Jhaon was leading them through a series of tight tunnels that served as backdoors to the laboratory he needed.

The harbinger hated everything about the set-up of the situation they were in. There was no other way for it to work, but he loathed the fact that he had to leave Jackie alone with that monster.

No matter what the Eternal thought the end game was going to be, Kol-Eresh's mind was made up. No Eternal would survive the night.

"You are in luck," Jhaon said, slowing down. "I can shut this path down from the inside and on the other side, the corridor leading to the laboratory is very narrow. It will help you and against my brothers, you need all the help you can get."

Kol-Eresh snarled an unintelligible answer, but the Eternal didn't seem to care. He was holding on to Jackie, measuring her pulse as she stumbled down the path. The harbinger ached to help her, carry her, but that would have meant sheathing his sword and he didn't trust Jhaon one bit.

Now he had to trust him with what was most important to him in the world.

"They will know we're in there as soon as I begin," Jhaon said. "Expect no mercy or quarter."

"None will be given either," Kol-Eresh replied. "As for you –"

"Stop threatening me," Jhaon answered coldly. "I feel like I owe the female for the truth she imposed on me, and some of my brothers have lived too long to change and see the truth. When this is over, consider yourself my enemy again.

"Nayanors have squandered all the gifts we gave you. Even your own females think you're unworthy, although I see you have gotten lucky."

"Gifts?" Kol-Eresh barked a laugh. "You destroyed our planet, our genes and you've spent years trying to kill our fateds. You are not the saviors of this world, you are the plague."

Jhaon stopped in the middle of the hallway and Kol-Eresh considered his words. He knew he should have kept them for a time when Jackie wasn't in mortal danger, but he hadn't been able to hold back.

Despite all the true gifts like the Gechs and the diadons, the Eternals really were the enemies.

"If you survive the battle with my brothers," Jhaon said quietly, with a good measure of vicious glee. "You will make a great test subject for the new serum, one that works on Nayanors instead of the females."

"What makes you think that after I've killed all of them, I can't kill you?" Kol-Eresh asked darkly.

Jhaon turned away from him, heading for the laboratory again.

"Because," he said, "they're not exactly my brothers. More like sons."

Kol-Eresh didn't say another word as they resumed their journey, but at last he had a confirmation for the bad feeling he'd had about Jhaon from the beginning. The Eternal in front of him was the father of all the others, making him the oldest and undoubtedly the strongest.

And the most vicious, judging by the way he was prepared to let his own sons die for disagreeing with him.

Jhaon held up his hand when they reached the laboratory.

"I will do what I can for your female," he said. "Remember what I said. Miss one and we might all be dead."

The Eternal laughed darkly as if he'd made a joke.

"Except for me, of course," he said. "But I think it might be interesting to see how a new Nayanor fares against my sons."

Kol-Eresh didn't say another word to him. He took Jackie's hand, feeling his fated give it a squeeze. Her eyes were almost entirely purple now, looking at him with a mixture of sadness and hope and love that burned straight to his very core.

"I know you will be back for me," she said.

Kol-Eresh nodded and stepped into the laboratory. The alarms went off instantly. He was certain Jhaon could have turned them off, but the Eternal seemed to be having his own way of fun with him.

Out in the hall, through a long corridor, Kol-Eresh could see eyes turning his way and then the Eternals rushed toward him.

The harbinger moved to meet them, sword in hand, casting one last look at Jackie.

She was laying down on the surgery table again, mouthing something that looked like "I love you".

That was all that he needed.

The first Eternal tried to decapitate him, but Kol-Eresh dodged out of the way. The wall of the narrow corridor caught the sword and it stayed stuck there for just a moment before the warrior could pull it free. The man realized the mistake when Kol-Eresh swung his own blade and cut the arms right off, kicking the howling warrior in the chest in the next second.

The mutilated Eternal fell onto the others, screaming. In their rage – and judging by their disdainful looks, on purpose – his brothers trampled the first beneath their feet. Kol-Eresh couldn't muster any pity, not when he was giving the fury in him free reign.

He couldn't see Jhaon or Jackie, he'd come too far out into the corridor, but he had to put his faith in the gods.

They wouldn't take his fated from him, not like that.

Not after he'd done the impossible by finding the Eternals and was doing it again by killing them.

It turned out that the ancient warriors were the biggest enemies of themselves. After the first one had suffered a miserable, unglorified death under the boots of his brothers, Kol-Eresh figured out how little they cared for the others.

He used it to his advantage, the only advantage he had, other than the tightness of the corridor.

The harbinger backed away a step, letting the warrior coming at him miss the blow. He kept baiting the Eternal until he'd made enough mistakes to be shoved out of the way by the others, forcing every warrior to keep an eye on the men next to them. Kol-Eresh tried to remember who had been on one side or the other in the argument, forcing them next to each other.

The Eternals might have been superior fighters to most Nayanors, but time had made them so selfish they'd lost all sense of how to work as a unit. The rancid disdain they had for Kol-Eresh and the other Nayanors seemed to extend to their own brothers as well.

It made sense that after seeing the same faces for hundreds of years, the Eternals had no familiar feelings left. The same time that had honed their skills had eroded away the patience a warrior needed to survive in a battle.

Kol-Eresh had noticed the same thing with the men he'd fought when his ship was attacked. He'd been able to bring one of them down, because every single one of them fought like they were alone and the others were in their way.

Brilliance, it seemed, didn't go hand in hand with wisdom.

The harbinger cut and parried and tricked the Eternals, but every step back was like walking on blades. He couldn't let them close to Jackie. For every step Kol-Eresh had to take back, he had to suffer for to gain again.

Every time he moved forward, pushing his enemies onto the pile of corpses growing on the floor, Kol-Eresh paid for it with another wound.

The first ones had been easy, no more than scratches and cuts, but then one sword sliced into his abdomen, hard.

Kol-Eresh roared in fury, killing the warrior with a powerful strike of his sword, but the blood gushing from his wound wasn't looking good. The diadon in his chest was glowing brightly, trying to keep him from going through the terrible exertion.

Then the Eternals parted, moving out of the way and Kol-Eresh stared eye to eye with two Abominations coming toward him in perfect unity. It seemed the Eternals had realized their mistake as well and were taking a breather while he was forced to fight mechanical creatures who could work together very well.

Kol-Eresh focused, but not on the Abominations in front of him, pushing the pile of corpses out of their way.

He thought of Jackie, of his fated's laughter. The small moments she probably hadn't even noticed, curling up next to him, pushing her body closer to his. The way she'd only been able to sleep in his arms, her arms wrapped around his chest.

The Abominations leaped as one, trying to jump over him, but Kol-Eresh was prepared to back away if that was what it took. He targeted one of them, grasping the huge sword hard in his grip. When the creature was almost on top of him, the harbinger sliced open its mechanical belly, jumping out of the way when the beast dropped like a rock, its systems down.

The other turned to Kol-Eresh, roaring in that ear-shattering voice. The harbinger rushed him, seeing the Eternals regrouping. The beast lashed out with claws like daggers, catching his thigh when Kol-Eresh came too close. The harbinger grunted in pain, but the move had paid off. He slammed the blade of his sword into the beast, nailing him to the ground for a moment.

It nearly cost him his life. Pulling his sword out of the mix of metal and wires wasn't a smooth motion.

The first Eternal to reach him landed a good blow that his shoulder guard blocked. The impact resonated through him like he'd just been hit by a fighter.

That was the exact thing Kol-Eresh had been trying to avoid. When he gave the bastards a single chance to fight honestly and show their true colors, all their massive power and skill started to show again.

He killed the enemy with difficulty, but the others were coming.

Time lost its meaning. Kol-Eresh channeled all of his rage and fear for Jackie's life into his sword, slicing through his enemies. The loss of blood was starting to make itself known. His mind was dizzy and his eyes weren't as sharp as he was used to.

The harbinger was certain that he'd dealt a few corpses needless blows before he realized that there was no one left to kill.

He stopped, breathing heavily, supporting himself on the sword.

The last of the Eternals was slumping against the wall, the one he'd tried to kill again and again long after he'd died.

On the other end of the corridor stood a lone Abomination, unmoving. Kol-Eresh figured it needed a command from the Eternals to attack, but it was still eerie to turn his back on the creature and head back to the laboratory.

Jhaon was waiting for him, with his fated sitting up on the table, her eyes –

Her eyes were hers once again.