{Enki | Pantheon}

Sagan shivered in a good way, surrounded by war, standing before the half-Icarus of her dreams and negotiating the terms of their happily ever after.

What a life she was leading.

On his knees, Korac trembled, waiting for her answer with love in his eyes. Sagan was crying, and the shimmer to the snow in his gaze made her heart stop. Although her lover had spent most of his life as Cinder’s General, he’d never forgotten his humble beginnings as a slave. And in this moment, she saw his fear.

Sagan would never turn Korac away, and she knew the perfect answer to signify this. Breathless and trembling with tears, she said, “I consent, Master.”

Korac grinned, radiant and perfect. He swept her into his arms and spun her around the battlefield clearing. She closed her eyes to drown out the spinning sea of faces in combat. He set her down, and it was only as he placed the ring on her finger—with shaky hands—that Sagan realized what it was. A band of nacre glass inset with a single yellow stone—

No.

Not a stone. It was blood.

It was Korac’s half-Aegis blood beneath clear, breakable glass. He fidgeted a bit in a nervous display which nearly floored Sagan, as he said, “Dr. Suarez helped with it. It’s for emergencies, like when we lost you in the Seam.”

It was so considerate and so beautiful. Sagan opened her mouth, but she didn’t have the words—

“Congratulations, you two. That was probably the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Korac and Sagan blinked at each other. “Rayne?” The question came out simultaneously.

Over her earpiece, Sagan asked, “Uh. Thanks but how…”

The genuine happiness in Rayne’s voice meant the worlds to Sagan as she said, “Razor cast the display up here and, I assume, all over Enki.” Rayne’s voice tightened, but she was still upbeat. “Now that’s what I call a morale booster.”

Korac pointed up, and Sagan looked to find themselves projected in the sky, like a couple at a baseball game.

Razor’s words came back to her. “When he asks, I hope you say ‘yes.’ I would be proud to call you ‘family.’”

More congratulations flooded Sagan’s private lines. They watched on the feed as Pehton ran over to them. The couple turned to her in time to catch the jump she made into their arms, forcing them both to lean down for a three-way hug.

The tiny woman confessed, “I have never been so happy and so jealous all at one time.”

Korac pulled them apart to kneel, smirk, and cup the Lyrik’s chin as he said, “You’re still my girl, General Pehton, we just have to stop carrying on like this or Caedes will find out. How could he ever hope to compete with Sagan and I?”

Oh, that got Sagan. At Pehton’s pretty face all agape, the Seamswalker giggled hard, hugging her sides—

“Incoming!”

Bones shouted loud enough to reverberate throughout the Pantheon, but it wasn’t necessary. Sagan recognized the familiar jarring of the ground in spaced intervals, spaced in time to footsteps. Each one vibrated her skeleton under the muscle, which tightened in primal fear.

Flight or fight.

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All around them, the fighting had stopped. Both sides were preoccupied with staring sixty-five feet above them. Sagan had never met Primary Bol, but she knew he wasn’t her ol’ buddy, Remorse. Too pale, almost withered like Eminent Wiw.

The Gargantuan Tritan blinked with filmy membranes over his lidless voids.

Frozen.

Everyone was very still as not to attract Bol’s attention. Those man-sized voids searched the crowd, pausing at Tameka, who waved and nearly made Sagan snicker if not for the goosebumps on her arms standing on end in terror.

Then Primary Bol’s indecipherable stare settled on Silence. “Project Surra.” He said the name like it was profane. “You owe us much. Will you settle it? Come with us and return to your place in our labs. We will release these…” His voids swept across the crowd before he said, “Substandard creatures to continue breathing and breeding.”

“Yes.”

A second voice.

That voice.

Sagan whirled to find Remorse standing behind her, compressed to seven feet of his height. The bastard Tritan held Pax in his arms, unconscious. In the middle of a battlefield.

“Pax!”

Tameka’s cry broke Sagan’s heart. Korac pulled her closer to him, as if he felt it shatter.

Xelan shouted, “Remorse, our unfinished business doesn’t need to involve my son! Return him to us.”

Primary Rem was listening, but he was staring at Sagan. Once up on a time, he’d disguised himself as a prisoner in Korac’s cell block, and she’d liked him then. Both he and Razor played her, but…

Sagan asked, “Did I get through to you, Remorse? Will you do the right thing and give Pax to us unharmed?”

“Yes. I will.” At his words, Sagan’s heart skipped a beat, but then he continued with nothing in his eyes. “As soon as Abresson arrives, and you evacuate us to Ishkur. As Bol said, we’ll require Surra, but then you’ll be rid of us and free to evacuate from Enki.”

Korac tensed beside Sagan at the mention of Abresson’s name. She was there for Matt and Lucy’s briefing, but not everyone knew he was dead. Nerves forced Sagan to wet her lips before breaking the news to Rem. “The Eminent attacked Lucy, but she defended herself and survived the attack. Abresson did not.”

Primary Rem called out, “Three Two Four, did you hear that?”

Did he figure out the Last Aegis was in the Dyson’s Sphere main frame?

Razor came across the mass comm. “Yes, Primary. A fitting end.”

“I’d say so.”

Well, at least Remorse agreed, but the ice in his voice sent a chill down Sagan’s spine. The Shadow could never lose one of their own and react so distantly. Was that why Imminent was losing? Detachment?

Bol called, “Primary Rem.”

“Yes. Yes.” Remorse nodded at his kin before giving the full weight of his alien stare back to Sagan. “What do you say? Help us evacuate for old time’s sake.” He shifted Pax in his arms like he was ready to hand the boy over.

Tameka and Xelan both inched forward as if to take him, despite the distance between them.

Sagan looked from Pehton to Korac, then back to Rem. Learning to trust again was an important element to her recovery. Forgiveness, too. But… “Andrew?”

After a second, Andrew shouted loud enough to be heard across the battlefield, “He’s lying!”

In the same instant, Remorse cursed and deactivated his compression field, growing and growing with Pax in his hands. On cue, the fighting continued.

“Look out!” Korac snatched both Pehton and Sagan out of a Caprent acid attack and flew with them to meet Xelan and Tameka—

Something slammed into them, sending them spilling into the crowd. Sagan’s scream was involuntary as she careened into two of their Lamian soldiers and one enemy drone. Tumble, tumble, tumble into a wad of limbs and a needle nose. Sagan punched the drone hard enough to dent his skull as she climbed out of the tangled mess. When she stood, all the blood drained from her.

Remorse.

He jeered down at her, lifted a foot, and dramatically hovered it over Sagan. She stood in its shadow, paralyzed with fear. All around she heard people scream, yelling at him to stop and yelling at her to Seamswalk away, but wow, this was one hell of a way to go—

The foot stopped its descent.

Why…

Sagan stepped out of its shadow to see Silence holding Remorse’s kneecap. Glaring at the Tritan, the Mother of all beings snapped his knee sideways.

Remorse bellowed and busted Sagan’s eardrums. When he fell, the crowd bounced some three feet off the ground.

“Run!”

That came from Lucas.

Sagan whirled to find him hovering nearby with Smith. They were right. She opened her wings, hardly used, and joined them in the sky over the battlefield. Korac and Pehton hovered across the way.

Tameka shouted at Silence, “Stop! He has our son!”

Xelan tried to reason with the Primary. “Let Pax go. You can’t win this. Don’t hurt him.”

Gasping in pain, Remorse said, “Once I release Pax, you’ll drain me dry. While he’s in my hands, I’m immune to you.”

Loping thunder drew their attention westward where Bol ran into the fray, squishing Imminent and Vast Collective troops alike.

“Fuck!” Korac always knew what was on Sagan’s mind.

Remorse recovered quickly and stood once more, kicking Silence back from him and into the crowd as Imminent’s Gargantuan Generals surrounded the Shadow’s leaders in an unfair standoff.

Unfair until the flames.