“Laz?” Rylan asked in a hushed tone as he came over. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” I lied.
He placed a hand on my shoulder and kept his voice low. “Laz, what’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing.”
“It’s something. I can feel the bond’s tug. I haven’t felt it tug like this in a long time. Tell me what’s going on.” Sighing, I opened my hand to show him. He grunted. “That would be why it’s tugging. Can you change it back?”
I shook my head. “I’m trying, but it’s not responding in the least.”
“You’re probably still too worked up,” he said. “Here, give me your hand.”
I did as I was told and placed my hand on top of his. Rylan enclosed his hand over mine and rested his head on my temple. My eyes grew heavy as the will of the bond forced me to obey.
“All right, you’re all set,” Rylan murmured.
I opened my eyes and looked at my now-normal hand. I sighed. “Thanks, Ry.”
He backed away and pushed my head lightly. “Sure thing.”
I smiled a little and then frowned when I remembered there was business to be done. “Aurora!”
She looked at me. “Babe?”
“Put this on the screen for everyone to see, now.”
“You sure?”
“Just do it.”
She nodded and typed a few keys. I turned around to take a look at the larger screens as she connected her computer to them. People stared up at the screens and began to murmur amongst themselves.
“What’s going on, Laz?” Rylan demanded.
“Zarda is taking our DNA and putting it into himself,” I stated grimly. The whole room went quiet and hundreds of eyes fell on me, but I stared up at the screen.
“You have to be kidding! That’s impossible,” someone shouted.
“Obviously you’re blind if you don’t believe her.” I looked up at Nioush as he stood on a tall stack of metal crates. His actions were confusing. “Don’t think I trust your words. I just can see the truth before these idiots can.”
I grunted and looked back at the screen.
Ryoko gasped when her file popped up but then sighed with relief when the computer spoke. “Experiment two nine eight seven seven zero five, incompatible.”
“Obviously it’s not going as he planned,” Blaze commented.
Blaze’s file came up and the computer spoke. “Experiment two four six one six eight one, compatible.”
“Not cool!” Blaze exclaimed.
“Sucks to be you,” Argus teased.
“But why Blaze?” Arnia asked. “Nothing special about his design.”
“Hey!” Blaze objected. “I am special.”
“Yeah, in Blaze Land,” Ryoko teased.
Everyone laughed but me. I understood their desire to lighten the mood about the situation, but this was much too serious to joke about. “All right, ladies, settle down.”
Rylan growled as his file appeared. “Experiment two nine four six four eight eight, compatible.”
I swallowed. That wasn’t good. The room went quiet as my file appeared next. I pleaded to the gods it wouldn’t make it in.
“Experiment two nine seven zero three five eight, incompatible.”
I sighed with relief, but it was short lived when Raynn’s irritating chuckle graced my ears. “How does it feel to be useless, Eira?”
Raynn’s file popped up just then. “Experiment two one seven eight nine one one, rejected.”
“I don’t know. How does it feel, Raynn?” I jeered.
Raynn growled and his anger only worsened as my team laughed at him. Mocha, who was standing on a stack of metal crates near Nioush, sighed in relief as her file had also been incompatible. I watched as several psychic files, including Seda’s and Nioush’s, were tried, but read out to be incompatible.
“He’s an idiot,” Nioush muttered. “He’d never be able to get our power to work with his weak body.”
“We can’t keep watching these files be added to Zarda!” someone yelled. “We have to do something.”
“But what can we do?” someone asked.
“Call the Council,” I ordered. “It’s time for an overdue meeting.”
We stood together in a large, strange room. It was bottomless and dark, with nine platforms hovering within. Seven of the platforms held a small handful of each team’s members selected for this meeting, and another one, one that was much higher up, held the Council. The last platform was the largest and was located in the center of the room between the Council’s platform and the teams’ platforms. On the walls of the room were several screens, which showed the team members in the simulation room who couldn’t fit into the Council Chamber.
A tall, light-skinned man, with shoulder-length white hair and crystal eyes, walked to the edge of the Council’s platform. “We are all assembled as requested. Three of each team’s officers will step forth, and we shall discuss the matter at hand.”
Ryoko, Rylan, and I looked at each other before we stepped forward on the platform where a new one was beginning to materialize. Once we were on the new platform, it began to move toward the center platform. Raynn, with Mocha and Chameleon, came up next to us.
“Hey, don’t move,” Argus whispered. “You can’t go with them. You have to stay here with us.”
I rolled my eyes. Of course Raikidan would try to leave his spot. I had even told him not to do anything unless he had been specifically directed to.
No one moved from the small platforms as they reached the center. We knew better. I gazed up at the Council to take in the situation. Each Council member was accompanied by a psychic except, of course, the two Council members who were psychics themselves.
Nioush was up there with Adina, the first successful shapeshifter experiment, and next to them stood Seda and Genesis. The man who had started the meeting, Elkron, was the first elementalist experiment. To his right, stood Hanama, the first anthropomorphic experiment, and next to her stood Enrée, a male Battle Psychic, and his twin sister, Akama, a Seer, the first two psychic experiments. Lastly, Eldenar, the first war experiment stood next to them.
“State names and ranks,” Enrée and Akama stated in unison.
The three of us listened as each team listed off their names and ranks until it was our turn. Ryoko was the first to speak. “Ryoko Dreadmore, lieutenant.”
“Rylan Nytefall, captain.”
Then it was my turn. “Eira Rysrin, commander.”
“Now state the business of this meeting,” Adina ordered.
All eyes turned to me. I figured it’d be this way. I was the one who had figured it out and called the meeting, after all. Jumping over the rail of the platform, I landed on the center platform and made my way to the center. I looked up at them and spoke. “Council, we need to speed up our efforts on this war. We need to find an end to it faster.”
The Council chuckled.
“We are doing what we can, Commander,” Elkron stated. “We are proceeding as fast as we can with minimal casualties.”
“It’s not good enough!” I barked. Losing my temper with them wasn’t going to help me, but they needed to see the reality of the situation. It was always a fight to get them to listen. It was the reason I hated listening to them.
Elkron exhaled a slow breath to keep himself calm. “I suppose you have a reason for feeling so strongly about this?”
I nodded. “Zarda is using our DNA to enhance himself. He’s mixing our DNA with his to make himself stronger.”
Enrée snickered. “Did you hit your head while you were gone, Commander? What you are claiming is impossible.”
I grunted and held up my hand, a mix of electrical and psychic energy pulsing around me. Such a strange room… Moving my fingers in a
typing motion, the space where my fingers touched lit up as if I were typing on a keyboard. A large screen appeared in the room, and several of the Council members gasped at the sight.
“You were saying?” I sneered.
Enrée swallowed but didn’t reply.
“How is this possible?” Adina asked. “How can he be able to do something so unnatural?”
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “But it is happening and it is a problem.”
“How do we know this is not a trick?” Hanama questioned. “How do we know this is not a plot to get us to focus our attention on something other than the true threat?”
“Because this was locked up in the secret computer everyone thought was a myth,” I informed.
The Council members looked at each other before Hanama spoke again. “We need more proof.”
I ground my teeth together. This was why I hated talking to them. Nothing was ever good enough to convince them to ever take action.
“Proof and reasoning,” Akama clarified. “What reason would Zarda have to combine his DNA with ours?”
“Power,” Rylan stated. Everyone looked at him. “It’s no secret Zarda is power hungry. Why wouldn’t he want to try this? The more power he has, the less he needs us, the more Lumaraeon will fear him, and the more likely he’ll rule whatever he wants. Why not do it?”
The Council looked at each other again. I hated their private conversations. It was annoying.
“We still need more proof,” Eldenar told us.
I clenched my fists together. This was infuriating.
“Aiden said something.” I spun around at Raikidan’s voice. I did my best not to yell at him. He wasn’t supposed to speak. Only officers were to address the Council unless spoken to otherwise.
“The outsider does not listen to our rules,” Elkron said. “Commander, you had best have a good reason for him to speak out of place.”
I looked at him and nodded. “Raikidan has an incredible memory and valuable information. He may not have an officer rank, but I still value his words.”
“Very well,” Elkron stated. “Raikidan, explain yourself.”
“Now you can go join them,” Argus whispered to him.
Raikidan stepped forward and a small platform appeared. We waited for him to be carried up over to us. Once the platform reached the larger platform Rylan and Ryoko were standing on, Raikidan climbed onto it but then jumped down to join me.
“Weeks ago Aiden told us Zarda was rarely seen. He rarely ever left his sleeping quarters,” Raikidan informed them.
“That’s right!” Rylan exclaimed. Everyone’s attention changed to him. “We all assumed his actions were because of an execution that was going to take place, but what if this procedure makes him weak for a period of time? That would explain his lack of communication with others. He wouldn’t want to look weak and be attacked.”
“You are sure this is the information you heard?” Hanama asked.
I nodded. “I was there when Aiden told us. Our initial assumptions were wrong.”
“I was there to hear it as well,” Seda piped in.
The Council spoke amongst themselves telepathically before Elkron spoke. “We believe you.”
I sighed with relief.
“But I still do not understand why he would do it,” Akama remarked. “It is understandable he wants power, but to put his body through such methods? Where is the logic in it?”
“Whoever said Zarda was logical?” Disguising my fire breath, I formed fire into my hands and shot it out in several directions. At the same time I willed it to morph into objects that described past events. “These fires play events that show what Zarda has done. He has killed innocent people. He has designed tools of war that are so dangerous he has to put us on a leash to control or risk being killed himself. He had schemed, lied, and murdered, all for power. Now, if any of you can tell me where he has made a logical decision, please, feel free.”
The Council members spoke amongst themselves, leaving the room silent for several moments. When they were done, they all faced us and Genesis climbed onto the railing. She was the only Council member who had yet to speak, so I was intrigued by what she had to say.
“It has been decided,” she stated calmly. “These facts are too great to ignore. Even at the risk of increased casualty rates, we must take a less cautious approach to this war and finish what Zarda started decades ago.
“Although we cannot stop him from using DNA that is stored in the labs, we can destroy these files permanently so he cannot re-create any more of those who are already alive. Technicians have their orders, and all teams are now dismissed.”
I grabbed Raikidan by the arm and made a steady pace toward Ryoko and Rylan. “You owe me for covering your ass.”
Raikidan snorted. “I don’t see what the big deal is about me speaking out.”
“The Council likes order, and anyone who speaks out of term is being disorderly,” I explained. “If anyone could speak when they wanted, nothing would get done. That is why only three officers per team are allowed to face the Council and only the highest-ranking officer is allowed to stand on the platform to address them directly. But I’m glad you had something useful to say.”
“So no thank-you?” he inquired.
I looked at him. “You have no idea how much trouble I could have gotten into if you hadn’t had something worthwhile to say. If you couldn’t back up what you said, my argument could have been thrown out and they would have dismissed us without hearing another word.”
He looked down. “Sorry.”
“Thank you for having a good memory,” I said quietly. “No one would have remembered that bit of information, and it won us the argument.”
Raikidan placed his hand on my back and leaned closer to me. “If you wanted to thank me, you could have done it without trying to put me down first.”
“Would you have accepted the praise otherwise?” I said.
Raikidan to mulled this over. “I guess not.”
“There you go.” I picked up my pace and jumped up onto the platform where Ryoko and Rylan were waiting. “Let’s go home.”
The book flipped another page as I relaxed on my bed. I was in need of something to enlighten my brain, and watching TV with the others in the living room didn’t interest me. I looked up as my door opened and Raikidan entered. “Didn’t want to watch TV anymore?”
He shook his head and sat down on the windowsill. “Whatever they’re watching, it’s boring.”
“What was in it?” I asked.
“A lot of explosions and some guy trying to rescue a dumb girl who got herself caught by walking into a building.” I laughed and he tilted his head. “What?”
“That’s an action movie,” I explained. “It’s supposed to be entertaining and exciting.”
He snorted. “Well, it’s not. I don’t understand how they’re enjoying it.”
I shrugged and looked back down at my book. “It’s just something they like.”
“What are you reading?”
“Nothing, really. I haven’t found anything that’s kept my attention for very long. I’m wondering if I should sleep.”
“It is late for you. You normally fall asleep sooner.”
“It’s a little creepy that you know that.”
Raikidan shrugged. “Not really. I’m in here all the time.”
I chuckled and placed the book on my nightstand. “True. Well, I hope you don’t have any plans to stay up late to chat because sleep is sounding really nice right now. Today was a long day.”
“Eira, why do you hate your number?” he asked suddenly.
I curled up to my pillows. “I’m created, not born.”
“So?”
I grunted. “So you wouldn’t understand. You were
born. Someone chose to have you out of love and compassion, and you get to choose how to live because of it. I was created for a specific purpose, not out of love or compassion, but out of greed and power, and once that purpose ends, my existence means nothing. I don’t get a choice.”
I closed my eyes when Raikidan didn’t respond. I figured it was safe to assume he wasn’t going to press the matter, but I was mistaken. My eyes flew open when he lay next to me and rest his hand on my shoulder. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Talk to me about it,” he told me.
I yanked my shoulder free and rolled over to put some space between us. “Why should I?”
“If it upsets you, you should.” He moved closer again. “It would make you feel better.”
“I’m not going to talk about it.”
“Why not?”
“Because it doesn’t matter.”
“Why doesn’t it matter?”
“Because I don’t matter!” I shouted. Raikidan pulled back at my outburst but came back soon after. “My purpose will end at the end of this stupid fighting. I won’t matter after that. I was created to kill, and with this war’s end, I am nothing.”
“Have you thought of becoming a mercenary?”
“I don’t like killing.”
“How do you do it, then? How do you find a reason to keep going?”
“I don’t. I just…” I sighed. “I don’t have the will to end it…”
Raikidan’s grip tightened, but I didn’t think much of it. Instead, I yanked my shoulder away from him and curled up more. His reaction was normal. My existence, on the other hand, was not. I sighed and closed my eyes. A part of me wished I had the will, the power, even. Misery wasn’t a friend I willingly chose.
“I like your number…” he whispered. “It’s complicated, like you.”
Pieces Page 15
