It does to me.
Ah, yes. You are Shealla for a reason. You named me, and you were right—it mattered.
My music changed to “Be My Yoko Ono” by the Barenaked Ladies.
“Um, could the star be called Yoko or Ono?”
“Why not?” Wruck asked.
SuperBun said he could hear the name the natives thought and it sounded right.
“Yoko Sun it is, then.”
SuperBun corrected. Yoko Ono, both names, as in, this was the Yoko Ono System.
“So many jokes to be made, so little time. Really, sometimes life’s not fair, is it?”
CHAPTER 83
FINALLY, WE WERE READY TO GO. And at that moment I realized that we were all insane and going to die. I’d never see my husband, my children, my family, or my friends again. I wouldn’t be able to fix the rest of Mephistopheles’ errors, and Wruck wouldn’t be able to fix those the Anciannas and Z’porrah had made. We were just being idiots.
We needed to find someone else to do this. Someone more powerful, more experienced, someone who wouldn’t die in less than a second by going into the center of a sun. Maybe search out a star surfer and see what they had going. Sure, that would probably take too long, but at least we’d still be alive.
Started to hyperventilate and was about to call this entire insane expedition off, when I heard a voice in my head. “Even when you have lost faith in yourself, I will always have faith in you.” Mephistopheles had said that to me. And I knew he’d meant it.
I have faith in you as well, Lilith said. Or I would not be risking all. You think right, Kitty. Never forget that.
My music changed to Sting’s “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You,” his song about never losing faith in love and the existence of God. Algar had faith in me, too. And while the temptation to ask why Algar didn’t just snap his fingers right now and save us all was strong, I shoved it aside. It was a dirty job, and we were the team who had to do it. Period.
Took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Made sure that all my stuff and Serene’s trap were in my well-protected purse and put it over my neck, picked up SuperBun and cuddled him to my breast with one hand, ensured I had the power cube tightly held in my other, and nodded to Wruck. “Okay, Suicide Squad, let’s do this thing.” Hey, the Suicide Squad, despite getting the worst missions, usually came back with all members intact. I was good with that.
Wruck shifted into something that seemed to be more like Lilith than anything else—he was glittering in a way that looked white-hot and seemed almost insubstantial. But as he wrapped himself around me, could tell there was substance there and he didn’t feel hot. He felt insulated. And I could see through him, meaning I wasn’t obstructed. It was as if I was wearing a Wruck Suit.
“Ready,” Wruck said from all around me.
“SuperBun, it’s up to you now. Concentrate on the Anti-Mother. We need to land as close to her as possible, since we have no idea how long we’ll last at the core of Yoko Ono.”
Even in this tense a situation, knowing the sun was called Yoko Ono gave me a great deal of humorous satisfaction. It’s the little things you treasure.
As SuperBun shared the target in our minds, my music changed to “Superunknown” by Soundgarden, and I triggered the power cube.
We were inside the sun in less than the blink of an eye. The core of the sun was surrounded by a large parasite—it was clear that the Anti-Mother was trying to engulf the core. She was also trying to burrow into the core at the same time. There was a black circle in the middle of the core. It was small, but I could see it clearly. This appeared to be what Anti-Mother was trying to reach, so it didn’t take genius to realize that if she did, this was how Yoko Ono would become a black hole.
But the core was fighting back. Had no idea if stars could actually be sentient, but this one at least had a survival instinct of some kind.
It was warm but not hot. Felt a layer of armor burn away and it felt a little warmer. Meaning there was no time to dillydally. “SuperBun, do your thing. Hey, Anti-Mother! Your son says that you’re a disappointment. Yoko Ono, hang on, babe, and keep on fighting, we’re here to help!”
As an opening gambit, these lines weren’t my greatest ever. The consolation was that no one who heard them was likely going to share them with anyone else, seeing as we were all going to be dead sooner as opposed to later. Felt another layer burn off. Wasn’t sure if the layers were burning off of just Wruck or off of Wruck and me both, but actively hoped I’d never have to find out for sure unless or until we were back with the others, fully alive and unscathed.
But, lame opening lines or not, felt a surge of hope from Yoko Ono via SuperBun, and the parasite turned its attention to me, for just a moment.
Lilith went into action. Suddenly I wasn’t just seeing the core of the sun and the parasite surrounding it—I was seeing them, the individual atoms and the way they were moving, how they created a real thing, how there were two different things here, how the parasite’s atoms were attacking the core’s atoms, how the core’s atoms were fighting back, how the core’s atoms were losing and being engulfed by the parasite’s.
Then saw the subatomic particles. Really wished Chuckie was with us, if only for someone else to rely on with the deeply scientific stuff. However, he wasn’t, so it was time to pull up my Big Girl Panties and represent.
“Go away, insignificant creatures,” Anti-Mother said.
“Make us.” I was basically managing schoolyard-level stuff. Which meant I should have been ignored. My music changed to “Small Talk and Pride” by Olivia Newton-John. Took this to mean that Algar approved of the Schoolyard Taunting Method and that I should keep it up.
And I wasn’t ignored. Schoolyard Taunting Method for the win. “You dare speak to me in that way?” The Anti-Mother sounded pissed. Interesting.
“I do. I’m insolent, me. Whatcha gonna do about it?” Another layer burned away and I was warmer. Didn’t think about it. Well, as much as I could.
“I will destroy you.”
“Blah, blah, blah. You’re a relic, an insignificant backup singer in a band that was over centuries ago. Your power was never your own, and it’s not your own now. You’re trying to steal power, which is the only way your kind ever gets it, because you’re not actually powerful in your own right.”
Felt SuperBun communicating with Yoko Ono in a way similar to how I did with ACE or, now, Lilith—as if he were inside Yoko Ono’s head, or whatever the equivalent was for a star. Also felt him starting to worm his way into the Anti-Mother’s mind, through a back door. He could do this because I was distracting the Anti-Mother enough that she wasn’t paying attention to any of the others.