The Peace

The scientists were back in the lab. Almost all of them were there. Only Gehenna was missing.

They were watching over their sections and moving pods around.

They looked exhausted after long hours of interrogations and torture by the Whiskers. Few of them had scars on their faces and bodies. The ones who tried to be loyal. They didn't know about the others.

"Why did she allow it to happen to us?" asked one of them

"I think that she was trying to protect herself. Don't forget that she is the only one who stands between the planet demise and life itself" answered another

"I understand that but being clones, the best ones, shouldn't mean that she can use us as ponds"

"What the Whiskers were looking for? I still can't understand that"

"The Supreme Leader doesn't trust her, and he wanted to find more by himself"

"Stop wrapping your head around that. We need to finish that before noon, don't forget about that" intruded the one who was overseeing them

One of the men there started scratching his left hear.

"Are you alright?" asked the supervisor to him

"Yes…don't worry"

He got back to what he was doing. He continued for a while when he stopped again. This time he shook his head and scratched both his hears.

"You should…"

"I…I'm trying…Can't you hear it?"

"What?"

"It's like a muted beeping which doesn't stop. It's hard to bear it"

"You're the only one here who is hearing it. You…"

"He isn't. I can hear it too"

They all started looking around, moving the stuff around quickly. They didn't care if they were going to untidy all of it. They needed to find the source of it.

"Look everywhere and be fast" remarked the supervisor with an unsure tone

"What is happening? Make it stop, please" said one who went down while keeping his head in his hands.

"Sir…we…found it" announced one of them

"Me…too"

"Here…are scattered…everywhere"

The supervisor ran toward the closest one

As he got there, the scientist in front of him moved aside. He was crying and he was panting.

Attached inside one of the pods there was a metallic pyramid. Those were emitting a blinking blue light.

"Sir…?" asked him

He was petrified.

The beeping was still in their hears.

"And I think that here should go the pit" told Gehenna to the Agaklythos technician

"You mean Kirkegaardsand, don't you?" asked him

"Exactly, the one standing beside the underground graveyard" answered her with a cheerful tone

Behind them, Janus was standing and watching. He was still wary of him, even after what her mistress did to him

Then an alarm ringed and Janus went toward a screen.

"They're here" announced him

They went into the elevator and ascended to the highest floor of the Tower.

When they got out, General Amin and his soldiers got off their Dragonfly and walked into the room.

"Clear" said one of them

They took off their gears and put it by their feet.

"Finally, I can't stand it anymore" started him

Gehenna didn't say much.

He started looking around. He went by the window and pushed his sight beyond Haguel and Zerzura. It was like he was trying to find something on the horizon.

He turned.

"So…are we going to wait for her or…?"

"Who?" asked Gehenna

"Your Leader, the scientist…Cressida"

He was waiting for an answer.

Janus looked at her.

He didn't understand, at first.

"You…look…different"

"You look old" said her coldly

"We need to talk. Alone…Cress…"

"Leave…then"

"Yes, Lady Gehenna"

The soldiers and Janus left the room, followed by a couple of guards.

"I should call you that now. Really?"

She nodded.

"What do you want Timur?"

He restarted walking around.

"Do you remember when I told you that we would've helped you rebuild the city?"

He went by the wall and started looking at what was hanged there.

"Yes"

Masks of different types which looked like old relics.

"Nice, are these yours?"

"No. Go on"

"We sent you one of our most established technicians to manage all of it"

He went by the desk and saw the Shax statuette which attracted his eyes.

"What about him? Look around Timur. His presence is more than welcome"

It was made of black stone and shaped like a ghoul.

He was analyzing it.

"His family, probably you're not aware of them, have noticed some behaviors which aren't in line with who he actually is"

"People change. We changed"

"What does it represent?" asked him

The veil didn't make any movement.

"You know, it's kinda hard to see you through it. I don't know why you want to cover your beauty. Would you take…"

"No. What's your point?"

He went by the wall and took one of the masks.

"What are you doing?"

"Considering that here you manufacture clones…well"

Then he put the mask on the desk and took the statuette, bringing it up.

"I don't care about what you did to him. We'll manage it. I need you to 'find' the culprit and dispose of him"

"But…I would never kill any of them…Please put it down"

"I need a culprit which has a high profile"

"Not him. I said put it down"

The statuette was hanging over the mask.

"It's either him or…"

"What? I said put it down"

He crushed the masked with the Shax statuette.

He walked away and left her with what was left of the relic.

"Remember Cressida, we care only about you and your research. Without you this planet is worthless"

As he walked away his soldiers came in, followed by Janus.

They treaded to their aircraft and boarded on it.

"Sir, should we go to Rocabarra?" asked one of them

"Let's get home"

"But sir, why are we helping build a city of clones rather than a city of real Slaaf people? They deserve to be helped, after what they've gone through"

"Major…they're not our people and we're not here for that. The Emperor has given us specific orders"

"Why can't we bring them to Agaklythos?" asked one of the rookies

Timur didn't answer to him, as he was looking at the planet which was shrinking in his window.

She was in the elevator, one of the few places where she felt less watched.

Since Tithon has taken the power back, her freedom shrunk with her influence. She hated it every part of it.

The elevator was descending as she was going to the lab, to check if anything was missing.

In her hand there was a communication device. It was the same which she was forced to reveal to the Supreme Leader. A golden stone which opened like a seashell.

"Gluskap…please, answer. I need you. Please"

But no one was answering back or showing up as a hologram.

She tried again.

"Please answer, it's important…please"

A few seconds passed.

No one on the other side.

She sighed.

"I've been trying to contact you for a while Gluskap. I need you to answer and report back about your situation. Here my power is dwindling day by day and I'm not sure if I'm going to made it. If you're still at the Shaxes Graveyard I pray you, do not save me. The only way to do it is by going to war with the city and Tithon. It would go against the tenets of our mission. Peace is the only way to keep the purple star shine in the sky. For the future of this planet do not save me"

She sent the message and then waited. It was like she was expecting an immediate answer. It wasn't coming.

Then she heard a crash.

The elevator was shaken violently, and she felt on the ground. It stopped and an alarm started ringing.

The Supreme Leader was sitting at the desk. Behind him there were eight conical tanks made of glass and water, containing corpses. He was looking at the pictures of him and Lilith, remembering the time when he was happy.

On his side there were the one of Endymion too, his first love who perished for his pride and hunger for power.

His mind was trying to understand what he could've done differently to avoid losing them. There were also pictures of him and Kurban. Some of them were with Alastor too but he didn't care about him. He despised him.

He was someone, a different kind of man, before he founded that damned corpse in the dump. The memory of it was plunging him in sadness.

He wasn't sure about his course of action lately. Murders, drugs, vengeance, and warmongering was consuming him. He just wanted to stop.

But he wasn't supposed to. The city's people were demanding him to be someone who functioned as a protector and leader. His soldiers wanted him to give them blood and fire.

Peace wasn't easy. It has never been easy. There used to be it, he thought.

He hated Lady Gehenna but there was something about her side which made sense. He was trying to find an answer to that. A reason why he was sympathizing for the one who was supposed to be his enemy.

The Hummingbirds. Were they really his enemy?

The Shaxes. What was their purpose?

He felt like an ignorant toddler. He was playing a game of which he couldn't figure out the goal.

He went by the window and looked down. He was trying to estimate the time it would take him to hit the ground. That situation…. that sensation of despair and dread. He didn't want to get rid of it.

The glass started vibrating with increasing frequency.

He jumped far from hit, behind the couch.

The building shook and the glass flickered. Only one of the windows shattered. The one in front of him.

The tanks jolted without breaking.

An alarm went off.

The Shaxes King was keeping the golden transceiver in his hands while it was quavering. He and the Elders were observing it.

"Shoulds wey bey afraids my Kings?" asked one of them

"Whatt iff its is ay bombs?"

"Yous shoulds oppen its and seey whos iss on they others sidey"

The King didn't flinch. He wasn't moving.

"How did it arrive here?" was asked

The King turned his head and looked beyond them.

A distinct clattering was approaching them.

"Whos broughts its herey?"

"Whos iss its ownner?"

Screams started coming in the room.

"Whats iss happenning nows?"

"Arey wey beings attaccked?"

A couple of Shaxes came in from the door. They were panting.

"My Kings, Elderrs. Therey iss an issuey yous needs toy addrress"

There were people chanting beyond the door.

"Whats iss goinng ons?"

"Kings…Sirs, they 'Birrds Leadder…hey…"

"Arey they bettraying uss?" asked one of the Elders

The Shaxes started indicating the shiny object in the middle of the room.

All looked at it.

The King nodded, went to it and took it in his hands. After that he detached from the gathering and walked toward the door.

He was waiting.

The noise was even closer.

Then.

It stopped.

Gluskap walked in, alone. He looked at the King and noticed the transceiver in his hands.

He walked toward the Shaxes monarch till he was a few inches from him.

They were standing one in front of each other.

"I guesss thats yous wants thats," said the King

Gluskap shooked his head.

Ther Elders were speechless.

"Thenn say its, cowarrd"

Gluskap looked behind him and then back at him.

"Say its"

The Hummingbirds Leader puffed up and stood straight.

"I challenge the King in a fight to the death for his throne and that object" announced him proud

"That's preposterous. A foreigner. A clone can't do it" said the oldest Elder

"This is outrageous"

"The King won't allow it"

Gluskap looked at the King.

The King inflated his chest and made one step forward. His face was slightly lower than Gluskaps', but he was still able to sustain his look.

"I accept. If I lose all my kind will responds to you and this strange relic will be yours"

Gluskap grinned.

"If you lose…"

He was here to hear that. He couldn't wait to hear the Shaxes prize.

"We'll kill all of you. One by one. And we'll scatter your rest in Drekavac. No one will remember you. No one"

Kurban and the chief of the town were walking around the settlement, followed by a couple of armed people who were watching them. To Kurban, his face looked familiar but he wasn't able to remember who had those features.

They were still underground, surrounded by the citizens and their shops.

Kurban was eating the crumb of a piece of bread which was donated to him from a local baker.

"Do you like it?" asked the Chief, while touching the cap which was on his head.

Kurban finished chewing then gulped.

"Yes…it has a different flavour. I've eaten bread my whole life but now I think that this is what real bread tastes like"

"How so?"

"I think that all the food we have in the city is manufactured to taste like the original recipe. There has always been something to it which made me think"

"We have bread, but I've never seen a wheat field, not even in the Hara, we have fish but there's no water around…"

"Lud, your ancestor, told us that a woman named Cressida was creating clones of real human beings. Is it possible that she did the same with the food?"

"I…I don't know" said Kurban while outing another piece of crumb in his mouth

They kept walking along the street. Everyone greeted them and looked at Kurban with a weird and cheerful look.

"You will get used to it"

"I suppose so. Am I really the first clone who has ever reached Rocabarra?"

"Yes. We didn't expect that"

"Why haven't you ever tried to contact the city?"

"When Lud brought all the survivors together told us that there was no reason to go back. Most of our forebearers didn't agree with that but, after a small confrontation, we reached a compromise"

"Which one?"

"No one would've left Rocabarra. The only way to do it was by becoming an explorer, but people were scared"

"Of what?"

"You don't know the truth; you know one of the many which were told you at birth"

"Tell me, please?"

"Before your city and Rocabarra there was Scarbray…"

The Chief told him all about the history of the planet, describing how was life back then.

"We don't know what happened in your city after Lud left, we just know that our benefactors were talking to them, to Cressida"

"Cressida…?"

"Yes, she is the one who rebuilt the city from ground zero, after the attack"

"You mean Lady Gehenna, don't you?"

"I…I don't know. Probably she changed her name…"

"What about your benefactors?"

"They are the ones who helped during the restoration and building of Rocabarra"

"I've seen your Dragonflies. We have them too"

"Wait, do you mean that Agaklythos has been feeding his tech to both our communities?"

"I don't know what Agaklythos is…"

"The Empire of Agaklythos. The symbol on the aircrafts is theirs"

"Alright…Why would they give flying weapons to both our cities?"

"To let us protect ourselves"

"Didn't you tell me that they protected us during the attack of what you called…a dark angel?"

"Yes, so?"

"What is their deal?"

"We don't know. I can only tell you that after their arrival a new star appeared in the sky"

"Which star?"

"The one which never stops shining, Awen"

The Chief showed him a painting with a purple star above a quiet desert.

"Fenrisulfr…"

"What?"

"This is the name which a strange species uses to call it"

After that, they arrived at a building and walked into it. After strolling along a corridor, they found themselves in front of a door.

The Chief opened the door and let him in.

He seated on a chair which was set at the head of an oval table. With him there were other citizens of Rocabarra, looking at him with a mixture of interest and mistrust.

Kurban went to the only empty chair in the room and take his seat.

"Now, Kurban, our question to you: why are you here?"

A thick veil of smoke was filtering through the elevator's door, darkening the air inside it. Gehenna started coughing. The alarm was still screaming in his hears.

The doors opened and she got out. In front of him there were the burned smithereens of his lab.

He walked in, cautiously. Cracked metal was scattered around, black and fuming. There were also pools of water scattered on the ground, blended with bits of glass and flesh.

She was the only one there, yet.

The radiation chamber was open, and a gas was being blown out of it. She found a mask on the ground, but she didn't take it.

Pods were lying on the ground and its content was sprinkled here and there. Limbs and innards of clones where all over the place.

A tear left his right eye.

All her work…years…decades of work gone.

Lab 8. She needed to go there.

She went to it and found it in a better situation than the rest.

The door was uprooted. She walked into it.

The eight pods were missing, and his desk was wrecked.

She didn't understand.

Then she went out of Lab 8, looking around to think where they could've been moved.

A hand caught her leg.

"He…Hel…," said a dying scientist

She was startled by him but tried his best to stay calm.

"What happened here?" asked to him

"Hu…. Bir…" told him while pointing his finger in a direction on the left side of the lab

She got down and caressed the ruined face of the clone.

Then tossed his hand away and went toward the way indicated by the scientist.

As she walked there, a strange and unsettling sensations started crawling under her skin.

There was something familiar with that modus operandi. She felt like it wasn't the first time.

She arrived where the clone showed her and found pieces of blue glass and LEDs on the ground.

She observed carefully that part of the lab. She was hoping to find her pods.

Then she saw something on the wall.

She put her shaking hand on it. Then she closed it in a fist.

Tithon was still on the ground when his butler introduced himself.

"Sir, Malsumis and the Commander are here. They…"

"Let them in" cut him short

He nodded and his faithful allies stepped in.

"I know what happened. I've heard it. Who did it?" said Tithon briskly

They both had stuff hanging in their hands.

"They attacked the lab and destroyed everything in there with these…" said Fanon while putting the burned mask and the bomb remains on the table, over the shattered glass.

Malsumis did the same.

Tithon looked at those. His jaw was tilting.

Then he stood up and removed the glass pieces from his clothes.

"What should we do?"

"Where is Gehenna?"

"Still in the lab"

"Bring her to me. Prepare your men and Malsumis…"

"Yes, Tithon"

"Stop messing with your ancestor's pod and recruit every man, woman and kid who wants to fight"

He immediately stopped touching the tanks where was immersed Janus' body.

"You have your tasks. Now go"

Malsumis and Fanon left the room swiftly and he was alone. Again.

He was thinking.

Peace. Does it even exist?