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Chapter 14
Slowly, Kylan crept out of his bed, the sheets rustling along his nearly naked body as he moved. He crossed to the window and looked out to the luminous moon that had haunted his sleep for many nights, as if it were calling to him.
Absently, his mind wondered back to the last few weeks to their trips to Newmarket. Always the same story; Blaine drifted off under some thinly veiled excuse to gather supplies, and talk to the underbelly of society. Time and again Kylan followed along keeping tabs on him from a distance.
Sooner or later something would have to be done.
A blinking green light from the side table grabbed Kylan's attention.
Reaching over to the small table, he dug into a soft leather pouch that lay on top. His hands slipped into the small, secret chamber inside, and retrieved a thin metal disk, coated in a translucent plastic that was still pulsing an incessant light. With calculated movements, Kylan unclipped the small sphere of plastic from the metal, and placed it squarely on the surface of his right eye. It fit snugly, and he had to blink several times to clear away the residual tears. Kylan pressed the, still flashing, thin metal disk onto the side of his temple and closed his eyes.
When he opened them his normal vision was clouded over with graphs, various readouts, and a diagram of the nearby rocket station. As he let his eyes wander over the pieces of information, he was able to shift bits and pieces with merely a thought.
"Do you have something to report, Jones?" an older woman asked, her small portrait opened in a separate window.
"Just updating my information, Ma'am," he said, "And continuing surveillance of the suspect as ordered," Kylan's voice rang out across the virtual divide, but his lips remained closed.
"Preparations are nearly complete for the interplanetary rocket's departure," the woman spoke clearly, and without any inflection. "Keep a particularly watchful eye on him, Jones. If he's going to make his move, it will be soon."
"Yes ma'am."
"Have you secured his complete trust?" she asked.
Kylan faltered for a brief second, "Not yet," he replied.
"It is imperative to the proper administration of our government to know of each of his accomplices. Who are backing him, who are feeding him information, who are ready to die with him-"
Kylan's face felt warm, 'What is this feeling in my chest?' he thought to himself.
"-Do you understand me, soldier?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Report to me immediately when you even suspect that he's making his move. Is that clear, Jones?"
"Crystal ma'am," he replied.
"Good," she nodded once, "End transmission."
Kylan took off the metal and plastic pieces, and set them on the window sill quietly. He let his chin rest on the lip of the window, as he bathed in the light of the moon. Kylan watched as thin wisps of clouds passed slowly through the sky, tainted a silver-gray by the moonlight. Something in his heart ached, and called out more and more strongly with each passing day. Exactly what it called out for, Kylan couldn't say.
Just before he turned away from the window, out of the corner of his eye he saw someone move from the back door of the house. His breath caught as Blaine's lithe form stepped into the moonlight and slowly, languidly, starting walking towards the barn.
Mesmerized, Kylan watched the way the man walked. His gait, the way his shoulders seemed to calmly undulate as he walked, Kylan took in every detail. The soft moonlight seemed to weave in and out of Kylan's mind, like some sort of invisible hand beckoning him forward with the promise of something just beyond his reach.
He watched as the other man slowly disappeared through the fields, towards the barn, before following. He was careful to move as silently as he could through the small, cozy house and beyond into the night itself. As he walked through the back door, the summer night fully assaulted his senses with a humid warmth, and a soft gentle presence. Strangely, the fields of grain seemed to stop moving the exact moment that he reached the outside world.
Quickly and quietly, he stole towards the barn. Kylan was somewhat wary, and completely unsure of what he would find. Unsure of why he was even following.
His breath caught. There, on the side of the small pond, a figure bathed in a balance of water of light.
Blaine's smooth skin gleamed brightly in the moonlight. Kylan could see his sleek stomach shine in the blue-gray light, as he reclined slightly backwards as though he were sun tanning in the soft, silver glow. Kylan's heart fluttered and his hand that held the barn door slightly ajar was warm and clammy, in the cool evening breeze.
Blaine looked up at the moon, and lazily ran a hand up and down his chest, coating the skin in a fresh sheen of water. The still pond seemed almost magical that night, with the cattails swaying slowly in the water. The few stray streamers of silver clouds clung to the moon like cobwebs of light.
"You're not planning on staying there all night, are you?"
Kylan quickly ducked into the barn, the door shielding him from view. His heart was jack hammering in his chest, threatening to choke his breath away. Why had he been so stupid? What was he expecting to happen? He had to get away. This was a mistake. A big mistake.
Quickly, he moved towards the far side of the barn. Intent on slipping through the shadows, back to his warm bed, back to his mission, back to his purpose.
Kylan's eyes snapped forward, he stopped dead in his tracks, not even daring to breath.
"Still admiring the view I see" Blaine asked with a smirk. His naked body was still glistening like dew in the soft light.
"I... I was...." Kylan stammered. His whole body was shaking.
Blaine smiled more broadly this time, "You know the water gets a whole lot better when you actually get in."
Kylan's body continued to shake, his eyes were lowered to the ground and squeezed tight.
Blaine stopped, "Hey Richard...I" he said, reaching forward, "I'm sorry if I came on too strong. I just-" Before Blaine could finish, Kylan had grasped the other man tightly, mashing their bodies together in a frenzy of passion and desperation. The water from Blaine's body coated both men in a light sheen, as the moon passed overhead.
Blaine gasped, coming up for air. "That's more like it," he said.
Kylan growled, as he grasped as Blaine's body with a fierce, animalistic passion and drive. His small pair of shorts, now wet from Blaine's body and from his own frenzied excitement, was now painfully restrictive.
The two men quickly tumbled through the barn, knocking over stray pieces of equipment and feed. The sweat from their bodies mingled with the straw, dust, and grime, yet only managed to add to their mounting excitement.
Outside the barn, the panting and grunts of pleasure could be heard for a considerable distance - and yet the family at the farmhouse slept through the whirlwind of pent up passion and released frustration, only yards away.
It was some time later that both men lay resting by the side of the calm pool. The moon was no longer high in the night sky, rather it was quickly receding towards the mountains, its midsummer spell was waning but its gift was clear.
"Sorry if I was a little rough," Kylan said finally, hugging the other man's naked back close into his chest.
"Don't be," Blaine smiled, twisting back to kiss the other man, "I needed that." He smiled up to look Kylan deep in the face, "I've been waiting for a long time."
Kylan smiled sweetly, "I guess I was too, without knowing it," he said. He paused for a moment, as if considering his options, "I need to tell you some things, Blaine," Kylan said after a time.
Blaine responded by squeezing the other man's hand tightly, "So do I, but it can it wait 'till morning," he said, looking up to the moon. If Kylan had been able to see his eyes at that moment, he would have seen Blaine blinking rapidly, his eyes misty and wet.
"I ..." Kylan faltered, leaning down to rest his chin against Blaine's soft skin. He let his eyes close for a brief second, enjoying the night's embrace.
"I had a dream about you the other night," Blaine said after a moment, looking at the moon reflected in the pond.
"It can wait till morning," Kylan laughed, kissing the other man firmly.
"I guess so," he replied slowly, their noses touching ever so slightly. Slowly, Kylan twisted around, ending up on top of the other man, before kissing him deeply.
For the first time that summer, both men relaxed completely in the presence of the other. Back in Kylan's small room that night, a satisfying, and relaxing sleep stole over them as they lay deeply embraced in the overly small bed.
It wasn't until much later that morning, that Kylan's eyes flipped open suddenly. Abruptly, he sat bolt upright in bed. Next to him, a clear depression in the mattress was still barely visible.
A chill swept over Kylan as he looked over to the bedside table, spying a single sheet of paper. "Shit," he swore, "Not today. Not today..."
In a heartbeat he had picked up the paper, the bed sheets were still lazily cascading through the air as they fell back to the floor. The paper was torn on one side, and wrinkled in small patches.
"Richard," the note read, "I'm so sorry for this. Above all, I'm happy to have known you. I don't regret what happened last night. Far from it. I know it's childish, but I wanted so very much to have lived with you on that farm forever; like a fairytale just for the two of us.
But there's still something undone which I promised I would do.
May your life be always filled happiness and light,
Eternally yours,
Blaine"
Kylan swore again under his breath as he raced around the room, gathering clothes and belongings in a whirlwind of activity. "How could I have been so fucking stupid?" he mumbled, as he shouldered his one bag. As he ran from the room, the small bag on the side table was pulsing with a familiar green light.
Moments later, Kylan was racing across the empty, burnt landscape of the interspace launching platform, just beyond the city limits and the reach of the farm. The small farm speeder lay haphazardly strewn to the side, its engine still humming as he vaulted from the driver's seat and bolted forward.
Running up to the security checkpoint station, he could see the motionless bodies of the guards, slumped against the floor. Patches of blood and burnt material decorated their motionless bodies.
"Fuck," he swore as he raced towards the massive platform lift, nested up near the massive rocket's frame. He could see movement far above, and flashes of light that arced along the length of the tiny catwalk before quickly dying out.
Kylan reached the lift and slammed the button for the top a little too hard. As the platform raced up to the heavens, Kylan slowly took out his sidearm and studied it intently. After all these weeks, the sleek metal of the weapon felt alien and sinister against his flesh.
Clenching his eyes shut, Kylan tried in vain to banish the images that danced through his mind. Images of Blaine, Blaine smiling, laughing, filling his heart.
'Admiring the view,' the phantom of the past asked him, as the chime for the final floor shocked him from his reverie. His eyes snapped open, and with weapon raised, he walked through to the workstation just prior to the catwalk.
Kylan slowly raised his handgun up, taking aim at the solitary man standing past the open, mechanical shielding of the workstation. Blaine's back was turned, behind him lay the bodies of service workers strew around like old, discarded wads of chewing gum.
Kylan could feel his hands begin to shake.
"I was wondering when you'd be here," Blaine said quietly, still with his back turned.
"Drop your weapon and place your hands behind your head," Kylan barked with more authority than he felt.
Blaine turned his head slightly, "I can't do that Richard," he said.
"Blaine, I..... I don't want to hurt you, but you've killed, going to kill-"
"Richard...." He said, "Is that even your real name I wonder?" Blaine turned in that instant, and fixed Kylan with a look that he had never before seen in all his years.
"Blaine.. I-"
"Richard listen, with all the files on me, did they bother to tell you that they took my family from me?" he said, his eyes were an ominous shade of lightning blue. "They took them from me, Richard! All for this," he looked up at the rocket. "My parents managed to smuggle me away at the last moment when they knew-" he paused, "when they knew it was too late."
Kylan's finger relaxed slightly on the trigger, his vision clouding over, stinging his eyes.
"This was the reason why they died, " he continued, looking up at the seemingly ordinary rocket. With a hard glare back at Kylan, Blaine said, "Their so called crowning achievement," Blaine looked back down at the tiny world far below the catwalk. "You know, when you actually lie to yourself enough, you can even believe that your life's work is actually not the weapon of mass destruction that it truly is. My parents worked for the government on this rocket. They actually thought it would be used for something other than destruction, once." He shook his head, laughing with a bitter, derisive aftertaste. "They, and the rest of their colleagues, paid the price for their idealism with their lives."
Blaine's eyes flashed with a cold, lifeless fire, "I won't make the same mistake," he said. A rumbling from behind them made the whole catwalk shudder and shake.
"What the hell?" Kylan asked.
"It's starting to wake up," Blaine said, almost to himself.
Kylan's resolve crumbled into a pile of ash on the floor, dying alongside the wounded and dying personnel workers, not fifty feet away. "... Come with me," he nearly whispered, his hair obscured his eyes as he spoke.
Blaine's features shifted, and his jaw went slack. Blinking rapidly, he asked, "What?... What did you say?" he swallowed hard, "I... I."
"Come away with me," Kylan said more loudly this time, dropping his gun on the floor. "Leave all of this," he said, with a wide swipe of his arm. "Leave all of this shit behind, and just come with me."
"Richard..."
"I... I have a small transport ship in orbit. I've been funneling resources to it for a long time. We can just leave. Start again. On another planet, with new lives."
After what felt like an eternity, Blaine looked down as if studying his open palm, "Richard, I would love nothing more than to stay with you forever. But..." slowly his palm clenched into a shaking fist, "There's nothing of me left."
"Blaine," Kylan pleaded, "This is just one planet, one system. We can escape. Start again."
Blaine shook his head, "You don't understand. It will follow us to the ends of the galaxy and back."
"What are you talking abou-" Kylan started to say but something moved in his peripheral vision, just beyond Blaine, flashing in the light of the rising sun and moving with incredible speed. He tried to call out, tried to move in time but was too slow.
Blaine snapped his head around in time to register the impending threat. As if in a dream, time seemed to move more slowly for Kylan, as Blaine stepped up, blocking the path of the object with his body. With his arms outstretched and his back turned to the mysterious attacker, Blaine looked at Kylan with a look of affection and deep regret.
"Blaine!!!" Kylan screamed as a liquid metal appendage sliced through the air and through the young man's back. Tiny droplets of blood showered the elevated catwalk and spread through the air like streamers from a fallen firework, shimmering in dawn's golden light.
As Blaine's wounded body was ripped through the air, the massive mechanical appendage snapped back into itself. Blaine's body hit the bronze rocket's surface with enough force to crush the air from his lungs and break several of his ribs.
Blaine managed to choke out a scream. His arms were already becoming partly submerged into the rippling metal structure. Kylan's eyes had only enough time to widen in horror as the metal surrounding Blaine's body came to life, slowly and agonizingly coating, and digesting, every organic drop.
Despite his wounds, despite the situation, Blaine tried desperately to struggle against the fiendish, metallic creature. With each movement, the pain and horror pulsed through his features all the more.
"Rich.. ard" he gasped as his body continued to writhe. His breath pushed out quickly, but he was only able to pull it back between his teeth like some sort of giant, wounded heart. "...Richard," he called again, small tears of agony had already sprouted at the corner of his clear, blue eyes.
Kylan ran into the side of the monstrosity at breakneck speed. In vain, he struggled to pry his lover free from the hideous creature, but to his touch the liquid bronze was hard as steel.
"Fuck," he swore, tears were now streaming down his face.
Tentative fingers clasped around Kylan's wrist, as Blaine continued to struggle against the creature. For a moment, time itself seemed to melt away, as Blaine's eyes met with his. Blaine's clear, luminous, blue eyes gazed up at him with nothing but love, despite the torture.
"Don't..." he rasped as the liquid metal continued to ripple over his chest and arms. "I... I..." he struggled.
Kylan moved backwards, raised the handgun and fired three rounds close to Blaine's body with expert precision.
No effect.
Once again the gun quickly fell to the floor.
Kylan collapsed onto what was left of his lover, his body racked with spasms and tremors of grief. "Kylan..." he said finally, tears pouring from his face now, "My name is.... Kylan."
Blaine's strained features focused through the agony for half a second, as he smiled. His eyes blinking rapidly as his mind reeled from the strain.
"Get out of here. Let me go."
"Blaine. I won't. I can't leave you," he said.
"Were... were you lying to me.... When.... When you said you had a ship?"
"What?" Kylan sobbed. He shook his head, "I wasn't lying. We can leave and start new lives. We can..." he sobbed, "I love you, dammit!"
"I want you to take it," Blaine choked back blood as he struggled to speak. He could feel the liquid metal pulling his body slowly deeper into the structure.
"What? I can't. I won't leave you," Kylan repeated, his body shook as he spoke, "I'm not that strong."
Blaine's eyes lit up with an inner light again for one brief second, "Don't die here...." He tried to laugh, but only managed to sink deeper into the numbing, cold metal. "I never... never did... tell you my dream," Blaine managed a small smile.
Without a word, Blaine guided Kylan's hand to his chest where the tear-shaped pendant lay still. "... Please," he smiled again. "I want you to...."
Without hesitation, Blaine ripped the pendant from his neck. For a second, hundreds of tiny metal clasps hung in the air as the chain shattered. He placed the pendant in Kylan's palm, "... Kylan," he smiled. With his last remaining strength, Blaine pushed his lover hard, as the last of the liquid metal raced over his arms in a spiraling motion, and washed over his striking features.
As the liquid pushed up and over his face, he uttered his last words for this world in one final gasp, "I love y...-"
Kylan watched in horror, unable to do anything, as his lover's clear, blue eyes were swallowed up by the metal and interlocking structures of the fiendish machine. With a howl of pure rage, Kylan flung himself up against the side panel of the structure. Beating his fists against the unyielding metal, until his palms bled with the strain.
Finally, defeated, he slumped against the rocket as the firing sequence entered its final phase. The platform under the young man rocked and buckled under the unsupervised launch. Soon the entire catwalk was rocking and swaying with the force of the ignition. Still, Kylan sat, slumped against the cold metal beast that had swallowed up the only thing in his life that had mattered. The academy, the training, the friends; his old life. Nothing mattered to him more than seeing Blaine's smiling face, if only for one more time.
His bloodied fists clenched as the railing silently fell away. In his fist he felt something alien, unfamiliar.
The blue pendant.
A blast from the rockets suddenly sent the other railing buckling under the pressure. Kylan could feel his shattered soul cry out in pain as the force of the ignition sent the pendant sailing from his hand, plummeting towards the ground far below.
He screamed as he watched the pendant, the one last vestige of his lover, the one last thing to prove he had been real, slip away into the engine fire far below. A dim ray of light hit the stone as it fell, leaving a cascading streamer of shattered blue light in its wake.
He sat on the side of the metal walkway for a second, his bloody fist clenched and shaking. Glaring up at the damnable rocket, he cursed it with all his soul. "I'll finish it," his eyes were alive with tears, "I swear."
With his will to live nearly exhausted, Kylan got up and sprinted towards the far platform, as the rocket pushed off from the ground and began its ascent. Despite his broken condition, somehow, somewhere, the will to live, if only for vengeance, urged him towards the safety of the platform. He hit the far security button as he ran into the room. Bodies of the dead guards were thrown around the room, as the rocket pushed away from the planet. Kylan could only watch as the rocket, containing the only remaining part of his love, slowly departed from the planet.
Kylan clenched his eyes as tight as he could, as he felt his heart shattered. His body slumped forward as blackness and the roar of the engines took hold.
It was sometime later, that a lone figure stood beside a field of rustling wheat. His face looked somewhat colder, and more jaded than before. Kylan Jones leaned up against the small speeder that would soon take him to his interstellar vessel left on one of the orbiting moons.
A cold wind brushed past Kylan, causing him to clasp his coat closer into his body, as he looked out once more to the farm, far in the distance. Sellmar's words still hung in the wind, "I warn yah boy: You'll find something here that you don't want. But when it leaves you, you'll never be right 'till it finds you again."
Author's Note:
I've been hanging on to this one for a while. Don't worry, we'll re-join Wade and the others soon enough ;).
I hope that everyone is enjoying the ride! Only six more chapters until the climax (now there's a pun I like!) and one chapter after that to wrap things up.
Not sure if I'll be able to get another chapter out before the new year =/. I'll try! But just to warn you all ahead of time...
Another big thank you to Kane!
As always, questions, concerns, comments etc = corporeal09@yahoo.com