The Trinity Sitch - Book 3: Blade of the Fury
Chapter 22 - In Conclusion
I can do anything!
I hope!
Feeling significantly refreshed after what was perhaps the best spa treatment she could ever remember (well, an extended soak in a double-sized garden tub, a serious – and quite competent – rubdown by Ron, A great, hot shower – amazing how great it is when you have instantly heated water that never runs out! - some personal time with her masseur followed by a good long nap) Kim was ready to take on anything.
Anything except for a twenty-fifth century food preparation device!
She should have known better. Considering it was created by a technological culture capable of building weapons that could level a continent from orbit without leaving it a nuclear wasteland and capable of building starships that could zip you to any corner of the cosmos (well, theoretically.) Imagine what they can do to food.
Such technology…in the wrong hands!
First of all, she should have realized a Kitchenaid XTR950 was not a microwave! It was an automated food preparation center, capable of detecting the composition and state of a piece of food and thawing, heating, re-hydrating, dehydrating, cooling or whatever was necessary to prepare it for consumption based upon the tastes of the user. Basically, you put something in it you wanted to eat and told it whether you wanted it cold, warm, hot, moist, dry, whatever!
Putting a twenty-first century Bueno Nacho To-Go frozen Chimirito in it and setting it to high for four minutes was, shall we say, a case of dramatic overkill!
At least this time it chose to explode long before she opened the door.
It's a ferociously good thing we're fifteen hours from Earth she thought as she cleaned the inside of the device out for the third time in a row (she also didn't know about the automatic self-cleaning mechanism!) At the rate I'm destroying the food we'd starve in a few days! Like this so-called food is edible to begin with! She scooped the partly carbonized glop out with her hands, noting the curious dearth of paper towels. Did Wade ever clean up a mess in here?
Flinging the sticky, smelly orange and gray mess into the disposal bin (who's been taking out the trash anyway?) she eyed her other kitchenly nemesis – the auto-sink!
She looked over the counter of the kitchenette at Ron. At least his back was to her and he hadn't seen her destroy three packs of his second favorite food. He now realized the depth and breadth of the entertainment library Trin had recorded in her memory and was in the process of watching cartoons until his eyes burned. For a man who had a barely working knowledge of mathematics he had quickly calculated how much of the three original seasons, the surprise fourth and the triumphant fifth and sixth seasons of his favorite cartoon he could see in the fifteen hours of flight time that remained to them, factoring in the time it would take to send a message home once they were within range. Of course, there were only the episodes that had actually aired, but he was in Mouse Ears Channel heaven right now!
I wonder how long before he has Wade burn all this to DVD, she mused.
Frustrated, she pulled two more Chimiritos from the freezer, once again carefully reading the instructions.
"Heat on high 4-5 minutes. Allow one minute to cool before opening." It said on the package. What am I doing wrong?
Just put it in and hit start, KP.
Kim spun around, startled that Ron had snuck up on her so quietly. "Ron, don't do that!"
Yet he wasn't there. He was still piled up on the couch on the far side of the parlor.
"Don't do what, Kim?" he said, not taking his eyes off the screen.
What the?
"Ro-on? Did you just tell me how to work this microwave thingy?" she asked, more than a little spooked.
"No, but I was about to, and it's not a microwave. You just put the food in there and hit start. You don't have to tell it to do anything unless you want it to do something special with the food. How's it coming with that Bueno Nacho? I'm starved!"
Still perplexed she took two of the tex-mex wraps and put them in. Ten seconds later it beeped, the food hot, steaming and perfectly ready to eat. The minor victory and the tantalizing smell of their first real meal since the one they had on Arkonia chased away the feeling that something odd had just happened.
I guess I'm so used to hearing him now I can think in his voice!
"Hey, wow! You can cook!" He said as she put the plate down on the coffee table. "Why didn't you make yourself some?"
Growling she picked her share up and took a bite. "If you want more you can tear yourself away from the TV long enough to make some, Nacho Boy!" She bit into the Chimirito again, her stomach suddenly rumbling with the notion it was about to be filled.
"What are you watching now, Ron?"
"Oh, same thing I always do."
"The Freedom Leaders?"
"Yup yup!" he said cheerfully.
She remembered trying to watch the show with him once, thinking it was somehow produced as some kind of echo of another universe, as if it was manifesting itself in the imagination of the producers. That notion got disabused really quickly when the fifth season started and the story got bogged down with the main character getting pulled into the past. For a television show produced primarily for children, the story became a muddy mess. That didn't stop Ron from watching it religiously on cable, taping it when he was away from home.
"So, which big important episode is this?" She asked, cradling her chin in boredom.
"Well, this is actually the second one, it's where the twin brothers get their ship shot down over an ice planet and something happens to them that gives them their powers."
"Powers? I thought the guy with the sword got his powers by having bionics?"
"Ah, but that's the thing, KP! He's got this badical sword that makes him the galaxy's best swordsman. He only got the mechanical arms and legs because of frostbite!"
Kim rolled her eyes, thinking about what they could get away with in cartoons! She swallowed another bite, noting she had already consumed most of hers without realizing it. When was the last time they had eaten? In their room on Arkonia? "So, if they got these powers to fight the big bad guy on planet 'Delta' how come they spend most of the first three seasons on some jungle planet fighting heavily armored aliens?"
"I dunno, maybe it's just so they could have the Golden Warrior fight some guys with swords. Kinda stupid if you ask me that a so-called 'warrior race' would run around with swords when the good guys almost all have laser guns."
"Yeah, go figure, sw…" she bit her tongue, almost calling him Sword Boy. She surreptitiously glanced his way but he seemed not to have noticed. Relieved, she leaned over on his shoulder, watching the episode unfold. There was that strange feeling she had whenever she watched the show. The heroes were in their ship, pursued deep into the atmosphere of a frozen planet, the alien fighter forcing them down before crashing into their doomed transport.
She sat up with a start, her eyes wide!
No!
"Wow, is that freaky or what?" Ron said, slipping his arm around Kim's back, slipping under the edge of her sweater to reach her skin, careful not to tickle.
"I have to have watched this episode with you at least three times. How come I didn't think of this when we were in Greenland?"
"Geez, I dunno. I didn't think of it either."
Trin popped up in the bottom corner of the screen, careful not to superimpose herself over the action (she'd already had a…conversation…with Ron about that!) "Okay, guys, we are in transmission range now. We can send a message any time you're ready."
Ron sat up straight, taking his hand from Kim's waist and reaching for her free hand. She used her other to snatch the last bite of his Chimirito, popping it into her mouth and chewing.
"Oh, you will rue the day you did that Kimberly Anne Possible!" He said in his best Zorpox voice.
"So not the drama, bad boy." She said as she swallowed the last of it. "Ready?"
He nodded and faced the pickup for the view screen.
Wade and Dr. Possible were busily laying down the final circuits for what they hoped would provide some answers into what had become of Kim and Ron. They were on course and nearly ready to test their new creation.
The fact they would not know if it really even worked unless there actually was somebody in space to receive it had been pushed to the back of their minds.
The first day after the Trinity blasted away from Earth was spent frantically trying to find a way to get into space and search for them. It wasn't until later the tow of them were able to think rationally and come to the conclusion that they were years away from producing something even one hundredth as fast as the hyper-advanced yacht.
That meant focusing their efforts on something they felt they could accomplish. Wade had a significant working knowledge of how hyperspace worked, in particular how a ship like Trinity was able to accelerate past the speed of light, bending space around it so it could more quickly jump from one point in space to another.
They didn't have an engine capable of doing that yet, but what about a communications signal?
He already had a jump on that, of sorts. The entire schematic for the Trinity's communication system was copied onto the Space Center's mainframe. It was only a matter of figuring out how to copy the technology using their own limited twenty-century know-how. There were microscopic circuits that were more complicated than most computers. They just didn't have the means to duplicate that, at least not yet. By the time they had a working design, a console component that one the ship was the size of a shoe box now utterly filled a modest sized lab at the Center.
"O…kay, Spatial Pattern Buffers are ready to go!" James Possible said as he switched off his mini-plasma soldering iron and pulled off his goggles.
"Trans-warp signal differentiators are ready." Wade responded. "Okay, Dr. Possible, we're as ready as we're going to be." He reached for a wireless keyboard, typing the last of the series of commands that would bring the system to life. Data started shooting back and forth to a series of radio telescopes known as the "Very Large Array." He had to be careful about masking the signal, lest some nosey bureaucrat discovered he was using the array to send a signal into hyperspace. So far only a very few at the Space Center and key personnel at Global Justice knew what they were trying to do.
James pulled a rolling chair up to his console and surveyed the data. "Good, Wade! I'm getting a nice clean return signal!"
Wade's slightly crossed eyes looked up from his monitor at the older scientist. "Uh, Dr. Possible? I haven't sent the test signal yet? I only just now brought the receivers online."
"Then what on Earth are we getting? As far as I know there's only one other transmitter currently in existence that could send out that kind of signal…" James' eyes went wide as he realized just what that meant.
Wade got it too. Not waiting for his hands to type the words, he shouted into the computer pickup, "Main screen turn on!"
The large plasma monitor on the far wall winked to life. Two familiar faces dominated the screen, with a third in a smaller window down at the bottom corner.
"Hi!" Kim said brightly. "If you're getting this Trinity says it's a one-way transmission. We're approximately fifteen hours away from Earth at our current speed and we're on our way home. Both of us are fine. We've been to a planet called Arkonia. We'll explain more about what's happened when we get home and can talk face to face. Trin is sending a data-stream about the planet along with our signal."
James looked questioningly at Wade. "I'm getting all of it." He reassured him.
He wasn't paying attention to Kim any more as gave them a condensed version of what had transpired over the last few days. If this didn't work, there was always the recording he could go back to. He had to hurry, in case the message was short. He already heard the most important part, they were okay. The rest was just secondary information at the moment.
"Hurry, before they finish their message and we lose the signal." James warned.
"Got it!" Wade hit the last command with a flourish. He smiled broadly as all three faces gaped in shock at his unexpected appearance on their own screen.
"Wade?" Kim, Ron and Trin all said in unison.
"Jinx, you both owe me a soda." Kim said to her fiancé and the ship's avatar.
Wade just buffed his nails on his shirt and made a show of admiring his handiwork.
James rolled his chair right into the frame with Wade "Kimmie-cub!" The look of joy on his face was reflected in theirs.
Wade noted the look of hopeful fear in Ron's eyes and patted his shoulder. In a flash a little pink face appeared on his shoulder.
"RUFUS!" Ron screamed in joy as his little buddy waved tiny claws at him.
James was grinning from ear to ear as he pulled out his cell-phone, hitting the speed dial. "Honey? Yes, it's me…yes, it worked, better than we expected!...they're right here…no, they actually called us…they're perfectly fine!"
"Hey Mom!" Kim shouted so her mother could hear her over the cell. James held it up closer to the microphone.
"Hi Kim!" a number of voices chorused back at her. (Yes, Anne Possible had them on speaker phone!)
Tension melted away as they all talked for a few more minutes. There were a couple tense moments as the signal tried to break up, but Wade was able to stabilize it enough to keep the conversation going. Finally he told them he had work to do with Trin that would command most of his attention.
"Wade, Dad, you guys both rock!" Kim said as she signed off.
Almost a week of worry melted slowly away from James' face as the monitor winked off. He looked at a smiling Wade and couldn't help by high-five the boy. "They didn't have starships that would kidnap you and take you halfway across the spiral arm when I was in college!"
Though, if pressed he would have to admit he wished there were!
The curator of the Tri-City Museum felt a great sense of relief as the hoverjet came to a rest in the deserted parking lot. A few more minutes and the object that was the source of much of his stress would be off his hands.
The ramp of the dark colored, unmarked aircraft lowered to the ground, allowing three men to disembark. Two were huge guards wearing gray body armor over their navy blue Global Justice uniforms. They walked with the wary confidence of consummate professionals, somehow managing to look alert and indifferent at the same time.
The third man was tall and slender, his shoulder length dark hair hanging in waves over his shoulders. Even in the dark of the early morning, his eyes glittered bright blue to the point they were visible even in the diminished light of the few streetlights over the parking lot. They didn't so much glow as their color was so bright it seemed as if they did. He was dressed, not in the usual uniform, but in a crisp Italian suit.
"Agent Gryphen, I am so glad you are finally here to take charge of the relic." He said, reaching to shake the man's hand. The agent regarded the hand as if it were covered in slime, his own hands never unclasping from behind his back. Instead he started walking as if he knew exactly where he was going, trailing the curator and the two guards behind. Several of the museum guards joined the procession.
"You are certain no one outside of your staff is aware you still have it?" he asked in a faintly accented voice.
"Absolutely. As per your instructions we have publicly claimed it was purloined by Lord Monkey Fist's gang, despite the best effort of Team Possible."
"Good." The chiseled jaw agent said as he led them down the corridor toward the vault. "Dismiss your security."
"What now?" He asked, perplexed at the order.
"I said send your security people away. This is for Global Justice ears only." He said, clearly upset at being questioned.
He waved his men off, his concern at the situation growing.
"I want you to tell me again what happened when Stoppable touched the idol."
"Again? I don't know…"
"Look, who do you think set up our little charade? Once we found out Monkey Fist was making a move on it we thought it was the perfect chance for the two of them to come into contact with it."
The curator looked at the man a moment longer, then it dawned on him. Gryphen was the man on the phone! He was the one who wanted both of the young couple to actually touch it.
"Nothing happened when Kim Possible was holding it, though maybe it was because she was still wearing her gloves. When her boyfriend touched it, though, there was a terrific flash of light and we were all thrown about. Oh, by the way, a large number of priceless artifacts were damaged when that happened."
"Your museum will be properly compensated. Now go on."
"Anyway, after the blast of light, he was locked in some kind of trance for a few minutes. When he came out of it he started going on and on about how we needed to destroy the idol."
"And what did you say to that?"
"Well that would be preposterous! It is the property of the government of Japan. We could not possibly entertain the notion of destroying it."
"Good. Fortunately for all of us the Japanese want this thing back and I will be more than happy to turn it over to them." Gryphon said as they reached the vault. Moments later it opened, admitting all four of them.
One of the guards quickly produced a case lined with foam rubber and velvet. With infinite care the curator took the idol from its shelf and placed it in the carefully prepared cut out.
"Your cooperation is greatly appreciated." Gryphen said as he reached into his jacket.
The curator had a moment where he thought the agent might have been reaching for a weapon. Instead he pulled out a tiny communication device and spoke into it. "I have it, be ready to go as soon as we're out."
"Roger that." Came a voice over the tiny device.
He watched the three go. The contemptible thing was finally out of his hair. Well, off his hands he thought as he rubbed his bald head.
Gryphen climbed aboard his craft, holding the case as it lifted into the sky. It wasn't on its way to the secure location known only to the agents of Global Justice. They were headed to a small craft hidden high in the mountains around Middleton. From there, he would return to his real home. Already the other missing piece of the Tempus Simia had been found. A quick trip to Africa and it would be complete!
Gryphen, whose real name was Gryphion clutched the case and chuckled softly. He thought about his mother back home and her schemes. No, she was not the problem.
It was his father, and now the Ageless One who should be the Master was ready to take his rightful place as ruler of Arkonia, and after that, all of Earth as well!
Somehow being back on the solid ground of the planet Earth had a new and different feeling to it. For the first time ever, they knew that it was, wherever they were on the globe, their home. There was a certain solidity to it they could not quite put their finger on. If they had not been aware they were in deep space, most of the Trinity felt more like being in a fancy hotel room with a strange dearth of windows. Somehow, however, there was some certain subtle difference between artificial gravity and what they knew to be their own world.
It was good to be home!
The got back to Earth far faster than they first thought. With Wade able to monitor the ship from Earth, Trin had the confidence to accelerate to her maximum cruising speed, getting them home in seven hours instead of fifteen. It was nice to be back home in the mid-afternoon rather than late that night as the first assumed.
"Déjà vu much?" Ron asked as Kim drove him home.
"What's that, Ronnie?" He knew Kim was feeling good when she used that form of his name.
"Was it just a week ago you were driving me home and all this started?"
"Wow, you're right. Somehow that feels like it was so much longer."
"Sh,yeah! Though somehow everything that happened in between now seems like a big blur."
They pulled up at his house, the afternoon light starting to fade into dusk. The weird feeling was even greater, knowing his parents would not be home to greet him.
"I wonder why it is they're running off to Denver so much lately." He mused. They had come by the Space Center briefly to see him over the new communication system, but, after all, freaky things like being hauled across the galaxy were nothing new to them. Just another day of the same-old, same-old.
Kim followed him into the house, resigned to the fact she would be saying goodbye to him for the first time in almost a whole week, even if it was just for the night. Hopefully he would be up and ready to head for their classes the next morning.
They crossed the living room and started up the stairs when they realized they were not alone in the house.
Half a dozen black clad Monkey Ninjas sprang at them in a frenzy of fists and monkey calls. As they defended themselves they saw the two lumbering mutant gorillas enter the room, ready to grab them as they dealt with the smaller adversaries.
Ron suddenly scowled, tossing one of the monkeys aside, pointing his finger at the floor and bellowing "STOP!"
In an instant, all of the monkey ninjas dropped to the floor and bowed their heads to Ron. Confused, the Gorillas stopped, scratching their heads at why the little ones obeyed the blonde-haired boy more quickly than they did their usual master.
"So, you do still have your Mystical Monkey Power." Rasped a weak voice.
DNAmy, now known as Gorilla Fist, carried her husband gently into the room.
"I have come to ask of you, Ron Stoppable." He said, gasping for breath. "Even though I am your enemy I…I ask that you give me your Monkey Power so that I may live! What has been done to me was become one with that power and without it I will soon die." Monkey Fist sounded much like he was crying as he asked. Tears were also running down Amy's face as well.
Kim started to open her mouth but Ron just stepped right past her, taking his arch-foe's hand. There was a rush of blue light as the power leapt from him into the English Lord. He then spoke in a voice that all of them knew was not his own.
"The power belongs rightfully to you both. Take it and live, Monkey Warrior, so that you may one day fulfill your destiny."
Ron stumbled backwards, letting go of Monkey Fist's hand. Kim caught him and helped him back to his feet.
"KP, the power, the bit that Uri stole from him, it was riding in me!"
"It's mine! It's actually mine!" Monkey fist was getting visibly better as the blue light played around his body. Where his fur and hair had turned white it was returning to black. Minutes later, their old foe was restored.
He jumped to the open window, the Monkey Ninjas jumping after him. "It's mine!" he continued to scream as he disappeared into the twilight.
Ron found himself swept up into a crushing hug. "I don't know how to thank you!" Amy Hall-Fiske said as she squeezed the young man. As quickly as she had grabbed him, she let him go, lumbering after her husband, trailed by the two great apes.
Kim just scratched her head. "What just happened?"
"Uh, well, KP, I think I just gave one of the world's major super-villains his powers back." He continued staring after them as they faded from view.
Kim rolled over in her bed, trying as best she could to will herself to sleep, all the while knowing that was the absolute worst way to go about doing it. She tried to keep her eyes closed, but it just wasn't working. She would think they were closed then realize they were wide open. Tired as she was, sleep just would not come. The numbers on her alarm clock stared at her, glowing orange-red in the darkened room, as if they were mocking her and her inability to slip into the arms of morpheus.
There wasn't any question what was wrong. Her bed was more than large enough for her small frame but it seemed so small now…
…and so empty!
She knew in her heart that, just a few blocks away, Ron was doing the same thing in his tiny single bed.
It seemed so ferociously cold! She was wearing her usual sleepwear, along with an old sweatshirt and socks and had put an extra blanket on the bed. The room was not really cold either, despite the large windows of her loft. The central air system saw to that. It was the fact she was alone, not sharing her warmth with someone else that made it so cold and lonely. She wanted another body curled up to her back, his arm draped across her, a hand wandering over her body as she slept. It wasn't about the more physical acts of intimacy either, it was just about being together, being one at the end of the day, reconnecting, sharing that tender touch.
Frustrated, she sat up in the bed and rubbed her temples. It was then she realized that somebody was in her room, sitting at the foot of her bed. She reached over and switched on her bedside lamp.
"You can't sleep, can you?" Her mother asked softly.
"It's okay, Mom. Just nerves after what we've been through the last few days."
"Nerves, or the fact you already miss being with him?" She smiled knowingly at her daughter.
"Yes, I…" she stopped, blushing brightly enough she thought her mother could see it in the soft light.
"I see." Her mother's smile never wavered. Without saying anything, Kim had told her everything she suspected and both of them knew it. "Kimmie, I'm not going to sit here and lecture you about being too young or anything. Whether or not this was right, only time will tell now. I have a feeling you know where your heart is and if you follow it then you should be good. As far as I am concerned I wouldn't want anyone for you but Ron."
"I just don't get it, Mom. We've spent time together plenty of times before, sometimes more than a week and I've been able to sleep in my own bed just fine. Does this make it so different now?"
"The short answer is yes. The things you've felt for him, even after all these years, are all that more intense now, especially if you two were together for all the right reasons."
"But…the first…we were scared and angry and…afterwards I felt so bad, so wrong."
"Kimmie, I'm not a psychiatrist, but I do have a pretty good handle on how the mind works. If you were feeling all those things at the time, then all you did was amp them up. It wasn't because of you and Ron. Besides, you said the first. Sounds to me like you got past those feelings."
"Ron was so…"
"Oh?" Anne's smile got a bit wider.
"Mom! I was trying to say Ron was so understanding, so sweet about it. He made me feel, well, loved. But there was also the fact I sort of went back on my promise to him."
"You mean how he wanted to wait for your wedding night? Honey, that was sweet, but considering the feelings you two have for each other, I don't think that was a very realistic promise. Your connection to him runs too deep, especially if that woman thinks your souls have been merged. Now, think carefully. Did you break your promise, or did he release you from it?"
"That doesn't count. He's a guy. He says that's what they do." Kim almost laughed, thinking about Ron's playful line.
"I think you don't give him enough credit. If the two of you decided together, then that's fine. That's the way to go about doing things as adults. Look, if you can't get to sleep because you're missing him, why don't you think about why it is you miss him. I think you'll be all right."
"Thanks, Mom." She said as her mother got up and silently made her way down the steps.
She put her head back on the pillow, slowly, carefully replaying all of the recent romantic moments in her mind. The first grain of an idea started forming in her mind.
It had been many years since her mother told her about 'the birds and the bees' but there was one part she had never considered before. A mother bird would eventually push her chicks out of the nest when it was time for them to fly.
Was her mother ready to push? Was it time for her to move on? What would Dad think if she were to move into her own place with Ron?
The thought of their own big bed in their own place filled her mind as she finally drifted off to sleep.
Yori made her way from her room to the Chamber of the Blade. Upon her completion of the Yamanuchi training Sensei conferred upon her a special honor. Instead of being selected to train new students only as an instructor, she was made the 'Keeper of the Blade.' In effect, she was the one who would care for the special place the Lotus Blade was kept at the school, as well as her other duties training the more advanced students.
The blade itself rested in a cradle of carved wood. Normally a wakizashi of similar design would rest on the lower cradle, but there was none that matched the legendary blade of Toshimiru. She knelt before the blade, brushing a strand of her shoulder length hair out of her face. There, before the blade she let her mind wander to places she would not allow any other place.
She thought of the real master of the blade, the one she had been told time and again would one day come to claim the blade for his own. To what purpose, Sensei had never actually said. She wondered if perhaps it was because he simply did not know or if it was something he was not yet prepared to tell her, if he indeed ever would.
She opened her eyes and gasped. The blade was glowing and floating four feet above its stand…
…and it was changing shape!
Not knowing what else to do, she ran to find Sensei!
Very few were aware of the true nature of the great waterfall filled crater known as the Spiron of Arkonia. It was no natural feature of the land! It was something else entirely.
When humanity was first learning to use rocks as tools, a race known as the Azarians had lived among the stars. They did not travel in huge ships that pushed their way through space and hyperspace with great engines, instead they built devices that would send them from place to place in an instant.
Seeded among the lanes of space were several of these great gateways. They were in the form of giant rings, some over fifty miles wide. In the center of these great stone rings was a lens. Even today ships could use these great lenses to send themselves to distant points in the cosmos in nearly an instant. It still took some time to travel to these great star gates, and only so many vessels could enter in a given time, but they greatly helped the expansion of humanity.
Only a select few, including the Blessed Mother, knew what the Spiron was actually the first and the greatest of these gates!
Slowly, over the millennia, the planet had gradually reclaimed the great stone ring. Rivers flowed up and over it, covering it with the soils carried down them until they covered almost all of the works of the ancient artifact.
The water than flowed into the crater never filled it. Instead it swirled and boiled in a great whirlpool, only to disappear into the unknown depths.
Even fewer knew where the water would end up. One such person waited patiently at the banks of the headwaters of the Great Dagan River. He stood just over seven feet tall, not counting the great spikes on his helmeted head. His gloved hands were clasped behind his back, inside his black cloak.
One of his slaves was slowly sputtering out of the river. Above them swirled the sparkling doorway that the water poured from. Somehow in the process of traveling through the gate and returning to the world, the water had been made pure. It had been this way for so long that the biosphere of Arkonia had come to depend on the arraignment.
The slave, a thin, blonde man fresh from the cloning center, finally made his way to shore, carrying a long, thin burden carefully in his arms. As he reached the feet of his master he fell to the ground, prostrating himself, holding the prize aloft.
Podondrin, the Master of Arkonia took the sword from the clone's hand and studied it. "Well done, slave. You shall be rewarded."
He got up and without looking at the Master he went and stood with his companion, another slave with short red hair. She bore many bruises where her handlers were still trying to contain her spirit. Why the Master tolerated her, many of them did not know.
None of them were close enough to see the smile through the mouth-slits of the helmet.
And so comes to and end Book 3. The saga will continue soon in Heart of the Fury, preceded by a new chapter in What's the Hitch!
Here's a taste of "Heart":
Sherry's mouth was curled up in rage. Her brown eyes slowly brightened, changing color just as her skin was as she faced him. Her hands were wreathed in green fire as she changed from Sherry Lipsky into Shego.
"Only one man has earned the right to wear that uniform!" She bellowed at the Dark Lord of Arkonia.
He just stood there, laughing, the hollow sound chilling all of them.
With a roar, Shego unleashed the full fury of her power. Fire poured from her hands and arms, enveloping her whole upper torso as she channeled more of it than ever before.
She opened her eyes when she finally let up, expecting to see the creature reduced to so much ash.
Instead, he stood there, laughing at her.
Then he took off his helmet.
Shego turned almost totally white, too shocked even to scream.
What does the future hold for Kim and Ron? Why has he been chosen as the Sword of the Effurien? Were they really paying attention to all the Blessed Mother had to say? Who is this mysterious man who has taken the Tempus Simia? How was Neil Argus on Arkonia, Eight Hundred years in the past? What became of him?
Stay tuned to this site for the continuing saga of The Trinity Sitch
I want to send out a special thanks to my reviewers:
JPMod, Mattb3671, Zaratan, Momike, Campy, MrDrP, Taechunsa, Captainkodak1, Marky1.0, Acaykath.
And thanks to all the reader who have made this my most successful story to date.
NOT THE END!