by Ken Rivers
The rock wall gave way, and I sank back into it. The deeper I went, the harder my insides turned over themselves and my vision went black. I could only see the log cabin I had wished for a hundred times in my dreams. Everything was the same except for one thing. Yari stood on the porch. In her arms, she held a child. I tried to go to her but couldn’t move. Then the sky turned to fire and a great eye flew down upon them, and all was burned to ash.
I felt the air and rocks moving around me but no pain. The need to push outward was irresistible. I did so and found the strength to fight against the old woman’s power.
I pushed back slowly at first then harder, until I was again in the cave standing in front of her. Her shrieks broke upon me like waves against an obsidian shore line.
She launched herself at me and I braced. Her hand jammed into my side and she pulled back. “Push with everything you got, NOW!”
The Mother’s voice was filled with worry and need and care so I didn’t hesitate. I pushed with my newfound force as hard as I could. I sent her into the rock. She broke against it and slumped to the floor, crimson seeping from her ears and nose.
“It’s finished,” she cooed inside my head, her cracked lips frozen in place, eyes open wide, staring.
The force that had shot out in all directions shrank to a ripple of soft wind around me and I went limp but felt healthy and strong again. The feeling of the air and rock and earth stayed with me. Like breathing in cool ocean spray over summer afternoon lips, it clung to me and I felt peace.
I went to her and knelt by her side.
“I couldn’t stop this feeling inside me,” she said. “I knew you had it in you. Somehow, some way, you are meant to be the Father.” Her hand tightened around mine, trying to not fall away from me.
“Why did you tell me to do that?” I asked.
“See?” Her face was unmoved, but the smile in her voice beamed through to me. She held up her right arm, turned half-black and sickened with rot. “No other way to deal with it. I felt something I hadn’t felt in ages. I felt the love of the Father, from you, for her. We Maidens live a life apart from others, but we also share our experiences through the line of descent. You two are meant to be together. I thought I had failed the world. My love for that jackass of a man corrupted the cycle of the Kaiju and shattered my heart.
“As unforgiving as she can be, fate has an endearing balance to her. I bet it all on you. I thought if you were strong enough to push it out of yourself… Yari knows what she feels for you, but I think she doesn’t know of her connection to the Mother-Father balance. Tawa can’t be the one to tell her. If he knows you haven’t spoiled her for him yet, he will act quickly.”
“He will use the Kaiju?”
“He can’t, not without injuring himself further. That’s why he needs Yari. He needs the Mother to control the Kaiju mind. He doesn’t have that power, thank the gods…”
“What if he decided to use it anyway?”
“The rot would overtake him in moments.”
I remembered his arm, black from hand to above the elbow but stopping at the Life-Tech…
“I think he has already tried,” I said.
“Then he will try again, but if he has Yari… But, that doesn’t matter, because she has you, now. She has the best you.” She pointed to my injury, the thing that set me on a path I realized I could never turn back from.
I looked down and discovered my skin returned to a normal color with a faint glow. “There had to be another way. I don’t even know what to call you!”
“Not important.”
“It’s important to me, goddammit!” I hugged her close.
“Saiina. Now, get your ass back up there and save her before Tawa breaks my world and every world after that.”
“How do I do that?”
A mist of red and black spat from her mouth as she jerked in my arms. “You’ll know how. Just…don’t let…put…inside her…
She slumped, turned to atoms in my arms, and floated away.
I was selfish in my mourning for her and didn’t do so for long. Understandable, since I had only met her, but there was a deeper connection with her that I couldn’t explain. I didn’t know about all the romantic idea of connections through the ages with past loves or whatever she was on about. But, she had healed me and saved my life. I felt much for her, but my thoughts never turned from Yari.
Twice I had fucked up with her. Both times it was my lack of understanding Levani culture that was to blame. I had spent so long jumping from planet to planet and job to job, that I never once thought about the people who lived there. I did my work, got my pay, drank my drink and bedded women when I wanted.
When someone saves your life, it changes you. Almost dying and saving yourself changes you as well. I had that happen so many times I lost count. But, having been saved twice in the last two days by people who should otherwise not care about some human mechanic made me think. Maybe there was something to this linked destiny idea.
I kept that idea safely segregated from my other thoughts, though. I didn’t need belief at that moment, I needed concrete thinking and a plan based in reality.
The silence was broken by a scuttling on the ground in front of me. Two small creatures came into the dim light. One, kind of squirrelish, blue in color with three green spines sticking out of its back. Next to it, waddling side to side, was a green-feathered bird-fox.
They came right up to me and weren't shy at all. They walked around me, letting me pet them and were crazy cute. “I guess I’m not the only one sad your mama is gone, huh?”
A few quick pats on the heads and I got back to brass tacks. I didn’t know what the best course of action was. I just knew that I had to get Yari away from Tawa and out of this floating stone prison. We could talk things out logically, then.
I stood and looked up, not knowing how far I had fallen, which meant I didn’t know how far I had to climb or jump or fly. I didn’t know what powers I had, for that matter.
My muscles flexed and I felt the air swirl a little faster around me. I rolled my fingers and shook my hands. It was go time. Time to fly back up there and kick the shit out of that asshole with some crazy space-elf magic. I imagined throwing fireballs and slamming him through walls. I imagined flying out of there with Yari in my arms and B and Pusi in tow on my rail-bike.
The two little Kaiju looked on in wonder, heads tilted this way and that. I thought I’d give them a show.
I thrust my hands into the air and breathed in the forest smells and rock smells for that last time. The thought of revenge raced through my mind and I let it out of me in a roar. A thundering explosion to lift myself into epic hero action.
…Nothing happened.
16
Shit.
The lush hint of forest grass and aged wood was slowly fading and being replaced with stale rock and choking dust.
I had to check if my pants were still on.
Yup, there they were. But, I was left staring out into a dark classroom somewhere full of smiles and fun, all at my expense. I should’ve asked more questions. I was as straightforward as I could have been and there I was, left to figure it out. Like being in a dream where I’m tasked with shooting a gun, but it doesn’t fire. I just point it at enemies and hope for them to fall down or just not come straight at me, until one does, and I wake up.
But, there was no waking up, and I had to piss.
I didn’t feel right, pissing right there where Saiina had spent so many years of her life hiding away.
I walked a little ways until I felt distant enough that whipping my dick out and pissing in the dark wouldn’t offend the spirits. Shaking off the last bit, I docked the flagship, and walked until there was just me and the wall, and then I saw the piles of dead women. I didn’t know how or why they got there but would have bet my last cent that Tawa had something to do with them.
How the fuck did magic work anyway? I stared at the stone, then at the bodies and still had no idea. I stared lik
e they would give up some secret to me. They showed me how angry I was for them.
I curled up my fist and slammed down my frustration on the unanswering wall and my fist sank into the stone like a hungry bear’s claw through a bag of fresh meat. My arm tore into the damn wall elbow-deep. I yanked it free and stumbled backward. Crushed granules and flecks of the infinitely high crag stuck to my jacket.
The hope of being able to do something, anything, at that point lifted my spirits. I wondered what else I was capable of. But first, I needed to control whatever was happening to me and to do that, I needed to run some diagnostic moves.
I had a grin on my face when I threw my next punch. The rock didn’t give a millimeter and I nearly broke my hand. The kung-fu entertainment files I always watched in transit from one job to the next through space came to mind. I needed that kind of focus.
Copying every movie I had ever seen, I came up with a crane stance as the best to focus myself. I was really just pulling shit out of my ass at that point, but it felt right enough at the time. Making sure to not nearly break my other hand, I let the fist fly. Nothing. Another. Nothing. Just the wall, unscathed, mocking me in my cultural appropriation moment.
I dropped to my knees and screamed as loud and angrily as I could. My fists hit the rock under me and blew two holes a foot wide into the floor. The two tiny Kaiju scrambled away, back into the dark.
Anger looked like the key. I had plenty to be pissed at, so I dug deep and let the rage flow through me. The air raced over my skin again. I stood in front of the rock face and plunged my fist into it. Then another. I pulled myself up and let two more fists fly. After the first two, my footholds were in place and the slow climb upward began.
The higher I got, the faster my progress. It was as if I had tapped into a giant reservoir of stamina. I hadn’t even broken a sweat. I thought about being able to fuck for days with it and it brought a smile to my face. My next fist bounced off the cliff face and my progress came to a screeching halt.
Fuck. Instantly, my body was awash in fatigue and my hands went numb. My legs shook to stay in place, and I pulled myself flat against the surface.
“Come on!” The swirl of air, like a suit of armor around me, came quicker that time and stamina flooded through me. My progress wouldn’t be stopped again. After an uncountable amount of rock punches, my arm came up over the edge of the precipice and I dragged myself up to level ground.
The armor of rage left me in my moment of euphoria and I lay there for quite some time, sucking air and soaking the ground with my sweat.
I wasn’t a fan of the aftermath of using my newfound powers. It was like the poison that had ravaged my body the last few days. But, unlike the rot, this pain subsided with rest. I felt well enough to stand and took a final look out over the pit Tawa threw me into. “Guess that was rock bottom,” I mused.
The landing above was nearly as black as below except for a single torch, lit and flickering just inside the hallway that the tall dickhead had dragged me down.
I had to find Yari and the girls, then make a break for it. The advantage of surprise was on my side. No ripple of air surrounding the cloaked guards could fool me again.
The flapping of wings and scrambling of paws drew my eyes to the ledge again. Up popped the green bird-like one and right behind it came the blue squirrel-lizard like hybrid. Up and over they both came, and sat next to me, eyes wide with pure curiosity and sadness for the loss of their Mother.
“I’ll look after you two, but if you are planning to come with me, please don’t look at me like that. You’re breaking my heart.”
Two cute squeaks and they were content to explore the edge of the pit, sniffing around and looking back into the hole.
“Stay out of sight for a while. It’s not going to be safe until we are on my rail-bike and racing out of here.”
Two more squeaky acknowledgments and I was through the opening to freedom. I took the torch on the side of the doorway arch with me. A few minutes passed as I wound my way back up through the well-hewn tunnel. Still, there was nobody watching for me and then I was at the door to the viewing room of the beast.
I passed through the door and felt the ground rumble softly beneath my feet. I stopped and dared myself to not look. It was like being asked to close your eyes while someone went through the menu screen of an old movie, just so you wouldn’t know what the movie was about. My shadow spun around on the floor and followed me into the room where I knew I shouldn’t be.
The window had remained uncovered, the megalith shutter stuck into the slit carved for it in the rock above. There was nothing there. Again, the faint rumble through the ground and I felt the hairs on my arms stand up and scream for me to run. I listened to them and turned for the door.
A child’s voice froze me in place. “Mother?” It floated into my mind from out of thin air. I could feel the eye on me before I turned to meet its gaze. It saw through me into the rock, the tunnels, the air, the atmosphere, and the universe behind me. “Mother?” it called again.
It didn’t know I wasn’t a woman? Was it responding to Yari’s energy inside of me? Did Saiina do the same thing Yari did? I just wished for it to have never noticed me and to go away.
Saiina had said both the Mother and Father were needed to control it, so controlling it by myself was out of the question. But, what about Tawa? He had been able to do it. But, the rot had also taken half his arm and threatened to take the rest without the Life-Tech stopping it.
Chittering in behind me came my two new little friends. The eye disappeared behind its massive lid, opened, then refocused on them. “Where’s Mother?” The pupil flared wide, and I pulled my hand back. “Where’s—”
The child’s voice in my head faded and a hurricane rushed in to replace it. A thousand cracks of thunder shook the little room like the tiny hammer on the top of an alarm clock. The room’s details were gone in the blur of the vibrations.
It pulled its eye away and slammed it into the window, cracking translucent barrier from one end to the other. It pulled back again, and we fled.
I ran through the hallway as fast as I could, and saw that the little ones were following. Then the light went out in the tunnel, and rock and dust exploded through the door. The wave of debris clawed at my feet until I broke through to the upper level back into the Jian-Di cave structure. The area around was choked with the fog of the Kaiju’s charge on the room. I could barely see through it. Good. I ran for cover behind the closest house to the cave opening and flattened myself against the smooth wood frame. After a few seconds, my two little friends emerged from the cloud and settled in beside me, also flattened against the wall.
Through the crash and rumble of the raging beast below, I heard footsteps, then calls of alarm. Calls for all guards. Another boom from within the rock and another explosion of debris from the entrance. Calls for clarity and backup were turning to screams. Cries for their leader, Tawa Yen.
Chaos.
Lady Yen answered the calls first, her Flit form slicing through the roiling gray clouds turned green by her transformation. She began directing traffic. “Tawa is handling the Kaiju. Clean up when the tremors have subsided. Don’t worry about the tunnel, we’re abandoning it.”
“Yes, Lady Yen,” saluted four fully-armored guards. “We will see to the prisoners and make sure they don’t leave alive.”
“You four,” she yelled to the group. They had the bow and arrows I was accustomed to seeing on the Jian-Di, but their armor was thicker, and they carried axes and broad-bladed short swords with them. “I will go with you. There is something I need to ask them before you end them. The human isn’t a problem but the Pusani can break out of her cell if the rock is compromised. Let’s move, NOW!”
Nothing about Yari, but I figured the raging behemoth would keep Tawa busy long enough for me to figure out where she was being kept.
I watched them disappear into the growing dust cloud and then followed in their wake. Another boom from somewhere in
side the floating island. The fog was everywhere, pouring down through cracks in the ceiling above.
They carried on past the last of the houses and entered through another hole cut into the rock face. The air was clearer inside the hallway, so I had to be careful not to follow too close. They rounded a corner and their footsteps stopped.
“You two stay here,” I said to my two new little Kaiju friends.
“The prisoners are secure,” Lady Yen said. My pulse raced as I turned and felt the air streak over my body. I felt the high rush through me before my arm exploded through the guards closest to me. I caught the next one by surprise as well, as his armor crumpled like paper and followed my arm through his torso, showering the hallway in and arc of scarlet death.
The third guard was on me before I could turn, slamming his ax into my side. I felt some of the impact, but the blade shattered around me. I backhanded his head off his shoulders, like a stick through a water balloon. I turned and pushed past him, heading for the last one and Lady Yen.
He slid his short sword free of its ornate sheath and pulled back to throw it through the bars at B and Pusi, but dropped it on the floor instead. Blood erupted from his mouth and he collapsed in a heap. Lady Yen’s arm was crimson up to her elbow.
The hallway shook again, rock and dust falling from above. She withdrew keys and unlocked the gate to Pusi and B’s cell.
“There’s no time. We have to leave, now!”
Pusi and B were out of the cell and all were running after Lana. We followed her out of the hallway, along the edge of the cave wall, and up through another tunnel. Bursting forth onto the landing where we first saw Lana shapeshift, I swung toward my precious rail-bike.
“Sweet, right where I left it,” I said as Pusi and B hurried to take their seats. A flash of green and Lana was perched on the handle bars. “Any time, lover boy,” said B. “Where the fuck were you?”
My two cuddly Kaiju hopped into the pods, the bird-like one with Pusi and the squirrel-lizard like hybrid one with B. “Now you have pets? You know our unit doesn’t allow pets, Mark.”