It was late morning when Ret crested a ridge and arrived at the coordinates for his showdown with Lye. The desert’s never-ending ambiance was barren but peaceful, with a serenity that is unique only to dawn. Ret noticed the ground dropped off before him, forming a massive, oblong depression in the earth, almost like a miniature airport runway. Without hesitating, Ret made his way down into its depths, looking to his left and to his right, ever mindful that Lye could have already arrived. But after traversing the entire length of what felt like a football field, all Ret came in contact with were some large boulders, a few cacti, and a tiny lizard that darted here and there, freezing every few inches.
Ret sat down on the side of the dusty hill and stared into the blue sky—watching, waiting for something to happen. Nothing did. “Hello,” he called out. “Lye, are you here?” Nothing happened. Ten minutes ticked by, then twenty, then thirty. Ret let out a sigh, his patience waning. He stood up and started to pace, speaking to himself introspectively.
“How could I be so stupid?” he asked out loud, as he grew ever more irritated. “Why would Lye have given me these coordinates if he wasn’t really going to show up? What if this is a trick? What if Lye is attacking the Keep at this very moment?” Ret wondered how he could have been so selfish, being led all the way out here to the middle of nowhere, leaving everyone at home vulnerable to attack.
Ret sat back down, closed his eyes, and wondered what he should do next. He recalled leaving Abe at the restaurant, how it had taken Ret most of the previous evening just to find someone willing to give him a ride, arriving at his drop-off point in complete darkness. What was worse, he had to leave the Iron Pillar behind (hitchhiking with the presence of a large weapon made every traveler and passerby uncomfortable). So, cold and hungry, and without his weapon to help him defeat Lye, Ret had spent a lonely and sleepless night under the stars—now feeling tired and foolish for his string of poor decisions.
Ret considered his options, then ultimately decided that, other than meeting Abe and Lil’ Millie, this trip was a complete waste of time. His best course of action would be to use his powers to fly back to the highway, retrieve the Iron Pillar, then hitchhike back to the trilithon at Ruin Arch and return home.
Standing and repeating to himself, “How could I be so stupid?” Ret turned around and unwittingly walked directly into a man. And this man was a giant! He was so big, in fact, he would have made Falco look undersized. However, unlike Falco, this man had bright hair, radiant skin, and his eyes flashed like jewels in the sunlight.
Surprised by the sudden appearance of the large man, all he could manage to get out was a lame, “Uh, hi, who are you?”
The man didn’t reply.
Another man appeared out of thin air. This man was younger, not as tall, but still muscular, and he also had the same bright features. Ret took a couple steps back and turned around in time to see three more individuals appear. “What the …” Ret said. He turned around in a circle, realizing he was being boxed in by five opponents, each with the same features and foreboding looks on their faces.
“Okay, Lye,” Ret said, “enough with the theatrics … show yourself.”
“Gladly,” Lye said as he appeared, again as if from thin air. He stood on top of a particularly large boulder. “Oh, Ret,” he said as he leaned on his white, spirally twisted cane, “what in the world are you doing here?”
“What do you mean? This is where you told me to meet you,” Ret said, his annoyance flaring once again.
“Yes, but I never thought you’d be stupid enough to show up,” Lye teased, “especially alone. I mean, how long have we been doing this? You’d think by now you’d have learned that I can’t be trusted.”
“I’m tired of your games, Lye,” Ret said. “Send your goons away and let’s have it out. Just you and me.”
“Oh, no, no, no,” Lye said. “That comes much later, if at all. I’m afraid you have to play my game if you want me.”
“Yeah, and what exactly is your game today?”
“Oh, you will love it. It has violence, drama, twists and turns, and if you survive, a surprise ending.”
“Great,” Ret said, cracking his knuckles and moving towards Lye. “Let’s get started.”
Two of Lye’s five pawns stepped in front of Ret, one levitating a large boulder overhead, the other with hands alight with flames.
“Revenants,” Ret said.
“That’s right,” Lye replied, “but these Revenants are new and improved. They’re better trained, extra powerful, and more thoroughly brainwashed. Here, allow me to demonstrate … you two, kill him.”
The Earth Revenant and Fire Revenant attacked instantly and simultaneously, the one lobbing the massive boulder at Ret, the other throwing darts of flame. With one hand, Ret created a strong crosswind that blew the flames sideways and with the other hand he obliterated the boulder, the massive stone exploding into millions of tiny dust-sized particles that quickly engulfed the scene.
Ret stilled the wind and ducked inside the camouflage left by the vaporized boulder, disappearing from view. The Fire Revenant began firing again, randomly shooting bursts of flame into the dust cloud. Ret stayed low, put his hands to the ground, and opened a fissure underneath his fiery opponent, who quickly vanished below with a yelp of surprise. Ret then reclosed the fissure, leaving him trapped.
At that moment, the dust cloud unnaturally dissipated. Ret scanned the now-clear vicinity for the Earth Revenant, but he had already moved behind Ret. He grabbed Ret around the neck and face, attempting to choke him, but Ret was just getting started. “No … you … don’t,” Ret managed to say between gasps of air. Ret thrust downwards, catapulting himself skyward. He then used his power over wind to assist him in performing a backflip over his opponent. While still in motion, Ret leveraged his momentum, lifting his opponent off his feet and into the air above him, following the action with a powerfully focused blast of wind, sending the Earth Revenant hurtling fifty feet into the sky.
Ret landed gracefully and unscathed but was immediately hit by hurricane-force winds, which threw him backwards, tumbling end-over-end into a metal wall. Dazed, Ret lifted his face out of the dirt to find a fierce-looking female Revenant walking his way, a miniature tornado twisting in each of her upturned palms. Just behind her, the Earth Revenant came crashing down—the violent impact missing her by inches—yet she continued forward, her eyes locked on Ret.
Ret rolled onto his back, looking up to find that the metal wall he’d run into wasn’t a wall at all, rather the massive Revenant he’d run into at the genesis of the conflict. The giant, who looked like a Nazgul, grinned down at Ret, his towering body now covered in an armor of hodgepodge metals. He swung a massive, ten-foot metal mace above his head. Ret shifted the dirt underneath the Ore Revenant, strategically moving him yards away as the mace’s spiked ball came smashing down upon the desert floor. Finding his footing, Ret quickly ducked to the side, avoiding a second mace attack. Ret was hit by another blast of wind, knocking him sideways back into the dirt. Ret continued his roll, a third strike of the mace barely missing him in the process.
These new Revenants were indeed strong. Ret figured he’d better split up this pair to better level the playing field. A blast of hurricane-force wind hit him again, this time filled with stones. He went down, bleeding. He could hear the thump, thump, thump of the giant Ore Revenant’s footfalls.
“Enough!” Ret said, growing angrier by the minute. He used his power over earth to violently tip the ground so it acted as a catapult, launching him into the air and away from his pursuers. He used his power over fire and wind to stabilize himself as he flew. The Wind Revenant took flight as well, quickly matching him in speed and maneuverability. Ret pulled a large stone up to him. He thought, Try matching this. He then used his power over fire to give him even more thrust, shooting flames out from the bottoms of his feet, propelling himself forward at increasing velocity until he was almost a blur. He swung his boulder like a sling until it collided in mid-air with the Wind Revenant. Knocked out, she began a deadly free fall towards the earth. Ret used his powers to create a saving updraft that slowed her descent before depositing her unconscious body in an awkward heap.
Focusing all his attention on the giant Ore Revenant, Ret floated back down and landed confidently just in front of him, as if taunting him to advance. The big man wasted no time, stepping forward, swinging his enormous weapon as he did. But Ret was ready this time. He lifted a hand and used his power over Ore to halt the mace’s ball mid-swing. With his other hand, Ret conjured fire, using it to quickly surround the Ore Revenant in an engulfing wall of flame. He then increased the heat of the flame, stoking it with his mind. The big Revenant tried again to swing his mace, but the fire’s intensifying heat melted the mace’s chain, causing the spiked ball to fall to the desert floor, as if released from a blacksmith’s tongs. Ret then used a circular disc of flame, which he moved above his opponent and dropped it over him, sealing him inside. Within a few seconds, Ret’s flames ate up all the Revenant’s oxygen. He crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
Ret snuffed out the flames with a single hand movement. Then, counting on his fingers, he named each of the Revenants he’d already defeated: “Fire, Earth, Wind, Ore … and now … Wood.” Just then, a large time-tile came rushing towards Ret. Before he could react, it engulfed him and he found himself standing in the middle of a forest, the time-tile closing behind him. Ret looked around, taking in the environment. He shook his head and raised his hands to open his own time-tile back to the present, but before he could, a new tile opened up next to his head, just long enough for a foot to fly through and kick him in the face, closing shortly afterwards. Ret stumbled back and yet another tile opened up next to him, through which a fist appeared, punching him in the gut, before closing again. He bent over, gasping. He rolled to his left, trying to avoid yet another strike, but a tile opened underneath him and he fell down through it, flashing through the present for a brief moment before falling into yet another time-tile that opened in the air in the same forest, dropping him hard on the ground and knocking the wind out of him.
Although he could hardly breathe, Ret went on the defensive, opening five of his own large time-tiles simultaneously, quickly surrounding himself on all sides, except beneath him, in a tight container of time-tiles. As he finished, another adversarial time-tile opened just outside Ret’s container. Ret watched as the Wood Revenant’s leg swung in to kick at him, but this time the leg disappeared momentarily into Ret’s time-tile box, then vanished back into the present, never presenting any danger. Now inside the safety of his own makeshift protective time-tile box, Ret paused to regroup and form a plan. Recalling the painfully dark moments down in Neo’s chamber a few days ago, Ret knew he had more experience than his Wood Revenant rival. Trying to imagine what Neo would say or do in this moment, Ret smiled and thought, Mastering time simply … takes time. He immediately knew what he had to do. Ret thought to himself again, Thanks Neo for always being there for me. Even the tiniest light of a seemingly inconsequential candle can bring clarity to the darkest of rooms.
Ret opened one more—this time smaller—time-tile showing the present. He located the Wood Revenant, then slyly dropped back into the present across from his outmatched opponent. The Wood Revenant opened and sent multiple time-tiles flying towards Ret, but this time Ret simply used his mind to smash and disintegrate everything thrown his way, although he’d only attempted the feat once before. The Wood Revenant’s eyes grew wide. Realizing he was severely out of his league, the Revenant tried to escape.
“Sorry,” Ret said, “but it looks like you’re out of time.”
The Revenant then looked down to find the dirt around his ankles swirling and, within seconds, that swirling had turned into a massive tornado that picked him up and took him away in a cloud of dirt.
With all five Revenants now defeated, Ret turned and scanned the circumference of the arena, looking for Lye.
“Why that was quite a show, Ret,” Lye said, appearing atop the highest boulder at the far end of the desert stadium, a wide grin across his face.
“Yeah?” Ret replied. “Why don’t you come down here and I’ll show you a few more things.”
“Oh, Ret,” Lye said, “it’s not that time yet. Why, that was just the warmup, the opening act, if you will.”
The opening act, Ret thought. What else could he possibly be hiding out here?
As if reading his mind, Lye said, “How about we see what’s behind curtain number two?” Lye snapped his fingers and just outside the earthen arena appeared twenty-foot-high walls completely surrounding its borders, now truly making their present location a stadium-like enclosure. And just inside those walls, stretching down its entire length, was an army of hundreds of men and women encircling them, each with similar features to Ret’s.
“So, Ret,” Lye said, sounding like a proud father. “What do you think of my army?”
Ret looked out at his relatives, at those who bore scars on their palms. He realized that, like him, none of them had asked for this. None of them had asked for their individual powers. They were all innocent, brainwashed, pawns forced to do Lye’s evil bidding.
“I find it sick and twisted,” Ret finally said, looking back to Lye.
“If you think that’s sick and twisted,” Lye teased, “then I can’t wait to show you what’s behind curtain number three!” He snapped his fingers again and next to Lye, also at the far end of the arena, a metal tank with a glass front appeared, inside of which was a single, struggling form … a woman with a breathing tube attached to her face—her eyes wide and hands pressed against the glass.
Ret looked at her and even at this distance, just as it had happened days earlier in Neo’s cavern when he had first seen his father, Ret immediately recognized the captive woman in Lye’s tank. “Mom?” The words unknowingly escaped his lips.
“So, you do remember her,” Lye said. “How lovely.”
“Lye!” Ret said, raising his voice and turning on him. “Let her go right now or so help me I’ll—”
“You’ll what?” Lye mocked. “You’ll fly over here and take my head off? Ha! You don’t have the stomach. Plus, I can kill her with a simple snap of my fingers.” He held up his hand, fingers poised. “Are you ready to play my game now?”
Ret scowled and nodded at him.
“Good. It’s simple. Genius, really. In ten seconds, that breathing tube will retract, leaving mommy dearest without any way to survive in that tank. All you have to do is get by my army in time to save her life.”
Ret’s mind raced. He looked out at the hundreds of Revenants surrounding him. How long had it taken him to defeat just five Revenants? To get through hundreds, and that quickly, was going to be … impossible.
“Are you ready to play my game?” Lye said, pulling Ret from his thoughts. “I hope so, because ready or not, here she dies.”
Ret looked back at his mother just as her breathing apparatus was pulled from her face and withdrawn into the tank’s innards. She froze for a moment, her eyes locking on Ret’s. Then she began clawing at the tank’s glass, a wild, now frantic look in her eyes.
“No!” Ret screamed, feeling truly helpless, his desperation overcoming and consuming him. Then it happened! Like a powerful dam breaking somewhere inside, just as it had in Neo’s chamber a few days earlier but this time multiplied by six, all the power of Mother Nature’s six pure original elements (earth, fire, ore, wind, wood, and now water) transfigured Ret. He felt their unmatched authority—all of them—awake, alive, and flowing inside him. They coursed through his being, saturating him—their command flowing through his blood, filling his lungs, and crackling at his nerve endings. He began to glow, as if he physically housed the elements and became a living, breathing Oracle.
Ret brought his hands out to his sides, palms facing forward, all six scars emitting blinding light, as if the overwhelming elemental power inside him had no other way to escape than through the scars on his palms. His feet lifted off the ground and, for a moment, he floated there, suspended, like a beacon of light above a troubled sea. Then the light blasted forward, swirling as it traveled down the center of the arena, creating a white tunnel of pure elemental energy as it went, creating a straight shot to the metal tank. Ret began floating forward down his tunnel, his feet dangling, his hands alight, and his eyes fixed on his mother.
As he moved, Lye’s Revenant army attacked from all sides. The Earth Revenants threw wave after wave of massive stones and boulders, each bouncing off the tunnel like ping pong balls. The Fire Revenants surrounded the tunnel in a vast vortex of flame, the heat so great that it liquefied the rock beneath but Ret continued forward unabated. The Ore Revenants showered him with clouds of razor-sharp knives, swords, and spears, each propelled forward with maximum force, but none of them could penetrate the tunnel’s power, instead they were crushed upon impact, clanging to the ground in massive heaps of mangled metal. The Wind Revenants combined their powers, sending gargantuan tornadoes to topple Ret, but as soon as the twisters collided with the tunnel, they exploded outwards, bouncing the powerful wind sheers back at their source, knocking the Wind Revenants violently to the ground. Finally, the Wood Revenants attacked, opening up and disappearing into dozens of time-tiles as they attempted to move from reality to memory, and then back into the reality inside Ret’s tunnel. However, as they attempted to do so, brilliant, swirling light exploded out of their time-tiles, launching them violently back into their own reality and disintegrating their tiles in the process.
Moments later, Ret reached his mother’s tank where he found her lying lifeless at the bottom of the tank. “No!” he yelled once more, his elemental tunnel exploding in all directions, blossoming into a massive, bubble-shaped shock wave that not only shattered the tank’s glass—spilling its water and his mother out onto the desert ground—but also carried the remnants of Lye’s Revenant army out of the arena and far into the desert beyond.
With the elemental tunnel gone and his palms no longer glowing, Ret dropped to his feet, bent down, and gathered his mother’s limp body up in his arms.
“Mom … Mom!” he yelled as he attempted to rouse her.
She didn’t move.
“No, please … wake up.” He used his powers to first pull the water out of her lungs and then fill them with oxygen.
She still didn’t move.
Ret gently rotated her body to the ground and tried performing CPR the old-fashioned way, again trying to expel water and supplement oxygen.
Still nothing.
Ret stood up and looked around … unsure what to do next. Then, a small bolt of electricity came from somewhere behind him, hitting his mother in the chest, causing her body to stiffen and lift from the ground. Nothing happened. A second bolt of electricity struck, her body lifting off the ground again, but this time her eyes popped open and she immediately started a coughing fit that ended with her vomiting.
“Mom,” Ret said, kneeling down and pulling her onto his lap again. He turned to find Lye walking towards them, his cane still pointed in their direction and a wide grin on his face. “I … I don’t understand,” Ret said. “Why did you save her? I thought …”
“You thought what?” Lye asked. “That you could save her by beating my army and pulling her from that tank? Did you really think it’d be that easy?”
“But I didn’t save her,” Ret said, confused. “You did. Why?”
“Oh, Ret, Ret, Ret,” Lye said, cutting him off. “You still don’t get it. The game hasn’t changed. The reason I brought her back is simple. When playing chess, you never let go of your queen.”
Ret’s eyes widened as he slowly looked down at his mother. Hatred reflected in her eyes.
“Now stand, my queen,” Lye said. Ret’s mother pulled away from him and stood.
“Mom?” Ret said, the word sounding like that of a child afraid of the dark.
His mother raised a single hand, a water scar glowing brightly on her palm.
It was then that Ret understood. It had all been a ploy from the beginning. Being a Water Revenant, his mother could have escaped from the tank at any time. She’d never been in danger of drowning, or in any danger at all.
“You see Ret,” Lye said, chuckling softly. “In reality, love doesn’t always conquer all.” He turned to Ret’s mother and barked, “Kill him.”
Ret’s mother moved with surprising speed, retrieving the tank’s spilled water from the ground and quickly fashioning it into a pair of water whips. She then spun at Ret, slashing at him with their razor-sharp edges.
Ret pulled the tank in front of him, using it as a shield, which proved barely adequate as her water whips sliced through it like paper. The tank landed in a heap at his feet. Ret’s mother then leapt over the tank pieces, whips slashing in front of her. Ret re-directed the air between them, creating a powerful microburst that threw his mother sideways and out of range.
“Please,” Ret said, using his powers to lift into the air, “don’t do this. I don’t want to hurt you.”
His mother brought her whips together, forming a single, long tendril, which she slashed at him. Ret dodged, but not fast enough, the tip of the whip catching his cheek, blood instantly spilling down his face.
Ret moved higher into the sky, looking down on the scene. He then reached out with his powers, cracking open the earth underneath her. She instantly fell inside, but before he could seal it up again, a geyser of water shot up, his mother perched at its crest like a statue in a Greek fountain. Ret re-closed the earth and his mother glided back down to the ground on the crest of her wave.
“How do I stop her without hurting her?” he asked himself aloud, floating high above her, but then noticed that she was doing something strange. Her body was writhing this way and that, with her hands held high in the air, moving in circles. “What is she doing?” Ret asked aloud again. But just as he did so, the sky darkened above him, as if the sun was afraid of what was about to happen and would rather flee behind a cloud. Ret looked up and found an entire bank of dark swirling clouds forming out of nowhere. Thunder cracked and before Ret knew what was happening, a large, white sphere zoomed passed his head. Ret looked around to find the sky filled with large, baseball-sized hail. His arm writhed in pain as one of them struck him, then another hit his back.
Ret dove, only to find his mother using her powers to send the fallen hail back up at him. He tried to use his powers over water to stop the icy onslaught, but quickly found he was too inexperienced and could not stop them all. One struck him in the head and another collided with his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Ret went down, landing hard on the ground.
Within seconds, his mother was on top of him, thick icy-coated fists punching him in the chest, arms, and face. He tried to reach out with his powers, searching for boulders to roll towards them or ore to pull from the ground, but his mind felt blurry and he could neither focus on, nor find them. He tried to fight her with fire, conjuring fists of flames, but as quickly as he could light them, his mother put them out again. He could hear Lye laughing his evil cackle not far off, delighting in the scene.
Ret couldn’t see, he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t win. He was going to die, right here and now, unless he put an end to her, unless he killed his own mother. He could; it would be easy. He could again summon the power of all six elements like he had done in the elemental tunnel. But he wouldn’t. She was still his mother, and nothing was going to change that, no matter what Lye had done to her. Ret closed his eyes, stopped resisting, and waited for death. It was at this moment—when Ret had lost all hope, when he had decided he’d rather die than kill the person who’d given him life—that it happened … they happened.
Ret heard a deep, echoing bark, followed by the sound of a gun going off. As if someone had frozen time, his mother suddenly stopped. Ret opened his eyes to see a startled look on her face and a red blot growing at her chest. She looked down at Ret, pain filling her eyes, and toppled sideways.
“No!” Ret said as he struggled to sit up, his face bloody and aching, his vision blurry. He looked towards Lye and saw a massive, black bear of a dog standing on his chest, Lye’s white, spirally twisted cane in her teeth and a low growl emanating from her throat.
Abe was at Ret’s side then, rifle in hand, his old face moving in and out of focus. “Come on, son,” Abe said, “let’s get you out of here.” He threw Ret’s arm over his shoulder and pulled him to his feet.
“Wait … no,” Ret said. “My mom.” Ret looked down to find his mother lying on her back, her face in anguish, but she was still alive.
“Your mom?” Abe asked, looking down at the woman. “That’s your—”
Abe never finished, his words lost in the crack that echoed around the arena as a bolt of lightning flashed from the sky, striking Lil’ Millie in the skull. She gave off a whimper and then fell limp. Lye pushed the big dog off of him and got to his feet, his cane still crackling with the lightning’s power. Lil’ Millie lay immobile, her massive body now a lifeless heap of fur on the ground next to him.
“Millie!” Abe said, letting go of Ret, who slumped back to the ground. The old man lifted his rifle and took aim at the evil Lord. But Lye was ready for him and shot a massive bolt of electricity at the old man. Abe fell backwards, leaving Ret kneeling between the dying bodies of his mother and his friend.
“Ret,” Abe said through labored breaths, “I’m sorry.”
Ret shook his head. “Nothing to be sorry about,” he said, smiling. “You saved my life.”
“Ret,” the old man said. “Do something for me.” He raised a shaking hand. “In my shirt pocket.”
Ret reached into Abe’s pocket and pulled out a small, crinkled rectangle, recognizing it immediately. He held the worn photo up to the man’s fading eyes. “Isn’t she a beauty?” Abe said, smiling. He then let out a long shallow breath, his eyes glazing over as he did.
Ret had tears in his eyes as he looked up at Lye, who was still standing by the lifeless dog, wearing the slightest grin on his face.
“Can’t you see, Ret?” Lye asked. “Do you not understand how weak and vulnerable love makes you? This fool ran into a situation he was unprepared for just to die for his efforts. And you, look at the state of you. Why? Because of the love you have for a woman you don’t even remember. This is the great lesson I must teach you, Ret. There is no greater human flaw than love.”
Ret took hold of Abe’s rifle and used it to steady himself as he got to his feet. “I know more about love than you ever will,” he said. “Love of family and friends is what holds me up. It sustains me, giving me strength and purpose.”
“Oh, sure,” Lye said. “What of Lionel Zarbock? What strength and purpose have you received from that friendship?”
“Lionel is a good man who has tricked you into thinking he no longer cares about me,” Ret said.
“I’m afraid you’re mistaken about that,” Lye said, his grin growing into a sinister smile. “Lionel never cared for you. He was only your friend to use you, manipulate you, and study you in order to find out your weaknesses.”
“You’re lying,” Ret yelled. “All you do is lie.”
“Oh, I’m afraid this time I am telling you the truth,” Lye replied, his sinister smile growing into an evil chuckle. “Lionel is not and never was your friend.”
“I don’t believe you,” Ret said. “I will never believe you.”
“Never say never, Ret.” Lye reached inside his robes, pulled out a flask, and began to drink from it, chugging it until he had consumed every last drop. As he released the flask to the desert floor, Lye’s body began to change: his elderly, shriveled, hunched frame slowly grew straighter and taller by the second. His arms, legs and chest filled out. His muscles began to bulge. His wrinkles became smooth. His face took on a more youthful look. His white hair shifted to a jet black, and his white eyes grew back their color. Within a manner of seconds Lye’s body completely transformed.
Before Ret’s eyes stood Lionel Zarbock. Lionel was Lye!