In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater (41 page)

“Jahum
and the council wanted to stand back and do nothing while the perfect erased
us! While his mistakes are destroying us, forcing us to live in the mistake he
made, when he created the stars. The mistakes that are eating through our
universe, your home.”

“You
claim to be saving us but you’re killing billions!”

“Whatever
foolish things he did at the beginning of the universe had a lasting effect. At
the center of the universe there is nothing. No energy, no mass, no black
holes, not even reality itself. When our universe expands out there is nothing
to pull everything back, it will fade into nothingness. The only way to save us
is to start a new.”

A
bundle of spheres rockets into Cole and sends him hurdling into the air. He
lands hard on the invisible floor. Leif continues his approach.

“I’ve
seen the beginning and ends of time, the limitless amount of universes
surrounding us and how a ‘perfect’ universe functions. Death is a natural part
of every universe, yet in our own, our matter, our energy is useless, it’s not
used in star matter, or our planets, once we drift past a certain point, we
float into none existence. Where in a normal universe we would be brought back
to a central point to start over again for an eternity.”

Cole
isn’t going to join him, no matter how much Leif pleads, he’s killed almost
every single person he loved.

“I’ve
been through the same journey as you have, I’ve been ripped apart molecule by
molecule and put back together.”

His
spheres slams into Cole as he tries to stand.

“I’ve
followed the journey of a single atom becoming a majestic star, I’ve died and
have come back.”

The
spheres hit Cole once again.

”And
I’ve experienced true emptiness and learned the answer, matter in this universe
are building blocks for something better.” Leif walks up to Cole’s bent over
body.

Cole
doesn’t care, he doesn’t care if it was Jahum who caused these problems. He
doesn’t care if Leif is right. He just wants for this to end, he wants to be
left alone. He doesn’t give a damn about Leif and whatever the hell he’s
talking about.

He
glances at Thora, static in her cage. Alone with her, he wants to tell her he’s
sorry, that they should get a house somewhere out in the countryside, just the
two—three of them.

But.

“Our
pain, our pleasures, our experiences are for nothing. They don’t matter in this
universe, but in the next they will. Join us, join us and save the universe.
Your race is gone, Cole. And so is mine.”

Cole
looks up at him, he once again stretches out his hand. This psycho path must be
stopped.

“No.”

Disappoint
flashes on Leif’s face. He must be stopped so he can be alone once more. Cole
powers up and—

“No!”

Before
Leif can move, Cole swings up, his spheres spin around his hand and—

With
a sickening crack, Cole’s spheres thrust into Leif and forces his upper body
back until his head meets the back of his legs.

The
deformed Leif falls to the ground in a lifeless lump. Cole gets up and runs
toward Thora.

---

A
Kabus holds Lance over the plaza, on the edge of what looks like a hover car.
The driver holds it there like Kabus asked, he doesn’t want to meet his wrath.

Lance
is beat to hell, so badly he can’t even move. The other Kabus hovers higher in
the sky watching over them.

“You
won’t be needing this anymore,” The Kabus says. He grabs Lance’s necklace, it
has his locket. Kabus rips it off.

There
are no visible marks on Lance face besides it being partially swollen. But
Kabus can fix that.

“I
was hoping you were going to be more fun. Oh well,” Kabus says. He thrust his
hand into Lance’s gut.

Lance
spits up blood. Kabus lets go of him and his locket. As he falls, he can see
Kabus laughs, time seems to slow down.

He
stood no chance, to them they are just ants,
his
power
wasn’t even close to enough to win. He can see his locket fall for him as he
approaches the ground, the fall should kill him, but he wants to hold the last
memory of Earth and his family he has left.

He
reaches for it. His skin starts to give off a faint glow.

Dying
is strange, he can feel it. The warmth of the matter around him. His locket
gets closer as if it’s being pulling toward him.

Serena.

He
can hear her screams in the background, he tries to reach for his locket one
last time before he meets the ground. It’s off the cusp of his fingertips.

Serena…I’m
sorry
.
His fingertip touches the locket.

A
blue light explodes from him. Four spheres circle him. He lands gracefully on
the ground.

“Shit,”
Kabus says from above. Lance feels an immense power pulsing through him. This
is it. The power he needs.

He
looks at Kabus, Kabus looks back and smiles. Lance rockets up. Kabus jumps and
flies down. They clash, meeting each other with fist, hit for hit, they match.

Fist
and energy blast come from every direction in a blinding light. Lance doesn’t
have time for this.

While
Kabus plays around, Lance gets faster, stronger. Lance pulls his arm back as
Kabus comes for him. Lance swings and punches Kabus in the gut so hard that the
punch explodes out of Kabus’s back and Kabus is ripped in half.

His
top half laughs as it flies through the air.

In
a destroyed building, Serena is still splayed on the wall, Pierced by two metal
pillars in the gut. She is in too much pain to scream. The pillars keep her in
place.

Kabus
moves closer to her.

“I’ll
be needing these.” He pulls them out as she screams—

Lance
comes crashing down in front of Kabus. A furious blue light smokes off him. He
thrust out his arms and yells. A blue force surrounds him and Serena. Serena
looks up at Lance. Her husband came to save the day. At least she can see him
one last time.

The
force pushes out, it expands in a half spherical motion destroying everything
it engulfs. Kabus tries to run but he’s engulf in it. The blue death.

It
continues until it destroys everything, every building in a two-thousand foot
radius.

Lance
powers down, finally running out of energy, out of the immense power. His body
feels cold as the energy leaves him. He doesn’t want it to go, he needs to—

Serena
falls into Lance’s tired arms. She tries to hold herself up with all the life
she has left, bleeding onto Lance’s arms.

“No,”
he mutters.

It
should’ve been him.

A
screen pops up above him, it shows Thora in a glass cage and something trying
to wake her.

It
shows up on every screen in the Skyeater, in houses, and on the streets, people
watch on.

---

In
the star, the cage is gone. Cole holds Thora, shaking her gently.

“Thora,
please wake up,” Cole pleads. Behind him something starts to stir, Cole is too
occupied to notice.

Leif’s
body creaks, his bones, crack and snaps back into place as his body heals
itself.

---

Lance
looks back down at Serena, the color quickly leaving her skin, she’s lost too
much blood. The light above is cut off. 

Damons
fly above them in a circle, observing them like vicious vultures, getting hungry,
waiting for their prey. The last Kabus floats in the middle of them.

“You’re
just like a forsaken, an angel, a reckless chaotic fool who believed they could
become a god,” Kabus chants.

Lance
looks at the shield protecting the star, he has to do something and there’s
only one way to destroy it. He holds firmly in his arms. Her skin is almost
cold to the touch, she’s leaving this world.

“Lance…”

He
looks into his wife dying eyes. They knew it would most likely come to this but
it doesn’t make it easier.

“Yes.”

“Do…it…It’s
going to be…okay…” she whispers, a tear falls from her eyes.

“Goodbye
Iyabov
Moya.”

He
passionately kisses her as she holds him with her dying grasp. He slowly pulls
off her wedding ring.

She
falls limp.

Dead.

He
takes his locket and holds them both out in his hand. The last two things he
was connected with to this world, he’s going to destroy the Skyeaters star at
any cost.

It’s
what they said they would do if it came this far. If their struggle to save
humanity was hopeless.

Hopefully
Wilker and Noata can save the rest. He’s done his part. At least he flown in
the clouds, done things he’d never thought he would do in this life time and
finally seen the stars shimmer in his sky.

He
surges a little power through the devices. A display pops up.
Self-destruction
activated.

The
devices light up, almost too bright to bare.

Soon.
He will join his wife.

He
hurls them in the air.

---

Thora
jolts awake, she moans as she opens her eyes. She sees Cole. She pause and
starts to shake.

Cole
can feel her trembling through her arms. Her eyes tear up.

“
Wh
…
wha
…Who are you?” Thora asks.

“What?”

What’s
wrong with her?

“It’s
me. Cole!”

“No,”
she says. “
Noo
!” she screams.

“What’s
wrong?!” He tries to pick her up.

“Get
away from me!” She tries to squirm out of his hands but his grip is too strong.

“Don’t
you hate being lied too?” Leif stands behind him. Completely healed. Thora and
Cole stops moving.

“Jahum
isn’t as honorable as he has made himself seem. He has lied to you about everything.
We are all his children, his creations and he wants to destroy the only key to
save us all.”

---

In
the Skyeater’s sky, Serena’s ring hits the star first, exploding on the shield
in a vibrant colorful firebomb, like if a colorful atom bomb just went off.

When
the smoke clears, the shield is gone.

On
the ground, Lance looks down at Serena’s lifeless face. Even in death she’s
still beautiful.

A
sleeping beauty, waiting on her prince.

Don’t
worry, “I will join you soon, my princess.”

We
are his mistakes, he had many chances to take care of us, but through his
self-imposed ignorance and ego, he passed the burden to your people.

Lance
pulls Serena up and embraces her one last time. Tears fall from his eyes as the
shadows of the Damon above eclipse the light. Kabus shows off his toothy grin.
The Damon descend down and engulf them.

---

Cole
pulls Thora up, she clinches onto him for life as Leif walks toward them.

“A
few untrained pests and one person who’s barely been
pansophical
for the length of a cycle of the sun.”

“Why!
What the hell is the human race to you! It will take you thousands of years to
compete your goal! Why start with us? Why cut our destinies short?”

“In
this universe, your existence is nothing! To my race you are ants. Unworthy of
living in this universe. But to the greater good and I, your races annihilation
is everything. Welcome to your race’s execution, Cole. On the charges of being
alive in an imperfect universe.”

---

Blood
spurts from the mass of Damon feasting on what Lance and Serena used to be.
Devoured, ripped apart. Their flesh unseen as the Damon huddle together like
animals. Above them Lance’s locket finally hits the star, absorbed in its
light.

---

Leif
towers over Cole. Cole can’t fight him, it’s impossible. Charges?
That’s
bullshit
, he needs to figure out how to get Thora out of here.

“What
would you do Cole, if every star in your shinning night disappeared? Mine has
and so will yours.”

Cole
glances at Thora, she still doesn’t look at him straight in the face. He did
have every single one of his stars disappear, before this war, before this
invasion, he was hopeless. But with this power and the help of Jahum, he has
had one star rekindle in his night sky.

Thora.

“It’s
sad. To see what Jahum can do to a lesser being,” Leif says with a sincere
look.

“You
were lied to, Cole, by the false prophets you were so keen to call your
saviors. You must be wondering why your lover doesn’t recognize you.”