‘First rule of assassination: be always perfectly aware of your surroundings.’ Cross’ first rule clearly echoes in my mind. Back then, I didn’t quite get what he meant. Now, I understand.
The shriek of his shoes alerts me that he launched an attack against me. I avoid it easily, slipping from one stance to the other. Almost instantly, I take a step back with my left foot and dodge his punch. I do it in such a way, though, that my new footing is much more favorable to launch my next attack. So, when I finally open my eyes and punch him right in the face, I’m sure I won’t miss.
Surprised, he isn’t able to completely dodge my hit and thus he uses his hands as a shield. I feel the impact of my fist’s momentum in my whole body, but I know that the fight is not over, not by a long shot.
“Shit, you’re good after all. Swamp really taught you everything he knows, right? But, I now see what’s your greatest weakness. He was right after all.”
What? Cross said that I’m not ready? But...but last time he said the exact opposite thing. He was the one that said that my training was complete.
‘Second rule: don’t assume anything about anyone. Most enemies hide a trick up their sleeves. Find it, analyze it, use it.’
I remember that Alec is the one with the tiny keyboard hiding in his sleeves. I quickly get the feeling that his specialty is electronics, but I’m not sure how that can help him in a fist fight. Or how that can help me beat him. I’m sure he’s just standing there, probably looking at me with a cocky smile, doing something to the system with his keyboard.
Still, there’s nothing I can do other than waiting for him to use his trick and then destroy him.
“Hmm. You’re indeed better than I expected. You’re trying to analyze me, right? To find that trick up my sleeve and all?”
What then? Can he read my mind?
“Don’t flatter yourself. You’re not the only one that has been trained by the Swamp. To become a full-fledged member of the Organization, you have to spend a full year of training with each of the high-ranking members. Ocean covers the first stage of training, the part where you learn what your specialty is,” he says.
While he’s talking, the lights suddenly turn off. I’m blind for a moment, but I have enough time to hide behind one of the room’s many counters.
“Do you think darkness can help you? I’ve lived in the darkness too long to be intimidated by it!” I yell at him.
Slowly, but steadily, I regain my sight enough to be able to detect movements and figures. The moment I decide to pass into the counterattack, the lights turn back on.
“Swamp is the one that teaches you how to survive and kill your victims with deceit and pure skill. He hones your abilities and makes you a true, killing machine.”
I can’t see for a moment; I remain stunned, uncovered, rubbing my eyes while trying to regain my sight. When I’m sure I can handle the pain, the lights turn off again. Once again I’m blind, only, this time, it takes longer for me to regain control of my sight. And just when I’m confident enough that I can counter him, he uses his small keyboard to turn on the lights again.
It’s torture.
I’m thinking of closing my eyes, fighting using my other senses, but then, a piercing shrill coming from the ship’s speakers makes me lose control of my hearing as well. I...I can’t do anything.
“You cheater! You coward! Using dirty tricks to stop me from kicking your butt...is that your way of fighting?”
I sense the dull side of a knife on my neck. He has managed to sneak behind me and trap me. “We’re not soldiers, Chronicler. We’re above that. We’re assassin’s, fighting using the shadows, stopping at nothing to get what we want. Rule number three: there’s no dirty trick as long as it gets the job done.”
Shit. He’s right. Cross used to say that all the time, and we used to fight for it. As long as it gets the job done, there’s nothing that it’s unethical.
I take a deep breath and think. These words come as a revelation to me now, under Mist’s strong grip. Somewhere inside me, I gave up without even trying. So, when I quickly use my hand to stop him from further moving his blade and cutting my neck, he leaves his body uncovered. I kick him in the balls to cause him sudden pain and then throw him down with a complex handle, removing his mask in the process. I see that his cocky smile has been wiped off his face.
“Well, it seems like you’re right. But you’re talking too much for an assassin, do you know that?”
I see him staring at me and then I remember that these brothers always come in a pair. I grab one of the training clubs we were using with Cross during our sparring and stop Nebula’s hand on its way.
“You’re getting predictable,” I say, self-conscious of my great victory.
“You’re talking big for someone who doesn’t know anything about the Mystery you’re investigating all these years.”
What? What does that have to do with our fight?
“What are you talking about? The Nusae were destroyed so that the Phadh could rise to power. Is that what you mean? Isn’t that the end of the Great Mystery?”
A smirk appears on his face. I want to punch him.
“You really don’t have a clue. Weird, Cross is the one that teaches us about the story of the Nusae. In this stage, you should have already learned everything about them and what we’re fighting for.”
I feel lost. Cross hasn’t said anything about the Nusae throughout the last year we’re living together, trying to get away from the black-maskers.
I release him and help him get on his feet. “Tell me. What do you know about the Great Mystery? What do you mean that there’s more to it?”
He seems surprised that I was so quick to control my temper. To be honest, I’m not sure how I did it myself.
“I don’t know if I’m the one that should tell you about something so important. Swamp would have been better, but--”
“Cross,” I interrupt him, “won’t tell me a thing. He wants to be the hero, to become a martyr. If there’s more to the Great Mystery, I have to know. I have to let Jay know about it.”
“Believe me, your friend already knows. Pyro told him the truth many months ago. You’re the only one that has no idea what the Great Mystery is really about.”
Something cracks inside me. I want to kill him on the spot. My mind works in ways that I wouldn’t think possible a year ago, but now his life is just a price to pay to appease my anger. I raise my hand, not able to control my actions anymore when--
“Enough! Alec, Arlen, return to the bridge. You have overstepped your boundaries for the last time.”
Cross is furious. He’s more than furious; his face is a twisted mask of his usually charming demeanor. He’s genuinely angry with them. For a moment, I honestly feel sorry for them. Then, I feel ashamed. I was almost ready to take a man’s life just to satiate my rage.
Still, they don’t seem all that much worried. It seems that Swamp isn’t their superior anymore, and they aren’t afraid of him.
I don’t care, though. Now that we’re alone in the training room, he has lied to me for the last time.
Chapter Fifty-Two
Jay
It has been four days now, give or take. Walking through this strange forest makes me lose my sense of time. We get only a couple hours of sunlight every day, and that’s an overstatement. Alyce doesn’t seem all that much affected by it, but I...well I don’t want to stay on this fucking planet another minute.
“Eventually, you’ll have to eat you know? Or else you’ll die of starvation,” she says.
We’re taking a break from a long morning of hiking. Alyce was pretty clear when she said that she wouldn’t allow me to start a fire to cook these raw things she calls food. They look like meat; undercooked, tasteless meat. But hell, they don’t taste like it.
“I’m an Esuh of the Two Faces, a Prime Officer and a--”
“Yeah, yeah. I know. You’re someone important. But you’re unlucky you’re not a vegetarian. In my planet,
fire is forbidden, and the animals live happily because the Phadh don’t need primitive food sources like meat to survive. It’s one of the last natural paradises in the Known Galaxy and the reason we don’t allow anyone other than ourselves inside.”
Please! Let me shut her up. Then we can cook her carcass and eat it. She surely seems delicious, Dark Jay comments in my head.
Frankly, I find it difficult to disagree with him now. This young girl, which I learned isn’t so young after all, seems to never stop talking. Especially after the night of the vision. Well, maybe that was my mistake. I shouldn’t have told her everything about Eladia and the other Esuh.
But, being way too excited that I finally discovered the fate of my people, I couldn’t hold back from sharing the news with someone...anyone. It still feels like there’s something important missing, though.
I take one last glance at the “uncooked meat” and after I hold back a strong feeling of vile climbing up my esophagus, I toss it on the ground. “We’ll be leaving in five minutes. I want to make sure we’ll arrive at that temple you talked about by tomorrow. We have wasted way too much time already.”
Eladia is waiting for me somewhere in this galaxy, and I don’t want to keep her waiting anymore. I have so many things I want to share with her about the Esuh medicine, the culture of my people, and love. I’m so excited I’d be laughing if I wasn’t trapped in an overgrown forest with semi-sentient trees.
“Well, no matter how much we hurry, it’ll get us another two days before we get there. So it would be nice if you slowed down a bit and started relaxing maybe? I don’t know. I’ll just lie here and wait for you to calm down or whatever,” she says and winks at me.
Honestly, her arrogance knows no bounds. She’s so full of herself that if I closed her nose, she would explode. Still, she’s my guide, and I’m her kidnapper. I must admit that it’s not an ideal setting, but it’s the only one I have. If it wasn’t for that asshole Pyro, I would have found another way to infiltrate this planet that it wouldn’t include babysitting a 300-years old teenager.
I walk away from the camp and decide to scout the path ahead. You can never be too cautious, even in a forest world like Zeania. There are animals back on my planet that can kill you in mere seconds without ever realizing what’s going on.
You mean were; Sciri doesn’t exist anymore. We made sure to destroy it after we fled.
Hearing his voice deep into my head makes the pain of my mistake all the more real.
“Shut up. I know. It was...a mistake. Just leave it at that.”
A mistake would be to eat that thing she gave you. What we did was nonsense. Instead of standing up against the Nusae, we fled like hunted Tidrey.
I stop and once again try to hold back from punching the trunk of a tree. It would only hurt me, not him.
Even so, I have to say something to hurt him the way he hurts me every time he talks. “You don’t have a saying on this, Jay. You weren’t alive back then. You were just a symbiotic parasite made to follow my orders. If it wasn’t for the Nusae Cube, you would still be just that. A parasite.”
I sense his anger, but there’s nothing he can do. This is the truth, and he just has to swallow it.
The Esuh used the dark matter, the think covering their skins turning it ash gray, to enhance their inner abilities. That’s why they were called Esuh of the Two Faces and not of the Two Minds in the first place.
We are, dumbass. Not they. They were your people, and you refer to them in the third person? And then I’m the one that doesn’t get a saying on this.
Shit, he’s right. He’s always so fucking right. It’s just that after my memories came back, everything is so jumbled up in my head.
There’s a moment of silence before I sense something hot piercing my foot. The pain comes a moment later, making me roar in agony before falling on my knees. Someone shoot me with a laser gun.
“Who did this? Where are you? Come out and face me,” I bellow.
When a woman appears out of nowhere, wearing full armor, even covering her face, I know something is wrong. She has the same tattoo as I, the mark of the First Kinds.
“Who send you?” I say, but she doesn’t even flinch. “It doesn’t matter. Finding your dead body will be more than enough for them to stop chasing me!” I say confidently, although I don’t feel so sure inside.
My skills without the help of the other Jasih are not enough to kill her. But, something tells me that if I give in to him now and let him take full control, I won’t be able to take back my body from him anytime soon.
“You know too much for your own good, alien. You should have died back in the hospital when you could. It would have been easier for you,” she says.
I try to measure her strength, but then I spot Alyce climbing up the trunk of a tree, slowly getting close to the First Kind woman from above. Somehow, she managed to climb onto one of the gigantic trees and get in position for an attack from above, without the female First Kind realizing. So much for a First Kind, right? Things have changed so much since I was a First Kind.
Still, I have to give Alyce the perfect opening if I want this to end quickly. Maybe, if I just coat my limbs with the dark matter? I think I’ll be able to still control him like that, and it’ll make me strong enough to keep her occupied until Alyce gets in place.
I don’t have time to think it over; I have to act now. The First Kind is starting to catch up to the events of the battlefield, and I have to keep her from doing so. Thus, without holding back anymore, I charge against her, both my hands and feet changed into their ash-gray form.
She tries to keep me in distance with her laser guns, but Dark Jay’s skin is as good a shield as I remember. I use my hands to deflect the laser beams and move closer to her. Now, if she wielded an Esuh spear, I would have a problem. But if it’s only those laser guns, then I can manage.
However, for a First Kind, she manages to stay true to her title. I can’t take a step forward for some time with her aiming at every vital point she can, showing the marksmanship of a professional. If I wasn’t a professional myself, I would be dead hours ago. I keep up with her shots for some time, until Alyce is in place.
Then, she releases her grip and falls straight on the female First Kind. By the time she realizes we have her cornered on the wall, I’ve charged towards her. With one last, combined effort, we manage to stop her. She’s quite surprised that someone could have avoided her attention for so long, but it seems that the Phadh are naturally strong in a forest.
I’m ready to take her out when Alyce stops me.
“What are you doing? She was going to kill us. She would have done the same thing if we were in her position,” I say.
“So? Is that a good enough excuse for you to kill her? Are you a killing machine Jasih, or a warrior? Would a warrior go on with an unneeded murder if they could avoid it?”
We stand there, looking at each other for some time. Honestly, I can’t believe what I’m saying, but she’s right. Letting her live is dangerous, but killing her is just a cruel act of animosity.
For some reason, Eladia’s image pops in my mind. Alyce reminds me of her so painfully much.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Eladia
This can’t be true; it’s impossible. It’s like I’ve spend all my life looking behind me while the truth was standing right there, in front of me. I mean, if the Organization is right, then the Nusae are only the latest link in a long chain of Great Mysteries, with the biggest one being: who the hell created these cubes?
I’m lying on my bed, thinking. My mind flies to the moment Cross kicked the siblings out of the training room. I still remember his face having that distant sense of pride. He was really pleased that I was able to kick their butts even though my training is obviously incomplete.
Still, that flash of satisfaction left his face as soon as we were alone. Back then, I felt like I was the one in trouble. It’s not like I was the one sneaking around, though. I wasn’t searching
for the truth myself; I didn’t know that there was a Greater Mystery behind all those Nusae relics. Alec spilled the beans to me all by himself. I wanted to clarify that to Cross, but seriously, he wasn’t in the mood for a civilized conversation. He looked like if I said the wrong thing to him, he would take my head off.
“Well, they are still very young and inexperienced, no matter what they say. They weren’t supposed to tell you anything about the Great Mystery. Honestly, I don’t know why they did it.”
Back then, he turned and tried to walk away from me before telling me anything. Well, I wasn’t going to let him go just like that. At that time, I didn’t know that pushing him would actually make me feel even worse than I was already feeling, but as a Chronicler, I owed it to myself to learn the truth. It was my dream we were talking about, a dream I was trying to achieve since I was a young child on Yaerus.
Alien Romance Box Set: Romantic Suspense: Alien Destiny: Scifi Alien Romance Adventure Romantic Suspence Trilogy (Complete Series Box Set Books 1-3) Page 94
