A DewPrism/Threads of Fate Fanfiction
Standard Disclaimer Applies
by Adelaine Vanguard
Part 3 of 3
“I could always be wrong, of course,” Klaus added immediately. “It could be anything from a pill from the same batch of vitamins, for example, or some common stranger that they both came in contact with. Worst scenario, someone could have deliberately poisoned both girls. But… somehow I don’t think so.” He turned somberly to the young boy. He frowned, concerned. “Rue, are you alright?”
“I—I’m fine.” You will always be a danger to those you love. The memory came unbidden, but he remembered it now. Ruecian had told him those words before, a long time ago—before he escaped the life capsules, before he met Claire, before… before she died. The nameless woman with raven hair and burgundy eyes. Eyes so much like Mint’s… “I’m alright. I just remembered something else, that’s all.”
Klaus could see from the boy’s face that whatever it was, it was something that Rue didn’t want to remember, and he knew better than to ask.
Access to the top floors of the newest building of Aeon Industries was restricted to only the highly placed individuals. Maya East Heaven was one of those—after all, the building was named after her, she had supervised its construction, and she had been living in it for the past year already. Even to her, however, certain rooms were still off-limits, Valen’s and Ruecian’s living quarters in the building’s penthouse being prime examples.
She was headed to Valen’s office now. It used to be that these special meetings with Valen were held but once a week, but recently she found herself walking along the despondent (albeit well-furnished) halls leading to Valen’s office almost daily. It was a long walk, but not necessarily unpleasant, as Maya had always liked Ruecian’s taste when it came to decorations. This corridor was done in a style similar to the East Heaven palace’s with just a touch of Western influence. Huge, artfully-tinted windows lined one side of the hallway, while elegant marble pillars supported the tall ceiling. Her sister would have loved it.
She knocked carefully as she stopped in front of the antique double doors. After a while with no response, she began tapping her foot impatiently. Valen might be older and wiser and more highly-placed, but she was still the East Heaven crown princess, and that in itself deserved at least some respect.
Usually, she could come and go as she pleased into his office, as Valen had practically made her his secretary—a job that wasn’t exactly to her liking, but one in which she found herself to be exceptionally capable. It gave her more freedom with Valen’s affairs than she would otherwise possess. Then again, the arrangement was in Valen’s best interest, for Maya was a spirit-healer. In fact, he owed his present well-being as well as the remaining use of his arms to their healing sessions.
They were lucky that Maya had turned out to be one of the East Heaven spirit-healers. A spirit-healer was one who could use magick to heal—without having to rely on potions or psyche-amps unlike most other mages. There hadn’t been a spirit-healer apart from her born in the last five centuries.
Maya couldn’t help but smile slyly at memory of how astounded her elders had been when they found out she had the marks of a spirit-healer. It was during a Herbology lesson, when a calico cat accidentally fell through the greenhouse roof and landed in the Draconis roses with its many thorns, and Maya had magically healed its broken ribs. Herbology wasn’t normally taught to mages, only to those who were considered as psyche-weak and magickally ungifted—it was so ironic that that was where they discovered her abilities.
Maya knocked again, louder this time. She was about to leave when Ruecian opened the door. “He’s ready, your highness.”
“Very well,” Maya said. She briskly walked towards the lacquered desk where Valen was watching the holographic news. He didn’t even acknowledge her presence. Maya cleared her throat. “I’m here, Valen.”
Valen turned to her then. A frown passed over his eyes at the interruption, but it disappeared when he realized who she was. “Go ahead, your highness. Just do it here,” he said.
Maya sighed in exasperation, but she managed to keep it to herself. She stepped around the desk to stand behind the old man in the floating wheelchair. She placed her palms on his temples, closed her eyes and concentrated.
The untrained eye would not have noticed anything happening. But after some time, princess and old man were diffused in a soft, pinkish glow that became stronger and stronger… until it disappeared.
Maya gasped, and she pulled her hands away. “There,” she whispered through ragged breaths, “I did what I could. You should feel better in a few minutes.”
“Now leave me,” Valen commanded heatedly. “I don’t want any further distractions.”
“I’ll walk you to your quarters,” Ruecian offered as he held the door open for the red-haired princess. Maya nodded, and Ruecian closed the door behind them. He fell into pace beside the girl. “I thank you for your patience with us, your highness,” Ruecian told her gently. “Forgive the Master. He’s not normally like this, but the pressure of running the company gets to him sometimes. Sometimes, he just…”
“You don’t have to explain, George—I understand. Besides, I can’t simply stand by and do nothing when I have the means of helping him.”
“He realizes it, of course. Your healing is the only thing that keeps him alive now. But he’s working on the cure, and he is so close to finding it—it will benefit the other chroma children too.”
Maya couldn’t help but smile. She had always liked Ruecian. “It’s a machine that uses magick, isn’t it? I never thought anyone could actually create a machine that uses magick… I remember reading from the reports that it’s supposed to permanently enhance his psyche, so that the chroma strain won’t affect him anymore?”
Ruecian nodded. “The operation will be even harder on him later, especially since it has to be done in zero gravity. But it can’t be helped. The situation is too delicate,” Ruecian sighed. “The machines still aren’t ready. It will take about a couple more weeks, and in that time, he will deteriorate further.” He turned to her, his expression sincere. “Your highness, we may not always show it, but we are truly grateful to you. You will stay with us, even when we go into space orbit?”
“I already said I will, haven’t I? The East Heaven Scions are always true to their word, with my wayward sister being the sole exception,” Maya replied wryly.
Without warning, her knees wobbled, and she would’ve fallen if Ruecian didn’t manage to grab her arm. “Your highness, are you alright?”
“It’s nothing,” she waved him away.
“It doesn’t look like nothing.” Ruecian held one hand up to support her. “You’ve been having these spells since Wednesday night.” He ventured to guess, “It doesn’t have anything to do with your magick, does it? Can’t you cure yourself?”
Maya shook her head no. “You know I can’t, and it’s not a physical sickness anyway. It’s probably my sister… The idiot must’ve gotten into another fistfight and knocked herself out…” Ruecian looked at her quizzically.
“Have you ever heard of a spirit link, Ruecian?” Ruecian shook his head no. Maya explained, “It’s a rare phenomenon, even among the mages of East Heaven. The scions of our bloodline are always psyche-strong. Rarely is a child is born with exceptional powers, and rarer still when a child is born with a weak psyche. Of course, ‘psyche-weak’ children of East Heaven has magick that is still much greater than an ordinary human’s, but she would have a hard time casting the simplest of spells even with the enhancement of psyche-amps. But if it so happens that a psyche-weak child is born not too long after an exceptionally strong mage enters this world, it is possible for the weak child to develop some sort of psychic bond to the stronger mage. In a way, the weak child uses the strong one as a source of power—with such a source, or spirit link, the weak child can use magick normally. But it’s not without a price.
“Although the strong child is unaware of the psychic connection and remains unaffected by it, the weak child is forever bound to her spirit link. She can sense and feel what the other feels if the emotion is strong enough, and when the spirit link dies, she will die as well. My mother was weak. She died in her sleep eight years ago, without obvious reason, so we suspected that…” Maya trailed off. “We never discovered who her spirit link was. The elders found it peculiar that it occurred for two generations in a row, especially considering our particular circumstances, but…” Maya lowered her head.
“I was born weak, too. Mint Vanguard is my spirit link. In spite of everything I’ve done and all that I’ve accomplished… I can never escape being in her shadow.”
When things don’t go well, Klaus always found his solace in work. But for Rue Kincaid, nothing seemed to help at all. He still couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t even think clearly—and Klaus, understanding this, set Rue to work in his basement to try to distract the white-haired boy from brooding too much. The professor left Rue to organize and take an inventory of the broken relics, and that was where Duke found him when the latter passed by the Klauses’ home that afternoon.
“Knock, knock,” Duke said. “Rue, is that you?”
Rue looked up. “Duke? What do you…?”
“I’m just dropping off something. Where’s Klaus?”
“The professor went to the high school to get some documents. I can take a message.”
Duke scratched his head absently. “Actually, I just came by to drop this.” He took out a relic from his belt pouch. “You can’t complete the genetic-mimicry devices without the schematics from this baby.”
Rue walked over to him and took the relic, carefully looking it over. “Hey, isn’t this the tiara you guys stole from us?” he raised one eyebrow quizzically. Duke nodded. “But, Duke, why are you returning this now? Won’t Belle get angry at you or something?”
“You could say,” Duke said, a frown involuntarily passing over his face, “that Belle and I parted ways the night she took you to meet Ruecian. But don’t get me wrong,” he turned squarely to Rue. “Milady has her insufferable pride, and it sometimes gets in the way of her thinking. Not unlike your own lady Mint, and sometimes I think that Milady and yours are two sides of the same coin,” Duke sighed, turning wistful all of a sudden. “But, it’s Milady’s pride that got her where she is now—as possibly the second-best mechatronic wizard alive in this hemisphere.”
Rue couldn’t help but ask, “Second-best? Who’s the first, then?”
“That would be Milady’s sister, Lucine.”
They were interrupted by a loud CRASH! from somewhere inside the house. Rue and Duke exchanged glances. “That sounded like it came from the kitchen,” Rue exclaimed. They broke into a run simultaneously.
Klaus’s pink-haired daughter was on her knees, barely holding onto the counter near the kitchen sink. The broken pieces of a glass plate were scattered on the floor beside her legs.
“Elena!” Duke was the first to reach the fallen girl. She fell heavily against him as Duke knelt down to support her.
“I-I’m alright,” Elena insisted. “I just… lost my balance, that’s all.”
“You certainly don’t look alright to me, missy,” Duke told her. He felt her forehead and checked her eyes and mouth, but everything seemed normal. “Can you stand?” Elena tried, but after some time she shook her head no. Duke bodily picked her up to take her to her room upstairs. He turned to his companion, “Rue, you’d better call Klaus. I think Elena needs to see a doctor.”
“No, please,” Elena whispered weakly. “I’ll be… fine…” And then she fainted.
Elena didn’t wake up after that. And just like Mint, the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with her either.
Klaus and Prima were in the hospital room with the two girls, while Mira went home for a short while to get some food for them. Prima was beside himself with worry—he didn’t know what happened, but his big sister simply refused to wake up. Klaus had done his parental best to explain to him that Mint and Elena were sick, and Prima had done his child-like best to understand.
“Prima kiss Elena to make it all better.” He stood on tiptoe and kissed his adopted sister on the cheek. “Prima kiss Mint too!” He half-ran to the other bed and lightly kissed the redhead as well. He pouted. “It didn’t work!” He turned to Klaus, and his lower lip was trembling. “I don’t understand, Papa. Why didn’t it work?” He stuck his right thumb out and held it for the professor to see. “Big sissie kissed my finger and it got all better!”
“Prima, it was just—” Klaus stopped himself. He was about to explain that it was just a paper cut, and of course it would get better, but then he decided that Prima was too young to lose his faith in the simple things. He knelt and hugged the boy. “Sometimes kisses are magic, but sometimes they’re not.”
“No…” Prima agreed, and he pulled away. He climbed onto Elena’s bed, his huge eyes blinking at the sleeping girl. “Prima watch over big sister until she wakes up.” After some time, Prima yawned, and he lay down on the bed beside Elena. Klaus couldn’t help but smile as he watched the touching scene. He stepped out of the room, carefully closing the door behind him.
Rue was sitting on a bench in the corridor outside, his hands clasped in front of him and his head downcast. Rue expected the professor to say something, but Klaus was too deep in thought.
The puzzle of the sleeping girls tugged at his mind again, and stronger this time. The fact that Rue was associated with both Claire and Mint—and Elena as well—was the one thing that Klaus’s thoughts kept returning to.
Prima’s paper cut. The thought came suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, and Klaus unconsciously placed his right thumb on his lower lip. Something clicked. He remembered Rue’s and Prima’s almost identical data from the captured life capsules. The chroma strain. Prima has it too. “That’s got to be it. It’s not an ordinary poison-not a poison at all, actually, and it’s not even physical… no wonder the tests all turn up negative. It must be the chroma strain that caused this.”
Rue looked up at the professor expectantly. “What is it?”
“The blood of a chroma child.” Klaus sharply turned to the younger boy, “Think, Rue. Did Mint at any time ever come in contact with your blood?”
“No… no, I don’t remember. Wait,” he paused. “The first time we went together to Elroy’s library. My right hand was cut from one of the traps. She got hurt on the Arc Edge when she saved me from the skull beast, and when I tended her shoulder, my wound had bled through the bandage.”
“That was almost six months ago.” Klaus was deep in thought. “Direct contact through the bloodstream… Elena got it orally from Prima’s paper cut, and she succumbed only after three weeks. Claire from when she washed your wounds when she found you—there was never any direct contact, that’s why she didn’t truly get sick. As for Mint, it’s amazing that her body held out as long as it did. Her magick must’ve protected her, and we didn’t notice it earlier.”
“Then it really was me.” It wasn’t a question, and Rue’s voice was a distant whisper. “It’s my fault that Claire got weak, and that Mint won’t wake up.”
“It’s no one’s fault.” Klaus sat down beside him and placed his arm consolingly around the boy’s shoulders. “You can’t help but be who you are.”
Rue stood up then, unconsciously brushing the professor away. “How soon can you finish another one of those genetic-mimicry devices?”
“What are you thinking, Rue?”
“I’m going to see my father. Perhaps he has some answers.”
Light. Light that signified hope, trust, and everything beautiful. The eyes in darkness sought light, and what the eyes sought, the mind sought as well.
She drifted. For how long, she didn’t know, nor did she actually care—not now. Nothing was important, for it seemed nothing had ever been. The senses were numb, yet she didn’t need them in the place where she was. She could feel nothing, yet she could sense everything. Trapped in the void without light, yet light was diffused all around her.
A dream. I must be dreaming again. Rue… I wonder if this is his…
A forest of pines, of deep, dank, greens and grays. Winter, yet it didn’t snow. The air was cool. There were no forest sounds, neither the birdcall nor the wolf-howl that one would expect, only the infinite silence. There were no woodland paths and no trails to follow. The ground was rough and uneven, indicating mountainous area. The fog stretched in front of her and behind, and she could do nothing but walk through it.
She came upon a clearing. A child was playing in the grass—a white-haired child. A woman watched over him, her long raven hair blowing in a slight breeze. Mint stepped towards them, knowing that they couldn’t feel her dream presence.
The woman had her back turned, and Mint couldn’t see her face. But she remembered her, for this vision was one that she had seen often enough, in her own mother’s dreams while her mother was still alive. That must be her, Mother’s spirit link… Rue knew her?
It started to drizzle. The child stood up abruptly, his huge orbed eyes blinking at the wet drops. “Mommy, mommy… it’s raining!”
“It’s time to go,” a voice said, and only then did Mint notice that there was another presence. The man had been standing by the shadows of the trees all this time, unobtrusively watching mother and child as Mint had done.
“George, can’t we stay longer?” she asked.
Ruecian walked towards the woman then. “I never should have let you out of the compound in the first place. If Valen ever discovers that…” he trailed off, somberly placing one arm around the woman’s shoulders.
Mint sensed rather than saw the woman smile. “You know you could never resist me,” she replied teasingly. “Besides, I didn’t ask it for myself…”
“I know,” Ruecian sighed. He turned towards the boy and called him by his favorite nickname, “Hey, Tiger. It’s time to go back.”
The child Rue pouted. “Already?” But he knew he didn’t have a choice. He walked towards Ruecian and his mother reluctantly. The butterflies he had been playing with fluttered around his legs as he walked, as if they didn’t want their playmate to go.
The scene faded, and she drifted again.
Maya woke up to see a pair of coal-black eyes looming over her. “The heck—Guamph!!” Rue clamped his hand over her mouth.
“Please, don’t shout. I need your help, Maya.”
Reluctantly, Maya nodded, and Rue released her. He stepped away from her to lean back against the opposite wall of the princess’s darkened room. Maya sat up, pulling her blanket up to cover her pajamas, and she was just a little angry. “How did you get here?”
Rue answered, “Through the underground tunnels. I can’t tell you more than that.”
“What do you want from me?”
“I have to talk to my father. I didn’t think that surrendering to the guards would get me the audience that I need.” His expression was insistent. “You’ve got to help me, Maya. If not for me, for your sister. Mint… she’s sick. I know that you and Mint don’t exactly get along, but…” he trailed off.
“And why would you think that your father can help her?”
“I—I can’t explain it now.” His kept his head downcast, but his eyes were filled with purpose. “Please, Maya.”
Maya frowned, but after some thought, she agreed. “What time is it?”
“Half past four in the morning. What time would my father…?”
“We can go right now,” Maya told him. “He should be awake already.” She stood up. “Uh, Rue, would you mind stepping out while I change? Oh, the guards…” she remembered the sentries in the corridor outside. An awkward pause, and she blushed slightly. “Umm, just turn around, then.”
“Right,” Rue blushed a little too. “Sorry about that.” He pulled his cap down to cover his eyes as he turned to face the wall.
When Maya was ready, she and Rue briskly stepped out of her room and through the corridors leading to Valen’s office. “He’s with me,” Maya informed the sentries as she and Rue passed them. The fact that such a simple statement was enough of a reassurance for the guards was a clear indication of how highly respected Maya was. If they thought anything unusual about a teenaged boy appearing seemingly out of nowhere and materializing into the crown princess’s room, they kept it to themselves.
“Let me talk to him first,” Maya told Rue as she opened the door to Valen’s office. Rue patiently stayed outside, absently fiddling with the handle of his Arc Edge. It took about fifteen minutes of uncomfortable waiting until Maya finally stepped out. “Your turn, Rue. I have some things to take care of now. I’ll come back for you here in about half an hour.”
“Thank you,” Rue said as he stepped past her into the office. He closed the door behind him.
Before Maya got far, she was stopped by the white-blonde woman. “Belle,” Maya said, surprised. “What do you want?”
“Is it true? I heard that Rue Kincaid is here.” Maya nodded, and then indicated the door behind her. Belle held out a disc card. “I got a message from Ben to you.”
“Benjamin Atanacius of Cosmos Corp?” Maya frowned. “What does he want now? I already told him before—”
Belle cut her off. “You’d better read this first so you can judge for yourself. And if I were you,” she glanced pointedly towards Valen’s office, “I’d listen in very carefully to that ‘father-son’ talk. Very, very carefully.”
Valen sat in his wheelchair behind his desk while the previous evening’s news showed up on the holographic display. He was explaining a few things to his son.
“The fabled chroma strain. Augustus was the first and probably the only person aside from me who ever came close to realizing what it truly is. It is easiest to think of it as an inherent energy in your body—some sort of psychic lifeblood, if you will. The chroma strain is what made us into what we are, Rue,” he raised his hand, pointing at Rue’s features, “the white hair, the black eyes, and of course… the magickal blessing to someone born outside of the psyche-strong bloodlines. However, the strain causes our minds to degenerate over time—as well as a particular form of insanity associated with using magick—but the Aeon Shard should protect you from that. Aside from those, the strain doesn’t affect us at all, but the strain itself is poisonous to ordinary humans.”
Rue asked, “Is there a cure?”
“A cure?!” the old man turned sharply to the white-haired boy. “You can’t cure the chroma strain, just as you can’t cure a genetic disease. And why would you want to cure the very thing that gives you power?”
Rue shook his head. “No… I meant, if someone ever got poisoned by my blood…”
“You’re talking about the elder East Heaven princess, aren’t you? And the Clarence girl,” Valen added as an afterthought. Rue nodded. “I’m afraid there is none at the moment. My scientists have been working on an antidote for the past six years, but without any test subjects they haven’t had much progress.”
“Father, you mentioned Claire… she was with you all this time. How is she? Can I see her?”
Valen’s face was impassive, but his voice was heavy. “Claire succumbed to the chroma strain three years ago. But I understand what she means to you, my son… that’s why we put her in a life capsule.” Rue started on hearing this, but Valen continued, “It was the only way we could keep her alive, until the medicine is developed and we have the means of curing her. The way things are going, though, I doubt if a suitable antidote will be developed soon.”
“So…” At that moment, Rue felt so bad he could barely speak. “That means… Mint and Elena are just going to die?”
“The princess won’t die anytime soon—not by a long shot, as her magick will certainly protect her, but even that has its limitations. I wish I could say the same for Augustus’s daughter, but the strain does take a while to affect, which means that we have time enough to save her if we develop the antidote quickly.” A sigh, more felt than heard. “Lately I’ve been working on a pair of machines that might speed up our research process on the antidote and on the chroma strain itself. The machines are still untested as of now, and unfortunately, the designs call for it to be operated in zero gravity. They also will require two chroma children to operate.” He turned to look straight at Rue. “Seeing as only Ruecian is here now…”
“I will help, father. Any way I can.”
Valen nodded. “It’s settled then. I will tell my guards to prepare your quarters for you. In two days, this tower will rise into space, and you will be in it. We can only pray that your friends are still alive and well when we return.”
There was one more thing that Rue wanted to ask, though. “Father, I…”
“—want to see your friends,” Valen finished for him, correctly guessing at Rue’s thoughts. “You may do so. Return to us tomorrow.”
The younger East Heaven princess had taken to Belle’s advice, knowing that it wasn’t exactly proper, but equally knowing that Valen usually didn’t mind. Maya watched the entire conversation from the shadows of Valen’s office, coming in half an hour after Rue’s audience began. She was surprised and concerned to find out that Mint had been affected by the chroma strain, but like Valen said, Mint wasn’t about to die from it, at least not yet.
At any other time, she wouldn’t have thought twice about the other things Valen mentioned—after all, she was already familiar with everything he had told Rue. But never had she overheard any conversation that seemed quite as disjointed as the one she had listened in on just now.
Valen had said things that she hadn’t heard him say before, and he should have said things that he didn’t say. Any other time she wouldn’t have minded, attributing such lapses to Valen’s many distractions or even to old age… but couple that with her new knowledge of the information contained in Atenacius’s message, and that Valen had slipped in exactly the right places… Everything Atenacius had warned her about simply fell into place like some sinister puzzle. And she had proof now that something was definitely wrong.
Maya’s fists were clenched at her sides as she stepped forward. “What is the meaning of this, Valen?”
He had returned to reading the day’s early news as soon as Rue had left, and Valen turned to her now. “What is the meaning of what?”
In answer, Maya slapped the disc card onto his desk. “You lied to me. You told me that your sickness was caused by the chroma strain. The machines are supposed to cure you and the other chroma children. But this disc card proves that they aren’t what you claim them to be. I refused to believe it at first, but all the information checks out.” Her eyes narrowed. “I trusted you. Why?”
Valen looked at her long and hard, his dark eyes slowly, uncharacteristically, turning menacing and cold. Maya continued, “Atenacius had been right all along about you, hadn’t he? I can’t believe I broke my ties with Cosmos Corp—ties that East Heaven have had since before my father’s time—to join your false cause. You’re a very convincing liar, and I can’t believe I totally fell for it.” Maya took a deep breath, her resolve firm. “From this day forward, East Heaven is withdrawing our support for your company. This tower is mine, and I say that it will not take you to space to conduct your so-called research.”
She sharply turned to leave. But when she got to the door, it wouldn’t open. “What the—”
Valen sighed audibly, and there was genuine sadness in his voice. “How unfortunate, your highness, that you turn against me now. Sincerely had I hoped that you were more sensible than your sister, and that you would have believed in me for my sake…”
Tears of frustration stung her eyes, and Maya shut them tight, unwilling to show any weakness in front of the old man. It was her own fault that she was in this mess. She should have known better. She had played right into their hands, and she had dragged in her entire kingdom with her. Elder sis will be the downfall of East Heaven? She remembered saying it once. Now, more than anything she wished she could take back those words. The foolish one is me.
Mint knew she was dreaming. The fog that surrounded her was familiar and almost comforting, as her mother’s presence had always been. Somehow, she always associated her dreams with her mother—her mother, whom some people claim to be the most beautiful woman East Heaven had seen in the past five centuries. Mint and Maya took after the late queen, having the same red hair and telltale burgundy eyes.
She was indoors this time. Empty, desolate halls wanting of decoration, having only the occasional light fixture. The walls were plain and whitewashed, the light tinted with a diffuse green. The skylights told her that it was night outside—somehow she felt that time didn’t pass normally within these corridors.
She came to the end of the hallway, to a single, wooden door. She opened it and went in. Again, it was the woman, the white-haired child, and Ruecian.
“Mommy, I don’t want you to go into those capsules. They scare me.”
“Hush, my little tiger,” she soothed the crying child, affectionately ruffling his hair, “Mommy isn’t going anywhere.”
Ruecian didn’t like it. “You won’t survive long outside the capsules,” he told her sternly. But she shook her head, refusing.
“I won’t survive long inside them either. Time and again my body resists the containment. It’s my magick, George. My own magick will kill me if I ever go inside a life capsule.”
“Can’t you do anything about it?” he was almost pleading. “You’re the one who taught Valen how it could be done.”
But her answer was still no. “My machines simply won’t work that way.”
The fog came again, and then Mint was running. Green, why is it always green? She was running through the self-same hall, except the skylights told her it was now daytime. The child was running in front of her.
“No, don’t run away!” A woman’s voice—the raven-haired woman’s voice—called from somewhere behind, but when Mint turned to look, she saw no one. “It’s alright! There’s nothing to worry about! Mommy’s fine, see? It was just a test, and they just wanted to know how well Mommy would do… See? They bandaged Mommy up already.” To Mint’s horror, she saw that the bandage was plastered on her wrist, and a red stain was just starting to bleed through.
All of a sudden, the running child turned, and she passed right through his outstretched arms.
Before the fog took her once more, she had seen the child’s face up close. In the dim light, she could have sworn that his eyes were red like her own.
A soft knock was heard at the doorway, and Mira opened it gently. “Rue,” she greeted. “Where were you? It’s already late… shouldn’t you be in school?”
“I… I’d rather be here,” Rue answered. “How are they doing?”
Mira shook her head sadly. “No change at all.”
“They’ll be alright.” Rue placed one hand on Mira’s shoulder as he stepped past her into the hospital room. His voice was somber. “I’ve talked to my father, and he said that very soon, a medicine will be developed to cure the poison.” He turned to look at the beds where Mint and Elena were still sleeping. “He let me go, but only for now. I promised my father that I would return to him tomorrow.” He closed his eyes and lowered his head in an effort to compose himself. “Please, let me stay with her for now.”
It was afternoon after classes when Klaus arrived at the hospital. Mira had gone home in the meantime for some food and supplies. He walked unhurriedly through the hospital grounds with his hands in his pockets, absently fingering the disc card that Atenacius had sent him. He hadn’t read it yet since he had had no time earlier, and he made a mental note to do it when it was Mira’s turn to keep watch over the children.
A heavy sigh escaped his lips as his hand grazed the doorknob to the children’s room, and he wished vehemently that this nightmare was all over. Chroma poisoning was potentially dangerous, and he hoped that Rue had learned something significant. Rue had always been reliable in that sense, Klaus contemplated. He had completed the genetic-mimicry device in record time last night, using schematics from his backup files and from the tiara, so that Rue could sneak into the Tower of Maya unhindered.
He was just a little surprised to discover that Rue was already back. The boy had fallen asleep sitting down, slouched over Mint’s bed, his ever-present cap lying on the coverlets beside him. Deciding not to go in and disturb them, Klaus gently closed the door.
She was still dreaming.
[Expletive]!! Wake up, Mint! It seemed strange that she was talking to herself like this, but after heaven-knows-how-long of drifting in the dream-fog, she was actually starting to worry. She moved her arms, her legs, she even tried dancing… but nothing changed. The fog remained impenetrable around her. Admittedly, Rue’s visions were almost fun (sardonically speaking of course) and definitely mind-boggling, but wasn’t it high-time that she stopped having them? Why won’t I wake up?
The fog turned a deep green—it was the forest again. She sighed inwardly. Another vision. She had lost count how many times the same images had repeated over and over in her mind’s eye. There were variations—she had lost track of them too—but the core story was always the same. It was always Ruecian, the raven-haired woman, and the chroma child.
She was running again. Odd, it’s the first time I ran through the forest. Maybe it’s a vision I haven’t seen yet? How many repressed childhood memories does Rue have, anyway? Offhand, she wondered why it was so important for her to actually live through them.
Just like before, she saw the child running in front of her. But there were no ethereal voices this time, only the eerie silence of the pine forest.
It was the child who shouted. “Mommy!” he called. It was the first time he had shouted in the visions. “No, Mommy! Don’t let them put me in those capsules!!” He ran, scared, and Mint chased after him.
“No, don’t run away!” Did I just say that? It was her own voice that said it, but somehow she couldn’t help herself. The child kept running. She called to him, “It’s alright! There’s nothing to worry about…”
He stopped. She knew when he would stop, and this time she was ready. He turned to face her.
It was her sister.
“Maya?! What are you doing in Rue’s dream?”
Maya shook her head. “This isn’t Rue’s dream, sister. It’s yours.”
She gasped and raised her arm from the coverlets, but her eyes remained closed. Rue started awake, and he held tight to the hand that had grabbed helplessly at the thin air. “Professor!” he shouted towards the door, “Mint finally moved!”
But it wasn’t Klaus who emerged from the doorway. Rue abruptly stood up, automatically making a grab for the Arc Edge, but Belle raised her hands to show that they were empty. “I’m not here to pick a fight.”
Rue’s eyes narrowed, but he decided to give the older woman the benefit of the doubt. “Why are you here?”
Belle walked towards the table, and taking out a small wooden box from her purse, she carefully laid it down. It contained a couple of vials. She threw one towards Rue and indicated the sleeping redhead, “We have no time for argument, Kincaid. Use it quickly.”
Rue studied the liquid, turning the vial in his hands. “What is this?”
“It’s the medicine for chroma poisoning,” Belle answered as she popped open the vial for Elena.
It was necessary that the research laboratories of the Tower of Maya be located high up in the building, for the Tower was designed so that the upper floors are ‘detachable’. Due to serious technology limitations, only the upper floors can fly, and Valen needed to work in almost zero-G, far distant enough from the Earth’s gravity well, for his latest mechatronic machines.
Belle had always thought that having a flying tower instead of using a mechavehicle was rather superfluous, but after working in the Tower of Maya, she came to realize that Valen had a point, although she suspected that it was Lucine who might actually have convinced him. Mechavehicle technology wasn’t quite advanced enough to be able to carry the weight of an entire research facility such as Valen required, and since there was no need for fancy flying maneuvers that mechavehicles were famous for anyway, a floating building was plausible enough, and would actually be the most economical design. Lucine would have known.
Not for the first time, she wished her sister was there. When she came to Valen six years ago (or Valen recruited her, rather), Lucine was already severely affected by chroma poisoning and had to be isolated in one of the more remote compounds of Aeon Industries. Belle had then decided to tie herself with the company, since working for Valen seemed the best course of action if she wanted to keep track of her sister’s condition. Besides, Valen paid her well.
Belle hadn’t left the Tower in weeks, and she was already tired. It had been a tough day at work, but it wasn’t over yet. Ever since the Tower of Maya’s lead engineer quit (actually he got demoted, because he didn’t have enough technical know-how for prepping the Tower’s built-in fusion engines for space orbit), Valen had tasked her with finalizing the Tower of Maya’s propulsion systems. Since her sister wasn’t available to do the necessary modifications, she had to design and supervise the construction of practically everything by herself.
She recognized her sister’s hand in the work, though. The first time she laid her eyes on the blueprints, there had been no doubt in her mind that Lucine was behind the building’s mechatronic core system, if not exactly the peripherals. It had taken her over a week to even begin to make sense of the diagrams—the engineers before her had simply followed the blueprints without bothering with the mechanics, hence Valen’s need to call her in (late) for the job.
Valen’s trust in her was well-placed. Within a mere half-month, not only had she gotten everything back on track, but ahead of schedule to boot. As of that day, everything was already prepared for the building’s launch to space orbit. All they were waiting for now was for Valen or Ruecian to give the word.
Belle was on her way to one of the laboratories—the last one to check and she would be done for the day. Her assistant was still documenting the day’s progress. Belle saw that he was almost finished.
She noticed something odd on one of the console displays. The screen showed several guards carrying unmarked boxes into a neighboring upper-floor research lab. One of the boxes was of a different size from the others—it was almost room-high. “What is that?” Belle pointed.
“It’s an unscheduled shipment, priority zero from the Undercity compound.”
That’s the same compound where Lucine and Claire are kept. She had a very odd feeling about the delivery. “What else do we know about that big one?”
He read aloud the first couple of data fields. “The logged information is similar to that of life capsules,” he answered.
“No, it’s too heavy to be a life capsule. Can you turn up any more information?”
“Sorry.” Her assistant shook his head no. The data was protected.
Belle’s jaw had a grim set to it. “Do an acute sensor focus.”
A sensor focus of the same area where the sensor equipment was located would be considered highly unorthodox, and people would be bound to ask questions. Her assistant protested. “But, Ms. Brie…!”
“Just do it!” Belle snapped. “I’ll take responsibility.”
The scan results still showed it as a life capsule. Except that it couldn’t be a life capsule, because it was completely filled with fluid. Belle silently read the sensor data as it displayed: Unknown liquid, density 2.37, salinity of 0.026 (seawater), viscous properties similar to kerosene at 20°Celsius blah blah chemical composition unidentifiable at present. Belle frowned. Odd, it shouldn’t be that heavy. It’s like the data contradicts itself. But the sensors couldn’t be wrong-she routinely checked all of Valen’s lab equipment herself.
A soft knock on the doorjamb. “Ms. Brie?” It was one of the guards. “Dr. Valen wishes to see you in his office.”
She immediately sensed something amiss. If Valen wanted her, he could have simply called her over the intercom, or even on her cellular phone. Belle kept her face impassive. She fell into pace beside the guard, who silently led their way through the corridors.
“But I thought that the antidote was still in development?” Rue wanted to know.
Belle explained, “These vials are from the trial batches of eight years ago, which were the only ones that have been proven effective in chemical tests. I had them taken out of cryogenic storage. They haven’t actually been used on living organisms, but they should be safe enough. I can’t tell you more than that or Ruecian will have my neck.” She sighed audibly. “Which reminds me, I have to go.”
Rue asked, “Duke is coming to visit later—you aren’t staying to see him?”
“I can’t,” Belle shook her head. Without further comment, she turned to leave. She almost bumped into Klaus at the door. She acknowledged the professor with a nod, but no words were exchanged between them.
“What was that all about?” Klaus asked the white-haired boy. He went to Elena first, and with his fingers gently brushed his daughter’s hair.
“Hmm?” Elena groggily opened her eyes. “Papa, is that you? Good morning,” she greeted as she smiled up at him.
“Elena!” Klaus was too stunned at first. And then, without warning, he gathered his daughter into his arms. Rue went towards them, glad that Elena was finally awake.
“Ow, Papa, you’re squeezing me!” Klaus loosened his embrace, but he didn’t put her down just yet. Elena looked around. “Good morning, Polly. Hey, why are we in the hospital?” She saw Mint sleeping on the other bed, and she remembered. “Oh… I got sick too, didn’t I?”
Klaus nodded, finally putting her down. “You had us all worried, Elena.”
“I’m fine now.” Elena was as cheerful as ever.
“Belle came with the antidote,” Rue told them. He walked back towards the other bed, his relief over Elena replaced once more by worry. “It doesn’t seem to affect Mint, though. Professor, you think her magick…?”
“Remember that Mint’s exposure to the chroma strain had been longer and a lot deeper than Elena’s,” Klaus said. “It will probably take a while for the antidote to have an effect on her. If I’m right, her magick will help, not hinder it. I’d better tell Mira the news,” he excused himself to make a phone call.
Klaus returned after only a few minutes. Rue would leave for the Tower of Maya soon. He hoped to see Mint awaken by the time he had to go, but there was still no change in the red-haired girl’s condition. Maybe it was just as well, Rue thought. He decided to wait until Mira arrived.
Mira came as soon as she could, and Prima tagged along, eager to see his big sister. He practically ran through the door and into Elena’s arms.
“Big sissie all better! Mint’s gonna get better soon, too! Hey, that’s great, isn’t it, Rue? That means you don’t have to go back to Mr. Valen.”
But Rue shook his head at the younger boy. “I gave him my word, Prima. Professor, Mira,” he turned to Klaus and his wife, “I’ll be going now.” He put on his cap as he made to leave.
He felt a weak tug on his shirt, and he turned to see half-closed burgundy eyes gazing at him. “I will come to take you back. Do you hear me?” Her voice was feeble, and she was barely conscious, but her eyes shone with an inner brightness. “I will come for you. That’s a promise.”
“Mint…” Rue took her hand, carefully pulling her stiff fingers off of his shirt. He wanted to say something, but he saw that Mint had fallen asleep again. He gently laid her hand on the coverlets. He left quickly without once looking back.
“The way I see it,” Valen had explained to the white-blonde woman, “the only way Maya could have gotten Atenacius’s message undetected is if someone actually allowed it to pass through.”
Belle shrugged and answered him, “You’d be surprised at how many holes we have in our security system.” She was referring to Rue’s recent break in, among others.
But Valen didn’t believe her. Suffice to say that half an hour later, she found herself in the Tower of Maya’s detention block in the basement.
Maya, you fool. I gave you that disc card to warn you, not to set you against Valen. I thought you would have had more sense than to confront him directly. Mint would never hav— she stopped the thought before it even began. Mint would never have been taken in by Valen and Ruecian in the first place. That was the main reason, in fact, why Ruecian had helped the younger sister to become crown princess instead…
Her meeting with Valen was yesterday. Belle had slept, deciding to tackle the situation when she had rested. She didn’t know the hour when she woke, for time never seemed to pass normally in the deep halls of the many compounds of Aeon Industries. But she knew where she was, and she knew she had to get out.
Belle surveyed the room. Okay, air vents are out of the question. Guess I’ll just have to pick the lock. In their modern day and age, most everything can be manipulated via computer, and there wasn’t an electronic system in existence that Belle didn’t have the ability to hack yet—another one of the reasons that Valen had found her services so useful.
She found nothing. Which meant that she was going to have to get fancy, if not exactly original. When the guard came to bring her meal, she pretended to be sick with stomachache. When he turned his back on her, she konked him.
She scowled. It was too easy—too bloody easy, even for her. Such was Valen’s confidence that Belle could do nothing to stop his machinations that he didn’t even bother to put her in one of the high-security detention blocks up top, like where the princess Maya was kept. It was actually a good thing, but strangely she couldn’t help but feel insulted.
Belle had to admit though, that Valen had a point, and that there really was nothing she could do—nothing that she ever could have done anyway. She hadn’t been able to stop him eight years ago. But she had been just an ordinary schoolgirl then, not a chemistry teacher in a small-town high school. A school that, incidentally, had ties to the one person on whose cooperation Valen had staked everything on-the one person whose defiance to the will of Aeon Industries could single-handedly bring Valen’s self-built empire crashing to its knees.
For Valen was dying.
Try as he and Ruecian might, they couldn’t hide that fact from everyone, especially not from Valen’s skilled associates who had worked closely with him (and Belle was undoubtedly one of those). Even Atenacius had caught on to the façade quickly enough. And they all knew, that a dying man sometimes resorted to desperate contrivances. Especially now that the East Heaven spirit-healer refuses to help him.
Belle would give her that much, that Maya had some of her sister’s spunk—too much of it, actually, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Mint had gotten in and out of worse scrapes, and Maya was still young. Spunk and inexperience could be a dangerous combination in the lethal sense, but the girl would be safe enough within Valen’s detention cells. Maya would learn in time. She should come out of this fine.
Right now though, Belle was trying her best to come out of the situation fine as well. Or at least with only minor wounds.
Her disappearance would be discovered in a couple of hours at the latest, but it should be enough. Now that the Tower of Maya’s construction was complete, Valen had just about run out of uses for her, and judging from his previous actions, he wouldn’t care one whit about what she did so long as she didn’t get in the way of his plans. She smirked. Yeah, right.
Before she made a run for it, there were a couple of things she needed first. The space orbit coordinates, and the location of the Undercity compound. The corridor was empty—merely reinforcing her opinion that Valen cared whit about what she could do to him—and she knew of a computer terminal a few floors up. Carefully, she made her way there. She inserted a blank disc card into the terminal and typed in a few commands. The data retrieval took longer than expected, and Belle tapped her foot impatiently.
Just as she pulled out the disc card, however, she heard the strained squeal of the modified fusion engines, and felt the familiar (albeit much stronger) vibrations of the building’s built-in mechatronic systems through the soles of her boots. She gripped the sides of the computer terminal in alarm.
Blast it, they’re launching early! Out, out, she had to get out, right bloody now!!
She keyed in the commands to unseal the doorway to the tunnels, and then she ran. She didn’t care anymore on whether she showed up on any security cameras—the guards would be too busy with the launch anyway—but she knew the precautions and the instructions Valen had left the security team. Her chances of escape would drastically come close to nil if she remained in the building when the launch was over.
She managed to get out in time. She was halfway out the tunnel exit at the lake ruins when she saw the upper floors dislodge from the rest of the Tower and rise into the sky.
When Mint regained consciousness and was finally able to stand, she was angry to the point of being murderous.
“SEVEN DAYS?! I’ve been asleep for seven days?!!” She was practically seething. She didn’t know at whom or at what she was angry, but right then and there she really felt like beating the pulp out of someone, anyone. She repeatedly cracked her knuckles in an effort to remain calm.
Mint and Elena were discharged without incident. Klaus drove them all home that very hour—neither Mint nor Mira would have stood for anything else. He updated Mint on what had happened the past week while she was asleep, with Elena and Prima unusually keeping silent during the half-hour drive.
Mira allowed Mint to take a shower first to refresh herself, and the girl took a change of clothes from her duffel that Mira had brought from the hospital. Klaus went directly to his basement, returning to his half-completed run of the programs Atenacius had sent him. The disc card was inserted in the slot of a newly-bought laptop, since Klaus’s old one was stolen the previous month.
He had just finished running all the programs when he heard Mint come down the basement stairs. Mint wordlessly peered over Klaus’s shoulder to study the diagrams on the laptop display, and Klaus couldn’t help but note that it was Rue who usually did that.
“What’s this, professor?” Mint asked. Ever since waking up, Klaus had noticed a slight change in Mint’s voice whenever she spoke. As if the girl had suddenly, inexplicably, gotten older.
He answered her, “Atenacius sent me a disc card a couple of days ago. It contains the schematics of Valen’s new machines, but aside from that, Atenacius was able to develop a special circuit simulation that factors in the effects of magick.” Klaus ran the simulation again. Mint frowned involuntarily as she looked at the laptop screen.
She couldn’t understand half of what was displaying, but what she did understand, she definitely had a bad feeling about. A very bad feeling—the same bad feeling she had around the life capsules. “It’s a psyche-transplant device,” Mint’s eyes were glazed over, as she sensed more than actually recognized the significance of the diagrams. “It can effectively transfer one’s mind into another body.”
Klaus nodded an affirmative. “Everything from personality to thought patterns to memories. From the looks of it, not only is it permanent, but also one-way. The recipient’s own psyche would be totally wiped out. The transferee’s body, without a mind, would simply die.”
The professor shook his head, thinking. “Valen needs a healthy chroma child to work the machines. He needs Rue for that. But something still bothers me,” he whispered, more to himself than to anyone else. “Remember that day when you fought at the lakeside to rescue Prima? They jammed an entire city’s electronics simply to lure Rue to the Tower of Maya. All that trouble, and they could have captured him already then. Why did he let you go?”
Mint turned to the diagrams again, at the same time trying to remember what she could of her tutors’ lectures about the nature of magick. Eventually, the reason dawned on her. “Because magick depends on will. Valen wants Rue to come to him of his own free will…”
“…otherwise the machines won’t work.” Klaus finished for her, both of them realizing the implications at the same time. The pieces were finally starting to fall into place. “If Rue resists him, Valen will not succeed in transferring his psyche into Rue’s body.” Mint cursed silently. Knowing Rue, he was bound to readily do anything his beloved father told him to.
Especially since Valen still had Claire with him. Mint had no proof, of course, only glaring suspicion. Lies or not, Mint had a very good idea on what Valen had told her friend to convince him to return to the Tower of Maya. She clenched her fists at her sides, her eyes narrowing involuntarily at the empty air. “Don’t worry. Valen won’t ever get to use those machines. I’m busting Rue out of there.” She had no idea how she was going to manage that, but she was sure she would be able to come up with something. She had to. I promised I’d get him back, didn’t I?
If only for once, she would keep a promise.
There was one person who had always been there for her, whom she knew she could always count on, and whom she could always trust with anything and everything. Rod the Blade Star.
“Well, Johnny Wolf, what do you think of my latest creation? The Dark Hurricane,” Rod said as held the huge blade up to the light, testing the edge for sharpness, and then sighed as he replaced it on the nearby weapon rack. His best work yet, and he wished Mint (to whom he shows all his designs so she could comment) could see it now that it was completed.
Johnny Wolf tugged at his pant leg, and Rod looked down at the dog, who barked once. “I know. We both miss her. Don’t you worry though, that girl has got too much heart to fade away so easily. I’m sure she’ll wake up soon.” He bent and patted his dog on the head. “Anyway, that was Duke who called earlier. They’re inviting me over to discuss the Tower of Maya problem. Rue’s up there and we’ve got to figure a way to get him out. You’re in charge while I’m gone, ok?” He stood up and went inside, holding the back door open for his pet.
He was halfway across the rows of video games when he saw a familiar twin-ponytailed silhouette enter through the front doors. His jaw dropped in astonishment. When he had gotten over the initial shock of seeing her awake and walking, he ran over to her, literally sweeping her off her feet, embracing her so tightly neither of them could breathe.
“I’m so glad you’re alright, Mint,” he said when he finally put her down. “How… What happened?”
Mint smiled at him reassuringly. “I’m fine now, and that’s what matters.” The smile faded, and she bit her lip anxiously. “I need your help, though.”
“Anything I can do,” Rod tipped his black fedora at her. “What is it?”
“Take me to the Tower of Maya.”
At the request, Rod kept his face impassive. Although he desperately wished it otherwise, somehow he always had a feeling it would come to this. “May I ask why?”
“It’s really important,” was all Mint would say.
“No,” was what he told her.
Without another word, Rod walked past her and out the door into the street. Mint was too surprised right then to even move, much less follow him.
A small group had gathered in Belle and Duke’s apartment to discuss tactics. Rod, Belle, Duke and Fancy Mel were all there, with Mel standing in for Klaus.
“Let’s get started, shall we?” Belle wasn’t one for small talk. “Finally, because of Atenacius’ simulations, we are now clear on Valen’s plans. I don’t need to tell you that we’re going to stop him.” She paused significantly. “The base of the Tower of Maya is now defunct and sealed, so whatever Valen could have left there is closed to us. Before I escaped, I managed to acquire the coordinates of the Tower of Maya’s space orbit, as well as that of the Undercity compound.”
Belle inserted a disc card into her laptop and showed them. “I’m going to take Duke and the Hexagon to—”
She was interrupted by a knock. Duke stood up and opened the door to a semi-distraught redhead. “Err, hi! Is Belle in?” Mint asked.
“Let her in and sit down,” Belle said. When Mint and Duke had settled themselves, she continued her speech. “As I was saying, Duke and I are going to rescue Lucine and Claire from the Undercity compound. Since we have no means of flying up to the Tower of Maya ourselves at this point, our best bet would be to hack into the Tower’s systems from Undercity. If I know Valen, he always has a back door to these things, in case things go awry for him, and I’m sure he’d have implanted a self-destruct. Lucine most likely knows Valen’s systems more thoroughly than Valen himself does, and I’m sure she would help us.”
“What about Rue?” Duke wanted to know.
Belle shook her head. “The Hexagon doesn’t have the capabilities for even pre-space flight, no matter how much I modify that tin bucket. The best we could do is try to get a message to him.”
“I could volunteer my vehicle,” Rod said. “But I don’t think she’ll make it either. Lucine once told me that when she built the Pulsar Inferno Typhoon Omega, she ran out of… light spheres or something… five of them…” he trailed off as he tried to remember.
“If you mean the Cannon Orbs, I know where they are,” it was Mel who spoke up. “Wylaf has two of them, and I’ve got one back at the Atelier.”
“And the remaining two are at the Tower of Maya’s base,” Belle said, a bit regretfully. “I didn’t think we’d need them, or I would have taken them too.”
“Well, can’t anyone go back for them?”
“The place is sealed—I barely managed to get out. The only open way I know of would be through the Cursed Crossways. No ordinary human can go through there and live.”
“Well, Rue made it when he snuck into the Tower once, didn’t he?” Mel said.
Belle shook her head. “Rue isn’t ordinary.”
“I could go,” Mint piped up. “I bet I could get through there with no trouble at all.”
“Don’t get cocky,” Belle turned towards her. “There is strong magick in the Cursed Crossways that could kill any human who dares get close. That’s one of the reasons Valen chose to use the tunnels for his operations, and why he chose that particular spot to build the Tower of Maya.”
“Hey, I’m an East Heaven scion, remember? Psychic energy, pfft,” Mint sniffed. “The strongest gift in five hundred years, and psychic shields are my specialty!”
Rod cleared his throat. “No, Mint, you are not going. Change of plans, Belle. You’re better off just trying to send Rue’s message, because the Pulsar Inferno Typhoon Omega isn’t going to fly.”
Just like that, he left.
“What’s his damage?” Mint stomped her foot. “That’s the second time today! Rod’s been acting really weird for some reason.”
Belle sighed and rolled her eyes. Mel and Duke had gone into the kitchen for lunch, so she was left with the redhead. She closed her laptop shut. She asked, a little annoyed, “What is it, Mint?”
Mint twiddled her fingers absently. “Actually, I came here for two things. First was… well, since Rod wouldn’t take me, I was gonna ask if you’d take the Hexagon and fly me to the Tower…” she bit her lip anxiously. It was a sign of desperation, Belle knew, that the girl had come to her to ask such a favor, “and next, I… they said you gave… you know, the antidote that cured Elena and me—err, thanks.”
Belle frowned. “Your last point first. I’d say you’re welcome, but I didn’t you give any antidote, on account of I was stuck in a detention cell the past two days. As for taking you to the Tower, that’s impossible. The Hexagon would never make it, even if I fitted her with the Cannon Orbs. Only Rod’s modified vehicle could manage it on such short notice.” She shrugged. “If you can convince him to take you, tell him that Duke would be more than willing to accompany him to the Raging Mountains for Wylaf’s Orb.”
The stars truly are magnificent, Rue couldn’t help but think as he gazed out the glass window of his room in the Tower of Maya. His one regret was that the emptiness of space was going to be the last scenery he would ever see.
His father’s disc card was still in the slot of the portable reader that Rue held in one hand. He had read the message over and over until he had practically memorized it. And for some reason, he wasn’t afraid at all.
He would do anything for her. Even a sacrifice as such as his father was asking of him.
Maya was in the Tower as well, imprisoned in one of the detention blocks for refusing to cooperate with Valen. Rue had already asked authorization from his father to visit her. He was only waiting for that before he went out of his room to see her.
He put the reader on a nearby desk and lay down on his bed. He placed his hands behind his head as he again looked out the window. The stars glistened in the deep blackness. And they would keep glistening, even when he was gone.
Claire would understand.
Rod heard the unmistakable sound of his garage door opening, but he didn’t look up from his work.
“Please, Rod,” Mint began. There was earnestness in her voice that Rod had never heard there before. “Take me to the Tower of Maya.”
A lump lodged itself in his throat and refused to go away. After some time, he asked in a rough whisper, “You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”
It came as no surprise that Mint knew what he was talking about. “I promised I’d get him back. He’s my friend.” Rod’s back was turned, and he didn’t see the burgundy eyes narrow accusingly at him. “Just like you are.”
Rod shook his head, frustrated at nothing in particular. Finally he turned, and with purposeful steps he went to the red-haired girl, taking both her hands into his. “I can’t let you do this. I already made this mistake once—I let the woman I love go into the most terrible danger alone. Blast it, Mint, I’m not going to let it happen again!”
Mint sharply pulled away, and her eyes were bright. “I need your help. This is really important to me.” She grabbed the Dual Haloes from her belt and held one ring up to his face. “We could always settle this with a fight, if you want to.”
Rod sighed, almost resignedly. “As you desire it, princess.”
“I don’t want to fight you, Mint,” he told her in a final attempt to dissuade the girl. “You’re no match for me.” There was no trace of arrogance in his tone.
“Shows what you know,” she said. Haughtily, as was her wont.
Rod closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again. “I won’t hold back,” he raised the Dark Hurricane in a battle stance. Mint sniffed. She didn’t even wait for the signal to begin their battle. She rushed at him, her twin rings glinting with the movement.
Slash, parry, thrust, swing. Rod was on the defensive—not once did he attack—and Mint found each and every one of her blows missing him. Rod was fast-faster than she had ever expected. All the time they had spent together, and she couldn’t believe that she didn’t know this about him.
All the games, all our matches—for all that time, he had only let me win. Rod wasn’t called the legendary Blade Star for nothing. She mentally cursed herself for not realizing it earlier.
Rod slashed but once. She was caught off guard. “[Expletive]!!” The Dark Hurricane had cut her, and her right arm was bleeding.
“No weapons,” Rod declared, and reluctantly, Mint nodded her consent. Simultaneously, never taking their eyes off each other, they laid their weapons on the floor. “You’re still at a disadvantage.”
“I don’t care,” Mint said as she stood up. “It’s not over yet!” She narrowed her eyes, and attacked.
Three strikes in quick succession. “Huh,” Rod spat mockingly as all of them missed. He contented himself with defending, knowing it would distress his opponent. “You still have a lot to learn.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!” She was angry now. She knew he was goading her, but for some reason she couldn’t help herself. She attacked him relentlessly. Rod shrugged, even as he jumped a half-step backwards to evade a kick. Don’t look down on me! Mint’s face contorted in fury as she continued to attack him. More and more, her strikes became haphazard, frustrated, uncontrolled. It became easier and easier for her opponent to second-guess her movements.
“Your emotions are taking control of you. How do you expect to fight like that?”
“Shut up!”
“Where’s your magic? Where’s the power of the East Heaven bloodline?” Mint would never win against him now without resorting to her magic, and they both knew it. “Or, perhaps you’re afraid to hurt me with your power?”
He knows me too well!! She furiously renewed her attacks, refusing to use magic against him, although deep down she sensed a looming feeling of despair. Rod dodged every blow with ease.
“It’s never easy, isn’t it?” Rod taunted as he sidestepped another kick. Mint punched twice, and he caught both her fists. “No matter how many times it happens to you, you never get used to losing. Face it, princess. If you can’t handle the pain, what right have you to call yourself a warrior?”
She would never win against him this way. She couldn’t. Wretched tears stung her eyes, merely aggravating her situation. Try as she might she couldn’t break away from his grip. Before she even thought to use her legs, Rod kicked her down, maneuvering so that she fell into a nearby armchair. He pinned her hands to the armrests, careful not to let her escape. Had she been less despondent, she would have realized sooner the intention of that last blow.
He was close, very close. She held her breath as she looked up into his eyes. Rod felt her tremble slightly underneath him. She was so warm. Slowly, he leaned nearer towards her, until their faces were almost touching.
The wine-red eyes were glazed over, and her voice was oddly distant. “Any closer and I’ll make you regret it.”
He shrugged. “It’s worth the punishment.”
“Only if you’re willing to die along with me.”
A sense of foreboding crept up his spine at the way she had said the words. On impulse, he looked up. The Dark Hurricane was floating impossibly above them, blade downwards, immediately over their hearts. If Mint lost her mental grip on the sword, it would fall and slice through them both.
He sharply turned towards her, an unreadable expression on his face.
“You’re willing to risk both our lives in a senseless fight, for him.”
“I promised,” she repeated mechanically.
This girl, who is so in love with life, would give her life for the sake of a promise. It was that same passion that had captivated him and made him fall for her in the first place.
He had always known that he loved her. But it was only now that he realized, as full of life as Mint was, there were things even more important to her, things that she would willingly sacrifice everything for. That anyone could have such zeal was almost frightening. Now that he knew this, he still couldn’t help but love the girl with the wine-red eyes—only he realized that he loved her even more.
Rod stood up, releasing her at last. Mint released the blade from her mind’s hold, and Rod carefully caught it when it fell. He placed the weapon on the table.
It wasn’t Rue’s fault—it wasn’t anyone’s fault—that he felt this way. He sighed, averting his face from the girl. Suddenly he couldn’t stand to look at her. I just wish I knew if you’d do the same for me.
Without warning, he felt a hard slap to the back of his head. “Ow, Mint!!”
She sniffed irritably. “Of course I would, idiot.”
There were no windows in Princess Maya’s room, but Maya was doing as well as could be expected. She couldn’t complain about the treatment—the guards were courteous and respectful, and they gave in to all her requests for food and luxury items (those that were deemed useless in any escape attempts).
It was worry and boredom that was getting to her now. Boredom, for she had nothing but her thoughts and a lone stuffed toy for company. Worry, because she knew what Valen was up to, and she could do nothing to stop him.
Somehow, she had to warn Rue. She knew he was in the Tower, of course—she had sensed his presence in coming. But she knew she wasn’t as smart or skilled as her sister and that she probably couldn’t manage an escape, although she’d take it if the opportunity presented itself. And if Rue wasn’t a prisoner like her, Valen would never let him visit her anyway. He probably didn’t even know she was there in the Tower with him.
“A friend wants to see you,” said the guard stationed outside her detention cell. Gingerly, she sat up on her bed, wondering who it was.
The door opened, and a white-haired boy stepped in. “Rue!” Maya stood up in surprise. He was the last person she would have expected. “There’s something you’ve got to know…!” Her face fell. “Oh, no… have they taken you prisoner too?”
But Rue shook his head. “I just came to visit. How have you been?”
“I… I’m fine,” she sat down, and Rue sat beside her. “They guards have been very nice, but they won’t let me out. How did you know I was here, anyway?”
“I was looking over the building’s map when I saw your name. I asked Ruecian why you were locked up, and he told me.” A pause. “Ruecian wants you to know that he’s sorry about keeping you here.”
“Did he say anything else?” Rue shook his head no. Maya was confused. If Rue had access to the computer network, then that implied that he already knew about Valen. Why would Valen let him visit her otherwise? Wasn’t he afraid that Maya would tell him? But why would Rue still be here if he didn’t know? Suddenly, Maya grabbed his arm. She whispered urgently, “Rue, you’ve got to get out of here. Valen’s set a trap for you… those machines he told you about aren’t for the Chroma strain antidote.”
“It’s alright. Father already told me.”
“What?!” she was taken aback. “Rue,” she told him slowly, wanting the words to sink in, “Valen is going to kill you.”
Rue looked at her, and there was something in his eyes. “I understand, and I’ve agreed.”
Maya was incredulous. “Y-you know all about it, then? And yet you’d do it anyway?!” Rue nodded somberly, and it was some time before Maya could speak again. “Why?”
“He can save Claire. I can’t,” he answered. “My father could do so much more for this world than I.”
She knew what he meant, but she still couldn’t believe his decision. “You don’t know that, Rue! You…” she couldn’t find the words, but she tried anyway. “You’re cutting your life short… giving it away for no purpose… You’ll never know if you could do things that… that your father…” but one look on his face and Maya knew that nothing she said could make him change his mind.
“When you’re sad or angry like that, you remind me of your sister.” He almost smiled. “I have to go now. I’ll try to get them to release you, and if they allow me I’ll visit you again later.” He gently touched her cheek to brush away a tear that Maya didn’t even realize was there.
The instructions Klaus gave them (via Fancy Mel) were explicit. Rod and Duke were to visit the Raging Mountains to obtain Wyalf’s two cannon orbs. In the meantime, Mint would go through the Cursed Crossways to unseal the former Tower of Maya. Rod would then follow in his vehicle so that they could obtain the final two cannon orbs and install them. Once that was done, Mint and Rod would be off to rescue Rue.
At the Raging Mountains, past the outer gates and into the main building, they would come across Wylaf’s dragon guardian. Rod held the Black Tornado—a huge hammer, one of the first weapons he ever forged at his garage in Carona—in both hands at the ready. Duke was nowhere in sight. Blast it, Duke, hurry up with whatever you’re doing, Rod thought as he carefully stepped forward to avoid any traps that Wylaf might have set. Rue and Mint didn’t encounter any traps the last time, but there was no point in taking chances. He was almost to the inner room with the dragon now.
It was big, it was huge, it was scary yadda yadda, he’d heard it all before. And it had apparently heard them coming a mile away. “INTRUDERS! YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS DISTURBANCE!”
Rod raised the huge hammer to strike. Hurry up, Duke! The dragon was a lot bigger than he expected from what Klaus had told them (Wylaf must’ve been busy since Rue and Mint’s last visit), and if Mint’s stories were anything to go by, this dragon wasn’t going down without a fight.
“YOU INSIGNIFICANT MORTA—WHAT THE DEVIL IS THAT??!”
For once, Rod was too stupefied to move. A huge, inane, plastic-and-yellow-spandex star mascot flew through the air to land right on top of the dragon’s head.
“YEEEAAAAGGHH!!”
He didn’t know who had screamed. He didn’t know what the heck Duke had done with his star costume—it was bouncing up and down and spinning on itself right on top of the dragon. He didn’t know why the dragon wasn’t fighting back. But he sure as heck knew why he was gaping at the utter stupidity of it all. He forced his mouth closed with a snap.
Suddenly, Duke bounced off the dragon’s head towards the side of the room, and eventually came to a stop. They heard a fizz, and the dragon split crosswise at the neck to reveal a cockpit with a man inside. “You… you…” Wylaf sputtered as he attempted to move away from his two attackers. He almost fell over his own two feet in haste coupled with too-obvious anger and acute frustration as he jumped out of the cockpit. When Rod and Duke made no move towards him, he pulled out a plastic bazooka from behind his seat.
“Woah! Don’t shoot!” Duke shouted, at the same time Rod said, “It’s okay, it’s okay, we’re Rue’s friends!” Rod waved his hands in an effort to placate the scientist. “We need your help to rescue him.”
Wylaf lowered the bazooka. “Oh. Why didn’t say so earlier?” Rod slouched in exasperation. Duke just stood there, unmoving in his costume. Wylaf went on, “So, what brings you here?”
Rod went straight to the point. “Cannon Orbs. I hear you have two of them.” At the mention of cannon robs, Wylaf raised an eyebrow at him.
“Ah, you’re the young man known as the Blade Star, aren’t you? I hear …stories,” he said with a wink. Rod nodded. Wylaf motioned for them to wait as he went through a doorway behind the unmoving dragon. After a while, he returned carrying the orbs and handed them to Rod. “I thought you’d come by sooner or later, though I admit I didn’t expect him,” he said, motioning towards Starlight Duke. “So, you’re flying to the Tower of Maya, eh? Well, get off with you, this is no time for chit-chat!”
“Thanks, doc,” Rod tipped his hat at the professor, and closed the compound doors behind him and Duke as they left.
“Augustus, you have strange friends,” Wylaf thought aloud. And then the irony of the statement hit him, and he burst into laughter.
In the Tower of Maya, it was time for another one of several tests with the magick-sensitive machines. Located at one of the larger labs, two metal cylinders with glass doors rose ceiling high, with an observation gallery two floors up. Rue was there of course, as the test subject, and for the first time Maya was there too. They finally let her out under Rue’s protection. Valen trusted his son’s word that they wouldn’t try to escape or to sabotage any critical systems. She leaned against the second-floor railing, her face impassive as she watched.
Rue smiled at her reassuringly, waving once to keep her spirits up, before going inside the machines. Ever since he discovered her presence in the orbiting Tower, he had been trying to get them to release her from house arrest and allow her to return home. He had even cajoled Ruecian into helping him. But Valen had been adamant so far.
Maya didn’t want to be there when the psyche-transplant operation took place. Then again, there was a small part of her that wanted to stay with Rue until the end, whatever the outcome was. She gritted her teeth, but managed to keep an outward appearance of calm. For Rue’s sake. Offhand, she wondered what would happen to her and to East Heaven when the whole thing was over. And then almost kicked herself when she realized what she was thinking. She still held on to the faint hope that something would go wrong with Valen’s plans, and that the operation with him and Rue wouldn’t take place at all.
There were still people below the Tower who knew about Valen’s plans. People free to act, people who could act. Maybe they could do something. All she could do now was to wait, and take whatever chance that would present itself.
It wasn’t called the Cursed Crossways for nothing.
So, it’s another dream sequence, eh? Bring it on… Mint sniffed irritably. It would be different now that she was awake and fully aware.
If the halls of Valen’s compounds seemed devoid of time, then it had all been dumped there in the underground tunnels, in the areas where strong magick lurked in untamed chaos. They were like …scars… in the universe’s psychic weave, twisted and unnatural, and Mint could sense the imminent disturbances along the tunnel walls, slowly and steadily becoming stronger with each step she moved forward. In one hand she held a dead electronic lamp—the strength of the wayward magicks seemed to render the very laws of physics askew—but she could see in the tunnels without it. She wasn’t sure if it were her eyes or her mind that actually saw the way, but it didn’t really matter.
They were called Aeons in the many legends of Carona. There were countless versions of the legends, so many that even Klaus could not name them all, each slightly different from the other. But the Aeons were described the same way in all of them. Mythical beings standing taller than humans, wingless, with huge orbed eyes that glowed with mystic energies, they possessed the power to bend the weft and warp of space-time itself at command.
Like all legends, the myths of Carona had probably been based on truth. The Scions of East Heaven were legends in their own right, children of magick and guardians of the sacred ruins, with strength that lay in the wielding of the elements. The Aeons must have been psyche-strong as well, with their strength in the life force of beings. Their magicks must have been so powerful to have been held in such awe, to have been preserved in myth, to have marked their existence such as they did in the Carona and Gamul ruins, and for her to be able to sense them even after all this time. She could feel the ghosts of their presence, or rather, her psyche could. They were gone, no longer of this earth she was sure, just as she was sure they had once existed. But were they human, the answer could not be found in the psychic stains they had left in the underground tunnels.
The magick that surrounded her now was very different from her mother’s, but it was familiar, like her mother’s dreams were. She had sensed it but once before, and this time she was sure. His. When Rue had dreamed again in two years.
It was exactly the same as Rue’s dreams, only stronger. The dark emptiness and the silent, psychic screams of countless emotions that would drive any ordinary human insane. It was everywhere in these tunnels, the blackness and the despair…
She didn’t belong here. She was an outsider, unwanted, and she felt the chaotic energies repelling hers. But her magick was strong. It protected her. She could see, and Mint looked, like a child peeking into her mother’s dresser to uncover an older woman’s secrets. Looking from the outside, they weren’t such random emotions at all. It was as if each of the many disjointed voices—no, they weren’t voices—as if each spirit were a thread, interweaving to form some metaphysical tapestry, severed from the passage of the ages… A tapestry of wills… Wills that had suddenly been cut off from reality and then frozen… as if… as if something had tried to eliminate them before their time and failed to do so completely…
And in the middle of the tapestry was an all too familiar thread—the thread of his presence. The mark of his passing was faint and almost insignificant, but she could sense it nevertheless. Rue was psyche-strong in his own right. With his thread was a mark—some sort of psychic DNA—just as the scions of East Heaven were bequeathed with the wine-red aura that oftentimes manifested in their eyes. The psychic mark of a chroma child manifested as white hair. But this mark was different and purely incorporeal—not even Valen or Ruecian had it—a spiritual brand, a sign that one had been touched by cryptic tendrils of a destiny that should have died and faded in the mists of time…
The mark of an Aeon.
No! She shook her head, as if to deny the voices. The thought came out of nowhere, as if the tunnels’ very walls had whispered it into her mind. Rue… an Aeon? But that’s impossible… the Aeons were only a myth… they never truly existed, at least, not in the way that the legends tell… But the psychic energies couldn’t lie. Could they? They were easy, very easy to misinterpret…
It was only the place. It was only a test, a test that the Ancients made… to keep the weak ones at bay… what were the Ancients hiding here? They were dead, dead, dead… three thousand years gone…
She was almost past the tunnels. She stepped forward, and then the screaming in her mind subsided. She could still feel the voices, but not so much now, and she knew the worst was over. She had made it. She fell on her knees, out of breath in spite of walking all the way. Her head was aching. She raised one hand in an attempt to illumine her path with magic, but discovered she had no energy left to cast that simplest of spells.
She had just walked through a niche of the Void itself and she didn’t even know.
“Maya! Maya, are you alright?” She opened her eyes to see coal-black ones looking back at her, fraught with concern. With a start, she realized she was on the floor, and that Rue was shaking her awake.
“What happened?” she asked, surprised to hear the feebleness in her own voice.
“I was about to ask you the same thing.” Rue replied somberly. “You just… fell.” Gently, he helped her up. She wobbled, her grip tight on his arm, but she managed to stand on her own. She was still a little dizzy, and she shook her head in an attempt to clear it.
She looked around, awareness returning. The machines were still powered on, but the technicians had already begun to shut them down. She remembered they were almost done with the day’s tests, and Rue had wanted to lengthen his trial, always just a bit more, just to make sure that the circuits could withstand an extended magick flow. She must’ve blacked out then, for she didn’t remember seeing Rue step out of the machines. Strange, she remembered blacking out, but there had been no sign at all to warn her. The only time this had happened before was when her sister fell off a tree and knocked herself unconscious, and because of the siblings’ spirit link, Maya had all of a sudden fainted too… and now, mere moments ago she felt…
She realized that Rue was still standing beside her, waiting for an explanation. Blushing a little under his gaze, she told him, “It’s nothing, Rue. I’m fine.” Rue frowned at her. Before she had fainted, he was certain he heard her shout his name. “It’s nothing,” she insisted, her voice firm. It was a lie, but Rue seemed to accept her answer for now. She couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth—that she had felt her sister’s agonized cry, that it was Mint’s psyche who had called out for him. “I guess my body’s having trouble adjusting,” she excused.
“All the more reason I should get you out of here,” Rue immersed himself in thought. After a while, he turned towards her, his voice soft. “Tonight, Maya.”
Maya’s eyes widened. “You can’t be serious?” she whispered.
His frown never went away. “Valen owes me that much.” Valen, he said, not father. Maya kept her face impassive, not letting on that she had noticed the slip. Rue never complained, and he would never let any untoward weakness show, but she suspected that the testing drained him each time, maybe even pained him. But Rue was always so obstinate during the tests that she couldn’t bring herself to ask.
She swallowed nervously. “Alright. What are you going to do?”
Suddenly Rue smiled, although it didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m going to ask him.”
Ever since the testing had started in earnest, and at Valen’s own insistence, Rue no longer bothered with formalities when seeing his father. Three loud knocks at the office door, and, finding it unlocked, he and Maya went inside.
Valen looked up from the papers on his desk. “What do you want?” His tone showed just the slightest hint of irritation, as was his wont. Rue paid it no mind, although he was respectful enough when he spoke.
“Father, there’s a favor I must ask you.” Think of it as a final wish, he thought sadly. On the way up to Valen’s office, he had almost convinced himself that his father would agree.
Before he could say more, Valen already answered him. “No, I will not release the Princess Maya under any circumstances.”
Rue stopped short. “But father, you don’t have any reason to keep her here.”
“I don’t have any more reason to let her go either.”
Good point. Deep down, he wasn’t really surprised. Is there no way I can convince him to… A faint hope suddenly glimmered in his eyes. “Father, you like bets.” It wasn’t a question. Klaus, thank you.
Valen raised an eyebrow at him, and a slight smile tugged at the corner of his lips. “What did you have in mind?”
“Remember your old mind game with Augustus…” it felt strange to call the professor that, but he didn’t hesitate, “if he figures out your ‘code’, you will stop building your machines. It’s too late for that now, but if I solve this code, will you let Maya go?”
There was no hiding the amusement in Valen’s voice now. “You truly are my son. Very well,” he said, although his doubt at the boy’s abilities was evident in his expression. “You have only one chance.”
Rue managed to match his father’s tone, and he spoke for Maya’s benefit as well. “It was an old bet between old friends, for one to decipher a code that could be anything. Klaus had reason to suspect that the key could be found in the underground labyrinth maps. Or maybe one or more of the Carona ruins. It could have been part of a chorma child’s genome. The aura pattern of an East Heaven Scion. The secrets of the mechavehicle circuits. Perhaps it was that certain magickal signature that integrates the psyche with the physical, magick with mechanical. They all carried equal weight, and as far as I know, Klaus had never been able to figure out which one.
“But it was deceptive. The sheer complexity, and the fact that they were all of them important in some sense without you having to deliberately plant anything, should have been a clue in itself. There is no code, and there has never been one,” Rue concluded.
It was some time before Valen answered. When he did, he actually smiled. “You are correct.” The smile actually widened into a grin. “You’re a fool to think that I’d let you off anyway. But I’m not completely heartless. I will give you thirty minutes to get your princess off this Tower before I raise the alarm.” He briefly glanced at the chronometer on his desk. “Your time starts now.”
The silence was starting to get on Rod’s nerves, and the gateway hadn’t budged a millimeter. He was about to bang on the defunct steel gateway of the foundations of the Tower of Maya for the nth time that hour when, just as he raised his fist, the doors slid open. “It’s about time,” he began, and stopped short upon seeing the other redhead. Even in the dim light, she was too pale. “Mint, are you alright?!”
“I’m fine,” Mint insisted. It was amazing what a couple of hours sleeping on the rocky ground of the underground tunnels could do to replenish one’s stamina. “I’m glad to see you’re on time. You got the orbs?” Rod nodded. “Two more, then.” She went over to the terminal she had been typing on and entered the commands to open the outer gates all the way.
Rod walked back to the Pulsar Inferno Typhoon Omega and jumped into the driver’s seat. He powered on the vehicle and maneuvered it to enter the compound. Mint jumped into the passenger seat behind him as he passed, pausing to let her in. They would install all five Cannon Orbs inside the base. And then they’d fly straight to the Tower of Maya in orbit.
They ran. There was a small hangar in the lower floors of the Tower of Maya, where Valen kept a number of small ships for emergencies. With luck, Maya could commandeer one of them to enable her to return home.
Suddenly there was a buzzing at the back of the East Heaven princess’s mind, and one that had nothing whatsoever to do with spirit links. She had overheard it about her sister, these psychic premonitions—very rarely did she herself have them, only twice that she could remember in her lifetime. “Wait, Rue.”
Rue stopped running and turned around to face her. With brisk steps she led the way into a small side corridor, Rue following silently. At the end of the hallway were three small doors, all locked and sealed, and she turned to the left one. Rue looked at her questioningly, “What is it, Maya?” Maya pointed at the door controls, indicating Rue to open it.
“There’s …something inside. I don’t know what, but it’s important somehow.” Rue nodded, and typed in a few passcodes. In a moment the door was open. Maya shivered. The room inside was cold. Cold, and she didn’t mean the temperature.
Being extra careful, Maya stepped inside. It was a small storeroom, piled high on one side with crates and wooden boxes that seemed quite out of place in their modern day and age, but aside from that there was nothing special she could discern about them. On the opposite side of room was a row of computer terminals, most of them powered down with only the odd screen blinking with unfamiliar data. The other two walls were clean and unfurnished. But the buzzing in her mind was insistent, and her feet seemed to move of its own accord. In the farthest corner of the room she found it, a glass cylinder reaching up to the ceiling, its outside damp with condensed moisture. She could barely make out a figure inside. She walked towards it, squinting to see better.
Her jaw dropped in shock. Quickly she closed her mouth, but just as quickly did silent tears sting her eyes as hatred welled up inside her—hatred at Valen and Aeon Industries. It was another chroma child, with the same baneful blue gem gleaming dully on his forehead. His eyes were closed inside the glass cylinder that kept him in stasis. His shoulder-length hair did not quite fall right along the sides of his face, until Maya realized that the cylinder was completely filled with a viscous, greenish-gray liquid. He couldn’t have been more than eleven or twelve years old from the way he looked, but somehow, she felt he was older than that. How long had he been in this life capsule?
With a start she realized that it was a life capsule, but one unlike she had ever seen before. She doubted that Valen had another like it, although she couldn’t be sure. She turned sharply to Rue, “How do we get him out of this thing?!” Rue was already fiddling with the nearby consoles.
The inner doorway was locked. Mint jumped down from the Pinto, Rod following her moments later, and was first to reach the terminal by the inner gateway. She started typing in an attempt to open the gates.
“Rue taught me a couple of things…” Mint said as Rod stepped to stand beside her. She didn’t see him flinch involuntarily at the mention of their friend’s name. She clicked a few more keys and tried a couple of passcodes. After a time, they heard a soft click followed by a metallic clang, and the doors began to open.
Mint was about to turn back towards the Pinto, when she noticed the screen blink twice. “What the—?!!”
Rod asked, concerned, “What is it?”
“Someone else is trying to hack in… it’s showing up on my display.” She clicked several more keys to no effect—the computer display kept moving of its own accord. Oddly enough, the screen was showing her old backup files. The photo of a chroma child showed up next. He didn’t have an Aeon Shard, but he wasn’t Prima. Telltale white hair, and his irises were a deep red. The chroma child of my dreams.
Mint read the data aloud as it scrolled up the screen. “Ruenis Gallagher. Father deceased, no photo available. Mother died during experimentation…” The screen turned up to display a very pretty woman in her late twenties. Except for the raven hair, she looked exactly like an older Mint, down to expressiveness of her wine-red eyes. “Lucine Gallagher. Her middle name is Brie?!”
Rod nodded, involuntarily taking a few steps backwards. He seemed stunned, and when next he spoke his voice was breaking. “Belle’s older sister. So, she’s dead after all. I—I wonder if Belle knows…” He dejectedly held one hand over his eyes—try as he might he couldn’t hold back the sudden tears. “Does it surprise you, Mint? I was fourteen when I fell in love with a woman twice my age.”
Mint walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his chest, hesitating just a tiny fraction of a second before she did so. Rod returned the embrace, holding her so tight she couldn’t breathe, harder even than when they first met after waking up from chroma poisoning, and she could swear he was holding her tight enough to bruise. She forced down a groan. He was that strong. “It was my fault, Mint,” he rasped. “I should have… I should have stopped Lucine from going into that… that… I couldn’t…” he trailed off, unable to speak any more. Mint asked no questions. In the past they had talked—could talk—about almost anything and everything, but with astonishment she realized that she knew absolutely nothing about Rod’s relationship with Lucine.
How long they remained like that, Mint didn’t know, but she let him cry holding her. When he finally released her, his face was hard. “Time to go,” he managed to say. “Rue’s waiting for us.”
Fiddling with the life capsule’s controls wasn’t getting them anywhere. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t get around the system fail-safe without Valen’s personal passcodes. Maya was growing impatient. Earlier, Rue had found and read aloud the data on Ruenis Gallagher, but that didn’t help them free him. Already she was sorely tempted to find a crowbar and use it to bash open the capsule, or even break the glass with her bare hands.
Rue was apparently sharing the same ideas. With an uncharacteristic curse, he picked up the Arc Edge and unceremoniously struck the weapon against life capsule’s glass.
CRAASH!! The fluid spilled through huge cracks, and Rue barely had time to get away before thousands of broken shards sprayed outward as the capsule shattered. The chroma child bodily fell forward, and Maya scrambled to catch him. Kneeling down on the wet floor amidst scattered glass, she gently straightened his limp body and laid his head on her lap. Before Rue could blink, Maya’s hands glowed with the power and she forcibly pulled out Ruenis’ Aeon shard.
“MAYA!” Rue shouted. He urgently grabbed her wrist, only to snap his hand back as if burned. It tingled with Maya’s magick. “You tear off his shard and he will die!!”
She shook her head frustratedly, even as one-handed she threw away the blue lump of the Aeon shard, the bloodied silvery-green filaments dangling from it like silky hair. “Three days ago, the data file said, when they placed this accursed …thing,” she almost spat in contempt, “on his forehead and chucked him into this capsule. It hasn’t had time to bore itself to him yet.” Rue started to protest, but she cut him off. “I could sense it, Rue! I made sure the tendrils were safe to remove before I pulled it out! You think I wouldn’t know about these things?! I’m an East Heaven spirit-healer!” At that moment, she sounded almost as indignant as her sister.
Ruenis was bleeding severely, and she quickly placed both hands over the wound as if she was plugging a leak. A faint pink glow surrounded her hands and the wound, growing stronger by the moment until it began to pulse strongly with psychic energy. He won’t die. He won’t. I swear I won’t let him die. No one deserves that pain, the black dreams of the Aeon shard!
“Maya. Maya, that’s enough!” Rue had to bodily pull her up into a sitting position. Without realizing it, she had almost fallen forward over Ruenis’s body while healing him. “You can’t do any more for him if you wind up killing yourself!”
Maya wearily blinked rusty-red eyes. What are you talking about? I’m fine, Rue, and Ruenis needs my Healing… she had opened her mouth to say those words, but her voice was gone. A small part of her mind told her that Rue was right, and that she had almost used up all of her life energy in the healing. If Rue hadn’t stopped her right then… She vaguely realized that he was still talking to her.
“Maya! Don’t you faint on me now!!” He shook her roughly, and anger was plain on his face. “I can’t carry both of you out of here, and once we reach the hangar you’re going to have to take him on your own!” Twice more, Maya opened her mouth to reply, but no words would come out. Uneasily, she nodded her agreement as earnestly as she can, to show that she was still capable of getting herself and Ruenis out of the Tower. The anger on Rue’s face was gently replaced by a deep sadness. Sadness, and something else—tenderness? caring?—but whatever it was, she knew it wasn’t meant for her.
Rue took off his outer shirt and put it on Ruenis. The shirt was big enough that it would cover until Ruenis’ thighs on standing. The wound on Ruenis’ forehead had significantly gotten smaller, no longer life-threatening although it still bled profusely—Maya didn’t have the strength to close it completely. Rue untied the white bandanna that kept his own Aeon shard hidden and used it to bind the wound. It would have to do for now. He helped her stand up, the two of them supporting an unconscious Ruenis on each side. Rue helped Maya slide one shoulder under Ruenis’ arm.
After taking only a few steps towards the door, Rue stopped short. Maya turned towards him, an unspoken question in her eyes. Rue shook his head at her.
Ruecian. Ruecian was coming. Somehow, he just knew. “I… I don’t think I can come with you any further.” From his expression, Maya knew that no matter what she did she couldn’t change his mind. Rue took off his ever-present cap and, seeing that both of Maya’s hands were full, instead tied it to her belt. “Please, give it to Mint. Tell her that… no, just tell her it’s something to remember me by.”
Maya didn’t understand, but knowing that questions or arguments were futile now and that they were cramped for time, she simply nodded. When she left through the doorway, and later eventually reached the hangar, she was supporting Ruenis by herself.
You will always be a danger to those you love. He had said those exact words to Rue, but it was Valen who told it to Ruecian first.
It was late in the evening, about half past six in a small home laboratory that years later would become the Aeon Industries compound known as Undercity. His best friend in those days was a handsome, dark-haired man named Jonathan Kincaid. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Jon asked, concerned. “Last time we had to tranquilize you twice before you calmed down.” Jonathan had always been there for Ruecian. Their friendship had been indispensable when the voices and the black dreams had started, and he had held Ruecian’s hand when they discovered that his condition would eventually drive him insane. It was Jonathan who (through Duke, then eventually Belle and Lucine) had learned of Dr. Terry Valen’s experimental research on the chroma strain, and it was Jonathan who had first taken him to Undercity.
“At least I don’t faint anymore,” Ruecian answered jokingly. He clenched one fist in emphasis, “I’ve got more control now. I can really feel the power, Jon. I get better each time I try it.”
“You get worse each time too,” Jon pointed out, referring to the black dreams. “You scream like a girl even when awake now.”
“Ha ha ha.” Ruecian crossed his arms in front of himself while trying to think up of a wittier retort, but Valen entered the room then, with Lucine in tow. Ruecian’s eyes followed the woman as she walked with the doctor towards a row of computer consoles on the far side of the room.
Lucine. Lucine was an enigma. Raven hair darker than midnight, and wine-red eyes whose like he had never seen on any human. Rumors were that she was the true mind behind Valen’s breakthroughs with psyche-amplifiers and memory circuits, but she would deny this every time when asked. There was no denying her talent, however. Off-hand, he remembered she had a younger half-sister that followed in her sibling’s footsteps-they had two mechatronic geniuses in the family. But Belle’s skills could never compare to Lucine’s.
As he studied the raven-haired woman, Ruecian couldn’t keep a slight blush from turning up on his cheeks and nose. That was, until Jon elbowed him—hard.
Frantic whispers through gritted teeth. “You fool, she’s already engaged!” “Shut up! I just like her, okay? It’s not like I wanna marry her or anything! Just because you’ve got Elaine—” “Don’t change the subject!” “Shh! She might hear you—oof!” Jon elbowed him again—harder.
“It’s time,” Lucine told them. “George, you’ll be trying out the new prototype today?”
“Yes,” Valen answered for him. Lucine nodded. She looked about the room, and noticed a pair of guards beside the transparent holding cylinder that they used in earlier experiments with the previous Aeon Shard prototypes. The guards finished their last-minute preparations, and with an acknowledgement from the doctor, they left to position themselves outside the room.
“We’ll be using restraints?” Lucine frowned as she turned to Valen. “I thought this prototype wasn’t supposed to be as …unpredictable?”
Valen merely shrugged. “Better safe than sorry.” He took out two more prototypes and placed it on the desk beside the computers.
“It’s alright,” Ruecian said as Lucine handed him a blue plastic gem with a white cloth bandage. “I’d feel better if I was restrained in any case.” There was just a touch of tenderness in his tone that Lucine couldn’t help but notice. Jon nodded at them, and he helped Ruecian tie the prototype Aeon Shard around his head. When everything was set up to Valen and Lucine’s satisfaction, he locked Ruecian inside the holding cage. Ruecian placed the restraining manacles on his own wrists.
He closed his eyes as he waited for the inevitable rush of magick. “Power, on.” Lucine’s voice. He inhaled sharply as magick coursed through his body, his mind. The power. The blackness and the power.
“Can you feel us, Ruecian?” Valen’s voice. Ruecian reached out with his senses, his eyes still closed, trying to feel the room outside, as he had done before in past experiments. His enhanced psyche felt first the chains on his manacles, then the transparisteel of the holding cage, and then the row of computers beyond. He reached with his senses further, and finally found the extra Aeon Shard prototypes. He nodded. It was hard to concentrate.
“Good. You know the drill. Turn them on.” He tried. He stretched his will outward, and Valen commended him when the doctor sensed heat emanate from one powered-on Shard. “Maintain the connection,” Valen commanded. Ruecian tried that too. But it was hard to will anything as unbuffered magick saturated his mind like a drug. The magickal currents were stronger now, with the new prototype.
Eventually he succumbed to the euphoria. The power was wonderful, it was exhilarating, it was numbing, bringing about a certain ecstasy that could easily be addicting. And it was always at the zenith when the voices came. Suddenly Ruecian screamed. “It hurts!” he grabbed his head, involuntarily doubling over. “Make the voices stop, Valen!”
But Valen refused. “No. The pain only gets worse later on. You must learn to control it, Ruecian.”
He screamed. “No more!”
“Get him out of there!” It was Lucine who shouted. “Turn it off, now, blast it!!”
He screamed again. The pain, the psychic screams were unbearable. The previous tests were nothing compared to this. He couldn’t take it anymore. Get out, all he wanted was to get out! Without thinking, he broke his restraints. The magick seemed to give him superhuman strength, and even the transparisteel cage was unable to hold him. He ran, almost aimlessly, and eventually he made it out to the corridor.
The small part of him that could still think remembered the guards outside, whom he was certain would try to capture him again. But he was ready to fight, to kill if necessary… even to break the walls with his bare hands… just as long as it made the voices stop. A girl soldier bade him halt, brandishing a tranquilizer gun… he made to strike her aside… there was a hard grasp on his shoulder, and swiftly he turned…
“No, George—don’t do it—it’s not your place to—!!” Jonathan’s voice. But he didn’t hear it. He didn’t hear anything. The blackness came like an onslaught, and he was helpless against it. And he knew no more.
When he regained awareness, he was lying face-down on the dirty floor of the compound. Dirty floor? Scrap metal lay everywhere—broken shards of the walls and door. The guards were either gone or unconscious. Lucine and young Duke were tending to the fallen. When did Duke arrive? How long had I been asleep? Belle wasn’t there.
He saw Lucine somewhere off to the side, and gingerly standing up, he slowly made his way towards her to ask if she was alright. As he moved closer, he saw that she knelt over a dead or unconscious body—the only casualty. There was blood on the floor beside her. A sudden dread crept over him, and on impulse he looked down. There was blood on his hands.
He stopped in mid-step, petrified, stunned. The man was Jonathan. Lucine was crying. He weakly called her name, but she didn’t respond. She didn’t—wouldn’t or couldn’t—look at him.
Realization was slow in coming, but come it did. He had fallen into the madness. Now his friend’s spilt lifeblood stained his hands.
Although the blood might wash off, the pain and the guilt never, ever would.
Redhead and redhead were stopped by Ruecian’s Masters right inside the inner doors of the old Tower of Maya. The Masters apparently knew of another way inside the Tower, and the Masters apparently had known they were coming. Karwyn shouted the formal challenge. Two seconds for Mint to jump down the Pinto, another half-second for Rod to follow, and then all five were engaged in heated battle.
“[Expletive], we don’t have time for this!!” Mint shouted as she wielded her rings against Mode Master at the same time the Blade Star and his Silver Breeze weapons kept the boys busy. “We’re here for the Cannon Orbs, not for pointless fights!”
“You don’t understand,” Karwyn said in a calm voice, even as he kept dodging Rod’s slashing pair of short swords. “We answer to Ruecian, and we are loyal to him. And you happen to be his enemies.”
Mint gritted her teeth in frustration. “I don’t care about Ruecian! I don’t care about Valen! We answer to no one, but we care for our friends! And your precious Valen has my friend. He is going down, by my hands, and You. Are. Not. Stopping. Me!!” Kirielle fell, clutching a badly bruised arm, and Mint threw one Halo towards Trap Master’s head. Distracted by Rod’s strikes, it hit him solidly with a loud klonk and he dropped as well. In the next instant, Rod managed to corner Psycho Master against a wall. Mint took a step towards them. “We’re all fighting for something important.”
“You’ve lost. There’s no point in keeping loyalty to them. And we really don’t have to resort to threats and blackmail to get you to cooperate, right?” Rod brandished the Silver Breeze, pointing them at each of the threesome’s necks in turn.
“Ruecian…” Kirielle said weakly, “Ruecian took us in. When no one else would.” She hung her head in defeat.
“Ruecian is not our enemy,” Mint said softly in answer, at the same time Rod exclaimed, “All we want is to save Rue and Claire, and Valen has Ruecian under his thumb. Will you go along with them, even though you know they’re wrong?”
Karwyn spoke, his tone a mixture of resignation and relief. “You’re right, Rod. You’re right. Heaven knows we’ve been too long under the shadow,” Karwyn meant it in a metaphoric way. Rod lowered his weapons. “Narcius and I are more familiar with the equipment. We can help you install the Cannon Orbs.”
“You know where we can get them?” Rod asked. Karwyn nodded in answer. “Thank you.”
Karwyn shook his head. “Not for you or your battle. When you get up there, do what you can for the chroma children.” Rod nodded, although he didn’t fully understand. Without further ado, they set to work, Narcius running off to fetch the wanted Orbs at a signal from Karwyn. Rod estimated that the job would take no more than twenty minutes.
Sulking at their loss, Kirielle took a seat on a toppled-over file cabinet on the opposite side of the room. Finding nothing to do since the boys seemed to have everything well in hand, Mint casually approached her long-time rival and former teammate. Kirielle pretended not to notice, until Mint whispered in a low voice, “You were the one who gave Elena and me the antidote, weren’t you?”
The strawberry blonde kept her face impassive. “If you’re fishing for an apology, you’re not getting anything from me.”
“Hmph,” Mint sniffed, glaring all the while. “Let’s just say we’re even and leave it at that.”
She held out her hand in a gesture. Kirielle appraised the younger girl with a raised eyebrow. “Deal,” she said finally, slapping Mint’s palm. “I never want to see you again.”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Mint replied dryly.
One more floor to go. Maya and Ruenis were almost to the lower hangars when the alarms sounded.
Maya almost dropped Ruenis in shock. Valen must have raised the alarm! Quickly, she strained her neck to look back, and was grateful when the corridor behind remained empty. She knew it wouldn’t last, though. She had no choice but to simply go on, and she redoubled her efforts. She was very tired, but she gritted her teeth against the fatigue that threatened to pull them both under.
She was too exhausted to notice it immediately, but when she did, her walk slowed. There was something very wrong about the alarms. The sounds blaring out of the corridor speakers weren’t the wails of intruder warning, but the siren calling for complete and immediate evacuation of the entire facility. She heard approaching footsteps. A lot of them.
No, they mustn’t find us here! In her condition, there was no way she could make it to the end of the corridor in time to escape. Maya had no choice but to take for cover. She found a small passageway between rooms, just wide enough for a person to move through, and she hastily pulled Ruenis in with her. It wasn’t a very good hiding place—anybody walking through the hallway beyond would see them if they only turned their head slightly—but none of the people who passed did so. Maya stopped counting after the thirty-seventh person going to the hangars had briskly walked on by.
She sighed in relief, even as the other half of her mind filled with dread. Everyone who passed was surely heading out of the tower and back to earth. She wondered if there would be any other ships left for her to commandeer. What am I gonna do now? She closed her eyes, her head downcast, and she held the unconscious Ruenis just a little bit tighter.
The sound of heavy boots on broken glass echoed in the small room that was once the prison of Ruenis Gallagher. “Wine-red orbs framed with exotic lashes, and irises so bright you’d swear it was impossible. Eyes that could kill your soul with a single glance, or make you believe that you were the world. Eyes that made you want to believe it. Eyes imbibed with the magick their possessors wield. Eyes of East Heaven blood. Are we the children of the chroma strain all such fools for eyes of burgundy?”
Rue spoke without turning away from the console he was looking at. “You loved Lucine, didn’t you? The power to this area was shut manually, and that’s why the alarms didn’t go off when I broke the capsule holding Ruenis. I had wondered about that.”
“A pity you didn’t leave with them.”
Rue kept his face impassive. They both did. “Someone had to remain to keep you busy.”
“Then you really are a fool.” Ruecian huffed as he adjusted the brass knuckles on his right hand. Something was different about him that Rue couldn’t quite put his finger on—until he realized that the older man’s Aeon Shard lacked its living gleam. But there was no mistaking the challenge in the way he held himself.
Slowly, deliberately, Rue straightened. One hand tightly gripped the Arc Edge’s handle, and he was very careful not to let his anger and frustration show. “If we must fight, then we must.” He took a deep breath, and slowly released it with obvious effort. “I thought Valen wanted me alive?”
“This isn’t about Valen, boy. This is about me.”
Do you really know what happened that night, on the twenty-third of December eight years ago? It was the night Lucine died…
It took time before Ruecian had learned their history. Lucine and Valen had been colleagues for years, always in zealous competition, first at Ephlesia University where Lucine had been Valen’s student, and afterwards when they worked together at the then-newly founded Aeon Industries, young rival of Cosmos Corporation. Klaus never even came close to reaching their level. But while Valen had become prominent, Lucine had been content to remain in the background unsung, working in silence and letting Valen take the glory. She didn’t mind, but in fact encouraged it, because it only furthered their cause as it enticed more people to support the doctor.
Valen was a chroma child, destined to go mad. Lucine’s eldest brother had died horribly from it, and she found Valen a kindred spirit in finding a cure for the chroma strain. Valen had the particular psychic signature of chroma, while Lucine herself was psyche-strong, a lost child of East Heaven descent although far removed from the pure bloodline of the Royal Mages and Guardians. As chance would have it, they were both gifted with an uncanny affinity for mechatronics, and Lucine had the added ability of being able to meld magick with the physical. They worked extremely well together, for a time. Until Valen realized the chroma strain’s true potential, and everything changed.
The raven-haired woman lay on her bed, in her room that doubled as a private workshop in Undercity. Lucine’s eyes were glazed over as she gazed at empty air. Her psychic ‘visions’ came often now, and for her, the line between dreamscape and reality had more and more become blurred. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, her recent progress with psyche amplifiers and mechavehicle circuits was nothing short of astounding. She had designed as many schematics in six months than she had in the past six years combined. Valen took them all and took credit for some, as he had always done to Ruecian’s eternal loathing.
But, like Lucine, Ruecian was but one of the many bound by fate to the noble doctor. Like the many who remained alive, he had been resigned to his helplessness, and in fact, a part of him recognized Valen’s need, for not everything had changed completely. Aeon Industries was still unparalleled when it came to mechatronics breakthroughs, bringing naught but progress to the world. And in Valen’s quest for power, he would necessarily come up with the sought-after cure for chroma poisoning. In this, Ruecian was a willing puppet. Not Lucine, though. Never Lucine.
Ruecian kept her company, as he did almost every day now. He had brought a fresh bouquet of chrysanthemums—her favorite flowers. Lucine smiled whenever she saw them, but in spite of this there was no hiding her unhappiness. She had battled wills with Valen far too often, for far too long—she didn’t have the strength anymore to battle with Valen and choma poisoning both. Her face was wrought with pain, grief, and tempered with the magick—it gave her an almost ageless look, belying her young years. And now on that night, her face—no, her entire being, as Ruecian could sense—was set with a grim determination that he had never seen in her before.
“Rue,” Lucine whispered the name fondly. It was she who had named the young chroma child after George Ruecian, as the father’s best friend, and the mother had not objected. It was almost seven years ago that night when Rue was born, and only a couple of weeks more before the boy’s birth celebration. Lucine wasn’t sure anymore if she would last until then—her body was already severely ravaged by the chroma strain, which she had gotten from bearing her own son. Another chroma child, Ruenis. She had her reasons—she wanted his name to have ‘Rue’ in it as well.
“Rue’s growing up so fast. Jon would’ve been happy to know…” Jon never even knew he had a son, Ruecian couldn’t help but think. Jon had died before Rue was born, and when Elaine disappeared a few years after, Valen had adopted the boy. It was a dull ache now, but the memory still haunted him. Lucine continued, “There’s a favor I must ask you.” She turned squarely towards him. “You have to make sure Rue escapes from here. As soon as possible. Tonight, if you can. The timing is perfect, with Valen on a trip to Carona.”
“What?” The suddenness of the request caught Ruecian by surprise. “But, Lucine, Wh—” Lucine put a finger on his lips to silence him.
“It doesn’t matter where he goes. I trust the fates, Ruecian. Just make sure he gets out of this place. I can cause a distraction using the rigged memory circuits I’ve been working on. Tut,” she clamped her hand over his mouth, “I know, I know, my body is weak, the effort could kill me, blah blah. I understand the risks, George—all of it. I know what I have to do. This is really important—I value it above my own life or yours. Even, even Tiger’s…” she trailed off. “I don’t know how long this body of mine can still last, so I’ll do it tonight. With Valen gone, no one else will suspect it was me until it’s too late. I can override security and turn off all the working power in the compound. But that’s all I can do. You have to help me,” her eyes were pleading. One final act of rebellion, against the man who took my life, her eyes seemed to say. “Please, George. For Elaine. For Jon’s memory. If not, then do it for me.”
Ruecian shook his head, frustrated at the woman’s stubbornness. “Why are you so concerned for the boy? What about your own son? What about Tiger—Ruenis?”
“I’ve been dreaming for a long time now, ever since Elaine disappeared. Every day the premonitions get stronger. This time I’m sure, absolutely certain of these feelings. Rue is marked, George. Neither you nor Valen can even begin to understand what he has been destined for.” She paused and took breath. “As for Ruenis, my son is twice gifted. Bahala na ang kinabukasan sa kanya, the future will take care of him.”
It was some time before Ruecian would agree. Reluctantly, and his eyes were bright. “Alright.”
“Good. Thank you,” Lucine was all business again, and from the way she took it, it seemed as if she had already known what he would answer beforehand. She weakly held her hand to him. “Help me up. Just to the other side of the room.” With Ruecian supporting her, she managed to make it to her work desk. “Now, please go. I’m counting on you.” She managed a weak smile.
“Valen killed her. He killed her, and when the spirit link was lost… they, both of them… died…”
“What?” Rod frowned at her, confused. In the darkness of deep space that was visible through the Pinto’s transparent convertible dome, his emerald eyes glittered. They were already near enough to see the orbiting Tower of Maya. “What are you talking about?”
“I…” Mint shook her head, quickly wiping at suddenly blurry eyes and banging her fist on the backseat in frustration. She didn’t realize that she had spoken aloud. “I picked up on something… someone’s stray memory.” Not just a memory, and it was linked to mine, she didn’t add. She shook her head dismissively at her companion. “Nevermind. Just drive. We mustn’t keep them waiting.”
The lights blinked thrice, and then the power went out completely. Lucine had done her job. And now it’s my turn.
It was fairly easy for Ruecian to find and open Rue’s door from the main control room of Undercity’s detention levels. He looked over the array of security camera screens, and found a couple where a white-haired boy moved alone in the corridors. He’s out, Ruecian noted. Rue’s made it out. Thank the heavens Valen is still on his excursion to Carona tonight. When he saw Rue exit the building into the parking lot, he made to leave.
All of a sudden, he paused, noticing something odd. A bulky shape flashed in one of the security cameras, causing Ruecian’s breath to catch in his throat. One of Valen’s failed machines, modified from its original purpose, and now set as some sort of guard dog around Undercity. Rue was running straight for it.
Ruecian headed outside the compound and past the parking lot, not slowing until he saw the child with the telltale white hair. The child was already nearing the trees of the surrounding forest.
“Stop!” Rue turned at the sound of the voice, his eyes mirroring his surprise and confusion as he raised his too-big sword. In spite of the immediate danger, Ruecian’s heart went out to the boy. So young. Too young to be like this. Fear was evident in the innocent wide-set eyes. Fear. Resolve. Need. …and …not quite despair.
The creature was moving behind Rue, but the boy was too concentrated on Ruecian to notice. It raised one arm to strike. “NO!”
Too late did Ruecian act—the child fell unconscious, dark blood spouting from a fresh gash on the left side of his head—but it was a simple matter of willing the creature to turn off. He rushed toward Rue, pulling the creature’s dead arm off the child and bodily picked him up. Ruecian would have to carry him all the way outside to safety, as far away from the compound as he could. He didn’t stop until he reached a highway.
Someone was coming. Gently, he put the boy down on the cold asphalt and made for the cover of the nearby trees. There was the sharp gasp of a female voice, and a quick rustling of skirts. Ruecian let out a quiet sigh of relief. He took a good long look at the brown-haired girl as she bent over the unconscious chroma child, making sure he could recognize her again should the need ever arise, before turning back towards the compound.
It’s over. For that night, at least, he could do no more.
When he came back to Lucine’s room to tell her it was done, he was met with silence. Lucine’s body was by her desk. Burgundy eyes were closed and her ageless face serene, finally free from pain. It would be years before Ruecian would realize that she had died facing East, towards the homeland she had never known. Her hand still grasped tightly to the magick-sensitive mechavehicle circuits that in the end she had given her entire life over to.
Ruecian didn’t fight him that night. Ruecian had saved him.
Ruecian gasped, painfully. He weakly fell on bent knee, one fist holding onto the floor for support. There was blood on his lips. “It’s over, boy.” And then his body gave completely, and he dropped prone. Rue ran towards his fallen opponent. He knelt beside the downed man and, at a motion from Ruecian, he leaned his head close. “Valen isn’t your father, Rue.”
“You shouldn’t talk now,” Rue told him softly. If Ruecian heard him, he didn’t show it.
“Your father was my friend—a very good friend. He died in an accident before you were born. He—he died because of me. Not a day passes when I don’t regret what happened,” he coughed, pausing to catch his breath. “I served Valen too long to even try to free myself. All I want in the end is to die honorably. Don’t blame yourself, boy. I wouldn’t die now if—” he coughed again, more violently, a small trickle of blood trailing down his chin, “—if Valen hadn’t already turned off my Aeon Shard. In fact, you might have just saved me from becoming mad.
“You’ve turned out well, Rue. If he had known you, if he had seen you grow up, as I have watched you… Your father would have been proud.” He managed a crooked smile. “I am.” His strength failed then, and he could no longer hold his head up.
“It was a good fight,” The smile faded, and his voice lowered to a whisper. “It was a good fight.”
Mint noticed something very strange as she and Rod approached the space station. Several drop ships had suddenly ejected from the lower floors, quickly heading away from the orbiting Tower and straight towards them. But their pilots paid the Pinto no mind as they headed back to earth.
“Rod,” Mint called, once the drop ships were away, “We’re near enough. Remember what Psycho Master said? The main hangar should be east, underneath the red stripe with the blue-and-white sunbursts.” Rod nodded, indicating with a vague head movement that he saw it. “I’ll start transmitting the passcodes he gave us for the airlock.”
It took them only a few minutes. Rod carefully maneuvered the Pinto into the small airlock. When they could finally open its inner doors, they were met with blaring alarms and an empty hangar. Empty, except for a pair of bedraggled teenagers who painstakingly emerged from the elevator on the far end of the room.
“Holy—!!” Rod’s eyes widened when he saw Maya dragging a half-naked chroma child with a dark red blotch bleeding through the makeshift bandage on his forehead, and he immediately jumped down from the Pinto at a run. The moment that Rod took over carrying the unconscious boy, Maya’s entire body sagged from exhaustion, but she managed to hold up while clutching Rod’s arm. Mint had jumped off the Pinto as well, and she crossed her arms in front of herself, two expressions seeming to alternate on her face—anger at her sister and sympathy for her and the chroma child both. Sympathy won. She walked over to put an arm around her younger sibling’s waist and helped her towards the Pinto.
“He’s not Rue,” Rod confirmed, looking down at the boy he carried. “Ruenis, isn’t it?” Maya nodded an affirmative. There would be time for questions later, when they were safe. “You’ll have to hold him on the way back.” Again Maya nodded, to show her assent. She managed to climb up the back passenger seat on her own. Rod placed Ruenis on her lap, and she carefully cradled her arms around the boy’s upper body.
Rod turned towards the older princess, who had already started towards the other end of the room. “The Pinto’s a two-seater. Mint, you’ll have to ride with me. Let’s get out of here.”
Not looking back, Mint shook her head irritably. “I’m not leaving without Rue.”
“We don’t have time to argue, your highness—!” Mint cut him off with an annoyed wave.
“Get them out of here,” she told him firmly. Her chin was set determinedly, and an air of command could be heard in her tone even amidst the wail of sirens. “That way you don’t risk anyone. I’m going up to try to knock sense into Mr. Obstinate I’m-an-Idiot Doll-Boy,” that last was almost a curse. “Hurry back for us.”
Rod’s face contorted in a flash of anger, and he was about ready to knock her unconscious if that was what it took to take her home safely. He opened his mouth to protest, ignoring Mint’s killer glare, but something made him stop. He grudgingly had to admit she made sense. That, and there was something else, something that weighed as much as the world he had built his life around. His face softened, and he nodded. “Be careful,” he said at last. Mint sniffed arrogantly.
“Wait, Mint.” Maya spoke up. She untied Rue’s cap from her belt and held it towards her sister. “Rue wanted you to have this.”
Mint narrowed her eyes lividly. “Whatever gave him the demented idea that I’d ever want his cap?!” Without waiting for an answer, she turned tail and headed towards the opposite end of the hangar and the open elevator.
“What am I gonna do with this, then?” Maya called.
“Keep it,” Mint answered. “Return it to him when we get back.” And then the elevator doors closed, concealing behind them the sunset red hair tied up in twin ponytails.
The alarms continued to blare as Mint stepped out of the elevator. Her psychic senses told her that Rue was somewhere in the hallways beyond, steadily making his way up to the top floor laboratories. That idiot, she sniffed. Boys are such trouble. She wasted no time, and broke into a run.
Several floors up, she saw a familiar silhouette sans violin case and ever-present cap. White hair was out of its ponytail and fell across his broad shoulders, but the Arc Edge held in his right hand was a dead giveaway.
Rue stopped short at the well-known sound of indignant footsteps. “What are you doing here?”
“I thought that was obvious.” Hard as it was for her, Mint kept her voice level.
He shook his head, not looking back. “I can’t go back with you.” Deliberately, he clenched and unclenched his free hand. “Ruecian is dead, Mint. And Valen still has Claire.”
He heard a very un-princessly snort. “Claire this, Claire that, Claire, Claire, Claire. It’s always dearly beloved Claire, isn’t it?” her eyes narrowed accusingly.
For no valid reason that he could discern, Rue found himself getting angry at her. Which had always been strange in itself. “I told Claire I’d protect her. I gave Valen my word. I promised,” Rue was adamant.
“Well, I promised that I’d get you back. We can’t have it both ways, now can we?”
He turned sharply towards her, and he was practically seething. It’s just one battle after another! But why did it have to be you?! “Alright! If we really must—”
“Of course we must,” Mint sniffed. “We haven’t settled our match yet.” If she was surprised at his animosity, she hid it well. Or perhaps it was what she had intended all along. “Besides, how am I supposed to conquer the world if I can’t even defeat my own high school rival?”
His hands were trembling as he gripped his weapon tightly. Only once and briefly did he glance at the blade. Never against her, the thought flashed across his mind, but there was nothing he could do about it now. He did what he must—always and always—the chains of self-imposed duty bound him fast. He closed his eyes at the shadowed memories that came unbidden. Claire. Rain. The sunset. Red, like blood. Ruenis’s blood. Ruecian’s. The Aeon Shard. The chroma strain. Claire. Mint. Claire. Burgundy eyes. He opened his own, and it was she who stood before him now. He forced himself calm.
Mint absently twirled one ring before raising both up in readiness. “Until one yields.”
“As you wish,” he replied reluctantly.
She attacked first. She didn’t even wait, and in the dim light her eyes flashed with purpose. Rue concentrated on defending. Very soon, he found himself backed against a wall. He slashed once and heard cloth rip.
Mint somersaulted backwards, her face impassive. Too impassive. Her skirt was torn up to almost her hips. A huge, deep gash cut down the length of her right thigh. Rue’s eyes watched a thin, red trail run down her leg until it soaked part of her sock, but she moved as if it was nothing. The blade of the Arc Edge gleamed with a faint tint of blood.
He gently lowered his weapon. “I’m not fighting you any more, Mint.”
She kept her eyes downcast as she likewise lowered her rings at her sides. “Rue…” her voice was barely audible. “Why do you look down on me?”
“I’m not looking down on you…”
“Yes you are!” She raised her head suddenly, and her eyes were bright with unshed tears. “[Expletive], I am an East Heaven Scion! Twenty-three wars in three thousand years of history, and today we remain unconquered. We have never been defeated in battle. Never, unless we die first. Do you think a tiny cut like this is going to stop me from what I have sworn to do?”
Warrior’s pride. She had come all the way to space, to keep a promise she made to him half-asleep—she was half-asleep then, and barely would have woken up at all, because of his own carelessness. He realized that he knew nil of what she gone through to get to the Tower of Maya, for him, and here he was refusing her. And yet, wounded, she was still willing to fight him if that was what it took to get him to come back with her. Klaus had been right. She had too much of a warrior’s pride to give up so easily. Too much pride to use magick against him in battle. Too much pride to make another mistake. The least he could do was trust her in this. He owed her that much.
But he didn’t have to like it. She had too much of a warrior’s pride, period. ‘There can be no secrets between friends’? Damn your pride, princess. Rue raised his Arc Edge in a formal battle stance.
For Augustus Klaus and Benjamin Atenacius, things had gotten completely out of hand. Almost. But they were making progress now, at least.
It was Klaus and Atenacius who had raised the evacuation alarm in the Tower of Maya. Valen’s empire was obviously failing with him at the center, and his old colleagues-turned-enemies wanted to get as many people out of the accursed Tower before it collapsed in on them. Klaus hadn’t been sure if the idea would work, but Atenacius had tried his luck at it anyway. Since Rue moved into the Tower, they had already set up a small communications center in Klaus’s office in Carona High, and from there Atenacius tried hacking into Valen’s computer systems. Mel and the Masters helped, Karwyn especially, but their attempts hadn’t been enough. Perhaps Belle could have succeeded, but she and Duke were en route to Undercity then. In the end it was Ruecian who had made it possible, by letting their signal get through in the first place.
Atenacius understood this much at least, that Ruecian never intended for Rue to step into the psyche-transplant machines for the final time. Ruecian had merely played along, driven by his love of a long-dead woman who had not once reciprocated his feelings, a woman whose still-living child had been doubly cursed by the venomous amalgamation of chroma strain and East Heaven blood. Ruecian had played along in the hope that Valen’s experiments involving Rue would lead to the elusive cure.
It was Rue himself who tipped Ruecian’s hand. Ruecian had been forced to decide then and there if he would let the captive children go. And in letting Maya and Ruenis escape, he had inadvertently laid his true loyalties bare to Dr. Terry Valen.
Heaven only knows the price Ruecian would have to pay for that betrayal. If he hadn’t already.
The scream of fusion-propulsion engines in the yard outside broke the silence. The Pulsar Inferno Typhoon Omega was landing in the soccer field, and Klaus, Mira and Atenacius ran out to meet them. Atenacius carried Ruenis down and handed the unconscious boy to Mira, who ran off towards the clinic at breakneck speed as soon as Ruenis was in her arms, and then he helped Maya dismount. Rod was having second thoughts about dismounting—he wanted no delay in getting back to the tower—but Klaus motioned for him to come down. They needed the Blade Star on earth for the meantime.
Maya asked Atenacius about Ruenis. At the familiar way she addressed the older man, it seemed as if princess and professor went a long way back. “He’ll be alright,” Atenacius told her to quiet her concerns. “I’ll do what I can for him. I have a couple of leads on magick and the chroma strain that I doubt even Valen would know about,” he winked in reassurance. “But not now. We must first do what we can for Rue.”
“Ben,” Maya whispered softly. “I… I’m sorry about before. And thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” Atenacius turned somber again. “We’re trying to send a message to Rue in the Tower. But even Karwyn barely knows enough to let us hack into Valen’s computer systems. You know how Valen had worked with psyche-amps before—”
Maya pulled the Cosmo-Penalty from its hidden holster on her left thigh. “Perhaps this could help? I let Valen borrow it once.”
“This would do more than help, your highness,” a small smile of relief tugged at his mouth. “For Belle and Ruenis as well.”
Rod was talking to Belle via video-net in Klaus’s office. Belle was updating him regarding the latest on her situation. “We’ve accessed the Undercity data files already, but we need the higher passcodes to gain physical entrance. Does Ben have them yet?”
Rod shook his head no. “Belle… there’s something else that… I mean, I just found out…” he realized he was stammering, and with an effort he composed himself. “Lucine is dead.”
A pause. After a while, Belle nodded. Strangely, she didn’t feel as dismal or angry about it as she thought she would. On the video screen, Rod saw her avert her eyes from the mini-cam. “I guess… I’ve always known. A part of me never believed I’d actually find her again. Maybe being right about it…” She blinked once, and then the moment was past. She turned squarely towards him, all business again. “Tell Ben that when he’s analyzed the Cosmo-Penalty, immediately send the codes to me.” Rod nodded. Belle continued, “And if they ever send that message, tell Rue that I swear I’ll get his Claire back.”
“I will.” A disconnecting beep, and the video screen went blank.
Time to head back into space. Belle would probably meet with trouble in Undercity, but surely nothing she and Duke couldn’t handle together. Rod absently combed his fingers through his hair and jiggled the Pinto keys in his pocket. Heaven blast him if he couldn’t keep his own end of the deal.
In the abandoned hallways of the Tower of Maya, they danced a grim fandango where a single misstep could prove fatal. But there was no turning back for either of them.
Rue held his sword as if it was an extension of his own arms. His body movements were natural, needing not even thought to execute. Green, slash up and sideways from below, as leafy shoots emerged from soil in new spring. White, attack from on high, like an avalanche of ice from snow-capped peaks. Yellow, stab as the lightning flashed across a cloud-heavy sky.
Rain. The memory of raindrops was their melody. Mint moved on tiptoe, forward, pitter-patter forward, pushing the other slowly back. Blood from her leg wound spurted, drop by painful drop, with each jump, twirl, and kick as she pressed on.
Black, Gravitation. Rue stood his ground, measuring carefully with dark eyes as his opponent now moved sideways around him. Like a planet circling about the sun. Defend and take force, as the blackness sucked in light. Strike low, strike slow, strike left or right, but be concentric with the black.
Tail Feathers of the Phoenix. Rue switched one-handed. Slash and thrust, move quick in heat. Slash and thrust, as if the blade was aflame. Slash and thrust, until it drew a bloody red. Sunset Red. Mint struck back, matching him blow for blow. Red hair tied in twin pony-tails followed in her movements as she moved swift and sleek, fluid like fire. Her red eyes blazed, a mere glance from which struck the psyche in a way no physical weapon ever could-in a way that had nothing to do with magick. Her leg wound in the odd lighting flared a sinister crimson. Rue switched his weapon back two-handed.
Scales of the Water Dragon. Long, arcing slashes of the sword, and it was Mint’s turn to step backwards. The Arc Edge was aptly named, and Rue wielded it fully and wielded it well. Like the cycle of the seasons, day and night, sunrise and sunset. Like the blue earth, everything came full circle. Like rain, raised from blue oceans, falling from azure skies. Mint raised her rings in anticipation of Rue’s next move. But the music stops with the seventh form!
A downward swipe of the Arc Edge, she sidestepped, he slashed sideways and she took the blow, blocking the sword with her twin metal rings. Their weapons echoed as they clashed—the eerie sound of metal against metal reverberating across the room’s stone walls.
The pace of their movements changed abruptly—faster, faster, and more forceful—as if the gentle accompaniment music had suddenly turned into the beating of a thousand war-gongs. Just like before, she somersaulted over him, landing deftly with her back turned. Rue raised his weapon for the killing blow. But Mint knew, and she was ready—she swiftly twirled on one leg, barely making the turn in time. She blocked the Arc Edge with her arms and the Dual Haloes crossed over her head, and her body shuddered with the force of the impact. Rue twisted his grip, but the sword had hit the crossed rings in such a way that their weapons interlocked, making it impossible for him to break away without letting go of his weapon.
It happened so fast he could barely remember it afterwards. Mint twisted her Dual Haloes, spinning them with such force that the Arc Edge slid out of his grip and sent their weapons flying through the air. One of the rings was unable to withstand the strain and shattered into several pieces. At the same time, she lashed one leg out at him, missing his head by centimeters. He lunged towards her instinctively, grabbing her by the wrists and they both toppled to the ground, Rue managing to land on top of the girl. He pinned her hands down either side of her head, his knees straddling her legs.
Silence. For what seemed to him an eternity they remained in that position. Rue’s hair hung down one side of his face, and they were so close that its ends touched Mint’s left ear. Although he kept his eyes locked onto hers, he became vaguely aware of her other features… the small mouth, the white throat… the soft, cerulean blouse… slightly… …torn…
He felt heat rush up to his face. Damn it, no— it wasn’t just his face… Thank the heavens he had been able to brace himself when they fell, or there was no way she could have missed it…
She returned him stare for stare, her countenance extruding nothing but calm. “Rue?” she called his name softly.
He hadn’t even realized he was holding his breath. His throat felt dry all of a sudden, and he croaked the words when he answered. “Y-yes, Mint?”
She smiled sweetly up at him before blowing at the silver locks that brushed against her cheek. “You really need a haircut.”
She kicked her legs up, twisting her body simultaneously so that her hip hit him in the stomach. He almost doubled over, and in that split-second she managed to break free, making a desperate rush for what remained of her Dual Haloes. He sprinted after her, running slightly askew towards his own weapon. In three strides he reached it and firmly grabbed the Arc Edge’s handle.
Only to stop dead at a pair of bright, bright burgundy eyes.
She was pressing the broken ring against his throat, her knuckles shaking at the tightness of her grip. The other ring she held up perpendicular to the ground, mere centimeters from the tip of his nose.
“Don’t move!!”
Her breathing was rough and uneven. Although she managed to keep upright, her entire body was shivering, and Rue could tell that she was very close to collapsing from the effort. He lowered his hand away from the handle of the Arc Edge. Slowly, keeping his gaze steady, he knelt down on one knee in a gesture of acquiescence.
Suddenly the pressure on his neck was gone. The burgundy eyes rolled upwards, the elfin frame buckled, and the Dual Haloes dropped to the floor with one loud clang after the other. He rushed forward to catch her, his arms pulling her close and moving to support her upper body.
She propped her head weakly against his shoulder. “Don’t look, you pervert.”
He closed his eyes tight and sighed heavily. “You knew?” He felt her nod, almost imperceptibly.
“Say, Rue,” she whispered. Although her voice was faint and muffled, it had an edge of humor when she spoke. “Could you bandage my leg for me? It’s throbbing like crazy…”
Her body went limp at last, and collapsed lifelessly in his embrace.
They had been on the move for days, and for once, Belle had let Duke drive. Aside from Ruecian and Valen themselves, he was the only other person she knew who had gone into Undercity and not wound up permanently staying there.
Belle had spent the past few days trying to hack into the Undercity system while en route, but other than retrieving obsolete data files, she had had very little success. She stood behind Duke now, one hand resting on the driver’s seat, her eyes never straying from their built-in GPS. It had taken her a lot of trouble to get the Undercity coordinates, and she wanted to be sure they made no mistakes now.
A message console on the far side of the cockpit beeped, and Belle walked casually towards the terminal. “Message from Atenacius,” she read aloud. “It’s the analysis of the Cosmo-Penalty, and several possible codes for the Undercity computer system.”
Duke nodded. “We’re almost there. Let’s just hope there are people left to save.”
“It’s all we can do,” Belle whispered. “This may be our war, but its outcome lies in another’s hands.”
Rue had sat Mint’s unconscious form against the corridor wall. He bound her leg wound as well as he could, while doing his best to suppress the flush that threatened to set his face on fire (Mint totally ignored it—easily done considering she was asleep). He finished the binding with a final knot, and carefully pulled her torn skirt over the exposed leg. He knelt beside her, silently studying her face, he knew not for how long. The building quaked once, and he reflexively covered her with his body in protection as several ceiling tiles fell around them.
Mint stirred feebly as she begun to wake. Rue leaned backwards, afraid of what she might think if she woke up to discover him that close to her. “R-Rue?” she called softly.
“Mint, I…” Rue swallowed. “Thank you.” Mint opened one eye to look squarely at him, and with both hands he took one of hers. “But I still have to go back to Valen. I’ll come home with you, as we agreed—” he hastily added on seeing the beginnings of a killer glare, “but unfinished business is unfinished business, and I…” he trailed off as Mint nodded in understanding.
“What do you intend to do?”
He wasn’t going to kill Valen, certainly… he realized that he didn’t know. All he knew was that he had to confront Valen again. He just had to. “To destroy his machines, I guess.”
“What about Claire?”
Rue bit his lip uncertainly. “Once Valen is taken care of, I’ll look for her myself. Maybe Klaus or Belle would have an idea of where she is.”
“Right. You realize of course,” Mint smirked, “I’m not letting you go alone.”
“Mint—”
“Pah! I didn’t come all this way to get shoved aside in the end. You owe me, Doll-Boy.” She pulled her hand away, and briskly stood up. Rue started forward to support her, but she waved him off. “I have unfinished business with Valen, too. Besides, I seriously don’t think you’ll survive in this place without me.”
Rue typed the necessary passcodes on the control pad to open the door to the laboratory where Valen and the psyche-transplant machines were waiting. As he navigated through the computer system, he had learned a couple of new developments. “Valen has triggered the building self-destruct, and in an hour this tower will crash onto the Carona plains.” It meant one thing—that Valen knew his initial plan had failed. A cornered beast was always dangerous, and Valen more so than anyone they knew. They had to be ready. “I believe he’s expecting us. Last chance to change your mind, Mint.” Mint sniffed arrogantly in answer, and Rue understood its meaning well. He had expected no less in any case. He clicked the enter key, and they went in.
Rue was right—they were expected. Valen greeted them cordially. But Valen wasn’t alone. Claire stood by his side, her brown eyes downcast and her hands bound loosely in front of her. Claire called his name. “Rue…” At the sound of her voice, Rue took an involuntary half-step backwards as if he had been slapped.
“Let her go, Valen!” Rue started forward angrily, but Valen raised one hand and he stopped short.
Claire’s tone was pleading. “Please, Rue. Make him stop hurting me.” Suddenly she screamed.
“Claire!” Rue raised his hand towards her. Claire rushed forward, her beautiful face contorted in fury and her clawed fingers reaching for Rue’s chest. Rue almost fell backwards in his shock, but Valen waved his hand and Claire’s body yanked back as if a leash had tugged at her neck.
“Claire is mine now,” Valen said. “She will do everything I command. Have no qualms that I will pit her against you if you force me. There is only one thing I will accept in exchange.”
Mint urgently grabbed his arm. “That’s not Claire!”
Rue shook his head and hoped desperately that Mint would understand. “I… I dare not risk it.” He lowered his weapon, and gently pried the girl’s fingers off his arm. He turned and walked forward, towards Valen’s machines.
A familiar whoosh flew past his ear, and Rue barely had time to shout. The remaining Dual Halo hit Claire directly on the side of her head, and he heard her neck snap. Except that her neck snapped with the sound of creaking metal, and copper tubing emerged from her head’s broken skin. The fake Claire collapsed onto the floor, static fizzing along the cuts in her exterior.
She wasn’t real… and Mint had known. He shouted, “What trick is this?!”
Suddenly, Mint’s body jerked sharply and awkwardly, and she was flung hard across the room. Her body hit the wall with a sickening thud, and she impossibly stayed airborne. She gasped painfully and grabbed at her neck, at the unseen vise that threatened to suffocate her as it crushed her windpipe.
Rue’s jaw dropped, as he realized that Valen possessed the full capabilities of magick. “LET HER GO!”
“NO!” Valen shouted. “No one wants to die—not when they can do anything about it. But if I am to live, then sacrifices have to be made. You. Remember that I adopted you boy, that I had spared you from the madness. I saved Claire from dying by the poison caused by your own blood. I have saved the lives of others poisoned by the chroma strain, and I founded Aeon Industries that provide for the livelihood of countless people who would otherwise be hungry, or homeless, or dead. I could not save them all, but of the chroma children who have survived, it was I who saved them—you are one of them, Rue. And I can save others. Dare you claim as much about yourself?”
No. Of course he couldn’t. Valen continued, “Isn’t it true that Claire was poisoned by your blood, and she’s in a life capsule because of this? Her highness here got poisoned too, and she got seriously wounded a few times in addition—once in the tunnels and twice at Elroy’s—because of you? Isn’t she here now, in pain, all because of you? And Ruecian is dead, because you fought against him in his last battle?” he paused for emphasis, “Don’t you agree that things would be better my way?”
Rue staggered backwards, his eyes wide and shaking his head in horror. No, it’s wrong… Valen had to be wrong… Valen had lied to him—had lied to everyone! But he spoke truth, and he made sense, when bad guys weren’t supposed to make sense at all… He makes sense. Oh, help, he makes sense…!!
Mint’s voice broke through his mind’s haze. “Rue! Don’t listen to him! He’s playing with your mind!” But he’s right, Mint… He remembered that he himself had used the same argument with Maya when she had urged him to escape, and he had fully believed it then. What had made him change his mind so quickly? He’s right… I could never, ever do as much for this world as Valen had…
“Have you forgotten what else he had done? To Lucine and my mom? To Ruecian? To your father? To Prima and Ruenis? To Claire? To you?!”
Rue faltered, his grip on the Arc Edge loosening, and he placed his free hand on the living blue gem on his forehead. Mint’s words made sense too, and he was confused, so confused. There was no difference between truth and falsehood that he could discern now. Was there even such a thing? He didn’t understand. He couldn’t. And he didn’t want to. Claire… Claire had always known what to do…
“There’s no time, Rue,” Valen told him. The doorway to the machines beckoned.
Valen’s mental grip still held her fast, yet Mint’s voice was insistent as she shouted at her overly-irresolute partner. “How can you know what you can do, if you just give everything up?! You [expletive]! Don’t you have a brain?! Why don’t you think for yourself sometimes!” She gasped suddenly as Valen’s psychic noose tightened about her neck in an attempt to shut her up.
No! Every time he made his own decisions, he had wound up hurting others, most of all the people he cared about. If there was one thing he didn’t want to do at the moment, it was to think! Mint’s words had made him angry then. His eyes never strayed from the machines’ open door. His grip on the Arc Edge tightened, and his jaw was set with determination.
“Rue… you don’t have to understand. Just do what you believe in.”
But what did he believe in?
He believed in Claire. In his friends. In Professor Klaus. In Mint and Maya. He believed in his own will, and that he had his own purpose in this world. He chanced a sideways glance at her—at the fiery redhead whose ravaged body was being pinned against the wall by the invisible hand of magick, her feet dangling helplessly on empty air. She had come for him, but she needed protection too, and it was he alone who could give it now. He had made his mistakes in the past, and they would haunt him tomorrow as they haunted him today. He could never make everything right, but what little he could do, for those who were closest to him…
That, if only for the moment, was certainly reason enough. And for a single point in time, his choice was clear.
Without warning, Rue rushed forward towards Valen and his machines, and unceremoniously swung the Arc Edge down. For a brief instant there was a look of utter dread on Valen’s face and he lost his mental grip on the girl, but the heavy blade missed him and instead crashed onto the nearby control panels. Rue slashed sideways, shattering the capsules with a few well-placed blows. As a final touch, he swung high and cut the cables connecting the machines to the rest of the Tower and to each other, and to the wheelchair where Valen’s diseased body was perpetually bound.
Without power to his machines, Valen could no longer move. The walls and ceiling quaked, a lot stronger this time, and it wouldn’t be long before the building collapsed completely as it crashed back onto earth.
The old man disdainfully raised an eyebrow at the chroma child. He was helpless now, and they both knew it. “You will simply leave me here?” It wasn’t exactly a question. Rue took one long look at him, before he wordlessly turned away.
Rue helped Mint up. He whispered, “How did you know it wasn’t Claire?”
“The real Claire would never do anything to hurt you,” she replied. Rue blinked, and he gaped at her, clearly not expecting that answer. In spite of the current haggard situation, Mint couldn’t help but grin. “Kidding!” She pointed behind him with a vague wave, at the wall full of display screens. “There isn’t a computer system in existence that Belle hadn’t been able to hack yet.”
Rue had been too concentrated on the battle to notice. In white Unicode text against a black background, the screens all displayed a single message. Claire, Maya and Ruenis Safe in Carona. Rue shook his head wryly. That she could still tease him in such circumstances… Mint never ceased to amaze him.
And then they ran, the boy leading as they made their way across corridor after corridor towards the lower hangar where Rod was to meet them. The doors and hatchways opened for them easily with a mere mental command issued by the power of the Aeon Shard. Rue didn’t notice that Mint was falling further and further behind. They were passing through the same corridor where they had dueled earlier, and he was about to go through the elevator doors when he turned back to see that she had fallen by the opposite end of the hall.
“Mint!!” He ran back towards her, immediately going down on one knee at her side.
“I’m sorry,” she said weakly as she gazed her burgundy eyes up at him. “I think I overexerted myself. I’ll be fine with a few minutes rest. Go on ahead, or Rod will be worried.”
“That’s crazy!” Rue practically shouted. Without a second thought, he dropped the Arc Edge and lifted her in his arms. He didn’t have the strength to carry both girl and the heavy weapon.
She frowned questioningly. “You… you’re leaving your sword… but—” She knew how important the Arc Edge was to him.
“Mint, if you even think that I’d ever choose a stupid sword over someone’s life…” But Mint no longer heard those words as her head fell heavily against his chest in a faint. Rue ran once more, although noticeably slower now. Rod was waiting for them in his Pinto when they reached the hangar. The tower quaked again, and Rod shouted for them to hurry.
“You’re riding with me this time,” Rue whispered softly in her ear as he climbed up the Pinto passenger seat. He knew that she couldn’t possibly have heard him, but somehow he just had to say it to her.
“Buckle up, people!” That was Rod’s signal. The Pulsar Inferno Typhoon Omega rose up and out of the hangar, away from the Tower of Maya as it pummeled towards the open fields of Carona.
March 2027.
Rue cut his hair. He stopped wearing the cap and bandanna, and even with the Aeon Shard always visible, all the girls admitted that it only added to his alluring aura of mystery, and just made him look even cuter than ever.
They had to confine Claire to the hospital indefinitely. She had been in the life capsule for quite some time, and her body was taking a while to adjust to normal atmosphere. She wasn’t allowed any visitors yet (except for Mira, who threatened to burn down the entire hospital ward with a flamethrower if the nurses didn’t let her in), so Rue had no choice but to wait. But he was fine with it, since he wasn’t very sure if he was ready to see her yet—he would merely pass by Claire’s door on his way to visit Mint, and already the figurative butterflies would dance in his stomach.
Mint was in the hospital too, but she only got confined a couple of days. Rue visited her twice, incidentally finding her asleep both times. But that was okay too, since Mint looked so peaceful when she was asleep that Rue felt he could watch her like that forever (plus, she couldn’t boss him around if she’s sleeping). He would never stay with her for more than an hour, though.
Atenacius provided the necessary antidote to the chroma strain, for both Claire and Ruenis. Kirielle had supplied him with the remaining vials she had stolen from Valen’s storage freezers—the same kind she had given Mint and Elena before. Valen’s chemists of eight years ago had managed to isolate the particular toxin causing the chroma sickness from samples of Lucine’s blood, and thus had produced the only working anti-venom. Thankfully, Atenacius was able to reconstruct the antidote’s distilling process.
Ruenis recovered completely from the loss of his Aeon Shard. After only five days, he was pronounced already well enough to be discharged. His inborn magick had helped drastically in his recuperation. His heritage of psyche-strong descent protected him from the madness of chroma—it was this doubling of the magick that had initially forced him into that specific life capsule, when the chroma and East Heaven gifts figuratively warred inside his body. Atenacius’s antidote cured this by subduing the power of the chroma strain in his blood. The professor also stipulated that it would be many years before any side-effects of Ruenis’s innate condition would manifest, if there were any.
By the time they took the stitches out of his head wound, Ruenis was very eager to enjoy the outside world freely for the first time ever. The wound had closed, but it didn’t heal cleanly. He would wear the scar on his forehead for the rest of his life.
Rue would have his own scars to bear as well. But his weren’t wounds of physical battle, but the doubts of the soul.
It was on a lazy Saturday afternoon in Carona High when Karwyn approached him to say goodbye. “Narcius and I were offered work overseas. Kirielle will stay only to finish the year, and then she’s leaving to join us.”
“Best of luck to you all,” Rue replied, and extended his arm.
Karwyn took the hand, and his handshake was firm. He bowed gallantly. “I thank you. It was a pleasure, Rue.”
Later, Duke approached him also, bringing news. “Rod and I located Ruecian’s body. We laid him to rest by the lakeside ruins. There was no trace of Valen, and Milady thinks he may still be alive. By the way, I picked this up amidst the rubble.” He held out the Arc Edge to Rue, and the boy, happily surprised, accepted it gratefully.
There was something else he wanted to ask the older man. “Tell me, Duke,” Rue began in a somber voice. “We won, didn’t we? But… winning doesn’t make us right. It just means that …we won.”
Duke scratched his head absently. He wasn’t one for pep talk—Milady usually handled that aspect of treasure-hunting. But he figured he should say something at least. “I don’t profess to know a lot about good and evil, or right and wrong. Valen did a lot of good in his own time, and maybe more evil than we know of. It’s never our place to judge a man. Think of it this way, Rue. Valen and Ruecian fought for what they believed in. But so did you.”
In the final battle with Valen, he believed that he could protect Mint, and that she, Claire, and his friends yet needed him. He believed that that was his purpose, and that he had to follow his own will. It had seemed plausible at the time. But now that the battle was over, was it enough? Rue turned his gaze towards the lakeside and the setting sun. He could barely make out the outline of the Winding Tower in the distance.
What do I believe in? If there was an answer to that, he realized that he had not truly found it yet.
And then it was Belle’s turn. She invited him on a short walk along the school grounds, and Rue had no objections. At first, they talked of trivial things—the weather, the school, Klaus. Eventually the conversation turned to Lucine. It was hard for Belle to admit that Lucine was gone. In all the years she had spent searching, she had always clung to the hope that she would once again be reunited with her sister. Rue was supportive, and kept silent while Belle spoke. But whatever difficulty she was having in dealing with her sister’s loss, she seemed to be handling it better than another she could name.
“Rod is taking Lucine’s loss pretty hard. He had been in love with her, and never until recently did I realize by how much. Lucine was widowed early, and she loved him right back after a fashion. Nothing happened between them, of course, for Rod was too young then, and a vagabond… But he has friends to help him through this now. Mint…” that last was a whisper. Belle smiled. “I’m glad you’re all here for him.”
But there was something in the way Belle had said it. “What about you? You’re leaving?!”
She nodded somberly. “Valen is still out there, and my vendetta with him isn’t over. He may have lost here, but he still has other resources… Valen is a genius, Rue. Even defeated, he might still be able to do something. Duke and I are going to find him and make sure that he doesn’t.” Another sigh, and a slight pause. “There is one thing that I would like to ask of you, though.”
“Name it,” Rue told her.
“Technically, I am Ruenis’ closest family, and I’m his legal guardian. But, I cannot take him on our journey. If it’s alright…” she hesitated a little, “if it’s alright, would you and Claire take him in? He has already grown rather fond of Claire, and they both had been in Valen’s clutches for some time… she’s the one who could understand best what he went through.”
His reunion with Claire was more than he ever imagined. Everyone was present—it was practically a party at the small hospital room. Prima and Elena insisted on hanging decorations, and Mira had indulged them, Ruenis helping. Rod brought cake, and he and Klaus stood talking by the wall, while the couch seats were occupied by Neil, Annette and Tonia. Claire was sitting up on her bed, and Mint was looking out the window blinds when Rue finally came in through the door.
He had dreamed it, fantasized about it, replayed the many scenarios over and over in his mind for the past five years, yet nothing could compare to the simple feeling of having her really there with him. He ran over to her, clumsily almost falling over his own two feet, and fell on his knees beside her bed as he threw his arms about her waist. Claire was no less enthusiastic as she hugged him back. And Rue wasn’t ashamed when he actually broke down and cried.
Surprisingly, it was Mint who ushered everyone out of the room to leave the two alone. She quietly closed the door behind her, sighed once, and quickly excused herself that she had to check some things out at the Carona High library. Nobody made a big deal out of it.
With Belle gone and their old chemistry teacher lately returned from abroad, Mint didn’t feel the need to sit at the back row with Rue anymore. She moved to sit by the window like she did in every other class. An unknown messenger had delivered the wanted bracelets to the school board, clearing her of all former charges, but she never accepted her reinstatement as gymnastics team captain, and she resigned her position as assistant class rep as well as all her other extra-curricular involvements. Everyday, she would break for the BladeStar Arcade immediately after the dismissal bell. Rue hated to admit it, but he had gotten used having her purposely ignoring him and bossing him around, and he actually missed her somewhat. Offhand, he couldn’t help but wonder if his living again with Claire had anything to do with it.
Things were back to normal in all appearances. He had wanted to talk to her and badly, about the final battle with Valen—she was the only other person who had been present. There were things he wanted—no, needed—to know, about the battle and about her, why she had done as she had. But she would never raise the subject up, and for some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to approach her about it either.
A couple of weeks later in class, he found out that she was leaving too, and returning to the Orient. “You’re not finishing the year?” Rue had asked, surprised.
Mint shook her head no. “Maya needs me at home. Rebuilding, drafting laws, supervising government projects and bullying the council, that kinda thing.” Unlike Maya, Mint had been born and raised to rule. Command came naturally to her in spite of her unconventionalities. Suddenly, she winked mischievously, “If I can’t conquer the world yet, East Heaven kingdom is as good a place to start as any.”
Only Rue and Claire accompanied Mint to the airport. Everyone else had said their fond farewells the day before, at a huge bash in her honor. But when it came the actual time for her to leave, Mint wasn’t one for prolonged goodbyes.
“That’s the plane,” she pointed. “Based on the Concorde, and it’s the smallest plane capable of sub-space flights.” The plane was small but impressive—spanning less than three-fourths the length of normal passenger jets and could carry only a select three hundred passengers.
“My, my, Mint is traveling first class.” Claire commented.
“Of course,” Mint grinned. “I’m a princess—can you expect anything less?”
Claire excused herself. “I think I have to go to the ladies’ room for a while. Will you guys be alright if I leave you for a few minutes?” Claire winked ever so slightly, and Rue didn’t miss it. “Please excuse me,” she said, and then walked off to the far end of the corridor.
The pair lapsed into silence. Rue took to examining the plane, at its clean whitewashed exterior with silver trimmings. It was impressive at first glance—it still was—but even without mechavehicle technology he found it boring after a while. He kept glancing down the corridor. Claire seemed to be taking her sweet time.
Mint broke the silence. “Say, Rue? Claire will resume her studies at Carona High, won’t she? That means you guys will be classmates next year?” Claire was in her third year of high school when she disappeared five years ago. Three years in the life capsule had meant that her body had been in total stasis at that time and therefore three years younger than her actual age.
“Probably,” Rue replied. “Claire will be the oldest in the year, but she doesn’t look it.” Mint raised her eyebrows quizzically at him. “Um, Mint? Can I ask you something?”
“What?”
“Mint… do you think we’ll ever see each other again?”
“Pfft,” she exclaimed suddenly, pretending to gag. “What kind of a stupid question is that?! Of course we’ll see each other again! Not saying when, but that’s not the point.” Hands on hips, she pouted at him in mock-anger.
“There’s something else,” Rue continued. He took something out of his pocket, and then opened his palm to reveal a pair of gold earrings. “I noticed that you had pierced ears, but you didn’t wear any jewelry. I was supposed to give you a present like this last Christmas, but I didn’t finish it in time.”
For the first time since he could remember, Mint was at a loss for words. “T-Thank you… they look just like my Dual Haloes.”
“They are,” Rue told her. She looked up at him expectantly. He explained, “Before we went to fight Valen that last time, I managed to save one of your shattered Halo’s fragments. I melted it in shop class and reshaped it into those earrings. I thought you’d like it.” He smiled meekly, a little embarrassed at his own sentimentality.
“I do like it…” He helped her put them on. She grinned. “Looks good on me, don’t you think? Hey, Claire!” she waved as Claire approached. “My new earrings are cool, aren’t they?”
Claire smiled and nodded, and she nudged Rue affectionately. “I’m glad he finally had the guts to give them to you.”
Rue and Mint both blushed (just a little), and then the girl bent to pick up her bag. “Well, I gotta go. Can’t miss my flight,” she told them as she slung her duffel over one shoulder. She turned and walked towards the moving ramp on the other end of the corridor.
“Goodbye, Mint! Don’t forget to write!” Claire waved. “We’ll miss you!”
Mint waved back, “You guys write to me too! Bye, Claire! Bye, Rue!”
“Yeah, Mint. Goodbye,” Rue whispered softly. He turned towards the plane, and watched silently as the girl crossed the runway and climbed up the moving stairs, her twin ponytails blowing gently in the soft breeze. The last he saw of her was the sunset red hair disappearing behind the airplane’s cabin door as it closed.
It was the second Sunday of April, 2027. SunCoast Air flight to East Heaven, departing from Carona International Airport at 4:21pm local time zone. He would remember it for a long time.
Mint could be really old-fashioned sometimes. She preferred hand-written letters over phone conversations and email (not to mention Claire explicitly requested for them, since East Heaven stamps were world-famous and very sought-after). Mint didn’t mind the extra trouble at all. From the start, she and Claire had gotten along extremely well.
Rue sat on the couch in the living room of his, Claire and Ruenis’s rented bungalow in Carona, reading the sixth or seventh letter Mint had sent him since she had moved back to her kingdom. He and Claire always replied in kind, and he absently fingered a pen as he thought of what news he was going to write her that time.
It was that particular letter that changed the status quo.
Things were going admirably in East Heaven, Rue was glad to know. The king’s health was doing better after an out-of-season attack of Asian flu. Maya had finally gotten the hang of public speaking, and was at last warming up to her appointment as assistant regent. Produce of the agricultural sector was as bountiful as ever that year, and exports of native crafts were at an all-time high. The water level at the river dam was lower than normal, and if things didn’t improve they would have to start rationing, but it was nothing that they couldn’t handle.
Mint had gotten a dog, a husky having light-gray skin tinged with sandy brown, whom she had named Regret (because he soiled her favorite green blouse during the first time he got vaccinated, and she wanted to name him with something that began with an ‘R’). She sent pictures, which Rue had mixed feelings on seeing. Mint was hugging her pet, who wore a white doggie hat with a single blue-and-silver diamond trim in front. The moment Claire caught sight of the photo, she stuck it on the refrigerator to Rue’s eternal dismay.
At the end of the letter was news of a different sort. ‘Rod visited me last summer. Would you believe it? He drove/sailed all the way here on his Pinto (Johnny Wolf was his navigator)!’ Driving no less than two thousand kilometers, more than half of which was over relentless ocean.
Rue never answered her letters after that. Although they still arrived regularly for him and Claire, he stopped reading them altogether.
School started again. Annette was elected student council president, and Neil became captain of the kendo team for their final year, with Rue as his deputy. Rue was still best fighter—Neil never did beat him to the title—but Neil had one-upped him on leadership and people skills. Marco was the only veteran sophomore (they had a sad lack of recruits the year before), but the club had a significant number of good new draftees, even among the freshmen.
Ruenis wasn’t one of those, preferring extreme sports over traditional ones. He, like Elena, was a freshman at Carona High that year. His status with the female population was even more notorious than his older brother’s ever was. Perhaps it was the scar, his fashionable attitude, his striking good looks of East-meets-West, the exotic crimson eyes, or maybe all of those combined. Or maybe it was because he actually enjoyed his reputation albeit, like his brother, he never used it to his advantage. Devotion to a single woman (the grapevine never found out who) coursed in their veins. Ironically, it only added to his popularity.
Rue totally immersed himself in his schoolwork and extra-curricular activities. He joined a couple of competitions involving mechatronics research, where Professor Samuel Cadmon’s advice had been invaluable. The most he won was a second place. The kendo team fared a lot better, however. They went to Gamul that year and snatched championships, there and in two other national tournaments.
He no longer had time to go gallivanting about the ruins, and with Claire safely back with him, he didn’t need to anyway. He seemed to have lost all his appreciation of them, even the many myths of Carona that he used to have been so fond of. The Arc Edge in its violin case he had permanently shoved into the deepest nook in Ruenis’s closet at home—he couldn’t even bear to see it in its black covering kept inside his own. When he thought no one would miss him, he took long walks in the rain without an umbrella, and always came up with spurious excuses of wanting to be alone if Claire happened to ask. Often on his way home, he would turn his gaze towards the lakeside, but only during the reddest of sunsets.
Although he hid it well from everyone else, Claire, his seatmate in the second row, had noticed the change. If he had been quiet before, he was even quieter now, and practically recluse. No one noticed, but Claire knew him better than anyone. Even in class, he was only truly comfortable talking to Neil and Annette, and herself barely. She had only the vaguest idea of what the reasons might be, but she never said a word. Not to him, anyway.
During the November month, at home one night, she caught Rue’s attention with a piece of paper.
“You might want to see this,” she said, waving something in her hand. It was a newspaper clipping, with a picture of Mint in front and several other students. ‘East Heaven Diplomat to Visit Gamul’, the headline read. Rue skimmed the article, his eyes quickly moving through the lines—but it was only for Claire’s benefit as most of the words just passed him by. “Why don’t you go see her? I’m sure it’s alright for you to miss class a couple of days.”
Rue shook his head no, and excused that he was too busy with schoolwork. Claire shrugged, and when she wasn’t looking, he threw the article unread into the wastepaper bin.
The Christmas holidays came and went without much incident. Parties were held at Mel’s and the Klauses, and the BladeStar Arcade held an open house. Maya came to visit, but only for a couple of days—she couldn’t afford a longer reprieve from her princessly duties. Mint didn’t come, but she sent presents for everyone. Claire’s was a pair of blue diamond drop earrings, Ruenis got the latest hoverboard, and Rue was given an orange-and-olive-green leather case for his multi-tool. Oddly enough.
It was at sunset on the anniversary of the Tower of Maya’s fall when a pair of chroma children found their way to Ruecian’s grave by the lakeside ruins. The waters were calm, reflecting the dusky orange sky, and a gentle desiccated wind blew at the white hair of they who had come to visit.
The younger boy genuflected and crossed himself once, offering up a silent prayer. He bowed his head in respect as he stood behind Rue, who knelt down as he laid flowers in front of the simple tombstone.
Ruenis only had kind words to say about the late Doll Master. “He was always nice to us. I’ve long known that he loved my mother deeply, although…” he trailed off. “Is it true? Are we chroma children destined to love the women who possess the East Heaven eyes?”
Rue had no answer to that. He absently fingered the chrysanthemums he had brought to Ruecian’s grave. “It was only a few years ago when I first lived with Claire, but it seems such a long time had passed since then. I didn’t care about destiny. I used to think that duty was everything. The fight with Valen taught me that I have my will, and that I can decide my own fate. But… now I’m not so sure about that either.”
Ruenis continued, “He was almost a father to me. He gave me my nickname.”
Rue slowly stood and gave a reassuring look at the younger boy. “He was almost a father to me too.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. He glanced down once more at the tombstone before they made to leave. “Say hi to my real dad, ok?” Wherever they were now, he was sure they were together.
May 2028. Rue graduated Carona High with honors, and was awarded the Dewprism medal. Everyone knew he would get it, of course. They had been expecting it since the year started. It was hardly a surprise at all.
Claire was present, a fresh graduate like him, and she laughed and cried with the rest of everyone. “Congratulations, Rue! Oh, oh, I’m so happy for you!” she exclaimed as she hugged him about the neck. Ruenis was shouting in his ear, Elena was shaking his arm while Prima tugged at his toga, and Rod clapped him on the back—loudly!—several times. Karwyn was there to congratulate him, bringing the regards of the former Masters, Belle and Duke (who had sent Rue a postcard from a recent vacation in Rio de Janeiro), and (surprisingly) Eugene Wylaf (whom the Masters had apparently been in continual contact with for reasons that Karwyn refused to divulge). Tonia and Davis, visitors from college, congratulated Rue as well before moving off to talk with Principal Klaus and his wife, along with old acquaintances. Neil and Annette were off a little to the side, celebrating the occasion with a full-pledged kiss.
Nothing could mar the day. At least, that was what Rue thought. Somehow, he couldn’t shake away the slight pang of something missing. But he had no intention of ruining everyone’s spirits, or letting any of his own emotions show—there was no point in dwelling on things that couldn’t be changed, anyway.
Spring faded into summer, and Claire, Klaus and Ruenis incessantly bugged him day after day about his college applications. Klaus had logged his name and forwarded all his documents to the Ephlesia University database without bothering to ask, but his signature was required for confirmation. In answer, Rue always shook his head no and remained adamant. He didn’t need nor want a college degree. He wanted to work and to be able to support his adopted family without help as soon as possible.
“I told you… I’m not going,” Rue insisted in his most stubborn voice. Claire rolled her eyes and sighed.
And then there was a loud knock on the door.
“Will you see who that is, Rue?” she asked. Rue nodded somberly. He stepped past the living room to the front door and raised his hand towards the knob.
KAPOW!! He had barely opened it a crack when a well-remembered boot connected with his abdomen, and he slammed bodily against the opposite wall. Rue slid down onto a sitting position, his ears buzzing, his stomach one big ache, and with blurry vision he could just make out the girl’s silhouette with its familiar twin ponytails against the light outside. “M-Mint?!”
She was very, very angry at him. “You know, I could almost forgive you for not answering my letters (be thankful to Claire for that—at least she kept writing!), but you… you have the gall to tell Klaus that you’re not going to college, after the trouble he went through to fix your papers—after all the trouble I went through so that I could go to the same university as you…!! You still owe me! You got Claire back, while I didn’t get even a single zenny in all our past adventures!” Mint’s face was flushed lividly. “You [expletive]! You’re going to register for that entrance exam to Ephlesia U., right now!!”
Claire was having a hard time keeping her laughter in check. “There’s a train to West Desert City on the hour every hour. If you run you could just make it.”
“Thanks, Claire. Now, git!” Mint turned to the fallen boy. With strength that belied a girl of her size, she grabbed him by the collar and forcibly pulled him upright.
They broke into a run the moment they stepped out the gates. Mint was still furious. “You know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were scared of failing that entrance exam.” Ephlesia U. had a reputation of being one of the most selective universities in the Continent. Mint sniffed irritably. “Coward.”
Rue’s head was still spinning from how fast events were happening, but when she said that last word he suddenly snapped out of it. He couldn’t help but retort back, “Oh, yeah? I bet I’ll get a higher score on the entrance exam than you do!”
And that’s exactly what he did.
He had rented a one-room apartment in West Desert City, where he stayed and studied while he waited for news. Claire, Ruenis and everyone back in Carona all rooted solidly for him, and Klaus was already certain that Rue would make it in.
It rained the entire morning of the day he got his Ephlesia U. entrance results. He was one of the top ten examinees.
He reached for the phone to call Claire, but his hand suddenly stopped midway. For some reason, he wanted Mint first to know. But he hadn’t seen her once since they had taken the exam together, and he realized he had none of her contact numbers and he didn’t know where she was staying in the city. Off-hand, he couldn’t help but wonder if she was doing it on purpose.
He called Rod (no answer), and Mrs. Cartha (who didn’t know either). He had no idea where to go, but feeling restless, he decided to wander about West Desert in search of the princess’s possible haunts with the feeble hope that he would get lucky.
Much later, to his surprise, Ruenis met him as he was heading back to his room. “There you are, bro! Where the heck have you been?” He handed Rue a message written in plain white notepaper.
“What’s this?” But Ruenis only winked once, jokingly snickered at his older brother’s obliviousness, and then scooted away on his hoverboard to explore the city. Rue hastily opened the note.
I’ll be at the tower where the sunset meets the sky.
Of course. He couldn’t help but laugh quietly. There was only one place she would go. As chance would have it, something had possessed him to bring the violin case with him to West Desert, and he made a detour for it, certain he would need the weapon for the necessary climbing he would do later. He took a train back to Carona, and ran all the way to the Tower of Eternal Sun.
And finally, finally he found her.
Mint stood by the railing, gazing out into the sunset with her back towards him. The sky had cleared by then, and the lake waters rippled calmly far below. Her fiery hair was tied up in the reassuringly familiar twin ponytails and blew gently in the slight breeze. She seemed unaware of his presence.
Without warning, she spoke. “Tell me, Rue… do you believe in legends?” He didn’t know how she knew he was there, or how she knew it was him. She continued, “I don’t, but… I don’t mind it either if they do happen to come true.” She turned towards him, holding up something in her hand.
It was the Dewprism medal.
The medal was identical to the one he had. Suddenly he didn’t know what to think. “H-how… where did you get this?” He touched it, somewhat cautiously, not sure if he was going to believe it.
She smiled. “Maybe you haven’t heard about it, but when I was sent out as a student diplomat of East Heaven, they transferred me into one of Carona High’s sister schools in Gamul. Well, you know me,” she shrugged. “It was fairly easy to win the medal after that.”
“Mint, I… I made it into Ephlesia U.”
Mint’s smile reached all the way to her eyes. “I never doubted you would. So did I.” She pocketed the medal, and then put her hands on her hips reproachfully. “What took you so long to find me? I was expecting you much earlier than this,” she smirked. “Oh, I forgot, we’re talking here about the guy who took five years to find a lost girlfriend.”
Rue’s face flushed, taken aback. “Claire is NOT my girlfriend!”
“Oh? Then why are you blushing?”
He flushed even more. “Look, if you’re just going to make fun of me…”
Suddenly he found himself with an armful of girl. Mint threw herself against him, embracing him tightly about the waist and burying her face into his chest. Timidly, almost hesitantly, he wrapped his arms about her. The girl’s entire body shuddered as if sobbing.
“A-are you crying?!”
She nodded. “I missed you so much.”
His arms tightened reflexively about her, drawing her close. He had never held her that way before—he had never held anyone that way before—but right then, all he wanted was to hold her that way forever. It amazed him, the way she could so easily tug at his heartstrings—how she had managed to irritate him in spite of his longing to talk to her alone for weeks and weeks, and then quickly make him feel panicky in one instant, and then suddenly melt his insides in the next. But right now, she was in his arms, and that’s how he wanted it to stay. I missed you too, Mint. More than you’ll know.
“Oh yeah?” she answered him, as if he had said it aloud. Her words were muffled when she spoke, since she still pressed her face against his chest. “I know Claire isn’t your girlfriend. She can’t be, not when you’re in love with someone else.”
Are you reading my mind? Rue closed his eyes, sighing heavily. When next he spoke, his voice was a rough whisper. “That’s not fair.”
“Since when have I ever been fair to you?” He could hear the emotion pervasive in her tone. “You can’t fall in love with a pseudo-psychic of the East Heaven bloodline without her knowing it… especially not if she loves you right back.”
She pulled away then, wiping at her blurry eyes with the side of one palm, and couldn’t help smiling at Rue’s stunned expression.
“You should be flattered. I don’t remember crying in the past ten years, and I just broke a promise because of you.” She blinked back more tears, and paused as if thinking. “Say, Rue… remember the time I got drunk and you had to carry me to my dorm room?” He nodded. “I’ve been sober for almost two years now, and I still haven’t had my first kiss.”
Neither had he. So, you do remember that, huh? You really are the most infuriating girl I’ve ever met. He stepped forward, pulling her face up by the chin so he could gaze straight into her bright, bright burgundy eyes. “In that case, can I kiss you right now?”
“I’ll think about it,” was what she said. But he didn’t give her the chance.
Thus these threads of fate are woven.
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