Chapter Ninety-Three: Rise Up

I hadn't been expecting to die again so soon. Was I going to be okay?

Objectively, sure. I've died before, and my consciousness survived the experience, painful as it was. Stands to reason I'll survive this death, too. Getting stabbed in the throat with a knife sure as fuck was going to hurt, though. Which was worse, a stabbed throat or a slit throat?

Xolotl's knife flew through the air towards my throat, and I cringed, helplessly ensnared in Xolotl's telekinetic grip, only to realize that I shouldn't have even had enough time to cringe. How was I still alive?

Frozen, quivering in midair, inches away from my throat, floated Xolotl's knife, stopped by an unseen force.

"Treacherouss sscum!" Glimmering Scales rushed past me from behind, charging straight at Xolotl with his sword drawn, and I've never been so glad to see that prickly son of a bitch.

Xolotl shifted focus to deal with Scales, and his invisible grip around me melted away, allowing me to slide away from Xolotl's floating knife.

I hurried back to where Adam lay shuddering and unconscious on the ground. A rivulet of blood seeped from the corner of Adam's mouth, which was bad news. His lungs were turning into blood bags.

Xolotl locked blades with Scales, and for several moments each struggled to gain advantage over the other. Before any kind of resolution could be reached, the deadlock was interrupted by the sudden explosive arrival of Inuyyak, who let out a guttural shout as he tackled Xolotl, pinning the Sand Dweller warrior to the ground. Scales seized control of Xolotl's sword and took advantage of Inuyyak's intervention, delivering a mild blow with the flat of his blade to Xolotl's head, rendering the white-scaled Sand Dweller unconscious.

"What iss thiss?!" screamed an unfamiliar voice belonging to someone who was clearly very pissed off, which was just what we needed.

As hundreds of cobra warriors poured in through the main gate of Hyperion's Wall, three passing Sand Dweller warriors witnessed Xolotl under attack by a Northerner and a Treefolk, while Adam bled out on the ground nearby. Who would ever look at that and jump to a premature conclusion? Definitely not my level-headed consorts.

"Oathbreakerss!" snarled the first Sand Dweller, a wiry warrior whose scales consisted of varying shades of orange. "You have murdered the Knight! Oathbreakerss!"

Before anyone who understood the situation could explain the situation, the Sand Dwellers charged at my friends, who barely had enough time to react. Scales twisted away from the orange-scaled warrior's incoming sword, barely avoiding the blade while bringing his own sword to bear, knocking aside the Sand Dweller's followup attack.

With a snarl, Inuyyak drew his massive broadsword and effortlessly swept aside the blades of the other two Sand Dwellers, who were startled by the brute force behind the blow, although not for very long. Inuyyak threw himself forward and headbutted the closer of the two Sand Dwellers, knocking the surprised warrior unconscious before giving the other Sand Dweller his undivided attention, much to the Sand Dweller's chagrin.

"Stop it!" I yelled, but no one seemed to hear me, and all the while Adam continued to bleed out on the ground. "Stop it!"

Scales darted to the side, barely evading another deadly attack by the orange-scaled Sand Dweller, uncertain of his ability to evade death three times in a row.

"Traitorss!" shouted a passing brown-scaled Northerner who'd noticed our situation and jumped to her own conclusion. "Cowardss!" She charged into our midst with her sword drawn, intent on butchering the Sand Dweller attacking Inuyyak.

"Aiyana, wait!" rumbled Inuyyak, but it was too late. The brown-scaled Northerner wasn't listening, and she wasn't alone. Several Treefolk warriors from Clan Nathair followed close behind, howling for the death of the orange-scaled Sand Dweller attacking Glimmering Scales.

I couldn't believe this was happening. This shouldn't be happening. Why was this happening?!

Enough.

"Fucking STOP already!" I thundered. "This is not a civil war, this is a REVOLUTION! IF YOU WANT A CIVIL WAR SO GODDAMN MUCH, SAVE IT FOR AFTER WE WIN THE FUCKING REVOLUTION!"

Everyone involved in our nascent little civil war had frozen abruptly in place, and only when I finished screaming did I realize that I was the one immobilizing them, and holy crap, I needed to stop. It was draining way too much energy.

"We don't have time for this." I released everyone, bending down to scoop up Adam from the ground. "Keep on fighting each other, and you'll never be free. I can't make you work together. Make the right choice."

And with that, I launched myself into the sky, carrying Adam in my arms.

Abigail Tarrant enjoyed her cigarette, resting her elbows on the railing of the White Shadow's main deck, gazing off into the inky starless depths of the Furthest Ring. She exhaled, watching her smoke drift away into space.

"Thanks for the smoke, G." Abigail yawned. "I needed it."

"You are welcome," replied the Prospitian marine sergeant leaning against the rail next to Abigail. Before stowing her carton, G pulled a second cigarette for herself, lighting it and inhaling deeply.

Abigail looked away from the empty view of the Furthest Ring and turned around, opting to lean back on the railing instead of hunching over it, resting once again upon her elbows. She took another drag from her newly acquired cigarette, gazing up at the White Shadow's massive railgun, which loomed silently overhead. "Have you ever seen that thing shoot?"

"Yes." G exhaled smoke and took another drag off her cigarette. "It is very loud. Never a good idea to clench your jaws if you're standing nearby when it fires. Clench your jaws at the wrong moment, and your teeth could shatter."

"Really?" Abigail coughed, watching her cigarette smoldering slowly away. "Happen to anyone you know?"

"Just one. He is dead." The glow at the end of G's cigarette flared brightly as she breathed in. "Long war. Everyone loses someone."

Not for the first time, and not for the last, Abigail wondered where her brother was, and how he was doing. She hadn't seen him in over a month. Was he even still alive?

Abigail yawned again. She was exhausted, and hadn't slept in over three days. Less than an hour ago, Chela ordered Abigail to leave the bridge and get some rest, and Abigail only partially obeyed. She did leave the bridge. But sleep simply would not come, and so instead of wasting time lying awake in her bunk, Abigail decided to go abovedecks, where the silence of incipisphere space might calm her restless mind.

Sure, the silence of space was calming, but the cigarette was doing an even better job. "Why do you like to come up here?" asked Abigail.

"Can't smoke belowdecks," said G. "Against regulations. And it makes the whole ship smell."

"They sure do smell." Abigail took another drag. "How did you even get a pack of American Spirits?"

"I went to the market before we shipped out." G tapped away the ash accumulated at the end of her cigarette. "You can find these at every market and corner store on Prospit or the Golden Moon."

"But how did they get cigarettes?" Abigail yawned again. "If you've been using appearifiers to steal cartons of cigarettes from Earth, power to you, but why American Spirits? They're awful."

"To each their own."

Suddenly, red emergency lights throughout the deck of the White Shadow began to pulse silently at quick intervals from every door leading belowdecks, prompting Abigail and G to take one final drag and flick their cigarettes away into space. "We're here." Abigail opened the nearest door belowdecks and passed through, holding it for G. "Make sure all the marines are ready. We may encounter some difficulty on the ground."

The door sealed shut after G, who departed down a different corridor, heading for a lift which would carry her to the hangar bay, where the White Shadow's complement of royal marines had orders to prepare the dropships for deployment. "Good luck," she said.

"You too." Abigail headed the other way. She followed the corridor into a larger one, and the larger corridor brought her to the White Shadow's central lift, which in turn whisked her straight down to the bridge. When the lift's doors hissed open, Abigail strode onto the bridge, stifling a yawn as Chela swiveled round in the captain's chair to greet her.

"Did you sleep well?" Chela asked, noting the dark circles under Abigail's bloodshot eyes.

"As well as can be expected." Abigail frowned at the viewscreen, which displayed a truly bizarre view of Derse and its moon. Somehow, the gigantic chain connecting the two city-planetoids had been shattered at its lunar anchor. The Obsidian Moon, sundered from its mother planet, drifted slowly away, sinking deeper and deeper into the endless depths of the Furthest Ring, where time passed strangely and physics grew slippery.

Four Dersite Royal Navy battleships hung low in the sky over a fiery wound in the Obsidian Moon, raining down an orbital bombardment on targets hidden underneath a hellish veil of smoke and ash, which obscured most of the moon's surface. Only one patch of the lunar surface was visible, thanks to stern winds kicked up by the powerful flames, dispersing the clouds to reveal a yawning fiery crater, the bottom of which Abigail could not see.

The four DRN battleships focused their firepower on the area surrounding the burning crater, and it was not difficult to deduce who the bombardment was for.

"Was the Onyx breached?" Abigail kept the White Shadow on a steady course towards the four Dersite battleships, quickly scanning all of the stealth ship's systems to ensure the Shadow was running silently. "What a nightmare. This doesn't look like anything that revolutionary guy had in mind."

"It is not," Chela remarked, tapping with her fingernail a quiet rhythm on the armrest of the captain's chair. "This is precisely what the Wrathful Veteran wished to avoid. Something must have gone horribly wrong."

"What should we do?" Abigail eyed the four DRN battleships warily. "I don't like our odds against those ships, but Gino and Gwen could be caught in that mess. We can't leave them."

"We will get as close as we can, but we will not open fire," said Chela. "We do not know what is happening on the surface, and we do not know for sure if any of the kids are down there."

"We don't know they aren't down there," protested Abigail. "At the very least, we can draw one or two of the battleships away, and-"

"That is quite enough." Chela looked at Abigail, and her gaze left no room for dissent. "Bring us down to a crawl. Do not warm up the railgun, or those battleships will detect us."

"Would you hang back if you knew Cruz might be down there?"

The corners of Chela's mouth tightened, but she gave no other outward reaction to Abigail's question. After a long silence, she replied, "I thank God that he is not."

Abigail killed the engines and gently engaged the White Shadow's retro thrusters, bringing the Prospitian stealth ship nearly to a halt. "Since when do you believe in a god?"

"Old habits." Chela noticed the rhythm she was tapping with her finger, and she stopped. "Everything grows from something else. Trees from seeds, seeds from trees. Planets and stars from gas and gravity, gas and gravity from planets and stars. Are universes created from other universes?"

"Makes sense, I mean, why not?" Abigail watched the four DRN battleships sink another volley of blazing artillery into the chaos beneath the smoky clouds. "Do you think Humanity can be reseeded?"

"No," said Chela. "I'm afraid Humanity's chapter in the cosmic story has come to its conclusion. But there is other life within this dimension, and perhaps through our efforts, their chapters may yet continue."

"Sounds like fun." Abigail yawned before she could catch herself.

"Abby, you seem very tired." After noting the dark circles under Abigail's eyes, Chela had been on the lookout for a yawn. "You did not actually get any sleep, did you."

"Oh, you know." Abigail shrugged. "No."

"Abigail."

"Don't worry about me." Abigail frowned as she thought she saw a massive dark object flying at breakneck speed from space into the Obsidian Moon's ash-choked clouds. Had that been her imagination? "I could fly this ship in a coma."

"When this settles down, you are going to get some rest," Chela declared. "No more cigarettes until you sleep."

Red lightning exploded abruptly across the sky of the Obsidian Moon, multiplying into dozens and then hundreds of individual lightning strikes, bright enough to be seen even underneath the smoky veil of clouds. Within seconds, the lightning surged up through the clouds and blossomed outwards into orbit, ripping through the four DRN battleships one by one. The detonations of the four battleships' reactors were so bright, they forced Abigail to look away from the viewscreen.

"What the fuck?!" Abigail nearly jumped out of her seat. "What the fuck is that?"

"The Black Queen is down there." Chela began tapping her armrest again as she watched burning pieces of the wrecked battleships fall from orbit, crashing into the city below, while even more red lightning surged forth from the storm's hidden epicenter. "Warm up the railgun."

"So much for the Black Queen never leaving her palace," Abigail muttered as she brought the White Shadow's railgun online. "Want me to bring us in?"

"Slowly," replied Chela. "Keep us away from that lightning-" A loud, rapid beeping broke out suddenly from Abigail's console, interrupting Chela.

"Proximity alert!" Abigail exclaimed, pressing the appropriate command on her console to silence the alarm. "Something's approaching us at high velocity, and the Shadow's sensors are having trouble identifying the signature. Entering visual range."

"Show me."

Abigail switched the viewscreen to a camera mounted on the White Shadow's starboard side, towards the stern of the ship, and magnified the image. Sure enough, Abigail could make out five distant points of rapidly approaching color, and as they grew closer, she quickly recognized them. "The sprites are coming."

Chela, whose eyesight was not what it used to be, squinted through her thick-rimmed glasses at the viewscreen, impatiently waiting for the smudges of color to take on greater definition.

"I don't suppose you'll tell me how you managed to call in the sprites?" Abigail returned the viewscreen to normal magnification as the five sprites approached the White Shadow.

Chela could now make out more details, recognizing the sprites of Tami, Gino, Cruz, Gwen, and Theo as they soared past the White Shadow, prompting Abigail to switch the viewscreen back to the default frontward view. "I did not contact them," Chela said, watching the five sprites plunge towards the nightmarish lightning storm consuming the Obsidian Moon. "But it is good they are here. We can use this to our advantage. How is our railgun?"

Abigail glanced at her console's readout on the railgun, checking to see if it was ready. "Just about fully charged."

On the viewscreen, the five sprites vanished into the smoky veil of clouds, and within seconds Chela and Abigail witnessed bright flashes of multicolored light from underneath the smoke and ash. "Switch to thermal," ordered Chela.

Abigail switched the viewscreen to thermal imaging and magnified, revealing hundreds of tiny humanoid-shaped white heat signatures embroiled in vicious combat amidst a hellish landscape of varying shades of gray. Hundreds of individual Dersites could be seen charging down a series of ruined streets towards a sprawling network of wrecked military vehicles and embattled commandos.

In the center of the chaos was the Black Queen herself, whose heat signature dwarfed every other life form on the Obsidian Moon. She was hideously deformed and enlarged, hovering in midair, over a thousand feet tall and several hundred feet wide. Wings sprouted from her back, a short mousy tail from the base of her spine, one of her arms had been replaced with a drill, and to top it all off, the Queen appeared to be wearing a Santa hat.

The five sprites swooped in together and, combining their strength, managed to knock the Black Queen off her feet. As the sprites closed in, the Black Queen breathed fire at them, clawing her way back to her feet and swiping at the sprites, forcing them to scatter.

"Railgun is fully charged," Abigail reported, reducing the viewscreen's magnification as the White Shadow drew closer and closer to the Obsidian Moon. "I don't have a good shot, though. The Queen is moving around too much."

"Bring us to quarter speed and get us in close," ordered Chela, gripping both of her armrests. "We'll have to risk the Red Miles, but I think these sprites will give us a chance."

"They're getting in my way," Abigail complained, increasing power to the engines while plotting a firing solution for the railgun. "We might hit one or two of them."

"Taking your opponent's Queen often requires sacrificing one of your own pieces," said Chela, unperturbed. "Prepare to fire."

"You already taught me how to play chess," chided Abigail, finger hovering over her console, ready to press the command to fire the railgun. "And this is no game."

"Is it not?" Chela mused thoughtfully to herself as the Obsidian Moon grew close enough to fill the entire viewscreen. Stray bolts of the Red Miles speared through outer space not too far away from the White Shadow. "Sometimes I do wonder."

The five sprites regrouped and went after the Black Queen a second time. Working as one, the sprites seized the Black Queen's non-drill arm and flew straight up, dragging along the surprised Queen's hand in their wake, leaving her ring of power terribly exposed.

It was all Chela needed. "Can you hit her arm?"

Abigail nodded. "Just say the word."

"Fire."

The White Shadow trembled as its railgun roared to life, shooting a blazing white projectile through the hellish lightning storm, through the smoky veil of dust and ash, straight into the Black Queen's upstretched arm, severing the limb from the rest of her body.

Almost immediately, the Black Queen's heat signature shrank to about a hundredth of its previous size, now that she no longer possessed her ring of power.

"Track where the Queen's Ring will land," ordered Chela, watching the Black Queen's severed arm disintegrating into dust as it fell towards the city below. "And bring us down to the surface. We have work to do. Abby, besides the ones mounted on the ship, do we have any cameras on hand?"

"Sure." Abigail reached into her pocket and produced a smartphone. "What are we filming?"

"Just have it ready for some close-ups."

I never thought it would end this way.

As a sprite, there has always been an undercurrent of feeling like I was living on borrowed time. I didn't expect to live long. Even now, I'm surprised at how far I've come, and I couldn't help but feel resentful of my present circumstances.

Why should it be my responsibility to save Adam's life? Just because I was standing nearby? But I was only standing there because Adam brought me here without my permission. This was such bullshit.

With several powerful wingbeats, I soared up into the sky, leaving behind the battle raging below. Adam dangled limp and lifeless in my arms.

This wasn't fair. I didn't ask to be resurrected, but it happened, and I dealt with it. I brought myself back from the brink of insanity to deal with it. And, what, now I was just supposed to give it all up? Because Adam decided to karmically fuck with one of his consorts?

Of course, when I was in the dream bubble, living as Adam, I made the same choices, so were my hands really clean?

FUCK.

This wasn't fair!

I shouldn't have to give up my individuality because stupid Adam fucking got himself killed like a stupid fucking fuckrocket. Fuck that.

No, I mean it, fuck that.

I mean, I don't have to save his life. I could always just let him die, you know, and I'd get to keep on being me. It would only be fair, considering how I've been treated. I'm more mature than him, anyway, I've lived longer than him, I'm more of me than he is, and god fucking damn it, I SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO LIVE.

I deserve to live.

Did Adam not? He stood up for me publicly when he didn't have to, he called me out on some of my own bullshit, and he affirmed me. Didn't he deserve to live, too? If that doesn't qualify someone as deserving to live, what the fuck else possibly can?

"I…" Adam's eyes fluttered open, startling me. "I'm-"

"Jesus Fuck, how are you awake?" I blurted out.

"Don't…" Adam coughed, "…really know… I don't think I'm…coming back from this one. This one's too deep."

"I know, buddy."

"Hurts," he wheezed, eyes darting about deliriously. "Fucking hurts."

"I know." I clenched my teeth as I climbed higher into the sky, setting my sights on the summit of Hyperion's peak.

"Could you at least tell Cass—" Adam coughed again, more violently, spitting up blood. When he breathed in, I could hear gurgling. "Tell Cass I'm sorry I never messaged her to see if she was okay. Tell Theo he's fucking awesome, and I wish the world had ended after September so we could've played Halo 3: ODST together. And tell Gino, if you see him again, he's a raging asshole and he can go fuck himself. And-"

"Tell them yourself," I said. "You're going to live."

"Don't lie to me just because I'm dying," rasped Adam. "Where are you even taking me? Someplace—" Adam broke off into a series of heaving coughs, bringing even more blood up from his throat, wincing at the agony of his wound. "Taking me someplace nice? I wouldn't mind…a good view."

"No, you dolt, I'm saving your life." I tried to fly even faster, ignoring the acid sting of my wounds from Gino's black fire attack. "You're going to live. You're technically going to be immortal."

"Wait, you mean…" Adam frowned, looking at me as it dawned on him what I was about to do. "That's what the altar is for? You can't do that, you'll—" More coughing, more blood. By now Adam's chin and cheeks were drenched in his own blood. I would've wiped it off if I had a free hand. "You'll stop existing, you'll-"

"I'm not so sure about that," I said, keeping my breathing steady as we approached the summit. I felt like I was about to pass out. My wounds from Gino were growing unbearable. "It's my choice to make, literally the only thing you can do about it right now is die, and that won't slow me down at all."

Adam didn't say anything in reply. His eyes were closed, and I couldn't hear a heartbeat when I held my ear down to his chest. I'm pretty sure he was dead.

A bubble of laughter emerged from deep within my own chest as I finally reached the summit of Hyperion's peak. Say what you want about Adam, but even in death his timing was spot on. And I've never even held a corpse, before. First time for everything? This probably shouldn't be as funny as it was.

Still giggling, I lay Adam's body upon his quest bed.

I'm going to miss our talks.

We had a good run.

Am I ready?

The four obsidian-like orbs, which capped each of the quest bed's four bedposts, began to glow with a soft red luminescence, and the quest bed itself almost seemed to hum and tremble with energy, although that may have been my imagination.

Gradually, I could hear the sound of twittering birdsong approaching, and the soft red light exuded by the four bedpost orbs intensified into a piercing, eye-watering white light. I instinctively backed away from the shining quest bed, but I didn't stray too far. Resurrection was too much of a spectacle to pass up.

I did not notice the first cardinals to appear from the clouds. Only when they landed on Adam's corpse did I notice, and by the time I looked up, I was surprised to see dozens of the cute little red birds emerging from the rainclouds above. They came from all directions, and when I looked back down, I was shocked to see hundreds and hundreds more cardinals arriving from below, streaming towards us from their abandoned perches in the treetops of the forest surrounding Hyperion's Palace.

Any urge I may have had to shoo the first few birds away from Adam's corpse vanished in a heartbeat.

More cardinals arrived at the quest bed, fluttering down to perch upon Adam's body, and it was not long before Adam was completely covered by a red feathery living shroud. Newly arriving cardinals had no space to land on Adam, so they opted instead to settle onto the four bedpost orbs, as well as the quest bed itself.

I gazed in awe at the display, numbly considering what was going to happen to me. Was it too late to take this back? Perhaps if I shooed away all the birds and ripped Adam's body off the quest bed, everything could stop and go back to…normal?

Nothing is normal after the end of the world.

I felt a humming deep inside my own body, an exciting current of energy which traveled up and down my spine before emanating outward through the rest of me. At first the humming was gentle, but as more cardinals arrived and the light of the quest bed grew brighter, my own inner resonance began to grow uncomfortably loud, filling my mind with ringing. My head felt like it was being split in two, and the red light emanated by my sprite body began to intensify uncontrollably.

Clasping my head with both hands, I breathed in deeply and exhaled, trying to hold onto a strong sense of self as I was slowly overwhelmed by the energy of my own body.

I squeezed my eyes shut, concentrating on anything that could help me remain intact. Perhaps this was the moment where my life was supposed to flash before my eyes, but I didn't experience anything like that. Nothing clear came to mind, except for one thing: Slowly, step by step, I forced myself to walk down the length of the auditorium aisle. It was 5th Period study hall, Cass was sitting towards the front of the auditorium, and after two years of blushing furtively at Cass from a distance, I'd finally worked up enough courage to walk myself over to her and have a real conversation.

I had no idea what to talk about. And that was okay. Scary, but okay.

Was I going to make a fool of myself?

What did it matter, it's not as if it was actually me walking down that aisle. I never had that conversation with Cass. These were Adam's—

No.

I took one last deep breath.

No.

These memories are mine.

As the White Shadow plunged through the smoky veil of clouds, Abigail routed more power to the retro thrusters, rapidly decelerating and bringing the ship to a full halt barely a hundred feet above street level, suspended by invisible anti-gravity fields.

Chela rose from the captain's chair, turning to the Prospitian who was manning the communications station. "Lieutenant," she said, "you have the bridge. Abby, come along with me."

While Chela and Abigail exited the bridge, the Prospitian lieutenant took over the ship's helm, ready to move the White Shadow at a moment's notice.

Chela and Abigail ducked into the central lift, which brought them directly to the White Shadow's hangar bay, several decks below, where the stealth ship's small complement of Prospitian marines was in the process of boarding two smaller dropships. Slowly, the hangar doors slid open, revealing the burning city below.

"Inside, marines, load up!" G shouted, hurrying the last few Prospitian marines into the dropships as Chela and Abigail approached. "Let's move, let's move!"

"Room for two more?" asked Abigail, to which G gave a single nod. "Beautiful."

Abigail helped Chela step into the troop bay of one of the dropships, where they strapped themselves into empty seats alongside the marines. "How're you doing?" Abigail asked the marine strapped in next to her.

"As well as can be expected," replied the Prospitian.

"That's fantastic."

"Check your rifles!" G entered the dropship, sealing the boarding ramp behind her and walking up the central aisle to the cockpit wall. She pounded twice with her fist upon the cockpit wall, which was the pilot's signal to engage the dropship's engines and quit the White Shadow's hangar bay. "And remember to hold your fire. The Dersites below are friendlies."

Several of the Prospitian marines muttered under their breaths. It was not in their nature to consider any Dersite an ally, and it would not become a habit anytime soon.

"Oh dear." Chela placed a hand over her stomach as the dropship, having exited the hangar bay, sank down to street level, causing everyone's stomachs to flutter. "Is this what a rollercoaster feels like?"

"Nah, this feels more like a lame drop tower," Abigail remarked. "You never went to an amusement park?"

"I've always found my amusement in other things."

"Not even a little carnival?"

Chela looked very puzzled. "In what world would I ever wish to attend a carnival?"

"Wow." Abigail shook her head slowly. "You haven't lived."

As the dropship touched down on the ground, gently rocking everyone inside, G strode back down the aisle to the aft of the troop bay. "Marines, on your feet!" she hollered, unsealing the hatch, prompting the marines to rise from their seats. "Prepare to disembark!"

Abigail and Chela released their safety belts and stood up, joining G at the aft of the troop bay as the hatch opened, allowing the boarding ramp to extend to the cobblestones below.

"Go, go, go!" G shouted, sprinting down the ramp and directing her marines to form a defensive perimeter around the two dropships.

Abigail and Chela descended the boarding ramp and the first thing they saw was bright violet light shining further up the street, around which hundreds of tattered Dersite fighters had gathered. The Dersite fighters waved their rifles in the air, and they seemed to be cheering.

Curious.

"Should we begin recovering the wounded?" G asked Chela as she walked past.

"Not yet," Chela answered. "Not until we get permission, otherwise the dissenters might open fire on us. Guard the dropships, and have our stretchers ready."

Abigail and Chela started to walk in the direction of the gathered dissenter fighters.

Littered all over the ground were the bodies of the dead, whose blood painted red the cobblestones of this street. Many had been torn to pieces, either by the orbital bombardment or by the Red Miles. Not that it made a difference to them now.

"Abby, why don't you go ahead and photograph some of this picture perfect carnage." Chela stepped over the body of a commando who'd been shot through the head. "Focus on the military dead. We want to capture the Black Queen's contempt for her own people, even the most loyal."

"If you say so." Abigail whipped out her phone and got to work.

Chela continued the rest of the way to the raucous gathering of dissenter fighters, arriving just in time to witness Cass Galavis sidestepping a deadly slash from the Black Queen's blade.

Cass extended her arm as she sidestepped the attack, hooking the Black Queen's face with the crook of her elbow, yanking the Queen off her feet and slamming her down to the cobblestones.

Stars shot across the Black Queen's vision as the back of her head struck the cobblestones. Cass stomped the Queen's wrist, forcing her to drop her sword. The Queen bared her teeth and swept one of her legs into the back of one of Cass's knees, forcing Cass's leg to fold. As Cass fell, the Queen drew a small knife from underneath her boot, plunging it towards Cass's throat.

Cass rolled away, and the Black Queen's knife struck stone.

Chela stepped forward to intervene, only to be intercepted by the Wrathful Veteran, who was covered in blood that was not his.

"The Sylph requested this," said the Veteran, glancing back at Cass's grapple with the Black Queen. "Twice I have watched her die because of the Queen's deadly games. She deserves the chance to break the Queen's bones."

"I agree," said Abigail, holding her phone steadily with both hands, diligently recording Cass's brawl with the Black Queen. "Cass is badass, and she should keep on doing what she's doing. This is gold."

"Don't encourage this behavior," rebuked Chela, earning an eyeroll from Abigail.

"Oh c'mon, even you have to admit this is badass and empowering." Abigail tapped the screen of her phone, prompting the camera to refocus. "Where did she learn Krav Maga?"

"Her mother was raised in Israel, where military service is mandatory for most." Chela watched Cass land a kick to the Black Queen's stomach, knocking the wind out of the Dersite monarch. "Chloe Galavis was a distant mother to Cassandra, but she certainly knew how to teach martial arts, and I am glad Cassandra paid attention."

"So are our viewers." Abigail zoomed her camera in slightly, capturing in finer detail Cass's efforts to place the Queen into a crude arm lock. "I'll say it again, this is pure gold."

Chela pursed her lips, displeased. "It is a waste of time," she said, turning her attention back to the Wrathful Veteran. "Our ship's sickbay is ready to receive wounded. If you work quickly, we can save many of your fighters' lives. Or you may continue to indulge in this asinine behavior, if you prefer."

The Wrathful Veteran glared at Chela. "Offering medical aid should have been the first thing you said." The Veteran took aim with his rifle and squeezed the trigger, sending a round through the Black Queen's head, bringing Cass's brawl to an abrupt and anticlimactic end.

"What the fuck?" Cass rounded on the Wrathful Veteran.

"That's enough!" shouted the Wrathful Veteran to all of his congregated fighters. "Gather up the severely wounded and get them aboard the Prospitian dropships!"

"I told you the Queen was mine," Cass seethed as the dissenter fighters dispersed. "What don't you understand about…" her voice trailed off as she noticed Chela and Abigail standing next to the Veteran. "…human beings?"

"A great deal," remarked the Wrathful Veteran.

Glimmering Scales and Inuyyak watched Adamsprite and Adam soar away, speechless for a moment as lightning streaked across the sky.

Sand Dweller warriors underneath the gatehouse faced off against Northerners and Treefolk, weapons drawn and ready, and with Adam's absence, it seemed likelier than ever that violence might break out between the tribes once again. Thunder clapped, and the tension intensified.

"Enough of thiss!" Glimmering Scales thundered, giving the quarreling warriors something to focus on other than civil war. "Look there!" He pointed with his tail to the hundreds of fellow warriors who had charged ahead through the main gate, crossing the inner yard behind the wall to engage the Dersite reinforcements emerging from Hyperion's Palace. "SSee how our brotherss and ssissterss bleed while we fight each other?!"

Many of the charging warriors were falling, picked off by Dersite defenders on the ramparts, who had a clear shot into the rear of the advancing consort army.

"Let uss ssettle our grievancess later," continued Scales. "Right now, we musst sstorm the wall—"

"Enough talk!" roared Inuyyak, lifting his broadsword and charging out from underneath the gatehouse, making a beeline for the nearest staircase up to the battlements. "Follow me!"

Glimmering Scales lifted his own sword and followed suit, swallowing his irritation towards Inuyyak for stealing his thunder. Although, when the quarreling warriors immediately followed, Scales wondered if perhaps the combination of his words and Inuyyak's action was more effective than either factor on its own. Catching up with Inuyyak at the bottom of the staircase, Scales shouted, "Thiss way!" to everyone in earshot, diverting as many warriors as possible from the main advance to deal with the threat on the ramparts.

Inuyyak grunted with exertion as he and Scales led the way up the stone steps, maintaining as strong a Force shield as they possibly could while weathering the firepower of a group of four Dersite soldiers waiting at the top of the stairs. When they finally reached the top, the orange-scaled Sand Dweller warrior launched herself over Scales and Inuyyak's shield, falling upon one of the four Dersites, sinking her fangs into the soldier's throat.

Scales and Inuyyak heaved their invisible shield forward, knocking two more soldiers onto their backs, one of whom was immediately set upon by the bloody-mouthed orange-scaled Sand Dweller. Scales stabbed down his sword and impaled the other fallen soldier before they had a chance to get back up.

Meanwhile, with a raw-throated yell and a powerful swing of his mighty broadsword, Inuyyak cleaved the unfortunate fourth soldier horribly in half, splattering everyone in proximity with Dersite blood.

Scales picked up the rifle of the soldier he'd just killed. As he pulled its trigger, Scales projected the rifle forward at high speed into the midst of the Dersite soldiers further down the wall, to devastating effect. By the time Scales lost his telekinetic grip on the rifle, over a dozen soldiers lay dead, and many more writhed, wounded, on the stone floor of the ramparts.

Cobra warriors ascending the handful of now-undefended siege poles, furious after enduring such a harrowing climb with no way to fight back, threw themselves over the battlements, tearing into the overwhelmed Dersite soldiers, expanding the consorts' foothold and sending a shockwave of panic throughout all the remaining Dersites on the wall.

As more consorts arrived via the stone stairs to support the foothold, Glimmering Scales and Inuyyak directed their brethren to join their strength into another Force shield, positioned perpendicular to the wall, staving off the firepower of the remaining Dersite defenders further down on the ramparts. The panicking Dersites were now shooting down the length of the wall at the cobra warriors, and as a consequence, many of the soldiers fell to friendly fire.

While a small group of cobra warriors remained behind to secure the top of the stone stairs, Scales and Inuyyak led a slow advance down the length of the wall, pushing the Dersite soldiers back with the combined strength of their Force shield, supported from behind by more and more reinforcements. During the chaos of the push, Scales noticed a flash of red color at the top of his peripheral vision, and he took a moment to glance up at the sky, frowning as he saw hundreds of cardinals flying overhead. He was puzzled by the phenomenon, but there was no time to investigate.

Once enough warriors joined their strength to the Force shield, ensuring its integrity, Scales relinquished his contribution and took a deep breath, picking up five fallen energy rifles at once. He levitated the rifles more than fifteen feet into the air, pointed them at the Dersites further down the wall, and unleashed hell, shooting over the top of the Force shield.

Glimmering Scales's unconventional attack ripped through the ranks of the remaining Dersite defenders, who had nowhere to hide. In a heartbeat, the ferocity of firepower bearing down on the Force shield had melted away. Many Dersite soldiers, seeking escape from the chaos and death, jumped off the wall to an uncertain fate. Others threw down their rifles and surrendered, although that did not stop many of them from getting shot anyway by Scales's levitated rifles, which continued to strafe the remaining defenders.

By the time the omnicrystal power cells in Scales's scavenged rifles depleted their charge, Scales had virtually obliterated the Dersite defense on the battlements, offering much-needed relief to the cobras' main army, still locked in combat with the Dersite reinforcements at the base of Hyperion's Palace. At least they were no longer being fired upon from behind, with the wall secure.

Many of the cobra warriors took a moment to cheer, but they were quickly interrupted by Glimmering Scales: "Do not sstop until they are finished!" he shouted. "Pick up their weaponss—"

A roaring blaze of light drowned out Scales's shouting, warming his back with intense heat. All the remaining Dersites on the wall were thrown to the stone floor, but the cobra warriors, having no legs, did not need to worry about their balance. They pressed their advantage, hurrying forward and pressing their weapons to the Dersite survivors, killing any who did not immediately surrender.

Upon turning around, Scales had to squint to see the colossal torrents of fire exploding outward from a central point in the sky over Hyperion's Palace, hot enough to make Scales uncomfortable even at a distance. The main consort army, across the inner yard at the foot of Hyperion's Palace, had stopped their assault, and the Dersite reinforcements were struggling to stand back up.

Awe at the ferocity of the rapidly billowing inferno rooted Scales to the spot, and he could only watch silently as the flames roared higher and higher into the sky, flash vaporizing countless raindrops and producing huge clouds of steam in the process. For a moment, the raw power of the flames forced the rainclouds directly overhead to part, allowing several beams of skaialight to shine through.

Tears streamed from Scales's eyes, which were overwhelmed by the intensity of what he saw, and although every fiber of Scales's being screamed for him to look away, he could not.

Then, as if its fuel had been suddenly depleted, the fires of the inferno burned themselves out, prompting the rainclouds to reform and snuff out the skaialight. Within mere seconds, the flames shrank back down to their point of origin, allowing Scales to see the cause of the blistering event. His eyes widened. "Impossible…"

Adam floated in the sky above the Dersite reinforcements, wearing a hooded Knight's cape, holding two sizable handfuls of fire. There was no sign of his fatal chest wound.

Inuyyak, blinking rapidly to make sure what he saw was not a trick of his eyes, could only ask, "Iss thiss magic?"

"ATTENTION, ASSHOLES." Adam, powerfully amplified by the acoustics of the rock faces and stone walls of Hyperion's Palace, did not need to strain his voice to be heard. "DROP YOUR WEAPONS, OR I WILL DELIVER UNTO YOU THE SICKEST BURN OF YOUR LIFE. UNDERSTAND? I WILL FUCKING SMITE YOU."

After barely a moment's hesitation, every last remaining Dersite soldier threw down their rifle and dropped to their knees, raising their hands in surrender.