CHAPTER 12 #2
Hearing them enter, Aries turned. “Oh good. Tower, I mean Nimrod, managed to get a hold of you. We have a problem.”
Wild guess? “What did our body-snatching alien do this time?”
“The day you left, the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum was robbed.”
Odd thing for an alien to do. “Any idea why?”
Aries tucked his hands behind his back. “It would seem the thieves were after a gemstone, the only kind in this world—"
“The kyawthuite,” Ishtar murmured.
The boss eyed her. “You don’t seem surprised.”
“As I was telling Reece earlier, the kyawthuite, which I know as luughal, is not local to Earth but rather Mars.”
“And why would, say, an alien asshole be after it?” A sign of Aries’ agitation that he resorted to cursing in front of the baby.
“Because it is a very efficient power source, and I’ve found nothing comparable to it on Earth. Likely the Kukakk wished to use it create and power some nanobots, which he could have used to signal others of its kind. It also probably wishes to build some more effective weapons.”
“More effective than those energy beams that vaporize people?” Poor Aries almost lost his eyebrows in surprise.
“The ones it’s constructed thus far had a very limited range. With enough luughal, it could wipe out entire cities or armies at a time.”
“Meaning it would be very bad if it got its hands on some.” The obvious conclusion by Aries.
“Very.” Ishtar’s lips pressed into a grim line.
“Then I guess it’s a good thing the chunk in the museum was fake. I don’t suppose you know anything about that?” Aries eyed Ishtar.
Her lips curved as she admitted, “I had need of some, so I removed it.”
“Where is it now?”
She pointed overhead. “Powering my spaceship.”
“So out of reach of the alien asshole. Good. But it being a fake caused some issues.”
“What kind of issues?” Aquarius asked.
“See for yourself.” Aries pointed a remote at a screen on the wall, and a video began to play. “This was broadcasted hours after the attempted theft.”
The face of the man calling himself Jesus appeared.
“My beautiful flock, I am here today to ask for your help. I am seeking a stone, very special one called kyawthuite, which, until recently, you could view at a Los Angeles museum. Given its importance, I sent some of my most loyal disciples to retrieve it. Imagine my shock when I discovered it had been switched out for a fake.” Alien Jesus sighed and shook his head.
“Terrible thing, especially since we all know what my father thinks of thieves.” An ironic statement to make after admitting it tried to rob the museum.
“This crime is especially heinous because that stone belongs to me. That’s right, my precious disciplines.
That gem was a gift to me from God himself, lost when I suffered persecution by unbelievers.
It has much sentimental value to me, and I am saddened by its loss, hence why I am sending out a plea for you to find it.
Whoever locates the kyawthuite gemstone and returns it to me will immediately get into my and God’s good graces and receive eternal reward.
I have faith in you. God bless and good luck. ”
The video ended, and Aries cleared his throat.
“The video got shared around the world in pretty much every language you can imagine and led to a spurt of violence as people immediately became determined to recover it. Home invasions. Neighbors attacking one another. The desperation to give this thing the gemstone is unreal.”
“Because they believe it will get them into heaven. A powerful incentive,” Sage murmured, patting little bean’s back.
Ishtar chewed her lip. “I’m sorry. I never thought my retrieval of it would cause issue.”
“Don’t apologize.” Aries slashed a hand. “If you’d not taken the kyawthuite, then that fucker would have it and who knows what it would do with it. The alien is pissed it’s missing though. It sent out two other similar videos before releasing this only an hour ago.”
Once more the screen showed Alien Jesus’ face. The expression on it hinting of anger, the eyes glowing inhumanly.
“Greetings to my flock, especially those who’ve been trying so hard to get in my good graces.
Your efforts have not gone unnoticed or unappreciated.
I cannot wait until I can thank you personally for your effort when it came to locating my loss gemstone.
Alas, no one managed to find it, through no fault of your own.
The thief hid it well, which is why I must ask another favor.
Being all knowing, I’ve discovered who took the kyawthuite, a horrid bunch of people, hidden among you.
I am speaking of a group of men and women who work for an organization called the Zodiac Warriors.
A lofty name for vile killers. At one time, they called themselves heroes and champions of humanity.
However, they’ve been overtaken by a greedy and unscrupulous woman who has declared herself queen.
A queen who destroys everything she touches.
A disgrace who seeks to stymie my attempts to give you all my blessing.
Terrible, I know. I want so much to welcome you all into Heaven to meet my Father, but I can’t.
” The tone of Alien Jesus lowered. “Because of her. However, fear not, I have a way to flush this miscreant out, she and the so-called warriors that form her army. It will require you to break one of God’s commandments.
Rest assured, though, you will be absolved of that sin, for you will be acting for the greater good. ”
Alien Jesus paused. “This will be difficult for some of you, but those who truly wish to serve me and God are now being called upon to eliminate the non-believers. We cannot have them working against us, trying to keep you from your just desserts.”
“Holy fuck, did he just declare war on anyone who doesn’t follow him?” Aquarius couldn’t help but sound horrified.
Aries paused the video and had never looked so bleak. “He did, and worse, people are listening. Obeying. Killing. Listen to the rest and we can discuss it further.”
Alien Jesus stared straight at the screen, and Ishtar tucked close to Aquarius as if anticipating what it would say next.
“To this evil queen who destroyed her own kingdom, I give you one last chance. Hand over the kyawthuite, for, if you do not, you will be responsible for the death of the non-believers. Their blood will be on your hands. Every mother, father, and child that dies will die because of your greed. And in case you don’t believe my disciples won’t follow through, let me show you what is happening now outside my temple. ”
The camera panned away from Alien Jesus and focused on a cluster of people, many of them holding out crosses, a few wearing robes as if they were clergy or nuns.
What chilled the blood? How many of them held makeshift weapons.
Kitchen blades, hunting daggers, and even some baseball bats.
This armed group surrounded what appeared to be a family.
Older man, similar aged woman, and three youngsters, none older than ten, faces splotched from crying, huddled together as if hugging would save them.
Aquarius felt his stomach tighten.
Aries murmured, “There’s nothing you can do for them. This has already happened.”
It didn’t help. Even had he been able to beam as it occurred, he’d likely not make it in time, not to mention he would have had to kill misguided people. People whose only mistake was believing the word of a false prophet.
Despite knowing what would happen, he didn’t turn away and forced himself to watch. It was the most gut-wrenching thing he’d ever witnessed.
Sage uttered a sound before turning away, tears streaming. Aries looked the grimmest Aquarius had ever seen. Ishtar wore the stoniest expression, obviously not surprised. Had she seen the same when Mars was attacked?
As for Aquarius, he’d never felt more helpless. They couldn’t give this monster the kyawthuite, for it would only result in more death, but if they didn’t, countless would be murdered.
As the last scream died out and the mob of cult followers cheered, the camera panned back to Alien Jesus.
“How many will die, the queen who is no more? Bring me the kyawthuite, and this can end right now. If you don’t…” Nothing more was said or needed to be said. The threat couldn’t be clearer.
The video ended, and Aries sank into his chair, looking all of his several hundred years.
“We can’t give that fucker the gem,” Aquarius stated.
“Obviously, but I’m at a loss as to what we can do to stem the deaths.”
“Nothing.” Ishtar’s face remained stony, and her words emerged clipped and angry.
“We tried in the beginning to appease the Kukakk, thinking they might negotiate in good faith. They lied each and every time. No matter what we did, they killed. The Kukakk enjoy the strife. Feed off it. Even if you give it the kyawthuite, the murdering will continue under a new pretext.”
“Fuck.” Aries scrubbed his face. “Just so it’s clear, we are not giving that asshole anything, but there has to be a way we can slow down the killing.”
“Right now, this alien fuck has got folks eating out of its hand because of the Jesus bit,” Aquarius noted, his brain whirring for a solution. He came up with the wackiest idea. “It’s using religion against humanity. It sounds and looks believable, so what if we took that away?”
“Took it how?” Aries eyed him with interest.
“It seems to like showing off in public. Get someone in position and blow its head off in front of an audience. Kill the puppet and force it into a new body.”
“Which helps how?”
Aquarius paced, his hands moving as he tried to explain his reasoning. “Alien Jesus built a brand almost overnight. Videos are going viral all over. Fucker looks the part. Sounds the part. But what if it lost the face everyone’s gotten to know?”
“It would just start over,” Aries pointed out.
“Yup. In a new body, with a new face that it now has to re-launch to the world. Soon as it does, we shoot it again. Force it to keep cycling and, at the same time, put out our own message.” The next was the wacky part of his idea.
“We need to start our own viral campaign, calling it the false prophet. Creating doubt about its so-called powers and origin. I mean, why can’t God protect his supposed son?
Why can’t Jesus heal himself? Why hasn’t God eradicated the killers? ”
“What you’re suggesting will create more non-believers,” Ishtar pointed out. “Exactly the people the Kukakk wants hunted.”
“And I doubt they want to be sacrificial lambs. They’ll fight back.”
“Not sure how that’s any better,” Aries murmured.
Aquarius swept a hand in the direction of the blank screen. “I would rather see people fighting each other than being fucking slaughtered. I’d rather they woke up from its lies and hid than help it achieve its goal. Not to mention, sowing chaos might slow it down.”
“Slow it down while we wait for what?” Aries hadn’t vetoed his idea outright.
“For me to figure out how we can safely deploy the weapon. And before you ask, I don’t know yet if we can launch it safely. I’ll head to my office immediately and start communing with Little Star to see its preliminary report.”
“Wait, we have the weapon?” Aries glanced at Ishtar.
“It’s still on Mars,” she replied. “Safer there than here, given what it can do, but Reece has all the information related to it. How it works. What happened when triggered. Everything.”
“Thank you, milady. That can’t have been easy to share.”
Her lips twisted. “Reece proved to be very convincing.”
Was that a spot of color in her cheeks?
Aquarius snapped his fingers. “Speaking of convincing, what if we launched a counter religion? Something for the non-believers, like Satan’s army or something. Anything to draw people away from Alien Jesus.”
“You know what, it’s better than nothing.
I like the idea of reducing the amount of people helping it and making its life a little harder.
” Aries paced, chin down as he thought out loud.
“We’ll start with blowing the fucker’s head off and, while gross, make sure it shared widely.
I’ve already got Leo and Scorpio keeping a close eye on its movements with other Zodiacs in other major cities its already appeared in.
I’ll give them the go-ahead to take it out.
But I do wonder, what’s its end goal?” Aries pointed the last at Ishtar.
“What does it get out of causing all this mayhem? I mean, its foot soldiers, basic as they were, I understood. They killed to eat and grow, but this fucker doesn’t seem to be interested in people as food. ”
“The Kukakk wants power, and don’t be fooled; it is always hungering. It feeds off the emotions released by violence and mayhem. Delights in death. But the worst thing it does? It takes people’s souls.”