A Hero's Song (Darkest Secrets Volume 1)

Chapter 35 - Words Unspoken

A muted war of two was raging behind Gabriel as he flitted to the portal. Cracks formed in the cavern faster than he could perceive. Even with sensors, and Alfred, he had no chance of following along with the battle.

He rushed to the churning phosphorescent portal, careful to keep his mind as small as he could. The way Quantum moved made him wary of being noticed. He didn't want to end up charred to ash - or worse.

He made it to the gun without trouble, but when he grabbed it, it wouldn't budge. He pushed harder, but it felt like pushing on a mountain. Temperature warnings informed him the energy would melt through his gauntlets in under a minute. Releasing the morbid device, he wondered if he'd need to spend antimatter charge to remove it.

Lucian kept the portal from growing, but it was starting to get away from him, growing out where he didn't have it pulled tight. It looked like he was trying to tie a sheet around a pile of laundry that was just too large.

He wasn't going to be able to close it alone.

If Gabriel fired, Quantum would notice. He needed to be ready to run - but what would he do if the blast wasn't enough to destroy the gun? There wasn't time to stop and investigate this unfamiliar - possibly alien - tech, and there would be no second chance.

Power to 100%. Alfred didn't have a better idea either.

"Knock knock." Ephemeral knuckles wrapped against Gabriel's head, and his blood ran cold. This voice wasn't Alfred.

A frenzied scan of his surroundings showed no signs of any changes.

"It's me, Gabe." Memories of the nightmare void came flashing back. The feeling of the energy told Gabriel this was Lucian's voice in his head. It was rougher, more mature. Time moved differently in whatever dimension he'd been in these few short weeks.

"I almost didn't notice you cloaked over there - you were almost invisible, how do you- no, nevermind, I don't have much time. My... crew can't hold that thing off long. Either we close this doorway in the next few moments, or we die - on both sides of the Gate."

Gabriel tried sending thoughts back to his brother, but it didn't seem to work since Lucian kept talking.

"It's been a while since I felt your presence in the void. Looks like it's been longer for me than it has been for you, eh? I hope you've been well, brother."

Lucian's smile outshined the gilded hall, even as he strained against the interdimensional tear - warm nostalgia mixed with pride in his eyes. "I thought I might never see you again."

There was so much Gabriel wanted to ask. Where had Lucian been? What had he done to wind up in this exact spot at this very moment? What could have been a mere coincidence felt like fate - but providence, it seemed, had a sense of humor.

After years of sharing exhausted half-smiles from opposite sides of missile-proof glass; after watching each other face experiments, tests, and trials; after they'd fought on Gabriel's way out of the lab - this was the reunion the Universe saw fit to give them?

"You wouldn't happen to have a psionic dampener lying around, right?"

Lucian made direct eye contact with his - supposedly invisible - brother and chuckled at the exasperated face he made.

"I had to ask, y'know? Just in case you did. "

Gabriel raised his gauntlets as a question.