Foreword:

God is so good! He gives me everything I need! XD So, like, if any of you ever have trouble with your hands due to keyboarding, check out the Carpal Tunnel Institute (dot org). They sell this DVD stretching program that did wonders for my wrists. :D Oh, and I'd like to offer belated thanks to everyone who reviewed chapter 18. For some reason I didn't get any email notifications these past several weeks, so I didn't know about most of the reviews for that chapter until just recently. _

Anyways, without further ado (like there hasn't been enough waiting already, right? XP), I present to you: Chapter 19. The end is so close, I can taste it!

"If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were rising against me, I could hide. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend,"

— Psalm 55:12-13

« ... »

Outside the meeting room, Alister sat slumped against the wall—his legs drawn up against his chest, his arms wrapped around his knees, his face hidden shamefully behind the cover of his coiled limbs. He had lost all semblance of dignity, so why try to feign otherwise? What did it matter now how he looked, or what a passerby might think of him sitting there sulking like a child?

He sensed a person stopping in their tracks, right where they could glare down at him. Alister didn't care, and he didn't budge. Let them gawk. They couldn't possibly make him feel any worse.

"I am not entirely without sympathy for your position, General Azimuth."

The familiar voice that spoke was gentle but hard. Councilwoman Ulima herself. "The truth is, you are as much a victim of fate as any of us. You were put in a position no one should ever be in and forced to make a decision no one should ever have to make. It's hardly fair that all the blame has been passed to you, but it's also a sad fact of life that someone has to take the fall when a mistake is made..."

Alister didn't move, didn't speak. He was beyond comfort.

Ulima heaved an uncharacteristic sigh and said, "General, I am—moved by your predicament... Against my better judgement, I am going to risk telling you something that no one else is authorized to know."

This tickled Alister's curiosity just enough to get him to raise his head and look up at the councilwoman. His dark eyes were hollow and spent with tears.

"You are not the only Lombax being purposely left behind," Ulima stated. "The Keeper of the Dimensionator has decided to stay as well."

Alister's deadened aura instantly shattered, and his eyes sparkled with confused hope.

"Wh-What? Kaden has? Why?"

"To keep the Dimensionator from falling into enemy hands... and to rescue his family. They were overtaken by Tachyon's forces before they could be evacuated to Fastoon."

A gasp of surprise caught in Alister's throat. After the horrific events of this cursed day, he didn't think anything else could surprise him. Once again, he was dead wrong.

"He left several hours ago," Ulima said. "but if you hurry... you may still be able to find him."

Alister stood to his feet, and staggered at the the tingling sensation of blood rushing to his legs.

"Thank you," he muttered, and took off running down the dimly lit corridor.

« ... »

Alister burst into his quarters and tore frantically into his bottom drawer. He pulled out his old communicator, which hadn't seen the light of day since the falling-out last year, and prayed to God that Kaden still had his.

He held down the call button and shouted desperately, "Kaden? Kaden, are you there? Kaden, come in. Kaden!

After a long, torturous silence, he heard his friend's voice through the speaker. "What do you want?"

Alister swallowed in apprehension. Kaden sounded upset. Really upset. So upset that all the emotion had drained out of his voice. Alister knew from long-past experience that defense mechanism.

"I... heard about what you're doing," he muttered gingerly. "I want to help."

"Haven't you done enough?" This time there was some distinct anger in Kaden's voice.

Alister hesitated for a long moment before he could muster the courage to speak again. "Kaden, I—can't tell you how sorry I am."

"But you're going to anyway, right?"

"Kaden, please! Please, just let me help you... I'll do whatever you ask; just let me come to you. You're all I have left."

That was it. The contents of his broken heart laid bare at Kaden's feet. He choked on his own tears as he waited for a reply. It was the longest few seconds of his life.

At last Kaden sighed and said, "Alister, you're as good as a brother to me. Always have been, always will be. For that reason, and that reason alone, I am trying really hard not to say what I want to right now—"

"Kaden, if I could take back what happened... if there was any way at all for me to fix this—"

"There's some things you can't fix, Alister," Kaden snapped. "Any engineer could tell you that!"

"Look, I know that I—"

"No, you don't know! Nayeli is dead because of you! She bled out on Lumos, trapped under a pile of debris from an attack that you made possible! I had to leave her there, Alister! Do you have any idea what that was like?!"

Alister felt like his heart had stopped. His whole body went numb and he dropped the communicator. It struck the ground with a slam that seemed to reverberate through the whole room, ringing in his ears as loud as Kaden's condemning words.

For a second or two he just stood there, eyes gaping, breath quickening. Suddenly he fell to his knees beside the small machine, all the strength leaving his body in a single instant. As his throat began to close up, he could barely muster up a weak whisper. "K-Kaden..."

For a moment no sound issued from the communicator, and Alister feared he'd lost the signal, but the sound of Kaden's voice a few seconds later proved even worse than the silence.

"I died there, Alister," he stated. "And as far as I'm concerned, you died there, too."

Kaden cut the signal, leaving Alister in the blackest pit of agony imaginable.

« « « « « ж » » » » »

Kaden felt a rush of guilt when he ended the transmission. It was easy to ignore, pale as it was in comparison to his grief—and his anger. He tried as hard as he could not think about his lost wife, or his former friend. Right now he had to think of his son. He had to devote all his energy—physical, mental, and emotional—to this rescue. He couldn't afford to be angry with himself or even Alister. All his rage was reserved for Tachyon.

"Approaching destination," Aphelion announced.

Kaden looked out at the monochrome planet as it came into view. Torren IV. So this was where the Cragmite had run to. Kaden set his jaw and began pressing buttons and pulling levers.

"Initialize descent sequence."

"Yes, sir."

They set down softly in a clearing near the only Lombax signature on the planet, and Kaden climbed out while activating his hoverboots. He turned to his ship once more and said, "Remember the plan."

"Of course," Aphelion replied. "Just as we discussed."

Kaden nodded, then jetted off.

Even without the aid of a nav unit, Tachyon wouldn't have been hard to find. He was standing out in the open, surrounded by a platoon of Drophyd infantry, waiting. When Kaden saw him he struggled not to bare his teeth. The heartless monster was seated high in the safety of his war machine's cockpit with no roof, no glass, nothing to shield him from the outside—but no way to get to him, either.

Kaden swallowed, his ears flopping back. His son's life reading was coming from that horde, but the child was nowhere in sight. It was the most obvious trap imaginable, but nothing could be done for it.

Taking a deep breath, Kaden walked out from behind the bushes that hid him and stepped into the open, head held high. Tachyon spotted him immediately and smiled down at him with a spiteful, heinous grin that could peel paint.

"Well, if it isn't the Keeper of the Dimensionator," he greeted. "To what do I owe the honor?"

"Where is my son, Tachyon?!" Kaden shouted, balling his fists.

"Oh, you mean this?"

Tachyon reached low and pulled up a Lombax pup from near his feet, clutching him by his neck. The baby screamed and wriggled frantically, gasping for breath. Kaden cringed at the sight, biting his lip to keep from betraying the true extent of his horror."

"I found it in the wreckage on planet Lumos," Tachyon mocked on. "Thought I'd rescue the poor little thing since its mother couldn't look after it anymore..." Here the Cragmite abandoned his tone of false benign and started showing his true colors. "Her desperation was delightful! I wish you could've seen her clawing at the ground, screaming out her child's name. Isn't it ironic, Lombax? That I know this runt's name, while you, his own father, don't?"

Kaden's lip quivered in anger and sorrow. The hatred burning inside him was getting harder and harder to suppress, but it was the only thing keeping him from crying. He took a sharp breath through the nose and said, "What do you want?"

"What do you think?"

Kaden's eyes widened as an obvious realization dawned on him. So that was what this was all about. The reason for the attack on Lumos, the murder of his wife and capture of his son, even the attempt to capture him months ago. Kaden let out a long, shuddering breath, closing his eyes.

"I can't give you the Dimensionator."

"I was hoping you'd say that," Tachyon replied, unfazed. He slowly tightened his grip around the baby's throat while he calmly added. "Now I get to torture you for information, and kill your offspring with my bare hands."

Kaden let his eyes flash open, showing without restraint the true depth of his rage.

"I'll give you one warning, Tachyon," he growled at the top of his lungs. "Give me back my son, or I'll take him by force!"

Tachyon chuckled with mild amusement, leaning a few inches forward. "And just how, pray tell, would you do that?"

The roar of a ship's engine bellowed out of nowhere, and Aphelion flew around a rock formation just behind Tachyon. The Cragmite turned in his seat, and his beady eyes dilated even smaller as Kaden's ship sprayed plasma bolts all across his assembled forces. The Drophyd soldiers were caught off guard and weren't ready to defend. Half of them flopped to the ground seconds after the tanks on their armor were shattered by Aphelion's weapons.

The ship soared directly over Tachyon, clearing the top of his mech by no more than a few inches. The Cragmite nearly tumbled out of his cockpit, and the baby Lombax fell from his grip. Kaden kicked his hoverboots into high gear and blasted forward, eyes set on the infant plummeting toward the ground. He screeched between the legs of Tachyon's battle throne, snatching his son right out of the air. Despite the urge to turn around and try to finish Tachyon right there, he kept going. He was in no position to fight, and he had to get his son to safety.

Kaden glanced over his shoulder to see Tachyon's envoy as he left them in his dust, trying to regroup while Aphelion came about for another strike. He returned his eyes to the road ahead and banked quickly around a sharp corner. His childhood days of hoverbooting across Lumos's wild frontier flashed across his memory, and he felt those old instincts coming alive with a vengeance to carry him to his goal.

Tachyon's troopers were everywhere, and skillful maneuvering was all that kept him and his son alive on his mad dash across the rocky plains of Torren IV. The baby's screams were drowned out by the roar of explosions on their tail from the Drophyds' constant fire. He zipped into a narrow canyon for a few seconds of peace, only to be met with cruel force when he emerged on the other side. Without stopping he swerved to the left and then swung into an immediate right, losing his trigger-happy pursuers through a Lombax-sized crack in the rock wall.

"Aphelion!" he screamed into his communicator, desperately holding onto the baby with his free hand. "I'm clear!"

"Copy that," the ship's voice replied steadily. "I'm on my way."

Kaden emerged from his crevice on a wide-open plain, and stopped cold. Twenty more Dropyhd sentries were positioned nearby. When they saw the fugitive Lombax they immediately brandished their weapons and began to advance. Kaden had no choice but to charge into the fray.

He dodged their fire until he was able to get out of the open, but he could still hear them close on his tail. Breathing hard, he looked frantically about for some advantage this cursed desert terrain might possibly offer him.

And there, lo and behold, was a tetramite nest.

Kaden smiled in desperate relief. It was crazy, but it was his only chance. He zipped by the nest, purposely pulling in just close enough to clip it with his blaster as he passed. The screeching, skittering sound of the angry creatures swarming behind him struck both fear and hope into Kaden's heart. He made a wide curve and headed back in the direction from which he'd come. Soon he saw the Drophyds, and the shocked looks on their slimy orange faces when they saw the wave of flesh-eating insects coming their way on the heels of their target.

Kaden breezed past them, and didn't look back until he'd found a creek and barreled straight into it. Knee-deep in the life-saving pool, he dared to look over his shoulder, and smiled at the sight of twenty Drophyds being swallowed up in a seething black cloud of deadly insects.

Aphelion's voice suddenly issued from his communicator, "Kaden, where are you? Tachyon's troopers are regrouping. Hundreds of them are headed this way!"

Kaden jetted off, urgently replying, "Sorry, Feel, I got held up. Looks like we'll have to adjust our escape strategy..."

Kaden explained his idea quickly, and he could tell by Aphelion's reluctant agreement that even his own ship thought he was crazy.

Less than a minute later the spot came into view: a steep cliff racing miles closer every minute. Kaden turned his head a half-circle, taking in his surroundings in a single sweep. Enforcers were approaching on land from a distance, while gunships streaked across the sky. If they didn't get out now, they were goners for sure.

Kaden took a deep breath, and fixed his eyes ahead. The jets on his hoverboots burned brighter than ever before, blasting him forward at unheard-of speed. At the point of no return he flung himself off the edge of the cliff, holding his son tightly in his arms as he let himself fly toward the distant ground. He held his breath, heart racing, and waited.

Suddenly, Aphelion zipped into the sunlight from the mouth of a huge cave. She dipped steeply as she blasted toward the falling Lombaxes, and swooped up in the instant she caught them in her cockpit. She almost grazed the cliffside as she twisted into her rapid ascent.

While the domed roof was still closing over his head, Kaden was already back in action. He practically threw the baby into the seat beside his and strapped him down tight, ignoring the poor child's fearful wailing and squirming.

He seized the control stick and dove into communication with his ship. They worked together to evade enemy forces during their perilous flight through the planet's upper atmosphere. Once they cleared orbit Kaden screamed for Aphelion to engage hyperdrive.

« ... »

After several minutes of evasive maneuvering at top speed, Aphelion slipped out of her warp field and quietly flew on at a slower pace. The threat of Tachyon's forces was behind them, and there was nothing but empty space as far as the eye could see.

Kaden loosened his grip on the control stick and slumped back in his seat, overcome by a storm of mixed emotions. He was relieved that his rescue had succeeded, and that he had managed to escape Tachyon in one piece... but now that the action and heat of the moment were behind him and the fire in his blood had died out, he was left once more in the vacuum of sorrow and loneliness. His head slowly tilted back, his eyes closed, and his breath came out in short, uneven gasps. He was safe for the moment, but now what? Where could he go? What would he do when he got there?

At long last Kaden was dragged from his vacuum by the cries of his son. Slowly and reluctantly he turned his head and opened his eyes to look at the tiny ball of young flesh whimpering in the seat beside him. He was afraid of what he would feel when he saw him—afraid that he would see a burden, or a hindrance—that he would look at the baby and see only the cause of Nayeli's death, a hapless thing who lacked even the sense to feel gratitude for the unfathomable sacrifice that his mother had made for his sake... But when his eyes came to rest on the child—when he found his gaze locked with that pair of deep green eyes that mirrored his exactly—his heart brimmed over with compassion, opening fully.

The baby was strapped into the seat in an uncomfortable position, screaming and flailing his tiny arms and legs in a futile attempt to get loose. He was so small, so helpless, and so scared... Yet he tried so hard. He fought with all his feeble might, even though he was just a newborn who couldn't even understand the desperation of his circumstances, much less do anything about it. He opened his eyes as he wailed at the top of his lungs, unable to do anything else, and looked at his father with a frightened, pleading expression.

Kaden's body moved almost involuntarily in response. Even as that familiar tickle behind his eyes announced a new batch of tears, he was already out of his seat and removing the strap that restrained the infant. He scooped up his son with strong, trembling hands, and hugged him to his chest. The baby kicked and writhed terribly, but Kaden held him tight. Try as he might, he couldn't muster up any gentle words or comforting tones to calm the child, and it was all he could do just to keep himself from squeezing too hard. Deaf to the sounds of the baby's cries, Kaden closed his eyes once more and focused only on his sense of touch as he stood there, holding his son in his arms. He was very small, even for an infant Lombax, and Kaden marveled at how easily he could encase him in a snug bundle. His head fit in the palm of his hand like it was formed to rest there. Kaden stiffened his muscles and bit his lip, standing silent and motionless while his son struggled.

Finally the baby settled down a bit, and his cries mellowed from a sharp scream to a dull whimper. He stopped resisting his father's embrace and instead reached up to gather a handful of the fur on his neck in a tiny fist. Kaden felt a sharp sting where the baby had found his grip, but he didn't make him let go. The way his child cleaved to him so desperately reminded him how much responsibility—and how much love—he had for his son. His depression left him in an instant as he was filled with a new sense of purpose. The life before him was hanging by a thread—a small candle flickering in a dark corner, easily found and even more easily extinguished. As long as his lungs drew breath, he had to do everything in his power to protect this precious little one, who now needed him more than anyone had ever needed him before.

Kaden came back to himself and realized that the baby had stopped crying—stopped moving, even—and was now resting peacefully in his arms. He let out a bizarre infantile noise, which had no discernible meaning, but it sounded as though he was trying to say something. Then he rubbed his face back and forth a few times against Kaden's chest, and yawned as he released his grip on his fur.

Kaden could only stare down in wonder as his son drifted off to sleep and his ears slowly relaxed into a resting position, brushing against Kaden's fingers. He could hear the child's soft breathing, and feel his body moving in rhythm with his inhales and exhales. Eyes filled with tears, Kaden found himself tenderly running several fingers over the baby, feeling every curve, every indent, every change in texture on the surface of his tiny body. His unspoiled fur was soft as down, and his little tail hung about his legs almost too short to be taken seriously. Kaden could easily measure the span of the infant's shoulders between a finger and a thumb, and he could cover his whole back with a single hand.

So small. So innocent. So vulnerable. And so, so beautiful... Kaden felt fifteen again as a familiar brazen determination seized his heart, which was strong and courageous once more.

This was his son.

And he would do everything in his power to make sure that no one was ever able to hurt him.

Author's Notes:

- "Only I know your true name!" — That was one of my favorite lines in ToD, and I knew once I started working on this story that I would have to do my best to justify it. Thus, I dreamed up another gloating rant for Tachyon to make everyone's skin crawl. Hopefully it works, ya? ^^'