The cell that Lexa now found herself in was cold, and dark, but not as dark as the thoughts that had run through her mind for the last several days. It had been over a week since she had been imprisoned in the very small room that surrounded her, though in her mind it had been nearly an eternity. The days that had passed had not been idle for her, nor had she been alone for most of them. She had spent the time with her sister, and the Zor about her on the base they had created at the bottom of the Earth. The three Zor had promised her a trial, but it had failed to come. Instead they attempted to obtain information from her; information they knew she did not have. And when it would not come, there had been torture.
Mobiums, and Zor though did not resort to physical torture, they had no need for it. The pain that people feel under such circumstances is caused by the nerve endings sending signals to one's brain. Instead of wasting time with nerve impulses, they went into the mind directly, causing not just the pain the nerve endings could make, but something worse. So much worse. If they had been bent on breaking her, Lexa would have broken long ago, but that was not their aim. They already knew all she knew, and they knew more. They did not actually need anything from her. All of them, even Lenoa had only one goal in mind as they continued their mental assault. Pain.
They used every thing they could against her. Every fond thought, memory, glimmer of hope, they had turned back on her, causing her whatever kind of anguish they could, and then just when she was at the edge of losing her very grasp on reality, they released her so that she may remember what had transpired, could re-live what they had done to her in the solitude they had placed her in, in her tiny cold cell. In the desolace of the room that surrounded her, and in the time between sessions she could only sit and think, trapped inside her own mind, trying to block out the thoughts of the pain, with thoughts that were good. She thought of Mobius often, the places she would go that were serene, and welcoming, and when those weren't strong enough she thought about other things. Sometimes her thoughts would fall on Matt, wondering where he was, and what had befallen him. Was he safe? Was he alive? Or did they have him, and were they putting him through the same thing that she was dealing with now? She only allowed herself the briefest moments though, for if she dwelled on these thoughts for too long, she could almost give herself hope again, and she could not let herself do that. They would use that against her, they would turn it inwards on her. Then there would be pain.
She shed no tears for herself though. Mobiums didn't produce tears the same way humans did. Tears were used to keep the eyes moistened, but they were not shed in reaction to pain, mental or physical. All the tears Keith had shed had been from his human half. Instead Lexa had been brooding, as all good Mobiums do in such situations. Her hair color had once again changed in reaction to her mood and personality, for it had gone to the deepest, darkest black it could. Almost like night. The lack of sheen made it even more dark, and ultimately it betrayed the reflection of her thoughts at the moment. She was contemplating her end.
Either two things could happen, either they would end her life, or she would. To her, these were the only two possible outcomes. There was no one strong enough to reach her in any amount of time, and no force that could counter the Zor if they did reach here. The only thing she could be now in her life was their plaything, until they decided they were bored and it was time to move on. She could not live like that. She needed to be free. It wasn't a matter of if, but when and how. She needed something to do it.
When she had been captured, her Lens had been removed from her wrist. Her sister was no one's fool, and knew what would occur if Lexa had the ability to morph. It came down as it always did to her older sister. Lexa had been born second, but unlike on Earth, the youngest was not regarded as the baby. The two of them had been regarded as equals from the second she had been born. The only offset had been age, four years between the two. As Human children would be separated by adolescence in that span, the two of them were as close as any siblings could be. Their family had been a strong cohesive unit as well, and the two sisters were as bright as any one else in their life time. It would be the academy that changed everything. Lenoa had made the decision to enter first, and found quickly her aptitude for combat, and strategy. Her trainers were not the only ones that had marveled at her strength and prowess, other eyes were upon her as well. Eyes that held darkness behind them. It was here that she had met Vendir, a Commander in the Royal Fleet. It was here that Vendir nurtured her abilities, and slowly began to corrupt her to his purpose, and he did that by addicting her to power.
The majority of the Mobiums contained no lust for power, they didn't need it for the most part they had always been in control of their own lives. The Star Kingdom was a force of organization, not of rule, and every Mobium was granted their own determination. In ways, the lust for power that Humans seem to contain in every generation had been effectively bred out of their system. Vendir knew how the minds of the Mobiums worked, and this allowed him to stir the pot inside of Lenoa's head. Rekindle something that had long ago been forgotten. By the time Lexa had joined the Academy behind her older sister, Vendir had almost completely turned Lenoa into what she was now. She was transferred under Polaris's command, and he would allow her to blossom into her full power. Lexa never had any idea. When Lexa had finished the academy, and had been positioned under Polaris's command with her sister, she thought only of the happiness it would bring her to allow her to work side by side with her sister. For a time, things were just that, happy, until she had begun to notice the subtle differences in her sister's attitude. She sensed it mentally as well, but she suspected it was the addition of the years of experience in the fleet she had over her. It had not been enough to warn her, not enough to tell her it would come to this; that her sister would betray her own people to their greatest enemy; to side with them.
But hadn't Lexa done the same? She had made a decision that had set her against her own people, on a path that was not the course of the race. She had chosen a path shown to her by a strange man, a man she respected, and admired, in the course of that choice, she had come to know Matt, and that too had kindled a powerful emotion inside of her. Had she not walked the same path as her sister, just on the other side of it? Could she really blame Lenoa for the choice she had made, when she had made the exact same choice?
Lexa's choice didn't involve genocide though. Her choice to follow Keith was not going to lead to the extinction of the Human race, and the enslavement of the Mobiums by the Zor. That was the difference. Lenoa had the opportunity to make the right choice, and she chose the wrong instead. And because she had made such a choice, such a foolish, cowardly choice, Lexa hated her sister. Lenoa was supposed to be the one that Lexa followed, and learned from. The two of them were supposed to be a team, a family, and Lenoa had set her own fortunes beyond either of them. All of this was her fault; and was her responsibility. And Lexa was about to be the one that paid for it all.
As the doors slid open to her cell, Lexa didn't even have to raise her head to see who it was. She knew her sister was standing in her presence by the thoughts and energies emanating from within. The younger sister could not even bare to regard her sister in any capacity, as the hatred that ran through her veins caused her to be paralyzed to all but her thoughts.
"You appear to be quite cold sister," announced Lenoa mentally, as she stood over Lexa, arms folded behind her back. "I suppose I should inquire as to whether we can increase the temperature in here." Slowly, the older sister began to shuffle around the room. She cared not if Lexa heard her, for she spoke only to her the words coming from her mind. To Lenoa this was no more then a sibling session of, 'I told you so.'
Lexa had been lying on the floor of the cell, her arms propping her torso up, and the long streaks of her night colored hair, hanging in front of her eyes. She never turned to regard her sister, remaining motionless, except for the rising and falling of her chest as her breath escaped her body. Lenoa needed acknowledgement to continue though, "It's bad enough you sided against your own people, but you decided to look like them as well? You had such a lovely shape, and you ruined it with all those extra curves. I would not be surprised if it slowed you down during that battle of ours."
Lexa continued to offer no response to her older sister, while Lenoa continued on her euphoric rant, "No matter. We are quite close to completing our task of securing this planet as the newest acquisition to the Empire. And soon, we shall wipe the vermin that populate it from existence, thus ending their petty lives, and freeing their minds to wander the galaxy. Here the Zor will rebuild, bringing their race back to full strength, so that they can assert their dominion over the Empire for millennia to come. Here the mistakes of the past shall be undone."
Lexa continued to lay motionless where she had been, her eyes fixated on a point on the floor below her, not really trying to block out her older sister, but focused on her own thoughts instead. Lenoa though showed no signs of discouragement, "Of course though, with a charge of treason, I fear you will not be present to witness such. Our mother would have been so distraught to learn of such a thing, that I choose instead to tell her that you had perished at the hands of these beings on this planet. Falling in battle defending our Empire, our home from these creatures. I am certain, while it may sadden her, it will also give her the resolve she needs to continue. I hope too, that you will also find peace in this as well, knowing that she will be well taken care of after you have left us. Such a foolish mistake from one so young. If you had merely carried out your mission with Trius from the beginning none of this would have come to pass, and things could have been different."
A muffle escaped Lexa's lips, as well as her mind, inaudible in both respects, but enough to register that she had made a noise, enough to cause Lenoa to turn and face her as she had returned to her original spot where she had entered the room. "I apologize, I did not understand you."
Lexa's eyes suddenly turned and focused on her sisters, and her hair fell back allowing her face to have the artificial light rain down upon it. Her face, and expression were set firmly as she looked up at Lenoa, scowling down upon her. "If you had been stronger, this would have been different."
Lenoa crouched down, so that the two sister's faces were eye level with one and another. There was no expression of her face, save for the same that she had worn since she had entered. "To be fair, I am not the one sitting in the cell, awaiting her execution, as the world she fought for, falls around her."
Slowly Lenoa rose, and turned her back to Lexa as the door slid open for her to depart. Lexa was not prepared for her to have the final word, as she managed to speak as loud as her vocal chords could, using her voice in defiance of their Mobium ways, "Hopefully it will only take one act of genocide to sate your pallet." Lenoa paused only for a moment, but never turned to regard Lexa as she then continued her stride back to where she had come from, thus leaving Lexa in the darkness she had been in before. Lexa knew then absolutely that her sister was gone, lost forever to whatever darkness had claimed her. Before she had only been determined to stop her, and hopefully rescue her light from inside. Now she knew with all her thoughts that the only way to do that was to end her. She knew it was something that she may not be able to accomplish, and that it may have to be up to someone else to finish that task. Hopefully somewhere about the stars, Harabec lived. Perhaps Harabec would be the savior of the Mobium race a second time.
To Harabec though, the path of fate looked different. To him, the young man standing in front of him at this moment was the being that would bring resolution to this great conflict poised against them right now. Harabec had only known the stories of Keith before he had extracted him from the space above the Planet Earth where he had found the Red Ranger. He had only studied the reports that the biased commander he had sent to Earth had made. It was quite a different thing though to fight beside him combat. With his powers now restored to him, he could see that a change had come to Keith's personality. There was a restored vitality and strength that had not been there before. A confidence that seemed when he arrived on the ship to be all but forgotten, lost to the planet he left behind. But as the Power Lens shone brightly, charged by the Grid that it was now in the full midst of, its red light was a badge of strength that he wore proudly to display to all around him. For the briefest of moments, Harabec found himself wondering if this was the offspring that he and Terisian could have had, for he would surely be proud to have a son like this man in front of him. He had become lost in his thoughts though, as Keith seemed to look puzzled as to why he now stood in the Commander's quarters. Harabec turned and looked behind him, his eyes searching for but an instant to recall where he had placed the object he now sought. Picking it up upon locating it, he turned back to Keith, holding it between his hands. "Here it is."
A small box about the size of a keyboard rested between his hands, closed, its contents inside unknown. "The original crafter of the psionic weapons we use in melee combat designed the original prototypes almost a millennia ago. From them came the Psy Saber we used today, almost unchanged since then due to their efficient nature."
Keith nodded, taking in what the older man in front of him was saying.
"His name was Zerous, and he was quite amazing at his craft, so much to the fact that he managed to create three very unique weapons that have become cherished relics of our people. Legendary in their nature, all but one has been lost to time and space. A lance, a hammer, and a saber made up the collection, and at every point, each weapon has been lost only to be recovered again, including this one here." Opening the box slowly, Harabec revealed the hilt of a Psy Saber, but one that Keith could not even imagine in his strangest dreams. In many ways it looked exactly like any other Psy Saber he had seen so far, however in others it was stranger than anything he had seen to date. The exterior was a midnight black, but in places it looked chrome, and seemed to reflect the light. There were characters carved into the metal, from what looked like more than one different language, and they seemed to intertwine themselves all the way up the hilt, from the bottom tip to the emitter at the very top, like chains wrapping about the grip. The strangest part about it though, was that Keith could sense the weapon, like it was another person in the room that had suddenly walked in. He was taken aback by the entire experience, and could only listen as Harabec continued.
"This weapon has been wielded by many beings through its history, but I am very proud of the fact that the majority of that time was with the Royal Family of Mobius." There was a slight change in tone in his mental communication as he continued, "When I first met your mother, she was someone who did not look favorably upon me, and thought me a bit of a reckless character. It took several revolutions for her to allow herself to perceive me differently, and allow me too…be accepted into her heart. Towards the end of her courtship, when it appeared we would be mated, the King presented me with this gift, for he had no sons of his own to pass it down to. I think that considering the circumstances it would be better if you wielded from now on. Keith, this is the Blade of Zerous, this weapon is now yours."
Keith's eyes locked upon Harabec's, and his thoughts could not be helped to be drawn to the part of the speech that had dealt with Harabec taking possession of it. He could feel a sense of guilt in his voice regarding his possession of the weapon, and how ultimately he had betrayed the man that given it to him. Harabec needed to be free of that guilt to go on, and he had done part of that by making sure that Keith had survived to this point. This was one of the final steps that needed to happen to allow Harabec some peace in the matter at long last.
Slowly Keith reached out, and his right hand wrapped around the hilt of the Psy Saber drawing it from its case and back into the light. He could feel the power that the saber contained inside, and it reminded him of the first time he had picked up a loaded weapon. There was a touch of caution, and anxiety as he held it comfortably in his hand. But there was another sensation as well. He could sense the memories of all those who had wielded it before him, all the way back to its creator. He could see briefly every single wielder of the saber as they used it in combat, and always it seemed in defense. This included Harabec, and even his Grandfather, the King. For instance Keith even thought he saw a human from the distant past holding it, as he defended his just kingdom from an onslaught.
Stepping back, he ignited the saber, its blade just as Red as the normal saber he carried. It seemed to him that the mental energy burned brighter than any of the sabers he had wielded before, like it was somehow alive and responded to his emotions. Closing his eyes he concentrated on the blade, and could feel the energy he poured into it. Letting go, the blade shimmed and extinguished, and he straightened his pose. "This is an amazing gift Harabec."
"It is well earned too," Harabec returned. "I fear though, as powerful as it is, it still may not be enough to defeat the Emperor."
"How powerful is he?' Keith asked. "If he's a Zor as you say he is, he's already stronger than me."
"When I first met him, he had posed as just another Solider in the fleet," Harabec explained. "He always seemed an adequate fighter, but we did not know then that it was only a deception. The first time he revealed his power, the first time he showed his true ability it was something that unnerved many people around him, including myself. You must remember one thing when you face him, and under no circumstances can you let yourself be deprived of this thought, for if you are, then you will fall to him. He has no rules that he is bound too. You are not coming to take his throne from him. You are not coming to take the fate of his people from him. You will be there to end his very existence, to take from him the only thing that he has. He will not attempt to surrender; he will not attempt to negotiate. He will either kill you, or you will kill him. In his mind this is the only way it can end. He is as cold to the world around him as the droids he sends after us to end our own lives."
"Can I beat him?" asked Keith solemnly. "I mean, is there even a chance I can stop him?"
Shutting the box that he had been holding, Harabec turned around and put the box back to where it had been originally, now devoid of its contents. He looked Keith over carefully, as the Red Ranger's hands now rest comfortably at his sides, his right one still holding the hilt of the weapon cautiously. "I do not believe anyone is capable of answering that. I do believe though that you are the best chance that we have at doing it."
"Why not you?" Keith asked him. "I mean a part of me wonders why you haven't made the attempt before. I can't help but feel that there's the possibility you're sending me in to test the waters."
"It can't be me Keith," replied Harabec solemnly. "I have already removed one leader from power, if I did so again, if it was not a member of the royal family who returned, it would just be another regime change in the eyes of the people. Someone would then come along to remove me, and the cycle would continue. With you, it is the universe finding balance with itself. Restoring what has always been."
A loud rush of air escaped Keith's nostrils in audible sigh. He had come to trust the older man's motives, but he had to ask, had to sense the response the Mobium had given him, and he knew it to be genuine. It did not change the fact though that he was still going to have to face down the Emperor and win. "I understand."
"There is not much more time before we reach Mobius," Harabec informed him. "It would be best if you used the remaining time to rest before we reach our attack position."
Keith nodded, and turned away from the Commander, walking towards the door, he stopped just as the doors opened for him to leave. He felt he should tell Harabec something else before he leaved, but he decided it against, and continued out into the hallway instead. Slowly he placed the hilt of his new saber against his thigh, and it magnetized to it, remaining in place. As he turned the corner to his quarters though he found Khara standing in his doorway, her back to the door of his quarters. Her eyes fell upon him swiftly, and Keith was unsure of the look that she had given him. There was something truly alien about the look, as well as the fact that her thoughts seemed to close to him. Her eyes fell to the outside of his thigh where the saber rested.
"He gave it to you then," she said, her mental voice coming through as soft and reassuring. Keith nodded in reply. "I suspected he would advise you to rest as we drew near to the planet, so I decided to wait here, until your conversation had been completed. I wanted to tell you…." She paused in mid sentence, and her mental defense broke momentarily for Keith to read that she was in a state of confusion, and realized that there was a flood of emotion in her mind. "…there is a good chance that we might not get to speak before we get to Mobius, and a strong chance that we may all fail in our missions, and I wanted to say that I enjoyed the time we spent sharing our memories with each other."
Keith slowly reached out and took her hand. And she grasped it quickly in hers, and held it tightly for a moment. She almost appeared choked up, but the thoughts that came from her mind seemed to be clear and concise, "You are a very great Mobium, whether you see that or not. And I did mean Mobium, for I know that deep down you see that part of yourself as a burden, as you cling to your humanity, you are both, will always be both."
"I know," Keith replied softly.
"No one else would ever come to the aid of a kingdom of people that they had not only never known, but one that had turned its back on his family," she continued. "No one. And if that alone made you great….."
Slowly Keith's free hand reached up and touched her cheek softly, his thumb rubbing the raised portion of her cheek, while his fingers stroked the strange lower curve of her pointed her. Khara reached up, and took his hand and pulled it away from her face, holding both of his hands in hers. "I cannot…I will never be her. No one can. She is gone forever, and as much as you might…you have not let her go from your thoughts, have not taken her from the place in your mind where she is, and placed her in the place where she needs to be. And anyone can use that against you; the Emperor can use that against you. And you cannot let him do that."
Freeing his one hand from his grasp, he reached into his back pocket, and produced the very object that Illyiana had given him on the planet surface. He brought his mother's Power Lens out before his eyes, and looked at for a moment. "Perhaps you could hold onto this for me for safe keeping, until I come back to get it from you."
Khara's eyes locked on the Power Lens. It had been encoded with his mother's DNA and was unable to be accessed by anyone else until it was reset by a family member. To Keith though, beside himself, it was a physical representation of his mother's strength, and meant a great deal to him. It made the situation he found himself in now a very real one, as he had found the places among the stars that his mother had walked, and found himself retracing her steps back to their homeworld. Slowly she reached up, and took the Lens from his grasp, and held it softly in her hands. "I would be honored to carry such a thing."
"I hope to come reclaim it at some point," he told her. "I know how unlikely that maybe, but I still hope to do it."
"It will be here waiting when you wish to do so," she replied, smiling ever so slightly. "You should rest."
"I honestly thought even Mobiums knew better than to tell someone that," Keith replied.
"Maybe we just learned how to after all this time," Khara asserted.
"Then I will endeavour to do so," Keith said, as he took several steps back. Khara smiled, and slowly brushed past him, heading down the hallway that would take her back to the bridge. Keith watched her go, inside feeling something instead of feeling nothing. It wasn't the same strong feelings he had whenever he had looked at Mady, but something was better than nothing. He had felt nothing for what had felt like way to long for him. Turning back to his doorway, he entered, letting the doors close behind him. It would only be hours now.
Nick had been heavily sedated since he had been brought to the Zor base in the Antarctic. It was quite easy for them to disarm Lexa of her Power Lens, and thus remove the problem of having her attempt to morph and cause a problem, but for Nick, it was an entirely different matter.
Strapped to a very advanced looking medical table, shackled by the ankle and wrists, Nick was barely aware of what was going on around him. Since Lenoa had taken him prisoner he had been in a daze, but he was only barely aware of where he was. The passage of time was completely impossible for him to determine in this state, nor was the ability for him to access his powers which seem to be just beyond his grasp. The state found himself also numbed him to what they had been doing to him, and for that, it was a small blessing.
Keith had done something to him that the Zor had never encountered before and for them, and their millennia of knowledge not to know something was unacceptable. There had been tests, and he had been out of it for most of them. And there had been a multitude of them. They had gone so far as to do everything it seemed but attempt to remove the jewel on his chest from his body. Nick was a lab rat to the Zor, but the Zor were not the only ones who had eyes on Nick. There was one set imparticular that had paid great attention to Nick during his stay on the base.
Evan was quite fascinated by what Keith had managed to have accomplished with Nick. In their early days, they had matched each other move for move, but it had been Evan who had created others like him before Keith even attempted too. For Evan it was simply a matter of empowering them, much like he had been empowered. Energy channeled into their forms, advancing their natural mutations, causing them to wield power that humanity may wield itself someday, only Evan was of course first.
Keith on the other hand had manage to take the life force of another being, and not only use it to empower another, but he had split it across too. He had fought the Lunar Ranger in battle, and felt her power, its strange signature different than the other Rangers had been. Here before him, as he stood and looked through the glass at Nick, was a puzzle, the answer of which was something he felt he needed to have. What energy had Keith tapped into to instill power into these two. There was of course the obvious answer, that this was some sort of spiritual energy associated with souls, and the divine. Evan though was not a fan of that answer. To him, and his scientific mind there had to be a better answer, and in the time he had left, the time between the moment he found himself in, and the moment where the Zor no longer needed him, he would have to discover the answer for himself.
Nick was unaware of the musings of Evan's mind behind the glass that made up one of the walls in his room. In his mind he was in the midst of a struggle, as he tried to fight back against the flood of the sedatives that had been forced upon him. He had to somehow find a way to control his body, access his power so that he may escape, find his way to the outside world. He found himself in a dream-like state, a dark black world, with a black sky, and a purple horizon. Light came from somewhere though, for everything about him was illuminated. Here, he had been walking, struggling to continue on to the horizon where he felt his powers, just out of his reach. He hadn't been alone in here though, he had been haunted; haunted by the two people which meant the most to him.
Urging him forward had been the voice, and form of Mike, the source of his powers, and his best friend from so long ago. Standing in opposition had been the voice, and form of Briana. Mike would encourage him to keep going, to keep striving towards the goal just on the horizon. Briana's position was not sinister in its approach, quite the opposite, for she only wanted Nick to stop, and remain in the darkness with her, where she could protect him.
Their voices though were not the ones heard in a room, or across a landscape, but seem to float to him on the wind, as he could see their forms off in the distance, each beckoning to him, as if to encourage him to travel towards them for his salvation. Nick spoke no words of his own, merely moving in one single direction, towards Mike, and stopping when his strength failed him. When it did, he would turn to look at Briana, and consider turning back to her warm embrace. He had missed her, dearly in their time apart, and now her hope, and her beauty that shone through the darkness of his mind he found welcoming.
As much as he would try, he seemed unable to reach Mike though. For whatever reason though he would not give in though. As strange as it seemed, he knew that he was a prisoner, that he was being held captive, and if he did not get out of this trap his mind had put him in, he would be trapped forever.
In the chaos of his mind though, a ray of light soundly burst through, as order seemingly pierced through the sky. Nick's form rose slowly off the ground where he had fallen to rest, and suddenly his thinking had become sharper, clearer in a sense, and the path in front of him seem to make sense. With great effort he put one foot down in front of him, and then another, trying to follow the light which now cut a clear path to Mike further down its trail.
The sun had been no accident though, nor coincidence. It had been the act of someone who had slowly looked on from just beyond a pane of glass, someone who knew that the only true way to find his answer, and perhaps survive the entire ordeal, was to bring a little of his own brand of chaos to the ordered world around him that seemed so ready to do him in. Release the Solar Ranger, let him his facilities back, perhaps he would escape, perhaps Evan would be able to study him, and his power in more depth. Keep everyone going for just a bit longer, long enough for Evan to get the answers he needed.