We are inbound to “Ocaba Bien”.
Brett and Kady had gone with Sarah, to confront Jonathon Reighland.
Moms spoke with Sarah only hours before and heard the fierce resolve in her voice, the iron-willed intent.
Sarah was out for revenge, for all the harm Reighland had dealt her family.
She was going there to finish it, one way or another.
And God help anyone who stood in her path to righteous vengeance.
Reighland had taken her man.
Her love.
Her life.
And, now, he was going to pay, dearly.
I only hoped we could get there before the Mandarin agents killed our friends in retaliation.
—————
We manage to find our way to “Ocaba Bien”, the helicopter’s blades kicking up the beach sand.
Leaping from the chopper, we all run to the dock.
Reighland is there, and has a pistol aimed at Kady, holding Sarah and Brett at bay.
I see him hit Kady and knock her to the ground, shooting at Sarah and Brett, daring them to try to take Kady from him.
Sarah starts toward him, but Brett grabs her by the arm, yanking her away and in our direction.
We all run towards them, Om and Moms and my stepbrothers pounding their way across the sand towards the wooden dock.
Reighland has a boat moored there, a speedboat.
It looks like a Riva.
He’s shooting at us, and also at Sarah and Brett.
“Barbara!” yells Sarah.
“Sarah! Hurry up and run to us!” Moms yells back.
We meet on the dunes, and the men form a circle around us, doffing their clothes.
As he kicks off his Docksiders, Karl points out over the ocean.
There are at least ten Mandarin helicopter gunships inbound!
“Move!” shouts Stephan.
He, Karl and Bone clasp hands, arms locked around each other.
I yank off my top and shorts, kicking my shoes one at a time to the sand.
“Mom! Get in the middle of us,” Stephan commands.
Barbara disrobes, stepping into the center of the circle, Bone and Karl making a hole for her to enter.
Sarah follows her but hasn’t taken off her clothes.
I duck beneath the men’s arms and stand next to Moms, naked.
—————
Om is the last one out of our chopper.
As he exits, the pilot throttles up and is just clearing the beach, when a volley of machine gun fire from the lead gunship hits his tail rotor.
Spinning violently, our chopper veers out over the ocean.
The pilot fights for control, but it crashes just offshore.
It explodes, showering Om with water and sand.
Om falls down, and crawls away from the smoking wreckage, heading towards us.
“Dad!” Bone yells.
He tries to break the circle, but Karl and Stephan grab his arms tight.
“Stay here, Bone!” orders Stephan.
“Now!” he tells Karl and Bone, and they begin a Melding.
—————
Moms eyes are glowing, and her hair is beginning to float.
My own tattoo is glowing, as the power from the men circles us.
We three in the center hug each other, Sarah and Moms and I, and suddenly there is an increase in the force of the Melding.
Sarah grabs my hand, and I know that she’s feeling the raw power that courses through us, feels the immense strength behind the Melding.
Sarah is not Melded, but now we can see through her eyes.
We all see with one pair of eyes as Reighland, holding Kady, pulls her along the ground, dragging her behind him down the dock.
He is so intent on getting her into the speedboat that he drops his pistol.
Brett is moving now, running back towards Kady, but it’s as if an invisible hand shoves him back, and away.
“No, Brett, my darling son,” says Sarah.
At least, I think she says something.
Her lips are not moving, but she’s got an almost orgasmic look of joy on her face.
—————
Om strides across to us, joining in by grabbing Stephan’s hand and then by grasping Bone’s hand in his.
Our tattoos are blazing, and there is a strong wind whirling around us.
There are two circles, now.
The men surround us.
Moms' hair stands straight up, and she gestures to Sarah.
“It is up to you!” says Moms to Sarah.
We can see what she is planning to do.
It’s an immense act of love, from her to her family.
It’s sad, and sweet, and fitting.
We all look at Sarah, loving her, and knowing that she is doing the thing she needs to do.
Moms kisses Sarah, then I kiss her, and there is a huge sound and a flash of light.
My stepbrothers, Om, and Moms all fall down onto the ground.
—————
I am floating, like a mist.
My mind is everywhere, and nowhere.
I am Kady, barely conscious, and I see Sarah, looking like a demon from Hell, walking towards me and Reighland.
I am Reighland, such a small and horrified man, watching as Sarah walks towards me.
I (Reighland) find the gun, and shoot it at the hellspawn, to no effect.
I (Reighland) throw the empty gun at her, then run down the dock to the boat.
As Sarah(Me) walks, her clothes catch fire and burn away from her skin.
Her eyes glow bright yellow, like my (Rachel) tattoo, and her skin turns red.
I (Reighland) am too busy trying to get me (Kady) into the boat and does not notice as Sarah suddenly materializes next to us.
Sarah(Me) moves her arms as if giving me (Kady) a hug, and now I am sliding away from the speedboat, sliding across the dock as if an invisible rope has me (Kady).
Brett sees me (Kady) and races toward us, gathers us up in his arms and runs to a shack at the end of the dock.
He opens the door, ducks inside, and locks the door.
“Get down, Kady!” he yells.
“Brett, no! Mom!” Kady wails.
I float above them, now, watching.
“Mom knows what she’s doing, Kady!” he says to her, through his bitter tears.
“I love you, Mom,” he whispers.
“Mom, nooo!” Kady cries as Brett shoves her head down beneath him, trying to protect her from what he knows is coming.
—————
Sarah advances on the terrified, small man.
Reighland frantically tries to launch the boat and fumbles with the bow line.
He manages to get it free of the cleat, then he slips and falls hard, banging his head against the piling.
Blood runs into his right eye, and he wipes it with his hand, smearing it across his face.
“No! You bitch! No!” he screams, and he pisses his pants.
“Now, you bastard, you lousy son-of-a-bitch! This time you won’t escape!” yells Sarah, her voice booming from the flaming mouth of the righteous apparition she has become.
“No! Nooooo!” yells Jonathon Reighland.
He sees what Sarah has become, sees his Death in her face, and tries to turn to escape.
He covers his face with his hands and is blinded by the intensity of the light shining from her.
Then, as she hugs him to her naked breast, he falls to his knees, his skin melting and burning.
He screams in agony as his eyeballs pop, blowing out over his face, and his brains fry in his skull.
His flesh blackens and curls, his lips turn to ash, and his final screams are cut off in his throat, as he withers and dies.
Sarah stands over the corpse of Jonathon Reighland, destroyed by her wrath.
She stands over the damned thing that was Jonathon Reighland, and we hear her utter her final words.
“Ted, darling, I am coming!” she says, her face etched in an ecstasy of destruction.
Then, like a bomb detonating, Sarah disappears in a flash of white light, as the soulless remnants of Reighland are spread out in bloody ashes.
—————
The dock blows up.
The Mandarin gunships are firing at “Ocaba Bien”, the rockets blowing up the luxurious scenery, riddling the fine marble columns with tracer rounds.
The glass elevator explodes and shatters, the shards whickering through the air, lethally.
—————
I am alone, but my family is within me.
We are Melded, as One Being.
We see the puny helicopters, the empty men trying to destroy the magnificence sprung from the mind of a kind, gentle soul – Walter Reighland.
A man whose brothers abused and ultimately killed him, who usurped his empire, perverted his marvelous dreams, and who whored out his wonderful inventions to people bereft of the vision and morality he held.
—————
It’s as easy as swatting flies.
When we did the Melding at the compound, I couldn’t clearly recall what had happened later.
Because it’s too terrible for description.
Because it feels SO wondrous, almost like I am a god.
Like WE are gods.
The helicopters, the poor, worthless pilots and hapless men that have tried to kill us; the same ones that tried to kill Brett and Kady; the ones who killed Ted Ghent.
They simply vanish.
—————
I stand still on the beach of “Ocaba Bien”, my family within me.
We do what the Melding has allowed us to do.
We search them out.
—————
We find them.
We find the other Mandarin agents.
We know who they are…
The evil men Derek and his Alpha Team will be fighting.
The ones with whom Captain Spalding and the Black Dogs are at war.
The President, and his cowardly cronies selling out secrets of our country to men who want to enslave the world.
—————
Everywhere, we peer, and discover, and promise them that we will be coming.
The men and women we find, we touch, we put our fingers on their hearts, making them fear the coming reprisals.
—————
We are coming.
We will find them.
And, we will be victorious.
—————
My stepfather and mother, joined with me, in spirit and soul, smile, knowing the vengeance that is coming.
—————
My stepbrothers, Stephan, Karl and Drake, love me in the Melding, in a way far more intimate than anything we have physically shared.
—————
I see our future.
My future.
I smile, and cry, with joy and sadness.
It is beautiful.
—————
I know that Bone will always love me, and forever will be my soulmate.
But, his path is not mine.
He has his own mission, a life of adventure and action, and I can’t go there.
—————
Karl’s path is to travel, now truly a solitary man.
He is the one who searches.
His love and soul-mate has been and always will be the sea.
He will go to her.
—————
My future is with Stephan, and that is something I now realize I always knew, deep in my heart, something I could always feel.
His love for me was there whenever we were together.
I felt it in the feeling of security, the emotional strength in his unrelenting, unconditional love for me.
He waited, patiently, until silly Rachel grew into the woman of his dreams until she realized what he always knew, that they were meant to be.
—————
As for our enemies, the Mandarin Connection, and the other evils in the world - they should cower in wretched fear.
—————
For, We are coming.
—————
They are going to be Boned.