Until We Break

by Scott Kinkade

  Maya clenched her fists. Fine. We’ll fight them off and protect President Lambda.

  Your resolve is admirable, Maya. But you’ll need much more than that to secure peace.

  And with that, she was gone.

  She got up to warn Lambda, but Exodus Squad wouldn’t let her in to his private room. She explained that enemies were coming in, and they needed to make sure he stayed in there. One of them—apparently the leader—said, “Understood. A1 through A4, fan out and watch the exits and windows. The rest of us will stay with the President.”

  Maya went to the windows and looked out. She couldn’t see anything other than the occasional cloud and the plane’s fighter escorts.

  Suddenly, though, a dark figure flew up from behind and landed on the canopy of one of the jets. He looked like a Zero Grade croney—complete with three-piece suit—but Athena had said this mysterious group wasn’t affiliated with them.

  The suit smashed through to the cockpit and yanked out the pilot before tossing him to the great abyss below. Another suit did the same to the jet on their other wing. Both aircraft fell out of the sky.

  The assailants then flew over to Vinguard 1 and hovered just outside the door. Maya had a pretty good idea of what they intended.

  The Exodus Squads engaged something on the bottom of their metal shoes, and there was an electrical noise. “What’s that?” she asked.

  “Magnetic clamps,” they explained. “It’ll keep us from flying out in case—”

  The door was suddenly ripped off, resulting in explosive decompression. A deafening roar drowned out all other noises as everything that wasn’t nailed down was expelled. Lacking the magnetic clamps of Exodus Squad, Maya was instantly hurled out of the aircraft. She found herself in freefall, flailing her limbs because her panicked mind couldn’t remember how to fly.

  She forced herself to calm down and took several breaths. The secret to flying came back to her, and she propelled herself up towards the plane.

  Seeing several enemies on the roof, that’s where she went. Exodus Squad could handle things inside the plane, she hoped. She landed several yards away from the hostiles who had come to destroy any chance for peace. Summoning her bow, she quickly took aim and fired off several arrows.

  But the fierce winds and speed of Vinguard 1 made aiming nearly impossible. The arrows flew ridiculously wide of their targets, and the suits laughed at her. She abruptly realized just how in over her head she was, and how badly Bethos had miscalculated here.

  * * *

  He had no idea how long he had been adrift in darkness. It must have been an eternity. He couldn’t even remember what it had been like before. He felt as if he had forgotten important things, but maybe it was better that way. For some reason, it felt like these things should remain forgotten.

  But he abruptly became aware of a strange sensation, like an alarm going off. He didn’t know how, but he knew someone, somewhere, needed his help. Who was this person? He—no, she—was very important to him; he was certain of that. But what was her name? CiCi? No, that wasn’t it. Freya? Try again. M—M…Maya! That was it! Maya! How could he have forgotten about her? She was the most precious thing in the world to him, and she was in trouble. He couldn’t sit around in this dark void while the light of his world was extinguished.

  He began thrashing about in the darkness, willing his body to get the hell out of there. Your light is waiting for you! Get out there and save her!

  * * *

  The two suits attacked Maya together. Using her bow as a club, she bashed the first one upside the head, and he staggered for a moment. But the other one delivered a swift kick to her stomach and she lost her footing. She went rolling across the roof of the plane towards the aft section.

  She utilized her god strength and dug her hands deep into the fuselage. Then, once she had gotten her equilibrium back, she stood up and aimed her bow at the nearest enemy. She switched to her manual arrows and let one fly. It, too, went wide, but she was able to readjust its trajectory and flew it into the suit.

  Unfortunately, she still couldn’t fully control it under these conditions, and it only got him in the shoulder. His mouth opened in surprise before he ripped it free and gave her a murderous look.

  Both enemies advanced on her. She didn’t have time to direct another manual arrow at them, so she switched to her freeze arrows and shot them at their feet. A surface of ice immediately rose up, freezing them in place. They struggled, but it was futile; she had designed those arrows herself with pride, and trash like them could never break free from it.

  She considered switching to her acid arrows next, but decided against it; they might damage the plane, and they were unnecessary, anyway. She simply walked up to them and kicked their frozen feet, resulting in them being smashed free from their bodies. The suits cried out as they went flying past her, but she could hear nothing save the roar of the wind.

  She breathed a sigh of relief, but was immediately tackled from behind. She dug into the plane, rolled onto her back, and saw several more scumbags in fancy business suits standing over her. One of them bent down and began throttling her. She tried to pry his hands from her throat, but he was stronger than the others she’d fought, and she wasn’t particularly skilled in hand-to-hand combat to begin with.

  His fingernails dug into her neck, and she suspected they might be poisoned, because she found her energy being drained at an alarming rate.

  After several agonizing moments of this, he hurled her away from the plane. Still stunned from the fight and the suspected poison, she didn’t have the wherewithal to fly. As she fell, she thought back to her chillingly accurate prediction that she could very well die today. She then thought of Ev, of the moments they shared, and of the moments they would never share. Sobs began building within her, and it seemed she was unable to stop the sadness from overtaking her.

  Before she plummeted to her death, she breathed one last prayer, this time directed to Ev in the hopes that it would reach him. Before I met you, my life was darkness. You were the light that saved. I know it’s selfish now, but please—save me again!

  She suddenly felt a tingling sensation, and her body began to glow. She then realized this was the power a goddess of love possessed. Without even thinking about it, she reached out into the vast distance that separated her from Ev.

  She knew. Somehow, she knew. She would reach him.

  * * *

  Deep in the darkness of his mind and his self-destroying thoughts, he saw a light. It grew in intensity and warmth until it completely enveloped him. At that moment, a wealth of knowledge unfirled inside him. Everything he had missed, all the battles of the war, suddenly became known to him.

  He understood now. A goddess of love could provide not just guidance, but knowledge. And Maya had done exactly that.

  Ev’s eyes burst open. All sorts of feelings threatened to overwhelm him, but there was no time. Maya needed him. Now.

  At speeds he didn’t even know he was capable of, he exited the infirmary in a flash and headed towards her.

  * * *

  Maya continued to fall, knowing full well she would die once she hit the ground. She hadn’t recovered from the poison or whatever that was, and she couldn’t summon the strength or concentration needed to fly.

  Suddenly, though, something caught her. Ev! It was Ev! She called out to him with elation, but couldn’t be heard over the cacophony which surrounded them.

  He flew back towards the plane, lending her his own god energy to heal. He was no doctor, but he knew enough to do that much. Her own healing ability had been inhibited by the poison

  * * *

  They returned to Vinguard 1’s interior to find Exodus Squad fighting with a dozen suits. Neither side seemed to have gained an advantage. And although she so badly wanted to catch up with Ev, they needed to do something about this.

  Maya, now healed enough to once again fight, couldn’t fire off any arrows in this confined space, so she once again began wielding
her bow like a club, cracking the head of a suit who had his back to her. He went down unceremoniously, and she moved on to the next one. She spared a glance at Ev, and saw him effortlessly dropping enemies. Even Exodus Squad seemed impressed by his prowess.

  Before long, they had turned the tide and the enemies were defeated. But had President Lambda survived? If he hadn’t, all their struggles would be for nothing. She tried asking the exo-suited soldiers, but even inside the plane it was just too loud. She tried pantomiming and pointing towards Lambda’s private room, and the soldiers shrugged; apparently they had been too busy fighting the Zero Grade splinter faction they hadn’t been able to check.

  Exodus Squad motioned for them to take their seats. Maya guessed the plane would be landing somewhere for repairs.

  She and Ev sat down next to one another. Ev took her hand in his, and looked at her lovingly. She seemed to be his whole world now. She smiled back at him. The feeling was, without a doubt, mutual.

  * * *

  The plane landed at a small airfield a few hundred miles from Dokiu. Maya felt relieved when Joe Lambda exited his private room, seemingly unharmed.

  He strode over to where she was seated. “I want to thank you, Miss Brünhart. Exodus Squad says you fought to protect us, along with… this young man. I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve been introduced.” He seemed slightly alarmed at Ev’s presence, and who could blame him? This mysterious stranger had shown around the same time as the attackers.

  Ev got up to shake his hand. “The name’s Ev. Ev Bannen. It’s an honor to meet you, Mr. President. I wasn’t quite old enough to vote for you in the last election, but I would have.” He was oddly cheerful.

  Lambda furrowed his brow. “I’m sorry, but that doesn’t quite answer my question. Who are you?”

  “Sorry,” Ev said. “I’m with the Academy. Maya’s a very good friend of mine, and… it’s hard to explain, but I knew she was in trouble. I flew over here as fast as I could.” That was an understatement; he had gotten to them in record time.

  Maya nodded. “It’s true. You can trust Ev; he’s one of us.”

  “Well, if Miss Brünhart vouches for you, that’s good enough for me,” Lambda said.

  Maya said, “Mr. President, I’m glad you’re unharmed, but how are you going to get to Dokiu now? The plane is wrecked.”

  Sighing, he replied, “I don’t know. A car won’t get us there in time.”

  The answer, though, was immediately given to them. Inside each of their heads, a voice addressed them. This is Athena of the Flawless Few. We will temporarily lift the ban on Academy aid within the Faust Kingdom. Maya Brünhart may fly Joe Lambda to the cathedral in Dokiu.

  Lambda shook his head as if to get the voice out of it. “That was… different.”

  “Was that the Athena?” Ev said.

  “Yeah,” Maya said. “She contacted me earlier to warn us about the attack. Apparently someone doesn’t want peace, and decided to keep the war going by killing President Lambda.”

  “That sucks,” Ev replied. He then added with no small amount of satisfaction, “For them, I mean.”

  Maya said to Lambda, “Mr. President, would you excuse us for a moment? Ev and I need to get caught up on a few things.”

  “Certainly.”

  After he left, Maya turned her attention back to Ev and hugged him. “I was worried I’d never see you again. Conscious, I mean. You don’t know how much it hurt to look at you lying in that bed like a vegetable.”

  “It wasn’t any fun for me being that vegetable. I can’t describe it… I was lost in darkness after Hades swallowed me up.”

  “Ev,” Maya said. She wasn’t sure if she should say what was on her mind. She had no idea how he would take it. Still, she decided to go ahead. “We went to Upton to save you. When we went into your house, we found…” She couldn’t finish that sentence; the words were too horrific to voice.

  He turned away from her. He balled his hands into fists which started to shake uncontrollably. “Are we really going through with this peace shit? How can you be OK with that?”

  “I’m so sorry for this, Ev. You can’t imagine how sorry I am. But if we don’t do this, a lot more people are going to die. I know you want to be the god of justice, so you must know there’s no justice in that.”

  They sat in silence for a minute before Ev said, “I can’t forgive them. I’ll never forgive them.” He was seething.

  She put a hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to forgive them. But please, don’t try to stop this. There’s been enough killing.”

  Silence followed. Finally, he said, “OK. I won’t interfere. But only because that’s what you want. If it were anyone else, I would tell them to go yur themselves. I’m holding back for you, Maya.”

  She kissed him. “Thank you, Ev.”

  Chapter XIII

  Dokiu lay some thousand miles east of Kornia and a little to the south. It was a circular city in the middle of a snowbound valley between two mountain ranges.

  Instead of having many smaller buildings like other nations, the Faust Kingdom built its cities using a handful of gigantic buildings carved out of ice. One building might be a housing complex home to thousands of people, while another might contain all the city’s offices, while still another would be home to emergency services such as police and the hospital.

  The city streets consisted of wide avenues which traversed Dokiu in circles and had to be constantly swept for snow which fell year-round. There was an entire office dedicated to maintaining the streets, and they worked all day, every day.

  On this day, the weather was unseasonably warm, being slightly above freezing, and the sky was, as usual, drab and completely cloudy. The sun seldom shown upon the Faust Kingdom.

  Maya landed Joe Lambda in front of the city’s only church, a massive frozen hamagogue which rose a hundred feet into the air, ending in a magnificent ice spire.

  The other delegations were already present. Martin Ernst, the blind chancellor of the Murnau Islands; Sylvia O’Donnel, red-haired president of the Tru Republic; Sean Jackman, headstrong prime minister of Chrichton; and numerous members of Zero Grade. No representative from the Faust Kingdom was present, because they were already completely loyal to the Lost Gods. They would agree with whatever Zero Grade decided.

  Zero Grade’s sole representative stepped forward. He had long, shaggy brown hair, a leather jacket which showed his hairy chest, and tiny sunglasses which hid his eyes. “My name is Set,” he said, declining to shake Lambda’s extended hand. He then turned his attention to Maya. “Ah, Miss Brünhart. It has been a while.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said, scrutinizing him intently. “Have we met before?”

  “It’s no surprise you don’t remember me. You were unconscious when I brought you aboard the Sancta Praesidium.”

  “You were the one who captured us!” Ev exclaimed with realization.

  Set examined him with disgust. “Ev Bannen. You have a lot of nerve showing your face here. But, on the other hand, I’m impressed; the true superman doesn’t bow to outside pressures like a sizeable bounty on his head. Be thankful the Flawless Few sent me to negotiate in their place. If one of them were here, they would filet you in an instant.”

  “I’m aware of their hatred,” Ev said. He struggled to suppress the growing rage inside him.

  Maya changed the topic of conversation by saying to Set, “But we saw the Sancta Praesidium get sucked into the giant maw created by the Ark of the Covenant. How did you survive?”

  “I wasn’t inside it. I left to pursue Arcturus Reich, who fled upon activating the Ark. Shortly after I lost sight of him, the Praesidium was destroyed.

  “But enough pleasantries. Let us go inside to begin the…discussions.”

  They entered the hamagogue and found themselves in a cavernous hall filled with hundred-foot-tall windows made out of stained glass. Each window depicted a different Lost God, but since (until recently) no one knew what any of them looked like, th
e faces were blank.

  They sat down at a large round table in a small area overlooking the pews below. Maya and Ev stood off to the side to observe.

  “Dammit, Ev!” Bethos, who had apparently been waiting inside, stormed up to Ev with a fire in his eyes. “What in the name of me are you doing here? You’re the last person I wanted attending this summit. Hell, even I’m taking a risk being here.”

  Ev explained, “For all we knew, this was a trap. I wasn’t about to let Maya walk into it alone.”

  Bethos ranted and yelled, but ultimately gave up. “Fine. Your presence doesn’t seem to have set them off… yet. If they say you can stay, you can stay. Just don’t do anything to disrupt the negotiations.”