Saphora: vol.1 Retention (The Athena Universe)

by Jaz Johnson

  “Your life? And what does your life consist of? Entertaining these humans? Suppressing your power? For what? You have no idea the life you’ve given up. That you’ve cast aside for this pathetic one.”

  That made Saphora angry. And her eyes brightened in their whiteness, making Tebias rethink his step forward. He made it seem like Saphora wanted nothing to do with the life she could not remember, which was anything but the truth. All she’d ever wanted was to be able to remember. To be able to remember the face of her mother. Her father. To remember what they were like. To know why she was abandoned. She took another step forward, her fists twitching with her growing rage. He had crossed two lines. Making her hurt someone who actually gave a darn about her, and accusing her of not caring for those she could not remember. Now she was angry. And Tebias could feel the gust pick up ever so slightly in the room.

  “You think I abandoned it? All I can remember is you! And that darned night! And it’s ruined any chance of me rebuilding any sort of life! I go to therapy and tell them again and again about that night. About you. And yet no one believes me when I say you tried to kill me,” Saphora raged. Tebias chuckled.

  “What a sad story. So you haven’t remembered anything else? Not your mother? Your father …”

  “I’m warning you.”

  Tebias laughed.

  “Always entertaining, I’ll give you that much,” he mocked with a sigh. But then his posture changed, becoming more serious. And Saphora’s confidence wavered just a bit. “But unfortunately, I cannot return home without your corpse.” And with that, flames sprouted in the palms of his hands, startling Saphora into taking a step back against the counter. She looked at him with a new fear. She had thought that she could defend herself against any other weapons he had. That she could use her new found control over her gift to keep him at bay, and maybe even defeat him. But seeing the fire sprout from his palm quickly destroyed that thought of hope, and replaced it with despair and fear. He was like her. Different. Mutated somehow. Only his power, she decided, greatly outweighed hers.

  “Which means of course, that one of us must die,” he concluded with a smirk, before launching the first ball of fire at Saphora. She screamed and flung herself to the ground behind the counter. The ball flew out of the hole in the wall and hit a tree in the back yard of the property, causing its limbs to burst into flames. Saphora gasped and stumbled to her knees.

  “Maverick!” she screamed, gripping the edge of the marble counter top. But before she could curse at Tebias, she felt the sizzling of her flesh from making contact with another fire ball. She cried out, bringing her hand to her chest and curling around it. Tears stung her eyes as the pain crippled her momentarily. There was still no answer from Maverick. Only more laughter from Tebias.

  “Maverick. What an odd name. Typical of the humans,” Tebias scoffed, stepping closer to the island counter. Saphora sobbed, squeezing her hand against her. She clenched her teeth, unable to respond any other way. She needed to get away. She needed to get Maverick away. She’d be darned if she was the cause of him losing his life. She looked around the kitchen frantically, her eyes stopping on the oven in the corner. She stared at it in thought. She’d never lifted anything that size before. Nor with such the momentum that she would need.

  “Maybe I’ll keep him as a pet after I’ve finished with you,” he chuckled. And then grunted as the stove suddenly made contact with his chest. He tumbled back onto the floor with a growl, his hands coming to either side of the stove. Saphora scrambled to her feet and rushed to jump out of the window. She was unstable because of her hand, but thanks to her manipulation of levitation, she was able to get to the ground beside Maverick. She crawled to his still body and immediately started to shake his shoulder.

  “Maverick? Maverick please,” she sobbed, shaking harder.

  Meanwhile, Tebias was tossing the stove, rather easily, to the side of him into the wall closest to the kitchen’s doorway. He groaned as he sat up, laughing.

  “So you’ve been practicing! Good! I was afraid this was going to be boring!” he bellowed. Saphora whined, shaking Maverick with a little more force. He coughed, turning over onto his back as his eyes started to flutter open. He peered up at the relieved Saphora with confusion, and a really bad headache.

  “Saphora?” he mumbled through the pain.

  “Maverick, you need to get out of here. Get up,” Saphora urged. Maverick slowly sat up into a sitting position, his hand finding his temple.

  “What are you talking about? What happened? Why am I on the ground? What happened to your hand?” he said, sounding more concerned with each question. Saphora stood, trying to get Maverick to do the same.

  “It’s nothing. Run!” she said as he got to his feet.

  As she got him to stand, she was horrified to see Tebias standing in the hole of the house’s wall with flaming hands. Watching as he cocked his hands back, she hurried to push Maverick forward, using her power to lift him a little further than his own feet would allow. He fumbled onto the ground towards the burning tree with a grunt, Saphora close behind. The fire struck the ground with a slap, shards of fire bouncing off the impact and spreading. Maverick screeched, seeing the fire hit the ground just behind Saphora, and then again when a burning branch fell from the tree above him, landing just to his left. He jerked to the right, looking back and forth from the fires in horror. And then to Saphora.

  “Saphora?!” was all he was able to manage.

  Saphora groaned, pushing herself up with her hands with gritted teeth.

  “Saphora!” Maverick screamed, grabbing her attention.

  She gasped, and rolled to the side in time to dodge the fire ball that was aimed at her back. She coughed, the fumes from the burning grass beginning to hinder her airways. Making her way over to Maverick, she could hear Tebias laughing.

  “Saphora … What’s going on? How is he doing that?” he asked, his focus mainly on Tebias, surprisingly. He hadn’t even begun to question Saphora, and her part in Tebias’ appearance. But with things going as they were, she couldn’t afford to just keep dodging. She had to take a stand. Maybe then at least Maverick could get away. She sighed, coughing in the process.

  “He’s a secret,” she coughed, trying to smile. But he looked at her in confusion. She knew that he was torn between believing her and scolding her for making a joke at a time this. “I’m sorry, Maverick. This isn’t what I wanted to show you today,” she said with remorse as she looked back at smug Tebias. “But I’m not going to let my fear be the cause of your death.” Maverick swallowed hard, his eyes bulging.

  “My death?!”

  Saphora stood up with some difficulty, and turned to face Tebias while taking several steps forward to keep the space between him and Maverick. Tebias tilted his head in amusement.

  “Maverick, as soon as you can, run far away from here. Okay?” Saphora called out to him. Maverick scoffed, trying to regain the breath that was constantly being taken by the fumes. He shook his head. He had no idea what was happening, but his personality would not allow him to run away from a woman in need of help. Wobbling to his feet, he refused, and stepped forward to stand with Saphora.

  “What’s this?” Tebias laughed, gesturing to Maverick. “The human wants to defend you. How precious.” Saphora glared at Tebias before turning to look at Maverick in annoyance.

  “What the hell are you doing?” she scolded.

  “Protecting you!” Maverick grunted and coughed as the wind was knocked out of him by a blow to the stomach. Saphora had swung her arm against him in response to his outburst of foolish bravery. He bent over, wrapping one arm around his stomach and looking over at Saphora in disbelief.

  “Protect me?! Honestly, you pick now to be an idiot? I’m trying to save your life!” Saphora yelled. Maverick stood straight, groaning in pain while Tebias’ laughter continued.

  “Well. As heartfelt as his bravery is, I’m afraid we’re going to have to keep this moving,” Tebias said as he raised hi
s flaming hands. Saphora looked towards him with despair and moved to cover Maverick as the first fire ball was flung. Saphora pushed Maverick onto the ground and raised her hand to attempt blocking her face from the hit. And she was successful. With the swinging of her protective hand, the fire ball was guided to the right of her into the ground. Saphora opened her eyes when she heard the sound of the fire making contact with the ground, in time to see Tebias launch the other one towards her. Both her hands raised in defense, her eyes closing again. This time the fire ball dissolved against a type of force field that thinly surrounded Saphora’s torso. The impact of the ball still sent her staggering back a few steps. She panted heavily as her hands lowered, a little surprised. She looked down at her hands, then back up at Tebias with new found confidence. Tebias frowned and let out a snarl.

  “Right then,” he said under his breath as he ignited his palms once again. “Let’s stop this game,” he said, hurriedly flinging both the fire balls at Saphora. His patience was being tested once again, and he couldn’t afford to drag out another encounter. Time was no longer on his side. Saphora raised her arms again, and again was knocked back a few steps from the force of the impacts against her force field.

  Maverick instinctively crawled back with Saphora’s steps as he looked on in shock. Seeing the magic with his own eyes was throwing him for a loop. All he could think about in that moment was getting away from the flames. His mind was too busy trying to piece together what was happening for him to do anything else.

  But to Saphora’s dismay, Tebias didn’t stop at the two blasts. They kept coming, larger each time. And with each hit to her force field, she could feel her level of energy deplete. She grimaced as she felt her power leaving her, and stole a glimpse at the cowering Maverick behind her. What would happen to him if she was to fail?

  Desperately, she fought to pour more of her energy into the force field. Her eyes glowing white in the process. But she knew it was a battle she was destined to lose. It was taking a lot to keep the shield up, and with Tebias continuously pouring more power into his shots, it was only a matter of time before the shield failed.

  And it did, to her surprise, sooner than she had anticipated. Tebias suddenly called forth an ongoing stream of fire from his palms, keeping it up until it broke through Saphora’s makeshift shield and sent her flying back into the trunk of the burning tree with a plethora of severe burns.

  Saphora slowly slid down against the tree trunk until she was on the ground, trying to force her lungs to take in air. Maverick scrambled over to her, eyes wide. His hands wavered over her burned torso, unsure if moving her would make her pain worse. But looking up at the tree, and its falling limbs, he knew she couldn’t stay under it for much longer.

  “Saphora?” Maverick asked in a panicked voice as Tebias began to take slow steps forward. Maverick clenched his fists as the sight of Saphora so heavily wounded took its effect. Angry and confused, Maverick glared up at Tebias, and he cocked an eyebrow. “God dammit, what the hell are you?!” he screamed.

  “Not human,” Tebias answered bluntly with a tone of indifference.

  “Even if you aren’t! What kind of a man tortures a woman like this?!” Maverick said, moving to stand in Tebias’ way. Saphora, through squinted eyes tried to speak out to Maverick, her arm shifting forward in an attempt to raise itself. She wanted to cry out to him. To tell him to run. But her injuries were proving to be too great. Tebias sighed, rolling his eyes in annoyance as if listening to the yapping of a small dog.

  “Human, are you this daft to not flee? What do you think this is?” Tebias questioned, raising a flaming hand. “Magic? Because I can assure you, this is no trick. Simply look behind you if you have any doubts.”

  Maverick stood with gritted teeth and clenched fists. He wasn’t going to just step aside and let this crazed man have his way with Saphora. Even if it meant his own death. Tebias sighed, shaking his head. The stupidity of the humans both amazed and annoyed him. He wasn’t about to let some human stand in his way of redemption. Not when he was so close.

  “Right then. Your last act of bravery. Let’s make it quick, shall we?” Tebias said before moving to hurl a fire ball at Maverick’s chest. Maverick closed his eyes, preparing to feel the burn of the flames. But they never came.

  They were extinguished by spheres of water hailing from the sky. Each aimed to target the orbs of fire. When colliding, they created a film of mist that quickly covered the surrounding area. The water came from the hands of Hydra, who landed in front of Maverick, soon after the much appreciated ambush. Maverick coughed from the sudden intake of mist, and took a number of steps back towards the once burning tree. It had been put out of its misery by the kind hands of Hydra, as was the fire that had been started in the house.

  Maverick looked down at the now unconscious Saphora with relief. He didn’t know what had just happened, but it had bought him some time. Kneeling down, he reached out to touch her hand, hoping to have a reaction from her. But she was still.

  “I was wondering when Vida was going to send some help for this poor girl,” Tebias chuckled.

  He was met with silence from the stern stare of a very peeved Hydra. She stood in a non-confrontational stance, contrasting with her battle-ready glare. She saw clearly through the mist, watching every move Tebias made. It wasn’t long before that mist cleared, revealing the two entities to Maverick’s mortal eyes.

  He saw, standing protectively before him, a woman. From behind her he could see her navy blue hair, blowing gently in the small gusts of wind. Looking down her form, his eyes stopped once they noticed spheres of water surrounding her open hands. His body froze as he thought, oh god, not another one. He had thought that by some grace of god, they were being spared. But seeing another unconceivable range of abilities, his hope took a dive.

  “Leave now, Tebias. While you still can,” Hydra threatened generously. Tebias smiled.

  “It’s nice to see you too, Hydra. Always a pleasure,” he countered. Hydra was a being of few expressions, and an expression of amusement would not be wasted on Tebias’ banter.

  “Unfortunately I cannot say the same.”

  “Yes, well. I know my temper can sometimes get the better of me.”

  “You’re taking your situation too lightly, Tebias,” Hydra warned. “There is no longer any hope to save you, your mother, nor anyone that follows her. Death will greet you all if your madness does not stop.”

  Maverick listened with optimistic understanding – that this one was not going to kill them. From the sound of things, she seemed to be an ally of Saphora’s, which was a relief to him.

  “If?” Tebias questioned. “I thought there was no longer hope,” he mocked. Hydra’s eyes narrowed as she slowly raised her water-wielding hands.

  “Suit yourself,” she huffed flicking her hand forward to launch several small spheres of water at Tebias. He countered with a couple of fire orbs, and once again, they canceled each other out, creating another cloud of mist. Hydra used that to turn her attention towards the very confused Maverick.

  “Can you walk?” she inquired. Maverick, dumbfounded, nodded up at the mystical woman. “Get Saphora out of here. Get as far away as you can,” she ordered, just as another fire ball came crackling through the mist. Maverick tucked his head under his arm in anticipation as Hydra countered with another sphere of water, this time followed by multiple shards of ice. Tebias grunted in pain as the counter attack hit. Maverick picked his head back up cautiously.

  “What about you? Who are you?”

  “There’s no time. Go!” she demanded, before rushing into the mist to meet Tebias in battle. Maverick reached his hand out towards her, wanting her to wait and answer his questions. But a soft moan from Saphora immediately grasped his attention. The woman was right. Saphora was a priority. And if he couldn’t do anything to match the power of Tebias to protect her, the least he could do was get her away from him.

  Sweeping her up delicately in his trembling arms, Maverick
stood, keeping a close eye on the mist in front of him. He listened to the sounds of combat as he carefully made his way to his car that was parked on the lower end of the street. Careful not to bend her too much, Maverick tilted the passenger seat back before setting Saphora in the car, and buckling her in. Looking back at the madness of mist, flames, and ice, Maverick wasted no time getting to the other side of the Camaro. Buckling himself in, he made once last glance back at the scene before speeding off down the road.

  Tebias just barely dodged a swift-moving shard of ice, which was aimed for the center of his forehead. He had pivoted to the right, narrowly avoiding the fatal contact, but grazing the side of his face in the process. He chuckled as he panted, raising his hand to wipe the blood. She, on the other hand seemed to be untouched by his flames. She stood once again in a non-confrontational stance, her hands still wielding spheres of water.

  “I almost believed that shot was meant to kill me,” he chuckled, tightening his fist. There was a cold sweat on his forehead.

  “Next time I won’t miss.”

  Tebias smiled.

  “I still don’t see why you’ve chosen to stay on a side that is bound to fall.”

  “Save it, Tebias. I’m not the one out of breath.”

  Tebias ground his teeth as they gritted. His smug grin couldn’t hide the fact that he was getting weaker. He may have been strong enough to defeat Saphora at the level of power she was currently at. But at his current stats, he was nowhere near powerful enough to take down Hydra, and he knew it. She knew it.

  “You’re not fooling anyone, Tebias. You’ve been on this planet without Vasuki for years now. I’m surprised you’re able to walk, let alone summon fire.”

  “If you know my condition, why are you holding back? Why not just kill me?”

  Hydra was silent for a brief moment, catching the attention of Tebias.