Savior Part 2: Son of Eden (The Savior Series) (30 page)

“You’re out of your freaking mind if you think I’m gonna let that
thing
take over her!” I growled.

“
What
did you say?!” The Greater barked as anger flared into his fiery blue eyes.

“You heard me! If you even—”

“The Vessel is none of your concern,
blasphemer!
” The Greater boomed. “And know that if you disrespect the Goddess in my presence again I will strike you down where you stand!”

My fists trembled with rage as I took a deep breath and tried my best to remain calm. Not out of fear but because I still wanted to see if I could extract some answers from him before the crap hit the fan.

“Why her? Why can’t you just use someone else?” I selfishly demanded as the helicopters overhead shined their flood lights on us.

“Because that’s how it has to be, Reaper,
” an electronically distorted voice suddenly answered on the earpiece inside my mask. For a second I thought the voice sounded eerily like the voice of my dead brother P.J. but I instantly realized why when I noticed, Alias, the Stranger who had taken my brother’s place, emerge from one of the Stranger SUVs. I held my fist in the air once more to keep the Army and Air Force troops from firing as Alias slowly approached The Greater and me. His long black and crimson trench coat flared open as he made his way toward us, revealing a holstered .50 caliber pistol that was the exact same type my brother used to use during his time as The Suspect. As I glared into the half frowning/half smiling mask that he wore on his face it took everything in me not to zoom over and break him in half.

“There is no other way to avert the destruction of Earth, Reaper. Monica has to be sacrificed so that our entire world is not destroyed,”
Alias continued as he stopped his approach fifteen feet away from us.

“How can you expect me to willingly allow them to kill billions of people?” I demanded as I glared at him.

“But we can save billions as well, Reaper! If we do not resist, the Anokians will only sacrifice the necessary amount of lives needed to resurrect their Goddess. If your mission is truly to save the world, then you should know that this is the only way to do so. Your brother knew this, Reaper and that is why he created the Final Solution—not to destroy this world but to establish a new one once the dust had settled.”

“How could you know that The Suspect was my brother?!” I gasped as my heart suddenly pounded even faster than before. I was about to ask again but as Alias removed his twisted tragedy mask and looked deeply into my eyes, I was left completely frozen in shock by the face that was staring back at me.

“AUDREY?!” I GASPED AS THE INITIAL SHOCK OF SEEING her face finally wore off. My heart was still beating so hard that it felt like I was about to have a heart attack but I at least had gotten to the point where I could speak. She was silent as she stood there holding her twisted mask in her hands. Due to her height and bulky body armor, it had been easy to mistake her for a guy when she was wearing the mask, but now that the truth was literally staring me in the face I couldn’t help but wonder how I could have been so blind.

“How could you?” I growled between my teeth, cutting her off before she had a chance to speak.

“I’m sorry, Reaper,” Audrey said somberly as the wind flowed through her silky scarlet hair.

“You used me! You stole my wormhole beacon that night at 3D, didn’t you? Geez, how could I have been such an idiot?! You’ve been playing me this entire time!”

“I had to, Reaper. I had to ensure that your brother’s death was not in vain. His cause was too important for—”

“My brother was a certifiable maniac! And he and anyone whoever followed his
cause
are better off dead as far as I’m concerned!” I barked.

“But you don’t understand what The Suspect has done for us, Reaper! What he has done for our entire planet! The Righteous was going to destroy the world before P.J. made contact with him. Your brother had been hacking into government files for years and when he found out about the peril that this world was in it was he who reached out to The Righteous, not the other way around. In exchange for The Suspect’s help with keeping America locked within a perpetual war on terrorism The Righteous agreed to only sacrifice enough people to resurrect their Goddess as opposed to destroying the world entirely. Don’t you see, Reaper? Without your brother, the sliver of hope that we now have wouldn’t even be possible! All we need to do is allow them to complete the ritual and as long as the new world that rises from the ashes severs ties with the Equillian Federation we can live in peace.”

“P.J. wasn’t concerned about a new world. He didn’t even want to stay here! He was going to leave with the Anokians!” I scoffed.

“The Suspect always believed that his destiny was beyond the stars but he still wanted to change the world before he left. ‘Grim though it may be, we must destroy this world so that the next shall prosper.’ When your brother spoke those words he wasn’t talking about simply blowing up the planet, Reaper. He was talking about helping the Anokians destroy the corrupted foundation upon which this planet was built in order to make way for a more perfect society. Many of us had planned to join him and leave this galaxy with the Anokians after the ritual was complete but there were many other Strangers who elected to stay behind to help rebuild the new world and carry on your brother’s legacy.”

“You’re out of your mind, Audrey,” I said flatly.

“I am doing what is best for our species, Reaper. Can’t you see that? Can’t you see that the good of the many is much more important than the good of just one girl?”

“If you’re talking about Monica you are
really
barking up the wrong tree,” I warned.

“I’m talking about you, Reaper! I’m talking about the decision that
you
have to make to ensure that we are not annihilated!” Audrey insisted.

“I can’t just let them take her. She means too much to me!” I admitted.

“More than the entire world? More than me?” Audrey asked as her expression softened.

The saddened look within her shimmering blue eyes instantly melted my rage away and within a fraction of a second I realized that despite what had happened I still cared about her as much as I did before I knew of her treachery.

“You don’t want me to answer that,” I finally said as I peered into her eyes.

“But I do, Reaper! And I want you to say that you’ll choose me. Join me in the Andromeda Galaxy and we can leave this entire world behind. I wasn’t lying when I said that I had fallen in love with you. I never meant for that to happen but that doesn’t change the fact that it did.”

I was silent for a moment as I contemplated her words. She certainly seemed genuine but how could she expect me to believe her when she had been manipulating me for months?

“Even if I was crazy enough to agree with this nonsense what makes you think you can take the Anokians at their word? What makes you think they won’t destroy us all the second their fleet gets them off of this planet?” I asked.

“My father will keep his word so long as the humans keep theirs,” The Greater boomed.

“His word means nothing to me! And I’m sorry, Audrey, but there’s no way in hell I can stand by and let this happen,” I said.

“You can’t be this naive, Reaper,” The Greater said firmly. “My father has bred so much hate between the nations of this world that the chances of them forming a unified military front against the Knights of Eden are next to nothing! Your resistance is pointless and you have no chance to defend yourselves against us.”

“We won’t have to. Once I kill you and The Righteous I’ll just call the dogs off myself,” I replied.

“Reaper, tell me you’re not about to do what I think you’re about to do!”
Howie’s voice suddenly rang out in my earpiece. I knew what he was getting at. He didn’t want me to take on The Greater by myself but I was in no mood to be discouraged so I switched off the radio in my mask as I reached for the Mark of Eden.

“I just tossed you around as though you were nothing, Reaper,” The Greater boasted. “What makes you think you will fair differently if I choose to give you a second chance?”

“You can’t get rid of me that easily, Reaper!”
Howie yelled as he hacked into the radio in my mask.
“Don’t do it, Reap! You need back-up—”
Howie started to say before I yanked my mask off and tossed it away.

“I don’t want to see you get hurt, Reaper. You have to stand down before it’s too late,” Audrey pleaded as I angrily eyed The Greater.

“I’m not the one you should be worried about,” I replied coldly as I withdrew the small silvery Mark of Eden from within my coat. “How’d you like to go another round, big boy?” I quipped as I glared at The Greater and held the glimmering necklace before me.

“Impossible!” he gasped as his eyes widened in disbelief. The crowd of Strangers and U.S. Army troops clamored in anticipation but no one fired as The Greater stared at the Mark of Eden. “But how? You—you’re just a genetically modified human! You are not Anokian!” he continued.

“That’s where you’re wrong,
Darius!
I’m part Anokian and part human and I have the blessing of Ezekiel, The Elder to challenge you for the Right Hand of the Broken Crown.”

“You
fool!
The Elder is dead!” The Greater scoffed. “And I will not allow you to sully his great name for the purpose of furthering your Equillian trickery.”

“There’s no trickery here,” I replied as I tossed the Mark of Eden over to him. I watched in silence as The Greater caught the necklace and studied it, obviously judging it for authenticity. “If you don’t want to fight that’s fine with me. Just throw in the towel and point me in the direction of The Righteous and I’ll be on my way,” I continued.

He ignored my remarks and stared in awe as he pressed a small silver button on the back of the Mark of Eden and the necklace projected a small blue hologram of The Elder delivering his blessing onto me.

“So The Elder has betrayed us,” he muttered as he holstered his large pistol and tossed the Mark of Eden to my feet. The smoldering glow in his eyes intensified as the wind flowed between his dark shoulder length hair and white cloak. The tail of my coat also wavered in the wind as I picked up the Mark of Eden and held it before me once again.

“Wait, Reaper! You’re making a huge mistake,” Audrey pleaded as I held the Mark within my clenched fist.

“I don’t have anything else to say to you,” I said coldly.

“But you’re being manipulated, Reaper! You’re fighting for the wrong side and you don’t even know it!”

“You’re one to talk! I’m not the one who sided with aliens over their own people!” I growled.

“But the Anokians are your people too, Reaper! When we broke into Area 51 we took a lot more than just the interstellar communicator. Among the terabytes of top-secret information that was stolen we found countless files with information about you and your father. I know they must be keeping this information from you because I know your outlook would change if you knew that you father was—”

Audrey’s words were suddenly interrupted by an onslaught of rockets that were unleashed from above by the Air Force helicopters that scrambled overhead. Audrey quickly darted away to safety as the surrounding Stranger army and U.S. military troops opened fire while The Greater and I stood amongst the fray.

“I am Adam, The Reaper—barer of the Mark of Eden and I stand before you with the blessing of Ezekiel, The Elder to challenge you, Darius, The Greater for the Right Hand of the Broken Crown. Do you accept?!” I yelled over the sounds of the raging battle around us.

The Greater’s fiery eyes smoldered as he glared at me in silence while the Strangers and U.S. Army troops continued to clash around us.

“Do you accept?!” I bellowed, as my heart rate quickened.

“I accept!” he growled just as we both struck out towards each other with deadly speed. We were both thrown backward by a powerful shockwave that erupted as soon as we slammed into each other. The Greater's eyes were wide with surprise as he pulled himself to his feet and glared at me. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was shocked that I had not gone down as easily as I had before. He was still significantly more powerful than me but the adrenaline that had built up in my system had made me much stronger than I had been when we first squared off.

“You ain’t seen nothing yet!” I shouted as we charged towards each other once more. He blocked my right-handed haymaker and returned fire with a right uppercut that launched me from my feet and sent me flying backward as The Strangers and U.S. Soldiers continued to clash in the streets around us.

The Greater leapt high into the air and prepared to crush me with his 2000-pound body as soon as I hit the ground. Luckily one of the nearby soldiers nailed him with an RPG in mid-air and gave me just enough time to scramble to my feet. In a blur, I charged into him and followed up with a three punch combination that could have demolished a bunker but The Greater took the earth-shattering punches in stride and delivered a crushing spinning back hand that sent me flying once again. Bullets and debris from the battle that surrounded us continued to bounce off of our armor as I pulled myself up and the two of us approached each other once more.

I ducked an incoming right hook from The Greater and zipped behind him and hoisted him into the air before he could recover his balance. In a flash I slammed the 2000-pound behemoth to the ground, rolled on top of him and repeatedly smashed my armored fists against his face with all my might. Bright blue light suddenly poured out of his eyes as I pulled my right fist back and prepared to drop another devastating blow onto him but before I could deliver my attack I was suddenly thrown backward by a blistering wave of fiery blue energy that was slowly corroding my armor as I sailed through the air. My armor sizzled and smoked as I hit the pavement fifty feet away from The Greater and collapsed to the ground in excruciating pain. The Greater stood with his eyes still emanating the blue light and his hands and forearms were now engulfed by a wreath of blue and white fire.

The U.S. soldiers concentrated their fire on The Greater as I fought to overcome the burning pain that reverberated throughout my entire body. The smoldering blue energy surrounding The Greater’s hands intensified as he raised his arms to shield his eyes from the machine gun fire from the attack helicopters above. With a swift sweep of his right hand a potent wave of scorching blue and white power suddenly ripped into the sky and sent several of the Apache helicopters up into a brilliant ball of fire. I scrambled to my feet to stop him from going after the ground troops that were still concentrating their useless gunfire on him but he had already leapt high into the air before I moved to stop him.

My chest tightened in horror as The Greater landed and slammed his fist into the ground beneath him, sending a towering wave of his lethal energy ripping outward in all directions. I leapt fifty feet into the air in order to avoid the blast but by the time I hit the ground, most of the soldiers below had been reduced to nothing more than smoking skeletons. My fist trembled with rage as a strong wind blew in and reduced their charred corpses into nothing more than black dust. Several knots tightened in my stomach as The Greater set his sights on another wave of approaching soldiers. Adrenaline flooded my system and my heart pounded in my chest as I watched them open fire onto the unstoppable juggernaut that was approaching them. I couldn’t help but admire their courage. No one would have blamed them if they had fled after witnessing what had just happened to their comrades, yet they all continued to push back The Strangers and press on against The Greater despite knowing that they too would most likely be destroyed if he were to unleash another blast of his unearthly power. Their bullets were useless against his dense skin and Anokian-Steel armor and I knew that if I didn’t intervene he would soon kill every last one of them. These were men and women of honor and they would have gladly laid down their lives in service of their country and in this case the entire human race but they deserved a much better fate than being incinerated into unrecognizable corpses only to be blown away into nothing by the next strong wind.