…
New York City
…
Helena laughed in relief as fliers poured from the shaft's entrance, swarming past her and into the building. "OUTSIDE!" she screamed as they passed her. "THEY'RE OUTSIDE!"
The room was a tight fit for them, but with Mareth holding the door open, they managed to fly through the room in great numbers. Helena pressed herself against the wall, fliers passing within an inch of her face. She looked across the room at Mareth. The bright light shining through the open door made his translucent skin glow softly, and his violet eyes sparkled. She suddenly realized that she wasn't falling in love. She was already in love.
However, that wasn't reason enough to stay in the Underland. As Luxa had told her, she had to have a reason to stay that was exclusively her own.
Helena marveled at the vast array of colors of fur that passed by her. Red, yellow, midnight black. Such diversity for such a small population. Why were all the creatures of the Underland so large in the first place? What was it about the deep underground that made gigantism so evolutionarily favorable? So many questions burned at her… so many questions she had to find the answers to. She knew she could spend ten lifetimes wandering the Underland and still discover something new every day.
More than that, though, Helena saw beauty in the Underland. Its people, its creatures, its landscapes. There wasn't anything else like it in the whole world. That was something to be admired and protected, not conquered. Maybe if she stayed in the Underland, recorded what she saw for long enough, she could return to the Overland one day and make her stubborn countrymen see the truth. Make them see why the Underland wasn't a threat, and why they should preserve it. That, after all, was the true mission of an explorer.
Thoughts of her distant childhood in Montana finally began to recede from her brain. The last echoes of that horrible cutter cave dwindled into nothingness. For the first time since her capture by the cutters, Helena started to dream of the future, and the exciting life of exploration and love that awaited her in that beautiful world miles beneath the surface.
…
Gregor looked up with amazement as flier after flier came hurtling out of the building, darting high up into the blue sky. His focus quickly dropped back towards the enemy troops, spraying cover fire at them for the fliers.
The enemy troops, their eyes torn between two targets, finally began to show signs of breaking. Flier after flier dropped dead out of the sky, but there were hundreds, all spinning and diving at the enemy position, making for difficult targets. Gregor slowly advanced towards the enemy, emptying clip after clip of ammunition. Luckily, there were so many dead soldiers on the ground that spare ammunition was not hard to find.
Two enemy gunmen were wrenched into the air by the claws of Athena and Nike, and flung against the side of a tower, their bodies breaking and falling back to the street below. Gregor provided a spray of cover fire as the mother and daughter rapidly ascended once more.
"YOU TRAITOR!" A woman cried out, clipping him twice in the arm. Gregor's rager vision splintered, and rather than tracking the bullets coming out of her gun, he tracked the movement of her arm and finger. Diving out of the way of her angry spray of bullets, he swung his gun up and popped her in the head as he fell.
He rolled back to his feet, already searching for his next target. Who were these troops, and why were they gunning for Luxa? It was clear the President hadn't known about this attack. The men had to be rogue actors of some kind. Gregor suddenly remembered the conversation he'd had with Darren Horace, the new FBI director. Could it be…?
A familiar flier landed next to him, his great wings flaring. "Gregor," Neptune said curtly.
"I'm sorry for what I said," Gregor said, giving him a brief look before firing another stream of bullets at the enemy. "I know you're not Ares."
Neptune said nothing, but lowered his back towards Gregor. "You might find your target easier to kill from above," he said.
Smiling, Gregor hopped up onto his back, and Neptune hurriedly took off before the enemy could get a clean shot at him. Holding on with his legs, Gregor swung his gun towards the earth and rained death upon the enemy as Neptune did a loop.
"You're not Ares, and I don't want you to be," Gregor continued. "I see you for who you are, Neptune."
Neptune finally responded directly to him. "Thank you."
Gregor imagined how odd the two of them must have looked from below. A giant black bat, and an Overlander rager with an AK-47 on its back. Somehow, the two of them had become one, working in perfect synergy, Neptune spinning around the bullets from below and Gregor raining death from above.
There weren't many of the enemy left. Suddenly, Gregor spotted him farther down the street. "It's him," he whispered. "He did this."
Walking down the street towards them was Darren Horace, who held a machine gun in his hands. "You've gone too far, Gregor," Darren barked, his voice tingling with rage. Then, his massive gun burst to life and immediately chopped ten fliers down out of the air.
Neptune dived as Gregor rested a hand on his head. "I'm watching his movements," Gregor said. "LEFT!" he screamed, and Neptune immediately twisted to the left as bullets hurtled through the space they had just been in.
Gregor loaded his last clip into his AK-47. Darren laughed madly as his bullets chased Gregor and Neptune in circles in the sky. "Our worlds are incompatible, Gregor!" he called out. "History will vindicate me."
"Psychopath," Gregor muttered to himself. "You're the one who decided that!" Gregor roared back. "You chose this war!" He leveled his gun at the madman but Darren was too far away. If he fired now, Gregor would waste his bullets and then he'd be a dead man flying.
"Extreme prejudice is the prerequisite of peace!" Darren barked back, still firing away, the bullets coming out of his massive gun seemingly endless.
Gregor closed his eyes, thinking back to his final fight with the Bane. "No, trust is," he responded to Darren. Then, he leaned close to Neptune's fur as he spun, and whispered the cursed words he'd told Ares all those years ago into Neptune's ear: "I'm going to need to get closer if I'm going to take him out," Gregor said.
"Hold on," Neptune said, and dove, still spinning.
Gregor's vision was a mad whirlwind of colors, so he closed his eyes, casting out with his hearing and orienting himself with his echolocation. He sensed more than saw Darren as Neptune slowly twisted and spun closer and closer, the bullets missing them by a razor's edge.
Suddenly, he was back in that cave with Ares. Something was wrong about their position, their proximity to Darren. "No!" Gregor screamed. "Not again! Pull back! Pull back!"
"Trust," Neptune said quietly, and all of a sudden, he broke his flight pattern.
Darren's bullets sprayed through the empty air where Neptune's momentum had been carrying them. Instead, Neptune came to a screeching halt and dropped straight down through the sky. Flicking his gun up, Gregor sensed Darren's slack-jawed expression as he finally got his clear, level, close-up shot at the madman.
"Checkmate," Gregor said, and blasted Darren's head to smithereens.
As Darren's brains splattered across the concrete, the enemy immediately broke, fleeing back down the street. Gregor and Neptune pulled up, not giving chase, and the rest of the fliers began to circle around the stage defensively.
In the distance, Gregor heard the wail of sirens. "We don't have much time," he told Neptune. "Reinforcements will be here soon." Truthfully, he had no idea what American faction wanted Luxa dead, nor if the police were in on it, but he didn't want to find out. They all needed to go back down the shaft—fast.
Neptune landed on the stage. Gregor darted over to Howard, who'd been clipped by a bullet in the arm but was still actively tending Luxa. "I think I've got her stable enough to move," Howard said, "but her condition is very delicate. Truthfully, I don't know…" he trailed off.
"Let's get her out of here," Gregor said strongly, unwilling to even consider the possibility. "We've won some time. We need to finish the plan. Let's get down the shaft and destroy it."
The Underlanders quickly began to move. Howard and Gregor lifted Luxa while the fliers began to pour back into the building.
As Gregor entered the building, his father found him, his bloody shoulder sloppily bandaged. "Go," he said simply, tears welling in his eyes.
Gregor felt emotion swell inside of him. "Thank you for everything, Dad. I meant what I said. I'll find a way back to visit, one day."
James nodded. "I'll hold you to it."
Gregor helped Howard and Luxa up onto Neptune. As the last of the fliers began to disappear back into the Underland, Gregor turned back to his father and enveloped him in a hug. "I love you, Dad," Gregor said.
"I love you too," James choked out.
Gregor watched Helena and Mareth climb onto Araxes. The explorer had evidently made her decision. He climbed up onto Neptune in front of Howard and Luxa.
"Fly you high, son." James said.
Gregor smiled, and without another word, Neptune took off and dove back down towards the Underland.
…
The last of the Underlanders gone down the shaft, James hurriedly made his way out of his old apartment building. He needed to clear the area before the shaft collapsed.
James made his way back onto the stage, faintly registering the dead lying everywhere.
"FREEZE!" someone shouted.
Approaching down the street was an entire regiment of police officers. James could only laugh when he saw who was leading the charge. It was Agent Green and Agent Blue—the two agents who had sided with Barwell in the end.
"How did you two manage to get out from behind bars?" he sniped.
Agent Green and Blue shared a nervous look with each other as the police force behind them bristled. "We did nothing wrong," Agent Green said. "The Underland has proven itself hostile to the United States."
James laughed. "If you think that's the case, you really haven't been paying attention." He started to get angry, thinking about his son's goodbye. "YOU were the ones who forced our two worlds apart," he said. "YOU created the Central Park tragedy and the bloodshed today. Your extreme prejudice prevented any chance of peace!"
The police officers behind Green and Blue raised their guns at the Agents' backs, but not before Green had drawn his gun and leveled it at James's head. "You're a traitor to your people," he hissed. "Your interviews caused the riots. Your words inspired a turmoil in this country not seen in decades. Your actions forced the Bureaucracy's hand."
"The people have spoken," James said, raising his arms to the side in an expression of surrender. "Shoot me if you deny their will. Shoot me, and you admit that this blood is on your hands."
Green hesitated, and then dropped his gun. Immediately, police officers behind them forced him and Blue to the ground and roughly handcuffed them.
A police officer barked into his radio: "Converge on the shaft. We must protect the entrance."
James laughed to himself softly as he heard the earth start to shake. "It is far too late for that," he said. "Far too late."
James watched solemnly as the police officers dashed for cover as his old apartment complex collapsed in on itself, sealing him from his son forever.
…
The Fount
…
Gregor sat beside Neptune outside the hospital wing of the Fount's palace. Howard had ordered everyone out of the room thirty minutes ago so that he could operate on Luxa without interruption.
They'd done it. They'd really done it. The diggers had brought down the shaft after their mad dash back to the Underland. The Overlanders were sealed out of the Underland forever, its people and creatures protected from their greed and ignorance. It was a brave new world that many had sacrificed their lives for: Lapblood, York, Edward. Ripred. Thousands of human soldiers, gnawers, nibblers, spinners, and diggers. It was a new era of peace, and the humans needed their Queen. Gregor looked anxiously towards the hospital door. He needed her.
"She will live, Gregor," Neptune said. "You must believe it."
Gregor looked at him. "How?" he asked simply. He was the Warrior—no, the Protector. He'd never known how to handle powerlessness. Sitting passively outside the room in which the love of his life fought for her life was maddening.
"Trust," Neptune repeated, his large black eyes shining with strength.
How could he trust in the world again, after all that had happened? The War of Time, Ares? The cutter horde, Ripred? The Overlanders, Aurora and York? Too many names to mention. Too many names to remember. So much death, a trail of blood and sorrow stretching back uninterrupted from the present into his distant childhood.
Gregor took a deep, shuddering breath, and forced himself to remember the good. Bonding with Ares before the panel of pompous judges. Holding Luxa close, whispering to her in the darkness of the night. Ripred telling him that he didn't believe in Sandwich's cursed prophecies. Watching a 3 a.m. movie with his dad over ice cream. And Neptune, coming back to fight by his side, even though he didn't deserve him.
How could he move forward? It wasn't by drowning in sorrow and regret—Gregor had done enough of that for a lifetime. No, it was done by remembering the good, trusting the ones he loved, and by taking one, small step forward. One step at a time.
Gregor extended his hand, grasping Neptune by his talon. The flier stilled. The words that came next came easily to Gregor.
"Neptune the flier, I bond to you.
Our life and death are one, we two.
In dark, in flame, in war, in strife,
I save you as I save my life."
Neptune lowered his head down towards Gregor, and purred the words back:
"Gregor the human, I bond to you.
Our life and death are one, we two.
In dark, in flame, in war, in strife,
I save you as I save my life."
Neptune's voice faded into silence, and the bonded pair continued to wait for Luxa, neither saying a word. Gregor leaned into his bond's thick dark fur, and the flier wrapped one great wing around his shoulder.
About an hour later, the door to the hospital wing finally swung open. Howard stumbled out, gaunt and looking exhausted.
Gregor was on his feet in an instant. "How's she doing?" he asked.
Howard cracked a small smile. "She's awake, and stable for now. Go see her. She wants to talk to you."
Laughing with joy and relief, Gregor darted into the room. Luxa was propped up on the bed, her shoulder wrapped with thick bandages. She looked at him hazily. "Hey," she said.
Gregor decided that hugging her in her condition wouldn't be the best idea in her current condition, so he settled for holding her hand from a chair next to her bed instead. "How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Better than I was," Luxa said.
A beat. "Marry me," Gregor suddenly blurted out.
Luxa looked at him, shocked. "What?"
"Marry me," Gregor said. "I love you more than anything. I want to spend the rest of my life together with you. I want that future, and I know maybe we should wait some time, or wait until the Underland is in better shape, or—"
"Yes," Luxa said. "I'll marry you, Gregor." Her eyes shimmered with tears.
Smiling, Gregor leaned down and the two kissed softly.
After a moment, Luxa pulled away. "Is this how girls are asked to be married in the Overland?" she said with a grin.
Gregor laughed. "I suppose I should have bought a ring first, waited for you to be out of the hospital, and taken you out to some romantic location. I should have at least planned ahead of time."
Her gaze narrowed. "That sounds like a lot of waiting. I'm not that patient."
He smiled at her. "I guess I did alright after all," he said.
Luxa gave a smile back and lightly squeezed his hand. "You seem different than you were," she said suddenly. "More at peace."
He squeezed her hand back. "I'm healing," he admitted. "Not from a physical wound, but a mental one. A wound I've worsened through my own flaws and stubbornness." Gregor shook his head. "The road ahead won't be easy, but I refuse to be swallowed by my grief and rage anymore. I have something to live for."
A tear rolled down Luxa's cheek. "I do, too," she said.
And after that, well… there was nothing left to be said. So Gregor sat beside her, holding her until she fell asleep. Many hours after that, he finally fell asleep too, still in his chair by Luxa's side, their hands intertwined.
…
Author's Note
Sorry this chapter took awhile to get uploaded. My computer decided to die last week so I'm in the process of getting a new one. I finished this chapter and uploaded it from a family member's desktop. Not sure if I'll be able to get another chapter done before I get my new computer, but we'll see.
One more chapter left!
- Gyltig