Falling Sky
A peal of thunder sounded across the night sky, rain poured heavily down the alley. The man lay still on the concrete, his inert form held up by the piled trash beneath him. His eyes staring upward as light cracks the sky. Dark red became diluted by the rain water and streamed down into a nearby gutter.
At the end of the alley stood a woman, her hand covering her mouth which was trapped open in shocked horror, eyes locked on the dark spot on the man’s chest. She moved closer tears welled in her eyes. Reaching out she brushed her hand against his cheek, he appeared almost peaceful. Gently, she closed his eyelids and removed the amulet from around his neck.
She knew in her heart she had to complete what he’d set out to do.
The sky began to fall around her and the world would burn should she hesitate. She ran, the fate of the world on her shoulders.
***
“Anything that happens, happens,” he said staring into the glass in his hand. He probably thought himself quite profound, but too much of his mind was gone now, lost in the darkness of that place he tried not to remember. “People try to tell me there’s some great reason for all this, that God has a plan. The old empire used to believe the same, look where that got them.” His voice was thick with spite, he took a drink before continuing. “their great God-Emperor lost to the ages, their culture, teachings and freedoms all gone. New gods rose, as they always will, and everything was gone. Like that,” He put his drink down, his hands held up fingers spread. “poof, all gone.”
“I don’t like it when you drink.” Catherine said taking the bottle from him, when she reached for his glass he snatched it up quickly and downed the remainder. “Fine,” she sat heavily on the couch beside him. “be that way,” she fumed silently to herself.
Her anger was broken when a signal came from the television. “We interrupt your current program to bring you this emergency message.”
Almost as an unconscious gesture the man’s hand reached up and grabbed the amulet around his neck. The gesture did not go unnoticed by his companion. She feared somewhere in his shattered mind he knew what was coming next.
***
He slipped on the wet concrete, hands scrambling before him in an attempt to break his fall. Bursts of color exploded across his vision. There was blood in his mouth, rain poured down and thunder cracked above him. Slowly he pushed himself up, blood streamed down his forearms, his whole body screaming but he had to keep moving. He could hear the thing running, coming close, it’s hammering footfalls cracking the ground beneath it.
He had to run, the only thought in his mind, he needed to run and keep running. Now he was standing on shaking legs, trying to move, out of breath and in pain, he had to run. Heart pounding in his chest, he looked to the sky into the rain and flashes of lightning, he HAD to run. Taking a deep breath he closed his eyes, and with all the energy he could muster he ran.
He crossed a street and ran down another alleyway. A bolt of lightning stuck behind him, close enough for him to feel the heat of it on his back, and the sound to be almost deafening. For a moment, he wondered if the thing was hit, if even a bolt of lightning would have any effect on the creature. He dared not look behind him to check if it was unaffected it would gain too much ground. He needed to keep moving, the sound of twisting metal as the thing smashed into a dumpster behind him confirmed it.
***
He poured over old books and scrolls strewn across the table before him, a loose light fixture swinging overhead. His finger brushing across old print as his eyes darted back from scroll to book, seeking some semblance of cohesion. The others had started to worry, they feared he may have gone mad. His assurances did little to waylay their concerns.
In an effort to quell their disquiet, he appointed his chief lieutenant Michael to take his place among the council. He could no longer concern himself with the needs so small. The council sought an effort to end the cold war between Aventine republic and new Palatine Empire without turning their world into radioactive slag, but he had set his sights bigger. There was a way out without the seemingly inevitable mutual destruction the current outlook foretold. All he needed to do was find it.
There was a knock at his door as Michael entered.
“Yes, yes, what is it?” said the man without looking up from his work.
Michael strode across the room kicking aside papers with scribbled unintelligible notes. He held out a large tome to the man behind the table. “We found it in an old catacomb while searching for any entrance points it might offer our enemies. Thought you might like a look.”
The man looked up and brushed some dust from the tome’s cover. the letters UWoF were emblazoned on it. The letters should have been more faded, but the book appeared to have aged rather well. For a moment, he thought little of it, but then something clicked in his mind, and he scrambled through the old works on his desk seeking in an almost wild panic. With a slow measured movement, he raised a scroll from his desk and looked over it intently.
“Yes,” he said turning to Michael with a look that made the lieutenant's skin crawl. “I would very much like a look.”
***
There was a woman standing on the sidewalk. She had long blonde hair, she wore a small black dress and high heels. Her glossy red lips contorted in a look of shocking surprise as a man burst through an alley and tossed her violently to one side. He knew that whatever scrapes and bruises she’d get from the fall would pale in comparison to what she would have received if he hadn’t tossed her out of the thing’s path. The faint sound of her terrified scream was barely audible under that sounds of cracking asphalt and concrete as the thing barreled down the alley after him.
His sides ached, his lungs burned, and his legs felt slow and sluggish, the amulet pounded against his chest as it swung with his wild movement, but he had to keep moving, he had to make it. Nothing else mattered now. Not even his own life.
The things crashed into dumpsters the sides, of buildings, fire escapes, they slowed it mildly, but not enough, not ever enough. He would run and continue to run until he could run no more.
Far above the storm was getting worse, the concrete was becoming slick with rain, and he slipped.
***
It had been years since he left to recover the amulet, his homeland of Aventine had surrendered, they were now little more than a province of the Palatine Empire. They had been appointed a Governor from among their own, presumably one who helped bring about their surrender. None of that really mattered, just another minor obstacle. All he had to do now was get the amulet to the chamber, but to reach it he would need some help. He’d have to seek out the remnants of the council maybe form some kind of resistance movement if none already existed. The more he thought about it the more convinced he was that there must be a resistance, something underground awaiting his return to begin to rise up against this new tyrannical governor. Michael would likely be in charge, he wasn’t one for surrender, and far too crafty to get caught easily.
The man wondered old disused tunnels as he moved about his homeland seeking members of his assumed resistance. Sooner or later he would come across them, but for better or worse, they were not what he expected.
They were held out in an old war bunker in even worse condition than the one they occupied when he last led them. The rooms were lit by portable work lights. There were cracks in the walls and floors. Crates were used as makeshift tables, and a dangerous heap of metal and electrical wires seemed to function as the base’s computer.
There seemed to be less than a handful of members left, many he knew as part of his old council. Needless to say, they were more than a bit surprised to see their leader returned with the prize he so desperately sought. Even more so, when he told them what he intended to do with it.
One thing caught the man’s attention and nagged incessantly at him. “Where’s Michael?” he asked.
The rebels looked at each other, some rubbed their necks and other shuffled their feet and cast their eyes downward. Eventually, one spoke up, “Well, it’s like this. . .”
***
He stumbled down the alley, behind him a large mobile armor fired its cannon. His ears were ringing, the walls around trembled. With mounting horror, he watched as the creature twisted and ripped the massive cannon from the tank and brought it down back upon the armor with an earth-shattering impact.
The man could barely comprehend what he saw, all he knew was that he needed to run. If he stopped he was dead. Behind him, all he could hear was the sound of metal being mangled and shredded as the creature tore into another tank. Rain began to fall.
***
Catherine watched his lips curl into a snarl, she watched his hand convulse around the amulet, she watched his head begin to move uncontrollably. His other hand opened and closed frantically, he started stamping his feet. Slowly, she reached out and touched his arm. Almost instantly he relaxed and looked over to her with sad eyes. He leaned over and rested his head in her lap. She placed her hand on his head, seeking to ease his shattered thoughts.
The television screen showed the governor’s office, where the governor himself was sat behind his large desk. Flags behind him, The flag of the Palatine conquerors Stood large and forefront while the old flag of the Aventine republic stood to the side defeated, further belittling the conquered people.
The Governor gave the camera a reptilian smile, before beginning his speech. “People of Aventine,” he said, removing himself from his own people. “I regret to inform you . . .” he started to drone on, but Catherine was no longer listening.
She looked down at the broken man with his head in her lap. “What did he do to you?” she asked not expecting an answer. “And why did he leave you with this?” her hand brushing against the amulet.
“Because he can’t see it.” the man replied.
***
“I’ll kill you!” Howled the man as, to Michael’s surprise, threw the men trying to hold him down violently to the side. He charged across the room only to finally be brought down when 4 more jumped on him.
Michael was frozen in shock, he couldn’t understand what was happening, the man wasn’t that strong when he used to lead the Aventine council, and Michael had forbidden the use of lethal weapons in bringing him in. He didn’t want him dead, he needed him to see what Michael had done, and why, Michael needed him to understand.
He would understand, Michael thought to himself, he would understand and he would forgive, he had to. They would all see, Michael had made the right choice, the only real choice.
It took all the men had to put the restraints on the former leader of Aventine, more than one of them would go home bruised and sore, and a few with broken bones.
Michael felt a bit sorry for the man, he still believe in a free Aventine, but that time was long lost. The old Aventine empire was long gone, and it’s military prowess was lost to the ages, and their political clout with it. When Aventine’s leader suddenly disappeared, Palatine made a move to take the country and had Michael not taken the measures he had, Aventine would be little less than a crater, he saved his people, maybe even saved the world from the destruction a war between the two powers would have caused.
Surely he would see, Michael thought, he would see, Michael had not betrayed him he merely preserved Aventine, preserved the world, but for now he needed to keep the face of the unmoved tyrant, the Governor, Palatine had chosen to rule his people in their stead. For Palatine was watching, and they sought his friends capture, and should he falter in this, they would choose another, one of their own, who would do far less to his beloved homeland.
“Take him to an empty room in the council building and lock him up there,” Michael ordered the men holding his old friend. “I’ll interrogate him myself.”
“I’ll make you pay for what you have done!” The man shouted back.
For a second Michael thought he saw a glow from an object about the man’s neck, but there was nothing there. What had he seen? he wondered.
***
Something on the Television caught her attention and Catherine lazily looked up. She saw aides moving frantically and telling the Governor something she couldn’t quite make out.
“What?!” the Governor appeared to be having trouble even comprehending what was going on. He turned toward the window quickly and pulled the curtain aside as a massive shadow moved to block the light coming in.
Just then the video was cut and replaced with the colored bars and the emergency broadcast tone chimed in.
“The sky falls and darkness comes,” said the former leader of Aventine, he touched the amulet around his neck.
“What?” Catherine asked, still processing what she had seen.
“They’ll come for me again,” he continued, “You’ll have to give me up to them again.”
***
He stood on the sidewalk, watching the traffic pass, after a few seconds they paused at the light, and he walked straight into the mass of stopped vehicles. A funny thing about cars is most drivers don’t think about locking their doors when they are driving, some have cars that do it for them automatically, but she didn’t. He sat in her passenger seat.
She was shocked and surprised for only a second before it was replaced with anger, “You!”
“Yes, me,” he replied dismissively. “I need you help.”
“You!? You want me to help you, after what you did? After the way you treated me?”
“ME?! What about you?! you abandoned me, tossed me aside! You-” Stopping, he tries to reorganize himself, he can’t let himself get angry, not now, he needs her help. He’d rather not give her a reason to give him up. Pushing the scowl from his face he continued. “We can hash this out later, right now I need your help.”
He pointed ahead, “At the next intersection I need you to turn right. They’re waiting for you to go straight through, they know your routine they’re waiting to pull you over and take me in. If you turn right my friends will help us get to our hideout. We can talk there, there’s something only you can help me with.”
Catherine pulled up to the light and stopped, it would give her a second to think, and decide if she would help him. He couldn’t read her face as she turned towards him. What she said caught him off-guard.
“A few months ago, the resistance bombed a hospital, people died, people I knew. Did you know about that? were you involved!?”
He was lost for words, he knew about the attack, it happened before he came back, but he still felt partly responsible. It happened because he wasn’t there, because he had let his responsibilities as a leader slip as he sought the amulet. Somehow, even though he felt responsible, before now he hadn’t thought that it affected someone he cared about. That it could have ever affected Catherine broke his heart.
She took his silence as admission and drove straight ahead.
***
Michael sat across from him in the back seat of a limo, Michael wasn’t sure what they had wanted from his old friend, he was even less sure that he’d like it once he found out. The Governor watched the former leader of his country, as he sat strangely silent. The woman, Catherine, had told Michael that much of his mind seemed to be gone since his rescue from the Palatine prison. She blamed Michael for it, and he too blamed himself, she may have turned their friend over to the Governor, but it was Michael who gave him over to his Palatine overlords, Michael who had truly betrayed him. He couldn’t help but feel guilty.
“Are you aware of what’s happening?” asked Michael.
His former friend and leader looked at, him then moved his hands in front of his chest oddly, as though he was fondling something that wasn’t there. “The sky is falling,” he replied after a time, “Darkness is coming, in silver skin.”
The description didn’t sit right with Michael, had his old friend had contact with them before? “Have you met them before? Do you know what they want?”
The man made a strange gesture with the hand near his chest, “I know what you want.”
***
Michael entered the room, his old friend stood in the corner, impatiently tapping his foot.
When he saw Michael approach he began to pace back and forth. “I need to get out of here,” he said, there was anger in his voice, and a trace of panic. “I need to go!”
“You’re not going anywhere,” replied Michael, relieved the homicidal rage the former leader expressed towards him before had subsided. Perhaps now he was willing to listen. “Well, not yet. I have some things we need to get straight first.” He pulled up a chair and sat down. “Now, tell me, where did you go?”
The man stared back dumbfounded, “To retrieve it of course!” he answered as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“To retrieve what?”
“It!”
“What, it?”
“The IT! The most important it! The only it that matters!” His face twisted into a scowl, “When did you become so slow? You were never asked questions so stupid before! Have the Palatine taken your mind as well as your loyalty?”
That last part stung, “I’m still loyal to Aventine!” Michael shouted back in anger. “You weren’t there when they moved against us, you didn’t know what they could have done! I had to make a choice and I chose to save Aventine and it’s people. What of you? running off on your own to find some mythical IT while Aventine falls apart in your absence. You’re loyal to no one save yourself.”
The man slammed his fists into a nearby table, “This is bigger than us, bigger than Aventine, this is about the world I have to go! I must get it to him!”
“Get what to whom? You’re not making any sense!”
His old friend froze and stared calmly into Michael’s face, “Catherine knows, she was supposed to take me,” he said. Then in a burst of rage he slammed his fists against a wall this time as though he could break it down. The hole he left suggested he might. “She was supposed to take me!” he screamed. He collapsed on the floor and hit his head, “Why, why, why? It’s not supposed to be this way. Why is it like this, this is wrong I have to go, I have to find Catherine she has to take me!” He started sobbing.
Michael just stared at the ruin his old friend had become, the change was sudden and terrifying. All he could do was watch as the man broke down in front of him.
The door opened and soldier from Palatine entered. They had come to take his friend away.
Michel tried to get in their way, “I’m not done with him yet, come back later.” he said with presumed authority.
The first soldier struck Michael across the head and sent him to the floor. “We don’t answer to you, slopsucker.” He said with scorn.
The other soldier scoffed, “‘Bout time someone put him in his place.”
Michael wiped blood from his lip as he watched them carry the man away. His friend hung listlessly between them, his will to fight gone.
***
The man sat in the back seat, one hand on the amulet about his neck. He saw the strange expressions that passed across Michael’s face as his mind and eyes disagreed on what he was seeing.
“Why did you turn yourself in? I could have easily just turned you over to the Palatine again.” Michael asked after awhile.
“You wouldn’t.” the man replied matter-of-factly as they passed Palatine tanks and soldiers preparing for the worst. He looked out the window and saw the Governor’s mansion, formerly the council building. Where the front lawn should have been he saw a massive metal structure rising into view. As they got closer he realized why everyone was in such a state, and why the Palatine Empire might let him remain free for this moment. The metal structure was a ship, an alien ship.
The ship was little more than the width of a car but much longer and taller leading toward sharp points at the front and top. It had a wider back with pointed thrusters giving a look like a massive dagger. As the limo pulled into the driveway, a door opened in the side of the alien ship and a short, gleaming gangway rolled out. A white mist poured out of the ship. Michael climbed out of the limo just before the man who was once his friend. At the same time, a bright silver claw reached outside the ship.
***
He needed to get it to Him, the thought ran through his head on repeat. With each repetition it grew weaker it was almost non-existent now, barely more than a whisper. It was strongest when he was caught, but it was so weak now, so very weak.
He had to get it to Him.
How long had it been, how long had he been here, alone in the dark? He supposed it didn’t matter, not really. Sometimes he began to wonder if they ever came to talk to him, to interrogate him or was that just something he imagined they did. Perhaps they never really did care what he had done, perhaps they never tortured or beat him for holding out against them so long.
He had to get it to Him.
Did he? he began to wonder as the voice grew weaker, did he really have to do anything? The amulet didn’t matter anymore he couldn’t return it from here. Maybe he should have left it with the resistance, then maybe they could take it to Him.
He had to get it . . .
The Emperor had waited all this time for the amulet to be returned he’d wait longer still. If the Emperor needed it so bad he could come for it himself. Better yet, wouldn’t have lost it in the first place.
He had to . . .
No, the man resolved, he didn’t nor would he. The Emperor was dead, and Aventine was lost. There was nothing to go back to, nothing left to save.
The light burned his eyes as it spread through the opening door. Whispering voices were cacophonous against the oppressive silence.
“Is that him?” asked a silhouette at the door.
It moved away and another came forward, “What have they done to him? hurry let’s get him out of here.” the second voice was softer, and somehow familiar.
The figures entered the deeper shadows of the room, and he could feel them lifting him up. As they did there was a clatter from the machinery beside him. “What’s all this?” one of the voices asked. There were gasps of horrified realization, followed by a small accepting, “oh.”
Slowly and with care, they unhooked him from the machinery and carried him out of the darkness. A few times he tried to open his eyes in the glaring light, but could only make out vaguely blurred images. He was barely aware of what was happening to him. His consciousness fading, as they pulled him into the back of a vehicle. He passed out as the vehicle began to move.
***
He had to. . .
The thought intruded on his mind as he watched the creature emerge from its ship. It had long thin limbs with pointed joints, there were three-digit claws at the end of each. The chest was thin and elongated, its silver skin pulled tight against its bones. Instead of a segmented rib cage, it seemed to have a solid bone plate in its chest.
He had to. . .
It had strange, exaggerated movements as though it was not used to walking upright. With each step, it swayed widely with its arms reaching toward the ground as it rebalanced itself.
He had to get it. . .
Michael moved up to greet the thing. Its head looked like an octopus with short tentacles where its mouth would have been. There were protrusions from its back, arching bones covered with thin tight silver skin, giving it the impression of tiny wings.
He had to get it. . .
Its eyes were large black orbs. The whole appearance was menacing. The former leader of Aventine was overcome with a sudden urge to run.
He had to get it to Him.
The need to get the amulet back to the resistance headquarters, back to Catherine to help him get to the Chamber. He grabbed it tightly to his chest. He had to run.
Michael raised his hand in greeting to the creature, it was the last thing he would ever do. His body flew past his old friend and crashed heavily into the side of the limo.
He had to get it to Him.
The creature turned toward him and screeched through its tentacular mouth. He turned and ran, he had to get it to Him, nothing else mattered now. In front of him the Palatine military took aim and fired, barely missing him. They cared little for his life, but the creature was a higher concern. It threw itself into the arrayed soldiers and tore into them. All he could do was run, so that’s what he did.
***
The audience chamber was grandiose, it seemed so strange that such a large building was buried under the new City of Aventine. She remembered the path here and felt odd that she couldn’t remember when she was here before. Catherine almost felt the weight of her armor of her memory as she moved down the red carpet toward the throne. She remembered the walk, remembered kneeling before the Emperor, remembered him bowing his head in greeting.
Her reverie broken when she saw the Emperor slumped forward in his grand throne. From head to toe, he was covered in ornate armor, not a speck of rust after nearly two-thousand years. She pulled the amulet from her neck and climbed the steps up to the throne. There was a small cavity in his chest plate matching the shape of the amulet.
When she inserted the amulet nothing happened, she waited and nothing continued to happen. She didn’t know what she expected, maybe for him to get up or move, or even just the eyes on his ancient helmet to light up. Yet nothing happened, the old armor just sat immobile the Emperor still trapped in his slumber. Was he truly dead, she began to wonder.
Her disappointment turned to anger, she slammed her palms into the armor's chest and it fell backward limp. “You were supposed to save us!” she shouted. “He believed in you! Believed you were going to save our world, he threw everything away for you!” Tears began to well up in her eyes. “What was it all for if you won’t wake up?!” She fell to her knees, tears streaming down her cheeks.
After a while, she stood up and turned to leave and noticed a light on in a room to the side. With curiosity she entered the room and was surprised to see an ornate room, with beautiful complex tapestries on the walls depicting battles from long ago. on display around the room were a handful of elegantly crafted weapons; a pair of short swords, a long sword paired with a decorated shield, and a Halberd with runes etched into its bladed head. Delicately, she ran her fingers along the shaft of the polearm, she felt more runes running along its length. She remembered holding the weapon, facing an enemy who had a face she didn’t recognize but felt she should.
She turned her attention to the statue at the end of the room and froze in shock. She knew the face that peered nobly ahead ready to take on whatever challenge lay before her. It filled her with unease, to stare up at her own face cast in stone some two millennia ago. Was it a distant ancestor? she wondered. No, it was too close, no not close, it was exact, it was her. How had an Imperial era sculptor imagined her likeness so exactly?
There was a loud crash that she could only assume was the creature having followed her here. Before she knew what she was doing, she grabbed the Halberd and rushed back into the throne room. She saw the Emperor slumped forward in his throne, the creature was halfway across the room headed straight for Emperor’s inert form.
“Hey!” Catherine shouted, the words leaving her mouth before she was even sure what she was doing.
The thing turned and screeched at her, then lunged across the room. Catherine assumed a stance and readied the halberd, her body acting on its own now, years of training drilled into her. She swung the halberd and the creature’s silver arm spun across the room, alien blue blood spilling from its shoulder.
The creature’s tentacles seemed to twist in confusion, up until then not a thing on this world could even hurt it. It would continue to stare in shock at Catherine as she split its head with her rune blade.
Three more of the creatures entered through the broken doorway, they moved cautiously not willing to repeat the mistake of the first creature. At some point, they decided to invade their world properly.
She took a deep breath and moved herself to stand with the Emperor at her back. One was in front of her and the other two were at her side, she wondered how they would attack, wondered at their battle tactics. Some part of her was glad they had, for one reason or another, seemed to forgone weapons and armor almost entirely. Though with the strength of their skin, she wondered if such inventions would actually do them any good.
They crouched for an attack then recoiled backward. A hand was placed on Catherine’s shoulder. She froze, had one gotten behind her? she wondered, was it all over? The fear left when she realized the hand was gentle. she turned to look into the faceplate of the Emperor. Dio had woken. He gently pushed her aside and descended the steps.
The creatures looked between Catherine and the Emperor wondering what to do, they settled on the new threat and set their sights on the Emperor.
Dio turned his head toward the creature to his right, the one he turned from leaped at the moment it saw what it perceived as an opening. The Emperor spun in a blindly fast circle, he was facing the same creature again blue blood on a hidden blade that extended from his vambrace. He reached a hand toward the thing in front of him, and it kneeled, the one by the door followed suit.
“They’ll call off the attack.” Dio turned back to Catherine, “Come, Antonia, we have much to do.”