Chapter 52: The Heart

The next time I woke up it was clear that a significant portion of time had passed, if only because of the stacking debuffs that had started to weigh up on my system. Currently the system was proclaiming that I had a strength and manna usage debuff that had stacked twice, which meant I had been under for two days. 

Two whole days. 

That was technically half of my life in this new world that I had spent completely asleep. 

It was also two days that Lara could have been doing absolutely anything she wanted without anyone keeping her in check. 

"Ah, I see you're finally awake," The voice of Squadron Leader Belana caused me to snap my eyes open in an instant. 

<Don't do what you're thinking of doing,> BB said as I clenched my hand into a fist, ready to swing, <You still don't have the power to take him on in a one on one fight.>

That may have been true, but I wanted to knock the guys block off anyway. He hadn't just left me down there with an alien creature that could rip through people like paper, he had left fifty of his own squadron down there too, and they got torn apart. 

"You're bold, coming to talk to me," I said, my voice croaky due to the days without any use. 

The squadron leader shook his head, "Now now, Jacob, please be civil. I only did what I did so I could report back what we had found, someone needed to." 

"And all of your people down there? The ones you let die? Did that need to happen too?" I all but spat at the man. 

"They were an… unfortunate… sacrifice. I would not have had the time to create a portal rune big enough to carry everyone present back with me, and if I had, the creature would have been caught in the spell as well, bringing it right back up here. I don't think I need to tell you how disastrous that would have been, do I?" He replied. 

I begrudgingly agreed with him. If the creature had been loosed on the Guard headquarters there would have been no telling how much damage it could have done to the facility before finally being put down, not to mention the panic it would have caused.

"In any case," he went on, "I do believe I owe you congratulations and an apology. It seems that I was somewhat… mistaken… about you. While you may be of Human birth, you have indeed managed to do the task that was set to you, even if Pax and Akash are both a little worse for wear." 

"I'd never let my team down," I said, unable to keep the accusatory tone out of my voice. 

"Yes, yes of course. In any case, is there anything else that you learnt after my departure? Were Clan Pren behind these events, or is there some other nefarious ne'er-do-well making moves in our fair Prespian City?" 

"You won't believe me when I tell you… but… It's Lara, Lara is the one in control. She faked her own death, and now she's planning to wage war against the Guard on Prespian City with her hybrids." 

Belana was stricken, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly ajar. He couldn't believe what I was telling him. But it was the truth, and if Prespian City had any chance of surviving the oncoming storm that was Lara and her army, we were going to have to do something about her… and fast. 

"You mean to tell me that the leader of the Guard's daughter is not only alive, but she is working directly to counteract the guard itself, working with the Null Space Invaders?" Belana asked. 

I nodded, "That's exactly what I'm saying. By my reckoning I've been out for at least two days, has anything happened in that time?" 

"No… Everything has gone back to normal. The tournament was postponed until tomorrow, but other than that, everything has been fine."

<That must be her play, right there. The tournament. She's going to try and take out the current generation of initiates in one fell swoop by obliterating the tournament,> BB cut in. As far as explanations went, it made far too much sense for me to be comfortable. 

xXx

Location: Human Capital Ship, extra-solar orbit

Lara paced back and forth with a wild glint in her eye. The screaming of the Null Space Invader that she was working on meant nothing to her. All she was concerned about was successful hybridization with the genetic code of an Earth creature known as a King Cobra, some kind of animal that belonged to a greater species called the snakes. 

It was her next big experiment. King Cobra on Earth were supposedly fast and incredibly venomous, and they might be able to succeed where her spider hybrid had failed. She was sure that the black widow DNA she had managed to splice into the genetics of the previous hybrid strain would have been strong enough, but the brittle exoskeleton of the creature proved to be too weak against blunt force trauma and stabbing attacks- a weakness that the original Null Space Invaders had anyway. 

She was beginning to get steadily more and more excited. 

With that damn Jacob Lyre out of the picture, as well as Akash the last of the Eldrani, she would have no problem laying waste to Prespian city.

And then… then her father would see.

She wasn't someone that needed to be kept locked up and away from all of the fighting. 

She wasn't someone that needed to be protected. 

She was the one that people needed to be protected from. 

Because she was going to do to that world what her father had done to her mother all those years ago when he thought she wasn't watching. When he thought she had already left. 

She was going to rip the beating heart out of his precious perfectly defended world and bring him to his knees.