“Walk faster,” the Masked Magician hit him with a gentle attack and pushed him forward. Q said nothing and followed Levi.
“You must be wondering where we’re going,” Levi said as they walked along.
“I don’t need you explaining things to me.”
“Don’t be like that, Q,” he sighed. “The best part of this job is explaining things to you and watching you slowly wash away in grief.”
Q tensed. What’s going on? he thought. What has he done?
Levi laughed. “If only you could look at your face right now,” he said. “Don’t worry, you’ll love where I’m taking you.” He paused in front of a door and entered a code into the pad on the side.
The door slid open and revealed a dark room. The Masked Magician shoved Q through.
“Have fun!” Levi laughed. “Your sanity hasn’t got much longer to live anyway,” he chuckled and shut the door, a wide smirk on his face.
And darkness ruled.
***
Taylor got but a short glimpse of light, but it was enough for her to see who was entering her cell.
Q, her breath caught in her throat. She didn't tear up, even though she thought she would. She was just too ecstatic to let even a happy tear spoil the moment.
She charged into Q just as the doors shut, half-tackling, half-hugging him as they dropped to the floor. They tumbled but she never let go. Her hands gripped him tight, never loosening their hold.
A sphere of white light emerged in the middle of the room, no doubt from Q’s Elementa of Light. Silver-grey eyes glanced at her. “Taylor?” Q said, surprised, jubilated, and confused all at once.
“You idiot,” she said and squeezed him tighter, her emotions returning to her.
“Yo, Q!” Kai stood right above them, a wide grin on his face. “I knew you weren’t dead!”
“Yeah right,” he chuckled.
“Move over, Taylor,” Chris walked up to them, and Taylor moved to the side a bit reluctantly. Chris placed her arm on Q’s wrist and a stream of energy flowed into him.
An energy scan, Taylor remembered. Advanced healers like Chris could use a part of their life energy as a sort of scanning device and make it explore all parts of a patient's body in order to find out what’s actually wrong with them.
“Perfectly fine,” Chris said, and moved away. “You seem a little exhausted though. What exactly happened to you?”
Q hesitated, and Taylor immediately knew something bad had happened.
“Yeah, what exactly was that anomaly?” Elizabeth yawned as she made her way to them.
She actually fell asleep? Taylor wondered.
“Umm,” Q said. “I’m pretty sure all of you already know what it is. You were all right.”
Elizabeth’s face changed. “The Masked Magician,” she mumbled, her voice trembling ever so slightly.
“He’s on this ship right now,” he said.
She froze. The fear grasping her tight.
Not the cleverest thing to say, Q, Taylor thought. Elizabeth had a twisted history with the Masked Magician. One that she was better off not recalling.
Q seemed to notice as well, and quickly changed topics. “How did you guys get here?” he asked. “Why are you here in the first place?”
“Carlos sent us out the moment we knew the Endeavor had exploded,” Kai said.
“Ah, so you came in the Orion.”
“And we got caught by this ship.”
Q turned to Taylor. “And how on earth did you survive that sort of a blast?”
Taylor opened her mouth and realized even she didn’t know the answer to that one. She turned to Kai. “How exactly did I survive the blast?”
“Ruby helped you,” he grinned. “Created a force field that protected you.”
“Ah Ruby,” Taylor smiled. And then her eyes widened. “Wait! RUBY?!”
“Yeah, you didn’t know?”
“When did she get on the Endeavor?”
“Wait, I thought you and Q took her with you.”
“No!”
“Oh so she snuck on board then,” Kai realized. “Wow. Talk about being lucky.”
“Umm...Kai?” Q asked. “Where exactly is Ruby right now?”
“She should be right around-” he froze.
“You have no clue do you?”
“Calm down,” Elizabeth said. “I saw her shrink her body just as the White Knights stormed into the Orion.”
“Oh good, so she’s still on board the Orion,” Q said.
Taylor smiled a bit. She found it a little annoying that griffins could change their size whenever they wanted, but she had to admit it was really useful at times as well.
The door to the room slid open, and Levi stood in the doorway. “My, my, getting chatty in here are we?” he smiled.
“What do you want?” Elizabeth asked.
“I hope you all had fun catching up,” he said. “Come along now.”
Everyone willingly made their way out of the room. Taylor looked as Levi stood there all alone in the corridor. It would take them just a moment to take him down. It would take her just a moment to take him down.
“Don’t even think about it,” Levi grinned. “The Masked Magician will be here even before you can flinch. The only reason I didn’t bring him along was because he and miss angel here don’t get along very well,” he glanced at Elizabeth.
“Just get going,” Q muttered.
“Fine, fine,” Levi said. “Gosh you’re impatient.”
He led them along the corridors and onto the main deck. This ship had a two layered deck just like the Orion, only the upper and lower decks were much more massive and evenly sized.
Several White Knights sat on the upper deck, working through the controls and stats.
Kai whistled. “This ship looks amazing,” he said. Everyone turned to him. “Sorry,” he said meekly.
A White Knight ran up to Levi. “Commander, it’s ready.”
“Ah,” he said. “Looks like we’re in time for the main event!”
What’s going on? Taylor thought.
A holographic image opened up on the bottom half of the viewscreen and displayed a startling image. A massive cannon extended out of the bottom of the ship. ‘Massive’, though, was an understatement. This cannon was nearly as long and wide as the ship itself, which was saying quite a bit. It was made of gleaming white metal, and had a purple lining around the cannon mouth.
“What is that thing?” Kai asked, his voice showing he was both curious and fearful at the same time.
“That,” Levi smiled. “Is my favorite thing in the world.”
The Masked Magician materialized right before them all. “Everything is going according to plan,” he nodded and Levi.
How in the world did he do that? Taylor wondered, all wide eyed. And she could tell with one glance that everyone else felt the same. Even she and Q couldn’t teleport that seamlessly, and they were sorcerers!
Taylor’s first thought was to wonder whether the Masked Magician was actually a sorcerer, but she didn’t feel any sort of high level power emanating from him. Maybe he was just very good at teleporting, which was also quite viable. Levi himself was great at mass teleporting people. That’s how he escaped from Q and her both times that he faced off against them.
Taylor saw Elizabeth keep her gaze fixed to the ground. She didn’t want to even glance at the Masked Magician. Taylor felt a bit sorry for her. She wondered what exactly was going through her mind right now.
Levi walked up to Elizabeth, “Don’t you want to say hello to your old boss?” he smiled.
“Leave her alone, you jerk!” Taylor yelled but Levi didn’t even glance her way.
“Let her be,” the Masked Magician said. “There are much more interesting things happening at the moment.”
“Fine,” he stood up and turned to one of the White Knights. “Do we have a lock on?” he asked.
“Ready in T-minus sixty seconds, Commander,” he said.
“Very good,” he said a
nd turned to them again. “Now let me introduce you to my best weapon. The Infinity Cannon!”
The name immediately tripped up a hundred warnings inside Taylor. The weapon sounded like it was nothing but bad news.
“Great, thanks for the introduction,” Q said sarcastically, and went back to staring at the ground.
“Now, now,” Levi said. “You haven’t let me finish yet. The Infinity Cannon is based on something that you are very familiar with,” he paused, looking at all of their faces. “The Lambda Driver.”
Taylor’s eyes widened in shock.
“Ah yes, Dr. Burke’s invention has been of great use to us,” Levi said.
Q clenched his teeth. “Just what did you do with it?” he asked, enraged.
“Oh nothing much,” Levi said playfully. “You’ll soon be able to see the effects.”
Just what has he made with the Lambda Driver? Taylor wondered.
The Lambda Driver was Burke’s greatest invention. It basically allowed a ship to instantly mass teleport between two points by creating something called a wormhole. Taylor had no idea how Levi could use its tech to create a weapon, but she wasn’t skeptical of the claim either.
“Power up the Infinity Cannon,” Levi said.
A loud hum rang through the ship, and the holographic screen showed the mouth of the cannon begin to glow with a red hot light.
“T-minus thirty seconds to full charge,” a Knight said.
Just what is he trying to do with this? Taylor wondered.
“You see,” Levi said. “When the Lambda Driver opens up a wormhole, it releases a massive amount of energy equal to that of a small star. Now what if you used that energy to fuel a weapon instead?”
Q’s eyes widened. “Stop kidding around,” he said, hesitation in his voice.
“Commander, Infinity Cannon at full charge,” the Knight said.
Levi smiled and gestured to another Knight. The second Knight worked on his controls and the ship slowly shifted towards the right.
“Let’s find out just how powerful this weapon is shall we?” Levi smiled. A small planet appeared in the ship’s viewscreen, its surface a hazy, smoking pink.
Zygrade, Taylor’s breath stopped short, her heart pumping like crazy. Her eyes immediately turned bloodshot, her mind putting together everything that Levi had said in the past five minutes. And in that one terrifying moment, she understood what Levi was doing.
“Fire the Infinity Cannon!” Levi yelled.
A tremendous quake hit the ship as the weapon fired. A massive ray of red shot right towards Zygrade, hitting the planet smack in the center.
Everything remained calm for a millisecond.
And then all hell broke loose.
The entire planet of Zygrade exploded in one god-like explosion. Massive chunks of planet shot out in all directions at blazing fast speeds. Powerful shockwaves spread out, shredding the remaining debris into small rocks and powdered dust.
Taylor stared at the scene before her in shock, horror, and a hundred other terrifying emotions. Her mind and body froze, unable to react to what had just happened.
The mystical planet of Zygrade had taken ten billion years to form.
And mere seconds to destroy.
***
2-1
Fear was an emotion that people always felt in the worst of times. Fear was an emotional that was universal to bad situations.
Kai though, didn’t feel an ounce of fear in him right now.
All he felt was pure, flaming rage. He felt a rage so strong he felt himself go crazy from it, a rage so strong that his emotions begin to warp within his mind. The life energy within him boiled as his anger hit the roof. Power exploded out of him, sending a wave of shock through everyone around, both friend and foe.
One moment the deck was static.
The next it crumbled to pieces.
Pieces of cut floor crashed into the ceiling. Parts of the wall crumbled into dust. Papers and computer screens flew through the air, ramming into Knights and walls alike.
“Kai, c’mon!” Elizabeth grabbed his wrist amidst it all and dragged him away.
Kai didn’t even turn to see where she was taking him. He just let himself be pulled away, his eyes still fixed on the destruction in the deck. Cut electric wires spewed flashing glows as the flow of raw electricity was stopped cold. The Knights scrambled around to avoid being hit by the flying chunks of the wreckage.
Kai finally turned around to see his friends running in front of him, through the corridors.
“Twenty yards ahead and then left,” a voice spoke in his mind
Ruby, he realized.
“Of course it’s me you idiot,” she said. “You know, you have to be really stupid to do what you just did you know?”
I’m sorry, he said dully.
“I mean that in a good way,” she said. “Although, that Masked Magician character is weird. He could have stopped you a millisecond after you started your attack. But he didn’t.”
Kai hadn’t noticed that until Ruby mentioned it. The Masked Magician had just stood there smiling at everything when he probably could have taken Kai out with one blow. The man had beaten Q himself, so it seemed highly likely he’d be able to take almost anyone else out, with the exception of the energy beings maybe.
“He let you do all this,” she said.
Kai remained silent.
“Now I’m not saying you’re weak or anything,” she said. “I’m saying just be careful about what actually happened. That man wanted all this destruction so he let you be.”
“We’re here!” Q said as they went through an open doorway.
How come there wasn’t a single White Knight in our path? Kai asked.
“The path to the hangar is a straight line from the deck,” she said. “I had to weave you into smaller corridors so that you wouldn’t meet any White Knights. I can sense each one’s presence with my mind.”
“C’mon, Kai, let’s go,” Elizabeth tugged on his hand and pulled him towards the Orion.
Why do I have to be dragged everywhere, Kai sighed.
“Because you really hate to run,” Ruby replied.
I wasn’t talking to you, he grumbled.
“I’m aware,” she chuckled.
The stairwell to the Orion lowered silently. Kai scurried up right behind everyone else. There were plenty of ships in the hangar, all of them much larger than the Orion. Though that sounded bad, it was actually pretty useful in hiding them from enemy eyes. Right now, two ships lay on either side of the Orion, and that was all the cover they needed.
The hatch door closed just as Kai entered the Orion’s deck. He felt the last pang of anger and rage vanish as he entered familiar territory.
Ruby appeared before them, in her regular size. We need to open the hangar doors, she said.
“Easy,” Kai mumbled and immediately logged onto the computer closest to him. He worked through the networks and found a path into the White Knight ship’s control code. A few button clicks later, a deep rumble hit the air, and the hangar door slid open.
Kai jumped towards the pilot’s chair on lower deck, “Heading out!” he yelled as he powered the Orion out of the hangar. He heard noise around him as White Knights began to head into the hangar, and he wasted no time piloting his spacecraft out the opening and into the deep depths of space. He took another few seconds to push the ship into Hyperspace, and put them far away from the White Knight ship.
So where should we go now, he wondered.
And then it finally struck him.
Zygrade was gone.
And for the first time since forever, they had nowhere left to go.
***
Q sat inside the bunker, on his familiar bed, his back facing the wall.
Taylor and Chris had gone to the infirmary together. Taylor just wanted to check herself up once again to see if there were any lingering effects from the time she faced the explosion in the Endeavor.
Q himself wanted to get a check
-up done, but he didn’t think now was the time. His mind was totally blank right now. He wondered how everyone else felt, he wondered how he was supposed to feel. After facing harsh situations so many times he felt like he had become a little too used to handling them.
Guess this is what it feels like to be over prepared, he sighed. He couldn’t feel a single emotion right now.
Zygrade was gone. Aliea was gone. His brother was gone.
And yet he wasn’t getting emotional, he wasn’t getting sad and weak.
Those negatives feelings had entered his heart and body too many times already. All he felt now was a numb feeling in his mind. He could tell something was there. He just couldn’t make out what it was.
“Hey,” Elizabeth squeaked as she walked into the bunker.
“Hey,” he said, forcing a smile.
“You don’t have to act in front of me, you idiot,” she sighed and sat down next to him. She held his hand, weaving her fingers into his, her warmth seeping into his palm.
“It’s easier to act when you don’t know what you feel,” he said quietly.
“Well, I’d say it’s easier to feel nothing than to feel pain,” she smiled. “Right now every single one of us is acting. Kai is more vengeful than we’ve ever seen him, yet his face looks calmer than a priest’s.”
“Lying is just so convenient.”
Elizabeth looked up at the ceiling, as though those words had struck a chord. “Yeah,” she said, her tone quieter than before, her smile falling to a blank expression, an expression that pleaded for help, for support.
Q put his arm around her and pulled her close. She lay her head on his shoulder, her flaming red hair softly tickling his skin.
“It’s not fair,” she whispered.
“It will all be okay, Elizabeth.”
“It isn’t fair at all,” she said. “Why do you have to be so nice to me?”
“What?” Q asked, completely confused.
“It’s hard to deny how I feel,” she said, tears forming in her eyes. “I wanted to hate you, I tried to hate you. But you just make it so hard to do that.”
“Elizabeth, what’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you what’s going on,” she pushed him.
The Quest Saga Collection: Books 1 - 5 Page 82
