The Quest Saga Collection: Books 1 - 5

by Dhayaa Anbajagane

  “You’re finally awake,” she said.

  Q looked at her for a moment, “I met Kai,” he said, inaudible to her ears.

  He couldn’t believe that the Megethos he had met was Kai. He felt it was ironic, that among the Megethos, who he had considered enemies, he was able to rediscover a Kai he might never meet again.

  “The medics have all confirmed you’re fine,” the Empress said, and gently gripped his hand.

  Q looked down and saw that his limbs were all involuntarily trembling. “Wow,” he mumbled. “That’s scary.”

  “It so definitely is,” Zelph said. “Hi boss.”

  Hello, he said. I’ll talk to you later okay?

  “Oh sure. The moment you see a pretty girl, say bye bye to Zelph,” he said sarcastically and cut off.

  Q ignored him and turned to the Empress. “What exactly happened?”

  She laughed. “Aren’t you supposed to be telling me what happened?” she said. “Ruby and Commander Lokai found you next to the cave you visited. They’re the ones who brought you back to the Palace. Oh and by the way, do not go near Ruby for a while.”

  Uh oh, Q thought.

  “She’s really mad at you,” the Empress said. “She thinks you tricked her into abandoning you.” Q chuckled nervously.

  The Empress stared at him. “Oh my god, you actually did that?!” she asked. “Why in the world would you do such a thing?” she asked.

  He hesitated. “I was in a dark place.”

  Andrea didn’t say anything, but her face showed an expression that said she understood exactly how he felt.

  “It was better she didn’t come,” Q said. “She might not have been able to handle what was on the other side.”

  “What was on the other side?” she asked, a bit excited.

  “The Megethos,” he said, his face blank.

  “You met the Megethos?!” she asked, panic in her face. “Thank god you managed to get away from them!”

  Q smiled, in fond memory of the times he would have reacted the same way.

  “Their story is much different than you would think,” he said.

  “What?” Andrea looked at him quizzically. “What are you talking about?”

  Q paused for a moment and then feigned a headache. “Ugh, it must be the interportal travel,” he hunched over. “Did I just say something weird?”

  “You should lie down,” Andrea pushed his shoulders down. He fell back, his head resting on the soft silk pillows.

  I’m sorry, Andrea, he thought. But neither you nor anyone else can handle the truth. This reality is for me to bear.

  “So I talked to Carlos,” the Empress said nervously.

  Q didn’t really get why she had to act weird about it.

  And then it suddenly struck him. “You know don’t you?” he sighed. “Carlos told you about my parents didn’t he?”

  She nodded. “He told me your father was Emperor Ryaeleas,” she said. “I couldn’t believe that you were the child my mother had been searching for.”

  “Searching?” Q asked.

  “Yeah,” she said. “When my mother took over as Empress, the first thing she did was send out orders to find her brother’s child. Of course, the nobles thought it was so that she could kill the child. But all she ever wanted to do was protect you.”

  Q kept silent. He had always been in awe at the sheer number of things that occurred in the world without him knowing ever so slightly about them.

  “You know something interesting?” Andrea looked at him mischievously. “Since you’re Ryaeleas’ son, you’re supposed to be in line for the throne before me.”

  “What?” Q laughed.

  “Yup,” she smiled. “If people had found you before my mother’s death you would have been the Dark Knight Emperor.”

  “Emperor Q,” he chuckled. “That sounds terrible.”

  “I’m sorry to say, but it actually does,” she laughed.

  “You’re mean,” he pretended to pout. A sudden wave of realization came over him, that he was in the middle of a war scenario and yet he was here joking around with the Empress of the Dark Knights.

  The mind is really weird, he thought.

  “I actually have something you might want to see,” Empress Andrea said.

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah,” she said. “Can you walk?”

  Q stood himself up. “Of course I can-” he fell flat onto the floor.

  “Probably not,” the Empress sighed, and leaned in to help him up.

  Q put his arm around her shoulder and helped himself up. “We could actually walk like this you know?”

  She paused for a moment. “Well, I guess we could,” she said and helped him forward. The two of them walked out of the room, with Q putting most of his weight on the Empress’ shoulders.

  “So what is this thing exactly?” Q asked.

  “It’s a surprise,” Andrea grinned.

  A sudden thought paused Q’s thinking for a moment. “Hey?” he asked. “Carlos told you who my mother was didn’t he?”

  She looked at him and smiled, almost forcefully. “Yeah, he did,” she said and looked ahead of them.

  I guess the White Knight part didn’t bode well with her, he thought. He couldn’t blame her. He was asking her to accept that he had White Knight blood in him, the blood of a faction that was currently going around destroying planets as it saw fit.

  They turned into a short corridor that had a locked door at its end. The Empress leaned to the dial on the side and keyed in the number code. The door opened, and a fresh burst of sunshine hit him.

  He looked inside, at the green grass, the life-filled plants, the vibrant flowers and the majestic trees. An intricate combination of scents rocked the air, calming him down and mesmerizing his mind. This was not just a garden, this was a garden of life.

  “This is beautiful,” Q said as Andrea led him in. “I can’t believe-”

  And there he saw it.

  On the wall opposite him, was a painting, a work of art. A man and a woman lay on a grassy field, holding each other's arms. The man had roughed up hair, and a bit of stubble on his face. His eyes were a mild grey, which looked a little weird against his tanned skin. The woman had pure grace emanating from her. She had long silver hair, and a complexion that glowed, rivaling the stars above her. Her eyes were silver as well, giving her a very elven look. She smiled at the man, an eternal happiness flowing from her very being.

  Q smiled, his mind grasping who they were the moment he saw it.

  “This is the only remaining picture of Emperor Ryaeleas and Empress Periel,” Andrea smiled. “My mother was the only one who was actually told of their relationship. She painted this for them.”

  “Empress Aria painted?” he asked.

  “All Dark Knights aren’t just brutal war men you know,” she chuckled.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I just didn’t expect it.”

  “It’s fine,” she smiled. “To be fair, almost no one knew of my mother’s love for art. It wasn’t something the nobility liked.”

  “She had to do it in secret?”

  “Not really,” she said. “The only painting she’s ever actually hid is this one right here.”

  “She had to hide this?”

  “Ryaeleas was condemned after that whole incident with the White Knights. The Dark Knight nobility destroyed every last object that reminded people of him.”

  “Harsh,” Q said quietly. He looked at his parents for the first time in his life. He saw the happiness that glowed around them, and wondered what they would have been like if they were still alive today.

  What would I have been like if they were still alive? he wondered.

  “We should probably get going,” Andrea said. “Do you want some time alone?”

  He looked at the painting and smiled. “No, I’m fine,” he said. The two of them made their way out of the corridor and accidentally stumbled onto Lokai.

  “Young one!” the old man exclaimed.
<
br />   “Hello, Lokai,” Q smiled.

  “Have you decided on your course of action?”

  “What?”

  Lokai looked at the Empress quizzically. “Have you yet to tell him, your highness?” he asked.

  Andrea sighed. “There is a time for things like this, Commander,” she said.

  “But, your highness, surely you must understand the importance of this.”

  “Hold up,” Q squinted. “Could someone tell me what’s going on?”

  Lokai looked at him, his eyes peering into his, a stern look on his face. “It’s Levi.”

  ***

  “What?!” Q exclaimed. “Are you serious?!”

  Lokai nodded. “Levi wants to have a peaceful talk, a ‘meeting’ was what he said.”

  They had gone back into the Dark Knights’ main council room, with the glass furniture and dark stone walls. Q found the situation quite absurd. The White Knight warship had apparently been orbiting Drakon’s higher atmosphere while under stealth, and now Levi wanted to have a ‘peaceful’ talk with Q.

  “Of course it won’t be peaceful,” Andrea mumbled from the head of the table. “This is Levi we’re talking about.”

  Q shifted in his seat. “Is it just me or does Levi seem to be controlling the White Knights more than Albion does?”

  “It isn’t just you,” she said. “I do not know if Albion willingly let this boy control his troops or if Levi is somehow forcing the exchange to happen.”

  “We can worry about that later,” Lokai said. “At the moment, we need to decide what we’re going to do about this situation.”

  “What exactly did he say?” Q asked.

  “He sent us a holographic feed and asked us to join him for a peaceful talk. He even made a point of mentioning that the Masked Magician would not be present.”

  “I really don’t buy that,” Q said. “But it’s not like we can do anything about it even if the guy is by Levi’s side.”

  “We can send you with back-up,” Lokai said.

  “No point,” he said. “I’m not sure if even I can take the Magician out. Backup will be useless.”

  “You can’t possibly be saying that you’re going alone, young one!”

  “Well, I was trying to imply it rather than say it,” he grinned. “It sounds more dangerous when you say it out loud rather than when you silently imply it.”

  “It may not be as bad an idea as you think it is,” Andrea said.

  “Excuse me?” Q asked. Even though he was okay with going alone, it was definitely a bad idea, whichever way one looked at it. Levi only declared deals, he never agreed to them. This was not really a negotiation. He was basically asking Q to step into a trap.

  “You see, Carlos told me about Project Z,” she said.

  “Hey look! I’m getting popular now!” Zelph said.

  Shh, quiet, Q thought.

  “If Zelph is a well-functioning AI, he may able to get into the warship’s mainframe and deactivate the Infinity canon.”

  Q eyes widened, first in the sudden realization that the Infinity canon still existed, and then because there was now a path to take it down.

  That’s why Levi thinks I’ll meet him for negotiations, Q realized. To plead for him to not use the Infinity Canon on Drakon.

  “What do you say, Q?” Andrea asked.

  “I don’t think there’s any question to it,” he said. “I’ll get onto his ship and try to deactivate the Infinity Canon from inside.”

  “Are you both sure?” Lokai asked, a little hesitant to agree.

  “Think of the alternative, Lokai,” Q said. “The Infinity Canon may blow up Drakon if we don’t do this.”

  “Lev is probably doing this to give us a last chance to surrender,” Andrea said. “I’m quite confused why he would want to blow us up anyway.”

  “I don’t get it either,” Q said. “He wanted to destroy the NOVA warriors, and he’s pretty much done that now. What else does he want?”

  “I don’t know,” Andrea said. “But I’m not sure if it would be best for us to find out either.”

  “That’s true,” Q sighed. Levi’s schemes were like a disease. Once they entered your mind they were staying for good, and there was nothing you could do to stop thinking about them.

  “So, Lokai,” the Empress asked. “How long before we get this ready?”

  “The ship has already been prepared, your Highness,” Lokai said.

  “Good then,” she turned to Q. “Ready?”

  Q got off his chair and moved around a bit to see how his body held up. He turned to the Empress and gave her a thumbs up. “All systems go,” he grinned.

  It took them about ten minutes to get to the Palace of Darkness’ hangar. The spacecraft Lokai had arranged was more of an escape pod than a ship. It was circular and very compact, housing a small control board, and a seat.

  “Levi did not want a ship that carried any firepower,” Lokai explained. “We couldn’t negotiate with him about that.”

  “That’s fine,” Q said. “It’s not like we have anything that could take down his ship anyway.”

  “Are you sure it’s okay?” the Empress asked.

  “Yeah, yeah,” he said as he got in. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll be back before you know it.”

  “That’s what you said the last time,” the Empress smiled. “Come back safe this time.”

  “Will do,” Q smiled back as the hatch door closed. He sat himself on the controls.

  Now which one starts the ship? he wondered.

  “Ummm...excuse me?” Zelph said. “Did you actually think you were going to fly the ship even though I was still here?”

  “Fine,” Q chuckled. “Go ahead.”

  Zelph took control of the ship’s panel, and the engine hummed to life. They were off moments later, heading up into Drakon’s upper orbit, straight to Levi’s ship.

  The only thing on Q’s mind was that shockwave he had seen in the video Megethos-Kai had shown him. He didn’t have much to work with to find out when and where the shockwave would happen. To be honest, it could happen fifty years from now, or fifty seconds from now.

  He really hoped it wasn’t fifty seconds.

  All he knew for the moment was that before the shock wave, there was a huge build-up of energy that lasted for more than ten minutes. He hoped that plus the fact that Kai was on Earth during the shockwave, would help him decipher when this thing was going to happen.

  “You should have told the Empress about that,” Zelph said.

  “It’s too early,” he said. “She wouldn’t be able to handle it if I told her. None of them would be able to handle it.”

  “Oh sure, and you’re the only one who can handle it?”

  “I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but I’ve pretty much shut off my emotions right now.”

  “That doesn’t mean you can handle it, you know. You’re actually not handling anything at all. You’re just running away from those emotions. Don’t get me wrong, I perfectly understand why you’re shutting off your feelings, but don’t try to define that as ‘handling’ things.”

  Q smiled. “You’re a really troublesome AI, you know?”

  “I’ve been told,” Zelph chuckled.

  Q thought of the painting he had seen. He wondered what his parents were like. What sort of people they were when they were alive. He wondered if they laughed and joked like he did, if they loved to lay down and watch the stars every night, if they loved to feel the wind on their face and the moonlight on their skin.

  He sighed. Why are you acting all sentimental now? he scolded himself.

  “We’re here,” Zelph interrupted his thoughts.

  “What?” Q peered through the viewscreen at the ship in front of them. “I didn’t think it’d take just this long to reach.”

  “Well, this ship is really light and it has some great thrusters,” Zelph said.

  “Yeah, I guess it makes sense.”

  “I have a something coming through, an audio tr
ansmission. Should I let it through?”

  Q nodded and the feed played into his ears.

  “Sorcerer, Q, we are speaking to you on behalf of Commander Levi. We have currently taken temporary command over your ship. We will dock it to our station now. Any sudden movements will be considered hostile.”

  What does he mean he’s taken command over the vessel? Q asked.

  “I let them take control just a few seconds ago,” Zelph said. “Don’t you think they’ll get suspicious if they find it hard to take control of a simple ship?”

  I guess that’s true, Q sighed. Did you try to connect to their ship’s mainframe?

  “Not yet,” he said. “I’ll do it when I’m inside the ship. I’m not sure how their networks function and I don’t want to trip any alarms when we’re like this.”

  “Smart,” Q said. A thud went through the ship as it jerked to a halt. “We’re here,” he said.

  He got up from his seat and faced the hatch door, which was slowly sliding open. Two White Knights stood on the other side.

  Q walked out. “That docking sure went smooth,” he turned to them. “You guys sure are-”

  His heart clenched as his eyes drifted to their helmetless heads. He stared blankly at the two White Knights, the Knights whose eyes looked as empty as space, whose very presence was robotic and lifeless. He stared at the two people who were never supposed to be in snow-white armor.

  Chris and Kai.

  ***

  3-5

  Q remained silent as Chris and Kai led him through the ship.

  Both of them were dressed in high-tech sets of White Knight battle armor. They each held a laser blaster in their hand, their grip showing they were ready to use it anytime.

  Q was both in a state of belief and disbelief. He knew something like this was possible. Frankly, this was the major use for the F.E.A.R serum - to control people and make them do the user’s bidding. But it was still odd to actually see his friends escort him to his arch enemy. That was something he knew could happen, but never believed it would.

  The heads of all the White Knights turned to him as they walked along the corridors. Q squinted his eyes a bit to keep the bright white from blinding him.