"That's a story that begs to be told." Six gave Pietas an expectant look.
Now that he'd started talking, Pietas couldn't stop. "We were sixteen." He plucked a yellow weed and rolled its stem between his fingers. "Full of hormones, energy and teenage angst, with nowhere to vent. We'd learned that when we died, we'd come back at our peak condition and we were anxious to know if it was true. We isolated ourselves in a wing of the archives. A library of sorts. We were going to take turns killing each other." He tossed the weed aside, hung his wrists across the tops of his knees.
Six gave a long whistle. "Of all the crazy stunts. What went wrong?"
"What makes you think anything went wrong?"
"Two teenagers deciding to off each other? What could go right?"
Pietas smiled. "Dessy couldn't bring herself to hurt me. She could now, mind you, and does so, with glee, on a regular basis. But back then, she was still sweet. When I tried to kill her, she fought me. I panicked and choked her. Of course, she revived, but I was supposed to have killed her without pain. She was outraged. Claimed I'd betrayed her trust and threatened to tell our father what I'd done. He would have believed her over me, no question. She was always his favorite. I swore I'd do anything if she wouldn't." He shook his head. "I should never have made that promise."
"She had you by the short hairs."
"A colorful description. Yes. Any time I didn't want to do something, she'd bring that up." Pietas poked at the fire and added a piece of wood.
"Okay, give."
"Give?"
"I can see there's more to this story. I promise, on my honor, I won't reveal it to anyone." He moved closer to the fire. "Now talk. What happened?"
"Remember, we were alone, with nowhere to go and no friends to talk with. Two teenagers with raging hormones. She asked me to..." His voice trailed off.
He, who could tackle the most intimate themes with singular grace, debate any grievance with confidence and discuss any topic before the entire council, could not bring himself to admit his most embarrassing failure to one simple human.
Six pressed his lips together. "Are you saying you and your sister...were intimate?"
Pietas winced. "I regret nothing in my life. Except that."
Six let out a snort and covered his mouth.
Pietas rose to his full height. "This is funny to you?"
"No!" Six scrambled to his feet. "No. Lo siento. I'm sorry. It's not funny at all. I--" He made calming motions. "Let's sit down. I want to explain myself." He slid a hand along Pietas's arm as they sat. "I'm sorry, mi amigo. I didn't mean to laugh. It was the look on your face. Like you thought you were the first guy ever to get it on with a relative too close for comfort. Hey, I had sex with a cousin at fifteen." He slapped his head and uttered a Spanish curse word. "I knew it was wrong, but I did it anyway. I 'as a kid. You were a kid too and who was around to talk about it? Nobody. I'm not judging you."
"Why the laugh?"
"Too close to my own life. I'm sorry, Pietas."
Head down, he studied his hands.
"By how much it bothers you, I'm guessing you got found out."
"Oh. It was horrible." He rubbed his face, as if scrubbing away the memory. "Our father walked in on us."
"Ooh, ouch." He uttered a comical Spanish expletive that made Pietas smile. "So that's the reason you and Daddy don't get along?"
"Multiple reasons, but I suspect that is chief. I think he blames himself for not realizing what we would do. Or perhaps my mother blames him. I don't know."
"Did he apologize for leaving you two alone?"
He scoffed. "Apologize? My father? You must be joking."
"It's as much his fault for hiding the two of you and giving you no outlet."
"No, it is mine. I will never allow others to take blame for what I do. Young or not, I knew it was wrong." Pietas propped elbows on his knees. "Dessy and I had to say please and thank you to Father and Mother for everything and we had a pact never to say it to each other. It was our small rebellion. A way we had power. So when she said please, Pietas I knew how much it meant to her. She didn't trust anyone else. She didn't want to go out among other Ultras as a virgin. I kept refusing. Finally, she trotted out her favorite blackmail and I gave in. When Father caught us, he assumed it was my fault and I'd forced myself on her. She let him think it and I didn't deny it."
"What! But why?"
"To protect my sister, of course. So he'd punish me instead."
"She shouldn't have lied. She should have set him straight."
Pietas plucked up another weed. To this day, she insisted on teasing him. Had his heart meant nothing? He'd given himself to her and she'd abused his trust. He tossed the mangled weed aside.
"She let me take the blame. My father made me apologize to her and she acted as if she deserved to hear it."
Another round of Spanish cursing filled the air. "You ever tell anybody else this?"
Pietas met his gaze. "Not a living soul. I've lived with the betrayal since I was sixteen. I will never resolve it."
"Why not?"
"My sister lied to him. She's lied to our father many times. The resolution will be for her to admit the lie. My resolution lies in her hands and she will never give it to me. She holds it over me like a weapon."
Six let out a long whistle. "You deserve better than that."
"I protect her. Always. It's my duty. It was years before I realized she protected me only if it helped her. I don't blame her, you understand." He rubbed his eyes. "It's her nature."
"You're too easy on her."
"That's in my nature." While they talked, it had grown dark. "Six, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have burdened you with my troubles. You must think the ap Lorectics are a family of monsters."
"No. Your family is no more messed up than mine. My mother didn't want me because she got pregnant with a cousin's baby. He didn't want me because he was el hijo de perra who took what he wanted and accepted no responsibility. Where did I end up? With mi abuela, an old woman who should have been taken care of. Instead, she had to take care of a baby no one wanted. So I get the guilt-slash-family thing. I protected her, provided for her the way you protected your sister. Because I loved her. The difference is, she loved me back the same way. Selfless."
"You are most insightful, for a human."
Six gave a snort. "Right."
"But if you ever breathe a word of this..."
"I got your back, mi amigo." He stuck out his hand.
Pietas shook it and then clasped his forearm. "Remember, I know where you sleep and you'll need sleep sooner than I would."
Six laughed. "I know it! I'm sorry, Pi. I know you didn't have it easy. He didn't trust your honor and that had to sting."
He released Six and sat back. "Far worse than the whipping."
"Dealing with your father after that? And your sister? Man, I'd have hated to be in your shoes. I'm guessing that's when your father decided to stop hiding you."
"Yes. He threw me out. I had to leave, at once. He was quick to believe the worst about me and my sister allowed him to think it. His lack of faith and her betrayal hurt. The only good that came out of it was my freedom and the fact that my father stopped trying to perfect me. At least genetically."
"What about your mother? How did she handle it?"
"I heard my parents arguing afterward. My father tried to turn her against me, but she kept asking him if I'd accepted the blame, or if I'd confessed. Confessing would have been lying."
"So you didn't defend yourself? Not at all?"
Pietas did a double take. "Six! Were you not listening? He would have punished Dessy. I couldn't let him do that. My mother, on the other hand... My mother has loved me, unconditionally, my whole life. She's always believed in me. I'm grateful."
"Sounds like my abuela. We're blessed with special women, you and me. I'm sorry she's gone. She would have liked you."
When had a human ever said such a thing to him? They went to great pains to hide their families from him. "Y
ou say that to be polite."
"No, I'm being real. If she'd gotten to know you like I have, she'd have brought you into her house and given you a special place at her table. Insisted on feeding you like she did my other friends. They loved her, and she loved them. She was partial to us bad boys."
Pietas sighed. "I try to be good."
The ghost let out a belly laugh. "Some things aren't meant to be, mi amigo."
"If I'd had telepathy, perhaps none of what happened with my sister would have occurred. Perhaps my father would have seen into our thoughts and stopped us. We'd never have been able to get away with trying to kill one another. Things would have been different. But, as my mother often says, 'Don't wish for a different past. Make a different future.'"
"That's solid advice. Besides, you have telepathy when you're stressed and the day we landed, you were more stressed than you'd ever been in your life."
"You will never tell my people about that."
Six mimed a zipper across his lips. "You should cut yourself a break about it."
"I wish I had enough of the gift to make it useful. I can't initiate it. Some Ultras speak mind-to-mind the way you and I are talking now. I envy that."
"Would be handy in the field."
"Soldiers who need no sound to communicate exact orders are indeed capable of great stealth. As you well know, having fought Ultras."
"Everybody envies having telepathy, but humans are wiping out any bloodline that carries the ability. The Human Pure movement will keep evolution from moving forward, if you ask me."
"That might slow it, or redirect it, but nothing stops evolution. There is a certain amount of creation as well. And luck."
"You believe in luck?"
"I believe more in luck than I do in evolution and in creation more than luck."
"I got some strong opinions about luck. My abuela raised me to believe nothing happens to us by accident. Everything has a divine plan. She'd be rolling over in her grave if she knew I'd become a ghost. People call us the cursed, zombies, walking dead, monsters... If it wasn't for the advantages we have over Ultras, I never would have become one."
"You think ghosts have advantages?" Pietas raised one eyebrow.
"Well, yeah! Those advantages are the point of being what we are."
"I see." He held out his hands to the warmth. "Do tell me what they are."
"We didn't have as many emotions as other mortals. They weren't as strong. Harder for you Ultras to mess with us."
Pietas rubbed the back of his neck. "Well..."
"Oh, come on! They trained us for weeks how to suppress emotions."
"Weeks? You think that gave you an advantage? Ghost, I've practiced compulsion for almost two thousand years. With me, it's an art."
"Yeah, but they gave us anti-emo chips. They made it so we couldn't feel much of anything. No happiness. No sorrow. No...nothing. It's worn off some since I've been here, but not enough. I don't feel that much."
"I'm sorry, but the chips did not protect you. I felt the jarring of fear and anxiety the moment the first ghost stepped into the room. I could feel them fighting the chips. They were afraid of being afraid. I used that."
Six stared at him, the firelight sending shadows over his face. The fine scar on his cheek showed. "I gave up my family, my life, my entire being to come into that room and fight you. And you're telling me it was for nothing?"
"I wouldn't say it was nothing. I'm here, am I not? Not menacing humankind."
"It wasn't because of any special skill I had. It was because another one of your kind told me which pod to target."
"Have you remembered anything else about him?"
An explosive sigh left Six. "You've asked me that for months! No. I've told you everything I know. I'm sorry."
Pietas rubbed his brow, forcing back the anger that thinking about the betrayal brought so quickly to the surface. "I know. I will try not to ask you that again. But about your abilities...don't shortchange yourself. I sensed no fear from you in that room. A normal human wouldn't have lasted as long as you did, ghost. I surrendered to you. Never forget it. No other human in history can claim that. Don't let any other fact rob you of the knowledge that you took me out of action. You defeated Pietas ap Lorectic, War Leader of the Ultras."
"No, I didn't.
"I do not lie, ghost."
Six squinted at him. "You're willing to admit defeat?"
"I do not lie." Pietas met his gaze and held it. "I will manipulate and coerce and intimidate, but lie? Never."
"I wish I'd never signed those forms." Using the broken branch, Six poked at the fire. Sparks floated upward. His brows drew down. "I should never have consented to reanimation. If I hadn't, I'd be dead right now. Buried."
"How would death be better than exploring a new world?"
Six tossed aside the branch. "I hadn't thought of it that way. I guess it's not."
Pietas brushed off his pants. "On an even brighter note, you get the privilege of exploring it with me."
"And you just had to go and ruin the thought."
With a laugh, Pietas propped his arms atop his knees. "I always wondered. How did they reanimate you? What makes a ghost a ghost?"
"I thought you knew."
"They hid it from us. I had people working to infiltrate the ranks, but hadn't discovered it before-- Well...now."
"Oh wow. Talk about your awkward conversations." Six toyed with a small stick. "Look, before I tell you, I know you don't forget stuff, but for my sake, I'd like to remind you of one thing."
"Which is?"
Six tossed the stick into the flames, dusted off his hands and faced him. "That you promised not to kill me."
* * * *
The wretched twist in Pietas's heart upon hearing Six's request made his stomach burn. For the ghost to say such a thing after all the time they'd spent in one another's company did not bode well. What horrors had Six experienced?
"You know I honor my vows, ghost. Say what you want to say."
"How it worked was this. Once you were in Ghost Division, if you died, they put you in stasis and took you to the main facility."
"I knew that much. Go on."
Six's gaze flicked up at him, then away. "They emptied our bodies of blood and refilled them."
That sick feeling overcame him. He realized what they'd done to Six, but refused to admit it, even to himself. Without intending it, Pietas manifested his Pyro gift and the fire flared.
"Tell me what they filled you with."
"Pietas, I-- I'm sorry. I thought you knew about this."
"Tell me, ghost." Head down, Pietas braced his arms, waiting. "I can guess, but you need to tell me. I make decisions on facts, not assumptions."
"They gave us Ultra blood. Ghosts have no human blood at all. It's the Ultra blood that revives us. We're reanimated because they tried to make us like you." Six's shame fluttered against Pietas's empathic senses like broken wings against a cage. "Our bodies regenerate human blood. The reanimation doesn't last. We live two, maybe three years at the most."
That explained why Ultra warriors had gone missing. Why bodies could not be found. Humans had captured them. Had humans imprisoned them the way they had Pietas, or were they, even now, in worse condition? Were they imprisoned still? And here he was, exiled to an alien world, unable to help them.
"This Ultra blood." Pietas lifted his head. The fire blurred. When he blinked, wetness streaked down his face. "How did they get the blood?"
"They told us it was voluntary. One story said they were Ultras who were human sympathizers, working to help us overthrow your rule. But another story said there were Ultras in captivity being bled to the point of death and then revived."
He turned and leveled his gaze on Six. "And after hearing that, you still let them give it to you?"
The ghost shrank in on himself. "Ultras controlled everything. We were desperate to regain our freedom. We-- No. Pietas, I won't lie to you. I owe you the truth." Six refused to look at him. "I
pretended I didn't know. I turned a blind eye to what was happening because I'd convinced myself it was for the greater good. That was before I got to know an Ultra for myself. I didn't know what Ultras were like. I believed the lies."
With great care, Pietas stood and took his time walking to the edge of the firelight. He remained in the deeper shadows for a moment before turning back.
Six huddled in the firelight, looking small and worn. "I'm sorry, Pietas."
"So am I."
The ghost lurched to his feet. "Are you... You're not leaving?"
"I will not abandon you, but I can't be around you right now. Did you not notice the fire blazing? My gifts manifest when I'm angry. You wouldn't be safe."
"Wait! What if those cats are out there? It's dangerous." Six started around the fire. "Let me--"
"Ghost!" He held up a hand in warning and Six halted. "I promised not to kill you, but if you come near me right now, I will hurt you."
"But...Pietas, I-- I--"
"I am not angry with you. I'm angry that humans wasted Ultra blood. They wasted it. We are precious. Rare. Unique in the universe. Yet they throw our lives away to gain a few more years for someone who failed a mission by getting himself killed!"
Even at this distance, the shame evinced by the ghost made Pietas cringe.
Without meaning to, he had lumped Six into that failure. "Six, I am sorry. But your people abuse every gift they're given."
"Then, why are you leav--"
"I am not safe. I won't mean to, but I'll hurt you. Let me go, my friend. Amigo. Please."
Six took a step back and gave a nod.
Pietas withdrew into the darkness.
* * * *
Lost in thought, Pietas walked for hours. He became aware of his surroundings in the center of a clearing. Sempervian moonlight bathed the night in silver. His own kind had been penned up, drained of blood, made to suffer rebirth after rebirth, all to create monsters that would then go out to capture and slaughter more of their kind.
And to think, he'd begun to have second thoughts about humanity. Since getting to know Six, he'd considered the wholesale slaughter of humans might be wrong. That his father might have a point and humans might be worth saving.
Bringer of Chaos- The Origin of Pietas Page 14
