Sarah7

Ch32

“Home?” Sarah croaked. “I am home.”

The Queen made a sound, it sounded like rocks falling. Sarah realized the immense creature was laughing.

“Seventh of the Sarah, you know so little. Everything that has happened to you, even your very existence is by My design.”

‘Sarah, you must not listen to this creature. It only wants to destroy you. We have to act now before she overwhelms you with her hive!’ Orna’s thoughts thrummed in her mind, almost cajoling.

“I’m tired of listening to what everyone has planned for me. I am seeking my own way now.” Sarah spoke to both Orna and the Vixen queen.

“Your own way? There has not been a single action that you have made that has been without my influence.” The Queen replied.

“Give me one reason why I should not kill you right now.” Sarah snarled.

She began walking toward the creature unsteadily, as she dragged Orna behind her. The oversized sword left a deep gash in the organometallic floor, with sparks arcing as the sword cut into circuits, conduits, and sheer metal.

The Vixen queen turned to face Sarah face on - dramatically reducing its profile to her.

“I have one good reason, right here.”

It brought its giant Mantis-like claw around and presented Sarah with the person held tightly in the spikes. Sarah stopped short.

“Amil!” Sarah cried. Her thin conviction fell away as she saw him struggling desperately in the Queen’s grasp.

“Sarah! You have to get out of here! This is a trap! I heard the Queen’s plans! They’ve decided to kill everyone! The Queen is just keeping you here to - ”

His voice was caught short by a sickening crunch. The spikes of the Queen’s claw sank deep within his chest. She flung the body to the ground and lurched toward Sarah.

“Noooooo!” Sarah cried and leaped toward the Queen - swinging Orna with all of her strength.

The Queen laughed once again and sidestepped her wild swing easily with a speed that left Sarah screaming at empty air.

“Foolish creature. I have done you a favor. You do not need humans. They are an infestation of this planet. One I have decided to purge.” The Queen turned and began typing on a control panel.

“Amil! Amil nooo!” Sarah screamed again.

‘Sarah, there is still hope. We can stop the Queen.’

“Shut up!” Sarah screamed and ran toward the Queen once again - raising Orna high above her head.

“That is quite enough child. Time to end our game.” The Queen touched another panel. The lights that illuminated Orna abruptly blinked out, and Sarah suddenly felt the full weight of the huge sword fall upon her like a tremendous dead weight. She fell backward and crashed to the ground as the sword sank deep into the floor.

“What? How? No!” Sarah rolled backward and struggled to her feet.

Everything was being taken from her - piece by piece. Her friends, Max, Amil, now her only weapon! Her vision was a tight tunnel, growing darker with each moment. Her arms and legs felt leaden. Her heart was breaking. Amil! She was not fast enough to save him.

‘Orna! Can you hear me?’ She cried out in her mind.

‘Yes, Sarah. I am here. The Queen must have tampered with the human technology that harnessed my power. But take hope dear Sarah -’ Orna started.

“Hope? Hope?” Sarah began laughing. “Where is the hope?”

“I am your hope, seventh of the Sarah.” The Queen snarled. “You know so little about who you really are. Have you heard of your predecessor? Sixth of the Sarah? She tried to end me. But she failed. And your scientists were desperate. They were ready to try anything after her failure.”

“She died trying to save the human race! ” Sarah cried out. She began to look around desperately. There had to be something here she could use against the Queen.

“It only took a small suggestion. A few hints here and there. A few drones lost as samples. Your scientists fell under my control easily. You are the seventh generation of their experiments seventh of the Sarah. But you are the first generation that contain a portion of Vixen DNA.” The Queen stopped her activity and brought her immense triangular head directly before Sarah with inhuman speed.

Sarah’s red rimmed eyes were side with terror. Was there no end to this horror? Sarah was - was part Vixen? She staggered backwards.

The Queen turned and touched a control panel. An image appeared before Sarah like a hologram. There was a room full of scientists, standing around a Vixen drone corpse. They were extracting samples. The scene shook abruptly and Sarah suddenly realized they were on the ship that Sarah has escaped from. The Starlight Hope. How ironic, now as her hope, and her heart lie in broken pieces on the floor. Replacing hope, love, and even fear was something new. She had not known this feeling before, but now it surged within her.

The hologram continued. They transferred the samples to a glass container. She could make out the letters above the container clearly. It read “Sarah 7”. Within the container she saw a small embryo surrounded by sensors and tubes. That had been her.

Hate. White hot, blinding, searing hate. Hate for the creature that stood before her yet ignored her like she was another drone, or worse yet a weak harmless human. That hate fed on all other emotions until it filled her completely.

Her body shook.

‘Sarah, listen!’ Orna started again, but Sarah shut her out. Her tremulous hold on sanity shut out everything, everything except killing this Queen. She balled her hands into fists and ran toward the hated creature. Somewhere within her there was a last reserve of energy, and she tapped it. Chemicals infused her body. Endorphins surged. Everything slowed as she pushed her legs to reach the Queen’s closest leg.

“Won’t give up, will you? I was going to keep you around. To let you watch your world die. The Old Ones said I should not harm you. But I think now you are a bit too bothersome. Time to die!” The Vixen queen struck out at Sarah with blinding speed, its Mantis-like claws striking out to rip Sarah apart.

The claws did not reach their target.

From out of nowhere a metallic form burst forward with white hot flames trailing out behind it like some kind of falling star. Metallic claws met Vixen and sparks flew.

Dumbfounded, Sarah fell back to see Max fully extended and holding tightly to the the Queen’s outstretched claws.

“Max! You came back! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean what I said!” Sarah struggled to regain her feet.

“I let Sarah 6 down, but I will never do that again. I’m sorry Sarah. I am not afraid any more.” Max intoned.

The Queen recoiled and tried to shake off the battle mech’s grip on her claws. Rockets erupted from Max’s shoulders. Laser bursts filled the air with strobe like lights as the Queen screamed in pain. Rockets impacted on her sides but only did superficial damage. The Queen was made of sturdier stuff than her minions. Sarah could only watch as the Queen thrashed about. The very ground beneath her shook violently with the impact.

With a mighty crash, the Queen smashed Max to the ground and he exploded in a huge burst of flames. The Queen staggered back and shook her head.

Sarah could not hear her own screams with the cries of the Queen piercing her ears, but she began to run toward Max, as if in slow motion. She could see his shattered shell outlined in fire.

All of the sudden everything froze. The Queen was still. The flames leaping from Max became glowing daggers of light, frozen in time. Everything around Sarah was perfectly still.

“Sarah, it is time. Time to fulfill your destiny.” That voice. How? Standing before Sarah was a tall thin woman. She was the color of deep polished wood. A brown so dark it was almost grey. Her eyes were blue and shined in the darkness. Sarah was stunned. It was Orna. She was dressed in a long glowing gown the same color as her skin.

Sarah stood transfixed. She could not move, but she found her voice. “Who are you? What is happening? Have I finally gone crazy?” Sarah whispered.

The being smiled. It was a warm, gentle smile. Sarah felt that she could not even process what she was seeing.

“Why is everything frozen? Am I dead?”

“Far from it Sarah. The time of your destiny is at hand. It is time for you to reveal your true power and save your people. ”

“My true power? I’m just a clone. A mutant. I’m not even ... human.” Tears began to run down her cheeks.

Orna smiled gently and stepped up to Sarah 7. The being touched her wet cheek and caressed her hair. Sarah felt a deep pang. Memories of her mother - Sarah’s mother - kissing her and telling her it would be alright, the night after the invasion started.

“You are a Cannae. A daughter of a strong and noble family. You are also the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. You are also a changeling. This was the gift from our otherworldly friend. All of these things help make up you. But you are not just a collection of cells, or a member of a family, you are very special. Just like I am not just a sword, or a weapon of destruction. ”

Orna’s eyes glowed.

“We were destined to be together, you and I. As we once were eons ago. I have been waiting a very, very long time for you Sarah. ” Orna smiled. Her high cheekbones and teardrop shaped eyes have her an almost elfin quality.

“I am tired of destiny. Sick of fate. I do not want to kill anymore. I am tired of seeing my friends die. I have no destiny.” Sarah crumpled to the ground and began sobbing.

“Dear child. That is why I am here. Your scientists sought me as a tool, a weapon. That is the true reason they encased me within that device. But that is not my true purpose. Search within yourself Sarah. What do you want to do more than anything else?”

“S-save everyone! But I can’t! They’re already gone! She’s won!”

“Release me from the device Sarah, and we shall see.” Orna faded from her year blurred vision and the world came crashing back with deafening noise.

Sarah looked at the recovering Queen, shaking her insect head violently. She saw Max burning in flames only a few feet from her. She looked back at the dully shining sword still buried in the floor behind her. Her heart pounded in her chest. A vision of the first Sarah flashed before her. The girl’s eyes were full of tears. It all clicked within her.

A moment later Sarah was standing before Orna and touching it all over frantically.

“How? How do I free you?” She cried.

The floor shook as the Queen oriented on Sarah and moved toward her. In an instant she would be dead.

‘Just say my name.’ Orna said in her thoughts,

“Orna!” Sarah exclaimed. She fell backwards, covering her face as suddenly the metallic shell grew glowing cracks and shattered with a tremendous roar of light and sound.

Hovering before Sarah was a thin, almost delicate sword covered in ornate engravings that seemed to flow with colors that ebbed and glowed - reminiscent of the lights that had played across the device before. Without a second thought Sarah grasped the delicate hilt. Knowledge glowed into her mind - but this was not a torrent, or an overwhelming flood. Instead Sarah felt memories returning to her of ages past. If other times and places. Other people she had once been. Finally, and once again, she knew who she was, and what she needed to do.

The Queen lurched at Sarah with a piercing cry. Sarah neatly leaped out of the way with a jump that sent her flying towards the wreckage of Max. Her leap was beyond anything human, and would have been impossible just a few seconds ago. Before she held Orna, once again.

Orna was not truly a weapon. Not of destruction. That had been a twisting, a perversion of her power. She was a instrument of healing.

Sarah reached Max. His body was ripped apart and broken. Sarah shielded her face before the immense heat and saw the shattered remains of Max’s head. She touched the sword to either side of the head and called out. “Arise Sir Maximillion. Noble and brave knight. You have given Your life twice for your people. It is time to return it to you.”

The flames turned from yellow to green, to a deep blue. Scattered parts of Max’s machine shell flew in the air from all over and began to reassemble themselves before Sarah. But it was not a giant mech that stood before her when the transformation was done, but a man, a very large, powerful man in an armor of deep red and black. There were hints of the machine that has been Max before, but it was the man that has given his engrams, his life, that stood before her now. Not only was he fully covered in armor, he had a sword that looked almost clawlike, like Max’s original arms.

“How? How am I here? Sarah? Sarah!” He reached for her and hugged her tightly. Tears fell from both faces freely. “How did you bring me back? What - what are you?”

“I am Hope. And we gotta move! I have a lot to do! Will you help me?”

Maximillion laughed. It was a hearty, bold laugh. A warrior’s laugh. “Are you kidding? I was made for this!”

Sarah grinned. She never thought she would do that again, but now it was time for that to change.

The Queen reached her a moment later, but Maximillion leaped in front of Sarah and slashed his sword in a series of wicked blows that drove the creature back.

“Go! I got this!” He called. Laughing, Maximillion brandished his sword and attacked the Vixen with a ferocity that left Sarah smiling. Her face went grim once again as she remembered what she had to do next. She began to run, holding Orna high in the air. The sword glowed with a rainbow light and lit up the damaged floor that was littered with Vixen bodies.

“Where? Where? There!” She cried.

Amil’s body was almost bent in two. Blood still ebbed from the huge holes that has been torn in his body. Gasping, Sarah bent down and carefully laid him out. She kissed his cold cheek and placed the sword across his chest.

A burst of light and sound enveloped his body and and small blue lightning curuscated across his face and wounds. He lifted from the ground as healing magic closed up his wounds, and breath once more filled his lungs.

Sarah cried freely and fell to her knees as Amil slowly drifted down to the floor. He sat up abruptly and his eyes opened.

“What? Sarah? How? Oh my God! ” He blinked hard several times. “I’m alive? How? And - and I can see you!”

Sarah laughed between sobs and grabbed him him in a desperate hug. Their tears tasted salty as they kissed. Awkward at first then full of passion, and love. Love of life, and the wonder of a second chance.

“How is this happening?” Amil asked between kisses.

“I’ll explain later, I promise” Sarah said as she held his head gently and looked into his eyes. “There’s something I need to do now.”

Sarah stood up once again and held Orna before her.

“Okay Orna, are you ready?”

‘Anything, for you Sarah’ the sword replied.

Sarah lifted the sword high and yelled out as loud as she could. It was a victory cry.

Light began to play across the blade. Colors of all kinds arced and began striking the ground all around Sarah. When the lights struck a fallen Vixen carcass the pieces began to shudder and fall back together. Shells knitted together. Muscles, tissue, and organs flowed back into place. Sarah cried out over and over. Each time bringing a pulse of light from the sword, and bringing life back to more and more Vixen creatures.

Restored to life, the Vixen looked different somehow. Their bodies were no longer green and full of sharp edges and points. They were the color of deep purple, and their bodies were softer in outline. Their eyes were bright and intelligent. The tarlike smell was also gone.

As each Vixen arose, it would scuttle over to Sarah and - as much as an insect could - bowed deeply before her.

----

Maximillian was having the time of his new life. As a man, he had been an out-of-work patrolman - desperate to support his family and full of pride for his species. When the call had went out for engram donors, he had lept at the chance. It cost him his life, but he knew his family would be taken care of for the rest of theirs. And during the invasion, nothing was assured. As the robot Max, he had been filled with doubt, and confines of his robot body - stripped of emotion and the capacity for feeling - had left him empty and hollow. Until he met Sarah 7.

Now, somehow, he was alive again. Not just alive, but better. He now stood easily six feet tall, and whatever material this armor was made from - it felt light on his frame and did nothing to hinder his movement. Which was a good thing now because this Queen was attacking him with an increasing degree of manic strength and cunning. Every blow he would land was turned just enough to prevent her from being critically maimed. Frustrated, he pressed the attack. Despite her size, the Queen was growing tired, while Maximillian had yet to feel winded. Was this magic? He thought.

Suddenly, he found an opening. The Queen had stumbled back and fell heavily to the ground. He spotted an opening between the segments of her thorax and leaped to make the killing blow.

“Hold! Max! Maximillian! Wait!” Sarah shouted. Her voice seemed stronger, more mature. It carried easily through the din of battle.

Confused, Max stepped back. He kept his sword high and kept a guarded stance.

Sarah emerged from the darkness with her sword held high. Amil was with her, and Maximillian could see grins on both their faces. How was this miracle possible? Was the sword really that powerful? Then he gasped. Behind Sarah were hundreds of Vixen. But like no Vixen Maximillian had ever seen before. They were darker hued - almost purple. And they did not seem to be attacking. If anything, they seemed to be following - Sarah?

------

The Queen lie on the ground and her body was pulsing with exhaustion. Her abdomen grew and constricted in whatever passed for Vixen breathing.

“How is this possible? You are just a mere halfling freak. You are no human, nor Vixen. What are you? The Old Ones did not speak of this!” The Queen gasped. Her voice was barely intelligible as she spoke between gasps.

“I am Sarah 7. And I am Hope. You came to Earth to destroy and to steal. You thought you could use humans against themselves to create an abomination. Instead, you have fulfilled the Prophecy just as much as those humans you think so little of. You thought this sword” - She held up Orna, and it glowed with iridescent colors - “was a weapon of destruction. That’s why you sought to control it. But you were wrong. Orna belongs to me, and my family. I am a Cannae. Our family has defended our lands for generations. Orna is not a weapon of destruction, but a weapon of healing. ”

Sarah gestured to Amil, then Maximillian, then to the restored Vixen behind her.

“You thought you could control me by the Vixen DNA they spliced into me. Or to humiliate me? To make me hate myself more?” Sarah closed her eyes - a tear fell from a corner of one eye.

“You have given me a great gift, oh Queen.” She raised her other arm and the Vixen behind her raised up. Their inhuman cries pierced the air. “You let your daughters die by the thousands while you sat in your hole and gloated. That is not the way of Kings and Queens in our world. We defend them, protect them. We do not let them die for nothing.”

The Queen screeched a high piercing cry and lurched into the air. Her carapace opened up and gigantic wings flared open. She turned abruptly and dove toward Sarah with blinding speed. Her wicked claws opened and closed with a tremendous crash at the spot where Sarah had been standing just an instant before.

...

Sarah landed neatly on the Queen’s back and plunged the sword into the creature’s head. The Queen let out a squeal that shook the ground, then fell over heavily.

Spinning in the air, then landing neatly on the ground with Orna in hand. Sarah turned her back to the Queen’s now dead body and said quietly to herself. “This Hive has a new Queen. And Earth has Hope, once again.”

---