Page 50 of Lunar Bound
Lunar's shadow form condensed, becoming more defined as he made his decision.
"You have altered me in ways I cannot fully calculate," Lunar said, allowing his essence to partially envelop her, one last embrace before separation. "The shadow territories taught that connection was weakness. You have shown me it is strength."
"Come back to me," she repeated, her hands passing through his darkness, creating ripples of sensation that would echo in his essence for eternity. "Promise me."
"Whatever it takes, I will return," he vowed, the words carrying the weight of an oath. What he didn't add was that if he did not return, it would be because he died trying, which was a real possibility with his people. "Whether in one Earth cycle or ten, I will find a way."
"Pudding!" Harris yelled, diving to the ground.
Eclipse again tried to expand his energy to help stabilize the devices but couldn’t do it.
"Eclipse," Lunar admonished, "you must remain. Your twilight energy is too weak for the extraction. And Milano has already studied your energy patterns. They can't learn more from you that will harm our people. But if they were to find Solar or I…"
Eclipse's twilight energy pulsed with understanding, not needing him to finish stating the obvious. "If you go back, the council may not permit your return."
If it came to that, he wouldn’t ask for permission.
"You have beaten Milano once," Lunar said. "You are best equipped to evade them."
"The threat must be communicated properly," Eclipse said. "The weapons they have developed, their knowledge of our physiology, and their intentions toward interstellar expansion. These represent a potential danger to Zorveya in the not so distant future."
Lunar moved closer to Eclipse. "Promise me you will protect Poppy until I return."
Eclipse's twilight essence pulsed weakly. "I promise. For as long as it takes."
"And tell her..." Lunar hesitated, his shadow patterns swirling chaotically as he tried to articulate what he had never been taught to express. There was so much he wanted to share with her. So much he wanted to explain. But he was out of time. "Tell her everything I could not."
Eclipse nodded.
Lunar pulled Poppy aside. “I must leave now.”
She shook her head. The helicopter crested the ridge, drawing her gaze.
She grabbed onto him. “You come back to me.”
He wanted to promise, but he the truth was his path was uncertain. “You are…”
Damn the human’s for their lack of words. How could he say everything that was inside him?
"I…" Poppy looked helplessly at him.
They were out of time. He needed to leave.
"I wish there was more time," Lunar answered with one last caress against her body. He felt her shiver. The urge to sweep her into the night was almost too much to resist.
"Go." She nodded, though she tried to hold on to him as he stepped back.
Lunar's shadow essence contracted painfully. Turning to Eclipse, he said, "It has been educational serving with you, Diplomat Eclipse."
"And with you, Intelligence Specialist Lunar. Tell the council what happened here. Tell them Earth has potential beyond their imagining. And tell them I have found my true function at last.”
Lunar nodded.
"Protect her," he told Eclipse, gesturing toward Poppy before he let his body shift into darkness to merge with the pre-dawn shadows.
Lunar flowed toward the extraction array, his shadow essence pouring into the devices. He forced himself to act. Leaving was the hardest thing he’d ever done.
The energy matrix responded to him, and the discordant patterns harmonized. The dimensional bridge began to form, reality folding inward at the center of the array. His darkness pinpointed Solar's distant light waiting for him.
