"Time's Full Circle"  - Four
by: Tamy

"Heir To The Darkworlds"

Valen stared moodily at the stars as his small ship streaked across space. He 
did not like being bested - especially by a mere female. He should have known
the little chit would not surrender. After all, he had seen her kill his 
half-brother with all the force and determination of a man. He rather 
admired that.

But what made him angry was not the loss of his ship or his motley crew. 
Ships and crew could be easily replaced.

No, it was that staff - the one she carried.

Damn him for losing it and for being so close to obtaining it!

He knew about that staff - it was special. Special because of what he 
believed it held.

Valen gritted his teeth. He was glad his half-brother was dead. Meto had 
never wanted to aspire any higher than he was, which suited Valen's purposes 
just fine. He had played the obedient and indispensable younger brother while 
Meto ran the show, gaining enemies far and wide. Valen had hoped one of them 
would kill Meto, but if they would not then he would. He had no qualms about 
ridding the galaxy of such a man. 

Instead, a mere half-breed wench had done it for him and with the very thing 
he had sought for so long..

How ironic that he of all people would become a believer in dark magic!

He was an educated man much like Meto, but since he was the younger son of 
his drunken sot of a father, not much was expected from him, but Valen was 
ambitious without appearing so. While his father drank his life away, Valen 
had secreted credits away. When he died, Meto took over the 'family business' 
and Valen made himself irreplaceable. It was he who suggested to Meto that 
they raid that piss-poor village, for Valen had located where the old woman 
was. Where she was, there was the staff. And where it was, lay his rise to 
power.

He wanted cohesion...unity - under his hand. He knew he had the drive and the 
determination. He did not want to be one of many small warlords feuding over 
small planets. Ah no. he wanted more than that.

He wanted power - pure, dark and heady like the strongest of wine. 

Even just thinking about it made his blood stir and rise with the heat of the 
warriors of his ancient race. Many had tried and failed to resurrect Zarkon's 
old empire, seeking to put together what had been broken by the old sire's 
own blood. The corruption that they had spread engulfed their own Empire, and 
made it crumble along with the Alliance they had long sought to destroy.

And now there was only peace - a pallid, sickly version of peace. The peace 
of apathy and the status quo. 

Valen suddenly smiled. That was going to change. Already there were those who 
were restless and wanted a leader to follow - any leader.

Why not himself? He knew his worth and he knew that he had the ability to 
control others.

Gods, it should have been easy to track the old woman and kill her! Simply 
the fact that she was hiding on some backwater planet proved that much of her 
former power was gone. How, he did not know or care. What was important was 
her staff.

But it had not been easy. It took him a very long time to do so and he had 
slit a few throats to get his answers, but he was able to track her down. 
Meto had readily agreed to his suggestion to attacking the village, and it 
had been Valen's intention to go amongst the raiders and get the old one 
before any of those cretins could kill her. Unfortunately, Valen's progress 
had been slowed by an unexpected attack by a fool villager. It had only taken 
a moment to end the fool's life, but a moment lost had been Meto's gain.

It didn't matter. Meto was dead and the remnants of his men were stuck on 
that hardscrabble planet. Oh they would find there way off eventually, he 
supposed - if they survived the nocturnal beasts of that area. He knew that 
they would get drunk on the homemade spirits of the villagers, have their way 
with the survivors, play their games and ultimately use up their weapon power 
supplies. They expected the S'uffreyen Skull to come back after all. Valen 
would never let them down!

Ha. He almost wished he could see them tear at each other.

But he had more important things to attend to - like the girl. Valen's eyes 
hardened. She was a good actress indeed to fool him. When he caught up to her 
and the Rat - who was surely alive - he would show her the price of crossing 
him. He would not kill her, for he appreciated beauty in all it's forms, but 
he would make sure the Rat endured her punishment. 

He looked to his display and saw their ship still headed on a steady course. 
In due time they would reach the area known as the Diamond quadrant. 

The Diamond Quadrant..home of the once beautiful world of Arus where the 
spirits of the Lions once dwelled in mere mecha..

Now they were gone and Arus a deserted wasteland. 

But he knew where the spirits dwelled and were trapped..

Oh yes. Hagar had indeed been a powerful witch, but she was weak in the 
matters of sentiment. Who would have ever thought that she would lie to her 
sovereign lord and former lover, Zarkon that she had killed the Lion spirits?

Valen laughed. 

She had not. 

They had been and still were - in her ancient staff...

Soon it would be his.

[CONTINUED]