Nightbird, Lady of Shadows: The Coming of the King

Nightbird,

Lady of Shadows

The Coming of the King

Kate Marian Mason

AuthorHouse™

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Phone: 1-800-839-8640

© 2011 by Kate Marian Mason. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 09/19/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4567-9988-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4567-9987-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4567-9989-2 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011915735

Printed in the United States of America

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Acknowledgements

The History of Serenity’s Song

Prologue

Chapter 1

Arrival

Chapter 2

Intrusions

Chapter 3

Choices

Chapter 4

Secrets Revealed

Chapter 5

Choices II

Chapter 6

Warning

Chapter 7

Secrets Revealed II

Chapter 8

Choices III

Chapter 9

Secrets Revealed III

Chapter 10

Choices IV

Chapter 11

An Escape Thwarted

Chapter 12

Acceptance

Chapter 13

Domination

Chapter 14

Answers of a Sort

Chapter 15

The Price of Consent

Chapter 16

A Long Road

Chapter 17

The Black Chasm

Chapter 18

The Scratorians

Chapter 19

Orders

Chapter 20

Deception

Chapter 21

Alarming Answers

Chapter 22

Bindings

Chapter 23

Surprises

Chapter 24

A Long Journey

Chapter 25

Of Gods and Men

Chapter 26

The Death of Innocents

Chapter 27

Decisions

Chapter 28

Angry Gods and Dead Men

Chapter 29

A New Beginning

Chapter 30

Gods Who Bleed

Chapter 31

Confession is Good

for the Soul

Chapter 32

Myrktoheim

Chapter 33

A Final Plea

Chapter 34

Healing Hurts

Chapter 35

Arrival

Chapter 36

The Fate of Enemies

Chapter 37

Love Betrayed

Chapter 38

Revelations

Chapter 39

The Judgment

of Serenity’s Song

Chapter 40

Fate

Chapter 41

Honesty

Chapter 42

A Warm Welcome

Chapter 43

Journey to Ko’Bakti

Chapter 44

A Chink in the Plan

Chapter 45

A Second Attempt

Chapter 46

Ko’Bakti

Chapter 47

The Price of Foolishness

Chapter 48

Plans Within Plans

Chapter 49

Kotor’Kai and

a Shaky Future

Chapter 50

According to Plan

Chapter 51

Back to the Beginning

Chapter 52

Discoveries

Chapter 53

Nearing the End

Chapter 54

Thoughts and Desires

Chapter 55

Condemnation and Regret

Chapter 56

Crime and Punishment

Chapter 57

Capture

Chapter 58

Offers and Acceptance

Chapter 59

Sacrifice

Chapter 60

Final Steps

Acknowledgements

I grew up reading comic books and novels like A Tale of Two Cities and The Count of Monte Cristo. I learned how to use my imagination from reading comics like the X-MEN and Batman. Stan Lee is one of my greatest heroes and this work is actually inspired quite a bit by him. I learned how to read through comic books, too, because the fantastic graphics made me want to know what the heroes and villains were saying. So one of my first acknowledgements has to be Stan Lee, for being so talented.

I have written stories about the following characters since I was in Sixth grade, making up my own versions of the world that touched my imagination since I learned to read. The only person who ever had the dubious privilege of reading those first stories was my teacher, Mr. Lubert, who was the first to urge me not to cease writing. He helped keep my confidence intact when it was low and told me I should bring the characters up to date, which I have striven hard to do. Mr. Lubert is now the principal of Our Lady of Pompeii parochial school in Manhattan, New York, and I hope when he reads this, it will please him! Thank you, Mr. Lubert.

Further acknowledgements must go to several of my friends and family, for urging me to keep going with this project. Jaron Kuppers helped me with the technical aspects of the weapon Mortus ultimately creates to destroy Extinction. Without Jaron’s help, I would have had trouble making it as realistic as it was. He also inspired me when creating Mako, one of the other characters in this series. Thanks, Jaron! Your help and friendship mean a lot to me!

I also wish to acknowledge the language expertise of Forest Gwynn, a former security guard for the Baltimore Museum of Art. He and I worked in the same department within that establishment and his knowledge of German helped me immeasurably. Thank you, Forest, wherever you are! I also wish to thank all those in that same place who read the first few drafts and shared with me their enthusiasm for getting their hands on the finished product! Their enthusiasm, especially from Joe Gallagher, Derek Anderson, and Sylvester Young, encouraged me to continue with the project until it was finished. Here it is, guys! I hope you enjoy it!

Last but not least, I wish to thank my husband, Ross Mason Jr., who insisted I keep writing, even when things seemed at their hardest. There are no words to describe how I feel for this man. I also wish to thank my children: Joanna, Michael, and Kayla, for imitating me on the computer. They love my writing almost as much as I love them!

Blessed be!

The History of Serenity’s Song

First founded in the year 1812 by Jonathan Barrington, an English Lord by birth who moved to Baltimore, Maryland in 1797. When he married, he and his wife had five children, two boys and three girls. The youngest girl, Serenity, would often fall into trances and predict future events with unerring accuracy. Lord Barrington was concerned about this and consulted his best friend, who was the aged local priest of the area. The priest said the visions were nothing to worry about, that said they had been beneficial and proved good warnings for things like the weather and such. In time, he called for a replacement to be trained for him, as he was getting on in years. A young priest was sent from Rome around the time young Serenity was ten years old. These trances alarmed the young man and, believing her to be a Minion of the Devil he so feared, disregarded his predecessor’s indulgence of her and vowed she would be stopped from leading the people of God astray.

One fateful night, when Lord Barrington was gone from the estate, the young priest led a lynch mob to the front door of Barrington Manor and sought to kill the child, whom he believed believed to be the originator of a curse in Baltimore. Her mother, her younger brother, one of her sisters, and the old priest died trying to save her and the father came home to tragedy. Serenity was hanged as a Witch, without any trial, and the young priest became victim of his own cruelty when, upon realizing their mistake in aiding his delusions, the lynch mob turned on him. The mob retreated and left the young father alone to deal with his grief. He decided to send his remaining children home, to England, in order to spare them further torment.

He despised his so called neighbors for destroying most of his family and vowed revenge. But after much soul searching, Jonathan Barrington forgave the growing city’s inhabitants and renamed his estate Serenity Hall. He opened it as a sanctuary for all those who were different. So– called witches, the religiously oppressed, and the unwanted were among those he welcomed and in time a group of Gifted and Ungifted were formed, called Serenity’s Song, as a memorial to his young daughter and a guard against intolerance and evil. Since 1812, it has stood as a bastion of hope for a world which is increasingly becoming more cynical and hopeless every day.

Prologue

Creation is made up of an infinite number of Universes which exist side by side and often become mirrors of each other. Each contains within its boundaries a need to balance Good with Evil and only the Fates decide which beings exist to maintain that balance. On some of these worlds, the existence of alternate dimensions and the pathways that connect them are common knowledge. Most, however, remain ignorant of how things are and that ignorance is not always recommended. When these portals are used, it is usually by accident and tends to introduce the unwary to Realities they could never have imagined. All of them contain alternate Earths, with people just like you and me. Twins of ourselves reside in each, with histories that could be similar or vastly different, depending upon the circumstances of their lives. Alien beings of a myriad of cultures exist within these galaxies. Treaties of peace are made and broken with ease. Most of them are unaware of the existence of a being whose sole purpose is to destroy everything!

Within one such Universe, on one such Earth, there reside extraordinary beings born with mind gifts that set them apart from all the rest. They have been given many labels: the Gifted, psychics, mutants, and (from those who label them cruelly) freaks. Some of these give as good as they get, despising the world of humanity, whose jealousy and hate single them out because they are different, and therefore are treated with contempt. Others, however, have vowed to walk a different path, to fight for a future where both races co-exist despite those differences.

This story revolves around one such a group of Gifted humans known as Serenity’s Song. It is a story that relates within its pages their fight to protect their home and stop the Great Evil that is coming. Led by Nightbird, they are called upon to sacrifice all to ensure that the Multiverse endures, despite whatever obstacles stand in the way.

And there are many obstacles!

*     *     *

A tremor rumbles throughout the body of a planet light-years from Earth, one of many whose inhabitants are facing their underserved doom with predictable panic. Its brothers, the ten Gaia class planets that float amid the crying stars are wracked by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and similar catastrophes as a being of immense size and strength smiles at the destruction he causes. He hears the shrieks of their doomed inhabitants as their end comes and laughs as the many machines around him absorb the energy of those cries, transforming them into something useful the monster’s body can absorb. Everything kinetic is absorbed as whatever remains of the planets these beings lived upon explode outward, offering even more sustenance to an abomination whose greed knows no bounds. A blinding flash of light, as thin and powerful as a laser beam, shoots up through one of the dying planets, feeding the machines that surround Extinction. The brunt of its force slams into the mass murderer as a new player enters the game.

The man who now flies through space is tall, wiry, and on the thin side. He is clad in a light blue formfitting uniform that reflects the beauty of the stars and his extraordinary powers keep out the crushing vacuum that surrounds him. Through the eye slits of his full faced helmet flare a pair of ice blue eyes and he glares out at a world that is quickly becoming stardust. Those eyes glint with rage as he observes the murders of this Universe’s inhabitants, whose lives are ruthlessly snuffed. As Starbringer races towards his enemy without thought to his own safety, a painful certainty that he is too late consumes him. He gazes out at the sea of destruction and knows he will fail this day.

‘This place is doomed! There is nothing I can now do to prevent it!’ he thinks, seeing the bodies of a mother and infant float past him. Several other corpses do as well, moving with agonizing slowness, the jettisoned refuse of a gutted planet, and he ceases to move towards the monster. He hides behind an asteroid instead, wishing he had the means to destroy him and knowing he does not, at least not yet. ‘I can do nothing for them now! Perhaps there is still time to gather the Seven Seconds against that monster without a purpose, the Get of those two equally useless monsters, Lady Cassandra and Armageddon! Extinction must die!’

He slashes his hand across the space in front of him, creating a tear in the fabric of Reality, then screams when pain erupts across his back. The tear he has made fades into nothingness as he faces the new threat and he scowls at what he finds.

A woman stands before him, dressed in an identical costume of blue and white, and there is malicious glee in her eyes as she lashes out at him again. He blocks her second attack, then mirrors her deadly movements, and hides his shock as much as he can at the sheer familiarity of her appearance. He knows he has to move as quickly as possible, lest he lose the ability to leave before this place self-destructs. He is able to create another Universal Tear but needs the chance to do so, a chance he fears his evil twin will not grant him.

"Going somewhere, Star Brother?" she mocks and his glare deepens as he strives to hide the panic that is rising within his heart as her voice-

(his voice, had Fate decreed he had been born a woman!)

-washes over him. He blasts at her again, rage blinding him to caution, and does not care that he runs the risk of catching the Monster’s attention as the two fight ferociously. He smiles when she suddenly cries out in pain as his star power slams into her and doesn’t hold back as once he would have. He keeps on, pounding her into the dust as her screams get louder, watching her with mocking eyes. She tries to create a shield to defend herself but his power disintegrates it without giving her the chance to call up reinforcements.

She falls through space, landing on a large asteroid half disintegrated by the destructive forces around them, and stares up at him through a haze of pain. Her eyes curse him and he deliberately puts as much mockery as he can in his own, as he destroys the remainder of her shield. She falls back against the rock that holds her in place, pain and exhaustion plain in every movement of her body, as he hovers in mid-air above her. He gazes upon her without expression as an inner turmoil struggles to reveal the weakness of fear his heart holds.

‘What am I to do now? Do I kill her or bring her with me?’ he thinks, realizing with relief that Extinction has not noticed them yet, lost in absorbing the stolen energy that he has taken from an innocent Universe. Starbringer knows there is no more time left to ponder and finally decides, gripping the deranged woman’s shoulders. He flies toward their last escape route with her in tow, ignoring her struggles as her eyes widen in shock. Gradually she realizes what he is about and struggles even harder to be free, screaming for her master to save her!

"Not this time!" he snarls and punches her, knocking her out even as he flies away from the area. He must move quickly, lest the Monster be alerted to their presence and all is lost!

A moment’s concentration is all it takes for Starbringer to open a portal that will remove himself and his newly caught companion from the doomed area. As he yanks his unconscious charge with him, he feels his heart become heavier as the screams of the dying and the images of all those bodies floating in the vast emptiness of space are abruptly cut off.

He gazes around him, hanging his head in sorrow.

‘We have only one chance to destroy him!’ he thinks and a malicious sneer lights his face as he adds to himself, ‘and only one person can do it!’

As he heals the rip in the Fabric of Reality that he has made, his sore heart hardens even more as he remembers the screams of those who were lost. He can’t help them but he will fight for those who can be saved, even if it means his own destruction in the end. The desperation that plagues him increases as he remembers that half of the Seven Seconds he had once commanded are dead now! Most of the rest he has Chosen remain ignorant of the being that spells their doom and only one of them is in a position to make any difference in this dire situation!

Imagine, if you will, a labyrinthine corridor stretching on Forever. Embedded within its walls, standing side by side, are thousands of doors. Each one is a masterpiece that would become the pride and joy of museums everywhere if any curator could procure even one of them. Thousands of doors lay within this corridor and a unique Universe lay beyond each. Some of these places are as different from each other as night and day while others are as similar as identical twins.

While the doors are stable enough, the corridor they are connected to is not. The hallway moves and blurs within your vision and, in some places, twists itself in a figure eight pattern or a loop de loop. In other places, the hallway disappears, giving the impression that some of the doors are hanging in midair, until it reappears a yard or two ahead. Wherever you are standing, the ground feels solid enough, but do not trust your eyes, for the hallway continues to waver and move like the waves of the ocean. Such is the Space Between Creation Itself and to this place that the Bringer of Stars has brought you, as well as his unconscious twin. This is the only safe place left within the Multiverse, where Life does not always rejuvenate. There are no monsters here, no hidden shadows that come alive if you gaze at them too long, only a peace and quiet that is the Song of Life… .

‘Must move quicker!’ your host thinks, pulling your attention back to the Present, and the statement makes you wonder why. You frown, then look back the way you have come and gasp.

The doorway he struggled through stands ajar, giving you a panoramic view of the Milky Way Galaxy and a particular planet you should be familiar with. You see the Earth in all its doomed glory and your eyes widen. A glow starts to burn somewhere on that blue planet you love, the only place you call home, and within no time that glow becomes an inferno. The flames spread over and outward from the orb, consuming all it touches, until it starts to consume space itself.

But isn’t that impossible? Normal flame does not behave in this manner! Normal flame would have been snuffed long before it could reach the uppermost atmosphere of the planet, wouldn’t it? This flame is not normal, however. It continues coming towards you, its lively brilliance transforming into a raging inferno, whose booming roar becomes louder and louder as time passes, and even as you hope that something will stop it, it is with a sinking feeling that you realize there is no force in even this place that can!

Starbringer throws himself to the side, having no time at all to close the door, and you quickly follow suit, praying to whatever deity you believe in that the end, when it comes, will be quick. You have just enough time to see a dark figure burst through the door before the entrance is consumed by flame, but that is all you are aware of as you are forced to close your eyes as heat engulfs you. A WOOSH of sound and the tearing of pristine metal against metal is all that remains of what once was a polished, elegantly wrought access way.

You feel yourself being slammed into the wall behind you, your face still burning from the heat of that intense blast, and moan as you fall to your knees beside the large dark figure of a man. He is not the Bringer of Stars but a total stranger, taller than you, with snow-white hair and eyes that are a cold grey. His handsome face is set in a cold frown and there are tears that shine in those eyes as he watches his world burn to nothing but ashes.

He must have lost everyone he had ever loved! He must be crushed with pain and grief! You would not blame him if he was and yet the man simply stands to his full height and turns away, grasping at the doorknob to an entrance right next to the one you have just left. The determination he feels and the will to survive is palpable, so much so you take a step back and don’t even try to stop him from escaping into a Universe not his own. In an instant, he is gone and has left the three of you without any more information than you had when he first appeared.

Starbringer has observed the man’s flight and his expressive eyes take on an even darker tone than the one the stranger had. He turns to the still form of his female twin and you realize the woman he had brought with him is too quiet, too still. She lies amid the rubble from the destroyed door, the remnant of a Universe that no one will ever know about, and her sightless eyes make your heart grow heavier still.

You realize with growing horror that now only you and Starbringer are left. Everyone else has either been able to flee or is dead, and you are all that is left.

‘What are we to do?’ you think, wanting to ask this of the man who has drawn you into a Multiverse gone mad. But the words die in your throat. You cannot do anything. A force of great power has just destroyed your entire Universe and there is nothing anyone can do against something like that!

Your eyes roam down the corridor you are trapped in and you realize that yours was not the only door that lay in shambles. The burnt crumbling remains of other doors litter the otherwise pristine Space Between Creation Itself and the thought that this is a recurring event starts to imbed itself in your soul, never to be erased.

Who can stand against such horror? Who can stop that force from continuing its useless destruction? Or are all the Universes destined to find themselves footnotes in a Creation whose Fate—?

‘She must be warned,’ Starbringer thinks and the thought gets your attention in a way that otherwise would be impossible, ‘but I fear it will not be by me! I must instead busy myself with the one being who can be the vehicle Joanna will need to reach her destination!’

He does not question the dubious wisdom of such an odd decision, only holds onto the certainty of it as he yanks open the door the stranger fled through. He does not even acknowledge that he might be shirking his duty as you both begin a journey of momentous urgency. His thoughts are locked onto the image of one whom he feels is the only alien leader that will provide his most favored of followers the means of catching up with Creation’s Nemesis.

‘I must find Lilliana!’ he thinks as you both fly through space. His thoughts do not linger on the dead body of his evil twin, a version of himself that one of the Universes, which one will never be known, produced. He realizes that it was too late for one such as she from the moment the Monster caught her… .

You snort at the thought, realizing it might just be too late for a lot of things!

Chapter 1

Arrival

The Baltimore night was quiet and still, with clear twinkling stars that lit a seasonably warm August night, and no one was the wiser as a black shadow flew through the sky, making not a sound. No one noticed as the especially equipped Shahn’Tari space vessel streaked across the horizon, which was oh-so-slowly lighting up with the first rays of dawn. Because of the speed with which the spacecraft moved, its flight would remain unobserved, even if there had been dozens of pedestrians going about their daily lives.

Serenity’s Song had finally come home.

Seated within were a large group of unique individuals, all of whom were as silent as the grave as their transportation locked onto the landing site on the grounds of Serenity University in the vicinity of Howard County. Grim faces were all that could be seen as each of the heroes remained locked in their own thoughts and the tension increased with each passing second.

*     *     *

I sat a bit separated from the others, lost in pained memories that were recalled only because of the mission we had just endured, and struggled against the tears that begged for release. The team had just come back from facing a cyborg known as the Experimenter, an entity who had willingly thrown away his humanity long ago in exchange for great technological power. Once lost, he sought to understand it again from a standpoint that made such comprehension nearly impossible, for his emotions were dead even as his mind had become a supercomputer.

‘He couldn’t understand why we rejected the virtual fantasy he had locked our minds in,’ I thought and covered my face with my hand as a single tear slipped down my cheeks. ‘He forgot that the instinct for Reality is something we’re born with. The dreams he almost damned us to, while sweet, went against everything we’ve come to believe in.’

In the dream world he had created for me, John was alive again and I was a normal human being! I was no longer half-vampire and my psychic abilities were gone! I was normal for the first time in my life and no longer an adventurer! I had Ungifted twins and my husband, who I loved with all my soul! There was no Sargus to destroy it for I never thwarted that demon, even once, in this Reality!

‘I was an Ungifted human and I reveled in it!’ I thought, sighing heavily. Unease filled my heart at that still, however, when I realized how utterly boring I’d found it all to be! I realized then, with a sick twist in my gut, that I enjoyed adventuring! I enjoyed thwarting an evildoers plans, be they demons, vampires, or whatever lay in between, and the life the Experimenter had created for me had not been the life I wanted. ‘And then… there was Christopher!’

Yes! That had stayed the same! He had remained in my life but instead of us living on the grounds of Serenity University, he had come as a visitor to the vast Estate my husband and I lived on! He was no longer my history teacher but my lover. An illicit affair had been going on for quite a while behind John’s back, something I’d broken off when I had found myself there.

‘And the reason for the affair appalled me!’ I thought now, biting my lip. ‘Apparently, I’d undergone some sort of operation that had removed the power I’d been born with! It had been a condition of my marriage to John and the sheer sameness of our lives had been overpoweringly boring!’

That wasn’t the only thing boring either! John was boring and the kids were boring, something none of them were in real life! We were rich and famous and could go where we wanted, do what we wanted, but it was almost too easy!

‘The only thing that was remotely interesting was my father-in-law’s, Sampson, odd behavior. Well, that and Steppenwolf’s would-be interaction with me! He was still a werewolf and had become positively obsessed with me!’ I thought now. ‘He hated John and had tried to get me to leave with him at every opportunity! But that was nothing compared to what Sampson had been up to! It was a good thing I was able to get Steppenwolf to help me find out what he was doing, too!’

Sampson had taken to stealing away at odd times in order to have secret meetings with David Corrigan, the man who turned me into a vampire in the waking world! In this odd mixed up Reality, David was a regular human being but had a reputation for murder! I caught both of them arranging weird engagements, then found out they was being paid to arrange sadistic hunts against Gifted humans, whose very existence was in violation of the law of the land!

‘As if any of us have any control over being born or what abilities we have once we are!’ I thought now, glaring heatedly out the window. ‘It was horrible and something I couldn’t just stand by and watch without doing something to stop it!’

I carefully recounted the events portrayed in that fictional world in my mind and realized that the closer I’d come to figuring out the truth behind the lie, the more chaos had reigned around me. My father-in-law had threatened me with Hunters, cellular machines of the most advanced human technology, when I wouldn’t back off. They were especially bred to hunt down Gifted humans and he said he would turn them on me if I continued my investigation, something that was just not like him. These machines were modeled after wolves but were far quicker than said animals and did not act as naturally as the real thing. Their computer brains were tied to a mainframe which helped them target their prey and they worked in packs of anywhere from two to six members. They were tailor-made for the Gifted they hunted and that was their only weakness, for if a Gifted human attacked with a power different from that belonging to their original target, they could be destroyed more easily! They had intense trouble adapting to any new threat. The packs that were made up of different types of Hunters were the most dangerous because they were better prepared for anything unexpected.

‘I demanded to know why he would threaten me with such things, since the Hunters do not kill those human beings without psychic abilities and I had been convinced I was merely human!’ I thought, my frown deepening. ‘When I ignored his warnings, I discovered Sargus had been behind the whole thing and he killed John again! He killed him all because of m-me . . . just as he had the first time! The more chaos reigned around me, the more myself I became and perhaps that was the glitch in the Experimenter’s plans! Because my subconscious was fighting his fantasy, his gift, he was trying everything he could think of to frighten me back into line and couldn’t understand why none of it worked! It helped my resolve but, oh, how it hurt to be right!

‘Denial never works!’ I added to myself, glancing out the window to observe Baltimore’s famous Inner Harbor. It was full of darkness now, its stores closed in these early hours of the dawn. I strove to shake off the pain that made my heart ache, wishing I could drown myself in simple common sense and dismiss everything else. But I couldn’t and knew it!

I simply wasn’t built that way!

‘It was a lie and living a lie never aided anyone! The bastard had tried to make me believe that I was only human, that my Ungifted husband was alive again, that… ’

*     *     *

"Oh, Goddess help me!"

Mako heard Nightbird whimper the desperate prayer and frowned as she started to weep. He suspected what must have been tormenting her and sighed as he walked slowly over to his sister. She trembled, struggling to keep her weeping quiet, then gasped as his hand fell on her shoulder. She looked up, biting her lip when he sat beside her, and tried to look brave.

"Joanna, don’t hide it! Let it out," the big man hissed and embraced her with a kindness he never showed anyone else. The fragile mask of control crumbled and he watched without comment as the tears continued to fall. It took about five minutes for her to vent a good bit of it out but when she was done, Jaron could see that there was less pain standing out in her blue eyes.

He glanced at the others, noting how Celsius was talking fervently to Guardian. His cousin looked as cold as stone, just as he used to, before he started allowing himself to feel again, and Jaron took that as a bad sign. Celsius was near tears and pleaded with him quietly, her words a mystery from this distance. After Guardian uttered a somewhat curt reply that he could not hear, she turned and raced back to another seat, crying inconsolably.

‘Crap, what’s that about?’ he thought, rolling his eyes. ‘Guardian is just staring after her, as if he doesn’t care, an’ that’s not like him! That’s the Old Guardian rearin’ his ugly head!’

He looked over at Elizabeth Denning and Johnny B. Good, the resident Singer of Songs who could do the impossible as long as I have total confidence in myself. They were fairing no better than the first couple he’d seen. Johnny was lying in Elizabeth’s arms crying uncontrollably and she simply held him without comment. When she sensed him staring, she looked up and gave him a crooked smile, trying unsuccessfully to make it look like she was perfectly fine.

Jaron knew better! None of them were fine and wouldn’t be for awhile. He scowled as he glared out the window, his dark blue eyes flashing as he spied the place he had called home for a good seven years, and his face got dark with fury as he relived the nightmare world that the Experimenter had thrust him in.

In his dream, his fiancée Tanya had come back from the dead. She was alive, well, and unharmed, and had become his wife, something he had wanted so badly in the waking world. They had never turned into petty thieves, had never invaded the Drake brothers’ home, and so he had been able to avoid undergoing the scientific experiments that had made him part shark/part man. The mad scientists had never murdered her and punished him with such torture, though he had retained the powers of Mako.

‘In that virtual world, I had been born with those abilities and I wasn’t known as Mako or even as a super criminal!’ he thought, silently seething at the knowledge that, either way, he was still damned! ‘I was free and whole, but not remotely human except in my soul!’

His sister, Joanna, had been there, too, congratulating him on the birth of his first born son. Prince Feleren, who he never would have known but for his former career as a super criminal, was his best friend and had been his best man. But the whole thing had felt wrong somehow and he could not accept it, even though it was what he wanted more than his own life.

When he started to have his doubts about what was going on, their whole party had been attacked by the same Hunters that his sister had found herself facing. One by one, those he had cared for had died and, when he had Joanna die fighting those same monsters, Tanya had begged him not to retaliate!

‘That’s when I knew it was a lie!’ he thought now, closing his eyes against the pain he relived. ‘The real Tanya would have been the first in the front lines! She would have come out fighting mad, especially after seeing Joanna die, yet there she was, begging me to let them kill us!’

She had tried to use every persuasion to keep him on the sidelines, including the precarious life of their newborn, and he had looked at her with pain-filled eyes. He remembered that he had kissed her passionately, told her he loved her and that he would miss her, and walked out to certain death. He had not looked back once, thinking of his dead sister and his innocent boy who had been no more substance than a dream…

And then he had awoken to Reality, with Salvo’s ugly face gazing at him from above, with a dead Experimenter at his feet, and the rest of Serenity’s Song in various states of confusion…

That had been the truly fun part, realizing that it had all been an illusion!

‘Nothin’ changes!’ Jaron thought and took a deep breath in an attempt to control the emotional anguish that came with the thought. ‘I can’t stay here anymore! I’m goin’ home, to New Atlantis! I’m gonna take a break from this place. I just hope Jo understands!’

His eyes gazed slowly over the other eight or so beings on the Thundercutter, noting the personal devastation on each of their faces. There were actual tears in the eyes of Lady Erin, who belonged to a race of dark elves called Svartralfr, and she was embracing their weapons master Jack Reece as if the two were longtime lovers. Hers were a people devoid of soft emotions like love and never until now had he seen one that cried.

‘Not that I’ve seen a whole bunch of ’em, with the exception of the Lady herself!’ he thought grimly. ‘They live in that underground realm, the Black Chasm, in that city of hers, Myrktoheim! They don’t usually travel to Earth, considering us too backward to dominate. The one who is the most ruthless is the one who succeeds and their Spider Goddess is a being who I never want to meet! The stories Lady Erin has told us about Her make me triple check the house to make sure there are no spiders around!’

He shivered involuntarily, then banished the image. He glanced at Arsenal, who was staring out the window grimly. His was the Gift of transformation. He could turn any part of his body into a weapon, a power only limited by his military imagination, and had a healing factor which could heal any wound. He had been a mercenary by trade when he’d joined this outfit years before his sister became its leader and had seen many incarnations of Serenity’s Song. He talked only when he had to and what he said one should listen to because it often meant the difference between life and death.

"I know only too well what your nightmare was, Joanna was saying, rousing him from his silent contemplation of the Australian. He met her soft blue eyes with his own as she added, Tanya."

He remained silent, knowing he need not confirm her guess, and blinked back his own tears. He did not admit, even to his own ears, that it had been an unexpected joy, actually pure Heaven just to have his lady in his arms again, just to know that he had a child, something that he didn’t believe he would ever have now… .

His sister nodded with a sad expression on her face and he sighed heavily as he thought about what they had all endured. He knew without mentioning it the reason Joanna had broken down. She must have relived a life with her dead husband, John Concorde, the second Ungifted human Jaron had met and liked and the only one she had never gotten over.

‘She must have relived his death at the hands of either Sargus, the demon who murdered him ten years ago, or someone else, someone worse!’ he thought and scowled. The idea that such a thing had happened, on top of everything else, was like a dagger in his heart.

"Jo, I’m sorry but I’ve had enough! As soon as we get home, I need to take off for a few. I’m… asking for a leave of absence."

The words came out slowly, not in a rush as they were in his mind, and as he spoke he realized their truth. He glanced at her to see her reaction and was a bit surprised when it was not the outburst of emotion he had come to expect from her.

"For how long?" Her voice was hushed but her expression was eerily serene as she gazed at him.

"Don’t know. At least a couple of months, maybe longer. Sorry but I-"

"Don’t apologize. It’s okay, she said, cutting him off with a shaky smile. I wish I could take off, too, if you want to know the truth. But I’m leader! You go and do what you need to do to get over this. When you feel you can, come back to me."

"And… if I can’t?" he said, hating the uncertainty in his voice but needing to say it anyway. He didn’t know what the future held. All he knew was that he was torn apart inside and could not continue as he had been.

*     *     *

Count me in, a gruff voice caught their attention before she had a chance to speak and Arsenal stood over them both. "I can’t stay here either… . least not for now. I hope you don’t count it against me, Red!"

Joanna’s smile was heartbreakingly sad but she shook her head, saying, "You’re not prisoners here, either of you. You can come and go as you please. We all need a bit of a break. Maybe we should all go to New Atlantis."

"That aint such a bad idea," Arsenal said, his black eyes glancing at the stone expression on their Resident Cowboy’s face, Salvo, who was simply staring at the wall across from where he sat. His expression was blank, as if he were a machine, and Arsenal knew that whatever he had endured, it must have been worse than anything they could imagine! Salvo was not given to being machine-like, no matter that he said he believed emotions should be controlled!

He was sitting beside a subdued Dr. Darkness, the resident medic. The middle aged Gifted had an expression of cool detachment that made Arsenal’s frown deepen. While not one to easily share his heart with anyone, he was nevertheless much more kindly disposed towards others than what he showed now. He was the kind of person one could unburden themselves to while he himself revealed next to nothing… .

The hard hearted mercenary stifled a shudder, not usually filled with such unease, and shook it off with an effort as he glanced back at the redhead. Joanna’s long hair reached passed her waist and the band of gold that wound through the red tresses seemed to blaze as their eyes met.

I’ll decide when we get back. I hope nothing else happens to us for awhile, was all she said and her expression did not invite any more chit chat as she turned to look out the window. He watched her for a long moment and rolled his eyes, recognizing a dismissal when he heard one. He sighed and went back to his seat, knowing that whatever came next would probably make life interesting to say the least.

‘Still! We really do need a damn break,’ he thought, frowning, ‘but maybe it don’t matter all that much. Serenity’s Song was created as a protection for the world and its inhabitants. Maybe we won’t get a break because the Universe can’t spare it!’

He went back to his seat beside the stoic looking cyborg Vindicator, feeling miserable in the face of what more was to come, and knew in his bones that nothing was settled, not by a long shot. There was more out there to face, more threats to be taken out, and he wondered if any of them were up to the challenge.

*     *     *

Celsius stared at Guardian from the back of the plane, her deep brown eyes full of a longing she had striven to hide all these years, and the Spaniard tentatively made her way to where the impassive Second-in-Command sat.

His deep hazel eyes were cold when he turned his head to look at her, freezing her where she stood, and she bit her lip. His strong jaw was dark with five o’clock shadow, accentuating his high cheekbones and thin lips. His roman nose, a feature shared by his cousins, lent a noble quality to his handsome face as the overhead florescent lights of the Thundercutter gleamed off his jet black hair.

C-Can I sit here? she asked, her voice quavering.

He stared at her a moment, then shrugged and nodded. He remained silent, however, as he turned back to gaze out the window. Those haunted eyes seemed to be a warning of dark things to come and she shivered as she came closer. She sat beside him but didn’t speak for the longest time, glancing at him from time to time, as if she wanted to say something but could not find the words or the courage.

Guardian… John… I need to tell you something.

She finally found the courage to speak and he swung around to look at her, his gaze like ice, continuing to say nothing as he waited with the patience of stone.

*     *     *

"We’ve been part of this group together for a good five years, Celsius began as she watched him, her attractive face drawn and tired looking. Guardian stifled the urge to take her in his arms and offer her protection from every horror both of them had ever faced. And… . well… . I wanted to tell you… ."

She bit her lip in an unconscious imitation of Joanna when she was nervous and when she said nothing more, he frowned and leaned closer, his muscular body taught with the effort it took to keep his hands to himself. Her long dark brown hair fell in thick lockes around her slim tanned body, ending halfway down her back, and her full lips were pursed in thought as those eyes of liquid brown gazed at him. He could see unshed tears in them and found himself longing to caress one of those high cheekbones of hers. Her small nose was pert and cute amid an overall beautiful face and his frown deepened as he waited for what she had to say.

"You wanted to tell me what?" he suddenly asked, inwardly cringing at the coldness in his voice, and watched her with an all too calm detachment as she winced.

She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, then opened them again and stared at him, saying, "John, I love you! I’ve always loved you! I’ve wanted to tell you for so long but I never felt good enough for you, never… She sighed, tears slipping down her slender tan cheeks as she glanced out the window. The Experimenter really did a number on us back there! I… You… the illusion he cast of you told me you loved me too! Stupid to believe, I know… ."

Her voice died at the look he gave her and he cursed himself as he saw her heartbreak in her eyes even as he wondered why he could not tell her what was really in his heart.

Outwardly, he was a cold hard shell, running on automatic because he felt he could not afford to keep close ties with anyone. Inwardly, he pounded at the mental prison that prevented him from physically reaching out and kissing this fierce Spanish beauty. She had faced death with him on countless occasions and won and was just as passionate as his cousin, whose unacknowledged strength seemed to attract the insane as well as inspire the noble.

He wanted to… but he could not!

The Experimenter had given him back his parents, only to snatch them away again when he had figured out it was all a lie! He had given him the chance to hold Celsius, just as she now longed for him to, only to have it be an illusion that he was forced to turn his back on! The thought of actually gaining his heart’s desire now was too much for him to take!

It was as if this situation had reawakened the Guardian who never smiled. It was the Old Guardian who now sat beside Celsius, the Old Guardian who stared at her with cold analysis, who kept himself sitting so straight in the chair he looked as if he would break if he stood. It was the Old Guardian who watched as Celsius turned away and ran back to her seat, sobbing with broken hearted abandon, never knowing that the Guardian who screamed for her to come back, the one who did indeed love her too, was locked behind those cold hazel eyes.

*     *     *

Lady Erin glared out the window, heedless of the beauty of the landscape below her, and resisted the urge to send a fireball straight into their vehicle, thus ending all their existences with but a single self-destructive act. Her heart and mind were still reeling from the horror she had endured at the Experimenter’s hand and she bit back the cry of despair she felt welling up inside her, unwilling to lose the control she had spent a lifetime building.

Never in her life had she faced such a trial and she could not be sure just how much control she still possessed as her heart broke into a thousand pieces for the thousandth time. She took a deep steadying breath as she recalled what her dreams had been, though a large part of her thought that even to allow herself to dwell on it was blasphemy.

‘It is blasphemy!’ the Svartr sorceress thought, fighting the weakness of tears. ‘Tew vish freedom from sehrving Blarekja can be nahthing else!’

And yet, that was exactly what her fantasy had been!

Until that moment, she had never questioned her people’s way of life. She had believed that the malicious deviousness and blatant power hunger of her race was the only logical path for anyone with half a mind to take. Might makes right was the Svartr way, after all, and anyone who believed differently was only good for war fodder. The Spider Goddess controlled Her children with ruthless greed and malicious glee and to be Hers to play with as She saw fit was a dark privilege that no Svartr of Myrktoheim would dare resist.

In her fantasy world, the Svartr had done the unthinkable! They had turned their backs upon the Goddess they had served with such fearful devotion for centuries, deciding to switch alliances to Her traitor child, Manimoes. The unwritten motto of get away with all you can had been replaced with "the only true way is through compassion for your fellow Elf". No longer were the Courts of the city corrupt and self-serving but full of honest judges and lawyers who went out of their way to find out the truth of the crime, if one could fully grasp such a bizarre concept. People were polite to each other out of true concern rather than fear of offending someone stronger than themselves or even of offending their Goddess, who was known to walk among them in the guise of one of them.

‘Being the Fehrst Daughtehr of the Fehrst House is more than just a station one is born intew!’ Lady Erin thought darkly. ‘I can be removed from that station with one misstep! There is alvays someone vanting advancement vithin Hehr ranks und that means I need tew be on constant guard against treachery! It vas not until I met these Gifted humans that it occurred tew me that not all races live the same vay! Since being here, I have encountehred souls who vewd actually die for vhat Joanna calls the greater gut. Joanna hehrself somehow firmly believes in dewing just that, that und so much more! Instead of using the power she has simply because she can, she measures vhen und vhere she uses it. She und I have discussed this concept many times before but it is only now that I think I truly undehrstand it: that vith great power comes great responsibility! I think I understand it . . . . but it hurts! Should it hurt so much?

‘It felt gut,’ she reluctantly admitted to herself. ‘It felt right to turn my back on Her, as if there vere such emotions as kindness und love! But it felt wrong as vell, like a sveet lie that entices one tew relax one’s guard just before the blade stabs the heart! That vas, of course, vhat alerted me tew the dangehr. Tew relax yewr guard even once invites disaster! Such a thing as that enables an enemy tew destroy yew und that is something I am vell disposed towards preventing!’

She thought she should feel proud to have gotten out of the trap and survive the attempt at deceit by their enemy. Instead, what made her the angriest was that such a Reality did not exist! It could not! It was a fantasy fit only for children and foolish ones at that, not a yearning need for a powerful and dangerous Svartralfr like herself! Reality was a cold shock of ice water to her battered soul and the thought that she, the great Lady Erin, had almost been so easily deceived galled her to no end!

‘I almost believed it,’ she thought now, feeling a single tear slide down her slender cheek. Angrily, she dashed it away, berating herself silently, ‘Be honest, My Lady! Yew vanted tew believe it! That is yewr greatest desire, tew throw avay all that Mothehr Blarekja, Goddess of Spiders, has given yew! Yew are an ungrateful child und vewd have desehrved yewr Fate, had yew truly been foolish enough tew believe such a pack of lies! Be grateful for vhat is for that is all that yew have!’

She wondered at the validity of her thoughts even as she glanced over at the fair leader of Serenity’s Song, Joanna Arliss, Nightbird, who was openly weeping in her brother’s arms. She had no trouble venting her pain for all to see, hiding nothing from prying eyes, who strove with all her soul to leave her world better than she found it. Lady Erin tried to tell herself that Joanna was a naïve child who believed in fairy tale endings and that love conquered all but couldn’t quite make herself go there.

‘There is no such vord as ‘love’ in my language,’ she thought, frowning darkly. ‘How naïve is she really, she who struggles so for a bettehr vorld? Logic dictates that such a thing cannot exist und vill nevehr so long as everyone is out for their own selfish needs! But is that argument completely accurate, I vondehr? Is she foolish tew hope for such things or is she smarter than the rest of us?’

Lady Erin didn’t know for certain. All she did know was that to wish for her people to be of a different nature, to be of the light as many of the traitorous children of Manimoes proclaimed, was the worst blasphemy she could ever utter, even within her own mind! Dark Elves such as she were just as likely to kill you with a smile on their faces as be your friend. Her people had no qualms about betraying those whose trust they had stolen with a charismatic front or heroic act. How could she, the First Daughter of the First House of Myrktoheim, truly trust these humans? Was betrayal not a normal part of everyone’s heart, even those who were not Svartr?

Yet those around her were not Svartr! They counted themselves among the ranks of the Gifted, those with superhuman abilities, that those without wanted to destroy more often than praise. In her mind, she knew that Serenity’s Song would probably never betray her but her heart remained that of a Svartr and Svartralfr never trusted or showed their true faces, especially when they smiled!

A warm hand touched her shoulder and she looked up to gaze into the deep brown eyes of Jack Reece, the Ungifted human weapons master of Serenity’s Song. His handsome face was filled with quiet gentility and the thin lips were stretched in a smile as he sat beside her. She tried and failed to present a cold expression towards him, then stifled a sob as tears filled her eyes.

He suddenly held her close to him and she did not have the words to protest as his lips locked on hers with gentle desire. His powerful body was tense under her slender fingers and his body heat flared beneath her touch as desire for him enshrouded her. Never had she allowed herself to be so intimate with a male and the momentary fear that he would see her for who she truly was became offset by the need that he see her without illusions. The passion she had tried to hide since she had met him was now undeniable.

Apparently, he had the same idea because the gentle kiss turned ardently possessive as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Soft sounds came from deep in his throat, mirrored by her own vocal chords, and frustration erupted in her heart again when she realized their passion could not be fully experienced until they had reached the mansion. Then she smiled at him, hungry anticipation lighting her violet eyes, deciding that it would not be much longer before the two of them experienced what Joanna had often described as intimacy.

*     *     *

Reece returned the kiss that the enigmatic Svartralfr granted him, keeping the heartbreak inside to himself, and held her close to him. He knew what this mission had cost them and would not have done anything differently, even though his life had depended on it.

The Experimenter had given him the fantasy of having all those he had cared for who had died live again. Master Sho, the deceased leader of his Ninja Clan, was back as well as others who had been killed by the Te’oru, the Breaking Hand, a rival Ninja clan that was deadly in the extreme. Amate, the only other female in the clan aside from Joanna, had married Stormbreaker instead of dying to save Reece the year before and there had never been a rift between him and the new leader of the Thundercutter Clan as there was in life.

He had gained all he had lost and more and yet it had not felt exactly right. The dead could not come back to life, he knew, and so had felt compelled to question the validity of Reality as it had been shown to him until its validity was proven false. It had been a knife to the heart to do so because, predictably, part of him longed for the fantasy to be Reality. Judging from the reactions of those around him, he had not been the only one to experience that longing.

All that had been missing was the lady of his dreams, something that had only materialized at the last second, right before he had given up the illusion. She had proven to be the woman who was now in his arms, vulnerable and strong all at the same time, and Reece did not question her sudden acceptance. He would find out later