by Aditya Kumar
They may harness the star's energy and they can use it to fulfil their own goals... they can show their happiness among each-other, but can they confront those whose life they took in these process... what they can tell to those civilization whose only energy source... their Sun was there, but it doesn't have heat and warmth anymore to provide faith and hope towards life? Can they confront to those who died because of cold... a whole living planet became the house of dead... their planet froze and they all froze too with this. Those advanced being don't care about the thing until, some more advanced civilization comes to do the same for them.
Maybe it has become the tradition... everyone wants to grow powerful... more specifically than their competitor and those desires makes them able to do anything, that can remove their obstacles. But these kind of decisions... a decision of war taken by their leader kills many other... sometime a whole civilization becomes history... a whole planet becomes ghost-land, but the sad part is that there is no way to change this tradition... there is no way to change the mentality of people.
Unlike older times, there is some rare planet left now, whose population is in the order of billion. These human greed... that is, tendency to achieve everything, destroys themselves too. Now, having a healthy and flourishing civilization means powerful and strong civilization... otherwise they would be destroyed by some powerful one... and being a powerful means their technical capacity is much more... and this means their energy demand is much more... and those type of civilization can’t live in the amount of billions on one planet... and ongoing war is unstoppable thing.
Sometimes, any stronger civilization just takes over the other one... and the loss is only of thousand... and in worse case millions of lives. But situation turns drastically bad, when two civilization who are equally efficient, collides with each-other in battlefield. In that case, those battle converts from the war from few moments to war that runs through centuries and even more. Achievement of anything for one is a defeat for other and then other fights back with their own achievement. It doesn't erase the whole civilization, but it still kills innocent one... and there is one such kind of war is going on right now.
Scene: Canyon Cave
They all were in Canyon cave. A cave that was looking scarier from inside... and don't know how it is looking from outside, as no one actually, had seen its complete view... maybe except Xena and Xoguar. Any outsider can see only the doors of cave from outside and that's what is making this cave more mysterious. A cave, that was symbol of don't know what... maybe love... or hope... or whatever thing, but for Xena and Xoguar... it was a place for hiding. This cave was floating there from billions of years... and no one knows that how many people hid there in these huge times.
But this is a time for them to do something... not to the cave, but to the coming threat. They need to find a clue that where to start. Aleina is there to help them, but Xoguar doesn't think that her suggestion can be appropriate. He doesn't trust her. He doesn't want to express this feeling to Mark, because he knows that Mark believes her. But still she is not allowed to their meeting room where they take decision... actually it is a meeting room, whom they call Tariat where meeting happens only with two people. They take decision and others including Aleina are just allowed to follow the plan. However, their plan is not taking them anywhere and they are stuck at the same point. Mark has got sick of Xoguar's over protective nature. He invites Aleina despite of Xoguar's repulsive behavior. Next day, Tariat is same but she is sitting together along with those two.
"So, I believe that you have some good idea about this as Mark insisted to invite you here," Xoguar starts speaking.
Aleina tells, "Actually, I have some clue about this. I know something that I think can be helpful to this war."
"What is this, that..." Mark asks, but Xoguar interrupts in middle, "Do not believe her."
"Then you give me the clue, so that I can do something," Mark says in louder voice.
Xoguar replies, "You trust her... go with her, but don't come to me when something will get screwed."
"Then why don't you tell me what is going on," Mark asks.
"Because, I can't," Xoguar says and leaves the room.
Aleina tells Mark, "It is a cold war which is going on from centuries. Two civilization... in fact two neighbour planet who were too advanced, got in a war. They call themselves Sofrant and Kenoksa. It was not a continuous war, but their aim was always to bring others down... and in those process always innocent people used to get killed. They used to fight... and when resources short out, they stop fighting for some time. One gets some technological advantages, they attack on another and this used to be continued. But recently they stopped. I went there to find out that what happened, and I saw that there was only one planet... Sofrant was not there. That was quiet shocking."
"What do you mean that Sofrant was not there? What happened to them," Mark asked.
Aleina replied, "They just disappeared. I reached there... enquired about that, and I found a huge anomaly. There were many things that was saying that it was too strange to handle. I sensed a hole in space-time continuum at the place, where Sofrant used to be earlier."
Mark asks being confused, "Is this story even real?"
"Oh... so now you don't believe in strange things," Aleina tells and Mark has nothing to say.
Aleina continues, "I strongly believe that those other dimensional being came here through that hole. They may have made some kind of deal with Kenoksians (people of Kenoksa) for disappearing Sofrant and they might have come in our universe through that deal. I later found also some Sofrantians (people of Sofrant), who wasn't on their planet, when their planet lost in dark... and so they survived. I know their location and I would rather say you that first you should meet them. They made a lone planet as their home and named it Socoan."
"Alright... let's believe on you... but who told you to enquire about that anomaly, because as you have told that Space-council doesn't deals with these kinds of anomalies," Mark asks.
"That's a long story and you will not like to hear right now. Just know that I have done many things before joining the Space-council," She ignored the question.
Then Aleina ordered Xoguar's force to be ready to go on Kenoksa to find more. Since, anyone from inside that room can give the order to those and now she has authority to do that. Xoguar knew what happened, but he doesn’t want to go inside. Aleina and Mark came outside. Aleina was behind Mark. As she came close to Xoguar... she whispered in his year, "You did a wrong thing. When Mark will know, it will break him."
Mark being unaware of this whispering, came outside where that whole force was waiting, but first he wants to meet Sofrantians. Aleina came there too. They went to meet Sofrantians. Their leader was Saikkar. He told them, "One day, we were exploring outer space in search of some technologies, then we found some strange signals from our planet. We tried to come there as quick as possible, but when we came close to Sofrant... we found nothing. We couldn't believe the thing that was in front of us. It looked like we were in some other part of universe, but still I couldn't know what happened there. We sent our man there, but they couldn't reach there. In fact, no one even came back. So, we informed every other Sofrant that were out in space about this lone planet and named this Socoan."
He gave Mark a device and told, "If you want to go there, this device will help you. Both Sofrant and Kenoksa are in the shield, that we invented when we used to be friends. That shield vibrates at variable frequency and this device will help you to go inside. Just go there and tell us what you got there. Come quick and give me some good news. Remember that place is still our home, which we call Coramus."
"I already bypassed variable frequency shield, but your device will definitely help me," Mark said.
"You are saying this because you haven't seen our glory. Just try to cross that shield and it will tear you apart in millions of pieces. Now go," Saikkar told like ordering Mark.
Then they both left for Coramus.
/> "After all this, they still look very strict," Mark said talking to Aleina.
"Yeah... their guts and pride are still with them," Aleina said, "They still think that they are same, and they may treat you like their own soldier instead of a guest who is helping them."
They came back on the gate of Canyon cave where a large force is waiting to go on Coramus with Mark. In the meantime, when Mark wasn't around there, Xoguar tried to nullify the order of Aleina and make the force to disappear... but nothing worked.
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CHAPTER 19
Start of Journey
So, Mark is ready to go there on Coramus to solve the mystery. He is excited a little, as he has some clue now to start with. He can't live in the threat and by now he got tired of listening about unknown scarier threat. Everyone knows about threat, but they know nothing about threat. They feel the sign of danger in their heart... they are scared of what future may have planned for them... but they know nothing about them, which is the most dangerous part.
Xoguar still doesn't trust her... maybe he knows something about her but can't tell Mark. However, Xoguar is against this mission, but Mark doesn't have any other way around. He had set his mind to go for this mission, which may open a gate to the new part of this journey. However, he doesn't want to go there with the whole force. He wants to go there alone, but Aleina made him to go there with that all those soldiers. So, he went for this mission, but he returned on the same day... being injured, alone and disappointed. Aleina was waiting for his return.
"You had gone to Coramus to make a peace and extend our alliance with Kenoksians. Also, I seem to notice that you went with a large force but came back alone. What happened there," Aleina asked.
Mark started laughing sarcastically, "Life is really a funny thing... you know what is more funny - being happy or being satisfied... One moment, you feel that you have achieved everything, but in the next... fate throws you onto ground showing your limits."
"What are you trying to say... just say it clearly. You know, I don't waste time in solving puzzles," Aleina tried to lighten the mood.
Mark started telling, "I wanted to go there alone, but you made me to go with the whole force... and that's when everything went wrong. They thought that we were there for war and they sent their own force and the result is in front of your eye. I failed... that's it."
"I may have believed you, but your expression didn't give me a choice. I understand that this could be the possibility, but this is not the truth. Just tell me what happened there," Aleina understood that Mark is trying to hide something.
Mark said, "Okay... this is not the whole truth. This is truth with one lie..."
"What..." Aleina interrupted.
Mark replied, "Against our force, they didn't send their force, but they sent only one person..."
"Who was that..." Aleina interrupted again, "Who killed our force and forced you to come back like this?"
Mark said, "I was there... in Coramus. I felt that they misunderstood the purpose of me going there. I was expecting a war, but the thing that happened... I was not expecting..."
"What happened there," Aleina asked in sad kind of excitement.
Mark said, "I saw someone there to fight against me... alone. The one, whom I knew very well. You can’t believe who was there..."
"Oh... come on... just tell who was there... who defeated you... alone..." Aleina couldn't control herself and she might have prepared a whole speech to tell this time.
But before Aleina could get started on her speech, Mark told in low voice, "Emily..."
"What..." Aleina couldn't believe. This can easily be derived from her shocking face. She said, "Just tell me everything, that happened there."
"When I was ready for a war, I saw her in warrior dress. I got delighted with joy... and felt like whatever might be the reason of me coming there, I don't care... I just got what I desired from a long time. I found Emily... I found her... I screamed with her name, but she didn't respond... actually she responded with her thunderbolt killing many of Xoguar's soldier..."
"What... She attacked you..." Aleina said in desperation. She knew about Emily and how precious she was for Mark. She heard all this through that audio tape. Then she asked, "And what you did to her?"
Mark started telling, "I could have fought from whole universe for her, but fighting against her... I never imagined myself like that. When I was there in front of her... watching her attack... my body froze there... in that moment for once and for all... when my eyes got to her face, it stuck there... I tried to return to myself, but it simply felt like impossible. I could have done anything to achieve her back once again... and in that moment, I felt that she already has become my life and I can't live without her anymore."
"I could have sacrificed myself... might have turned myself into dust, if that would have been a way for her... to return her to me. But, in that moment something was going, that I never had hoped. I have my duties towards every living, but the price I was about to pay was too high. I was shaking up to my soul that what I might do to her, but I had to. She was killing my force one by one and I may have understood two thing - first, she is unstoppable... and second, she will never come to me again," He continued.
"But I couldn't attack on her with my full potential... and what I did was a complete idiotic. I took a significantly large rock, absorbed its energy and threw the rock as well as energy at her being afraid that it may hurt her, but what it did... as the rock collided with her, it broke into thousands of pieces and scattered there... and about that energy blast, it didn't affect her in any way. And then also, I got her attention and she showed her beautiful palm upward... I don't know towards which planet... and threw a thunderbolt towards me having power equivalent to billions of kilo watts. It threw me away... and that's when I actually realized the meaning of Xeuca's word, when she had said that Emily's power is 97.78 on her scale," He continued.
"When I came back there... it was a long distance to cover for me, I saw that everyone else is dead and she has already left. I felt that blood of all those will be at my hand, because I couldn't do what I had to. I couldn't stop her, and this is the consequence. I felt guilty... as I am the reason of death of all those. Not only that, but I made Emily what she is right now. She deserves better... at least better than me," And then he finished.
Aleina tried to comfort him, "Listen... you are trying to push yourself too hard. I understand that you have a concern about those, but you also need to learn that battle demands death. There is no place of emotion in battle, but you need to make a better strategy. You need to make yourself believe after anything, that you are a better person. You need to be confident... only then you will be ready for coming threat."
Mark said, "Nothing you can say, that can make me feel better right now... you know this. Well you know after all this, Saikkar will take back their support and I have no other clue... what to do next."
Aleina said, "Do you really think that you need them in this war? Do they know or even understand the intensity of upcoming threats. I wasn't fully right, when I said we need more alliance. Actually, then I meant was we need more power."
Mark didn't understand, "What do you mean?"
She said, "You need to understand that sometime, you will need to make a tough decision. If they take back their support, but you need their support, then it doesn't mean that you give up. Just do what you feel right, let's skip thinking about others for a moment."
"What do you mean," he asked.
"Just defeat them in battle and all of the thing that is theirs will be yours. You even will not need to kill anyone because you have the ability to produce undying fire," she tried to convince Mark.
"I don't know... I can't... they are innocent... I can't torture them..." Mark is stammering.
"What if you will have no other choice," Aleina tried to pressurize him.
"No... I can't... Maybe... I will think... I don't know..." and then he left and Aleina started smiling.
.. in scarier way... like she got some plan of her own. She whispered, "Mark... there are many things, you don't know yet. But you need to know everything, if you want to succeed."
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CHAPTER 20
Revelation
After all this, Mark is missing a part of his life. He didn't understand what happened to her in this short time... how she changed like this. He started thinking, 'Did someone played with her mind? Did someone erased her memory and make her like this whom sole purpose is destroy all the leftover good things and make the universe same as it used to be? Or is this really she... now with her own choice'. Later opinion really scared him.
Nothing is going in the same way as Mark had thought. Earlier Emily made him happy. In a way, she showed him a path on which he walked till now... but everything changed... all the dream that he had, scattered and ultimately thrown into trash. Maybe he can make the world happier place, but he can't make his own world happy. He is slowly understanding the meaning of sacrifice now, when he has to make the one, but how he will ever be able to sacrifice her? That feeling, he had about her still looks fresh and young. He knows this... he felt this when he saw her.
But there is something more. Recently, he got into some kind of weird dream... some blurry face whom he can't remember. In a way, it seems to him that hundreds of years have passed, since Acouch was killed. It feels to him that everything around him has changed a lot. He tried to talk about these things with Xoguar, but he ignored him telling that this is nothing except some meaningless dream. But inside his heart, he knows that something happened that he is not able to figure out. However, there is almost empty space and here, all the habitable planets are unknown to him... but his mind tells him that a lot of time has passed since that incident.