This was the man to whom all things were known; this was the king who knew the countries of the world. He was wise, he saw mysteries and knew secret things, he brought us a tale of the days before the flood. He went on a long journey, was weary, worn-out with labor, returning he rested, he engraved on a stone the whole story.

-The Epic of Gilgamesh

Adrianna

Her lungs were on fire already by the time she reached the steps of the palace, but she sprinted up them two at a time. The throne room was littered with rubble from the battle that afternoon, but she did not slow her pace, not until she reached the foot of what had been Akh-Ton's throne. There, as she had hoped, Teth-Adam hovered, staring at the moon.

After the defeat of Sabbac, with the people still gathered on the hill, Adam had risen into the sky and vanished. That hadn't deterred them. As the sun had set, the celebration on the hill had turned to a festival in the street - which had then turned into something else. Old men, long dismissed from the army in favor of President Asim's foreign thugs, dug their old Kalashnikovs out from under the floorboards. A band of women raided a police station, abandoned by its Intergang chief, bringing out pistols and riot shields, and tear gas grenade launchers. People were packing into their neighbors' vans and pickup trucks with crates of homemade Molotov cocktails. They wouldn't even wait for sunrise.

Adriana had been at the university with The Aistieada - meeting in the open for the first time, at a dusty table in the long-shuttered library, as they tried to put aside their joy and work out how to actually thread the needle of a return to democracy. And then, Karim had called her. The van was missing. And so was Amon.

Adrianna stumbled to a stop and bent double, panting, unable to speak. It felt like someone had stabbed her in the side; she was worried she might be sick. Adam settled to the floor in front of her, and she tried to speak, able only to see the tips of his bronze boots.

"They're going to kill him…" she croaked. "They're going to kill the President."

Does he even know what a "president" is? She gulped air, closed her eyes to stop the room from spinning.

"The man who brought Intergang here…who reopened the mines…"

Her breath slowed enough she could stand up. Adam's face wore the calm and thoughtful expression of a piece of ancient statuary. He could be so still, so silent.

"His people killed and tortured anyone who tried to stop him…anyone who even spoke up…"

"A tyrant," Adam said.

"Yes." Adrianna's heart beat as fast as a rabbit's.

"They go to bring him to justice."

"Yes," Adrianna said. The President's guilt was known to everyone. The idea of arresting him, trying him, was laughable when the courts had been his mouthpieces for twenty-seven years. But The Aistieada would have tried, nonetheless. "Amon is with them."

Adam's face didn't change, but Adrianna could feel tension like an electric charge in the air.

"The President still has guards, weapons," she continued, desperately. "He's not a stupid man…if he didn't believe he could win, he would have fled, he must have something, and Amon…"

She cut off with a gasp as Adam lifted her off her feet.

"Lead me there."

Flying with Adam was like being in a jet with no roof. As soon as Adam no longer needed her to direct him, Adrianna squeezed her eyes tightly shut and pressed her face to his chest so the wind wouldn't steal her breath.

President Asim lived in a lavish estate on the heights outside Shiruta, where he could have space, privacy, and, most importantly, a defensible perimeter. Within what felt like moments, Adam had reached it. The two-story mansion was surrounded by a high outer wall, topped with razor wire, closed off with a thick iron gate and guard post. Built of white stone, with an ornate golden dome, it practically glowed in the floodlights that lit up the inner yard.

From her position hovering above the estate Adrianna could see inside the wall, where Asim's guards were setting up positions around the landscaping and statuary - including what looked like an armored Humvee, US Army surplus. Outside the wall, the revolutionaries had already arrived. Their motley assortment of aged vans and pickup trucks snaked up the narrow road behind their ragged line, people and vehicles alike reduced to shadows in the darkness outside the floodlit inner yard. Somewhere in that mass of people was Amon, but she couldn't even distinguish Karim's orange van from the others. There was no way she'd be able to find one boy in the crowd from this height. Most of the people had taken up a position some distance from the gates. On the night breeze, Adrianna could hear them shouting, chanting, but she couldn't make it out.

"Something's not right," she murmured. The guards had the advantage. Why weren't they shooting already? Even if they didn't have rocket launchers, which she was sure they did, they could open the gate and send out the truck. There were a few hundred revolutionaries and only a few dozen guards, but even with what the revolutionaries had taken from the police station, nothing they had could pierce the truck's armor. They'd be torn apart. Then, Adrianna saw it as a guard loaded his weapon - that eerie, blue glow.

"Eternium." Adam's voice rumbled in his chest. His arms tensed around her.

"So that's why Asim isn't already gone," Adrianna said. She remembered the day she had awakened him. He'd shrugged off two Hellfire missiles, but one Eternium shell had opened a glowing rent in his side. "That's why the guards aren't attacking already. This is a trap. They're waiting for you."

Something exploded against the gate, a grenade, Adrianna thought, launched by one of the rebels. There was no time to plan. It had already begun.

Adam dropped from the sky so rapidly that Adrianna's ears popped. He set her down lightly behind what looked like a delivery van and was gone before she could even catch her balance. Immediately, there was a crack that shook the air, and the van's windshield exploded. Adam had joined the fight.

Adrianna peered around the back of the van, ears ringing. The gate hung half off its hinges, twisted and broken. The guard tower was a hollow, burning shell As she watched, a bolt of blue lightning struck somewhere inside the compound and the floodlights exploded in a shower of white sparks. She crept out into the street, now lit crazily with fire reflected off a dozen trucks. One truck was overturned and burning. There were other people around her, in front of her. Where was Amon? She called for him and couldn't hear her own voice in the general roar of machine gun fire, screams, and explosions.

The crowd surged forward, and Adrianna let it carry her, still calling for her son even though she knew it was hopeless. Once she passed the gate, she ducked to the side, hugging the interior wall, trying to see what was going on in the courtyard, now a nightmare of fire and shadow. The mercenaries had set themselves to meet the charge, the armored truck she had seen from above was taking aim, its minigun ready to mow them down like wheat.

And Adam was there, arms outspread, heavy-caliber rounds bouncing like raindrops off his chest and arms. He ripped the gun from its housing, then hefted the truck and sent it hurtling into the mansion's golden dome. The remaining mercenaries, from their positions all around the courtyard, took aim - not at Adam, but at the advancing rebels. Suddenly, Adrianna knew what they were doing. Adam was moving faster than thought, catching bullets, deflecting rockets, his presence marked by bolts of blue-white light. The mercenaries were keeping him busy, setting up the real attack. She looked into the shadows of the courtyard and there it was. Behind a statue, a mercenary knelt with a rocket launcher braced on his shoulder, lit faintly blue from the glow of the Eternium shell inside.

"Adam!" She cried, and launched herself at the mercenary with nothing but her bare hands. Through surprise alone, she managed to knock him to the ground, clawing at his eyes, but he seized her wrists and threw her off of him with an expert's ease. Adrianna rolled to her feet just in time to catch his fist on her cheekbone and the sudden burst of pain drove her to her knees. She looked up into the barrel of the mercenary's pistol.

Time slowed. The mercenary's eyes narrowed, blood oozing from a scratch on his cheek. At least I marked him, Adrianna thought.

There was the crack of a gunshot, and her whole body jerked involuntarily as the mercenary's forehead exploded into fine red mist. He stood for a moment, then fell bonelessly to the ground. And standing behind him, pistol in his shaking hand, was Amon.

Adrianna ran to her son, seizing his shoulders. Touching his face, his chest. No blood. Thank God.

"Mom…" he said, and began to shake. His face was white. Adrianna gently took the pistol from his trembling hand, and held him. She was shaking too. "It's going to be…"

One side of the mansion exploded in blue-white flames. Amon and Adrianna both jumped, clinging together reflexively. She saw her own fear mirrored in the eyes of her son.

Adam.

They ran together across the grounds, now littered with smoking wreckage and bodies that were unidentifiable in the shadows. The whole mansion was burning now, and silhouetted in front of the flames was a huge shadow - Adam, black cape floating around him, and the man he held by the neck.

President Asim Muhammad was not in himself an imposing man. He had come to power a young and charismatic general, but had become a rather average middle-aged man - stocky, not particularly tall, with a receding hairline and a thick mustache. But he was the one who had sent out legions of thugs to maim and torture, to kill and terrorize, for over twenty years. For all those years, Adrianna had feared and hated him. Even the face of the demon Sabbac would never feature in her nightmares like the face of Asim Muhammad. At the sight of him, kicking weakly in Adam's stony grip, the revolutionaries fell silent.

"You." Adam's voice carried over the courtyard effortlessly, even though he did not shout. "Are accused of crimes against Khandaq. You have plundered, and murdered the people you swore to protect and defend. For this," His eyes began to glow. "There can be no forgiveness."

For a moment Adrianna could see the President's face clearly in the light of those glowing eyes, see his fear. Then he was enveloped in a corona of lightning, and all that was left of the man who had destroyed her life - who had killed her husband and her friends, and driven her and her son into hiding - was a handful of greasy, black ash, floating away on the wind.

The people cheered, louder even than when Adam had slain Sabbac, and Adrianna thought Amon was cheering louder than anyone. As the crowd embraced and danced and wept in the light of the President's burning mansion, Adrianna realized that she was hyperventilating.

This crowd is on the edge of a knife, she thought. You know what mobs can do, how easily they turn bad, even in pursuit of good.

And with Adam still hovering there like some vengeful angel - when she had seen him sit in Ahk-Ton's throne, she, who had risked everything in support of the return of democracy to her country, had felt nothing but pure, unalloyed joy. She would have accepted him as a king, then, without question. The man was dangerous - beyond his mere physical powers.

She pushed to the front of the crowd with Amon, and Adam settled to the ground as he saw them, eyes warming with his almost imperceptible smile.

"That. Was. Amazing…" Amon began.

"The prisons," Adrianna cut him off. Her voice was a croak and she cleared her throat before starting again, shouting so at least some of the crowd would hear her. "There are at least four black sites in Shirtua alone. Hundreds of people must be imprisoned there."

There was a man standing near her, a little older than her, curly black hair standing wildly from his head, sooty, with a torn shirt. She recognized him. He had been beside her and Karim as they fought back the unquiet dead - God, what a long day it had been. He nodded at her, and answered.

"Yes," he said. "Center 38 is near here, and Tahrir isn't too far. We should start with them." He began to rally others, and they took up the plan, organizing who would take which site, scrounging what weapons hadn't been destroyed. Adrianna turned to Amon, once again chattering at Adam, who looked on in benign tolerance.

"What in God's name were you thinking?" She hissed at her son. "You could have been killed!"

"I wanted to help! I fought the zombies…"

"You had no choice about that! I'd hope you're smart enough not to choose your own death!"

"He would have killed you, Mom!" Amon seemed to realize what he'd said. His eyes filled with tears, and suddenly he looked very young. "He would have killed you."

She took him in her arms as he began to cry.

"It's alright," she whispered. "We're safe. We're together." Her own tears dropped onto his shoulder.

"Alright, Yasmin and Amir will be leading the team going to 38. I am taking Tahrir…"

The loud preparations seemed to bring Amon back to himself. He stepped back, rubbing his face to hide the signs of his tears.

"I'll go.." he began.

"No you won't," Adrianna cut in.

"But…"

"Absolutely not." She could guess some of what they would find in those places. She didn't want her son to see what people were capable of doing to each other. Not yet. "I have another job for you. I assume you took your uncle's van here?"

Amon nodded shamefacedly.

"We'll be discussing who taught you to drive later." Adrianna was pretty sure she already knew. She was going to murder Karim.

"Get the wounded into the van," she continued briskly. "Take them to the hospital. When you get there, ask for Doctor Ahmadi. Tell her what is happening. There may be hundreds of people needing medical attention. See if they can send medics. Tell her I sent you. Can you do that?"

For a moment Amon set his chin like the stubborn child he'd been not so long ago, but then he softened.

"Yes. You can count on me."

"Good." She kissed him on the forehead. "My brave boy."

And she let him go, into the purposeful bustle of the crowd. Every day, he reminded her more of his father, and it terrified her.

"These prisons." Adam stepped up beside her with his nearly soundless tread. "Can you lead me…"

Suddenly he staggered and bent over with a strained grunt of pain. Instinctively, Adrianna tucked herself under his arm as if to help him stand, although even she realized that was ridiculous. If he had actually leaned any of his weight on her, she probably would have collapsed, shaky as she was. She led him further from the departing crowd, to a stone bench beside a fountain, now tumbled on its side, the fountain's statue broken in half, water spraying into the air. He sat heavily, and when he pulled his cape back, Adrianna could see why. His left side was raked with blue, glowing wounds, and a knapped blade of Eternium jutted out of his left thigh.

"You were right," he said softly. "It was a trap."

"Oh my God." Adrianna looked quickly back toward the crowd. They were still departing in their teams, still buoyed up by righteous fury. Each group would probably assume Adam was with the other. They can't see him like this.

She turned back to Adam, who was considering his wounds. As she watched, he placed his hand over one of the tears in his side, and a bright bolt of energy like a welding torch arced between his fingers and the wound. Immediately, the blade in his thigh pulsed with light and Adam bent over himself, breathing hard.

"I don't understand," he said, voice tight. "That worked before."

"That worked before?" Adrianna said incredulously. The wounds in his side looked like cracks in a clay jar more than like cuts in human flesh. There was no blood, just that strange glow, like the magic inside of him was leaking out.

Before she could suggest anything, not that she would have known what to suggest, Adam set his jaw, took hold of the blade, and yanked. Adrianna squeaked.

He held the blade carefully in his hand. It was at least six inches long, narrow and fluted like a spear point. Like Adam's other wounds, the puncture in his leg did not bleed, but its center, where the blade had been, was inky black. Adam dropped the blade into her hands and stood.

"The prisons.." he began, took a step forward…and collapsed to the ground.

Hey! Thanks for reading - or for coming back if you were a reader before. If you were a reader before, you know that I love history notes. Expect a lot for this story!

One thing the movie glossed over was the actual nature of the occupied Khandaqi government, so to flesh it out I used some (unfortunately common) examples from history, specifically Chile under Pinochet. President Asim (his actual name in the comics), took over the country when the Eternium mines were reopened, purged the military, and brought in foreign mercenaries as his enforcers. In addition to being a kickass archaeologist, Adrianna was a leading member of an opposition group - The Aistieada, Arabic for Restoration, which is what made her a target.