One Hundred and Fifty Years later…
Sitting at his throne of gold and black marble, Jack, swathed in soft white linens yawned as he watched the shuttles leave the floating city of Heaven to join the fleet.
Jack inhaled, his gold eyes reflecting the massive black vessels pointed to the sky above with thrusters that would carry them well beyond the atmosphere of Earth.
He pushed his greying black hair back, the silver strands falling away and touching the silver and gold balcony that was his observation seat for the spectacle before him.
“You know if you keep doing that you’ll go bald,” Sahaqiel said, the archangel wrapping herself around his shoulders from behind as she planted a kiss on his cheek, the woman sporting more laugh lines and slightly wrinkled skin of a thirty-year old woman. “They’ll be fine. Celeste is a grown woman now, and Ito and Selti are with her, as long as they have each other they’ll be fine. Plus if things go sideways, Lilith will kill anything that upsets them.”
“I know…” Jack said, his hand coming up and rubbing the woman’s tender hand, despite the years they hadn't aged much, perks of being archangels. “I just wish their mothers could see the people they’ve become. Or witness this monumental occasion.”
“They lived good lives. Far longer than any regular human,” Sahaqiel said, walking around in her white toga that swelled around her stomach. “But at least Selti gets to see Selfia’s dream.”
“Small victories…” Jack said, his hand rubbing archangel’s bulging stomach where his unborn child awaited him. “It's just hard letting them go.”
“Ah, I remember when they were just teenagers, and you couldn’t wait to get them out of the house.”
“Good times,” Jack said, the edges of his eyes crinkling with joy as he recalled the memories of a time that seemed so far away. Then he frowned, recalling an unpleasant memory of Celeste and Ito blowing up an entire mountain in a heated argument, “Although If I could not do another teenage girl going through puberty again that would be nice.”
Jack shuddered, remembering Celeste hitting him with a beam of energy from her eyes.
“Are you saying you hope this one isn’t a girl?” Sahaqiel said playfully.
“Teenage angst is teenage angst, I’m just saying I rather not have to explain tampons and period pads to a young girl…,” Jack said before trailing off as a soft smile appeared on his face, “Without Ada or Leona around for that. They were always so good with handling the kids. Maybe we should delay the launch…”
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“Can’t get cold feet now Jack, plus, didn’t you say to the crowd that dominion of the stars belonged to humanity? That our time is now?”
“Oh now you’re repeating my speeches to me?”
“Just making a point oh Eternal Emperor.”
“Stopppp,” Jack let out, closing his eyes and leaning his head back with a small smile, “You know I hate it that they call me that.”
“Yet it makes it no less true,” Sahaqiel said, gesturing to the crowd below, the hundreds of thousands of soldiers, explorers, and scientists, who were preparing to embark on a journey to conquer the stars. Coequally named the Golden Legion. “This is the next evolution of humanity, to spread our wings and soar beyond even the blue skies above.”
“Ah wanderlust, sometimes I think Celeste got those genes from you rather than Colette,” Jack mused, his gaze shifting from Sahaqiel to the young blonde woman with wings floating in the far distance above the grey-metal vessel.
Celeste, the woman adorned in silver armor with the Armory of Daedalus spread out to form twin massive wings that reflected the sunlight.
The light from the sun began to rapidly shift, beaming light at Jack as the woman maneuvered her wings.
Morse code. With words that spelled, I love you.
Below her, on the helm of the SSF:Lovelace, the capital ship destined for space, several figures stood.
Ito, short-haired with the trappings of a gunslinger and sharp brown eyes that resembled Ada.
Selti, like her mother her white hair flew wildly in the wind, her smirk, plain as day to Jack that reminded him so much of Selfia.
And finally, Leon, his redhair striking against the blue backdrop as he held the massive greatsword in front of him.
The Four Angels. His angels. Three new-age humans that carried with them his power as an archangel that set them apart from the other angels of modern humanity.
With a nod. Jack smiled, watching as the trio spread their wings and flew to their respective ships, “We raised good kids…”
For a moment, Jack considered activating the Infinity Machine, to recall his lost loved ones. But that was taboo, the feelings he was feeling the cause of the first and second Collapse.
He raised his hand, a small orb popping into existence that showed him the emaciated form of his prisoner. A reminder of his what happened to those who dared play god.
So, as the keeper of souls, Jack rose, standing firm as the thrusters of the ships ignited, the power of the perfected obsifitor cores lifting the hundred thousand ton vessels into the sky and well beyond the atmosphere.
“A new dawn for humanity…” Jack said, before a tugging at his pant’s trousers took his attention, the little brown-haired boy beside him looking up with large gold eyes.
“Dad whats a tampon?” Mike asked as Jack picked the young boy up.
“Nothing you need to worry about son,” Jack said, turning with Sahaqiel in one arm while his other held Mike, the trio heading into the castle where a dozen other kids bearing his and Sahaqiel’s golden eyes awaited him.
