“Alright… if that’s what you think.”
“It is. Let’s get ready to go,” she murmured as he turned away, a vein jumping in his jaw as he clenched his teeth. As his eyes left hers she finally felt able to move and quickly turned away from him, leaving the room as if it were on fire and she were the one who set it.
Downstairs, everyone was up and bustling around, making sure everything was prepared and ready. The calm before the storm a distant memory as they geared up. Quinn busied herself, sharpening her throwing knives in the kitchen with gusto.
“Quinn, Aaron told me you have a gift with knives?” James walked in to the kitchen carrying a small wooden case and throwing her an easy smile. She hadn’t shared many words with the man but he seemed a genteel man, calm and compassionate… like Slade. She smiled back though it was a little pained and gave him a nod.
“Have you ever used a throwing star?” he asked, sitting at the table opposite her. She shook her head eyeing the box with interest. He opened it and handed her a small, silver, circular blade with glistening spiked edges. She took it with an awe-filled smile and twirled it around with her fingers, getting a feel for the weight.
“It’s beautiful,” she murmured, looking up at him with a smile as she handed it back. He shook his head and pushed her hand away.
“It’s for you and so are these,” he turned the box around to reveal a long black leather belt with several more silver stars decorating it. She gingerly picked it out of the box and held it out in front of her. Seven stars attached by strategically placed loops lined the belt and she could clearly see the place for the eighth.
“I… I can’t accept this, James. It’s beautiful but…”
He was shaking his head with a serious expression on his face, “you are risking your life for my Granddaughter and I want you to have this… please take it. It’s all I can offer you in this fight. I’m afraid my old bones don’t move as quickly as they used to so I’ll be waiting here… guarding the escape.” He sighed wistfully and pushed the box a little closer to her.
“Well, without you here, we might not make it back at all. Don’t sell yourself short, old man,” she murmured with a grin. He chuckled and gave her an assessing look.
“I understand why my son likes you so much. After Camille, I didn’t think he’d ever find someone he was willing to give his heart to,” James muttered, a soft, melancholic smile on his face. At his words though, Quinn’s smile evaporated and she looked away, finding something incredibly interesting in the blue lining of the wooden box. “Oh dear… he’s screwed it up already, hasn’t he?”
“Its-,” she began, unsure of what she was going to say and she never got to find out as Colt stuck his head around the door.
“It’s time. You ready?” he asked and she nodded gratefully, giving James a shrug. He gave her a knowing smile, the kind a Father might give and she felt a pang of jealousy for his children. It didn’t lessen as he helped her with the belt and gave her a quick tutorial on how best to use the stars that were attached to it, mimicking the actions with his hands as he led her to the cabin’s front door.
“Thank you, James. I mean it. In case I don’t make it back, I enjoyed meeting you,” she murmured shyly holding out her hand for him to shake. He ignored it pulling her in for an unexpected cuddle.
“Nonsense, girly. You’re family now. You just haven’t realised it yet, but there’ll be plenty of time to do that when you get back safe, alright?” She just nodded against his chest, finally breaking apart as Molly, Beth and John came out to say their goodbyes, Slade on their heels. She met his eyes briefly but he looked away, busying himself with his Mother. Five minutes later they were all standing at the top of the path, surrounding a small metal disk on the ground and counting down the minutes until Aaron and Diana opened the portal from the other side. Slade stood opposite, she had noticed that he had purposefully positioned himself so he was not stood beside her and it stung. The tension was almost unbearable as they stood there… waiting and watching, watching and waiting… another minute… another… she fidgeted in her spot, glancing up at the sky. The sun was still high, about an hour before it would descend into the hells and the moon would take its place. An hour to travel through the city and make it through the King’s fortress. Another minute passed… the hour they had set themselves getting smaller and smaller. No-one spoke, each knowing the mission was dependant on Aaron and Diana’s ability to get inside Union City… another minute. Dax, easily fidgeting the most, started to speak when suddenly a large purple vortex materialised with a pop in front of them. Breathing a sigh of relief she began to step forward when Colt stopped her.
“I’ll go first,” he grunted, his eyes hard and his mouth set in a grim line. She nodded with a shrug, though she was anxious to get where they were going. The quicker they started this thing the quicker they could get home… home? Where the hells was that these days?
“Shay? Are you ready?” She asked and the ghostly girl gave her a determined nod, glanced once at her father, her silvery face filled with hope and fear as she shimmered into the ether. She would be meeting them in Union City, using her own somewhat unnatural abilities rather than those of the portals. Just to be safe. Dax stepped into the portal next and she quickly followed behind him. Her limbs feeling as though they had stepped into quicksand, stuck yet still pliable. An odd sensation, to be sure, but weirder still were the purple walls that surrounded her, swallowing her whole. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth as she was pulled through by unseen hands, feeling them clamouring over her body until suddenly there was nothing. Opening her eyes a crack she found herself face to face with Aaron.
“Welcome back, Red,” he muttered, a smirk curving his mouth. She rolled her eyes and looked around. They stood in some sort of stone bunker. The walls were made of soft yellowish sandstone and wooden shelving filled with books lined them. A small circular rug covered the floor with a delicate pattern of teal and yellow flowers covering it.
“Where are we?” she asked quietly, keeping her voice low, just in case.
“Book shop basement, about five klicks from the fortress.”
“Oh, okay. What took you so long?”
“Had to wait until a patrol passed by before we could get in here. Don’t worry, there doesn’t appear to be any more activity than normal,” Aaron added, his tone reassuring. She nodded, adjusting her cap turned back to see Slade getting a similar breakdown from Shay, passing it on to Kieron with a sneer. Gods, she liked how much he hated that man. This was it, they were really here and really about to do this. Suddenly the last day or two of planning felt dismally underprepared as the true extent of stupid they were about to embark on registered with her. Her hands shook and her mind raced as she followed behind Aaron with Shay taking the lead and the rest filing behind her. Shay led them up a short flight of stairs, poked her head through a wooden door and called back that it was clear. It took Quinn a few moments, as they stood there in silence waiting, to realise why Aaron hadn’t moved on.
“It’s clear,” she whispered, and he nodded, opening the door. Apparently, they hadn’t thought that part through. It was no good having Aaron take the lead if he couldn’t hear any upcoming warnings. They piled into a small, odd looking room. The walls were a stark white and metal furniture lined each wall with odd screen-like things spread sporadically between them. “I thought you said this was a book shop?” Quinn muttered, taking a step towards the screens.
“It is,” Aaron replied, his tone melancholic.
“Then where are all the books?” she asked, lifting her hand to the screen. As she touched the flat glassy expanse before her, a loud mechanical voice sounded in her ear.
“State your preference.”
“Huh?” she breathed jumping backwards. She reached for a throwing knife as she looked around but no-one else appeared to have heard a thing. Her hand still fingering the handle of her blade she reached out with the other one and once again placed her fingers on the sc
reen.
“State your preference,” the mechanical voice sounded again.
“Er… I don’t know,” she muttered, drawing Aaron’s attention.
“Please choose from the following: History. Law. The rise of our King. Prohibitions. Criminal Rebellions. The Fall of the Ancients. Humanity’s Errors…”
“The rise of our King,” she murmured, cutting the mechanical voice off.
“Loading, ‘The rise of our King.’ Preparing first chapter…” the screen paused for a moment followed by a series of clicks and faint beeps and then she was… there. No longer in the book shop, though she could still feel the screen, still feel the air move around her as someone took a step and brushed by. She was about to pull her hand free when a soft female voice caught her attention. The world had been a whitewash of light but as the little voice grew louder and closer, so did a moving picture. Forcing itself into her vision, a wash of green, blue and fiery red. She blinked against the rushing colour and when her eyes opened again she found herself there. A small, comfortable and clean looking room with old fashioned sofas lining each wall, a small table in the middle and a little girl sitting on the floor beside the furthest sofa, playing with little toys and creating voices for them. The toys themselves were like none Quinn had ever seen. Bright colours that could not be found in nature and little glyphs decorated the side of some kind of horned animal. There were also cups and plates and large stuffed animals all arranged around the little girl in a circle. Despite the unusual toys, it was the girl herself that caught Quinn’s interest. Her long dark hair was braided and hanging over one shoulder and bright hazel eyes danced with youthful innocence and laughter as she played. Quinn took a step closer to her, though her feet still felt planted squarely on the floor, and as she did the girl looked up, her eyes wide with excitement and a beautiful smile on her lips. Quinn was struck with the familiarity she felt to this girl, so sweet, so pure… so much like Amira. Her full lips in a perfect bow and her large eyes wide and kind. She could have been her little sisters’ twin.
“Daddy, daddy, look! Pinkie is not being very nice to Reggie,” the girl said, her voice high.
“Is that right, Princess,” a deep voice boomed from behind Quinn and she whirled round, coming face to face with a younger, kinder version of a man she had learned to hate. Jackson swept forward, sitting on the floor in front of the girl, careful not to disturb her delicately placed toys. “What are you going to do about it?” he asked her, a smile in his voice.
“Well, she just needs a time out. Pinkie can say she’s sorry later.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” he murmured.
“Would you like some tea, Daddy?”
“Oh yes please,” he said, excitedly picking up a small pink cup and holding it out to the girl. She giggled and pretended to pour some tea into it using a pink teapot. He licked his lips and pretended to swallow the tea with an exaggerated slurp. His daughter found it hysterical as she giggled loudly.
“You’re silly, Daddy!” she laughed and he chuckled along with her. The scene suddenly changed and Quinn found herself looking at the King once more, but gone was the comfortable sitting room and the laughter, instead he was in a green uniform, barking out orders for evacuation, a large black gun swinging from a strap on his shoulder. People were crying, screaming and shoving as he tried to surge through them. Each fighting for their freedom as alarms sounded in the distance. The lights went out and were quickly replaced by red flashing emergency lighting and the rush intensified. “Sarah!” Jackson screamed continuing to fight through the crowd. The scene changed again, humans sat in small clumps of a white washed, clinical room. Healers rushing from one person to another, needles in trays and blood on the floor. It was a scene straight from a nightmare as people cried and begged for their pain to be ended. Some sat on beds, blood leaking from their eyes and nose. One woman cried relentlessly as her hair came away in her hands. She kept trying to put it back on her head but every time she did, more would fall away. Quinn wanted to stop then, wanted to escape the nightmare she’d fallen into but a soul shattering roar of anguish prevented her. She felt herself moving towards the sound only to find Jackson on his knees in front of a bed, his face buried in the blood covered form of a small girl. Her breath caught in her throat as she moved closer.
“Sir, we did everything we could,” a dim, broken voice murmured beside the King. He looked up, blood smeared on his cheeks and anger and pain seething from him.
“It wasn’t enough. Why didn’t you… she should have survived…”
“She wasn’t strong enough, Sir. The radiation-,” the healer murmured, almost pleading.
“Get out… just get the fuck out,” he whispered, burying his head into his daughters chest once more as his shoulders shook with the heart wrenching cries of a man who just lost his world. The scene changed once more.
“It was your fault! You caused this,” Jackson was screaming at another man dressed in green and brown camouflaged clothing. He held a primitive gun, pointing it at the man who cowered on his knees. There were many other soldiers in the room, each standing around the two men in a circle. The room was dark, lit by the silvery glows coming from several monitors and screens and technical equipment.
“I’m sorry. I had orders… I-,” the man’s words were cut off by a single BANG, it sounded somewhat like the crack of lightning and thunder meeting in the heavens as a faint line of smoke linger from a newly forged darkened hole in the middle of the man’s head. He seemed shocked, his face slack and unblinking as a rivulet of crimson fell from the wound and he gently, slowly lurched forward landing on his face on the floor. Jackson breathed deeply closing his eyes as he finished his execution. Opening them he looked around the room, eyeing each soldier in turn before speaking.
“We have a lot of work to do but mark my words, men, we will purge this world of the evil it has become.” The scene started to shift again. She caught flashes of red, green, purple and grey but before the picture could fully form she felt a hand on her shoulder. The sudden contact caused her to react violently as she quickly pulled her blade from her waist band and whirled round, gripping the culprit with one hand and holding her blade to his throat with the other.
“Whoa, easy Red,” Aaron murmured, his eyes wide and his hands raised. She looked around disoriented, finding herself still standing in the book shop.
Breathing hard, she stammered, “W-what the hells was that?”
“First time reading?” Kieron asked, his eyebrow raised sarcastically.
“I wasn’t reading, I was… I was there. I saw it as though I was there when it happened,” she explained finally releasing Aaron and withdrawing her knife.
“Yeah, Jackson’s people use Seer abilities so you can experience stories as they were rather than waste time reading,” Diana murmured, a smirk on her face as she glanced at Aaron. He was rubbing a thin red line on his throat with a discomfited frown. Quinn muttered an uncomfortable apology replacing her blade in her belt.
“How long was I in there?” she asked, suddenly very aware that time was moving and she had wasted it ‘reading’.
“About twenty seconds… I know it seems a lot longer,” Diana shrugged in explanation when Quinn shook her head. “Come on people, let’s move.”
“Wait, Slade or I should take front position because we can see and hear Shay. She’ll be able to warn us,” Quinn said, still a little dazed from her experience in the King’s ‘book’.
“I will,” Slade murmured, sending her a pained look that lasted barely a moment before turning and taking the lead as he headed to the door. Quinn nodded to herself as she followed behind Diana, Kieron and Aaron with Dax, Colt and Liam on her heels. She watched Shay wisp through the door to return a moment later and nod at her Father and with that they were heading out, one at a time. Less than a minute later they were all standing in a back alley though you wouldn’t have really known it. The ground was covered in white tiles, clean enough for the sunlight to bou
nce off them, sending iridescent lights shimmering all around. The walls were made of the same sandstone in the book shops basement though these were smoother, more refined and more elaborate. Intricate patterns lined the stone walls and together with the bright sunlit ground it was undeniably beautiful, like a walkway to the Gods themselves. Considering the danger they were in and were about to delve deeper into she was convinced it was little more than a beautiful path on which to march towards death. Like one final cruel joke. The path was beautiful because those who marched into the Hells willingly deserved a little beauty before accepting eternal damnation. They walked at an average pace in a basic formation through the alleys they had memorised from Aaron’s hand drawn map without any problems. It was all a little too easy and it made Quinn uncomfortable. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one. Colt, Liam, Kieron and Slade kept looking around with furtive glances as though they were expecting an ambush any minute.
“It’s just one klick to the south east and then we’ll be at the pipe entrance,” Liam murmured, more to himself than anyone else but she nodded anyway, looking back to give him a smile of encouragement. He nodded at her gratefully but the fear didn’t leave his eyes and his hands were visibly shaking. Ten minutes later and they reached the corner of the last alley. From here it was a straight walk to the sewer systems, the only problem was it was directly through the bustling market sector of Union City.
“Right guys, we prepared for this. Let’s get it done,” Slade muttered, making eye contact with her and she looked back fiercely, wishing beyond hope that they had never heard his Mother’s explanations for the markings that marred them both. She would have moved the heavens and hells for just one more, tender kiss before they jumped into the fray but despite the hurt in her heart she knew it wasn’t meant to be. He belonged to another, heart, body and soul, and though she had long since passed, Quinn would never measure up to the shadow she left behind. A small bitter voice echoed through her, whispering words of hatred and self-disgust but she pushed it away, concentrating instead on the task at hand.
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