“It’s impossible to trace the origins of all of Caroline’s or Leona’s or whatever we want to call her’s cohorts, but I know the exact date she came to be in the company of Keith Fulton. He and I have a pretty seedy history. You ever heard of hiding in something by sticking it out in the open? Stirring up the wasp's nest is the surest way we’ll bring down the Fulton Order empire. Dante is the chief priest of their nutso superstition. If we took him hostage, forced him to work with us to tearing down the system he helped institute. We’d be killing flocks of birds with pebbles, yeah?” Taylor wrung his hands that were shaking and white. His eyes showed that there was something more personal to his plan. He was a hard man to read. Kendra wanted to know the soul beneath the strata layers of grave soil.
“Wait, I get what the boss-man is saying. This is basically mutiny. Great, me likey. We’re going to need weapons?” Reilly drilled her shin bone staff into the dirt, writing up an invoice with awkward check marks for all the different weaponry she wanted to add to their arsenal.
“Not a problem in this crack-patch, little lady. There're enough pieces in there to arm the entire hosts of hell three times over.” Croc rolled his eyes at Taylor’s niece. The little fireball kept things interesting.
“This sounds like my kind of party.” Reilly winked at Ivy who clutched her stomach to keep from being sick.
“It’s hard for me to believe she is actually 12.” Ivy punched President Matthews’s shoulders. It was futile to engage with their Judas. He grumbled and pulled his coat closer to himself.
Lindsey stepped ahead of them, eyes training on the path the wind took through the mountains. She scanned the horizons for any sign of Jane. Her best friend was here. She could feel it.
*****
Chapter 10
They fell in stride with She-Hitler. Walking in her cold shadow was treachery. Silence fell over each one of Kingsley’s companions as they weighed the odds of what they’d done.
Kingsley stepped back from the line. He waited to see if Kiara would notice. There was something he needed to say that he would never have the chance to say again. There were more than a few things passed due in their lives.
Jane walked passed Kingsley noticing what he was doing. She nudged Kiara who looked up from staring at her feet. Kiara’s eyes flashed. Kingsley beckoned to her with his index finger.
Jane nodded, saying in essence that she would cover for them for a moment. She took Dexter’s hand and led him to Leona’s heels. Vincent closed in behind them, eyes darting to every shadow waiting for Lucia to appear.
Kingsley took Kiara’s hands and kissed them. He led her to a giant slab of granite that lined the river bank. The mountain had been carved with slain contenders’ of the Athena’s Rings names. It looked much like the Vietnam Memorial.
Kingsley pressed Kiara to the wall. His hands shook, touching her gingerly. How much of his enhancement still remained in his body after jumping dimensions? Would he split into many fragments of himself again? Would he hurt her?
“Hello, stranger.” Kingsley smiled, voice dropping to a whisper that fell softer than smoke against Kiara’s lips as he kissed them. The assassin was newborn helpless in his arms. She said nothing, but closed her eyes and let his lips trace her neck.
“We haven’t talked in a while. But we need to. We need a strategy. In the end, it falls to you and me to atone for all that’s been done. We were the puppets, right? The god-player’s tools. You and I are needle and thread to reality and fate.” Kingsley leaned against her. He would wait forever, allowing her shape to rest against him. She was in a silent agony. In his arms, she was molten and he was the crucible retaining all her dimensions. Out of this silence would emerge the answer if he was diligent in waiting.
“You will have to forgive me. I’m not strong enough to voice all that I’ve got to do. What comes next, dear…I will go mad again. Should we break the seals of her infinity, should we uncover the bones we’ve worked so hard to conceal…You will see a side to my darkness that you never thought possible. Your darkness shaped your redemption. My darkness will test your will to exist.” Kiara opened her eyes. She struggled to breathe, to lay her soul bare before him. Kingsley nodded. Even in the thick of it, he still felt no closer to solving the Riveaulx Family mystery than he did when he’d first begun.
Kiara kissed Kingsley for a long time, pondering her words. This moment had never been allowed to be in life. It could never be again. Something told Kingsley that he still had to pay for what he’d done. That in the end, no matter what he did, he would have to lose her for good. She knew it too.
“For every touchstone on earth, there is an altar here below. I am the scapegoat. The penance. I was designed that way from the beginning of this saga. There is no other ending for me, dear. You must understand. There is a consequence to what you’ve done. The consequence is the thing you love the most.” Kiara swallowed. She’d just voiced all of Kingsley’s worst fears.
“Wise men say that the heart is wicked above all else and no one can understand it completely. The same is true about the heart of Leona Kelley’s darkness and the Order in this dark dimension, created even in the ancient world and passing to us. The Dark Altar of Centralia was just the touchstone altar for the Great Altar of Athena. To this world, I am known as Athena. I have already died in that darkness long ago. You were the one that sacrificed me.” Kiara’s words weren’t accusing. She said that softly, coolly as if it was only another sad fact of their tragic love. Kingsley shook his head.
“How could I have? I didn’t know you then…” Kingsley shook his head. This was impossible.
“Eternity doesn’t run in the same circles that the lives of earth-bound people do. The center of Athena’s Rings is a mirror of all life in the worlds. The supernova that goes on in the DNA of an enhanced being is pinpointed at that mirror and refracted all across the stars. Shining off the fire of my Altar, that is what causes you enhanced beings to split into many pieces of yourselves. Don’t you see, Pandora Man? I am the secret to making you whole. I am the Chaos at the heart of Pandora’s box. To love me is to lose me.”
Kiara smiled. Kingsley was stunned by the peace in her eyes. Finally, she had laid the sorrow and the madness of Bleach down. Now she was the true Kiara Riveaulx. The only woman he could have ever loved so fully. His reason to live, his reason to die.
His sacrifice.
Kingsley groaned. Something cracked deep inside of him, as he sobbed breaking his rib cage under the intensity of his sorrow. His sweat beaded up in little drops of faint blood as did his tears. The natural laws of this spiritual reality were suspended allowing him to express his sorrow to its full intensity without dying. Distressed, Kiara laid him on her shoulder, running her hands through his hair.
“I remember everything now, Good Doctor. I have you to thank for that. Had you not opened the lid on my darkness, on my sheer madness, I would never have seen the light. That was worth waiting for. Worth dying for…” She paused, pressing a hand to the small of his back. He was crumbling in her arms. She was steady in the face of oblivion.
“Now you fully understand Professor Lucia’s identity in this place. He is the Priest of the Order. He performed the sacrifice long ago. The only way to destroy this collective consciousness simulation is for it to be repeated by his own hands. Then to destroy him would be to vanquish it where it would never rise again. You must understand. It was Andromeda’s to save the life of the world, but mine to save its soul. Unless there is some other way to do it, Doctor, one that I cannot see…There’s no slipping this noose. There is blood on my hands and I must return all the blood I am saturated with to the Altar. I am your scapegoat. The virgin for the dragon. These are the ramifications of careless god-playing. I wish there was an easier way…” Kiara pressed her face to Kingsley’s shoulder. She didn’t want to die.
Kingsley nodded. He stood up and took her face.
“I will follow you wherever you go. Whatever must be done to make this final…Just make
note that if you end, so will I. Either we both return from this fire or neither of us does.” Kingsley kissed Kiara again. He looked up at the names of the slain on the wall, wondering what sort of death they had died. It would be a deeper kind because there was no flesh anymore to consume. Would he have the courage to face a similar fate? He was coming down wonderfully at the speed of falling stars. There were no breaks this time. No second chances…It was over. This was the cost. He’d never regretted the man he’d been more than in this moment.
As he looked up, he saw that Leona had taken Jane by the arm and was leading her away from the others. His heart leaped to his throat in a sudden panic. Knowing Jane, if the She-Hitler was threatening her she would be putting up a great deal more resistance than that. They must have come to some kind of stalemate. This must be a strategy Andromeda and her creator needed to discuss.
So many things were now beyond Dr. Lucien Kingsley’s control. He was compelled to let the earth’s pillars fall down on him, like Samson the Ancient Judge. How could he just succeed to this? How could this punishment honestly fit his ignorant crime?
He swallowed bile and nodded. Maybe this punishment was more severe than need be, but it was his lot nonetheless. He purposed deep in his spirit to end better than he’d begun. To be remembered for all the things he no longer was. If he could reverse engineer himself and take this pain, then he might be a good man.
*****
Chapter 11
“A word with Jane alone is required.” Leona held out a hand, signaling that the others should stop.
“I’m not leaving her alone with you.” Dexter stepped in front of Jane, hands curling into fists.
“Oh, yeah? I’m not leaving her alone with you. I’ll never work with you for free, thing!” Vincent kicked a loose stone, flipping it up and brandishing it like a caveman’s sword.
“Well, daddy dearest says no so I suppose I’ll have to respect his wishes. They can come along then. Only they will have to be dead. When I say dead, I mean in the state equivalent to death in this dimension. It will be far worse than shedding some clay form like a body, Janey dear. What do you say?” Leona rolled her eyes and glared at Jane.
“She won’t hurt me. Not when she needs me for something. I know her. You guys are going to have to trust me.” Jane pushed her way past her men. She swaggered, tilting her head defiantly. Leona was done even attempting to intimidate her and her family.
“If something happens to her, you’d better hope that there’s some kind of chamber for penance down here. You can’t image the things that I will do.” Vincent lunged, drawing the stone’s tip across Leona’s lips. She giggled as blood spattered her chin.
“Right. Well, her soul belongs to me, yeah? I’ll be collecting it one way or the other. Just hope it’s because you bring her back in one piece. I’m counting pretty blonde hairs as individual pieces.” Dexter made a sawing motion across his throat. Death had removed whatever fear he might have felt toward Leona before.
“You’d think you were a queen with all that loyalty!” Leona picked up the ends of her bridal gown and curtsied to Jane. Jane folded her arms.
“What can I say? If I’m anything, you made me that way.” Jane rolled her eyes, nodding to Leona that they better get on with it. They had little time for chatter.
Leona took Jane by the arm. They walked like a mother and daughter might down the edges of the ragged shore. Leona drew a deep breath of the balmy wind. There was a fragrance on it now, one that smelled like all sorts of gourmet dishes. Jane didn’t want to know what that might mean.
“You have been here before, dear. It alarms me how little you remember about our private wars in this place.” Leona stepped in front of Jane taking her hands. She smiled like a gentle grandmother.
Jane’s hair prickled on the back of her neck. Something told her she was about to make a deal with the devil. The world was opening like a book around her, unrolling like the scroll of wisdom with its long blue and amber ravines. Yet she was boxed against a wall more now than she had ever been. She could never get away.
“Refresh my memory, then.” Jane plucked her hands-free and shook them off, shuddering.
“Oh God! It would take all day.” Leona clicked her tongue, studying Jane without directly looking at her. Jane swallowed. This was exhausting. When did she get to lay the gauntlet down with this woman? Standing here now, that garage dojo fist fight match in the Shreveport storage center seemed like Millennia ago.
“Then it would be beside the point. Anyway, I remember enough about you. More than enough. Most importantly, I know how you end. I beat you.” Jane dug her heel into the gravelly shore. Blood welled up from her barefoot. She had placed herself here, planted firmly in her convictions. It would take much more than the threat of extermination for Leona to move her now.
“Did you? Was it an honest fight? You had helpers. Those loyal ones. Had you not, had the cards stacked against you where they all fled from your side, do you think you could have done it?” Leona took a step closer, admiring Jane with the same face a mother makes cooing over her newborn. Jane cringed. If there was one thing she hated, it was to be patronized. Leona was vying for the last laugh. She wouldn’t give it to her.
“You’re calling for a rematch, eh?” Jane popped her knuckles.
“No contest, Janey, I haven’t got time for it. I actually rather like the ending you gave my saga. The tragedy of Doctor and Frankenstein seems to work well enough for Gothic lore. If I burn my empire, I will retain my place in public memory. It will be a beautiful place and so it won’t bother me. “Leona laid a hand over her heart. Faint tears were gathering at her lashes. Jane went stone cold. The expression was one of genuine sorrow, worthy of an Academy Award. Convincing enough, what could it mean?
“You’ve always been a hard one to read, eh? What do you want then? Pound of my flesh? Virgin’s blood to bathe in?
“I’ve taken enough of that, haven’t I? Make no mistake, child, we left our marks on one another. We each have scars that will never fade from the battle we waged on earth.” Leona pointed to her neck. Jane was confused because there was no scar there. Then she realized that Leona was indicating her own scar. Jane looked into her shirt, remembering when Leona had forced a drill-bit into her collarbone. That was nostalgic now, in comparison to all the other things she’d done to her.
“What do you want then? You couldn’t possibly be this cut and dry. It isn’t like you to want something simple. To settle with less than you bargained for. You aren’t going to trick me. You’re looking for a way to give Pandora’s Box the slip again and you’re hoping I’ll give it to you. That you can trick me because victory will have clouded my judgment.” Jane popped her neck. It was sick, but somehow they’d developed some kind of surrogate, parasitic relationship. This was the way it went. They would always conspire against each other and sometimes seem to mirror each other’s cause. There would always be blood until either time ended or they outdid one another.
“Janey, it’s like you don’t know me at all! Like I said, you beat me. It was a beautiful beating, Jane, dear. Something I owe you for. I don’t mean that in the pejorative sense, of course. I’m a masochist, darling. The shedding of my own blood thrills me in a way no murder ever could. You gave me that thrill and with diamond taste.” Leona sidled to the edge of the cliff that became the golden-embossed memorial wall. She felt along the rock until her hand had met the place her secret lay hit. She ripped a sword from the stone and tore it into two, tossing Jane the other half.
“That’s sick…So are you. I won’t be party to any more of your whacked out philosophies. I’ve seen deep into them through the Andromeda’s mind. She’s so much like you it’s freaky.” Jane vibrated the sword in the air in front of her. Leona’s behavior toward her was almost like a pedophile profiling a victim. It made her angry but she didn’t know how to counter it any differently than she always had.
Jane swung her sword in an infinity arc to match Leona’s strange, gy
roscopic patterns. Leona took a step forward. She drew a knife from the sword’s hilt. A quick jab later, Jane felt blood spurting from her abdomen. How did she bleed still if she was dead?
“Self-contradiction is the first sign of madness, love. You are becoming me. You are Andromeda.” Leona smiled, side stepping Jane. This could well have been the intention all along. Jane held her breath. Whatever the whole lot of them wanted with her, she would remain constant. She wouldn’t fall for their traps.
Leona lapped the blood from the knife as if it was a Popsicle. With her other hand, she deflected all of Jane’s sword advances. Jane cringed. This woman, this god-player was just playing with her. That’s all she had ever done.
“Not anymore. Now I’m done.” Jane felt her stomach churn watching Leona lap up her blood. If she didn’t establish their equality now, Leona would always be making dominant gestures toward her.
Jane swayed. She pressed her fingers in her blood and dabbed it on her face for war-paint. Whatever Leona threw at her next, she was ready.
“Don’t be so sure!” Leona pressed a finger thoughtfully to her chin. Her eyes shone with admiration. Jane felt like she might vomit. She screamed in fury. Leona swatted her attacks like one might bat at a fly.
Exhausted, Jane looked back the way she’d come. If Dexter heard screams, he’d be terrified. He’d come this way and Leona would do something terrible to him. Jane straightened up. She would have to retain her composure if she wanted to keep her love safe.
“Fine, I’ll listen. Let me guess. Same argument as always, right? You’ve found a way to destroy the universe and swallow up my friends in the aftermath. If I don’t play your game, they meet a fate worse than anything I can possibly imagine. Blah, blah, blah.” Jane resented herself already for this. What was she being asked to do? Would it bring her loved ones into danger? It was a mistake to work to even suggest working to the same ends as Leona Kelley. It was an abomination to actually put the suggestion into living practice.
The Good Death Box Set: A Hard SciFi Science Fiction Series Page 49
