by James Phelan
Who said that? Solaris’ guard, Holt?
But Holt was lying prone on the ground—someone had taken care of him while Sam had taken on Solaris.
Then who?
From among the last 13, who all stumbled forward, another pushed to the front.
“I said, get away from him!”
Dr. Dark stood before Sam, a gun pointed at Sam’s head.
What?
“Are you kidding?” Sam stammered. “What are you doing? I need the key. Maybe we can still fix what Solaris has done.”
“I know,” Dr. Dark said, still moving forward, now nudging Sam away with his gun, standing next to Solaris as he lay bleeding on the floor. He reached down and pulled the key from Solaris’ grasp. “He has done well, but alas I think his time has come. Mine, however, is just beginning.”
“Dark?” The Professor came forward, leaning on Eva as everyone tried to fight through their fears to comprehend what was happening.
“Spare me the high ground, Professor,” Dr. Dark said. “I don’t need to listen to your moralizing lectures anymore. Just stand there and accept that you’ve lost. All this time you were all concentrating so hard on beating Solaris, you never stopped to consider who the real enemy was.”
“Dad?” It was Xavier, coming closer with Arianna, his face ashen with fear, but now with something else. “What are you—how can you be …?” He was lost for words in the face of such inconceivable betrayal.
“Xavier … perhaps my one regret was you. I didn’t know you’d end up being one of the 13. That was a complete surprise.” His face clouded for a moment. “So you see, I never thought you’d be here at the end, at the Gate.”
“Are you saying you’re on his side? That you have been all along?” Xavier stammered.
“More like he’s been on my side,” Dr. Dark smirked. “A useful puppet to be sure, vicious and unrelenting.” He turned to look at Solaris. “I am sorry that you won’t live to see our vision realized.”
Solaris gasped, pulling at the mask. The Professor came forward, ignoring Dr. Dark and his gun as he knelt down next to Solaris. Carefully, he pulled off the mask, everyone gasping audibly at the shock of seeing Sebastian’s face once more. Jedi made to come forward too, but checked himself. Lora could only look away as he lay dying.
“Don’t give me your pity,” Sebastian said, “don’t you dare.” His eyes narrowed, glancing around them. “You deserve what’s coming, all of you. Now you’ll know what it’s like to have your worst nightmare come true, to live without hope and feel lost—forever.”
“How can you say that?” the Professor said, shocked. “I know losing your mother changed you, made you hate the world. But this is not the way. You cannot answer darkness by pulling others into it, you have to step out into the light.”
“But I didn’t want to,” Sebastian muttered, “I liked the darkness.” His body was racked with spasms as he fell from the Professor’s arms and slumped to the ground.
Sebastian—Solaris—was dead.
In the stunned silence, all eyes turned to Dr. Dark, who clutched his gun tighter. The key swung from his grip, tantalizingly close.
“I don’t understand,” Xavier said, moving toward his father as he circled around them all. “Everything you’ve ever taught me, that you’ve believed in and stood for. My whole life—it’s been a lie? All your work, research … and Ahmed? He died trying to get here, trying to help us!”
“There’s no need to be melodramatic,” Dr. Dark said. “Children never really know their parents. Consider this a rare insight. And don’t lose any sleep over Kader, he was in it up to his neck. He worked for me, he knew exactly what I was planning and it’s all just—”
“Shut up!” Xavier screamed. “Don’t talk like it doesn’t matter. This is the whole world you’re talking about! Look around you!” He gestured wildly to the others, all struggling to ignore the terrors of their nightmares.
Sam edged nearer, hoping Dr. Dark’s attention on Xavier would give him enough of a moment to attack. But Dr. Dark was hyper-alert, swinging around to keep everyone in sight.
Damn! How do we get that key?
As if reading his mind, Xavier walked purposefully toward his father, one hand outstretched. “Give me the key.”
“Stay back, Xavier,” Dr. Dark said, “don’t think I won’t do it.”
“Give me the key,” Xavier said again.
“Get back!”
“No!” Xavier reached for the key.
A single shot rang out.
33
Dr. Dark’s warning shot skimmed the edge of the roof and ricocheted into the night, Xavier skidding to his side, disbelief on his face. But the distraction was all Sam needed. He snatched the key from Dr. Dark’s grasp, turning to run to the centre of the floor, his eyes focused only on the pedestal.
“I’ll shoot you, Sam!” Dr. Dark roared, firing another shot into the night as he came after him. “Just remember, you don’t know me at all.”
The threat stopped Sam cold, just an arm’s length from the pedestal. He turned to face Dr. Dark, seeing Jedi and Lora edging closer to him, Shiva joining them.
Would he really kill me?
Do I have any choice but to take that chance?
“I have to do it,” Sam said slowly. “If it’s my destiny to die for the world, then so be it.” He took another step, his eyes still on Dr. Dark.
“Give me back that key,” Dr. Dark said, his voice now low and vicious. “Or I’ll kill everyone here, believe me.”
“Then you start with me,” Eva said, stepping in front of Sam.
“And me,” Alex said, joining her.
“Please, no,” Sam said, urging them to move aside. “It just has to be me, don’t do this.”
“We’re in this together,” Eva said, her teeth gritted as she took Alex’s hand. Rapha and Zara were moving toward them, Maria, Poh and Issey stepping forward to block Dr. Dark’s path to Sam.
“You’re all willing to die for him?” Dr. Dark was incredulous. “Don’t be stupid.”
Cody and Gabriella stood firm with them, holding each other’s arms and forcing themselves not to flinch from Dr. Dark’s gun.
“GIVE ME THAT KEY!” Dr. Dark screamed, veins popping out on his forehead as his rage consumed him.
Xavier came in front of them all. “You’ll have to start with me,” he said.
“Have it your way.”
Xavier closed his eyes as his father pulled the trigger, but it was Arianna who took the bullet, pushing Xavier out of the way. “No!” she cried as she slumped to the ground.
“Arianna!”
And in that moment, time seemed to speed up in front of Sam’s eyes. Lora was sprinting, jack-knifing into Dr. Dark as another shot rang out, the two of them crashing to the ground. But Dr. Dark was up from under her immediately, kicking her viciously as Cody slammed into him with a war cry, Eva on top of them. There was a flurry of arms and legs as others piled into the fight, finally using their numbers to overwhelm him.
Sam saw the gun skid across the floor, the Professor stooping to pick it up, throwing it into the now raging waters below.
And then there was Arianna. She lay on the floor, blood blooming over her chest like a deadly crimson flower. Maria and Issey held her tenderly. Sam rushed over, kneeling to take her hand in his. But it was already cold. Her eyes were closed, her body still.
“She’s gone,” Issey said, tears in his eyes.
I don’t believe it.
Sam’s mind refused to grasp the idea that someone so strong, so full of life and fight, could no longer be alive.
She was here just a moment ago …
“Sam,” Issey said, grasping Sam’s arm, “you finish this now, you do it for her, you do it for us all.”
Sam turned to see the others had wrestled Dr. Dark upright, pinning his arms back as he struggled against them.
“Look what you did,” Dr. Dark spat out, “you let that girl die for you. You coward.”
“DARK!” Sam launched himself at his tormentor, ripping him from everyone’s grasp, grappling with him as they slid across the crystal floor. Sam attacked him again and again, the strain of all the days of running, fighting, fearing for his life, for the lives of others—the weight of the prophecy, the burden of knowing he was the one who must save the world—pouring out of him in one terrible moment.
“Sam!” Rapha and Alex were pulling him off Dr. Dark. “Sam, stop!”
A grinding noise echoed in the air, vibrating through the floor itself. Sam hesitated, even as he still had Dr. Dark in his grasp, his knees holding him down.
Dr. Dark pulled his bloodied face closer to Sam, sneering. He nodded toward the pedestal, “Time’s up, Sam,” he laughed. “You lose.”
Sam turned to see the pedestal was turning back the other way, going back into the floor.
No!
Sam pulled away, desperate to use the key before it was too late.
But Dr. Dark had one last trick to play. Grabbing Sam squarely with both hands, he rolled them both over the edge of the platform, plunging them toward the violent waters below.
34
“Hold on!”
Xavier clung to Sam’s wrists as he dangled over the edge of the platform. Dr. Dark was just below Sam, his hands grasping at the tower’s wall, his feet finding purchase on a tiny ledge.
“I’ve got you, Sam,” Xavier called out.
Sam could see Alex and Lora’s hands reaching out to help him, pulling him slowly upward as his arms tensed in agony.
I have to make it … the key …
Sam could see the red glow from the crystal floor above casting an eerie light behind his friends as they looked down at him. The fire dancing before his eyes was so intense, he almost couldn’t see. His mind was screaming as much as his arms were and he knew the world was on a nightmare path that only he could stop.
With superhuman effort, Sam pushed himself upward into their waiting arms, their faces speaking of the terrible unseen pain behind their eyes. He flung his arm over the edge onto the floor, Alex grabbing him by the waist and pulling him over until he lay flat on his back, panting for breath.
Sam looked up at anguished faces. “Thanks,” he whispered. He turned his head to see that Xavier was crouched over the edge, reaching for his father. Sam scrambled to his feet, the others gathered around Xavier.
Xavier had his arm stretched out to his father as Shiva and Cody held onto him for counterbalance. “Please, Dad, it’s never too late. Take my hand.”
Dr. Dark’s bloodstained grimace made him almost unrecognizable. “It is too late, son. For me, you, for everyone. You should step up, take your place in my stead. Rule the world. Don’t leave it to weaklings like Sam.”
“But, that isn’t even … I don’t understand why you did this,” Xavier said.
“You’re stronger than you think,” he said. “You’re a Dark, just like me, don’t forget that.”
“I’m nothing like you,” Xavier said defiantly, even as reluctant tears streamed down his face.
The scowl on Dr. Dark’s face finally dissolved, replaced by a strange expression.
Fear, maybe … not regret.
“Goodbye, Xavier,” Dr. Dark said. He let go, plunging down without even a scream to disappear in the restless torrents beneath them.
Xavier gasped and turned away, Zara rushed forward to embrace him.
“Sam,” Jedi said, grasping his arm. “We’re out of time.”
“I know,” Sam said. He forced himself to turn away from his friend’s grief, sprinting to the pedestal which had almost sunk back into the glowering floor. The stonework itself was crumbling, falling apart.
It’s self-destructing. You open the Gate and that’s it.
One chance only.
But I’ve still got the key.
With shaking hands, Sam grasped the key, holding it up to use it one last time. With his nerves jangling, he slotted it carefully into the pedestal, the dust dancing on top as it shook in the ground. He waited for what seemed like an eternity.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, confronting the flames and Bill’s face.
Please let this work. Please let this be enough.
And for the smallest, sharpest moment there was silence. Impossible, heavenly silence. Sam could hear no screams, no pounding of the rising water around them, no wind, no heartbeat, no breathing. Just stillness.
Then things changed. The world began to spin again. Thunder seemed to rumble from everywhere at once—an almighty shaking of the sky to break the deathly silence.The floor was changing from fiery red to startling white.
And light shot up all around them.
Sam’s eyelids fluttered wildly as he flinched in the overwhelming white, blinding brightness. And then it was gone. He opened his eyes. He was on his knees, collapsed at the pedestal which had now sunk back into the floor, the keyhole disintegrated, the key lying broken next to him.
He glanced around. The last 13, those who remained, stood like statues around him—Jedi, Shiva, the Professor and Lora the same.
Did I do it?
He turned to see Eva’s face as she broke out into a smile. “The nightmares, Sam,” she said, “they’re gone.”
That’s right!
Bill had left him, the flames had died, he could see clearly now.
Slowly the others came back to life, shaking their heads, cautiously smiling as they came forward.
“You did it!” Gabriella and Alex said as one, as they, Eva and the last 13 crowded around him.
“The Dream Gate belongs to the light,” the Professor said warmly as he stepped forward to clasp Sam’s hand.
Sam felt his knees shake as the full realization hit him.
It’s over.
“Look!” Cody shouted, turning to the south. “What’s that?”
Far off in the distance, great blasts of blue light shot into the sky like fireworks, streaking upward and fanning out across the darkness.
“It’s the pyramids in Cairo!” Lora said.
A blue-white bolt of electricity arced through the sky. The shimmering charge split and twisted into millions of tiny flashes. Twin streams of plasma began to circle the tops of the pyramids. They moved like flames chasing a fast wind, snaking their way upward, lasting no more than a minute before vanishing in a final, blinding flash. The double helix pulse was gone as quickly as it had appeared. It pulsed in Sam’s eyes for a moment, the negative image burning onto his retinas.
I don’t know what that means yet.
But I know it’s a good sign.
Sam smiled, but his smile faded as he glimpsed Xavier slumped against a column. Pushing past the others, he knelt down next to him. “There’s nothing I can say,” Sam began, “but know that we are in this together. You won’t be alone—ever.”
Xavier turned his face to Sam’s, forcing himself to look resolute. “I know. I’m so sorry, Sam. That it was my father all along … how can I ever …?”
“You are not your father’s son,” Sam said. “You’re one of the last 13.”
The Professor gathered them together. “You have made me so proud,” he said. “And at a time when I thought I would never feel that again. You have saved us all from the nightmare that Sebastian and Dr. Dark wished upon us.” He looked directly at Xavier. “But we have prevailed, and that is all that matters in the end. And we will not forget the sacrifices made here today.”
As one, they turned to look at Arianna.
We can’t ever forget.
“Professor!” Lora said, jolting everyone from their sad thoughts. “I think we have one more problem to worry about.” She and Jedi stood at the platform’s edge, peering downwards. “The water’s still rising.”
Sam rushed to the edge to look. The churning waters released by the Dream Gate were now almost level with the platform.
The water’s going to submerge the Gate! It’s meant to reclaim it forever.
What are we going to do?
35
We cannot have come this far to fail now.
“We must jump in, yes?” Zara said. “Everyone can swim?”
“But … what about Arianna, and …?” Xavier looked at the Professor.
“We may have to let the water take them,” the Professor said. “I will not let you all perish here. There has been enough death.”
Sam came face to face with the harsh reality of their situation. As they began to strip off outer layers to plunge into the freezing waters, Eva called out, “Wait! I think there’s another way!”
“What? How?” Alex stopped in the middle of pulling off his sweater.
Eva was standing next to the pedestal, where Sam had inserted the key. But now the pedestal had fallen away, a widening hole revealed a tunnel down through the middle of the tower.
Lora held out a hand. “Hold on, I’ll go first,” she said. “Shine your lights down and I’ll see if it really leads somewhere. We don’t want to end up trapped under here.”
She slipped into the hole, scraping painfully down the rocky edges as she braced against the rim. “Hold on!” she said, training her light directly beneath her. “I can see ledges all the way down! You’re right, Eva, this is a way out.”
“OK, everyone get ready,” Sam said. “We’ll go single file after Lora. Professor, you’re next.”
“I will carry Arianna,” Xavier said. “We’re not leaving her here.” Sam nodded, the tears in Xavier’s eyes mirrored in those around him.
“And I will take Sebastian,” Rapha said. “He is the Professor’s son.” Jedi nodded, coming over to help him.
“Thank you,” the Professor said quietly, patting Rapha’s arm.
“Let’s go!” Alex called out from the edge of the descending stairwell, “Lora’s already halfway down, it looks good.”
One by one, Sam refusing to leave until the last of them had climbed down, they navigated the rough ledges that allowed them to slither and slide down the tunnel. Waiting until everyone was safely inside, Sam stooped to pick up the two pieces of the broken key, gazing at them for a moment before putting them into his pocket. He climbed in after Poh, dragging a large chunk of broken crystal on top of the hole, almost completely blocking it.