Star Rebellion

by Alicia Howell

  Arctic waited until everyone was seated before he replied. “I’m afraid that it is upsetting news, though not definite in itself. Some old manuscripts from the native people of Calsh were finally translated recently, and they were of legends about the Underworld. Now, most of our facts have come from these since there is no way to find it anywhere else; there certainly isn’t a library that we can just go and check out a book about everything we need to know. A lot of it is guesswork and analyzing, trying to figure out what parts may be fact, and which are fiction.

  “The writings, more or less, says that in a final battle between fire and fire, and the destruction that comes afterwards is most unfortunate. Unless the Lord of the Underworld has an heir, the demons will be able to roam freely on the world.” Arctic did not feel the need to mention about his theories on Firestar. “The battle of fire against fire is a battle that will likely happen soon between the members of Star Rebellion who are on their way, and the Lord of the Underworld, Lucifer.”

  The world leaders started muttering to their neighbors, and even the new Vatican looked pale at the aspect of what that could mean. “Then why don’t you send some others to get them out of there!” Berlin finally asked in place of everyone else; at this point she was used to taking charge after all of the issues that had happened on Earth in her predecessor’s time.

  “It isn’t that simple; as I mentioned in our first meeting a few years ago, it’s a very complex thing to reach the Underworld Gates. This team has been training for over two years, and we’ve discovered other things that might stop them in their tracks that we weren’t expecting. There’s a go between point between us and the Underworld called the Shadowlands. There are sentries all across this area that are deadly enough to fight just by themselves, but they also warn Lucifer that there are people in his realm. We had originally been hoping for them to sneak under his nose, get the Animals, and disappear, but that is no longer possible.

  “We will send a retrieval team to try and get them, but if the members have already gotten to the Shadowlands, we will not be able to do so.”

  “Wait a second, besides the fact that you may lose six members in this battle against Lucifer, can you remind me why it will be bad for us?” Beijing asked after having a whispered conversation with Tokyo, who was on his left.

  Arctic stood up and walked over to a file cabinet in the back of the room. After rummaging around for a little bit, he found the papers that he had been looking for.

  “Snowstar,” he said to the white haired girl who had stayed by the door as was normal of ambassadors during meetings. She walked forward to Arctic. “Please make seven copies of this.”

  Snowstar nodded her head once and disappeared out of the door.

  “The papers that I have asked her to copy are reports on all known demons. If my team does engage in a fight with him, then demons will stream to both Calsh and Earth. I take it that you assumed these demons would only plague Calsh. That is why this will be bad for you.”

  “But what if they defeat Lucifer?” Washington asked, a slight panic creeping into his voice.

  “Even then, the demons will come. If Lucifer is defeated, then there will be no one to control the demons in his place. If he defeats them, then he will take out his anger and all humans, without care of who was and wasn’t involved.”

  Paris rubbed his face with his hands. “I knew we shouldn’t have consented to this two years ago. I just knew it! I mean, even Vatican isn’t spewing on that with God’s will we can all survive!”

  Vatican looked up sharply at Paris before turning back to what he was scribbling furiously across a notepad that he had brought with him. Arctic had thought this a bit strange, but didn’t put any meaning to it.

  “Then is all hope lost?” London whispered into the depressing silence.

  “No. For my pupils, yes, but for our worlds, no. If they are defeated in the Shadowlands and Lucifer doesn’t discover their actual reason for going down there, then no. We would all be safe then. If they manage to get past the Gates, then yes, everything is lost.”

  “What should we do if that happens?” It was Tokyo this time who spoke up.

  “The packets include different ways that we believe, they haven’t been confirmed yet, of how to battle demons. How many people on Earth know of the existence of Calsh?”

  “Most, because of the colonization attempts in the previous century. They're still widely discussed during politics.” Washington did not seem to like that fact.

  “Then will you be able to tell them on full all about the demons? Or would it be better to tell them that you must prepare the country for terrorist attacks?”

  “Terrorist attacks will probably be the wiser,” Washington said immediately.

  “Lying is a sin though,” Vatican put in.

  “Yea, well sometimes you’ve just got to lie. Speaking of which, why aren’t the rest of the leaders here? I just realized that Moscow isn’t yelling at everyone,” Berlin said as she pointed out the empty seats.

  “You seven are the largest world powers that there are right now in Earth, if I am not mistaken, so I called only you to come to the meeting. You will tell the rest whatever you please, but I’m leaving you in charge to be sure that everyone can do as they need. You are all also the wisest and most cool headed; I trust that you won’t let this power get to yourselves and only save your country, that you will help everyone try to get through this. Every leader of every country on your planet has been through these halls, and you are the seven that I trust the most with a situation such as this. Please, make sure your planet is fit to survive this.

  “Also, Mister Vatican, please talk to Rome about what happened seventeen years ago. I think that he may be able to send some answers to things I need answered. There might be some light at the end of this night if my suspicions are correct, but until I’m sure, I don’t want to give anyone false hope.”

  The leaders were then dismissed after this and Snowstar escorted them to the portal that would take them back to their respective countries.

  WATERSTAR

  “Water? Waterstar? Wake up! Oh angels, please wake up!” I vaguely felt my shoulder being shook. I swam through the darkness until the voice was louder and finally I was able to open my eyes.

  I saw Vladimir leaning over my newly conscious body; he was still panicking but I had tuned him out at this point.

  “No emotion, huh?” I asked while letting an arrogant smile cross my face.

  “Oh! Thank the angels!” Vladimir pulled me into a hug and I had a WTF moment.

  “Good to see you too,” I said while patting his back. “But what’s with the random display of emotion? Are you like, bipolar or something?” I asked in all seriousness.

  Vladimir pulled back from the hug but didn’t let go of me. “When I’m stone and stuff it is because Lucifer is with me. He can possess my body but he doesn’t do it frequently, especially when I’m down here.” It seemed like he had more to say but he stayed silent.

  “Does he know of me?”

  “No, I kept that a secret from him. He doesn’t expect me to rebel much.”

  I was about to question this then realized that if Vladimir rebelled, his father would approve of it. Unless he bought girl scout cookies and gave millions to charity. Then Lucifer might have some issues. I gave a mental shrug and ended that line of thought. “I hate passing out from using my special. I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner though.”

  “Special?” Vladimir asked while looking confused. “Is that when you had created all the water?” He had finally let me go and was sitting against the vent again.

  I nodded my head while I slid over and sat next to him.

  After a few moments, Vladimir broke the silence. “Do you want to hear the rest of my story? It’s not much longer.” I looked over at him to try and judge his emotion. His electric blue eyes were hidden behind his shaggy black hair and I couldn’t read much. “Sure,” I smiled and squeezed his knee in what I assumed w
as a reassuring way. Once again, I’m basing this off of Earth movies.

  FIRESTAR

  “Twenty seconds until stopping.” Ice said over the head sets. “Jump out and run for the door. It should still be unlocked due to Waterstar.”

  We all muttered our confirmations and braced ourselves. The rain had soaked through all my clothes and every inch of my skin was burning. Every. Single. Freaking. Inch.

  “NOW!” Ice shouted as Cerberus came to a bone rattling halt. We all jumped out of the jeep and sprinted for the door.

  Which was five feet away. Not a pretty sight.

  Since Icestar was the only one who had known how close the door was, he was the first one inside. The rest of us followed him; we were slightly dazed from our newly formed relationship with the wall. I've got to say, I prefer a woman's embrace than that of bricks. They tend to be softer.

  “Clothes off, please.” Sunstar said in a commanding voice.

  I spun around and raised an eyebrow. “Who knew you'd be a dom?”

  Sunstar had already stripped herself to underclothes and simply rolled her eyes at me.

  “By all means, wear acid coated clothes. For those of you who actually want to live, you need to put this cream on. I brought an extra set of clothes for all of us in case this happened. I usually am right anyways.”

  I heard Forest mutter, “Then why aren’t you wearing any?” In return Sunstar threw a bundle of clothes at his head. She must have anger issues ‘cause she did the same to Icestar and I. There are many ways to relieve stress, but I don't think that was one of them.

  Once we had all put cream on the worst of our burns and gotten dressed, it was time to decide on where we were going. Ever heard of a rat’s maze? Well the NOPCW base was a huge one, but with a closed roof. As Water would say, ‘oh joy!’

  Speaking of which, I wonder how she and Dark were doing. No sooner had that thought entered my mind when I suddenly felt myself slump against the nearest wall and my eyes blacked out. Well this was more extreme than most of the times when I got unwillingly pulled into a vision. Maybe some hot girls wanted my attention. I was soon overwhelmed by a bajillion images, but what really worried me was the maniacal laugh underlying it all. How the manic could enforce these images on me I have no clue, but it definitely didn't involve hot creatures of the opposite gender.

  When the visions started to ebb, a face was displayed in their place. The man looked like he was in his early thirties. He had pitch black hair that was neatly trimmed to a crew cut with two horns on the each side of his head and his skin was orange-red. Piercings lined the edging of his nose and his burgundy eyes slanted upward on the outer edges. He looked like anyone’s worst nightmare.

  “Welcome Firestar! I have been waiting for you. Your friends are already here.” The man’s face was replaced with an image of Water and Dark; they were both either making out with the floor or just dead. I sure as hell hoped they had formed a weird crush with the floor.

  “Don’t worry, they’re alive. I’m assuming that you and the three people who are accompanying you want to find them, yes? Well I’ll show you the way to my home, but pay attention, I’ll only show you once.” His face once again disappeared, but this time it wasn’t an image that came. It was like I was actually walking down the many hallways.

  “Got it? Good.” The images disappeared with the voice. A sharp pain jolted me back to the present. “OW! What the hell?” I tried to shout, but it came out as a cracked whisper.

  “Sunstar slapped you, or well she’s been doing that for a while.” Forest was leaning against a wall next to me, which I’ve realized is a habit of his. Sun was kneeling in front of me and Ice was to her right.

  “Where’s my pack?” I seriously needed tea and bread else I’d pass out which would not help Water and Dark.

  Sunstar scoffed. “What, you have a miracle solution in there? What you need is a infirmary.”

  I pushed her to the side, leaning heavily on one of my arms to even move. “What I need is tea.”

  Sunstar pushed me back down. “No, what you need is medical help. I might have something in my kit, but you'll have to stay up here while we go get Water and Dark.”

  Sunstar was turning to get her own bag when I grabbed her arm. “Shut up, you idiot. I know what I need, and even if I was unhealthy, there is no way you could have me stay here. Get that through your head, and stop giving me orders.” The lecture made me light headed, and I was glad when Foreststar brought over my pack instead of me having to go get it.

  “You sure you’re going to be alright?” Forest asked with the emotion of a popsicle.

  “Yea, totally. And even if I wasn’t, it wouldn’t matter, Water and Dark need us.” My throat was already feeling better but my voice still came out a little croaky. When Sunstar gave me another worried look, I ignored her and put the rest of my tea in the pack and stood up.

  “Fire, maybe we should just take a rest right now. You're obviously a bit tired out from the vision, and I think I'm speaking for all of us when I say that we are too from the rain.” It was Sun that said this, of course. I'm sure she had good intentions and all, but it was getting annoying.

  “I’m not going to wait; every second that we aren’t moving is a second that my friends could be killed.” I turned around and started walking. “You guys coming or not?” I didn’t look over my shoulder as I walked down the hall.

  “Come on, Sun. I trust Firestar,” I could hear Ice saying.

  DARKSTAR

  I walked down the pitch black path, and lemme tell ya, it freaked me out not being able to see anything. Normally the dark is my best friend. Normally I can see in any lighting. Normally I wouldn’t be trapped in this freaking land. But this wasn’t normal, as I’m sure whoever bothers to read this has guessed by now. I held my hands out to try and see if there were any walls I could follow. Nada.

  I definitely wasn’t outside though; the air pressure in the room was too still. This reminded me slightly of when I had been unconscious after using my special. Which meant I was probably unconscious again. Though that still didn’t answer the question of where the hell am I!

  WATERSTAR

  “Before I continue with my story, I’m going to warn you that it doesn’t get better….” Vladimir said while once again looking at his hands. I merely nodded my head; for the second time in my life I wasn’t in a talkative mood. Surprise surprise.

  “Well, after the… killings, Lucifer decided to bring me back to the Underworld.” It kind of creeped me out that he so easily would say Lucifer, it seemed like a tabooed word back in humanity. “’I was given a demon for care-taking. She, if you can ever give a demon a gender, would take the place of my mother.

  “That demon wasn’t as harsh as the one’s that had come to Earth; she wouldn’t hurt me unless she absolutely had to, plus she’d also bring food from Earth for me because I refused to eat anything from Hell after that one time….”

  Vladimir’s voice had dropped down to a whisper. I wasn’t sure if he was going to continue; every time he had mentioned the murders he committed, something inside him would change. He’d kind of withdraw into himself and seem like he had forgotten his surroundings. Basically, he’d become an empty shell.

  I was about to say something, I don’t have a clue what, when he spoke up again. “Have you ever felt like you have no one with you? That everyone and everything you become attached to vanishes because you like them? That is the story of my life. Everything I love, people I become friends with, everything ends up disappearing, leaving me with nothing. A hollow world that hates me and a torturous mind.” Vladimir stood and started pacing around the large cavern. I watched him from where I was sitting and considered what he had said. This guy had never had anyone that would support him, they had all died by the sound of it. On the other hand, when I was younger and Star Rebellion had adopted me, Ocean, the leader then, had become a mother-like person to me. Then, when I was older Fire and Dark had become my partners. So no… I guess I c
ouldn’t relate to him anymore.

  “They killed my demon mother. They killed her. I was thirteen and I had been terrorizing Earth with her for three years and we had never once been caught. There was no way they could’ve without outside sources. The night before she had died, we had rampaged a military base. It wasn’t the first time we had done something like that so we hadn’t been too worried. She had said she would stay up a few more hours after I had gone to sleep. Sometime during the middle of the day, our night, I had heard her screaming. Gunshots rang out and people had raided our hideout; killing her in the process.” Vladimir stopped pacing and looked down.

  When he continued, his voice was choked, as if he was holding back tears. “Sometimes, she would brush the hair out of my face, and she was always saying that I had needed a haircut. For a demon, she was nice, and a wonderful person. I only wish that I had seen that before. If you had asked me before her death if I was attached to her, I would’ve easily said no way. When I saw her die though… I realized that she had grown on me. Replaced the memory of my true mother. It wasn’t love, but loyalty. When she died, I wanted revenge.” When Vlad had spoken of revenge, his voice became hard and deadly.

  “Because I am half human, the murderers had mistaken me to be a captive. They took me with them and asked me where and who my parents were. I hadn’t said anything in reply, and they took my silence as trauma. They took me back to the military base, or what was left of it, and put me in an unguarded room, which was a big mistake, as I’m sure you could have guessed.

  That night, I was able to sneak out of my room easily enough. I wandered the halls, completely lost, until a guard found me. He asked what I was doing, but again, I stayed silent. After a few moments, he put his hand on my shoulder and steered me down to the General’s Office. Despite the late hour, the general was still there. The two men talked for a bit, and had concluded that I had had a nightmare. The general said I could stay with him until I felt better.