The story so far: Duke Fleed and Hikaru married and they live on Fleed as king and queen. They have had a son, Rex, of two months old. A mysterious being, the Dark One, has sent Kandura, a monster, on Fleed: the monster was defeated by Grendizer. But, at the same time, the Dark One has sent Jezabel, a powerful woman who enters into the Royal Palace, killing several men and the Captain Amauta, and reaches Hikaru and Rex...In the throne room, it is possible to hear a strange background hum.
For a moment, the two women are looking one to another without talking: the emissary of the world of darkness, Jezabel, and the woman of Earth who has become queen of a distant world, Hikaru. Of the two, the first one speaks with a mocking tone:
"You have to be that little queen!"
Hikaru does not react. Calm down, says to herself. Make speaking her. Gain time.
"The captain Amauta ... you killed him, right?"
"Amauta? Ah, it was his name?" Replied the other, turning his gaze for a moment in the direction of the corpse. "It is a nice name, and he was also a handsome man. Too bad I killed him. "
Hikaru's hands clenches into a fist, trembling slightly, but remained firm. Damn ... Calm down!
"May I know, at least, who are you and what do you want?"
The mysterious woman responds with a slight bow, perhaps ironic or grotesque, perhaps both.
"I am Jezabel, right arm of the Dark One and commander in chief of the Six Generals of Darkness"
"So there are you people behind that 'hand shadow' in space?"
"Of course!"
"I understand. But you did not answer to my second question. What do you want from us? "
"From you, nothing. We are interested in your son. "
For a moment, Hikaru is paralyzed from the shock.
"Rex?" she whispered, refusing to believe it.
"Exactly. It will be a very important human sacrifice"
Suddenly, Hikaru feels her spirit cold and determined as ice.
"You're completely crazy!”
While she says this, the laser gun (extremely powerful, which Duke Fleed gave her in past), comes out from the sleeve where Hikaru had hidden it. Holding it in her hand, she shoots at short distance from the face of Jezebel: but she is not taken by surprise: despite the rapidity of the action, the palm of her hand magically appears between the gun and the objective, turning the laser beams in innocuous fireworks. Before Hikaru realizes it, Jezebel grasps the gun with her hand and crushes it in a moment, making it fall to the ground.
"You're a bad girl ... you must be punished!" she says with a grin.
Immediately, a sharp slap on the cheek affects Hikaru, making her break down on the ground, stunned. She tries to get up, but she feels her legs weakened by the blow, and feels also the taste of blood in her mouth.
What a slap…I was never hit so hard!
She moves her hands at random, on the floor, almost like a blind, looking for a help, a weapon. Suddenly, she grabs something pungent and observe it secretly, keeping her face turned down. The six-pointed star ... the copy of the real symbol! It must be fallen off the board due to the destruction of the door, shooking the walls. It is made of gren, said Actarus... one of the strongest metals in the universe. Hikaru hides the star in her hands, trying to gather strength, pretending to look defeated. Staying with her face to the ground, she says, with the mixed mouth, struggling to articulate the words:
"Why? Why do you want to kill him? "
"Don’t worry, we will not kill him now: only after two weeks, when the seven stars will be aligned. Before sacrifice, the offer must be in perfect health. But forget it: you will not see this scene!"
While Jezabel speaks, the fingers of her hands are sharpening again and getting up to kill Hikaru without mercy. But, unexpectedly, Hikaru jumps up and hits her face with the gren-made star, crying with a loud voice:
"Don’t touch my son!"
Jezabel screams and backs, surprised: she did not expect a similar reaction. She put a hand over her wound face, and when observes it, she sees, for the first time, her blood. For a moment she is surprised and cannot believe it: that unnecessary being has wounded her. It had never happened before. She watches Hikaru with surprise, then the anger explodes inside her, making her cry out in anger:
"HOW DARE YOU?"
An huge explosion shakes the whole royal palace, making it tremble from the ground. Tongues of fire tens of meters high get up, burning and blackening everything. The survivors are running scared: the Grand Vizier also was saved with difficulty. For a moment everyone remain incredulous, watching the flames destroying the house of the king. Then, the Grand Vizier reacts: orders to take all fire hydrants and fire extinguishers, and the people, first in a daze, takes over and tries to execute the commands in the elderly.
The Spacer is rapidly approaching to the city wounded by fire. I hope that nothing has happened to Hikaru and the little one! thinks Duke Fleed with anxiety. He has cold sweat at the thought of what he could find. A crowd has fallen on the road to watch the giant bonfire that threatens to burn also what is near, and Duke Fleed recognizes that is the area where once stood the royal palace. What had happened? And Hikaru? The Spacer lands in a clearing, not far, and Duke Fleed removes his helmet, leaving it on the seat. He runs towards the fire, with the heart in throat. People recognizes him as he passed and steps aside.
"It's him!"
"The king!"
"Let them go!"
"But what happened?"
At the end, he arrives at the gates, where he sees a horrendous fire that burns everything and gives off heat for miles around. The water jets, even they are powerful, still cannot dampen the flames. Duke must resist to that tight feeling in his stomach. A soldier, next him, greets him and Duke asks:
"What happened? Where is the queen? "
"I...I don’t know, your majesty. It seems that there was an intruder, it is not very clear, maybe he put a bomb...I know nothing about the queen. There is the Grand Vizier, he could say something. Duke, recognized him, runs straight for the elderly.
"Grand Vizier! The queen...WHERE IS SHE?"
"Your majesty...I…I don’t know" he says, confused "Captain Amauta died and the royal guard was decimated ... I'm trying to understand what happened. A very powerful person came here..."
Duke realizes that the Grand Vizier is circling the answer, and he feels something snap inside him. With anger, he grabs the elder and says, staring into his eyes:
"When the explosion and fire happened, Hikaru...WHERE WAS SHE?"
The Grand Vizier is forced to tell everything.
"She...she was in the throne room, your majesty...with the little prince Rex...the explosion...I fear ...I fear it is started from there..."
Hikaru is dead? Dead? Duke does not believe it. He had seen her this morning. She was alive. He hailed her. He...
Suddenly, he cannot stand and he is kneeling on the ground, looking blankly ahead. He hear the talks of the people around him, shaking him. The Grand Vizier is telling him something, but he does not understand, as if he was in another world. He feels the fire, the voices, the screams, the smoke, the hectic pace, his own body as if they were something that happens to another. He cannot even cry: he feels beyond the tears, empty and tired.
At the same time, miles away, by a strange coincidence, Grendizer is knelt down and motionless on the ground, at the same position of Duke Fleed, as if, this time, the robot-samurai share his pain, while he seemed indifferent at the eyes of the Duke, when Rubina was dead. But this is of no consolation for Duke Fleed.
The waves advance and recede, and then forwards again. Hikaru feels her feet wet and wakes up.
Where am I? What happened?
She opens her eyes and looks around: she is lying on a beach at night. There is some moonlight that allows her to see well enough. Slowly, the memories of the last moments come to mind of Hikaru: Jezabel ... Rex ... What happened to Rex? Jezabel had taken him? And I, why am I here? Am I on Fleed? Or on Earth? I do not understand anything.
Hikaru rises with difficulty: she feels her cheek that hurts. She start walking somewhere, staggering. Then, the whole world revolves around, and she feels again plunged into darkness. She falls on the beach without noticing.
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I'm going to holiday for a little:
Sunday 10 July: the past of Jezabel!You can comment here:
https://gonagai.forumfree.it/?t=38631928&st=1140You can read this in word format clicking on the allegate.
