, just a cream-colored blank round wall in front of them.
“Finally,” Noata mutters as he catches his breath. “We can control the ship from here, we could also control it from the bridge but here is fine.”
“I’m surprised the Eliite don’t have us strung up by our ankles by now seeing how you decided to lollygag your way over here and enjoyed a nice slow chat with the enemy. Now stop bloody talking and pilot the god-damn ship,” Wilker says.
Noata sneers at him but walks forward anyways.
Why does he want him to pilot it? Maybe Wilker doesn’t know how. Noata thought it was going to be easier, but everything looks so complex. But as Noata approaches it, he starts to glow, the buttons and levers start to make sense.
“It’s weird,” Noata says.
His glow expands and engulfs the entire cockpit. Wilker just stands back and smirks.
“It’s like I’ve been here before”
He sits in the seat, the room comes alive, the cockpit beeps and boops as the buttons and levers light up.
“That’s because you’re like me, you have the power to understand. You can pilot this and so can I, I just rather not get my hands dirty,” Wilker states.
“I can control it, I know everything, the controls, the engines, and how and why they work.”
The floors and seat under Noata and Wilker descends into nothingness, as they float, the door disappears. The room glows white. A display pops up around Noata, it curves in a 180 degree arc around him, controls project directly in front of him.
The display shows what’s in front of the ship. The bay doors open. Wilker floats behind him. An information display appears in front of him. Noata moves his hands out, the ships movement controls projects into his hands as a touchable light.
He is one with the ship.
He thrust his hands forward.
And the Starkiller rockets out of the bay.
---
“A game?” Cole asks.
Cole just stares at Julio. How is Leif controlling him? Is Jahum controlling him the same way?
“You start to fancy such things when you’ve seen everything. Do you know why this ship is called the Skyeater?”
Cole doesn’t answer, he doesn’t want to do anything anymore.
“It’s because we absorb planets atmospheres and use it as our own.” Leif walks back to his throne and sits on it. He leans back leisurely like a bored king watching a boring game.
“Your friend here doesn’t have a single memory, he’s mine to control. If you are able to kill your friend in the next…” Leif glances down on his empty city.
“Five minutes, I will not completely desolate your planet and your love.” Thora lies as still as a rabbit on the floor.
Can Cole do it?
Unlike Cole’s past, Julio’s wasn’t completely clouded, Leif knows he and Cole had an intimate connection. A connection that made Cole who he is today. So he’s going to use it.
Many of the thousands of television and display screens on the Skyeater light up. Almost every Serephin from adults to kids to street walkers and even the garbage men watch the event of the lifetime on their respective screen. It’s the show of the hour, Cole vs the Numenwolfe.
The screens show various angles of Cole, Julio and Leif, they can pick and choose the best angle to capture the best view of the action. It’s just like a game show, they watch for Cole’s impossible odds and even the betting kind of man can make a bet or two against Leif.
“So what’s it going to be?” Julio says. He sounds exactly the same, he has the same fucking smirk he always has.
But it can’t be?
Julio is dead.
It’s just a clone.
He can’t take this, he doesn’t know anymore what’s real and what’s not, who is telling the truth or not. If that really is Julio or not. Yet despite all that. He knows this Julio is a fake, as real as a fake can be.
Julio is dead.
Erin, Arnold, and his mother are all dead. Even if Leif is a god he doesn’t have the power to bring back a conscious mind from the grave.
That isn’t Julio, it’s a shell.
A lie.
Cole clutches his blue fist.
“That’s if you can stay in this physical world long enough, do we have an agreement?” Leif continues. Cole’s veins pop out of his vascular translucent hands.
He’s angry, how dare Leif do this to him? Take his dearest of friends, the friend who propped him up when he was down, propelled him forward and deface his fucking body, spitting on his fucking image.
He’s going to pay for this.
And so will Jahum.
He’s going to kill them and this imposter.
“Deal,” Cole says through his baby blue teeth. Cole explodes forward in a burst of energy in front of him.
Shit.
Julio disappears and appears in front of him. Julio swings his fist straight into his crystal jaw.
Cole staggers.
Cole forgot his situation, his little burst cost him to much energy, energy he isn’t going to get back. The hit from Julio felt like he hit a part of him off that he’s never going to get back.
He has to end this fast. Cole strikes back.
Clink! He’s stopped by Julio’s shield, Julio smiles and strikes again. Cole flies back, slightly more translucent than before.
---
In the Starkiller’s cockpit, Noata finally makes it to the middle of the whale of the mother ship.
“Do you think were close enough?”
“Just hit the damn button, mister one with the ship,” Wilker says. Noata push a button on the light console.
Everywhere on the Skyeater, in cages, in pet houses, herding farms, in zoos, humans, one by one, disappear in a flash of light. A little girl in an exhibit watches as her mom disappear in a flash, before she can utter a scream, she disappears next. In the same enclosure on a hill, Bermea watches as the two disappear. Kelly lies asleep on his shoulder. Before Bermea can react he
disappears in a poof and before Kelly’s head hits the ground, she disappears as well.
---
Wilker floats toward Noata in the cockpit, the controls go translucent as he passes through.
“Noata! We need to hurry. I intercepted a transmission saying the Eliite will destroy Earth in under three minutes. It’s now or never.”
Noata moves his hand, a part of the control panel pops in front of each. He can mentally control each piece. A counter is on it. It numbers shoot up, it passes one million, then only a few seconds later two million.
“I need just a little more time!”
---
Julio flies toward Cole, they go hit for hit. Cole swings and Julio blocks it with his force field and hits back.
Hard.
Julio does this again and again. Cole gets angry, flustered. Julio fights with no human instinct or caution to hold him back. Each time Cole is hit a piece of him disappears.
Cole comes for Julio, angry that he’s losing, pissed that nothing ever goes his way. Mad, that he was lied too, and bitter that he doesn’t know what is real or not.
Julio disappears. Cole stops, he can’t find him.
“Cole, it’s going to be okay,” Julio’s voice says in a familiar tone. Cole’s guard slips. A foot slams into Cole’s face and flings him back. He skids on the floor and catches himself.
“Fuck!”
Cole’s jaw clinches, his mouth starts to snarl. Julio is toying with him.
This is bullshit.
Fuck him and this world. Why? Why can they fuck with him? Why do they have that right? What gives them that power? Leif doesn’t have a right to his friend.
Nobody does.
Cole swings out his hands. He winces. Come on! He can do it.
He focuses all his power into his hand. Two of his spheres spark to life. Instantly, his skin turns to glass, like a light blue panel of glass against the sky.
He used too much energy but with this it should be enough. Cole looks at Leif, he looks disinterested.
He hurls one of his spheres at Julio. His force field blocks it. Cole moves fast, he leaps in front of him and swings at his head. Another force field pops up and encases his arm.
“What!” Cole mutters. Julio kicks him hard. Cole flies back without a portion of his right arm.
---
A countdown timer hits just under one minute on displays around the Skyeater. Serephins cheer and holler. It’s the most fun they’ve had in a while.
---
“Activate it!” Wilker yells at Noata. Noata looks at a button on the panel in the Starkillers cockpit.
“NO! We need more time!” Noata pleads. The ticker passes twenty-three million.
“There will be no Earth to go back to. Now hit the fucking button!”
---
Cole slowly gets to his feet, he looks at his arm. He’s so far gone he’s not feeling any pain. There is no blood coming from his stump. He’s starting to blend in with the sky, he’s just a ghost fighting against an unjust god.
“Looks like your night sky is empty Cole,” Leif mutters.
A breeze can blow Cole away. Cole looks at his hand.
“You’re wrong,” Cole says. Even though he knows he’s not. Cole looks at Julio, who stands like his father did all those years ago. Like the very person who created the head case he is right now. He’s not sure if what he is about to say is true, but he wants it to be true.
Even if what he wants was constructed by Jahum. Even if it was all a lie. He wants to fight for himself til the end, at least once. To deny them the satisfaction.
Fuck Leif and fuck the gods. He’s going to go down kicking.
“As long as the ones I love, live, I will always have a shining star in my night.” He looks at Thora, she awake now, fully aware, she stares back at him with her blood shot eyes.
He has to save them.
“I’m sorry, Julio, Thora.” Even if it kills him, for once, he knows what to do, how to make his death worth it.
Cole runs toward Julio, and Julio runs toward Cole. Cole suddenly stops, Julio doesn’t. He can feel them now, out there watching him as he power leaves him.
The stars.
He hopes they can feel his anger.
Cole’s arm is in the air, a single sphere, his last ounce of power, hovers in it.
He screams.
---
“Hit it now!” Wilker yells. The ticker in the cockpit passes twenty five million. Noata slams his eyes shut.
“I’m sorry everyone.” Noata hits the button.
Hundreds of small blotch like circles appear on the paint of the Starkiller. Hundreds of sun-like spheres appear over the circles and erupt off and over the city. They expand to twenty times their original size and hail on both sides of the Skyeater.
---
Time slows for Cole, he powers everything he has into his final sphere. All his power, all his anger, all his hate, disgust, all his fucking problems and with all the love he’s ever had. He screams as he grows bluer.
All his last happiness, agitation, desire, joy, sadness, emptiness, all his anger of the world is pouring out of him, and all the despair and the last and only ounce of hope he’s ever has in this world.
Cole screams so hard it pierces the air as if he’s going to break himself and a part of reality apart. Julio speeds forward.
In the one second before he hits, Cole’s world blows away. He’s covered in darkness and small shimmers of light.
He’s surrounded by the stars.
But hardly surrounded as they are only dots on the black. So fucking distant but the closet he’s ever been to anything. He can feel their warmth in his bones, in every ounce of his body and skin, just small tingles of power, laughing at him, giving him a taste he cannot fulfill.
He wants their power, he needs their power, to fight, to change reality itself, he needs to. Why do they get to be so distant from us, so far away, yet close enough for him to see and feel? What gives them the right to avoid our problems, laughing in the night sky, why do they get to shimmer without worry?
Why?
A tear falls from Cole’s eye.
They don’t.
That right is mine and mine alone to command. It is my power.
I speak to the stars, I command them, their power is mine. They will feel my worry, they will feel our pain, the anguish of my world, the worries of my humanity, and the pain of our lives.
They will be worriless no more.
The stars are mine.
The twinkles get bigger as Cole reaches out in anger, pulling apart reality itself, his eyes become cloudy with tears as he pulls them in anger.
He will not be alone anymore.
The twinkles turn into sparkles, the sparkles into shimmers, the shimmers turn into spheres. The spheres get bigger and bigger.
All the stars converge onto him. They get big enough to encompass the darkness. The darkness he was running away from. He has nothing to be afraid of anymore.
He commanded.
And they came.
The stars engulf him until he only sees white.
He can control the stars.
He blinks, he’s back in reality. The sphere he holds grows ten times as big, it spins faster and faster, tearing against the wind, breaking through reality, blaring like a siren.
Cole’s arm starts to tear, he screams, the power is immense.
Leif jumps up, shock on his face. Cole looks at Julio, time has seemed to slow around him. His power warping time itself. His arm is pulled into the sphere, getting torn apart from reality.
No.
He screams again.
It doesn’t control him.
He controls it.
Cole breaks past the limitations of reality.
Two-ten foot long energy wings burst out of Cole’s back. The wings of an agitated angel.
“No!” Leif yells.
It’s impossible!
Cole’s skin appears whole again, glowing gold. The w
ings are what keeps him in this world. Leif flies toward Cole. Cole screams as he swings down on Julio’s head.
The sphere drills into Julio. It rips through his body and into the floor. As it hits the floor, reality seems to come apart. The color explodes back, ripped from reality itself, until only blackness is left as the sphere explodes through the floor.
---
Spheres explode and rain over the city, screams and yells are heard all over. The top halve of the Skyeater cracks and explodes, the gravity and stability of the star suddenly disappears. It hails past the star and falls onto the other side. Millions of Serephins rain down.
The star shudder, like a skip in reality, the bottom cracks open. Thora falls out and Cole falls after her. His wings are gone, his skin is translucent again, his sudden burst of disgusting energy gone.
His time on this plane of existence is short, next is death. He has only seconds left.
But as soon as he transformed back to his lesser self, he remembered everything. He remembered the thoughts that Jahum constructed in his mind.
The lies.
He never wanted to live, all his reasoning was a fabrication, the points in his life that he held onto.
His life was real, but the points he clung to to move forward were not. Thora reaches for him.
Thora was that point. He reaches out besides his current self.
It’s not his current self that reaches out, it’s a twenty year older self, their minds meld together, as his body leaves, another tries to take its place.
He remembers like it happened just the day before, even though it’s happening this very moment.
Cole is just a blur, losing his form, trying to catch her.
The feeling of power was great.
Thora reaches for him as they slowly close the gap.
He missed the thrill of the wind caressing his body, splitting apart the clouds as he flies at ten times the speeds of sound.
The Skyeater and the world explodes around them. The height of Serephin might coming down around them.
In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater Page 35