Tarek had only been to Andor once with Roderick. The trip a warning, his prior Guide had told him.
See this desolation, Tarek. Take it in. These people are not really living, their lives full of despair. Live pure, and accept your privilege, for an impure life will lead to a world such as this.
Back then, he had believed Exemplar's population mirrored Andor's—no one actually living.
Not anymore. This world and its people were lost, completely.
Even before their portal closed in the alley, Tarek shoved Lena into a burned-out building, a rusted vehicle with its front end smashed through the window. He pressed her up against the truck when stray bullets peppered their hiding spot. More shots from ancient guns sliced the air, one whizzing past his ear. They were in the middle of a capital city where the Warden resided. Out of the entire world, this place, with its killing and stealing and raping was the safest to be.
He pushed Lena tighter against the truck as the shots continued to pummel their spot. One Andorian came too close to the shattered window, his toothless sneer and dirty face pointed to Lena. The man lifted his weapon.
Tarek drew his gun faster, his shot hitting the heathen between the eyes. No tasers this trip. His weapon—with soul-stealing bullets that absorbed energy as soon as it broke skin—clicked as it powered up again. If the Warden wanted the man's energy, he'd have to dig the bullet out of his skull.
He kicked the prone body away and grabbed Lena's shoulders. "Stay beside me. Only a few more yards to go." Screams and fighting swallowed his words.
Lena, pale and terrified, kept her focus on him, her gaze not moving from his. "Why... Why would they give us these coordinates? Why wouldn't Mateusz tell us...?" She didn't finish, and he didn't have to explain. She already knew the answer.
As in all other worlds outside of Exemplar, the Warden's home had blocks around it. This location was as close as Mateusz could get them.
"The Warden's place will be safer." At least out of gunshot range. "We can make it."
He didn't convince her, her grip on the rusted truck not easing up.
Tarek leaned in until he blocked out everything from her view. With an unsteady hand, he covered her whitened knuckles while never taking his gaze from hers, giving her as much calm as he could muster as shots and sounds of people dying rendered the air. "Trust me," he whispered in her ear.
Her hold loosened only to palm his humming suit. "We're going to die here, Tarek."
"No. We aren't." He scouted a path as a lull filled the rundown street, only a few cracks of gunfire in the distance. "All right. Let's go."
He jerked her to his side with one hand and lifted his weapon with the other. If anything stood in their path, whether it be an animal or Andorian, he'd end them.
They raced a zigzag pattern, ducking into alleys between dilapidated buildings and piles of garbage when the fighting kicked up again. Neither of them spoke as they sprinted for the doorstep of the only building not in danger of crumbling in on itself. Tarek hauled Lena in front of him, using his back and the door to shield her from all the chaos. He pounded on the dented metal, once, twice.
Nothing.
He tried again.
Death lingered everywhere, the whipping wind saturated with rotting and charred flesh as it swirled around them. Gravel in the air smacked against his neck, his contego suit only reaching his collarbone.
Dammit! Tarek pounded a fourth time, ready to give up the assignment, face the elders with his failure. Finally, the door swung open long enough for them to slip inside.
Pitch-black quiet greeted them, but his ears still rang from the pandemonium they left outside. No way to live, always fighting. These people, he didn't know whether to feel sorry for them or put a bullet in all their heads.
"Set your weapons on the ground." A gravelly voice sneaking from the shadows caused Lena to jump, a scream escaping her lips.
Tarek held her closer. "No." He couldn't see anyone, the coward still hiding in the darkness. But he heard the clicking of engaging guns, the archaic sound something he knew well, despite the dated weaponry.
"Now," the phantom voice said with more force.
Tarek's grip tightened around his weapon. "No. Either that will have to suffice, or we'll leave." And he would. He'd take Lena from here and hide her away in another world, Tainted threat be damned. As far as he was concerned, Cassondra was the traitor, not them.
A chuckle as biting as acid eating through steel filtered through the hall. Dim lights flickered on to show ten men, all with greasy hair, rotted teeth, and ripped clothes. They stood like sentinels in a hall that led to a slight figure standing by an open doorway. "Welcome to my home, Protector."
Ajax.
Tarek aimed at the closest roughneck. "Call off your people, Warden, or I'll shoot every one of them."
The Warden chuckled again. "No need for hostility." He sauntered forward, pulling his gloves off finger by finger. "No one here wishes you or your little Guide harm."
Tarek didn't take his gaze off the Warden's fingers as he leaned in next to Lena's ear. "Don't let him touch you."
She didn't answer, her body quaking harder.
If the bastard brushed so much as a fingertip against the skin, his victim would live their worst fear—a tactic Exemplians had adopted using technology. A punishment worse than an execution and having energy sent to a lower world.
"Oh, come, now. Enough of that." Ajax tucked his gloves in his topcoat, his clothes impeccably clean and tailored. The man looked like a genteel politician, with pleasant features surrounding hard black eyes. "Rudeness is highly unnecessary."
Tarek remained silent, his scrutiny bouncing from face to contemptuous face in the hall.
"This won't continue, I swear to you." Lena's trembling voice filled the bloated quiet.
The Warden clapped his hands together, smiling. "Aren't you a sassy one? Lovely!" He gestured to his minions, and all of them faded into the shadows. Their smell still permeated the air, unwashed bodies and decay. "Follow me, won't you?" Ajax turned on heel, whistling as he waltzed into the open room.
Lena went to follow, but Tarek held her back. "Remember what I said." When she didn't acknowledge him, he gave her a subtle shake. "Lena! Don't let him touch you."
Beyond her fear, he saw her complete faith in him, something he didn't deserve. "You remember, too."
"Promise." He took her hand, keeping it secured in his, and followed the Warden through the open door.
The room glimmered, colored lights racing from wall to wall. A chained animal, some sort of three-headed rodent as large as a deer, snarled and snapped its three maws as he and Lena drew closer to the Warden, whose smile was as unsettling as the sporadic lights.
Lena moaned, slumping against his side.
"Are you going to make it?" Tarek held her up, her body quivering in his grasp.
"I... Yes... Give me a moment." She rubbed her eyes, blinked a few times, and then kept her focus on the ground, flinching with every growl and yap from the tethered animal in the corner.
Rage blackened his sight as he led Lena to a tattered chair in the far corner of the room, away from the beast. He then stood in front of her to confront the Warden. "Turn off the strobes."
Ajax laughed again; his refined chortle cut like razors against Tarek's skin. The sound embodied nightmares, plain and simple. "You don't like my décor? Pity. I quite enjoy it."
"She won't be able to concentrate."
The Warden's smile turned frigid. "Her issues are not mine, Protector."
Lights continued to slash through the room, now moving faster, making his head spin. "You bast—"
"Tarek." Lena's hand warmed his leg through his vibrating suit, her grip tight, pinching.
He shut his eyes against the flashing assault and breathed in before opening them. "Fine. Let's finish this."
Ajax moved to stroke his salivating pet, the animal becoming docile under its master's touch. "Yes, let's." His tone quieted, secrets hiding behind its tenor. He stopped petting his rodent long enough to hold up his glowing hand. "Always good to dispel of bad energy. How kind of Cassondra to be so concerned about my world. You must thank her for me."
Cassondra... Ajax knew her by name—uncommon for a Warden to know an overseer. No, Tarek didn't like this. Not at all.
He turned to Lena, holding out his hand. "We're leaving."
Shock brightened her ashen face. "We can't, Tarek. You know we can't."
Tarek took her elbow and hefted her up to the music of the animal's jaw-chomping anger. "We can."
She struggled in his hold, thrashing and hitting, her panic bleeding from her skin to seep into his. "No! You won't do this. You won't sacrifice yourself. I won't let you."
Ah, she knew him. If he forced her home, the elders would only try him for insubordination. The satellite feed would show Lena's struggle—exactly what he wanted.
He dragged her to the door as the Warden laughed, all of this an amusing game. A game Tarek was finished playing.
Tarek braced himself for Lena's screams and beating against his chest on the way out.
He didn't prepare himself for her body to go lax in his hold and her brilliant green energy to escape her mouth. "Lena!" He lifted her body into his arms as her energy zipped to Ajax's waiting hand.
I will not let you...
Her voice whispered in his mind, crushing him cell by cell. She left him paralyzed, handicapped to do anything except stand there while she took bad energy from that cackling bastard to Arcus, another world unfit for humanity.
As her light escaped through the ceiling, the Warden's laughter stopped. The room transformed into a dark abyss, and blackness folded him in, a thick blanket stealing his ability to fight.
"Your Guide is a curious one, isn't she? A pariah among a population of sameness. A dangerous venture for a person to take on."
Why would he say th—?
Oh, no.
Not possible. Cassondra wouldn't—
Yes, she would. Their punishment for Lena digging into the overseer's personal life wasn't an assignment to Andor. It was a death sentence.
Tarek turned off his suit's glow and held Lena's body closer, backing up as quiet as air until he hit the wall. Maybe if he stayed silent, unmoving, Ajax wouldn't find him. All he had to do was wait for Lena to come back, just minutes, and they could leave. No one had ever killed a Warden, ERP training claiming it impossible. But he'd test that theory if the bastard wanted to stop them.
"Oh, please, do hide." Ajax's chuckle slithered through the darkness, his pet's heavy breathing following him. "It will be fun to seek you out."
Sweat leaked from every pore, Tarek's skin raw against his inactive suit. One touch from the man and everything would end. Everything.
"She will not hinder my world's growth. I will not allow it." In the next breath, Ajax's voice whispered in his ear, hot and searing. "It's time we end her crusade, don't you think?"
Before Tarek could move, a feathery touch glided across his cheek.
He looked down, and horror filled him until he couldn't breathe.
Empty. No Lena.
No Lena!
He searched the room, now with incandescent light. No Warden. Only the mangy rodent remained, its needle-sharp teeth bare. The chain holding it creaked, in danger of breaking.
"Lena!" Where are you? Where are you?
He stumbled to the soiled chair, falling into it as thoughts attacked his mind. Alone in Arcus, alone in Arcus. That had to be where she was. He left her there unprotected to come here to...to... Why? Why was he here?
He searched the room again. No, no, she was there. Hidden. Her body hidden and her energy...vulnerable. "Lena!"
Spit dribbled from his mouth, his panic a living, breathing parasite embedded in his spine. He searched again. There, in the corner under a pile of threadbare blankets, a slim hand peeked out. His weak legs took him to the mound, and he pulled down the fabric just enough to see her angelic face. Relief brought him to his knees. Safe. Safe, safe, safe!
But then he touched her cheek.
Skin melted from her bones, saturating his fingertips. "No!" Her flesh dripped to the ground, showing bone and veins. She didn't scream or cry out, her chest pumping up and down in the rhythmic way it did while her energy was elsewhere. "Lena!"
Where was her energy?
Arcus.
He had to go there, had to get her energy, bring it back so they could leave. How? How? He had to get her. He had to...
Tarek lifted his hand. Nothing. He needed to think. No time. He rushed to the door, stumbling down the hall. Laughing everywhere. He raised his gun. No one. Just laughing. Ajax...laughing.
He burst through the main door and lifted his hand, shots and fighting all around him. A tear opened to screeches from Andorians and cries of "The Devil!"
And then there was silence, a vacuum of nothing. His portal spit him out at the base of Casimir's castle in the snow and ice.
"Ah!" He palmed his forehead and looked around, his tortured mind wracked with confusion. Squid shook their trees at the line between tropical forest and gray ice, squealing at his intrusion. Wooden movements on the slippery ground stole his balance, and he fell, his knees crashing to the ground.
"Lena!"
He peered at the castle, up the sleek sides of the black stone, to find Casimir staring back at him, curiosity alight in eyes as colorless as Cassondra's. "Where is she?"
The Warden smiled and moved away from the window.
"Where!" Tarek fought to get to his feet, the ice winning the battle. "Lena!"
Finally, there she was, coming from the castle, rocketing to his side.
Relief flopped him on his ass. "You're all right."
No, no, she wasn't.
As Lena's green light bobbed in front of him, clarity struck his brain with cold, stark fear.
Her sad voice drifted into his aching mind. Tarek? What have you done?
Oh, no.
Her light faded, her energy breaking up. Her body was dying—and her energy would transfer to Ajax.
Tarek lifted his hand and opened a portal, back to Andor in seconds—back into the melee, to the guttural cries of "demon" as his portal dropped him. He flicked on his suit to more shocked screams and pounded on the door, yelling until his hoarse voice scraped his throat. When it remained shut, Tarek pulled out his weapon and shot out windows until the door opened. Guns fired at him, but he was faster. One dead, another, and another, so many as he sprinted to where he left Lena's body, shooting at everything moving.
Ajax stood in the center of the now bright room, his hand up, showing the green light in his palm. Lena's light.
Tarek looked to his left. Lena's body, immobile and slumped on the chair, mangled from the rabid animal tearing her apart.
"No!" He blasted the rodent until every head stopped its gnawing on her delicate flesh, her white robes drenched in blood.
He went to her, a plea repeating on his lips. Her chest didn't move, no breathing. Nothing. He took her into his arms, stanching his desire to crumble, to give up. He wouldn't. He'd save her. Ajax wouldn't trap her energy here forever. No.
He heaved Lena's lifeless body over a shoulder and moved toward the door with one last look at the Warden's glowing hand.
Ajax's lips twisted into an ugly smile. "Now she will help my world."