by Vi Voxley
Sean dashed from the cover, seeing that. Dana called after him, gritting her teeth in fury when her son didn't listen. She could only hold Isabel at aim, ready to put the nail in her coffin if she even considered harming Sean.
The boy picked up the gun from Isabel's hand and ran back. Dana collapsed, clutching her belly, the widest smile on her face as Sean and she took cover.
"My beautiful, brave boy," Dana said, pulling Sean in to kiss him on the forehead. "Never do that again! Help me up now, we need to see if Rebecca is okay–"
"Mom?" Sean asked. "Who are they?"
Dana looked up, over their makeshift cover and her heart dropped. Two of the biggest Rabor warriors she'd ever seen had stepped into the ship. Like mirror images of each other, wearing the enormous swords in one left and one right hand, the twins took in the battle.
The ragged green armors were adorned with teeth and scalps – they were as if carrying their fallen enemies with them. Huge mouths full of sharp teeth opened and closed as they searched the crowd, looking for her warlords.
It was easy for creatures who stood a head taller than anyone else in the ship, and twice as wide.
Her gaze found her fateds, turning to meet their true enemies. There was no fear in their eyes that she could see. Only glee that they were finally able to meet like she knew they wanted.
She needed to tell them.
"I'm yours," Dana cried out over the clash of the battle still ongoing all around her, whimpering in pain. "No matter what happens, I'm yours!"
I'm staying. Until the very end.
27
Chase
He heard Dana.
Chase had no idea how since the Sanguine's great hall was filled to the brink with screams, shots and the unmistakable noise of battle. Yet the voice of his fated carried over all that, pure and bright and sounding like her again.
Dana's promise was like a shot of power right to his veins. He felt all-powerful, ready to conquer worlds and vanquish any enemy. Which was right about time, since the twins had finally revealed themselves. It was time to end it once and for all.
By his side, Chase saw Havoc's eyes burn with the same light of renewed vigor.
The war was not over yet. They hadn't lost Dana – she was still there and now that they were so close, Chase swore he'd never let her go again. Even the single day of thinking he had to live his life without her was too much.
Uttom and Crann were coming at them. Chase made sure his grip on the daggers was firm. The gun was sheathed safely on his back. From experience, he knew that it would do little damage against the sturdy, nigh unbreakable armors of the twins.
Besides, he didn't want to shoot them in the face. For all that they'd done, for all that they were doing, he wanted to feel their blood flowing on his hands. Their deaths needed to be personal, up-close and all the more sweet for it.
They had come to the Sanguine first. The capital was under attack too, but the twins, they'd come for the Terran ship. It meant they knew about Dana and they'd come with the single purpose of killing her.
Chase saw red before his eyes, wondering if that was how Havoc saw the world all the time.
This is it. It's you or us. This is for Dana.
Her cry pierced the air the second their weapons clashed together. Both Chase and Havoc winced, glancing in Dana's direction, which the twins took advantage of naturally. Uttom's next blow nearly knocked Chase off his feet and he had to refocus his attention on the enemy.
It was almost impossible. The way she sounded, his fated was in terrible pain and Chase didn't need to ask why. It had to be even worse for Havoc. In the end, it didn't matter. They couldn't leave the fight now, not before the twins were dead and the world was safe for Dana and their baby.
Uttom was a rash, ruthless fighter. Chase had met him a few times before, either glimpsing him afar in battle or crossing blades with the Rabor himself. The warlord snarled at him, clearly remembering him. He didn't say a word.
All they had to base their mutual hatred on was war. Uttom pressed on, the huge sword cutting wide arcs in the air, forcing Chase to back away to give him some room to swing. As he did so, he moved away from Havoc, which was fine.
If Chase trusted anyone in the entire galaxy to handle himself, it was Havoc. He was busy enough with Uttom, knowing that one blow from that sword and he'd be out of the fight.
The Rabors didn't go for subtlety or poise. Their weapons were massive and brutal as they themselves were, making it harder for Chase to counter. On the other hand, Uttom wasn't nearly as fast as Chase was, barely dodging the warlord's heavy blows and darting closer to land his own.
The temptation to use his gun was so great, especially when Uttom turned his attention to Dana.
The wide grin on his lips said plenty before the green beast opened his mouth and growled:
"I will feast on her later. Her and the little one in her belly."
Chase couldn't help it. For a moment, the image appeared before his eyes, bloody and beyond horrible. It was enough to shake him to his core, and to make him double his efforts to finish Uttom off as quickly as possible, to rid the world of a vicious bastard such as him.
"You will never lay a finger on her," Chase said in return. "And you will rue the day you decided to come to my planet."
"My planet, soon enough," Uttom promised. "You can't defeat the League. We are waging war on every continent of your world right now. Once you are gone, there will be no one left to face us. We don't care about how long it takes. We will raze Octava to the ground for what you did."
Chase felt a grin appearing on his lips as he shook his head slowly.
"That is what every conqueror has ever said that has tried to take Octava from us," he said. "Do you know where they are now? I keep some of them in my trophy room. Pieces of them, at least."
The smile fell from his lips as he heard Dana cry out. In the next second, Chase saw Sean being grabbed by a Rabor warrior who'd made it through the defense lines. The green beast was holding the kicking boy who was trying to keep him away from his mother at all costs.
Chase felt fury surge through him, along with pride that Dana had such a son. He liked the boy immensely.
He knew it was reckless, but he couldn't simply watch on as Dana lost her first child. It was complete madness to turn his eyes from Uttom, even for a second, not to mention lower his guard.
Chase pulled his gun, lightning fast, letting the dagger jump to his other hand and fired a shot. It found its mark like it always did. The warrior holding Sean collapsed and he heard Dana scream again, unsure who the shot had hit. Then Sean disentangled himself from the mess that was the dead warrior and ran back to his mother, staying on guard now to watch for more attackers.
Uttom's blow knocked Chase backwards so strongly he rolled on the ground for several feet before a wall stopped him.
With a terrible war cry on his lips, Uttom jumped into the air, ready to land and skewer him to the ground with the mighty, jagged sword. Chase dodged the blow but it cost him valuable time. He didn't get back on his feet before Uttom's next strike sent him crashing against the wall and this time, something broke, probably a few ribs.
Chase grunted. He could see the victorious glee in Uttom's eyes as the monster thought he'd already won. The huge sword came rushing through the air, ready to cut his head from his shoulders. Chase heard Dana scream out in horror, but there was no need. The daggers caught the sword right before his eyes, forming an X to hold off the blade that was meant to end his life.
He stared at Uttom for a moment over their blades, seeing the confusion in the Rabor's eyes. The daggers didn't look like they could handle a blow like that and sure enough, his hands felt like he'd just hit a stone wall.
None of that mattered when Chase pushed himself off the wall, driving Uttom back with short, sharp bursts of attacks, back to where Havoc and Crann were still fighting.
The twins had thought they could win by targeting Dana. That was the last mistake th
ey'd ever make. When it came to their fated, Chase knew the both he and Havoc would fight to their last drop of blood, to the breaking of their own bodies.
28
Havoc
Dana's wails were becoming more insistent.
A warlord knew cries and for a short while, Havoc had detected that Dana had tried to muffle her pain to spare Chase and him. The thought that she needed to protect them was so incredible to him that Havoc almost let Crann come too close when such a thing should never have happened in a fight with a Rabor.
They didn't play fair and they certainly didn't play nice. There was no room for error or underestimating the enemy.
As for Dana, she had come to the point where she could no longer hold back the screams. Out of the corner of his eye, whenever Havoc had the chance to see her, Dana was on the ground, her beautiful red hair spilled out on the dirty floor. Her son was with her, valiantly keeping watch over his mother.
It was time to end it, although Havoc knew that enemies like the League never truly died. Even if they killed the twins, there would be months of cleaning up after them and then, as years went by, the next generation would meet new champions. Even so, it never hurt to create a precedent for the coming warriors to remember.
Crann was the only fighter Havoc had ever met that matched him – in size and in sheer stubbornness. Even Chase was a calculated fighter while Havoc relied on the only thing he knew that would get him through the day, and that was himself. In that and that alone, Crann was the same.
"You see your pretty little female there?" Crann was taunting him, the beast's many-teethed mouth turning his words into a snarl. "Uttom wants to feast on her but I say we should have more fun with her before. Depending on how well you die, she might get lucky and we'll kill her before we start eating her."
The repulsion Havoc felt was so strong he could feel it resonate through his entire body, filling him with hatred and burning loathing for the enemy. They weren't just cruel and vicious, they actively delighted in it. It was their goal to destroy as much as they were able – lives, people, whole worlds.
The League was Havoc's favorite kind of enemy - a simple one. There were no considerations there, no doubts of moral superiority. The League and the Rabors foremost were truly a plague on the galaxy and he was glad to do his best to eradicate it.
Dana was screaming again and Havoc knew why. The entire great hall was a battleground. The twins were too close to his fated for the healers to dare approach. It made killing Crann an even more pressing issue. It wasn't enough that the beast had to die – he had to die as soon as possible for Dana to get the help she needed.
Havoc expected the vision of Hannah to come to haunt him again, only it didn't appear. His first fated still existed in his mind, a bittersweet memory, only she was pushed to the past now. The wake-up call had been swift and effective. Havoc no longer thought of Dana in the same way he remembered Hannah.
Nothing will happen to her. We won't let that tragedy repeat itself.
It was time to end it. Havoc called to Chase, knowing the other warlord picked up the cue they'd used in battle many times, often to the horror of their enemies.
In itself, the tactic was careless and dangerous, mostly for them. Yet it carried the element of surprise and confusion, which they sorely needed.
As one, he and Chase attacked with fury that looked like it stemmed from the gods of war themselves, not letting the pace down for a heartbeat. Havoc braced himself for the blows that he was undoubtedly going to have to weather with the attack that didn't leave any time or opportunity for him to guard his own body. The sword in his hand didn't parry once, only seeking to batter the enemy as viciously as the Rabors themselves.
It was working. Crann saw Uttom being driven back and it made him careless. The trick was amazing to see in person like that. To make the enemy lose, sometimes you had to make them believe they already had. Havoc pressed on, raining terrible blows on the enemy, not caring about himself or his armor or the weapon in his hand.
All he knew was that Crann had to die for Dana to live. The hall was still filled with enemies, but that was nothing in Havoc's mind. They were trash to be taken out after the twins were gone.
And there it was. Crann's eyes started flicking to Uttom and his twin's to him. They were both trying to figure out whether the other one was failing, whether it meant that they were, too.
It felt weird to Havoc, in a way. There had been so much distrust and dislike between him and Chase, yet now that Dana's life was at stake, they trusted each other much more than the twins. Relied on the other, even. There was no guarantee that the twins would have taken the bait, after all.
Finally Havoc landed the first good blow on Crann's armor and he knew it was over. Uttom heard and very soon, there was a cry from the other beast. Havoc didn't look his way, trusting Chase to handle the other twin.
He focused on the enemy before him, shutting away everything else. The hall, Chase, even Dana. With unrelenting blows, he drove Crann back, seeing the confusion settle in as the Rabor forgot he wasn't out of the battle yet.
Therein lay the magic of the tactic. Victory was so much easier when you made the enemy believe that their defeat was only a matter of time.
The opportunity presented itself and Havoc went for it. A powerful barrage sent Crann toppling backwards. It had come with the price of allowing himself to be cut deeply by the enemy's sword, but Havoc didn't care about his blood being spilled. He didn't give the enemy a second to breathe, knocking the sword away with one blow and cutting Crann's head off in the next.
It went rolling on the floor. Uttom didn't even have time to see what had become of his brother before he stumbled backwards on a dead body Chase had clearly been pushing him towards. He hadn't hit the ground yet when one of Chase's daggers flew through the air, embedding itself neatly in Uttom's throat.
Havoc and Chase only took a second to make sure their enemies were really dead. Then they rushed to Dana's side, not paying attention to the confusion in the League's ranks. Seeing that the twins were dead, the Gargon warriors pushed on with much the same tactic their commanders had used. Step by step, the League was driven from the Sanguine as Havoc and Chase knelt down beside Dana.
"Healers!" Chase roared.
They ran towards them, even daring to push them out of the way to get to her. Dana was very pale, breathing heavily, only her blue eyes were shining up at them.
"You came for me," she whispered.
"We would never leave you," Havoc promised, turning to the healers. "Save her. Do whatever you can, just make sure she's fine. She and the baby both."
Chase was nodding next to him, his golden blue eyes shining.
"If you let her slip away or get hurt, we will make you pay," he added his growl to Havoc's order.
There was a smile on Dana's lips all of a sudden as she weakly pushed them away.
"Go," she said quietly. "I'm fine now. Sean's with me. Go fight. Don't be so mean to the healers. They'll help me. They'll help both of us."
29
Dana
She didn't remember much about her journey to the med bay.
Waking up, Dana realized why. It was because the Gargons had taken her to one of their own medcenters instead of the broken, burning ship.
That makes sense, was her first conscious thought.
The next one was Where's my baby?
She sat up with a shout. Then, everything else washed away and a sense of overwhelming peace took her.
She was in a nice, white room, reminding her of hospitals back on Terra. It seemed that was a soothing color to all species. There were many machines, some of them hooked up to her. Dana was lying on a huge bed, big enough for three people to sleep comfortably. It was suspiciously quiet, especially when she looked out of the window and saw flashes of explosions, telling her that the battle wasn't over yet.
Her sense of peace was due to the fact that her fateds were sitting beside her bed, one on each side, looking a
t her with calm smiles.
"You looked so beautiful sleeping," Chase said first. "We didn't want to wake you up. Are you alright?"
"Yes," Dana said hesitantly. "I think so, yes. Although I'd be a lot happier if I had some answers. Where is my baby? What happened? Where is Sean? And where am I?"
"You want to take those?" Chase asked Havoc. "It's your domain, after all."
"Your domain?" Dana asked, feeling drowsy and resting her head back on the pillows.
The explosions outside looked like fireworks.
"Chase means we're roughly in my domain of Octava," Havoc said calmly, his deep voice soothing and nice. "You are in one of the private healing centers, the one that was closest. You can practically see the villa. From the roof, of course."
"Why aren't we getting blown up?" Dana cut in, pointing to the windows. "Is the battle still going?"
"Yes," Chase said. "Don't worry. All healing centers are covered with the best shields we have. There are numerous patrols all around the centers, so that if any of them comes under attack, the enemy ships are destroyed long before the shields would ever fail. You're safe."
"Where is my baby?" Dana asked, turning back to them.
She was jumping from topic to topic, making her think she had gotten a concussion in the Sanguine after all.
Now, her fateds were exchanging looks. They were quietly hopeful, yet she sensed a reserved caution.
"The baby is with the healers," Havoc said and Dana's heart dropped. "Don't worry. They told us he was a little premature, which is why they want to make sure everything is okay. We are waiting to hear the news. Shouldn't be long now."
She had to take a moment to digest that. After all that heartbreak and pain, something beautiful had been born into the world. Rebecca's words about risk and reward came back to her, telling her to steel her heart and accept whatever life brought to her. How else was it possible to live?
