Chapter 12 #3
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.”