Enceladus 4: The Invasion

“Hello Stacia. Why would a flashback of that dick make you come close to becoming the Destroyer?”

I blinked several times and looked around. I was disoriented. I was just with Orion. Now I was with the Devil.

“If your powers had awoken when he was still alive, I would have made him choke on my abilities and suffer a long death. It’s a good thing I can torture him here.”

“What?”

He cocked his head. He didn’t know what I’d said what to.

“He’s—Orion is down there? In Hell? With you?”

My father chuckled. “Of course he is. That was a dumb question, Stacia.”

“And you’re torturing him?”

“Of course,” he repeated. “He tormented my daughter. I am only repaying the favor. Most of the visions are of you showing your true potential and squashing him.”

The thought made me smile. Orion deserved to rot in Hell. Good thing he got it.

“Stacia, you know if you summon me I will be able to bring you back to Hell with me. You can torture him yourself.”

That sounded great. All I would have to do was summon the devil. Easy.

Wait, I couldn’t summon him. What was I thinking?

He grinned. “Your dark thoughts are starting to take over. That’s a good sign. That means it will happen soon.”

“What will happen soon?”

He didn’t answer, just stared at me with a proud look on his face.

“I should go.”

“Ah, yes. Your dear Talia has just slapped you.”

“What?” I blinked and when I opened my eyes, I was back on Enceladus. The first thing I noticed was a sting on my cheek. Talia, Lynx and Alexander were leaning over me. “Did you slap me?” I sat up with Talia’s help and rubbed my cheek.

“Sorry. You weren’t waking up.” She was worried. This hadn’t happened in a few months.

“How long?”

“Ten minutes,” Lynx answered. “What the Hell was that? Did you see him?”

I hesitated before nodding. Talia’s expression turned to sympathy.

“There should be a way you can keep him out of your head,” said Lynx.

I shrugged. There wasn’t.

“Pardon me, but who did you see?” Alex asked.

We all stared at Alexander. Then Lynx and Talia looked back at me. “My real father.”

Alex nodded slowly. He didn’t seem like he was going to ask any more questions so I stood up, fixing my askew shirt.

“Why don’t we go get some food?” They all regarded me with worried gazes. “I’m fine. Come on,” I said and strode downstairs to Cassiopeia’s dining room.

I thought back to the flashback while I was chewing on my vüŵên (steak). Orion was a dictator. Plain and simple. He had a death penalty when he was alive. I never thought about it because it made my blood boil. If I spent too long on the subject, I would for sure summon my father so I could torture Orion myself. He had death penalties for theft, arson, bribery, murder and most “importantly”, using powers outside of designated zones. Pretty much anything that went against his laws was punishable by death. It didn’t matter who the person was, the reason they had, or how old they were. He truly was a monster.

“Amy,” Talia said softly beside me. She grabbed my hand. I looked down and realized I had bent my fork . . . Whoa. Oops.

“I’m okay.” I was okay. Right?

The table was talking about SE and the invasion.

“Is anyone going to warn the humans? Maybe if they have time to prepare, they will stand a better chance,” Golda pointed out.

“If the Council would get their heads out of their kôô. They are so worried about telling the humans about life on other planets,” Caelum said.

“Maybe we could persuade them?” I suggested.

“How about I call Agent Brock tomorrow? We can all present our cases as to why they should warn Earth,” Cass said. “You’re right, Golda. It could give them and us a better chance of surviving.”

After that, I filled in my family about each of the “evil” planets’ powers.

“We’re screwed,” mumbled Lynx.

“No, Prince. We can do this,” John said. “We can find their weaknesses. Surely SE knows of them.”

“Say we win this,” Delphinus began, “Say we save most of Earth. They’ll know about other lifeforms. I think it would be wise if the Council contacted the human government to warn them.”

I wasn’t surprised Del thought this way. She was, after all, half human even though she didn’t know.

“Don’t worry. I think it’s a good idea too,” Cass said.

I bit the inside of my cheek. I lived on Earth for eight years. I knew humans and understood them. I wasn’t sure it was a good idea. Most of them were sure they were the only life in the universe. I’d seen how humans reacted to Lynx and Cassiopeia last year when they had come to get me. They had their wings out then. My siblings posed no threat to them so I grimaced to think what they would do if they found out about the invasion beforehand. On the other side of the issue, it might prepare them. Then maybe not all humans would die.

“Amelia, what do you think?” John asked me.

I hesitated before answering. “I think the humans will be scared. The Council reaching out might send them into mass hysteria. If they are sent into mass hysteria, they won’t be thinking rationally. They will start hoarding supplies and killing each other. They’ll think of the invasion as an apocalypse and panic. They’ll be killed instantly.”

Everybody stared at me for a second.

“Thanks for your honesty, nïx,” Cass said.

That’s it? I thought.

I nodded and zoned out of the rest of the conversation. I was always the one giving the unpopular opinion. That was okay though. I could handle it.

After lunch, Talia and I went to work on the Vela division some more. We had to reconstruct all of the shop buildings now. They hadn’t finished all of the houses but the leader of the construction told Talia and I to move on to the shops.

Hour later, we had successfully built a back door to one of the shops and we were taking a break when I heard, “Amelia”.

I whipped around and saw Jae holding an Enceladian hammer. I reached around me and placed a hand around Talia’s wrist. I didn’t take threatening my loved ones lightly.

“Jaeel. It’s Princess to you.”

He grimaced. “Please let me tell you how sorry I am.”

“I don’t need to hear it.”

“Amy . . . I can’t live having you hate me. It’s terrible.” His voice held so much emotion that I almost broke. I didn’t, though.

“You should have thought of that before you said those things to me.”

“I was honestly only trying to help you. I didn’t mean those things,” he pleaded.

I scoffed. He’d called me the Devil. All my life I had been called that. So, when my supposed friend called me that to “help me”, it hurt way too much.

Kill him now. Make sure no one ever talks to you like that again.

I gasped, mentally cursing my father. He needed to stay out of my head.

“I am so sorry. I hope you forgive me one day.” His blue eyes started to water and my head hurt.

“I don’t know how I will, Jae.” I sighed. “But I’ll try.”

His face lit up. “Thank you,” he whispered and walked away.