“What do you want, Apollo?”
“Surely by now you must have heard the Furies have returned.”
“It has been brought to my attention, yes.”
“What are we going to do about it?”
“Nothing. This is not our war.”
“But we might become entangled in it, and very soon. We’re the ones who trapped them in that dimensional prison. Surely they will seek revenge. In fact, I’m surprised they haven’t attacked us yet.”
“First they would need to find New Olympus, and that could take years.”
“Or not.”
Zeus grimaced. “Even so, we’re not supposed to intervene. After the last Fury War we agreed with the council of ancient races to no longer meddle in the matters of the younger races. And I would ask that you do not have this conversation with your brothers and sisters. Only you and I know that we are the ones who locked that prison.”
“This is all well and good, Father, but this rule of non-interference doesn’t apply anymore. We’ll get caught in the crossfire sooner or later. As for the fact that we didn’t destroy the machine and the Pandora stone, let me remind you that this decision was yours and yours alone. I simply obeyed your orders and created a very secure facility protected by a Titan. You should have heeded my advice and destroyed their means of returning into this dimension.”
“This is not the Olympian way and you know it, son.”
“Perhaps, but is getting wiped out by our former nemesis a better one?”
“We had no way of knowing if destroying the machine might have canceled the dimensional shift. It was too risky. Do I have to remind you that when we finally managed to trap them, we were losing this war?”
“I remember. Still, we should have destroyed the Pandora stone at the very least.”
Zeus didn’t answer.
Ares knew that Zeus had to have been behind the entire plan. It made sense. He wasn’t surprised his father had kept most of the Olympians in the dark, though.
Ares agreed with Apollo. They should have destroyed the Pandora stone, but it was too late now. Zeus would have to face the consequences for his decision, but hopefully that could help him in his quest to reason with his father.
Once he had brought back Chase, their next stop would be to convince Zeus to intervene again and help in the war efforts. While most Olympians didn’t stand a chance fighting Furies in one-on-one combat—except a select few like Zeus himself, Apollo, Artemis, Athena and perhaps a few others—the Olympians still had a technological edge over the younger races and even most of the older ones. The real question was: Were they still around and would they agree once more to form a coalition capable of repelling the Furies? Ares’ train of thought was interrupted when he heard his name.
“What about Ares?”
“What about your banished brother?”
“He and Aphroditis sided with the humans.”
“And look where it got them. Ares is dead. I’m thinking it’s Aphroditis that is powering the machine.”
“We can’t abandon her. We have to mount a rescue mission at least.”
“I disagree. She made her choice and I warned her not to defy me and contact that Fury. She is no longer our responsibility.”
“But Father—”
“Silence! I won’t hear another word about Aphroditis. She should not have acted on her own accord. She violated the treaty of non-interference in doing so, and that’s why the Furies are back now. Whatever happens next is on her.”
“I’m no longer your little boy. You can tell me to shut up all you want, but the facts remain: ignoring problems doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”
Zeus growled and deep, black clouds covered the previously beautiful, starlit sky.
“Striking me down with a thunderbolt won’t change a thing either.”
Ares had to admire his brother’s courage. He knew first-hand how volatile his father’s temper was. One would think the leader of such an advanced civilization would be wiser when it came to admitting his mistakes.
Small bolts of golden lightning flashed in Zeus’ eyes. He shot an ice-cold look at his favorite son. Then he looked towards Ares again.
Can he see me? Perhaps I should leave before I get involved with Zeus too early.
“Show yourself!” shouted Zeus.
Apollo was startled and looked behind himself, scanning the area with a dubious look.
He turned his gaze back towards his father. “Who are you talking to?”
“I feel a presence.”
Crap!
“Is that you, Ares?” Zeus insisted. “Show yourself!”
“Ares?” inquired Apollo. “Don’t be ridiculous. He’s dead.”
“Since when did that stop an Olympian from staying in this verse?”
“You’re imagining things, Father. Surely he has traveled the Styx by now.”
“I don’t think so. He’s even more stubborn than Aphroditis.”
Apollo waved his arms at his father in frustration and then started levitating.
“Where are you going? I haven’t dismissed you yet.”
“I’m done talking to a wall, Father, with all due respect.”
“Respect. Too many Olympians have forgotten the word’s true meaning.”
“I think you confuse respect with blind obedience.”
“I never thought you’d be one of them.”
Apollo didn’t answer but flew away from the temple with such acceleration that the resulting shockwave pushed away the nearest clouds and sent Zeus’ long hair flying horizontally behind him.
Ares lost no time and followed his brother into the sky.
“So you didn’t come to see me,” said Zeus aloud.
When Chase opened his eyes he didn’t see anything at first. He blinked multiple times to try to clear his vision.
What is this? Where am I?
“Anyone there?”
There was no answer.
His vision adapted slowly. He was still lying on his back but he was no longer on Droxia. All pain had stopped, but he didn’t feel his heartbeat, and that sent a cold shiver through his body.
Am I dead? What is this place?
Even though he was in the dark and his gaze fixed upon the sky, Chase saw no stars. It looked like a void, ready to swallow him.
He sat up and looked around. He tried to locate his pulse but found none.
That can’t be good.
The ground was made of a strange type of stone. It was very dark and reflected the little light around. Chase wondered where it came from. There was no apparent light source. The stony ground was warm, which was surprising since its material seemed smooth and cold to look at. With every passing moment his vision improved. He saw spiky mountains in the distance. The place was totally alien, and dark. The scene felt surreal, like a lucid dream. Or nightmare.
In the distance was a line of marching shadows. He walked towards the long line of humanoids moving in a straight line towards a distant source of reddish light, far beyond the tall, spiky mountains.
As he approached the single file his attention was attracted to a specific shape within the shadows. As he walked towards it, he felt he knew who it was.
It can’t be.
As he drew closer he was able to distinguish more details in the shadows. They didn’t look fully human. They had no color, but Chase didn’t know if that was because it was dark or because their skin was dark gray. Only when he was three steps away from the one that had caught his attention did he recognize enough detail on her face.
Fillio.
She walked with emptiness in her eyes, looking down at her feet, like every other person in the line. They looked possessed and devoid of any awareness. The fact that not a single trait of humanity or color could be detected in her froze Chase’s blood.
“Hey, Fillio! Can you hear me?” Chase walked by her side.
There was no answer.
He tried calling her name a few more times but with no result. He tried to
shake her, but his hand passed through Fillio’s shoulder as if it wasn’t there.
But was it she who wasn’t there or him? A chasm grew inside his soul. Was he dead? Was that what awaited everyone once they passed? But there was something different about him. He was conscious, aware, even though he couldn’t feel his heartbeat. When he looked down at his arms, he could see some color, though faded, on his skin, whereas everything else around him, other than the red light source in the distance, was either black or a dark shade of gray.
What is this place?
Chase tried remembering what had happened. He had been impaled by his brother Argos—that much he vividly remembered—after a long fight with Miseo. That thought brought anger and sadness at the same time. He had failed his mission. He had failed Sarah, Chris, Ares and even Aphroditis. He was not the Fury they thought and hoped he would be, the one who would stop the universe from being consumed by the Furies’ revenge.
I’m worthless. I was so certain I could win, and I ended up making a fool of myself.
If that was the full extent of it, Chase wouldn’t care as much as he did. It wasn’t the fact that he had lost the fight that bothered him. It was what that meant for the rest of the people he loved, as well as the trillions of innocents that would pay the price for that failure. How could he have been so sure of himself?
And Chase knew, deep down, that confidence had always been part of his being. On board the Destiny, even before the terrible assault that claimed the Star Alliance’s very existence, he had been the best pilot. Of that he had been certain. But perhaps that was just his ego. He had thought he was better than the rest and that he could prevail against all odds. And for a time it did seem as if this self-deception would carry him his entire life.
What have I done?
But just asking the question was too hard to bear, the consequences too ugly and painful. Would his friends prevail and defeat the Furies, or had he singlehandedly given victory to his enemies over all that was good and true? Kindness, compassion, love . . . Having fought three Furies, he knew that these emotions weren’t inherent in them.
Why was he different? Neither Miseo, General Arkoolis nor Argos had shown any signs of these emotions when he fought them; only hatred, a thirst for power and a total lack of empathy for beings other than Furies.
Argos . . .
Chase had felt something in his brother. At first he thought it was fear, but could it be something else entirely? Was that fear at the surface just a defense mechanism used to cover deeper, buried feelings? When Argos had struck him down, he could simply have decapitated him. He could have crushed his heart and that would have been the end of it, but instead he went for the stomach. Did that mean anything?
Then Chase remembered seeing a slight golden light reflected in his brother’s eyes, just before he punched his hand through. Reliving the scene, even in his head, was very painful.
Was that Ares? Had he intervened?
“Ares!” shouted Chase out loud. “Are you here?”
After more silence he shouted again. “Ares! Please . . . Talk to me.”
Then he heard a voice behind him. “He can’t hear you here, I’m afraid. No one but me can.”
Chase turned to see a boy, no older than ten years old, looking at him with big green eyes.
“Who are you?”
“Perhaps your brain made me up so you could make sense of all this.”
It was strange, hearing that young child speak like an adult.
“Well if it did . . . It doesn’t make any sense! Where am I?”
“Where do you think you are?”
“If I had to guess, I’d say some sort of afterlife.”
“Then perhaps that’s where you are.”
“Are you being vague on purpose?”
The kid smiled.
“What’s your name?” asked Chase.
“Does it matter?”
“I guess not, but I’d still like to know.”
“Sedah. My name is Sedah.”
“Nice to meet you, Sedah. I’m Chase. What are you doing here? Are you also lost?”
“Who said you were lost? Perhaps you’re exactly where you need to be.”
That sent a shiver down Chase’s spine. “What are you talking about? How would you know?”
Sedah just shrugged.
“Great, so you don’t want to tell me.”
“I don’t think it matters that much, to tell the truth.”
“It matters to me.”
“And what if it shouldn’t?”
The boy was getting on Chase’s nerves. “Could you be a little more helpful?”
“I thought I was.”
“Well, perhaps we don’t speak the same language. How come you’re the only one I can talk to? I would like to talk to my friend over there,” said Chase, pointing towards Fillio, who was slowly moving away.
“She can’t hear you. You’re not exactly in the same state.”
That made Chase think. Perhaps he wasn’t dead yet.
“I’m still alive, am I?”
“That depends on your definition, I guess, but you’re not entirely dead.”
“Then why am I here?”
“That, I really don’t know. You shouldn’t be.”
Great, more cryptic answers.
“And what about you? If I’m not dead, and if I can speak to you, doesn’t that mean you live here?”
“Perhaps.”
Chase took a knee and put his hands on the boy’s shoulders. He was surprised to make physical contact. Sedah smiled.
“Sedah, can you please help me talk with my friend?”
“I could, but I’m not supposed to.”
“Nevertheless, please, I really need to talk with her.”
“You don’t need to, but I can sense it means a great deal to you.”
Chase nodded.
“What’s in it for me, though? Will you play with me after?”
“Sure, just let me talk with her first, okay?”
Sedah gently removed Chase’s hands from his shoulders. His eyes flashed green, and he lifted his arm upwards and extended his index finger. A small green light shone atop his finger, and Fillio took a step to the side, getting out of line; but she continued walking forward.
“You don’t have much time,” said Sedah. “Hurry and talk to your friend, then we’ll play,” said the boy with a large smile.
“Thank you.” Chase ran next to Fillio.
Some color had returned to her dark gray skin; not much, but enough to differentiate her from the rest.
“Fillio?”
“Chase? What are you doing here? Come to think of it, where is here?”
“I wish I could tell you with certitude where we are. I’m not entirely sure myself.”
“It’s the Underworld, isn’t it? Which means we’re both dead.”
Chase wanted to take Fillio’s hand but his passed through hers, a reminder that he wasn’t really in this place; at least not entirely.
“I might not be dead just yet. My only explanation is that I’m near death, and some of my consciousness made it here.”
Fillio shot him a quick glance and a faint smile.
“That’s good. It means there’s still a chance for you.”
Chase felt a sting in his heart. Whether his heart was beating or not, the words painfully reminded him that he had also failed her.
“Why didn’t you let me save you? Why did you resist my help?”
“Chase, please understand that I’ve always had the deepest respect for you, and I thank you for trying, but it was my time.”
“No! I could have brought you back if you had let me.”
“Perhaps, but I didn’t want to go back. I understand how strange this might sound, but you need to understand or, better yet, to accept it. Can you accept it, Chase?”
“I can, but I would really like to understand why.”
“You know why.”
Do I? Chase wondered. “I don’t
think I do.”
“Look, these past few years have been hell for me. I didn’t see the point in living life this way anymore. If I hadn’t been injured, then perhaps I would have ended myself in another way. I just wanted it to end. To me, what happened was a blessing in disguise.”
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?”
“I tried, once . . . but my timing sucked, as always.”
Chase remembered when she had called him, soon after they had returned from Droxia.
“That night?”
“Yes, that night. I wanted to tell you I’d like us to try again, but I could see in your eyes that your heart already belonged to someone else. Don’t get me wrong. I’m very happy you found love, Chase. I just wish . . .”
“You wished I loved you.”
A black tear fell down her denatured skin. Chase winced. “I’m sorry, I . . . Before Sarah, I don’t even know if I ever had such strong feelings, you know.”
“You had feelings. Those nights when you held me in your arms, when all I wanted to do was kill myself, I felt your kindness.”
“Alright, but it wasn’t romantic love.”
“I know. And I was okay with that.”
“Why didn’t you let Daniel get closer to you? He genuinely loves you.”
“He does, and part of me does love him back; but perhaps I simply loved him like you loved me, if that makes any sense.”
It did.
“Please tell him how sorry I am, but you don’t need to hurt him by revealing my true feelings towards you.”
“Well . . . the thought never crossed my mind. He’s my best friend and I don’t want him to suffer.”
“That, and you would feel guilty.”
“Yeah,” said Chase with a nervous chuckle, “that too.”
4
Most of the Hope’s crew was packed in the landing bays. Such was the tradition for space funerals on board Alliance ships. It was a tradition of the Star Alliance but one that Commodore Saroudis thought should be continued by the current Earth Alliance. Fillio had been in the Star Alliance all her life. It was only fitting that her spacing ceremony should follow that time-honored tradition.
Sarah was in the front row, only a dozen feet away from the space casket. It looked very similar to an escape pod, down to the long oval shape, but its finish was different. While escape pods were dull gray, space caskets were adorned with the symbol of the Star Alliance: a perfect circle of pulsating stars, flanked by golden wings, painted on a dark-blue glossy background that represented the void of space.
Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure Page 145
