The Next Generation Part 20
The Flames of Revenge
By Krazy Sam
The End of Time seemed to beckon Sari from all sides, taunting her… teasing her… If only she could go down there…
"Your friends are very interesting!" Spekkio cried from the center of the main square. Sari turned around apathetically and raised an eyebrow. It was probably the first time everyone was in one place, and with her old friend Slash, and her ex-friend’s daughter, things were bound to get entertaining.
"So, what kind of magic do I get?" Slash spoke up. Sari snorted. Slash was always so eager to please…
"I don’t know… I’d have to say…Ice!" Sari laughed once more. A cold Mystic, Ice was perfect for Slash. Sari smiled softly as B’Tanya stepped forward. Spekkio grinned widely and bowed.
"You are a kind one!" Spekkio exclaimed. B’Tanya nodded in acknowledgment. "Your heart is pure- therefore, you’re Light! It’s pretty useful when it comes to unholy heathens like Sari over here!" he joked. Sari chuckled as she shook her head.
"I’d rather be a heathen than a saint," she replied simply. "More fun."
B’Tanya giggled. "Careful what you say… I could banish you to Hell if I felt like it."
Sari smirked. "Your mother would enjoy that," she retorted sarcastically. B’Tanya’s eyes widened.
"Who is she? Please, I have to know!" she begged. Sari shook her head.
"Who’s your father?" she shot back. B’Tanya lowered her head.
"I will not say," she finally admitted. Stal exhaled loudly from next to Spekkio.
"Tell her who her damn mother is, Sari!" he shrieked. Sari shook her head stubbornly.
"No. I want to know who her father is FIRST," she returned. Spekkio cleared his throat suddenly.
"Okay, there are some things you should know about the magic- something that will allow you to use it at its fullest," he interrupted.
Sari’s head perked up. "Do continue."
Spekkio smiled, knowing he had the group’s undivided attention. "Well, first off, everyone here has a weakness. For instance, if a person uses Fire magic, they will be weak against the opposite type."
Lana raised an eyebrow. "You mean Ice?" she asked. Spekkio nodded.
"Fire is weak against Ice and vice-versa," he confirmed. "The other opposite pairs are Water and Lightning, Wind and Earth, and Shadow and Light."
Sari smiled softly. "So I’m weak against all that is holy?" she joked. Spekkio nodded.
"Do you want to hear more?" he went on. Stal bobbed his head.
"Yes. Go on," he urged. Spekkio sucked in a deep breath.
"As most of you already know, Shadow and Light are very special forms of magic. Shadow not only controls darkness, but also Fire, Ice, and Lightning. Light is similar, except it controls Earth, Wind, and Water as well."
Sari raised an eyebrow. "So they each control two opposites and one other form?"
Spekkio nodded. "The best part is that Shadow and Light are only really harmed by each other- not the other forms of magic they control. However, only those who possess extreme hatred or extreme love can learn Shadow or Light."
Sari turned away. "I have the hatred of fourteen generations… that’s why my soul is so impure…"
B’Tanya moved toward the opposite railing. "I have the innocence of a child… that’s probably why my soul is so clear…"
Stal smirked. "Some group we have here!"
Kash shrugged. "But if Light has control of Wind, does it mean that the keeper of Wind has a pure heart?"
Spekkio shook his furry head. "No. Your overall personality doesn’t determine your inner character. It is separate from the rest of you… and the types of magic that Light has control over isn’t necessary all holy, just as the types of magic that Shadow has control over isn’t unholy. It’s very complicated… and it takes forever to learn how to understand."
Elena hoisted herself up onto a shining bucket. "Will you teach us some new techniques?"
Spekkio chuckled softly. "No. The first new techniques I taught you were merely pushes in the direction of learning. You have to learn these things yourselves… and it takes time and experience."
Robo nodded. "That is true… it seemed like forever before I could learn to generate electricity throughout a whole field."
Maro nodded. "I understand…"
Elena suddenly leapt off the bucket and turned to Olana. "I want to go home- just for a little bit."
Olana turned to Sari. "Well… should she go?"
Sari smiled softly. "I’ll go, and I think that B’Tanya should, as well."
B’Tanya grinned and pulled her pigtails forward. "That sounds wonderful… Maybe while there, we could locate the other stones…"
Sari nodded. "That’s the plan."
.
Glenn sighed loudly as he ran a bit of coal across a sheet of off-white paper. Sketching quickly, he outlined a face… and added details… just as he remembered them. Finishing the portrait in under a minute, Glenn held up his work. Staring him back in the face was a young woman with thick hair, large eyes, and a dazzling smile. Glenn’s eyes filled slowly with tears.
"Oh, Camilla… how my soul longs for thee…" he whispered. Setting down the drawing, he stood up and made his way to the small window just at eye level. Looking out over his dead wife’s garden, sadness welled inside of Glenn, threatening to swallow him whole. Quickly lowering his head, Glenn brushed back his shoulder-length brown hair. Smiling softly, he fingered the tiny beads covering locks of his hair…
"Oh!"
Glenn whirled around and gasped. "Who are you?"
The woman before him stepped forward and smirked. "You don’t remember me, dear Sir Froggy?" she taunted. Glenn’s eyes narrowed.
"Flea!" he growled. Flea giggled.
"It’s been a long time, old chap," Flea teased. Glenn’s hand moved forward in a solid motion and slapped Flea hard in the cheek.
"Get out of my home!" Glenn shrieked. Flea twirled a strand of deep red hair around her little finger.
"This was my home before you invaded it," she retorted. Glenn slapped her again.
"Get out!"
Flea tittered. "This is not how you treat a lady!" she scoffed. Glenn turned his face away and folded his arms.
"A lady wouldn’t invade a man’s home!"
Flea smirked. "I was just here to let you know that I was in the neighborhood… too bad I couldn’t stay for tea," she said haughtily. Glenn closed his eyes.
"Get out. Leave my home and grant me peace of mind!" he growled. Flea dashed forward and grabbed Glenn’s collar, pulling toward her.
"I’ll always be more powerful than you. Don’t forget it," she hissed.
"Father!" a voice shrieked. Glenn gazed past his longtime enemy and gasped.
"Elena! Get out! Save yourself!" he called. Elena raised an eyebrow.
"What’s going on, father?" she asked quietly.
From behind Elena, Sari narrowed her eyes. "Oh, Laeri, you are really pushing it, aren’t you?" she snarled. Flea whirled around.
"Dear Mio, let me be!" she screamed. B’Tanya peeked around the large stone doorway and her eyes widened.
"Leave the man alone!" she warned. Flea’s eyes widened and filled with tears.
"No…! It can’t be!" she screeched. B’Tanya raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"What?" she asked. Sari turned her face away and sucked in a deep breath.
"Damn it…" she sighed, cursing under her breath. Flea moved toward B’Tanya and grasped her shoulders tightly.
"Is it really you, B’Tanya?" she asked softly. B’Tanya’s eyes widened.
"Who are you… and how do you know me?" she shot back, lowering her voice. Flea’s eyes began to water.
"It’s me- Mama!" Flea whispered. B’Tanya wrenched out of Flea’s grasp.
"I don’t believe you," she murmured. Flea moved forward again and placed a delicate hand on B’Tanya’s shoulder.
"You don’t remember the lullabies I used to sing you when you were little? The stories?" Flea pleaded. B’Tanya shook her head violently.
"No!" she cried. Sari stepped forward and sighed loudly.
"She speaks the truth, B’Tanya… she really is your mother…" she whispered. B’Tanya turned around to face her mother.
"But you have an evil aura… just like father!" she argued. "How is it that I have a pure spirit if you and father both had dark souls?"
Flea lowered her head. "I…"
B’Tanya held her hand out to stop her mother. "No. Let me finish… Why did you send me away? Didn’t you love me?" she cried, her voice breaking. Glenn turned away near his window, a lone tear sliding out of the corner of his eye.
"Of course I loved you…" Flea murmured. "I loved you more than anything… and that’s why I sent you to live with your father while I fought… and I don’t know what happened when I came back ten years later… your father told me that you had left to join the Holy Order of Shanai…"
B’Tanya nodded. "Yes…"
Sari sighed in exasperation. "Who is your father?" she shrieked. Flea narrowed her eyes.
"Keep your mouth shut, Mio," she hissed. Sari backed off quietly, shaking her head in confusion. Elena shrugged and sat down against the stone walls.
"I’ll be going now… this has been a trying day… and I never finished what I started…" Flea murmured, intentionally threatening Glenn. Glenn snorted in reply.
"Yes… good timing, Elena…" Glenn called. Flea pressed her fingers to her forehead and disappeared.
"Damn… this is getting to be really screwed up," Sari remarked. Elena shrugged.
"If you don’t mind, I’d like to stay here…" she whispered. Sari nodded.
"I’ll send for you if you’re needed," she replied. B’Tanya nodded in agreement.
"If you have information on the other stones, please let me know," she called as the pair exited the small castle.
.
Kash raised an eyebrow. "I’d like to visit my uncle…" he finally decided. Sari nodded.
"B’Tanya and I will come along. I guess she’d like to see the past, right B’Tanya?" she replied. B’Tanya nodded eagerly.
"Oh, it’s so exciting to see history as it’s being written…" she breathed, twirling around the lamppost. Sari snorted.
"Don’t get too carried away, now!" she scolded. Kash laughed.
"Strange girl," he murmured.
Magus polished his gleaming scythe slowly with caring strokes from a silk cloth. "Oh, Flea, you will meet your revenge…"
He smiled slowly. "For decades you have taunted me… an enchanting temptress, ready to strike… but now… your fate will be sealed- with the easy stroke of my blade!"
"Janus… You know violence is never the solution to problems. It just makes things worse… Janus?" a soft voice called.
"Schala?" Magus cried out.
"Oh, Janus… why did you have to turn out like mother? Why? Why…"
Magus squeaked. "Schala… I…"
"Janus… listen to me… I always hoped that the lessons from Gaspar taught you some pacifist ways… but the call of the Et-Salaat is strong with you…"
"But…!"
"No, Janus… it cannot be helped. The Et-Salaat have your mind in a cold, deathly grip… There’s nothing you can do."
"Schala, I never thought that I’d be one of them…" Magus murmured. He raised his eyes to the skies. "How have you stayed in this world?"
The voice laughed slowly. "I have chosen to stay behind in this realm. I had the choice to go back to the homeland… but instead, I chose to have the memories of the Planet. There’s nothing you can do anymore… You aren’t human, nor are you Mystic. You were a spawn of an evil being from the very depths of Hell. You aren’t even my brother… but I have always loved you as one… Please, Janus… listen to me. Try to ignore your urges to kill!"
Magus lowered his gaze to his scythe. "Schala… I…"
"There is another way… Tell your daughter the truth. Let her know…" The voice stopped suddenly. Magus cried out in surprise.
"No! Tell her what?"
"Uncle…?"
Magus whirled around. "Kash! Oh, Kash… your mother just spoke to me…"
"Father…?"
Magus’ eyes widened. "B’Tanya? Is that really you?" Sari gasped from behind B’Tanya.
"What?!?" she shrieked. "Magus… your father…?"
B’Tanya nodded slowly. "I thought you were dead, Father…"
Magus’ eyes filled with joyful tears. "B’Tanya… how good it is to see you… but it will be the last time my eyes will gaze upon your beauty, for I have learned that I am merely a spawn of the Et-Salaat…"
B’Tanya shook her head. "No… It can’t be…"
Sari raised an eyebrow. "How do you know of the Et-Salaat?"
Magus held up a tiny microchip. "These are to be preserved for future generations to learn from."
Kash lowered his head. "What did you mean by ‘Last’, Uncle?"
Magus held up his scythe. "I am about to commit a sin… one that will save the world."
"No… Janus… don’t do it!" Sari cried out as Magus brought the scythe to his neck.
"I… must…" Magus murmured.
"Do it, Janus… you know you have to! Save the future… Join with me… and you will live a happy afterlife. Please, Janus… I’m so lonely…"
"Schala!"
Uttering his final howl of sadness, Magus pulled the sharpened blade against his neck even tighter, and yanked with all of his might. The blade sliced easily through his exposed throat and came out through the back of his neck, bloodied. Magus’ head slid off of the body without difficulty, and fell to the ground with a loud thud. Rolling slowly, it came to a stop at B’Tanya’s feet, face up. As B’Tanya looked down at her father’s head, her eyes traced the outlines of the features she had known most of her life. The pale green eyes, now glazed, still showed the dignity exhibited in Magus’ death. His thin whitish lips, softly parted in a death cry, seemed out of place in the eerily solemn look of Magus’ face.
"UNCLE!" Kash screamed, kneeling down, covering his face.
"FATHER!" B’Tanya shrieked at the same time, whirling around. Sobbing frantically, she turned to Sari.
"Please… you have to do something! Please! Mio… He’s my father! Isn’t there something you can do to save him now?"
Sari stood still, her eyes wide. "I…It wasn’t Schala… Magus was tricked…"
Kash remained in his position, trying to hide the fact that he was crying.
"It wasn’t Schala’s spirit at all… It was Laeri! I sensed that evil presence… and she wasn’t even after Glenn like she led on…" Sari cursed loudly and knelt down to pick up the head of Magus. Her expression softened slightly and she turned back to look at B’Tanya. "There’s nothing I can do… Even if I had a revive potion, it wouldn’t be able to replace this," she answered, holding up the lifeless head by the thinning blue hair that once formed the waterfall that cascaded down Magus’ back.
B’Tanya shrieked and leapt back. "How could you be so insensitive, Mio? He was my father! Couldn’t you do anything?"
Sari shook her head. "Please, call me Sari… but I can’t do anything for you. Magus did a pretty good job of making sure of it."
Kash raised his tearstained face to the skies. "Flea, I assure you… when I find you, you will die ever so slowly… You will be tortured mercilessly, and you will PAY for all the suffering you caused!"
Sari lowered her head, growling softly. "If she dares to show her face around here again, I’ll be sure that she pays for what she did…"
.
Glenn admired his sketch gently, smiling softly. Holding it up to the light, he allowed a single tear to fall from his eye. "Oh, Camilla…" he murmured. "Thou would’st been proud of the way I have raised Elena…"
The portrait grinned back at Glenn eerily.
"Camilla… thou would’st be so happy here… but why did you have to perish? Murdered so quickly… and thy daughter doth not even know…"
Glenn sobbed loudly. "Thy face… thy beautiful face… untouched… thy beauty hath not been disturbed… even in thy death… smothered by thy own pillow…"
Glenn carefully set the drawing down and turned to his narrow window, burying his face in his hands, sobbing loudly like he did when he was younger- but he didn’t have his older brother Cyrus to comfort him…
"Father?"
Glenn whirled around, trying to wipe away his tears. "Elena!"
Elena looked up at her father pitifully. "What’s the matter, Father?"
Glenn shook his head. "Nothing, daughter… go back to whatever it was thou hast been occupying thyself with before thou hast wandered into my study."
Elena shook her head. "I was just drawing a picture…" She held up a colorful drawing of a woman screaming with a pillow covering her eyes and nose. Above the woman was a vivid red-haired Mystic with an angry expression on her face. Glenn gasped.
"What hast thou seen?" he shrieked. Elena lowered her head.
"It came to me in a vision, Father…"
Glenn wiped away the last of his tears. "When?"
Elena turned away. "Many times… This lady here," Elena murmured, pointing to the woman being smothered, "is mother." This other woman… is that Mystic that was just here…"
Glenn’s eyes narrowed. "Flea?"
Elena shrugged. "I don’t know… I don’t know her name…"
Glenn lowered his head. "Your picture… looks like Flea… I do believe it was her."
Elena raised an eyebrow. "Mother didn’t die of Cholera, did she?"
Glenn moved forward and embraced his daughter. "No… I deceived you. Now that thou hast gotten older and more mature, thou can learn the truth… Camilla did not die of Cholera… she was murdered- smothered to death with her own pillow. It was the saddest day of my life- waking up to find that she hath moved off her mortal coil…"
Elena struggled to hold back tears. "Mother… murdered?"
Glenn nodded. "Was I wrong? Thy own mind can’st take the news?"
Elena shook her head. "No, I’m all right… but I swear… I will personally kill she who killed Mother… for you, Father. I can’t bear to see you suffer like this."
Glenn pulled Elena close. "My heart is glad, daughter."
.
Guares sighed with pleasure as he sharpened his diamond dagger- a gift from some future allies. "Ah, the scent of fear… it is everywhere."
"Guares?"
Guares poked his head around an open corridor. "Yes, Flea?"
Flea smiled softly. "I don’t need your help any more. Thank you."
Guares raised an eyebrow. "What?"
Flea moved forward innocently yet charmingly. "Your services have been greatly appreciated. Thank you very much."
"Now wait just a damn minute…" Guares growled. Flea shook her head and placed her right palm on Guares’ heart.
"Feel that?" Flea whispered seductively. Guares smiled playfully.
"Your hand is warm…" he murmured blissfully. Flea nodded.
"Yes, it is… and you know what?" she whispered, drawing her face closer to his.
Guares squirmed uncomfortably. Her hand was growing hotter every second… He felt his cloak scorch over his skin, and the heat still grew stronger… "Flea…?"
Flea smiled and rubbed her head against Guares’ shoulder. "I live for the kill, you know…" She sighed loudly.
Guares tried to move, but he was backed up against the stone wall. His chest felt as if it were on fire… and the smell of burning flesh filled his nostrils. "Flea…?"
Flea grinned even wider. "Guess what, Guares?"
Guares moaned in pain, writhing violently. "…What?" Gagging loudly, Guares tried to shut out the smell of his own flesh burning… burning… the torture became unbearable… and the heat sank past his skin… to his heart… Guares gasped in sudden pain as the fire seemed to shoot through his heart like a fiery axe sinking into his chest. "Agh…" he gasped.
Flea brought her lips close to Guares’ ear. She drew in a soft breath and her soft lips parted slowly. "You’re dead."
.