Savak: The Redemption - Part Seven

The trip down the duct was slow and painful for Savak. After a tough episode trying to climb into the duct, Savak had to drag himself along the narrow passage with what little strength he had. Every step he took sent a shock of pain through his forelegs, which made him wince every so often. He was regaining his energy when he rested, but he always tried to keep his rests brief. There was no way to tell if the Grundos were going to search the ducts for them.

    Though the thought bothered him a little, Kaylee did her best to help him along. The enemy he had been chasing for so many months was aiding him in his escape. This gave him conflicting feelings over whether or not to trust her. Her medallion no longer had power for anything; that was clear. Velora had no influence over her anymore, but he still had to wonder exactly whose side she was on.

    “Kaylee,” Savak said. “When…when you tried to control me back in your office, the voice of a certain dark faerie entered my mind.”

    “It was Velora,” Kaylee said softly. “Her presence has been with me ever since I found this blasted piece of silver.”

    Savak nodded to himself. It made sense, but it prompted another question that he had on his mind. “Has she always controlled you?”

    “Not always,” Kaylee said. “Unless I angered her, she usually left me alone. But her desire to control Neopia was forced into my mind as well. It almost felt as if her desire was my own, even though, somewhere in my mind, I knew I didn’t want any of it.” The Lupess sighed. “I’m just glad that she’s gone.”

    “Velora isn’t gone,” Savak said grimly. “She’s still in Jearii’s tower. But her presence has vanished with the power of her medallion.”

    Kaylee nodded this time, but remained silent. For a while, neither said a thing. Then, the Lupess spoke up again.

    “Savak,” Kaylee said softly. “I…I’ve wondered, ever since I saw my daughter on Mystery island…how long have you cared for her?”

    Savak didn’t expect the question, and it took him a moment to form a response in his mind. “We met her on the island only a few days before we were caught by the natives. We were feeding and protecting her as part of a pact we made when we arrived on the island. Then, when she joined our pack, she was taken care of as we have always taken care of each other.”

    Kaylee nodded, mostly to herself, but said nothing for some time. Finally, she said, “Would you continue to care for her?”

    “Of course,” Savak replied, a bit uneasy about her questioning. “She’s a member of our pack. We always take care of our own. Why?”

    The Lupess nodded again, ignoring his question. “Thank you. That’s all I needed to know.”

    As Kaylee fell into silence again, Savak wondered what she was getting at with those questions. He thought a lot about that subject until they reached the vent to the loading bay where the Ugly Duckling was docked. The four Lupes crawled through the vent that Savak blasted through hours before and weaved their way through the containers, reaching the corridor to the freighter without a hitch. But as they reached the other end of the corridor, they ran into a short blue Grundo. It was clear that Savak didn’t expect anyone to be on board the ship, and Bulthor didn’t expect anyone to be boarding it. But it was Kaylee who broke the standoff, addressing Bulthor directly.

    “Bulthor!” she said. “I thought I told you to work on the Mutation Beam Array!”

    “Commander?” the Grundo asked, clearly confused. “What happened to your fur?”

    “Never mind that,” she said, waving her paw. “In any case, I have new orders for you. You are to take these three…guests back to Neopia’s surface. Release them back on the plains. I have no use for them.”

    “Ma’am?”

    “You have your orders, Bulthor. I want this to be a priority task for you.”

    The Grundo shot a quizzical glance to the other three Lupes before he saluted Kaylee. “I will do as you ask, commander.”

    Kaylee nodded in approval. Then, she added, “And, Bulthor. When you reach the surface, I might suggest finding a new career path. I don’t think that running cargo for Virtupets is a very promising career for an intelligent Grundo such as yourself.”

    When she said this, a look of unease crossed Bulthor’s face. But he said nothing, moving back into the ship. Lilia and Heysha followed behind him, but Savak remained for a moment. “Thanks Kaylee,” he said. “I’m happy to know you have a heart after all.”

    “Just take care of my daughter,” Kaylee said. “And, take this with you.” Reaching behind her neck, Kaylee slipped the silver chain over her head and handed the Medallion of Submission over to Savak. “I’m sure that someone in Faerie Land knows what to do with that.”

    Savak gripped the medallion in his paw, but kept his eye on Kaylee. “You’re not coming with us?” he asked. Kaylee shook her head.

    “I have something I need to do here,” she said. “From everything I experienced over the past several years, I’ve learned that no one should control anyone like that. Not me, not Velora, not even Dr. Sloth.” She looked down the corridor a moment before turning back to Savak. “Perhaps in the future, we will meet again.”

    Before Savak could say anything more, the brown Lupess turned and ran down the corridor, back into the battleship. For a while, Savak only remained where he was, looking down the corridor, and gripping the lifeless medallion in his paw. It was Heysha’s voice that finally aroused him.

    “Savak,” she said. “Bulthor’s ready to launch, but he needs to close all the hatches. You need to come in the ship.”

    Looking at the medallion in his paw, Savak nodded slowly. “Alright,” he said. “Let’s go.”

    As soon as he set foot on the ship, Heysha led him along down the short corridor to the door at the far end, which Savak had avoided when he was looking for Heysha. The door at the end actually led directly to the ship’s bridge. Needless to say, the bridge’s interior was the same old gray. Bulthor was seated in the pilot’s station in the front of the bridge, working over his controls. Lilia had taken a seat among the chairs in the back of the bridge, probably placed there for observers, not personnel. When he arrived, the red Kyrii Megan looked him over from where she stood at the front of the bridge. “Is he the last one?” she asked.

    “Yes, I am,” Savak said. “Kaylee will remain on the Vengeance.”

    “She will what?” Lilia asked.

    Savak gave Lilia an apologetic look. “She said she had something to do there,” he said. “But she didn’t tell me what.”

    “Alright,” Bulthor said without turning. “If it’s just the three of you, then we might as well cast off. Megan, get ready to release the docking clamps. I’m going to signal the Vengeance’s bridge.”

    As Bulthor and Megan got the ship ready to launch, Savak seated himself next to Lilia, and Heysha sat on his other side. Lilia’s ears were drooped slightly, and Savak felt sorry for her. Once again, she had been separated from her mother, a mother she barely knew. He nudged her slightly. “Are you alright?”

    For a moment, she didn’t respond. Then, she nodded. “I’ll be fine,” she said. “I just want to go home.”

    “We’ll be there soon, don’t worry,” Heysha said. Savak smiled at her, glad she was able to add her support.

    A few moments later, after receiving clearance from the Battleship, the Ugly Duckling released her docking clamps, drifted away into open space. Then she engaged her engines to return to Neopia. After setting his course, Bulthor leaned back in his seat. “That’s that,” he said. “Now, all we have to do is sit back and enjoy…”

    A flash of light out the side of the view-port caught everyone’s attention. Shifting to get a better view, Savak saw the Vengeance briefly before it was engulfed in a fireball. A moment later, Bulthor’s ship rocked with the resulting shockwave, almost causing Savak to fall out of his seat.

    “What happened?” Savak asked.

    “The Vengeance has been caught in some kind of explosion!” Bulthor exclaimed. “I’ve lost contact with her bridge. Megan, see if you can raise anyone from that battleship, find out what’s happening over there.”

    As he said this, the ship lurched suddenly. There was a massive bang, then the groaning of metal. The lights on the bridge flickered, but regained power after a moment. Then an alarm was set off.

    “We’ve been struck by debris from the Vengeance!” Bulthor explained. “We’re losing main power. I’m switching to the backup systems. Megan, try to keep those engines online. If anything, I don’t want to end up as a pancake on the Tyrannian Plateau to go with that omelet!”

    As he said this, the ship lurched again, and Savak felt the ship go into a faster spin. He could only imagine what the fate of the Ugly Duckling was, and he hoped that he was wrong.

    * * *

    The darkness of night shrouded the plains, broken only by starlight, and a brightening sky far in the east. In the hours before dawn, a great fireball fell from the sky with a roar and burrowed a rift into the ground before it finally came to a halt. The Ugly Duckling lay on her side, trails of smoke rising not only from her engines, but from her scorched and twisted hull. The ground around it burned briefly, but the fires didn’t spread on the frost-covered ground.

    A panel on the side of the ship was suddenly thrust open and a blue Grundo hopped out, then reached back inside to assist his passengers. Lilia, once she was out of the ship, made her way quickly to the ground, limping slightly. Savak emerged next, painfully hauling himself out of the ship. He stayed next to Bulthor as they both helped to pull Heysha out of the wreck. She didn’t move, even as they carried her to the ground. Savak and Bulthor laid her down away from the scorched ground near the wrecked ship, just before Megan emerged from the hatch, carrying with her a medical kit.

    “Is she alright?” Savak asked desperately. Bulthor shook his head.

    “I don’t know,” the Grundo replied. When Megan came over, he took the kit from her and opened it up. “She’s still alive, but she fell pretty hard in the crash.”

    “We need to get her to the hospital then!” the red Lupe said. “We need to have a doctor look at her.”

    “I don’t even know if it’s safe to move her yet,” Bulthor explained. “She probably has a concussion, not to mention any internal bleeding. I think it’s safest to let her lay here for the time being.”

    Sadly, Savak crouched down next to the Lupess, gazing at her closed eyes. “Oh, Heysha,” he mumbled. “Why did you have to follow me?”

    Bulthor only glanced briefly at Savak with sympathy before he turned to Megan. “Go to Neopia Central; see if you can find a doctor to bring…”

    As he was speaking, a strange humming noise filled the air. Savak immediately recognized it as the sound of a faerie transport…no, several of them, descending to the plains, and the crash site.

    “Faeries!” Megan said, voicing Savak’s thoughts. “If they’re coming here, I suppose that saves me a trip.”

    Savak sat up as he spotted the transport’s lights as they descended from Faerie Land. Bulthor left Savak to go with Megan and meet the transports as they arrived. While the transports drew closer, several differently colored lights darted away from the transports, speeding to the ground where the Ugly Duckling lay in a heap. One of the faeries landed closer to Savak and the others. The red Lupe recognized the light faerie immediately, though it took her a moment to recognize him.

    “Savak?” Jearii asked. “Why are you here? And why are you red?” She paused as she saw the medallion that Savak had in his paw. “Is that the Medallion of Submission?”

    Savak looked at the medallion in his paw. The silver metal looked different now that it no longer bore Velora’s magical energy. Once it seemed to suck in all the light around it, but now is was just a dull hunk of silver. His fur bristled slightly as he realized that this one piece of metal was the source of his problems. It was because of this medallion that the Medallion of Light was formed. It was because of this medallion that Savak was sucked into a long and tiresome chase that, in the end, seriously injured someone close to him. Frustrated, Savak tossed the medallion to Jearii’s feet.

    “Take it,” he growled. “It’s more trouble than it’s worth.”

    Jearii picked up the medallion and flipped it from one hand to the other before she looked back at Savak. Kneeling, she palmed the broken medallion around Savak’s neck. “Well, this explains why I lost contact with you, and your red fur. But how did it happen? And how did you get this from Kaylee?”

    Savak ignored Jearii, settling himself down next to Heysha again. When Jearii shifted to kneel next to Heysha, he didn’t move, even though he was aware of her presence.

     “She’s injured,” the faerie observed. For a moment, Savak didn’t do anything. Then, he nodded grimly.

    “She hit her head in the crash,” he explained. “We…we don’t know what else is wrong with her. But she’s not moving. She’s been unconscious for some time.”

    Jearii nodded sadly, then leaned over the unmoving Lupess, waving her hand over her. Then, she placed her hands on Heysha’s chest, and her head. Her palms radiated light for a moment, then faded as she backed away. Turning to Savak, Jearii smiled. “She’ll be fine, now,” she said. “She just needs some rest.”

    Savak sighed with relief, knowing that Heysha would recover. He gave Jearii a grateful look, and she smiled back briefly before she held up the Medallion of Submission. “Now that I have your full attention,” she said. “How did you get this from Kaylee?”

    “She gave it to me,” Savak said, shrugging. “But that was long after it lost its power. What I want to know is why it did.”

    The light faerie flipped the medallion over in her hands, examining its surface. “Well, it does have some wear, but that’s to be expected. I don’t see any kind of damage that would leak its energy.” She examined it a moment more before looking back to Savak again. “I suppose, after seventy years of use, it just ran out of energy.”

    Savak nodded, remembering what Jearii had told him about vessels containing magical energy, and how they would lose their charge over time.

    The sun rose above the horizon, illuminating the crash site as the faeries helped Bulthor to clean up the site, and hopefully recover the Grundo’s ship. Lilia had joined Savak and Jearii as they watched the recovery operation. No one said much, though there wasn’t much to say. Then, after a while, Jearii stood up and held out her hand to Savak. “Come,” she said. “These faerie’s can take care of everything here. We have business elsewhere.”

    Savak hesitated briefly, looking back at Heysha. Lilia walked over to the motionless Lupess, sitting down beside her and nodding to Savak.

    “I’ll watch her, don’t worry,” she said.

    Savak gave Lilia a grateful look before he followed Jearii to the waiting transport.

To be continued...