Savior Part 2: Son of Eden (The Savior Series) (22 page)

The Goddess’ eyes suddenly ignited with white hot flames of energy as the fleet pelted Her aura with countless waves of their red death rays. The blazing force field that surrounded Her began to rapidly expand as She began to grow in size at a rate of fifty feet per second. Before long She was as tall as a sky scraper and the swarm of Guardians and flying saucers that surrounded Her looked more like a swarm of bees that were scrambling around a ferocious yet equally beautiful giant.

A planet shattering roar shook the skies as the Goddess threw Her head back and embers of Her fiery blue energy boiled over inside Her throat. The skies were lit ablaze as She stepped forward and spewed an inferno of blistering power from Her mouth. The fleet of enemy spaceships was completely devoured as the scorching wave of energy tore across the horizon, but as the smoke cleared and the gigantic Goddess gasped for breath, I was devastated to see that the Guardians remained unfazed. Not only had the Goddess’ attack failed to destroy them but their force fields as well as their menacing visors now glowed with hints of the same fiery blue power that She had used against them.

One of the hovering Guardians suddenly flew straight upward and zoomed away from the battle as the Goddess prepared to attack them once again. The fleeing Guardian accelerated to an unbelievable speed and rocketed away into space as the Goddess once again showered the rest of the machines with the flames of Her power. The soft blue glow of their once yellowish force fields became stronger as the Guardians absorbed more and more of the Goddess’ energy while they made their way toward Her. Soon the group of Guardians broke through the Goddess’ onslaught of smoldering energy and began to fire blasts of Her own power back at Her.

“No!” I cried out as the Goddess stumbled backward in pain while the Guardians’ powerful energy blasts continued to break through Her force field and slam against Her massive body. As the swarming Guardians continued to pelt Her with beams of Her own energy, The Goddess threw Her hands before Her and telekinetically blocked some of the blasts while rapidly shrinking to Her normal size so as not to give them such a huge target.

Before long the Goddess resulted to zipping around the sky faster than my eyes could see, and She attacked the remaining Guardians with devastating right handed haymakers as she picked up more and more speed. She momentarily regained the upper hand as Her punches reduced several of them into scrap metal but as She continued to zoom around the sky, the robots suddenly developed the ability to match Her speed.

Tears welled in the corners of my eyes as the swarm finally cut off the Goddess’ path and completely surrounded Her. The trapped Goddess hovered amongst the machines as thunder rang out in the distance and Her long hair fluttered in the strong wind behind Her. The menacing visors of the surrounding Guardians glowed intensely as they aimed their cannons at Her in unison. The Goddess’ entire body suddenly began to violently tremble and small bolts of bright blue energy sporadically rippled up and down Her body as the group of Guardians slowly tightened their circle around Her. As Her trembling intensified Her hands suddenly burst into bright blue flames and She cried out in agony as the flames completely burned Her hands away. The fire that had reduced Her hands to ash then spread along Her forearms until everything up to Her elbows was burned away into nothing. Jets of white hot energy mixed with the bright blue power that surrounded Her entire body spewed like geysers from the ends of Her charred elbows as She set Her sights on the Guardians that beset Her.

By the time the Guardians fired their cannons at Her they were already too late, because She had become a blazing tornado of deadly power as She continually spun around in mid-air causing the jets of energy that were spewing from Her arms to create a massive vortex that was pulling the remaining Guardians in against their will. The Guardians ignited their force fields with all their power as they tried desperately to keep themselves from being destroyed, but in the end the vortex that they were all trapped within was simply too potent. With one glance I could tell that the white hot energy that was spewing from the Goddess’ arms was much more than the bright blue energy that She had already used against them. This was the same energy that made up the spectral eye form that She had taken when She initially appeared before me—this was the very essence of the Goddess. Many of the machines were instantly destroyed as soon as they entered the vortex but the last few that remained were only able to delay their inevitable doom for a few minutes. Their adaptive force fields glowed brightly as the unyielding torrent of the Goddess’ flaming essence corroded their energy away. Soon, their numbers dwindled to almost nothing, and it finally looked as though the Goddess would be victorious—but that was before the flash.

My heart skipped a beat as a blinding flash of white light ignited the skies overhead and the Guardian that had flown into outer space earlier in the battle suddenly descended from the heavens at nearly the speed of light. Before the Goddess was able to react the streaking Guardian zoomed down the eye of the storm like a comet and slammed against Her body with the force of a meteorite.

Buildings and trees along with everyone and everything else on the ground below were instantly leveled as a massive ball of white-hot fire erupted in the skies above. I watched in frightened awe as the rising ball of fire momentarily collapsed onto itself but with another blinding flash of white light the wreath of heavenly fire exploded outward once again. The ensuing wave of fiery destruction consumed everything in sight, with many of the people and objects within its path being completely incinerated before the fire had even reached them.

When the smoke finally cleared and the dust and rubble had settled there was nothing left. No signs of life, no signs of the Guardians and no sign of the Goddess. All that remained was an enormous crater in the ground that was easily the size of Alaska. And in the sky above the great crater, only I remained, floating above the cinder and frozen in disbelief as I struggled to find words for what I had just seen. But there were no words. There was nothing I could say after witnessing a loss of life to that magnitude. Before long even the skies began to turn to ash and the entire world around me blew away into nothing as it faded into the darkness.

“I WAS DEFEATED,”
THE GODDESS’ ENCHANTING VOICE declared as I once again
found myself surrounded by that otherworldly blackness and fog.

“Then how are you here? How can you be talking to me if you were destroyed?” I asked as I peered into the darkness before me.

“
Those who were lost in the explosion on that day are the reasons for my salvation. With my physical form destroyed, I needed to quickly flee the corporeal realm, lest my true form cease to exist as well. Fortunately for me, the simultaneous deaths of the billions that had been caught within that explosion opened a gateway big enough for me to pull what was left of my essence back into the spiritual universe from which I had come.”

“Are-are you saying you come from heaven?” I stammered as the Goddess’ massive spectral eye form suddenly appeared before me once again, casting a soft blue glow into the darkness around me.

“No,”
She said, as Her flaming eyes stared intensely at me.
“My universe is merely a plane of existence where only spiritual beings exist. In your universe one must possess a physical and a spiritual form in order to maintain existence but once the physical form has ended the spiritual essence must cross over into our universe. Such is the natural order of the multi-verse in which we all exist.”

“But what happens when a soul crosses over? Is it like purgatory or something?” I asked. Several moments of silence passed which made me uneasy. I was just about to ask the question again when the Goddess finally replied.

“It is a bit more complicated than that, my dear. You must understand that there are many other planes of existence besides mine and yours and there are many other beings like me that are native to the spiritual universe in which I was created. We know not who created us nor you but my kind took pride in molding your universe into what it has become today. My people were at one point merely the stewards of the spiritual realm, but we would often reach across the veil into your reality and through subtle influence we were able to systematically improve the lives and viability for all organic life. For millennia we performed as overseers to your universe and there was a time when we would allow the souls that crossed into our world to move on to whatever realm their fate would have in store—but unfortunately, my dear… that time has long past.”

“I don’t understand,” I admitted as Her foreboding tone caused a sudden chill to wash over me.

“The pattern of ascension has existed since the beginning of time and for most of our nearly eternal existence my kind has honored the pattern—but alas, jealousy is not a sin that is only bound to flesh and bone. For eons we have watched over the corporeal realm and helped organics reach their full potential only to watch you momentarily cross over into our realm before moving on to the other planes of existence—but we too covet passage to the other realms. However, there are barriers of unimaginable power that even beings as powerful as us are incapable of breaching. Eons of not having access to the other universes beyond our own slowly turned the love that our kind once had for organics into bitter resentment—and as a display of defiance, my kind began to prevent the ascension of organics in the most heinous way possible.”

“How? How did they prevent them from moving on?” I asked after the Goddess remained silent for a few moments.

“
There are still a few organic souls that manage to make it beyond the walls of our universe however most of them are devoured upon entry.”

“Devoured?!
Th-they eat them?” I stammered.

“Yes, it was discovered that the consumption of the residual spiritual energy of organic life gives our kind greater strength. Those of us who fed on the souls of organics eventually became more powerful than the rest of us and before long they gained dominion over the entire realm.”

“But I don’t understand,” I admitted. “Why would the others do something like that? Why would beings as powerful as you be jealous of us?”

“We have existed for far longer than your mind can comprehend, Monica. However, we are not eternal and must therefore have a creator. There are those among us who mean to seek out the Creator of All Things by obtaining enough power to breach the impermeable barrier that prevents my kind from venturing beyond the first two universes.”

“Are you saying that they’re devouring souls in order to find
God?”
I asked.

“So it would seem.”

“But I thought you were gods! Look at how they worship you on Eden!” I cried.

“Organics have referred to my kind by many names—titans, gods… angels. You worship us due to the enormity of our spiritual power, however our power pales in comparison to that of the Creator of All Things. In the end, the Creator is as far beyond us as we are beyond you—and that is what angers my brothers and sisters the most. That is what drives them to consume the souls of organics in hopes of someday amassing enough power to confront the Creator. They envy the fact that your kind is so weak by comparison yet the Creator has shown you favor over us in allowing you to ascend to the other realms whilst forcing my kind to remain trapped within the spiritual universe. I too once wondered why the Creator would forsake us to remain within the one realm, however my love for organics as well as the Creator of All Things would not allow me to partake in the feasting of mortal souls. In the beginning, there were others who felt as I did but they were either quickly consumed by the blasphemers that sought to confront the Creator or they eventually turned against me. I too would have been consumed had the Creator not bestowed upon the ancient Anokians the knowledge of a divine ritual that was capable of pulling my essence across the veil of reality into the corporeal realm. The rest of my kind could not follow me here but that did not stop them from reaching across the veil and influencing the Equillians to seek out and destroy me.”

“You say that this has something to do with my destiny but I can’t see where any of this has anything to do with me,” I confessed as I continued to stare into the great eye before me.

“After my first vessel was destroyed I ventured back across the veil and I have since hid here in the spaces between our realms. It was here that I first heard the prayers of one of your world’s most powerful psychics—and it was here that I agreed to grant her the ability to give birth to you, that she may finally have the child that she had wanted for so long and that I may one day have the vessel that I needed to return.”

“Wait a second—what are you saying?” I asked as my heartbeat quickened with anxiety. “You’re not—you’re not talking about my
mother
are you
?
”

“Yes dear… She is,” my mother suddenly answered from somewhere behind me—and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on edge as I slowly turned to face her.

21. CARRY YOU HOME

http://goo.gl/X7P9sp
- ♫

REAPER:

AUDREY WAS AS BEAUTIFUL AS ALWAYS AS SHE SAT ACROSS from me in the same fancy Italian restaurant where we had had our first date. My palms grew sweaty with anxiety as I gazed into her crystal blue eyes and watched her talk while constantly brushing her fiery red hair from her face. Her long form fitting black dress and my tailored black suit made us look like quite the stylish couple. She was easily the most stunning person in the room and the more I stared at her the more I realized that she was quite possibly the most beautiful person I had ever laid eyes on—which made it all the more difficult to concentrate on the real reason I had asked her out that night. I knew that she was likely thinking of this as our tenth date but as far as I was concerned it was going to be our last. It wasn’t that things were going bad for us. On the contrary, we were doing great, and that was exactly what the problem was—things were going
too
well and the more fun I had with Audrey the more terrible I began to feel about having allowed Monica to be captured by The Righteous.

In addition to that, it also scared me that I had fallen for Audrey so quickly. She had already made an impression on me so lasting that I found it hard to focus on anything but her whenever she wasn’t around. My feelings for Audrey were still not quite as strong as my love for Monica but I could tell that if I wasn’t careful I would soon not be able to tell the difference.

As I stared into her luminous blue eyes trying to remember the words that I had prepared in order to let her know that I wanted to take a break I suddenly realized that it was likely that I had waited too long.
I should have ended it sooner
, I thought as an overwhelming sense of dread washed over me. My heartbeat quickened as I tried to jettison the guilt that I knew I would feel as soon as I delivered the bad news, but the more I tried not the focus on it, the stronger the guilt became.

“Adam, did you hear me?” Audrey suddenly asked, pulling me out of my agonizing thoughts.

“I’m sorry,” I said before clearing my throat. “What did you say?”

“I said, you seem distracted. Is everything okay?” she asked, her expression filled with concern.

“No… it’s not,” I admitted solemnly as my heart pounded even harder. “And my name’s not Adam, Audrey.”

“Okay, Adam, I’m not completely sure what’s going on here but I’ll be honest; you’ve been acting a bit
strange
lately,” she said, with a concerned expression still on her face.

“There’s something I need to tell you,” I started, struggling to maintain eye contact with her.

“What’s wrong, Adam?”

“I told you, my name isn’t Adam. And that’s not all I’ve lied to you about,” I said, forcing my jaw not to quiver.

“Is this some kind of joke?”

“No. It’s not a joke, Audrey, and I am truly sorry for not being honest with you from the beginning,” I confessed, as a mixture of confusion and anger washed across her face.

“If Adam isn’t your real name then who are you?” she asked.

“I can’t tell you that. Believe me I want to but that will make this so much more difficult that it already is,” I admitted.

“Wait a second, are you… are you
breaking up with me?!”
she demanded as her saddened eyes widened with surprise.

“Audrey, I don’t have a choice. It’s—”

“Save it!” she snapped, as the sadness in her eyes suddenly matured into anger. “I don’t need your excuses.” Fury burned in her smoldering eyes as she tried to appear tough in the face of the unfortunate news that I had given her. However, the tears that were welling in the corners of her eyes let me know the true extent of the damage I had done.

“Audrey, listen to me. It may sound like an excuse but there is a
reason
that we can’t be together—”

“Then what’s the reason, Adam? Tell me the reason why you decided to completely waste my time and step on my heart in the process!” she hissed, as the unused tears in the corners of her eyes finally slid down her rosy cheeks against her will.

“It’s not like that Audrey. This isn’t something that I intentionally set out to do. And I wish I could have told you the truth from the beginning. Hell, I wish I could tell you now but the reality is, I can’t. It’s just too dangerous and at the end of the day it’s just better for both of us if we went our separate ways,” I said, knowing that the words would only make her angrier. I watched in silence as Audrey gripped her wine glass so tightly that I thought it would shatter in her hands.

Even the nearby eavesdroppers knew what was coming next. I was fast enough to catch bullets with my bare hands so avoiding the wine that Audrey was preparing to throw into my face would have been a piece of cake if I had actually tried… but I didn’t try because I knew I deserved it. I just sat there and closed my eyes as the wine splashed against my face and trickled down onto my shirt.

The nearby restaurant staff and patrons watched in awe as Audrey abruptly stood and glared at me, still gripping the wine glass as if she wanted to smash it against my face too.

“You know, I have a secret too, Adam. Something that I had been keeping from you the entire time, but I was going to tell you tonight. That’s why I chose this place when you said you wanted to go out again. I wanted to come back here because this is where it happened—this is where I fell in love with you—on our very first date,” she choked out as she sat the wine glass down and wiped away the tears that had started to slide down her cheeks. “That’s when I knew… but I guess I was the only one who really felt something.” I was speechless as she snatched up her purse and stormed away. After a few moments I took a deep breath and grabbed a napkin and wiped the wine from my face while ignoring the angry glares of the surrounding restaurant patrons.

It’s for the best,
I thought as I watched Audrey storm toward the restaurant’s exit. I tried to convince myself that I had done the right thing but despite my best efforts my heart ached even more with each angry step that she took. An overwhelming tightness welled up in my chest as she finally disappeared through the restaurant’s exit and I suddenly felt like I had made one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

Why did she have to tell me she loved me
? I thought as I bit my lip and contemplated going after her. It would have made it so much easier if I didn’t know that she felt as strongly about me as I felt about her. Monica was still my first love but the more I thought about it the more I realized that it was possible that I had fallen in love with Audrey as well. As much as I wanted to believe that we could save Monica, in the back of my mind, I knew that there was a chance that I may never see her again. If that happened and I ended up ruining my chances of having Audrey in my life as well I wasn’t sure if I’d even want to go on living.

Feeling like a complete idiot, I quickly stood and rushed toward the exit. Desperate to catch up to her, I zoomed out of the restaurant at nearly forty miles an hour and I would have ran even faster if I thought I could do so without running into another guest and mortally injuring them. I was usually pretty careful about using my abilities in public but in that moment I didn’t care. The only thing I cared about was catching up to Audrey and making sure that I hadn’t lost her forever.

“Audrey, wait!” I yelled as I stormed into the dimly lit parking garage just as she opened the door to her sleek black luxury SUV. She turned and glared at me while she opened the driver’s door to her SUV but she didn’t say a word as I rushed towards her. Her eyes were still red and filled with tears but she fought hard to hold them back as I stopped a few feet away from her.

“What do you want now? Haven’t you embarrassed me enough for one night?” she demanded, her voice filled with despair.

“Audrey, I’m sorry. I just didn’t think I had a choice,” I muttered, still searching for the exact words that I wanted to say to her.

“What are you
talking
about, Adam?! You’re an adult! No one’s forcing you to do anything! If you don’t want to be with me then that’s your
choice
! Don’t try to make it seem like you’re doing this for anyone other than yourself!” she ranted.

“But it’s not that simple,” I insisted.

“It seems pretty simple to me,” she snapped. “You made me fall for you and now you’re cutting and running because you’re afraid that it’s getting too serious. Admit it! You never really cared about me, did you?”

“That’s not true, Audrey. That’s not true and you know it!”

“How am I supposed to
know
it? I don’t even know what your real name is. You said yourself you’ve been lying to me this entire time.”

“But I did that to protect you! I told you this isn’t as cut and dry as you think it is. And I do care about you. I care about you just as much as you care about me.”

“What are you saying?” she asked.

I swallowed the lump in my throat as I stared into her eyes.

“I’m saying I love you—and I
do
want to be with you, but there are certain aspects of my job that make things… complicated,” I confessed.

“What’s your name?” she demanded.

“Audrey, I—”

“If you love me then tell me who you are… or you’ll never see me again,” she said firmly.

I sighed deeply and looked into her eyes as I tried in vain to think of something to say that wouldn’t make her scream at me. I didn’t want to let her go but I also didn’t know if I was comfortable with telling her the truth about me. I didn’t want to lose her by continuing to lie to her but I also didn’t want to see her end up getting sucked up into the craziness of my real life and being captured like Monica or perhaps even worse. In the end, I was completely speechless—torn between an overwhelming desire to maintain our relationship and an equally strong desire to ensure that she would remain safe by keeping her in the dark about my secret.

“Unbelievable,” Audrey finally groaned as she stared at me in disgust. “Goodbye, Adam… or whoever you are,” she continued as she tossed her purse into her SUV and turned to look at me one last time.

“My name is Reaper,” I blurted out, just as she turned to enter the driver’s seat of her SUV.

I stared at the back of her head as she paused for a few moments, probably deciding if she should simply hop into the vehicle and speed off without saying another word to me. When she finally turned to face me a mixture of grief, anger, and utter confusion was displayed within her facial expression.

“What do you mean your name is
Reaper?
Is this all some kind of sick joke to you?”

“No. It’s not a joke. My name is Reaper. As in
The
Reaper. That’s why we—”

“I don’t have time for whatever game you’re trying to play here so you have a nice life, Mr.
Reaper,
” Audrey snapped.

“I told you I’m not playing games!” I insisted, frustrated that she didn’t believe me.

“You know, this will probably go down in history as the absolute lamest break-up excuse of all-time. I mean, seriously, is this superhero nonsense the best you could come up with?”

“Dammit Audrey, shut up and listen to me for a second, will you?!” I snapped. Her eyes widened with surprise at my outburst and for a fraction of a second I could have sworn I saw a flicker of admiration flash into her eyes as she stared back at me—but I could have been mistaken.

“I am not making this up. I am The Reaper,” I continued. “How else would I know that you would have died if I had let you run back into that building in Manhattan?” I asked as I looked into her eyes. She took a half step backward and placed her right hand on her chest as she stared at me in silence. I could see in her eyes that she was starting to wonder if I was telling the truth.

“No. There’s no way,” she muttered, obviously trying to convince herself that I was lying. “I—I had wine during most of our dates. I must have told you about that after I had been drinking.”

“Audrey, you have to believe—”

“No, stay away from me!” she ordered just as I took a step forward. I instantly paused and held my hands in the air to let her know that I meant her no harm.

“You—you’re crazy… and you’re not him… you can’t be him,” she continued, still staring at me with a bewildered expression on her face as she backed away. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Audrey finally turned her back to me and quickly entered her SUV and slammed the door behind her. My heart pounded in my chest as she started the engine and backed out of her parking spot without even glancing at me.

It’s over, Reaper,
my conscious called out as she paused to shift the SUV into Drive.

Just let her go… You have to let her go,
my conscious continued as I stood there, frozen in place as she shifted gears and took a deep breath. My heart melted away as she finally turned and looked at me. I expected an icy glare but to my surprise there was nothing but love and regret in her eyes as she stared back at me. She opened her mouth slightly as if to speak but no words came out. After a few moments, she simply exhaled and focused her eyes forward once more—and then she was gone. For a second I thought about running after her but ultimately I just stood there and watched as she drove away.