by J Gaines
Amias watched as a large group of Kaden’s security forces entered; the man who led them wore a balaclava and carried a sheathed sword on his back. Max had picked himself up, and under the watch of the guards had returned to stand by Amias’s side. As the group approached, Amias noticed they were marshalling a person in the middle of them. The prisoner’s head was bowed slightly, but Amias could still see thick greying hair leading to an even thicker beard. He closed his eyes.
“John!” Kaden motioned for the guards to step aside. “I believe that’s what you call him?” Amias watched as the beaten face of his mentor was revealed. His hands were secured behind his back, and his clothes were torn and covered in blood. Kaden placed a hand on his shoulder and pushed him painfully to the ground. “Surprise, Amias!” Amias tried his best to control his emotions as he waited for John to look at him.
Kaden laughed as he towered triumphantly over the stricken John. “Nothing to say to your leader, Amias?” He walked to the table and picked up Amias’s sword. “I must say, I thought you’d be more pleased to see him. It hasn’t been easy to arrange this reunion. You could say it’s taken years of careful planning. But all of it is worth it now that I have the two of you here.” Amias’s mind raced as he realised the implications of Kaden’s words. Kaden smiled. “Poor Amias, trying his best to understand what’s happening. Well, let me help you. For a long time now, you and John have been fixated on the suggestion that my sole aim was to either elicit or kill you. And as true as that is, you’re not the only man I’ve been looking for. Somehow, John has managed to evade me for many years now. When I heard he’d taken you under his wing, I knew it was my chance. In you, he had a responsibility he’d never had before. You could say he’d been a lone wolf until recently.” He unsheathed the sword slowly. “Although you know that, don’t you, Amias. You’ve been around him a lot longer than I ever have. But lately, he’s helped train and guide you, and not only that, he’s come out of hiding to lead a resistance against me. How brave of him.” He ran the point of the sword menacingly across John’s back and Amias tensed. “And yet I hear that out of all of his new responsibilities, you’ve been the most challenging. A loose cannon when he needed a leader of men, a troublesome son when he needed a reliable heir.” Amias was stung by Kaden’s words, and he looked at the fallen head of his leader, hoping for a sign of assurance from him. “You’ve been quite the disappointment, I believe. Isn’t that right, Xavier?”
The guard who wore the balaclava suddenly pulled it from his face, and as Amias turned at the sudden movement, he saw the familiar wavy hair and blue eyes of Xavier. He glanced at Amias scornfully before joining Kaden. Amias watched him, unable to hide the surprise he felt, and unwilling to veil the anger that was now building inside of him.
Kaden laughed again. “Look at him, Xavier, he doesn’t know what to do with himself.”
“Traitor,” Max growled. Xavier looked at him disdainfully and laughed.
“I think we can all see the hypocrisy in that statement, Max.” Kaden placed the sword on John’s shoulder and turned back to Amias. “Xavier has been with me for a long time. He understands the need for true power, and I’ve given him the place alongside me which I’ve only ever offered to you. For a long time, he’s been unappreciated by your people. He’s been giving me information on your pitiful group for a long time.” He turned to Amias and laughed. “They even blindfolded him so he didn’t know the location of your base. But we found it in the end, just as I told you we would.”
“They are our people, Kaden,” Amias replied.
“There was a time I tried to convince you of that. But now I see things differently. Even amongst our people, there are those who will never have the abilities we have. There are those who will serve, and those who will lead.”
“You’re insane, Kaden. You’ve lost all perspective on what’s real.”
“What’s real, brother, is that you’ll be dead soon. But first you’ll watch me kill your friends.”
“What happens to any of them is irrelevant. They are all ready to die, and sacrifice themselves.”
“Sacrifice themselves for what, brother?”
“To get me here. To put me in front of you. Everything they’ve done, and every path they’ve walked, has helped lead me here. Now. And to give me this chance that I won’t let go again… and the opportunity to kill you.”
Kaden laughed, his anger beginning to break through once more. “I gave you this ‘chance’, as you call it. You’re here because I wanted you here. With him.” He turned his attention back to John and placed the blade of the sword to his neck. “The people he’s brought here to help you will all die. And you’ll watch.”
“As I watched you kill our mother.”
Kaden turned in surprise, the blade still held at John’s neck. “What are you talking about?”
“Our mother, Kaden. I found her, or rather she found me.”
In an instant, Kaden was standing in front of him. He held the point of the blade under his chin. “Who is she?”
Amias lifted his chin free of the blade. “You mean, who was she?”
“Tell me!” Kaden screamed.
“She was a woman, who saw one of her sons grow to become like the same people who hunted her for being different. Our father and mother are dead, because of the same lust for power and understanding that has blinded you. And you killed her.” He felt tears rolling down his cheeks, and saw Kaden was desperately trying to make sense of his revelation. It was the first time Amias had seen him look scared, and for a moment he saw their mother in his face.
“The woman I fought.” He turned to Xavier, who looked at back at him fearfully. “What was her name?”
Xavier looked anxiously from Amias to John. “Her name was Olivia. She was an elder among the altéré, but it’s impossible that–”
“Could she have been my mother, Xavier?” The sword, which he still held at Amias’s throat, shook.
“It must be a trick, Kaden. They are lying to you.” He viciously kicked John in the stomach. “Tell the truth, old man.”
“I’m not lying, Kaden. Look into my eyes and you’ll see the truth. She’s been watching us, you and me. You were right, our parents were both altéré and they tried to hide our birth, aware that there were people out there who would want to understand how it happened. She separated us: me with Blaise, and you with the family you knew were never yours. She saw the monster you’ve become.”
Kaden’s eyes rolled madly. “She never said anything when I fought her. She never said a word.” He looked at the sword in his hand. “This was her sword. It was strong… she was strong.”
“She was one of the greatest fighters of our kind. And you took her from us. You killed your own mother.”
Amias’s last words pierced Kaden like a knife, he screamed and threw the sword across the floor. He turned away from Amias and clenched his fists as Xavier and the guards cowered backwards. Andre got up from the table and walked towards him. Kaden screamed again, and ran to where Virgil’s sword was mounted, snatching it from the stand and unsheathing it, holding the naked blade and throwing the sheath aside. He stood for a moment looking at Amias, his chest heaving and his black pupils filling his eyes. Slowly, he walked to where John was still kneeling. He grabbed his hair and pulled his head back, placing the blade at his throat. He was about to draw the blade back when there was an explosion in the room outside. The attention of everyone in the room was drawn to the sound and before Amias could see what had caused it, muffled gunfire erupted, and he saw armed men taking cover behind the desks. He looked back at Kaden, who was still holding John by the hair.
Kaden turned to him, and Amias watched helplessly as he realised he wouldn’t be able to close the distance between them. A cruel smile stretched across Kaden’s face and he stepped back and lifted the sword. In the split second it took Kaden to step back, John suddenly raised his head
and looked at him, his grey eyes coming alive. As the sword dropped towards his neck, he jumped up and spun around, protruding his arms towards the blade. There was a flash of blood that flicked across the floor and John’s hand fell with it. He pulled his other arm around, now free of the handcuffs, and, staggering to his feet and cradling his wrist, he turned to Amias and shouted, “Now.”
Chapter 29
Amias leapt forward. As he reached the guards, he caught the end of one of their rifles before it was raised, turning it to another guard who took the bullets meant for him. He then snatched it away and used the butt of it to slam across the disarmed man’s face. Quickly, he glanced across the room and saw his sword still lying where it had fallen. He made for it, and saw John desperately trying to avoid Kaden’s pursuit. A gunshot drew his attention, and he turned as another shot rang out. He’d been lucky to avoid both, and he didn’t give his attacker another chance, raising his rifle and shooting the man in the leg. He screamed in pain for the few seconds before Amias rendered him unconscious. Andre had now joined the fight, and Amias saw him making his way towards Max, who was also trying to fight his way free. He called to him and threw him the rifle he’d acquired, and Max turned and caught it just in time to use it to block Andre’s sword.
Amias had almost reached his mother’s blade when one of the guards targeted him with a volley of bullets. He dived under the table and raced on his hands and knees towards the fallen sword as the guard jumped on top of the table. He heard the footsteps above him and holes appeared in the wood as the guard fired through it. Amias could feel his strength increasing as his body prepared itself for his final fight. The footsteps were now directly above him, and he’d run out of table; he reached out his hand as another hole appeared above him and a bullet lodged in the floor next to his head. He felt the hilt of the weapon and spread his fingers around it, rolling out from underneath the table just in time to avoid a hail of gunshots. He arose and swept away the legs of the guard with the sword, sending him crashing onto the table. The man still held his gun, and as he pointed it towards Amias, Amias brought the blade down through the guard’s chest and the table, before wrenching the sword free and making his way towards John. The tall figure of Xavier suddenly blocked his way, and he unsheathed the long, straight-bladed, Katana-like sword from his back.
“Who would have thought that Olivia was your mother? I should have known, though; she was as misled as you were by John and Virgil.”
“They trusted you,” replied Amias.
“They were fools who wouldn’t listen to me. I encouraged them to broker an agreement with Kaden, but they believed that wasn’t possible. And now they’ve paid the price for not listening to me.”
“Do you really believe you’ll ever truly stand as his equal?”
Xavier stepped forward and, using two hands, brought his sword down towards Amias’s head. Amias raised his own weapon to block it millimetres from his face and felt the strength Xavier possessed. As they pushed their blades against each other, another, larger explosion hurled fire against the reinforced glass that surrounded the room they were trapped in. Amias looked past Xavier’s shoulder; through the window and the flames he could see people fighting in the research facility. He twisted to try and get a better look, but another strike from Xavier caused him to stumble and trip.
*
As Kaden pursued, John clumsily retreated, using anything he could to block Kaden’s path to him whilst looking for a means to defend himself. Kaden tracked him slowly, seemingly happy to draw out the chase, his eyes never leaving his quarry. The remaining guards refrained from engaging either of them, knowing better than to come between Kaden and his prey. Although John was severely injured, he still managed to hurl chairs towards Kaden, but he knew it wouldn’t be long before he was trapped. He threw another chair, which Kaden split in two in mid-air with his sword. John rounded slowly, trying to disguise his direction as he moved towards the only exit from the room. It was then he saw people at the door and recognised them. Kaden also noticed the new arrivals and laughed.
“Your friends think they are going to save you? There’s no escape from me, John – not this time. I’m going to run Virgil’s sword through your throat. And then it’ll be Amias’s turn. He knew our mother was alive, and he didn’t tell me. He lied to her about me, I never had a chance to tell her the truth.”
As John made his way to the door, he glanced down at his injured wrist and the blood flowing out of it. He was slowly becoming weaker with every step he took. And then suddenly he remembered the night he’d first met Amias and did his best to concentrate on slowing his blood flow the way he’d instructed him to. “She knew the truth, Kaden. It was her choice to reveal herself to Amias, and my only regret is that I never realised the secret she held.” As he retreated further, he almost tripped on a fallen guard, and noticed a nightstick baton on his belt. He picked it up and held the handle so that the baton protected his good arm.
“If she was part of your altéré, then all she’s ever been told are lies. They are the very people who hunted her. I could have helped her track them down and kill every last one of them.”
“That’s your answer to everything, Kaden. She chose a different path, one that wasn’t filled with revenge.”
Kaden lifted his sword and smiled. “You’re right, it is my answer. Enough games.”
*
As Andre pressed his attack, he smiled and laughed menacingly as he swept his sword from side to side, seemingly amused as Max did his best to bat away the attacks with his rifle.
“Finally, it’s just me and you, Max. I’ve got a space on my necklace I’ve been saving especially for you. I’m not sure if I’ll take your nose or your ears, though.” He laughed hysterically.
“I bet that thing stinks as bad as you do.”
Andre sneered and pulled a second sword from his back. “I’m going to enjoy this.” He jumped towards Max who desperately tried to deflect his attacks, narrowly avoiding deadly cuts from both blades. As Andre expertly wielded both swords in unison, Max franticly looked for another way to defend himself. He looked around the room for Amias, but saw he was still fighting Xavier. Andre smiled.
“He can’t help you now, Max. Soon he’ll be dead as well, and maybe the boss will let me have a piece of him to join you on here.” He looked down at his necklace and laughed again.
As Max looked at the necklace, he saw his opportunity. Instead of withdrawing, he knew his only chance was to somehow get closer to Andre. He feigned another step backwards, and then quickly moved towards Andre, swinging the rifle like a club and knocking away Andre’s strikes. He arched his shoulder and drove into his chest, pushing him back against the wall. He heard Andre gasp in pain as Max used his body as a battering ram, dropping the gun and using his hands to throw punches into Andre’s now unprotected body. His face was now resting up against the necklace, and he ripped it away in disgust. He heard Andre howl and drop his swords to defend himself. Max felt his hands lock around his neck, and felt sharp nails dig into his flesh. This time Max cried out in pain, pulling his head back and throwing it into Andre at point-blank range. Andre grunted again but he gripped Max more tightly, pulling his face into his chest and suffocating him. As Max felt his air supply cut off, he did the only thing he could; he bit into Andre’s skin. He tasted blood in his mouth and Andre screamed in pain, grabbing Max’s head and pulling it away, before putting his arms between them and pushing Max backwards.
Max stood a few feet away and watched blood trickle down Andre’s vest. He spat and smiled. “You’re not the only animal in this room.”
Andre ran at him and jumped, kneeing Max in the head and pushing him backwards. Max shook his head as stars filled his eyes and he lost the vision in one eye. He had no time to recover as he was hit with a kick on his now blind side. He stumbled, and struggled to find Andre, throwing wild, heavy punches out of instinct. He cursed as they misse
d their intended target, and then turned, desperate to escape. He’d only managed a few steps before John fell into him. He picked him up and turned to see Kaden and Andre approaching side by side. They smiled at each other as he pulled John towards the door.
*
As Amias pursued Xavier doggedly across the room, he could feel a deep, burning pain in his left shoulder. He ignored it as he cut down two guards who stood between them, stepping over them and gripping the handle of his blade tightly with his right hand as he raised it in readiness. Xavier’s eyes widened, and he raised his own sword.
“You have your mother’s style already.” Amias ignored him, stepping slowly forwards as Xavier backed away, attempting to keep as much distance between them as possible. He looked anxiously for Kaden’s support, and Amias followed his glance to see Kaden pursuing John and Max. He heard Xavier laugh.
“What do you do now, Amias? Try and kill me, and your friends will die. Try and save them, and you may never have a chance like this to better your odds.” He pointed at John and Max with his sword. “Tick, tock, tick tock.”
As Amias looked from Xavier to Kaden to John, he realised that even if he did turn to help his friends, it was unlikely he would make it in time. Max had pulled John to the door, but it was still closed. He looked through the glass and saw Jasmine with two other men waiting behind it; he recognised one of them suddenly, but before he could decide who he was, his eyes were drawn back to Jasmine. They seemed to be desperately attempting to open it. Xavier’s voice pulled him back, and as he turned, he saw him pull a gun from under his shirt, raising it towards his head. He raised his eyes and realised that the moment had not yet happened. Xavier watched him carefully, noticing the sudden change in his demeanour. Amias trusted the instincts he couldn’t yet control, knowing that in the next instant he would have to act. They watched each other, and as the world seemed to slow down, Amias watched as Xavier reached behind his back for the gun. He raised his sword and waited as the barrel of the gun was raised level with his head. A flash of light followed, and he turned the blade in his hand, deflecting the bullet and stepping forward as the gun flashed again; this time he dodged the next bullet, turning towards Kaden and Andre and throwing his sword like a spear in their direction. He wasn’t quick enough to avoid the last bullet, turning a split-second too late to avoid it; the bullet tore across his chest and an agonising pain followed. He stumbled onto one knee but didn’t allow it to stop his movement as he leapt onto the table, rising and sliding across it and following his blade that had almost reached its target. He heard the gun erupt behind him as he reached the other side of the table to see Kaden turn at the last and cut his blade from the air. Although his throw hadn’t been successful, it had given him the time he needed to make his move. In one movement he caught his sword and rolled, before rising between Kaden, John and Max. Blood ran steadily from the wound on his chest, turning his t-shirt red. Kaden turned to him with wild eyes.
