Chapter 41
Lyca staggered across the fields outside Telos and into the city, her usually powerful legs trembling with every step. Ra’Nelle was already preparing for casualties when she heard Lyca mewling.
“I am here,” Ra’Nelle rushed to the entrance. “I was just getting-oh-” The Praesidium’s limp frame draped across Lyca’s back. The wolf stained with blood from the cable cutting into her sides, her legs shaking furiously before buckling to the floor.
“Alaris, can you hear me? It’s Ra’Nelle.” Ra’Nelle untied the cable and carefully slid Alaris off Lyca’s back. Ra’Nelle ran her hands over her patient, diagnosing her energies. “Thank you, Lyca. You may be the only reason she lives. The essence is still within her, though it is fading. Adama must help me get past her armor.” Ra’Nelle set to work, crushing herbs and mixing oils and other remedies she would need.
“Your thoughts are scattered, Ra’Nelle. Is she-” Adama halted when he saw the Praesidium.
“Her armor,” Ra’Nelle said, pouring a vial into a bowl of herbs. “We must remove it.”
“The Praesidium armor is a living entity that binds to the knight. Only they control it.” Adama ran his hands around her crystal covering. “She is alive, but barely.”
“Adama?” A voice registered deep within his mind.
“Yes?” he answered telepathically.
“Two intruders have found their way into Telos. One is a human.”
“And the other?”
“I… am not sure,” the telepathic voice hesitated.
“Bring them to me, immediately.” He continued to study the Praesidium’s armor, looking for a sign or something to release Alaris. “She is fading. I am unable to sever their bond.” Adama’s usual composure began to unravel.
“Any attempt to forcibly remove it would undoubtedly kill her,” Ra’Nelle said, smelling her pungent concoction.
“Alaris… it is not your time.” Adama ran his hands over the fallen knight, channeling his own energies to keep her waning life force alive. “Praesidium! Your place is here among us!” Adama’s voice boomed. “In this world! This plane. Stay with us, child.” He trailed off. “Fight to see your son again.” Adama exhaled and walked to the window. “She is gone.” He peered into Telos, helpless for all his knowledge and power. “She will live again in another form. Today, she has made the ultimate sacrifice. May it count for something. As it is, our fate will be upon us by dawn.”
“Who’s coming at dawn? Dylan?” Nan said from the doorway, Beetlebee at her side. “Is he here? Dylan… Maximilian?”
“Nan?” Ra’Nelle asked, seeing her Mother-in-law for the first time in years.
“Ra’Nelle?” Nan’s eyes flashed wide. “Max said you moved to New Zealand.”
“Not exactly.” Ra’Nelle tilted her head, slightly ashamed.
“Please,” Nan took her hands, “I knew you were here… in Telos.”
“You did?” Ra’Nelle couldn’t hide her surprise.
Nan winked slyly. “Any mother, even a Scion’s, knows quite a lot more than she lets on. Oh, excuse me, I’m being rude. This is… Beetlebee. Beetlebee?” She scanned the room, Adama and the diminutive being standing over Alaris. “Well, that’s Beetlebee. He’s a… um… I’m not sure what he is, but he’s sure a good little guy.”
“He is indeed.” Adama rolled his chin between his thumb and forefinger. “He may also be older than the Galaxis.”
“Is he a-” Ra’Nelle’s voice twisted with shock,
“Oh, yes. I believe he is.” Adama nodded, pressing a solitary finger to his lips.
Skell bounded through the catacombs of Mount Shasta, with Dylan and Norm clinging to his broad back, carrying Zalee in his arms.
Zalee pointed. “Skell, this tunnel will take you-”
“Child,” the giant laughed, “I have known every passage within Shasta since before your race walked the Earth. Those you created were known to me the instant you made them.” Skell leapt through a portal near the top of Telos cavern. “Hold on.” The Elemental glided, free-falling face down like a base jumper.
“Skydiving statues! awesome!” Norm’s cheeks rippled as they accelerated toward the city. Abruptly, a powerful breeze whipped underneath them, setting them down gently outside Ra’Nelle’s den.
“That was in-freakin’-credible!” Norm said, sliding off Skell’s back. “Are statue people like giant-flying-squirrels?” The mountain ignored Norm’s question as he had the previous ones.
“Thank you, Skell.” Dylan hopped down. “We’ve got to get to Adama.”
Zalee and Norm hobbled toward Ra’Nelle’s den. A golden mist engulfed the entire structure.
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“What is all that?” Dylan asked, studying the mist.
“I am not sure,” Zalee said, entering the building with Norm. Dylan started after them when something inside held him back, tingling inside him.
“I’ll be back, Skell,” Dylan said with a hint of nervousness. “I don’t think you fit inside there, anyway.”
“I would not.” Skell nodded and smiled. “I will be here for a short time, Scion. But we will see each other again.” The Mountain King sniffed the fresh air around him, sat down in the lush grass and hummed his tune.
“Goodbye, Skell.” Dylan entered the chamber, an unexplainable apprehension in his gut twisting into nervous knots. His knees trembling and he approached the main chamber. “What the hell is wrong with me? Norm? Zalee?” The den was eerily silent until he heard the muffled sounds, sobbing from beyond the entryway. Inside, his friends exchanged hugs and tears.
“What’s going on?”
“Come and see for yourself,” a familiar voice said.
“Nan?” Dylan’s eyes flashed as she poked her head from behind Adama’s tall frame. “Nan!” Dylan threw his arms around her tiny frame. “How did you get here? I mean. You were in Westwood and the Terovians were everywhere and… why’s everyone crying?”
“Hush, Dylan. Hush. I’ll explain later.” She put a finger to his lips and took his hand. “I have-” Nan struggled for the words. Tears flooded her blue eyes, running freely down her cheeks. “Come with me.” She led Dylan into the chamber. His friends parted as he made his way to the far side of the room. Dylan saw the child-sized, glowing white creature standing over the Praesidium, the knight’s body engulfed in a cocoon of thick golden mist.
“Hello?” Dylan said and bowed his head respectfully, wishing he had a chance to thank the knight.
“Hello, Dylan.” The familiar voice flowed through him and every one of his earliest memories.
My angel. Dylan looked up, paralyzed, absorbing the vision he’d known his entire life. The Praesidium, clad in armor except for the face of a young woman with soft blond tendrils framing her badly bruised, yet still beautiful face. “I dream about you,” Dylan whispered, unsure what to do next.
“I dream about you, too,” Alaris’ bottom lip quivered. Tears welled into her brilliant blue eyes.
“Mom?” Dylan quaked with emotion from the core of his soul. She nodded, extending her arms through the pain. “Mom,” he said again and gently leaned into her to take her embrace. Alaris finally held the child she had longed to hold again one day. Dylan hugged to the mother he simply wished to know. The moment frozen, they held each other, the entire room joined with them in tears of happiness.
Alaris took his face in her hands. “And Dylan…” Alaris smiled and reached for Ra’Nelle. “This is your grandmother.”
“It’s true? Ra’Nelle? You are my grandmother?” Dylan glanced at Nan, who nodded happily. “Bane, I mean, Ben said you were-”
Ra’Nelle placed a finger to his lips and hugged her grandson. “I am your grandmother. And we have much to discuss, Dylan. For now, know this is the truth of who you are and where you come from.”
“Dylan,” Alaris said, still unable to stand. “I- we have watched over you as best we could, but now I feel I have failed you,”
“What?” Dylan said, stepping away from his family. “No! I can stop this.”
Alaris shook her head. “There is an armada, too large to stop. Not Max or any lone Scion could-”
“There has to be something I can do!” Dylan said with renewed energy. “I didn’t do this much or come this far to be told I can’t. I didn’t want to do any of this, but now I need to do it.”
“She is right, Dylan.” Adama said gravely. “Every enemy throughout the galaxy is ready to attack the Earth. We will fight on but-”
“Tell me what I need to do.” Dylan pleaded. “I don’t care if I die.”
“Were it just the armada, Dylan, I might feel you could at least delay their attack until help could arrive,” Adama paused to explain. “In the Centaurian Flagship’s final transmission, we saw Diobal. Bane’s ship. When it arrives here, it will devour the Earth the way the void do.”
“Oh, no- the void!” Norm slapped his forehead. “I forgot! Dylan! Bane left a void in Westwood. He sent it to kill Lucy!”
“Lucy? Why Lucy? How does Bane know about her?” Dylan asked, confused.
“When he got in my dreams, he saw everything. He wanted to get back at me.”
“He said you didn’t crack.” Dylan acknowledged Norm’s loyalty. “You really pissed him off.”
“I did.” Norm looked Dylan in the eyes and smiled at him the way only best friends can. “He never had a chance. But I couldn’t stop him from seeing inside my head. And Lucy.”
“Maybe God doesn’t hate us.” Dylan fist bumped Norm and handed him the chime and the cell phone. “Save Lucy! Get her to my house. There is some Alcyone crystal thing in there that keeps the void away. Take her there.”
“But I should be with you.” Norm looked down at the chime in his palm.
“I don’t think you can help me.” Dylan looked up. “Not this time, not where I’m going. We’ll go down in a blaze of glory, man. Just not in the same place. Now, call Chevro and go be a hero!”
“I’m on it.” Norm extended his arms. “And you go save our world, so it can count for something.”
“Gotta love home field advantage.” Dylan hugged his best friend for what might be the last time when the Praesidium helmet next to Alaris glowed like a beacon.
“My helmet?” Alaris said, startled. “My armor senses I am injured, but would only behave this way if it sensed another Praesidium were nearby.” Dylan picked up the helmet. The light within dimmed and faded.
“It’s not me.” He handed it to Norm.
“What am I gonna do with-” Immediately, the helmet beamed, almost blinding. “But I’m not a Praesdium,” Norm said, the helmet’s radiance bathing him in its light.
“Not in this lifetime, Norm,” Adama said with a nod, “But this may explain be why you and Dylan are bound to each other the way you are.”
“Place it from directly over your head.” Alaris strained to sit up.
“Seriously?” Norm held the helmet over his head, light flourished and enveloped his crown. As he lowered it, the helm tingled, flowing like liquid silver around his round head, binding its atomic matrix to his. They watched Norm transform before their eyes until- a flash of white light- “Does this helmet make me look fat?”
“You are without fear. The Praesidium armor only recognize a knight. And a knight is without fear,” Alaris said, astonished. The helmet shimmered and flowed, looking slightly out of place on Norm’s stocky adolescent frame. “Take this.” Alaris handed Norm a white baton, like a magnet it bound to his grip.
“Do I give this to the next guy in the relay?” he asked when he heard the voice in his helmet.
“Excuse me?” Orion’s voice came through the helmet. “Alaris?”
“Orion, I am temporarily separated from my helmet. Make all communication to my wrist-com, please.”
“As you wish, Alaris.”
“Norm, it is called a star-reaper,” Alaris stated. “It is the chosen weapon of the Praesidium. With it, you can wield the force of Alcyone. The helmet will protect you from the void. Use them well.”
Dylan smiled at Norm. “Here’s your big chance to be the hero.”
“Like you. Heroes.” Norm replied softly. “We got this!”
“You got it, brother.” They tapped fists and hugged one more time before Norm dashed out of the room to fulfill his own destiny.
“Dylan, I must speak with you.” Adama’s gaze drew Dylan toward him. “There are certain things that must survive as they did on Nibiru.”
“What do you mean?” Dylan scrunched his eyes.
“The Scion spirit and the Earth-seed, they must survive, Dylan. You must take the seed and find a new home for life to begin again. We have a special vessel that will-”
“I’m not going anywhere. This is my planet, and I will go down fighting. I just found my mother. Even if she and I spend what little bit we have figuring out some impossible ideas, that’s what I’m going to do.” Dylan folded his arms when his eyes flashed with an idea. “Adama, can I see their last transmission?”