Multiple precise shots rang out in rapid succession, then five guards standing outside the wall slumped to the ground in unison. With eyes drawn narrow in determination, Terra emerged from the warehouse and pushed fully into the aura, her skin tingling as the power surged within. She directed a pressure pulse to the back door, blowing it in along with much of the wall that surrounded it with an echoing boom.
They know I'm here now.
The dust swirled as the insertion team rushed forward across the narrow green-belt that separated the warehouse from the palace wall — including Will, Terra, Neige, Thorne, and four other mercenaries. Thorne threw in an explosive charge ahead of them to clear the way, but they encountered no initial resistance.
Five more mercenaries, designated as the perimeter team, remained outside to secure the area. One of these, a slim woman named Angel, a medic, positioned herself at the blown-in entrance, standing ready.
As planned once inside, Will cast his Darkness through the dusty air to disable any nearby Dynasty Talent. As a dizzying vertigo swept through Terra, she gasped and faltered. Will caught her and helped her along.
She said with a raspy breath, "Your Darkness... It is stronger than usual."
"Anna's doing, I think." Will said with a sly grin. "She was on my mind as I cast it. I think our daughter is still helping us."
The insertion team paced through mostly empty hallways past dark storage rooms and offices, rifles held at ready. What little resistance they encountered went down with well-placed shots as the team advanced. The protest distraction and Hex's ruse seemed to work, but they still had a long way to go.
The route they chose took them by the Finders Hall, a well lit and ornate room with partitioned cubicles from where the Finders conducted their remote searches. Those within still reeled from Will's initial Darkness cast, slumped and wavering at their stations. One finder staggered to her feet near the Hall entrance, putting fingers to her forehead to reenter the aura.
Standing at the arched doorway, Terra sensed the Finder's aural signature. "Looking for me?" Terra said with a sly smile.
The Finder snapped her eyes open, gasping as she stumbled backward until bumping into a table. She trembled while supporting herself with both hands.
Terra moved away and Will took her place. With narrowed eyes, he cast the Darkness through the Hall, not once, but twice. The Finder cried out and collapsed to the floor, curling up in a shuddering ball.
Terra stood back from the Hall, still doubled over from the effects of the Darkness. She staggered to a wall and leaned against it until Will came to support her. "The Finders will never function again," he assured her in an even voice.
"That was intense, Will." After a few deep breaths, Terra straightened up, but continued to lean against her husband. "Okay, now for the Emperor."
"Move out!" Neige ordered.
Terra directed the team down another hallway. With the Emperor such a powerful Talent, his aura was easy for her to locate.
The group entered an open commons area filled with tables and chairs. But as they rounded the corner, concentrated gunfire rang out. A shower of deadly darts hissed, piercing the air and pelting the walls, coming from a line of guards behind overturned tables. Will yanked Terra back behind the corner while Neige and his men dove for cover, returning fire as they retreated. Two of Neige's men in the lead fell from the onslaught — one painfully injured in the leg and the other shot dead with a bloody head wound. Terra used her Talent to telekinetically pull the injured man out of the fire zone around the corner.
A Dynasty guard jumped out from a side room behind the group and leveled his rifle at Neige. Before he could fire, Will spun and shot him twice in the chest. Neige dipped his head in approval to Will with a hint of a smile. The earlier harsh training had paid off.
On instinct, Terra bent down to tend to the injured mercenary, a young man with short dark hair, but he gritted his teeth and waved her off. "No time for that now. Clear the path forward."
"How many are there?" she asked.
"At least ten, maybe more."
Terra nodded and shifted fully back into the aura. Looking around, several large panes of frosted glass that separated the commons area from a food serving line gave her an idea. "Protect your eyes," she warned the team.
With a directed pressure pulse, she shattered the glass into jagged pieces. Then, under her control, the shards formed into a deadly swirling maelstrom, directed forward to the guards that opposed them. She bit her lip as they screamed, but did not relent. When the screams stopped, she released her power, and the shards clattered to the hard floor. Thorne and another advanced to put down any that remained a threat.
As their feet crunched over the broken glass, the presence of other strong Talent ahead came to Terra in the aura, likely Enforcers. Stopping their advance with outstretched arms, she cocked her head. "Will."
He understood. Extending his arms, Will cast his Darkness forward. Terra staggered back as a wave hit her and Will caught her in his arms. "You keep falling for me," he whispered into her ear.
Terra grumbled, "There are better ways to do that." Taking a deep breath, she stood up and nodded to Neige to continue.
As Neige waved the remaining insertion onward, he sent out a message over the com. "Angel, man down. Haze and Harm, escort and extract."
They came to a massive wooden door that blocked their way to the inner palace. As she did with the outside door, Terra blasted it inward with a powerful telekinetic push. The thunderous crack from the pressure pulse reverberated off the walls.
Inside, various high-level advisors and assistants to the Emperor looked up from huddled stances in wide-eyed fear. Those with Talent still wavered from the effects of the Darkness while others hid. Will and Terra looked away as Neige, Thorne, and another mercenary shot them down with no outward sign of emotion, knowing that none could remain that might take up the Emperor's title.
In sober silence, the team continued toward the Emperor's private residence, where Terra sensed his bright aura within.
A message came over the com from the outside perimeter team. "Taking heavy fire and falling back to secondary positions. Ordinance deployed."
Neige caught Terra's eye with a gesture. "We do not have much time."
Another wooden door blocked their path to the Emperor. The massive rounded door was a magnificent work of art itself, displaying elaborated carvings in oak and walnut, embellished with gold leaf, that depicted the Emperor in heroic scenes.
A shame to destroy such art, Terra mused to herself. But it, like the Emperor, must go.
Terra closed her eyes, summoning her power to blow it in, but before it she did, it blasted outward. The whooshing pressure pulse sent the team tumbling back across the floor and pelted them with shards of wood. One mercenary took the force full-on, leaving him crumbled and broken on the floor, staring with vacant eyes, while another laid unconscious, pulling ragged breaths. Stunned, Will came up to one knee, then fell back to the floor.
The Emperor emerged with a twisted scowl on his face while Terra staggered to her feet, wiping away a trickle of blood from her nose. He threw a silky robe over white night clothes and strutted past the breached threshold. Four golden fighting spikes followed him, floating in formation behind.
"So, you must be Terra Lorr," he said in a gravelly voice. "I must say I am impressed with your tenacity, but it is well past time I rid myself of you."
With a finger motion, a fighting spike floated before him, pointing at Terra with malicious intent. Her eyes widened at the instrument of death, still too dizzied from the Emperor's earlier attack to mount a defense. With a hand flick, the Emperor let the spike fly. But before it struck Terra, Thorne dove and knocked her out of the way, tumbling to the floor with an airy grunt. He collapsed, crying out in pain as the spike pierced his body armor and embedded itself in his shoulder.
Will laid nearby on the floor, drawing desperate breaths to regain his wits. It was all he could do to extend a hand and cast a weak pulse of Darkness. Gasping, the Emperor staggered back and clutched the edge of a table to steady himself as Will worked himself up to his feet. With the temporary disruption of the aura, the floating spikes clattered to the hard floor, the sound reverberating within the otherwise quiet marble-walled hall.
A crooked smile rose on the Emperor's face as he examined Will. "And you then would be the infamous Hooded Man. Unfortunately, now I must kill you."
As the Emperor telekinetically lifted one fighting spike and spun it around. Will steeled his expression and held up his hand. The spike returned to the floor with a clang.
Looking down at the spike and then back up toward Will, the Emperor said, "Interesting. But let's see what you can do with raw power." He extended his hands.
Will stumbled back as the Emperor directed energy at him, like shimmering pulses of blue light. Terra, still lying dazed on the floor, gasped as she saw how her husband struggled against the assault, maintaining a fragile balance. Even to the side, the power poked at her like countless hot needles. It must be so much worse for him. Within the aura, it appeared as if a bright swirling inferno had enveloped a churning, dark sphere.
With fists clenched at his side, Will tilted his head back as the power met the Darkness. The pained expression on his face faded and turned to steeled resolve as the swirling Darkness grew more intense within him. He dipped his head and narrowed his eyes. The Emperor thrust his hands and redoubled his efforts to overwhelm the Hooded Man. For extended moments, they stood at a stalemate, as if between two entrenched armies.
As Terra rose on unsteady feet, Will caught her eyes and spoke in a breathy voice. "I need your power. Give it to me."
That would only aid the Emperor! "Will?"
"Please," he pleaded. "Trust me on this."
I will trust you. Terra focused on her husband and raised a hand, pouring her power into him, slowly at first and then ramping up to full rate. In the aura, a swirling abyss of unimaginable blackness occupied the space where he stood.
His Darkness grows! Of course. The greater the Talent, the more powerful the Darkness becomes.
The Emperor's eyebrows lifted as he turned eyes to Terra, as if to ask why she directed power at the Hooded Man and not against him? Then his smile dropped and his eyes widened. Pulling back his power, the Emperor said in a faint breathy voice, "No."
With head still bent down, Will focused narrowed eyes on the Emperor. Darkness that could no longer be contained burst out. Massively powerful black tendrils of the anti-Talent ripped at the Emperor, and he fell back against the wall, gasping as he slid down to his hands and knees, his body shuddering.
Terra screamed as waves of uncontrolled Darkness tore at her, snatching at her Talent, ripping it away. She struggled to preserve the Talent within her, but it became like trying to hold back a dam breach with her fingers.
With a deep breath, she recalled the visualization mantra from the training. Let it flow like a storm wind through a willow tree. Roots hold fast to the earth. Branches bend but do not break.
Will collapsed beside Terra, reaching toward her with an ashen face and distant, unfocused eyes. His mouth gaped open as his breath failed.
"No, Will!" she cried out.
The Darkness onslaught continued, unabated and freed of its source, grabbing at the last bits of Talent within her. Terra wrapped arms around herself. I need to shelter some, preserve a piece, just a little for Will.
When the Darkness fled, Terra dropped to her knees and cradled Will's head in her lap. She shook him gently, but there was no response. She pleaded in a broken whisper, "Please stay with me. Please..."
Two fingers to his neck revealed no pulse. Bitter tears traced her cheeks.
Terra closed her eyes and shifted into a weak aura with the last fragment of Talent she preserved. Focusing directly on his stilled heart, she telekinetically squeezed it — once, twice. But then the aura faded, dissolving like fog into a warm breeze.
As Terra tended to her husband, the Emperor rose on wobbly legs. Grabbing a spike from the floor, he staggered forward, approaching Terra. With jaw tightened in rage, he raised the spike like a dagger in a bid for revenge. But before he could strike, two shots rang out. Eyes widening, the Emperor raised eyes to an expressionless Neige, who held the rifle which shot him. With a last gasp, the Emperor slumped to the floor. The Sage Dynasty was now truly ended.
Terra flinched at the shots, but immediately refocused back to Will. There was almost nothing left of the aura now, only the faintest of wisps. In a last desperate move, she directed a pressure pulse blindly into his chest. Then the aura was gone, the Darkness now complete.
Please, Will. I need you. Anna needs you. Bitter despair welled up within her like poisoned water.
Neige kneeled down beside Will and lifted unusually watery eyes to meet those of Terra, holding them for an agonizing moment.
Will's head jerked back, and he gasped for breath. Terra felt for his pulse and found it, becoming stronger. Tears that once bore sorrow became joyous as she bent over and kissed his cheek. "I love you," she whispered. "Stay with me."
*****
The next few hours passed in a blur to Terra. Everything but of Will. She tossed her communicator earpiece aside as Haze announced the end of fighting, barely remembering that Angel and Neige carried Will out on a stretcher as she grasped his hand. Or that they left the city on the bus that originally brought them here. Even the news of Walt's demise, conveyed by a distraught Hex, hardly registered. She remembered only that she stayed close, watching the slow rise and fall of her husband's chest with each precious breath.
Terra's Talent was gone. Not even a wisp of the aura remained, leaving an emptiness as if losing a sense. But to her, this was not too high a ransom.
Will's eyes fluttered open, looking up at the grateful smile of the woman he loved. He smiled in return. "Hi."
"Hi yourself."
Will raised an eyebrow as he surveyed the interior of the bus, then turned back to Terra. "So what happened?"
Terra pressed her lips to his with a tender kiss. "We kicked butt. Anna will be so proud of us."
Will blew out a big breath. "That's enough excitement for one day. Let's go home."
"Okay," Terra replied with a half grin. "But then I will want something from you."
"What's that?"
"Pancakes. Lots of pancakes."