Panic, page 7
The dark youth sighed. “I only say what I see,” he said and gestured at the girls. “That clash will be a disaster.”
“It doesn’t matter what you think, soldier,” Aaron said, stepping towards him. “The Keepers desired she have a rival to push her development. It’s only logical to pick someone who hates her.”
Jarel shrugged and looked away. “We’re here on your orders, squad leader.”
“Damn right, you are,” Aaron said, turning toward Alex with a sneer. “Oh, but you also have something to say, don’t you, Paragon? Throw in your two cents, Alex. How do you think it’s going to unfold, your student against mine?”
Alex smiled. “We all know who’s going to win. Paragons triumph above all.”
Twenty-one, Aaron was a stocky youth, built strong on a short stature. He was like a wild boar. A simmering rage roiled beneath his skin, fed by the pain of a vengeful wrath. Proud and imperious, he upheld the arrogance of his name. A Goethe, his dark hazel eyes glinted with cocky hard-mouthed aggression. His spiked, jet black hair was shot through at his bangs with a white silver streak, while his hands were knuckled by brass.
Taking an unassuming step in Melissa’s direction, Katelyn lunged. The blonde ducked, evading the blades by a hair. Clapping her hands together, a hole opened in her palms, and black metal surged up as Katelyn turned on her heel and drove a dagger backward into a counter. Grating against the dark mass, sparks flew as the sharp metal slid across Melissa’s black. Wild eyes looking for an opening, the dark-haired girl retreated a step before flipping back as silver-white wire shot out from the black shield and spiked into the ground.
Katelyn readjusted her knives with hooded eyes. “Step out and fight,” she said. “You hide like a coward.”
Placing a hand behind her dark shield, Melissa closed her eyes, transferring her sight through her metals. Mentally hurling her wire forth, she smiled. “Dance.”
Dashing in at a curve, Katelyn rushed the Paragon from an angle. Jumping to the side as the silver dived at her in hellfire. The elite, ducked and rolled back to her feet as the whipping metal stabbed at her in quick succession. Silver glinted out of the corner of her eyes and moving her head, a burst of wind ruffled her hair as a wire flashed by. Katelyn slid to a stop. There was less than a five-foot distance between her and the shield. Pulling back around, the cable came for her. Readying her daggers, the elite slashed the blades up alongside it and misdirected it in a glancing blow. Undeterred, the silver metal whipped back once more for another dogged round of pursuit.
Leading her about like a puppet on a string, Melissa attacked relentlessly. Beating back and distracting her adversary, she prohibited her from getting too close.
“You can hardly handle one wire,” Melissa taunted from behind her black barrier. “Imagine if I split it in two.”
Executing an aerial over the wire as it circled along the ground to trip her, Katelyn landed lightly and looked up. The wire swung back, and she raised her daggers too late. Caught in the abdomen by the cord, spit flew from her mouth as she was tossed into the air. Flipping, the elite hit the ground like a rag doll. Daggers spilling from her hands, she rolled head over heels before skidding to a stop at the edge of the arena. Above her, the wire descended, staking into the ground. Katelyn stared at it from the corners of her eyes. A line of blood welled on the side of her neck, dripping on the ground. The wire had grazed her.
“I’ve drawn first blood,” Melissa said and lowered her shield. “Say you yield.”
Gritting her teeth, Katelyn pushed herself up and rose to her feet. Reaching out her hands, first one dagger, then the other flew into her palms. The elite charged with a yell. She launched her short frame into the air with a leap just as the wire swept out for her spine. Melissa’s shield rose once more as the black-haired girl was slammed into the ground.
“Now,” Melissa said. “Do you understand the difference between us?”
A groan emitted from where Katelyn lay. Her body shook, and hands trembled. She reached out, gasping in pain, and pulled in a dagger by her fingers. Shooting down from the sky, the arrowhead of the wire went through the girl’s blade, shattering the metal into splintered pieces. Sweat dripped into the elite’s eyes and clenching her teeth from the sting, she curled her hands into fists.
The black shield dropped to reveal Melissa’s bored expression. “An easy win.”
10
REMINISCENCE
—ALEX—
Placing his hands on the metal railing, Alex looked out the battlement's fortified glass. He stood within the clear eastern viewpoint of the compound's outermost wall. Iridescent above his head and below his feet, the tubed hall offered a vast picturesque vision of the smaller city, Heto. Droplets of rain trickled down the glass streaming, from a downpour that fell heavily over the city. Constructed at a height nearly level with the distant air-traffic of automated cars, the changing lights of green to red flashed the viewpoint with the never-ending cycle of stop and go. Alex tensed as he saw a figure behind him move in the glass. He narrowed his gaze at the violet eyes in the crude reflection.
"What do you want?" he asked, turning.
Silent, Melissa stared out the windowed walls. "I have some questions," she said finally, shifting her gaze to his.
"Ask someone else," he said flatly. Overhead, white light flashed in a streak of lightning. Ignoring him, the girl stepped forward.
"Why does Katelyn hate me?" she asked. There was a strange look in her eyes. He watched her hands fidget on the cold metal of the rails. It was almost as if she was afraid to hear his answer.
Alex shifted his own eyes back out the glass. "Why not ask her yourself?"
"If I did," she said, "and initiated a talk face to face… I think she'd try to kill me."
"You sound like you'd let her."
"I'm not weak anymore."
"After what you did to her—breaking three ribs and fracturing an arm, no one has any doubts about that."
Melissa didn't answer.
Alex turned his back to the rails. "The Keepers were pleased with your performance. They think it's an improvement from how you were."
"Like you would know," she said with a bitter tang in her voice. "You didn't know me before. You didn't know me as Light."
"You told me that I was like you," he said. "I knew enough to know you were lonely." He paused. "You still are."
Melissa shook her head. "I didn't find you to talk about me." She lowered her voice. "There's something wrong with Katelyn. She wasn't like that before. She was more detached, indifferent. Not loud, not so emotional and…and desperate." She looked down. "She actually wanted to kill me."
"Look at that," Alex said, sarcastic, "we all changed."
She gave him a look. "There's more to it than that."
He shifted his gaze away. "If there is, she'll tell you herself…eventually."
Melissa's eyes narrowed. "So, you do know."
Suddenly silent, he watched her for a moment, straightened and began to walk away. "Ask the one with the vendetta—"
Melissa grabbed his arm, stopping him. Her purple eyes bore into his like violet fire. "Tell me," she said. "I want to know why I'm disliked."
"It's not dislike." Alex brushed her hand from him. "You had it right the first time. She hates you, or rather, hates them through you."
The girl gave him a blank stare. "Them? Who's—"
"Katelyn blames you for the death of her brother," he said bluntly and turned away. "Use your own brain to fill in the pieces."
"Daniel?" Melissa said behind him. Her voice trembled as she swallowed. "He…died?"
Ignoring the strange tightness in his chest as Katelyn's distorted blood-caked face flashed into his mind again, clenching his fists, Alex walked on. His body felt heavy as if reminded of the weight he carried from the souls he saw that day.
"Wait!" Melissa's voice rung out to echo through the glass hall. Hearing the pattering footfalls as she ran after him, he turned.
"You're so persistent." Watching as a tear slipped down her face, he averted his gaze. "I told you what you wanted to know.”
"No," she said and bunched the fabric of his long jacket in her grip. "No, you didn't."
Alex gave a cold sigh. "Aren't you ever satisfied?"
"I just want to know the truth."
"The truth," he scoffed and gazed out the windowed walls. "Other than us, only one student survived Corpus. That was Katelyn." He ignored her shocked expression. "Only Katelyn. Daniel, Sierra…everyone else who was there that day, are died.”
Melissa swallowed. "I thought," she said, looking down. "I thought—"
"What?" Alex said. "That he's just been chilling at another base?" He laughed mirthlessly. "As if life's that convenient. The truth is as hard as death is cheap. But thank you, you resurfaced a memory I'd rather forget. By all means, continue with your grand important questions." He leaned in close. "Rub in the salt. After all, you're no longer Light. You've long since lost any compassion you had." He watched her release his arm with a shaky breath.
"You didn't even know them," she muttered beneath a glare. "Don't act as if you did now. I saw you there. For all of ten minutes, you sat in the front row beside them. You barely—"
"I didn't need to know them," Alex interrupted. "Since when do you need to know someone to watch them die?"
Her expression going tight, Melissa didn't answer.
The dark-haired youth eyed her. "Is this your way of trying to expel your guilt?" He said and pushed her back. "You're trying to shove the blame on me?"
Melissa stepped back with a dark expression. "Did you see Daniel?" Her quiet voice seemed to echo in the silent hall. "Did he suffer?"
"Why don't you ask Katelyn?"
Her face went tight. "You were there when it all… happened—"
"So were you."
"I was incapacitated."
"I didn't see him," Alex said, walking over to the rails. "Not Daniel, at least. It was all…" he swallowed. "Everything was in chaos. There were people everywhere, running in all directions." He closed his eyes as their screams came back to him. "Instructors, students, staff… The bodies of soldiers and kids alike littered that battlefield. The courtyard was so wet with blood you had to be careful where you stepped. I saw her though, Sierra. She was…" He shook his head. "It was too late. Her intestines were everywhere. I think she bled to death.”
"You think?" Melissa asked, indignant. "What did you do, run past?"
"When you're weak," he said, "you do whatever's necessary to survive. Only the strong possess the privilege to think of someone other than themselves. In that mad scramble for life, I understood firsthand what spilled blood looked like and understood its smell. I encountered fear and experienced what it was like to be favored. I lived due to the stigma of power, because I was ranked a paragon. I was valued and thus saved. I was chosen over so many others who were abandoned and left to die. Before that…before Corpus, I'd never stood before a body. Never witnessed a person die. The idea of it was so foreign, I almost thought it impossible, as if we were all immortal. But I was weak in that courtyard, helpless; more pathetic than I ever thought I was or could be. However, when it came down to it on that killing field, I looked at Sierra. Stared into her hazel eyes, and left her to die…and she did." He turned his green eyes to Melissa's violet. "Any more questions?"
Melissa dropped her gaze.
He turned. "That's what I thought."
"No," she said as he stepped away. "That doesn't explain—none of it explains why I'm hated."
"Think." Alex looked back at her. "For whom did the Red Ravens appear?"
Melissa didn't answer.
"They came to kill you," he continued. "After we escaped in our copter, everyone left behind was slaughtered. The Red Ravens show no mercy. Nothing that breathed was allowed to live. Katelyn wasn't much of an exception. Following the killing, a recovery team excavated her buried body from under the piled rubble of a collapsed hall. She'd never left the building. Unlike her, her twin was crushed into a bloodstain." He exhaled. "And so, Katelyn decided to blame you for her brother's death. Had you been killed in the desert that day, Daniel would still be alive. Corpus would still have students, and no one would've died."
"I didn't kill them," she said.
"I never said you did."
"You insinuated it," she accused.
"That's merely your interpretation. As I recall, you asked to have this conversation."
"Why not you?" She demanded. "You're a Paragon. Why doesn't Katelyn blame you too?"
Alex glazed over her bitter expression. "Before the orientation, no one knew my tier. Until they infiltrated the Academy looking for you, the enemy had no idea I existed." He stepped back with a pause. "So, if there's nothing else, I'm—"
The girl's eyes flicked down. "What's that?" she asked with a pointed look at the golden glint beneath the folds of his long jacket. The black-haired youth placed a hand on the hilt of his hanging sword and drew the blade. Engraved inscriptions and runed symbols swirled down the flat of the amber weapon.
"This," he said, turning it in his hand. "It's Altramex's titus. Its materialized from absorbed light. If I were to take a guess, I'd say it's the only thing that can hurt him. Over this past year I studied up on what the Intelligence Bureau had to offer for him and the Razi clan. Victashia is made up of an innumerable number of clans, both great and small. Of course, the lesser ones pale in comparison to the high blood. As one of the five paramount clans, the Razi's lineage dates back two millennia into the Dawn Age, when titus was first recorded. They're fabled light specialists of old. Even their countrymen are wary of those monsters. However, I have a theory. The raw ability to deface attacks must make them impenetrable only on the surface. There has to be some underlying effect. After all, if the first Paragon could kill one, then they're mortal." He swung the blade down, slicing through the steel of a rail like butter. "The Red Raven's arrogance makes him careless and vain. He underestimates us to the point of leaving this behind. It wasn't the only bloody weapon he cast aside. The spear he threw and the cleaver were also recovered for analysis."
"And?" Melissa asked. "What did they find?"
Alex rammed the blade back into its sheath. "It hasn't yet failed to cut through anything in it’s path. It's almost as if the Razi was hoping for something, craving to be challenged by his sword. Like he dared someone to kill him." He looked at her with dead eyes. "That someone will be me."
Melissa smiled. "Then you should get in line."
Alex appraised her with a dry look. "You fell to him once. Do you really think you won't fall again?"
She crossed her arms. "At least I don't have a crutch. You're only brave enough to fight him with his own sword."
"As long as it kills him, anything goes."
"And if it doesn't?"
Staring at her, Alex stepped closer. "I fell into this world an Oddity and spent that day a loser. During the aftermath of what happened in Corpus' courtyard while meandering around the bodies of over a thousand dead, I became a man. I saw the blood of slaughtered innocents sticking to their cold bodies. They were just students, unripe for the frontlines and were cut down mercilessly in their place of education. That's the world we live in. When I realized that—when I accepted that, I became a Kaigan. I understood why Wilson had pointed a gun at me with such fervor and zeal. America, my former country paled and fell away in comparison to the glory Kaiga offered. Above all else, I'm loyal to the Federation to the death. Its wish is as much my calling as the King's will is my command. I am our people's anger manifest and will be certain to dole out their vengeance. That is why I live."
"Their revenge?" Melissa scoffed with the tinge of a smile. "The majority of the population are tierless. No dust-blood kids attended Corpus, its a school for elites. Hell, most tierless aren't even permitted the honor of secondary school. They have no revenge to be carried."
"A loss for the Federation is the loss of its people," Alex said cooly. "We are already at war, one Victashia started."
Melissa didn't answer.
"You must understand humanity needs a master. Do you not see our role in it all? We are Paragons, the ushers of a more brilliant, peaceful future. With our garnered support, Kaiga will guide the world with a firm and prudent hand that will inevitably create a utopia for all."
Alex stared back into her eyes, irritated. Her silence was insufferable. It was as if he were being forced to persuade her. She, his predecessor, who, more than the keepers and his comrades, should share his ideals. They were common knowledge. The forthright patriotic words of a true Kaigan, which for all intents and purposes, they could make come true. The air was frigid, and held an uneasy foreboding. She'd been silent too long. His eyes narrowed, something was off.
There was something not quite right about her, this girl, this blonde, his fellow of whom he was supposed to be so much alike. They were supposed to share a bond, comrades in arms on the same crusade. The reality did not match what he had imagined. He'd felt something similar before back in the Keepers' Chambers, and now, he felt it again. Dissent.
He touched the pommel of his sword gingerly. They couldn't be more different.
"You speak of a higher path?" Melissa said and smiled, it was almost as if she sensed his suspicion. "How idealistic."
"It's not an ideal," he said stiffly, "its—"
"Your Reverence," a tierless man called out as he scurried into the hall.
Alex swung his eyes to him, infuriated. "What is it?"
The man fixed his eyes to the floor as he dropped to a knee. "The General has enacted a commander's call."
11
COMMAND
—ALEX—
"Room, ten-hut!" Alex shouted. Conversation ceased as twenty officers snapped to attention. A sudden stillness gripped the air and silence stretched as a Lieutenant General walked into the conference room. Behind him, the automated doors closed.
