Right of Retribution: Compilation (Patreon)

Bonus Content: 2nd Epilogue

Adeena let out a long-suffering sigh while dangling there in the cube. She looked around herself, realized it was almost time to escape, and that she’d only have to wait a little longer.

That her role in this, in pushing Mitch along the right path, would soon be over. She’d finally be able to escape her own fate.

Despite being Fate.

You really did put everything in order.

Again.

You make me look like an amateur, Uncle.

That even with all the gifts you gave me.

All the abilities.

Even going so far as to show me multiple paths things could take.

I couldn’t even scratch the surface of what you were able to do.

Skipper dragged the cube Adeena hung from through another portal.

This was the one she’d been waiting for.

Cutting free this avatar, Adeena let the Essence fade away into nothing and vanish. Just as the portal shift occurred and scattered what was left of her to the nothingness between the planes.

Groaning, Fate woke back up in her original body.

One that she’d set aside several minutes after she’d been born into this world.

Nothing felt right.

Nothing was correct.

Everything was wrong with it.

Turning over slowly she felt incredibly stiff.

As if her arms and legs were nailed to boards and were unwilling to even bend in the slightest. That if she even tried, they break in half and collapse.

A long groan preceded her forcing her body to actually get out of the bed. To lever herself upward and away from the small room Ryker had prepared for her specifically to work out of.

Even the bed she was in now, provided she listened to his instructions.

Which she had of course.

Not listening to Ryker was just asking for problems.

Letting out a long sigh Adeena was perched on the edge of the bed.

“Okay… next… next it to make sure Daria is alright,” grumbled Adeena who pushed up off the bed and stood up.

Only to promptly fall back into it and lay there groaning.

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Adeena mumbled, only to hear Ryker’s words pushing at her. Telling her that she needed to check into Daria.

That when she “felt most like resting, she should be checking.”

Taking that for this moment, or at least motivating herself to utilize it to goad herself into moving, Adeena tried again.

This time she managed it.

Walking over stiffly she managed to get herself positioned in front of “Fate’s Log.”

A massive monitor that could display anyone, anything, at any time, in any place, so long as Adeena asked for it. It was keyed to her, and only her.

This was the true log for the world. One that allowed people to access the other logs that’d been deliberately left behind to help guide people in the right path.

“As Uncle said… people are more likely to believe it when it comes from an oracle, or a soothsayer,” hissed Adeena, opening the log and dialing it into Daria.

Who was perched in a chair and waiting around for whatever was going to happen, happen.

She was Adeena’s one and only priestess.

Throughout all time, Fate had given nothing to anyone.

Not a scrap of power.

It’d all been spent in Daria on the hope that one of the futures Ryker had shown her, where Warner saved her, would come to be. Even going so far as to try and push Warner toward Daria when she needed him most.

“I hope you appreciate what I’ve done for you Daria,” whispered Adeena, who then pressed her forehead to the screen.

In every other future Ryker had shown her, Adeena had ended up with Warner in a romantic relationship. This was the only one where that didn’t happen.

Warner was never quite as powerful with her, as she was with Daria though.

He relied on Adeena too much and took her answers far too seriously. Listening to her implicitly.

With Daria, he fouled up more often, was forced to grow, and made Daria grow as well.

“I hope you know what I gave up,” Adeena said to no one and closed her eyes.

Her mind reliving futures that would never come to be.

Traded away to make a man who didn’t know she existed be an ever better one.

Than Adeena sealed those memories away and tore them from her mind. Setting them aside in case she ever wanted to peek at them again.

Hopefully she never would.

Even if she knew she’d likely be picking it up again in a month if only to push at that wound.

***

“This is wrong,” warned Nancy, hovering somewhere off Seville’s left shoulder. She would be invisible to everyone except himself. As if she didn’t exist. She was the only bright spot in life and often tried to guide him toward kinder solutions since being forced into this service. Where he’d given up, she’d become his voice of reason and morality, surprisingly enough. “This is wrong. We shouldn’t be here or doing this. We can easily make arguments against this. Against Skipper. Bianca… Bianca won’t fight us. You know what’s happening.

“She just attacked little better than a child! Let’s go. This is all wrong. There’s survival, and then there’s evil. I’ll always argue for survival, but not this.”

Seville grimaced, his teeth grinding together as he watched Warner zoom away.

He’d made no move on the man as Skipper had attacked the glowing dome.

Moving at a slow walk, he pushed his way over to the magical defense Warner had erected to protect his daughter, and what Seville had considered was the man’s sidekick.

Peering over heads and between bodies, Seville could see what’d happened.

Skipper had indeed attacked Warner’s daughter.

Attacked and clearly mortally wounded her.

The lower half of her was simply gone and torn away.

“There, now kill him! It won’t reload for an hour, so make it happen, Seville,” shouted Skipper over a number of radios all around him. All of them worn by Council soldiers.

Everyone around noticed where he was and began moving out of the way for him.

Without even wanting to, Seville ended up being forced to walk through the opening and up to the dome.

Standing there, he watched Warner hunched over his obviously dying daughter.

There was a shuddering feeling that tore through his chest and left him feeling weak.

Weak and without a foundation. That he was little better than a twig trying to hold up a horse.

Grief, madness, and fear lurked in Warner’s eyes.

All for the soon to be loss of his daughter.

“Fuck this. Fuck you, don’t want any part of this. You can go cry to Zeus about it. I’ll make a separate deal with him for a punishment. Fucking child-killer that you are. Nasty cunt,” Seville declared in a loud voice. Turning, he walked away, not wanting to bother anymore with this situation.

None of this was what he wanted.

Not in any way shape or form.

After having so many encounters with the people in the army of the Originator, he’d found they were often just like him. Wanting to do what’s best for their families.

Except Runner didn’t hold them hostage.

Didn’t put a gun to the heads of those family members with the intent to keep his people as unwilling agents. That any deviation and everyone they knew would be slaughtered.

“Nasty cunt that she is,” growled Seville. “I’d rather stuff a power drill up my pecker than do anything more here.

“She even killed Leena for no good reason at all. There’s not a damn thing I’m willing to help her with at this moment.”

Seville kept marching away from the scene.

Every part of his mind felt like absolutely rebelling at the moment. That this wasn’t just a situation he could overlook. It was beyond that now.

His mind kept going back to what it’d be like if he was in Warner’s position.

Bent low over a dying Nia.

“Cunt!” screamed Seville as he walked off.

“Yes, she really is. I wish there was something we could do for him,” Nancy whispered, her hand tickling along Seville’s shoulders before resting in the middle of his back. “That was all very wrong. Extremely so.”

Grinding his teeth back and forth, he really just wanted to punch things.

Behind him was a detonation followed by a wave of power that made Seville’s skin itch. Made him want to take off running, find the nearest hole, and crawl into it.

“Runner’s here,” Nancy mumbled in as surprised a tone.

Staring back the way he’d come, Seville was absolutely shocked.

“Ryker, too,” he said, feeling the magical push from the legendary mage smash through a multitude of barriers, formations, shields, and enchantments that’d been set throughout this world.

Bianca had been meticulous in building it all to prevent something like this.

“He pushed it over like it wasn’t there. We’ve all seriously underestimated them, haven’t we?” asked Nancy, pushing up close to Seville’s back.

“Ryker was always very cagey… it’s not a surprise he kept a lot of it in reserve and hidden,” Nancy replied. “We should probably get going before—”

Seville saw the man heading their way at the same exact moment Nancy did.

There was no mistaking Vince Campbell for anyone other than who he was.

Sighing, Seville realized that today was only going to get worse.

He’d be forced to kill people he admired and wished to join or be killed by them.

“Seville!” Vince called out toward him even as he ran on. He was waving an arm back and forth over his head as if to get his attention. “Wait!”

Uh… what?

Nancy shifted over and stood directly behind Seville. Wrapping one arm around his stomach, the other hand pressing to the back of his neck.

A warm and strong power began to flood him and fill his body.

When Nancy was with him, he was able to resist even enchanted weaponry.

“Ah… I thought I’d have to run you down a lot longer,” Vince got out in a rushed breath as he slowed down to a walk. He kept coming right at Seville.

Which honestly made him feel very strange about the whole thing.

The entire time he came at him he had his hands up in front of himself. There looked like there was something in his right hand but he couldn’t quite identify it.

“Good,” Vince said with a nod of his head. “Got something here I need you to listen to. As well as a message from Runner.

“Pretty simple message, really. He wanted me to say it up front first. You ready?”

Seville felt a strange prickling sensation running up and down his body.

As if there was about to a momentous change in the next minute.

“Yeah,” Seville said, feeling as if his tongue was made of stone.

“They’re all safe,” Vince murmured then opened his hand in front of himself. What was in his palm looked to be some type of audio recorder. Then he pushed the play button.