Chapter 35: Battles and Defeats

Andrew stood on the field, staring out across the airfield of West Base, waiting. 

Amory's forces were camped out on the huge, sprawling expanse of grasses and tropical flowers covering the open space around West Base. 

They were waiting. Waiting for something. 

Men and women mingled with strange, contorted beasts with snarling faces and twisted limbs. Fangs and snapping growls mixed with hushed whispers and anticipatory stares. The forces his brother commanded stood waiting, seas of bodies - whether man or beast - spreading out to touch the Gate and past the walls, which had previously kept out anything thrown at them but which now lay in a pile of rubble, desolate on the ground. 

It was time. 

Time to decide the course of the battle. 

Chenn had taught him what to say and what to do. Now it was time to use it. 

Amory's forces charged him in a swell, bearing down upon his small force of men and women with grim, determined faces and raised sidearms. He stood at their head, a desolate, lone figure, battered and worn, the dust and dirt from yesterday's battle still clinging to his body as he prepared to meet them, exhausted from a night spent sleepless and restless, reworking the words he had to say to end it all. 

The roars and yells of his brother's forces melted away, fading out of his ears. 

He closed his eyes, focusing. 

There was only his breathing now. The soft in and out, in and out that signified he still lived, still led those loyal to him. 

He raised the gleaming Wand high, lips beginning to form the arcane words that would end this battle once and for all. Perhaps even end him, if he was so unfortunate. But he prayed it would not end him. That he would end lucky. That his life-force would not be used up in this blast. 

Chenn had warned him that if he used the spell at the wrong time, it could drain him of his life within seconds, killing him as surely as any enemy laser or explosive could. 

The end wouldn't be without pain either. Chenn said that - according to the texts he'd read when studying the matter - it was highly likely that the victim of the unfortunate event would spend up to ten minutes in utter agony as they felt every ounce of life fade out of them, their bones snapping, brittle and unsustained, their skin shriveling up against the broken bones causing punctures that let the blood seep out, and their teeth falling out. Until finally they were only a pile of dust on the ground. 

That wasn't the worst part either. The Wand could drain one's very soul, stealing away everything that made the person human. And that knowledge that they were losing all that made them alive and human - different from the animals all around them - could be enough to drive them insane in the last intervening minutes before death. 

He prayed one last time that it would not be his end. That he would not go that way. He wanted to die peacefully - painlessly if possible; didn't everyone? He didn't want to die in the horrific way Chenn had described. 

Honestly, the boy had a knack for describing terrifying images and haunting events. It sent a shiver down his spine just thinking of the images Chenn's words had conjured. The boy was certainly a master at story-telling. 

The boy?

Chenn wasn't a boy anymore than he was. They were around the same edge. If Chenn was a boy, so was Andrew. 

This thought hadn't occured to him before now. But as time stilled to a halt for him, creeping by in barely noticeable fractions of an inch, he realized that perhaps all of them were too young. No. Not perhaps. They were too young. All of them were too young. 

Too young to be arguing and bickering like this with such high stakes. 

Too young to be fighting the war against evil and Dark Magic. 

Too young to be entrusted with something so dangerous as the Balance. 

Too young for all of it. 

Really, they shouldn't be here at all. They should've been back on Earth, studying whatever they were planning to do when they were grown. Just like his younger sister, Ele, was doing in his aunt's custody back on Earth. Back on Earth in his aunt's custody where her father had sent her to get away from the last reminder of her that he couldn't deal with, couldn't bear to beat, couldn't bear to break, and couldn't bear to allow to see how low their mother's death had brought him. 

He'd never resented her for it. It was just a fact. 

But the fact was, he, Chenn, and Nari - even Amory, really, though he was on the side of evil, not good - were too young to be here in an alternate dimension waging a war against evil and wrong-doers as they were. 

His time to deliberate and reflect was over. The first tide crashed into him just as the blinding light exploded, disintegrating all the unearthly beings - it would send them back to the Dark Realms where they belonged - and scattering the humans, knocking some unconscious, killing others, and simply badly injuring others. 

His little force stood firm, protected by the barrier of magic he'd cast around them before beginning the spell. 

But his energy was spent. The Wand had drained it all from him. 

His men caught him just as he collapsed to the ground, eyes rolling back in his head and fluttering closed as he passed out. 

***

When he woke up, he was in his bed in his rooms. 

The cold grey walls hedged him in and the white sheets seemed to pristine for the ache in his heart. 

Chenn was sitting in the chair beside his bed, something which greatly surprised him, given the young man's animosity towards Andrew for imprisoning him. 

When Andrew attempted to sit up, his arms gave out, and he collapsed back into his pillows with a moan. 

Chenn's head snapped up, his mesmerizing, somewhat unnerving eyes piercing into Andrew's. "You're awake." His voice was almost flat, but a hint of something - relief, Andrew thought - flashed through his eyes and into his voice.

Andrew nodded weakly, giving Chenn a half-hearted smile. "Did it work?" He whispered.

Chenn nodded curtly. "You did well... Most of the forces were made up of supernatural beings Amory conjured... All the others were put into the cells, safely out of the way and contained..." Chenn stopped, staring out the single window in the room, which looked out over the dark, green jungle. 

"Chenn... I just... Thank you." Andrew smiled at the young man in the seat beside his bed, the look genuine this time. 

Chen shrugged. "Don't mention it..."

"Why did you sit here? How long have you been here anyway?" Andrew inquired, concern lighting in his eyes. 

Another shrug. "A day... I sat here because... I don't know... Because I felt I owed it to you. My judgement of you at first... Well, to be honest, I thought you were a jerk and asinine... But I watched from the roof of the Base as you stood down those armies. Watched as you blasted them. As you stood up for what was right and said no to what was wrong..." He stopped, hesitating, but then continued. "I was impressed... And to be honest, I look up to you for it. I had to side with evil and be burned before I realized how dangerous my position was... You didn't. You always knew. My judgement of you was wrong."

Andrew didn't say anything, but continued to quietly observe Chenn. 

Chenn cleared his throat. "I just wanted to say... You're a good man, Andrew Parsi. A better man than I, for certain, and certainly a better one than your brother. I'm sorry that I misjudged you so grieviously..." Then he got up and stalked silently from the room. 

But not before Andrew caught the stain of a blush in his cheeks, as though the other man was embarrassed or uncomfortable to be admitting that he thought Andrew was a good man. 

Andrew smiled softly. He was glad Chen had decided not to hate him. He had liked the boy from the start, and it was easier to be friendly and get to know him when he wasn't on the defensive or angry with Andrew for something. 

With that thought in mind, he allowed the exhaustion he'd been fighting ever since waking up to take over, and he was plunged into inky blackness and dreams once more.