by W. M. Martin
“What’s the matter, Maggie? You seem to be a little sore,” Okeaous laughed.
“I could do this all day,” Maggie replied, breathing through the spasms of pain that were now shooting through her back.
Okeaous narrowed her black eyes, smiled and said, “Good. I want to take my time and enjoy this,” before casting a magical, black surge of water to wash Maggie’s feet out from under her.
Maggie was struggling with everything that she had to stand back up to face the Dark Lady. Regardless of what she had been told by the Nexus, Avior herself, or even by her departed parents about being the only one alive who could reclaim the Pentagem, Maggie was facing the terrible realization that she had seriously underestimated the power and bloodlust of Okeaous. Her youth had lent itself to hubris, and Maggie had assumed that she would make a grand entrance, retake the Pentagem and leave Okeaous in her proverbial wake. In her inexperience, the thought had never even crossed Maggie’s mind that the Dark Lady had been banking on the young Kindred’s pride to be a stumbling block. Okeaous’ insight served her well, and she was now benefiting from the fruits of her dark and wicked patience.
Maggie twisted the center of her bow to split the weapon in half, revealing the two sapphire swords hidden within. She pointed one of the blades at Okeaous to keep her at a distance. The Queen of the Fallen laughed maniacally and hurled one of her daggers at Maggie, narrowly and purposefully missing her head. Maggie knew that Okeaous was toying with her and that knowledge began to diminish her resolve.
Maggie tried to take to the air to gain a better position to attack, but the moment that she summoned Elliot to grant her the power of flight, Okeaous threw her second dagger at one of the large, mystical wings. The black dagger found its mark, and both Maggie and Elliot cried out in agony. Maggie was not certain of how badly the piercing of her wings had harmed Elliot, but she knew he was in a great deal of pain. With one of her wings having been ruined, Maggie had no choice, but to face her approaching destiny solely on the ground.
*
Lieutenant Ara managed to fight Nancy to a stalemate. Her battle-prowess, however, had been staved off by Nancy’s recently-boosted magic. For all intents and purposes, they were seemingly evenly matched with one another. Nancy looked beyond Ara and watched as yet another Praetorian fell beneath a Fallen’s blade. She was powerless to do anything to stop what was turning into a slaughter of the Guardians.
“You’ll never stop Okeaous, Nancy. She has already won,” breathed the winded Lieutenant.
“Maggie will stop her, Ara. She’s more powerful than either of us,” replied Nancy who was equally winded.
Ara stated flatly, “That may be, but she couldn’t possibly defeat the Dark Queen. You were a fool to allow Maggie to return here, Nancy. You have sent her to her death.”
Nancy, watching helplessly as Ms. Holiday received an arrow through her leg, replied, “Why should you care what happens to her, Ara?”
Lieutenant Ara answered coldly, “I don’t.”
*
Mr. Akiyama and Mr. O’Sullivan had been unable to catch up with Mrs. Bonifassi inside of the Keep, due to a large contingent of dark knights blocking their path forward. Mr. O’Sullivan, completely undaunted by the black death barring his way, rushed headlong into them and began to throw the Fallen around like pieces of wadded up paper. Mr. Akiyama rushed around his enemies with an unhinged speed, bolstered by the power of his totem, the Japanese hare, Kiyoko. Both Mr. Akiyama and Mr. O’Sullivan ceased their assault when they heard Ms. Holiday cry out from the frenzied battle taking place behind them.
“Go get ‘er an’ I’ll be there in a few, hurry!” ordered Mr. O’Sullivan.
Mr. Akiyama wasted no time in his efforts to reach Ms. Holiday, who was trying unsuccessfully to break the shaft of the arrow that was protruding painfully from her leg. He sprinted and dodged around the embattled courtyard with amazing speed and agility, in order to reach his fellow Clan Leader, knocking as many incoming arrows off of their paths as he possibly could. Mr. Akiyama ran directly in front of Ms. Holiday and shielded her with his glistening, armor-plated body for her protection. Ms. Holiday placed her blood-covered, diamond gauntlet on Mr. Akiyama’s shoulder and gave a faint smile of gratitude for his arrival. Mr. Akiyama returned Ms. Holiday’s grin with one of his own.
Ms. Holiday had never noticed before how kind a face Mr. Akiyama had, mainly because he never showed any form of outward emotion except for anger and annoyance. She hoped that she would see more of the newfound warmth that Mr. Akiyama had buried deep inside of himself. To Ms. Holiday’s great dismay, she never would. The smile on the ancient artifacts instructor’s face fell away and the glowing, emerald light in his eyes died out. Mr. Akiyama slowly slumped down, and then he fell over beside Ms. Holiday, with five sable arrows sunk deep in his back.
Ms. Holiday tried to revive Mr. Akiyama but her attempts were futile. Mr. Akiyama was not fast enough to stop all of the arrows, that had been speeding directly for the center of Ms. Holiday’s chest. He instead, made the conscious decision to sacrifice himself to protect his fellow Clan Leader. It was a gift that Annika Holiday would never take for granted or forget and one for which she would be forever grateful. She looked up from the arrow-riddled, emerald armor of Mr. Akiyama to see Mr. O’Sullivan lumbering, as quickly as he possibly could, towards them both. Mr. O’Sullivan dropped to a knee and placed one of his large hands on Mr. Akiyama’s shoulder and the other wiped a tear from Ms. Holiday’s cheek.
“He did this to save me, Michael. He should’ve stayed with you,” wept Ms. Holiday.
“No. Hiro did what he felt was the right ting te’ do. If ye’ doubt that ye’ dishonor his memory. Now, go an’ find ye’ a place to lay low an’ I’ll go an’ try to find Mrs. Bonifassi,” said Mr. O’Sullivan.
Ms. Holiday, replied weakly, “No, I’d be dishonoring him if I hid because I’m wounded. I think I can fight. Just help me up, Michael, please.”
“Are ye’ sure, Annika?” asked a doubtful Mr. O’Sullivan, as he helped Ms. Holiday back to her feet on the crowded field of battle.
Ms. Holiday gave a broken, half-smile and oxymoronically replied, “No.”
Mr. O’Sullivan, understanding the true meaning of Ms. Holiday’s response, said, with a mix of melancholy and pride, “Then we’ll have a craic fightin’ those tings for Hiro, together.”
*
Okeaous took her time making her way over to Maggie who was hobbling across the floor of the bleak, cold throne room. When she made it over to Maggie, she raised her leg to dodge a swipe by one of Maggie’s swords and kicked it out of her hand. Okeaous then performed a successful leg-sweep that took Maggie down, hard. She then placed her black, spiked boot on Maggie’s leg and thrust downward, causing Maggie’s leg to snap. The pain which exploded inside of Maggie was exquisite, unlike anything that she had ever experienced before, and it caused a wave of hot nausea to flood over her. The young Avior student struggled to maintain consciousness and soon, the world around Maggie fell away, and she was swallowed by the welcome darkness. The Dark Lady pressed her hand against the Pentagem where she had placed it inside of her chestpiece. Using the magic within the Stone, Okeaous pulled the other half of Maggie’s mystical bow, which formed the second of her swords, out of her loose and unconscious grasp.
Maggie was now seriously wounded and entirely defenseless; utterly at the mercy of the merciless. The Dark Lady stood over her soon-to-be conquered foe and pressed the sword against Maggie’s chestpiece. Okeaous raised the radiant, blue blade above her head to bring down into Maggie’s faintly beating heart.
As Okeaous brought the blade down, a rush of large, black crows erupted up from the ground around Maggie and knocked the Dark Queen off balance. Lucy had flown into the large entrance that Maggie had made earlier and landed fearlessly across from the Dark Lady. She quickly braced her Prussian blue katana in preparation for the fight with Okeaous. She flourished her dazzling weapon, daring the Dark Lady to approach.
<
br /> Okeaous swiped at her flowing, black cape, pointed to Lucy, and with unbridled hostility she vowed, “I will destroy you for that, you meddlesome cockroach!”
Lucy smiled and allowed her mystical armor to transfigure and close all around her before she replied, “I’ve been wanting to knock your teeth out for a year, Alice.”
Okeaous wasted no time with her assault against Lucy. The pair clashed their weapons against each other with an almost equal ferocity, causing molten-hot sparks to fly from the scraping blades. The resulting flares sent pinpricks of magical heat raining down on them both like warm starlight. Lucy was quickly discovering that she was far outmatched against the very personification of evil in the Dark Queen. Okeaous was merely playing with Lucy in the same manner in which she had toyed with Maggie before destroying one of her wings and shattering her leg. Okeaous grew weary of her little game and decided that the time had come to kill Lucy outright.
Lucy swung her katana directly at Okeaous’ torso, but was visibly stunned when the Dark Lady grabbed the blade, mid-strike and broke it in half over her knee. Okeaous took Lucy’s broken katana and methodically ran her black gaze along the sundered weapon’s edge. She then, without warning, threw the blade at Lucy’s shoulder, pinning her helplessly to one of the black and decaying pillars that surrounded them in the throne room.
Okeaous stalked towards Lucy with cold, black, and empty eyes. Her bloodlust would be satisfied, if only temporarily, with the death of Maggie Bennett, and from her death would come the eradication of Avior’s bloodline and her transmittable power. But she would start with wiping Lucy Min out of existence first. When Okeaous reached Lucy, she wrapped her spiked, sable gauntlet around the piece of Lucy’s katana blade, which was piercing her through to the pillar at her back. Lucy screamed as the broken blade was being slowly twisted in Okeaous’ cruel, firm grip.
Just before Lucy fainted from the searing pain, the Dark Lady removed the blade from Lucy's bleeding shoulder and moved to return it to her chest.
Lucy faintly smiled in the face of her death and weakly stated, “You're going to lose, Alice.”
Okeaous swung her fist forward and slammed the broken katana blade against Lucy’s chest as hard as she could. The blade, however, would not go through her. Not only had Lucy’s sword refused to penetrate its creator, the blade shattered into hundreds of sapphire pieces which fell at the Dark Lady’s feet. Okeaous was shocked and confused as to how a mere Legacy could stop her. However, no mere Legacy could.
“Maggie!” breathed a surprised Okeaous, who was furious about her attempt on Lucy’s life being thwarted.
The realization of what had just happened, dawned on Okeaous a little too late. The Dark Queen turned around, ignoring Lucy, who was wounded and now whimpering on the ground, to face Maggie. Maggie’s entire body was awash amid a sea of rolling, blue flames which would never yield to Okeaous’ will or be snuffed out by her wickedness. Okeaous braced her twin daggers, rushed forward and began stabbing wildly at the sapphire flames. The Dark Queen watched with increasing rage as her blades glanced off of the immutable, magical fire dancing carelessly all around Maggie’s broken body.
“How are you doing this, Maggie?!” roared Okeaous.
“She is doing nothing, Sister. I am,” came Avior’s gentle voice from Maggie’s busted and bloodied lips.
Okeaous growled with seething hatred, “You!” before sending Leviathan directly at the flame-bathed body in an attempt to kill the young avatar who was now channeling the consciousness of Avior.
Before Leviathan could strike, Elliot exploded from the azure fire which was coursing over Maggie and began to battle the evil totem. The two mystical animals wrapped around one another, rolling violently in and out of their animal and their almost-fluid forms. Okeaous, entirely absorbed by being in the presence of her most hated nemesis, decided to ignore Leviathan entirely and focus solely on Avior.
“I have come only to beseech you to return to the light, my sister. There is still hope. The darkness within you may yet be purged. Return the Pentagem to Maggie, of your own free will, and come with me,” implored Avior.
Okeaous spat in anger, “If there were any ‘hope’ for me, then you wouldn’t have sought me out and killed me. I would sooner die again than relinquish the Pentagem to you. You can’t hope to stop me, Avior. I finally have the only thing that I’ve ever wanted. I am a font of unrivaled, unstoppable, and unlimited power! With the Pentagem whole and in my grasp, I have become a goddess. My powers may now even surpass those of the Wise Ones. Soon, the undivided Veil, every Haven, all of humanity, and eventually the entire galaxy will belong to me.”
Avior replied, “I was wrong to take your life out of vengeance, Okeaous, but you had to be stopped. I should have tried harder to take you alive and to bring you before the Spire for judgement, but I was angry at your betrayal towards me and the cruel enslavement of the humans under your rule. I sought vengeance against you and Sauropon for the murder of Secarn and Terran. That was then, Okeaous, but now I’ve come to tell you that the Wise Ones require your return to the Stream of Time, and Their will cannot be denied, even by you. You can come, peacefully, with me to be purged of your darkness by the Nexus, or be sent forcefully by my heir. If you choose the latter, your fate will dwell far beyond the Stream of Time and your suffering will be endless and eternal. Come with me, Okeaous. Relinquish your hold over this side of the Veil.”
Okeaous replied, “Never! I’ll never enter the Stream of Time again! I belong here. The humans will worship me once more when my acolytes destroy your Guardians who protect them. I will bring them all under my rule, Avior. The Veil, the earth, and all of your precious humans will be mine!”
Avior stated calmly, “I see that you are as far beyond redemption now as you were all of those centuries ago. Farewell, Sister.”
As the essence of Avior relinquished her hold, Maggie gazed at the Dark Lady through brightly glowing, sky-blue eyes and said, “Let’s finish this, Alice.”
Okeaous wasted no time and rushed at Maggie, rejoining her black daggers against the unquenchable sapphire flames. Maggie reared back and punched Okeaous in the jaw, sending the Dark Lady reeling backwards. Okeaous reached up to her face and rubbed the spot tenderly where she had just been struck. The Dark Queen stood up slowly as a black, oily cloud billowed around her. The physical manifestation of all of Okeaous’ hate and rage roiled around her body, in a twisted mockery of the regal and limitless flames surrounding Maggie.
Maggie, whose leg had been completely shattered, had been healed by the raw ancestral magic of Avior, which was rushing wildly through and all about her. Okeaous cast her maleficent cloud of evil at Maggie with every ounce of power in her body, but the assault yielded no results. Maggie walked calmly, with a sure and steady pace, to the Dark Lady, who was trying with all of her might to slow the young Kindred’s advance. Okeaous realized that her efforts were wasted as Maggie stood in front of her, completely unphased by her dark and relentless assault.
“How are you resisting the Stone’s power?!” Okeaous demanded to know, completely exhausted by her efforts to destroy Maggie.
Maggie responded through the flames, “Because I’m the last heir, and the Pentagem answers to the call of Avior’s blood, not yours.”
Maggie then reached out and gently placed her hand on Okeaous’ ebony breastplate. Okeaous, physically stricken with panic, grabbed Maggie’s blazing arm with both of her black gauntlet-covered hands and endeavored with all of her strength to separate Maggie’s contact from her chest. Maggie’s hand slid through Okeaous’ protective plating as easily as if she were reaching through nothing more than a placid, viscous fluid. Maggie leaned in and closed her hand around the powerful stone which was held within the sable sarcophagus shrouding the body of Okeaous.
Maggie removed her hand from Okeaous’ armor and turned the Pentagem slightly, causing the light from the hole in the throne room’s ceiling to bounce off of its surface. Okeaous quickly tried to reclaim th
e stone, but the sapphire ocean of flames in front of her lashed out and blasted her onto her back. The Dark Queen rolled over and got onto her knees, just in time to witness Maggie placing the Pentagem against her glimmering, blue chestpiece. The stone, which danced with the brilliant hues of the five precious gems of its composition, disappeared into Maggie’s glowing and now completely impregnable armor.
Maggie turned her attention to Lucy, who was leaning against one of the massive, black pillars and holding her lacerated shoulder. She hurried over to Lucy and reached out, placing her flame engulfed hand on Lucy's injury. A brilliant flash of white light poured over the deep puncture and closed the wound, leaving it completely healed and renewed. Lucy was about to thank Maggie for her aid when she was startled to see Okeaous hurtling through the air with her blades drawn to stab Maggie in the back.
Maggie, her spatial awareness now omniscient, swiftly turned, revealing that one of her sapphire swords was pointed directly at the Dark Queen’s torso. Okeaous landed on the upturned blade and gasped as the mystical weapon slid through her. Maggie moved to stand over Okeaous who was on the ground, writhing in torment, while holding the handle of the sapphire sword that was now protruding from her stomach. Maggie reached down and removed her elegant weapon from Okeaous and tossed it out of the way.
“I can stop the pain, Alice,” Maggie offered.
“Stay away from me, Maggie! I’ll never go back. The Dark Spire will receive me, and I’ll be back. I’ll come back and I’ll destroy you all!” said Okeaous, wincing through gasps of pain.
Maggie placed both of her hands on either side of Okeaous’ head and replied, “No, Alice. You won’t.”