RISE OF THE DARK ATHENA

Eve knelt at the center of the battle, cradling Kearyn's lifeless corpse in her lap. She rocked back and forth, mumbling to herself as tears streamed down her cheeks. Salty droplets spattered Kearyn's mummified face. She did not hear the violence going on all around her. Guilt silenced the chaos.

The Purifier transformed Eve's hatred into an instrument of death and she had eagerly thrown the killing blow. And now, the results of her tragic victory lay in her arms. The unkillable man himself, dead and gone. An empty husk, laying in the dirt.

Eve stared into the abyss, weapons' fire going off all around. How could such an impossible thing have happened? Kearyn assured her he was beyond physical death. But there he lay. She shook him, trying to break his eternal slumber. "Wake up," she sobbed. He did not. "Wake up."

A stray gravity round raced past Eve's head, taking her ear with it. Pain tore the shroud of guilt away from her eyes, revealing the battle. Blood splattered the lush greenery, dripped down and a hundred snaking worms wriggled back to Eve. She reached out, and they combined into an eyeless tendril that rose to meet her hand. It coiled up her forearm and seeped through her skin. The inferno of guilt rendering her helpless transformed into a piercing sense of self-preservation.

Eve touched the oozing socket on the side of her head. Fear filled her veins and some unseen force inside her body stirred to life. She examined her slippery, trembling fingers. Blood smeared the tips. Eve's face became a vacant mask. In an instant, the host had seized control of her body and Eve became a passenger in her own body.

Eve's passengers stood up, discarded Kearyn's body like an unwanted sack of rubbish and turned towards their attacker. Cold black eyes turned chrome and homed in on a Necromonger soldier that shot her. He jerked his rifle up, preparing to shoot a fleeing prisoner. Eve transformed and leapt. The snarling man never saw his reflection in the eyes of the creature that cleaved his mountainous body in two. But everyone on the island heard the ear-piercing scream that announced its arrival. Death had come to M6-117, and it only had eyes for blood.

Kearyn had died. Lilith Hemmingford was MIA. The Purifier's body vanished in the chaos, and Carolyn's mind control tricks had no more effect on Eve than on Lilith. Eve had transformed into a mindless apex killing machine that saw only red. And no one was there to stop her.

Every cell in Eve's body turned towards the goal of survival.. Each sentient cell fanned her hatred for all things Necromonger. Complexions didn't matter. Which side they were on didn't matter. They had all come for one reason. To stop Kearyn. And now he was dead. One thought burned through her guilt. They must pay. All of them.

Every eye in the clearing froze on the monstrous figure standing at the center of the fray. Its misshapen eyes reflecting a sea of terror. All caught in its horrible stare, knew what it was thinking. The destruction of all things within its grasp.

Time slowed, heartbeats raced and fear laden droplets of sweat spattered the jungle floor. The creature's eyes became accusing slits, demanding vengeance. And the only thing needed to set off the impending carnage was the slightest twitch of muscle. Each target looked around, wondering the same things. Who would run, who would raise their weapon, and who would be the first to die?

A terrifying grin stretched across the creature's face, exposing unnaturally long fangs. Its jagged maw dripped sticky intent. The creature shifted, lowered its head and snorted like a bull preparing to charge. 

At that moment, a rifle barrel rose to meet the challenge. Bulging eyes saw the movement and unarmed men turned to dart away. The creature sneered. And death found its first target.

The creature grabbed the upper half of its last victim and held it up like a giant shield. The mountainous soldier fired, gravity distortions struck the half corpse, driving the creature back 10 yards. Its massive feet furrowed the moist jungle flood. But it did not go down. As a thick horn grew out of its head, it hurled the body at its attacker and jumped after it.

The soldier fired. The round struck the twirling corpse and spun off, missing the creature. He screamed in rage and horror, turning to run. The creature lowered its head, drove the horn through the soldier's breastplate, and blood exploded out of his mouth. The creature stood up, lifeless body convulsing and twitching on the horn. It grabbed the man's head and feet and tore the body in two, hurling the two halves away.

_________________________________

Dahl reeled towards the blood-curdling scream. "That's not good." She had heard a similar scream when Lilith Hemmingford challenged a massive raptor. "Eve's in trouble. We need to go now."

One of the recently transformed rides laughed, sending a wave of bristling anger up Dahl's forearms. Her hands balled into fists, heat raced through her veins. She walked to the creature, eyeing its chin.

The mighty creature towered over, studying her face with a growing sense of amusement. It leaned down, pushing its chin out as if daring her to throw a punch. When Dahl didn't meet the challenge, the creature stood upright, looked at the Queen and nodded toward the scream.

The Queen, quite unimpressed by the growing commotion in the distance, shook her head. "Boron, you always have favored playing the hero."

"My Queen." Boron said. The mock tone of respect was palpable. "Coming from someone who weighs every move on a scale of what's in it for me. I take that as high praise."

"Take it any way you like, but wait here, we shall. I have a prior engagement that cannot ignore."

"Here," Dahl blurted, gesturing around at the cavernous world. "In a super secret lair cloaked in the center of a murder moon? You set up a meeting… down here?"

The Queen turned to Dahl with a foreboding raised brow. "Who are you that I should explain myself to a child? This meeting is 35 billion years in the making." The Queen leaned forward, eyes turning. "And I do not intend to let you or anyone else keep me from it." She turned to Carolyn and added, "No matter what the cost." She looked her up and down and let out a frustrated exhale. "But I am no monster. So, if it eases your mind, you need not worry about your Eve. She is in no immediate danger." 

 "Agreed," Boron said. "But everyone else in that clearing is."

"But she will be in danger."

"If I do not make this meeting, the whole universe shall all be in danger."

"We should help." Carolyn said, siding with Dahl. She wanted to get to the clearing for her own reason. Kearyn was there.

"When did the fates of everyone in that clearing become my problem? Must I fret over them and the universe?"

"Yes. You must," he answered. "When you choose to alter this timeline for your own ends, all this chaos becomes your responsibility… my queen."

"I do not appreciate the way you address me as my queen."

"And I do not particularly give a shit about your feelings. You treat me like an asshole every time you speak to me."

A look of shock contorted the Queen's face, and she snapped, "How dare you speak to me in such a manner? I am your Queen."

"You are their Queen. And let us not forget, it was Lilith who placed you on that pedestal of lies. Not them. She stole their right to free will by rewriting their DNA. And then turned you into herself to exploit them further."

"What we did was for the good of our people."

"A skewed story does not make a truth. Besides, the venom dripping from your lips every time you speak to me tells a different story." Boron gestured around and said, "Look at what your stories have done to our people. To the universe. To all of humanity."

"You wound me greatly, Boron."

Boron's eyes burned into the Queen. "If only I could. Perhaps I could change the plight of our people. But our father took that option from me."

"Hold on," Carolyn cut in. "I thought Lilith caused this mess?"

Boron turned to Carolyn, shaking his massive, toothy head as if she were being obtuse. "As Queen Athena and Lady Hemmingford are nearly the same being at this point. It would be impossible to decipher which iteration of her is actually responsible for this monumental screw up."

"Does it really matter?" the Queen snapped. "This timeline is beyond repair. Even now, it teeters on the brink of certain disaster. If we are to have any chance of stopping the coming disaster, one more sacrifice is required."

"And when might this sacrifice take place?" Dahl asked. "Because the rest of us would like to go."

The Queen looked out to sea. "This situation will resolve itself in its own time."

"We don't have time to wait around here for your mystery meeting. We need to go now." Carolyn said. "You can stay, but we're going now."

"Go if you must, but return, you will not." Queen Athena said, riveting Dahl to the beach with a dark stare. "You, and whoever goes with you, will die. You are unprepared for what awaits you in that clearing. And nothing you say or do will change that. You will die. I cannot tell you how this day will end. But I know how your day will end."

"What have you done to trap us on this beach?" Boron demanded.

"What was necessary in the moment." 

"You mean you did exactly what suits you? And you did it in pursuit of your master plan." 

"At least I have a plan. Your talk with your fists and where has that ever gotten us nowhere?"

"Are you saying I don't know how to play nice?"

"Who cares about your old grudges? We need to go." Dahl cut in. "Leave her to her meeting."

Boron shook his head. "I can't leave her."

"You act like you don't even like her."

"And where do you suggest you go? Do any of you have the slightest inkling of how we can escape our fates?" Queen Athena asked. "No. No answers. I thought as much. Sometimes running in guns blazing isn't the answer. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices."

"Listening to your friends die isn't a sacrifice. It's cowardice."

"It is too late to run from the disaster that engulfs us even as we speak. We wait on this beach because we must. And we listen to their screams because it is our curse to do so." Queen Athena turned to Boron. "But I must say this unexpected self-serving streak is a rather welcome relief from the old you. Worrying about your own hide. Wanting to run away. I rather like this new you."

"There's no new me." Boron replied, glaring at her. "My aim remains the same. The survival of Father. And if abandoning this universe is required to achieve that end. So be it."

"You could do that?" Queen Athena asked. "Let trillions die to save one being."

"You know as well as I, there is only one being. Without Father, the trillions do not exist."

The Queen rolled her eyes and sneered, revealing a mouthful of long black teeth. "And there you are. The consummate do-gooder. Hero of the Nod. I had hoped that pesky trait would vanish during your latest transformation. But alas, it never does. It's always the same path; same holier than thou attitude; same old, Boron. You are, if nothing else, predictable and infuriating."

"Sorry to disappoint."

"Sorry to be disappointed." Queen Athena replied, stepping further into the surf. Blood spread out around her. Its enticing aroma wafted out to sea. Something large and dark sensed chum in the water and turned to the beach.

Boron walked to the edge of the water, but stepped back to not let the water touch him. "You like to forget the sacrifices I've made on your behalf. What I have given up in the service of you."

The Queen shot him an accusatory glare. "And you like to omit the fact that those same sacrifices led us down this eternal path of damnation. A path we have traveled countless times before. A path without end or hope or mercy. And still, you choose to blame me for all of it. As if I am any less of a victim here than you."

"It doesn't have to end the same way. We can change our path. There is hope."

"Hope," she said and laughed. "Perhaps. If one creates their own. But for you and I, and all like us, there is endless turmoil." She turned to Boron, angst filling her expression. "You should have let him kill me when you had the chance, or at the very least, left me in Purgatory. It was a prison of my doing. No more than I deserved. Even you must admit that."

"Neither of us are free of wrongdoing."

She squinted at the horizon as if looking for something far-off and stepped deeper into the surf. "True. But you know I am beyond redemption. And yet you keep trying to save me. Why? If you just stop, all this could be over. Is not death preferable to this endless insanity? He created me for one purpose. And I am compelled to do as he commands."

"As am I." Boron replied. "I can no more go against our father's will than I can abandon you to that place, or abandon the champion to this one. But, you are right. This fruitless cycle of bloodshed must end. We are getting nowhere. We must find a new path or all will be for not. The father will die."

"I have tried to correct this nightmare more times than there are stars in the heavens, and still Kearyn remains beyond my grasp. We have but one option left to us. The original paradox must be restored or the champion cannot rise." Queen Athena looked at the waves. "If we are to succeed, one sacrifice remains."

"And just what sacrifice is that?"

"I have replaced a broken paradox with another. And yet, even those sacrifices are not enough to correct what has happened in that clearing. All my efforts have led to a temporary patch in the space/time continuum. A means of re-establishing the primary paradox. But nothing I do after the collapse solves our problem."

"What have you done?" Boron demanded.

"I like to think of it as my personal little fuck you to the Purifier's master."

"That's nice," Boron said. "But at the moment, it feels more like a fuck you to all of us."

The Queen shrugged and walked further out.

"What is she doing?" Carolyn asked, eyeing Boron with a scowl. "We don't have time for her to play in the surf. And I doubt her mysterious guest is coming. Besides, Kearyn and Eve are over there. And they need our help."

"You heard her," he whispered. "If we go there; we die."

"Bullshit. She's lying."

"She is many things. Evil, conniving and manipulative. But she cannot lie. It is not in her nature." Carolyn turned to run into the jungle and the Boron grabbed her shoulder and added, "It's too late to help anyone in that clearing."

"No, it isn't. Not if we go now." Dahl blurted.

The Queen spun towards her and said, "Eve is no longer in control of her body. She will kill you or anyone else on sight."

"How could you know that?"

"Because I have seen her do so with my own eyes. And I have seen it many times. This is not the first time we have been here. Although, I pray to the father, it will be the last." She turned to Carolyn and added, "As for Kearyn, it pains me to say he is dead. You cannot help him. As it stands, they have won the day."

"That's a lie," Carolyn blared at her.

"Is it?" The Queen asked Dahl.

Dahl shook her head. "No. I saw him fall. Eve killed the Purifier and Kearyn died, too."

"That's impossible," Carolyn replied, shaking her head doubtfully. "He is beyond physical death."

"There are always exceptions to any rule."

Carolyn glared, but said nothing.

"Perhaps you would allow me to explain," the Queen said. "To weaponise Eve's hatred, the Purifier returned to his own past. Specifically. A point in time before he became the thing you know as Kearyn. He sent that earlier version of himself forward in time. Then, the future Purifier returned to his own timeline, where he took shelter in the underverse."

"Why would he do that?"

"Simple. The underverse is outside the space/time continuum. It is a protected region of sub-space." The Queen explained, regarding Carolyn with a sad sort of empathetic stare. "When Eve killed the earliest version of the Purifier, she prevented him from becoming Kearyn. Eve erased both Purifier and Kearyn's futures. Ensuring Kearyn never existed. And that's what Dahl saw in the clearing. He did not die. He simply never was."

"But doesn't that mean the future Purifier died, too?"

"It should have. But entering the underverse meant the effect never reached the Purifier. And now, he can return to his timeline free from the fear of erasure. A most excellent loophole, wouldn't you say?"

Boron shook his head in disbelief. "And without Kearyn's presence, the champion will never rise. We lose." 

"Or so he and his master would believe," the Queen replied. "What actually happened was quite different. Fortunately, for us, I- the Lady Hemmingford version of myself- sent her mind back in time before getting caught in the collapse."

"To where?" Carolyn asked, stepping away from the rising tide.

"To the beginning of time. When I was still a young girl. Lilith's essence entered her, and they became one. And that is how Lilith knew she could create a paradox. Why she knew she had already created a paradox. For Lilith's younger self to be there, the paradox had to be in place before she arrived. That is why she could send her mind back in time. Because the connection between the two Liliths already existed."

"I thought you said you were Lilith."

"In a manner of speaking, I am."

"Manner speaking," Dahl cut in.

The Queen turned to her but spoke to Carolyn. "Because of the corrupted delivery system, much of the information Lilith sent deteriorated somewhere in transit."

"Well, that great," Carolyn replied. "Any suggestions?"

"Contrary to what you may think, Lilith was not trying to recreate herself. She had already traveled back and forth in time and never come close to saving Kearyn. Recreating herself would only continue the same cycle. So, she took Boron's advice. She needed a fresh path. And that meant turning herself into the being that created the paradox of fathers and sons. She needed to become the Dark Athena."

"What did she do?"

The Queen looked at Boron and said, "Lilith devised a new strategy. Came up with a new DNA.. So, this time, when she went back in time, she inserted thousands of markers mimicking junk DNA into each raptor. After billions of years of feeding on one another and rising again, the markers combined into a new matrix. A hybrid framework. And that is why you chose me. Of all my kin, I was the only one with the complete DNA sequence. The hybris DNA. But without Lilith's complete DNA sequence, I am but a pale facsimile of the being I was supposed to become."

"What were you supposed to become?" Dahl asked.

"Pray you are not here to meet the real Dark Athena," Queen Athena replied. "No one noticed the clever gene splicing young, Lilith included. The deceptions were subtle. But they didn't need to be. She was a girl hanging around her father's lab. She combined a copy of her younger self, her older self and raptor DNA and then she sent it all ahead to reset the original paradox."

"You said paradoxes are unbreakable."

"Paradoxes are based on pre-established rules in the space/time continuum. But if one is lucky enough or stupid enough to find a loophole, they can unravel the very fabric of space/time. If that happens, poof. We're all gone."

"If that's what happened," Dahl asked, "why are we still here?"

"When faced with an impossible challenge, Lilith thought outside the box. She created a multi-layered paradox. A 2nd loophole that only she knew about. And she did so at the beginning of time. Before the Purifier destroyed the existing paradox. That way, when the first loophole tightened and the paradox of fathers and sons crumbled, the 2nd paradox was already in place to protect us against erasure."

"That's why you did all of this?" Carolyn asked. "To protect us."

"To protect the universe. It was the only way. But the plan only stabilized the time continuum. It could not bring back Kearyn."

"Still," Boron said, and let out a big belly laugh. "I would have loved to see his face when he got back and found out nothing changed."

"As it stands, erasing Kearyn didn't have quite the devastating effect the Purifier and his master thought it would. And silver lining, the Purifier cannot return to this location. Ever. If he does, he risks getting too close to the epicenter of Kearyn erasure and suffering the same fate. Even in victory, he is still subject to the same rules that allowed him to use the loophole against Kearyn. The open wound in space/time can still swallow him, too."

"But if Kearyn is still missing from this time-stream, who will prepare the Champion?"

"I will." Carolyn replied.

The Queen laughed at her as if she were an arrogant child. "Has anyone told you that you're just like Kearyn? He had a scrappy little can-do attitude, too. And you see where that got him." When Carolyn made to say something, the Queen threw up a giant hand, cutting her off. "That power is beyond your particular gifts."

"Has anyone ever told you to go to hell?"

"Oh, I've been there, little girl. And I can tell you, hell is a much worse place than any triple max prison. The power needed to straighten out this shitshow is beyond any of us. One would need to see everything happening in every timeline, all while calculating how each tiny event affects every other tiny event. One would need the power of God. The ability to see the beginning and the end of all things, and weave them into a perfect, never ending paradox. Can you do that? Because I know I can't. It took me 35 billion years just to cobble together this insane plan." 

Insane plan is an epic understatement, Carolyn thought.

"I heard that." Queen Athena said.

"How is it you can read my mind, but I can't read yours or Lilith's?"

"The ability to read minds increases with time, and I am ancient."

"You're not old?"

"They created me shortly after what your people call the big bang. And then imprisoned me and my kin here."

"You're saying you're immortal?"

"I'm saying Lilith engineered raptors to feed on each other and then rise again like Phoenixes. Haven't you noticed there is no food or water here? And the only life on this planet is raptor life."

"There's an endless supply of both down here."

"And yet this sanctuary in hell is strangely devoid of my kind. That is because it is a refuge for your kind. For the people who constructed this curse."

"Humans," Dahl said. "You said it's billions of years old."

"Lilith engineered us as cannibalistic scavengers imbued with insatiable appetites and heightened senses of smell. That, coupled with no fear of death, and you can see why we're eating machines, drawn to the stench of death, and each other. We hunt each other, kill each other and devour each other. Those eaten arise from the excrement of their attackers. Those who arise absorb the DNA sequences of their attackers. It was an ingenious way of combining the hidden gene strands into one apex raptor."

"If you say so. Personally, I think it's disgusting," Carolyn replied.

"And you did it to yourself?" Dahl added.

"Paradoxes have rules; loopholes have more. You asked me what I did, I told you. I'm sorry it doesn't meet with your approval."

"You're not still like that, are you?"

"Very much so. With one exception, if enough of my tissues are ingested, I can absorb my attacker tissue and life essence and grow to full size in the entrails."

"Still disgusting," Dahl said.

"That, as you say, disgusting ability ensures the paradox cannot fail. I will always rise again. No matter what form I take or the time-stream I live in."

"It's still disgusting." Dahl said.

"Nor is it pleasant for my enemies."

"I can't imagine it's pleasant for you either." Dahl added.

"No. But it is a necessary discomfort."

The tide had come in further, causing Carolyn, Dahl, Boron and his comrade to migrate to the edge of the jungle. But the Queen stood hip deep in the cool surf, soothing her transforming feet. Blood trailed out to sea.

Carolyn made to go after her. But Boron gripped her shoulder, holding her from reaching the water. "That would not be wise."

"Let go," she said, struggling to wrench her shoulder out of Boron's massive grip. She looked like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

A 45' shark thrust upward through the surface of the water, sending a geyser of briny water 100 feet into the air. Sparkling water shed off its glistening black body, raining down Queen Athena. She held her ground. The creature's upward trajectory slowed, stopped and arced over, rocketing downward. building a peed as it fell. The creature's jaws sprang open, and the Queen disappeared in an exploding blast of water that surged up the beach like the coming of a tsunami.

When the water receded, the giant shark lay beached in front of them, writhing and flopping. The sounds coming from its maw sounded like whale song mixed with a blaring airborne. Everyone on the beach covered their ears and fell on their knees as the sound drilled through their minds. Gushing torrents of steaming black ichor exploded from its mouth and gills. 

As Carolyn rose from the ground, the creature exploded, covering the pristine white sand with a layer of steaming guts. What remained of the creature roiled in the gentle surf, like lava spilling into the sea. 

Boron grabbed Carolyn's shoulder, and she screamed. "Run now," he bellowed over the din. "And take her with you," he added, running towards the thing rising from the roiling surf.