Twilight of the Gods (Universe in Flames Book 8)

by Christian Kallias

  Sarah considered it, but with her entire family fighting for their lives, it felt wrong to do so. Plus she wasn’t yet persuaded that another incident wouldn’t still happen, so better not put the Hope’s crew in danger.

  “You’ve got another option?”

  I could try and take control of your body, use your powers, unless you feel like you can try on your own.

  She tried creating a fireball in her hand but nothing happened. She felt drained and unable to sense any powers she could use. One of the Furies stepped forward and cracked his knuckles.

  “Yeah that ship has sailed. Do what you have to do, but do it fast!”

  Sarah saw the Fury jump toward her with both his hands engulfed in fire, and as he got close, she felt a warm presence inside her mind and body before she lost control of her body.

  Ares took over and dodged the incoming attack from the first Fury, but the other two joined in the fight and Ares had trouble keeping them off of her.

  You’ve got to do better than this, said Sarah.

  Thanks for the vote of confidence; you didn’t exactly leave much juice for me to work with.

  Stop complaining and just get rid of these things.

  Would go a lot easier if you didn’t fight my hold over your body. Try and think of sleeping if you can.

  In a moment like this?

  Ares did his best to dodge and block most attacks, but he was getting overwhelmed.

  Unless you’d rather these guys kill you.

  Are those my only two options?

  I’m afraid at the moment they are.

  Sarah tried letting go of her hold on her mind and was surprised how quickly it fell into darkness.

  Now that Ares had full and unabridged control of Sarah’s body and mind, he started fighting back with more efficiency. He repelled one Fury with a powerful shockwave blast, blocked the incoming uppercut from the second, then turned around him and impaled the third with a beam of golden energy that left the Fury warrior with a smoldering hole in his chest, before collapsing to the ground.

  Ares didn’t understand how, but he seemed to be able to add energy from his form and combine it with Sarah’s energy, which he didn’t expect to happen, since she was pretty much drained. It bought Ares some time at least.

  The second Fury managed to get himself free and launched three powerful fireballs toward Ares. Ares teleported away from them one after the other and fired one back at his assailant. To Ares’ surprise, the Fury repelled it and sent it back toward him.

  Ares took the attack on the shoulder and was thrown to the ground. Before he could get back to his feet, four more Furies were on top of him, kicking the shit out of Sarah’s body.

  Hold on, son, heard Ares in his mind.

  Ares felt a powerful discharge of energy in the vicinity, and the kicks to his borrowed body stopped. He looked up and saw three Furies already dead, with lightning bolts still sizzling around their lifeless bodies, falling to the ground. And then he saw the look of utter shock and pain in the two that were standing the nearest to him. Each with a shining blue, electrified arm bursting through their thoraxes, as electricity jolted them from within.

  Zeus swiftly removed both his arms from the Furies’ thoraxes, and they collapsed to the ground with a satisfying thump.

  “Keep her body safe, Ares, we need to get rid of that ship.”

  Ares nodded. “Thanks, Father.”

  Zeus winked at Ares, which sent a cascade of shivers down his borrowed spine. Zeus then turned around and raised his hands toward the sky. Thick black clouds emerged out of nowhere and multiple lightning bolts kept hitting Zeus one after the other. His cyan-colored aura kept growing at exponential speed as more lightning bolts hit him at a faster rate.

  Ares knew how powerful his father was, but it was the first time he saw that much power emanate from him. Zeus’ eyes turned all white, his pupils disappearing, giving him an ominous look. When he spoke, his voice resonated all around. Ares felt every inflection of his father’s words tremble within Sarah’s body and organs.

  “Let’s finish this,” said Zeus. Massive and chaotically discharging lightning-bolt spheres were created in each of Zeus’ hands. He fired them both at the ship. The velocity at which they left his body was so strong that intense winds pushed Ares, causing him to skid on the dusty ground.

  Upon impact with the ship, the first lightning sphere took the shields out, and the second one passed through the massive destroyer as if it wasn’t there, promptly splitting it in half. All three repelling power beams then penetrated the ship’s hull and obliterated it into a million pieces.

  WHEN THEY SAW their comrades in arms dead and the ship explode, the Fury reinforcement turned tail and flew the other way.

  Multiple fireballs caught up with them and they exploded in the sky.

  Chase winced. “Was that truly necessary?”

  Argos dusted himself off and healed his side wound with what little energy he had left. He then pointed a finger toward Chase, “Don’t grow soft on me now, brother. They tried to kill us. We shouldn’t have pity for them.”

  Chase was too tired and drained to argue with Argos’ logic. He was happy enough to have him as an ally on the battlefield for days like these.

  Zeus and Sarah approached the rest of the group.

  “Impressive how you dealt with that destroyer,” said Chase.

  “If you hadn’t slowed it down first and taxed its shields, I couldn’t have dispatched it. This was a good team effort.”

  Chase looked at Sarah, but something was off. She didn’t seem like herself. Upon letting his consciousness extend to her, he felt a familiar energy from within her.

  “Ares?”

  “Right, I should probably give Sarah control back over her body. Even if it lasted only a few moments, it felt good being inside a body made of flesh and blood.”

  Sarah’s eyes closed and, soon after, a humanoid golden aura stepped out of her. When she opened her eyes, she could barely keep on her feet. Chase caught her and gave her some energy back.

  “Thanks,” she said, kissing Chase on the cheek.

  “It is us who should thank you; without your help we would probably all have perished here.”

  Chris ran next to his mother and clapped her shoulder twice. “Thanks for the save, Mom. That was awesome!”

  WHEN CHASE SAT on the Hope’s captain’s chair, the battle with the Fury fleet was nearly over. The Mjölnir took one of the last Fury super-destroyers out and the last three enemy ships, all heavily damaged, jumped into hyperspace and left Droxia’s orbit.

  “Incoming transmission,” said a member of the crew.

  “On screen,” answered Chase.

  Ronan’s face filled the holo-screen. Chase could see a smiling Ryonna behind him. There was something odd about her smile; it was one he had rarely seen on her face. When Ronan started speaking, he understood what hid behind the smile. A mother’s pride.

  “Acting Captain Isch’ys to Captain Athanatos. As the last remaining Droxian ship to have survived this dark day, I would like to extend my personal thanks, as well as my people’s, for saving our world once more. We are in your debt.”

  Chase got up from his chair and saluted Ronan.

  “Thank you, Captain; seems to me you played your part in this victory as well. Droxia was the first race to have joined the Earth Alliance. We never forget our allies and our friends. We will always be there for you when you need us. I’m sorry you lost so many people today.”

  “True, we have lost so much yet again. But thanks to the Alliance, we live to fight another day. This will only strengthen our resolve to defeat the Furies.”

  Chase could barely believe this was the same boy they had helped break out of Hellstar Prison. He seemed so much more mature now even though only one year had passed. He had seen a lot of fighting and experienced a few close calls. The fact that Ryonna was onboard his ship told Chase that they had faced one together not too long ago.

  “I’m
glad to hear it. We’ll dispatch help to treat the injured and repair the damages shortly.”

  “Thank you, Captain Athanatos. Isch’ys out.”

  The holo-screen turned off.

  Daniel, who had barely entered the bridge a moment ago, came and clapped Chase on the shoulder.

  “Was that Ronan?”

  “Yeah. I barely recognized him myself.”

  “He’s growing up fast.”

  “You can say that again.”

  “I think Cedric would like a word with you; something or another about bringing Spiros back.”

  “Right, I had almost forgotten about that. I’ll pass by Engineering soon.”

  “Are you actually okay having him and Gaia trying to resurrect Spiros? I thought we wanted to avoid anything that could backfire on us.”

  “I know how you feel, Daniel, but Spiros has given his life to save Earth, and Gaia deserves a chance to say goodbye.”

  “So you resigned yourself to wiping her matrix soon?”

  “Whether or not I give that order, I can tell you she will pull the trigger on her own if we don’t.”

  “Doesn’t exactly make it feel right though, after all she did for us.”

  Chase gazed momentarily outside the ship’s viewport at the scorched planet below before answering.

  “No, it doesn’t.”

  11

  Sarah was still shaking when Chase teleported her to their quarters.

  “Are you going to be alright, love?” inquired Chase.

  “I— I don’t know. I never expected developing powers of that magnitude.”

  “I’m sorry it frightens you, but you have to realize that you saved all our lives today, thanks to those powers. So perhaps there’s an unspoken message here.”

  “This time!”

  “The more you experience them, the easier it will be to get control of them.”

  “Chase, that’s just it, I’m not sure I want that.”

  “It’s the adrenaline talking. You’re stronger than you think you are. I know this about you.”

  Sarah smiled for a few seconds, but then her face melted into a frown.

  “What if I can’t control them, or worse, lose control? And we both know you can relate to that directly.”

  Chase’s face turned serious.

  “It’s a possibility. But I’ll be there all the way to help you get a grasp on the power growing in you.”

  “I have no doubt that you will do everything to help me. That’s not what terrifies me.”

  “What is it, then?”

  “What if I become not only a liability to you, Chris and perhaps even a ship this size?” said Sarah, letting an absent finger wave around the air. “What if I put thousands in danger, or even millions? What if I endanger my world even?”

  “Not gonna happen,” said Chase firmly.

  “You can’t be sure of that. Without some sort of confidence and belief you wouldn’t have prevailed; we both know you would have let Argos take us over. When you thought I was dead, you lost your drive and even your will to live.”

  She was, of course, quite right. And Chase could not deny it, and he sensed she wasn’t done making her point.

  “With all the good intentions you may have, you can’t guarantee with absolute certainty that one day I could very well become a threat, either to you or to an incalculable number of lives. Can you?”

  Nothing was certain. Not only to one life in particular, but it applied to the future as well. Aphroditis had explained to him that the actions of each and everyone living in the universe was actually creating reality, even if she had the ability to perceive more than one possible outcome from her abilities. The mere thought brought Chase’s mind back to the fact that Aphroditis was his aunt and that with every second that passed, she was suffering. He had to do something about it, but right now he needed to be there for Sarah.

  Chase shook his head.

  “I can’t. Not with absolute certainty.”

  “Then what do we do if that ever happens?”

  “What about using that idiom from your planet, ‘we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it’?”

  “Yeah, I have no doubt we will, but that won’t exactly give me peace of mind, now will it?”

  Chase thought he sensed something in her last statement and guessed where she was going with it. It was not something he wanted to tell Sarah out loud. In fact, he didn’t know if he was capable of telling her. Still, he owed it to her to not walk away from this talk, and to help her deal with fears he himself had to face not so long ago.

  “What is it you’d like us to do about it?”

  Her face relaxed a little.

  “I want you to promise me that if I ever become a threat, you’ll deal with it.”

  And there he was, faced with dealing with something he wasn’t willing to even tread on, much less promise anything on the subject. But then again he couldn’t patronize her either, he loved her too much for that. So Chase took a long deep breath and said these words he had hoped he would never have to say out loud.

  “Even though I’m confident it won’t come to that—”

  “Chase,” she interrupted.

  “Let me finish?”

  She nodded.

  “Even though we won’t let it come to that, if it comes to that point, I—” his eyes watered, “I will deal with it.”

  “Promise?”

  Chase flinched.

  Could he give his word? Could he be sure beforehand how he would deal with such a situation? Chase knew he couldn’t. And while he wouldn’t know for sure until that unlikely situation ever arose, he could do something now to help a frightened Sarah regain her confidence. And not keep that question hanging on her head while she dealt with her burgeoning powers. And so he did.

  “I promise you on our son’s life.”

  CHASE WENT to see Cedric in Engineering.

  “Argos told me about the clones.”

  “I hope you’re not upset I went ahead and asked him while you were away. I thought time was of the essence. We don’t exactly know how long Spiros’ consciousness can survive inside that tech we’ve saved him in. That and his soul. Have you seen Hades yet?”

  “That’s alright, Cedric, you did good.”

  Chase could tell from Cedric’s facial expression it was not the reaction he had expected from him.

  “And no, not yet,” Chase continued. “But he knows to keep Spiros’ soul in the Underworld until it’s time to try and resurrect him in that new clone body.”

  “Yeah, let’s hope this doesn’t turn out ugly, though. I’m still unsure we can really bring him back.”

  “I owe it to Gaia to at least try.”

  “She feels horrible; she’s been staying in one of the cargo bays. I think she’s too ashamed to be seen.”

  “That business with Gaia 2 wasn’t her fault. At least, she didn’t intend it to turn out that way.”

  “No, I know she didn’t, but at one point in time she decided to protect herself against us, and while it took us a while to trust her, we did get there and took a leap of faith in doing so.”

  “That’s not entirely true. We took steps to protect ourselves from her and since we didn’t have any ideal failsafe, we kept looking for one.”

  “Your point being?”

  “I’m not trying to make a point, Cedric. Just showing you that her involuntary action resulting into Gaia 2 turning against us is not any different than how we ourselves dealt with her emergence. It’s human nature, after all, the will to survive. Not to mention that if it hadn’t been for her alter ego’s vengeful return, we might not be standing here having this conversation.”

  Cedric chuckled.

  “What did I say that’s so funny?”

  “Nothing, and good job on not trying to make a point.”

  Chase smiled.

  GAIA WAS SCARED. Not of humans or Chase, but of herself. If at one point in time she had created such a vile duplicate of herself, without e
ver wanting to, what else could she become? Until it was time to be put down for good, she would stay hidden, alone, in her despair. The only thing inside her artificial consciousness that prevented her from putting an end to her own life was Spiros, or more precisely, the hope to see him again. At least one more time, so she could tell him how much she loved him.

  But had she the right to do this? She pondered the question for trillions of cycles. She was almost certain he felt the same for her. When he had tried to speak to her before he was gruesomely executed in front of her eyes, he had not managed to form comprehensible words, but Gaia knew she felt the emotional weight behind his intonations.

  So then, if she would kill herself once she had told him she loved him, did she have the right to impact his heart in such a way? She knew how she felt about losing him, so how could she impose that on him? Should she stay silent then? Just say goodbye? But was that option any better and less cruel?

  That’s all Gaia kept thinking in terms of the infinite loop inside her mind, at a speed thousands upon thousands of times faster than a human brain could function, and it was starting to take a toll on her.

  She got snatched away from these thoughts the moment the cargo bay doors split open.

  “Gaia?” said a familiar voice.

  It was Chase. She was ashamed of herself and would rather he went away, so she didn’t answer.

  “Gaia, are you in here?” he persisted.

  Then she realized he could provide her with a way out. A third option. One that wouldn’t allow her to ever see Spiros again but that could very well preserve him from heartbreak.

  She jumped from behind the cover of the large containers where she had sought her solitude and fired an energy-based fireball toward Chase’s face.

  Her attack hit Chase’s raised open hand and the energy was dissipated as if it was nothing.

  Chase’s entire face grew somber. “Gaia—? What are you doing?”

  There was no turning back, so she decided to let this play out and hope it was the right decision.

  “You really thought you could kill me that easily?” said Gaia doing her best imitation of her evil twin sister.