by J D Morganne
“Complete. Memories purged and stored in a royal-access-permitted folder. How would you like to proceed?”
“Enter new memories from folder Kurohi Initiative.”
“Confirmed. This may take several minutes.”
Jaxon didn’t know how much time had passed before he was blinking the world into existence, having forgotten where he was and how he’d gotten there. He grasped the white curtain first before trailing his sight over the desk in front of him and the restraints around his wrists. He held his gaze there for some time before turning his attention to the woman in front of him.
She was no stranger. All his eight years she had taken care of him, loved him, so why was it she felt like some far away dream? Why was she right in front of him, but felt out of his reach?
“Oh!” She turned her lips up into the gentle smile he adored. She was always able to calm him with that smile and right now, Jaxon needed it more than ever. Fear curdled in his chest though he wasn’t sure where it was coming from. She ordered her AI system to remove the shackles and restraints, which it did within seconds. Then, she offered Jaxon a glass of water.
Jaxon returned her smile. The restraints must have been a test. For as long as he could remember, he’d wanted to be a soldier. He knew how intense the training was and most parents got their boys started early.
“How do you feel?”
Dizzy. He was still shaking off the haziness when he faced her again, wanting to make sure she was really her. Faint memories of glass-soiled parks replayed. And he remembered the gleam of her silver-plated badge in the sunlight. His eyes ran over it now. Dr. Mayumi Fletcher. “Mom?”
“That’s right.”
―
Jaxon had come to on the back of a Torcher, trudging through the trees. He’d wiggled himself free and hit the ground like a dying worm. He’d found his knees first. And while his consciousness returned, he’d regained his footing. Blood. In his nose. On his chin. A coat vaguely reminded him of a dance and Beck. The piss on the front of his pants reminded him of the seizure.
The Torcher behind him laughed, cocked his flame rifle and aimed it at Jaxon.
The wind hurled screams and explosions into the trees. The Torcher had taken him so far from them.
Before he composed himself, the Torcher was in front of him. His fist grazed his chin. And where Jaxon was usually the fulcrum, he now sat in bundles on the edge of a ceaseless seesaw.
He punched and missed. He stumbled, but the Torcher snatched his shoulder and lassoed his leg under Jaxon’s feet, knocking him on his butt. He plunged his rifle into his stomach and Jaxon spewed vomit. The Torcher grabbed him by his coat, laughed as he dragged him upright.
“Ain’t strong as they say, yl’aava niin.” He threw Jaxon against a tree.
Impact knocked the wind out of him and he collapsed.
Was this a test of his strength? Because he had already failed. Even now he was absent, void of anything that resembled strength. He had only ever wanted peace.
As Jaxon lay there, enervated and panting, he called on what was familiar. “Aicis!”
She responded at once. “You’re taking a pounding, CO3.”
He’d missed having her around. “Wouldn’t mind some help with that.”
“Who you talkin’ to?” The Torcher raised his rifle.
“Confirmed. Kurohi Protocol unlocked.”
Jaxon had no time to stop her. Unrelenting whiteness swept him into a room. There, the same familiar pain and loneliness he’d felt back at Lily Valley village encompassed him. The only difference was a white chair and a floating screen. On it, he witnessed his body move without permission and beyond comprehension. His muscles tensed as he circumvented the Torcher’s attack. He dodged, predicting each move.
Jaxon didn’t understand this. Was he two places at once or was he trapped in his mind? Was this a dream? Death? He sat in the chair, leaned in to watch his hand clutch the side of the torcher’s face, and his knee rising to meet it. In this white void, an onlooker in his own mind, Jaxon felt no vestige of sympathy. “Aicis, what is this?”
“This is protocol 02-14-KP6, your defense and armor protocol, updated to accommodate black flames.”
“Why am I not in control?”
“During this protocol, Possible Death Protocol is simultaneously activated in case of an emergency. It protects all major organs, including the brain. In other words, you get to rest, while your body does the work.”
“Wait.” The Torcher’s voice echoed in Jaxon’s void. He threw his arm up in defeat, but Jaxon watched himself kick it away. He stalked the man when he tried to retreat.
It fascinated Jaxon how fluidly his body moved, as if he hadn’t had a seizure moments ago. The exhaustion crept into his limbs and threatened sleep, but he felt alive as fire.
“You’re all the same.” A voice came from Jaxon, but it wasn’t his. Whatever entity controlled him spoke for him now? He watched him cuff the Torcher’s shirt and ram him to the ground before tamping his head into the dirt with unforgiving fists. “Everyone’s the same.”
Jaxon bit hard on the tip of his tongue. That person wasn’t him. “Aicis,” he said.
No response came.
“Aicis, that’s enough.” He was beating the man’s face in, bashing his teeth into his gums and cheeks.
Jaxon didn’t do things this way. That wasn’t him. “Aicis, enough. Can you hear me? Stop this now. Wake me up now.”
The Torcher stopped moving. Not even his chest heaved with the strained breaths of a dying man. Jaxon watched his own hands take the man’s head and twist it until it popped. He felt the reverberation of broken bones on his palms. He snapped his fingers, and a gust of wind tore through the trees before the Torcher burst into slithering flames.
“Wake me up!” A blast of hot air brushed through Jaxon’s hair. He blinked the forest—on fire—back into his vision. He touched his lips, his cheeks. His body belonged to him again, and all the pain he’d felt before consumed him. He fell beside the man he’d killed, his eyes brimming with penitence.
“Kurohi Protocol successful,” Aicis said.
Jaxon clenched his fist and bit hard on the inside of his cheek. The stench of burning flesh rushed into his nostrils. This was the Kurohi Protocol? This was what his black flames were capable of?
He would be a monster if he left the man there for the forest fire to eat him up. But he was already dead. Jaxon had killed him.
“CO3, immediate evacuation advised.”
“Shut up.” Jaxon didn’t want to hear her anymore. She left him to his agitation, to the steady plops of blood from his fist onto a leaf. Whatever energy the protocol had given him had gone with the snap of his finger.
He backed away, on his knees, an old nursery rhyme playing in his head. A bed of rice for my knees, merciful Kamiaka, forgive me please. “Kamiaka, for…give…” He froze, wondering why ever he would ask for forgiveness for defending himself, for doing what soldiers do.
Because even if it was his job, or he was defending himself, this wasn’t right. It wasn’t right.
“From… earth you were born. And to earth you belong.”
He ran.
38
Jaxon washed the blood from his knuckles in a stream.
He leaned his shoulder against the closest tree, took a moment to enjoy the cool breeze, sweeping over the stream. Rampant flames lit the night sky and shredded the forest. Its energy surged through Jaxon’s veins.
Someone’s lantern spiraled erratically through the darkness. Jaxon bent, inched around the darkest side of the tree, and stayed quiet. Beck had left Jaxon her coat. His blood stained the wool. He was looking forward to her bitching about it.
Before he knew it, another bolt of electricity pulsed in his brain. “Attempting memory purge.” He fell. The third time and it wasn’t getting any easier.
Fire was ravaging the forest fast. He had to find his way out.
“Resistance in effect,” Aicis said in his ear. “P
lease explain the reason for this resistance.”
“You can’t have my memories,” he croaked.
“Assessing. Insufficient reasoning. Attempting memory purge.”
“Gaaah!” He curled over, clenching his jaw to the pain. His veins bulged and glowed black in his hands. He buried his face in the snow, but he knew this wouldn’t stop the pressure in his head.
“Unable. Will you continue to resist?”
“Yes…” Jaxon wiped the blood from his nose and tried to scrub the metallic taste off his tongue with the snow. He didn’t care how many seizures stole his body. He didn’t care how much blood sat as a raw sensation at the back of his throat. The memories he’d gained here were valuable. No. Precious. All the ones of Aria, minus that kiss, he treasured. And Beck… Kamiaka, help him, he never wanted to forget her.
“Memories from April through December will be moved to a folder in your subconscious, for royal-permitted access at a later date. Is this explanation sufficient?”
“I forbid it.”
She paused briefly. “Standby, CO3 Fletcher.” She sounded annoyed.
Without her, Jaxon was alone and oblivious to his surroundings. Had Cayman gotten what he wanted? Was it over?
Jaxon had almost caught up with a few of Beck’s Lions, who he’d thought to be patrolling the forest. On closer look, he’d seen one of them carrying an Earthen man over his shoulder. The man hadn’t looked alive then, but they had carried on laughing and swinging their lanterns. It was as if they had found a new purpose, a reason to fight.
Had Beck disappeared to fight with them, against Jaxon? No. He didn’t believe Beck would betray him. They had betrayed her. She could be running for her life. He didn’t know if she was safe, or alive. He didn’t know how Nano fit into it.
He peeked around the tree. The lantern light inched closer now. Not a group, not threatening, but in a hurry.
“Seizing memory purge attempt,” Aicis said. “New mission incoming. Standby for details.”
Aria’s familiar voice came in the darkness. “Jaxon? You here?”
Jaxon exhaled in relief.
She had no business being alone, but Jaxon was thrilled to see that she was safe. She could help him control whatever was happening to his body. Twigs cracked under her shoes. Jaxon reached out and came back with torn fabric from her dress.
She pounced like a frightened cat, lashing her fists in every direction.
“Sh. Ariana! It’s me. Be quiet.”
“Jax. Oh, thank The Mother.” She crouched and hugged him, holding tight. “You hurt?” She pulled back.
Jaxon lifted her chin to see a darkening bruise on her shoulder and neck. “Are you?”
She slapped his hand away and set aside Nano’s rod to pull out a pocket-sized canteen. “Why you bleedin’?” She flipped up the cap and handed the canteen to him, before forcing his head back.
“Gentle.” He moved her hands away, wiped his blood himself.
“You seized?”
She could call it whatever she wanted. He had piss all over him, his head was hot enough to toast bread and his arm hurt. He wouldn’t mention the Kurohi Protocol that had left a man dead in the dirt. He wanted to forget what he’d done. He hated that this was something inside him, but there was no time for an explanation. He didn’t know how to explain it anyway.
“Yeah. You can walk, though?”
He nodded, the canteen pressed to his lips.
“Drink fast. We gotta move.”
The little water wasn’t enough, but it was cold and would soothe the built-up cottage-cheese-feeling where he’d bitten his tongue. Aria took it back and held her hands out for him.
“Where’s Beck?” he said.
“We’ll talk about it on the way. We can’t stay in Jerus.”
“On the way?” Jaxon looked around for something to help him stand. Aria couldn’t hold his weight. Plus, she was wearing close to nothing and shivering to the bone. “We’re not leaving her.” He snatched Nano’s rod and used it to hold himself to his height. He wrapped Beck’s coat around Aria’s shoulders. “Which way is Yahid?”
“Jax, listen.”
“North? South? Left? Right? Where is she?” He wouldn’t leave her behind. He couldn’t. A soft buzz in his head reminded him Aicis was still collecting data. And waiting to send a new mission. He scratched his ears.
“What’s wrong?” Aria held the lantern before her.
Jaxon hadn’t run into anyone since that Torcher and those two Lions, but he knew how stealthily they moved. “Kill that light.”
Aria twisted it off.
“Stay here. I’ll go get Beck.”
“No, there’s no goin’ back for her.” Aria nodded in the direction opposite of Jerus and the wildfire, down into the pitch blackness.
“I’m getting Beck.”
“With urine all over your pants?”
“Should that be important right now?” He tried to sprint off, but Aria snatched his jacket.
“Oi!” She pinched his ear and pulled herself closer. “We’re moving forward. There’s nothing we can do for her. You had a seizure; you shouldn’t be movin’ in the first place. She told me to find you and get to Edie Garden— and that’s what we’re doin’.”
“If Cayman has her, he’ll kill her.” Jaxon was certain he could execute every irrational rescue plan he’d imagined. And he would. To get her back. No matter what it took.
Aria shook her head. “Whatever you’re thinkin’, stop thinkin’ it. Either way, we need to get you somewhere now. Lions all over. Can’t make it to The Garden with you like this. We…”
Her voice trailed to the back of his mind when Aicis spoke again. “Mission: Transport Ariana Clair to Obedience alive for full pardon.”
Jaxon tensed. Transport Ariana Clair? Why? he thought. It wasn’t his job to know why, but he wanted to know anyway. Which of her talents would be useful in Obedience? How could she be important and what about her would allow a full pardon?
Why should he betray someone he cared about when Farah and Dasher had tried to kill him? The truth came to him at once. They had used him from the beginning, from Naomi’s kiss, and forced him into Knowledge. Nano had been meant to deliver him to Cayman. For whatever reason he had taken him to Beck, to Jerus, where advanced tech didn’t exist. Otherwise, Jaxon would’ve done Farah’s bidding from the beginning, like a puppet forced to fight for his life back.
Beck… and Aria had given him a new life. Why go back?
But… she was right in front of him. And Obedience was once his home. Could be again.
“Edie Garden will have resources. You get that, don’t you?” Aria stared at him, terror flicking in her constant-moving fingers. “We gotta go now. You ready?” She knocked her teeth, as she waited for his answer.
“Will you complete this mission?” Aicis said.
The air burned with death and scorched vanilla. Jaxon rubbed the searing from his nose and gazed at Aria’s hand around his. “Yes.”
“Confirmed. Mission initiated.”