From the Stars

Chapter 22: The Power to Save the World

"I'm too young to die! I'm too young to die!"

Stan's chants were the only words I could hear as the wind became so strong that the four of us had to dig our fingers into the ground just to stop ourselves from being carried away.

Through streaming eyes, I could make out the Venusian forces, now on their hands and knees as, they too, tried to stop the wind from blowing them away. Behind them, I could see Queen Orphia as she finally finished muttering to the Gratia and held it high in her palms.

Nothing happened.

If anything, the wind seemed to grow stronger. And hotter.

I clenched my teeth as I dug my fingers painfully into the solid dirt. Far away, I could hear the distant sound of car alarms being triggered by the wind. We were in the countryside, far away from any human life, but I could tell that the wind would spread for miles upon miles, wiping out everything in its path until there was nothing left.

On the battlefield, some of the Venusians closest to the Martian weapon began to lose their hold on the grass. Their flailing bodies shot through the air and barrelled into their comrades. It reminded me of a morbid game of bowling.

The wind grew hotter, and I squeezed my eyes shut against the heat. All this effort, I thought, and for what?

In the distance, a rumbling boom sounded, possibly a car crashing in the road. Possibly a building collapsing on itself, the wind so strong that bricks and cement could no longer stand against it.

As I lay on my stomach, my head pressed into the ground against the wind, I felt a hand placed upon my own. I looked up at Anita. She smiled at me, tears in her eyes, and I understood. I understood that, even though we could die, she would still be happy. Because all of us had done something. We'd been on an adventure. We'd been happy. Together.

I returned her smile and reached across to grab Belle's hand who, in turn, grabbed Stan's. And the four of us lay like that, hand in hand, stubborn to the wind that so desperately tried to tear us away from one another.

With a smile on my face, I closed my eyes and prepared for the end of the world.

A purple light shone from across the field. A light so bright that it was visible even beneath my closed eyelids.

"Behold!" Queen Orphia roared over the wind. "The weapon to defeat all weapons!"

I opened my eyes.

Across the field Queen Orphia held the Gratia high above her head, its blazing purple light shining brightly between her white fingers.

In a sudden pulse of power, the Gratia's light shone even brighter, illuminating the field in all of its glory.

I could almost feel the power spread. As if the vision I had been granted somehow allowed me a kind of connection with the Gratia. I could feel the power as it hit the front lines of the Martians, causing them to fall to their knees and grasp at their throats. I could feel the power as it spread to their weapons, causing them to fall silent. And I could feel the power as it finally spread to where King Phobos stood, his arms splayed wide in front of his victory as if he could protect the huge weapon with his body.

"No!" the King roared as, with a thunderous bang, the weapon exploded. The blast sent out a fireball that incinerated half the Martian forces. As well as their King.

The cheers from the Venusian army shook the field, almost as monstrously as the blast from the weapon had.

"Venusians!" Queen Orphia bellowed. "We have destroyed the Martian's grand weapon! Attack!"

The thunder of footsteps as the rest of the Venusian army burst through the trees, a hidden force that Queen Orphia had not allowed the Martians to see, was loud enough that their remaining army cheered again. A final victory cry as they began their final march on the scrambled Martian forces. It seemed that their small army had only been a front to trick the Martians into a false sense of hope. Now the Venusian army's numbers matched those of the Martian army, maybe even outnumbering them.

"Wait," Belle said, her hand still in my own, "I thought that destroying the weapon meant that the war was over? Didn't the early Venusians work with the Martians? Why would they want to destroy the foot soldiers now that their leader is dead?"

"Haven't you been listening to me?" I asked. "Queen Orphia isn't anything like her ancestors. She betrayed us. She'll easily kill the innocent Martian soldiers without a second thought and probably take the Earth after."

"Hold on," Anita said. "You planned for this didn't you?"

I smiled for the second time that day. "Just you wait."

Down on the battlefield, Queen Orphia held the Gratia high in the air as the two armies clashed together for a second time. It was clear that the power from the Gratia wasn't quite yet drained, and that the Queen meant to use it one more time before it was gone forever.

The two armies fought with lethal anger as the light from the Gratia illuminated the night. Before it was mostly guns that had done the killing. Now it was more personal. Swords and daggers scraped as their owners drew them from their sheaths, and the screams from the battlefield suddenly grew increasingly morbid as the quick deaths from before were replaced with slow, painful ones. I grinned from atop the hill, but not at the sounds of death below me.

The field grew silent as a huge rumbling shook the ground from a distance, from deep inside the forests to the west and east.

The cries from below suddenly grew frantic as the soldiers ran away from one another, and towards their spaceships which the power of the Gratia had caused to boot up and begin preparations for take-off.

"No!" Queen Orphia screamed at her shoulders as they fled past her. "Fight for your planet! Destroy them!"

It wasn't enough. The Venusian soldiers ran past their Queen, some even going as far as to push her, in order to reach their ships before they became stranded on Earth. Across the field, the Martian troops were doing the same.

My smile from the top of the hill only grew wider as I stood and Queen Orphia finally spotted the four of us watching the commotion take place. Our eyes locked.

"Come on," I said to my friends as I began walking down the hill and onto the steadily deserting battlefield, trying not to look at the bodies that littered the floor. "I think it's time we all had a little chat with her majesty."