The Final Downfall [Inter-Universal Protectors Series: Book 2]

Colt ran through the sands. The shadow was still following. With each step, it was coming closer. He didn’t know what it was, but he knew it was bad. He didn’t know how he knew. He just dead. A glance over his shoulder told him the shadow – whatever it was – had decided to change its game. Instead of coming closer, it stayed the same distance behind him. Taunting him.

Looking forward once again, Colt skidded to a stop. He fell fast first to the sand, the momentum from his speed vanishing too fast. Coughing as he stood, he stared at what stopped him. A door. A door in the middle of the desert. There was nothing on either side or behind it, he quickly discovered. It was just a door. If this was the dreamscape, it certainly was not the one he’d grown up with.

Unable to stop his curiosity, Colt opened the door. On the other side was nothing but darkness. He poked his head around the side, seeing the desert was still behind the door. What kind of weird dreamscape was he on?

A roar from behind.

Colt spun around. He had enough time to think “oh, shit” before the shadow slammed into him, sending him flying through the open door into darkness.

* * * * * * * *

Colt landed on something solid hidden beneath the darkness. He could not see what it was, but there was something there. Pushing himself to his feet, he looked around. He couldn’t see anything but himself thanks to the soft glow around his body. Glancing behind, Colt realised the door which he had come trough was gone. Did that mean he was trapped? He sighed, suddenly wishing Tali were with him. She had always pulled him out of trouble, even when they were kids. The thought made his heart ache. She had no idea who he was.

A faint image appeared in the darkness. Colt couldn’t tell what it was. He took a step forward. Another. Another. Which each step, the image became cleared. He was almost able to touch it when it became clear enough to see. Safe to say, the image was not what he had been expecting. The woman he’d been thinking about only moments ago was standing before him, glowing against the golden sand she was standing on. Colt reached out. His hand touched a shield of sorts. He couldn’t get any closer to her, instead calling out. She heard him, grinning as her eyes met his. She called out his name. His true name.

Colt watched as Amneris ran to him, her hands bracing on the barrier between them. Her smile faltered. He offered one of his own. Her eyes lit up again. Gods, he wanted to hold her like in the old days. He wanted that life back, the one he should have had with her. Whatever part of the Dreamscape he was trapped on, it knew that. It had been too perfect. The second he saw through the illusion, he’d found himself standing in that desert.

A figure appeared behind her. She didn’t seem to notice. Colt tapped the barrier and pointed behind her. She glanced back, turning to him with confusion. She couldn’t see the figure! It came closer to Amneris. She remained oblivious. As the figure came closer, Colt felt something rise inside him. Something he had not felt in a long time. A deep rage from that day long ago. He knew who the figure was. He could never forget that pale main with the moonlight hair and crimson eyes. The man who had taken his life. Her life.

Amneris didn’t see him until the man’s arms wrapped around her throat, pulling her from her feet. She struggled against him but couldn’t escape. Colt could do nothing but watch, the barrier between them holding no matter how much he beat against it. Amneris whacked her head against the man’s face. He dropped her. She rubbed at her throat as she ran through the sand. The man glanced between her a Colt, a dark smile forming when he realised the pair could not touch.

The man dashed after Amneris, sending a wave of darkness toward her. She flipped out of the way. A snap of her fingers had a cyan light flash. The man cried out, rubbing at his eyes. Amneris ran forward, sending a punch into his stomach. She must have supercharged her strength with her powers, Colt realised, for the man went flying. She made to run. This man was clearly too much of a challenge. He had more experience with a Core power. Amneris only had five thousand years.

Red spirals of energy came from the sand, wrapping around her ankles. Amneris fell to the ground with a yelp. She shot the energy an irritated glare, reaching to pull it away. The second her hand touched the red energy, she screamed. Her hand smoked. Colt beat helplessly against the shield. He had to help. He had to help somehow! The red energy moved until her arms were pinned at her side, lifting her into the air. Amneris struggled against the restraints, crying out as they burnt her skin.

The silver-haired man approached from behind, sword in hand. Colt knew that blade. He’d never forgotten it, nor what it had done. Amneris must have seen the look on his face. Something crossed her own features. Defiance. They both knew how the story was supposed to end and neither of them would let it happen again. She roared. Her form shifted. The crimson energy vanished. She landed in the sands on bare feet. A silver khopesh appeared in her hand. She spun it effortlessly, her six star-covered angelic wings flaring behind her form. This did nothing to deter the silver-haired man. Nothing did.

He dashed forward. Amneris brought up her blade. The two swords clashed; sound audible even from where Colt stood. Amneris’ blade – the same one from the day – glowed as a portion of her power filled it. She thrust it toward the silver-haired man. He twisted to the side, metal only grazing his skin. It was enough to anger the man. He lashed out to the left, feinting right. Amneris saw this last minute but was unable to bring her blade up fast enough. She knocked the strike to the side with her arm, crying out. Gilded blood flowed from the wound. Amneris looked down at it momentarily, as though processing the thought her skin had been broken. She brought her khopesh up again.

Colt slammed his fists against the shield. Why couldn’t he get to her? He had to get to her! To stop it from happening again. But he could do nothing but watch the battle helplessly.

Amneris’ khopesh was in the sands by now, far from her reach. She was covered in cuts, panting as she struggled to remain upright. The silver-haired man, while also bleeding, held strong. Fear, genuine fear, crossed her features. She ran.

She made it all of three steps.

Amneris stopped, coughing, her hair falling over her face as she glanced down to the sword which had been pushed through her from behind. The silver-haired man let go of the hilt, stepping away as she looked up at Colt. The shock covering her pain vanished. She screamed.

That was when the shield broke.

Colt took a step forward, dazed. Another. He broke into a run, falling to his knees beside her unmoving form. “No,” he murmured. It couldn’t have happened again. It just couldn’t have. He’d lost her like this all that time ago. It couldn’t happen again. He grasped her form. “Why . . . Why do you keep doing this to me?” His gaze shot to the silver-haired man watching, amusement clear. “Why must you take her from me? Tell me!” The silver-haired man said nothing. He bowed, vanishing into the darkness. “I’ll kill you!” Colt screamed. “When I find you, I’ll kill you!”

“There’s a laugh.”

Colt jumped back at Amneris’ voice.

She shook herself from his grip, groping behind her for the hilt of the sword. “I’d like to see you try and kill him. If I couldn’t do it, why in the worlds would you be able to?”

“You . . . But he killed you.”

Amneris grunted as she pulled the sword from her, tossing it distastefully to the side. “Yes, I remember. He caught me when I went to save you that day.”

“I am so sorry, Tali.”

“Stop saying that.” She stood, ignoring the gilded stream falling from her wound. “Stop saying you’re sorry.”

“But I–”

“I said stop.” Her head tilted to the side as though she were listening to something. A dark smile crossed her features. “You’re not sorry. You were never sorry. If you were sorry, you wouldn’t have let this happen. You would have made sure none of this happened.”

“Tali, please, let me–”

“Explain?” she finished. “You did all this because you ‘love’ me?” She begun to pace in the sand, gold following her steps. “Tell me something, my Sn’da,” she sneered. “If you did love me, why did you make me immortal?”

The question caught him off guard, just as it had back then. “You know I did not mean to do that,” Colt started slowly, attempting to keep his voice even. “I only wanted to bring you back as you were. Not like this.”

Amneris barked a laugh, turning her back to him. “Things would have been so much better if I stayed dead. You really have no idea what you did.” She spun on her heel, facing him.

Colt scrambled back at the sight of her. Half of her was the Amneris he knew. The other . . .

One moment she’d been whole. The next, half her form had rotted away as her body had so long ago.

“This is what you did to me, lover.” Half her body continued to rot as she spoke. “You did this to me.” A step closer. “You took my life, my death, away from me.” Another. “You thought you could show up in my new life after so long and act like you’d done nothing to me.”

She was standing over him now. Bending down, Amneris place her still-bleeding hand on his shoulder. He could only focus on her eyes – one violet and alive, the other milky and dead.

“Now, tell me. Does that sound like love to you?”

And there it was. The truth he had refused to face for five thousand years.

Amneris stepped away, raising her arms above her. She closed her remaining eye. Her fingers became dust, the rest of her skin slowly following. When she looked down at him, that dark smile crossed her features once again. In a flash, she was nothing but a standing skeleton. Her bones fell, a phantom wind from nowhere blowing sand over her remains.

Colt could only stare at where she had been standing moments ago.

“Tali . . .”