by Patrick Hatt
“Guards!”
“Yeah. Yeah. We know. Guards! Guards! Guards!” Lester made pots of gold appear overhead, causing Oxom and the council members to scatter as they fell.
“That won’t hold them for long,” Lester stated after he plopped the last pot of gold in place to create a wall between them and the council.
“This isn’t your fates. How can this be?” Mr. Lions stood stunned.
“Not very psychic after all.” Lester snickered.
“I think it will hold them long enough.” Madar waved his hand and froze Oxom and the others in place.
“Sir Dreadvent, you will not win. We beat you in the past and we will beat you again.” Max got ready to create when Madar raised his hand and shook his head side to side.
“I know this is usually where you hear me gloat. But really? That is so cliché and just pointless.” Madar shifted to the red form of Sir Dreadvent, curling his nose up at the sight of himself. “Look at this. It is such a scare tactic. Some sort of devil that so many realms believe in. Who does that?”
“Max, I think he hit his head. Let’s strike.”
“No. You’ll hurt Madar.” Mr. Lions motioned for Lester to stop.
“Mr. Lions, I’m sorry, but Sir Dreadvent will hurt a lot more.”
“He never told you, did he? Figures. Never was one to own up to his mistakes.” Madar smirked at them, leaving them even more confused. “I really must thank you though, Mr. Blizzard. If you and your friends hadn’t stopped my other half, I may have never been whole again. He wanted to rule all just for the sake of it. I really should have kept a better leash on him. I mean, Sir Dreadvent? What kind of name is that? Where did the Sir even come from? Does he dread venting? Can’t be. He did it enough.”
“Kind of like you are now?” Lester raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out whether to strike or let him ramble.
“Other half? What are you?” Max questioned.
“Part Sir Dreadvent.” Madar shifted to Sir Dreadvent’s Sevestie form and then to Merlin. He smirked and then shifted back to Madar’s form. “Part Madar. But together.” He shifted into a tall muscular man with nothing but some animal skin covering his midsection. “Together I’m a lot of things. I’m everything. I am as eternal as time itself. You creations dubbed me Adam.”
“What the? Didn’t Death say Adam was dead? I swear that it was something like that.” Lester prepared to fight as he recalled how bad Eve was.
“Dead has many different meanings, my young friend. It was actually God and Eve who taught me that. There I was trapped in Eden and powerless to break free. All I needed was to do what they did and my freedom was at hand. So I let what became Sir Dreadvent loose and I sent the rest of my energy to be born through one of these fantastic creatures in this place. Now I have their wondrous ability and that of my own.”
“So you only wanted more power? You sure sound like Sir Dreadvent to me,” Max stated.
“Please don’t compare me to him without knowing all the facts. If anyone is like Sir Dreadvent it is God. He is the only reason we are here today. He used his power to steal away the love of my life and for that I am going to make him suffer.” Adam held up a golden piece of torn paper that had fading scribbles on it. “Unfortunately, you and your friends will get caught in the crossfire. I’m sorry, but it is the only way to return things to how they should be. With my added power, God will pay for what he has done, and I will reunite with my one true love.”
“Lester, take him down.” Max made a giant appear and it stomped toward Adam while Lester dropped pots of gold on him.
“By me pot of gold.” Lester’s fear of Adam grew after their attempts vanished upon contact with him.
“There really is nothing you can do. Now that I’m whole, not even your power can hold a candle to me. I’d put you out of your misery now, but I still need you and your friends to root out God’s other half. He needs to be fully destroyed. That and I admit, I do want to see some suffer the same way he has made me suffer.”
“Is this how you know everyone’s life story? Do people come here and blab to you like this?” Lester snapped his fingers in front of Mr. Lions’ stunned face. “Well he’s useless.”
“We stopped you before and we’ll stop you again. There is always a way,” Max declared.
“Max, that was true before Sir Dreadvent swiped this from Death.” Adam dangled the torn page in front of Max and Lester. “I really must thank you for helping Sir Dreadvent escape that cleaning place. If Ra and Death hadn’t sent him to Eden I don’t think he would have ever remembered our true plan. He would have tried to take over Camelot the same way as before, and we all know how that would have ended. I’m actually ashamed that he came from me.”
“What is that and how do we defeat it?” Lester held up his Gem of Avalon to Adam, expecting answers.
“Those trinkets were great for getting Sir Dreadvent out of the sandwich, but they won’t do you any good here.” Adam smirked as the ink almost faded. “If you’d excuse me, I have to get the second torn page for us to continue this titillating conversation.”
Adam waved his hand and every council member but Oxom flew aside. Adam smirked as Oxom’s eyes moved side to side while he attempted to break free of his grasp. He strolled up to Oxom and ripped his moustache off, holding it up for all to see as it turned into another piece of golden ripped paper.
“Hidden in plain sight. God is a smart one. I’ll give him that.” Adam waved to the pair as they began to fade. “Don’t worry, I’ll see you in a few minutes. I have to take my time and word this right. Don’t want to accidentally cause anyone’s head to explode or anything.”
Max and Lester faded from view, along with all the others in the room, while Adam created a blue force shield around himself and remained standing in the barren room, staring at the torn page.
******************************
Trudesile smiled at the empty cell, knowing that Lester and Max had found a way to escape.
“Dina, what are you doing here? You should be studying. You need to pass the next time. I don’t want a failure for a daughter.” Trinny’s eyes widened as she spotted Bazooka and Trudesile. “You’re supposed to be dead.”
“I get that a lot,” Bazooka replied.
“And you’re hanging out with her? How could you? Do you know what this means? You’re no daughter of mine.”
“Mom, how can you talk like that?” Dina’s eyes filled with tears. She had never seen her mother in such a state and wondered if she really was her mother or an imposter.
“Trinny, we’re leaving. I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if I have to. Now get out of my way.”
“I can’t let you go. Not even for my own daughters.”
Trudesile caught how she said daughters and realized who she was from God’s information. She wanted to hug her and try to get through to Trinny, but a familiar twinge ran up her spine.
“Bazooka, grab a hold of me.” Trudesile grabbed Dina and Bazooka latched onto her. She covered them in a blue shield and within seconds the four of them vanished from the cell block, leaving nothing behind but some dust.
Chapter 5
Retractions
Bazooka frantically moved his head from side to side. He grabbed his kids and hugged them. He then spotted Max taking the stage to begin his speech.
“Kids, I want you to go to your room and stay there. Lock the door and don’t come out until I say so. You got me?”
“But…”
“No buts. This is serious.” Bazooka hugged them again and then waved for them to go. He watched them scurry along the castle wall until they were out of sight. He then used his imagination to make a mattress appear beneath the wall he sat on and hopped off.
“What is that crazy rabbit doing?” Lester mumbled.
“Sorry, chap. You gave a great speech last time, but we don’t have time.” Bazooka hopped on stage and scanned the crowd for Brozen. “Know it all, what kind of beings can change form at will? The
y change into everything and anything.”
“Freleoms?” Brozen questioned, thinking Bazooka had gone insane.
“No. Not those.”
“Bazooka, what are you doing?” Max asked.
“Yeah. Get out of here, fleabag.” Trudesile shoved him aside.
“Merlin? God? Zeus? Anyone know?” Bazooka spotted Merlin nodding toward God. Small blue sparkles then rained down over Max’s head and Bazooka realized that no one else had seen them.
“Chaps, we don’t have time for fifty questions.”
“Got that right, you stupid rabbit.” Trudesile jumped off the stage and strolled to the back, latching onto Vlad and smirking back at everyone.
“They…”
“Been there. Done this. Lester, send Brozen and the fairies to Avalon and crush me, would you?” Bazooka eyed Lester who only stared at him in confusion. “Do it, chap.”
Bazooka mumbled further as a pot of gold fell upon him. Lester then did as instructed and, as many of their other friends disappeared, he and Max got ready to fight the horde of enemies marching on Camelot.
******************************
“Mommy!” Dina yelled, snapping awake and sitting up, sweat dripping from her forehead.
Trinny stopped pacing and ran into her room. She wrapped her arms around Dina and rocked her as she explained all that had happened to her.
“It must have been a bad dream, Honey. You are just worried about your test. All the fates are…”
“Not quite, Mom.” Trudesile took form before her and then made a robe appear over herself. She fiddled with her hair, happy to have it back as she smiled at her mother.
“Luna? You’re really Trudesile. But how are you here? Your father and I discussed this. We were never to meet for fear of Adam finding us. Too much of such power in one spot is a beacon.”
“Too late. What she told you is true. We have to…” Trudesile felt the shiver go up her spine again. She grabbed onto Trinny and Dina, creating a small blue force field around them. “Hold on to me.”
“You are not…you are my daughters.” Trinny’s eye filled with tears as she remembered what she had said. She hugged them both and eyed the rainbow bars that had held Max and Lester.
“How did they ever get out? It’s said to be impossible.”
“That’s my guys, always finding a way.” Trudesile grinned. “Can you take us to them?”
“Mom, what is going on? How can Trudesile be your daughter? Would that make her my sister?”
“I’ll explain later, Honey. Right now we have to stop Adam.”
******************************
“Now where were we?” Adam asked Max and Lester, as each stood before him as if they had never left.
“What is this? How?” Lester hated being at a loss for answers.
“These little things really haven’t much room. I have to choose my words carefully and I had to save a little space. If only they had more of a charge left in them. But it will suffice as here she comes.” Adam smirked and wrote on the tiny little space he had left on the torn paper.
The pair tried to read what he wrote, but it was in a language they had never seen before. They then turned their eyes to the portal that opened in front of them.
“She really isn’t dead.” Lester jumped up and clicked his heels together. He then ran to Trudesile and hugged her. He expected Max to join him, becoming disturbed when Max ran right by them, wrapped his arms around Dina, and kissed her.
“Aww, young forced love. Doesn’t it make your heart tingle? Wow. He’s really latching on there. I bet you thought you’d be his first kiss. Sir Dreadvent always sensed the affection you had for the boy. Blame your father for this. Come here, lover.” Adam placed his arm over Trinny’s head and caused her rainbow beam to come out in the form of hair. He then grabbed it and yanked her aside, still smirking over the distraught in Trudesile’s face.
“Adam, let go. Don’t do this.”
“I sensed she broke you of my will. I should have grabbed you when I touched the second piece against you at your home. Stealth isn’t always the way. I’ll remember that for next time.” Adam eyed Trudesile. “Or maybe I’ll just keep you away from her forever. Always has to be one in the bunch. Never mind that though. You’ll be back to your normal self when I acquire the final two pieces.”
“I think you mean three, chap.” Bazooka took form overhead of Adam and snatched the latest torn piece of paper from his hand. “Now, Lester.”
Lester created a pot of gold and crushed Bazooka once again.
“That idiotic half of mine had to go and create such a life force. It did help him get loose from the other side, but why must he have created him. That is the last time I split myself up. No common sense.”
“It’s over, Adam. You will never get all the pieces now,” Trinny declared.
“Oh, I’ll find my pet and I’ve decided that you’ll come along with me while I do. Enjoy the battle, kids. It may be your last.” Adam waved and then snapped his fingers, taking himself and Trinny away.
Trudesile continued staring at Max and Dina, who remained lip locked, acting like long lost lovers. She snapped back to reality as Lester yelled and began dodging the attacks of Oxom and the other council members.
“We will never go back to being known. You won’t return us to slavery. Kill them all,” Oxom demanded.
“Not today.” Lester created a brick wall to block the rainbow beams coming at them.
Trudesile turned into a giant ape and climbed the wall. She leapt off it onto the council members. The pair kept them away from Max and Dina the best they could as more guards began appearing in the hall.
******************************
Max and Dina both pulled away from each other, love filling their eyes for the other, as they took notice of the total darkness before them.
“Where are we?”
“I’ve been here before,” Dina replied. “Trudesile brought me here through our blood touching. It must be to do with our DNA touching or something.”
“Look!” Max pointed to Trudesile disappearing off in the distance and then watched as God and Bandaid stepped up to Merlin while he hovered over a sleeping Max.
“Are you sure we have to be so secretive with him? The poor dearie has been through enough lately,” Bandaid asked.
“Bandaid, we have to. This is the only way to ensure their futures.” God nodded to Merlin and Merlin sprinkled some black dust into Max’s ear.
“This will become clear one day, my son. Stay strong until then,” Merlin whispered.
Max watched his old self disappear, finding that the trio now stared at where he and Dina stood.
“Mr. Blizzard, first let me say that I’m sorry for the deceit, but if we didn’t, we know you’d have stopped at nothing to find my daughter and we can’t have that in this case. It pains me to say it, but she is on her own for the foreseeable future. Trust that she has been given all the knowledge and tools to survive. You will be together again.”
“Why is he so concerned that I would be concerned about her? I love you,” Max asked Dina.
“I have no idea. I love you too, Maxy.”
“Max, listen carefully. The fate of Camelot and every being rests on your shoulders again, my son.”
“As I’m sure you’ve been told, I had something to do with creation. That is both parts of me did. What wasn’t added to the story was that Eve had just as much of a hand in it. Long ago there were just three of us and lots of empty realms. So Eve and I decided, with the approval of Adam, to create life and fill them. We didn’t want to be too controlling so we created the first beings and let them decide. They were made up of everything in the universe. They could become anything. And so they went out into the realms, becoming the many beings you now know. During creation Eve and I fell in love. Adam wasn’t convinced of that. His jealousy rose.” God paused to collect his thoughts.
“And that dearie, is where our story takes a horrid turn.”
“Dearie, it was an awful situation. So God and Eve stepped in. They created a new realm where the first beings could live in peace and unchained it from the others. They hoped they would find peace there while they dealt with Adam.” Bandaid sensed that God wrestled over what he had done as he remained lost for words.
“Together they managed to send Adam to Death and Ra, who created Eden to hold him. But it was too late. Adam had already torn Eve in two. He sent her good side to Momentus and he truly corrupted what remained of her. God was forced to send his one true love to Eden along with Adam for eternity.” Merlin hung his head, hating such a fate.
“God tried to get to Momentus and save Eve’s other half, but Adam had done something to prevent anyone already there from ever leaving. God’s power became null there as well. Trinny was stuck and unable to ever leave. The realms fell into chaos and God couldn’t stay. One of them had to look after their creations and he was the only choice. To make matters worse he was a beacon for all the first beings on Momentus and they blamed him for their slavery. They found him no matter where he ran. He ran for eons, still refusing to leave Trinny. But then she came to be. It wasn’t a fate for any child.” Bandaid stared up at God.
“And finally when my daughter was born we found it best to give her a life outside of being constantly on the run. The first beings never knew who I was running with as they never caught us, so Trinny was safe. I went to Heaven and split my power in two, never again wanting to have such power of creation. But after I did that, the unspeakable happened.”
“Sir Dreadvent,” Max mumbled to himself.