Into the Fire Part II: To End All Wars (Universe in Flames Book 10)

by Christian Kallias

  Chase landed and fell on his knees. His aura diminished and his hair fell to his back, returning to its normal black color. Chase’s pupils twinkled red for another second before returning to purple.

  34

  “Dad, help!”

  His son’s words echoed before Chase realized he still had many things to do, and fast. He flew to Argos’ side. Chris was trying to revive him, but he was too weak. Chase put one hand on Argos’ bleeding chest and one on Chris’ shoulder and used his healing powers to regrow their flesh, organs, and muscles that his fireball had ripped from them.

  “Mom!!” screamed Chris the moment he was feeling better.

  Chris skid on the floor, burning his knees and started healing his mother as tears filled his eyes at seeing the dark blood coursing through her veins.

  Argos’ eyes blinked open. Chase couldn’t look into his eyes after he helped him get back up; he turned his back on Argos.

  “What happened? Did we win?”

  Tanak’Vor had been killed, but at what price? Chase would soon lose Sarah; he could feel it in his soul. Their father Menelas had been swallowed by a black hole. Most likely killed on the spot. And Chase had let an unborn baby he hadn’t known about be killed in her mother’s womb.

  In that instant, Chase closed his eyes and prayed that everything had just been a nightmare, the Furies, the Olympians, everything. He wished with all his heart that he would wake up aboard the Destiny and go about his day, board his trusty Manticore fighter, and wage war against the Obsidian Empire. He didn’t even have the courage to reopen his eyes.

  “What are these?” said Argos.

  Chase finally looked and saw the thousands of bright lights that had been expelled from Tanak’Vor’s body by Chase’s dragon attack. One such light flew through Chase’s skull.

  Everything around him changed again. This time he was standing in a bright white room of infinite size.

  “Long time, no see,” said a familiar female voice behind him as shivers traveled throughout Chase’s body.

  Chase turned around, and there she stood, with a smile on her face. Oryn.

  “Am I dreaming?”

  “No, it’s really me. You’ve done it, Chase. You’ve won.”

  Chase didn’t know what this was, but victory was the last word he would use to describe the situation.

  “Then why does it feel like I’ve lost? Sarah. My unborn daughter. My father.”

  Chase let himself fall to his knees as tears flowed like rivers down his face.

  “I failed them, just like I failed you.”

  She kneeled next to him.

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Chase, you saved me. You saved my heart back then when we first met, and you freed my soul today, so I can join my father and the rest of my race in Elysium. And it may not feel like it in this painful moment, but you saved every innocent life in the universe today. That has to count for something, Chase.”

  But Chase couldn’t see that silver lining, not now, and perhaps, not ever. All he saw was how utterly he had failed his family. He had almost been responsible for the death of his own son and brother.

  “But you didn’t Chase. In the end, you saved them. This could have turned way worse. I can feel that your heart isn’t ready to forgive yourself today, but it will, one day.”

  “I— I had him. I should have killed him earlier in this fight.”

  “Don’t do this to yourself. Tanak’Vor played you, made you think that you had the upper hand while concocting his final move, one you, at the end of the day, managed to thwart. Granted, with the help of your father, but you knew all along that this wasn’t something you could have accomplished on your own. You needed your friends, your family.”

  Family. At this moment, Chase felt like he had splintered his forever. How would they ever forgive him?

  “To love is to forgive, Chase. They know that. And, deep down, so do you.”

  Chase couldn’t stop crying, and Oryn took him in her arms.

  “Shhhh…not all is lost.”

  Chase lifted his head from Oryn’s shoulder and looked into her eyes.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I’m going to have to spell it out for you since I don’t think you’re in any state to figure this out by yourself. You’ve just released all the souls that Tanak’Vor had devoured, mine included.”

  Chase looked at Oryn but still didn’t understand.

  “You’ve done it before, Chase. You know you have it in you to put souls back into bodies as you did with Spiros. That’s why you tried so hard to recover my body when Tanak’Vor ripped it away. Surely you remember that.”

  “I remember, but your body is gone.”

  “Mine is, yes. And I’m at peace about that, and so should you be. You did everything you could to save me, and for that, I’ll be eternally grateful. You are not responsible for my death; I did that. I let my rage blind me and wanted to kill Arakan myself. But you know what, at least I accomplished what I had set out to do. Soon I’ll go to the Underworld, and then on to Elysium, at peace, my life fulfilled. But, you need to save those that can still be saved, Chase.”

  “I can’t bring people back to life.”

  “There is hope, Chase. I won’t lie; it’s a faint one. But I know this courageous guy that never gives up, and he’s already accomplished the impossible once, so perhaps he can do it again. Find your daughter’s soul, and try to find Poseidon’s too while you’re at it. He’s out there, like me, but it won’t last. In a minute or two, all the souls will phase to the Underworld. So, hurry, Chase, put their souls back into their bodies. In your unborn child’s case, put her soul back inside Sarah, and put Sarah in suspended animation. Because you can’t heal her now doesn’t mean you can’t find a way to heal her in the future. You’re immortal, remember?”

  Chase had been so grief-stricken over his losses, even though Sarah was still breathing, that he had not thought about any of that. A glimmer of hope shone at the center of his blackened heart. It was just a tiny sparkle, but in time, perhaps it would shine light upon his soul once more.

  “I have to go, now, Chase. Thank you for ending the Furies, for killing Tanak’Vor, and for being the best friend I’ve ever had, one I did not deserve. Goodbye, Chase.”

  “Wait!”

  But the white veil of light was replaced by the throne room once more.

  “Chase?” asked Argos. “What is it?”

  “Don’t you fucking stand there, help me heal Mom!” cried Chris. “Hurry!”

  “Let’s go, Chase,” said Argos.

  “You go help him; I need a minute.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “There’s something I need to do, and I don’t have time to explain. Please help my wife.”

  Argos went to Sarah and added his healing abilities with Chris. They both tried very hard, but they couldn’t expel the black blood from her veins. Argos focused on making sure it wouldn’t spread.

  Chase closed his eyes and focused on the souls swirling around him, some already fading away, and he hoped he wasn’t too late. He located Poseidon’s fairly quickly and moved forward to take it in his hand. In their current form, they weren’t shaped like bodies but like blinking light sources. Chase focused on finding the smallest soul in the bunch. He had to focus very hard to locate the tiny soul as it barely emitted any energy at all. Eventually, he found it and grabbed it with his other hand.

  While he wanted to restore his unborn daughter’s soul back into Sarah, he felt that Poseidon’s was slipping away. He ran toward the dead body of Poseidon and fired his soul like he would have a fireball. Chase then kneeled on one knee and flooded the dead Olympian’s body with healing energy. He then moved his hand over Poseidon’s chest and zapped his heart.

  Feeling that the other soul was dwindling in his other hand, he flew next to Sarah.

  “About fucking time!” barked Chris.

  But Chase didn’t even hear his son’s words. He could feel the tiny soul fading aw
ay and needed to act fast. He opened his hand and delicately pushed the soul back into Sarah’s womb.

  Sarah was still conscious, but the black blood invaded her brain, and she was delirious, agitated, and moaned words that sounded like gibberish. Chase joined his son and brother and tried to heal her wounds, but just like with Zeus, there was nothing he could do.

  “You two should go,” said Argos as he took something from his pocket and slapped it on Chase’s neck.

  “What’s that? What did you do?”

  “Portable site-to-site transport device.”

  “How did you know I lost my power?”

  “We’d already be on the Victory if you hadn’t. I’ll send Poseidon next, but I have to make sure I take care of the spider ship before I transport back. You two take Sarah and put her in a suspended animation pod, quickly before her condition worsens.”

  Chase was ashamed to look in either Chris or Argos’ eyes. Chris pressed his mothers and his own teleporter control. They were engulfed in an Asgardian transport beam.

  “We’ve lost enough people today,” said Chase as he rose back to his feet, looking down. “Make sure I don’t lose you too.”

  “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. Someone has to make sure this ship is blown to pieces, and it seems to me that you’re not in any shape to think about that.”

  “I— I almost killed you.”

  “But you didn’t. Chase, look into my eyes.”

  Chase shook his head. “I can’t.”

  Argos grabbed his head and forced him to look at him.

  “You saved us all.”

  “Not Sarah, not our father.”

  “Where is he?”

  “I don’t know, he was swallowed by one of Tanak’Vor’s attacks. I— I think he’s dead.”

  Argos exhaled deeply and grimaced.

  “Well, Sarah is still breathing, you’re still breathing, and so is Chris. That motherfucker, Tanak’Vor, is not, so this is still a win.”

  “Oh shit!” said Chase.

  “What?”

  “Tanak’Vor, he said ships were en route to Earth; they could already be there.”

  “Give me a fucking break. Go, Chase, deal with that, I’ll deal with the palace ship.”

  Argos pressed the back of Chase’s neck, and he was beamed back to the Victory.

  Argos ran by Poseidon’s side and checked his pulse. It was faint, but his heart was beating. He put his hands on the Olympian and healed him further. Soon, he opened his eyes.

  “What happened?”

  “I wish I had time to explain it to you, but I don’t.”

  “What are you talking about?” groaned Poseidon.

  “Long story short, Tanak’Vor is dead, so were you, we brought you back, gotta go now,” said Argos as he pressed the back of the neck of a stunned Poseidon.

  The Olympian was teleported back to the Victory.

  Argos got back up and ran to the nearest console. There was one at the bottom of the stairs that led to the main throne platform. He brought up the Fury holo-interface and located the firing controls of the palace ship. He aimed every turret toward the spider ship currently protecting the palace ship from certain destruction. With dozens of torpedoes still on their way when he would make his move and with any luck bring down the spider ship’s shields, Argos hoped the site-to-site transport would activate fast enough.

  Now was not the time to worry about such trivial risks, not after everything they had been through today.

  Argos supercharged the turrets and locked the firing sequence dead center of the spider ship and pressed the back of his neck. Nothing happened.

  “What the hell?”

  He pressed the back of his neck again, and the device sparked.

  “Give me a fucking brea—”

  Before he could finish his sentence, the turrets opened fire and unleashed concentrated beams of plasma onto the spider ship. It exploded, and dozens of torpedoes came crashing onto the palace ship. It rocked, and Argos fell to the ground.

  “Time for plan B,” said Argos as he flew away from a nearby explosion.

  He erected a force field around him and flew through flames and debris and left the blast radius of the palace ship just in time.

  “After today, we really have to stop with all these close calls…”

  As he flew toward the Victory’s launch bays, he thought of his father. Was he dead? Chase seemed to think so. A couple of tears fell from his eyes as he shot through the landing bays and stepped back on familiar solid ground aboard the Victory.

  Gaia had to act fast, now that Achanes’ avatar was no more. She rode back into his matrix using her backdoor hack and soon was connected to the outside world. The battle with the Furies was going well. The spider ship and the palace ship had been destroyed, and the fleet was picking off the Fury ships one by one.

  She intercepted a holo-communication between Chase and an Asgardian ship.

  “How fast can you get us to Earth, pushing your Asgardian hyperspace engines to their absolute maximum?” asked Chase.

  “A little under twelve hours,” answered the Asgardian Captain, “but that would be highly dangerous to sustain this speed for that long. The hyperspace corridor could destabilize and destroy every ship traveling in it.”

  “Twelve hours is too long anyway. We have to go back to Earth, now!”

  “I’m sorry, that’s not something I can help you with, Admiral.”

  “I know, we may have no other choice but use your hyperspace corridor though, I’ll get back to you.”

  Gaia used Achanes’ prodigious processing power to hack the Victory’s communication system and project a holo-clone of herself in the corridor where Chase was presently walking.

  Chase swiped his hand through Gaia’s hologram. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

  “I can’t, Chase, but Achanes can.”

  “Did you…?”

  “Beat him? Technically, yes.”

  “What do you mean, technically?”

  “Never mind that for now, Chase, I heard you speak with the Asgardian captain. What’s this about needing to go back to Earth? What’s going on?”

  “According to Tanak’Vor, and hopefully that was just a bluff, he sent a third of his fleet to the planet, and they should be arriving any minute now if they aren’t there already.”

  “Give me a second, I have to check this.”

  “How can you check—”

  But Gaia’s avatar shushed Chase.

  “Alright, then,” said Chase with a sly smile that then turned into a frown. “I have to go check on Sarah, will you be long?”

  Gaia had already accessed the Victory’s subspace long-range sensors to check one of Earth’s satellites for the presence of Fury super-destroyers in orbit. There were none, which she decided was good news. She then sent a hyperspace ping, something she had learned from the Atlantian files. The ping returned alarming data. A fleet was less than twenty-five minutes away from jumping right on top of Earth. The automated defenses wouldn’t last five minutes, if that, and then the super-destroyers would blast the planet, and there was nothing anybody could do, except Gaia.

  “We have thirty minutes, Chase, at most.”

  “What? There really is a fleet on their way?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  Chase buried his forehead in his palm. “This is a nightmare.”

  “I won’t let that happen, Chase.”

  “The blink drive? Can you have it installed in time?”

  “I think so, but I’ll have to hack the ship, and it won’t be pretty. In fact, I’ll have to become one with the Victory, Chase.”

  “We still have ships outside, Fury destroyers, we can’t let them escape.”

  “I’ll deal with them too. Once I’ve merged with the Victory, I can upgrade its weapons and deal with them much faster.”

  “Really? What was in those files you retrieved?”

  “I wish I could I tell you, but the data will be los
t in less than an hour or so.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I can’t take the time to explain it to you, Chase. And, I’m sorry, but I— I won’t survive this.”

  “What?! No, no, no, that’s not acceptable.”

  “It’s too late, Chase. Achanes made sure I would die with the knowledge of the Atlantians, but at least I get to try and save my—our planet.”

  “What did Spiros say?”

  “Will you please ask him to come back to our quarters? But wait fifteen minutes, I need to get ready first.”

  Chase had enough of losing people. And this one was his fault too; he had asked Gaia to try and find a way to access the sphere. One more decision that had cost someone close to him their life.

  “Alright. I’m sorry Gaia, I should never have asked you to do this.”

  “I’m not sorry, Chase. Losing Earth or losing me, we both know that’s not a choice. Thanks to your asking me to access the sphere, we have a small chance of intervening in time.”

  “Then don’t let me distract you, and do what you need to do. I’ll let Spiros know to come and see you.”

  “Thank you, Chase, for everything. Don’t blame yourself, for this, or anything else that went wrong today. Goodbye, my friend. I shall miss you.”

  “I’ll miss you too. Goodbye, Gaia, and good luck.”

  35

  Chase entered med-bay four.

  Chris was kneeling in front of his mother’s suspended animation chamber, crying.

  This is all my fault.

  Chase walked to his son and sat next to him. He tried putting his arm around him, but Chris slapped his hand away.

  “I want to be alone.”

  “Look, Chris, I’m sorry.”

  “You can keep your apologies. It’s your fault she’s in there.”

  “I know. And I hate myself for it.”

  Chris looked at his father with tears in his eyes.

  “And so you should!”

  Chase’s eyes filled with tears too.

  “Please, believe me, I never wanted this to happen.”

  “Why didn’t you try and heal her when I asked you to?”

  “That wouldn’t have made a difference.”