Chapter 38
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Lila
X avier isn’t wrong. I study the Syndicate and feel a pang of sorrow.
Lester, of course, is next to Smith, and it’s no surprise to see Destir and a scarred and bored looking Dylan. I would have put money on them being on the we hate Lila train. Hanging off Dylan’s arm is none other than the dragon loving bitch Zilla. The purple streaks that signify her bond with a larnuk are gone, and instead, those parts are gray and brittle. In fact, all of her looks slightly brittle. She’s lost weight and looks way older than before.
I turn my attention to the other side and feel a pang of sorrow for Link. We suspected his mother was involved, but seeing it confirmed is a real kick in the ass. I’m not sure if the fleitine will handicap a cyborg, since they don’t contain magic. We need to figure out another way to render her benign. With the ability to manipulate nanobots, she could conceivably escape quite easily, and if she is able to override the soldier guards, then we would lose all of our prisoners. Maybe keeping them all together in the same prison isn’t a great idea.
Next to her is another blast from the past in the form of Natalia. I don’t think Maxsim had been informed of her escape, or if he had, he hadn’t thought to share it with me. We will be having words if that’s the case. She looks a little worse for wear too, which makes me irrationally happy. She looks like she has some sort of mange. Her fur is patchy, and her skin is red in places where there is no fur.
I slide my eyes further along and recognize one of the warlocks, but not the other. One is that upstart asshole Aryan, Cronus’s aide. I’m assuming the other one is his father.
“Ah, so that’s where that asshole Atrax got to.” Cronus points at the man on the end. “Why am I not surprised? I knew it was too much temptation for Aryan to stay loyal to me instead of his father. I bet he’s wishing he had now.” The warlock king chuckles and rubs his hands together in glee. I don’t envy either of them one little bit.
“You know, I’m kind of disappointed. This is the feared Syndicate?” I say. “How were we scared of this?” I ask, shaking my head.
“I think maybe we managed to take a few of them out during our travels. The basilisk showed heavy involvement with them when we went through their files,” Silac tells me.
“So was Mazlan. I guess Natalia is her replacement,” Xavier points out. “Not to mention the cyborg we took care of and both Estrella and Radella. All had been actively recruited. Josa was recruited previous to the circus going on hiatus, but Estrella and Radella were after it. That’s why they insisted on the clan dissolution trial, but it backfired on them. We got that information from them when we were transporting them to the outpost.”
“My father is going to be devastated by this.” Tirrian waves at his uncle. “The man has never been particularly pleasant, but to conspire against the throne and the galactic council, well, it’s going to break his heart.”
I heave out a sigh. “Call the others down. It’s time to finish this,” I tell Xavier, and he sends the agreed upon signal. Within seconds, the gods, my father, and the Vilaxians appear. Saxon races around, placing transport beacons on all the Syndicate members except for Vivax and the captive men. The others disappear to take care of the guards outside and anyone else who may be in the complex.
“Make sure Brannock is given access to Smith. I promised him,” I tell my father who approaches me.
“Yes, he and I have had an in-depth discussion on exactly what will happen to Agent Smith. I’m just sad I’m not going to be there to see it,” he tells me, and I frown.
“What do you mean?” I ask him but before he can answer the Vilaxians return.
“All life-forms are accounted for, but everyone outside of this room wasn’t sentient. There is no Syndicate army, just one full of bots,” Sabine sneers.
“Okay, all beacons have been placed. Prepare to beam,” Saxon says into his watch, contacting the control deck of the Vilaxian battleship.
Zeydan approaches me and wraps me in his arms as my grandma approaches her sister with a sad look in her eyes.
I watch with worry as Sanshia approaches Smith. I did promise him to Brannock, but I am sure he would understand if she killed him. All she does, however, is spit on him.
“Rot in hell,” she growls.
Zeydan places a kiss on my temple. “It’s time, love. Get the orb,” he tells me, and I pull away from his embrace and reach into my safe space and retrieve the orb. When I pull it out, it flares brightly like a beacon, and I feel the power inside it as it shudders in my hand.
“The power wants to return to its rightful homes,” Liliana tells me as she approaches me, Vivax floating behind her.
“How are you going to stop the power from going into her instead of me?” I ask. They were never clear on that part.
She holds up a knife that gleams much like the one I was stabbed with on Earth.
“That has the correct fail-safe formula I told you about.” Zeydan points to the weapon. “When we stab it into her, it will block her from receiving the power, and the power will seek out the next suitable host.”
“Me,” I confirm, but the gods surround me, and I start to feel a moment of panic. “What’s going on?” I demand, and Zeydan steps back to join his brothers and sisters, mouthing, “I’m sorry.”
“Beam now,” Saxon shouts, and I feel my body start to dematerialize. I scream in horror at my last view before I become particles, the gods and my father remaining behind.
“No!” I scream as my body rematerializes in the hangar of the Vilaxian ship with all the other beings wearing transport beacons.
“What have you done?” I scream at my mates. Tirrian, Saxon, Xavier, and Silac are all trying to talk to me. “Send me back now. I will not let my father do this. He has sacrificed too much.” I hit them as they surround me, caging me between their bodies.
“Lila,” my mom’s gentle voice calls, and I turn, tears clouding my vision, to find her pushing her way between Saxon and Xavier before pulling me into her arms.
“It was what your father wanted,” she tells me. “You’ve been through enough and have twelve mates and many children relying on you.”
“But he has you, Bubby, and Bastien,” I sob, and she shakes her head sadly.
“Us being bound to Bubby is what made him make the choice. Bubby and I should survive if anything were to happen to him. Don’t cheapen his sacrifice by being angry,” she tells me, and I feel a wave of guilt as my grandpas join us.
“We will be out of range in a few minutes. Do you want to watch by the viewing window?” they ask, and I grimace.
“What are we going to watch? Our loved ones destroying themselves?” I snap, and Eric shakes his head.
“No, Lila! The rebirth of old gods is not something you see every day and shouldn’t be missed.” He doesn’t sound worried in the least, so I go with everyone to the viewing deck. The Vilaxian military takes care of the remaining members of the Syndicate and the poor men who had been slated as Madovian incubators.
Brannock disappears in the direction Smith is taken. They are all still frozen by warlock power, and it’s easy to handle them and less noisy. I wouldn’t want to be those soldiers when they unfreeze. Shit will hit the fan.
We reach the viewing window, and we can see the planet in the distance. We’re joined by the warlock and Vilaxian royal families. Saxon wraps his arms around me and whispers, “I’m sorry.” I sigh and sag back into him. It wasn’t his fault. I should have guessed they were planning something.
“Your dad wouldn’t take no for an answer,” he tells me. “And Zeydan was completely on board. I was outnumbered.”
“Don’t blame anyone. This is how it is supposed to be. It’s all going to be fine, I can feel it,” my mother says, grabbing my hand and giving it a squeeze as a small glow appears on the planet.
“It’s starting,” John whispers, and we fall silent as the glow grows bigger and bigger until it encompasses the whole planet.
“Whoa, isn’t that going to destroy the planet?” I ask.
“No, they thought that because it was full of that metal they use in the fail-safe compound, it would be resistant to the power, and it would have no choice but to flow back into their bodies, which is what it will want to do,” William explains, not taking his eyes off the view in front of us.
The white glow starts to change color and break off—white, red, green, blue, pink, and black. Each of the colors grow until they explode in what looks like a burst of fireworks, each color blending with the others. Mom and I scream, and there are gasps of horror around us.
“No!” I sob as the fireworks clear, and there is nothing in sight but the planet still in one piece. “What happened? Did it go wrong?”
“I would say it all went very right,” an otherworldly voice says behind us.
As one, we all spin to see where it’s coming from. Standing there in their god forms are the four elemental gods. Zeydan is in his familiar form, but it’s hard to look at him because he’s so perfect now. Aarin has the same wings and a head like a bird. Hurricane floats in the air, his mer tail shimmering with blue and silver sparkles as his hair drifts like it’s underwater, a giant trident in his hand. Sanshia is the most different. Gone is the emaciated woman, and in her place is a curvy goddess with black eyes and dragon wings, and she is surrounded by flames that don’t burn anything they touch.
“Dad?” I ask Zeydan, and he smiles, and the four of them part. I can see my grandmother and father behind them. They are both in what I’m guessing are their godly forms. Gigi looks like herself but on steroids. She’s almost too beautiful to look at, and she radiates a sereneness that makes you want to bow down in her presence. She has glossy, white fairy-like wings. My father, on the other hand, looks like he’s had a glow up. All his features have sharpened, and his form flickers between that and a hooded being that when you look too closely inspires pants-wetting fear. He holds a scythe and has black fairy-like wings.
My mother walks right up to him and throws her arms around him. “Marcus,” she murmurs with relief, and I smile as they kiss like they are the air each other breathes.
“So I’m assuming it worked?” Xavier asks, slinging an arm around my shoulders. “I knew it would.”
I consider smacking him, but I’m too darned relieved to bother. “Yup, you were right,” I say, giving him a kiss instead.
He smirks smugly, and I hear his mother scoff behind me.
“Well, now that that’s all done, don’t you have a circus to run?” William asks after the three of them hug my grandmother tightly.
“Jesus, Dad, pushy much?” my father jokes, pulling away from my mom.
I hold up a hand and wave at the six of them.
“Is this a permanent thing now? Because it’s kind of hard to look at.” All of their glows dim, and they return to their normal forms. Five of them are fully clothed, but we all turn to stare at my dad, who is completely naked. He looks down at his body and gives us a sheepish grin as I shriek and put my hands over my eyes.
“Sorry, it’s going to take a bit to get used to these powers.”
Cronus chuckles, and I’m assuming he clothes my dad, because I feel someone pull my hand from my eyes, and when I look, he’s grinning at me, fully clothed.
“Payback is a bitch, isn’t it?”
“Let’s agree here and now never to get naked in front of one another again,” I tell him, and we shake on it while everyone else laughs at us.
I n the end, the great and scary Syndicate was actually a bit of a letdown. Most of their troops were robot soldiers Deinera contributed to the cause, unbeknownst to her husband and the rest of the Pleasure Bot Industries board. The only live beings were the ones we captured. It was decided to let the Galactic Council deal with them. We handed them all over, minus Smith, and I doubt any of them will see the light of day again.
Smith was tortured repeatedly, and in the end, my father and Brannock gifted him to Sanshia, and she turned him to ash with a flick of her wrist. She seemed a lot happier after that, but she still doesn’t want anything to do with Ember, and we respect that. Maybe one day it will change, but we will make sure she is loved and cared for until that time.
“The Syndicate really was pretty lame—a group of disgruntled beings gathering and bitching about all the wrongs that had been done to them. They had no real plans except getting the orb,” I comment to Cas as we watch the kids climb all over my grandparents and parents. They returned with us to the circus when it was time to leave. Chloe has fit into the mix like a dream. She accepted me with no trouble and I’m already in love with her, as are the rest of my family. It was such a relief after all the other stress.
“It really is, though they would have been a problem if Vivax managed to get her hands on the orb,” he replies, wincing as Jack tugs on my dad’s now super long hair. He’s kept it that way, and I keep seeing him swish it around like some kind of historical romance novel hero. Bubby and Mom seem to like it though. You think he would learn to tie it back around the children, since I’ve seen Bastien grab hold of it like that too.
“I don’t understand how any of them thought she would share the power with them though. It was obvious to anyone with half a brain that she was going to be a dictator, and I’m sure they would have all ended up dead if they hadn’t caved to her plans,” I murmur.
“Cas, come on, we need to finish getting ready, and I need someone to rub oil into my chest,” Silac calls. “I hate feeling it on my hands.” I smirk as Cas gives me a kiss on the head and pulls away, hurrying to help Silac and Tirrian oil themselves up for the first act.
“How are you feeling?” Ghosie asks, wrapping his arms around me from behind, and I sigh, sinking back into his fur. One of the first things dad and Gigi did was fix the carevastas and Aaz’axians.
This means Chloe and Ember are now both safe from whatever was killing the Aaz’axian females, and Gigi and Dad promised they are going to figure out a way to rebuild both them and the Una’s races. They did it one time, so why can’t they do it again? It is a work in progress though. Both want to spend some quality time with our families before they disappear to do godly things.
We’ve had reports from Ghosie’s dad that men spontaneously changed back into women, and so did half of the children. It’s been a confusing time for the carevastas, but they are working it all out and happy for the change. Apparently, they are trying to go legit too, and some of our allies are reaching out to them to hire their services. Ghosie has been over the moon and basically tackling anyone who will hug him. I even found Cronus hugging him the other day when they arrived with the rest of our extended family, insisting they needed to see my first show as ringmaster.
That leads us to tonight. I pull out of his arms and smooth my hands nervously over my outfit. It’s the one from the first day—red coat jacket with a black collar and cuffs with gold accents, black booty shorts, fish net tights, and knee-high boots. I have a top hat on my head and the cane minus the orb, but it was replaced with a large dragon eye gem that my mine conveniently gave up and sent along with Zala. She was waiting for the right time to give it to me per instructions from her all-knowing grandmother. Much like the previous gem, this one glows happily in its place at the top of my cane. All dressed up, I certainly look the part. Let’s just hope I can pull it off.
“Five minutes. Five minute call,” someone shouts, warning the performers, and my stomach feels like it’s in my throat.
The staging area is bustling with crew, and my grandpas approach me as everyone else who is not performing files out, wishing me luck. They are going to take their seats in the arena. We have a whole blocked off VIP area for everyone, and the children are wearing glamours so they can attend their first performance too.
“We are so very proud of you, Lila,” John says, grabbing my hands and hugging me tightly.
“So thankful you have come into our lives and made them so much better,” William tells me, also giving me a hug, and I can feel he’s struggling to hold his tears back. Their pride and love fills me with confidence, and I smile as I turn to Eric.
“And for Gigi’s sake, girl, give it a little showmanship.” He waves his fingers and then gives me a quick hug before they turn me around, and I face the stage door. I swallow nervously as I hear the rumbling sound of the audience, but then the lights go down, and the room falls into a tense, anticipatory silence.
I take a deep breath before teleporting to the middle of the dome and striking a pose that should make Eric’s little showman heart sing as the spotlights light me up.
“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to Galaxy Circus.”