Marco walked through the mist and unlike before this place felt comfortable to him. The mist that had been a hindrance before was now lighter than air. The air that had been cloying was now refreshing. And he knew the necklace resting around his neck was the cause. Glancing down at the stone he saw it was quiet, no light radiating off it.
Walking confidently through it all his feet somehow knew when to step when the pedestal appeared. Stepping onto it he took a slow breath and watched as red ascended from the base and coated him it’s light. Looking at his hands he chuckled to himself and watched as the others arrived.
Kathryn, Cal and Sarah all appeared one by one but he noticed that Seth’s pedestal was blank. Frowning he looked toward Kathryn and Cal, “Is Seth okay?”
“Yeah he’s fine. Resting. I made sure that,” she folded her arms proud of herself but Cal held a hand over his mouth staring at her. “What?”
Cal covered his mouth and began to laugh looking away, “Oh nothing. Just curious Kat. How do you know that he’s not going to be joining us for sure?”
She glared and huffed at him but looked away. “Because I’m sleeping. On his couch.”
“Oh really? On his couch? At his place? Is that right? Well good for you.”
“Shut the fuck up,” she said slowly. “Make one more joke and I’ll fuck you up.”
“I might not be the only one tonight.”
Marco and Sarah laughed at his words and Kathryn as she mimed taking Cal’s head and beating it in. Cal just blew a kiss her way and laughed. “Jokes and your private life aside I’m glad he’s okay. Didn’t think I’d find myself worrying about him.”
“Me either,” Kathryn admitted.
“I think none of us had any idea of us getting this way,” Sarah said and held a hand over her wrist. “But we’ve gotten this far. Because we worked together.” She frowned looking at the ground and sighed. “Hopefully this ends soon.”
“I think it will be,” Marco said and looked in front of them.
A white column of light appeared and Ley floated out of it stumbling forward but regaining its air footing. The glow that used to permeate it was a shadow of its former self and even the flames of its head had subsided greatly. Everyone reached out to it, unable to reach beyond their pillars and the celestial smiled at them.
“Your concern is appreciated,” it said softly and chuckled. “But my ability to interact and remain is waning.”
“What do you mean?” Sarah asked. “You’re like the center of a galaxy or something right?”
“I was. The apex of my abilities has long since waned and even now this is going away,” it said shutting its eyes for a moment. “I have to return to my realm and recharge as you say. This will be our final meeting.”
“What about our powers?” Sarah asked hesitantly. “Will our powers go away?”
The celestial chuckled softly and shook its head, “No. Your powers are tied to you. Tied to your very beings. When I leave you will remain the protectors of this little blue planet. Which will matter very soon.”
“Why does that sound more cryptic than usual?” Cal asked folding his arms and rubbing them.
“The Taq-Law you defeated was a great victory for yourselves but it managed to accomplish its mission before it was finished,” it said and held up a hand. It showed a small version of the Taq-Law and the energy blast it had fired into the sky. “This is a beacon. And that beacon will call the Taq-Law here.”
“Call them here?” Kathryn repeated. “You don’t mean-?”
“An invasion,” Marco finished and the celestial nodded. “When?”
“I know not. Your final trial is approaching you. If you manage to stop the Taq-Law this time and defeat them they will no longer spend resources on this planet. There will be bigger hurdles for them to overcome. But this will not be easy. It will be the most difficult trial that you’ve faced thus far.”
The light of the celestial flickered and it shook falling to its knee. Raising its eyes to look at them again it chuckled. “You are a tenacious species. Even with my assistance others have fallen. But you are on the cusp of saving yourselves.”
“You’ve done this before?” Marco asked.
“Many. To attempt to stem the flow of the Taq-Law’s invasions. Many times, I have failed.”
“Aren’t you like a God or something?” Cal asked.
“Not quite. Even my psykik energy has it’s limits,” Ley sank to the ground and struggled to keep itself upright fully. “I have one last gift for you all that will even your odds. It will make its presence known when the time is right. Good luck. If any one species can accomplish this I believe it to be yours.”
Finally, Ley lowered its head and then faded away into darkness leaving the four of them alone in their colored pillars. And the silence that crept in was like an unwelcome replacement for Ley. Marco dug his fingers through his head slowly and put his face into his hands. “Okay. So this is it then.”
“Give me a second to not panic,” Cal said holding a hand up and forcing himself to breathe. “A goddamn invasion? Like Independence Day or something?”
“And we’re supposed to stop it,” Kathryn balked and took a step back sitting on the ground.
Sarah shook her head, “We’ve barely been able to take them down one or two at a time. But an invasion? That’s gotta be like hundreds or something.”
“Everyone cool it,” Marco said holding up both his hands and looked at each of them one by one. He took a deep breath and rubbed his forehead. “Whether we like it or not the Taq-Law are going to come and they’re going to try and eliminate us all. Yeah it’s really scary. Fucking terrifying. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scare. But we’re better than that.
“It’ll be bigger than anything we’ve ever fought but Ley said it left something to help us out that’ll even the odds. Ley’s powers and weapons gave us the ability to fight back but actually fighting back and winning. That’s been us. We’ll take what it’s given us and stop them. Not only do we have to do this, I know we can do this.”
The Harlequin Library 