The Aperios (Children of the Sun Book 4)

Yorin had really tried to use the few minutes he’d gotten when Kaleth left them alone to add some kind of countermeasure into the giant telepathy amplifier he was creating. And he’d almost succeeded, but unfortunately, Kaleth somehow immediately knew.

And he seemed even more unhinged than before. Whatever he’d gone to do had clearly upset him even more, which was bad news for Yorin, Hidarion, and the whole of the world.

Kaleth didn’t even say anything to him at first. He just came up to him and glared, making Yorin freeze as he tried not to let fear completely take over his rational thought. Kaleth needed him, so he wouldn’t kill him. But Kaleth was also out of his mind right now, so who knew how far that logic would go.

“Don’t even dare,” he finally said, his glare deepening even as deep regret and fear appeared in his eyes. “Finish the amplifier.”

“I’m trying.” Yorin swallowed as Kaleth’s eyes lit up even more. His pupils were barely visible at this point. “I-it takes time to build something like this.”

“And you’re wasting it by trying to trick me into killing myself,” Kaleth said darkly. But Yorin wasn’t focusing on him enough to feel unnerved. Hidarion had picked up a wrench and was now trying to approach Kaleth without him noticing and most likely hit him with it over the head.

Yorin was torn between warning Hidarion that this was a foolish idea and distracting Kaleth, but given that this was their only chance….

“It wouldn’t kill you. Merely, uh, incapacitate—”

Kaleth looked like he actually was going to kill him then, just through sheer irritation, but before Kaleth did anything to Yorin, he took out the gun and swirled around, pointing it right at Hidarion.

“Drop it!” Kaleth’s hand was noticeably shaking. Hidarion did as he was told, especially once Kaleth put the gun closer to his face. The wrench clanged against the metal floor, and Hidarion took a few steps back, raising his hands in an attempt to placate Kaleth. Even though he had to know it wouldn’t work.

“Kaleth, please.”

Kaleth shook his head, holding his forehead as he stumbled away from them, the gun still raised, though it was pointing at nothing in particular. Yorin was about to try to get Kaleth to see reason when he heard the sound of bending metal from within the walls.

“Just finish it,” Kaleth practically whispered, his voice breaking as a golden aura started stretching out around his whole body. Yorin was starting to think Kaleth would unintentionally destroy the ship before Yorin could actually finish this.

When no one said or did anything, Kaleth turned around again, shooting at Hidarion with no warning. His eyes wide as Yorin watched the man fall to the ground with a cry and clutching his shoulder, Yorin quickly rushed to him, looking the wound over.

It didn’t look serious, but it certainly seemed to hurt a lot. Hidarion groaned, his eyes clenched shut and teeth gritted as Yorin looked up to meet the furious eyes of Kaleth. But under the fury was a very obvious layer of horror at what he’d just done.

“Finish it!” he barked, glaring as a tear fell from his eye.

“But he’s bleeding. Let me heal him!” Yorin protested, but Kaleth just glared harder as more tears gathered in his eyes.

“Good, that should motivate you.” Kaleth looked absolutely disgusted with himself, but Yorin didn’t bother trying to argue with him when he raised his gun again, pointing it at Hiderion’s other shoulder.

Yorin tried to get across that he was sorry with his eyes, which was probably very unlikely to comfort Hidarion given that he was in intense pain. Unfortunately that was all he could do right now because if he didn’t get back to work, Kaleth might shoot again.

Keeping his head down, Yorin went back to work, putting together the rest of the machine as slowly as possible. He couldn’t stall for much longer, and he wasn’t sure how slow he could go without Kaleth getting suspicious. But he was paranoid already, so it would be hard to guess this.

Even going as slow as he could, he was still finished within half an hour, an even heavier feeling of hopelessness settling in his heart as the final parts slid together. The machine whirred to life, lighting up along with the headpiece resting on it. He’d used the amplifier he already had, and added another machine to make it more powerful. There was no way this could work with only the headpiece.

“Is it done?”

Yorin heaved a sad sigh and nodded, backing off to heal Hidarion as he subtly watched Kaleth. This would be his last chance to try to stop him. He watched as Kaleth put the headpiece above his head, stopping and pulling on it, as he fought with himself to put it on.

Giving a nod to Hidarion, Yorin got up. He wished he had those handcuffs, but unfortunately he didn’t, so he would have to try to pacify Kaleth in a less practical and definitely more painful way. His eyes fell on the wrench that Hidarion had dropped earlier and picked it up. Maybe he could knock Kaleth unconscious.

Deciding on the opposite approach than Hidarion, Yorin threw the wrench at Kaleth just as the man had put the telepathy amplifier on his head, striking him in his back and making him fall to the ground.

Unfortunately, he could barely make a move before Kaleth was up again, throwing him against the wall. Yorin groaned as he felt something in his back snap as it collided with the metal wall. He was about to get up as he healed it, but he found himself pinned in place, and by the looks of it Hidarion couldn’t move either.

Kaleth wasn’t glaring at them anymore, though. His golden glow was now filling the room as the insides of the ship continued squealing as they bent.

Yorin closed his eyes, not bothering to fight the force keeping him in place because he knew it would be pointless. Even though he knew that Kaleth would get weaker from doing this, by then it would be too late to stop him, already.

He never could stop Enor, could he? No matter what he set out to do, he’d always found a way to get Yorin to do whatever he wanted.

But then, right in front of him, the impossible happened. A portal opened, out of which came Relioth. Of all the people who could get involved in this, Relioth was about the last person Yorin would have guessed.

Yorin stared as more people joined him, including Mereria, Rayni, and of course Mel. And right before the portal closed, Nira also jumped through.

“Kaleth!” Mel cried, sounding less on the verge of tears than Yorin had been expecting. Yorin fell down to the floor as the force holding him against the wall let go without him expecting it. Nira ran to her father to check on him, but as Yorin had already healed him, he was all right.

Kaleth was looking at the scene with utter confusion, though what had just happened didn’t seem to be the cause of it. He looked down at his glowing hands, horror joining in with his confusion.

But he immediately snapped back into his more murderous self as soon as Relioth tried to put a suppression bracelet on him. Kaleth threw everyone except from Mel away with a wave of energy, glowing brighter than ever before as the amplifier whirred more loudly.

“Kaleth, please, stop!” Mel yelled at him, trying to step closer to Kaleth, but he clearly couldn’t move any more than the rest of them. Feeling new determination fill him, Yorin tried to fight this time. No matter how powerful Kaleth was right now, there was no way he could fight against all of them when he was this unfocused. And theoretically, all they would have to do was distract him enough to destroy the amplifier. But that was easier said than done.

“I have to finish this, Mel,” Kaleth replied, grabbing at the headpiece with almost clawing motions. He shut his eyes and gritted his teeth in pain. “Oh gods, I can feel them all.”

No wonder it hurt. The amplifier would allow Kaleth to reach the minds of everyone on the planet, but his brain still had to process it all.

“You think you have to, but you don’t!” Nira yelled over the noise the amplifier made. “It’s all that Eternal energy making you think that.”

She wasn’t entirely right, but Yorin was hardly going to correct her right now. He pushed back against the force harder, actually managing to take two steps away from the wall, as did the others, some with more success than him.

“You weren’t born to have it, Nira. I was.” The statement wouldn’t be particularly problematic or wrong if it weren’t for the arrogant tone Kaleth had used. And Yorin had no doubts that the reason he said it wasn’t to flaunt his abilities, but to imply Nira’s were much worse.

“How are you even planning on figuring out who’s bad enough to die?” Rayni joined in, making noises of effort as she did her best not to let Kaleth push her against the wall again. The question actually made Kaleth pause a little as the machine momentarily went quiet.

Kaleth didn’t offer an answer and instead threw everything back once again. The sounds of the ship’s metal bending came back, even louder this time. How much damage could this ship take before something started to explode?

“I-I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if I have to,” he threatened, closing his eyes again. The fact that he didn’t actually have any idea how to do this was alarming. Not that Yorin thought that Kaleth could focus enough to only kill who he saw should die, but now it was more apparent than ever that Kaleth could kill a lot of completely innocent people on accident.

But with that, the force holding everyone back lessened again until Yorin could finally fully push through it. He didn’t waste time and made the wrench fly into his hand, throwing it into the machine with as much power as he could muster.

Immediately, the machine turned off with a sad sounding whirr, its glow disappearing.

“No, no!” With clear desperation, Kaleth ran to it, pulling the wrench out, but of course that wouldn’t fix it. He turned to give Yorin a hateful look, throwing him into the wall again, this time hard enough to fully break his back. Yorin cried out as horrible pain stabbed through his whole body, falling onto the floor in a heap.

A confusing mess of yelling and the noise of battle followed, which Yorin could only partially pay attention to due to having to heal his spine. Only after a few seconds he became aware of the fact that Hidarion was trying to shield him with his own body, which was very nice of him, if a bit foolish. But Yorin didn’t have the time to thank him.

As his body finished healing itself, Yorin got up again, ready to join in again, but he immediately stopped in his tracks. He watched as Kaleth threw Mel away from him, making him crash into a table. Horror on his face, Kaleth proceeded to rush to Mel and fall to his knees in front of his unresponsive body. Everyone was watching the scene with shock and horror.

Kaleth muttered something to Mel, his voice tiny and broken. And just as Kaleth touched Mel’s shoulder, Mel sprung up, snapping a suppression bracelet onto Kaleth’s wrist. Kaleth gaped at the device in shot, not managing to say anything before Mel gently touched his forehead. Kaleth fell forward, unconscious, right into Mel’s arms.

And just like that, the ship stopped being ripped apart, Kaleth’s light disappeared, and there was nothing holding them back anymore. Yet no one moved. They all just stayed still for a moment as Mel held Kaleth close to him, quietly weeping in the center of the lab.

But Yorin knew this wasn’t over yet. He still had to see what state Kaleth’s mind was in, and do as much as he could to fix it before he could relax. As long as any trace of Enor was left, he wouldn’t be able to.