A Piece of the Pie (Chapter 34)

Chapter 34 – The Descendants

"I am going to kill you. I just haven't figured out quite how I want to do it yet," the man said with an evil smile.

"Who are you?!" I shouted at him, my voice echoing around the hall.

I know, a little cliché, but I was still a little drunk. I was sobering up pretty quick due to the threat of someone saying they were going to kill me.

I took this threat a little more seriously than usual. Usually this type of threat only came from some douche at a bar who said I looked at him funny.

Just cause I was wondering what barber hated you enough to give you that haircut bro, doesn't mean I want to fight, I'm sorry.

This dude on the other hand actually scared the crap out of me, so back to my present situation.

"How dare you ask me something like that, after what you've done?" the scary man sneered at me.

He charged at me, and in defence I took a swing with the champagne bottle, but fell over as he disappeared and reappeared behind me.

He was just some sort of spectre.

"You're lucky I'm not here in the flesh, otherwise I would just kill you outright for all the loss you've caused," he leveled his eyes at me, and then his holographic self began to pace about.

"The only thing I've done has been trying to prevent you causing more harm," I replied, a bit confused by what he was saying.

"You actually don't know what I'm talking about..." the man said, much more quietly this time, his sneer softening somewhat.

He turned slowly and paused in his pacing, his demeanour changed suddenly from focused hatred to that of someone who suddenly found themselves lost.

"Let me remind you..."

The world went dark, and suddenly I was standing on a barren grey surface. Aircraft screamed overhead and I could see and feel burning all around me. Gunfire and screams brought a terrible sense of grief and foreboding over me.

"You see this place... this forsaken land used to be my home. My comrades, you know them as shapeshifters, came to my planet to help us. We had been fighting a war for so long. Since I was born I had known nothing else."

The man looked forlornly towards what seemed to have once been a small village.

"Is that –" I started.

"That was where I grew up... too fast. My father was murdered in front of me, and my mother and sister taken away... I was six."

I couldn't help feeling for the guy. Some surge of feeling or something shot through my mind – like a memory of this place – and then it was gone just as quickly.

Why is it so familiar?

"I'm sorry about your family –"

"No!" he whirled to face me, "I see now that I am the one who should be sorry for what I have done to you... and your friends, they don't know why we battle with them either?"

I shook my head.

"It seems I was gravely mistaken then. Luno Versa did not deserve what I have done to them."

"Why did you do it to them?" I said in a heightened tone, I was feeling sorry for him, but I was still angry.

"My planet is in the same dimension as Luno Versa. But unlike them we have developed technology to only see into your dimension, rather than reach it. While scanning across the wormholes for aid, my men picked up some strange readings from in the vicinity of your Earth."

"It seemed that those who were destroying our planet had what they called Descendants there - powerful beings, who would grow even more powerful than any force they attacked us with already, who would return to my planet for a devastating final assault to wipe out my people. You were one of these marked Descendants. We picked up the connection your own planet had with this one."

The projected world disappeared and we were suddenly in the main hall again.

"So I believed Luno Versa would be the location of the final wave of the evil scourge threatening my world, so we brought a strike-force to fight it, in hopes of protecting what was left of our homes and families."

"I can see now I was wrong... and you, I do see something in you... it's just not what I was expecting. And these poor people," his fist clenched and he gritted his teeth, "I have done to them what the evil ones did to my home world... I am no better."

I just stared at him. I wasn't sure what to say.

"I am sorry. We will leave you and the Versanians. We will head for the mountains, where we will leave this planet and rejoin what is left of our people. The evil ones are no longer on our home-world for now, this place was believed to be the last threat of them remaining in our star system, the rest having moved on to scour other regions."

"My despair mislead me to my horrible actions. I hope some day you can forgive me," he looked me in the eyes, "all I have to offer other than a poor apology is my name. You can call me Noruav."

He paused again, as though wondering what he could possibly offer to make up for what he had done.

"My people are safe, but I cannot bear to look in the eyes of the king of this land... there is really nothing that can make up for what we have done."

"That place you showed me, why do I recognize it?" I felt compelled to ask.

"It turns out you are not a Descendant destined for destruction, but you must be meant for something. Something ended the war on the surface of my planet, maybe the strange readings from Earth had something to do with this."

"Your memory of it means there is something inside of you, something that holds a connection to my home, I am just not sure what. I beg of you to forgive me, in time..."

And with that and a sorrowful look of regret, Noruav's projection was gone.

WHAT? I was born on Earth? I've never been anywhere else until now? Even now I'm not entirely convinced this isn't a dream.

I paced around the hall for a minute then ran back to Feo's room in a sweat. She was lying under the covers when I walked in.

"Hey, why don't you come a little closer," she said in an exaggerated, breathy tone before breaking into a giggle.

Focus Dim...

"Feo, we have to go see your dad."

"What?! Right now?!"

I nodded. Feo reluctantly got dressed and I hurried her out of the room to find Strad.

"So, they thought we were part of some evil group that attacked their own planet?"

"Yeah, and the shapeshifters had come to help them."

"And you believe what this man said to you?"

"He showed me a vision of what was once his world... it was terrible. There was some kind of war, everything was laid to waste. He said the shapeshifters would travel to the mountains in the east, and from there they'll return back to the rest of their people."

A man came into the room, "it's true my king," he said, "all traces of the shapeshifters indicate their ranks leaving their encampments and moving toward the mountains.

"We have been spared greater loss then, I am sorry I cannot say the same for them," the king dropped his head, lamenting Noruav's people, "there is no place for more revenge, look at the damage such a concept has caused us already."

When he looked up, he smiled warmly at me and then Feo, "thank you Dim. And I'm sorry we woke you Feo. Tonight you must rest, for tomorrow will be a celebration. The fighting is over."

"Night dad, I'm just going to get some hot chocolate," Feo shivered and pulled her blanket around her shoulders.

"I may join you. Come with us Dim," Strad announced and ambled off to the kitchen.

"Sorry," she whispered and shrugged, "but this is your fault we're hanging out with my father now."

I just laughed silently and shook my head. We followed the mighty ruler into the kitchen and he made up three mugs of hot chocolate.

"So this means we can actually relax, for good now? The city is safe?" Feo asked

"It looks like it does," Strad gulped some hot chocolate while it was still nearly at boiling point.

"I think I'm going to take this to my room and get some sleep," Feo stood and sipped at her mug.

"Yeah, I think we should all get some rest," I went to stand.

"Wait, Dim, I want to talk to you for a moment."

"Yeah, sure."

I sat back down. HE KNOWS!!!!

Feo please don’t leave – I attempted to transmit my thoughts to her – I'm too handsome to die!

Apparently my thoughts did not get through because Feo waved goodnight to us and left the room.

I am a dead man...

"I'm sorry you and your friends got caught up in our fight."

My heart rate slowed slightly, I guess he wasn't keeping me behind to talk about Feo and I.

"You saved Feo's life, you helped rescue my men, you helped rescue me," Strad reached his hand across the kitchen counter and shook my hand.

"Thank you," Strad said before I had a response, which was a relief because I didn't know how to respond to his kind praises.

"Now, get some rest, tomorrow will be a good day."

"Yeah, it will be," I finally responded. It was all that I could think of.

There looked like hope for the future now, not just a brief period of rest before more fighting began.

"I am going to let my commanders know that we can relieve the remaining sentries and rest easy tonight. Now get some sleep," he nodded to me as I walked to the door.

Passing into the hallway I shook my head, rubbed it, and tried to settle my brain, then I started to head back to my room.

It was a lot of information to take in over the past hour when I still hadn't slept since partying into the night. Sleep sounds wonderful.