Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

one of his eyes had been cut out of his head.
    "Who did this to you?" said Toby. "Who the hell could have done this to you?"
    Kit tried to say something, but his mouth was full of blood. He said something that might have been David, and then he died. Toby and Flynn looked at each other over his body, and then went cautiously to search the room Kid Death had
    staggered out of, but it was empty, though there was a lot of blood on the floor, and two sets of bloody boot marks. They checked all the other rooms, but they were empty too. If there did still remain some secret, unknown killer, no sight or sound of him remained. So in the end Toby and Flynn just shrugged, left the House, and went to board their ship, to join the last great fleet of Humanity into battle against its last great Enemy: the Recreated.

Chapter 7
    The Lost Deathstalker
    Among the dust of forgotten suns, in a darkness that no longer knew the light and life of stars, Owen Deathstalker and Hazel d'Ark came again to the Wolfling World, once also known as lost Haden, in their ship Sunstrider III. In many ways this long neglected return felt to Owen and Hazel very much like coming home.
    Down in the subterranean mysteries of the frozen planet beneath them, they had walked through the Madness Maze, and emerged reborn as something new in the universe. And since that time they had done many things, some good and some bad, but all of them quite remarkable. They had rewritten the history of the Empire and of Humanity itself, and all it had cost them was control of their own lives, and of their destiny.
    Once, there had been five remarkable people, survivors of the Madness Maze, but three of them were dead. Giles Deathstalker, that legendary hero and warrior, died at the hands of his own descendant, while Jack Random and Ruby Journey had died at each other's hand. Owen and Hazel knew this, the moment they dropped out of hyperspace and the Sunstrider III took up its preprogrammed orbit around the Wolfling World. There had always been a strong mental link between the Maze survivors, neglect it as they would, and Owen and Hazel cried out in unison as the knowledge crashed in upon them, like the sudden amputation of part of their
    souls. Jack and Ruby had been their friends and more than friends, despite their many differences, comrades-in-arms and kindred spirits, and Owen and Hazel knew that for as long as they lived, there would always be a space in their hearts and a gap in their lives no one else would ever be able to make good.
    "We're the last now," said Owen, sitting slumped in the bridge command chair, looking at the central viewscreen but not seeing it. The screen showed the shimmering icy surface of the planet below, all subdued blues and greens, but his thoughts were elsewhere. "The last of our kind. I feel like the last of a species doomed to extinction."
    "I don't," said Hazel shortly. She sat at his side, her eyes also carefully fixed on the viewscreen. "The Empire has no shortage of freaks and superhumans and general weird shit these days. That's always been a part of the problem, to my mind. Humanity getting above itself. Messing about with powers and abilities it has no business even knowing about yet. We're not ready to be gods."
    Owen considered this. "Are you saying you won't miss Jack and Ruby?"
    "Of course I'll miss them! Ruby was my oldest friend. She believed in me when no one else did, not even me. She always knew that we were somebody, that we were destined for great things… You only ever knew her as a bounty hunter, and a killer. I knew her when she was so much more than that. You never knew what she lost, what she gave up, to become who and what she was. Her whole life was a tragedy, just waiting for a bad and bitter ending. But I never thought she'd die so young… at the hands of the only man she ever loved."
    "Jack Random was always one of my heroes," said Owen. "Studying history soon disillusions you about most heroes and legends, but Jack really did do most of the things they said he did. And even after they broke him, and he was safe
    being a nobody on Mistworld, he still found the strength to recreate himself, to be the hero and legend again, to risk his life and his sanity one more time because the cause needed him. And because I asked him to. I'm responsible for everything he became, and everything he did. The good and the bad."
    "Now that is just typical of you, Deathstalker," said Hazel, turning to look at him at last.