The Energy Crusades

by Valerie Noble

  Many of the Students practiced with orbs, small round objects used as weapons. They flew through the air while the Students attempted to harness their power and I felt a tug of envy while I watched. I hadn't yet started my Weapons training and wished I was using an orb rather than being stuck between Atticus and Caden.

  Seeing the Students working furiously and dedicated to their studies, gave me a rush of anticipation. I felt a renewed sense of pride about who I was and what I'd been trained for, both mentally and physically, and the feeling stayed with me as I entered the cafeteria, which was nearly full by the time we arrived. A hush fell over the Students as we entered, and I knew the hushed whispers were in regards to the Athletes and not the redhead who accompanied us.

  Atticus didn't pause as we entered; he took my arm and propelled me forward, unruffled by the hushed silence. Many of the Students dipped their heads as we passed, and I dipped mine back, acknowledging each one I made eye contact with. Atticus kept his eyes focused straight ahead and Caden followed just slightly behind me. He tugged my other arm as we neared a table where Ajax sat with Balor and Tory. In response, Atticus tried to pull me along, not wishing to stop, but I held my ground and the three of us found ourselves looking down at the three of them.

  "Hello," I greeted them. "Do you all know Atticus?"

  By the looks on their faces it seemed they not only knew him, they also disliked him. Balor and Tory grumbled hellos at Caden and me, but Ajax said nothing. He looked directly at me, his steady gaze unreadable.

  What is the problem with Atticus? I asked the question in Ajax's head, but he didn't respond to it; he simply gazed at me and gave no reaction. It made me uneasy — the way he looked at me as if he understood exactly what I was communicating, but chose to ignore me. I tried to get a sense of his feelings, but he let nothing show. When had we become two strangers? I didn't understand it, and I was torn between feeling hurt over his rejection, while at the same time wanting desperately to please him. I didn't want to have either of those emotions; I wanted to be completely indifferent, as he was to me.

  I kept an easy smile on my face and continued to the counter to order my breakfast alongside Atticus and Caden. Waves of anger radiated from Atticus, as he fought to control the emotion.

  "Calm down," I touched his arm and tried to project whatever calm feelings I could muster on to him. He said nothing while our wrists were scanned. The chef looked over our readouts, and then went to prepare our breakfasts. We sat down at a table adjacent to where Ajax, Tory and Balor sat. Atticus and I sat together on one side of the table. Caden sat across from me.

  "They are not our friends. You remember that, Kaia. I am your friend," Atticus voice was filled with fury.

  "We're not your friends, Atticus!" Balor looked about ready to jump out of his seat. Atticus didn't react to him; he just sat there, fuming, while our breakfasts were set before us. The chef had prepared a meal of berries, yogurt, and oatmeal, and I dug in immediately. It looked beautiful, and I was famished. I didn't want to think about who my friends were and who wasn't. Of them all, it was Ajax who had any sort of history with me, and it was Ajax who wanted to keep his distance from me. I guessed he wasn't my friend.

  As a fellow Athlete, I could count on Atticus; he would be my friend, no matter what. There was a code among Athletes and we were loyal to each other. I'd spent some time bonding with Tory, and felt I could consider her a friend. Balor and Caden felt hopeful we'd form a friendship. They did not resent me or have unkind feelings toward me. If I was being truthful, Atticus seemed unjustified in his resentment toward them. I was unaware of what had transpired before my arrival, but he was the one who appeared out of line and unwilling to give anyone a chance.

  I swiveled my head toward him and kept my voice low as I asked, "What have you done?" His disdain for the Students was purposeful. He did not want their friendships, nor did he seek out any alliances. Instead, he seemed to live by what had been fed to Athletes at every academy on Earth: we were superior humans, we had superior genes, we should always stick together, and we should only mate with other Athletes.

  But Tiergan and I had parents who taught us to remain humble and to be grateful for the opportunities we were given. Anyone could become an Athlete, they believed, if given the proper chance and training, and my brother and I shouldn't feel superior when other children were simply not offered or allowed the same opportunity. How then, did circumstance make our genes superior? I'd witnessed Ajax on the tennis court and knew he was good enough to play on the tour. He'd been good enough to play the number one tennis player, and could probably beat me if given enough chances. It was hard to feel superior over someone who simply hadn't been allowed to leave home.

  "What have I done?" Atticus was furious. "Why don't you ask that filthy Unviable what he's done. And tell him to keep his eyes off of you. She's mine!" He challenged Ajax, while my skin turned ice cold.

  No matter what had transpired between us, I could not bear his insult to Ajax, and I completely lost control. I grabbed at Atticus, clutching the front of his suit between my fists while knocking over all of the glasses and causing the other dishes to clatter to the floor. I swung at his face and managed to connect before Ajax leaped over the table to get between us. Silence descended over the entire cafeteria. I'd managed to cause quite a scene, though such an incident would have been nothing at the Tennis Academy.

  Atticus yanked his way out of Ajax's grip. "Get your hands off me! You have no right to touch me!" he yelled.

  Without speaking, Ajax took me by the arm and navigated through the curious bystanders and out of the building. Tory, Balor, and Caden followed closely behind.

  Chapter Six

  Training

  "I know he's your son, Astrid, but you have to admit he pushes her too hard," Audrick said to me, his voice laced with tension as we watched the Crusaders training on the common lawns. It was indeed a grueling couple of weeks for Kaia. Preliminary training for all crusaders meant a battery of physical challenges. If they couldn't pass the level of challenge assigned to their Crusade, they would be bumped to a lower level.

  Ajax took his mentor role extremely seriously when it came to Kaia. When they weren't training, he let his resentment of her permeate their interactions, and when they were training he pushed her beyond all reasonable physical limits. Nobody could miss the way they ignored each other during off hours, but what made my insides crumble in despair was the way she was starting to resent him. Things were not going as I had hoped.

  "She can handle it," I answered him tersely. "You've trained her well." Ajax worked with four of my Crusaders: Kaia, Caden, Tory, and Balor. The sixth member had already completed his preliminary physicals and I didn't mind keeping him away from Kaia for as long as possible. He was also an Unviable, and therefore a potential completion of the prophecy my sister had seen in regards to Kaia.

  "Maybe you should have kept Cadmus behind," Audrick needled me. He knew my doubts on the subject, and my constant worry over whether or not I had made a mistake. At the moment, Ajax was prompting Kaia to do yet another task while her hands stayed firmly clenched against her sides. She turned her face away as he spoke, even though her glasses shielded her eyes.

  Shut up, Audrick. I didn't trust myself to say the words out loud. He knew how to hit a nerve. Had I chosen the wrong son? Had I put too much faith in the childhood bond Ajax and Kaia once shared?

  Watch. Audrick nudged me with his mind, calling my attention back to the Crusaders. I watched as Kaia ran through a course followed by the Athlete, Atticus Martin. Atticus was the only other Athlete currently at the University and I had wondered how Kaia would react to him. A Reformation Athlete to his core, Atticus believed wholeheartedly in the superiority of Athletes, and as I suspected, wasted no time in declaring Kaia as his own. She disputed his claim immediately, however, unable to deny her alliance with Ajax, or her former bond with him. At least, it was how I chose to view her loss of control when Ajax was insulted, and my hopes
skyrocketed upon hearing about the incident in the cafeteria.

  In any case, Atticus was maddening. I wanted to dislike the boy, if only because he had insulted my sons on too many occasions, but I had to admit he was simply a product of his upbringing. He was also good enough to be on my own team, but I was uncertain about him. Would he ever believe he was a well-trained pawn in a game he had no control over? Or would he remain a Reformation Athlete, sold on the idea he was superior? I couldn't tell. He had a part to play, but as of yet, I could not see what it was.

  Instead of dwelling on those unanswerable questions, I concentrated on the way he shadowed Kaia on the lawns. The obstacle courses were virtual ones, and changed with the completion of each task. Audrick and I both had a hand in designing the challenges, knowing what the crusaders would face should they ever be called to fight the Resistance.

  At the moment, huge buildings sprang from the ground, towering over the lawns, sleek and frighteningly tall. Each Crusader needed to scale them using only climbing gel affixed to the hands and feet. The gel provided clinging power, but you still had to be able to pull your body up the building, zip line from one structure to the other, then rappel down. Windows inside the buildings would light up, and you had to get to the lit window, touch its face and then move on until they all went dark, signaling the end of the exercise. If it wasn't buildings, it might be ladders or just plain walls to be traversed, one after another. Cliffs might also appear, or a hanging maze of ropes. The Crusaders never knew which obstacle would appear before them next, which is exactly how we designed the courses.

  We watched as Kaia climbed a building. She made it look effortless, while Tory, several stories below, struggled laboriously up each floor. Tory kept at it though, completing each task at her own determined pace and keeping her spot on my team. Kaia climbed quickly to the top and leapt to an adjacent building when a window lit up a few stories below where she made the jump. She started to scramble down, but a Crusader above her lost his footing and slid down the building, knocking her off balance. Her head slammed into the building as she swung out of the sliding boy's way, causing her solar glasses to fly from her head.

  Kaia quickly righted herself but hunched her head and shoulders into the glass, shying away from the other Students while she was without her solar glasses. She lifted her head only when Ajax touched her to hand her back her glasses.

  She waits for him. She knows his touch.

  Audrick's silent observation highlighted the reasons I clung to my shreds of hope. No matter how much resentment existed between the two, they always looked to each other instinctively whenever there was trouble, regardless of how slight. When they trained side by side, their bodies moved almost as if they were one.

  The brief bit of hope that flared in me while Ajax gently placed her solar glasses back on her face, settled into a dull ache around my heart as I continued to watch my son. Ajax was so unhappy. He was unhappy with me, with his father and brother, with Tiergan, and now with Kaia Robi. He was unhappy at being marked an Unviable, mistakenly believing he was unfit as a mate for anyone, and therefore closing himself off to the possibility of finding love. I wished he were more like Cadmus when it came to matters of the heart, carefree and confident, certain he could defy all odds and love any and as many girls as he wanted. Cadmus would have gladly stayed behind at the University to train with Kaia. If not in love, Cadmus harbored an infatuation with the girl, a thought I pushed from my mind.

  Love was an emotion I would have scoffed at — did scoff at — when I was their age. Fresh from my humanization training, I was matched up with a number belonging to a human the Institute selected as a good genetic match for me. I had no thought love might be involved when I was sent from the Cassiopeia Grid, the capitol of the Reformation Republic, to the University in the Perseus Grid, where I would meet my number, Caius Baal.

  I shook those remembrances from my head and concentrated again on the son before me.

  Chapter Seven

  The Weapons Room

  My time at the University was not going well. I was exhausted, defeated and demoralized. If I thought the training schedule was grueling at the Tennis Academy, I hadn't realized what grueling was. I spent all of my time with Tory, Balor, and Caden, fulfilling the physical requirements of our Crusade under the guidance of Ajax. We woke at dawn, ate a quick breakfast and then headed to the common lawns for training, stopping only to refuel our bodies. Our day ended when the sun went down and we'd make our way to the cafeteria, then fall into bed after our evening meal, only to repeat the same routine the following day. The hours spent with my fellow Crusaders were not all bleak, and I was glad to get to know them better, but I had yet to meet the elusive sixth member of our team. He had completed preliminary training along with Ajax the previous year, and was now doing extensive training in the Healing Rooms.

  We weren't the only Crusaders training on the lawns, and it was a chance for me to meet many of the other Students. Since they were also Elite, we often trained with Atticus's team and whenever possible, he claimed a place by my side while we competed, as if it was his job to keep a close eye on me.

  Since the incident in the cafeteria, relations between Ajax and I were worse than ever. He continued to openly resent me and did his best not to speak to me outside of our training exercises, which made life especially difficult since we spent nearly every waking hour together. Each night I fell into bed completely exhausted, hoping for a restful night, which never came.

  "Put my sister on the box, please," I could hear Tiergan's voice when Ajax answered his mailbox. Sure enough, Tiergan had found a way to contact me. Unfortunately he did so by ringing Ajax's mailbox, which meant I never had a chance to speak to my brother privately.

  Ajax handed over his mailbox wordlessly.

  "How are you holding up, little sister?" Every time Tiergan's face filled the screen, I felt the hot prick of tears at the back of my eyes. I missed him terribly.

  "I'm okay," I tried to be cheerful with my answer, for my brother's face looked just as weary as my own. His light brown hair was cropped close to his head and his hazel eyes showed more green than brown. It was a small comfort to see Tiergan's familiar features, and the way his freckles dusted across his nose in a pattern that mirrored my own. "How are you?" I asked, though there was much more I wanted to say.

  "Tired, can you tell?" He rubbed a hand across his face, and we stared at each other for several moments, letting all our unspoken thoughts settle between us. I touched my screen and he touched his back, our hands joining across the universe with our small gesture.

  "You know, one day he'll have to face me again. He shouldn't be fooled into thinking I'll ever forget the way he treated my sister." Tiergan often made similar proclamations, despite the fact I'd made no complaint against Ajax. My brother just knew. And Ajax never showed the slightest reaction to Tiergan's words; he ignored Tiergan as thoroughly as he ignored me. I wondered if Ajax complained about me to Cadmus.

  "How is Cadmus?" I asked on a whim, desperate for any small remembrance of my childhood, any shred of acknowledgment of being remembered before I became the Athlete, Kaia Robi. I rarely saw my parents, and Derek had not bothered to visit me. Perhaps he had forgotten about me too. My memories of Cadmus were vague, but I still felt the urge to be remembered myself.

  "Cadmus is tired too. Our days are long here on Danu, and our progress is slow." My brother never told me anything specific about what they were doing, but I expected he would once we could speak privately.

  "Does he…" My voice trailed off pathetically. I wanted to ask 'Does he remember me?' or 'Does he dislike me as much as Ajax does?' But I felt ashamed at my weakness and swallowed my words. My brother, however, sensed my feelings perfectly.

  "Does he dislike you the way Ajax does?" As soon as Tiergan asked the question, Ajax crooked his head in my direction. It was the first time he showed any reaction to our conversations. I didn't meet his eyes but thought I felt a strange emotion emanate
from him. He reeled it in before I could put my finger on it. What was it?

  "Would you like to speak to him?" Tiergan continued, smiling in his crooked, mischievous way. His face blurred and I presumed he meant to hand his mailbox to Cadmus, but I only caught a brief glimpse of Cadmus before Ajax snatched the device out of my hands.

  "Time to go," he snapped at me, closing off my communication with Tiergan. I stared at him, stunned. My cheeks grew hot and I wanted to scream at him, throw something at him, anything to get him to speak to me, no matter how harsh his words might be. Being ignored was worse than having someone actually be mean to you. At least with mean you could argue back, perhaps defend yourself. Anything seemed better than the icy silence I got from Ajax.

  Why? I screamed in his head knowing he couldn't hear me and wouldn't answer in any case. Once again, I found myself staring at his back as he walked away, leaving me no choice but to follow. This time, we weren't headed to the common lawns, but to the Weapons Room. Professor Baal had insisted I have some one-on-one training with Ajax, and neither of us was thrilled by the edict. We made our way silently across campus to the building at its southernmost tip. Beyond it, past the Energy Field, cliffs gave way to the ocean below.