Part 2
She had proven me wrong, proved us all wrong. When test after test summed up the shocking results that showed not only great level of intelligence, but that of a level that would brand her a genius with high caliber mental abilities. The results showed Avalon oDe Asgared to have the highest intelligence of anyone currently at the Acadamy, and those who matched her had died a hundred years ago. Despite taking a demanding schedule in order to graduate a year early she maintained perfect scores. She also excelled in the military skills of combat, command, negotiation, tactics and strategy. So much so that her results even challenged those of Grand Commander Rath, who's results had never been surpassed.
After witnessing all the destruction of my preconceptions regarding Avalon, I was promoted to commander and sent on a two year undercover mission to Earth. My mission was a direct result of the last Antarian seer's prophecy to the king before her death. It had greatly disturbed him, although, what this had to do with the collecting and mixing of human and Antarian DNA I had not known at the time.
I could never have foreseen what I would find upon my return.
From the moment the news had reached my ears of the newly crowned King Zan's intent to marry her, I strongly disapproved of their union. Indeed, she was a brilliant soldier to the throne, a hero's daughter also, as well as the the youngest captain to have ever graduated from the academy, something I resented deeply for it taken her three years. Three years to get where I had planned to be in ten—seven if I had played my cards right. But despite her accrued status, she was not of royal blood, not a lady versed in the ways of the court or even of a great fortune or possessing of title of noble blood, she had the blood of a commoner —It was my firm belief that King Zan should've wed a princess to ensure the stability the people and the economy which was needed so desperately, especially with all the radical changes he was already making.
He refused.
Despite all the Elders, and the Counsel being in agreement with me that the King wed a foreign dignitary, preferably a princess whose world had a military we could enter into an alliance with. The only other preferable requirements were for her to be young, beautiful and, above all, obedient.
There was also another problem with Avalon as queen, because though young and beautiful, Avalon was far from obedient, she was far too intelligent, effortless in her greatness, something else about her that irritated me beyond words. She was powerful, not only a powerful illusionist, she also held the power of time, a power that had not manifested itself in any Antarian or any other citizen from the five planets for over two thousands of years, since the time of the old ruler Helicon.
Avalon oDe Asgarad was never the person you assumed her to be. She was an expert at playing into people's misconceptions about her, an expert at keeping up a façade. The truth is, I never really knew her, let alone knew how to manipulate her, I could never foresee what she would do, even the psychological test to prove the recruits are sound of mind and section the cadets belong to at the academy had labelled her DIVERGENT, unpredictable, a wild card in every sense of the word. The only truths I knew about her was her love and loyalty to Zan.
And then came the discovery of them being Ivaetia, true mates, and their souls and minds were one.
There was no separating them. There was no choice but for the council to consent after that was revealed.
And years later, despite my misgivings and the council's the planets thrived under their rule. But the radical changes that Zan was making, as predicted, upset many of the upper-crust, even though it was for the betterment of everyone. A war broke out. Ki'var oDe Ariesis, an upper-crust elitist challenged Zan's right to rule, even though he, himself had no legitimate claim to the throne. But despite their own unease at the changes the young king was making the majority of the people stood by him, and no matter how much I hate to admit it, the King's saving grace had been his Queen. She had gained a great influence over the people, they had already began to love and respect her not only for her heroic father, but her own heroic deeds. She had prevented loss of life on numerous occasions when the Antarian federation had fallen under unknown attacks. Her quick thinking preventing outright war between the five planets. It had been she who had discovered that a third party had been trying to pit the Dharians and Haillith activist against one another in an attempt to have the throne's most powerful defense obliterate itself. She suspected true intent behind Ki'var's presence in court and his interest in Valandra.
My assumptions were once again proven false, when instead of Avalon standing beside Zan as a silent support figure like the Dowager Queen before her, who had sat in on war counsels, soundless, except for questions to her husband in a voice never as loud as a whisper, Avalon took an active role as head of intelligence and chief strategist.
I didn't like it. This was not some Federation Business negotiation. This was war .She was a woman in a man's world. She was playing a game against a far more a skilled opponent, whom she had no hope of winning against. But I was wrong. Again. She not only played the game, but played it so well that even in her death she won. As once again she turned out to be positively brilliant. She rooted out the spies among us with deadly accuracy and efficiency.
One of which, was none other than The Hand of the king himself. Nicholas oDe Mollrake. Nicholas had been The Hand of the King in the small ruling activist councils on Antar. He had known all the Royal's faults, failings, weakness, and secrets. They had trusted him, and he had been discovered betraying his vow to the realm by Avalon who, incidentally, had been the only one to never trust him. The Queen waited patiently, silently and eventually, Nicholas, the fool in his arrogance, gave himself away. Avalon got the evidence she needed, she set a positively diabolical trap for him, gave him rope and watched him hang himself with it. And to this day Nicholas has held an all-consuming hatred for her, a girl who destroyed, defeated and stripped him of his power. An animosity that has only grown deeper and more bitter in the years we have been stuck here. Because of her, he, the once trusted and powerful Hand of the King, notorious for his wealth, power and seduction of women, is forever trapped on this forsaken planet and as punishment, reduced to living in the body of a sniveling child, with only his intellect left to hang on to. Oh yes, he hated her. A hatred that could only be rivalled by that of Ki'var's.
Because of this I had never let them meet.
I knew should the two ever cross paths, Nicholas' hatred and need for revenge towards her would overpower even his desire to return home. It made him dangerous and a liability to my own plans to return home. Plans that could only be accomplished with Avalon alive, because if nothing else Avalon oDe Asgard had proven herself resilient. If molded correctly she would become the perfect unstoppable weapon I require to get home to Antar. She was a survivor, her final act before her death had proven that. I remember it clearly. The beginning of the end.
When things started to go badly and war began to appear unavoidable, Zan's mother the Dowager Queen finally revealed the prophecy the last Antarian seer had bestowed on her and the deceased King. It was the reason behind the mission the king had sent me to earth for, the purpose behind the collecting and combining of Antarian and human DNA. And so the scientists prepared the Royal Four. With the power of the Granolith and advance technology, two cloned sets of four would be made from the cloned DNA of the Royal Four and mixed with that of the selected humans, one set would be left to grow and develop their own souls with all the memories of the Royal Four, they would be the decoys, a fail safe to trick the enemy that would no doubt follow them to earth, the second set would be in suspended animation so that should worse come to worst and the royal four come close to death, the Granolith, the source of our power, would be used to collect their soul and place them in their new hybrid bodies.
And war came, as fore told, a strike force attacked the palace. At first it looked like they would win, but then they were betrayed, by the Princess Valandra. Valandra betrayed her brother, betrayed the people of Antar and allowed entrance to Ki'var and his men. He remembered how they swept through the castle like a dark storm cloud, fire and lightning, destroying all they came across, their attack brutal, violent and without an ounce of mercy, he remembered the speed with which the shocked shouts became faster and louder and turned into screams of horror and pain, echoing from - everywhere, around and above and below. It was chaos. It was blood and fire and screams, and it rained down upon them.
But most of all, like all of Antar, I remember the last stand of Queen Avalon oDe Asgarad.
FLASHBACK
There were about sixty men in the throne room alone, not counting those of the fallen. Bathed in blood they looked like demons. The walls and pillars of the room torn to pieces from blasts of misdirected power and in the middle of the rubble strewn throne room stood Ki'var and Avalon, the queen of Antar.
The floor shook underneath their feet, as flashes of power flew in the air, both trying to defeat the other.
" You are a coward Ki'var, always getting others to do you're dirty work for you," The Queen spoke as she wiped the blood from her chin after spitting some from her mouth, she was wounded badly, but she stood strong and unafraid before their enemy.
She was the last one standing, the rest of the Royal Four had fallen, not dead but still unable fight or lend aid. Valandra had been first, having been only means to an end, she was unconscious now after having been stabbed in the back by the shape shifter working for Ki'var, her face white and twisted with pain, life was fading quickly from her, she would be dead soon.
General Rath was beside her, he had fought the brunt of them, released his destructive power on enemy after enemy, breaking through hundreds of men to save his King and Queen, but the discovery of Vilandra's betrayal had left him broken. He had been caught off guard, also struggling through the effects of seeing his betrothed slowly bleed to death before his very eyes. He got caught unaware by his opponent who instantly took this opportunity and snapped a Rada'han around the generals neck a web of blue electricity surrounding his form, crippling him and leaving him flopping on the ground like a fish on dry land, causing the General's own power to turn on him, slowly ripping his mind and body apart.
And King Zan though conscious, was no better off than his sister.He had multiple wounds on him, his face bloody from the three large cuts running across his face diagonally with severe burns on his left side, near his eye. But most damaging of all was the huge stab wound to the stomach that looked like he had been skewerd and was being held on his knees, chained by the thousands of invisible bonds, in the vice grip of the power emanating from the twenty men that surrounded him, one with a blaster pointed at his neck, forced to watch as another monster advanced on his wife.
He watched as their eyes met. Complete glossy black and glowing vibrant green. A war was occurringin their eyes alone.
"How brave you are, my little Queen, I can see why the people of Antar hold such love for you, you really are such an exquisite creature," he say as they continue circle each other. "I see so much power in you but it's almost as if your channeling it to someone else and can't tap into its full potential.Your power feels strained and stretched and that shield was way too easy to get through. What are you channeling your power to, my little beauty?" He stops to eye her intently head tilted in contemplation. " Oh I see… you're with child, how unexpected."
"Bow down to me and except me as your King, become my Queen and I promise you, not only will I let the two of you live, I will make our experience together very pleasurable." Khi'var sneers and in response the Queen counters with a flash of unexpected power that sent him crashing hard on the wall behind him.
"You mistake me for Valandra, K'ivar. I would rather both of us die than let a monster like you touch either of us." Nasedo saw Ki'var stand clearly winded and little surprised by the attack before his face is twisted in murderous rage at her words sending a blast of energy at her that had the queen falling to the ground.A trickle of dark green blood ran from her mouth and down her lip as she struggled to stand up her hands cradling her stomach.
"Stay down or I will be forced to hurt you and the death you so wish for will be granted,' Kh'ivar said.
"I will not bow down to you, I BOW TO NO ONE! And neither will the people! They will never accept you as their King."
"But they will my little beauty, they will," he said an ugly smile on his face and venom's pleasure in his voice. "They will have no choice but to. Do you know what my power is little queen. It is very much like compulsion, only my power does not bind the mind, but the soul, and unlike compulsion once placed it cannot be removed by anyone but me.Unfortunately I can only use it on a hand full of people at a time. Once the power is released within a person, that person's ability to love is amplified, whilst he or she losses the ability to feel anything else. In addition, the person loses the ability to focus this adoration on anybody but the one whose power they are touched by. Me.
"You intended to use the power of the Granolith to amplify your range over the whole the planet's population," she whispered in realization.
"Clever girl.My informants truly didn't give your intelligence the credit it deserves."
"You used your power on Vilandra, didn't you?Why?Why, when it would have been smarter just to use it on me.Why try to convince me to join you, if you could compel me to bow to you." Something seemed to dawn on her as suddenly a smug smile seemed to bloom on her face. "It doesn't work on me does it?" Ki'var's jaw tightened at the taunting fact.
"WHERE IS THE GRANOLITH!" Ki'var bellowed in absolute rage. "TELL ME!"
"I WILL NEVER TELL YOU!"
And again twin blast of power were released from both sides and electricity permeated the air before Ki'vars' men joined in to lend their power to their leader and a massive wave of power had the Queen suspended in midair screaming in pain until she is dropped once more on the floor, right next to the bound King. Zanlet out a loud throat-ripping roar," NO! AVA!" His eyes were twin fires of hate as they moved towards the source of his wife's pain.
"I will kill you. I will rip you apart one vein at a time.Stay, away, from her Ki'var," the bound King threatened as he focused on the injured and bleeding love of his life as she struggled in her attempt to stand once more, to get out of Ki'var's reach. He was advancing on her and from his position Nasedo didn't doubt the King could see she'd suffered a broken leg from the latest attack. She wouldn't be able to stand much less fight, yet the ferocity never left her eyes as she glared at the enemy advancing in on her. Showing that she was going to fight till she breathed her last breath even as she knew defeat was inevitable, she was determent to go down fighting.
Ki'var smiled darkly in response to the Kings threat and raised his hand and the Queen's body was ripped up violently into the air once again like a puppet on strings. He struck out his hands with enough power to send the Queen hurling forewards letting her land on her knees inches from the King, so that husband wife are facing each other.
"Did you really think you could defeat me, little beauty? He asked, his soft, cultivated voice a mad contrast to the previous duel between them." Did you honestly think you had a chance?" The darkness in Ki'var's eyes was so intense that it was nearly taking over all the white of his eyes. He tightened his hold on Queen's hair hoping to make her cry out in pain. He was infuriated even further when she refused to give him the satisfaction, that act would have elicited. The King snarled at the way in which his enemy's eyes then flashed lustfully at her.
"Tell me King Zan, how do you think this battle ends?" Ki'var acknowledged his enemy threat, "It ends with you and you're beautiful Queen dead at my feet," he finished smiling pleasantly.
Ki'var saw the King's eyes fly to his wife's face then down to her stomach where his unborn child lay within her, saw the dread, pain and fear settle there on his face. Ki'var had realized the King's fears, for his smirk widened into a cruel, dark smile before crouching down so his face was level with them both.
"So who do you think should be first to die?How about you first my dear King? I will remove your head form your shoulders as your wife is forced to watch and leave it out on the front of the palace on a spike for all of Antar to see. They should know that you failed them, don't you think?"
The Queen's eyes flashed full of hatred, but gave him no other reaction.
"You disappoint me your highness," he heard Ki'var say . "I would have thought Zan's Queen would be more animated at prospect of having to watch her husband fall at my feet, by my hands."
"Perhaps your right, a beheading is too cliche to warrant the proper reaction, perhaps I should rip his soul out instead and have it wander the never ending desert of space, the two of you forever apart, unable to find each other in any life, unable to find peace.'` As he finished Ki'var let out a full-bellied laugh, as he studied their pained expressions with a knowing glint in his eye."There is the reaction I was hoping for. But, oh, if I had only have thought of this earlier," he held their gaze. There is something terrifyingly certain about the way he says his next words as though he has discovered a most important secret,"I should have realized that this would be the best way to break the both of you. Irreversibly. The pain of losing your Ivetia, your other half, the one that completes you, I can't think of a greater pain, can you?"
The King yelled in pain, fear and anger at the thought of the love of his life, his Ivetia being ripped away from him forever.Somewhere deep inside of him he seems to have the found the strength to pull on some of his power and send it crashing in Ki'vars direction with all the strength his bleeding, broken, bound body can muster.But all it manages to do is make Ki'var stumble slightly before he steadied himself seconds later clapping his hands and laughing mockingly at the Kings effort .
"My, my, my, that was most impressive your highness especially in your condition, you must really love her."
"You meant for us to squeal. But you won't be given the chance to try it again!," came the Queens surprisingly strong reply with only minor heart wrenching quiver in her voice.The hall started to crackle, the stone beneath their feet became warm and an angry wave of power ripped through the air lifting Ki'var and all the men near the King and Queen from their feet and catapulting them through the air.
When their eyes started to focus, they saw a blue wall had formed around the two figure in its center. The shield flickered once before solidifying. On the other side of the blue bubble Ki'var couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"NO! "Ki'var roared a cry of anger and denial as he tried to get through the barrier.
But inside the shield the King and Queen paid him no head.
"Do you trust me?" the Queen whispered to her husband, her delicate hand reaching to cup her husband's cheek in her palm.The King purposely nuzzled his face into the warm skin of his wife's hand placing a kiss there before his own hand lifted and long fingers wrapped firmly yet gently around the Queen wrist and tugged her into him their fingers interlocked. The King's arms tightened around his Queen cradeling her to his chest and buried his face in her hair, breathing in her scent to reassure himself that his wife was indeed still there with him, still breathing. " I love you, I trust you, Always and forever, my Ivetia. I will find you again, my sun and stars."
Ki'var saw the symbols emerging then evaporating through the shield. "No! That's not possible!" he whispered.
The King eyes lifted to meet those of his enemy.
"But it is. You lose Ki'var. The Granolith is now forever out of your reach. You can wage this war for thousands of thousands of years, but no soul in this planet or any other will call you their king," promised the King as he held onto his wife's hand laid protectively over her stomach as if holding their unborn child.
The Queen's frame began glow, it started with just her hands, a soft light eminating from her pale skin, but soon it worked its way up her arms and chest and her neck before it surged down her abdomen all the way down to her feet until no part of was left unaffected by the luminescent radiance. The light only continued to brighten after encompassing her body before exploding outwards, a beautiful bright mixture of gold and red that shone brighter than the sun blinding them all as symbols began to take form under her wrist from where her blood was still dripping from her body. It left the enemy screaming as it's power hit them burning their skin.The remaining soldiers paused in midst of battle to stare in awe, wonder and even fear as no corner of the city was left untouched by the sudden and blinding illumination. Before anyone could so much blink to adjust their eyes to this new blinding brightness, the light began to fade out of existence as it's source, Queen Avalon o de Asgarad took her last breath.
All that could be heard in the echoing silence afterwards was a wordless cry of anger and denial echoing throughout the lifeless halls of the palace as Ki'var screamed in rage.
END OF FLASHBACK
The sacrifice of Avalon o De Asgarad became a thing of legend. The tale of the Beautiful and Fair Queen whose beauty and apparent fragility concealed an incredible inner strength and intelligence, had led to an even more intense admiration and respect for her. For never surrendering the core of herself, or her personal beliefs, in the face of a situation far more hopeless, and helpless, than any of the people of Antar had ever faced, in sacrificing herself and the life of her unborn child, Avalon had ensured the freedom of every soul on Antar. They would have all became slaves to Ki'var, ripped of their free will. And because of this, even after fifty seven years the people of Antar still fight on her name.
Kivar however, cannot bear the mentioning of her name, cannot bear that she deceived him. He is driven nearly out of his mind when he contemplates that a girl of tender years, whose only claim to the throne was the heart of the King, had defeated him.
So when, in the years of waiting for them to awaken I fell in the hands of the enemy. The weak and traitorous human, Atherton had betrayed my secret and led Nicholas straight to me. To ensure my survival I offered up a deal that would allow me to live. I would deliver them the royal four and with them the Granolith. I felt little remorse for my betrayal, better they die than I.
Things, however, did not go as planned. When I got to the pod chamber, she was the only one waiting there, I was furious, I knew my life was forfeit, Nicholas had put a tracker in my brain, triggered to kill me should I not deliver on my end of the deal, there was no escape. I'd waited forty years for them to come out of the pods, to feel them awaken, to feel their presence so that I may locate them, and when I finally did, what do I find, no royal four, no king and no Granolith, nothing but her. She was the only one waiting there, and she couldn't even speak. She didn't know where the others were. So I took her with me, determined to find the others. I could still sense them as long as they remained within a hundred mile radius.
But hours after I delivered the hybrid queen to the human known as River dog for safe keeping as I searched for the royal four I came to the realization I was stuck at what the humans call a crossroads. Although each path led me in a different direction, all of them lead to the same sticky end, my death. Should I deliver the royal four without the Granolith, Ki'var would be furious and take my life anyway, for he had no use for them but to fulfil his need for vengeance on the girl who robbed him of his victory of obtaining the Granolith. There was nothing to ensure that I would even make it that far, the hybrid king, though just a fledgling, would able to command me and I would be unable to disobey, I was bound to the royal bloodline form birth.
So I contacted Nicholas and proposed a new plan. Nicholas and Ki'var were so blinded by their hatred for the Queen, I was able to use it to manipulate them into agreeing to my new plan. The plan included using Avalon as tool to destroy the rest of the royal four, obtain the Granolith and have her produce an heir which Ki'var would take to lay claim to the throne and the loyalty of the people until he had them under his thrall.
Suddenly, I found I was relived that it had been her that had been left behind, not only because had it been any of the other three Ki'var and Nichalos would have never excepted my proposal, but because if had been the hybrid king this would never have worked considering I am required to obey his every command and though the general was powerful, he did not possess the cunning required to achieve such a task. This mission required stealth, not brute force. The Princess Valandria was out of the question, for obvious reasons, and also, she was far to impulsive, week willed and nowhere near intelligent enough to pull this off.
No, Avalon was perfect!
Her ability to absorb and utilize new information exceeded even my expectations, she was practical and efficient. As far as I was concerned, she had only two merger flaws; one was her compassion and the other and most important of all was her love and loyalty to Zan. He needed to ensure that she never regained her memory of her life as Avalon and that her ability to love and care were rooted out.
But to accomplish this I knew I needed time, time to shape the young Queen into the weapon I required, so I decided to take her and leave the rest of the Royal Four here in Roswell.
The first step I took towards my goal had been to infiltrate Earth's military hierarchy. When in hiding from a threat, the best place to hide would be in plain sight and because I considered myself a military man, I could integrate easily in such an environment.
It wasn't long before I advanced to the highest ranking officer in a Top Secret government facility called Chimera. Named so a after a monstrous fire-breathing creature from Earth's primitive mythology. Its literature offered a brief description as "a thing of immortal make, not human, lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle, and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire." And like the mythical beast, Chimera was comprised of three areas: the first involved scientific research examining mind manipulation technology. The second was expirementation on the splicing and mixing of DNA. The third was a collection of individuals charged with discovering ways the other two could be used militarily. I took my orders directly from the pentagon, which meant that practically speaking, I had control of one of the most dangerous and versatile military forces in the United States. I had obtained a base where I could work on my plan.
But it turned out that even as a half breed, Avalon was hard to control. The conditioning was difficult. Ava, or Tess, as I called her, was far more aware of the working of her own mind than most and that presented a problem. I had not realized how big of a problem till it was far too late and she was far from my grasp.
I had been fooled by the silence. Her refusal to speak unless spoken to, the image of docility she presented during her last reprogramming had lulled me. I had failed to foresee her plans for escape or that she had gotten someone to help her, but then she had always inspired such loyalty, such devotion among others. Reconditioning had only taken a week that time where previously it had taken up to six months for me to break through the barriers in her mind. That should have been the first indication that she had been faking, but I had presumed that she had finally been broken and submitted after I had killed her little friend. Passiveness had never been a trait Avalon possessed. She had always been a creature of action, not one to be crippled by fear or a loss; she had a dominant personality and fought with the determination of a wild predator when cornered or angered.
I had failed to see the look in her eyes that would have told me that the she was still very much there and keenly in tune with the world around her , constantly observing, questioning, and evaluating.
I could distinctly recall the feeling of panic when she suddenly she blipped right out of my radar at 2am. It was as if she had just dropped dead. I couldn't sense her. My panic grew into disbelief after hearing the alarms go of around the compound and an explosion shake the whole building.
I don't know how she had managed to accomplish it. She should have not been this powerful yet at only 9 years old. I'd had her for five years, knew her inside out would have known if she was this powerful, I would have known, would have seen it, would have- and yet I had not.
Even after having realized that she was stronger than she had ever let me see, I had not anticipated what I had witnessed her do that day when I had gathered my troops and set after her, to catch her.
I had driven to the fence surrounding the perimeter she had yet to pass, and waited, cutting of her only exit. The ten to twelve men with guns I had brought with me had spread out, along the fence. The guard who had helped her was on his knees, and I was holding a gun to the back of the guy's skull, for show only, I didn't need the gun. The other soldiers however, didn't need to become aware of that fact. If the threat to her own life would not make Tess surrender, then the threat to someone she deemed innocent would. I had failed to take into account how it would anger her after having seen me murder her friend.
I saw her appear from the dark shadows of the compound, her running feet were crunching in the freezing snow, trying to get to me and show that she was surrendering. The human armed soldiers were tense and watchful as they edged to the center, transforming themselves into a solid, but uneven grey wall. They raised their guns, aiming them at her, some at her heart, some at her head.
Then I made a mistake. In that moment of vindication, I pulled the trigger and when the shot echoed through the air, when the kneeling guard fell face-first and limp into the snow, I realized I had made a major mistake.
Emerald green eyes, bled into black, of the dark night sky, all trace of white disappeared and hands that had been raised in a show of harmless surrender become anything but.
I panicked… and I raged.
The jeeps rose into the air and crashed into the fence like they'd been lifted by a pair of giant invisible hands and thrown. Men had been flung from the jeeps, and those who weren't that lucky went down with with them. The soldiers scattered, some of them had even squeaked in surprise and fear. Guns had gone flying out of hands and hitting the ground and discharging.
What few soldiers still standing had instantly dropped their weapons and stood off to the side frozen with terror. A few of them had even turned and run away. The rest were crushed and broken on the ground, whimpering and some outright screaming in pain, and they were all looking at the child Queen like she was hell spawned right from their nightmares.
The whole time the hybrid Queen's eyes had remained fixed on the inert body in the snow as the blood had pooled from and around the head and made its way towards her little bare feet, almost touching them.
Then suddenly the little Queen had tilted her face and made eye contact. I don't know what happened, but I had known instantly that looking back at me through those dark eyes was not Tess the half-breed child, but Avalon the Queen.
Her gaze promised pain and it was not long before she had delivered it. I remember being lifted up, suspend in the air spread eagle, arms and legs wide apart and pain coursing through my body before being violently thrown onto the fence which came apart, piercing my skin, then moving inside to wrap around my very bones leaving me excruciating pain and blood pouring out from all sides.
Only a whisper of wind could be heard before the cables above were torn by an invisible force and fell on me, causing the electricity to course through the metal wrapped around my bones. The pain hurled me into unconsciousness.
When I had awoken she was gone without a trace.
I panicked. This was the second time I had failed Ki'var and I knew there would be no second chances. If Nicholas sent someone to check on how the plan was progressing, it would not be long before Ki'var found out.
I was awash with resentment. I hated the task I had been entrusted with. I was wishing I had been stuck with the decoy instead.
And that's when inspiration struck. The dupelicate Avalon, her perfect genetic copy, no one would know that it wasn't her, no one need ever find out. I didn't even need to track her down. I knew where she would be, where all four of them would be.
I found her in the underground sewers all alone. I didn't waste the opportunity given to me; I took her. I let the other three live as they may yet serve a greater purpose in the looked similar as far as facial features went just as I had expected. However that's where the similarities ended. This genetic copy of Avalon was a simpering, clinging creature. I had a difficult time seeing the flinching, week willed piece of gutter trash as a future queen. But it was all I had to work with to ensure my survival, and this time I made sure to make no mistakes. I had ripped into her mind and reconditioned her thoughts until there had been no trace of the girl she had been before, The copy was not nearly as difficult to break as the true queen. And when she was finally ready, I brought her to Roswell to set my plan in motion.
I don't know what had gone wrong. She had disappeared on me, just like the true Queen all those years ago.
Now the only solution to my problem was a human.
I hated humans. I hated nearly everything about them. They were pathetic creatures always ruled by emotion. I could not comprehend the King's interest in the mousy human I was currently spying on, but despite my own distaste I was glad. I needed leverage and she would have to do, especially since I had lost Tess.
I was furious that this had happen twice, first with the true recreation of the Queen and now with her genetic copy.
If I could not get to the King, then I would get the King to come to me.