A New Divide

We just barely missed him. How strange it was that I started finally believing in fate in that moment. Mark was gone, and he was almost certainly about to be tortured by Arcoh. So we had only one option now: we had to kill Mark. Mark was right, but then again he had been right all along. It was foolish to think that an act of defiance could have changed his fate.

Virgil had finally stopped his rampage and walked back over to the command module, and contacted the interface.

“Computer! ALI?”

“Yes, Captain?”

“Can you access the half-light reactors, and their overclocking modules?”

“I regret to inform you, Captain Virgil, that access to this sector is highly restricted. Two keys are required, one from Admiral Andrews, and one from Commander Wyman.”

“Victoria, where is Mark’s key?”

Victoria began one last attempt to break free of the handcuffs that kept her arms restrained behind her back, as she responded to Virgil: “It’s the skeleton key to all access points of Remora and this fleet. He wears it around his neck. He never takes it off. And now, Arcoh has it.”

“Great, that is just great.” Virgil slammed his fists down on the control panel. I could see that his hope was fading from him. My father moved beside him, and rested his arm on his shoulder.

“Well, Virg, what do we do now?”

“We have to go back to plan A.”

Victoria looked to Silas as she stood on her knees, and finally gave up trying to break free of her chains, as she was greatly confused by what this “plan A” of ours had been.


“What is he talking about, brother?”

Silas slowly looked down towards his sister and responded with a depressed tone in his voice. “They are going to kill him.”

Victoria quickly turned away from her brother, and shouted across the room to us, “No, you can’t do this! I love him!”

“I am sorry, darlin’, but there is no other way.”

“To hell with your way, Virgil! There is always another way!”

“It’s like Mark said: this is the only way we got now, darlin’.” I looked to Virgil as this burden was now placed on him.

“Virgil?”

“Yeah, kid?”

“Let’s have a word before we do.” He looked at me, surprised. Me, the boy who had always tried to do everything to get what he wanted, had finally come to a realization. I found that sometimes there is no choice. It was like Cyrus had told me in the void: it will come with the discipline of time. They say that there is always more than one way to do something right, but that person had obviously never been in a war, and certainly not one like this.

“So you finally grew up, huh?”

“It’s fate, Virgil. You cannot run from fate. Cyrus told me this would happen. I just chose not to believe it for a while. I am choosing now.” Virgil turned towards the rest of our group. The mood was so dark, so agonizing, so deathly quiet—it was almost indescribable. Mark had meant so much to all of us. He was one of Virgil’s oldest friends, and my father knew him for his good deeds he bestowed upon our family before my birth. Silas and Victoria were rescued by him eleven years ago when a madman from Salaras had captured them, and threatened to crash his cruiser into the Arc of Arcadia. As for myself: I would have been in some sort of test tube in Salaras, under the control of Arcoh. He saved me from becoming broken, and hopeless. We were about to kill the man that had given life to my journey, a man I owed everything to.

This event that was about to take place on that bridge I will remember forever; because of the sorrow we had all felt for the same man, the human connection we all shared. Lies of the faithful hold the fires of hatred, and despair, inside—but the truth will set them free. As I would soon learn, being free is not always a good thing; in fact, it can sometimes be far worse than anything you can imagine. For when people are free to do anything, they are bound by nothing. The world needs limitations, because without limits, without structure, everything would be chaos, and there is no future in chaos.

“Would anybody like to say some words?” Virgil asked as we watched the Crusader dropship move its way back to the Hammer. Then Silas stepped forward, just ahead of his sister, and spoke across the room.

“I would.”

“Well, go ahead.”

“Mark was the greatest man I have ever known. He was the kind of gentleman who would sacrifice anything for someone he barely knew. The single most selfless person I imagine that I will ever meet. And he will be missed.”

Silas turned to Victoria who turned away, and stared at the floor while tears rolled down her cheeks. She was ashamed of how she was currently feeling, and had nothing to say. Helena shook her head as she was expected to speak, but Helena wanted to ask Victoria something. She felt a strange disturbance by all of this. Helena asked her questions as somber farewells were heard in the background.

“Victoria?”

Victoria responded softly under her tearful and completely emotionally shattered composure, “What do you want?”

“Don’t you find all this to be a little strange?”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, I would think, and I have known Mark for five years, that he would only have someone kill him as a last resort, instead of doing the deed himself.”

“You are right.” Victoria looked up through the tears streaming down her face, as our group had finished their farewells.

“Well, kid, here goes,” Virgil said.

“We’ll do it together. On ten.”

I then placed my hand on his, over the trigger, and nodded to him to begin the countdown, while Victoria and Helena’s conversation could be heard in the background.

“Just one more question. Did you do it? Did you betray us?” Helena asked.

“Of course not!”

“Then who did?”

“He told me once that it’s not the enemy that you see that gets you.”

“Six, five, four, . . .”

“It’s the one that you don’t.”

“Three, two, . . .”

Just then I heard a whisper behind my ear.

“I’m sorry, I can’t let you do that.”

“COLLIN!” I felt the shock of the TNC, and I became paralyzed in an instant. As my limp body fell to the floor I saw Virgil. Collapsing to the floor, Virgil had an expression on his face that was horrifying. I never wanted to see it again as he looked to my father. It was him all along; the enemy we never saw coming.

“Dad?” My father grabbed the sidearm out of Virgil’s holster. He then picked me up, and held my limp body up to his chest. He kept a very cool composure in his unforgivable act he had committed against us.

“Jonathan! You bastard! I’ve known you for thirty years!” Virgil shouted in anger. Just before Helena was about to lunge at my father, he pressed the handgun against the side of my head. I could feel the cool barrel of the weapon against my face; it felt like ice burning my skin. It was the only thing I could feel besides the anger that was building, ever higher within me.

“Don’t you move or I swear I will kill him.”

“You unbelievable bastard! You are no father of mine!”

“That’s right, I’m not! I never have been, Collin!” I looked up at him, and ignored his comment. Out of sheer anger, and rage, I spoke to him, as he held my useless body firmly against his own.

“You planned this whole thing from my birth, to what, cash in on my abilities? You knew all along, didn’t you! Ever since the beginning! Working with Arcoh? I SWEAR ONCE THIS WEARS OFF I WILL—”

“SHUT UP! JUST SHUT THE HELL UP, COLLIN! YOU KNOW NOTHING OF WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!”

He pulled a laser syringe out of his pocket and brought it up to my arm. Virgil spoke as he started to become furiously overwhelmed with rage. His face became blood red as he trembled ferociously. “We know what’s going on! You betrayed us, partner!”

“Dad, or whoever you are! I hate you! I HATE YOU!”

Just then the most unexpected thing happened; he began to cry. The mood throughout the entire room shifted. He stuck the syringe into my arm and started to extract the DNA from my bone marrow. I screamed in agony as he did this, and I saw my own blood-red fluid fly into the main canister of the syringe. I was just glad it was over so quickly.

“I made a deal with the devil, little buddy,” my father said as he lightly sobbed, and his feet began to tremble. He pulled the syringe out of my arm and removed the canister from it. He released me gently, and placed my back up against the control module. I slid down to the floor as I gazed into his eyes, those eyes that were full of fear and regret. “Wha? What do you mean?”

He wiped away the tears that continued to stream down his face as he looked towards Victoria.

“I knew this was going to happen, Collin. This was the only way. I couldn’t bear it, if you were to be captured by Arcoh again. So I had to make a deal to save your life, with Admiral Andrews.”

Jonathan threw the flask through the air, and Silas caught the flask.

He gripped it tightly, and began to laugh slightly as our entire group stared horrified at him.

“Ha, ha, ha. Truth. Be. Told,” Silas said as he diverted his eyes from us to the canister of my DNA that he held in hand.

“No, it can’t be. I trusted you.”

“I know you did, my friend, and I thank you, because you have made my job so much easier.” My lip began to quiver and shake. How could this have happened? I thought. He was under my nose the entire time, and I never suspected it. I had been too worried about myself once again. All of my selfish endeavors had blinded me from the truth. I was so furious with the fact that my selfishness had brought me down this same damn road once again.

“You were my friend, Silas. YOU WERE MY FRIEND!”

Silas began dancing around manically and we observed his true nature. A nature that we would learn, was born of hatred.

“I would like to thank the academy, and most of all my family. I could never have done it without their . . . undying support.” Victoria looked over to him as he pranced around, holding the flask close to him, he was coveting it. “Brother. What have you done?”

“Dear sister, I could not have done it without your help. I had been using your station to contact Arcoh. You were always so willing to share your personal information with me. It was far too tempting not to take advantage of it. You took the fall so honorably, but you have always been honorable. So full of valor, through your fiery personality. You really are the perfect soldier.” Silas leaned down to her as she backed up. For the first time in her life Victoria feared her brother.

“I . . . I don’t even know who you are anymore.”

He laughed at her remark and began pacing around more than willing to share his story. “You have always been a soldier, always wanting to outplay your dear brother, especially when dad died. Aren’t you all curious as to why she hates the Kingdom of Salaras so?”

My father held me in his arms, he grasped the gun in his hands, and he was waiting for his chance to take a shot at Silas. I noticed that my paralysis was ceasing. I began to feel my legs, all while we listened to Silas tell his story.

“Brother, do not do this.”

“SHUT UP!” Silas said as he slapped Victoria in her face with the handgun he drew from his side. She spit up blood on the floor, and Silas continued to speak.

“YOU SHUT UP! You don’t tell me what to do anymore! No, you hated him for what he was! For where your origins lie! Mark killed our father, sister! Our Salaran-born father! He destroyed our ship, and killed the man who I admired, and loved more than anything in the whole world, and you watched him as he did this.”

“THAT BASTARD MURDERED OUR MOTHER, SILAS!”

“AND SHE DESERVED IT! She had to die just like all of those who defy the kingdom! It is the only way we can save humanity.”

“Brother! Dad was psychotic!”

“HE WAS A PATRIOT, VICTORIA!”

“HE WAS GOING TO KILL US! Mark saved us and he is the only reason we are alive today!”

“Heh, Mark. He had the audacity to think it was righteous to take us in, to be raised by those Remorans. Do you have any idea how sickening it was to me, sister? To serve under a man I hated so? Then the purge happened, ridding the solar system of the awful despicable race of filth. I could not have been more satisfied with the outcome of Arcoh’s Crusade against Eden. I admired him for what he had accomplished. Then your commander, your do-right knight of hope, decided that Arcoh had gone too far, and wanted to destroy Salaras once and for all. I was furious, and feared for the safety of the greatest leader Salaras has ever seen. So I contacted Arcoh, and warned him of the impending attack on Minerva.”

My eyes opened wide when he said that, and he took notice. “Oh yes, Collin. He knew all along. To Arcoh, the only question that concerned him was when. It was never the ‘what’ because . . . I was the one who informed him. Then he found you. We thought the GDR, or the Remoran Expeditionary Unit, would be the greatest threat to his campaign. But no, it was you. Do you know why, Collin?”

He held up the flask that contained a sample of my DNA. “The power of a god in the palm of my hand. How incredible it is. That’s why I got close to you, and even helped you control your abilities. You gave me more information than we ever could have extracted from some machine. I used the power of our friendship to gain countless amounts of valuable information. With this, the Alpha Genome will be meaningless. We will become evolved—like you—the next step. So I would personally like to thank you for letting me in, Collin.”

I looked to my father, who still grasped the gun very firmly in his hand. I whispered in his ear when Silas again turned towards his sister.

“As soon as you get the chance, I want you to put a bullet directly between the eyes of that bastard,” I whispered angrily to my father.

“But none of this would have been possible if I hadn’t blackmailed Jonathan over here, with killing his only son, or without all of you wonderfully ignorant people. You Remorans, and you damn surviving Raydenites think you have it, or in your case, Collin, had it, so good with your bullshit ideals of independent thought and freedom. I am doing Eden a favor! You don’t understand that these ideals are what had brought humanity to the final line. We will save Eden from itself, and Arcoh will unveil his final resolution after the siege of Arcadia has been done.”

“And the psychotic plot of Arcoh’s Crusade comes to light!” my father said while he jumped to his feet, and he pushed me down. My paralysis had finally worn off but my father wanted to take a shot at the traitor.

“Not entirely, Jonathan. You will see soon enough.”

“You know, Silas, it was one hell of a good plan, but how will you return to Arcoh if I kill you?”

They stared at each other for a few seconds and, in the moment of intensity, they drew their sidearms. Then came the rain of bullets. We ducked, and rolled, as the two completely emptied their ammunition into the bodies of the other.

My father had taken four bullets into his left leg and right arm, but what made him fall were the three bullets that entered his middle torso. My father and Silas then fell to the floor, and both of them were groaning in agony. Silas’s once-glorious admiral’s suit had been torn to shreds by Virgil’s specialized automatic handgun. He ripped open his destroyed uniform, exposing the bulletproof undershirt he had been wearing, a garment that would save his life.

My father was not so lucky. He flew back into me and began spitting out blood. Virgil and I then rushed over to him in a hurry. We ripped apart his blood-stained vest, only to find that one of the bullets had struck his liver—black blood, and every gravball player knew the awful sight of black blood.

“Come on, dad, breathe. You’re going to be all right.”

“Don’t you die on me, partner! You’ve been through a hell of a lot worse than this!”

He coughed up a large amount of blood, and chuckled through his red-stained teeth. Silas reloaded his pistol and stood to his feet as we tried to comfort my father. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, son, but I’m dying here.” I quickly turned around and yelled in fury clutching my father’s hand.

“SILAS!”

Just before I was about to lunge for him, Helena reached into her pocket and grabbed a laser syringe. She threw it towards me, and it landed between Silas and me. “Collin! It’s the genome! You can save him!” Although directly after she threw the syringe, Silas grabbed her.

“No! Get your hands off of her!”

He pressed his handgun up to her head as he backed up towards the bridge exit and pressed the button. He spoke as he began coughing up blood onto the door’s window panel. “I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to resort to this but I guess I will need some collateral. It will be difficult to convince Arcoh to keep her alive.”

Although Silas was wearing bulletproof undergarments, the high-velocity rounds of Virgil’s automatic pistol had dug deep through the light armor and into Silas’s chest. He began to feel a paralyzing effect, as one of the bullets continued to dig through his body, and was grazing his spinal cord. Eventually Silas would suffer very critical nerve damage. Silas realized this, and then he heard the confident voice of his older sister beneath him. She smiled, and stared up at him, with her hands still bound behind her back.

“You should focus on your breathing, brother; you won’t live too much longer if you don’t. You always were the weakest, most cowardly man I have ever known, even more so than our bastard of a father.”

“Shut your damned mouth, Victoria,” Silas said in slight agony. I began to shake and tremble with anxiety—I wanted to attack. The man who betrayed us held a gun to the woman I would do anything to protect. The love of my life was in the hands of a psychopath. Helena kicked and struggled to no effect, for he was far stronger than she, even in his wounded state.


“When I get my hands on you! I will kill you!”


“We all have our monsters, Mr. King, and I know exactly what type of monster you are. Now if you want your precious little Helena to live, you will let me leave.”


Victoria looked up to her brother with a blood-red face and quaked with emotion. Silas smiled at her, as he knew he had one last deed to do, before he was to leave. “Dear sister, I’m afraid I can’t let you live for what you did to our father all those years ago; the rest of these people here will watch you die. Just as you watched our father’s last breath catch in his throat, they will witness your very . . . last . . . breath.” He stepped forward slightly out of the opened door, and aimed his sidearm at Victoria, who still stood on her knees and glared at him, with fire in her eyes.

“Well? What are you waiting for! DO IT! DO IT, YOU FUCKING COWARD!” Silas fired a shot directly into her chest, and darted out of the door. The bullet went directly through her chest, and painted the floor red behind her. Her chest began to smoke slightly, as she fell to her side in a fetal position. I jumped up and attempted to chase after Silas, but I slammed into the shutting slide door, which immediately locked due to the lockdown never being lifted.

“No! No! NO!” I shouted as I banged my hand on the door that would not move. Virgil ran over to Victoria, who had rolled onto her back. She was looking up at the ceiling, gasping for air.

“Oh shit! Hold on, darlin’! Collin! Grab the genome!” I slowly turned back to Virgil as I was struck with yet another monumental decision. Cyrus was right. I felt shattered as I knew, and I spoke softly, under my tearful tone.

“But if we inject her, we won’t have enough to save my dad.”

“Kid! This is no time for playin’ favorites! If we don’t save her we won’t be able to leave this bridge! Then we are all dead! You hear me, kid!” My father then called out to me under his wheezy breathing.

“It’s okay, son, you can’t have everything.”

“Why not?”

“I’m sorry, my son.”

I knew whom I had to save. I ran over to the needle, and stared at my father, and he stared directly back at me. I swear I could almost hear music playing in the background in that moment. It felt sad, but also at the same time it felt right, no matter how much it hurt, it still felt right.

“We’re losing her! We’re losing her! Stay with me, sweetheart!” Virgil was shouting as he was trying to keep Victoria from going into shock. My father smiled and nodded at me. I looked down, and threw the laser syringe containing the genome to Virgil.

“Vicky! I need you to take a deep breath. You are going to feel this.” Victoria shook as she was about to go into shock. Her forehead, and body were soaked in sweat, and her eyelids were growing extremely heavy. But despite how bad her condition was, she nodded her head in acknowledgment. Virgil took the needle and pressed the laser syringe to her heart.

The genome quickly shot out of the canister, and into her heart. With the genome coursing through her bloodstream, she jolted up and gasped for air, her right arm stretched out towards the ceiling, as she gasped very heavily. Virgil held the small-bodied Victoria as she panted, and gasped. It must have been quite an experience for her to be as close to death as she was. “That’s it, breathe, darlin’, breathe.”

I rushed over to my father, who was in very bad shape. When shot in the liver, we can bleed out in five minutes. If pressure is applied, then they can last up to four times longer. So that’s what I did. I lifted him up to Commander Wyman’s chair and I applied pressure to his lower abdomen. I kneeled down next to him as I continued to use both of my hands to hold back the flood of black blood that was spewing from his body. That damn black blood.

“You made the right choice, sport.”

“I’m sorry, dad.”

“No, I’m sorry, son. You can’t blame anyone but me for what just happened. I had no choice, I could not let him take you away from me, not again, not ever again.” Tears rolled down my face as I responded to him.

“It’s okay, dad, I will always love you, no matter what.” He coughed up more blood as he prepared to unveil one final truth to me.

“Collin, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you for a long time.”

“It’s okay, save it. We have to get you another genome injection. We just have to wait for Victoria to come to—”

“No! I have to tell you. I had to wait until you were ready. It’s a promise I have to fulfill before it is too late.” I looked at him confused at what he was saying.

“What are you talking about?”

“I am not your father, Collin.” My eyes opened wide, and Virgil looked over to us. Victoria had become more stable, and began to speak softly as Virgil stared in our direction.

“What? What are they saying, Virgil?”

“Jonathan is finally fulfilling his promise.”

I shook my head in disbelief and leaned in towards him, as I continued to hold pressure on his fatal bullet wound.

“No, no, no, no, it can’t be you—”

“Collin, listen. I don’t have a lot of time left—my god, that stings. Now I need you to listen to my story, and believe, Collin.”

I ceased my need to speak, and attentively listened to him. “Your father was an heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Salaras. Arcoh hunted down all of the members of the royal family when he arrived in Eden. But, long before that, he met your mother and they fell in love. It was a love that was so true, so pure and unprecedented. You would have adored her, Collin, my sister; your mother was so compassionate and full of hope.

“One day a miracle happened. Despite the fact she had taken the genome, she had become impregnated by your father. A child had broken through that wall of suppression the genome created—it could only hold for so long. And when you came into the world you would become the next step in human evolution, although Eden did not see it that way.

“They wanted to remove your father from the Salaran bloodline, and then they found out about the child. They had to run. She enlisted her only brother’s help, that’s me, and she requested Virgil to protect her unborn child from Eden’s mercenaries, bounty hunters, soldiers, and interstellar police. It was a brutal nine months of running, but we knew what good you could bring to this dark chapter of humanity. We had finally found a doctor to perform the birth, but the GDR’s Arcadian knights found us. Just before your father left the ship to lead them off our trail, he asked Virgil and me two things: he would need to have someone to watch over you, and one day, when you were ready, you would be told the truth of your origins.

“Your father led them off and died diverting their attention, just so he could give you a chance at life. Before your mother, my sister, died shortly after giving birth to you, I made her a promise as well. That I would raise you, and hold you like you were my own.”

It all began to make sense at that point, my feelings of disconnection, and the supernatural abilities I had. I was not some lab experiment gone wrong. Of course I had heard this and thought it was bullshit. It was true. I had always been this way, and this knowledge brought me great solace, even though I was witnessing the slow death of the only family member I had ever known.


“I love you, Collin, just as your mother did. She looked into your beautiful eyes and said she wanted you to be named Collin, the name of your father. She held you close, and told you that she would love you for all eternity, even after she had passed on. She cradled you, and rocked you swiftly to sleep. She sang her one last lullaby to you that night, and she died so softly, so quietly, with a smile on her face, and her sleeping newborn in her arms. You didn’t cry, not once did you cry. Then I left with Virgil to the Outlander planet of Minerva. The last place all of Eden would ever expect to look for the golden child, the next step in human evolution.”


He took his hand, and wiped away the tears streaming down my face, with the little life he had left in him. I was talking about the truth before and how it can set you free. I finally understood the significance of what that meant, what my truth meant to me. This truth altered me. To know that I was an heir—to the throne of Salaras? The true heir, The Last King. This was my moment, and though I knew it would break my heart, I wanted to do it, more than anything else I have ever known. It gave me the power to grasp what I had been searching for throughout this entire journey. It was inspiration, and hope, but really, it was a thirst for vengeance, and justice, that drew me. One king against the other, now in several ways.

Virgil walked up with a somber look as he carried the now revitalized Victoria on his shoulder. They gave us some time, before they had to speak to me.


“They tell you that you are great, that you will change everything, but you don’t understand what they mean by that. You, you, Collin, are the last king of the Salaran Empire, not Arcoh. They would have never expected your father to have children, considering he took the genome. Arcoh doesn’t know this, yet. He must be stopped, at all costs, but if you kill him, you will have to rise to the occasion. They are your people; this is your birth right. Now get out of here and stop that son of a bitch.”