The Acolytes of Crane

20 THEODORE: LOCALIZED RECKONING





“Is he ready?”

“Just a moment, warden.”

“We are in position for the disengagement of the vault!” the guard yells out the usual tirade, “Prisoner number eight-six-seven-five, open request, guns are at the ready—over.” The warden is standing ready and he looks eager to engage me. The guard continues, “Prisoner! Stand and face the wall opposite of this vault, place your hands behind your head, down on your knees, lift your feet off the ground slightly and lean forward until your head is against the wall.” A pause. “Prisoner is in the static pose, cover me while I move.”

“Good job, rookie. Word for word,” the veteran guard says.

“Guns are hot. I will restrain the prisoner. Cover me while I move,” the rookie says. His voice is no longer shaky.

I feel the temporalysis submit my body to its power, and I hit the floor.

“Prisoner. I want you to know that we have noticed your cooperation. We are considering your relocation to a more comfortable area of the prison. Can somebody revive the prisoner, so that he can speak with me? You guards didn’t get the brief?”

“Yessir—y-yes, warden, I mean,” the rookie says.

I can feel the tingle of the temporalysis’ power subside from my lips, throat, and tongue, and then the rest of my head, after the rookie presses the buttons.

“Prisoner. The Multiversal Council wants there to be no discrepancy in the account today. They are quite interested in the battle of Jaakruid. I don’t blame them. I, too, wonder how you survived. If you want to be transferred to the minimum security level of the prison, you would be certain to give us an exact account of what was said and what happened. Do you agree?” the warden asks.

“Yes. What about my son?”

“Your son is with his mother, but we are watching, and if you even think about busting out of here, we will destroy everything you hold dear outside of these walls. Close the vault! Oh, and one last thing. A good friend of yours asked me to deliver a message. After careful consideration, I decided it was acceptable to pass it on. He said, ‘Tell Theodore I appreciate his efforts.’ Any idea who it was?”

“Lincoln.”

His lack of disagreement confirms that my guess was correct. He steps back. “Close the vault! Think about what I said, prisoner. Every word. Make it count.”

The guards huddle around, with guns drawn. One guard removes my temporalysis, and I lie as still as this floor beneath me. They exit.

Wow. Now I know for sure Lincoln is here too. That isn’t surprising, considering the circumstances. As for my son—I don’t find solace in the warden’s assurance of his safety, but if he is with his mother, then he is safe.

I know that hate does not bow down to an inkling of hope, but it will cower to the devotion of many. With the positive developments of the last few days, springing forth like leaks though a crumbling dam, hope is rising. The days of my confinement here are numbered.

I pick up this tablet and begin by sliding my finger across the screen to record. I worry that I cannot give an entirely accurate account as the warden requests, but I will do my best to fill in the blanks.

“I never saw Jaakruid before that day, yet my focus was so strong, I could visualize all its bamboo-fortified walls, its leafy rooftops, and its vine-intertwined castle. My fighting force roared on, hungry for success.”

For a while, we, my men and I, marched, halted, ran, marched, halted, and ran again. One thing that my grandpa Marvin told me from his experience in the service was that a team leader is the tip of the spear. When a leader takes point, courage is cultivated among his followers.


We had been on the move for an hour, and my hope was that we could breach the city of Jaakruid before sunrise.

The Tritillian world was filling my lungs with clean air from the abundance of plant life. I was able to bolt through the dense jungle floor of the forest with ease. I was running, but my strides were quickened by my lifters.

The forest was alive in the night. The moons were eclipsed by their neighboring planet. The outer rims of these celestial bodies shone through the mist and illuminated the forest during the hours prior to the sunrise.

After such a long march, I just had to take a leak.

‘We will break here, fifty-fifty security around the perimeter, one soldier watches while the others rest,’ I called out to my troops.

My warriors broke into the perimeter to guard off against any insurgents while I drained the contents of my bladder. It felt as if all the stress had been exonerated from my body. I have to admit, if I held it any longer my kidneys may have sprung a leak. Thank goodness Elons did not have the same pressing urge that I did—ever.

I took the airborne scout devices from the pouch upon my belt, and released them to scan the terrain. Using my X23-75’s, I hovered near the shelf of the forest and listened in on a conversation from two of my Elon fighters as they conversed between themselves.

‘Mum gave life to us, for us to immediately go into war?’ an Elon asked his battle buddy, with a raspy voice.

‘It isn’t war that made us, love made us. Mum put us to battle for love, for Theodore-zzz, and for our future free from tyranny,’ another Elon said, buzzing and lisping.

‘Well said.’

‘Watch your sector.’

‘I am. No one will enter my territory without meeting my arrow’s edge.’

‘You have been saying that all night.’

‘It is the truth.’

‘You two could not hit a moonflower with a cantaloupe,’ Ed said, and the Elons laughed.

I swooped in toward my metal friend on my lifters and said, ‘I thought you were just a robot. I didn’t know you could joke.’

‘I am a robot, but that does not mean I cannot observe an opportunity to make a joke. My maker made me so that I could analyze a situation and insert a joke, but I have not been given the necessary algorithm for emotion. You will not see me laugh and if you do, it will sound weird. I only act out humor by its definition, not its physiological function.’

Ed was my favorite acquaintance the entire adventure.

Spirits were high, and it was time for us to pick up. It ailed me to think about all the unknown dangers in that jungle, but just like late grandpa Marv said, ‘Some things you just cannot control.’

I was a fifteen-year-old teenager with an army of Elons, versus two mighty armies: Dacturon warlords, led by my archenemy Travis, and the Dark Elons, led by Quasikeum. We were soon to collide.

We just believed we could win on our esprit de corps alone. The airborne sphere-like robotic scouts returned to me and projected, for my private viewing only, a frontal holographic image of a large tree fort city. We were near Jaakruid.

I gave the signal to move out, and everyone picked up gear and pushed forward. I heard the bows clacking quietly against the backs of my Elons.

We ran using stealth, with only slight resistance. The jungle gradually thickened from the ground up to about fifteen feet. I drew upon the power of my rolesk to control the Dietons in the vicinity.

Using my rolesk, I propelled a massive force ahead, causing the trees to part away from an opening path through the lush growth. This tactically allowed us to move rapidly through less-than-friendly terrain, while the platoons of enemies following us had great difficulty making any progress. Like magic, I had created an instantaneous spacious labyrinth for every foot I took, accessible only to us as we moved along. The Elons had no trouble meandering through the jungle maze, but if I was going to shelter our clandestine advance from the perception of on-looking evil—I had to be innovative. I followed those thoughts with uttering of self-assurance: we are ninjas!

We didn’t lose anyone to the grip of the wood, and I was at the tip of our attack. Ahead, in the distance, I could see the wooden trunks of what were similar to redwoods.

The trunks were as wide as the base of a water tower. This was my signal. We were very close to Jaakruid. I threw up a solid fist in the air to halt our forward progression. All Elons within my field of vision stood up straight upon my command.

‘If I might have a word, Theodore?’ Ed asked, injecting sound into the silence.

‘Shhh,’ I hushed my robot friend, ‘Ed, relax. I think we are at the base of Jaakruid. What I will do is send a quarter of our forces in search of the Morlorian to distract it. If it is even here.’

‘I must advise against that, Master Theodore. We need the dedication of our full army to successfully launch a massive assault. To delegate a split away from the group will invite weakness to our main army. If there is indeed a Morlorian, we can deal with it as the time arises. We must continue on.’

‘Ed, I never knew I could find such knowledge in a hunk of metal,’ I said.

‘It isn’t what you are made of that gives meaning to your existence. It is the weight of your actions that presents your definitive worth in the end.’

On the tail end of those words, my raised hand dropped forward to signal the attack. We clung to our silence, because a surprise strike was our most effective weapon.

We passed an outpost that was vacant, and the distance between our enemy and the forward point of our persistence was closing. We surged against the jungle wall of Jaakruid like a tidal wave driving up and over, and leaking through.

I set ablaze with gleaming light my sword Wrath, and ripped through the jungle wall. My sword easily splintered the wooden barrier, and gave passage for my Elon warriors.

I crossed the brink of the wall, and after about three strides, I felt the ground flee beneath me.

“A trap!” I shouted.

I lost my stomach, because I was falling toward a solid bed of dirt. As I dropped toward the bottom of the trap my ears popped from the depth of the hole.

Just as my body was to fracture completely against the rocks below—my lifters elevated me to safety.

I looked up and saw that I had fallen about fifty feet before my lifters saved me.

Using my powerful shoes, I rocketed upward to accompany my army. Dreading the Morlorian, my amulet warmed my chest. I flew quickly because I knew that there was danger at ground level.

I catapulted my body toward safety to the edge of the hole, and just as I broke free, I saw an enormous green monster thrashing erratically. I could only assume it was the plant menace, the Morlorian. Five arrows from Elon warriors surrounding the perimeter above zinged downwards past my body toward the monster. Ed swooped in to move me away as the Morlorian lashed its green aloe-like tentacles in my direction.

Its arms were as wide as a sidewalk and its body as thick as a driveway. It unleashed its poisoned stench to ensue me into madness. The dastardly creature sprayed streams of toxic pollination toward me, and I retreated back through the hole that I had blasted through the palace wall. I reasoned it would be safer for me outside enemy territory. I searched out higher ground to evade the poisons.

Just as I exited though the hole from my previous blast, a puff of the Morlorian’s toxic pollen brushed by my face and found a path to my lungs through my inhalation. I was disappointed in my body’s total surrender, but by then I had already passed out. Veering wildly with my lifters still amok, I crashed softly atop the branches of a non-sentient tree. The battle raged beneath me, while I lay atop the treetop structure.


Enraged at the immobilization of me, their leader, the Elons stormed the Morlorian. Meanwhile, Ed flew to my aid, carrying the remainder of the deflicontis mucilage.

‘Swallow this, Theodore. It is the only way the affliction will pass!’ Ed yelled, although I was unconscious. He forced the rest of the vial down my throat.

The medicine did the trick. Within seconds, I was sitting up, taking stock of the battle raging on below. The morning sky lit up even more as arrows blazed from one end to the other.

My vision was still fuzzy, and my hearing was sporadic, thanks to the after-effects of the poison from the Morlorian. However, there was no mistaking the searing pain from the amulet upon my chest, as if a burning log was placed upon it. Moaning with pain, I clawed at it to remove it from my skin.

That burning sensation had awakened me to my full senses. Before my eyes, an image lay that seared itself forever in my head. Right in front of me, my robotic companion Ed, was split into two from behind, and he was no more.

As Ed’s two sides, left and right, fell apart from each other, standing behind Ed’s demise was the person I wished dead from the start. It was the man who drained pure life from my loving guardians—Travis. He sheathed his sword and stood with his hands over his hips to address me.

‘So, you have it in you to come to me,’ he said, spitting on me as I lay there at his feet, ‘This must be a joke. Look at you all dressed up, what do you think was going to happen here? A teenager is going to defeat us with his inherited army of idiots?’

‘No,’ I said, because I learned that day, lengthy speeches were not meant for war. I rolled on to my belly and took a brief look toward the battle on the ground. My Elons were lost in the confrontation of their conflicting equals, the Dark Elons. I could only slightly tell the good guys from the bad guys.

I clenched Wrath, and with sleight of hand and ferociousness of anger, I lashed my weapon toward Travis’s dainty armor. My blade’s scorching rage rippled the hide of his armor, nearly penetrating to the skin itself.

To my consternation, Travis didn’t flinch once at his close call. This warned me that the worse was yet to come. Travis no longer cared about his own safety; he had only one immediate goal: my utter and total destruction. Hatred swelled within his eyes.

Snarling, Travis withdrew his sword and aimed it menacingly at me.

The sword consisted of a wire projecting upward from the handle, with a saucer about an inch in diameter pinnacled at the top. It looked like a 1950’s do-it yourself handyman project; a car’s radio telescoping antenna with a miniature satellite dish atop its tip. At first glimpse, I snickered at the sight of it.

‘And you plan to defeat me with that; I have seen better weapons in my grandparents’ shed!’ I shouted.

‘You mean, the shed that I burnt to the ground when I ventured back to your home—along with your precious house?’ he asked. I could feel the darkness closing in. My tunneled vision zeroed in on that son of a devil’s ass, ‘You have nothing to go back to. You are nothing!’ he shouted as he gripped his sword tight, and from the handle flowing to the top of the saucer at its peak—gleamed sparkling yellow flow of energy.

It looked electric, like a bolt of lightning, pinned between handle and saucer, and flames somersaulted off its edge. His sword took form, and was much more intimidating after it charged. He zapped up a flaming ball of blue lightning on the ground, and flames encircled it.

Sending commands by telepathy to my lifters, I propelled, airborne, to a clearing among the trees. Travis, also being equipped with rocket propulsion gear, matched me movement for movement and joined me in battle, several feet above ground. Hovering, we both braced for the decisive strike, weightless. Our nimble silhouettes were framed by the rising sun.

There was a slim moment, a second of strained focus, and then we lunged into our war. Powerfully, we thrust back our sword-bearing arms for the ultimate first blow. With a sonic smash of energy, our weapons collided. I then realized that despite its tiny diameter, the shaft of Travis’ sword was just as indestructible as the hardest metal ever—titanium. It failed to bend or melt once upon the massive force by Wrath. The clash of swords conjured up a huge ball of light, projecting a teal blue aura upon our surroundings. The main wall of the Jaakruid fortress shone for that brief second, as if bursts of blue floodlights were trained upon it.

I could feel his anger personified. His unfathomable rage rattled my bones with every meeting of our enchanted weapons.

Bending my wrist, I brought Wrath crashing down to strike at Travis’ left leg, but he parried the maneuver easily. He let out a whoop and he countered with a mighty swing that knocked Wrath clean out of my sword hand. I froze helplessly for a second as Wrath tumbled down to the ground several feet below.

Time to use Sandolphin’s bracers. I recalled from Nezatron, when I first enlisted for duty aboard the Uriel in the Chamber of Rafal, that their function was to generate instant chain mail armor to protect my wrists and arms.

Faster that you could utter a battle cry, my wrists and hands were covered with a sheath of mail armor.

I was now ready. I unleashed my finest fighting form: head kick, heel kick on the tail end, with a one-two and an over-hand right. I jumped in for the Superman punch, then a flying knee with the aid of my lifters. ‘Yee-arghh!’ I hollered at my foe.

Pow! Wham!

Travis recoiled from my blows. The impact to his face sent a skin-wake reverberation through his body. His eyes became glossy, and his step swayed.

His eyes soon snapped back to fury. Halting my assault with his powerful bracelets, he backed off, and then assumed a dominant stance, his feet firmly askance.

His face contorted with loathing, Travis unleashed a force to grasp me by the neck. Rising rapidly through the air above him, I choked and sputtered. I clawed away frantically at this iron grip, to no avail.

‘Aha!’ Travis snarled, ‘Flyboy!’

‘Let—’ My voice was mercilessly smothered, like a lit candle under a snuffer.

Hovering, with a death grip around my neck, I started to feel weak. Summoning the last of my strength, I quickly ordered my rolesk to rally Dietons around me. These tiny beings, aroused to anger, swarmed to Travis, as his eyes opened in fear.

Crushing his bracelets upon my command, the Dietons proved their devastating efficiency while Travis screamed. Now free, I dropped to the bushy ground, landing upright with the assistance of my lifters.

Full of unbridled rage, Travis swooped in on me, and joined me into hand-to-hand combat on the ground. We rolled about, as Travis incidentally was reunited with his weapon.

I barely had time to react as Travis’ sword came crashing down. Instinctively, I held up my left arm to block his thrust; the chain mail resisted his brute force. The electric flow of the sword passed into me, with a violent current through my heart. My heart pulsed near explosion, and just as the hair on my head began to cook, my loyal subject, my hero, Ed intervened. Actually, the one split half of him that was still barely functioning.

With one last defining moment, the half-Ed revolutionized heroism. With his gun drawn, he shot at Travis’ shoulder, just beneath the deltoid.

Travis screamed at the pain, and with one mighty heave, he struck at the half-Ed with his sword. The last functioning unit of the poor robot met its ultimate demise. Without a whimper, the metallic creature fell to the ground, all lights faded forever.

‘Now!’ Travis held his sword up high over my head.


Suddenly, plasma fire blasted away at the ground next to us, spitting up clumps of dirt and singed grass.

Travis looked up, as did I. Like a screaming falcon diving onto its prey, a small spacecraft hovered into sight against the rose-themed morning sunrise. In black letters down its side read, “ZF-Targine.”

I waited with bated breath. Friend or foe?

I soon cheered for joy, nearly at tears, for it gave chase to Travis with incoming fire. I further whooped as Travis darted away for safety, retreating to the fortress.

The battle scene had changed dramatically. Looking upward from my back toward a platform above, I saw an Elon, standing tall and brute, with a golden trident that shimmered in the light of the passing arrows.

Pike, who had appeared by my side, was out of breath from catching up. He yelled, ‘That is Quasikeum, the Dark King of the Elons.’ I squinted ahead at the Dark King who had usurped power from Princess Jezra, the rightful heir to the throne.

Upon seeing the spacecraft, the Dark King signaled for Travis to fall back and flee behind his cape. Grateful for the chance to escape, a grim Travis ducked behind the Dark King’s voluminous, billowing cape, and vanished. Laughing malevolently, the king wrapped the cape around himself, and also disappeared.

The ship began to fire on the structure, and I made a valiant attempt to rise up and fight on, but my body was too weak. I mustered up whatever bit of strength I had in my scrawny body. I took Wrath from the ground and left to hunt down my nightmare, Travis.

It was time for me to breach the Elon palace again. The Elon army had successfully streamed in through the palace walls—thanks to the gaping hole previously carved out by Wrath. While Travis and I had been thrashing it out, my Elon army had been fighting tooth and nail with their corrupted counterparts in various scenes of guerilla warfare inside the walls. Hundreds of hand-to-hand battles raged on in stairwells, ramparts, and halls of splendor.

I ran up the bridges and stairways leading to the palace, knowing that my lifters would overcome any barrier. While I was about to take flight, I heard a familiar voice behind me.

‘Hey, dude! You’re a sight for sore eyes!’

Joyfully, I turned to source of the comforting sound.

‘Dan!’ I cried out. He was grinning from ear to ear, expertly aligned on a hover board.

‘Ted! We’re all here for you!’

‘Holy crap! Am I glad to see you! What, conquering Earth by skateboard isn’t enough—you had to take a stab at Jaakruid, too?’

‘Is that what this flipping jungle paradise is called? I would rather buy a ticket to Antarctica than live in this place. So, we’re at your command now? How can we fight for you?’ Dan asked.

‘My guess is if you want to find the Dark King, you storm the castle. I think he is at the top. Let’s find out.’

I yelled out for an Elon troop to lead the army up the fortress. He took order and said, ‘The Morlorian has been defeated sir, it lies dead at the base. Pike is inside, joining in the battle!’

‘Impressive gear,’ I said, admiring Dan’s awesome air surfboard and the bulky plasma cannon upon his back.

‘Wait till you see what this damn thing can do. It will blow your mind. Are you ready?’ Dan asked.

Together, we flew to the ramparts atop the perimeter wall. From the darkness of what looked to be a hanger, we two charged ahead against an onslaught of Dacturon elite who had left the safety of their ships to join the battle upon seeing the Dark Elon falter. They stood like wild wizards, waving their hands about. Like futuristic mages, they used their telekinesis to control the world around them.

As if by sorcery, looming, dark and heavy rain clouds crept in above our heads. The Dacturons cackled as their puffy creations threw down bucketfuls of rain upon our army.

As currents of water gushed off our armor and rolesks, we struggled in the monsoon-like conditions. Everything was slippery. The flame of my blade was dimming, but still had enough to rip through the Dark Elons that emerged from the darkness within the palace.

One of the Dacturons flung debris at us as we hovered on Dan’s surfboard. A log nearly blasted Dan off his board. The other two Dacturons supported their fellow troops with gunfire from their rifles. Pandemonium burst out through the air, as well as flashes of light. The battle was now at its most fierce. It was the pivotal moment—either side was desperately pushing for its tide of victory to prevail.

The remainder of my Elons joined in the fight, and from the blanketed shroud of rain, two more sights for weary eyes appeared. Lincoln and Mariah rode in on the nimble backs of my Elons.

My heart leapt out in joy at the sight of my remaining two colleagues. They were now truly composed as brave warriors. I could see the determination in their eyes, hardened by weeks of training.

‘Mariah! Lincoln!’ I cried out with full heart.

Beaming, they both gave me a simultaneous thumbs-up.

Mariah perched her herself slightly silhouetted on the edge of the structure and fired lasers at the Dacturons. Her expert marksmanship dropped two of the five Dacturon elite and created an opening for our advance.

Jumping off Dan’s turbulent air board, I commended my lifters to take me.

‘Ted!’ Dan yelled out, searching my face for clues.

‘Go help Mariah and Linc!’ I shouted to him. ‘I need to find the Dark King!’

Dan saluted me, and he was off to do battle with the remaining Dacturon elite guards.

I dashed toward the highest rampart, upon which the tactical battle command center would surely lay, right in the center of the palace. As I swiftly pushed in the double doors, my heartbeat swallowed the scattered wails emanating from the morbid choir of Elons dying around me.

Taking in a deep breath, I walked in, searching for some light. A large heavy door slammed shut behind me, immediately setting off a rising panic in my throat.

I had Wrath glowing in response to the instant darkness that enveloped me. I blinked, and everything changed.

My surroundings were altered; it looked like I was home. My grandparents were standing in front of me with arms open at the end of my driveway, and I started running to them.

What was this?

I thought it was all just a dream. Accidentally, as I was running in my dream state, I kicked something round that skid across the wooden floor. I gasped as the image vanished and darkness returned, with Wrath still lighting up the room. I discovered I was in a hangar, of strategic importance for docking spacecraft.

My anxious eyes darted to a corner, and I saw what I had kicked. It was one of these projection devices favored by the Rangiers. I didn’t see it during stride, but when I knocked it out of position, all the imagery disappeared.

As the last of the pixelated imagery of my comfortable home vanished, I shrank back as the menacing Elon King, Quasikeum, stood determined before me. He held up his all-powerful trident, directly aimed at my heart.

‘Die!’ he roared, as he hurled it toward me.

The next second was just a blur. Brusquely pushed aside from behind by an unknown force, I stumbled upon the wooden floor. My hands took-up slivers, and as I bounced across the planks, I turned my head quickly to fight back.

‘Lincoln!’ I cried.

The image of the three glinting prongs of steel stabbing Lincoln into his chest will forever be frozen in my mind. Lincoln never once looked at me—his eyes bulging, his mouth open as if screaming for dear life—I knew he was minutes away from death. When the evil Quasikeum pulled his barbarous weapon out of Lincoln’s chest, I was force-fed an idea of what I was fighting for—life.


The Dark King wasted no further time. Turning to me, as Lincoln’s body thudded onto the floor, he rasped, ‘So this is the Earthly chosen one that everyone speaks of? All that I see before me is a pathetic, frightened boy.’

Quasikeum obviously wanted to torment me one last time. He visibly relaxed and looked over to his right to a hooded man who had just emerged out of the shadows. ‘Kurod, you have done well with your projection. It is time for us to leave this hell.’

A third figure, swift and at ease, entered through the window on lifters. From the grace exhibited, I knew it must be Travis.

Three against one. It wasn’t looking good. A loud, bone-chilling gasp bubbled out of Lincoln as he held on to life.

Not even bothering to withdraw his sword, Travis leered at me as he took his place side by side with the Dark King. Kurod and Travis bookmarked their evil master as they straightened out stiffly and contemplated me with scorn.

I screamed, unable to peel my eyes from Lincoln’s slumped body. ‘You will never defeat us! I am Theodore, Messiah of Earth!’

‘Is that right? Your blade will not get its wish today, Theodore,’ Quasikeum spoke, as if pitying me. He studied closely his trident, then glared at me. ‘Believe me, you don’t want to know the truth.’

I didn’t say anything. I knew Quasikeum would answer soon enough.

He started walking toward the exit door, beckoning to Kurod to follow. He stood tall on the first step, in preparation for his flight.

He causally peered at me as he placed his foot atop the second step. ‘Your grandfather had the last piece of the puzzle. With his help, Odion will reign supreme.’

My mouth trembling furiously, I held myself back.

Kurod stood near the exit, his back turned to me, while Travis, his feet wide apart and firmly planted, faced me. It was obvious to me what Quasikeum had planned for me.

With trident in hand, the Dark King ordered, ‘Dispose Theodore!’

‘My pleasure, I will do away with the freak-boy easy,’ Travis said, as he looked at me, pulling his sword from the sheath on his back.

The Dark King and Kurod fled up the stairs to the top, where their ship was stationed.

Travis was flexed and ready. I was breathing deep. Our faces twitched from nerves, and we contemplated a battle with an uncertain ending. My eyes of burden locked with his eyes of tainted youth, and Travis dove into a sprint.

His decision was made, and his actions were rash. There were four yards between our bodies, and in that space and time, I thought, I am the leaf.

I powered up my Elon suit. Travis raged toward me, and my sword ignited. I rose up from the brink.

‘To Lincoln,’ I whispered, steady and calm. I extended the deadly sword back, timing each second perfectly of my final thrust against Travis.

And in one fatal swing of Wrath, my sword extinguished his life.

There was no Heaven for the devious. There was no dream-reel of a utopia, no soothing sense of solitude in the white glow of Sephera, only nothing—only Hell for him. My sword melted through his chest. When I withdrew Wrath, a cauterized hole remained.

Life escaped Travis, just like it abandoned my grandparents at his bidding, and that was when I knew he was dead. Dan’s plasma cannon blasted the doors open, and the saviors of my mission poured in to distract my brief remorse for Travis.

A red glow seeped into the hangar, and gave form to the carnage. I dropped to my knees and cupped the blood that left Lincoln’s body.

‘Hurry, somebody do something!’ I screamed to the others.

‘Ted, I don’t have much time. Find Tez, she will help you,’ Lincoln said, moaning from the pain, ‘Please protect Mariah for me. Go! Finish this. You cannot waste time on me. Time is a luxury. I know that now.’

His eyes weakened with every blink, and we all dove in to embrace him one last time. We laid him down on the log floor of the hangar, and comforted him with our tears.

‘Give him some room,’ Dan cried.

The last image I viewed as we peeled away from him was Mariah and Lincoln’s hands locked in an embrace. Lincoln looked toward me and said, ‘You wanted to know who visited me at Fun Haven that night? It was Zane. He told me that I would soon die, but my death would be the catalyst for change. You must leave now!’

Mariah kissed Lincoln and when their lips touched, a tear fell from my eye. Love and life were what we fought for that day, which was all that we longed to have. To feel—that was the dream. When I left his, my thirst for vengeance was infinite.

‘Where’s Liam?’ I asked, before we ran up the stairs. I could tell by the sadness in their eyes that our team was on the verge of losing that battle, because Liam was surely lost too. I looked back at Lincoln before I turned the corner and I said, ‘Thank you.’ The life passed on from him, and I turned the corner to run from my emotions.

We took the path that Quasikeum presented earlier. We ran to the top of the structure through a tight stairwell, and at the top stood the Dark King. To my ultimate surprise, he left Kurod to fight us.

‘Is the Dark King abandoning you now?’ I growled to Kurod as Quasikeum teleported to a Tritillian Warship above. The ship left our sight through the thick whirly clouds.

‘I am a Driad, you pitiful slouch. I never run away from a good fight,’ Kurod said as he laughed from his belly and stroked his long beard. He tossed an imaginary projection into the air about twenty-five feet above us. He stood strong and unwavering.

The projection band on his bald head powered up. He was one, and then he was three, then five. Five bald and powerfully illusory Driad projections stood before us. Only one of them was real. The battle was about to begin, and it would be a clash of fantasy versus reality.

‘What the hell?’ Dan said.

‘Dan, put pressure from above.’

‘Got it! Ted, this jerk is going down!’

‘Mariah, you know what to do!’

‘Already on it, Theodore.’

‘Let’s see how you can do against three of us!’ I yelled.

I charged in, bellowing. I leapt into the air, and crashed down thunderously. My sword left a trail of light behind it like a sparkler on Independence Day, and as I brought it down upon a replica I thought to be the real Kurod, it instantly vanished. Wrong one.

‘Mariah hurry, take out the projection orbs,’ I yelled. On cue, she took out two in a row, with two left to go. We pressed the offensive against Kurod. I was tired and fatigued beyond belief, but I could not get any rest just yet.

‘Duck!’ Dan screamed.

I fell down to the floor purposely. A massive log swung by my head, missing my head by inches, but scraped my back. One of the remaining four Kurods had ripped a support beam out of the wall by telekinesis to crush me.

I lay there, pinned by the weight of the wooden trunk. If it wasn’t for my Elon armor, my chest might have been crushed. Mariah, using her rifle, took out the last two projection orbs. The replicas beeped as they zapped out of existence, leaving an enraged Kurod very much exposed.

‘Fire,’ I commanded, without hesitation. We had him now.

Dan fired controlled bursts from his plasma cannon, causing Kurod to tumble to the ground. He was down, but not out yet.

Then, the ZF-Targine rose up past the palace walls and hovered into our view. I squinted in an attempt to identify its navigator.

Mariah jumped up from her position and yelled, ‘Nilo!’

The cannons on the ship charged, and rapid automatic fire of plasma burst upon Kurod’s weakened position. Knowing the end was near, he bowed to us out of respect for our efforts. The blast incinerated him, and in a pink puff of mist, his body ceased to exist. Nilo safely landed the ship in the nearby hangar, then jumped out to rescue us.


Several beacons of light swooned in from the horizon. We recognized the make of these ships. These were the Urilian ships that belonged to Zane!

‘Zane’s sent ships after me!’ I yelled out to my team.

The Urilian vessels, however, were having a laser battle with the Dacturon warships. Explosions riddled the forest around the palace as the two sides traded fire. One turret near us blew clear up, leaving behind a smoldering inferno.

‘Let’s go, before a Dacturon warship decides to stick around,’ Nilo yelled, using the exterior speakers of the ship.

Mariah looked up at the sky. ‘The Dacturons are retreating!’ The battle had grown much more quiet.

‘Great!’ I hollered from underneath my trap, ‘Now Zane’ll be after me! Let’s go, quick!’

Mariah and Dan lifted the support beam that pinned me down, and ran up the ramp of the ship.

‘Nilo, thanks so much!’ Mariah hugged him.

‘Yup,’ Nilo boasted, ‘My target is done. King Trazuline ‘s gonna be tickled so pink, he’ll wrestle with a Cliguire if I ask him to!’

Dan and Mariah were stunned.

‘You’re the assassin?’ Mariah asked, incredulous.

‘You were in the stalbrux chamber with Trazuline?’ Dan stared at him, gaping.

‘I was hired to assassinate someone alright, and my job was complete. You thought I would get paid a million shorques to take out a human boy. My target was Kurod! I was hired by King Trazuline.’

Shots rang out near the ship’s bow. ‘We gotta go!’ Nilo yelled, and he ran to his captain’s chair.

‘Just a second!’ I yelled as I heard loud drumbeats and marching band music. I peered out one of the portholes of the ship, and my heart leapt for joy when I saw a huge procession, in front of the palace.

As hundreds of Elons cheered, I saw Jezra, resplendent in flowing purple robes, sitting firmly upon a throne, which was part of an apparatus that would have easily passed for an old sedan chair in Queen Victoria’s time. It was basically a carriage of splendor hoisted by loyal subjects, in this case her fellow Elons, grasping horizontal poles as they walked step by step. I too saw Pike, raising his fists in the air, full of jubilation. He was marching in front of his majestic wife.

The reality struck home into my heart. Jezra, actually Queen Jezra now, was assuming her rightful place as Queen of Tritillia. The deafening cheers reverberated through the ever-closing door of our ship before it firmly shut.

In less than a few seconds, we were out of orbit, as Tritillia loomed below us as a greenish-blue ball in the cosmos.

Once she realized we were all safe, Mariah ran to one of the cabins of the ship to devitalize. There was a void in her life now—a loss of love—and consequently, an absence of faith. I had to speak with her alone.

‘Mariah, is it okay if I step in,’ I asked, dreading the moment to come. She was curled-up, bawling her eyes out. ‘Mariah, I’m really sorry about Lin—’

‘You don’t have a clue! Lincoln and I were in love!’

‘I know,’ I muttered, my voice shaking. I began to cry too, and she hugged me back.

‘The only reason we went to Tritillia was that he talked us into it. It was for you!’

She hit me in the chest with her fist. It hurt, but I knew the pain would go away in a few minutes. ‘I’m sorry, I really am—’

We both were crying, and we each wiped away tears. She snapped angrily at me, ‘You’re always talking about trust, honesty, and integrity. You! You betrayed us! You left us behind!’

‘I was under attack. I still don’t know who took over my mind… it wasn’t me!’ I shouted back.

‘Well, you have screwed everything up! You bring us to this godforsaken place, and we’ve lost Lincoln, and Liam!’

Self-doubt pulverized me, and worse than Travis’ first blow that smashed me, left me utterly desolate.

‘Liam. I knew something was up. Tell me about him,’ I pleaded. I did not want to hear any more, I could not—in fact—take any more bad news. But I had to be strong—for Mariah. And for Dan.

Dan walked in our conversation, dejected. ‘I’ll tell you, Ted. Mariah needs to grieve.’

While tears streamed down all our cheeks, Dan recalled Liam’s braveness. As soon as it was over, Mariah stood up. She grabbed a panel on the wall that shielded a storage space, ripped it right off its hinges, and threw it to the floor.

‘Really, how selfish can you be? How dare you? This conversation is over! Come back when you are ready to apologize,’ she fiercely whispered to me, trembling all over.

She pushed me out of her way, and stomped away to a private room to be alone. As the automatic door slammed, I felt the air forced from the motion of it.

Dan sighed. All the emotion had drained from his face. ‘I’ll go too,’ he said, and walked away.

Now I was truly alone. Dan was right. When Jason died, people let me mourn in peace. I realized that I was such an insensitive twit the entire time I had been aboard the Uriel. I was so caught up in a whirlwind to save Sephera that I didn’t even think twice about losing my grandparents. All of a sudden, Sephera no longer seemed worth it—for now.

There was no time to sit and feel sorry for myself, not even a moment to heal mentally. But I knew I had to channel my anger into doing something good, like I did when I reported my parents to the police. Maybe that was why Travis was so entranced by evil: he knew nothing else but hate. Instead of confronting his hate, he became it.

They used him to find something that my grandpa discovered about the Dietons. And the secret was still safe with Zane. And with me.

I was just a teenager, out in space. I did not know what to do. At once, I was both the most useless warrior ever, and still the most important link to saving Sephera. I stared straight ahead, not thinking, not feeling. Liam. Lincoln. Marv. Laverne. Jason. My thoughts drifted in and out into nothingness.

Something alerted me out of my fog.

‘Theodore,’ a sensual voice from behind me called out from a speaker on the dashboard. I turned to look. With one glance at the lovely visage, my useless, sterile thoughts dissipated. My hardened warrior exterior shed off in less than a split second. I was now the happy boy that Theodore Daniel Crane had once been.

‘Tez!’ I exclaimed, my heart fluttering.

‘Oh, Theodore, You have really shaken things up around here. Please tell me you are okay, tell me the boy I met in the halls of the Uriel is still fighting for the right reasons,’ she said.

‘That is just it. I realize more than ever today, what I am fighting to save. I am not fighting for Zane. I am not fighting for me, and I am sure as hell not fighting against the enemy just for the sake of fighting. I hope you can believe me. This battle is for Sephera and life. With Travis defeated and a Driad too—we are shaping up to be an awesome team.’

‘Theo, please don’t get swept away by your recent victories. The deaths of Travis and Kurod are really just a fraction of the war. Odion wrenches his grip on our multiverse, he just wastefully discarded them upon your blade,’ she said. She was absolutely right.

‘Tez?’ I asked.

‘Yes, Theo?’

‘Don’t give up on me.’

‘I won’t.’

‘What about your Dad?’ I shouted through the intercom, although the loud volume wasn’t necessary.

Tez sounded apprehensive. ‘He was in the battle on the planet. Is he still alive?’


‘Wow!’ I nearly freaked out. So Trazuline was after me too—or was he? ‘Yes! All the Urilian ships survived. They chased the Dacturons away.’

I could hear a long sigh of relief from the other end. ‘Ted, that means a lot to me. I know he’s one-hundred-percent behind you…’

Fear gripped my heart. ‘Tez! I forgot!’

There was silence at the other end. ‘Oh no! How stupid of me…!’

I worded her immediate concern, agreeing that we both had been very, very careless. ‘They can hear us… Zane can hear us.’

‘My father!’ Tez shrieked. ‘I said his name!’

‘Tez, Tez!’ I hollered into the speaker, ‘Maybe they’re not paying attention.’

I heard a male voice, ‘Tezmarine Halperin, daughter of King Trazuline, you are hereby arrested for the act of treason!’ There was a loud, blood-curdling scream at the other end. It overwhelmed me, as if my body had suddenly been exposed to liquid nitrogen in a chamber.

‘Tez! Tez!’ I screamed.

Silence.

I ran to the cockpit, yelling out. ‘We gotta get out of here! King Trazuline’s cover has been blown.’

Nilo broke away from the steering helm, his eyes blazing. He grabbed my collar and nearly punched me. ‘What! He was helping us, did you blab on him?’

‘No. Tez called me on the intercom. We leaked his secret. Then Tez was screaming or something. Then it went dead.’

Nilo smashed his fist into the palm of his other hand, then shoved me backwards with such force that I nearly fell to the floor. ‘We gotta rescue him!’ he roared.

‘What’s going on?’ asked Mariah, frantic, as she rushed into the cockpit, with Dan close behind.

Sullen, Nilo and I explained our predicament. Our two companions visibly sagged as we revealed the awful truth. ‘We gotta do something!’ Dan shouted. He appeared as if he was ready to dart off somewhere.

‘This battle is not over! We have just begun! We will find Tez, and we will rescue her!’ I boomed, silencing everyone, who looked up to me with awe.

They all glanced at each other, then Dan smiled and said, ‘Yeah, we got Tritillia free!’

Mariah lovingly gazed at me, ‘And we got Ted.’

Nilo piped up, ‘I carried out my duty to Trazuline. He would be so pleased with us.’

I seized the moment of euphoria. ‘Remember Lincoln!’

Mariah burst out in tears. ‘Yes.’

Dan bellowed with pride, ‘Remember Lincoln!’ I could see it in their eyes. Even the new chap we recruited, Nilo, rallied in my words, and we ended with a triumphant yell. It was a tribute to Lincoln, and with our hands bound to the center of our huddle we shouted in unison:

‘For Lincoln!’

‘And we’ll find Liam, too,’ Dan added.

I felt it in my gut. Although I had just heard a second-hand account of what happened to Liam, I believed he was still alive. ‘If Trazuline was helping us, he would have done what he could for Liam.’

‘Yes,’ Mariah agreed. ‘Let us not give up hope.’

‘Wait,’ I said, as my body clearly showed a shift away from the group, toward an exit door to another room.

Dan looked at me with a roll of his eyes, and stated, ‘I know that look.’

‘I will be right back, I have an idea. I think I know where we can find help,’ I said.

‘What are you doing, Theodore?’ Mariah asked, smiling.

I said, ‘Trust me on this.’