Chapter Four

They strapped themselves in even as they watched the ships of The Darkness head in their direction. Surrendering to them would be out of the question. If they didn’t make it, then they would bring The Darkness along with them as they ended this part of their lives.

“Five minutes,” Jabari warned them.

They each relaxed in their seat being tense was never a good way to go into a jump.

“Two minutes,” Phoenix said even as they each watched the view screen in front of them as the ships got closer.

“One minute.” The ships in front of them fired.

He watched as the laser fire went through their ship. They seemed to become nothing as they disappeared. The view screen was replaced with images he had never seen. There were dwellings in the air and Created he had never seen before. One had bright red hair. Then there was a face he remembered from the fight with Yaksim.

“I’ve been waiting for you.” Then there was a scene where the male was talking to Brie. When he finished, he hugged her before placing his hand on her forehead. She glowed for a minute then the scene was gone.

Brie lived longer than any Scientist ever did. He refused to ponder that thought as they spent blissful centuries together, now he wondered why. Then it was over.

“Where are we?” he snapped seeing Brie again made him feel unhinged his animal wanted to come out and rip the male apart who dared to take her into his arms. His eyes lifted to look around the room, and he realized he wasn’t the only one battling his beast. Each of them was close to the edge, and the beast eyes were bleeding into their own. He turned away because he didn’t need any dominance battles right now.

Fighting the beast that lived inside of you was no easy task especially when it was broken. The beast wanted to come out and play, but fun and games to it meant tearing someone apart. It always had to be a someone and not a something.

He fought for control of his body. If he couldn’t hold on the others wouldn’t hold on, and they fought too long against the blood lust to give in to it now.

It was the sound of an incoming call that gave him the extra nudge he needed to regain control. He looked around to see the others were pulling back from the edge.

“Open a channel.” He took a deep calming breath.

“Welcome to Earth.”

Earth how was that possible? His eyes went to the view screen to see they were in orbit around a mid-size planet that was shrouded in blue.

“Who are you?”

“You’ll meet me soon.” The channel closed while he stared at the planet.

“How did we get here?”

“Not sure. The Jump should have taken us to the next jump point not landed us in orbit around the earth.”

All eyes moved to Akron.

“I had nothing to do with it.”

The male could manipulate time and space but he wouldn’t because he was as broken as the rest of them.

“If you didn’t do it…”

He stood his beast rising to the surface. “I said I didn’t do it.”

They nodded they may be broken, but they didn’t lie to each other, ever. They could never have a family unit if one of them broke that rule.

“Maybe the voice on the other end did it,” Thrice ventured. “How else would he know we were here?”

That was an excellent question one he wasn’t prepared to try to answer yet.

“I’m leaving the ship in 30 microns. Are you with me?” He shouldn’t have to ask that question but until they could find some sense of normalcy, nothing could be taken for granted.

All eyes snapped to Slade and heads tilted briefly. He got up and walked out the room he needed this time to prepare. The walk to his room took no time at all and now he was pacing back and worth wrestling with his beast again.

He needed to see his twin, he needed to kill his twin. How dare he have the same face as he had and not claim him? How dare he leave him alone to become broken?

If you had been claimed from birth, you would have never met Brie, fallen in love with Brie. You would have never have spent centuries being loved by Brie.

His gut twisted as he acknowledged that and yet an anger he couldn’t control was taking him over. He wanted to punish his twin for leaving him, for denying him the brothers he should have had, for taking away the camaraderie that should have been his as he went on missions. Instead, he suffered from the silence that always plagued him.

There was no voice in his head to wish him well. No brothers to warn him of what was around the corner. He had missed it all, and his twin was the reason why. He would die today even if Slade followed him into death. His soul would finally be free. Maybe he was meant to be with Brie in the afterlife. He checked his weapons, then he checked the time. He hit the all call never saying a word the whistling of it would be enough.

He was met in the hanger. They prepared the ship to receive them later before they entered the small shuttle and descended to earth.

“Where are we going?”

He turned to look at Thrice it was a legitimate question. Unfortunately, he didn’t know the answer. In his anger, he hadn’t taken the time to ask himself where would his brother be. Would he even be on this planet anymore? His beast wanted to shred his insides for daring to even think he wouldn’t get his justice.

Justice? He could almost see Brie standing before him with a frown on her beautiful lips. She wouldn’t want him to kill his brother. It had been her hope that they would meet and become friends. As if he could accept someone that left him to twist in the air alone.

He left you with Brie, could you have asked for anything more? He shut down that line of thought. He needed vengeance. No one was speaking, so he looked at the males that surrounded him. Each was looking at him their gazes were shuttered so he couldn’t read what they were thinking. That didn’t stop his gut from twisting, it didn’t stop him from thinking about each of them and what they had lost. Had he brought them out here to this planet so far aware from the epicenter of the galaxy for them to lose him also?

He shook his head as a scream erupted in his mind but stayed firmly locked behind his teeth. Once again, he acknowledged he was broken. What male went after a brother even one that left him when he was a baby unless he was broken?

“Do you wish to land on the earth or should we join the traffic in the air?”

He wanted to kill his brother and allow himself to meet Brie, but the land was calling his name, and he couldn’t ignore it. They landed in what was a big open field. They stood looking out the view screen that had been uncovered to make seeing easier.

“It’s green,” Akron said the words that seemed to be laced with a bit of awe.

It was much different from any planet they had visited before including the one they were born on. They left the ship allowing their feet to touch the ground. Phoenix went to his knees allowing his hand to play in the grass.

“It’s soft.”

Slade looked around and tried to shake off the unknown feeling that was wrapping itself around him. This was not how they acted on a planet. They had seen a number of different planets and never had any of them been overwhelmed, but this was different.

For a minute or maybe it was only for a moment, he had the feeling that he was coming home. How was that possible? His home had been Brie’s arms, he would never know that sensation again.

“Are we staying here?” Mekhi asked.

He shook his head why would they stay some place that did this to them?

“We need to find my brother dispose of him and then leave.”

Every movement around him stopped, and he knew his mistake as soon as he said it. They knew he was going after his twin, but none of them knew he planned to kill him. Their eyes pierced him condemning him without saying a word.

How could they understand, each of them had been part of a family unit at one time. They didn’t understand the feeling of thinking you were the only one to find out in the end that you were the unwanted one. The one that wasn’t worthy of being included in the group.

“Is that what you really think? That you weren’t worthy, so you were left behind. Is it not reasonable to think that your destiny lies in a different direction?”

He spun around looking for the voice he felt in his head to only be met by the eyes of his brothers.

“When you’re done fighting, you can find him here.”

Coordinates poured into his head even as he roared his fury shaking the earth around his feet, he dropped to his knees as his beast tore free of his skin. His brothers dropped at his roar of dominance and the urge to fight bringing their beasts to the surface.

Broken was the thought that possessed him as he ran at Phoenix. None of them were the beautiful beasts they were at one time. They were scarred physically as well as mentally.

Phoenix picked him up and threw him at Akron who placed his arm around his neck trying to choke him. Jabari took his claws and dug into his back.

He roared breaking free of their hold. The scent of his blood mingled with the thoughts of death. He reached for a weapon and went after Jabari the long knife aimed at his heart. At the last-minute, Jabari stopped moving and opened his arms wide.

Slade’s arm carried through stopping just as the knife pierced his chest. He backed away letting it hit the ground.

Mekhi roared before he took his humanoid form. “That’s what it means to kill your brother.”