For the Good of the Di-Damo Empire

Prelude

Their mistake was separating.  Would they stand a chance against me united and with all their power to bear?  Not really.  But I might have to try.  Right now, I don't really have to.  Without trying, I have everything I need.  I've got Zoring.  I have no sympathy for him.  He's always been the definition of flippancy, and now I have something he cares about.  I have his three year old daughter.  Sure, she's in his arms, but she doesn't have any shielding at all.  I love this feeling.  He knows.  He wasn't afraid of me when I was his commanding officer, he only barely followed orders.  He wasn't afraid of me when I assumed the throne as the new Emperor.  If he was, he definitely would not have become a pirate and allied himself with my greatest enemy.  Soon, he's going to find out what a monumentally foolish move that was.  After I finish his wife off, that is. 

"Ygar, don't do this."  Zoring pleads, as though I am the one that turned on him.  His daughter struggles in his arms.  "There is no longer need for this war!" 

"Daddy, I want down!!"  The girl wailed, as though her trying to physically climb down wasn't obvious.  "Down!"  She pointed at the floor. 

"Crysalasi, please, just hold still a moment, ok?"  I smirk.  She's a damned animal, how could he expect her to hold still just by asking? 

"Don't want to!"  She declared, proving what defiance means and trying to climb over his shoulder.  "Mommy's coming.  I want down!"  She yelled angrily. 

Oh.  Well, we can't have Mommy come without greeting her, now can we?  But I've had enough of the child.  "Allow me to silence your child."  I smirk.  Zoring clutches her as though I have a blaster and that is all the danger I pose.  As though his body being in the way could keep me from killing her.  The child goes limp. 

"No!"  Zoring calls desperately.  Zoring looks over the girl, holding his breath.  "She's just unconscious."  He sighs in relief.  He's relieved now, but that will change.  "What do you want, Ygar?"  He asks slowly.  "Why are we still alive?" 

I smirk.  "Bait."  I answer simply.  There is no reason for him to think that I'm going through all this trouble to specifically torment him.  It's just a nice side effect of my hunt for the Cryspen Queen, who happens to be married to him by their law.  Not our law, but their law.  It must be the only law they have.  "I'm after the Queen...  Though don't think for a moment that you or this little monster will live to cause me further trouble."

"Master, might I run some tests on the child?"  Teled asks.  "Before you destroy it?"

Zoring's eyes widen and he holds his daughter tighter, again.  Wake up call, Zoring, you're my prisoner.  I can damned well turn her over for any test I want.  I can cut your daughter into cross sections and spread her out all over the floor if I want to risk Amazdia not showing up.  I wonder if she would only show up to save Zoring.  I wonder if she'll show up at all.  After all, I'm relying on her thinking they are worth saving, aren't I? 

"Yes, certainly."  I say, smiling vengefully. 

Walk the child to the scientist.  Then let go.  I command Zoring's body.  His eyes show the battle between his brain and his body, his teeth grit, and he walks jerkily over to Teled, handing his child over.  Once his body does as ordered, he stands there, panting and sweating, as though he's been running instead of walking.  He looks at the scientist and her, as though gaging if he could kill Teled with his bare hands fast enough to not be stopped before he got his daughter back in his hands.   

I open my mouth about to point out this incredibly foolish line of thought when Teled makes some fascinated clicking sounds and puts the unconscious child into a scanning cage.  She barely fits inside, but since she's limp, he's able to twist her in by folding her into the fetal position.  The look of helpless outrage on Zoring's face is priceless.  As though anyone but him thought of the little abomination as anything more than an animal. 

One of the walls into the lab is melting, and pooling on the floor.  I turn to look, expecting it to be the queen herself, but instead I see a male Cryspen sneering at me.  He's tall, muscular and hungry eyed, with brown hair hanging down his back.  Teeth glitter as sharp as knives in his mouth.  A matching melted hole in the opposite wall is the arrival of another male- the twin of this one, also sneering.  But I know she's here.  I know she is, because the child told us both, when she told her father. 

"Where is your Queen?  Where is she hiding?"  I demand. 

One of the males, the one I'm addressing at the moment, snorts derisively.  "Well, you're the one who wants to play games, right?  Don't act like she's afraid just because you can't sense her beyond a little piece of steel."  The other smiles mockingly. 

"Games?!  I don't play games."  I snarl, narrowing my eyes.  Damn those natural mental shields.   

A white hot spot appears on my shoulder, searing all the nerves and flesh it touches, but they are concentrating their power into a small highly damaging area, I simply roll back away from it.  I cut open the burn so it will heal properly.  That is my advantage over the Cryspen:  Their bodies heal so slowly they might never heal from a wound.  Damage them enough and they never get up.  All I have to worry about is not being rendered unconscious by using too much power at once.  Unless she's brought the whole bloody race with her, I don't really see that as a possibility.  I throw a telekinetic shock wave towards them.  One of them hits the ground and rolls, the other doesn't even budge, and casts me a wild grin. 

"Weakling."  He taunts.  He stalks towards me, sneering.  Ok, these must be her elite guards, or the equivalent in a race who doesn't have real structure.  I stare at him, concentrating a telekinetic force down into a throbbing ball of force the size of a button.  I've never not been able to kill one with this trick.  Hitting them with the highest setting of blasters 'tickles', smashing full ships into them as though crushing a bug doesn't do anything more than delay them as they tear, punch or burn their way out.  But their inability to heal properly is a very large weakness.  I send the force ball through his heart and out the back, popping it like a blood balloon.  He takes two steps before his eyes roll back and he falls over dead.  The second one snarls, eyes glittering with furious loss.  He directs his flame over my entire body surface, diluting its potency but trying to do the most damage possible.  I raise a dispersion telekinetic field, which infuriates him further, as my energy easily erases his.  She sent these two to wear me down a bit before she came to the scene.  But even if she sent ten of these in, I'd still be able to handle her.  She has no idea how far I've come.

There isn't a Di-Damo alive that can stop me, and the Cryspen are fooling themselves if they think they are equals of even one of my race.  The fire disappears, and he tries and tries again to summon more, walking forward at me, animalistic fury glowing on his features.  He can physically tear my body apart if he reaches me.  So, I keep the dispersal field up with most of my concentration then divide the rest into another concentrated button of telekinetic force.  I draw the force bead through the second Cryspen male. 

He takes a little longer to die, gasping.  It's only after his fire stops fighting my dispersal shield, which I can now dismiss, that I realize why he's still alive.  In my distraction, I didn't hit his heart, I hit his lungs.  I cut off my charred outside skin, which is painful, but not doing so is foolish.  It will heal.  He continues to choke and gasp on the blood in his lungs.  I waste another force bead through his heart to shut him up.  Finally, silence.

"Alright, I killed your guards, are you ready to face me or shall I begin killing Zoring?  Slowly?  To give you time to think about it?"  I am looking at the wrong wall.  She steps through one of the holes previously made by her guards.  She shows no obvious sign of power.  She is smaller than the other two by a head, her red hair hangs ragged down her shoulders, her clothes are the hides of animals, fur still clinging to them.  She almost looks like a real woman.  Her face would have been attractive if she had been born Di-Damo or Regar or even Nel.  I can see why Zoring could be confused if he hadn't known what she was, but he had. 

"It's a trap!"  Zoring yells. 

"Yes."  She says, smiling dagger like teeth, spoiling the illusion.  "I know." 

"Then why are you here?"  Zoring asks bewildered. 

"To die."  She smiles, red lips covering the teeth and bringing the confusing image up again.  I've never seen such a controlled Cryspen.  No snarling.  No immediate threats. Nothing.  A blindingly green eyed stare that could peal paint, and messy wild red hair, and wild clothes.  Her look is of determination rather than just defiance.  Zoring must have trained her up a bit. 

"You're giving up?"  I skim his emotions to find out if it's a trick.  He's horrified.  He must think I am going to torture all of them.  I'm not.  They are just animals to be disposed of, but he is an actual traitor.  Or perhaps he had hoped she might save them.  As if any of Cryspen could be depended on. 

"No.  I'm fighting."  She turns back to me.  "Ygar and I have...an appointment.  I missed it last time, and he's making me regret it." 

I can't help but smile.  The idea is ludicrous. I feel a flash of heat come into existence at me, and raise my telekinetic dispersal screen just in time.  Her flame is white hot, it would have vaporized me had it connected, and my eyes widen, she's smiling a girlish 'you can't blame me' smile. 

"Hmm.  I've never seen that before.  Looks pretty useful."  She says, staring at the millions of tiny whirlpools dispersing her fire.  The air is heating up despite that.  And she hasn't stopped creating her fire, she doesn't seem distracted by it.  In fact, frost is slithering up her body, and perfect crystal snowflakes are forming on her cheeks, already tinted blue by frost.  Suddenly, a miniature snow storm erupts on her side of the room.  Around her, ice crystals and cold mist keep her from being visible to me.  I've never heard of a Cryspen with Cryokinesis before, but here she is.  I wonder what else they can do of which we are not aware.  Perhaps they are a bigger threat than I thought. 

I look up and see that Zoring is wrestling with Teled, counting me as too distracted to take into account.  I render Zoring unconscious.  It wouldn't be very satisfying to kill him at the moment.  Teled puts Zoring down and goes back to his readings. 

"You're hiding again."  I taunt, but even I recognize the undertone of awe in my own voice.  It makes me angry.  She is not more powerful than I am, simply exceptional for what she is.  An animal that can do tricks.  I gather together a line of force beads and send them through the mist at chest level, hoping to hit her blindly.  There is no cry of pain or surprise, so I count that as wasted effort. 

"Nonsense."  Her voice calls from the mist.  "I don't really believe that you can't sense me." 

Irritation flashes in my mind.  She's playing with me.  Sweat runs down my face.  Fear begins to add a chill to the sweat.  She's generating too much energy.  I cannot drop the dispersal shield.  Heat drifts down from overhead, and I realize that in addition to these other two things she's been doing, the fire my field is dispersing and the cold mist that is hiding her from my eyes, a line of fire is cutting a sizzling hole in the metal ceiling above me.  I roll to the left side before a thick section of ceiling and the floor above it crashes to the ground.  I struggle to keep my dispersal field in the way of her flames the whole time, even though the flames edge up and down my body, testing my reflexes.  I wonder if she knows how very close she is to burning me out of mental energy.  Another ten minutes and I'll be unconscious.  Then I'll be dead.  I have to change things. 

Damid stands in one of the melted holes.  He strides into the room, stuns Teled and walks over to Zoring, as if he didn't even notice the battle going on. 

"I don't think so!"  I snap, sending a telekinetic shock wave towards him.  With a pathetic groan, Damid crumples against a table, unconscious.  The scan cage topples to the floor.  There is a shattering sound and the child's high voice screaming and crying, signifying that she's awake and not happy about it.  I hear Amazdia suddenly hold her breath.  Now I do know where she is.  I make and send a bead of force to where I heard the intake of breath.  I have not come this far into making a stronger Empire to fall now.  Certainly not to an animal.  Even a well trained one. 

I suddenly feel Damid's mind boring against mine- his hatred is cold and threatening like a snake slithering in.  I scoop his consciousness up suddenly and throw it outside my mind before he strikes.  Now, I have to divert more of my concentration to hold up a mental barrier keeping him out.  I'm exhausting myself, but any death Amazdia would offer would be a clean end.  Damid would carve out a hell in my mind and leave me trapped in it.  He'd leave my body around to drool and piss itself.  Skii leave mentally destroyed people in their wake as trophies of their power.  They are another threat to my empire, but the Crypsen are more obviously a threat.  I must deal with them first. 

"Damid, the escape plan.  Now." Amazdia snaps.  "Take Zoring and my daughter and go."

"But what about you?"

"Me?  I'm already dead."  She says casually, stepping from the mist and showing her injury with a sweeping motion of her hand.  Within the blue ice crystals glittering all over her skin, caked over the fur, the muddy red of her freshly flowing blood stands out on her chest as though a red river has carved its way through an ice mountain.  Some of her blood is already frozen to her chest.  I must have hit her in my first sweep through, she just didn't acknowledge it.  "Go!"  She snarls angrily.  "I didn't walk into a trap in order to lose them anyway!  Now!"  The change from speaking calmly to snarling seems to snap me out of my distraction in watching the scene. 

Now that I know that she's dying, I know she can't simply hold her power on me all day.  Though I have expended enough energy to feel sluggish already, I keep my eyes open, burning as they are in the heat of the air.  I have to keep the mental shield, I can sense Damid hungrily waiting for me to lower it- it's why he's being so hard to convince to go, he wants me to make a mistake so he can be the one that destroys me.  I have to keep the dispersal field up, she hasn't stopped pumping fire into the air around me, and I still feel the heat dissipating.  If I'm quick enough I can generate another force bead and pierce her right through the heart so that I can catch Damid, Zoring and the little half breed before they get away.  But I can't do it yet.  I have to catch my breath and gather my stray energy.  If I don't have to worry about her burning me with that white hot flame, I can concentrated fully on Damid.  The Skii think they have cornered the market on destroying minds.  I could show him how wrong they are.  I can scramble his mind.  Then I'd be able to take my time on Zoring.  He has long allied himself with my enemies and stood in defiance to the Empire.  His punishment is overdue. 

I finally have the energy.  I gather the bead of force, her eyes widen and she dives to the side, but an arc of red spray tells me I hit her.  Not in the heart, but she's apparently not yet resolved her fate.  She gets back up, holding the blood back into her body with her hand.  Red droplets run between her fingers. 

"Damn it Damid, you can't take him!  I'm all that's standing in his way!  Wake up and go!"  She barks, eyes nearly glowing with barely controlled anger.  A fan of flame spreads behind her head temporarily, accenting her fury.  Her hair sizzles as ice melts and vaporizes.  Flame scrubs her form, melting all the ice and touching into the wounds, burning her exposed blood, cauterizing the wounds. 

Damid sighs in frustration, grabs the child and summons Zoring's mind back to zombie-like unconsciousness.  It's quite tempting to kill Zoring right now, just to remind them whom they are doing battle with, but I would never survive it.  My energy is already low, my concentration already pushed to its limits.  One of them would get through.  Better to let them think they are getting away so I can concentrating on killing her.  Damid turns back in the doorway.  "Will the child go insane?"

"Tell Zoring to teach her his ways.  Her blood will teach her mine."  She closes her eyes and grits her teeth.  Despite that, the fire is still burning in my dispersal field, in fact, it is getting hotter and hotter and I cannot raise the amount of power I am putting into the field while Damid is here to pounce on my weakened mind shield. 

"You didn't answer-"

"I'll kill you!"  Amazdia snarls, eyes flashing back open, showing pain and fury.  "Go or I'll kill you!"  She growls.  Her body is crouching in on herself, and her teeth are bared.  She looks feral, much more like what I expected to burst into the room to face me in the first place. 

Damid's eyes widen.  He nods, swallows, and takes the oddly silent child and the sleepwalking Zoring in tow.  When he is far enough out of range for me to drop my mental shield, I do, and immediately feel more powerful.  I've been burning mental energy much faster than my mind could produce it, and now, I'm nearly back within my comfort zone.  I may not have power in reserve anymore, but at this rate, I am gaining power instead of losing it.  It will only take a moment or so to gather enough energy to kill her for good with a force bead.  A sigh of relief slips out, and now she's looking at me with a smile that manages to be both malicious and friendly. 

"Relieved?"  She says, laughing.  "I'm relieved too.  Now we can really fight."  She says hungrily.  Had she been holding back?

"Shouldn't you be dead by now?"  I taunt.  The intensity of her flame being dispersed is growing and I have to match her flame with a more concentrated field to disperse it, I've gone back to losing mental power as fast as I was when I was using both shields.  Perhaps she is going to kill me first after all.  I've never seen one last this long before.   

"Death throes, Ygar."  She flashes me a nakedly lustful grin.  Her eyes are locked on my throat.  She probably wants to tear it out.  "It's amazing how alive you feel when you die."  She laughs, probably light headed from all the loss of blood and power expenditure.  Why are her flames getting hotter and hotter?  They should be dying with her.  She's probably desperate to kill me before she dies.  I've seen several of them hang on with that hope over the years, but never for this long.  I have to marvel at the amount of power she has managed to build up.  If I hadn't done this now, she may have been able to burst into the capital and kill me on her terms.  Quickly, and before I had any idea what was happening.  I'm so very tired.  Can she sense how close to unconsciousness she has me?  Does she know how hard it is to keep my eyes open, how hard it is for me to think clearly?  How I keep reverting to just watching rather than taking an aggressive approach?  Does she sense fear?  "And since they are away now, I have nothing to lose."  She purrs.  Her smile is nothing short of evil. 

"You plan to kill me before you die."  I say, as though voicing this suspicion means I have a plan to stop it from happening.  I wish I had the energy to finish her, but the fire is just getting harder and harder to disperse.  I grit my teeth, sweat drips from my scalp. 

She smirks.  "Do you know how mockingly close to death you are, Ygar?  How could I possibly resist?" 

"If I take that choice away."  I answer, wishing that I collect enough stray energy to make make it true.  At this point there is no 'stray' energy. 

She giggles knowingly.  "Do it.  Drop that shield for one second, I dare you."  As she speaks, thirty balls of spinning flame twirl behind her, each the size of a fist.  She's mocking me. 

"If you had all this power, why didn't you use it?"  I demand, angrily, trying to get my mind to give me some extra reserves...any at all with which to kill her before she directs those balls forward.  She's playing with me.  She's showing off.  Had she sense, she would have hit me with all that fire before I was able to send out a force bead.  She wouldn't be dying right now.  I need her to make another mistake.  A big one. 

"My body knows I'm dead, it's sending all extra power to my brain.  It's called the blood frenzy, and it's supposed to be impossible to control.  I'd tell the others they were wrong about that, but as you can see, I don't expect to stop and write a note."  She smirks.  "But I still expected more from you.  You can't stop me, can you?"  She taunts. 

I stare at her in wordless fury.  Moments pass, she's staring at me with hatred clearly etched in her face, bright green eyes reflecting orange light from the rotating twirling fire balls behind her and any moment, she's going to bring the fire down on my weakening shield.  I know it.  She's letting me taste it first.  I want that to be her fatal mistake, but I find that I've collapsed to my knees and I'm looking at a dozen black spots closing in despite how rigidly I've been holding my eyes open to keep conscious.  If I can just hold out long enough, I keep hoping she'll just fall over dead.  But she doesn't.  My shield disintegrates.  All the fire in the room disappears, even the thirty balls of spinning flame behind her.  I barely have the energy to wonder if it is about to be over or if it's about to get worse.  She pounces and knocks me on my back.  Our faces are literally two inches apart.  She smells like burning meat and grass.  My shoulders are pinned to the floor by her hands. 

"Why am I still alive?"  I demand, daring her to lose her temper.  Now that I know she is going to kill me, I'd rather it not be slowly.  My heart speeds up, trying to get the most pump for the few seconds it probably has left. 

"Why were you born a Di-damo, Ygar?  You should have been a Cryspen."  She whispers, hot, hungry voice tickling my ear.  "You hate us because we're more alike than you and any other Di-damo.  You hate us because some part of you knows you should have been one of us." 

"You expect me to believe that you feel merciful?  I don't believe you.  Cryspen don't have mercy."  I growl.  "So just do it and stop playing with me." 

"If you had any idea why I'm leaving you alive you'd know that it's not mercy."  She laughs ominously, leans forward and licks the already cold sweat off of my cheek.  My breath is coming in nearly strangling gasps.  I simply cannot hide my terror any longer.  "Although I suppose I'll have to keep from tearing you apart even though every instinct in my body wants to."

I shudder, and try back away, but she has my shoulders pinned to the ground.  Again, she's letting me taste it.  Any moment now, she's going to greedily dig her fingers through my chest and pull out my heart.  So she can eat it...in my face.  I finally get hold of my shuddering, and turn my head to the side, closing my eyes so I'm not looking up at her teeth.  I've got my teeth gritted tightly to keep myself from screaming.  I don't want to give her the satisfaction. 

"She has soft Di-damo skin.  She'll be torn apart playing with the others."  She sighs in exasperation.  "But she does heal like her father so I could hope she'll live to toughen up if he doesn't let her play with them."  I suddenly realize, since it's pressed up against mine, that her skin is cool and her heartbeat is slow.  She is dying, however slowly it is for my tastes. 

"Why are you telling me this?"  I ask, wondering if her mind has gone.  Her eyes are half closed and she has a strangely satisfied smile on her face. 

"It got you to look up, didn't it?"  She whispers, and leans in.  "Goodbye, Ygar."  I brace myself for pain or fire, but she kisses me instead.  She falls away, dead, cold and smiling.  I stare at her corpse for another moment, waiting for something.  But she is dead.  The really infuriating thing is that I'm certain she timed that kiss.  She knew when she was going to die.  And she choose to do it in my mouth.