The battle of six kings

5 0 0
                                    

**Cross Spider** panted, trying to catch his breath as the **Kingogers** surrounded him. They had him dead to rights, or so they thought, demanding that he return the **Venommix Shooter**. **Jeramie's** anxiety was at its peak; this was the moment he could reclaim his title as the **King of the In-Between**. Yet, there was uncertainty. Cross had used the weapon and been recognized as the King of the In-Between. Did this mean there was some bond, some connection between the two, just like **Gira** and his brother **Racules**? Was he, and what he was sure was female in their first encounter, related as well?

"It's over, imposter. Return the Venommix Shooter," Jeramie demanded.

Cross panted, powering down and tossing the weapon at their feet. Jeramie and the others gasped, for the face beneath the mask was eerily similar to their friend, as if they could be brothers.

"What sort of trick is this? You are not me. I am me, so why do you look like me and not like the girl I saw before?"

Cross played to Jeramie's own indirect speech, "I am what I am and what I have always been ever since that fateful day when I met her and she became one with me."

Jeramie didn't want to admit that he had some level of respect for such poetry. It spoke to his own soul as a writer and storyteller, to not lay out the truth in such obvious terms, to leave interpretation to the reader, the listener, to seek the truth between the lines. She truly was the King of the In-Between, just as he was. He took a long breath and picked up the weapon. At least he had back his crown, and now they had a stranger in their grip. He inserted the key and turned it, listening to the standby music for a moment, and declared his royal arms, but nothing happened.

Nothing happened.

The gods were not recognizing him as the King of the In-Between.

**Papillon** leveled her sword at Cross, demanding an explanation. What had he done to the weapon to deny Jeramie his birthright?

Cross simply repeated, "I am who I am, forever changed since I met her on that fateful day."

"Who! Who! You stand before the judge and answers are demanded, clear and concise!"

Jeramie rose, moving to lower Papillon's sword, disheartened and broken. He got ready to toss the weapon back, but **Tento** stopped him.

"Clearly, the stranger possesses the ability to overwrite technology, just as I was able to alter the ShuGods for human pilots. He is king. He is merely an impostor, wearing your crown just as Racules pretended to care for his people while pursuing his own power."

Cross was furious. "How dare traitors and liars like you speak ill of the king who thinks only to protect his people and the entire land from the threat of the insects."

"Racules used the attack on our home to leverage support and strength from the other kingdoms, let our people die and our city burn just so he could gain strength and position. That is why I chose the title of tyrant. Any king who would stand by and let his people suffer is a king that needs to be overthrown by force if necessary."

Cross paused and thought. They had faced evil in the past disguised as good, so it was not beyond the realm of possibilities that they were deceived.

He dropped the pretense of the King of In-Betweeners and spoke plainly, "Are you willing to lay your soul bare to prove that?"

"Just what angle are you getting at?" Papillon narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

Cross bowed his head, partially out of respect, partially out of the compromised position he was in. "I have the ability, as much as I may loathe to use it due to how I acquired it, to read minds. If you are so convinced in your convictions and your truth, let me read yours, and then I will know the truth."

Blecker x KingohgerWhere stories live. Discover now