Chapter 18

"You came after me?"

I look up at Centauri from bandaging a bruised up cut on her arm. Her bruises are oppositely coloured from her skin, turning to pinks and light grays. Thaili had just finished interrogating her and swearing he'll kill the entire council even if its the end of him. Once he left, Centauri and I sit in silence as I commit to my first aid knowledge to fix what I can.

"Why'd you come after me?" She presses.

I gaze back down at the wound I'd finished dressing and let go of her arm to pack up. "Made a promise to your father."

I feel her eyes burn into the wings on my back, "is that all?" She murmurs.

I pause for a moment and pick up the box, standing to leave. A warm hand grabs mine and she stands up and opens her mouth to say something, she closes it and shakes her head. "I'm sorry for what I said and," Her hand goes to the scars under my eye tracing it's path down to my jaw.

I flash a smile and leave the room not understanding where it's coming from, Rai waits outside and stand upright when I exit. He takes the first aid kit and tucks it under an arm. "How is she?" He looks past me.

"Fine. Keep an eye on her though, she's acting weird." Sliding past, I head for the control room again and find Thaili steadily tapping the map under his arm. He looks up tiredly when I enter and we sit around the paper in a moment of silence.

"That was dangerous, exposing yourself like that." He uses his 'Big Brother™' voice. "You could've gotten yourself and everyone else killed like that."

A little guilty, I duck my head and study airlock positions on the Xero compound. "I got distracted and lost you guys."

"By my sister?" There's a suggesting to his voice that brings a warmth to my neck. "Humans develop feelings so quickly. It's almost funny."

I open my mouth to retort when several others come in.

"Just several klicks out sire." One of the celestials puts a hand to his chest and performs a little bow before they awkwardly shuffling out the way they came.

Turning back to the approaching planet, I spot the station immediately. The monumental size is hard to miss even from outer space looking in.

"This will be a hard fight, but I feel that we will stop this madman from destroying your home." Thaili throws a forced smile my ways but I'm fixated on the eerie dimness of the facility. Not sure what I expected but not this, something was off. Thaili doesn't seem to share my concern as he heaves himself up and goes to rally his troops.

The ship heads for a more disclosed landing port, as we get closer it only gets more strange. Ruffling my wings, I try and pull out the crick in my neck and join the waiting Celestial, and Cain. Centauri has joined us, no doubt having been to stubborn to stay back although it nearly got her killed the last time. I ignore the feeling of worry for her and take my sword from Thaili's outstretched hand.

"Remember the plans," Thaili's eyes rove over the men and women before him. "Keep your heads up soldiers. This isn't just a fight for Earth, this is for our survival and justice to a man past saving."

Even I find comfort in his steady tone, the first party moves out then the next and so on.

"Thaili-" Cenaturi stands next to her brother, wearing the same tired face. I'm starting to think its just hereditary between the entire family.

Her brother turns to me and nods knowingly, neither Cenaturi or I look to amused with this but I pull Cain out of his stupor and pull on my oxygen mask, finding I cannot live without it like Celestials can. once down the platform, Centauri takes my right and Cain my left, making me feel just a little less tense. Yet the sheer silence of the compound is wrong, there's nothing but the steady clanking of the generators running the airlocks and administering oxygen inside the building. The airlock closes and I pull the mask off my face, letting it sit around my neck. Cain follows suit and nods to me, eyes wide and anticipating.

"We're heading up to the east wing where the communications tower is." I say mostly to Centauri who's going into this blindly. "It's then a fast route to the Gray Wall, we'll have the advantage of the balcony over it."

"Whose plan was that?" She mutters.

Our boots making clunking noises that reverberate throughout the halls and bounce back to keen ears. Even shadows instill fear in my heart as I expect to see Alnilam and his beasts around every corner. His words float around in the back of my head like an unwelcome guest, in my momentary distraction I nearly miss the door to communications. Slipping inside, I briefly check the parameters and find absolutely nothing. Headphones and mics sit astray on the desks as if left moments ago, but the cold cups of coffee tell me no one's been here for a while. The rest follow in and hurry to scope it out. Anyone not familiar with human technologies ponders over the equipment like children learning their first words.

Cain picks up a couple sheets of arrays and studies them, squinting at the tiny handwriting of some worker. He looks up and frowns, "What kind of name is Grr-ice."

Taking the paper from his claws, Grace here has logged every signal coming in and out of the compound and logged them in her computer accordingly. Silently thanking the heavens for her insight, I open the files on the computer and let the voices play aloud on the pair of headphones.

"Zeroc compound to Aster 550, ready to load."

"Aster 550 copies, where are we off to Cap?"

"Zeroc here, off to kick some alien ass!" The transmission ends with roaring laughter and cheers in the background.

Behind me, Centauri sucks in a breath between her teeth. "Thule probably. They sent out cries for help while Alnilam ravaged it."

I look back to her, replaying the recordings over the events of Thule in my head. The symphonies of disasters leave a dull ache in the back of my head. "So that means there's nothing else here to help us."

The roar of metal on metal, screeching like some ungodly demon in hell. The furious ringing of something starts up in my ears and I duck my had with a wince. Centauri's reply is drowned out as Celestials around me scatter and I crawl over to the balcony and look down through the thin rail at the scene unfolding below. Rai and Thaili have already grouped below in front of the Wall. The glimmer of the wall is faded, meaning it's been shut off which will make it harder for Alnilam and his gathering beasts to get through.

The snarls of the creatures that flood into the large dome sounds like the churning of slime mixed with the guttural growls of some big predator. Alnilam himself stands atop one of the raised platforms on the opposite wall of the portal to Earth. What he's looking for is the 'on' switch, a lever contained in the control room. The control room, like the communications tower, opens up to a balcony over the dome floor too. Only that one is across the compound and above Alnilam, making it hard to get to.

A sudden dizziness hits me and breathing becomes a task. Hoisting myself up onto the rail to try and focus on what's below, my fingers slip clumsily. Hands reach around my neck and yank the breathing apparatus on my face. Heaving in a deep breath, I blink away the nausea from losing oxygen and find that Alnilam has in fact created a very large hole in the building.

"Don't die before we can actually do anything." Centauri hisses in my ear before helping me back up to a standing position. My pride takes a stab to the gut and I focus my glare on the man I had actually called a father.

"Ah." He hasn't noticed us up here but he looks down on Rai and Thaili with a disapproving grimace. "You think you can stop me? All of the help you thought you'd get has gone."

Straining to see the expressions of the army below, I see Rai glance upwards and for a moment he looks a little more determined.

"Humans," Alnilam continues to muse as if this is all some big joke. "Thinking they can betray me like that. Even though you know, I've pretty much used them to get this far."

"They were part of it?" Thaili thunders. "Of thule?"

"Of course. I had to get Halfling's trust somehow. Why not give her the coordinates of Thule and just maybe... Epyra."

"No!"Centauri nearly throws herself off the rail in her anguish before I grab a fistful of the back of her shirt and yank her back. Alnilam looks up with a bit of amusement that hardens into fury when he lays eyes on me.

"Ah," He flicks a hand forward and Impics start to climb up to the dual balconies.

"Nonono," Centauri steps back, faltering in step. I grab her arm and make her face me.

"He's trying to get to you ok? Just stay with me. Do it for them." I turn and curl my hand into a fist, gaining some furious courage to punch an Impic off of the rail. My fist catches it's skull under a layer of sharp toothed loose skin. The beast screeches as it loses balance and fall off, taking another with it. The entire scene erupts into pure chaos as fighting ensues to get the Gray Wall running and Alnilam's army through.

Centauri wears a new look of confidence and hops up onto the rail, she kicks another creature away and unfurls her wings to take off across to the other balcony. I watch in awe before taking a spiked tail to the stomach. When I regain my sense of direction, with shaking hands I duck behind a console and scan the map over again. It's attempt to fly across the platforms or take the long way around. Both of my wings tucked behind me shudder and I push myself up to run for the door.

"You can't run from fate!" I hear Alnilam's bellowing voice and for a second believe he's talking to me. With no further evidence, I sprint through the halls and come to a stop in front of a bulkhead door. Cursing and panting like a dog at the same time, I punch in several codes I know until it opens with a deep grinding growl.

My success is quickly ended when I come face to face with a familiar beast. The wingless Impic brings it's double jawed face close enough to where I can smell its reeking breath. Obyron.

"The human." The top mouth moves to speak while the bottom one hangs open letting the creature's forked tongue loll out. "The savior."

"I wouldn't go so far-" I stop to take a moment to realize what I'm talking to and clamp my jaw shut.

"Don't be so afraid of what you don't understand." Obyron's voice is followed by a guttural hissing made by the lower vocal cords. "I only ask one thing."

"O-of me? Don't you know what they do to your kind?"

"I am aware." He hisses. "My people are used as mindless slaves. When they lose a leader they follow like animals do the illusion of liquid."

"They're following Alnilam." I clasp my hands together releasing I've forgotten my most important weapon. My only weapon and chance of getting out of here.

The Impic's mudded eyes remain wide and open, trained on me with the faintest hint of an pupil. "I wish for my people back. You are capable of this. Stop the mindless killing."

"You know if I could stop everyone from killing each other, this wouldn't be happening. Maybe if..." I falter and rub the bridge of my nose, the Impic shows no emotion, what did I expect. "Maybe if I hadn't been such a disappointment to my father he wouldn't of decided to do this."

The beast walks back towards the dome without another word and I immediately feel foolish for conversing with it. Heaving in a heavy shaking deep breath, I carry on towards my destination and stumble into the doorway of the control room. Centauri stands next to the lever, studying buttons and looks up when I enter.

"What happened?" She frowns when she looks up. "You look paler than Eypra's moons."

"Nothing." I mutter and join her in front of the console. There's a code I don't know needed to activate it, My breath catches as I hurry to the rail and lean over to see Alnilam missing from the fray.

"What in Syph-" Centauri leans over and scans the dissolving fight. It seems as if Celestials are getting the upper hand, but something is way off.

As I continue to study the surroundings, a little blip in my ear alerts me. The ringing from earlier has definitely dulled to the point where I haven't noticed so to hear another sound is surprising. Checking over my shoulder at the canister in the middle of my back, the low oxygen level is mildly threatening. As long as no one notices, it should be fine.

A crashing behind me startles me out of my stupor and I twist around to Alnilam tapping a spear from a Celestial against the lever console. The look on his face looks inconvenienced by the coded lock. When he looks up to focus on me, it turns sour and he motions me over.

"What's the code." He says as if asking me for a pen to borrow. "What is it cadet?"

Something about the way he calls me a cadet sparks a little frustration. Centauri narrows her eyes over at me, probably wondering why I haven't just joined my father's ranks already. It feels like everyone is expecting me to know this and waiting.

"You really think a cadet would be told the code to the Earth's most advanced technology?"

Wrong thing to say. Alnilam growls and slams a hand down on the console. His arms light up a bright blinding gold and symbols start appearing all over his visible skin. The room itself glows faintly with the same symbols on every wall.

"What are you doing?" Catapulting myself forward to the other side of the desk, I find his eyes glowing from under the helmet. He smiles grimly once the sound of screeching and clicking fills the air. Everything silences as the sheer force of defeat looms like fog.

"Didn't think that would work actually." Alnilam sighs and leans over the desk once the glow has faded and the button flicks to a pulsing green. "Too bad. You really thought you'd just win?"

He grabs my wrist and the cold feeling of falling again swarms over my body. When I open my eyes again, we're standing on the platform where he had previously been. Dangling over a swarm of Impics rushing for the portal, I watch helplessly as Rai scrambles away, dragging a wounded Thaili aside. The overwhelmed Celestials retreat, I quickly count out about twenty of them out of the hundred we'd come with and a small whine escapes me.

"You've failed? Again?" Alnilam drops me down to the swarming beast and I hit the ground, trying to get up before creatures run me over like a bit of rubble in their path. The alert in my ear gets more prominent as I'm panicking and using more oxygen. Fighting to calm myself and against clawed feet feeling like slimy bark to the touch, I clamp my jaws shut and remain still. The fleeting thought of The Lion King flits across the back of my mind before a familiar pawed hand pulls me up. Cain hooks his arms under mine and gazes in fear as the last Impic disappears into the portal. Part of me hopes most of them will be shredded to bits and dumped out the other side.

"Cece your tank-" His eyes dilate as he pulls the broken canister, long empty, from my back. He looks up as Centauri drops down in front of us, an utterly hopeless look on her face. For some reason as it looks fearful and dreading, its equally beautiful. Or that's the lack of oxygen getting to me?

"Could you stop playing hero for two seconds." Her face is suddenly close to mine. I mumble something in reply and hope it sounded smart but I didn't see why I was a hero ever. All I ever did was cause a lot more problems.

"Stop fighting it. We lost." She hisses and lets me drop back down to the ground in an ungraceful heap. "It's over."