Queen's Journey (Lilith's Shadow Book 5)

by Benjamin Medrano

  “Fine. If the dramatic approach won’t work, we’ll go with the really dramatic approach.” Omega Code said at last, and pressed the button next to the teleportation trigger.

  The cage around him slid inward to secure Omega Code, then it rushed south to the second silo, though this one didn’t contain a missile, and he grinned. “They shall rue the day they faced Omega Code in battle!”

  Chapter 56

  Wednesday, November 5th, 2031

  Final Countdown Redoubt, Kansas

  One moment Lilith was trying to regain her hearing and feel a bit less like a boiled lobster, and the next… well, the next she saw a winged figure ram through a hail of energy bolts and cut a turret in two, then lash out with a blast of flames that cooked off the missiles in another turret. Her eyes lit up at the sight of Archon, and her mouth opened, then she froze in place as a glittering shield of blue-streaked gold appeared in the distance, which then threw dozens of magical blades at the nearby turrets. Not all of them did much damage, but she’d recognize that magic anywhere.

  Then came a burst of purple magic, followed by shadows, and Lilith’s heart felt like it was up in her throat, almost feeling dizzy as she swayed in place. Then Sabra yelped.

  “Unhand me, you—ah!” Sabra gasped, and Lilith spun just in time to see Spark twist one of the mage’s arms behind her back, and her pistol was crackling with electricity as she pressed it against the woman.

  “Oh, no you don’t! You helped kidnap Lilith.” Spark spat, but she didn’t fire, glancing at Lilith as she smiled in excitement and worry. “Lil, you okay? I’ve been worried sick, and we’ve been trying to find you ever since you went missing! I thought we might be too late, and both Morgan and Warden showed up, then an Atlantis guy, who couldn’t help find you, and—”

  “Spark?” Lilith interrupted, holding up a finger, and the woman went silent so suddenly that Lilith worried she might damage her teeth. Once she was quiet, Lilith continued. “Please unhand Sabra, she helped me escape.”

  “Oh, good! Sorry, but you helped kidnap her,” Spark said, letting go of Sabra and taking a step backward. Sabra rose, flinching as one of the explosions drew closer.

  “I had little choice in the matter,” The Atlantean replied severely. “Your approach complicated our escape, as you raised the alarm when we had not done so.”

  “Oh, um, sorry? I guess now we need to deal with Omega Code and that missile. I hope someone can intercept it before it hits anything important.” Spark said, glancing upward, then they all flinched as one of the nearby turrets exploded when Shade blocked a missile from being able to launch.

  “Not a concern. I set it to go orbital,” Lilith replied quickly. “I was trying to get it out of Omega Code’s hands, and that was the fastest way I could think of.”

  “You did? You’re brilliant!” Spark cheered, and Lilith smiled, opening her mouth… then the next moment Spark was kissing her, and Lilith’s thoughts devolved into a jumbled mess, which was only amplified by the jolt of electricity which coursed through her, stiffening her body for an instant before she shrugged it off. Spark backed off almost at the same time, blushing furiously as she spoke. “Sorry, sorry, forgot I don’t have the inhibitor. Let’s get you out of here so we can—”

  A rumble to the south interrupted, along with what sounded to Lilith like music. They turned… and Lilith couldn’t help gawking.

  An enormous figure as tall as the silo was deep stood south of them on top of a different silo, nearly a hundred and twenty feet tall, and it was in the shape of a human, though it lacked a head. Black armor with radiation symbols sheathed the figure, and there were numerous cannons bristling across its surface. It was the source of the music, which sounded to her pained ears like… death metal? She thought that was it, and Lilith winced.

  “Heroes, is it? I call this Code Black, and it shall be your doom!” Omega Code boomed over the speakers, while the figure took a single step forward, the titanic foot sinking deep into the soil. “None shall be able to challenge me, and they shall fear once I—”

  Archon slammed into the figure like a golden meteor, though the shields kept her sword from scarring the armor.

  “Damn it, why does everyone interrupt perfectly good monologues?” Omega Code roared in frustration. “Fine, then die!”

  The mech swatted Archon away, and Lilith’s eyes went wide as she saw numerous cannons glow. She looked away just in time, as the weapons opened fire all at once to form a single incredibly powerful beam of energy.

  The blast cut across the sky like a blade, leaving an afterimage in Lilith’s vision, and she blinked it away, then paled as she saw Archon on the ground, her armor scorched and with sections burnt away, while many of her feathers were blackened. Even the heroine appeared to have been injured in the blast, though she dragged herself to her feet. Fear rippled through Lilith, and she reached for the others internally, desperately hoping that she’d be able to help.

  Omega Code’s voice rang out mockingly. “Hah, you’ll never be able to face Code Black! I am invinci—”

  CirceNet, Location Variable

  Circe took careful aim at her target, judging which munition to use carefully. She was startled by the sheer energy output she’d just detected and revised the projections of Omega Code’s threat level upward based on what she’d learned, but his new creation had one critical flaw. It was at the bottom of the gravity well.

  So she fired.

  Final Countdown Redoubt, Kansas

  A bar of light reached out from the heavens, and Code Black’s shields flashed opaque, then shattered entirely, drowning out Omega Code’s words as an explosive wave of air hit Lilith so hard she was knocked from her feet. There was a sound she couldn’t quite identify, not through the ringing in her ears, and she fell on something soft in some places, yet not in others.

  It took her a moment to realize she was on top of Sabra. It took a moment more for her to realize that the woman was glaring at her, and her cheeks were bright red. Then Lilith hastily pulled herself to her feet.

  “Sorry, I… oh my,” Lilith said, distracted by the sight of the staggered mech, which was missing one of its shoulders and arms, and there was a deep, smoldering crater just in front of it.

  She froze, and as she did so, she saw Morgan and Warden, both in their old outfits, along with Shade as they approached the mech, and Lilith debated for a bare instant, then looked over at Spark, who was dragging herself to her feet. Unfortunately they were all spread out, but there wasn’t much she could do about that, instead she made a decision, and hoped that it would work the way she wanted it to.

  “Spark, could I have your comm?” Lilith asked.

  “Huh?” Spark replied, looking at Lilith in confusion, at which Lilith realized that she was still recovering from the insane explosion from before.

  Omega Code’s mech erupted with energy bolts that lanced out at Archon, Morgan, Shade, and Warden. Shields sprang up around them, glittering with Warden’s magic, and Morgan started weaving a powerful spell, much like the one which had defeated Black Harbinger so long before. Archon still seemed to be recovering, and Shade was throwing dozens of shadow-creatures at the mech, though each seemed to pop like a soap bubble when struck.

  “Can I have your comm!” Lilith exclaimed more loudly, and Spark blinked, then nodded.

  “Sure! Why do you want it?” Spark asked, quickly reaching up to pull out her earbud, which she offered to Lilith.

  Taking it, Lilith didn’t reply in so many words, instead speaking quickly once she had it in her ear. “Can everyone hear me?”

  “Lil! Are you okay?” Warden asked quickly, a frantic note in her voice. “Kinda bad timing, though!”

  “Indeed,” Shade agreed grimly. Lilith didn’t hear a response from Morgan, but considering the spell she was in the middle of, that wasn’t unusual.

  “I can hear you, yes,” Archon confirmed, her breathing labored. “That was unpleasant.”

  “No duh,” Decarin muttered.


  Relief rushed through Lilith, but she cleared her thoughts as she inhaled, preparing to speak as calmly as she could, as she reminded herself that they’d come to help her, to save her. That meant she could trust them, and that was what she fixed in her mind. She had to trust people implicitly to use her power, she’d been told that… yet Ivanova had indicated that might be wrong. So she tried to set it aside.

  “I’m going to try to use my power to boost all of you, so please, try to trust me,” Lilith told them simply, inhaling before she added. “Giving the comm back to Spark, so don’t get yourselves killed. Please.”

  Before they could reply, Lilith pulled the comm away from her ear and offered it to Spark, smiling wryly as she said. “Here you go.”

  “You know I trust you, right?” Spark said, grinning as she took the comm and put it back in her ear, then yelped, dodging to the side as a stray bolt of energy came too close. “Gah, when did he manage to build something like that?”

  “Presumably at the same time as the nuke,” Lilith replied dryly, a hint of warmth welling up inside her, and she inhaled, closing her eyes… then she murmured. “Here you go, everyone.”

  Lilith reached out into the nothingness around her and offered power to the others, blindly since she didn’t have the links she’d had before. She had no idea if it’d work, but—

  A link snapped into existence the next second, one which Lilith had never felt before. The connection was different than the ones she’d sensed before, nowhere near as tenuous as the two had been to Gina and Rachel. No, this one was solid, and filled with boundless determination, enthusiasm, and… frustration? That confused Lilith for a moment, then she realized who it must be, and her lips quirked into a smile.

  Compared to the first, the second link came almost silently. It was like a silent rock, steady and unmoving as the earth beneath her feet, at least when she wasn’t dealing with explosions. The faint pain from down the link startled Lilith, and she grew more worried about Archon, yet the woman wasn’t focused on that. No, she was focused on protecting.

  Morgan and Warden’s links came at almost the same instant, the former cool and focused despite her underlying anxiety and fear, and the latter angry at… everything, really, Lilith was a little confused about that, but she didn’t argue. She was more surprised to feel them again, and relief washed through her. Then came the two she hadn’t expected.

  Decarin was an odd presence, dryly humorous and yet anxious at the same time, frustrated he couldn’t do anything, while Shade… Shade was faintly jealous and uneasy, but at the same time, he had more in common with Archon than anyone else, as he carefully considered his next move.

  Energy poured out of Lilith into them, and she could feel them grow ever so slightly stronger as it did so, though it didn’t hit her too hard.

  “Wow, this is… okay, awesome! Now, gotta move, keep out of the line of fire!” Spark exclaimed excitedly, then practically vanished into the distance in a blur of blue lightning.

  Warden’s shields intensified, and Morgan’s glowing purple spell turned a deeper, brighter hue as she straightened slightly. Shade’s creatures multiplied, the first of them managing to reach the mech’s ankles, and when the wolf-like creature bit the armor, the marks it left showed Lilith that they were anything but insubstantial… then he hit the mech with a bolt of lightning. It didn’t seem to do much, but it was certainly something new.

  “What have you done?” Sabra asked, stepping up next to Lilith.

  Lilith didn’t reply initially, instead focusing on the link to Archon, hoping that she could do this at a distance, and she began to pour still more energy down the link to the angelic woman, trying to empower her ability to heal even more. In response, the blackened, charred feathers on Archon’s wings began turning white again, and the pain Lilith felt was fading even more quickly, then the woman stood fully, her wings unfurling as she took flight.

  “I’m empowering them. That’s my ability, to empower those who truly trust me.” Lilith replied simply, but as she watched Archon fly forward, blocking a beam that lanced out at her with the sword, she felt a hint of frustration wash over her. “I just wish I could do more than that. I’m so… so weak in comparison. If I had my armor, maybe… but Amber took it away.”

  The mech lurched as Spark jumped up, grabbing an exposed cable, and electricity surged out of her so brightly that even from this distance Lilith winced. That had to have popped a few circuit breakers, if it hadn’t fried some of the electronics.

  “Damnable heroes! If it weren’t for that sneak attack, you’d never have scratched Code Black!” Omega Code bellowed. Lilith thought Archon responded, but she was too far away to hear her.

  What she did see was the woman bring her sword down like a cleaver, and this time it managed to tear a section of the armor on the mech’s chest clean off. Coupled with the other damage it’d taken, Lilith could see several weak points, yet she couldn’t even tell the others about them. It was… very unpleasant.

  “I believe I understand.” Sabra said, inclining her head slightly. “I am not the most powerful of my people either, nor even as strong as most of those we are watching. However… you know how to break machines, do you not? Are you able to guide me to break this one?”

  “Well… yes? I mean, the major weakness of all mechs of that type are their joints, and I see a few critical servos…” Lilith said, frowning.

  “I do not know what those are. If you would empower me, as you did them, I will follow your guidance,” Sabra said. Lilith blinked, opening her mouth, but the woman continued, raising a hand. “If you are concerned about the issue of trust, I do trust you. You have garnered the goodwill of my deities, so no matter how much it may confuse me, I trust you in this.”

  Lilith paused, debating on replying that she wasn’t sure if she could trust Sabra… but then she realized it really didn’t matter. Their agreement had lasted this long, so it could last a few more minutes.

  “As you like,” Lilith agreed, mentally reaching out toward Sabra, telling herself that this could work, that it would work.

  The energy hung there for a moment, then another link snapped into existence, and a wave of weariness washed over Lilith, as the same amount of energy that’d been required to help all the others rushed out of her. What startled Lilith was how the link felt, though. Sabra was… conflicted, she realized. The woman felt a degree of sneering arrogance over the other magi, yet when she looked at Lilith, she felt nervous and off-balance. Like the entire world was shifting under her feet, and she wasn’t happy about it. Yet the woman was holding to something else, like a mountain that was unmoving and unchanging.

  “Ah!” Sabra gasped, her eyes going wide, and she visibly inhaled, then murmured. “So that was why she spoke that way. Where, Lilith?”

  Lilith focused on the fight, and as she did so, she found the others hadn’t been idle. Almost half of the weapons she’d seen were gone, though now both Warden and Shade looked like they’d been scorched by near misses, and as she watched the mech slammed a fist into the ground Spark had vacated a moment before. There were multiple spots where it was open to attacks, though, so she pointed at one in its torso, a spot where the armor had been pulled away, where she could see a faint glow.

  “There. Just below where its shoulder used to be, with the glowing spot,” Lilith told her, and Sabra nodded, turning and raising her hands as she began speaking in a tongue that felt faintly familiar to Lilith.

  Morgan barely managed to get a shield up to deflect the blast from Omega Code’s mech, and she couldn’t say how relieved she was to have the extra power from Lilith, as otherwise she might not have been able to block it. Then she shot upward as he brought the arm of the mech around at her, barely missing, and she put a series of icy blasts into the back of it, trying to slow its gearing down.

  Archon slammed into the mech again, pulverizing another weapon, then was launched backward as the machine kicked her away, and Morgan began prepping another spel
l, just as Warden put up another shield for her now that she wasn’t taking the fire of ten different weapon mounts.

  “Even crippled, Code Black will be the end of you!” Omega Code told them, and it was all Morgan could do not to retort. Spark replied in her stead.

  “We’re going to rip your tin can apart around you!” the woman exclaimed, firing bolts of electricity into the robot rapidly as she moved fast enough that he couldn’t target her.

  “Hah, you’ll never—” Omega Code began crowing, but at that exact moment a beam of light lanced out from behind Morgan.

  The beam was light teal, and not like any of the spells Morgan was used to. It was focused down to the width of her finger, and the beam twisted through the air, past the mech’s armor, and deep inside of it. There was a flare of light, then all at once the mech’s speakers and lights went out, metal groaning as the immense shape began to rock in place, then teetered and began to fall.

  “What the hell?” Morgan asked, blinking, then turned to look for the source of the spell, only to see the woman who’d been with Lilith nod politely at Lilith, then turned and started flying away.

  There was a dull whumping sound from inside the mech a moment later, and Morgan spun back, scowling.

  “That was a teleportation, wasn’t it?” Shade asked, a note of resignation in his voice.

  “Most likely. Omega Code is a slippery bastard,” Morgan said, eying the mech warily, then sighed. “We’d better dismantle it, just to be sure. Would someone go check on Lilith? I have no clue who that other woman was, but she left.”

  “I’ll do it!” Spark volunteered instantly, then added “I’m the one who can do least good dismantling something like that, after all. Even Dec would be better.”