The Keneena City Ch. 07-10

"She is so damn sexy." muttered Stone softly, as he eyed her sweaty exhausted form.

Neo silently agreed with him as he watched his lover accept a one inch gold victor's coin from her father.

"Keneena is the winner!" declared Father, raising her arm towards the crowded stands.

~10~

After their combat was over and the girl's had washed and changed, Leila and Ceshca went onto the main balcony that overlooked the city in order to escape the excitement of the festival. Neo joined them, chatting easily and enjoying the night air.

"I want to see the Soul again." Ceshca said breaking the silence that followed.

"Are you sure? What if something happened?" Leila asked cautiously.

"Oh Leila don't worry, nothing will happen." Ceshca answered confidently as she spun around, leaving the other two to trail her quick pace. Kela bounded after her owner eagerly as they all headed to the Temple of Light. As they stepped into the Soul Chamber, suddenly Leila's blue pendent began to throb as it grew brighter and her own tattoos glowed fiercely.

"It's impossible!" she breathed.

"Quick, return to Atlantis and bond with the Heart." Ceshca suggested hurriedly.

"But the legend." protested the Atlantian.

"What about the legend? Which one?" Neo cut in.

"The legend is only about Keneena and Atlantis, Middleton didn't exist until after the fall of Atlantis." spoke Leila as her crystal floated in a hovering way, as if it had a conscience of it's own.

"Maybe it is a danger that we don't know about." Ceshca said.

"Look!" Neo informed them, as the blue pendent ceased it's throbbing light and again rested between Leila's breasts.

"What does it all mean?" Ceshca mused aloud.

"I will run and tell our father's, they must know of this." Leila said rushed, as she turned to return to Keneena.

Ceshca grabbed Neo's hand as they gazed up at the Orange crystal as if spun and hovered 170 feet above their heads.

"Ceshca, I know this is a bad time to ask this... but do you like me? Maybe love me?" Neo asked as he faced the princess.

"I believe I do Neo." Ceshca smiled sweetly at the historian.

"I've always felt drawn to you Ceshca, ever since I first saw you." he admitted, blushing a bit at his realization.

"And I you Neo." she replied as she kissed him softly.

"Well, well, well. Ain't this just touching." smirked a familiar voice. Neo and Ceshca whipped around to find Stone standing no more then a few feet from them, Leila in his grasp. Jones and four other crew members flanked him on either side. Ceshca felt that sear on the side of her cheek where he had sliced it open, it began to sting as Stone came towards her. Neo started to step in front of her only to be waved away by the point of a pistol that Stone wielded.

"At first I wanted only the Soul, and then you. But now I think I want the both of you." he muttered darkly. The princess rolled her eyes in disbelief at this man's blind crazy persistance of stealing her spirit and destroying her home.

"How the hell did you escape the cell?" Neo asked.

"Son, the military didn't make me cammanding officer for nothing." Stone addressed the historian like a child being scolded for stealing a cookie.

"Now, if you provoke me any further, I will decide to take you first." he licked his lips as he looked Ceshca up and down. The Keneenean princess looked down briefly as if she were coming to a difficult desicion.

"Alright Stone, you may have me. But I beg you leave this place once you have fullfilled your desires of me. The crystal is far beyond you to control." Ceshca sighed heavily as she glanced up into the man's hard lust driven gaze. Stone stared at her harshly as if trying to decide if she spoke the truth or not. His grip on Leila's arm loosened ever so slightly.

"Fine. I'll agree to that.' he shoved Leila away into Neo's outreached arms.

"Oh my god!" exclaimed Jones, just as Stone roughly took ahold of Ceshca. The chamber wavered and melted into an array of color as the Soul suddenly began to shift colors, melting from the bright nearly neon orange that was it's true color; into an emerald green. The rays were brighter then it's core as it stretched and touched the walls of the cavern. The eerie color change made it feel more like a disco room for an instant.

"What the hell happened?" barked Stone as he wrestled Ceshca to the ground. The crew had Neo and Leila at gunpoint as the Commander began tearing at the princess's clothes.

"The Soul, it calls to me." she spoke, her voice had taken a tone of ghostly reverberating as her crystal pendent hovered and pulled towards the Soul. The emerald rays jumped and wavered, like it throbbed in time with Ceshca's necklace. The Keneenean pendent was still an orange but there seemed to be emerald flames that flickered along its length, yet the gem remained unscathed.

"Stone let the bitch go!" snarled Jones, she tackled him and they rolled to the side.

"Ceshca." Neo addressed the girl timidly. The Keneenean princess stood up, glancing his way. Neo nearly fainted at the sight of her eyes, they had covered with an emerald film, a cataract that waxed over her entire eye.

"Leila?" Neo turned to her, trying to make sense of it.

"I have never seen a Keneenean calling. Atlantis' Heart beckons when in time of danger, that's why my pendent glowed earlier." she whispered, as if to herself.

Stone and Jones wrestled as Ceshca began to walk towards the Soul. Leila sprang into action, assisiting Jones in killing Stone, while Neo watched the scene unfold. Ceshca walked as if in a trance, her eyes never left the Soul, a shaft of light encompassed her as she set foot onto the pit of clear water, stepping upon it as if it were solid ground. She didn't take notice of anything around her, she only had eyes for the crystal. Neo was in utter bewilderment as he watched his beloved succum to the calling. She was almost directly beneath it as Leila and Jones came to his side.

"What's going on?" asked the female officer.

"She is going to bond with the crystal, but since Stone is dead, shouldn't it have like stopped by now?" Neo answered, he looked at Jones intensely.

"What are you not telling us?" snapped Leila, her eyes sparked fire at the other woman.

"Stone wanted me to plant a bomb to destroy Keneena." she admitted to them. Reaching into her pocket, she withdrew a black marbel, then handed it to Neo.

"This, this is the bomb?" he raised an eyebrow in curious fear.

"Yes, it can destroy both cities, it's that powerful."

"How do we stop it!" broke in Leila as she watched Ceshca begin the floating acsent up into the fiery Soul.

"It has to be taken out of the city as the protective shield is raised over the Keneenean city." Leila answered the question herself, knowing the strangers would not have a clue as what to do.

"Let's go then." came Jones. Leila nodded and the two women left to fly the bomb out of the city limits.

Neo watched in pure awe and worry as Ceshca's tranced body ascended further and further up that single shaft of light getting closer and still closer to the Soul. The limestone slabs began to spin as she was taken into the fiery ball, revolving faster and still faster, the air seemed to be charged with electricity sparks of tiny fires shot out in every direction; the fireworks display nearly blinded the man but her stood his ground. As the sparks subsided his eyes took in her transformation as the stones began to slow a bit, Ceshca's body had been submerged by the crystal thereby becoming one with the Soul itself. Her body was now a singular emerald color, as the electric currents zipped and twirled about her still form, the color waxed and changed to it's original neon orange as her figure details were etched out. She was Ceshca but then she was also the Soul, bound in the physical form of the Soul of Keneena. She began her slow descent as the stones fell into the pool below her.

"Ceshca." Neo said as she approached the water's edge once again.

Ceshca's eyes snapped open, revealing the brightest, most brilliant orange that Neo had ever seen, her eyes seemed to be as windows gazing in on the very heart of the Soul, her eyes shone brighter then even her embodied form as she walked to Neo. Neo had not a clue what to say or do, hell or even what to think. The very phenomenon itself was as if it had been taken right from a science-fiction movie.

Jones set the marbel-bomb down just outside of the perimitter, and with a desperate leap she managed to clear the limit just as the orange force field began to climb upwards; covering the city in a dome-like shelter. The bomb went off minutes after the shield had finished covering the top half of the tallest building, the palace. The force field shuttered and vibrated with the nearness of the blast but the city remained unharmed. As the dust settled Jones and Leila looked over in the direction of Atlantis, releaved to find it had it's shield up as well. Leila sighed with such relief she thought her heart would burst from her chest; then suddenly she remembered her friend and rushed back to the crystal chamber.