It seemed that the very Earth itself was attempting to stop Critock from reaching his goal as a clump of dirt and grass flew up from almost under his feet. It would make no difference. He was not stopping until either Pt'ron was dead and the Shard was destroyed along with him or he himself fell. But even with that he could buy his friends the slightest bit of time they needed if they wanted to make their escape to safety. If he could distract him for just long enough...
Pt'ron was in sight, right in the middle of the flattop hill just as he was when Critock left him. He wasn't fully released from his ice cocoon yet, but it was only going to be a minute before he was free, and that was the minute that Critock needed. He bounded up the hill, ignoring the lightning strikes only a few inches off from his feet. He saw Pt'ron's now very red eyes glowing at him, saw the shield still emanating from the lone remaining Shard, and took his one chance. As he reached the top of the hill, he leapt into the air, holding his sword high, preparing to bring it down in a sideways slash that, if successful, would decapitate Pt'ron. Yelling as he came down, he began to slash his sword...
Before the sword even impacted the shield, a beam of red electricity surged off of Pt'ron and headed straight for Critock. It seemed to have a mind of it's own as it wrapped around his body and flung him straight back, not off the hill but almost rolling down it. Critock caught himself before he could be sent any further, and as quickly as he could he rose to his feet, shaken from the sudden jolt of power but refusing to let it or anything else stop him.
The remaining ice clinging to Pt'ron simply shattered apart explosively as the Shard completed its task and transferred its power. Fully imbued with the energy, Pt'ron simply turned his head, assessing his old friend, and began to laugh.
Trying to take advantage of what seemed like sheer madness, Critock again attempted to make an assault on Pt'ron, but was quickly waylaid by an arc sheering straight from Pt'ron's hand into Critock's chest, sending him tumbling again.
Pt'ron ceased his laugh, but a dark smile remained on his face. "Did I not tell you? Did you really think that I didn't know this would happen! You betrayed me...betrayed her...and would destroy this entire world. For what? For a chance to somehow defeat me? You were dead the moment you got here! The entire empire is!" He shook his head. "You had one chance to kill me. Know now that your loss is because of you and you alone."
"NO!" Critock stood up again, facing his enemy. "It was never me, Pt'ron. I'm sorry. I'm sorry what was done to you and how you were twisted into this thing you are now. But everything that has happened is because of you. Starting with her."
A look of disgust and horror took over Pt'ron's face from the accusation as Critock began to advance on him, continuing to speak as he did so. "You led us into a trap. You planned all of this from the beginning. YOU KILLED HER."
"NO!!!" Pt'ron reared back his hands and sent streaks of red electricity surging through the air to strike at Critock once again, but this time he was ready for the attack. He lifted the Sword of Kon in front of him, holding it straight up, and caught the arcs cleanly. The sword began to absorb them, turning it's usual bright orange into a duller red, and sparks began to fly off of the side. Critock could feel the hilt heating up, but he paid it no mind. This was more important than the temporary pain.
"IT WAS YOUR FAULT! IT WAS ALWAYS ALL YOUR FAULT!" Pt'ron began to scream at Critock as he advanced, catching every lightning bolt that was being sent to him, withstanding the now blistering heat that the Sword was putting out. He felt as though he had double his strength again, and realized that for the first time, Kyle was right there with him, pushing forward with him against the demon that had worked for so long to destroy this world. They were together now. One being. One purpose.
By now they were very close together, and Pt'ron was sending an unending stream of electricity and curses towards Critock and Kyle. This isn't happening! He thought as he became a conduit for the Shard, pouring its energy directly at his enemy to seemingly no effect. He isn't powerful enough! Pt'ron found himself standing less than three feet away from Critock, his eyes panicked.
"YOU CAN'T WIN, CRITOCK! THIS WORLD IS MINE!" Pt'ron bellowed directly in his face. Critock, sweating profusely, his hands almost blackened from the heat, knew he was wrong. The world wasn't his. Wasn't Critock's, wasn't any Marconian or any other race but one. Pt'ron had brought this down upon them, Critock had inadvertently helped him to be here in the first place, and while Critock was the one that began the march, he knew it wasn't right for him to finish it. Maintaining his grip on the Sword, he let his mind lapse back, just a slight amount, allowing for his partner to take control one last time.
"MY NAME...IS KYLE!!!" With the forceful words, Kyle and Critock together brought the Sword blade down, still taking the electricity, and with as much strength as the two of them had together, pushed it directly into and through Pt'ron's midsection. He screamed a horrendous, pain-filled scream, and his hands flew back, red electricity surging uncontrollably in every direction from his hands.
After a moment of the torture, Pt'ron realized something important. While he was in unimaginable pain, he didn't feel any weaker. His life force was still with him. The Shard was maintaining him. He couldn't manage speech to share his newfound joy at the amazing powers, but he did regain control of his arms, bringing them down quickly and wrapping his hands around Kyle's neck, beginning to squeeze quickly, abandoning all thought of anything but killing his enemy once and for all!
Neither Critock nor Kyle were expecting the attack, and they inadvertently slightly relaxed their grip on the sword, though not letting go entirely. Pt'ron finally was able to smile and managed to speak, though his speech was raspy, with blood pouring out of his mouth. "Did you really think that would kill me?"
Critock simply looked back at him and replied, despite the hands wrapped around his throat. "No, but this will."
The second missile impacted one yard behind Pt'ron before he could even process what Critock had said, and instantly exploded in a large fireball, expanding outward almost immediately with power and force. Critock had known that whatever Shard Pt'ron had was likely to be able to keep him alive through anything but total annihilation, so the original plan had to come back into play. Distract to destroy.
Everything happened almost too quick to see. The force of the blast from the missile caused both Critock and Pt'ron to fly through the air, Pt'ron's hands releasing from Critock's neck quickly. The Shard was ejected from Pt'ron's pocket, its power already having levitated it into the air of its own accord, and it flew away from Pt'ron as a fireball engulfed the instantly powerless Marconian. With no protection and no power, the end result was predictable. The heat seared and melted his skin, and the enemy of Critock and the Marconian Empire was reduced to nothing more than a pile of ash in milliseconds.
The Shard itself was then caught in the blast, but instead of melting itself, it simply exploded, pieces of it flying off in all directions. As Critock was directly in front of it, his back to it, no less than six small fragments slammed into his back, embedding themselves deep within his body. The power of the Shard's explosion was such that it outdid the force of the missile's, and it served to push Critock even farther ahead, off the hill and tumbling down what was left of it.
The dual shockwaves from the Shard and the missile hitting it's target completely blew off the top of the hill, causing dirt and rock to fall from the sky over several hundred yards away. The explosion continued to grow alongside the shockwaves, and it expanded outward, searing trees, ground, anything that was outside.
Shanna had been looking out the window the whole time, unable to see much but even with her shock and loss she wanted to know how it would end. She saw the explosion, saw the shockwave, and knew what it meant. The Shard had been destroyed, with Pt'ron, Critock, and Kyle along with it. There was no time to mourn, only to react, as the waves and fire were heading right for them. "EVERYONE GET DOWN! NOW!" She screamed, waving her hands as she ran forward, grab
bing Claire and pulling her down, staying on top of her for protection. Many complied immediately, not even questioning the teenage command. Others looked up, saw the orange glow growing brighter, and ran and dove away from the doors and windows.
The shockwaves and fire impacted the school with a large booming noise which seemed to last for a full minute, accompanied by what could only be described as a hurricane beating down on the walls. Every piece of glass in the school facing the outside blew out, and every door blew open. Fire came inside slightly but was buffeted by the change in atmosphere and the force of the waves that carried it. The walls shook, and the children cried.
It was a minute later when the winds and booms simply stopped. Despite the hundreds of survivors in the lobby and throughout the school in their various hiding places, it was eerily quiet. Only a few mutterings and soft crying were heard as everyone tried to make some sense out of what had just happened. After a moment, Shanna slowly rose to her feet, daring to look out the hole in the front where the main doors used to be. There she saw devastation. Overturned cars, blackened streets and grass, as though the apocalypse had come. But off in the distance, she could still see the sun through the smoke, and realized that this wasn't total destruction. The fire hadn't reached far. Maybe a mile out?
Just as she was realizing that it was all over, and that somehow she had survived, every single person left in the school jumped when the last bell rang. The school day had come to a close.
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Shanna couldn't let herself believe it was over. As long as this had taken, as much as they had been through, how could this ever end? What about Critock? What about Kyle! With a gasp, and before anyone could even make a move to stop her, she whirled around and out the rear doors without a thought to her safety at all.
Phelps watched her go from his position on the stairs, and knew she shouldn't be out there alone. With a quick check on John and Jim, again nodding for them to follow, he gingerly made his way down the steps and to the door. John was right behind him, while Jim had sped up when he saw his sister Claire, still huddled on the floor. He went to her, helped her to stand, and embraced her, silently promising to be there for her for whatever aftermath would follow these horrors.
As John began to cross the threshold to the outside, he heard a small voice, and felt a slight bump against his leg. He looked down, and saw the miniature comet that had been fighting on their side. Tomkari pitched up to look at the boy, no longer having the strength to maintain his camouflage from the humans, and then simply asked, "Can I get some help?"
On Marconia, at least in the one spot where it could truly be said everyone knew what was going on, all was celebration. Cheers had gone up when they had seen the first missile destroyed outside of Earth's atmosphere, and even larger ones when the second missile had impacted, and every system they had to track the Shard's radioactive emissions had gone dark. There could be no doubt that Critock and Tomkari had completed their mission, and both Earth and the Marconian Empire itself were saved.
While he was elated from their mission being a success, Qua'roti Alpha didn't show it on his face. Instead he simply stared at one specific signal that had gone dark instantly along with the detonation of the second missile. The pig-faced General that had reluctantly teamed up with Alpha came up alongside him, clapping him on the back a slight bit too roughly.
"Congratulations, I suppose? The war is off."
"So it is." Alpha did nothing else to encourage the General, who frowned.
"Somehow I thought you'd be happier, the Qua'roti stock is bound to go back up once this makes its way through the back channels. May have saved your clique for another few cycles..."
"There's no signal from Critock, General."
"Oh?" He peered closer at the systems, and confirmed for himself that the small light remained off. "Then he did his duty. Thousands of cycles late, but still..."
Alpha shook his head. "There are other possibilities. The signal could have been cut off, the band damaged..."
"Or the most obvious one. Prince Critock went to Earth to finish the job he started a thousand cycles ago. He completed his mission against all odds, saving that worthless little rock at the same time. But no one survives against The Shards, Qua'roti Alpha, you of all people should know that."
Alpha slammed a hand against the console. "You know nothing of the Shards."
"And I don't care to. Mystical religious insanity is your department. Not mine. I'll leave you now to your 'celebration'." The General started to walk away, but was interrupted by another question from Alpha.
"Will the deal be honored?"
The general made a snorting noise. "Does it really matter now?"
"General."
"Fine. Yes, yes, full pardon and reinstatement of honors and rank. As agreed." He continued to walk, one last word on his lips as he exited the hanger. "Posthumously."
Qua'roti Alpha didn't challenge the assertation, and instead went back to staring at the console, fighting himself from beginning the mourning process for his lost Tomkari, who had worked so hard to rise up from his previous life and hardships, and Critock himself, who had given his all for an Empire that no longer wished to acknowledge his existence even after untold sacrifice. He sighed, a single tear falling from a green eye, as he waited for a signal that would never come.
There were calls to her from behind by Jim and Phelps, but Shanna Ewing was undeterred. She had to know what had happened! There was no time at all to wait for safety or patience. She needed this and she needed it now!
She gasped as she reached a cloud of smoke that seemed to stretch from the black grass on the ground to the very clouds above, blotting out the sun and blocking her way. The lack of wind blowing after the waves had prevented it from disbursing and so it hung in the air quietly. She attempted to breach it, but while it was static and undoubtedly would fade, all that she was left with was the inability to breathe without coughing, forcing her to retreat.
As she regained her breath, her hands on her knees as she slightly bent over, she looked up, trying to see through the smoke and the haze. She could see where there should be a large dark shape of the hill, instead it was about three-quarters smaller. Other than some unidentifiable debris, there was nothing there. Nothing alive that she could see...
...Except...
There was something there. Something just within the haze. It seemed small, but it grew larger as it was heading closer to her. Phelps came up behind her as they realized that was going to come through the smoke, and it was now the shape and size of a human.
The boy's body came through the smoke, and Shanna gasped. He was bloodied, bruised, and was stumbling. But he was alive. Somehow, against all the odds that they had been placed against, they had all survived! But something was different. The movement was unfamiliar. The face was blank.
As he cleared the smoke, Shanna ran to him. Reaching him quickly, he collapsed to his knees, his arms holding him up. Shanna kneeled and embraced him. "You're alive!" She was crying again, but happily. She moved back, and looked into his eyes.
There was no black inside his iris, not even a speck. Kyle looked back at her, and simply started repeating a single sentence.
"I can't hear him...I can't hear him." The voice was distant and shell shocked. Tears began to pour from his eyes. "Oh God...I can't find him...I can't hear him anymore..." He began to simply weep, and Shanna clutched him to her.
John walked silently up to the scene along with Jim, who was helping Claire walk, not sure what was going on but knowing it was important that all of them were together right now. He was holding Tomkari in his outstretched hands, the wisp still recovering from the battle. John glanced at Phelps who gave him a look that plainly said to remain silent.
Tomkari understood the look as well, but commented quietly anyway. "The band is broken." He slightly nodded towards Kyle's right wrist, wrapped behind Shanna's back, and a small silver strand that hung loosely. Tomkari knew nobody else knew what that mean
t, but he did, and he said it for them in a numb voice. "We can't go home."
The tears and weeping continued from Kyle, who had lost something unimaginable, and did not know if there was anything gained from this. As far as he knew, Critock, the invader from space that had crashed into his life and showed that there was a entire universe out there, had sacrificed himself for them all, and in the process spared the boy who had fought him most of the way. He closed his eyes, and cried silently into Shanna's shoulder.
Shanna held him tightly to her, not willing to ever let go if that was what Kyle needed. But tears fell from her eyes in mourning for the soldier. For 'Cri-Tock'. He had been better than even he thought he could be. In the end he wasn't the one that had caused destruction, had not betrayed his empire. He was a hero, reluctant though he may have been. Shanna Ewing turned her head up to the sky, which while still spotted with smoke and falling ash and rock was a bright blue, and imagined beyond Earth. Beyond the atmosphere, beyond the moon, the planets, the galaxies, was there anyone looking for him? Would anyone come for Critock? Who were they? What did they do to him?
The clouds continued to move through the sky, and the planet Earth spun on. The solar systems moved in harmony with the galaxies they were contained within, and after thousands and thousands of cycles and years, the War of the Shards was finally over.
The Joining: The Saga of the Shards Book One (The Cycle of the Shards 1) Page 47