Chapter 21
Aidan's joy could not be dimmed, would not be dimmed as he watched the useless chosen strike him to no avail.
"You're both wasting your time. If I knew the power difference would have been this big, I would have taken the umbra decades ago." Keith and Lance jumped back, avoiding the falling rocks and uneven floor. Annoyed, they watched as the cuts and holes in Aidan seal themselves up, clothes and all.
'This is hopeless. We're wasting time cutting him up.' Keith thought angrily, the situation quickly getting out of their control.
"It's hopeless! He's not even flinching from all the wounds, dammit."
" You've finally understood the hopelessness of your position, Mclain. After I finish here, I'm going after that brash son-of-a-bitch. I'like skin him alive slowly, making sure that he squeals like a pig as I break every bone in his body. Yes...or maybe an acid bath is faster."
"You bastard! If you touch my father, I'll..." Pointing his guns at Aidan, he found his arm grabbed tightly.
"Let go. Or I'll fill you with holes."
"The moment you'll fall for his taunts, you're dead Mclain. FOCUS!"
"Oh, you don't know that the Mclain family are a bunch if hot headed idiots, Akira? I swear, they grow more stupid busy the day. Ah, but this does bring back memories. Your own father used to stop his father the same way back in the day. We were all trained at the same knight academy at one time. Deja vu, is it. Well, no matter. You can shoot as much as you want, notching will change. This world is mine." Laughing as another laser went through his forehead, Aidan applauded the Lieutenant mockingly.
"He's stalling for time, Lance. If you keep shooting, you'll render us both useless. Save your energy. Your lion needs it." Keith whispered to Lance.
"How the hell do you know that." Annoyed at being castigated, Lance lowered his weapons. He felt he had to do something. Anything at this point
" Yes, do tell. There are no secrets between us old friends." Smirked Aidan, as he folded his arms in pride. The power in his veins was immense, so he felt he could afford to waste time.
" You act amused when all you've done is threaten us with destruction. You haven't attacked us with that power even once. The logical reason is: You can't. Even if you wanted to, there's only a limit to the amount of power you can drain from the umbra into yourself. It makes sense because energy cannot be destroyed. It can only be transformed. That's what the lions have been explaining all this time. It can't be contained for long either. Even in you. Isn't that right, old man."
" Oh. You have been doing your research , haven't you."
"That's how you managed to destroy the seals. You forces enough energy into the umbra through those sacrifices, which tipped the power balance between the umbra and the lions. That's why you went out destroying the Royal families. So that we couldn't tip the balance back and reseal the drule."
A 14 year old Keith pulled the last of the rubble in front of the library in his old home. It had taken him two weeks to reach this point. He needed to know why they had been attacked and if the answers are in books, then the library is where he needed to be. Stale , dusty air met him as he crawled through the door, creating swiftly behind the nearest book shelf. After 30 minutes of waiting, he finally unfurled himself and one of the tealights he had brought. Bigger candles and torches meant larger lights. And in now what was drule territory, he couldn't afford to get caught. Moving between shelves, he noticed that most of the books had been thrown on the floor, volumes upturned and flung aside. Swallowing the panic in his throat, he realised that someone had been searching their family archives as he was about to do.
'What if the find me? They'll kill me too!' Crouching in the middle of the room, gasping for air, he almost fainted as cold sweat dampened his clothes. The light went out as he crouched there, panicking. Suddenly standing with the intention to leave, he noticed the furthest blank wall in the study. Running to the wall, he touched it, begging for it to open, begging for a way. The textured wall was smooth, unyielding to his touch. But he knew that if he opened it, he would be able to hide in plain sight in the hidden extension. He felt a spark before the wall opened before him.
"So you do have those documents. Big deal. I've released the seal and its only a matter of time before you die. I won't let you seal the umbra."
"I don't intend to seal them. That decision cost too many lives because monsters like you always come back after this power. We're ending this. Today. Pidge!"
"Roger, captain." Bellowed the young pilot's voice through the lion speakers. "You can't kill him as long as he's connected to the umbra. The connection is the drule blood he modified and injected in himself. The cells are absorbing and releasing energy from the umbra and the same goes for his wounds. Thanks to Lance's useless shooting, I figured out that he's not invincible, just regenerating faster than he has time to bleed out and die." Narrowing his eyes for the first time since confronting the young men, Aidan heard the conversation in disgust. They would not stop him.
"I won't let you stop my dream, Kogane!"
" No. We need to wake up from your nightmare. And you can't stop me. Release the barrier, Red!" shouting, Keith and Lance separated, each dodging Aidan's reddish blasts from his hands digging into where they'd been. Releasing the barrier, Lance watched horrified as Keith and black the black jumped straight onto the umbra's nearest tentacle. Lance felt, more than saw the power of the Alpha lion as it growled, smoke rising from where his paws were. His chief was no better as his boots seemed to melt.
"Idiots! Only one with Magnus' blood can touch the umbra. Die!" Suddenly clawed across the chest, Aidan rolled until he hit the cave wall, grunting as he felt the rocks dig into his back.
'Pain? How?' Rolling onto his feet he rushed toward the box he'd let go, he felt the already fragile floor give beneath him, forcing him to prioritize his landing. The red lion pilot was on him, kicking him square in the face and his already clawed chest that was still breathing.
"pidge was right. You're like a circuit, which needs to be opened and closed. The chief up there just short circuited your connection. His plan is insane, but what do we have to lose." They felt before they saw the dark sphere surround the part of the umbra they could see, before it vanished in the blink of an eye.
"Even if you take it far from me, you cannot separate my connection. I'll summon it back here and end you!
"Don't you need that to do it." Pointing to the precious box underneath the blazing lion's paw, Aidan froze. The cave was eerily lit by the flames of the lions as it stared across at Aidan.
"If I'm not mistaken, you called my family...what was it... hot-headed impulsive idiots. That's it."
"Mclain." Aidan's voice lowered in caution, desperate to save his threatened dream. These children were extreme, even for him. They were laying waste to all of his plans right before his eyes. "If you destroy that box no one will be able to control the umbra. No one. It will go on a rampage and destroy everything in its path. Kogane said it himself, you can't destroy energy. Give it to me. Now!" Aidan tried to stand up, but fell as blood continued to flow more quickly from his wound. He was not healing quickly enough.
"Give it to me now!" The red lion increased its flames' intensity on the box, forcing the air I the cavern to become uncomfortably hot and unbreathable. Lance stood there, saying nothing, watching the man, who froze from fear.
"You're the culmination of all our suffering and pain, do you know that. Who told you that you could control the umbra? If we, a part of the lions can't even control them, what made you think you could control those creatures?"
"I said..."
"Chosen of the red lion." Jumping around, Lance felt the hair on the back of his neck rise. The hissing voice he thought had disappeared was again haunting him. Taking out his guns, he aimed at Haggar. However, the witch was barely able to move, her body scorched, raw or glistening from the burns of the red lion. She was gasping and wheezing in pain, bald head exposed. She was too weak to threaten him lethally. Lance stayed on his guard, watching both his enemies, his ears also attentive to the chaos being broadcast.
"My Prince..." She queried hoarsely.
" Ran away like the dog he is." Sneered Lance.
"The kogane heir is his worst match. I must save my grandson." Desperately, hagar managed to crawl a few inches before she crumbled to the ground again, too weak to move. Lance could see wet drag marks painted on the stone beneath her, following her intended path. The box.
"We sent your Prince a gift. I mean, we had to take from Lord Aidan's textbooks right. Zarkon also co-authored some of them, right, witch? And Aidan, old man, just so that you know, the part about my family being impulsive is 100% correct. The part that you don't know is..." Aidan and Hagar watched horrified as the red lion increased its flames, an inferno consuming it and a large portion of the cavern. The walls seeped molten rock, deforming against the blaze. The box burst into flames and Ash in seconds, remnants of past power destroyed.
"No!" screamed Aidan. Hagar yelled as she also tried to reach for the box, yellowing nails digging into the dirt and scrapping on rock,trying to reach for the box.
"The red lion is more impulsive than all of us combined."
...
"I will kill him!"
Lotor screamed as he hit the dash of his ship, furious. His eyes recalled the fight, analysing his opponent's style. 'The bastard had been well trained, damn him!' thought lotor.
'I'll kill him. I will kill him and wash the smite on my name with his blood. I make Allura mine on his cold corpse. I will kill him!'
"Hagar! Hagar! Show yourself evil witch! Now!" Closing his eyes, he waited for the witch to appear. That is when he remembered the battle and her screams.
"Hagar cannot be killed. Has she been captured?"
Beeping from his radar cut through his confused thoughts. The sun was rising on the horizon, blinding his arrival into drule territory. The insistence of the beeping the closer he neared the center of their citadel made the hairs on his arms rise. Looking at his arms, he determined that it was anxiousness. The clouds darkened, as she approached, opening a channel to his men.
" Prepare for my approach. Now!" But he didn't get a response. Extremely annoyed, he changed the channel and heard the distortions.
"It is still approaching."
" That is not 'it', it is the Emperor!Show your...ahhh!"
"Second citadel. Respond. King Mazar!"
Lotor, battle ready as he could get in his condition, prepared to clear the strange dark clouds. He could see flashes of red in the grayish depths that flared and disappeared. Flying over Mazar's territory, the clouds cleared suddenly.
"The hell!"
Dodging a huge mass, he managed to avoid the flaming ship that flew above him. For whatever reason, a mountain had grown out of nowhere in drule territory. Overnight. And it was moving. Blasting fighters that were in his way as he passed the gigantic mass, he felt his blood run cold. Fires consumed the territories below him, casting a reddish hue on the grayish castles. Ships burned enmasse as the eye could see, smoke billowing from the ground tinting the skies gray. The mass was wearing drule armour, red engraved Cape billowing behind it. The emperor's crest. What trashed the drule empire was its supreme leader, turned into a six-eyed, four honed, partially furred beast. His arms had extended unnaturally with his transformation, thick and muscled dangling almost to the ground. As Lotor tensed, he watched as red energy built up from inside the Emperor's mouth before it blasted south, toward Zarkon's citadel. From his vantage point, he saw numerous red dots running away from the damage. Human slaves. The irony of the situation did not escape him at all.
Sneering, he realized: 'This I my chance! To win the drule empire, who needs the umbra. This chaos is even better. Only a drule can reign in this chaos.'
"It will be me!" proudly steering his ship away from the monster, he called on his father's communicator. Zarkon's face appeared after a few seconds, calm as always.
"My idiot son finally returns. What happened to all the ships and men you went with? Humans again, of course."
"And what of you, father? Your generation was always known to be the end of the drule. It turns out that prophesies do come true."
"Watch your tongue, you cursed child! This nonsense is because of you, Lotor!"
"Come now, father. Even you know that that thing is not the result of hagar's experiments . Your puppet has played you for a fool , you decrepit old monster. He has betrayed you in ways that you cannot imagine!"
"And how can you tell the difference between them if you were not involved in their creation? Were you not the one who introduced him to robeasts? Also, why are you gasping like a dying pig? And where iis that witch?"
Lotor grit his teeth as he kept quiet, the memory of his escape still too raw for him. The narrowing of his eyes told Zarkon all that he needed to know.
" I know how your mind works, you failure. I will become the next drule Emperor. This is a golden opportunity to shift power and every drule ruler is vying for this. If you fight against me, I will not hesitate to kill you!"
Lotor narrowed his eyes dangerously. Blasting at another kings' soldiers as they made their way toward him, he understood clearly that everyone wanted this spoil of war. Under normal circumstances, the Emperor was untouchable in his citadel. Tapping in fingers on the dash, he brewed.
He was physically and strategically strong alone. Against other drules he could take them Merla could join him since she was greedy enough. Her forces outnumbered everyone'sconsidering that the bitch rarely went on raids but dealt in trade. She would be a formidable one to fight. An Alliance, maybe. 'But even with Merla's assistance I won't be able to go against his father, most likely he has already recruited her to join him. At what cost, though?' The bastard knew every step he would make. 'Before father consolidates power, I will retrieve the umbra and kill him! Time is all I opportunity.'
"Hail Zarkon!" Lotor saluted his father stiffly. Returning to his father's citadel, he rejected aides and commanded them to have his ship ready for battle. Clean and dosed, he commanded the fighters around him.
"What of the other incompetent Kings?"
"Dead or dying. I have four of their armies that I am controlling. They are the vanguard. The current status of the Royal family is most likely the same if you have brains enough to consider that the robeast emerged from the Royal citadel. And Aidan is nowhere to be found. He has the capacity to create more robeasts of this calibre, so be useful and bring that dog to me. Break a few bones if need be."
"Kill that monster in the name of King Zarkon! Defend the empire!" commanded Lotor.
" Sir, there are strange readings in the atmosphere. We cannot receive signals within that radius. It is growing!"
" What is it? Avoid the robeast and focus on that area. Prepare the plasma canons immediately."
The readings increased near the robeast, growing. Sensing the shift in the atmosphere, the robeast suddenly swung its arm out, attempting to strike the enormous obsidian dome that emerged in a flash. With a roar that echoed afar, the robeast was struck by an enormous tentacle, squatting the ships to the ground.
"It cannot be. It is impossible!" raged lotor as he ordered the image amplified.
The umbra. Kogane. The black lion. On the umbra.
Drules were questioning each other. He heard it through the speakers. The channels were flooded.
"Kill him!" screamed Lotor in felt chills as his eyes bore at the image of the man on his prize. Kogane proudly stood on the umbra, feet bleeding as if scorched. The black lion roared ferocioisly, forcing the drules to listen. The robeast floundered, trying to get on its feet from the hit.
" Kings and queens of the drule empire. I am Akira Keith Kogane, Prince of Arus. On behalf of the human race, I've come to officially declare war on the drule empire. You've desecrated our lands and massacred our people for your entertainment. We promise to respond accordingly until you surrender or we wipe you out. Kindly consider the last few years a long winded introduction on your part. We have captured Lord Aidan and your witch , Hagar. And In good faith and as celebration for my wedding, I've brought you a gift, courtesy of Prince Lotor. It's on loan from me to you. I'll come collect him later. Enjoy."
"I said kill him!" Lotor roared. But it was too late.
Keith was gone. Along with the mass of blue dots that Lotor had seen on the screen before.