"So what'da ya' wanna do today?" Sheeba asked, and looked around the bare and unfurnished room she stood in. "I don't know, what'da you wanna' do today?" Dragaunus replied in a mocking tone. "Three days away from your fifteenth birthday and here we are still stuck in limbo." She growled, somewhat disgusted at their current situation.
"We could go terrorize Nova." He suggested with an evil smile. "That's what we always do!" She complained. "I'm in the mood for something different." "Then you decide what we do." He growled and turned away. "How 'bout we borrow some of the Empire's weapons and go cause chaos for the B.R.A.W.N. soldiers?" She asked with a sinister smile. "Not a chance, Sheeba. The last time we done that, we both nearly got our heads shot of, not to mention how long we were grounded." "Well fine!" She snapped. "What do you suggest genius? Hmm?"
He thought for a minute about it and reluctantly answered,
"My dad said something the other day about a sorcerer wanting
to know something about our family's history, Taraq in particular.
We could go . . ." He stopped mid-sentence when he saw her
smiling at him. "Sounds good ta' me." She hissed and
left the room quietly.
* * *
The two watched the sorcerer from the doorway of a darkened room. "So, what first?" Sheeba asked in a quiet whisper and kept her eyes locked on the sorcerer. "I'll show ya' what." Dragaunus answered and slipped silently into the room.
Staying along the darkened wall of the room and in the shadows, he cautiously made his way to the back of the room and sneaked up behind the sorcerer. He took the time to wave at Sheeba before pouncing on the old sorcerer, who leaped about two feet into the air.
"What the hell are you doing you little brat?!!" The sorcerer roared and glared at Dragaunus. "What'da you think I'm doing? Well, besides scaring you?" He answered casually and intentionally caught the leg of the sorcerer's chair and dumped him out onto the floor.
"You little. . !!!" He replied and scrambled to get up.
By the time he did, Sheeba and Dragaunus had managed to sneak
out of the room.
* * *
"That was fairly interesting." Sheeba laughed. "Yeah, talk about scared ta' death, that guy looked like a walking' corpse." Dragaunus hissed, only making the Princess laugh harder.
"So what was his name? Do you know?" She asked after finally quieting down. "I dunno. My dad mentioned something about everyone calling him Wraith, or something like that." He replied. "Weird name, how do ya' suppose he got named Wraith?" She commented. "Cause he looks dead, I guess." Sheeba began to snicker again.
"So what now?" He asked, diverting her attention
from the memory of the sorcerer. "We could go annoy the
prisoners" He continued. "That's cruel." She
said in a harsh tone. He replied with an estranged glare. "So
that's why it'll be fun!" She exclaimed and rushed out of
the room.
* * *
A gray feathered duck stood in chains being held by to evil looking
Saurian guards. "So what's he being executed for?" Lord
Magnus asked the chief executioner. "He's a serial rapist
and murderer." The executioner replied. "I do hate over
seeing these things, they're always so messy." Magnus replied
and rolled his eyes.
The dark prisoner jerked one of his chains and was his hard in the stomach by the butt-end of one guard's laser. "Behave you piece of trash." The other guard snarled and lifted the prisoner back to his feet by his neck. "You can bet I will." The prisoner sneered.
"If there are no further interruptions, let the execution commence." Magnus sighed, somewhat annoyed.
"You've been charged with multiple and repeated rape and murder, how do you plead?" The executioner smirked as he gazed at the prisoner with cold and unforgiving eyes. "Guilty as hell." He answered.
The heavy metal prison door slowly opened as Sheeba and Dragaunus walked into the room. "Oh, an execution!" Sheeba exclaimed, notably excited. "Hey, can we watch dad?" Dragaunus pleaded. "What have I told you about calling me dad in public?" The Overlord growled. "Oh, uhh, sorry sir. May we watch, sir?" he replied. "What is it with you kids and morbid events?" Magnus growled. "Pleeeeease?" Sheeba whined and tried to look as cute as possible. "Very well, but don't complain to me if you get your clothes splattered with blood."
"Now if there are no further interruptions. . ." Magnus turned and glared at the door.
As he did, the prisoner jerked free from the guards. In split second timing, he grabbed one's laser and raised it, took aim, and fired. Everything happened to fast to realize just what had happened, but once the prisoner was back under control, they realized what he'd hit.
The guards and executioner bowed their heads and backed away, realizing the truth of what had happened.
Magnus lay on the floor in a pool of blood, clutching his stomach. Dragaunus rushed over to where his father lay and kneeled down, on the verge of tears.
Sheeba stood frozen in place, too stunned to move. "Go get someone!" Dragaunus yelled at her, which brought her back to reality. She then rushed out of the room.
"Dad?" the young male Saurian questioned. Magnus opened his eyes slowly and looked up at his son. "What have I told you about calling me that in public?" He answered and smiled grimly and motioned for his son to move in closer.
"What?" He whispered shakily and did as his father had wanted.
"Judging from the size of hole I have in my stomach, I'd
say I have about five minutes left and counting." He answered
softly, fighting back the urge to scream from the pain and placing
his free hand on his son's trembling shoulder.
"You mean you're. .." Dragaunus whimpered. Magnus nodded
slowly. "And it's going to be up to you to take my place
ruling the Empire." He gently wiped a single tear from his
son's face and closed his eyes, sighed softly, and it was all
over with.
After several minutes of silence, Sheeba and Salamanca rushed into the room, with Fayette and Nova hovering at the doorway.
Salamanca gasped in shock and kneeled down by her oldest son.
She looked stunned, but not out of control. "It's up to you
now." She whispered, looking at Dragaunus with pleading eyes.
* * *
Sheeba paced back and forth in her private quarters.
It had been almost a week since Magnus's assassination, and still, things around the Empire were in total chaos.
The door opened slowly, almost as if it were in pain, and Kira stalked in.
"Still grieving over you little friends father's death?" She sneered and grabbed Sheeba by the back of the neck, shoving her into the wall and holding her there. "Yes I am, and I have all the rights to, we're close enough to be family." She answered. "Sorry, try again." Kira taunted and shoved her little sister down on her bed. "What do you want?" The princess snarled defensively, rolling and turning to glare her sister in the eyes. "To be an only child and be rid of your worthless hide." She answered casually, glancing at her claws.
Sheeba sank back, somewhat hurt by the stinging words of her own kind.
"Do yourself a favor and go commit suicide." A familiar voice growled from the doorway. Kira turned her attention to who ever had interrupted her ritual harassing of her sister.
She saw the new leader of the Empire standing in the doorway, glaring at her and growling. "You may be the leader of this pathetic Empire, but you'll always be just a worthless little kid to me." She growled back at him and faded away, teleporting to a different part of the ship.
"So how are ya'?" Sheeba asked him gently as he sat down on the edge of her bed, close to her. "As good as can be expected, my father's dead, my mother's suicidal, and I haven't the slightest idea of what to do now." He sighed. "Well, I suppose you try and do something about your current situation." She answered and crawled closer to him. "Yeah, like what? It was just last week we were children and free to do as we pleased, and now I'm supposed to rule an Empire?" "You know, you're not alone, I'm always here if you need some help." She reasoned.
"That isn't really what I meant." He snapped. Stunned, she glared and backed away.
"You see, my father had plans of how to escape limbo,
and get revenge on Puck World." He began. "Escape limbo?
That's crazy talk." She said and laid her head down on her
arms.
"Actually, it's quite sane, and we can do it." He said,
sounding more sure of himself. "How?" She rolled onto
her back, looking up at him with honest eyes. "By creating
a tear in the fabric of space." "And how do we do that?"
"A simple machine which Magnus called 'the Dimensional Gateway
Generator." He answered slyly, staring down at her and smiling.
"What?" She smirked and continued to stare. "I wanna' make you my Chief Supervisor of the whole deal." "Me? Why me?" She stammered, to shocked to do anything but. "Because I'll need a second, someone to make sure things go smoothly, and since we've been together so much in past years, and you know me so well, I know you'll be able to follow my orders better than anyone else could." He answered.
She sighed heavily and took a moment to take it all in.
"So, are you in?" He asked after she'd had time to consider the proposition. "Of course." She nodded.
He smiled slowly at her. "It'll be at least a few years before we'll be able to really do anything." He said slowly. "There's a conference meeting tomorrow morning among the other royalties and I, plus a few of the nobles and generals to discuss the matter, and I want you there."
She sat up, looking him over carefully and nodding. "I'll be there." She answered. "And though I don't really know what I'm doing either, I'll help you any way I can."
He sighed and glanced at her, then got up and walked slowly towards the door. "I know Sheeba, now good night. I'll see you in the morning."
The door screeched closed and she was left in silence thinking
about all she'd been told and all that the future might hold for
the Saurian Empire and it's new leader.
* * *
9:30 the Next Morning (Royalty Sector; A-5 Standard Time)
Directly following the meeting and proposal of the Gate Way Generator, the room had been thrown into a total uproar.
Some just stared in disbelief, others started discussing it among themselves, while a few stood up and stated how crazy the whole idea was.
Eventually, after about an hour of deliberation, it was decided
to go ahead and continue with the new Saurian leader's plan .
. .to escape Limbo. . . to take revenge. . .to conquer. . .
*
Sheeba watched Dragaunus cautiously from a distance. Not him in particular, but the group of females that had congregated around him.
They ranged from the lowest of rank, common love slaves, to females of equal and superior rank of herself. The more she watched, the more sickened and disgusted she became with the whole scene.
"Aww, what's the matter? Is my little sister jealous?" Kira smirked and grabbed Sheeba, hugging her tightly. "No, I ain't jealous!" She snarled and pulled away. "Good, because you're going to have to get used to it. And you might wanna' go over there and flirt too. . ." her voice trailed off, leaving Sheeba to wonder at what else she was thinking. "Most of those females have been passed around the Empire by the high ranking males numerous times." Sheeba answered, more out of justifying the congregation to herself than making a point to her sister. "And I'm sure Dragaunus would know!" Kira snickered just loud enough for Sheeba to hear.
"Yeah, right." Sheeba sighed, turning a final glance
to the crowd and silently slipping out of the room. "Looks
like Sheebie's out of the running!" Kira called after her.
"Maybe so." Sheeba growled under her breath. "But
not by choice."