The Nycren

by Lola St. Vil

  He’s going to die; he’s going to die…

  “That’s not fair, he’s not supposed to use power balls,” I scream at Bex.

  “I said it was a bad decision to use power balls, I didn’t say it wasn’t allowed,” the Para replies in a matter of fact tone.

  “You bastard, he’s gonna kill Marcus,” I shout.

  “Yes, he is.”

  “The hell he is,” I swear as I take off running straight for the battlefield.

  “Human, come back!” Bex shouts at me.

  Rage calls after me to return, fearing I would get hurt being in the middle of the fight. But I don’t turn around. I head at top speed over to Marcus, who is now on the ground bleeding.

  Rage must have come after me because I hear the Paras shouting that an Akon is on the Field. That immediately puts every single Para in the kingdom on high alert. They all take off after Rage.

  Before I can get to Marcus, Wolf grabs his broken leg to inflect even more pain. But Marcus kicks him in the face with his good leg and sends Wolf back down on the ground.

  He administers blow after blow to Wolf’s midsection. And by the time I get to them, Marcus has nearly beaten Wolf to death.

  However Wolf is no longer the only problem. There is an army of Paras in the air and sending power balls down on Rage. From the corner of my eye, I spot Ameana taking to the air and heading for Rage. He shouts for her to go back to the sidelines but refuses.

  She calls for the Paras to stop attacking Rage but while she is their queen, there is no way they are going to allow an Akon to invade their kingdom. So, despite Ameana’s warnings, they continue to throw power balls at the demon.

  Meanwhile Wolf, on the edge of death, is furious. So much so, he hurls a power ball at me. Marcus yanks me out of the way just in time; the power ball flies by me. It then heads straight for Rage. Ameana flies down just in time to block it.

  Rage, terrified to lose her, launches a fireball in hopes it will divert the power ball away from Ameana. However, when the two powerful orbs collide, they cause a giant explosion. Everyone goes catapulting helplessly into the air. When we fall back down to the ground, I look over and thankfully Ameana is not touching Rage. She landed safely a few feet away.

  I land between Marcus and Wolf. I turn to Marcus and he looks horrified. I then turn to Wolf and he shows the very same expression. I follow their gaze, confused. On the ground near us are Ameana and Rage.

  While both of them are hurt slightly, they are both responsive.

  So why is everyone looking so stricken?

  Something tells me to look closer. So I lean in to see what it is I’m missing.

  Ameana and Rage have landed a few feet away and aren’t touching at all; apart from a lock of her hair, that rests in between Rage’s fingers.

  Oh no…

  Rage looks into my eyes and reads the dread behind them. He slowly turns his head towards Ameana. That’s when he sees the lock of hair that fell in between his fingers. He jumps up quickly as if pushing the hair off of him will take away the fact that they touched; it doesn’t. The markings start to disappear.

  “No! It’s just a lock of hair that is touching me,” he shouts in protest.

  Ameana smiles sadly at him. She calls for him to take her hand but he doesn’t want to touch her for fear of the contract. She whispers that it doesn’t matter anymore. She’s right. The markings are fading quicker now.

  “No, please Omnis, please, don’t take them,” Rage begs.

  I place my hand over my mouth and feel warm tears racing down my face. Jay and Miku are near us, frozen in sorrow. Rage goes up to Wolf, whose lying on the ground, looking over at Ameana with regret.

  “You better cancel the contract or I’ll fucking kill you!!!” Rage roars.

  “It can’t be undone,” Wolf says sounding more like a wounded little boy than a Kon.

  Rage races back to Ameana and tells her to hold on.

  “Thomas, it’s okay; it’s done,” she says.

  “No, it’s not. It’s not. Just stay with me. Aaden, stay with me please. Please,” he pleads.

  It is no use; the markings fade away. Aaden is gone.

  “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Rage shouts as he cradles Ameana in his arms.

  “I need you to remember something,” she says as tears fill her eyes.

  “Don’t go, baby. Don’t go.”

  “Thomas remember: you were loved…”

  Her eyes look up towards the sky. Rage calls out to her, she does not answer.

  The second in command is dead; Rage’s family is gone.

  Distraught and grief stricken, he rocks her limp body in his arms. Enraged, Marcus stands over Wolf. He looks up at Marcus with sadness and grief.

  “I just wanted her to love me,” Wolf confesses.

  Marcus looks down at the Kon, and without hesitation, crushes his skull with his bare hands. Like the Second Guardian and Aaden, the Kon is no more.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN:

  THE FAVOR

  Six Paras tried to get him to let go of Ameana’s body but he wouldn’t. He threatened to kill every one of them. I’m the only person he allowed to touch Ameana. He let me take her into my arms and give her over to the Paras, then he flew away.

  That was two days ago. We have not seen him since. We have looked for him but there are dark places demons go that Angels don’t know about. And the fact is Rage will not be found until he wants to be.

  The team is broken. Yes, we’ve lost Angels before but this time it’s different. The truth is none of us ever thought Ameana would die. She was strong, skilled and feared nothing.

  So the fact that she is dead is something we just can’t comprehend.

  Then there’s the matter of Aaden. We had all come to love him although we had never met him. He was strong like his mother, powerful like his father and he hung on to life no matter what. The little Sib had become important to us, we didn’t know how much until now.

  The Paras had a Passing for Wolf. The team did not attend. We stayed by Marcus’s side as the Healers worked hard to heal all his wounds. We wanted to be with Rage but again we had no idea where he was.

  In the forty-eight hours since Ameana and Aaden’s passing, the team hasn’t really spoken much. Jay has been profoundly affected by Ameana’s death. He takes off for hours at a time driving at speeds that would kill him had he been human. Miku is inconsolable once again. She stays in her room and refuses to let anyone in, even Jay.

  Marcus is in hell. There’s no other way to describe it. The grief etched on his face is only matched by his intense anger. I’m not sure if he’s angry with himself or with Omnis.

  Either way, it’s eating away at him every moment of every day.

  And as for me, I miss her. It surprises me because she never really liked me. But the reality is she was a hero of mine. I didn’t realize it until the moment she closed her eyes.

  She always did what she wanted and didn’t give a damn what the team thought or what the Angel world would say. She loved Rage and she stood by that love. Not all of us can gather that kind of courage.

  It’s not fair that they should meet an end this cruel. And Aaden was so special. How canhe die before he’s even had a chance to live? How does this happen? They fought so hardto be together. And unlike Marcus and me, they actually got it right. How can they end uplike this?

  I’ve been asking myself these questions for days and have come up with no answer. I look at the team and I know they are dealing with similar feelings.

  It’s the third day and Marcus is almost ready to leave the Healing center at Roki. The Healers have done an amazing job of repairing his body. But the job of repairing his spirit has yet to begin.

  We now gather at Marcus’s side. He scolds us for worrying about him and not working on finding Rage. We are in the middle of explaining how hard the search for Rage has been when Bex appears in the doorway.

  “Kon, you have a visitor,” Bex says.

  It’s still strange t
o hear Marcus being called a Kon. But it seems that when you kill a Kon in battle, you then take his place. Marcus has no intention of keeping the title but until he appoints someone, he is the new Kon.

  “Who is it?” Marcus asks.

  Bex moves aside and standing behind him is the First Akon. I run and hug him tightly, he returns my embrace; Miku embraces him too. He’s thrown but he returns her affection.

  Jay tells Rage he’s happy to see him and the two hug quickly. Rage is overwhelmed and doesn’t know how to take in the flood of support and concern we are showing him.

  He clears his throat and we back off to give him some space. It’s amazing what a difference forty-eight hours can make. Rage looks pale and exhausted.

  “We looked for you,” Marcus says from his bed.

  Had he been able to move, he would have greeted Rage but the mixture on his legs made walking impossible.

  “I know,” Rage replies.

  His voice is strained. Every word he says is soaked with sadness. He’s in so much pain, I don’t know if he will ever be the same.

  “We’re so sorry about Ameana. We loved her too,” Marcus assures him.

  “Yeah, I know; listen, when is the funeral?” Rage asks.

  “I wouldn’t let them have it until we could all be there,” Marcus replies.

  “Okay, well I’m here now. So, as soon as your leg is better, we need to have the Passing. And after that, I’m gonna take off.”

  “After the funeral, you’re gonna leave?” I ask.

  “Yeah.”

  “No Rage, don’t do this. You’re part of the team. You can’t leave,” Miku tells him.

  “The only reason I was even part of this ‘save the world’ thing was because of her. She was my world so I wanted to look out for her. But now she’s…”

  We all note his refusal to speak Ameana’s name. It’s like saying her name out loud will somehow kill her again.

  “Yo in the beginning, you came for her. And we let you in because of her. But it’s not like that now, man. You’re one of us,” Jay says.

  “No, I’m a demon; and I need to stop pretending.”

  “Rage, we love you. We want to be here for you,” Miku says taking his hand.

  “STOP THIS! STOP TRYING TO HELP ME. I KILLED MY FAMILY!” Rage shouts.

  “This wasn’t your fault,” I reply.

  “The hell it wasn’t. She signed a contract with Wolf because she knew her screwed up fiancé couldn’t control his temper and that the Review would go badly. And now not only is she gone, but so is our son.”

  “There was nothing you could have done to save Aaden once the contract started taking effect,” Marcus replies.

  “Yeah and what about now? Yes Ameana is gone and I will never be able to tell you how much that shit hurts. But if I was an Angel, Aaden would be able to latch on to my soul and live,” Rage reasons.

  “Having a Sib latch on to a male Angel is rare. Even if you did have a soul, there is no guarantee that Aaden would live,” Miku says.

  “All I know is that if I was an Angel, then my son could try and hold on to my soul but I’m no Angel. I’m a fucking demon who had no right to expect happiness. I didn’t deserve it; I didn’t deserve them.”

  “Rage don’t--” I plead.

  “—Emmy, as soon as Marcus gets better and we have the funeral, I’m gone.”

  It’s three days later and Rage has not changed his mind about leaving. Everyone in the team has tried to convince him otherwise but it does no good. He waits anxiously for Marcus’s leg to get better so the Passing can take place. Once the Passing is over my friend will disappear for good.

  I walk into Marcus’s room and find him looking out the window at Rage. The Paras have been keeping an eye on Rage to make sure he doesn’t attack them. However since Rage just sits on the edge of the mountain with his head and wings lowered for hours on end, the Paras know they have nothing to worry about. In fact, I think a few of them are starting to feel sorry for him.

  “Hey,” I say as I enter.

  “He just sits there looking out like he’s waiting for her to come back,” Marcus says.

  “He’s not ready to accept that she’s gone. We are never ready, no matter how many times we do this,” I reply.

  “If I had killed Wolf faster…”

  “Marcus, please don’t do that. If I didn’t run out to the field. If Rage didn’t strike the power ball…there’s more than enough blame to go around,” I remind him.

  “I can’t believe she’s really…and Aaden…Emmy, he could have been a really powerful Angel.”

  “I know. I keep seeing her face in my head. She’s glowing and happy. She had changed so much since the first mission. When she found Rage and Aaden, she found peace. And just like that…”

  “How’s Miku and Jay doing?” Marcus asks me.

  “Jay’s trying to be there for Miku but given that Ameana was her best friend…”

  “I saw Jay in the garden this morning…he never really got along with Ameana but he respected her. And I think he admired just how powerful she was. He doesn’t know how to deal with this loss. He nearly drove himself into a wall according to one of the Paras.”

  “What about you? I thought your leg was supposed to be better by now,” I reply.

  “Actually my leg is fine. I thought I’d use my injury to stall for a few days. That way I could get Rage to change his mind but so far, no luck.”

  My cell vibrates and I look at the phone. I then quickly send the call to voicemail. Marcus asks me who called and I tell him it’s Alex.

  “Oh, how is he?” Marcus wonders.

  “He’s fine but the news of Ameana’s death is all over the Splash and he’s checking up on me.”

  “How are you guys?” he says avoiding eye contact.

  “Okay, I guess. There’s just so much going on.”

  “Speaking of which, I’m sorry about the night I spent with Ameana.”

  “I’m sorry I said I would leave the team. I was just…sorry,” I reply.

  “Well I didn’t exactly make it easy for you to stay so I get why you wanted to leave. But I’m glad you didn’t.”

  “Marcus, I’ve been thinking about Ameana and Rage a lot lately. And I keep coming back to one question. It’s a selfish one, I admit but it’s really been puzzling me.”

  “What is it?” Marcus encourages.

  “How can an Angel and a demon make it work but we couldn’t?”

  Rage will no longer allow us to even bring up the subject of him leaving. He says nothing will change his mind so why talk about it. In the meantime, Jay has managed to get Miku out of her room but only for short periods.

  Another two days goes by and Rage is unyielding about leaving us. Jay’s driving becomes so reckless that Marcus forbids him to get behind the wheel until he can control his need for adrenaline.

  Alex has been texting me but I haven’t really gotten back to him. We just started seeing each other and I don’t mean to ignore him but I don’t feel like being social right now. In fact, in a perfect world, I would be curled up in my room reading while my mom orders us pizza. Then later the team would look in on me. The whole team; Reese, Rio, and Ameana included.

  But this isn’t a perfect world and half of the Guardian team is gone…

  Anytime someone dies, it brings back the memory of my mom. I try hard to keep those thoughts at bay. Even now they are still too painful.

  “So you’re not dead?” someone says.

  I turn towards the voice and find Alex getting off the Auto Port. He heads straight for me.

  “Hi, what are you doing here?” I ask as I kiss him on the cheek.

  “You aren’t returning my calls so…I thought I’d come see how you are.”

  “Sorry, it’s been crazy. How did you know about this place?” I ask.

  “The Paras have to inform us whenever they build something on earth. You know, as a courtesy to us humans.”

  “I had no idea,” I admit. />
  “I’m sorry about your friend,” Alex says gently.

  “Thanks.”

  “How are you? Any more headaches?” he asks.

  “What’s a migraine compared to all of this going on around us?”

  “Emmy, your health matters; it matters to me.”

  “I know and thank you. I had one or two since I’ve been in Roki. Other than that I’m okay.”

  “Do you want to talk about Ameana? I’m willing to listen,” he offers.

  “You know what I want, I want to hear about ordinary things. I want to hear about the movie that just came out. Tell me about a new band you’re in love with or the new hot girl plastered across the web.”

  “These are the things you want to talk about?” he asks in disbelief.

  “Yes, I’ve had enough excitement for a thousand lifetimes. So tell me something… boring and commonplace. As long as it’s a happy thing,” I warn him.

  “Um…okay. This may be boring when compared to everything going on in your life. Actually it may even be kind of lame. I don’t know,” he says bashfully.

  I study him with growing interest.

  “Alex, what is it?”

  “Um, it’s kind of…its very human news and you may yawn but I’ll tell you anyway. I just got my early acceptance letter. I’m going to Harvard.”

  “What? That’s great!” I smile broadly and hug him.

  He shrugs his shoulders, as if it’s nothing. But at the party we went to he spent all night talking about colleges he wanted to go to. Harvard was at the top of his list. He thought I was bored but it was nice to talk about something non-mission related.

  “I am so proud of you,” I tell him.

  “I was kind of hoping we could celebrate but I know this is a bad time. But then again, when is there ever a good time with the Guardians?” he quips.

  “Really, you’re gonna pick on them now?” I ask.

  “I’m not picking on them. I’m just saying it’s always something with this team. There’s always danger and I want you to be out of harm’s way.”