Goddess of the Moon (Young Ancients: Tiera) (50 page)

Tiera
wasn't really a bitch, so the first thing she did, was speak. The blonde woman,
who was dressed in a nice, but practical looking merchant's outfit, all in tan,
that looked to have a jacket and skirt even though it was all magic, came out
with a man that looked to be in his early twenties or so and had nice black
hair and smooth skin. He looked a little soft, and was shorter than she was,
but that didn't mean she couldn't find him interesting at all.

"Sara?
Tor and Timon woke up. It worked. They're both resting now, but I thought you'd
want to know? I think Tor is in Ali's room, right next to Alison and
Eloise?"

The
woman didn't say anything at all, and just started running, full speed. Tiera
called out after her, since the trip was a long one, on foot.

"Use
your Tor-shoes!"

Whether
she was heard or not, she didn't know.

The
man, who was Smythe's assistant, she thought, stood looking up at her a bit.
There was more professionalism to his gaze than lust, which was a bit
disheartening really, but she'd live.

"So,
you came to report to your boss? I'll warn you now, I'm making you suffer
through dinner at least, and if I can get you interested enough, that sex you
mentioned. I'm not trying to be a whiner, but things have been really boring
here, and you kind of did promise." Or at least mention that that was why
he was coming.

The
man grinned and bowed.

"Your
Highness." Then he looked at the door, which was probably telling. "I
did, indeed come to report. As for the rest of the evening, well..." He
seemed suddenly happy at least. "That's at least as good of a reason to
show up. I also have some papers, from King Richard?"

They
walked, since it was pretty clear that the man was going to be there for a
while, since Sara had vanished and might well stay that way for a while.

The
only bizarre thing, really, was that Ridley asked to see Trice, so he could
report. She kept her shock to herself and got the woman out of Timon's room,
taking her place for a few moments while the other two spoke in the hallway.

Then
the rest of the night went along as planned. By her. It was nice and Ridley
Dens, no matter what else he might be, which, she understood, was probably a
spy for Trice, which would mean for the King as well given her sense of duty,
was good in bed.

Very
much so.

In
fact, he had to stay the night, since Sara wasn't leaving Tor, so Tiera took
advantage of that and got him interested in her twice. It was fun, and only
left the review from Space Fleet to handle before they left. True, they could
have gone back to Harmony and dropped people off, but as things worked out, the
others all felt that staying was a fine option too.

Timon
managed to get everyone out into the hangar, dressed in something a bit nicer
than student browns.

"I
mean, after all, Tiera, you're the Queen of the Moon. I'm sorry about that, by
the way. If I'd been around properly I would have set up some kind of group to
do the work. That's what I'd actually intended, so that no one would have the
whole thing dropped on them like this. Well, we can fix that on Mars. For the
time being however, I'm the Noram ambassador to the colony. I should probably
get in touch with Richard, that being the case. Can we get a good deal on aid
supplies?"

She
made a slightly bemused face and looked down at him. He was still growing, but
not as fast as she had. That probably made things easier for him, really. He'd
transformed his clothing into a nice black velvet outfit that looked ready to
go to a court function. Trice was in a light colored but very fine dress, and
stood next to him, since that was her place for the event. Alphonse had to be
there, being the point of the whole thing and dressed in the Royal colors of
Noram.

Tiera
glanced over and smiled up at him. Then snapped her fingers.

"I
need some royal colors too. I haven't been thinking of anything like
that."

The
tall Prince looked at her, lovingly, she realized. It wasn't exactly correct,
if they were family, but they weren't really, were they? Enough though, so she
winked and turned away as he spoke.

"It
does make getting dressed for things like this easier. I always know what to
wear. It saves time." He meant it to be funny, and everyone chuckled a
little bit.

Tor
was there, also in black, but he made that look plain, so that he wouldn't
overshadow anyone. Kolb was standing there too, but well back, since, as he let
them know, more than once, if he and Alice were too close, for too long, they'd
fight. Even though they liked each other. It was just a thing that happened,
that neither could help. He also assured them that it would be fine, if they
kept some distance between them. Fifty feet or so.

Ali
was actually piloting the ship, and little Alison wasn't brought out yet. It
wasn't really needed after all, and waving a baby around wasn't that
interesting to most people.

They
expected a lot of people, and the craft that came in, a regular Tor built one, seemed
large enough for twenty or so, if they packed in close. When they started to
get off however, it was a lot less than that. Gerent came first, looking
pleased to see everyone, but behind him there were only two people.

A
man and a woman, and neither one of them was Alice Orange. Not even the
littlest bit.

Gerent
waved at them.

"I
was told that there was a change of plans and that you only wanted these two? I
hope we can bring the others over later. I don't want to impose, but we sort of
promised them a chance to view your new ship, Tiera. A lot of them are really
excited to see it. There's been talk of missions to other planets and even
stars, soon. If we can get one of them, I mean." He bowed suddenly, with
his hands to his sides, but going low. "Sorry, I mean your Majesty."

She
waved at him abstractly, with her left hand, going for her weapon with her
right. "No need for titles or honorifics, since we're family. If I'm the
Queen that makes you something royal sounding or other, doesn't it? Being my brother
and all that. Why not step aside for now though Gerent? We need to deal with
this first I think."

She
moved then, to the side, and pointed her little wand, stripping the two
Ancients in front of her of their shields. Tiera wasn't the only one to get the
basic idea though, and everyone in the room, except Gerent, had a weapon out.
All pointed at the man, who was a tall boy really, and the woman that looked
exactly like her own mother. At least once the disguise amulet was dropped.
Tiera did that with a flicker of intent, but it was clear that several others
had already gotten the idea.

Gray
and Cordes. Come visiting and everything.

It
was the man that spoke, waving first to Kolb, of all people.

"Kolby!
Tor!" Then looking around, he fixed on Tiera and bowed. "And the
Little Bitch! You got big, didn't you. So nice to see you all." He sounded
happy enough about it all.

Like
he really was coming for a visit.

She,
personally, was about to kill both of the Others that stood before them,
wondering if they were the leaders of the whole thing or just the ones that had
managed to survive somehow. They were both dressed in black, and Gray had
orange stripes on her sleeves, showing that she was a Captain in Space Fleet.
It was probably not real, since Orange would have noticed her, one would have
thought, if they ever met. She could scent familiar people and even immortals,
so it would be hard to hide that from her. There weren't that many Captains
after all.

Cordes,
who to Tiera looked like Mitchell, had a single teal stripe, on his cuffs,
meaning he was pretty low ranking. It explained how they'd lived at least,
being off planet and probably refusing to go back, once they realized that all
the Others there had died.

Gray
scrambled for something in her side pocket, which turned out to be a pale white
capsule. Not gray at all. She started to squeeze it, when Cordes pulled
something large and lumpy from his own pocket and pointed it at the side of her
head. It made a very loud sound, and blood sprayed away from him as the Gray
Ancient fell down, seeming dead. A few more loud noises were made, just for
good measure, making the small and familiar looking woman's head, collapse.

He
held the thing up, with two fingers, and waved it a little bit for Kolb to see.

"Amazing,
isn't it? I used the three-dimensional printer on the Ranford to make it. No
one else realized what it was. Gray thought it was an affectation for some
reason. Then, she was never that good at violence really." He looked at
the little white capsule and smiled, his face looking too familiar by far, for
her taste. "You'll want to get rid of that. It's pretty nasty stuff. Lara
wanted to make sure that you all died, for killing us all. She had a few
hundred daughters that died when you set things off, Gerent."

Tor
stared, his face looking hard.

"Terek?"

Mitchell
the Cordes nodded slowly. "That's me. I'm sorry about tricking you like
that Tor. I had to make certain that the version of me in your head wasn't
corrupted. The Larval were, as you know. I wouldn't have set them after you, if
I didn't know they couldn't control themselves better than that. They were
supposed to push you into becoming, well, what you did. So I guess it worked,
after a fashion? I enjoyed our talks though, over the years. I know that I was
most glad to find out that the version of me in you wasn't evil. There was
always that chance. I had to take out more than one that was, in the last few
years. Apparently, I can be an asshole. Who knew?" The words were playful,
and meant to sound like her brother, Tiera thought.

Stepping
closer, Kolb looked down at Lara and picked the capsule up, carefully. Then he
stood and looked at Cordes. Hard.

"So,
are you claiming you were on our side the whole time? Some kind of double
agent? It might have been nice if you'd have let us know about that first,
wouldn't it?"

The
boy that Tiera had known as Mitchell, who was, if she had it right, both Cordes
in mind and body, having a five hundred year old copy of the original man
inside of himself, shook his head. He needed a haircut, she thought. Then she
would soon too. It might not be that bad though, since the new Timon shields
probably wouldn't let your hair be pulled, being far enough away from the head
to stop that.

He
looked at Kolb, his little brother, and just seemed sad.

"No.
It was
all
me, Kolby. I did all of this. And it
worked
. I can't
believe it, but I
won
. It took so long to put together and so many false
tries. I can't even tell you about them all, since I don't know. Thousands of
me, working for hundreds of years, but now it's done. Finally." He glanced
at everyone else, and got that they seemed baffled at least.

That
probably meant he was only half crazy, but he didn't bother explaining anything
either.

Tiera
nodded, and so did Timon.

She
was just faking it, acting as if she understood, but Tim spoke as if he was
reading from a book.

"Your
goal was never to kill humanity. Just the Ancients. The old ones at least. You
pushed us all into responding, so that we'd make that happen? Everything bad
that's happened has your mark on it..."

Mitchell
smiled, seeming a lot happier than he normally had at weapons practice.

"
Exactly
Tim. It was always about saving the world. Gray wasn't the only threat, just
the one I thought you could all survive. In a few hundred years it would have
been Brown, or Green... and
everyone
always undersold him. He had a
hundred things in that basement of his that could have destroyed the entire
world, and his mind was going, and had been for a long time. He couldn't even
just kill himself, thanks to his Rhetistics. But he and the others
could
let themselves die, for the good of the whole. One last noble stand to keep the
world from being destroyed at the last second." He spread his hands, old
style weapon still in the right one. It gleamed a little in the bright magical
lights of the hangar.

Then,
as if it made any sense at all, he bowed to them all again, one by one.

Then
knelt on the ground, laying his head low, touching the deck, raising only a
tiny bit to speak.

"I
apologize from the bottom of my heart, for all I've done to you. Tor, it was I
who set the Larval on you, no one else. No matter what it seems like. That was
always my fault. Or,
a
Cordes, at any rate. Timon... I told the Larval
to set up taking you, to influence Tor into drastic action. Your torture and
pain was all my fault. I should have found a better way. I didn't know that it
would be as bad for you as it was, but that doesn't excuse the action. And
Tiera..." He stopped, and sighed then shook his head. "I
didn't
make Sandra kill your Regina. That one I didn't do at all, but I
could
have stopped it, and didn't act, even knowing that a girl would die, since it
would have given me away at the time."