CHAPTER 46: ALPHA GOES BETA

45 7 3
                                    

Luke would've been less scared if Alpha had hit the ground unconscious. Instead, Alpha stuck the landing as if he had only momentarily passed out. His wings sprouted and he landed on the ground, stumbling a bit at the end, but catching himself as he knelt down and pummeled his fist into the ground.

Suddenly, Alpha looked a couple of inches taller as if he had just experienced a mini growth spurt. He was no longer smiling, his golden-green eyes didn't seem like a nebula in space anymore. It seemed more like a void in space with colorful cosmic dust being vacuumed by the darkness.

Alpha picked up the half-eaten fruit from the ground and held it in his hand. The fruit melted through his transparent skin and incinerated as if it had been tossed into a furnace.

He turned to Victor and scowled at him, but quickly his scowl turned to tears. He clutched his head as if he were dizzy, then he started banging it in frustration.

He looked to Luke and the others and seemingly pleaded with them. "Why?"

Alpha's wings disappeared and he sat down on the ground sobbing. For a second, Luke thought the fruit had made him even more of a child.

It wasn't until Luke knelt by his side and saw him shuddering that these were tears of lament and loss. A child had been robbed of his life—of his innocence.

"Why'd you let me eat the fruit?"

Luke had no words. Could he have done better to stop him? Should he had listened to Victor and left Alpha outside? Should he had been more focused on Alpha than trying to catch Victor in an illegal act?

More importantly, what had Alpha learned from eating the fruit of knowledge?

Victor leapt from the tree branch onto another and started making his way towards the exit.

Such an ass, Luke thought. At the first sign of trouble, Victor broke out. Granted he warned Luke but still, Victor was supposed to be the leader of this mission.

Luke helped Alpha up and couldn't bear to look him in the eye. "I'm sorry Alpha." Luke really was sorry. He didn't know how serious Alpha's condition was before he ate the fruit. Was he in the same state that Nil was in or something less severe? Either way, he was out of it now.

"Well it's over now," he said as his voice deepened. It was if puberty hit him as soon as he ate the fruit. "I just need to find my way back...."

Suddenly the garden started to shake.

"Guys," Sirius said. "I think we've overstayed our welcome."

Luke knew this wasn't all Alpha's fault. Victor played a role too. He was stealing from the Garden and the Garden knew.

Suddenly branches from the trees started to collapse upon them. They managed to escape without being crushed. Alpha just let the branch fall through him. He sprouted his wings and grabbed the shirts of Luke and Sirius, who was also holding Nil. He flew them across the river, dodging through branches and on occasion passing through them.

Then, a wall of stone rose in front of them. It was as if a canyon had risen from the ground. Luke knew there was no way over or around it. He looked to his sides and saw more canyon walls rising on all sides.

Alpha was either unfazed or forgot that everyone else was fully solid and would splatter if he flew through the wall like he was attempting to do right now.

Either case, Luke yelled at him to stop, and Alpha ignored them. Maybe the fruit had made him insane. As they flew towards the wall, Luke covered his face with his arms and braced for impact.

When the impact didn't occur, he opened his eyes and felt a strange sensation pass through him. Goosebumps ran along his body. His eyes were filled with a momentary darkness and then light exploded, illuminating the collapsing forest around him. They burst out into the open fields and crashed landed in front of the Garden's gate.

"Is everyone alright?" Sirius asked.

"I'm alive," Luke said.

Alpha meanwhile was panting. "Never transferred transparency to three people at once."

At that moment, Luke knew Alpha had changed. He had matured. His use of the words "transferred," and "transparency" were too big for the mind of a seven-year-old—maybe even a fifteen-year-old. In either case, Alpha was acting more his own age.

Maybe he was in a pure state after all and Luke ruined him.

"At least we didn't splat like a tomato," Sirius said.

And out of nowhere, Nil passed the loudest fart ever. It sounded like a wet balloon popping. It was so sudden, so unexpected, and so smelly.

Sirius gagged. "Smells worse than the smelly yak."

Luke laughed and looked to Alpha who even chuckled a bit at the untimely gas. "Smelly Yak strikes again," Alpha seemed to recall. Luke was relieved that he at least had his memories of SGA intact.

But then Alpha's chuckling turned into a gasp. Luke turned and saw a knife with a rusty tip pierced through his chest right where his heart should be.

Alpha collapsed to the ground and revealed a different man behind him. He had blond hair and blue eyes. He had a scar that ran along his neck like a snake and another that ran closer to cheek.

Luke couldn't believe who he was staring at. This couldn't be real. His memory was playing tricks on him. The knife was Victor's. It was the rusty-tipped knife he chose from the armory; the one that Ose, the demon king of the Aeria, had said was coated in a toxin called Nightshadow.

But the person holding the knife was not Victor, it was a different character altogether. He was dressed in the Tempest black clothes Victor had worn. Luke recognized the man because it was him who had been one of Luke's escorts to the Garden of Eden when he was five-years-old.

"Jurgen," Luke said. "Or do you prefer your alias Victor?"

Jurgen spoke with a hint of a German accent. "It took you long enough to figure it out, although nearly ending me in the combat training would've been a big win for you. I won't underestimate you again."

He withdrew the rusty blade from Alpha who turned and growled at him. He swung a punch that landed wide and off-target. Alpha started sweating and his body was like a buggy holographic that had been infected by a virus.

"Of course, no poison can kill the pupil of the traitor, but it sure as Gonjá will slow you down and prevent flying escapes through my walls."

Luke started putting things together. The Garden hadn't attacked them, it was Jurgen who tried to trap them in the Garden, and apparently not only did he know dirt on Sirius, but he also knew much about Alpha.

"Now, as much of a displeasure it would be to chat with the likes of salvaged retards, I would much rather leave you to entertain your guests. Good luck with the cherubim."

Jurgen's body disappeared into the earth, just in time for the heads of the statues stationed in front of the Garden to turn towards the four of them and narrow their eyes.

Children of the ArchangelsWhere stories live. Discover now