An ear-piercing screech of agony forced its way up from beneath the roiling surf, and a geyser of salty water exploded into the sky. Unimaginable numbers of strange birds scattered into the air, blotting out the sky, and Hell turned its festering eye towards the center of the universe.
On the quaking beach, the Queen's kin fell to their knees, covering their ears in pain. Long coiling tentacles rose from the water and pounded the beach.
At the edge of the jungle, Lilith and Moss pop-whooshed into view and we're chaos knocked them off their feet. The island bucked beneath them. Deafening thunder claps announced dozens of disorienting lightning strikes. Flaming birds flew through a sackcloth sky, transforming into falling ash. The black flurries erased the white beach as smoldering fish floated to the boiling surface and washed up on shore. The stench of spilled fish guts, burning flesh and brimstone permeated the rank air.
Moss stood up, mouth agape, transfixed by the looming hellscape, while Lilith turned towards a spot at the edge of the trembling jungle where trampled bushes raced away.
"What's this shit?" Moss covered his eyes, barely blocking out the glare of the repeated lightning strikes. "Where the fuck did you bring us?" He demanded, stepping forward and tripping on a fallen palm frond. Lilith spun around, grabbed his arm, and hauled him back before he got too close.
"To the end of one life; and the beginning of another."
An enormous, sightless tendril turned towards Moss, coiled closer like a cobra doing a hypnotic dance. It slammed the beach and a salt and pepper mixture of sand and ash struck him in the face. He screamed and whipped at his burning eyes. When he finally refocused, he saw a deep trench inches in front of the tips of his boots.
"Get back," Lilith warned, and a massive bolt of lightning struck the surf and a shockwave of water threw the two mutated raptors sideways like leaves caught in a strong wind. If Lilith had not anchored him in place, the wave would have cast him aside, too.
"What the hell?" he blared, choking out a mouthful of briny water. Heat and steam rising from the sea seared his skin, and he backed away, forcing Lilith back, too.
Lilith turned him around, gestured towards the trampled path, and shoved him towards it. He nearly fell down. "Go, now." Lilith commanded. "Follow the path. Dahl and Eve are half a kilometer further in land. Get to them. Find the obelisk and finish this nightmare before it is too late."
"Too late for what?" he asked.
"Too late to destroy her before she destroys the universe. You must stop her. I brought you here to stop me."
"Have you lost your mind?" he screamed in her face. "I just found you again. I'm not killing you."
"I lied," she said. "What I really learned when you died was that I am the villain. I steal the obelisk. I caused the end of everything and you are the only one who can save them."
A lightning strike punched a hole in the beach, sandblasting the right side of Moss's face. Time slowed, stopped, reversed direction, and spun around him. Blood dripped from his ear and all sound became metallic, as if someone had thrown a bucket over his head. A searing pain in his right ear replaced the pulsating ringing in his skull. He grabbed the side of his head, winced in agony, and vomited.
"You didn't find me, remember?" Lilith shouted into his bulging eyes. "I found you."
"I won't leave you here. Don't ask me to," he said, holding his head and leaning forward.
"You must," she said. "The draw to join is too powerful." Lilith gestured towards the path. "There is only one direction I'm getting off this beach. And if you are still here when that happens, I cannot save you a second time. She will kill you all."
"You knew this would happen?" he said as a million questions twisted his face. "We could have run anywhere. We still can leave this nightmare behind."
"This nightmare is my destiny. I have always known my life would never end well." Lilith replied, taking an awkward step toward the surf as if being drawn by an electromagnet. Her feet felt heavy. They dragged through the fine sand.
Three more lightning strikes punched the churning surf and a sound like a crashing locomotive echoed through the jungle. Two more bolts slammed the beach on each side of them, sending up bomb bursts of scorched sand. When the smoke cleared, two Lilith's stood in separate craters. Each walked into the surf and disappeared beneath the surface.
"What's happening?"
"The convergence." Lilith answered. "This was always the plan. I believed to save us all, the timelines had to be merged. Kearyn warned me not to do it. But I would not listen." She pulled Moss close and kissed him, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Promise me you will survive. Promise me my mistakes will not be your undoing?"
Moss stared at her, shaking his head in total disbelief. "I promise I will save us both."
"If only there were time." Lilith said, sliding towards the surf as if a great force reeled her in. "In a moment, I will cease to exist. And neither of us can change that now." Dozens of lightning strikes surrounded them and a steady stream of Lilith's marched into the sea. Bodies dissolved in the boiling stew and the maelstrom rose. The sea became a brackish, snaking water funnel, fueling the center of the eye of a great, booming cyclone. The jungle groaned and creaked as the swirling wind bent giant timbers to its will.
"Go, now." she screamed. "Before it is too late."
"Why make me love you just to piss it all away?"
"We both have parts to play in the coming battle. You must go down that path to reach yours, and to reach mine, I must remain here."
"Why make me love you?"
"I did not make you love me; you chose to love me."
"Then choose to love me. Fight."
"Go," Lilith roared, walking towards the surf. "The Dark Athena is too strong. I cannot hold her back any longer. I am the final Lilith to join the timeline. Now, go. If you are to save me… to save them… you must not die on this beach. To save the universe, you must play your part, my love."
Moss turned, hesitated, and said, "I'll find you, again." A great wailing banshee screamed from behind him and he fled into the jungle as the eternal daytime faded to black.
Searing smoke and the stench of brimstone chased him down the path. The jungle behind him went limp as baking heat, blistered foliage, and animals alike. The jungle blazed behind him and as a pillar of fire rose into the sky and raced up the chimney towards the moon's surface.
Hell had come to M6-117, and with it came the Dark Athena.
________________________________________________
The ship hovered out over the massive shaft piercing the core. Its engines stumbled, sputtered twice and switched off. The nose plunged into darkness, gravity reached up and pulled the vessel into the bowels of the moon. Lockspur's stomach rose to the challenge, but he fought it down.
The lateral docking thrusters fired, centering the ship and revealing strobe light glimpses of the jagged rock wall racing by. Even at a million corrections a second, the AI struggled to center the free falling vessel. But with every passing moment, the ship's speed increased by a factor of 2. Soon, the AI would run out of the needed computing power to reach the core. The forward thrusters fired at 30%, slowing the ship's descent.
After 5 minutes of eventless free fall, Lockspur released the console, took a restorative breath and unclenched his buttcheeks. "If this keeps up, we might get lucky."
Then it happened. The vessel tilted 90° to the starboard, tossed everyone sideways in their seats and corkscrewed through a sharp corner. G-forces pinned everyone half in / half out of their seats and Lockspur's stomach flipped again. The ship spun twice, slowed to a near stop, throwing everyone forward, veered hard to the port, spun back to its original position, and sped up again. The AI lost control, rotated upside down, cartwheeled half a dozen times, its port side wingtip struck the shaft wall and flipped upright. Arms and legs flailed and a firestorm of grinding sparks filled the shaft. The ship bounced from side to side. The lateral thrusters fired wildly.
"Shit," Lockspur yelled, seeing the shaft curve port side again.
The AI regained control moments before pancaking against the wall. Two rockets dropped from the wing pods ignited and raced away. The forward thrusters stumbled and then failed. It picked up speed, and its forward thrusters fired again. 10 kilometers ahead; the shaft exploded in a storm of fire and falling debris. Falling rock blotted out the shaft in front of the craft's sensors. The craft flew into the cloud, and massive boulders pummeled the shield, throwing everyone around.
"I thought this shitbox has shielding?"
"This ship is not a shitbox," Lockspur blared, reeling around. "If it was, you wouldn't be here to ask stupid questions." He reeled back around and slammed his fist on the console.
Vash unknotted his seat belt, stood up, and took a step forward. But Klar thrust his hand out, blocking his path. Vash sneered at him and Klar gestured for him to sit down, keep his mouth shut and put his seatbelt back on.
Now was not the time for a fight or a test of wills. The little man not-piloting was weaker, but he was not without wits, and he certainly was a crafty opponent. All 50 of the not-humans aboard knew that much. After all, Lilith had used his mind to uplift them. Vash set down, bitching in an angry language Lockspur wouldn't have recognized even if he had heard it.
"Warning," an artificial voice said, coming from the ship's speakers. "Electronic hull plating at 18%. Lateral thrusters down to 26% fuel stores. Increasing forward thrusters to compensate for dwindling lateral fuel stores."
Lockspur leaned to the side, spewed vomit across the deck, and Vash turned to Klar with a worried expression. Lockspur swiveled around. "Now you know why I never learned to pilot. Never had the stomach for it."
Something heavy slammed the aft hull, throwing the ship downward into a flat spin. The shaft filled with more sparks. And a giant boulder tumbled away from them, bouncing around the shaft. Behind them, a mountain of falling rock quickly closed in on the slowing ship.
The AI spoke again. "Electronic shielding inoperative. Hull integrity 88%. Aft side rockfall will overtake us in T-minus 3 minutes. Lateral thrusters fuel stores at critical levels."
"What now?" Klar asked.
"Pilot," Lockspur said. "Divert the remaining forward thruster stores to lateral thrusters."
"Negative. That will render forward thrusters inoperable."
"Do it, anyhow."
"Affirmative."
Gravity grabbed the ship again, and the boulder went from racing away to heading straight at them. Through sheer luck, or divine intervention, the boulder barely touched them.
"Pilot, how far before we exit this nightmare?"
"The shaft opens into a large chamber 12.5 kilometers below."
"Disengage forward thrusters and fire aft thrusters at a sustained burn of100%. Get us the hell out of this hole."
The aft thrusters fired, filling the shaft with a blinding burst of light, and everyone aboard sank deep in their seats. The building rumble racing up behind them faded away.
"Have you lost your mind?" Vash screamed.
"You should know; you're wearing it."
"If you increase our speed and the shaft veers off, we're all-"
"Dead," Lockspur said, finishing his sentence. "Pilot. Conserve lateral thrusters for collision avoidance only."
"At our current speed, the lateral thrusters will be an ineffective means of collision avoidance."
"Fuck it," Lockspur said. "Reroute the remaining fuel supplies to the aft thrusters and increase power to 120%. Pilot, what is our ETA to the lower chamber?"
"23 seconds' til lower chamber interface."
Vash screamed in triumph, "We made it!"
Just then, a 1500° column of fire and ash forced its way into the mouth of the column, eating its way directly into the path of Lockspur and 50 non-humans. The ship entered the rending plume, lost control, slammed the wall and spiraled out of the mouth of the shaft, splashing down into the sea.
The smoldering ship popped back up, bobbed for a few minutes, and then sank beneath the surface, leaving nothing but a column of rising steam.