*Rush*
When Aletha had finally fallen asleep, he left her in his room, heavily guarded. Newborn vampires experienced intense fatigue and sleep for the first few days after their transition. Aletha had experienced trauma and he knew it would affect her transition to the night world a lot more than just any normally turned vampire. It would be harder, more devastating for her. And with all the shit she went through for most of her life, he knew he needed to be there for her.
He didn't even like the idea of leaving her especially tonight, but he needed to talk to his Beta and Gamma about what would happen next. So he left Aletha sleeping in a curled ball under his covers, a sight that reminded him of a kitten. Then he headed out to his throne room.
Maddox was already out in the fields, watching over the pack. Iyla was nowhere to be seen. And then he saw his sister Anya walking among the shadows of this throne room, her face dark and calculating. Some of his warriors watched her with an almost stricken expression. When he asked what happened, he got a startling response. Apparently, demons were manifesting from the shadows.
"What the hell do you mean demons are here?" he asked.
"I just mean that demons are here," Anya said with a shrug. Sometimes, it was hard to understand his sister and her twisted mind that played only games. "It's really not that hard to understand. What we've thought as the darkness and the demon plague, now we know what's causing it."
"Why exactly do we have these demons running around my territory?"
"Not just your territory, brother mine. They're all around the Darklands. Plenty more in the Moonlands."
"The Moonlands?" Rush said almost with a jeer. "But those are the holiest lands in the Darkworld. Why would the demons go to a holy place? Isn't that counterintuitive?"
Anya looked almost wrathful. "The Moon Goddess is losing power. Meaning the first place the demons will attack is my mate's pack." Her mate being Alpha Archer of the Lunar Pack, one of the strongest packs in the Darkworld.
"Are you saying that we're about to have another apocalypse?" Rush was baffled. "Anya, I don't think I can handle another anticlimactic ending. We wasted so many resources fighting our father and his little dogs. And where did that take us? A victory for sure, but..." He shook his head. "On a serious note, we don't need another apocalypse. Not with the vampires so close."
"There won't be an apocalypse," Anya said firmly. "I'll take on the Moon Throne. Right now, Raegon can't control his demons. He needs more heirs to expand his power. And he needs moon magic to keep the demons in, which Lewana can't give him. So she has to go."
"A new goddess will rise," Rush realized. It was all in the prophecy. When hell came to the Darkworld, it marked the end of an era. There would be a shift in Moon power very soon. "You will be the new goddess. You have to be the new Moon Goddess."
"It's about time that I do, don't you think?" Anya said with a wry smile. "For decades, the darkness has plagued the Darklands. We always thought it was a disease, but didn't know exactly how it infected us. But now we know."
Rush could only shake his head. "What's happening to our world? It's never stable, is it? For the entire fucking millenia I've lived, I've never lived through a day where there wasn't chaos."
Anya laughed now. "That's the Darklands for you. Should have known better than to rule here."
"Ah, you're right about that. That's the Darklands, a neverending spiral of war and death. And you know something, Anya? I wouldn't change it. It gave me everything to live for, even though all it carries with it are shadows and death in the darkness. That's all I've learned."
"But that's all you need to learn if you want to survive. As Maddox says, being an evil motherfucker is better here than staying innocent and becoming an easy prey."
Rush started to laugh. Maddox did say that. Far too many times than he could keep count. Because at the end of the day, the disease of the Darklands got to everyone, including Rush. On those days, the only person he could turn to was Maddox, because his brother by soul had seen him at his worst. Only Maddox knew how to console him when he broke down, and Rush had cracked a number of times. Although...it had gotten better. Over the last few decades, it was a lot better. It made Rush wonder on many nights...had he finally turned into an evil motherfucker?
"Rush, there's something else you need to know," said Anya. "When Vicera was taken back to the other castle, she was very wrathful."
"Understandable, considering how badly she was humiliated in her own game," Rush agreed.
"Which I must say was satisfying to watch, except that you just bared your ass in front of that bitch. She can declare war, and we know that she will declare war."
"Then let her," said Rush. "I'll fight her and her damned purebloods until all of their fucking heads are severed and hung in poles around my pack."
"Rush, I think she's planning something," Anya said, and he saw that glint of dreadful expectation in her gaze. She knew exactly when the game went awry--that was Anya. She was always two steps ahead of everything. "A few hours ago, Iyla sensed something shift in the air. It's not just the demons. She was worried, so she let me know. I sweeped my moon magic around your territory and even outside just to check. If I had to guess, Vicera's behind it. Her miasma is different."
"Interesting," said Rush, but he was ready to snarl. "She always has something up her fucking sleeve, doesn't she? I should have known. I'll handle her." He left Anya with the Night warriors, and found Marik not too far away, commanding even more warriors to guard Vicera's chambers and her purebloods with triple the body count. When he saw Rush, he asked what would be done for tonight after what had happened.
"There will be nothing tonight," Rush said in a hard tone. "Just give them felons to feed on for the rest of the night. Maybe some whores to fuck too. I don't want anything happening for at least a few days."
It was then that Kyla came into view. She smelled like the purebloods, meaning she'd been in their presence. "I talked to the bitch." Meaning their mother. "I told her there is no way any ceremony can proceed with your Luna's condition. She agreed to give you five days to get her in shape."
"Five fucking days?" Rush growled. "Not even five weeks are enough!"
Kyla sighed. "At first she didn't even want to give us a day. But I took Iyla with me and she persuaded her..." She broke off, shaking her head. "Iyla threatened to destroy Castira if Vicera didn't get on with the program."
That sounded more like Iyla. "Thank the Moon for her."
"And Iyla could have asked for more time, but she said that the sooner the bitch left your pack, the better. Five days is just enough time to get your mate to adjust her senses and carry on with the actual ceremony. After that, there is no purpose for mother to stay."
"True," he said, taking Kyla's arm and pulling her past the warriors. He hadn't had time to talk to her properly, and especially not alone. Lucien would always linger, and how Rush found the self-control to not kill him, he didn't know. That motherfucker needed to die for committing all the vulgar crimes that he did. Rush would have killed him the day he found him nearly raping his mate, but he spared him because he knew it would traumatize Aletha and break Kyla's soul. When one's mate died, the other half was forced to grieve, and it didn't matter if Kyla hated her mate; she would still grieve because it was a matter of the soul, not her heart. Besides, Kyla knew how to punish well. Rush had seen horrible scars all over Lucien's body. Sure, they healed, but he had a feeling scars would always linger on his body for the rest of his life.
And as he thought of scars, he began to worry for Kyla. She was a good sister. Fiercely overprotective with a hot temper when she exploded. And right now, she felt like a different person. More cold. More worn out.
"How's being Alpha treating you?" he asked. "Be honest with me. No fucking lies with me. I'm your brother so I don't want to hear the 'I'm fine, really stop asking' bullshit."
She took a deep breath and turned to him. Her black eyes flashed painfully for the first time. "Rush, I don't know what to do."
At first, he didn't know how to react. Kyla never showed any emotion but anger and disgust. Sure, there were bursts of laughter here and there, but she didn't dwell on the emotion. And she never showed pain. She hadn't even cried when Lucien rejected her, so he knew something was very wrong. "Oh hell, Kyla," he said, pulling her to his chest, keeping her in the shadows so no one saw. Kyla liked her privacy, especially if she was in her weakest. "Kyla, what happened? Did that bastard hurt you?" But he didn't need her words to confirm it; he saw it on her neck first.
What the fuck.
He yanked her collar down and saw bruises on her skin. It was purpling, so the bastard had choked her fairly recently. A ferocious growl rumbled out of his chest as he pulled up her sleeves and saw more scars on them. He didn't think he could breathe. Lucien had hurt his sister. He had hurt his blood. He had hurt his fucking family.
He was about to go in a spiraling rage, but Kyla stopped him.
"It's not what you think," she started. "Well, most of it is from him struggling when I...uh, when I punish him. The neck...that's something else."
Rush didn't know what Kyla meant, but he was still not having it. "He's abused you, has he not?" Rush said through his teeth. His voice was guttural, ferally low. He was ready to draw blood. Any fucking mark on her body went straight to Rush's temper. No one hurt his sister, not on his watch. "Where is he, Kyla? So Moon help me, I will rip that fucker's dick off and burn his ass until he's down in the Underworld!"
He felt her touch on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Rush," she insisted. "He has more scars. They're everywhere on his body. He thinks he's stronger than me. He challenges me all the time, claiming I can never be an Alpha."
"You're stronger than him, doesn't he know that by now?"
She smiled wryly. "He has a hard time believing it."
"Well, when I'm done with him, he'll believe it all right. He'll believe it to death."
He was about to go on a rampage and slay Lucien by the throat, but Kyla pulled him back. "Rush...when you declared me Alpha, I think something happened." Her voice shifted. It was higher now, somewhat distraught, full of torment and horror. "Rush, I'm not the same anymore."
That seemed to draw him out of his haze to avenge her. Slowly, he relaxed his muscles and turned back to his sister. She was trying to tell him something, and he knew it wasn't going to be pretty. He sensed it, the coming of something dark. And when he saw the way her black eyes flashed even darker, he knew she really was telling him the truth.
She was not the same anymore.
"Kyla," he said, disheartened. "Sister mine, what's on your mind?"
"Many things," she answered. Rush didn't like the shift in her soul. It was darker. Full of inexplicable mystery that he knew was tormenting her. "The demons are back, Rush. All the shit I did all my life, they won't leave me alone. When you were locked up in her cell, I did nothing." Her voice grew hysterical now. "I didn't save you. I just watched her ruin you over and over again...I saw you break and I did nothing! Oh my Moon, I did nothing to save my brother!"
"Kyla, hey, shhh. Just look at me, alright? Look at me." He held her close, trying to calm her down. He'd never seen her break down in front of him. Well, he had, but that had been centuries ago when he'd first started ruling the Night Pack. "Don't ever blame yourself for what I've gone through. That shit is done and over with. We're not going back there again, alright? It's over. And no matter how close our mother is right now, you drop that shit. You don't let your past fuck with your head. It ruins you."
She shook her head. "Rush, I can't stop thinking about it. Fuck, I feel like such a pathetic, worthless bitch for letting her do that to you. I should have stabbed her neck while I had the chance!"
He scoffed. "And risk your own death? Don't be ridiculous, Kyla. You had no men, no army, no allies. You wouldn't have been able to do anything. Because you were smart and you had more brains than all of Castira combined, you survived and you came with me the moment Maddox came and took us away from that hellhole. You vowed from that day that you would never leave my side, and you didn't. For over a thousand years, you've been with me. I can never ask for a better sister. I love you so much, Kyla. I don't blame anything on you. Never. The thought never once crossed my mind, and it sure as hell hasn't now. The only one to blame is our mother. Always remember that. Never deviate from acknowledging your true enemies. As an Alpha, you'll need to keep that in mind. Don't let anything blind you from reality."
Kyla stared at him while he spoke. When he finished, she was silent for a long time. "No Alpha can ever be better than you," she said with a tremor in her voice. A small smile spread along her face, but it was bitter. "No one can be you, Rush. No one can be as good as you. After living so many years, you're still so...driven. Nothing can tear down your optimism."
"I've mastered the art of ruling as an Alpha," he said simply. "And you have a whole game of ruling ahead of you. You've only just begun. You'll feel the pressure rise in your blood, but always know that I believe in you. I let you rule on my own volition because I knew you were capable, otherwise I would have resisted and taken over. I didn't. Lucien can't hold a candle to you. You're nothing close to that mothefucker." He kissed her forehead. "You're better and you're much stronger. I've raised an Alpha female for a reason."
She started to laugh now, and relief flooded in his chest. Finally. She was returning to herself again. The darkness in her eyes left for a moment and when he watched his sister closely, he knew she was struggling. There were too many negative emotions in her heart, no doubt because of ruling the Shadow Pack, and she was trying to cope with it all and make sense of the ones that hit her hard. "I can always count on you to make me feel better."
He grinned at her. "That's because I love you. If I hated you, I'd make you feel like hell fucked you over more times than you can keep count."
She crinkled her nose. "Yeah, lets not go there." She wrapped her arms around one of his arms. "I think I'm done for the night. I know we don't sleep but I really think I need it right now."
His eyes narrowed. "Will your mate be sleeping with you?"
She shook her head. "Hell no. My warriors sleep with him tied up somewhere close. No one trusts him. He's just a waste of space, to be honest. He just yells and insults and hits anything in his path. If it weren't for the rest of his pack members and their link to him, I would have killed him."
"Oh I'm sure you would have." Although he wasn't exactly sure. A mate's possessiveness went far, even if their own mate was the worst felon in the realm. "He had bought Aletha...did you know that? He was intending to sell her again to another slave master."
Kyla growled. "That manipulative piece of shit! Just wait till I get my hands on him. He'll get it this time." Then her eyes flashed guiltily. "How is your mate doing?"
"She's taking this surprisingly well," he admitted. Then he remembered what had transpired before he put her to sleep. She said she liked him, that he'd made her happy. Suddenly, his heart was beating really fast. His hands got clammy and he could feel his blood rushing to his face.
What was this feeling?
"Is she...resisting you?" Kyla's voice was a momentary distraction from his intense bursts of emotion. "The last time, she wasn't very fond of the concept of vampires."
"She's learned that we're not all alike. There are good ones and evil ones. She didn't even fuss about being turned into a vampire."
She was somewhat taken aback by this. "Really?"
"Really."
She shook her head, dazed. "This is hard to believe. I just...I don't know, I haven't seen her in a month, and..." She trailed off, looking at him with sudden realization. "It was you. You made her see, I just know it." When she saw the smile perking at his lips, she started to laugh. "I knew it! It's only you. Only you can change a person so much."
"What can I say? I'm hard to resist, sweetheart."
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I really need to talk to her. I haven't talked to her at all since I've returned. Well, not properly at least."
"Don't threaten her this time. I think you traumatized her the last time."
She shook her head. "I won't do it." She paused. "Well, actually, if she says anything ignorant or offensive about you, then I can't promise that I won't give her a tongue-lashing..."
"You don't have to worry about that. She's not a bad person. I think she's really cute. She just has this look in her face, you know? Like when her eyes get really big and she's just...overwhelmed. In a good way. Like she's taking things in as I tell her. She doesn't fight anymore. She's learned to finally open her eyes. And she holds on to me now. Every time she's with me, she holds my hand. I love it when she does that. She trusts me, and that's all I've wanted from her."
Kyla looked at him strangely. "You know, if I wasn't aware of your promiscuous nature, I would've thought you were in--" She stopped herself, her eyes widening. "Oh fuck. Don't tell me."
He frowned. "Tell you what?"
"That you're in..." But she shook her head. "Never mind. Just ignore me. Forget I even said anything."
"Kyla, you're acting strange."
She shook her head. "I want you to realize it yourself, which is why I'm going to keep my mouth shut."
He didn't know what she was talking about with that sly look on her face, but he didn't pry further. Sometimes females were just females...so damn complicated.
*
It was hours before dawn when Rush sensed a stark shift in the air, revealing the incoming of something worse than his mother's vampires...something more evil. At first, he wasn't sure what the change was about. But then realization dawned on him that there were more presences in his territory. And those presences didn't exactly have souls.
They were soulless.
"Marik," Rush called his Beta. "You and ten other warriors, come with me. We are going to the Blood Tower."
"Did the queen's purebloods bypass our warriors?" Marik's tone took on a deadly edge.
Rush scoffed. "I wish. It's worse than that, Marik. Come, let's go. I need to see this with my own eyes or I won't believe it."
"What happened, Alpha?"
"The soulless purebloods have arrived," Rush explained. "You know, the tales we tell the children to ward them from venturing too close to the borders? They are true."
"Soulless purebloods exist?" Marik said with disbelief. His gaze grew dark emerald. "That's impossible."
"Why don't we find out?"
Marik turned to his warriors and chose the first ten. Then Rush and the warriors dematerialized from the training grounds and rematerialized close to the borders, right in front of the Blood Tower. A hundred of Rush's Night warriors surrounded the tower, and several hundred more guarded nearby in the forest. All of them looked unaffected, like they never sensed more presences.
Blood magic, Rush thought. Something only witches did, but his mother had an affinity for them. Her magic came when she devoured blood as sacrifice. But who would she kill besides her own men?
Rush snarled with disgust. She would even resort to such a despicable act as sacrificing her own men for blood magic. "Open the gates. I want to see Vicera."
Purebloods were hissing at him, and his men held them back. Their eyes remained firm and red, watching him with hunger that should have invoked terror. And that was when alarm bells went off in his head. The purebloods seemed more demonic all of a sudden. Something really had happened.
"Let's go," Rush directed his Beta and warriors. They followed him, alarmed at the purebloods.
"Alpha, should we bring more backup?" Marik asked in a low voice. "I don't like the feel of this place. Something isn't right here."
"No need for more men. I suspect it'll piss off my mother and she'll try to burn them. We are enough."
"But Alpha, I sense danger—"
"I do too, Marik," Rush agreed. "But with her, there is always danger. You never know what she's planning. She isn't right in the head, and her plans are unpredictable. That's what makes her a threat. Now," he stopped in front of the doors of the great hall. "Let's see if the dark tales are really real." He threw open the wooden doors and the stench of blood immediately hit his nose. His men behind him growled, obviously affected by the thickness of the smell. It wasn't just one body she sacrificed, Rush knew that without even looking.
When he stepped inside, all of his suspicions were confirmed. Blood magic dripped from the walls, dampening his pack's senses. Blood was pooling all over the stone floors, looking like black tar had spilled and darkened the floors. When his gaze hit the bottom of the staircase, he drew in a sharp breath. Heads. There were severed heads of several purebloods, with more on the steps that led to the two figures standing on the pedestal. One was his mother, who was drinking from a male' neck. The male had black hair, pale skin, and his aura was full of raw power from the Bloodlands. He was the King of the Bloodlands. Kellhum.
Both Vicera and Kellhum turned at once when they sensed Rush's presence. But Rush's gaze was glued to the male who looked like a reincarnation of their father. Kellhum's black eyes dug into his with cold retribution. "Hello, brother mine."
"Brother?" Rush heard Marik's stunned whisper from behind him. No one in his pack knew what Kellhum looked like, because none of them ever saw him. Only Rush and Kyla ever did. And the realization spread fast through his warriors as they all tensed with hatred.
Rush took a step closer, keeping his cool gaze on them. He'd heard whispers through the darkness, and from the way his mother clung to Kellhum with a crazed look in her eyes that screamed her desire to attain power and rule for all of eternity, Rush knew some of the whispers spoke the truth. She needed her son to give her the most power. Kellhum's blood was directly linked to his father's, and Malice's power had nearly destroyed the realm.
"Kellhum," Rush spoke, keeping his voice levelled. He could not falter now, not when his enemies were so close. "What brings you here? I don't recall ever inviting you to my wedding."
Kellhum almost snarled at him, but all too soon, he grew deceptively calm. "I'm not here for your wedding, Rushika."
"Then please do enlighten me as to why you are here. You see, I have very thin patience, and when it snaps, well..." He shrugged, offering a lazy grin. "Things also snap."
"Are you threatening me?" came his brother's lethal voice. It didn't sound like one voice, more like multiple voices growling in unison. He held his mother closer, and Rush saw her belly swelling with the blood she'd gorged on. Her chin dripped with Kellhum's blood, and her claws were red and sprang free from Kellhum's shoulder.
"No, that's just the way I talk," Rush said simply. He was now watching his mother warily as she wiped the blood from her chin. Her gaze was red, full of lust and gluttony. She inhaled, sucking the sweet scent of blood inside of her, and then she smiled. It wasn't a pretty smile; rather, it was evil, with needle-like teeth that resembled a true carnivore.
Her essence was changing. The torches along the walls fused when she raised her arms. A sudden gust moved about her body, making her hair look like slithering demons. And then Rush heard the hissing of something behind him.
His men started to yell, and when Rush glanced back to see what it was, he froze. Hundreds of snakes were moving up the staircase toward Vicera. Some of them moved up her legs and belly before settling around her arms and neck.
"What has gotten into you?" Rush demanded.
"Oh nothing," she spoke in a carnal voice. Her grin spread wider along her cheeks. The hissing of snakes surrounded him and her, and he thought he was staring at something so evil that it shouldn't have made existence here.
But here she was.
"You know, Rushika," she began, reaching toward him. Rush moved away before her touch could land on his flesh. A demonic expression came over her face. "I've never been humiliated in my life. Well," she paused. "I have. When your father left me with you and Kellhum, I was humiliated. But no longer do I tolerate anyone trying to sabotage me, especially not a bastard that is worthless in this world."
Rush felt her snakes wrapping around his legs, making their way up his body. That didn't deter him from moving up the steps toward his mother. "If you fuck up in my territory, you get what is coming. If that humiliates you, so be it. I have no sentiments to give you as your worthless bastard."
The ceiling began to crack, and Marik shouted something at his men before he tackled Rush out of the way as a large block of stone slammed down where Rush had stood moments earlier.
"Do you want to fight, mother?" Rush growled, rising to his feet.
"Fight?" she repeated. "Why would I want to fight with you?"
Another chunk of stone fell toward him, and Rush materialized right in front of her. "Cut the bullshit right now," he roared, his claws moving toward her neck, but before he could make contact, he felt his flesh burn.
A demonic sound came from his mother, and with whatever power she acquired through drinking blood, she threw him hard against the wall. He felt the stones crack and the bones of his back crumble. He forced himself to heal faster than he'd ever done before. His blood spiked, and he knew his mother was growing in power.
Something evil had been exchanged at the arrival of his brother. Something that made her a larger threat than she ever was.
From the walls emerged more vampires, and Rush knew exactly what they were. The soulless purebloods. Marik paled and dashed toward Rush, yanking him up. "We need to get out of here," he whispered.
"No, I don't back out of a fight, you know that," Rush said, wiping blood from his mouth. "Care to explain your destructive behavior, mother dearest?"
"Give it a rest," Kellhum cut in. "You are nothing against her. Against us. She has power enough to crumble your pack and turn it to ashes. Do you really want that?"
"I already told you once long ago, Rushika, you will never find happiness in this world," said his mother. "Never again." She was looking around at her soulless purebloods. A look of triumph flashed on her face. She was no doubt thinking of usurping him.
"If you try anything in his pack, I won't spare Castira or the Bloodlands. I will destroy all of you so think before you do anything, especially in my territory," Rush warned. "And Kellhum, since you and your band of heathens from the Bloodlands also dared to come, well, prepare for a war at your doors as well."
"You want war, brother?" Kellhum snarled, lunging at him. His claws extended into large daggers, and right before he could slash them at him, Rush dematerialized and deflected the actual blow.
"No, I don't want war," said Rush as he grabbed Kellhum's neck from behind. "But you seem to welcome it." Then he wrenched hard and felt something crack. Kellhum roared, and his mother's essence grew brutal. The walls crumbled and the stones of the ceiling came apart, crashing down.
The soulless purebloods surrounded Rush, clearly in an attempt to release their king. "Leave our father or we won't spare your pack," one of them howled. "NOW!"
"You don't order me around, little pureblood," Rush said with a derisive snicker as he moved with Kellhum to deflect another blow of stones coming from the ceiling. Rush moved very softly to his brother's ear and whispered, "I'm surprised you have brought the fruit of your incestuous love into my territory." When his brother froze at Rush's words, Rush released him and looked around the destroyed castle. His gaze settled on the soulless purebloods, all strange monstrosities with deformed faces and sinister eyes. "What should I call your bastards, Kellhum? My nephews or..." He laughed darkly, now watching his mother. "My brothers?"
A deafening silence fell in the tower as Rush nodded to his warriors to follow him out of the tower. He had no intention to remain with his disgusting family for any longer.
When they dematerialized back to the training grounds, Marik was looking at him with large green eyes. "The soulless purebloods are the spawns of your mother and your...your..."
"Brother," Rush confirmed darkly. "I hear many things, you know. Many things happen in the dark, when we can't truly see them. But all of your wretched secrets come to me eventually. My mother and Kellhum are no exception."
"But that is unbecoming," said one of his warriors, clearly reeling from the shock.
"And disgusting," said another who was wiping blood from his face from getting injured from his mother's fury.
"It's why they all looked so deformed," said Marik.
Rush nodded, feeling a sickening taste forming in his mouth. What if his mother also bore offspring from Rush? What of those three centuries of being her pleasure slave came with more consequences?
No. She would never let his offspring live to take a breath of air. She would murder them all. If she had ever gotten pregnant, although he was very sure she hadn't since usually she watched him get raped most of the time, she would kill the child while it was still growing in her womb.
"Marik," Rush said after gathering his thoughts. "I want to have more men surround the territory. A war is in the horizon. My mother brought her soulless ones to my territory, and she has sacrificed many of her own purebloods to gain blood magic—something she hadn't done in centuries. This makes her a greater danger than she ever was, especially with by brother around." He looked over at his strongest warriors. "You hear that? Keep your eyes open. There will be bloodshed very soon, and I want all of you to strike back with the intent of pure obliteration."
Rush would not lose, even though the horizons have vastly darkened and the number of deaths would increase tenfold.