Star Angel: Prophecy

by David G. McDaniel

  She twisted again, like a cat, landed on her feet at a crouch and found him where he hit in an explosion of snow. He rose and whirled to face her, fists bunching. In that brief face-off his breath was more like a locomotive than ever, snorting impossible plumes of frost far out before him like a machine, gathering around his entire form in a massive cloud of fury. The difference in power between them was stark, and she continued to feel impossibly small. But she had more. Somewhere, deep down …

  She had to have more.

  He was at her again. In motion flat across the ground and moving too fast, a blur of yellow. It came. The power came and she leaped and she threw out more than ever before, cracking the ground where she missed, knocking him down where she hit, and he was bellowing in rage, no longer making snide remarks or flaunting his superiority, but really trying to be done with this game and after the kill. She felt the hair on her neck standing on end even in the middle of that insanity of attack-attack-counter-counter-attack-attack …

  The killing blow was coming.

  She found more. Gave it still more and it was the most she’d hit him with yet, the most she’d ever done, concussions rocking the land and she was leaping faster and farther and all over in a blur—way more than ever before and way more than she could even believe. Actual flashes of exhilaration, in the midst of certain death, and the whole fight elevated to some other plane and she was holding her own, Kang at her with full fury, propelled by raw muscle where she was driven by something else altogether …

  But it was useless. No hit, no strike by her did anything but prolong the inevitable. And when it came, when the one parry failed and he caught her hard she was batted away.

  The scream of her agony resounded in her own ears and it was over. Tumbling through a maelstrom of white, stunned, breath gone and it was over.

  Not dead yet. But this was the end.

  Kang was laughing. When the disorientation settled, a sense of which way she’d landed beginning to impinge, the pain screaming to be acknowledged, the ache, she heard him laughing. Somewhere off to the side. She was lying face up. Her hair lay heavy across her face. All was quiet, save for the gentle breeze in the air and the laugh of her executioner. She blinked her eyes. Snow was in her hair, in her lashes, lots of hair across her face. She saw him move into view through that wild tangle; the yellow of his skin; vague outline of his form. She couldn’t move. Was she paralyzed? For a very disconnected moment she had the thought that she was and that, if she was, maybe the final blow wouldn’t hurt.

  But she wasn’t paralyzed. The pain was there in full force. With a supreme effort she raised her head. Strands of hair fell aside.

  A surge. Out of nowhere, fresh hatred for the monster and she was on her feet in an instant and surging through the pain, no time to consider what she did and acting on impulse, a new well of determination and Kang never saw it coming and she knocked him back, hurling a furious blast into his chest as he staggered in surprise, trying to maintain his footing as she hurled another, and another until …

  She knocked him to his back.

  She was on him. Leaping to his chest—recalling again how she did the same thing in the suit of Skull Boy armor, back on Anitra, back when he was human, before he became a demon incarnate. How she’d hammered him relentlessly then, how she’d …

  Failed.

  Things were no different now, and all she’d done with this little outburst was buy herself more pain before the end. Kang swatted her away, cracking bones this time she was sure; it felt like it; the pain spiked and she was tumbling once more and this time it really was over. How she wasn’t entirely broken … there was no way her teen body could’ve taken any of this, and yet she was breathing and whole and maybe the same things she was wielding to fight were holding her together and yet … none of that mattered. None of that was going to save her.

  The battle was lost. Had been from the beginning. And as she rolled again in the pluming snow and was on her back again, stunned, staring up into the unforgiving white sky as the little flakes of white fell around her, wondering if she could draw another breath, she had the thought that this was a fitting place to die. She managed the intake of air she so desperately needed as Kang came into view, gloating, as before, unaffected by anything she’d done, and she found herself hoping she’d at least made a difference. Somehow, some way, she hoped she’d done at least some of what she set out to do. The Kel queen was dead. Maybe the people of Earth and Anitra would find a way to defeat their alien overlords. Maybe they could even defeat Kang. Maybe Galfar truly was the one to bring the Codes into the light. Maybe Galfar was the harbinger of the Golden Age all along.

  She hoped that he was.

  It would probably be a long time before she was back again.

  And she thought of their son. Zac’s son. Our child! He would go with her, perhaps to return at some later time. A better time. It was perhaps the hardest thing to endure in that moment, and while their son was hardly past conception she knew he waited, and now, for her to die …

  He would be sad he never got his chance.

  Haz had been wrong. Their child would never become a great man.

  Kang was closer. Taking his time; that brash, cocky personality refusing to yield. Jess was panting now. She lay in the snow looking up as he sneered that sneer she hated so much, chuckling under his breath. It sickened her with impotent fury and there was nothing she could do.

  It was, in the words of that old line from Blade Runner, time to die. Vividly she saw Roy, such an unexpected image to dredge up in those final frames, the doomed replicant holding a white dove in the rain. Dramatic, poignant, but in that final flash of lucidity it was exactly how she felt.

  My time is done.

  The dark fortress rose behind Kang’s yellow, demonic image, disappearing high and away into the fog of low clouds. Such a starkly beautiful setting. And as she stared upward, plotting her next course, her ascension, perhaps, looking past him while he took time to relish his victory, breath billowing clouds of steam, it struck her: She was about to end her journey on the very world where she began. The world where she was born, a thousand years ago.

  Aesha. One name among many that were hers. I made it this far.

  But not all the way.

  No matter. She could see it now. Clearly, as if all the clouds in the sky lifted, though they remained, a crystallizing light and she knew this was an epiphany on the grandest scale.

  The Golden Age was now.

  She did it. Even if she wasn’t around to see it through, it was happening and she saw that it was and she did it.

  In a strange way victory was not Kang’s.

  It was hers.

  She looked up into the face of her killer. Tiny in the scheme of things. He may kill her today, but Kang was hardly important.

  The Golden Age is now.

  She held his gaze. Fixed his hateful eyes. Wondering in those final moments if there was some mental trick she could use, some way to take him down from within, to cause him pain or drive him back.

  There was nothing.

  CHAPTER 64: TOO LATE

  Suddenly they had clear air. As yet Nani had no good theory for what was going on but the Kel channels were suddenly jammed, flooded with contrary commands and, like a group of playground bullies that had suddenly started fighting among themselves, the Kel were distracted and the Reaver, taking advantage, quietly dropped low and slipped away.

  “Take us to these coordinates,” Nani said as she flashed Bianca information to her screens. Bianca held the Reaver straight and steady, the first level flight in what seemed like forever. Accelerated.

  “That’s the queen’s fortress,” Nani verified other things as they flew. Bianca wasted no time, burning up the atmosphere and jamming them up and over the curve of the world to the other side. “I’ve pieced together as much as I could. That’s where they took her. She’s there.

  “She’s at the fortress.”

  Bianca stood on it.

/>   **

  Kang loomed over her.

  “Forgive me for savoring this,” he said, voice like rocks grinding, breath steaming and curling in great clouds about his head. He continued to sneer.

  Of course he did.

  It was Kang.

  Sneering, as he was from the first moment Jess saw him. Now with fanged mouth, crooked horns, yellowed, disfigured face, twisted body yet, set within that hideous frame …

  The same old Kang.

  And Kang was a total dick.

  She was surprised how calm she felt in that final instant, the beast wasting no more time as he lifted a foot to stomp her. So that’s how it ends, she thought. Stepped on like a bug. A serenity of acceptance flooded through her, so deep, so overwhelming it …

  POOOOOOOM!

  … was a moment before she realized Kang was gone.

  Her eyes went wide.

  Wha—

  She sat bolt upright. Kang had just been knocked away, hard and fast and away to the side and, just like that …

  Gone.

  A giant impact with a huge concussion that rocked the landscape and he was far away in an instant, slammed sideways by a cannonball …

  She found him.

  Zac!

  Kang in his grip, planing across the snowy field, flying with such velocity from the impact it was another few seconds before they even struck the ground.

  Whooomp! they hit in the distance with an echoing impact that threw up a wall of white, plowing on a hundred yards; a rutting wall of snow driven by the fury of Zac’s strike, such intensity to it that by the time they came to a stop and the thunderous blows began they were far, far away. A dot of human skin, a dot of yellow.

  Going at it.

  ZAC!!

  She was on her feet.

  ZAC!!

  She leapt. It hurt, she was sore, she probably had broken bones but Zac was here and she had to help him. Together they would defeat Kang and she was energized like never before. She leapt as far as she could, charged with adrenaline, but it fell short and she leapt again, a mighty leap, covering a vast stretch of ground, but by the time she was close they were in motion and even further away. Reality snuffed her brief determination.

  This was up to Zac.

  The blows went on at such a rate the thunder of their impact became like a string of concussion fireworks, hammering the land one after the other, arms pummeling, a flurry of limbs as Zac was clearly dominating those first seconds, beating Kang back behind a perpetual wall of snow and terrain. All at once the yellow body went flying, off and away and, seemingly, all the way to the horizon. And Zac was leaping, dark hair and bare torso arcing into view, just like back on Anitra, so long ago, closer until she saw the sharp blue of his eyes in those final seconds of approach, arcing like a mighty superhero through the air and he was impacting the ground right beside her.

  Whoooom! the ground thrummed, snow flew and he ran the last few steps, reaching her as the wall of white fell heavy to the ground all around. A great white blanket.

  His eyes were so clear! So alive! More than ever before and she saw the power in him, she felt it, and she wanted to grab him and tell him, tell him how she believed in him—she did! Zac was here and he was so full of impossible energy, more than ever before, and he would save her.

  “I broke free,” his gaze pierced hers. Time froze. He held her shoulders. “This Raza field was stronger than the one on Anitra. But I broke it.” He looked her over. “Are you ok?”

  She nodded. Breathless.

  Time was moving again. Kang’s bellow reached them on the wind and Jess looked up, over Zac’s shoulder, and there he was, flying in on a return leap from wherever he’d been flung, arms out and feet ready for the strike, heading for she and Zac at speed.

  Zac turned, took two quick steps and launched, more Superman than he’d ever been; up, up and away, shooting on a straight path like a beam, right into Kang’s falling arc and striking—CRACK!—knocking him aside and onto a new trajectory and they were fighting in mid-air as they fell, then to ground and at it again.

  It was the fight of the century.

  Jess jumped again to stay close, struggling to keep up. A thrill passed through her as, for an instant, it looked as if Zac was …

  Winning.

  Unbelievable, and the more she jumped around to keep up, the more Zac pressed the advantage, she found herself cheering. Not out loud, but she knew the expression on her face was like any fan at any game.

  This was incredible.

  At once she chastised herself for being surprised, even as she crossed her fingers in silent hope that Zac’s dominance would continue. His blows took the fight far and wide, in all directions, a blur, a hundred yards and tumbling, dwindling into the distance, disappearing with the acceleration of each impact, Zac clinging to Kang relentlessly and hammering strikes as they flew, thundering from the hills and rolling to the ground, shooting high into the air and Kang had no answer. Zac mounted him, a ground and pound between gods.

  Then …

  POW!!!

  A sound like no other. Even the sword cracking didn’t sound like that. Something titanic just gave. Multiple leaps closer …

  Zac had broken a horn.

  He’s winning!

  Kang was dazed. Zac tossed the broken horn aside and laid into the beast with vigor. For a long moment Kang couldn’t seem to believe it, looking absolutely stunned as he weathered Zac’s blows. They thundered down, bouncing him against the ground and Zac slid him around, bent on crushing his skull. Jess got closer.

  Then ...

  Blood.

  Actual blood—Kang was bleeding!—crimson and flying from his face. Not a lot, and as soon as she saw it Jess realized it was just from the nose, but it sprayed the white snow red and ran into his eyes and the monster was hurt and she surged in witness of it.

  YES! she could feel the bloodlust coursing through her as she watched Zac dismantle this abomination. A thing no one had yet been able to so much as injure and ...

  Zac was hurting him.

  More.

  Zac was killing him.

  She couldn’t believe it.

  Kill him!

  Kang was dying.

  **

  In no time they were there.

  “Holy …” Satori was leaning forward.

  So was everyone else.

  “Is that …”

  “Kang and Zac.” Nani ran her scans, magnifying images and confirming what was becoming more and more clear as Bianca slowed and brought them in steady over the scene. It was a massive black fortress, built out of the mountain itself, part of a range that stretched off in two directions, this side surrounded by a forest that went on for miles. And there, between the forest and the mountains, a massive field of snow.

  On it Kang and Zac.

  And Jess.

  “It’s Jess!” at least three people said it at once. Now her dark form was visible, wearing the armor and leaping unnaturally to pace the battle between Kang and Zac. Bianca followed the trio with her gaze, seeing that Zac was …

  Beating the shit out of Kang. There was blood, actual blood in the snow and on the beast. One of his horns was broken; it was amazing but clear on the video monitors as they moved in and hovered closer.

  “No pursuit,” Nani was still checking things. “Nothing inbound. Not yet.”

  So far no Kel ships were chasing them. Bianca brought them closer, searching for anything they could do that wouldn’t also put Zac or Jess in danger. There was nothing. She hovered them to the side. “I’m setting down.”

  Nani grew alarmed. “That’s a bad idea. We should stay in the air. If we—”

  “I’m setting down.”

  Bianca fired the landing gear. As she curved around the battle below the Reaver passed across the sun, its giant shadow eclipsing the fighters, then they were around them and Bianca was nosing toward the scene and coming to a complete hover. Zac had Kang pinned, pummeling.

  “Bianca.
This is a bad idea.”

  Bianca ignored her, dropping the Reaver for touchdown.

  CHAPTER 65: ULTIMATE POWER

  Yes!! Zac had Kang on his back and Kang wasn’t rising. Finish him! Jess willed the end to come. The blows were raining down, tremendous, Zac on top and Kang was no longer defending and he was hurt, bad, and this was finally it.

  YES!!

  A giant shadow passed across the dim light of the sun. It sucked her from that tiny world that was Zac and Kang, the only thing she saw in that moment, willing Kang’s death and no awareness of anything else. She unlocked her gaze and pulled her focus to the sky.

  It was the Reaver.

  They came! Silent, ungodly power, hovering in. Bianca and Nani were here! They must’ve got her text from back on Hamonhept, must’ve put together the image and the clues and come rushing after her, somehow tracking her all the way here, to Kel.

  As the incredible improbability of that fought with the imminent victory unfolding before her all she could be was ecstatic. Not only was Zac about to kill Kang, but the Reaver made it; it was circling to land—and there wasn’t another Kel ship in sight. Nothing fighting it, nothing stopping it, and Jess could see, even in that snapshot of desperate observation, that the Reaver had already been in a fight for its life. Signs of damage were clear. Yet here it was landing, coming for her, and her heart soared with the convergence of fortune.

  However it came to be, Bianca was coming for her.

  And Zac was winning.

  Zac is winning!

  Her eyes locked back to him. This fight was epic, a back-alley brawl on a scale never before imagined. This was a fist-fight between demigods. The concussion of each strike rocked the land, a sonic vibration that rippled the air, sending steady vibrations through her bones. Zac wailed on Kang, the sound of the tremendous strikes pounding back from the fortress walls, even the distant mountains, seconds later, one coupling upon the next in a resounding drumbeat of destruction. Kang could not survive. There was just no way.