GraceFall [ONC 2024]

14

Amongst the devastation ...

Principle struggled to extricate himself from the rubble, his hand lifting to his face. As his hand came away, he noticed blood upon the fingers. Blood! He couldn't remember the last time he had lost blood in a confrontation. Not even in the sub-dimension, where he had fought as hard as ever, but with his powers dampened by the shackle. Psycona had truly held back his full potential, Principle knew that now.

True, his powers had waned due to the trials he had suffered, but he still could never have expected this. Psycona, and it was Psycona, whatever illusory form he wore and the personality he displayed, hovered above him, a malevolent grin spread upon his now-twisted features. Principle should have known. Should have offered his help years ago, a shoulder upon which Zjahn could have laid all his troubles, his guilts and fears, but he had respected the alien when he had requested solace to work through his grief alone.

It seemed clear, now, that this split in his friend's personality was a consequence of those terrible events, light years away from Earth. Principle understood that grief, though only partially. He, too, came from a dead world. Except his world had perished in a natural disaster, centuries before he had exited his life-pod. He had only learned, later, that he was not a child of Earth, but a visitor from the stars.

His parents, adoptive parents, had raised him from infancy, born in the moment he had left the life-pod, and they had taught him the very best of human values. He had grown up with the principles of decency, kindness above all things, and a sense of duty instilled in him throughout his childhood. Zjahn had not had that grounding. He had come from the slaughter of his people to this world that must have seemed so very ... alien to him.

"We can work this out, Zjahn!" He lifted the concrete slab from his body, easing it to the side as he shook his head. "You are clearly in pain. Allow me, us, to help you."

"Help me! I've never felt so free. So alive. So powerful!" Zjahn flexed his fingers, the smile widening. "I hold the power of life and death in my hands. Why should my planet be the only one to suffer? Why should you, with your pathetic ideals, be more beloved than me? I should have been loved by these insects! Worshipped!"

"That's not why we do this. Not any of us!" He rose from the ground, his ability to fly coming in intermittent fits and starts, more drained than he thought. "We dedicate our lives to serving these people. We aren't their gods, or their kings. We offer them our protection and they allow it. We police our enemies by the consent of the many, not crush them by the whims of the one!"

Zjahn sneered at him. In his current state, the man must consider it a weakness to want permission to fight for these humans, but they did not need super-powered leaders, dictators, they needed the freedom to govern themselves. In Principle's time on Earth, he had seen that freedom stumble. He had seen it come close to disaster, but humans always managed to come through in the end.

Miles away, he heard the steady, tiny beat of his son's heart. So small and vulnerable, yet so strong. If this version of Zjahn had his way, Ben would grow up in a world ruptured and broken, a slave to the whims of a lost and twisted man and Principle could not allow that. Win or lose, he had to give his all to ensure that did not come to pass, even if it meant fighting a friend to the death.

"You are so naive. Tony." Zjahn said that deliberately. Not to expose Principle's identity, but to show him that he knew everything. "You always have been so pathetically small in your ambitions. And with ... a son to look after, no less! How perfectly charming and sickening. Perhaps I should ..."

Zjahn's head had turned toward Arclight City, that glittering oasis of the best of humanity. A promise of what the world could one day become. A paradigm shifting vision of the future. Principle's home. The home of his wife ... and his son. That Zjahn dared turn his gaze that way, to taunt him, brought forth a fury Principle had not felt in a long time.