Zana shook her head, staring at herself in the mirror. “I feel like this domain is...”
“Is what?”
“It's just... backward. It's like the people here are using the curse that Professor Armageddon left on the continent as an excuse to keep their minds and their morals in the past.”
Tila laughed and threw back the last of her wine in one gulp. “You think handing out cellphones to everyone is going to solve everything?”
Zana pulled her hair back behind her head and bound it with a strap of leather that was sitting on the vanity in front of her. “No. Of course not. I don't want to change Therian. I've... grown to love this domain. But the people...”
Tila leaned against the wall so she could look Zana in the eyes. “We're all a bunch of inbred hillbillies? Is that it?”
Zana rolled her eyes. “You know that's not how I feel.”
Tila smirked. “I know. So what is it you hope to accomplish today?”
Zana looked at herself in the mirror, studying the woman who stared back at her, trying to recognize herself. It didn't work. Deep down inside, she still felt like a little girl who didn't quite fit into her armor, making it appear more like a costume than a uniform. Was she still playing? Still pretending to be something she wasn't ready to be? Did it matter?
“Come on, Zana. You need to be confident in your plan. You can't hesitate out there. You can't look weak or unsure of yourself. Not today. Not if you truly want to start a revolution.”
“No...” Zana said, looking up at her animal-hybrid friend. “Not a revolution. An evolution. I'm not going to change this domain. I'm going to push it forward.”
Zana looked back at her reflection and finished, “I'm going to make it better.”
Tila smiled, her thin lizard lips pulling back tight as she grabbed more bindings for Zana's hair. “Now you're sounding like a Domina.”
“No. Not a Domina. The Empire is dying. This isn't a domain.”
“We'll come up with something.”
Zana stood up and allowed Tila to continue pulling her hair into one, long ponytail. When she finished, she twisted the bladed cap onto the end of her hair, creating a weaponized whip out of the hairstyle. Zana wrapped the ponytail around her waist, and stuffed the blade into her belt, then looked across the room at the white dress she was expected to wear to the ceremony.
Tila set her hand on the small of Zana's back and reassuringly said, “I'm sure you'll look beautiful.”
Zana snarled at the word. “Bring me my armor.”
Outside the castle, in the garden that filled the back acres that surrounded the fortress, the armies of Therian had gathered. Every armed man and woman stood shoulder to shoulder, placed in lined ranks based on gender and specialty. As Zana marched past the front rows, her armor clanging against itself with every step, she looked down each line of soldiers. The winged men, then the winged women standing behind them. The infantry men, then the infantry women behind them. Over and over, each line standing at rigid attention. As she passed the men, none made eye contact, but the women all gave her a silent salute of understanding, a tiny nod of their head in recognition.
When she reached the front of the garden, where a small wooden stage had been erected, she saw the look of disgust on Dominus Mastodon's face when he saw the way she was dressed. Domina Singh only looked worried, most likely fearing her mate's reaction. Luca rolled his eyes at her as she ascended the stairs toward the family, like he was annoyed that she was making yet another scene. Zana never stopped smiling.
“What is this?” Mastodon rumbled, trying to keep his voice down. “Are you trying to offend me? You wear the armor of the Zharkovian Empire to my declaration of war.”
Zana took her place next to Luca, just as she was expected to do, and was still smiling. “If we're going to war, I thought this would be a more appropriate outfit.”
“You stupid girl,” Luca growled. “If we play this right, there won't be any war.”
“No?” Zana asked coyly. “Then why have we gathered our armies? A sing-along perhaps?”
“Intimidation is a part of diplomacy. We need to show your family – or what's left of them – just how powerful our domain is. Perhaps then they'll come to their senses and-”
Zana let out a burst of laughter, but tried to suck it back in as she said, “Oh! I'm sorry. It's just...” and then continued to laugh.
Mastodon clenched the arms of his chair and said, “Spit out your disrespect. You are testing my patience.”
“Again, my apologies,” Zana said as she managed to collect herself. “I just can't wait for the moment where you try to intimidate my ten-year-old brother. You know the one. He's the kid that committed mass genocide, wiping out an entire domain because they tried to start a war with our family.”
Dominus Mastodon stood up from his chair and said, “All of you Zharkovs have underestimated the power of the Therian domain. That ends today.”
The enormous elephant-man stepped to the edge of the stage as trumpets blared across the open garden. The soldiers that stood in lines in front of him slammed their armored heels together, causing a wave of metallic drumming that rocked the ground. The trumpets blared again, and then left only the wind to howl across the plains of Therian and blow the Dominus' robes around his body.
“The Grand Citadel burns!” Mastodon's voice bellowed across the garden. “Just like the Zharkovian Empire itself, the seat of power will fall from the sky and crumble upon the backs of the citizens who have bore its weight for so many years. Today marks the first day of a new era for our world. Today the people of Therian will rise up. We will no longer beg for scraps at the dinner table of the world like domesticated dogs. We shall reach out and take what has always been ours. We will show the world the true might of the Therian people and they will quake with fear at our roars!”
Growls and neighs and snarls and caws and howls and barks and croaks erupted from the lines of male soldiers, filling the air with a cacophony of animalistic sounds of excitement. The lines of women stood strangely silent.
“We will no longer be called freaks. We will no longer hide on our island in the corner of the world, waiting to be called upon only when the honor of our warriors is deemed necessary. We will show these human beings that we are the future, that we are the true inheritors of the world. They will bow before us, shower us with adulation, and fill our coffers with the riches we have always deserved.”
Again, the male soldiers went wild, lashing tongues into the air and flinging frothy saliva from their lips. The Dominus was whipping them into a frenzy with every promise he made. The men hungered for it, but the women remained silent.
“I will ascend to my rightful place as ruler of this world. I will wear the crown upon my head that should have been mine decades ago. And when our people rule over the lands we have been denied for so long, we will show the entire world the glory of the Therian Empire!”
Dominus Mastodon turned to Zana, and Luca nudged her forward. She knew what she was supposed to do. All of the servants and ceremony officials and even the Dominus himself had made it very clear. This was the moment where she stepped forward and bowed down in front of him, as a sign of her entire family bowing down to his rule. This is where she showed her humility. Her obedience. Her submission.
She stepped in front of the Dominus.
He nodded at her, but she did not move.
He glanced at Domina Singh, then Luca, then back to her.
“Bow down, girl,” he said under his breath.
The side of her lips curled upward, grinning back at him with a gleefulness that could not be contained.
“He said, bow down!” Luca growled, then stepped toward her.
In one fluid motion, her hand reached into her belt, releasing the bladed tip of her long pony tail and her head whipped downward, then to the side. The long cord of hair unraveled around her a few times before fully unleashing in a wide arc, slashing through the air directly toward Luca. Her hair
coiled back around her until she gripped it in her hand again. She never even glanced at Luca, who tried desperately to stop the blood that poured from the open slit in his neck like a waterfall, splashing onto the stage in front of him. He fell to his knees, then toppled off the side of the stage a lifeless corpse.
The male soldiers in attendance stood in shock for a moment, then moved to reach for their weapons, but every woman who stood in the line behind them, drew their weapons without hesitation and stepped forward. Zana grabbed the bladed end of her hair and held the tip in the thick hide of Dominus Mastodon. In a flash, every man had a blade at his neck. Throughout the ranks of soldiers, what appeared to be a random assortment of men fell to their knees, their necks split wide open by the blades of the women next to them. But these deaths were far from random. The men who fell were those selected specifically by Tila and the other women of the Devil Legion. Chosen for their guilt in leading the male soldiers in their transgressions. They were the ones least likely to bow down to Zana's rule.
“What have you... Are you mad?”
Domina Singh growled, baring her lioness fangs at Zana and exposing her claws from the tips of her furry fingers.
Zana smirked at the motion. “Let's cut the pretense, lady. I'm invincible, I can fly, and I'm stronger than nearly anyone on the planet. So tell me, which of your lion powers are supposed to scare me?”
Before Singh could react, a blade burst from her chest. Her eyes grew large as she looked down at the bloody sword protruding from her. Her eyes looked up at Zana in shock, then her body slowly slid down the blade and crumpled at the feet of Tila, who stood behind her proudly wielding the bloody sword that had taken the Domina's life.
Dominus Mastodon let out a trumpet's cry from his trunk, but he did not move. The tip of Zana's blade stung his throat.
“Your rule has come to an end, Dominus Mastodon. And so has your life.”
“What is this?” he blurted out, spit flying from his lips. “What are you doing?”
“Isn't it obvious?” Zana asked as she tilted her head, confused by the question. “I'm taking your domain.”
With a gentle push, she drove the end of the blade directly through Mastodon's throat. When she retrieved the blade, it carried with it a gush of blood. Before his corpse could fall, she gave his enormous body a super-powered kick to the chest, causing it to fly across the garden and land in the middle of the army that stood before her. She wiped off her blade on the tip of her cape and stuck it back into her belt. Then, with a dramatic twirl, her cape swirling behind her and the sun gleaming off of her Guardian armor, reflecting the snake wrapped in an infinite loop on her breastplate, she stepped to the edge of the stage.
“People of Therian! Allow me to offer you an alternative.”
The women who stared back at her were beaming with pride. The men seemed to show a mixture of shock, awe, and anger, but she still had time to change their minds. She summoned the lessons of her grandmother, that silver-tongued demon who had somehow survived in the Citadel longer than any of her invincible husbands. With no sword to bear, she unsheathed her words.
“Ever since I arrived in your domain, I have heard your Dominus refer to it as a cursed land. He blamed the bubble of time reversal that Professor Armageddon left over Therian for this domain's faltering importance in the world. He blamed the effects of that bubble that have kept you in the middle ages for this domain's inability to seize the power he sought. In fact, he seemed to blame everything he saw wrong with Therian on anything other than himself.”
There was a rustle of anxiety among the troops as the usurper continued to speak ill of their Dominus, but Zana continued.
“Your Dominus was ashamed of this domain, but when I look across the lands of Therian, I do not see a curse, I see a miracle. I see something to be proud of. This land is pure, untainted by the modern world. This land is full of fresh air and unpolluted water. The night sky is full of stars I never knew existed, always hidden by the lights of cities and towns.”
She felt her voice raising, her hands gesturing as her own words filled herself with passion. “Your Dominus thought the dome of time-alteration cut Therian off from the world, but I think it protects it. No robot armies will march upon our shores. No planes will fly overhead to drop bombs upon our homes. No spy drones will watch our every move. If the world wants to invade our lands, they cannot rely on the guns and technology that have made them fat and lazy. They must do so with the same swords and shields you have trained with for years. Let them throw stones. You are harder than any rock, because this land has made you so.”
She could see the sea of faces slowly changing. The anger was drifting, ever so slightly, though the blades at their necks weren't doing her any favors.
“Please sheathe your weapons.”
The women did not hesitate to follow her orders. They all put away their weapons as quickly as they had drawn them, then turned to stand at attention once again. Some of the men's hands dropped to their weapons instantly, but with quick glances around them, none were stupid enough to retaliate against the rest of the army.
Zana took that moment to quell their fears.
“For too long, the men of Therian have ruled over the women with abandon. For too long, you have quenched your thirst without permission. For too long your every whim and desire were the duty of the women to satisfy. But that all ends now.”
There was audible grumbling from some of the men, but Zana continued without pause.
“I do not want to turn Therian around. I do not want to trade one inequality for another. I am not here to take away your power and give it to the women standing next to you. I am here to level the playing field. I am here to equalize.”
The grumbling lowered. Many of the men who looked angry or defensive actually seemed to turn their attention toward her, waiting for her next comment.
“I want to move Therian into a new era, one where every citizen has the same chance to thrive and be happy. I want your place in our society to be based on your ability and nothing else.”
Zana glanced at Tila, who was smiling ear to ear.
“No one has the right to take anything from anyone else,” Zana continued. “Not food. Not clothing. Not sex. Not servitude. Everyone will earn their keep. Everyone will work for what they want, and if they do so with honor, I have no doubt they will get what they deserve.”
There was a mumbling of agreement as men and women both nodded along with her words.
“The land of Therian is bountiful. It is lush with the blessings of the earth. There is more than enough to fill our bellies with food, our throats with water and wine, and our beds with those who love and respect us.”
Zana glanced into the sky, thinking about her father, his father before him, and his father before him. She felt her lineage staring down at her, and for the first time, she felt their pride in her. She was a Zharkov, and she would take her place as a ruler.
“This land is not lawless. You are not animals. Just because our domain is held in time does not mean we need to stagnate. We will make our civilization new. We will make it stronger, better than anything before it, and we will continue to change, to progress toward a brighter future. For we shall raise every generation to be better than the last, and our children, and their children, and their children, will look upon our flag, they will look back at what we built, and they will feel an unwavering pride in the lands of Therian!”
The growls and neighs and snarls and caws and howls and barks and croaks transcended the unrestrained, maniacal passion that followed Mastodon's words. Now the calls of the wild merged and the fists of the soldiers and servants raised in the air with the strength of one people.
As the cheering continued, Tila stepped up and placed her hand on Zana's shoulder.
“I believe you just performed a rather successful coup, my liege. Congratulations.”
Zana peered out over her armies and said, “I'm not done yet.” Then turned to Tila and said, “We're not
done yet.”
Tila smiled, grabbed her hand, and raised it into the air. “Three cheers for the Therian Kingdom! Three cheers for your Queen!”
Zana felt the voice of every soldier pound against her chest like the beating of her heart, as if their blood pumped through her veins. It was a feeling she would never forget, as long as Therian was her home, they were her people, and the lives of each one of them rested upon her shoulders, her throne, and her crown.
“Long live the Queen!”
34
ANDRE
Ash fell from the sky like feathery snow, gray and muddled. The sun was blotted out, covered by the smoke that poured from the Grand Citadel. It wavered in the air, wobbling back and forth ever so slightly, threatening to topple over.
Through the darkness, past the blood soaked soil and craterous ground, Andre saw Carmen lying next to Maksim, both motionless. In the opposite direction was the insane little boy, still yelling into the camera, threatening the world through their television screens.
Andre took a step toward Carmen, but stopped when he noticed Mickey topple over next to him. He crouched down and braced his friend, trying to give him the strength to remain standing.
“You okay?” he asked, seeing the dazed look in Mickey's eyes.
Mickey blinked a few times before focusing on Andre's face and mumbling, “Two years.”
The words didn't make sense at first, but Andre eventually put them together. “Is that... how long you stopped time?”
Mickey nodded, his head rolling back as if his neck didn't have the strength to hold it up anymore. Andre scooped one of his hands behind Mickey to support him.
“I'm sorry, buddy. I really am. I won't ask you to do that ever again, okay?”
Mickey nodded, then glanced past Andre at their surroundings. “What are you waiting for?”
Andre titled his head, confused by the question.
Mickey gazed directly into his eyes and said, “Go save her, you idiot.”
Andre smiled, slowly laid Mickey down on the ground, and then launched himself into a sprint across the beaten earth. With his super strong legs propelling him like coiled springs, he bounded across the expanse within seconds, dropping down next to Carmen in a slide.
The Super Power Saga (Book 3): Fear the Empire Page 22
