Royal Hearts (30 page)

Ann blinked. Did she see that right? Was Jaz
trying to tell her she had an ally in this room?

Jaz glanced at Falon and let her eyes drop to
his hand where his chip was firmly implanted. Then she looked back
at Ann, giving the knife a slight turn so that its silver tip
reflected the light again.

Ann’s eyes lit up with understanding. Jaz
planned to disable Falon’s chip, and in order to do that, she
needed a distraction.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” Ann said.

Falon groaned. “Now?”

She shrugged. “Nobody told me I’d be abducted
or else I would have gone back on Earth.”

Falon frowned. “Can’t you wait? I’m sure
Omin-2 won’t be long.”

“No. I have to go now. Please? My bladder’s
going to burst at any moment!”

“Alright.” He turned his back on them so he
could open the door.

Jaz lunged at him and grabbed his arm,
twisting it behind his back.

“What are you doing?” he demanded, struggling
to get away from her.

“Something for your own good,” Jaz replied,
straining to keep his hand still while she placed the knife to
where the chip was inserted.

Ann got up to help her when William reached
for her hand.

“She’s got it,” he told her.

“She could use my help,” she replied.

She shook his hand off and went over to Jaz
who was struggling with keeping Falon’s hand still.

“Thanks,” Jaz said then made an incision and
pulled the chip out.

Almost at once, Falon stopped fighting. He
turned back to them, startled. “What…?” He stared at his bleeding
hand.

“You were under Omin-2’s control,” Jaz
explained. “But we got the chip out, so you’re fine now.”

“Thank you for saving me from that thing.”
Falon nodded to the chip that was on the floor.

Jaz stepped on it and smiled. “Team members
look out for each other, right?”

He returned her smile. “Right.” He glanced
over at Omin’s clone, which was in hibernation. “I’m going to
destroy that thing before it can do any damage.”

“That’s a good idea. I’ll escort Queen Ann
and William back to Athena’s ship,” Jaz said. “Once I get Athena’s
chip out, she can take William back to Earth and Queen Ann to Raz.”
She glanced at Ann. “We still have one of Omin-2’s time travel
devices in that ship, so taking you back to Raz in your own time
won’t be a problem.”

“What about Hathor?” Ann asked. “How will he
get back?” Ann wondered.

“We will find Hathor and bring him back,
too.”

Ann breathed a sigh of relief. She couldn’t
wait for all of this to be over.

In silence, William and Ann followed Jaz out
of the room.

***

Omin-2 crawled through the ceiling until he
was above the Leader’s Office. It was his office. At least, it
would be once he eliminated his creator. He peered through a small
hole and saw Omin. This was going to be as easy as abducting the
queen of Raz.

Grinning, he smashed the vent with his foot
and gracefully fell to the floor, landing on his feet.

Omin leapt out of his chair. “Who are
you?”

Omin-2 pretended to be hurt. “You don’t
recognize your own face?”

“No, you can’t be my clone. I’m not
dead.”

“Too bad for you, you did die. Now I’ve come
back to the past to kill you.”

Omin growled. “You can’t do that!”

“Of course I can. And I will.”

Omin-2 swiftly pulled out his gun and shot at
Omin who managed to dodge in time to miss the bullet from hitting
his chest. Instead, the bullet hit his shoulder.

Omin examined his wound. “This isn’t a Paler
bullet.”

“How observant.” Omin-2 rolled his eyes.
“I’ve been to Earth and am back here.”

“Earth? Why would you need to go there?”

“You’ll just have to wait and find out what’s
so significant about that place.” His lips curled up. “If you live
long enough, that is.”

Omin frowned, then walked slowly behind his
desk, but Omin-2 kept his gaze on him, careful to watch where his
hand was going.

“I take it you conquered Earth while you were
there,” Omin said, his hand inching its way to a drawer.

“Would you create me to do anything less?”
Omin-2 shot Omin’s good arm before he could open the drawer.

Omin grimaced and clutched his other arm.

“I’m not stupid,” Omin-2 snapped. “In fact, I
exceed you in intellect.”

“You’re going to kill me? Fine. Get it over
with.” He stepped out from behind his desk. “I just hope you’re
prepared to run a planet.”

“Earth was simple. This one will be,
too.”

Omin-2 raised his gun, aiming it straight for
Omin’s chest. His finger caressed the trigger. But then pain shot
straight up his arm and to his chest. He dropped his gun and
collapsed.

Omin tilted his head in interest. “Not
feeling well?”

Omin-2 screamed, clutching his chest.

“It’s a shame you won’t be killing me,” Omin
said, stepping over to him. “For the first time in my life, I had
respect for someone.”

Omin chuckled. He picked up the gun and aimed
it at his clone. Then, after a moment, he set it on his desk.
“Actually, I think I’ll watch you die on your own.”

***

Guard Falon continued to stab the frozen
clone until he was sure it was dead. He sat down, out of breath
from his labor. Finally, Omin would no longer be a threat to the
future Pale or to anywhere else in the universe.

***

Omin watched as his dead clone disappeared.
Curious. It was as if his clone no longer existed, which was fine
with him. He didn’t need a rebellious descendant.

He took out his gun and headed to his secret
room. He would destroy the clone and the technology to make more of
them. Then, his clone, or any other successive clone, wouldn’t be a
threat to him in the future.

***

Hathor appeared in an isolated area of Alpha
Head I. He didn’t recognize the place but figured it had brought
him to where Omin-2 and Ann had arrived. He looked at his
surroundings. The only thing he saw in the steel room was a
one-person spaceship. He recognized it as Omin’s personal ship.
This must be another one of Omin’s secret rooms.

He held onto his sword as he walked across
the room. He hadn’t used his sword yet, but with Omin, one could
never tell if trouble was right around the corner or not.

As if to prove his point, a laser beam almost
hit his head. Startled, he raced toward the nearest barrier he
could find, which happened to be Omin’s spaceship. Another laser
beam whizzed past his head. His ear rang from the sound of it. He
made it to the ship just in time to avoid another laser beam.

His heart pounding furiously, he stood still
for several seconds so he could properly assess the situation.
Someone was shooting at him with a Paler gun, but he hadn’t seen
anyone out there.

Everything had gone quiet. The only thing he
could hear was his shaky breathing. He took the Book of Spells out
of his pocket and enlarged it. After he recited the spell that
would reveal his attacker, he shrunk the book and put it back into
his pocket. Tightening his hold on the sword, he glanced around the
side of the ship.

The Olympian spaceship was now visible. He
strengthened his grip on his sword before he ran to the Olympian
ship. As he guessed, the laser beams shot at him, fast and furious.
He reacted by using the sword to bounce the beams harmlessly away
from him.

He reached the closed door of the ship and
tugged on the handle to open it. It was locked, a fact that didn’t
surprise him. Thankfully, Razian swords were strong enough to
penetrate through Olympian spaceships. He cut through the door,
anticipating another round of laser beams, so he dodged behind the
door until he had a big enough opening to jump through it.

Athena groaned as he entered the ship. “Don’t
you know how to die?” She raised the gun and got ready to fire it
at him.

She must have the chip in her. There was no
other way she would attack him, not with the alliance between
Olympia and Raz. He acted defensively so as not to cause her any
harm. His sword blocked her gunshots until he was able to grab her
hand.

She released the gun, which fell harmlessly
to the floor. “Let me go,” she cried out, pushing against him.

He scanned the ship for something that would
remove the chip, his gaze finally going to the pocket knife on the
floor. Athena continued fighting against him, but he dragged her
over to the pocket knife. Despite her struggles, he managed to cut
out the chip.

When she finally stopped fighting him, he
showed her the chip. “Athena, do you feel alright?”

She blinked several times then took the chip.
“I barely remember getting this,” she whispered. “I was searching
for Queen Ann when we were forced to land on Earth. Omin’s clone
had a group of people with him whose job it was to insert these
chips into us.”

“Us?”

“Zeus, Ares, Apollo, Second Commander Jaz,
and Guards Lino and Falon.”

“Do you know where Queen Ann is?”

She rubbed her head and swallowed. “Most of
what happened after I was implanted with the chip is foggy, but I
know Second Commander Jaz and Guard Falon took her and William to
the secret room where Omin’s clone was created. Omin’s clone
mentioned making William the king of Raz. If I remember correctly,
William brought the chip injector with him.”

“He must be planning to
implant a chip into Ann. We’ve got to hurry! Raz can’t be under
that Paler’s control.”
And I can’t afford
to lose her to William.

She picked up the Paler gun and joined him as
he rushed out of the ship.

***

Meanwhile, Ann and William followed Jaz
through the dark corridors that would take them back to the
Olympian spaceship. Without warning, William jumped on Jaz’s back
and tackled her to the ground. Ann reacted on instinct. She kicked
him in the jaw, distracting him long enough for Jaz to reach for
her knife. He caught the knife first and swiped Jaz’s hand where
blood seeped from the wound.

Ann made an attempt to get the knife from
him, but he used his height to his advantage and hung it over her
head so that she couldn’t reach it. Jaz stood up and punched him in
the stomach. He hunched down so that she was able to grab the
knife.

“Run, Queen. Go to the Olympian spaceship.
Omin’s clone has given Athena direct orders to keep you alive,” Jaz
said. “It should buy us time until Falon and Hathor can come for
you.”

Ann knew better than to stick around, but in
her panic, she didn’t pay attention to where she was going. As she
raced around, she made turns at random. It wasn’t until she was
deep in the maze that she realized she was lost.

She finally stopped and looked around. It was
so dark in here. Her heart raced with nervous dread. The silence
around her should have comforted her, but instead, it only
increased her anxiety. Was William catching up to her? Did he know
where she was? Was he going to kill her because she chose Hathor
over him?

After a few minutes passed, she began to
think clearly again. She had to backtrack her steps. It was the
only chance she had of getting out of this maze. She turned around
and quietly walked back in the direction from which she came. Each
footstep seemed to echo in the corridor despite her best effort to
not make a sound.

She felt helpless as she tried to recall her
steps. Every corridor was the same. There was nothing to
distinguish one from the other. She sighed as she continued to
walk. Was this pointless? Should she just wait and hope Hathor
would find her?

The fear that William might find her if she
remained in one place motivated her to keep going. She knew what
Omin-2’s plan was, and apparently, William was in agreement with
it.

As she turned down another corridor, she
wondered if she was going in circles. Maybe she should just follow
one corridor and see where it led. Just as she was about to do
that, she bumped into someone. She screamed and fought to get away,
but the person grabbed for her. Backing up, she tripped and fell to
the floor.

“Stay still,” William hissed as he put all of
his weight on her arm. He took the chip injector out of his pocket
and put it up to her hand.

“No! I don’t want the chip!” she shrieked
when she realized what he was doing.

He couldn’t get her to be with him willingly,
so he was going to force her to want to be with him? Even though
she knew he’d planned this, she still couldn’t believe he was
actually doing it.

Suddenly, his weight left her. It took her a
moment to realize Hathor had pulled William off of her just in time
to stop him.

Hathor punched William in the jaw. William
tried to fight back, but Hathor’s fighting skills exceeded his. By
the time Hathor had William quivering on the floor, his sword
pressing on William’s neck, Ann found enough strength to get to her
feet.

She went over to them, still trembling from
being attacked.

“Permission to kill him,” Hathor said, his
body rigid, ready to strike his opponent.

“No, Hathor.”

He shot her a confused look. “He just
threatened you. You could have died.”

“I have a better idea on how to handle this.”
When he didn’t respond, she touched his arm. “Send him back to the
past. Not the past we just went through or the past when he knew I
went to Raz. Let him be in the one where I moved to Florida and he
didn’t want me. All he wants is to be a king. He never wanted me.
When we remove the knowledge of who I am from his mind, he won’t be
a threat anymore.”

After a tense moment, Hathor removed the
sword from William’s neck. Bowing to her, he said, “The queen’s
will be done.” Keeping his sword pointed at William so that William
couldn’t cause any more harm, he found the chip injector and gave
it to her.