Max won that battle. He looked down at the ray gun, thanking the fact that his words worked. His ray gun was still set on wide burst. With his broken arm, in the middle of panicked combat, he could not get the settings changed. If she charged, he would be dead right now. He sighed in relief.

  Another rumble brought Max back to the present. This rumble did not stop. Max collapsed against the wall. His vision was fading. The blood loss was starting to take its toll. He lay there, breathing heavy and labored. He looked down at the ray gun. He looked around at the facility with vision fading.

  He was not sure how long he just lay there, trying to recover. He knew something drastic changed when he felt a sudden halt in momentum one way, which through his upper torso to the ground. Then the momentum started again in the other direction. He shifted back. He knew he should get up and try to help save this place and the Old World, but he could not find any more will to stand.

  His vision faded down to a small slit, everything was shifting and floating around him. Darkness fell in his eyes with each heavy, slow blinking of his eye lids. Each time he thought it might be the last light that he saw before the darkness that lasts forever.

  Max wondered if he would pass beyond the cosmos to be lost forever. He wondered if he would be sucked into the planes of the dead to live forever in a different life that was only partly his own. He recalled the stories that Enchoron read to him from the many books that he possessed. He remembered stories of the dream realm where he could float forever in the memories of others. He recalled the tales of the Eternal Shadow, a place where a mimic of himself could be reborn and live its own life. Finally, he recalled tales of the underworld, which even Enchoron described as myth. They were a greater realm that could not be traveled to, but would offer eternal life after death.

  He thought about Belka, her violently passionate care for Max. He thought about Phaedra, her instruction to teach him and her willingness to let him walk his own way. Her ability to let him go to prove that she meant him well when trust was lost. He thought about Pater, The Brigand, and found so many conflicted feelings there. He thought about his dead friend, Brian, who he grew up with and yet never saw a friendship form until only weeks before his death. He thought about Mathew, Brian’s friend, who now started to fulfill his vow that he would not let others die in the same way that his childhood friend had. He thought about Enchoron in his great wisdom and ability to bring Max into the world beyond his small home and allow him to grow into a man.

  With these thoughts of his friends, not the thoughts of the terrible events around him... his eyes closed and the darkness set in.

  Phaedra walked down the halls of the facility, following the instructions that were given to her by Pelos. Mathew was in tow, staying alert, but so exhausted that it was hard to react to much of anything. He was spent, but he hoped that he would fulfill his vow and be able to help his friend, Max.

  He watched up the stairs as Phaedra opened the double doors that led to the next floor, where Max should be. Right there was where he was. It looked like he did not move far from the spot of his fight with the burly dwarfy woman. He was slouched against the wall, arms at his sides, providing support. His head was slumped forward, if he was alive, when he came to, his neck was going to be in serious pain. That was not the most of his problems though.

  The two of them threw all caution up the stairs where they just came from. Phaedra grabbed one of Max’s clammy, pale hands and Mathew descended at his other side, pulling out his bag of tricks.

  Dried blood covered the floor in front of the doors as well as a large chunk of flesh laying in a piece of ripped clothing. There was fresh blood dripping from the wall behind Max, and his arm on Mathew’s side was sitting in a position that showed obvious signs of breakage.

  After a few minutes, Mathew got the gouging wound in Max’s back patched up and got his arm into a tourniquet. He was mumbling and lucid, the two of them helped him to his feet with their support on either side of him. They more or less carried Max to the elevators. After a few more moments, he was laying down on a table not used to carrying the weight of bodies, in the control room.

  Through hazy vision, Max looked around and saw a number of wounded cultists that were tied up in the next room over. Their wounds were all patched up from what he could see. Pelos sat at the controls for the gravity device, but the chair was spun around to face the room rather than the controls. A look of relief was upon his sweat stained face.

  Enchoron walked around the room, reviewing various sets of controls and displays, occasionally adjusting one or another.

  Mathew sat nearby Max, resting and watching him. His look was one of concern, but also of utter exhaustion.

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  Phaedra walked over and tapped Mathew on the shoulder. She muttered something to him and squeezed his shoulder. After a brief exchange that Max could not understand, Mathew got up and left the room with a yawn. Phaedra sat down in the chair next to Max that Mathew just relieved to her. She laid her hand lightly on the arm that faced that side of the table, the broken one. She looked at Max with concern and caring.

  Max recalled time passing. He never put together any of the conversations that he was privy to. The rumbling and momentum had stopped, finally. New people arrived that he did not recognize.

  After this unknown period of time ended, his nightmares and fever dreams finally ended. One morning, he just sat up as if nothing was wrong and he was merely having a long night’s sleep and a long, bad dream.

  Everyone present in the room turned to him, including the new faces that arrived after he was here for some time. Many people gathered around him. They helped him to his feet. He walked around, his strength and feeling returning to his legs.

  Sometime later, he was in a side room on the same floor of the facility, sitting with all of his friends. The room was small with a large table in the middle, surrounded by chairs. To him, it almost looked like some kind of dining room. They were discussing the events of the last few weeks.

  “I did not believe that Phaedra would really turn me in.” Max was saying.

  “So you went along with them for what, exactly?” His friend, Mathew inquired, leaning in on the table.

  “I wanted to know their side of the story. I thought there was no better way than to go along with them, as one of them,” Max slowly explained with a wry smile.

  Enchoron interrupted at a slower point, “So you were aware of all of the clues you left along the way for us? Interesting and clever indeed. I did think that it was odd if you wanted to evade us that you made so many mistakes.”

  “Yes, I mean...” Max looked across the table at Phaedra knowingly, “I did have my worries and doubts that I would be betrayed.”

  Phaedra maintained a concerned, but somewhat hurt look in her eyes. She nodded with understanding to his feelings nonetheless.

  Pelos, now dressed in his usual strange, comfortable looking suit, interjected, “When you came back into the control room and started to disrupt the cultists, I was quite surprised.” Then in a darker tone, “I was quite shocked when you stood back from me in the ritual chamber and let them strip me down. I guess I’m not sure what I would have expected you to do though.”

  Max looked up at the ceiling and thought back to that moment, then continued, “I do have to admit that at first, their cause seemed noble and right. I thought all of this was just a big misunderstanding. A few things got me thinking, and when Pelos screamed out in defiance of all the people that would die, that moment gave me pause.”

  “So what did you do to be sure then?” Phaedra asked, and Mathew was glad she did.

  “Well, I tried a few consoles just after I left while I wondered through the facility. I learned just what the gravity device did. It started to all make sense then,” Max said.

  Pelos continued the description for him, “Yes, when two large masses collide, as this place and the Old World would have, catastrophic damage would have ensued from that collision. Tens of thousands if not more would have died. Nothing would be as it was. Whatever their deranged leader thought would happen in the ethereal sense, we can never understand.”

  Enchoron rubbed his smooth chin, “If one thing is certain, it is that cults always have a twisted way of looking at the world. No matter what they tell themselves, they always avoid telling themselves the consequences to their deeds.”

  “So now that you have some perspective on my side of things, how about catching me up on everything?” Max asked while rubbing and scratching at his back with his good arm.

  Phaedra volunteered to answer, “We followed the trail you left and tried to piece together everything that was happening. Once we approached this place, and after questioning a captured cultist, Enchoron was certain as to what they were after. The gravity device. We used your help as a way to break in, ran into Pelos. We fought our way to this level, took it back, and then Pelos got to work on reversing the damage. The result is that we are in a semi-stable orbit above the Old World.” She held her hands up and flat. They were still slightly shaking from a very distant rumbling. “Some of the locals that live on this plane arrived and helped us with cleaning up the cultists. Now, as we speak, we are executing a trek to restart the distant gravity vortex to pull this place back to where it needs to be.”

  Max nodded, “And what about Daefindel?”

  Enchoron cut in, “Got away.”

  Mathew spoke up finally, “and so did that tall and beautiful woman that was with him. Something about her.” He thought back with a longing in his eyes.

  “I do believe that woman might be more than she appears.” Enchoron indicated.

  A tremor suddenly shook the room. A look of nervous apprehension washed over all of their faces. Enchoron nodded an affirmation and stood up. “Let’s all go outside.”

  The group found their way to a balcony near the upper levels of the facility. Enchoron pointed into the far distance.

  There were bright flashes that syncopated so quickly they were almost seizure inducing. All of them put one hand up in front of their eyes to block out some of the light. Max could still see through his fingers, although the effects of the flashing light were dulled a bit. He looked around his friends and spotted Phaedra.

  Phaedra looked so beautiful standing there in the brilliant moments of light and the brief silences of darkness. Max moved over to where she was. He reached out with the hand that was not shading his eyes. When Max first touched those long strands of beautiful golden hair he thought just how lucky he was. He wrapped his arm around her waist and hoped that she would not reject it.

  Phaedra leaned in to Max and her head leaned farther. Her height made putting her head on his shoulder a bit of a challenge, so instead Phaedra leaned her head on top of Max’s.