Austin, riding the power wave produced by his new friend Will, arrived at the gateway to Earth just in time to watch the Santor explode with the power of a small sun.
"Are we too late?" Will asked, sensing the fear and sadness radiating from Austin.
"Yes... we are." Austin said, his fear quickly turning to rage, his sadness turning to revenge as he focused on the Fungi warships. "Destroy them Will... destroy every one of them."
Will did exactly as he was asked, sending wave after wave of burning energy against the Fungi fleet, disintegrating them on contact. While Austin was sure the Fungi did not know who or what was attacking them, they did not wait to find out. Austin watched as the remaining ships dived for the gate to Earth, jumping as fast as possible out of the Void.
As soon as the last Fungi vessel disappeared a Guild fleet made up mostly of large Sloth transports surrounded by a heavy escort jumped in.
"Should I destroy those ships as well?" Will asked eagerly.
"No... those are our friends." Austin replied.
"How do you know?"
"Because those are human ships."
"So all humans are your friends?" Will asked curiously.
"Well no..." Austin admitted.
"Then how do you know they are your friends?" Will said, wanting to cause more explosions.
"They are more my friends than any Fungi will ever be." Austin replied. "But you're right... we better go see who they really are and why they let Vard's ship get blown up."
Moving towards the Guild fleet with Will in tow, Austin went looking for answers. Looking at the fleet's formation he quickly noticed one ship that seemed out of place... a Guild War-Liner located in the middle where it would be useless protecting the Sloth transports that surrounded it.
Curious, Austin dived into the ship, heading directly to the bridge where he found Vard sitting on the floor, his head resting in Joshua's lap.
"It was a beautiful ship," Austin heard Joshua whisper as he stroked his husband's hair.
"I should have never let you talk me into letting them destroy her," Vard pouted.
Wanting to know what had just happened, Austin concentrated hard to materialize a transparent image of himself on the bridge. "It must have taken a lot of fast talking," He laughed as he appeared.
"Austin?" Vard jumped, having to stop himself half way from trying to hug a ghost.
"Hello oath brother," Austin smiled.
"I was hoping to see you again," Vard grinned as well. "Any luck in finding us some allies?"
"I did manage to find one." Austin chuckled as he went searching for Will.
"By the light, what is that?" Joshua exhaled as Will made his presence known, forming a perfect sphere of blinding light in the middle of the bridge.
"Vard... I would like you to meet Will. Will, this is my best friend Vard," Austin said but got no reply. "Will?"
Turning his attention on his ball shaped friend Austin watched as Will hovered closer and closer to Joshua, his light growing ever brighter.
"Creator?" Will sent out in a near whisper.
"Hello Will," Joshua said as he reached up to touch the ball of light.
The moment the two touched, the light was absorbed by Joshua's body, his skin glowing a brilliant white while Will's voice rang inside his head. "You made me! You made me! What am I? Who am I? Why do I exist? Do you like my name?"
Joshua, his mind filled with the being's questions did not know where to start. Will's power, coursing through him was almost overwhelming. "I don't know who you are."
"But you made me. You have to know." Will insisted.
Just then, the door to the bridge opened, letting Drake in. On sensing another one of his creators Will sent half of his self into Drake to ask him the same questions. "You made me! You made me! What am I? Who am I? Why do I exist?"
Seeing Drake and Joshua standing paralyzed, Vard began to worry. "What is going on Austin?"
"I think Joshua has been cheating on you Vard. It seems he and Drake made a baby behind your back." Austin chuckled.
"A baby?" Vard asked confused.
"It seems so. When I found Will he was scared and confused, darting through the Void, looking for the ones who created him. Since he remembered entering the Void near Earth, I brought him back here to help him find the answers he wanted. I should have guessed Joshua had something to do with it. Will has a Joshua feel to him."
"So what is Will doing right now?" Vard asked.
"Trying to get his two parents to answer the questions that has had philosophers debating for centuries... purpose of life sort of things."
"I don't think Joshua or Drake can answer those," Vard said worried.
"Yeah... Will is finding that out, to his disappointment."
"Do you know how Will came to be?" Vard asked.
"No I don't... you will have to ask Joshua when Will is finished with him," Austin replied.
That turned out to be a very long time indeed. Will, not happy with the answers his creators were giving to his questions, kept on asking the same ones in hope they would give him what he wanted. In the end, however, he had to accept the truth. Joshua and Drake had not understood the consequences when they had allowed their souls to mate. They had not even known that in doing so they had created a new life. It was not a far jump for Will to go from understand that his birth had been unplanned, to thinking his existence had actually been nothing more than an accident, if not a mistake. Sulking, Will withdrew himself from his creators to hover next to Austin.
Joshua, shaking his head clear, looked up at the ball of light, pain showing on his face. "I'm sorry Will. I am sorry we did not have the answers you wanted."
The ball of light quivered "I'm so alone... there is no one like me. I am nothing more than a mistake."
"You are no mistake my friend. Because of you, the people I love escaped the Fungi." Austin said.
"We are very grateful to you." Vard agreed.
"But..." Will's voice whimpered.
"Will, you are no mistake." Joshua insisted. "Drake and I did not know what we were doing, but I can not describe my joy in knowing that you exist."
"Why... you never wanted me."
"But I got you and love you." Joshua replied, reaching up to touch the light again so that Will would know the truth of it.
This time Will slowly entered his creator and did not fill his mind with endless questions. He let himself flow into Joshua's soul. Finding a warm and comfortable place he settled down to sleep... the first sleep he had had since being created.
"Is Will alright?" Austin asked worried.
"Yes... he's resting." Joshua smiled. His whole body felt as if it was being tickled.
Drake walked over to Joshua and placed a hand on his chest, letting a part of Will seep into him. Drake then sat himself down on Joshua's lap, Joshua's arms wrapped around him. The two quickly curled up and fell asleep.
"They sure make a pretty family portrait," Austin grinned.
"They sure do," Vard agreed.
As the two men watched, a shadow fell on them, turning around they saw three giant eyes staring at them. "We do not agree," came from three different voices.
"The Watchers!" Austin jumped.
"You know these... these things?" Vard asked, as he reached for his gun.
"Yes... they are the Watchers. They live in the Void observing what we do here."
"They don't seem very happy," Vard remarked.
"We are not." The three voices replied. "You have disrupted the calm of the Void with your fighting and you are contaminating the Pure One with your physical forms."
"The Pure One?" Vard asked.
"I think they are referring to Will," Austin said nervously.
"How can Will being with his father be seen as contamination?" Vard demanded.
"He is physical and therefore impure. We demand that you give the Pure One to us."
"And if we refuse?" Joshua asked as he opened his eyes slowly.
"Then we will remove the impurities that threaten him."
"No one threatens my family." Vard said as he raised his gun.
"Vard... I would put that gun down if I were you. If the Watchers decided to, they could destroy your entire fleet without much effort," Austin warned.
"But they won't," Joshua said.
"How can you be sure?" Austin asked.
"Will won't allow it," Joshua replied, the light in his eyes growing brighter as his son stirred inside him.
Joshua seemed to be right. As the light grew the three eyes quivered and shrank in size.
"What is going on Joshua?" Vard asked.
"Will is talking to the Watchers... trying to get them to understand how he came to be. The Watchers don't believe him. They can't see how an impure could give birth to someone stronger than they are," Joshua replied.
"We will just have to prove it to them," Vard said as he began undoing the buttons to his military uniform.
"Vard?' Joshua asked, with an arched eyebrow as he nudged Drake awake.
"They do want proof don't they?" Vard chuckled. "And I want a baby."
"You are not jealous are you?" Drake grinned as he sat up.
"Just a little," Vard said with a wolfish smile.
"Vard, you're scaring them," Austin said nervously.
"The great and powerful Watchers are scared of us mere physicals?"
"Yes... they are afraid you are telling them the truth," Austin replied.
"And why does that frighten them?" Joshua asked.
"The Watchers, for as long as they can remember, have always existed in the Void, alone but supreme in their control. Once in a while someone like me would appear, and the Watchers would care for them as they have cared for me. Eventually, the emptiness of the Void would become too much for them, and they would leave the Void to pass on."
"I'm sorry," Vard said as he let his finger's pass through Austin's face.
"It's alright. I'm not leaving anytime soon," Austin promised.
"So why are the Watchers afraid of us having children? I would think they would like the company."
"They would like the company, that is true. What they do not want is for you three to fill the Void with beings more powerful than they are.
"So, after an eternity of overseeing the Void, they have finally met a power they can't fathom?"
"Yes," Austin said sheepishly. They think emotions such as love and hate belong only to primitive physicals. They did not understand Will's need for such things."
"Maybe my son can teach them," Joshua offered, reaching out a hand towards the floating eyes.
As Joshua moved closer the three eyes pulled away as if frightened, closing into a tight circle. Joshua kept up his pursuit however, moving quickly till his hand touched the ghostly bodies of the Watchers.
"Go Will... show them what you've learned," Joshua said encouragingly as streams of white light flowed from the tips of his fingers into the three beings who flinched at its touch.
"Stop it Joshua! You are hurting them!" Austin shouted.
"No... I am helping them remember... remember what it was like to be a part of the physical world."
The three eyes contracted and merged together, forming a single body that started taking on a physical, human like form. When the new being had solidified into a physical shape, Joshua stepped away and Will returned back to his body.
"What are we?" The creature asked as it looked down on its naked body.
"My son has given you back your bodies... the ones you cast away so long ago."
The creature which had skin and hair as pale as white marble and eyes bluer than the sky on Earth, spread out its white feathered wings. "We do not understand... we never looked so... human."
"No, you didn't." Joshua agreed. "Will had very little to use to give you these bodies. As living energy, you did not even have DNA. The form you now take is less what you looked like than it is the physical manifestation of your souls."
"So we are what you humans call... angels?" The creature asked. "If that is so, where is the god we are meant to serve?"
"Is that how you see yourself Will?" Joshua chuckled. "A god?"
"No... you are," Will replied earnestly. "You created me did you not?"
"I'm no god."
"One day you will be," Will promised.
"Are you our god?" The winged Watcher asked Joshua.
"Yes he is," Vard said before Joshua could refute it.
"No, Vard I am not," Joshua insisted.
"Can a god be a god and not know it?" Drake asked.
Vard leaned down and whispered into his husband's ear. "Joshua... we need the Watchers help in winning this war. If you are their god, they will be bound to help us."
"If Will's creator is a god... he will be able to prove it," The Watcher decided.
"How can he prove it?" Drake asked.
"He must give us a home world."
"That is simple enough... there are plenty of habitable worlds in human space that you can inhabit, Vard replied.
"No... the Void is our home. We will not leave it," The Watcher insisted.
"But there are no planets in the Void... no suns either." Drake said.
"If Joshua is a god then he will find a way to grant us this small request," The Watcher replied.
"We could build a space station." Joshua offered.
"No... we want a living planet, warmed by the light of its own sun, a place where we can fly, swim, laugh and play."
Joshua lowered his head in defeat. "Then I am not a god, for I can not give you the things you want."
"One day you will." Will's voice whispered in Joshua's head.
"I will?" Joshua sent back in surprise.
"Yes... one day you will be able to make worlds and suns and fill them with life." Will replied.
"But how?" Joshua asked. "I don't know how to do any of those things."
"I don't know how... I don't think it matters. I just sense that, at some time in the future, you will have the power to do the things you need to do for the good of everyone."
"I understand Will... thank you. Go back to sleep now."
After he felt Will's consciousness fall asleep, Joshua turned his attention back on the Watcher. "I promise, when the time comes and I am ready, I will give you the world you want."
"Until then, we will be watching and waiting." The creature replied. "Come Austin, it is time you returned to your lessons."
"If I may Watcher, I would like to stay here with Joshua and Vard, and help them in their search for allies."
"Very well... we will look to you to watch this godling and report what you find to us, but remember, you can not leave the Void without passing on."
"I understand. I will stay with them until they leave the Void and no longer."
"Good..." The Watcher said as it began to fade away. "One more thing, something that might help your people, the Void is not entirely empty. There are places where different races have settled, most in hope of escaping the Fungi and Chimera. At one such point, three months travel from here, there is a series of what you would call space stations that belong to one of the first races to seek refuge in the Void. Your friends might want to seek their help."
"Thank you." Austin bowed as the Watcher finally left.
One down, another 17 to go before we reach the final climax. In other news Angels Ascending, Book IV of the Centurion Cycle has been accepted by the publisher and will be out on Amazon sometime in the next two weeks. Will keep you all updated to when it will be released. Books I and II, The Centurion and The Academy are still selling and are now on sale at over 30% off on Amazon. The Guild and The Son were both experiments I did to help me get ready to writer the much longer work of The Centurion Cycle so if you are a fan of The Son then I think you will really enjoy the Centurion series. As for The Son, those of you who don't want to wait for the next chapter to come out can find the complete book on the yahoo site. If you have any comment or anything else for that matter feel free to post it on the group or email me. Take care.
JMH trandar2002@yahoo.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/adultwritingworkshop/