Chapter 81: Alex (Part 8, Final)
Present Day
“He wore that same angry scowl for two years straight, and the light in his eyes disappeared. I may have been able to heal his fresh wounds, but there are still times when I wish I could have healed the mental scars Alex carried within him, but even I'm incapable of doing that. I've learned that such scars can’t be healed, visible or not. They were now a part of him, and I think he realized that. The horrors from that night were his first real taste of our cruel world. It was vicious, cutthroat, callous…. I wanted to maintain his innocence until the trials,” says Kane, my father. “But things never really go as planned for us, do they?”
“Tell me about it,” agrees Zeris, both in the same room as me.
Sitting back in his chair, Zeris glances to his left, resting his gaze on me as I’m still knocked out from the memory serum. Various machines monitoring my condition are hooked up to me, occasionally beeping to supply audible updates.
“He matured so much in just two years, but not for the reasons I wanted. Instead of accepting the harsh reality of his mother and Hailey, he pushed himself away and channeled his focus elsewhere… on Armaros. During my teachings, he utilized that bitter resentment and bottled-up rage to work himself to the bone. Nearing the end of our two years together, I didn’t even have to punish him if he messed up on something. Instead, he did so himself, pissed off at his own lack of success, and he didn’t ask to be healed before attempting the task again. There were times I had to step in and forcibly heal him before things got too bad,” says Kane.
“Just as I raised him, he never once complained about anything I did, even when I healed him against his will. But I could see it on his face… his brows furrowing, his nose shriveling, his mouth twitching… he has never been very good at hiding his emotions. He wanted to blow up on me, and part of me wanted to see what would happen if he did. For better or worse, that day never came,” resumes Kane, taking a sip from the bottle Zeris had offered him a few minutes ago.
“A few months ago, when all the participants for the 44th annual trials were required to gather at the central plaza, I prepared breakfast and briefly chatted with him before I dropped him off. I explained that he wouldn’t remember anything, not about me, not about Marissa, not about Hailey, and not even about Armaros. At the brief mention of the man that he had grown to despise so much, I sensed Alex’s blood lust bolster, and even though he hadn’t yet awakened at the time, I picked up on the faint scent of iris leaking out of him. It must be because of his genetics, but I kept my mouth shut.”
“In my head, I couldn’t have been happier at how strong Alex had grown. His preparation and training didn’t go to waste, making him a force to be reckoned with this year. But… it was never supposed to turn out like this…” says Kane, shaking his head. “But that’s why we’re doing this, right? Things need to change. They have to…”
Zeris cocks a brow, but Kane starts talking again before his friend has a chance to speak, “You know Zeris… we were lucky, but many were not. We were fortunate to come out of the trials as highly qualified and valuable, which granted us many benefits. But for others that only barely survived, perhaps even by sheer luck… they only fell into the inescapable pit of endless labor and starvation. Sometimes, if the trauma is too much for them and they can’t properly work… the government may take the extra precaution to wipe their memories again, only this time of their trauma from the trials. They make them a blank slate all over again… before molding them into workers who know how to perform their roles in their given occupations. By that point, I sometimes wonder if they are even considered people…”
Zeris chimes in, “Most kids are ignorant of what the trials are because, as you mentioned with the government… their parents don’t even remember, so they can’t warn or properly prepare their children, who more often than not are being dropped off to die. Those who remember partaking in the trials… drop off their children at the plaza, knowing they’ll probably never see them again. In fact, most people choose to have a child who will participate in the trials the same year they reach the age of divination. That way, they can be killed around the same time their child is shipped off. If their kid survives, they won’t even remember their parents, who at that point would be dead. If their kid happens to die… well, that’s that.”
As Zeris drifted into silence, Zeris took another sip from the bottle.
“What did Leo have to say?” asks Zeris, changing the subject.
“You know how he is… a man of few words. But Leo did inform me of something that might interest you.”
Zeris leans forward, gesturing for me to continue.
“He found one, one of the eight long-lost weapons of Kadil. The wielder of the dual sickle is here, participating in the trials, and she’s not afraid to show it.”
Zeris’s eyes broaden in surprise before he heaves a heavy sigh, leaning back in his chair as he drags his hand down his face. Covering his mutilated mouth, he curses a long sequence of swears as he glances back at me.
“Which sector is Leo running again?”
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“Yozo.”
“Shit… how the hell did some random kid manage to inherit one of the eight?”
“Same way you did, I suppose… but fortunately, she just happened to be placed in Leo’s sector. We can’t let this opportunity go to waste. You know how valuable of an asset she can be,” says Kane.
“I’m well aware of her value! But from my perspective, everything we’ve done so far may now be in jeopardy! What the hell was the point of tossing Alex in the trials if we can’t protect him?! Like… shit! We thought Armaros was already dead, and then he shows up here in the same sector as Alex! And now we got one of the Kadil wielders to keep an eye on, too! Honestly, what are the odds…”
“No clue. We’re still trying to work through the details on our end. As of now, we can only believe Armaros being here with Alex was of sheer coincidence, as unlucky as that is. Divine wanted to create herself a super soldier, and she almost got one. But luckily for us, we can stop that without overexposing ourselves.”
Zeris abruptly stood up, making his chair topple behind him, “I was forced to expedite the plan, Kane! We had already rigged the system to get Alex in sector six, my sector! And then I had to make it look like Alex randomly came in contact with a shard on day one because of Armaros! I was never supposed to involve myself this much so quickly! No trial runner is… you know that! At this point, I can practically feel them breathing down my neck! Hell, if I hadn’t jolted Armaros’s memories, they surely would’ve taken action! I even had to fake Alex’s death with a body double! They’re distracted for now, but if they ever focus back on me and I’m killed, our entire operation will crumble down from within!”
“Damn it! Don’t you think I know all this already?! But what choice did we have?! I can’t afford to lose Alex, not after everything that’s happened! We’ve been given the perfect opportunity for him to fulfill his one and only desire. A desire that will grant him freedom from his burdens, and you’re telling me you wanted to play it by ear?! Let it all play out, and see what happens?! Don’t be naive!”
As Kane lets off some steam, Zeris struts back and forth a few times before walking over to the wall behind him, picking up the chair he had knocked over earlier. After placing it down where it was before, he taps his fingers on the seat as he stands behind the chair, working through his thoughts.
“I understand he’s your son, and I also understand you want Armaros dead. But you must also understand… how restricted I am right now. I don’t know how close they’re watching the trials this year, and if I show them my full strength, they’ll see me as a threat! I can’t defeat Armaros without tapping more into iris… specifically my kadil ability, at least not conventionally. If I ambush and kill Armaros, I’ll only drag even more unwanted attention on myself, as they’ll probably assume it was for ulterior motives… motives that are not correlated to the trial! Given that nobody has intervened yet, they must still think I have things relatively under control, which means we still have at least a little wiggle room.”
Taking a seat, Zeris resumes, “Alex will wake up soon, and he’ll need some time to recover from the serum. Once he can move, he’ll surely want to go after Armaros. To my knowledge, Armaros is still unaware that Alex is the true descendant. Since he’s supposedly been in government custody since you defeated him, it’s reasonable to assume that he never had the opportunity to learn the truth. We’ve covered up the trail well, but what now? I still have a trial to run.”
Clicking the button beside his bionic eye, Zeris says, “My crows have been watching them for the past few days, and it won’t be much longer until the finale commences. And when that time comes, you and I will have to make a choice. Either we trust that Alex can handle himself, which’ll keep the government in the dark… or do we risk throwing away everything we’ve worked for?”
The two meet each other’s gazes, Zeris aware that he knows what Kane would do. Flaring his nostrils, we stare at one another until one machine starts to beep more frequently, catching Zeris’s attention.
Walking over to a desk displaying multiple monitors, Zeris says, “He’s starting to wake up. If you want to leave, go now.”
After getting out of his seat and grabbing the bottle, Kane walks toward the room’s exit. Stopping halfway through the door, Kane says one last thing to his friend before exiting the room, “Zeris, I trust you. I always have. You’ve done a fantastic job at preparing and mentoring Alex so far. And when the time does come, you’ll make the right call. I know you will. I’m meeting with the others tonight at the usual spot, and I’ll make contact again when it’s safe. Until then, thank you for everything, and… sorry for putting all this on you.”
With that, Kane walked out of the room and took another swig, not allowing himself to look back and meet either Zeris or myself in the eye.
Zeris’s POV
After Kane left the room, I sat at Alex’s bedside, waiting for him to wake up. Massaging my forehead, I tried to work through what I should do next now that the whole plan had gone to shit. I was so distracted that I hadn’t realized Alex had opened his eyes until I heard him weakly croaking a meek noise. Popping my head up, I looked at Alex as he sluggishly adjusted his body, painfully groaning as his body dealt with the drawbacks of the serum.
“S- Sc…” he whispered, his eyes opening slightly more.
I stood up and forced Alex to have a few sips of water, some of it spilling out the sides of his mouth and dribbling down his chin. Bobbing his head back and forth, he slowly brought a hand to his head, stabilizing himself as he endured the intense headache the serum caused.
Alex then glimpsed at me for a moment, all his memories intact, “You look like shit Zeris.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at his cheekiness, “Speak for yourself, kid.”
After Alex sits up and gestures for the cup of water, I hand it to him. I am surprised that he can drink water on his own.
However, Alex’s eyes and body language… were vastly different. His eyes were damp of color but also honed with vigilance, his body and presence carrying themselves much more intensely. With memories of his past and the trials, Alex now understood what I told him earlier about experiencing hardships. I’ve manipulated him into becoming a killer, and he now knows why. I couldn’t tell with his current expression if Alex was appreciative or resentful for what I’d done.
His eyes then flickered a flash of orange as he asked me the question I knew would be on his mind when he woke up.
“Scar, where is he?”