by Lisa Eskra
The two guards turned and looked up when the second side of the hangar door started to open. Magnius concentrated enough to break her fall, coasting her to the floor like an angel descending from heaven. The man with the shotgun leveled his weapon at her and stood poised to fire. The door might be open, but they still had to get on the ship and last long enough to delve into hyperspace.
Magnius embraced the fury in his heart over how he'd been treated by these men. His eyes burned with fervor and before either of the guards had a chance to react, he channeled a powerful concussive blast into the man behind him. The force of the impact struck him so hard he sailed into the far bulkhead and was knocked unconscious from the raw power. In the same breath he threw the man with the shotgun across the room. He yelped as he cartwheeled into the darkness behind the ship and plunged headfirst through a monitor on the far wall.
He disregarded the soreness of his head and compelled himself to find Amii. Moonlight cast a peculiar glow on the hangar, and the bite of the frigid air became increasingly harder to stave off. She retrieved the shotgun that had fallen under the ship and hurried back to him.
She winced when she saw the cut on his head but kept her weapon at the ready. "Where's the third one?"
"There were only two. Let's get the hell out of here."
She put her arm around his shoulders and led him onto the Excalibur. After stumbling through the ship in her arms, she poured him into the aft chair. He watched her slide into the navigator's seat and belt herself in. "Hold onto something. The inertial suppressors are inoperable."
He grabbed onto a molded section of the interior hull and braced himself against it. He had done this before, long ago when the thought of inertial suppressors was the stuff of science fiction. Traveling this way felt much like flying aboard a plane in the Earth days of yesteryear: being pressed back in your seat as the craft accelerated or decelerated and the strong possibility of turbulence along the way. Most people became queasy at the mere suggestion of flying without inertial suppressors nowadays.
Amii pecked away at the console and the ship rose off the ground and through the hanger doors before proceeding forward. Its hover technology allowed it to glide over the contours of the land. He heard the deep burn of the engines and wondered how loud they sounded outside. On the display beside him, power usage spiked as the ship settled into its stride.
He closed his eyes and started to inhale when he felt a uniformed arm latch securely around his neck. Magnius froze and his heart threatened to beat its way out of his chest from panic.
After they'd returned from Xur, infatuation had lulled him into complacency, and now both of them might pay the ultimate price.
"Nowhere to run, Magnius," Tiyuri growled while he pinned Magnius' right arm behind his back in a hammerlock. He wrenched his shoulder as far as it would move without dislocating it. "You're coming with me whether you want to or not."
The iron bicep and forearm that snared him reduced his voice to a whisper. "That's where you're wrong."
"I've been looking for an excuse to hurt you. Give me one and I promise I'll enjoy it."
Without warning, he sprayed a canister of TRE into Magnius' eyes. Magnius tried to struggle but the vice grip tangled him. The substance was used as a deterrant in riot gear, and while it caused the victim mild discomfort, it rendered them legally blind for upwards of an hour. His limited range of motion hindered him from fighting back. Until the assassin decided to release him, he was trapped.
Tiyuri turned his head and directed his ire toward Amii. "Unless you want to die, you will fly this ship to Superbia."
She glanced toward them for a moment before returning to her display. Her fingers fluttered over the console in front of her. "Magnius, what's going on?"
"Don't do it, Amii," he gasped. The assassin tensed his hand and crushed Magnius' wrist to quiet him. He bit his lip to suppress his pain and felt more helpless than ever.
"You will do it," Tiyuri ordered her.
"If we don't make it to orbit, we won't be going anywhere," she said. "Half a dozen ships are after us."
"While you deal with them, here's something to emphasize my point." Tiyuri grabbed the arm he'd secured behind Magnius' back above his wrist and broke it. The audible snap echoed through the control room before he screamed in agony.
Magnius tried to double over, but Tiyuri forced him to remain upright and meet his pain headfirst. His eyes watered as cloudy prisms of light obscured his vision. The shock disoriented him, and it took several moments before he regained his bearings. He strained to breathe, but as his adrenaline surged, the pain faded to a dull ache.
In the window beyond the helm, the jagged mountains blurred from a sudden change in direction. The ship tipped sharply to starboard and both of them collapsed hard onto the floor. Tiyuri lost his stranglehold but not his determination. Before Magnius could catch his breath, the assassin stood above him with a wicked stare, grabbed his shirt, and hoisted him to his feet.
I may not win this round but I have to try, he thought.
Before he saw it coming, Magnius channeled his telekinetic power through his fist and nailed him with a wild left hook. Tiyuri staggered backward from the blow and brushed it off. Due to the fact he'd spent his formative years as a streetfighter in Vilacabamba, the assassin knew how to tolerate a great deal of pain. Magnius, on the other hand, ran from every fight he'd been confronted with in his life and it had served him well until today.
Being trapped aboard a spaceship was a dangerous place to manipulate telekinetic abilities. One stray thought could rupture the hull and kill them all. The control room had no loose objects hanging around to artfully impale him with. He could fling Tiyuri into the walls until the brute force rendered him unconscious, but the tumultuous movement of the ship made such a feat impossible.
The floor tilted from side to side as Tiyuri charged back into the fray. He battered Magnius left and right while they struggled to maintain their footing. In such an exposed state, he could do nothing to shield his broken arm from further anguish. Tiyuri did not hesitate to exploit that weakness. After sustaining a few punches to his throbbing arm, Magnius concentrated on protecting his weak side by anticipating the assassin's moves and nudging them off their intended target with his telekinesis. Between his focus and the turbulence of the ship, only one in five fists hit their intended mark.
Bit by bit, Tiyuri's face twisted into an animalistic snarl. "Why do you bother resisting me? Both of us know I will win in the end." The force behind his punches strengthened, as Magnius could attest to when he failed to deflect them and a shock of pain radiated through his arm.
From his position in the control room, he saw a valley of pure snow materialize in the window ahead of the ship. Lasers lashed the air as the ship maneuvered around them. The illumination of the falling snow made the Excalibur look like it was traveling a million times faster than the speed of light.
"I'm not afraid of you." Magnius retaliated with a punch of his own, which his opponent dodged and countered. The counterblow rattled his senses but he drew in a breath of air and recovered.
"A lie. I can see it in your eyes."
Tiyuri feinted with a flurry of jabs before hammering Magnius with an uppercut. The sheer power of the impact knocked him off his feet, and his head slammed into the nav console. When he opened his eyes, he saw Amii's stare meet his. Her contorted features were wrought with panic and concern. Whether it was for him or from their predicament, he couldn't say.
The ship turned hard to port, and Tiyuri skittered into the opposite bulkhead. Magnius drew a few labored breaths before he returned to his feet with his arm against a console to maintain his balance. The shriek of grinding metal scraped the lower hull. Quakes vibrated the floor one after another with sudden urgency from projectiles grazing the ship. Judging by the severity of the turns, the situation was dire, and he prayed to any God that was out there they'd make it through alive.
The assassin took a wide stance and lum
bered back toward him. The red glow of his eyes hid behind his dark pupils, making him resemble a demon incarnate. No one stood up to Tiyuri and won. The ones who tried died.
The giant redoubled his efforts when he grabbed Magnius and pushed him face first into the bulkhead to resume the assault. Not only were the punches stronger but also faster. One blurred into the next at an inhuman speed. The pain disoriented him, making it harder to evade those lead fists. His body began to ache and feel numb. He didn't know how much longer he'd be able to last.
"Hold onto something," Amii called out.
Magnius stared at the behemoth throttling him. Hold onto what?
The ship went into a barrel roll and took a hard left. The two of them collapsed to the floor again, rolling over the tops of one another before sliding toward the open doorway. Once their flight stabilized, Tiyuri climbed on top of him and held him down in a chokehold. Magnius gasped for air as his trachea was compressed. If he fell unconscious, Tiyuri would be free to manhandle Amii however he wanted to.
In an act of desperation, Magnius blasted him with a concussive burst. Tiyuri sailed through the door to the engine room and slammed into a chair near the center console. He pulled himself to his feet and wiped the blood from his mouth before staring at the red streak it left on his hand. His eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared as he transformed into the embodiment of hell.
"I may not be able to kill you, but I can kill your girlfriend."
Magnius shook his head. "She's the only one who can fly this ship."
"A bluff. And not a very good one."
"It's the truth!"
Tiyuri's sneer curled into a smirk. "It shouldn't take much to make her scream."
Fury bubbled over in Magnius' soul, and he charged Tiyuri before he considered the consequences. He pinned the assassin next to the console with his remaining psionic power and beat him repeatedly with his left fist. Fortified by madness, he punched his face over and over again despite the excruciating pain he was in. Tiyuri shut him out and weathered the storm with silent strength. Magnius lost feeling in his hand but the bloody prints his knuckles left on the side of his face brought him a great deal of satisfaction.
When his might began to falter, Tiyuri started to regenerate. The bloody and battered face healed before his eyes. Everything he'd worked toward erased in seconds. He'd successfully pissed off a sleeping dragon and now it was his turn to suffer.
Tiyuri grabbed Magnius' shoulders and he felt the headbutt moments before hitting the floor in a daze. In his disorientation a grapple ensued. Despite being spent and too sore to fight back, he writhed beneath the assassin's heaving body, clinging to consciousness with what little strength he had left.
"Amii, do something!" Magnius shouted.
"I'm kinda busy," she said.
A sudden burst of acceleration launched them toward the stars. Tiyuri braced himself on the console to keep from tumbling all the way to the cargo hold. The engines roared with fury as they passed escape velocity. From the angle of their ascent, they'd be in orbit soon.
After a minute, the struggle continued, each attempting to gain the upper hand. If it weren't for his blinding migraine, Magnius might've had a chance, but between the afterimages and his mosaic double vision, he had no hope of success. He could not match Tiyuri's strength or drive. Their arms crossed and tangled, but in the end Tiyuri forced him to his knees in a tight pin that made it painful to struggle.
"I'd knock you out but I want you to watch her suffer." Tiyuri's hot breath against his ear caused Magnius to shiver.
Within moments, he could no longer feel the vibration of the deckplates beneath them. They'd reached space, out of the grasp of the enemy they'd left behind and into the arms of a new one. Maybe Tiyuri is right, he thought. There is no way out.
"You've got me," Magnius pleaded. "Leave her out of this."
"You forfeited her life the moment you fought back. You should be more concerned about what's going to happen to you when we get home."
Magnius had thought about it. The prospect of death gave him all the incentive he needed to fight Tiyuri tooth and nail. He might've eluded the assassin before but not this time.
Amii darted through the doorway and gaped at them in shock. He was ashamed for failing her, for failing both of them. If Tiyuri thought for a moment Magnius would let him waltz over and kill her, he had another thing coming. With any luck the seed of doubt he'd planted would save her life.
He yanked Magnius to his feet and stayed out of her line-of-sight in case she had any ideas of a heroic rescue attempt. "You will fly this ship to Superbia," he ordered her.
"Amii," Magnius said, "do as he says."
"No." She crossed her arms in defiance.
Tiyuri curled his left arm around Magnius' throat. "How much pain are you willing to put him through in your selfish attempt to save yourself? I can torture him for days if I need to, more than enough time for us to reach Superbia."
"And when you get to Superbia? What becomes of me then?"
"Aliane will decide your fate."
"Aliane?" Amii repeated the name in a shaky voice that underscored the fear in her heart.
He hadn't wanted to divulge his past to her so he'd left it in the void of his mind. Even now, he couldn't bring himself to explain it. His former friend and mentor…his youthful illusions shattered. The garbled history he longed to forget all crashing down on him in this inglorious moment.
"You're taking us to Aliane? She's going to kill us both!" She began to tremble with panic, and her shallow breathing revealed a sense of terror he'd never seen in her. "I won't help you. I will not deliver us to that butcher!"
"Oh, you will." Tiyuri unsheathed a four-inch blade from his back pocket and held it in front of them. Magnius recalled seeing the sculpted white knife as a boy. Its iridescent edge could cut through bone like butter. It scared him as much now as it had then. "How much of his agony will it take for you to change your mind?"
Before he had a chance to protest, Tiyuri plunged it into Magnius' stomach. A sense of warmth spread across his abdomen while shock suppressed his agony. When the assassin twisted the blade in his gut, the exquisite pain overwhelmed him. The bloodstain on his shirt grew like a giant amoeba threatening to swallow him whole. Magnius panted and cried but Tiyuri did not relent.
Amii covered her mouth with her hands in horror as she watched the sight unfold. "Stop it!"
"Set a course for Superbia. Only then will I remove my blade."
"Alright! I'll do it. But I'm not moving until I know he's going to be okay. And do it quick. We don't have much time until AC reinforcements arrive."
Tiyuri sighed impatiently. "Very well."
He slid his hand under Magnius' shirt and placed it against his back. Warmth flowed into his body as the psionic energy manifested itself. Tiyuri extended his astounding psychometabolism to stabilize the abdominal wound. With the heightened awareness of body it imparted to him, Magnius felt his cells dividing and knitting back together in spite of the knife that cut right through him. Even his arm tingled from the wave of healing. A moment later the psionic force subsided without repairing all the damage.
"The bleeding has stopped," Tiyuri said. "Do it now before I change my mind."
She nodded to the center console of the engine room. "I can use this terminal."
Tiyuri relaxed his grip on Magnius and moved to the starboard side of the ship, careful to keep his hostage between them at all times. He figured the assassin would tie both of them up and stick them in separate rooms to ride out the trip to Superbia. It could be the last time the two saw one another.
Amii approached the circular console. She hung her head and drew in an uneasy breath while she tapped the buttons underneath her. After a moment's pause, perhaps to contemplate their sorry luck, she licked her lips and continued.
Before he had a chance to blink, he felt the two of them smash into the aft bulkhead. The cushion of Tiyuri's body kept him from being knocked out. A second
earlier the floor shot out from underneath them when the Excalibur dove into hyperspace. The incredible g-force pinned them in place, and they weathered the worst of it under threat of blackout. The colors in the room lost saturation and lightheadedness set in.
Amii had been prepared for the velocity jump but even she underestimated its power. She clung to one of the chairs before losing her grip and rolling to the aft wall near them. On impact, Tiyuri lost his grip on the knife, which sailed to the other side of the room and rolled into the far corner. The white sheen of the blade caught her attention, and she inched herself toward it as the force continued to hold them down. Tiyuri pushed Magnius aside and clamped onto her ankle to maintain control of the situation. He only needed to contain them for a minute before the acceleration would diminish and his dominance would be restored.
Using her other leg, she smashed their captor in his face. Tiyuri grimaced but did not relent. He dug his fingers deep into her skin, which caused her to yelp. Before her leg met the same fate his arm did, Magnius grabbed onto the brute and clawed his way over his back to pin him. Tiyuri thrashed to free himself, and when Amii kicked him in the face again, he released his hold on her.
With the full brunt of Tiyuri's attention back on Magnius, the assassin rammed his backside into the bulkhead. The impact knocked the wind out of him, but he could not let go. Each second he held out put Amii closer to her goal so he forced himself to endure the trauma. After three collisions with the hard metal, Magnius' resurgent strength left him and he released his grasp in newfound anguish.
Once free, Tiyuri lunged for Amii like a starving lion. Before she reached the knife, he grabbed her waist and rammed her headfirst into the adjacent console. She stumbled and sunk to the floor as he reached his blade and clutched it in triumph.
But his victory was short-lived. Amii reached into her jacket and pulled out her disruptor. Three gunshots rang out in quick succession. The throaty blast of the weapon deafened all of them. Tiyuri slumped backward, clutching his bloodied shoulder and hitting the floor in an unconscious heap.