The Games for Gaiathal (Part 3 of 'A Tale of People and Apples Trilogy')

Chapter 22: The Equalizer

Luka looked to his hands.

His left hand which was coated in a painful charcoal black ash from the Field radiation he absorbed was now faded away, his skin healed and free of the crackling scars.

Within the white world, he wore a clean gold and blue uniform, his boots black and smooth and in tact and shining yet again. At his chest both an Orca and a Wolf upon small metal emblems sat neatly upon his proud pectoral muscle.

While Luka expected the world, his adversary did not, as Solan scanned his surroundings with squinting eyes and a contorted expression. His familiar black suit and collar remained clean in the bright world, the buckles at his boots and at his arms shining in the white of the mysterious light.

"Hmm. What an interesting invention my sister has created," Solan said and realized as he genuinely marvelled at the white world, a twang of pride in his twin sister he had always overlooked, finally coming to terms with what happened.

"Tell me. Why did the material have to be upon the Dagger? Why not just give you the material for yourself and press it upon my skin?" Solan asked, realizing Luka and him entered Maeve's world as they both contacted the black material on the handle of the Golden Dagger, which he had never thought twice about, the same way Luka was dragged into Maeve's world when he first met her in the Ring. A marvellous and missed trap laid by Maeve for her brother, for the most opportune moment.

A battleground invoked for the willful Wolf and the skilful Scientist to finally face off free from unfair advantages.

"Maeve told me I have to die. That it was the only way."

"Ah," Solan said, looking to Luka's feet. He realized while Luka was still drained in the physical world, here he teemed with reinvigorated energy. "It seems Maeve isn't so different from me as you thought. Willing to do whatever it takes to win. Willing to sacrifice her prodigy."

Luka ignored Solan as he clenched his fists. Solan's ploys and words would not work on him in this world.

"So if I understand correctly, time is sitting still out there, in the outside world, while we fight, here, in Maeve's world? This is her plan to kill me? What makes you both so sure I can die here - "

Without warning, Luka conjured a pistol of his own within his hand, imagining the same pistol he had placed in Tristan's hand when they left Orconia City together,  and fired upon the Scientist, draining the clip with swift squeezes of the black trigger.

Instinctively, the Scientist conjured a Field in front of him, but a bullet sliced at his calf before the others were blocked by his red translucent wall, the later bullets rippling harmlessly into the shield but the earliest doing exactly what Luka intended.

The Wolf discarded the empty pistol with a casual throw to his side, and started to walk towards Solan who limped in pain, grasping his calf.

"Because I see blood," Luka said coldly. "And in here, will is all that matters."

"Wait! Wait," Solan said to Luka as he stood, his face furious and his eyes straining in pain at the bullet wound and the blood which oozed at his leg and slashed black cloth. He realized with bewilderment that Luka had hit him in the exact location the Orca girl had hit him in the real world with her arrow. On purpose? A freak coincidence?

Luka stopped walking to listen to whatever the Scientist wanted to propose. Not because he would pragmatically weigh the words of whatever the Scientist could bargain, but because he was interested in just how low the Scientist would stoop to survive.

Luka stood straight, savouring the fact he finally fought an apple eater on a level playing field.

"That Dagger I'm plunging into you, in the real world, it's already in your heart. You're dead either way. You're dead when you return to your physical body anyways. What will you accomplish by killing me?"