I was in tears, screaming in the most stressed out and exhausted way. Then I heard it, laughing, taunting me, messing with me. I can see my father, terrified and scared. I’ve never seen my padre like this before. Throughout all my life he had always been able to protect me, even at times when he could not protect himself. Then Hector was brought in along with Nhoj and Daedalus and all of them are being tortured as well. I love them and them being hurt hurts me so much. Then I blacked out.

            I then awoke from my blackout I saw my father, being dragged off, in chains. I suddenly knew that this was a raid upon my home. We would have to move again. We would have to flee these men. My father and I had always fled these mysterious men, he apologized saying that I should not suffer through this and that these men were his fault, that they, caused by him had stolen away my childhood. When these raids come in the middle of the night my dandy always says “I’ll be alright, I’m just going on a business trip, go to Nhoj sweetie. Go to Nhoj.” I would always scream “Bring daddy back please, you can’t do this.” But my screams of distress did not bring back my father. He always comes home and if I have a school recital or something he would always come, no matter the odds, no matter the circumstance but I feel my father should not have to suffer through this and every time he is taken away it hurts.

I awakened again, my father standing over me saying in a sweet southing voice, “Honey it’s alright, I’m here. It was all a dream. Here’s a glass of warm milk. Go back to sleep Bell go back to sleep.”  I replied, “No father, it’s morning, I’ve had the rest I need.”

“Then tell me about your nightmare” He told me.  “I was back in prison being tortured. Then I was a little girl watching a raid, seeing you be taken away in the middle of the night. It hurt. By the way while with Cullen I discovered that he killed your father. He was responsible for all the raids in the middle of the night. You deserve competence.” I added to our conversation.

“Revenge is to the lord. I hath no reason to go after another’s iniquities, for I am not perfect myself. In the bible it says ‘Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?’ God’s wrath be not something I want something I want thrust upon me. It also says, ‘do not give evil for evil but good for evil.’ In what poison be I to question the authority of the lord my god?”

“Father, Ben Franklin said himself in Poor Richard’s Almanac ‘God helps those who help themselves’. This man is doing things that are wrong. This man is a communist. This man killed you.” He replied “twice actually and yes what he does is wrong but I’ve done bad and wrong things. Jesus said that all wrong doings are equal. Forgive him Bella, he deserves a second chance. If you do not forgive him your hatred will control you and your fight will not be for justice but for revenge and that should not happen.

“John, He’s hurting people and he’s using your tech to do it, tech you and I designed to help the world, to save men’s lives not to take them. He makes men join the army without even  knowing what they fight for, without knowing who they fight for, just fighting because if they don’t they will fall asleep and never wake up. You’re familiar with both Homer’s Iliad and Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade.” entered into the conversation Daedalus.

“Half a league, half a league, half a league onward, into the valley of death rode the six hundred. Forward the light brigade, charge for the guns he said, into the valley of death rode the six hundred.” Hector quoted. “Was there a man dismayed? Not tho a soldier knew, someone had blundered” Nhoj recited. “For theirs not to make reply, their’s not to reason why, theirs but to do and die” John entered in the most important part of the poem. “Cannon to the right of them, cannon to the left of them, cannon in front of them, volleyed and thundered, stormed with shot and shell, into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell rode the six hundred” Daedalus put through.  “Flash'd all their sabres bare, Flash'd as they turn'd in air Sabring the gunners there, Charging an army while All the world wonder'd: Plunged in the battery-smoke Right thro' the line they broke; Cossack & Russian Reel'd from the sabre-stroke, Shatter'd & sunder'd. Then they rode back, but not Not the six hundred.” Put through young Hector. “While horse & hero fell, they that had fought so well Came thro' the jaws of Death, Back from the mouth of Hell, All that was left of them, Left of six hundred.” Nhoj was allowed, skipping. “When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made! All the world wonder'd. Honour the charge they made! Honour the Light Brigade.” John stole the show. “Noble six hundred” I finished winning the macho competition they were having

“Yeah, that’s the poem I mean. The men don’t know what they fight for, nor whom they have valiantly given everything, their youth, their love, their family, their material positions, their lives, everything for. The leaders, they don’t care about those men, and their deaths, their sacrifices go unnoticed, unrewarded. John look at the Trojan war, the Greeks, led by Mycenae of Sparta came with tens of thousands of men but it did not matter for like the Hessian mercenaries of the American revolution, the bloody soldiers in the civil war of the same country, the men going into world war one and those unlucky young men who go to the military out of fear of Cullen, they were just expendable soldiers going out to fight for men who thought themselves gods but did not care for these men, men like you and me, men with lives just like ours. I know you’re an optimist but one time John, please, see the glass as half empty, see the bad in somebody, see the bad in Cullen” Daedalus has always been a great speaker.

“This might surprise you but I already have hit Cullen”

Chapter 2

“That is so counterintuitive to the way you have been behaving, when our parents adopted the three of us you were always nice and kind. So what did you do? Oh I know, you went out and had your robot army steal all the power from his empire of evil, and oh, then you sent him a hologram version of yourself to antagonize him into coming here where you will kill him.” Daedalus said guessing something really outrages. “Actually yes, I lured him here.” John answered unaware Daedalus was joking.

“Hello Goldens I assume I was expected. I may have come here to Mexico the land of the Aztecs but my lead general is Quetzalcoatl. He actually is from here but left and said he would return but he did not get around to it until now.  He commands my armies and even as the commanding man of Lacedaemon here I stand below him. Also John and Daedalus I hate you.” Cullen said. “You just hate me because I’m white.” Daedalus joked. “I’m white too Daedalus” Cullen answered obviously mad Daedalus had retaliated.

This conversing gave John time to pull out his sword, Annihilator, actually named an tractus of oneself, Latin for an extension of oneself, which is what a sword was originally meant for and called. The Latin translation is literal because the sword actually becomes a part of John when he is not using it, is connected to John’s brain and has all new technology put in it. “Cullen, before you die I just want you to know that I have tens of millions of spies within your government and country.” John said making me unsure whether he was using hyperbole or lies. He then shot fire into the sky and it rained down destroying Cullen’s army. Now he sank Annihilator into Cullen but now Annihilator had words on it. “What’s on there?” I asked. “Communist Manifesto by Carl Marx, to add irony to the situation, showing that someone may love communism but communism surely does not love them.

“We have to leave now; they have seen my low little hidey hole here in North America. Now we are to go to the land of my birth, my rightful owned place, owned by Romans long before my dethroned father, Europe, mostly Rome though. I know it well, inside and out.” John said. “Anyone notice where Nhoj went?” I asked but received no answers.

“So, uncle, how did your father get to be leader of Europe?”Hector put in. “Great question offspring of Nhoj, Europe was, ravaged by disease, oppressed by poverty, destroyed by civil war, technologically behind the rest of the world, without natural resources, incredibly polluted, going through famine and drought, half frozen, half singing hot, baron, overpopulated, with deficits as far as the eye can see, destroyed by natural disasters and being attacked by outside nations, not to mention the crime rate. My father, your grandfather, Machiavelli Demosthenes Golden was brilliant, wise, a great speaker, an amazing Politian, an amazing inventor and a great guy. They made him leader with the emergency powers to suspend democracy. He was a great and wise leader and under him, Europe not only survived, it prospered and thrived. His time was short lived for Edward Cullen came in with his army and Machiavelli Demosthenes died. His funeral was attended by many but he was not buried but put in a plane/ boat/ submarine/ car/ rocket that can go intangible to forever travel, to forever wander on the safe, renewable fuel supplies. Cullen oppressed Europe and Europeans longed for the sons of Machiavelli to rule but alas, it was not so, for Cullen had already left me on a mountain along with Nhoj. We shall now go to Rome, my city.”

“How shall we get there brother, John, do you have an attachment on your precious Annihilator” Daedalus scoffed and made fun. “Actually yes, it can become a car which is amphibious and becomes a boat, submarine, plane, helicopter and any other vehicle. I need to attach some viper poison, diamonds, aloe, spearheads and other stuff to my sword to make upgrades so we’ll have to make a transfer flight to South Africa.” John is still unaware that Daedalus was joking. “It’s dangerous John, isn’t there another way?” Daedalus asked already knowing the answer was no.

The flight to Pretoria was long but John had incredibly good in flight entertainment. In South Africa we got attacked by vipers and John got his poison, having to suck it out of my, Daedalus’, Hector’s, and his legs. Then John, me, Daedalus and Hector were all thrown in prison as part of new reverse appertained. That jail has mysteriously disappeared along with many supporters of reverse appertained. It was hard to get a diamond with millions of poor people also going for diamonds but John was persuasive and got though. Because of lack of hygiene causing high disease and high need for hand sanitizer, aloe was in high demand by entrepreneurs but an old man passed out and his aloe was repossessed. A lot less people go to museums as they go and look for actual jobs imagine that. For a pound or two or a few of gold John got the spearheads and the museum and Washington D.C. and the New York museum of natural history and every agrological sight in the world and every museum, monument and historical sight in the world. Then we were attacked by hundreds of angry South Africans who thought John was responsible for every wrong thing ever happened including natural disasters. John beat them. He then saw a bird flying a plane with a banner that said, “Somewhere a cruel author laughs.” That was our trip to South Africa. 

It’s a long flight from Bloomingburg to Rome, mostly because John has to put on stealth shields that drain energy and was taking back roots. He had changed movies from the romantic movies like the Proposal, When in Rome, Pride and Prejudice he had done for me on the way to Pretoria to action films like Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Dark Knight, X-men/ Marvel and Terminator for everyone else. The scenery is amazing and look, that’s Rome or was Rome. The spot that had been built by Remus and Romulus over two millennia was flooded with people dressed in all black, military men I realized. They must be here to stop our landing. This would no doubht get real bad real fast and we might not be able to land at all. This situation was getting dangerous. I could feel it in the air; this was a game of chicken.