Night Terror & Fialux (Book 5): I'm Not A Villain!

by Archer, Mia

  “At the end of that movie they tossed Godzilla into a giant volcano to trap him forever,” she said. “Of course it’s not like it lasted all that long. Like all great screen villains he’s only dead for as long as it takes the box office receipts to come in and show the last movie was a hit, but whatever.”

  “So you rigged your entire volcano lair to go up in a spectacular explosion if you ever saw a giant monster in there?” I asked.

  “Correction. I rigged it to explode at a moment of my choosing. Which was the moment that hive mind queen bitch finally decided to invade my lair,” she said.

  I had to admit the results were impressive in a morbidly disgusting sort of way. Like we’re talking this wasn’t the kind of fate I’d ever wish on my worst enemy, but it was happening to the alien hive mind and it seemed somehow appropriate considering everything she’d done to this world.

  The thing thrashed around in the lava. Bits of worms were blown to kingdom come by more pyroclastic flows. Great exploding bits of lava climbed for the skies and even managed to reach as high as us, and then a moment later the lava was reaching higher.

  “What exactly did you do to rig this thing to blow?” I asked.

  “High explosives in opportune locations,” she said. “The usual stuff. You know.”

  Actually I didn’t know. I wasn’t the kind of person who was in the habit of spending my time in volcano lairs or rigging them to explode in a last ditch effort to destroy my enemies. I’d never needed to do something like that with my invulnerable hide and everything, but I could appreciate Sabine’s hustle.

  Even if she’d put the whole thing together by keeping me in the dark.

  “So at what point were you planning on telling me about your plans?” I asked.

  “At no point,” Sabine said matter of factly. “I thought I’d already made that pretty clear. In order to lure the queen out here she had to believe we were truly on the run. I didn’t want to rely on you acting scared. I wasn’t sure what kind of acting chops you had.”

  I straightened myself just a little. Here she was insulting my acting ability? Well I’d show her.

  “I’ll have you know that I once played background vocals in my high school’s production of Highlights From Hamlet,” I said.

  Sabine rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Like I was saying. I couldn’t be sure of your acting ability so I worked with what I had. It’s not like you’re the first actress who had a little bit of enforced method acting thrust upon her.”

  “Yeah, well those actresses couldn’t punch their directors into orbit,” I said.

  “Why Fialux!” Sabine said, her eyes twinkling. “That almost sounded villainous! I’m proud of you!”

  “So you’re done trying to pretend you’re anything but a villain?” I asked.

  “I am what I am,” she said. “A girl stranded on a strange world that’s already in the middle of a post-apocalypse, and I’m doing whatever I need to do to survive.”

  “Whatever,” I said. “Now that we’ve killed off the worms down below can we please get on with interrupting the signal and saving the day?”

  “As much as I hate to do anything that involves saving the day, that is the next part of my plan,” Sabine said.

  Though she seemed to be far more interested in watching what was going on down below. She licked her lips as she stared at the giant worm kaiju taking a lava bath. Though it was difficult to see much of anything down there in that hellstorm what with all the rock dust being spewed into the atmosphere.

  “You know she’s probably still down there, right?” Sabine said.

  “No, I don’t know,” I said. “And I can’t say I care for this sudden knowledge drop.”

  “Oh yeah. The actual queen, as far as I can tell, is a real thing. Like we’re talking the worm collective is a First Contact kind of collective with an actual physical queen hanging out somewhere calling the shots. Not a Best of Both Worlds sort of collective where it’s a bunch of minds joined into a hive mind.”

  I hit her with a blank stare that I sincerely hoped communicated just how little I understood the words that were coming out of her mouth. She made a disgusted noise and waved a dismissive hand.

  “It’s a Star Trek thing,” she said. “You’d understand if you actually bothered to watch good TV sometimes.”

  “Hey,” I said. “I do watch the classics. Dawson’s Creek reruns were one of my favorite things growing up.”

  If anything the look of disgust only got more pronounced, but I decided to ignore it. If there were people out there who didn’t care for Dawson’s Creek then I didn’t want to hear about it.

  “So what do we do now?” I asked. “Go down there and dig through the charred worms until we find the queen and off her?”

  Sabine hit me with another one of those smiles that I didn’t particularly care for.

  “You keep saying these things that sound more and more villainous,” she said.

  I shrugged. “It’s like you said. This world is living in a post-apocalypse, and that means we’re the plucky resistance trying to take out the real bad guys by any means necessary. Not villains.”

  “So you do know a little bit about your hero’s journey!” she said.

  “I was an English major,” I said. “I know everything about everything when it comes to stories. Now let’s get down there and take care of this once and for all.”

  “We’re not going down there,” Sabine said.

  “We aren’t?”

  “Nah. I don’t have your invulnerable hide and I’m not in a mood to go down into an actively erupting volcano. We’re heading into the city to activate the second most powerful transmitter these blue idiots have. Though recent events have promoted it to the most powerful transmitter in the city.”

  “Right,” I said. “Then let’s do this. The sooner we take care of business the sooner we can get off this purple hunk of dust.”

  “I couldn’t agree with you more,” Sabine replied, that evil glint back in her eye.

  31

  Fight Back

  “Please stop. You are about to make a horrible mistake!”

  The collective cry came from every alien in the city. I looked down and could see blue faces staring up, though I couldn’t see the expressions on their faces.

  Not that I needed to see the expressions on their faces. No, the poor bastards were probably staring up blankly.

  “What’s her angle?” I asked.

  “She’s run out of weapons in her locker,” Sabine said. “And she’s trying for a hail Mary. She’s going to do everything she can to talk us out of doing what we’re about to do.”

  I let out a low growl. I was actually surprised at the sort of bloodlusty feeling coursing through me. I hadn’t felt this way since… well, ever, if I’m being perfectly honest.

  I’d never been the kind of person who was out for blood. There was something about growing up knowing that I was stronger, faster, than all the other kids that made me hyper aware of the damage I could do. I’d resolved from a young age that I was going to use my power for good, even back when those powers mostly involved not getting hurt when bad things happened to me that would’ve killed other kids.

  “I’m done listening to her,” I said. “The last time she tried to convince me not to do something it was from the business end of a giant irradiated monster she tried to use to devour me. Before that she was throwing poor bastards off of buildings. No mercy for her.”

  “That’s the spirit!” Sabine said. “We’re finally going to stick it to this bitch, and we’re going to give it to her good!”

  I paused. Not for the first time I thought about how there was something mildly unsettling about the way she phrased her desire to take out the monsters running this world. Not for the first time I also thought about how I was going to have to play along.

  Though more and more there was a part of me that enjoyed playing along. That should’ve bothered me, but it didn’t. The fact that it didn’t bother me sh
ould’ve bothered me.

  But it didn’t.

  After all, she was my ticket off this world. Not to mention she was doing the right thing, even if she was doing the right thing in mildly villainous terms.

  I figured villainy in defense of what was right was no vice. That sounded like something I’d hear in a history class and it still had me mildly unsettled, but the pure anger I felt towards this crazy alien hive bitch that had taken over this world was enough to make me not waste too much time worrying about it.

  Then even more weirdness started. It looked like the crazy alien bitch couldn’t stop us with reasoning or with her giant monster routine, so she was going to threaten us by going back to her malicious bag of tricks.

  I saw movement all around the city. Up on the roofs. Blue aliens standing at the edge of those buildings on the verge of throwing themselves off.

  “Shit,” I hissed. “She’s going to kill everything in this city.”

  “No she isn’t,” Sabine said. “Look. I’ve asked you to take an awful lot on trust since this whole thing started, and I’m going to have to ask you to take at least one more on trust. Do you think you can do that?”

  “Do I have a choice?” I asked.

  “Not really,” she said, sounding grim. “But I figured I’d at least give you the choice.”

  “Thanks for that, I think,” I said.

  She turned and looked out over the city.

  “Well?” she shouted. “Do it! Jump off those buildings!”

  I wanted to cry out. Those aliens would do it. I’d seen the hive mind kill people before, only nothing happened.

  “I don’t understand,” I said.

  “I don’t care how resilient you are, there’s no way the queen survived that blast out at the volcano,” she said. “What we’re seeing out there is the remains of the hive mind trying to recover from the queen’s death and resorting to a greatest hits collection.”

  “Seriously?” I asked. “That seems, odd.”

  “The worms are still there,” Sabine said with a shrug. “Looks like they’re going on autopilot more than anything until a new queen is grown, or however the fuck they do it. We’re not giving them the chance to do that though. Not while it looks like the connection is too weak for them to actually push the aliens around. This is the best time to strike and disrupt the connection for good.”

  “Are you sure about that?” I asked.

  “No,” she said. “But they’re not jumping.”

  She had a point. The city was filled with an eerie silence as we flew for the second tallest building in the city featuring the second tallest transmitter in the city. And in the time it took us to get there none of the aliens jumped.

  I floated around the edge of the thing in a circle looking for any signs of another giant worm monster that might be taking a shot at us, but nothing appeared. Blowing that volcano must’ve really done her in.

  “I think our enemy might’ve blown her load with that last giant monster,” I said.

  “That’s surprisingly vulgar, but I get your point,” Sabine said. “This should only take me a few more moments to get everything in order.”

  “Good,” I said. “Because I can’t shake the feeling that something’s about to go down, and I’m getting sick of having defeat clutched from the jaws of victory on this planet.”

  “You think you’re having a bad time of it? Imagine having stuff like this happening for years. This is the closest I’ve ever gotten to conquering this motherfucker.”

  Conquering. There was a very specific connotation to that word. She wasn’t trying to liberate this world. She was trying to conquer it. That made me wonder why she would be trying to conquer it, and how she even thought that defeating the alien worms would result in conquest.

  “You don’t know what you are doing,” the people sang out in unison. It was creepy, but so far no more of them were throwing themselves off of buildings or anything so I figured that was a good sign.

  “You had your chance!” I shouted down into the city.

  I didn’t even know if we were close enough to any of the blue aliens that hive mind could hear what we were saying. I liked to think the collective could hear me shouting ultimatums as they enjoyed their last moments of being truly in control on this world.

  It would serve the worms right considering everything they’d done to these poor people.

  I looked up for the first time. And froze in place.

  “Um. Sabine?” I asked. “How much longer do you have on getting that thing to do whatever the heck you’re trying to get it to do?”

  “Maybe five more minutes,” she said. “Why?”

  “Because we’re about to have company,” I replied.

  Sabine didn’t even look up from whatever it was she was doing. She kept right on hitting buttons and prepping her transmitter for conquest, or whatever the heck it was she was doing.

  “Y’know I really hate it when people say stuff like that,” she said. “Here I am doing important work and the best you can come up with is telling me we have trouble coming in? Would it really take that much longer for you to just tell me what the big danger is?”

  I glared down at her. There were times when she could be a real pain in the ass. Like pretty much whenever she was drawing breath, now that I thought about it. Still, she also had a point. I could’ve been more descriptive.

  “We have the entire alien military coming in to pay us a visit,” I said. “And it looks like they’re ready to lay the smack down.”

  Sabine let out a string of curses. She did turn around at least, and if anything her string of curses got more colorful and interesting when she got a good look at the fleet of alien flying saucers moving in for the kill.

  “I guess this means Korval and his buddies didn’t complete their mission,” she said.

  “Can you blame him?” I asked. “The whole point of the plan was to lure the military away so they could use the disrupter on their people at the main base. If that base was still full of aliens when they attacked they didn’t have a chance.”

  “I guess not,” Sabine said. “It’s not like I could’ve known she was going to go full kaiju on us with all those creepy worms.”

  “You couldn’t have known, sure,” I said. “But I think you suspected and used them as a distraction.”

  I said the last bit quieter than the rest. It was all starting to fall into place in my mind now. The way she’d manipulated me. The way she’d manipulated Korval and all the people on that ship who were just trying to save their world.

  She’d manipulated all of us. She’d been playing the situation to squeeze whatever advantage she could whenever and wherever she could. And if that meant sending a bunch of aliens to their certain death?

  Well clearly that wasn’t a big deal for her. I was starting to think that the only reason I hadn’t been sacrificed yet was because it was very difficult to actually kill me.

  “So what if I did?” she said with a shrug. “That means I’m alive to fight another day, and it looks like it got us here where we can finally do something to fight this crazy bitch.”

  “I don’t think I like the way you do things Sabine,” I said.

  It was a weird thought. Clearly it was too late for second thoughts. There was just something about the crass reality of watching her throw Korval and his crew under the bus that rubbed me the wrong way.

  “Look,” she said. “Those people worked for the military on this world. They knew when they signed up that there was a chance something bad might happen and they’d die defending their world, right?”

  “I guess?” I said.

  “Well then you shouldn’t feel too bad about them actually going out there and dying to save their world,” she said. “Not when their defeat was something that already happened decades ago. At least they got a second chance to have a glorious death. They seem to be all about that on this world. At least they were before they got their asses handed to them by a bunch of parasites.”


  I hated how logical everything she said sounded. I didn’t like that sending a bunch of people I’d liked to their deaths was something that felt so logical. I didn’t like that I was agreeing with sacrificing people I’d liked because there was something to the idea of them dying for their world.

  I sighed.

  “What do you need me to do?” I said.

  Sabine grinned, and I didn’t like it. I resolved in that moment that if we ever got back to earth I was going to watch her like a hawk. I was going to do everything in my super powered ability to keep her from pulling some of the crap she’d pulled on this world.

  Even if it meant going through Natalie. Which was another complication I didn’t want to think about. Even though I had a pretty good idea it was a complication that was going to bite me in the butt as soon as we got back to earth.

  What would happen when her current girlfriend showed up with an ex-girlfriend she didn’t even remember?

  “Could you do something about the giant monster I’m pretty sure is about to climb up this building?” Sabine asked, glancing down. “The building is vibrating under me, and I’d rather not have one of those things pulling another King Kong on me.”

  I looked around in a panic. There was a part of me that figured she was having a little fun with me, but sure enough when I looked down there was a giant irradiated monster staring up at me. The thing looked really pissed off.

  The only problem was it wasn’t nearly as large as any of the other monsters we’d gone up against. Clearly the hive mind was scraping the bottom of the barrel and picking up some giant irradiated monsters that still had some growing to do before they reached their full size.

  “Another one?” I said with a frustrated growl. “This is getting really irritating.”

  “Better fighting one of those things than fighting those flying saucers that are coming for us,” Sabine said. “I know how weird you get about doing what needs to be done.”

  Crap. The flying saucers. I’d been so busy worrying about what Sabine was up to casually sending all those people to their certain doom that I’d completely forgotten about the military closing in.