“Holy shit!” Allef exclaimed.
“Quiet!” Aurein hissed. “We need to monitor her. The fact that she’s here means something is going on. And it can’t be good.”
Flint, Allef, and Aurein navigated through the crowd until they had circled back to the shop Hazni was waiting in front of. Since Aurein pointed it out to him, it was easier to tell that this woman was, in fact, the warden of The Ray that Flint had grown to hate over those long months of confinement. She no longer wore the star-studded uniform of a prison warden, instead wearing the same Keila uniform as everyone else, and her once-short navy blue hair had been grown out and dyed a dark purple, but her intense, war-familiar visage still held an air of authority, and she carried herself in the same way she did the few times Flint saw her in The Ray.
“Hoooooly shit,” Allef breathed once they were back in position, observing Hazni while staying out of sight. “You’re totally right. It’s actually her. I thought she was dead!”
“Everyone did,” Flint added. “The escape from The Ray was so chaotic and destructive that when she eventually disappeared during the escape, everyone thought there was just nothing left of her. What has she been doing all this time?”
“Hang on. She’s moving,” Aurein said, pointing at the shop. The shopkeeper had come back out with a large bag and gave it to Hazni. She nodded, took the bag with gloved hands, said something that was too faint to make out, and merged into the crowd of foot traffic.
Aurein sprang forward, entering the flow of city goers after her, and Flint and Allef followed close behind. They followed her through tunnels and turns, keeping her just in their sight while staying as far back as possible, until, after several minutes of walking, Allef asked:
“Isn’t this the path to get to the docks?”
Aurein and Flint looked at each other.
“Yeah, it is…” Flint commented. “Is she leaving Tempest City?”
“That’s bad,” Aurein said. “That’s very bad. The only reason Hazni would even be in Tempest City is if she’s plotting something significant. And the only reason she would be leaving is if she just accomplished what she came here to do. We need to find out what she’s doing, and now.”
Flint whipped around to face Allef. “Hold my body.”
Flint’s soul left his body, which fell limp towards Allef, and his translucent blue ghost sank into the ground. He floated through the earth and metal, occasionally poking his head above the surface to confirm Hazni’s location, then he stuck an arm out of the ground and reached for Hazni’s pocket. He carefully pulled Hazni’s transponder out of her pocket and, careful to avoid the footfalls of the crowd, carried it over to a confused Allef, who was still holding his body upright. He threw Hazni’s transponder towards Aurein and returned to his body. Once he readjusted to his corporeal form, getting a few strange looks from passerby (and a yet stranger look from Allef), he turned to Aurein expectantly.
“Sorry, he gets faint sometimes, medical condition, don’t worry about it,” Allef lied to a nearby walker as Aurein read the contents of Hazni’s transponder.
When Flint read Aurein’s dumbfounded expression, he knew it couldn’t be good. Instead of explaining, Aurein only showed him the transponder’s screen. In Hazni’s recent search history, as of four days ago, was a familiar website titled “The Battle of Kesku.”
“She’s here for the same reason we are,” Aurein explained to Allef in a low voice. Further investigation into Hazni’s search history displayed her investigation into Tria’s whereabouts along a path of information the three had yet to take. In her files were an image of the bootprints on Erista, searches of Tria, an image of Tria’s plaque, the location of Tria’s childhood friend, Helu Minnas, culminating into the coordinates of a planet near the Nopetu system called Vin.
“Hazni’s looking for the Terminus,” Aurein elaborated, pulling up an image of Vin. “And it looks like she’s found it. She’s ahead of us.”
Simultaneously, all of the color drained out of their faces.
“Okay, alright. A plan. We obviously need a plan,” Allef began, speaking quickly and frantically. “Before anyone says anything, we are not going to kill her. I’m dead serious about this whole pacifism thing.”
“Don’t worry, that wasn’t an option. We leave her alive, even if she is a leader of Tymin,” Flint agreed.
“All we have to do is get to the Terminus first, right?” Allef suggested. “We can just stall her long enough to get to Vin before she does.”
“That’ll only work if we know where Tria hid the Terminus, and we don’t. Hazni does. Even if we incapacitate her, if we spend all day looking, it’ll all be worthless.”
“Assuming we can even manage to incapacitate her,” Aurein added.
“We don’t know where Tria hid it, but we know what kind of a person she is,” Allef explained. “Where would someone like her, who appreciates beauty, who respects life and death more than anyone else, hide something as important as the Terminus?”
The realization hit Flint like a bullet through the head.
“Her grave. It’s buried with her.”
“And where would she be buried?” Allef prompted.
“In her favorite place. Lavender Canyon.”
“Then there you go. It’s a risk, but we have to try. We have to stall Hazni and get to Lavender Canyon before she does.”
The moment Hazni realized her transponder was missing, she stopped in her tracks and let the crowd flow around her, passerby giving her glares and looks of confusion all the while. She moved towards a side tunnel and took a detour, preparing to retrace her steps. However, it was unlikely the transponder had simply fallen out—odds were, something else was at play.
A quiet ping rang out through the slightly less crowded side hallway.
“Was that yours?” someone behind her asked.
“No, my transponder sounds different,” another person replied. “Did someone lose theirs?”
That ping sounded exactly like the notification sound on Hazni’s transponder. She scowled as she realized the source of the sound—it was coming from within a building not far ahead.
This building, located in Tempest West, was not in use due to it being “night” here. It was clear to Hazni that she was walking into a trap, most likely set by a spy like her who wanted to eliminate the competition, but at this point, it was best to trim any loose ends that had formed during her stay in Tempest City. Anything that remained to frustrate her goals had to be nipped in the bud.
She followed the sound into the building, hearing the sound play three times in the elevator room just as a set of elevator doors just out of sight began to close.
This person must think they’re so clever. The idea of someone challenging her of all people meant that whoever was responsible had to be brimming with confidence.
She took an elevator to floor three. When the elevator doors opened again, Hazni raised her fists.
The third floor landing was empty and dim, but another ping sounded out to her right. She followed it down a hallway and into a dark storage room. She kept her guard up as she stood in the doorway, then flipped on a light.
Hazni’s transponder was lying face-up in the middle of the storage room. This trap was obvious—too obvious. Instead of entering, Hazni opted to stand in the doorway. Using her Val while undercover was dangerous, as she couldn’t leave behind any signs of her existence without arousing suspicion, but in a situation like this, the risks were worth it. She removed a glove. Maybe she could retrieve her transponder at range. Hazni extended an arm towards the transponder on the ground.
Suddenly, a rough, metallic object crashed into Hazni’s back and pushed her into the storage room. The door quickly slammed shut behind her, followed by the sounds of quickly receding, heavy footsteps and a faint voice. The lights in the room suddenly shut off. Hazni rushed towards the door and pounded on it, only to realize that the door hadn’t been shut all the way—Hazni’s glove was wedged between the door and the doorway, leaving a tiny gap. When she fell into the storage room, she must have dropped it.
Hazni quickly grabbed her transponder, her glove, and pushed open the door to pursue her attempted captor.
“Problem!” Allef shouted into her transponder as she ran through the hallway inside of the building they had intended to trap Hazni in. “She got out!”
“How?!” Flint’s voice replied. Although his soul had helped Allef lure Hazni inside, he had descended to a lower level to return to his body.
“I dunno! I thought I kicked her inside!”
“And you shut the door tightly?!” Aurein’s voice asked over the transponder.
“Yes, I—oh, shit, something must have got in the way! No, it never closed!” Allef said.
Allef turned around to see Hazni aggressively sprinting towards her. Even despite Allef’s robotic legs, which had been built for speed, Hazni was keeping up.
“Then we have a serious issue,” Aurein’s low voice said. “Because Hazni is one of the most powerful faction leaders in the galaxy. She’s the same species as me and has a similar Val.”
“Can she also turn things into gold?!”
“No,” Aurein replied, his voice grave. “She can turn things into nothing.”
“That sounds bad,” Allef and Flint said in unison.
“It is,” Aurein affirmed. “So if you can’t run, hold her off. Pretend you’re fighting me—avoid her hands more than anything. Cause as little destruction as possible, or we’re all going to be exposed. Flint and I will come help soon.”
“Copy that,” Allef said, and hung up. It was likely that Hazni wouldn’t be using her Val, especially if it was destructive and loud enough to draw attention. They were all spies—the only thing worse than encountering each other was encountering the entirety of Keila’s armada concentrated in the capital.
Allef arrived at the elevator landing, frantically spamming the “call elevator” button with her robotic finger. Hazni’s footsteps came closer and closer through the hallway, and when her threatening figure turned the corner, Allef realized she was too late to escape. She had to fight.
Hazni lunged towards Allef to tackle her, and Allef rapidly ducked, aided by the speed of her metallic legs. Hazni soared above her, entering a roll upon hitting the ground and quickly returning to standing. For a brief moment, Allef and Hazni faced each other, and Allef eyed Hazni’s hands. Both were gloved.
Guess it’s time for an old fashioned showdown, Allef thought.
Hazni threw a swift punch at Allef, who bobbed out of the way. Allef threw two punches of her own, her hydraulic arms making smooth hissing noises as she did. Hazni parried each punch with one of her own arms, carefully deflecting each strike. Hazni grabbed one of Allef’s extended arms and held it in place as she repeatedly kneed Allef’s stomach. This knocked the breath out of Allef, but it didn’t stop her from bending her extended arm backwards, freeing her of Hazni’s grasp. Taking advantage of Hazni’s surprise, Allef landed a hard punch on Hazni’s chest, roughly knocking her backwards.
The two stumbled away from each other, recovering from the blows they had inflicted on each other. Hazni recovered first, punching Allef’s face twice before attempting to sweep out her legs. Allef’s robotic legs, however, were too heavy to simply be swept out from under her, allowing Allef enough time to strike Hazni’s chin with her knee.
The fight continued, every blow the two traded designated solely for that person, with no collateral. Every time Allef launched a punch at Hazni, she first made sure that Hazni dodging out of the way wouldn’t result in Allef breaking a wall. When Allef’s breath was knocked out of her, she made sure not to fall onto any of the elevator’s buttons and damage them. The two fighters had to juggle two priorities—defeating the other, and staying undercover. There had to be no collateral damage, no shouts or yells that could alert potential roaming security—the battle was quiet, as hidden as the spies that fought it, taking place under the nose of the largest, most powerful faction in the galaxy. Neither could even permit the blood they coaxed out of each others’ noses and mouths to splatter on the walls.
The few blows that Allef had landed on Hazni were damaging. This was a massive plus of being partially robotic—metallic fists and hydraulic muscles were far more dangerous than soft flesh and breakable bone. But Hazni’s battle prowess was profound, and while Hazni lacked the raw power Allef had, her skills and battle experience allowed her to land a significant number of strikes upon Allef’s weakest points.
The need to be stealthy frustrated Allef deeply. If she had it her way, she would immediately activate the small rocket engines in her palms, dig into the floor to brace herself, and turn Hazni into a collection of hot, dispersed atoms with the aid of a colossal blast of fire and plasma. But this would alert Keila immediately and bring the full force of the Big 5 directly onto her, Aurein, and Flint.
Hazni was likely thinking the same thing. If Hazni had been using her Val, Allef would most likely already be scrap. It somehow terrified Allef more that Hazni had yet to unleash her Val, since her lack of using the ability told Allef that it was destructive enough to cause collateral damage even when used to the lowest possible degree.
Allef fell to the ground once again, her mind reeling from the disorienting blows she to the head had just taken. She was careful to land lightly so her heavy metal arms didn’t scruff up the carpet. Allef sniffed her bloody nose back into her sinuses and prepared to retaliate from Hazni’s next strike.
The elevator door dinged. Both women turned their bruised heads. Flint stepped out of the elevator and delivered a kick directly to Hazni’s temple, who barely blocked in time. Hazni hit the opposite wall with a force that made Allef wince, not out of care for Hazni’s well being but the wall’s.
The fight continued, Flint striking Hazni from one side while Allef struck from the other. Still, Hazni held her own, maintaining control of the fight as if she always knew where Allef and Flint would be next.
Without use of his noisy ghost guns, Flint could contribute little to the fight. His current body’s physical strength was dwarfed by Allef’s mechanical power. The attention he demanded from Hazni, however, contributed far more than any punches or kicks he attempted. For a moment, it almost seemed as if Allef and Flint were winning. Then, in a stunning move of acrobatics, Hazni baited the two to lunge towards her at once, leapt into the air, then simultaneously kicked each of their faces. Just as Hazni walked over to Flint to finish him off, the elevator dinged once more and the doors slid open, revealing Aurein.
“Another one?” Hazni said, exasperated.
Hazni swung at Aurein, who ducked. Aurein tackled Hazni, sending her into Allef, who kicked Hazni away from her. Against one or even two of them, Hazni’s battle prowess shone through, but with Aurein as a part of the fight, even Hazni’s skills didn’t stand a chance. The three gave Hazni no chance to recover—right as Flint dodged one of her punches, he’d counter, and that counter would be followed up immediately by a high-powered attack from Allef.
Hazni’s aggressive fighting style had to change, and she switched to the defensive. Eventually, as Hazni took blow after blow, the outcome of the encounter became clearer and clearer. In a battle of only fists, Hazni stood no chance against three expert fighters like Flint, Allef, and Aurein. Hazni was taking enough damage to slow her down, and almost enough to let the three escape. But, given any opportunity, Hazni would still strike them with all of her might. The undercover Tymin leader wasn’t giving up.
After taking an especially powerful blow from Allef’s metallic fist, Hazni staggered backwards, not retaliating for once. Flint and Aurein backed off. Hazni readjusted her broken nose and, covering one nostril, blew a spray of blood onto the floor of the building. She didn’t look close to defeat—on the contrary, her eyes, sharp like Aurein’s, burned brighter than ever. In a flash of movement, Hazni ripped the glove off of her right hand, holding her hand in the air threateningly. Her bare hand seemed to emit a whooshing noise, and all of the air in the room flowed towards it.
Aurein put his hand in front of Flint, blocking him. Then, Aurein stepped backwards cautiously.
“If I can’t have the Terminus,” Hazni began, removing the glove from her other hand. “No one can.”
“ALLEF, RUN!” Aurein yelled.
Faster than should seem possible, an invisible ball grew between Hazni’s hands. It was a ball of vacuum, initiated by her Val that let anything that touched her hands turn seemingly into nothing. The ball grew in the blink of an eye until its radius was far greater than Flint’s height, the sphere of nothing scraping away the ceiling and floor of the elevator landing.
Hazni let the bubble go, and she covered her ears.
The bubble of vacuum collapsed in an instant. The atmospheric pressure that was maintained within the city immediately rushed in to fill the enormous gap at enormous speeds, carrying the four fighters towards the bubble’s center at the same time. In the fraction of a second the atmosphere took to fill the bubble, pressures and temperatures in the bubble’s center skyrocketed until they resembled the heat of the surface of a star. The implosion became a yet larger explosion, as all of the pressure generated in the collapsing atmosphere had nowhere else to go but out.
A shockwave ripped through the building, rocking the bodies of the four and tearing a colossal hole in the building’s center that connected several floors. The structure of the building began to fail under the immense stress, the building’s top half collapsing atop the shattered floors, sliding downwards and carried downwind by Tempest City’s perpetual storms. The crumbling structure broke into pieces that the wind carried further into the city, massive pieces of metal impacting and damaging the buildings behind it. Those buildings that were hit the worst collapsed as well, their aerodynamic architecture breaking apart and allowing the wind to continue the damage.
In a massive chain reaction that claimed three other buildings and thousands of lives, Tempest City began to fall, and in every major Keila facility in the galaxy, harsh alarms blared.
