Lord
Dragon knelt in the middle of the courtyard, still weeping over the
ashes of his dead wife.
Krystal
looked around. “Has anyone seen Gar or Chase?”
No
one answered, most looked around in curiosity.
Fiero
rushed over. “I’m trying to reach Nova, he isn’t responding.”
Krystal
flipped out her comm. “He always responds.”
Final
Judgment approached. “We’ve checked most of the island, Chase and
Gar are nowhere to be seen. No one has seen them since we left the
palace.”
EB
hopped over to Quark, an endearing look on his face. “Where’s my
buddies?”
Krystal
shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Maneki-Neko
smiled. “Don’t worry. If they’re at the palace, we put up
another barrier. Even Jinn cannot break that without considerably
more strength than he currently has.”
“All
the same,” Fiero said, “I would rather know where they are.”
“Yes.”
Krystal addressed everyone, “Okay, we...” she paused when EB’s
ears stood up and he looked horrified. “What’s wrong?”
“Chase
broke the egg.”
“The...what?”
Final Judgement asked.
EB
looked up at Lord Dragon. “I gave her a favor egg. If she broke it,
then she’s in trouble. It was broken at your palace.”
Lord
Dragon said, “MY SON WILL NOT KILL AGAIN TODAY!” He flashed and
turned into his dragon form again, blasting off in a flurry.
Crimson
Guardian yelled out, “BACK TO THE PALACE! NOW!” and he took off.
Moments
before:
Jinn
stood before his three victims. They struggled against the restraints
he held them with. Approaching slowly, he eyed each of them.
“I
always knew you were special. The day I first encountered you, I
realized that there was something...not human about you.” He came
close to Chase. “Do you know what I am?”
She
gagged out, “A murderer.”
He
laughed. “Justice isn’t murder.” Turning his attention to Nova
he said, “Did my father ever reveal the truth about us while you
worked for him all those years?”
Nova
growled out, “Why are you telling us this? GET IT OVER WITH!”
Jinn
laughed, “Don’t you want to know the truth? I believe you’ve
secretly understood this for a long time. You see, the last warrior
of our kind fell to this world and died. Oh, but he didn’t die. He
changed, he gave a new life for himself. In his devotion to his duty
of protecting the weak, he enacted a sacrifice. He gave his life to
create, YOU!” He thrust his hand out and Gargoyle was lifted from
the ground. Red energy blazed over his stone body as he seemed to
feel pain.
“NO!
GAR!” Chase cried out.
Jinn
walked closer to Gar still gripping him in this spell. “Yes,
Gargoyle. What gives you life and allows you to exist is the full,
complete energy of your creator. Inside you is the core of power that
fueled the man who sacrificed everything to make you. We are
Vexillians, both of us. You may be crafted by human hands, but your
soul, your very essence is the same as mine. Now, that core of power
inside you will give me all I need to become a true god.” He
tightened his grip, and Gar screamed.
Chase
watched as Gar slowly turned his face to look at her. She fidgeted
and loosened a small object she always kept close. The crystal egg
fell and burst apart.
All
the while, Jinn drew closer to Gar, his hand pulling the energy from
his chest. Gar yelled, perhaps feeling physical pain for the first
time. As he moved, his body became more and more rigid. He slowly
stopped, freezing in place, completely lifeless.
“STOP!
PLEASE!” Chase yelled.
Jinn
stepped back, holding a floating ball of pure light. “It’s too
late, he’s dead. However, I shall let you and Jadid here join him.”
He reached up with one hand and their restraints tightened, cutting
off oxygen and blood flow.
Suddenly
the ceiling exploded as a dragon crashed through. Lord Dragon hit
Jinn with a blast of power and sent him flying out of the room and
into the garden. Chase and Nova gasped for air and fell over as their
restraints vanished.
Jinn
came to his feet, seemingly unfazed by the powerful attack sent at
him. “Oh, dear father, I see you found your senses.”
Before
Lord Dragon could speak, dozens of heroes arrived, as well as EB and
Maneki-Neko. They threw hundreds of energy blasts at Jinn, but he
protected himself with a barrier.
Once
the onslaught stopped, he calmly said, “Not yet, little heroes.
Soon, very soon.” With that, he vanished in a flash of light.
Lord
Dragon took his human form while more heroes arrived and joined the
others, filling the throne room.
Quark
rushed in. “Where is he?”
Nova
stood up. “It’s too late.”
“What?”
Krystal asked.
EB
hopped around the crowd. “Oh, thank goodness. You guys are still
alive.”
Chase
slowly walked over to Gar. “No...we are not.” A wave of gasps
followed as the gathered people realized gargoyle was truly a statue
now.
“No!”
Quark cried out.
People
quieted down as Chase approached Gar. A new heaviness filled the
room. There were no words to be said. The loss was greater in their
hearts than that of Lady Phoenix, for this was closer to them, this
was one of their own.
Chase’s
hands trembled as she reached up and felt that stone face. A look of
agony and fear became the last image he would forever hold. She
whispered, “Can you bring him back?”
Lord
Dragon answered, “That which gave him life has been stolen. I
cannot change that with any amount of power.”
Nova
wanted to say something, but even he was choked up. No one had words
to speak. They all watched as Chase put her hands on Gar and placed
her forehead against his chest.
Suddenly
she gasped. Her power connected to him in a way she had never
connected to anything. She could see his thoughts, his feelings. It
was as though she were standing there, next to him in the past, yet
knowing what he felt inside. For a moment, she sat in the garden with
Gar and Lady Phoenix and listened to him struggle with his feelings
for her. She watched him pick the flower for her the day she arrived
in Japan. She saw herself hugging him, and that overwhelming warmth
in his heart at the embrace. Every small moment he looked upon her
and yearned to tell her how beautiful she was to him, how much he
wanted to be with her all the time. He longed to hold her, to protect
her. Then, that moment in the garden, when she told him Jinn’s
story. Gar was ready, at that moment, to tell her the truth. She saw
herself through the eyes of a man who loved her more than she ever
thought possible.
The
others in this room had no idea what she saw, what she felt, only
that she stayed there for a long time embracing what was left of Gar.
Then, a soft sobbing broke the silence. Tears fell from her and ran
down his stone body.
Nova
slowly approached her, and whispered, “Chase.”
She
turned and fell on him, holding him and weeping on his shoulder, “He
loved me… Oh god, how could I have not seen it? All he wanted was
to hold me. Oh, Nova, I want to hold him, I want to be with him.”
There
was hardly a dry eye in the room. All mourned not just for a lost
hero, but for what was left behind.
One
Week later:
Nova
stood before the monitors at BADGE, speaking with several heroes and
Santa Claus.
Gamma
Ray said, “No sign throughout the entire Asian Continent.”
Strange
Quark added, “I have done an inter-dimensional search. Nothing so
far.”
Santa
reported, “I have been in contact with all the mythics willing to
respond. They haven’t seen hide nor hair of Jinn.”
Nova
spoke to Santa, “We need to know his next move. He has been one
step ahead of us at every point, and that has to stop.”
Santa
responded, “He is clever, has always been. You know that. But we
will put our heads together and figure this out. However, Lord Dragon
has suggested that it may take some time for Jinn to complete this
act of his. It is no small task he is planning. We have some time.”
“Precious
little time,” Quark stated.
Nova
said, “Then we must keep searching for clues. Everyone knows their
jobs, get to it.” He pressed a button and all the screens went
blank.
Nova
left the operations center and walked around the main hall. He
stopped at an open door, expecting to find someone. The room had a
large container set in the center, around it were flowers and gifts
of all descriptions. Gargoyle rested in that box, waiting for a
proper burial. Heroes and even the Italian Embassy sent gifts in
honor of the late hero. However, Nova did not find the person he
expected in here.
Walking
further, he found Chase in the holding cells. “Chase, what are you
doing here?”
She
stood before the cell holding Leprechaun. “I...I thought he might
know something about Jinn.”
“We’ve
already asked him every question. He won’t...”
“He’s
willing to talk.”
Nova
gave Leprechaun a raised eyebrow. “I’m afraid I don’t trust
him.”
“I
do.”
Leprechaun
spoke up, “Nova, I am sorry for what I did.”
“Why
the sudden change of heart?” Nova asked, no trust in his voice.
Leprechaun
walked to the edge of the barrier, “I told you I knew who the
mythic was. I was not lying. However, I did not tell you because...I
wanted to protect him.”
Nova
became enraged. “YOU KNEW!”
“My
brother was the last general who fought Legion on our world. He fled.
Until I met Gargoyle, I didn’t know that it was my brother who came
here. You see, Nova, the power that gave
Gargoyle life also reshaped
him. I know this because the face he wears is that of my nephew, my
brother’s only son. My nephew died at the hands of Legion before we
left. My brother gave Gargoyle the face of the boy he lost, the boy
he loved, the nephew I loved. Now that Jinn has murdered him...I will
turn all my anger, all my vengeance toward him. Whatever you need
from me, I will offer.”
Nova
deactivated the barrier, “I accept.”
