Come to think of it, Ta’Zan was going to be pissed off, and then some! Yet, I knew he’d breathe a sigh of relief once he saw that his GASP prisoners were still there. I would’ve given anything to see him blow a gasket once he realized that all he had were copies, useless for his genetic work. It was the only thought that gave me some kind of comfort as I ran through the tunnel with the others, in Douma’s absence.
All I could do was make sure my people got to safety. I’d find a way to get to Douma later, if she didn’t return to the base camp first. I also had to withstand the increasing discomfort in the pit of my stomach.
The operation hadn’t gone as smoothly as we would’ve hoped, and we were cut off from the world again, in terms of means of communication, but there was still a spark on the horizon: a shuttle of fae badly needed by the Hermessi to rise up and put the Perfects back in their place. To put an end to Ta’Zan.
Derek
I should’ve been happier for finally getting out of that damn dome.
We’d been stuck there for what felt like decades, not weeks. It was nice to move again without the shock collar heating up or electrocuting me. But our mission was incomplete. The comms were down, and we couldn’t get hold of our allies. We didn’t know how many had survived the melee by the southwest entrance. We didn’t know if Amal and Amane had made it out with the mass memory wiper.
Our goal was to fight Ta’Zan in a clean manner, disabling his army by wiping the memory of the Perfects. The bigger the device’s radius, the more minds to clean, and that was where the Hermessi’s power intervened. They had the juice to make it happen.
Otherwise, we would be forced to kill them, also with the Hermessi’s help. Upon the next full moon, the natural elements were going to channel their energy and activate themselves by using the living bodies of one thousand and one fae on Strava. From that moment on, all hell would break loose—the kind of hell that would later haunt us and chip away at our consciences.
I didn’t want the Perfects to die. I wasn’t a fan of them, but I understood that their minds had been skewed and programmed by Ta’Zan to obey him, to commit acts of cruelty and atrocities in his name, for the sake of so-called genetic superiority. They’d been radicalized, but they could be brought back. They deserved a shot at life without bringing down the entire universe.
My heart ached sincerely at the thought of killing them all. Chances were that nothing would survive the blaze of an activated fire Hermessi, for example, no matter what gene editing Ta’Zan did to prevent his Perfects from completely burning. I didn’t yet know for sure how the Hermessi’s intervention would help, but I understood enough to know that it entailed complete obliteration. The raw force of nature, once unleashed, had to be stronger that his artifices.
We kept running through that tunnel for hours. Once in a while, we tried to reach out to the others through our earpieces. Foolish of us to think the same actions done repeatedly would yield different results, but despair had this way of messing with our critical thinking.
The rumbling of the colosseum’s destruction stayed behind, as the Perfects tried to deal with it—figuring out what happened, helping their brethren out, and looking for Faulty survivors, if any had been left behind after Isda’s warning. They’d been smart enough to launch that pulse after the explosion, and that alone was confirmation that parts of the colosseum, aside from our diamond dome, had survived the blast.
The fae worked tirelessly to keep the tunnel up and dig farther south. They did the same through the ocean, where the Dhaxanians intervened with their frost, making sure we all had safe passage. Our witches and warlock did their part, as well, in making this journey as smooth as possible.
“We’re almost there,” Rose said, leading the way with Elonora, Varga, Ben, Taeral, and Vesta. “We’ll regroup and catch our breath there.”
“The Draenir who stayed in the base camp were instructed to gather provisions of water and food for us, upon our return,” Ben added.
As the tunnel ascended, I took Sofia’s hand in mine. She looked at me, her lips stretching into a bright and encouraging smile.
“It’s going to be okay, Derek,” she said. “We got through the worst part already.”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to breathe properly until Ta’Zan is a pile of ashes,” I muttered.
“Patience, Dad. We’ll get to that point,” Rose interjected. “We have to be smart about this. And, hopefully, Amal and Amane and the others are already on their way back to base camp, as well. Douma, Raphael, Araquiel, Nathaniel, Uriel, Angelica, and Deena are all perfectly capable of supersonic flight. If necessary, they will make use of it.”
Somehow, that thought didn’t comfort me as much as it should have. Though, it wasn’t in my nature to be a super-optimistic beacon of positivity. Real life had taught me the hard way that things could get worse, fast. I had to be mentally prepared for that, so I wouldn’t get us tangled in a problem, but rather focused on the solution.
Vesta grunted as she put her hands up. One last push, and the ground split open. The cool air of a mountain cave came through, chilling me to the bone. I loved it.
We emerged from the tunnel right into Ben and Rose’s base camp. I could tell by the many backpacks and weapons they’d left behind, along with an impressive pile of food and water bladders stacked against a wall.
I recognized the handful of Draenir that had stayed behind. They were just like Rose and Ben had described them: beautiful, pale, and delicate, with slender figures and curious eyes. The eldest stood up, lighting up like the sun at the sight of us.
A second later, he and his people took a couple of steps back, clearly overwhelmed by the number of people coming out from the hole in the ground. We spilled into the large chamber—hundreds of us, tired and hungry, thirsty and nervous.
“You made it back!” the elder Draenir exclaimed, then put his arms out as Ben and Rose rushed to hug him.
“Yes, we did, Rakkhan,” Rose replied, then looked back at Sofia and me, smiling. “These are our parents, Derek and Sofia. They’re part of the reason we’ve been fighting so hard.”
I felt compelled to shake Rakkhan’s hand. He was, after all, one of the survivors of Ta’Zan’s genocide from more than a century ago. His grip was firm, his tone soft.
“It is an honor to meet you,” he said. “Rose and Ben spoke highly of you, and for good reason. You’re responsible for great acts of peace and kindness in this universe.”
“We do the best we can with what we have,” I replied, then introduced the rest of our founders’ crew to Rakkhan and the six Draenir that had stayed with him.
We took a few minutes to quickly eat and drink something. The Draenir had even hunted some animals at the base of the mountain, offering us a fresh supply of blood. It gave me the burst of energy I needed to push through.
Rose and Ben brought Rakkhan up to speed with how the mission had been carried out, along with the unexpected twists and turns, including the comms blockers coming back on. Rakkhan listened carefully, processing every detail as he occasionally glanced around at the plethora of GASP prisoners we’d suddenly crammed into the cave.
His people were equally fascinated, unable to take their eyes off the diverse species that had come together to fight Ta’Zan. Dragons, witches, warlocks, werewolves, Maras, Dhaxanians, fae, Bajangs and Druids, incubi and succubi, vampires and Lamias, and more—all driven by the singular desire to restore balance and prevent the universe from flipping over because of one maniac’s ambitions.
“I see Douma and the others haven’t made it back yet,” Rakkhan said.
“They’re missing,” Rose replied, crossing her arms. “I’m hoping they’re on their way, though. They’re strong and resourceful. The blast must’ve helped with their escape.”
“We saw the column of smoke, far away in the sky. One can see well from the mountain top,” Rakkhan said. “We saw the clouds of Perfects descending upon the explosion site, too. You went underground. That was wise.”
“They probably spread out afterward, hoping to catch whoever did it,” Ben said. “But with copies of us still in there, they didn’t have much to go on. From that point of view, the mission was a success. We extracted all the prisoners, including our founders,” he added, lovingly looking at Sofia and me.
“But we don’t have the mass memory wiper yet.” Rakkhan sighed. “You know what this means, right?”
“If we don’t get it, we’ll have to kill the Perfects,” Xavier interjected.
“It’s not a path I would like for us to take,” Rakkhan said. “But we may have to, in the end…”
Vesta gasped, her eyes wide and glassy as she looked at us. She wasn’t the only one. Other fae displayed a similar reaction, including my son.
