Return

by J. A. Huss

  “He must really hate you,” I say impulsively. Lucan says nothing to that and I feel a little guilty for bringing it up. It sucks to know that your father hates you. I thought mine hated me for a long time before I figured out the truth, and it really hurt.

  “There were other punishments. Other demons they didn’t try to manipulate into being little girls who kill for corrupt governments. Those other Six Demons released a bunch of toxins on Earth to poison the biosphere. We’re cleaning it up. There was a stock of genetics found in a cave… well, let’s just say, my father, Aesin, thought of almost everything. He was going to destroy me, my avians and Archers, and the human population. Then use that seed stock up in the ice to repopulate things the way he wanted them. It was creation science engineering on the planetary level. We’ve halted the degradation of the planet, but it’s not all back together yet. Earth has been… decimated. The Six Demons unleashed so many disruptive genetic agents as they traveled down North America. Almost all the humans who are left have been contaminated and the DNA has been compromised. It will require many generations of molecular manipulation to set it right again.”

  He stops to let the seriousness of this sink in. “There are only a few million humans on the entire planet. And even the avian have been cut to about ten percent of previous levels.”

  “The best-case scenario?”

  “This is it, Junco. The best-case scenario.”

  “So anyway,” I interrupt because that’s just so depressing. That my entire planet was pretty much annihilated and all those avians died too. I can’t think about it. I can’t. I shouldn’t have to. I did my part, I’m done. I’m done with Earth and humans. I just can’t listen to it. I can’t let it become my problem, even if that’s selfish and disgusting. So I change the subject. “How did you outsmart them, Lucan? Take my mind off how fucked up things are.”

  “Gravity,” he says simply. “Gravity is the anti-dissipater.” He laughs at his made-up word. “You see, you can only pull yourself back together if you’re floating in space—in a vacuum, right? All the laws of motion only apply in the strictest sense when they occur in a vacuum. High-school physics, Junco. That’s how the universe we live in works. And that’s how I defeated my father and Inanna. When you shot Tier, the SEAR dissipated him and in turn, he dissipated everyone around him—except me, of course—but Sera and HOUSE activated the Halo shield at the same moment of the dissipation, so all the particles fell back to Earth because of gravity.”

  “Oh, I think I felt that. It was strange.” I look up at him. “I bounced.”

  Lucan tries to tuck down a smile but he fails and this pleases me. It’s not a joke, but come on. It’s so, so fucked up, what can you do?

  “And then HOUSE left Sera. She was very upset at being quarantined up in space when you came back to Earth, but Sera was insistent, to keep her safe for you. HOUSE and I collected all the scattered pieces. It took months to find you. But I pieced you back together first and put you in the Halo virtual with Isten. I told you I’d take care of you, Junco. And I did.”

  “Is Isten still in there?”

  “Yes. He’s there with Arel and Braun. Eventually we’ll populate it with others. Drifting souls, maybe. AIs perhaps. I’m not sure yet.”

  “Minions,” I say with a little laugh.

  “Aesin and Inanna couldn’t pull themselves back together under the force of Earth’s gravity, so I collected them next and encased them in billions of lead cubes. I sent Aesin to many, many places. So he will never accidentally come back together under the laws of physics.”

  “And Inanna?”

  He smiles. “I sent her away forever, too.”

  “And Tier?”

  “Your SEAR knife is actually a biological tool used in ancient times to change the DNA code. Gib made Tier special in many ways, but the most important way was that any SEAR cut would initiate his High Order status. We stole genetics to make him. It was all highly illegal.” And for this Lucan stops to snicker. Like he pulled something big over on everyone. “Shooting him with your knife initiated his true biological form and exploded his old one at the same time.”

  “So I really did save him?”

  “You really did, Junco.”

  “Finally,” I huff. “I didn’t fuck it all up.”

  Chapter Forty-Six—JUNCO

  Home

  I’m standing out in a long green yard of grass facing a twilight sky. It’s a cliff, so I really am facing the sky. There are no lights in the valley below, just stillness.

  I don’t get a lot of stillness. At least, not without the morph gel and pain that goes with it. So it’s kinda nice.

  “I told ya, Juncs. They’d send me to some backwater habitat if I let them turn me Archer.”

  I whirl around and my relief and happiness is so consuming, I’m not sure if I want to hug Tier or cry my eyes out. He hugs me, so I don’t have to choose.

  “God, you feel good.”

  “I shot you, I’m so sorry. I was so crazy.” We look each other over. I’m not sure what he sees in me, but I sure know what I see in him. His wings are gone, but I do not care. They were beautiful, but that was never what I loved about him. His hair is a little longer than the last time I saw him. It does that sexy curl thing like it did when we first met. And his eyes are the same brilliant green. He’s wearing a white t-shirt and some jeans, totally at ease in his Archer body.

  “But that was the plan. Ya did it all according to plan, ya just took the long way ‘round, Darlin’. Lucan’s love is real, Junco. He even saved Gideon for you, but he left him back on Earth with Moju and them. Ryse and Esta came back, but the other Siblings stayed.”

  Gideon. I’ll probably see him again one day, but my life with Gid is over now. My Earth life is over and I’m OK with it. It’s time to move on. “Did you know Lucan would save you?” I pull away and look up at his face. The sadness is the only answer I need, but he tells me anyway.

  “No, I thought it was the end.”

  “So I’m not the only one.”

  “Yer not the only one. I’m sure he was disappointed that we didn’t see through it. It probably hurt to know we thought he’d sacrifice us all like that. But if anyone figured it out, it wouldn’t have worked.”

  I nod and wipe my nose on the sleeve of my hoodie, and then we both turn back to the valley and the sky. It’s a lovely moment.

  “My sight is nothing like Lucan’s,” Tier whispers into the night air. “But I saw this place, many times actually. It would creep up in the oddest of moments. And not when I was stressed like I normally get a random glimpse of the future. But when I was calm. And when I saw myself here, I was always alone, so it never meant anything special to me other than this was where I would live if I became an Archer. So when ya asked me on the ship when we were going to Earth if I wanted to be Lucan’s Archer when I quit, that’s why it was so unappealing. I never saw you here, Junco. So I figured this was all the Archers had to offer. A backwater place in the middle of nowhere, in charge of nothing. All alone.”

  He squeezes me a little.

  “To a guy who ran millions of warriors, it looked pretty boring. And to a guy who was sleeping next to the only person he ever wanted to keep for himself… well, it was unimaginable that I’d end up in this place without you. It was like a punishment.” I look up at his face when he stops talking and he smiles as soon as I find his calm green eyes. “I’d live anywhere with you, Junco. But I think the stillness of this place will suit us if you give it a chance.”

  I hug him hard. “I don’t give a fuck where we live, Tier.”

  He clicks his tongue and flicks my nose. “Stop with that now. Yer not a soldier any more, act like a wife.”

  “I’m not a wife either!” I laugh.

  “But ya will be soon.”

  He lifts me up and I wrap my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. “I’m ugly again. Lucan turned me back into ugly Junco.”

  “Ya look like a princess ta me, Juncs.�
��

  I make a face at him. “My hoodie says I’ll Work For Beer. I’m pretty sure no princess in history ever wore one of these.”

  “I’m pretty sure everyone expects Princess Junco to wear offensive slogans on her person, so stop worrying about it.”

  I lay my head on his shoulder and sigh. “Tell me something good, Tier.” He sets me down and takes my hand. We walk over to another part of the yard and then he turns me around to look behind us. “That’s our house.” He says it like he can’t believe it’s real. It’s not anything like my house on Earth. Not the modern one where I lived as a soldier princess, nor the scrub-colored cinderblock buildings where I lived as a recovering demon.

  But it is familiar. Because it’s a farmhouse. White with black shutters and a wraparound porch. I can picture us here, living a new life as we try and forget the old one.

  “I’ve lived here for a few years waiting on ya.”

  “Years! Why didn’t Isten tell me? I would’ve come out sooner!”

  “We have all the time in the world, Junco. There is no rush. Sit here so I can show you something good instead of tellin’ ya.” He points to a red rock sticking up from the ground. I recognize it as one of the stargazing rocks my dad put in the ground at our cabin. I look up at the sky behind us but Tier twirls me back around. “Don’t cheat, it’s a special surprise.” I sigh, but it’s a happy sigh. I sit and lean back on the rock and then Tier sits next to me. “Now you can look,” he says, pointing up. It’s just dark enough to see the stars, but not black yet. A pretty midnight blue sprinkled with white. “What’s that?” he asks.

  I look up and try to figure out what constellation I’m looking at. I have no idea what month it is, or where this habitat is located in the Solar System, so it’s quite difficult to get my bearings at first. But it’s hard to miss Lyra when Vega is always shining so bright. “It’s the Summer Triangle,” I breathe.

  “And who’s in the Summer Triangle, Juncs?”

  “Us.”

  He hugs me tight, and shakes me a little. “Us, darlin’. We’re in the Summer Triangle. Aquila and Cygnus. But tell me now, Junco, what’s different about these constellations, can you see it?”

  I do see it. I saw it right away because this is not at all how the Summer Triangle should look. On Earth, Cygnus and Aquila are on opposite sides of the Milky Way, but here—

  I stop because HOUSE is clambering across the lawn towards us carrying a fussy child.

  “Tier! She’s crying again! I gave her a bottle but she’s—Junco! You’re home!” HOUSE drops the girl and she plops to the ground. A few seconds later my little sister’s arms and legs are all tangled up in my own. “I missed you, I missed you so much.”

  Tier gets up to grab the wailing child and now things are so strange, my world begins to spin. “Who?” I ask as he sits back down next to me. The little girl looks at me and then stops crying abruptly and drags a fist across her nose. She’s wearing a fancy dark green dress and white tights that make me itch just looking at them.

  “Savannah,” Tier asks the little girl. “Who am I?”

  She looks at me with her green eyes, then turns them up at Tier and replies through her thumb, “Daddy.”

  My heart swells. Oh my God, it swells. I get this feeling… a feeling I never knew I was capable of.

  Then Tier points to me. “And who’s this?”

  I actually hold my breath to wait on her answer. She looks up at Tier again and he nods at her. Then she removes her thumb and whispers, “Mommy.”

  This is my daughter.

  “Yer parents knew what to do, Junco. And I rescued Deb from Peaks after things settled down. They had the AI backed up in the power plant underground, and she waited things out down there.” He looks down at our child and smiles. “Deb helps Savannah be a good girl when she’s feeling contrite and ornery. Web was holding Deb prisoner all those years down in Dallas, she’s not the mutant killer. He is.”

  “Yeah,” HOUSE says. “Deb keeps her happy, like I keep you happy, Junco.”

  “She’s beautiful,” I say softly. I want to touch her, I want to run my fingers through her dark hair and wipe the tears off her pink cheeks. But I know better than to rush things. Patience, Junco. It’s a lesson I learned over and over again in my other life. Patience.

  Savannah snuggles back into Tier’s chest and HOUSE snuggles into mine, and we all breathe together as we look up at the sky.

  In. Out.

  Maybe we’re not the perfect family. We’re three half-demons and a couple of AIs, so it’s about as non-traditional as it gets. But that’s OK, I think. I’ll take it. Because I’m way more than satisfied.

  I’m happy.

  All those sad years, all those insane years, all those violent acts I committed in the name of whatever… they’re gone now. It’s just us.

  I look back up at my new sky where Cygnus and Aquila are practically hugging, that’s how close together they are. There is no river of stars to separate them here. There’s no Little Fox or Jupiter’s Arrow to get in the way of their love. All those constellations are mashed together into a clump.

  Lucan was right. This whole time Lucan was absolutely right. My happy ending has been written in the stars since the beginning of time.

  All I needed was a new perspective.

  Epilogue

  Three Hundred Years Later….

  Earth is recovering from the third wave of molecular degeneration due to the Six Demon Contamination. Humanity has been irrevocably altered and people are no longer segregated according to class or race, but genetic markers on their DNA.

  Markers that make some more powerful than others. Markers that give some gifts that only High Order beings had in the past. Markers that put a bounty on the heads of those who dare exhibit their abilities.

  Welcome to Low Dallas 2475, where the AI rules, the people slave away down in the under-city, hoping to survive another day without being detected. And where one man learns he’s the only one left of his kind.

  Or is he?

  The Twine ~ Fall 2014

  End of Book Shit

  Wow. I cannot believe this series is over. What a ride. I’d like to thank all the fans in this one. This is a long and complicated story. One that I hope you found entertaining, thought-provoking, and interesting. Junco’s world is almost real to me, that’s how immersed in it I was. I can picture it like I live there, so I’ll miss it.

  But luckily, the SF bug has not been kicked. In fact, I’m more excited about the upcoming series than ever. It will take place in Junco’s world, three hundred years in the future. It will have a pretty unconventional romance in it, lots of plot twists, lies (of course) and kick ass characters with complex personalities. So I hope you look for that next year.

  As usual, I owe my editor RJ Locksley for whipping this book into shape. Thank you so much.

  References

  Charles, R. H., and W. O. E. Oesterley. The Book of Enoch. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1917. Print.

  Clark, Gerald R. The Anunnaki of Nibiru: Mankind's Forgotten Creators, Enslavers, Saviors, and Hidden Architects of the New World Order. [U.S.?]: Gerald Clark, 2013. Print.

  Forman, Werner, and D. J. Wiseman. Cylinder Seals of Western Asia. London: Batchworth, 1959. Print.

  Kramer, Samuel Noah. The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character. [Chicago]: University of Chicago, 1963. Print.

  Plaster, John L. The Ultimate Sniper: An Advanced Training Manual for Military & Police Snipers. Boulder, CO: Paladin, 1993. Print.

  Sitchin, Zecharia. The 12th Planet: Book I of The Earth Chronicles. New York: Harper, 2007. Print.

  Ward, William Hayes. The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1910. Print.

  Webb, Brandon, and John David. Mann. The Red Circle: My Life in the Navy Seal Sniper Corps and How I Trained America's Deadliest Marksmen. New York: St. Martin's, 2012. Print.

  White, Gavin. Babylonian Star
-lore: An Illustrated Guide to the Star-lore and Constellations of Ancient Babylonia. London: Solaria, 2008. Print.

  Wolkstein, Diane, and Samuel Noah Kramer. Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer. New York: Harper & Row, 1983. Print.

  This plot is as old as time. I just gave it a new perspective. Because pretty much the entire premise is documented in some form or another in the books listed above.

  ~ Julie