THE JOINING: The Cycle of the Shards Book One
Chapter 33

Critock was alone when he heard Brian’s screams echoing through the nearly empty hallways, having just opened his locker door. He hadn’t had to use the combination, as the door was already cracked open, and his suspicion that someone had beat him to the locker was confirmed when he found his backpack missing, the Sword of Kon among it’s contents. “Shanna” he whispered to himself, and inwardly cursed Tom for failing to get her out of here. If Pt’ron revealed himself and she went after him, the sword would be no more than a small rod to her, utterly useless. He cursed a guttural string, and rubbed his throat when the loud scream began. He was on the wrong side of the school from where the sound was coming from, but sword or not, he had to get to the source of the screams. If Pt’ron had started his war, then maybe there was time to stop him before anyone else got hurt. He took off in a dead sprint down the hallway, and rounded the corner. By now there were a few people milling about, no teachers thankfully, and he paid them no mind as he ran past the office around to the foot of the main stairway, which was where he literally ran straight into Shanna Ewing, both of them almost falling from the unexpected impact.

“CRITOCK!” Tom swooped around him happily, as Shanna beamed at him, once she had recovered from the surprise. “Wait, are you Critock? Kyle? Who…”

Critock sighed. “It’s me, Tom. I talked to Kyle’s father. It’s ok. I’m back. Thank you.” He turned, finally meeting Shanna’s gaze. “Shanna…”

“Are you okay?” Her face was a look of concern. “I heard they were throwing you out, and I thought…” She quickly grabbed him and held him. “I took your sword.”

“I know, it’s okay. That was brave. Stupid, but brave. C’mon, we’re losing time.” He turned and was met with Mr. Phelps, who he had noticed before but now blocked his path from climbing the stairs. “Uhhh…”

“You’re really not him.” Phelps looked Critock up and down as though he was expecting to see some kind of physical difference between the boy then and now. Critock turned to Shanna with a betrayed look on his face.

Shanna rolled her eyes. “I didn’t have any choice! He ambushed me, and you weren’t around!”

Critock sighed. “No. I’m not.” He turned to move past Phelps, who had a stunned expression on his face. Critock stopped, and looked back at him. “It’s all true, Phelps. Life on other planets. Civilizations. It’s all real. And we’re out of time, he’s got the Shards by now and they’re about to wake up. If we can’t stop him, then it’s all going to end.” He then started moving up the stairs quickly.

Tom zoomed up the stairs whooping, and Shanna ran past her teacher, stopping to wake him from his stupor. “Come on, Mr. Phelps! You can think about it later! He needs our help now!” She then turned and continued running up the stairs, and after a moment, Phelps turned and followed them.

A few beats later, Jim emerged from the closet on the ground floor, and moved up the stairs behind them as quickly as he could without any of them noticing him.

Critock and Tom quickly reached the hallway expecting to see a horrible scene, and they were not wrong. “By the Five…” Tom muttered as he looked upon the sight of the destroyed window with the still body of a young woman laying outside undisturbed. Back inside, a boy’s body lay with a leg and a neck at an angle that appendages should not be at, and close by, was Brian Boyd, barely still alive, a line of red in the shape of a plus sign dripping blood on his entire chest. He was wheezing, and could barely raise his head to look at the new arrivals.

Shanna let out an involuntary scream as she first witnessed the site, and Phelps let out a stretch of curses when he laid his eyes upon it. Critock put up a hand to keep them from approaching, as he kneeled in front of the boy, all sense of bullying and anger having left him, replaced by regret and confusion.

“Who did this to you.” Critock knew that the boy was a lost cause, and hoped that he still had enough breath left to give the needed information. He was beyond spite now, nobody deserved what had happened to these kids, not even a pack of bullies.

Brian’s bloodshot eyes, half closed, raised to Critock. “It….It was…” The voice was raspy, barely understandable. Blood dripped down the corner of the boy’s mouth.

“It’s ok. We’ll get him. Who?” Critock moved closer to make sure that he could make out what the boy was saying.

Brian sucked in a breath, and tried to say something. He looked at Critock, a tear streaming out of his right eye, and just said, “…A monster.” With the last words said, the life left Brian’s eyes, and he slumped limply back against the lockers where he had been placed unceremoniously. Sighing heavily, Critock stood back up and looked back at Shanna. But Shanna wasn’t looking at him, or Brian. Instead, she was squinting as though trying to make out something in the distance. Tom turned as well, and floated closer. “That’s…”

“CLAIRE!” Shanna broke into a run, and paid no mind to the bodies she was running past or the blood on the ground. Slowing down before she hit the rail, she dropped to her knees and placed her hands on the fainted girl’s shoulders, softly shaking her. “Wake up! Claire!”

As Critock walked towards them, Phelps stayed back to assess Brian and Travis, a shocked expression seemingly permanently etched on his face. Claire’s eyes slowly moved behind her eyelids, and a small moan came from her. Critock stood behind Shanna as Claire opened her eyes, and after a moment where her memory came back to her, she lunged forward, enveloping Shanna in a large hug, immediately bursting into tears.

“Oh God! Oh God!” Claire couldn’t do anything immediately but blurt out exclamations, and Critock was about to say something when Shanna held up a finger. Tom floated down next to his head as they waited for the tears to subside.

“It was…Oh my God…Shanna…I can’t…” She was taking large gulping breaths, and Shanna feared she was going to go into convulsions. She softly rubbed her back.

“It’s going to be okay, Claire. I’m here, Kyle’s here, we’ve got Mr. Phelps…We’re going to make it right. Take your time, but when you’re ready, we need to know what happened.”

Claire nodded, tears streaming down her face. “I don’t….Brian and his friends…” Phelps had finally regained enough of his senses to come join them, and he purposefully stood in between Claire and the bodies, lest it send her into another fit. He knew she wasn’t ready for this in her state. “I was looking for Daniel.” Her breathing normalized somewhat, at least enough that she wasn’t gasping every other word.

“He was supposed to be in the office….I went looking for him, just wanted to visit. I looked everywhere. Brian and those…They were going to attack me, and Daniel showed up.”

Phelps looked at Critock, who narrowed his eyes.

“He was going to fight all of them for me! And then…And then…”

Critock kneeled on one knee, fearing the rest of the story but needing to hear it. “Please.”

Claire looked at him, looked at Daniel’s friend, and told him the rest of the story. “They did fight. I didn’t know Daniel could move so fast! But they pushed him over the stairwell…and then…”

Critock stood back up, his voice an emotionless monotone. “When he landed, he didn’t land on his back. He caught himself, on two large spider-like legs.” Claire nodded, not yet together enough to wonder how Kyle knew what had happened.

Shanna looked up at him. “Cri-tock?” Claire did notice the odd name, and looked at her strangely.

Ignoring her, Critock walked away slowly. “He was Daniel.” He whispered to himself, walking back down the hall. He looked at Travis’s body. “It was him all along…” He closed his eyes, then looked back at the hole in the glass, and the body beyond it. “HE WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!” Critock bellowed, and punched the locker near Brian’s body, a small dent appearing in it, and a patch of blood appearing on his knuckles. Critock was beyond feeling physical pain at this point. How could he have missed this? He started laughing.

Shanna stood up, and Tom floated closer to Critock as Phelps kneeled and whispered to Claire that it would be okay. “Critock, are you okay?” Tom asked, worried that this added stress on top of everything else that had happened today had finally broke the bounty hunter for good.

He looked at Tom wildly. “We missed it! He was right in front of us and we missed it! Ha ha ha, he played us for saps! Shanna, he used to be just as big of a bully as Brian, right?”

She raised an eyebrow, confused. “Yeah…”

“Until when?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know? About a year and a half ago? He started apologizing to everyone, swearing he would be better, and he’s been perfect ever since!”

Critock had stopped laughing, but he still had a sad wild smile on his face. “That’s when Pt’ron got him. Who knows who he was before, but what better place to hide when you know they’re going to come looking for you than an innocent kid. Amazing.”

Claire looked up, not yet noticing the bodies on the floor but trying to understand Critock. “What are you saying? That he wasn’t Daniel?”

Critock shook his head. “I’m sorry Claire. Daniel hasn’t actually been Daniel for a long time.”

“But…What are you talking about? Who was he?” Claire rose to her feet, Phelps steadying her.

It wasn’t Critock that answered her, but another voice that came from farther down the hallway. “He was an alien, Claire. A body-snatcher. Just like Kyle here. Or whatever the hell your name really is.” Jim walked into the light, a look of anger on his face.

Critock put up his hands. “Jim, look…”

“Look at what you did! What he did! First Daniel, then Kyle, now these three! You killed our friends! You…” He paused, and then caught Critock off guard with a right hook. The blow didn’t exactly hurt, but it did send him back slightly. He looked back at the boy and knew that it wasn’t personal. He raised his hands again.

“Jim, I’m sorry, I’m trying to stop the guy that did this.” There was a sharp scream from Claire as she finally noticed the bodies on the ground. “Kyle is fine, and I’ll be gone after I stop Pt’r….The one that’s inside Daniel’s body. If I don’t stop him, then everyone will be like this. But I need your help.” He turned around, noticing that Claire was now hugging Phelps desperately. “I need everyone’s help. We all know what’s going on now, for the most part. We need to replace him. I need to end him. And then we’ll never bother this planet again. Will you help me?”

The first thing that Pt’ron had done after slicing through the last bully was to pull his extra appendages back within himself. While a full change into his other form would expend far more energy than he was comfortable with, simply revealing himself partially was a much easier task and just as effective against these frail humans. He smiled, having retrieved the backpack that contained the Shards from his locker and moved down the nearby stairwell to remove himself from the scene of the crime. None of this was proceeding exactly as he had intended it to, but he wasn’t against making sure Brian Boyd and his cronies got what they deserved.

It’s so close! His smile didn’t dissipate as he walked through the empty halls. He was glad that the classroom doors were soundproof, otherwise things would have gotten more messy than he was prepared for. It still wouldn’t have been a problem. He didn’t need Shards to take care of this planet. Hell, if he wanted to, he could have ruled it hundreds of cycles ago! But that would have eventually called attention to himself. While he flirted with the idea a few times, his sanity always won out. Far better to blend in with the locals and just be a human, albeit an extraordinary one. It had been nice being the strongest and fastest among the tribes and civilizations he had come in contact with, and he had taken certain advantages along the way. After all these years, though, replaceing this boy and living his life had been the hardest.

As he moved through the halls he reflected on Daniel’s life. How it had been going nowhere until he had forcefully taken control of the boy, completely shoving away his consciousness and eventually ensuring it’s total eradication, lest years down the line it come back with a vengeance and put up another fight. It was better for him, he thought. Daniel was the most important host that Pt’ron had had, as it was the one that he would be inhabiting when the Shards woke from their dormancy. He didn’t know if he would remain in this body, after all he could have anyone he chose, Shard or no Shard. In the beginning he would jump around almost at a whim, killing the previous host and experiencing life for a day or two as the new person. Young and old, male or female, whoever it happened to be, Pt’ron experienced his lives to the fullest. It was a wonderful distraction from his past. Thoughts of the Mandragora and Critock never seemed to cease. But now, now everything would be different. The Shard wars would begin anew! And Pt’ron’s name would be sung across the universe.

Even as he neared his destination Pt’ron allowed himself a few moments of fantasy. Earth of course would be the first conquest. He’d have a few slaves, some concubines, everything he needed to establish a fitting home with which to quietly build a home base. He would be a just ruler, introducing technologies that this planet wouldn’t dream of for thousands of cycles! And once he was ready, he would leave them, and spread his newly acquired Godlike powers across the cosmos. He would replace the Mandragora, by now likely having forgotten her once loyal subject, and use all the command of the Shards he could to depose her, leaving her powerless and alone. From there he would ride across the universe a conquering hero! Only when he had overthrown all of the Marconian Empire would he replace his enemy in whatever hole he had crawled into and make him watch as the rest of the universe fell to his rule. Critock would not be allowed to die, oh no. Critock would live as his servant, controlled by the power of the Shards to feed him while the universe burned around them! It was a fitting end to the General, after everything he had taken from him…

He supposed he couldn’t be surprised that someone had found him. He knew the Shards, while dormant, would emit an energy that could be tracked, which only grew the closer to their awakening the time came. That the Qua’roti or pirates or whoever it was only sent one small vessel was not surprising. Even now at the end they still held to their precious non-interference rules. It was comical. If he had still had any power, his first act would be to wipe the Earth off of space completely! But that would have implied intelligence on the part of the Empire, and even this many cycles later that was too much to expect.

But there was someone else here, wasn’t there? Pt’ron had known that the sudden change in Kyle was too much of a coincidence to come so close to his ascension. He didn’t know why a boy had been chosen to be the vessel of whichever poor sap was sent here, but it amused him to toy with him all the same. He hoped he’d meet Kyle, or whoever it was, one more time. He wanted to see the face of the unknown soldier who was the Empire’s last chance and wanted to watch his hope drain from his eyes, along with his life.

For now, there was one last thing for him to do on his bucket list before his time came. Pt’ron neared the office door, and pulled it open easily, gliding inside as though nothing in this world could stop him.

Immediately the secretary rose to her feet. “Daniel! You’re not supposed to be in here! Go back to the library!”

Pt’ron smirked, striding over to the older woman. “No.” With that word, he quickly grabbed her under her arms and threw her over her desk, flinging her towards and through the office window. His smirk becoming a grin as he heard the screams begin from outside, he walked away from the desk to the narrow hallway, and was met in his path by Principal Tompkins, his face red.

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!” His face moved to look at the broken glass of his office, his secretary moaning and bleeding on the man floor as concerned students ran to her.

Pt’ron put a hand in his jeans pocket. “You know, you really are a terrible educator. Look at those kids! So worried about tests and things that will have nothing to do at all with their eventual lives would be like!” He pulled his hand out, a small cylinder in it that appeared to be a pen at first glance. “Well, if they had any lives to come.”

“Daniel, you’re never…”

“MY NAME IS NOT DANIEL!” He yelled at the principal, who instinctively took a step back in fear. That felt good, Pt’ron thought. I’ve been waiting forever to say that. And for this. He moved his hand up, aiming his device at Tompkins’ stomach, and depressed a small circle. A blue ray shot out of the device, almost immediately striking Tompkins, As he looked on in terror, the Principal felt a wave of pure absolute freezing spreading throughout his body. There was a spark of pain in every cell in his body, instantly replaced by numbing coldness, which spread through his stomach, to his arms and legs, and finally his head itself. When the ray had completed it’s task, Principal Tompkins was immobile and completely blue, with chunks of ice and icicles hanging from him.

Pt’ron continued to speak, knowing Tompkins could hear him despite his inability to react or move. “I know how it feels, Principal. You think you can’t reach these kids, so you get harsher with them? It doesn’t work, I know, so it’s an endless circle before you can’t take it any more. Expel them! Send them home! Let someone else deal with them. The military on my planet did the same thing with a lot of people. Abandoned people. Threw them away and left them in the worst place imaginable…” He shuddered involuntarily and glanced around. There were a few office workers and students watching him, to confused and fearful to approach him lest they end up as the principal had. He nodded towards Tompkins, the principal’s eyes fixed on the alien-in-disguise. “Don’t worry, he can hear everything we say. This ray…” He waved the pen in front of him towards the onlookers. “Is a prototype. Eventually, and maybe they’ve done it by now, it’ll knock out whoever it hits so they won’t have to go through the hell of permanently becoming a frozen statue. They’re still in a kind of numbing pain, though…And their mind never stops thinking…Never stops feeling! For cycles and cycles and centuries! You hear everything! You can’t move, you can’t react, you can’t scratch an itch! For as long as the Five decide the torture should last!” Pt’ron was sweating now, lost in a horrible memory. “In the end, there’s only one thing you can do! You have to show mercy! No one deserves this! No one!” With the last words increasing in volume to become a screech, he swung his arm across the midsection of Principal Tompkins. The results were immediate. His frozen body, made brittle by ice, shattered. Pieces of the Principal flew form the impact towards the onlookers who screamed and began to run off, some of them beginning to vomit from the incredible sight.

Pt’ron shook his head. “This planet…These people have needed to grow up for so long.” He walked across the frozen pieces of the former principal, and walked back towards the rear of the hallway. As he rounded the corner, his eyes caught an image on a computer screen slightly flickering from a room marked ‘SECURITY’. The room was empty, and he imagined that Tompkins must have been in here doing who knows what. He walked towards the room, pushing the door open and saw an entire bank of televisions, all different places throughout the school. He glanced at the cameras, and flipped a couple of switches. Eventually the cameras flipped to the scene of where he had rid this planet of Brian and the bullies. Their bodies still laid on the floor, but surrounding them was quite a few people, including Kyle. And Shanna? Claire? Phelps? Even Jim? Was it just Kyle that had come for him or was it an entire squad?

It was no matter. He saw Kyle speaking to them, undoubtedly making a plan of attack. So the game was on, then. The invader in Kyle knew that Pt’ron was here, and that Pt’ron was Daniel. Claire wouldn’t have left that part out, even if Brian would have. He knew that whatever he did now, there would be a confrontation. Good. Let them come. He hadn’t had a worthy fight in millennia! He walked back outside the Security office, and noted that there were a few braver students that had come in to admire the ex-principal’s remains. Pt’ron cleared his throat as he reached a hand to a red handle on the wall. The students looked up, surprised that they were being called to.

“It’s time to run.” Pt’ron pulled down on the red handle to his right, and immediately there was a piercing shrill sound that seemed to invade every sense that he had. Pt’ron shook it off, knowing that if it was that much of an annoyance to him, it certainly would be worse to the interlopers that had entered what was now his office. As he looked, they covered their ears and stared at him. He stared back, and his face took on an angry sheen.

“RUN!”