Taylor retreated to the realm of despair. He knew this was where Michael would look for him. It all began here; though, it was probably not going to end here. This was a suitable place to face off without some shameful game of cat and mouse.
This place was such a dismal place for a duel. In comics, when the good guy faces the bad guy it was always somewhere epic. Downtown among the towers and skyscrapers or at the central core of some important mainframe or outside some space headquarters, never in some abysmal pit.
“I respect your choice to meet me here.” Michael says as he approaches from the edges of the despair realm. “I must admit, I almost expected to have to chase you around my head all night.”
“You mean my head.”
“Still defiant. Before I crush you and your dreams I want to share some history with you.”
“Is this where you explain your dark and abyssmal backstory in an attempt to garnish sympathy?”
“No, just something you should understand. You see in my third lifetime with that bitch she had finally managed to create a kingdom where all subs could live freely. It was a nice concept and all, but our people were frequently mistreated because of our lack of physiological differences and powers.”
“We look human so therefore we were the enemy.”
“Basically. We had a power that none of them understood and were all scared to death of. What you may not know is that what happens in a dream reflects on the physical body. So we could enter the dream of anyone we wanted and cause harm or death. Even more, we could influence people and make them do our bidding without them knowing we were doing it.”
“That’s how you were able to achieve the power and influence you have.”
“No, I told you, that was crime, drugs, and seedy business, but now you’re seeing just how powerful we are. So when a dreamer was so close to the queen that he led an army, there was an outcry. In the end I demonstrated my loyalty was to the queen and not my people when I killed an assassin targeting her dreams. That led to a rebellion from my kin.”
“That is the memory I saw.”
“Yep, the leader of the rebellion was captured as a result of the battle. I personally questioned him. There could be no question of partiality so I spared no lash of the whip. When he broke he told me that the dreamers may be beat here, but the strongest of us were already planning a new attack on the queen I would be too late to stop.”
“So that is why you killed them all?”
“I loved her with all my heart, I could not stand to lose her. Not like that.”
“Why did you not tell her that?”
“She refused to hear a word. She just ordered my arrest and execution before I even returned from the field.”
“This combined with that strange light controlling your memories explains just about everything.”
“Except where I got my powers.”
“Yeah, about that. How come you don’t hunt in your dreams.”
“That was the deal. I trade my powers for supreme physical ability and I can exact my revenge. That and we have to capture souls using our weapons not any other method.”
“So, after all this I only have one question. Why tell me at all? You could have come out swinging. We probably won’t be able to kill each other, but from what I know about you that might have made you feel better.”
“You came to stand up to me not hide like the coward I thought you were. I decided to offer you a choice. Join my ranks and take a position of power among the Hunters. I will even make it easy for you.”
Between them a cage appears, large enough to hold a human.
“That cage is hardly going to hold me, a dreamer remember?”
“It’s not for you, it’s for your trial.” Michael says waving his hand. Suddenly, the cage is inhabited by Eve looking confused at her sudden change in scenery. “It’s the classic choice of loyalties. If you kill her, you can make it quick if you want to, then you cement a place among us. If you don’t kill her, I will, making it VERY slow.”
“You can’t kill me here! I know how dreaming works. I just have to believe you can’t harm me.” Eve shouts.
“It’s only true of dreamers, Taylor and I are exact equals because I am using his dreaming ability to be here, but you’re nowhere near as strong as him or I and so long as either of us believe you can be harmed you can be.”
“That doesn’t matter, Taylor will never become one of you!”
“Then I will get the pleasure of making you beg me to take your life.”
“No!” Taylor shouts. “If I do this I will get a new body? Powers like you?”
“And a chance to exact revenge on these disgusting creatures.”
Taylor summons a spear in his hand but hesitates.
“Think of all those times she let you die when she had the power to save you. How many shortened lives that could have been productive.”
“He is lying Taylor” Eve pleads.
“Those Egyptians you wrote about, all she had to do was use her power, drain their life spirit and you would have lived. The war you died in, that could have been stopped if she had told you the truth about what dreamers can do.” Taylor gapes at Eve confused.
“Even this she could have prevented. All she had to do was draw from my power and she could have stopped me without using her mother’s elaborate trap.”
“He’s lying. You know he is. Muse cannot draw life from subs, even Hunters.”
“Actually I can prove that she is lying.” Michael laughs summoning a new cage. “Her mother did it once.” In a blink the queen appears in the cage, the same confused look her daughter had when she appeared. “Tell them about the Elf you took betrayer.”
“I am sure I don’t know what your talking about Michael.”
The cage electrifies causing the queen to scream in agony. Eve visibly works to restrain her tears.
“Out with it.” Michael prompts again.
“I suppose it doesn’t matter anymore. An elf was manipulated by a dreamer to try to kill me. Michael was in the field doing my bidding so I defended myself. I intended to slow him down, I didn’t know what would happen.”
“She sucked every drop of life from the misguided fool. Two days later I return from the field and she fucks me like I was gone for years. The next day I woke up with the speed and strength of an elf. Turns out it was around that time you were conceived Eve.”
“To bad you never became a father, just a donor.” Eve retorts in a childish manner. Michael electrifies her cage but otherwise ignores her.
“You see Taylor, they are not defenseless, they just use people like us to do their dirty work and dispose of us.”
“Yes but joining you I give up one user for another.”
“You’re not seriously considering-” Eve’s cage electrifies again.
“You are just the test, no one cares what you think. Taylor, take her life and you can seize the power of a Hunter and never have to want for anything ever again.”
Taylor looks into Eve’s eyes, a flash of anger escapes his otherwise stoic expression. “Six thousand years and never once did you tell me about this.”
“I swear Taylor I never knew.” she pleads
“All those times I died for you just because I am some puppet for you.”
“I never-”
“I loved you!” Taylor shouts the whole place falls silent. Tears stream from both women’s faces. They know there is nothing they can do.
Taylor brings his spear to bear on the woman in the cage. “I am no one’s puppet.” he says sending the spear home deep into his cursed chest.
