Ascendance

25

Akenath was walking down a tunnel when he reached a purple door. He could hear screaming and crying in the background. The sounds stopped when he stepped in the door. There was a blond woman humming and taking trays of cookies out of an oven. 

"Mom?" He managed, confused. She turned around, smiling at him. Without hesitating, he wrapped his arms around the woman. She looked surprised but returned the favor. 

"Akenath, what are you doing here?" She asked him. 

"I'm dead, aren't I?" He asked her. Honestly, he was surprised he wasn't dead. 

"You're not dead." His mother cradled his face in her hand. "Why do you want to be dead?" 

"I'm a monster." He managed to say. "I'm the reason my people hate me, the reason humans hate me...the reason you got executed." 

"Shhh....it's okay, Nate." She spoke gently, using his childhood nickname. "You can still change. And you're not a monster.." 

He looked at his mother, tears streaming down his cheeks. 

"Mother...." He sighed as everything started to become white. He could hear the monitors beeping in the background. He opened his eyes to Heather asleep in a chair next to his bed and Erika half asleep on a neighboring chair. 

Akenath wondered if Heather still cared about him now that she knew what kind of monster he was. She stirred, slowly opening her eyes. 

"JD!" She almost jumped out of her chair. Excitedly, she went to go hug him. He hugged back, feeling strangely happy. Maybe she didn't know. 

"Hi, Heather." Gods, his voice was really raspy. 

"I'm so glad you're okay. You had me worried." She responded, refusing to let him go from her grip. "Also I don't care if you're an alien." 

Jackson felt his face turn bright red. He leaned his head against Heather's shoulder. 

"Thank you." He closed his eyes, squeezing Heather a bit closer. He heard a coughing sound. Erika was awake with her arms crossed over her chest. 

"Oh, Erika." He responded. "I-" 

"Hey, if you have anything smart to say, wait until he's fully recovered." Heather spoke. 

"I wasn't going to say anything bad. I just wanted to know how you were feeling." Erika spoke to him. 

"Well, I feel like shit." Akenath stared at his bandaged forearms. They had managed to save him despite his desire to die. 

"I imagine so. You lost half of your blood volume, I'm surprised you lived." Erika spoke to him. "I guess your alien self saved you again." 

"I guess." He shrugged. What did she want? "I guess I owe you an apology too." 

"An apology?" Erika raised her eyebrows. 

"I was awful to you. I tried to blame you for something that you weren't even alive for." Akenath sighed. "I did horrible things trying to destroy you and in the end, you bested me." 

"I did." Erika had a smile on her face. "And now you're human." 

"I was half human to begin with." Akenath sighed. "Well, close enough to it." 

"What do you mean?" Erika asked. 

"My mother, she was the only survivor after some other aliens destroyed their kind. She was able to make it to my home planet but she crashed and my father saved her. How ironic, the man who saved her life ended it." He laughed in a bitter tone. 

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The Leader/JD/Akenath/whatever seemed upset at retelling his life story. 

"So about that apology.." I try to change the subject. 

"Yes?" He raised his brow. 

"I accept it. But this doesn't mean I fully trust you yet." I told him. 

He nodded. "I understand. Thank you." 

"No problem. But I'm assuming this means that you recovered your memories." I crossed my arms. 

"I did." He sighed. "Felixin was the one who injected me. I was done with trying to get revenge on you but he wasn't having it." 

"So Felixin wanted to continue this whole thing?" I asked. Huh, that's interesting. 

"Yeah. I'm sure his plan was to trigger my memories back, make me go berserk and end up having to kill me." He stares at his bandages. From what I was told, they were considering amputating his arms until they realized his veins were healing themselves. 

"Your family sounds unhinged." I responded. "Seems like they wanted your power." 

"Yeah, I'm sure they do." The Leader sighed, looking defeated. "I was the one who took my ancestor's power for myself after all." 

"Wait, so not everyone can do all the things you do?" I raised my brow. 

"No." He sighed, looking down. 

"So what happened to your mother?" Heather asked him, gently holding his right hand. 

"When I was six, an advisor started to spread rumors that I was not my father's son. He told my father lies about my mother and he believed him. My mother was executed on the grounds of treason and I was disowned. I spent the next years of my life trying to survive alone on our planet. Eventually, I joined a rebel faction and helped overthrow my father. It turned into a full on war and I eventually found out my ancestor had a vial of his blood stored in a temple." 

"I wish I had some popcorn, this is interesting." A voice spoke. We all almost snapped our necks trying to see who was speaking. It was the Founder. My blood ran cold. I know this wasn't great for The Leader at all. 

"Why are you here?" I could tell that he was antsy. 

"I'm here to take you back to a place you know very well." He spoke. 

"No." I could see the color draining from his face. 

"Why are you doing that?" I snap at the Founder. "You'll just make him evil again!" 

"Again? My dear, he already is." The Founder eyed him. 

"I was doing that all out of spite to the people that screwed me over." I could see the Leader's skin moving. He was trying to stand up. "Including you. I am not evil." 

Oh no.