Chapter 10: Kalra and Sara
Melchior was escorting Garin down to the lowest part of the facility.
Garin’s mind began to process so much information about the facility now. It was the new power he gained over the earth, it almost acted like a sixth sense, allowing him to make out tunnels and formations in the rock.
Melchior was talking about the facility in depth as well, “The Vault is more of a military base than an actual science facility per se Garin, as the idea behind building such a structure was to keep the Skiritix and their Tunnelers from being able to reach us. A haven of sorts if you will.”
Garin could see it, the whole facilities’ floor was coated in a very dense metal that he hadn’t noticed before. Anything that was flesh and trying to burrow through that would be doing it for quite some time. As they made their way down the halls, Ella and Priscilla came upon them, each sporting very different attire. Priscilla had her hunting tunic from when they first left the Sheok, albeit much cleaner than it was.
Ella had a garb on that seemed to mimic the Touak body armor that Garin noticed some of the soldiers were carrying as they entered different rooms. Ella followed Garin, keeping a distance between themselves as he could hear her and Priscilla talking to each other. It made him feel like he was still in deep over the first incident at the science facility. He turned to face them both, still walking backwards in Melchior’s direction.
“Hey guys, how are you?” Garin said, trying to sound happier than he felt. Ella looked at him with anger at first, but then grew sad.
“I am tired of being mad at Garin, Priscilla,” giving Garin a genuine smile. Priscilla however, would not be dissuaded so easily.
“He lied to us, being mad is customary to betrayers.”
Garin felt his anger begin to boil, but let the steam die off before answering.
“I’m sorry, I do not know how many times I can say that. Please, is there anything that I can do or say to appease you both?”
Tehran chuckled to himself, “You made an error in that response, Garin.”
Garin wasn’t sure what he meant before he saw the look on both Priscilla and Ella’s faces. Grinning evilly, each of them began making demands of him to help out.
“I need you to help with my feathers again.”
“You still need to train, and I need to stay in fighting shape, so we can start there.”
Each of them began to make even more demands, some even became ridiculous like making them dinner and picking up their gear for them while they sparred. Garin began to lose focus there were so many.
“Alright fine, I get it I will help you both just please no more!” He shouted as the women both seemed to be satisfied with his answer. Melchior laughed to himself as well, which if Garin didn’t know better seemed to match Tehran’s own snarky attitude.
“And I thought I was a fool when it came to women. You Garin are in desperate need to realize that fight was going to end in tragedy even if you didn’t do what they asked. I am just glad those two are back to being at least tolerable.” Melchior made the mistake of still being in earshot of both women, and Garin, feeling especially burned after what Melchior said, stepped to the side as both Ella and Priscilla began to wail on the poor old owl. Garin decided it was best to put some distance between himself and the group, so he led in the direction that Melchior was going.
Garin walked for a while, noticing that he had actually been separated from the rest of the group. Strange, he had thought this was the direction that they were going. Using his new sense, Garin found they had entered some concession hall nearby and were eating.
Garin didn’t feel the pang of hunger, so he continued down the strange hall noting the lining and filaments that seemed to encompass the tunnel. He trailed the lining with his tendril, something about it seemed to mean something important, or he was bored. He felt it was the latter, but as soon as he stopped, he noticed the tendril was leading somewhere. His sense told him that there was a deeper room down the hall, with a massive door. Making his way to the massive structure, Garin waited in front of the door. It felt like it was drawing him in, as if he should go beyond the door to somewhere important.
The doors lurched open, the weight of the doors straining the mechanisms used to open them. They did not open all the way however, only enough so that people could get in without hitting the sides. As Garin passed through, it began to close behind him, locking in place. The Chamber was round and white, with lights hoisted up all around the circular room. It was a nice change in scenery after the tunnel. The walls were lined with case files, research notes and an assortment of beakers and test tubes. Scientists gathered around in teams as they escorted him to the center chamber, a ring with a descending arch like something a drill left behind.
As Garin ventured deeper, his head began to pick something up, a dull vibrating in the back of his mind. It grew stronger and soon his entire body was vibrating noticeably. That is when Garin saw her, the girl whose name was in the back of his mind along with the rest of his lost memories.
Sara.
She was melted to the floor, the ground holding her entire lower half. Only her shoulders and her head were unaffected. She looked up at the group of Touak, a look of disgust and fear on her face. Snarling she said, “What more do you want? You’re animals, all of you! I swear if I get out of this hole you put me in I’m going to rip you all apart!” Her eyes were red, unnaturally red, along with her hair. The colors didn’t stay the same for long, as she began to spasm from something, which changed her hair to purple.
Garin looked around for what it could be. Behind her, Garin saw her tendrils. Unlike himself however, she had four long skinny tendrils, all of which were hooked up to a large generator which seemed to be feeding off of her. The Door behind him opened up to reveal a doctor Garin did not recognize. It looked almost similar to Melchior, but his eyebrows were longer and defined and his eyes were black, instead of yellow.
“Dr. Hawter!” One of the scientists came up to him with a clipboard in hand.
“Ensign Hamill, what do you have on her levels?” Dr. Hawter seemed to be more focused on Garin as opposed to the ensign who was sputtering in his words.
“If we keep this up, sir, we’re likely to lose her in the next surge. Can’t we stop the generator?”
Hawter looked back down at the ensign, with a stare that could turn men into children. The ensign slowly sank away from him as the doctor made his way to Garin.
“So another Shandori has found his way to me.” Hawter regarded him with trained eyes, which unsettled Garin to no end. It was as if he didn’t see a person, but another slab of metal ready to be molded. Remembering what the ensign had whispered to the doctor, Garin returned a glare of hatred.
“Let her go.”
Hawter smiled, an eye arched upward giving the impression he was talking down to Garin, “that would be very ill advised Shandori, especially considering that she is connected to a very potent generator that, if it was disrupted, would most likely explode.” He turned to face Sara as she too was staring daggers at him. “But not to worry, the generator will be powered down within the hour. We would not want to lose such a precious commodity as her, would we now?” He turned back to Garin, a smile on his face as if nothing was the matter at all.
“You may keep her company if you wish while this happens, I would love to observe the goings on between two Shandori.” He motioned a chair to be brought forth as he sat and stared at Garin, waiting for him to move. Garin, knowing if he did anything to the doctor he would most likely end up like Sara, complied as he went to her in her prison.
“Sara.”
She shuddered as her name was spoken, as if it hurt her. “Don’t mention that name to me.”
Garin was confused at first, “But that is who you are, right? Sara?”
She looked at him in anger, “If you are with them, then I want nothing to do with you. I’ve seen holograms before this, I know you’re fake.” She bit at him with her teeth to no avail. Garin did not know how to answer that, so he sat there, feeling dismay. The one person who could tell him who he was, and she hated him, because of the Touak? What did they do to her?
“My name is Garin,” He said it without emotion; part of his mind feeling like it didn’t even matter.
That got a reaction out of her as she spit at his face, disgusted. “How did you find him? How did you find him? You monster must have got it from my head right? RIGHT? How dare you, how dare you try to fake my best friend! I’ll kill you all!” She raged at the restraint in her cell, fighting with all her being to break free of the binds of earth. “Monsters!” After struggling for a few minutes, she was tired out and cried, her tears streaming down her face.
“Garin, why did they take you too? Why am I alone?” she wept fully, with nothing holding her back. She just kept saying his name over and over.
It was too much for Garin to take, his mind was filled with her sadness at the betrayal. Using his newfound gift, he destroyed the restraints, making sure to cut off the generator first by engulfing the entire thing into the earth. Her binds fell, and in her tears she looked at her hands as they had finally been free from the cemented earth.
“I am Garin, Sara. I promise you that.”
She looked up at him in awe, her eyes still watery, but a smile crept on her face as the realization set in.
This did no good for the rest of the room as the scientists, who had been studying and prodding Sara, finally realized she was now free. They all made it for the door just as Melchior, Ella, and Priscilla were coming inside along with a contingent of soldiers in the wings. Garin snapping out of the despair he had felt earlier, just realized what the whole situation seemed like. Two Shandori, one captive and the other free, now both loose with nothing but a door and a few squads of soldiers preventing them from leaving. Garin took his tendril and placed it on Sara’s shoulder
“Do you trust me Sara?”
Sara looked at him with confusion, but nodded.
“Melchior! This Doctor’s holding one of my friends and testing on her, care to explain?” He yelled from across the room.
Melchior made his way across the scared scientists and soldiers to face him.
“I had only just been made aware of the situation Garin, had I known this was at hand you can be assured I would not have allowed it. Please convey that to her.”
Sara looked at them all like she wanted nothing more than their blood sprayed on the walls of the cavern. He turned her to face him.
“Sara, I can’t imagine what you have been through. But these are my friends, they will not hurt you, I promise.”
Sara was fighting with herself to believe him, Garin could tell. Her eyes seemed to be shifting in color with her mood as well, from red to black.
“They put me in the ground Garin, they tested me with needles every day. They force fed me to keep me alive! They treated me like a damn experiment!” Her eyes were becoming blood red as she spoke.
“I know, and they will pay for that. But please, do not hurt these people. Not yet anyways.”
She grounded her teeth, but Garin could see he won through to her. She sighed, letting the rage dissipate.
Hawter was still in his chair next to them, smiling as if everything went the way he wanted it to.
“That was very, very interesting ‘Garin’. In fact, I feel like we could learn a lot from you two. I suppose it will have to wait though while I… collect my data.” He stood up and made his way to the door with the rest of the scientists, nodding to Melchior as he made his way out. Ella ran up to Garin, putting her arms around him.
“I’m so sorry Garin, we just heard once we found out where you went. Melchior told us about his brother in the hall.”
“Brother?”
Melchior came up to Garin with a sadder look then Garin felt. “Yes, my brother Hawter. Apparently this was his pet project he kept talking about. Had I known such things I would have had him disbarred and sent to fight with the grunts for such barbarism.” Melchior shook his head, “Alas, he is very connected with the Council. I would be surprised if he even gets a slap on the wrist for the horrors he’s done.”
Sara seemed unresponsive to the words that were being said, as Garin noticed her blank expression, in a moment she was on her knees, with her metallic arms lifting her off the ground.
“What is this, I feel… like I just got pure life sucked into my head. My head… voices, what just happened?”
Garin got up, propping himself with his tendril.
“Sara, do you have someone speaking to you inside your head?”
She screamed out, “My head, Garin I’m hearing voices, I think I’ve gone mad, she’s telling me to calm down. Oh god, what did you do to me!” She rushed toward him, grabbing him with all four arms.
“Oh my god, where did these come from?” She noticed her tendrils finally, gazing in terror at the sleek metal attachments.
“Sara, you and I are Shandori.” She looked at Garin like he was insane. “Shandori? What the hell are you talking about, Garin?” She held her head, clearly distraught from whatever voice was inside.
“What you are hearing is your Cheruv, only she lives inside of you mind now. Please try to understand.” She looked at Garin for a long minute, taking in all that he told her. She finally released him from her grip, but not before the energy in her arms began to light up. “Garin, these things, Cheruv? What are they doing to us? How did we get them Garin, all I remember was waking up from cryo-sleep?”
“Sara, it’s not going to comeback all at once, trust me I know I have been trying so hard to remember. But it will, you just need to calm down and let it come to you.” Garin let the words sink into her as she started to breathe again, her eyes losing their panicked stare. She finally sighed as she looked at the group surrounding her.
“Animals, they’re all animals?”
Priscilla stepped up to her in a huff, “Animals are what we hunt, I am no animal I am a warrior!” She snarled at Sara, who backed away.
“Sara this is Priscilla, she saved me when I woke up. She is what they call a Sheok.” Garin pointed to her as he introduced the others.
“This is Ella, she is a Harpy. She may look shy but she is a very good hunter.” Ella bowed to her as she tilted her head to look.
“And this is Melchior,” Garin motioned to him, letting the image sink in as he explained. “He is pretty much the person who helped me figure out who we are.”
Ahem, Garin turned around to see Pepper was there as well, with a disgruntled look on her face.
“And this is Pepper, she helps.”
“I never! They get good explanations and I get the one word answer? Come on Garin I do more than just help!”
Sara took them all in giving a bit of time to notice each ones quirks. She sighed, “So they are walking talking animals.”
It took all of Garin’s might to keep Priscilla from going after Sara after that statement, and before long they were laughing off of the whole thing. As they all left the cavern, Sara gravitated towards Garin as they made their way to the mess hall, her mood still showing that she hadn’t fully accepted what she was seeing. So Garin held onto her as they made their way, trying to comfort his friend.
…
Sara ate the food in front of her, which strangely reminded her of cooked rats. She fed voraciously, using her two hands instead of the utensils surrounding her. Ever since she had been freed of the prison, she promised that she would never regret having her hands again, and would use them for everything. It seemed silly to her, but she wasn’t about to stop as she scarfed each bit of rat she could grab. Garin just started at her in awe as she ate her fill, which made her feel self-conscious.
“Garin, stopf okaf,” slurring her words, with her mouth still full, and she continued to eat.
“You have so much strength to eat that food,” Ella said to her, the Harpy giving her nothing but smiles. Even though she looked like the Touak that Garin mentioned, Sara felt herself drawn to the Harpy, at least easier than the rest.
“Well, it just feels good to eat without it being forced down my stomach.” Ella smiled at the remark.
Stolen novel; please report.
“I meant only that the food you are eating is extremely spicy, I would be feeling the burning any moment if it were me.”
Sara never noticed it, but slowly she did feel a small burning in her stomach. Her eyes began to water, and next thing she was guzzling red water as fast as her mouth would let her. It helped tremendously that Pepper brought her keg from Garin’s checkup, as Sara took the whole thing and began absorbing the contents to satiate herself.
“Garin, why the hell didn’t you tell me?”
“Well Sara, one of the few things I seem to remember about you was that you liked spicy foods.”
“I never liked spicy foods!”
“Oh… well sorry.” He gave her a halfhearted smile, which infuriated Sara so much that she got up to leave the group. She walked a few good paces before she noticed Ella was following her.
“So metal woman, are you feeling better?” Her cheery optimism seemed to contrast to the rest and Sara could not help but be swept up by it.
“You could say that, I just feel really angry.” She did too, her body was producing so much rage that Sara knew it must have been something else. Maybe the voices she heard caused it. Shaking herself Sara made her way down the hall, with Ella in stride.
“Do you feel angry all the time?”
“Yeah I do. It’s not me though I just, can’t seem to calm down. The scientists, those owls gave me a shot one time and ever since then I feel like my bloods burning.”
Ella turned her head in confusion, “Doctors made you angry?”
Sara nodded to Ella, who sighed in sadness. “Doctors here are not like Pepper or the Melchior. They are good at heart I can tell. The one with black eyes…” Ella shuddered at the mention of Hawter, “he looks at you with eyes that make me feel as though I was dead.”
Sara knew all too well what Hawter’s eyes felt like. He enjoyed speaking to her when she was awake, to properly collect his data as he put it. His eyes though, that was what Sara remembered the most. Pools of darkness that just seemed to eat the light around and pull it into a void.
Ella stopped in front of a door and turned to face Sara, “Well, this is your room. We felt it best to give you space.” Sara noticed the room was rather large with cots and some mattresses placed in the corners.
“I hope you like it Sara of Shandor, Garin is rather worried about you. I know him well, but I feel you two know each other longer, is that true?” Ella stood there with her head cocked to the side, waiting for a reply.
“We do, I think. My head hurts so much Ella it’s hard to remember.”
She grew sad at that too, “Garin says much of the same, and his memories were taken from him.” She turned to close the door, “I hope you two find those thoughts again.”
Shutting the door and leaving Ella left Sara to her thoughts; she rejoined the rest of the group.
…
Melchior was explaining something to Garin who took particular interest in what was being said.
“Garin, what are you two taking about?” Ella peered in to listen.
“Ella, Melchior thinks he may have found a way to help the Touak. In a ruin somewhere.”
Melchior turned to Ella and nodded, “I simply need to grab somethings first before we can be on our way with this plan. I leave you two to get some rest.” Melchior left the hall, leaving Ella Priscilla and Garin to their own.
…
Sara trudged in her room, the dark cavern around her emulated her mood. She couldn’t be more pissed. She voiced her disdain for the animals to Garin, but he seemed so friendly with the beasts. She knew though, they were no better than Hawter. His stare still haunted her, a malefic scowl that clouded his face in a shadow. She still felt the nights where his scientists prodded her, violated her. They treated her like she was a test tube. She would not forgive them for that. The wall slid aside quietly, and as she sat on the floor, her temper raged.
“Why am I here, why did this happen? It’s not fair!” She slammed the floor, her rage amplified by the toxin living in her. The earth echoed her pain, splitting the floor in two. She never could feel the ground, never could notice the reverberation that she caused just by walking or standing. It all came from the Cheruv, the voice living inside her head. Somehow she was caught up in this mess, and as she sat again, the ground resided with her calm. “Kalra,” it called itself, the being living in her head.
She remembered the place, a lake glowing with water that tinted red. The first time she even knew that it was there. It wasn’t even a voice at first, just a series of chimes she heard in her mind that came from nowhere she could find. But as she sat at the lake edge, wondering how she got to the lake in the first place, it grew louder. All she wanted was to make the chimes stop, so she shouted at the lake.
“Stop,” it echoed across the metallic landscape and the lake itself was rippling with the boom of her voice.
“Stop what? All I was trying to do was speak.”
She gasped, finally the chimes had stopped, and yet the voice was more terrifying then the strangeness of the chimes.
“Who’s there? Where are you,” she spoke softly, wondering where the voice had come from.
“Why, I’m here, inside your mind. Where do you think the sounds came from? I swear it was hard enough trying to get your attention, the least you could have done is acknowledge me.”
She contemplated insanity, possibly an alternative personality she made when she became lost here. The voice objected, “Insanity? Really child, you haven’t been alive long enough to know what that is, and besides an alternative personality wouldn’t be aware of itself now would it.”
She didn’t speak, words wouldn’t come, and the more she thought about the strange voice, the more she began to accept it.
“What are you child?” It spoke again, a twinge in her mind. “I’m a girl, what kind of question is that?”
“A Question of identity child. You are female, this is certain, but where do you come from?”
“Earth, I’m from earth.”
“Are you so certain? Think child, does this place resemble your home, your Earth?”
She gazed at the metal landscape, the red lake, the trees that look like spun jade. This wasn’t Earth.
“No it doesn’t, but that is where I came from, where my kind came from.”
The thoughts of home flowed out of her that day, images and records of a time when she was six, and the world was a simple, yet beautiful place. She and her family were leaving for somewhere; her mother had said it was a trip. “Were going to go find a new home Sara, a better place where we can live without fear.” It sounded great, this new home. Her world always seemed so much better when her mother told her it was going to be.
She never once gave a second thought to the fact that she was in a ship that her home was actually burning the day she left, because it was all going to be better, right? Then they left, and her world, her beautiful place, shattered, ruptured and blew into a million fragments. She felt tears on her face, the memory already drifting away from her.
“Earth’s gone, has been for a long time now. But that’s where I’m from… whoever you are.”
The voice, so much like her mother’s now, moved to a soothing chime.
“Child of Earth, welcome to my world. Welcome to Sate.” It felt so like her mother, that she started smiling. “A new home,” she said aloud, and that’s when she felt the change. It was painful, a slow and steady tingle that arched up from her back. Then like fire it spread throughout her body, and the dull pain turned to a violent throb of vibrations. She arched back screaming as the chimes in her mind played a song of ice and fire.
She felt her skin become rigid, her muscles in her arms and legs began to tighten. Her head pounded in rhythm to the chimes, and she could feel her heart flutter with the music. Her eyes forced open, and she saw the creeping metal coming from the ground, surrounding her, enveloping her. It was a liquid, coating her entire body with lines and plates of metal. It spun around her as it climbed the length of her body, fixating itself, bonding with her skin. When the throbbing stopped, the first thing she felt was heat. As she pushed herself up, she could feel the weight added to her, the metal that took her form.
“Welcome to Sate, my child.” The voice had said, Sara felt like she was part of the planet. The ground was alive, her mind was open to the tune of the world, and the world felt warm. She reached out to the strange feelings, and was met with the voice. “Not just yet, my child. Your gift is flourishing quite quickly, but these new sensations are too complex for you to tap into them. Otherwise, you may lose yourself to the waves of Sate’s power. She is quite intoxicating, isn’t she?”
Yes she was, the world felt like a warm blanket, and all she wanted was to cuddle with it just once. But the voice was right, she could feel that too. The world wasn’t just warmth; there was a force to it. Powerful, slow, it moved as though it was a river. She pulled herself back into her mind, and suddenly the world seemed even stranger to her now.
“What am I?”
The voice answered, “You are one of the Enlightened, or what our ancestors called Shandori. On our world, we were known as the Cheruv, a people born to Sate as protectors. When humanity had arrived millennia ago, it was a strange but brutal arrival, and we felt the uneasiness of Sate from it. She drove us, united us to come to your kind. At first there was unrest, your kind were not welcome on Sate, and our Leaders, The Cheruvikan, felt that you were a blight.
So with that uneasiness, discord and chaos brew, and war began. Your kind were outnumbered but your technology kept us away, and soon after it was our kind who were uneasy. Sate saw our plight, and with its current she swept away your technology, burying it under earth and metal. It was only afterward that we realized what we had done. Your kind kept records of the war, but most of all, they kept to themselves. We provoked them, we murdered them, and in the end, we buried them. It was our twisted Leaders, they corrupted our view of Sate, and after the war our link to Sate was shattered. They created the quake that killed you settlement, and they blamed it on the goddess. And so began the Hungering.”
Just then Sara’s mind was flooded with the images of metal beings fighting and clawing at each other. “It was a conflict Sara, a massive wave of destruction wrought by our tainted brothers and sisters. We lost so much of ourselves to this confrontation, and in the end it only saved to destroy our way of life once and for all.” She paused, her feelings of woe cascaded with Sara’s own feelings of lowliness.
“We lost the greatest part of ourselves when we destroyed your settlement, but after the war, we sought to amend our cruel ways. And with it, we created the Shandori. It came with a price though, as we bonded you to the ebb and flow of Sate, we lost ourselves to the bonding. It is how I am inside you right now child. In creating the Shandori, those that were once Cheruv became nothing.”
Sara’s mind had played the images as the Cheruv explained, showing her the horrors that its kind had wrought. And yet she heard her mother, the woman who promised her a better world. Could this truly be her world too? She didn’t know yet, and so many images still clouded her mind. “Cheruv, how did you make the Shandori, how did I get stuck with you?” It seemed blunt, but she still felt strange about an alien living in her head.
“Your mother, she chose me because I was a warrior in my past life. And when she placed us away in the cold sleep you human’s made, the process we had used was incomplete. The Cheruv must bring a Shandori to a body of water in order to complete the bond between herself and the Cheruv. One of the many reasons why you heard only chimes when we first spoke. Yet now, here, we are made whole.”
Sara’s tendrils moved on their own, placing their three fingered prongs on her human hands. She felt the movement, knew what it was doing and who controlled it, and yet, she still jumped when the cold metal was placed on her palm.
“So that’s you then. This feels so strange, like I’m sharing a room with someone I barely know.” She heard the Cheruv sigh, strangely still considering it used her lungs to do it. “I feel the same child, such a small body… but it is the price we have paid to make sure you stay alive. But enough questions, I should know your name child if we are to go any further.” Sara retorted, “You first.”
“Very well, pronouncing it… I believe you would say Kalra, and yours human?”
“Saraazh Dyi Comminu, but you can call me Sara.”
“May the will of Sate guide us, sister.” Sara warmed, a smile crept over her face and she felt tears again. “So where should we go then?”
“You aren’t about to go anywhere Cheruv.”
Sara turned around, facing a creature with a huge head and crooked hands and feet.
She noticed the head first, a haunting visage of an owl’s face with high eyebrows and a hooked nose-beak. The eyes, deep black, stared at her with malice.
“Well, it seems that they aren’t just a myth after all. Welcome back progenitor, it’s good to know that your kind didn’t die out as your histories claimed. But as such it leaves me in a precarious state. I could parade you in front of my colleagues, be the one to first discover an ancient sentient race that still lives or,” he grinned, his face disfiguring into a wicked smirk, “I could keep you all to myself, and find out what really makes you tick.”
Sara felt dread like she never knew, a sense that she would die if this creature had its way with her. So she ran, her legs moving faster from the manic owl creature as quickly as she could.
She felt it again, the pain. Only this time, it didn’t end, it assaulted her mind as it made her convulse.
“You really are something; no creature I know could have made it so far without being shocked into submission. You’re a fighter… and I do enjoy breaking that little thing in my subjects.”
She turned over, the shocks coming in spurts. She felt something cold touch her, then a prick on her neck. She heard Kalra screaming to her, trying to make something come through, but all her head wanted to do was sleep. Her eyes fluttered as her mind drifted to the darkness.
That’s where it began; she had been prodded, poked, tested, and injected with all matter of drugs and cocktails. But her rage, it came from the Owl. He made her into a weapon, fueled that horrible thirst she felt now, the need and want to blow the hell out of anyone who challenged her.
“Why can’t I stop…?” Her eyes felt heavy again, the tears flowed faster than they did before. Kalra had not fully succumbed to the rage, but sharing her mind made her thoughts mingle with Sara’s.
“It will be alright child, the rage cannot last. The final injection was stopped, there is nothing to do now but let this phase pass. He will pay for what he did to us, but we will overcome his toxins first, for it should be our rage, pure and bright, that burns his life away.”
She felt the hunger again, but she suppressed it. The thought of making Dr. Hawter pay sustained her rage. It wasn’t the only thing that helped though. As she stood in her room, her eyes to the floor, she hadn’t noticed the figure next to her. She gasped, her eyes following the movement, only to reveal Garin.
Her childhood friend, and another Shandori, Garin had freed her from Dr. Hawter when he first arrived at the facility. He found her in the ground, and noticing her, ripped her right out of the prison Hawter had made for her.
“You okay, Sara? Not sure the ground can take much more of your temper,” he laughed lightly, and she joined him. Yet, her mood did not sway entirely, the rage prevented that.
“Why did you help them, Garin?”
“Why wouldn’t I? They helped me survive, Sara. Without them, I would have been roaming the plains as a twisted monster. Besides, they need our help, how could I not?”
“I’ll tell you why, they’re monsters! Sure they need you now, but who’s to say that they prefer you helping and leaving as you please, they might just collar you, then they never have to worry! They deserve to be dead Garin, for what they did to me, they deserve death!”
“Sara, Hawter is going to pay what he did to you. His own officials disagree with what he did, but they don’t all deserve to die for his choice. Besides, we need them Sara, whether you like it or not.”
“I don’t need backstabbing monsters, what I need is my friend to help me! I can’t lose you to them Garin, they made me this way, all this anger isn’t even me! I was turned into this, this…” She lost it again, and with a swing of her arms, she reached to smash the wall. Garin stretched to her, and held her in place. She struggled and raged as she tried to beat his arms away, but his grip was as tight as the prison, unmoving.
She began to sob, “I won’t let them hurt you Sara, not while I’m here, and if they so much as think about touching you they’ll be sorry. I am with you Sara, and I know this isn’t you! Don’t let him win Sara, be better than him, more than a weapon. Be yourself.”
She stopped struggling, holding instead onto Garin for her life. The rage went on, still stirring, gradually fading as she held onto Garin.
“Garin, I’m so sorry,” she sobbed her eyes out.
“I know Sara, it’s okay.”
Garin held onto his friend for what seemed like hours, her head resting on his chest. She was breathing slower, and after a while Garin felt her go lax.
He picked her up, placed her on the bed in her room, and went to the door. He checked her again; still sound asleep with the snore he knew all too well. The door shut, and he turned to face Melchior.
“Is she alright, Garin?”
“She’s fine now. Thanks though.”
“Garin, she is unstable. I know that she is your friend but-,”
He stopped speaking as Garin’s tendril stretched from his back to Melchior's neck, gripping his throat.
“You and your people did enough to her, she deserves to be angry. Not only that, but she had to deal with that mad scientist brother of yours as well, her anger is his by-product. He turned my friend into a weapon so that he could gallivant and be a hero to you all. If I hear you do ANYTHING to her.”
Garin met Melchior’s eyes as he let his threat lay in the air.
Melchior choked when he let him go, his lungs gasped for air.
“I trust you Melchior, don’t make me regret that. Or you will, I promise.”
Melchior looked hurt, but Garin’s anger had yet to subside. Transferring the rage from Sara’s body to his was risky, Tehran said it could even cause him to receive the effects, but he needed to give his friend peace. This place changed him as much as it did her, and he still knew deep down they needed their help.
It didn't matter though, all he knew was that he would save her.
“Fine Garin, I understand. We will not exploit her, my promise. If it isn’t true, then consider myself dead. But I need to know how she’s feeling, we can’t be having to fix her room every time. We need her to be in control of herself, and that will require undoing the damage Hawter did. Get some sleep, we need to brief in six hours.” Garin looked at his eyes, deep pools of black and yellow, and turned away.
“Garin, the residue is subsiding now; I believe the rage toxin has finally been neutralized from your body. Good job with the control, I had thought that you were succumbing to it as our friend and her Karla had. It seems your fortitude was as strong as I thought after all.”
“Tehran, did you notice what was causing the toxin to generate in her blood; I want to know if we can contain it.”
“It is an amalgamation, the bonding had generated when she had been reborn, Hawter caught it early enough I believe, using it to inject this venom. It’s possible… but the bonding form could be reproducing the venom into her body. I think we would need to remove that section in order to prevent the venom from reentering her systems, then again, this question should be more directed at Karla then I, she has access to her systems, and could pinpoint the location of the envenoming agent.”
“You’re right as usual. How are we going to get her to consent to this though? She’ll never let the doctors touch her not after Hater’s butchery.”
“Could we be present? If we there as a sign of good faith, it may calm her before the surgery can commence. Her prone to violence would be substantial otherwise.”
“Really, and what are the chances if we are not there Tehran?”
“Zero in zero, although that’s based off of the principle that her blood still contains the toxin, as well as her aggression towards our, well I suppose you would say friends.”
“I guess we’re sticking with her on this. I only hope she’s ok with it once she gets up.”
…
“No, there is no way I’m getting back on that table with those things drilling at me, you can forget it!” Sara was holding the mattress she had slept on between her and the three scientists that had entered the room with Garin.
It was going about as well as Tehran had said.
“Sara, Hawter put that device in your blood. Its reproducing your rage and those toxins are still inside you.”
One of the scientists tried feebly to push the mattress aside, only to have it lodge him against the wall.
“Then you do the drilling Garin, but they are getting nowhere near me.”
Garin wasn’t sure if it was the venom still, but her hatred was showing throughout her body, giving herself a purple-red glow.
“I can’t, I don’t know the first thing about anatomy, especially ours! How do you expect me to find the bio-weapon he put in you, sniff it out? I’d likely get you killed, and I am not about to risk that.”
“Fine, you don’t have to, but these clowns are getting nowhere near me. I won’t be caged up again you hear me? It isn’t happening!”
“Sara, your letting him win!”
She froze; her mattress fell onto the helpless scientists. They struggled as Garin eased towards his friend, holding out an arm for her.
She grabbed on to the olive branch. “Fine, I’ll do it, but you better be in that room Garin, you and your friend Ella. If I don’t see you in the same room as me, they might as well be signing their lives away.”
Garin nodded, sighing inwardly. “As long as we can fix that damn thing I’ll stay as long as you need Sara. Let’s get moving, the doctors need to get you prepared.” She held onto his tendril, letting him pick her up as he motioned her past the scientists to the door.
“I wasn’t kidding Garin; they try anything funny anything at all and there dead, and to hell with ‘we need them to survive’.” Garin noticed the shift in her eyes, subtle but he knew it well. It was her promise look, something he remembered from when they were kids, a look that terrified not only himself but anyone she gave it to.
…
Sara lay on the table, her arms and other arms spread wide along the massive operation chamber where she was about to get cut open. The rage she felt seemed to know it was coming to its end, as it saw she was on the edge of madness with how angry and upset she was.
Garin had kept his word, he stood on one edge of the table, arm held tight to her own with Ella to the side in a somber robe. She felt peace with his touch, but she knew it was because of him she was still there.
The anger held to that thought as the surgery went on. She felt no pain strangely enough, but the moment the bio-weapon's center had been located, she felt a berserker rage like nothing she felt before.
Kalra was talking to her, trying to calm her down, but the rage pushed just as hard.
“Garin, tell these people to hurry the hell up!”
Garin’s face was stone cold, but he conveyed her message.
Sara tried to flail her arms, but the restraints kicked in. Unfiltered hatred ran through her body, and Kalra was swept along with it, pushing to reach out and destroy anything she could. It was then at her peak, that Garin moved. He jumped up on the table and punched Sara in the stomach so fast; she lost all her rage in seconds.
The shock alone stopped any feelings, and all she could do was whimper from the pain. Garin stood over her, his arms still pressed against the spot, his eyes still cold. But she knew he only was trying to help, or a part of her did. The other part was ready to rip the very arms he had used apart. Yet she couldn’t feel the rage anymore, the need for destruction, the hunger for blood. “It’s out, we got it, that blow pried it loose from her spine!” The doctor’s exclaimed.
“We’re not out yet folks, lets sow her back up, we got to clean out the wounds from the toxins.”
She smiled looking up at the cold refuge Garin had given her with his presence. He looked back, not uttering a word, with a huge smile on his face.
“Can you get me out of here, Garin? This is very uncomfortable.” She gave him puppy eyes, and Garin busted out laughing.