Authors: Micheal Kostura
Allison smiles and lets go of her father’s hand. She locks eyes with him and feels a spark light up inside of her. This day marked a new chapter of Allison’s life- she knew the truth about her mother’s disappearance, she had managed to gain newfound confidence in herself, and she was no longer willing to act as her father’s lapdog. On any other day, Allison couldn’t have said what she was about to say and mean it with all of her being. But with her newfound powers- as well as her teammates standing behind her- she wholeheartedly meant what she said next.
“I’m ready for anything.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Hector
Hector and Damon patiently wait amidst a crowd of Shadow Walkers for the Council to finally make their announcement. The time was eight fifty-four in the afternoon, and the Council members were still nowhere to be seen. The plaza was filled with nothing but excited Walkers who couldn’t wait to begin their celebration. Hector heard a small rumor spread around here and there. According to one of them, there was one Walker who took on Valus all by himself, and he ended up sending the Void crying back to the Pit.
Hector actually enjoyed all of the chaos surrounding him- it felt good. The mission he went on was way too stressful for him to actually have any fun. But here in the Pit, he could finally just sit back and relax. And since he had Damon there, he would finally have someone to talk to whenever he was bored. Upon looking at the Void boy standing next to him, Hector is reminded of the imposter that had tricked him in the Shadow Realm. He felt stupid for not immediately realizing that it was a fake. After all, being with the real Damon made him feel so much more at peace.
After a few minutes pass, Isaac and Allison show up together. Hector immediately wishes that Nick could have been there to celebrate. He hated knowing that his friend had to miss out on the fun, but he was secretly grateful that Nick put himself in the hospital. If he had come to the castle with the rest of them, then there was no doubt in Hector’s mind that the boy’s mother would have appeared before him. And he wasn’t sure if his teammate would have been able to handle that kind of situation.
The announcement begins exactly at nine o’clock. The three Council members simultaneously shadow jump to the top of the stairs that lead to the Guards HQ. The crowd cheers, including Hector himself. It only takes a few seconds for the crowd to quiet down, and then Council member Janice steps forward to speak.
“The first thing that we want to do here is to congratulate all of the Walkers who have returned to the Pit. No one can tell you what kind of job you did besides you and your fellow teammates who fought alongside you. And most importantly, we praise all of the Walkers who, over the course of this very important mission, have lost their lives in the line of duty. Every single one of them will be honored as heroes who sacrificed their lives to protect the Pit. Let this celebration not only honor the heroes who foiled the Void’s plan, but all Walkers who put their lives on the line!”
The crowd cheers unanimously. Hector wondered how they could all be so happy. Even as he found himself cheering, he was mainly thinking of how many of the Walkers surrounding him had lost somebody in the line of duty. How did they feel about the cheering? How would Nick have felt if he were there?
Council member Axus steps forward, and the crowd goes silent once again. “This past week will leave a mark in the history of the Pit. The Void, in all of their attempts to eradicate us, have failed. Let tonight be a special commemoration of the history you all have made! But before we do that, we want you all to meet somebody very important. Damon of the Void, please step forward.”
Damon loses all traces of his smile the moment his name is called out. At the mention of a Void the crowd immediately goes into a fit of barely hushed whispers. Some Walkers even begin yelling insults to the Void. It was obvious that the crowd was utterly confused as to what was going on. Hector gives Damon a slight push, and the boy reluctantly starts walking towards the stairs. His shyness only made Hector want to laugh at him.
Damon reaches Axus and shakes the Council members hand. Axus wraps his arm around Damon’s shoulders and looks over the crowd. “This boy is half Void and half human. Janice has already confirmed that he has no evil intent towards us Walkers. Damon fled from the Void itself because he felt the same way us Walkers do about the rest of his kind. He doesn’t crave destruction and death like the rest of the Void do.”
The crowd remains silent as Axus takes a deep breath. He then looks at Damon and smiles. “When we first met this boy, we were wary of his intentions. Was he a spy sent to gather information, or a double agent meant to betray us? But we quickly realized that he was of no threat to us. In fact, Damon here even helped us out in our battle against the Void. He was the one who provided us with the information that helped us complete our mission. And we promised him that if we succeeded in this mission, that we would give him a home here in the Pit.”
The crowd doesn’t say anything, which Hector didn’t know how to take as a response. But the silence doesn’t keep Axus from laughing. Hector didn’t understand what the Council member found so funny, but it felt good to see at least one other Walker welcome Damon. He quickly regains his composure and sighs. “I know that some of you may hate the idea of having a Void here in the Pit, but it isn’t up for debate. If anyone puts a hand on this boy just because of his Void bloodline, then I will personally go after them without mercy. Damon is no longer just a Void, he is… a Void Walker.” Axus smiles and shakes his head. “Okay, too cheesy. But you all get the message.”
Axus whispers something into Damon’s ear and then walks back to the other two Council members. Hector could tell that his friend was absolutely terrified of being put in the spotlight, and it made him want to smile. Watching other people be put in awkward situations was something that always entertained Hector- but it was even better seeing his own friend be put in such a position.
Marcus Marxon walks up next. “Captain Isaac, please bring your team up to the front.”
Hector looks at his captain and throws his arms in the air. “We’re superstars!” He whispers.
Isaac rolls his eyes and holds his arm out. “Shut up and grab on.”
Hector and Allison both grab onto their captains arm, and together they shadow jump to the top of the stairs. Hector walks over to Damon and grins. The Void boy begins blushing from the onslaught of embarrassment.
Marcus Marxon speaks in a matter-of-fact tone. “Captain Isaac and his subordinates were the VIP players over the course of this mission. His team, accompanied by Damon, was able to take down two of the monsters that threatened our home, as well as one that threatened Eros.” He pauses for a moment as he looks to the side. He makes eye contact with Hector and Allison before quickly returning his attention to the crowd.
“Their third team member, Nicholas Winters, is still alive. Unfortunately he couldn’t make it, as he is at the hospital recovering from his injuries.”
The crowd almost immediately goes into an uproar. People shout over each other, and Hector could barely understand a word they were saying. He manages to make out three words that were repeated several times: ‘useless’, ‘unforgivable’, and ‘traitor’. One man in the front row shouts loud enough to stand out against the rest. “So Maria Winters had a child after all?”
The Walkers all begin to gossip back and forth with each other. Allison and Hector exchange confused expressions, and their captain shakes his head in disbelief. Marcus holds up his hand and the crowd goes silent. After all of the bad things Hector had heard about Allison’s father, he found how much respect the man received utterly baffling.
“Yes, that disgraced Council member’s child lives on here in the Pit. But unlike his mother, the boy is showing that he is actually a good contribution to the Guard. My own daughter here, Allison Marxon, is on her journey to take over as head of the Marxon family. And Hector Avern, the source of much of your gossip over the past seventeen years, is a Walker and Invert hybrid.”
As Hector expected, the crowd absolutely loses it after that announcement. Though it didn’t surprise him one bit. After all, they had an Invert and a Void standing in their home- the same home that the two of them worked together in order to protect. Nobody liked having their enemies step into their home territory, but Hector and Damon were doing just that.
Amidst the yelling Hector makes out some pretty harsh insults, but it was mostly just astonishment. He felt good, he felt appreciated- he was a hero. He looks at Damon- who still looked as if he may have been ready dig a hole to hide inside of- and decides that he no longer had any reason to feel like an outcast.
He grabs Damon by the hand and pulls the boy in close. Then, without any hesitation, Hector goes in for his very first kiss. The crowd goes silent, and Hector pulls away from the Void. Damon was blushing already, and looked even more embarrassed than ever before. Hector turns to the crowd.
“Yes, he’s a Void. And yes, I’m an Invert. And if anyones got a problem with that, then I’ll just come down there and kick your ass.”
Isaac throws his head back and laughs. Even Allison offers him an encouraging smile. Marcus Marxon looks back to the crowd, completely ignoring the show of affection it it’s entirety.
“In any case, these four standing here, as well as their missing teammate, have put in the most effort to save the Pit. Today, we will celebrate them. And you will celebrate each other for putting your lives on the line in order to stop the terror that is the Void! Now party on, Walkers!”
The crowd cheers. Hector sees many glasses get raised into the air. The Walkers could finally let loose and have some fun. Even the ones who were angry at him and Damon were now probably too busy getting drunk. He feels a tap on his shoulder and turns to see Council member Axus smiling down at him.
“That was pretty brave of you, Hector.”
Hector shrugs. “Yeah, well I am pretty awesome after all.”
“Do you and your boyfriend want to join Janice and me for a drink?” Axus offers.
“I mean we’re not really dating…” He replies as his cheeks start to light up. “Besides, I think I’m just going to head home and relax. I drank once before and I ended up barfing for two days straight. Partying is not my thing.”
“I see.” Axus says. “In any case, stop by tomorrow with the rest of your team. The other Council members and I want to further discuss some of the things that your captain told us about.”
“Will do.” Hector says. He turns around and taps Damon on the shoulder. The boy looked as if someone had turned him to stone. “You wanna get outta here?”
Damon cocks his head. “Be embarrassed here or go home and relax...” He rolls his eyes and playfully punches Hector’s arm. “What do you think?”
Hector laughs and grabs onto Damon’s shoulder. “I love when you ask that.” He says.
Allison looks over and pouts. “Going to leave already?” She asks.
“Yeah, I just want to lay down and rest for the first time in a week. But if you can, let’s meet up here at about three o’clock tomorrow ”
“Okay, I’ll see you two lovebirds then.” Allison says before walking away.
Hector doesn’t even bother to come up with a comeback. More so, he didn’t feel like what Allison said was really a joke. So instead of his usual witty banter, Hector decides to just tighten his grip on Damon’s shoulder. And with a smile shared between them, the duo slip into a shadow.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Hector
Hector and Damon wait patiently outside of the Council’s meeting room. Damon occasionally asks random questions about the Pit, to which Hector happily answers to the best of his knowledge. He was enjoying his friends permanent move to the Pit, and was more than excited to show him all that his new home had to offer. Of course, that would have to wait until
after
this meeting was over.
After a while, the doors to the waiting room swing open and three people walk in. Two of them Hector was expecting to see, but the third person completely baffles him.
“Nick? What are you doing here? You should be passed out!” He yells as he practically jumps out of his seat.
Nick manages a shy smile and looks down at his feet. “The doctors were pretty confused too. I should have been knocked out for a while, but I woke up earlier this morning and got thoroughly examined. They said that I’m fine to walk around, but I shouldn’t use my powers for a few days.”
“You three are incredible.” Isaac says. “I don’t think anything could hold you guys down,”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Hector says with a shrug. “Well now that we’re all here, we can get this out of the way.”
Isaac nods and opens the door to the meeting room, and the five of them walk into the room as a team. The three Council members looked tired- Hector figured it was probably from drinking too much during the party the night before. Axus breaks the ice after everyone gets settled inside the room.
“Hector Avern, please tell us all of the important information that you attained during your short time in Eros.”
Hector unwillingly complies to the man's order. He begins telling the story from the moment they first met Valus on earth. He opts to leave out the part about his friends being held captive in Eros, as he didn’t want to make the Inverts seem more evil than they really were. He also chooses to ignore the strange conversation he had with the stranger that he and Damon met on the street. He mainly focuses on explaining the deal that he made with the Invert’s, and what their plans for the future were.
When he finishes, Marcus Marxon scoffs. The Council man was rubbing his shoulder all throughout Hector’s recap, and looked as if he was ready to pass out. “So Isaac, you survived the bite with medical help from a Void.”
“Yes. I owe Damon’s sister my life for what she did.”
“To think there was truly a way to stop the bite from turning someone…” Marcus says in wonder.
Axus grunts. “Well personally, I have no qualms with launching a war on the Void. Though I do worry how serious the Inverts are about this arrangement. How do we know that they don’t want Serena’s ring just so they have a power to rival our own? As it stands, Lydia’s ring gives us a war weapon that the Inverts currently lack. They could be trying to get a leg up on us and rekindle the rivalry that we held so long ago.”
“That’s a worry of mine too, however…” Janice pauses and sighs. “I can meet with the Inverts myself and confirm their intentions. No lies can be told before me. And if their intentions truly are pure, then I’m all for helping them destroy the Void.”
Damon holds up his hand and everyone looks at him. He looks at the ground when he talks. “My mother is on track to regain all of her power by June or July next year. If the Inverts plan really works then it would present you with your only chance at winning a war with the Void. Once my mother returns to her full strength, you won’t be able to stop her- even if you have Serena and Lydia’s rings.”
Janice nods. “He speaks the truth. Personally, I’m all for taking this chance. The Void have plagued us for far too long, and this is our only opportunity to finally put an end to them. I say we form an official alliance with the Inverts and follow through with their plans. What about you, Marcus? If you’re in for it as well then we won’t need to ask our advisors for their input.”
Allison’s father takes his hand off of his shoulder and sighs. “I’m not keen on working with the Inverts, but even I can no longer deny that we’ll need their assistance to take on the Queen of the Void herself. As long as we can confirm the Inverts intentions using your powers, then I’m all for this plan.”
“Then that’s that.” Axus says with a bit of excitement in his voice. “Once we make a confirmation on the Inverts, we can announce our alliance and our plan to the rest of the Guard.”
“They’re gonna be scared out of their minds.” Isaac mutters.
Hector nods in agreement. He looks at Damon and grins. It was thanks to him that the Walkers were able to stop the Void’s extermination plan. And it was also thanks to him, by telling Zerik and his father about Hector’s existence, that they might be able to get Serena’s ring. Damon was the trigger- a Void turned traitor who would mark the beginning of the biggest war in history.
“Oh!” Hector says as he remembers one of the things that he wanted to discuss with the Council. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the purple stone capable of activating his “Room” ability. He focuses his energy into the stone, pointing it at Janice. A small silver portal appears next to her, and a book suddenly emerges from it and falls to the desk.
“I found that book in the castle of the Shadow Realm. It had some really interesting stuff in it, and I figured it would be smart to take it while I was there. We won’t get another chance to go back, so… yeah. I didn’t understand any of it, but it talks about a lot of weird things. Just look at page 15- the page it was left on when I found it.”
Janice picks the book up and opens it to the page that Hector recommended. She begins reading its text out loud. “The day I met Serena I knew that I had walked into something special- someone special. It had been a long time since I found someone that made me feel so… alive. I mean, how could someone so beautiful and strong really exist?” Janice pauses and cracks a smile. “Hector, you dope- this book belonged to none other than Lydia Walker. This is talking about the day she met Serena. The two were a bad case of ‘love at first sight’. To think that she would leave something so personal in the Shadow Realm.”
“Oops, wrong page.” Hector says. “Turn to page
one-hundred
and fifteen.”
She begins flipping through the pages of the book. She settles on a page and begins reading to herself. After a few seconds her face contorts in an expression of horror.
“What is it?” Axus asks. Janice shakes her head and exhales deeply. She hands the book over to Axus. Hector thought that the Council member was the toughest person in the Pit, but even he seemed to be quite scared by what was in the book. Marcus takes the book from Axus’ hands, and upon reading its contents, his jaw drops in awe.
“Thats impossible! We would have seen them by now. I don’t believe that such a crazy thing could exist.” He shouts.
“Well do you expect the humans to believe in the existence of the Void?” Axus snaps back.
Isaac holds his hands out in protest. “Hey, calm down guys. What’s in the damn book?” He looks at Hector with a raised brow, but Hector didn’t plan on saying a word. The few things that he did understand in the book made him anxious, and he refused to even speak about the things he read. The Council deserved to know, and it was up to them to decide how to handle the information.
Janice sighs. “We mustn't let the other Walkers hear about this or they’ll be cowering in fear. I’m going to put my trust in Lydia’s words. The answers that she wrote down in this book confirm many of the suspicions that I’ve held for all these years.”
“Then we will keep the book under our own possession.” Marcus says flatly. He looks at Hector and points his finger at the young Walker. “Hector, don’t you dare tell anyone about the contents of this book. Do you understand me? This information would cause chaos to rise among the Walkers and the Inverts. And we already have too much planned for the future- we don’t need to add this drama on top of it.”
“Yeah, whatever. I didn’t plan on saying anything.” Hector grumbles.
Marcus flips through the pages, skimming them as if he were trying to find a specific chapter. He stops on one page and grips his shoulder- a tick that Hector had long since caught onto. Allison’s father reads from the book.
“The first man to survive through the bite became as strong as Serena and myself- something that no-one deemed possible. His power was unmeasurable, and his very presence left my body shivering. Somehow, he managed to obtain a Stitch and still keep his Walker powers. Three Chains and a Stitch was something that intimidated even me. Thankfully, he also retained his personality, and had no intention to harm us.
“But he only survived for a short time after the bite. Once he tried to face the Queen of the Void herself, he was slain without mercy. The whole thing was just too strange to me. Nobody else had ever survived the bite, but he pulled through it and was perfectly normal. I’m beginning to think that only someone with elite power and a strong soul can survive the decaying process.” Marcus puts the book down and laughs. “Do you hear that?”
“It’s sounds like nonsense.” Janice says. “But I’ll believe anything if it comes from Lydia Walker. If the man she wrote about was truly as strong as herself, then I believe he could fight against the bite. After all, Gerald showed strong signs of resistance, more so than your average Walker. Maybe a captain from the Midnight Order has the potential to survive the bite. Who knows what would have happened to Isaac if he weren’t healed.”
“This is incredible.” Marcus grips his shoulder even tighter as his eyes grow wide. “This means that there is a way to not only get stronger, but to survive the one thing that we’ve feared for so long.”
“Woah, woah, woah,” Axus says, “You of all people did not just say that the Void could make us stronger.”
“I’m only reading what the text says. The man who was bitten retained his Walker powers and his sanity. And after the decaying process was over, he became powerful enough to compare to Lydia Walker herself. I’m not saying that we should be letting Walkers get bitten on the off chance that they can survive, but…” A wicked grin forms on Marcus’ face. “If someone
were
to survive, they would be an unstoppable military force. Power like that would be useful in the war against the Void.”
Hector stretches his arms out and yawns. “Okay, I don’t really care about all of this stuff. I just want to say one more thing before I go home and crash. Page 312- It has all of the confirmation that we need about what’s going on on May eighth next year.”
Axus takes the book from Marcus, much to the man’s displeasure. Once he finds the correct page he reads aloud the only message on the page.
“The eighth of May is the only day that Serena will allow any future visitors into her home. She decided that, before we head into this final battle of ours, that it would be best to leave her ring in her fortress. Though people may find it hard to actually get inside. Only someone who can parallel our relationship will be able to unlock the entrance. And that person is the only one who will be able to use the power of her ring to it’s fullest potential. Though I don’t know how long it will take for someone to truly be as daring as we were…”
Damon puts his hand on Hector’s shoulder. “That part has to be talking about someone like Hector. Serena and Lydia- a Walker and an Invert- were women from two different worlds that managed to fall in love. Hector
is
a Walker and an Invert. His very existence parallels the love that those two fought for.”
Hector blushes. He wasn’t sure why hearing Damon talk like that made him feel so important, but the reason really didn’t matter. No matter how much he hated it- no matter how much he would rather Allison be in the spotlight instead of him- Hector had to face the fact that he
was
important. Damon was the trigger that started the fall of the Void, and Hector would be the force that pushes the Walkers forward.
“Hector,” Axus starts, “If what Lydia says is true, then you truly will be the key to our victory against the Void. Do you understand what this means?”
“Yeah.” Hector responds flatly. “It means I’m going to have a lot of work to do.”