by Leia Stone
As Dawn started her descent, I scanned the edges of the lake for my friends. They would never be out in the open. Luckily, I didn’t see any of the giants when we’d flown, so I figured we were out of their smell radar.
As she got closer to the surface, I spotted Maxine’s bright red hair, stationed among a small grove of pods trees and foliage.
‘There!’ I told Dawn and described where they were.
As she flew closer and landed on the ground, my eyes landed on a familiar figure, someone I hadn’t expected to be there.
“Master Aki!” I whisper-screamed and leapt off Dawn, running toward my mentor. He was wearing his typical black shirt and loose-fitting pants, two samurai swords poking out from behind his back. He was short at five-six, but make no mistake, he could lay an ass whooping when he wanted to. His salt-and-pepper hair was cropped short, and a grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.
I’d known this man since I was twelve years old. I’d screamed at him, cried, threw fits, laughed and every other range of emotion a human had with someone close to them. We had an unspoken bond, and he was like a father figure to me. He wasn’t much of a hugger, always stoic and rigid, but I didn’t give a shit. I crashed into him, nearly knocking him over as I wrapped my arms around him. His chest rumbled underneath me as he chuckled and squeezed me tight.
When he pulled back, I could see tenderness in his eyes. “I hear you have a little problem,” he stated.
My happiness wore off then. “Yeah. I’m stuck here.”
He frowned. “That’s one way of looking at it.”
Here we go. Yoda’s about to start speaking riddles. I put one hand on my hip. “How else would you explain it?”
He circled me slowly, looking me up and down as if seeing something I couldn’t. “You don’t look stuck to me.”
My typical anger and frustration that he knew just how to bring out of me was rising.
“You know what I mean,” I pressed him.
He put his hands behind his back and shrugged. “Have you tried to leave?”
This man pushed every button I had, multiple times. “There is no ‘trying to leave,’” I told him. I knew he wanted me to see something I couldn’t, but it was just pissing me off.
“I say there is,” he declared, and left it at that.
Great, lessons. Always lessons. I would forever be a student when it came to my relationship with him.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Damien said, from behind me.
I spun and stepped into his open arms, reaching up on my tiptoes to give him a kiss. The past twelve hours had changed me. I was so grateful for what I had, who I had. I didn’t want to hide any of my feelings. I was living life like Maxine now.
“Thanks for coming,” I told him.
I gave Ronnie, Maxine, Brisk and Nox each a hug. I assumed they’d left Jeremy back home with Mr. Hansen and Josephine. I’d complexly forgotten about Lucy until I’d hugged Ronnie and the tiny kitten hissed at me from her little evil pouch. I gave her the stink eye and then called Dawn over.
“Master Aki, you remember Dawn?” I reintroduced them. They’d met a few times over the past decade.
Dawn bowed her head, and Master Aki placed both hands at his sides and gave her a deep bow in return. Master Aki respected the Galadrias immensely, and it showed in how he treated them.
“How’s the leg, Brisk?” I asked my favorite Marine.
He shrugged. “Looks like a pin cushion, but I’m okay.” He winked.
That was a relief.
“Okay… guys, I have to show you something. I needed water, so Dawn took me to this human military bunker type place, and I found these.”
I held up the files and proceeded to explain what I’d found. Damien’s eyes were wide as he flipped through the papers. Even my stoic mentor was scowling as he leafed through a few.
He shook his head. “We must not let this happen.”
“Yeah, but how can we stop it?” I ventured.
He rubbed the little white goatee on his chin. “First and foremost, we destroy their latest supply of this green stuff. Show them we know about their deal and we won’t stand for it.”
My eyes bugged. “What you do mean? Like blow it up?”
He nodded calmly. “Precisely.”
Gentle Master Aki wants to blow up a shipping dock in Boston? Okay….
Nox looked super thrilled about all of this.
“Then, you’ll start training with me. We work with Jeremy to test your gifts, and find a way to end the Dream Wars. Before this plan can come to pass,” Master Aki concluded.
I tried and failed not to roll my eyes. “Master, that’s… a nice thought, but they have a kill list. If we invent another device, the government will ‘terminate’ us. I know you believe in my gifts, but I’m not strong enough to do anything that would make a big impact.”
“I believe you are,” he said, without hesitation.
I sighed. “And I appreciate your faith in me, but making a female breeder’s nose bleed is about all I’m capable of.”
He shrugged. “Agree to disagree, young one.” That term of endearment meant the conversation was over. He wouldn’t budge.
“Fine. Whatever.”
If he wanted me to try and move shit with my mind, I would give it a go if only to prove him and Jeremy wrong.
Damien was pacing angrily. “We should get these files to the press.”
I’d thought of that. “But how? How do we get them from here back home? And honestly, who would believe it? They’ll scream ‘conspiracy theory,’ and next week they’ll forget about it.”
Damien looked livid. “While you’ve been in here, they blew up the Bisbee mine. Five dead. That’s why it says terminated. Someone must’ve printed these fresh, right after it happened.”
My heart sank when I thought about that sweet town and the five lives lost. “So no more mine?”
He nodded. “Which means no more plasma bricks or cuffs. The government is just handing the human race to the ghouls on a silver platter.”
Rage poured through me at that. “I’ll bet these are their only copies. There was a typewriter in the room.”
Brisk stepped forward. “Were there cameras? Did you leave prints?”
Shit.
I swallowed hard. “I may have left some prints on a chair or two.” And the marker with which I wrote ‘traitors.’
Idiot.
Brisk swore. “So now you’re on the list.”
Great, just what I needed on top of all of my current problems.
A thought came to me. “Is Canada on the list? Are they bad too?” I had only scanned the list of countries involved, only half paying attention.
Damien did a quick scroll. “Canada and Mexico are not on the list.”
Maxine spat on the ground. “Because the United States wants to make a grab for their land once they’re gone. Take over the entirety of North America.”
She was right. That made sense in an evil, evil way.
“So we’re safe in Canada,” I stated.
Damien shrugged. “Maybe. And if we wake up in the US and CCTV catches our face, then….”
“Then don’t wake up in the US.” Master Aki spoke up. “Control your thoughts coming out of the Dream Wars, like you do going in, and you will wake where you want to.”
Hope burst inside of my chest. “Is that true? Have you been doing that?” He was a master of mental control, so I would believe him if he’d said that was the trick.
He nodded. “Not the first few nights, because I couldn’t figure out what was going on, why I was waking up in random countries. But recently I tried to control my thoughts how I do when I’m falling asleep, and I’ve landed in San Francisco both times. I was going to call and tell you that I’d proven my theory, when Ronnie called me instead.”
Relief coursed through my veins. I could do that. I would have to teach the others, and I was worried about Maxine, who had little control over her mental calm, but it was worth
a shot.
“Kit, can I talk with you a moment in private?” Master Aki beckoned me to his side. The rest of the group took up arms at the perimeter, giving us some privacy.
My mentor placed a hand on each of my shoulders and met my gaze. Some serious shit was about to go down; he never got this intense unless he was going to drop a serious truth bomb.
“Remember when you were fifteen, and I told you that one day I would teach you to use your powers to their upmost and greatest ability? That if I taught you too young, you could hurt yourself or others?”
Holy shit. I did remember. I’d bugged him for two years to make me a lethal badass because he always said I was holding back, but then I gave up and forgot about it. Using Tatum as a waker, pushing thoughts when I needed to communicate, and rarely controlling another when they were having a PTSD flashback seemed to be fine with me.
“Yeah…,” I said nervously.
He smiled, the same one he wore at my cadet graduation as he sat next to my mom and she took swigs of wine from a flask. It was that proud smile that meant I’d accomplished some lifetime achievement.
“It’s time,” he stated, then let go of my shoulders.
Just like that, he’d laid the truth bomb, and I was supposed to grapple with it.
“Okay… so you’re now willing to reveal the extent of my powers, that you somehow know, and teach me to use them?” I raised one eyebrow. Master Aki was anything but forthcoming. He knew things but never shared them.
He tsked. “Don’t ask stupid questions.” He pointed at me.
My mouth dropped open. “Hey! You’re supposed to say there are no stupid questions.”
He shrugged. “That is a lie that teachers tell students so they don’t feel bad.”
I crossed my arms and cut him a glare.
After a two-minute epic stare-down, he cracked. “Okay. I will try to explain this in very simple terms.”
“Fantastic.” He hadn’t explained shit to me since I was twelve years old, and if he knew all these things about my mental communication gift or whatever, I wanted to know how.
“Master Aki, Kit and other humans were normal. Until one day.” He lifted his hand in the air. “Spaceships landed and the ghouls came. Suddenly, Master Aki, Kit, and some humans became special.”
I nodded, knowing there was about 1 percent of the population that had gifts—extreme strength, enhanced speed, mental communication, and psychic abilities. We didn’t know how, but assumed it was linked to the aliens’ presence.
Master Aki motioned to Dawn. “Master Aki is like Dawn. Like the Galadrias. Their essence was somehow infused with mine, and now I can see things.”
Holy fucking shit! Why didn’t he tell me this before? My mouth popped open, and I just stood their dumbfounded.
“Your essence”—he pointed to me—“is like the breeders. You can do what they do. I’m sure of it.” He finished and then just stood there, waiting for me to speak.
He was the second person that day to tell me I was like the breeders. It was starting to irk me.
“You’ve known this the entire time, and didn’t tell anyone? Didn’t tell me?” I was actually more hurt than pissed, and it showed in my voice.
“Remember, I see things. You weren’t ready, and you need Jeremy. Now the timing is right, and everything has aligned.”
I wanted to argue, to lash out, stomp my foot, and throw a full-blown freaking twelve-year-old temper tantrum. But how could I argue with his logic? He somehow foresaw this moment, and this was the moment to tell me. Though I was still having a hard time believing I was anything like those monsters.
I settled for crossing my arms and nodding. “Okay, so what now?”
“Now the real work begins.” He smiled, following his typical Master Aki vagueness.
I was about to press him for more when a massive headache rocked my world. My hands camp up to frame my face, and Master Aki wasted no time in starting his first lesson.
“Kit, you need to learn to push thoughts out. You’ve always been good at projecting your own thoughts but never protecting them.”
The pain ramped up a notch and my eyes watered. There was a breeder somewhere trying to kill me.
“The breeders. They’re trying to make my life hell,” I said between gasps of air.
Damien swam into view. “Are you okay?” He put an arm around me.
“She would be fine, if she would listen to me,” Master Aki snapped.
Anger rose up in me. “I’m trying the best I can!” I shouted, lashing out at him.
He was grinning.
“What?” I asked.
“Your headache gone?” He looked smug.
It was. “How?”
He bowed. “You pushed. Use that anger, Kit. Just not on me.” He winked.
I did a full circle. “There’s a female somewhere around here,” I told everyone.
Damien pulled up his heat-scanning device and frowned. “I’m only seeing a few grunts about a quarter mile away.”
My lips turned down as I glanced to Master Aki. “What’s going on?”
He looked sad. “From this moment forward, the breeders will be looking for any way they can hurt you. No matter how far away you are, they will be trying to find you, harm you, and end you.”
His words were so ominous that I half-expected to hear “dun dun dun” music in the background.
I swallowed hard. “Teach me what to do.” It was the same thing I’d asked him when I was twelve years old. A scared little girl with mental control powers she didn’t understand, and the spirit animal of a video game heroine on a murderous rampage.
He nodded. “First let’s get you home.”
I sighed. He said that like it was an easy thing.
I had a feeling this was going to be a long night.
Fourteen
While my team made a circle of protection around me, I sat down knee to knee with Master Aki. My mentor was in his zone, eyes closed, breathing rhythmically in and out.
“Close your eyes,” he said in a trancelike voice.
I did.
“Now breathe until your mind is absolutely blank, and then search for the thread to your body. We all have one. An invisible link from there to here,” he instructed.
I tried not to analyze his words or over-process them, just did as he asked. Breathing in and out, I let go of all my worries. The fact that I was sitting in the Dream Wars, while breeders from miles away tried to give me migraines was washed from my consciousness.
Breathe in, breathe out.
Once my mind was clear, I sent out my awareness, searching for my body as if I were going to mentally communicate with it, like I did with Tatum or Damien. I felt lost, shooting in the dark, looking for something that wasn’t there, until I felt a snag. A familiar pull of my own consciousness. Trying not to let my spike of excitement break my concentration, I followed the thread.
Halfway down, I felt the tangled energy of another on this pathway. A breeder. She too was ‘linked in’ to my Earth body.
“The breeder is tangled with my energy,” I said with my eyes closed, trying to keep panic from taking over.
“Doesn’t matter. You’re stronger. She’ll break away,” he replied confidently.
Right.
I kept following the link, trying not to feel the ickiness of the breeder who was right there with me. Once I got to the end, I gasped. I could sense my body, it was lying down in what seemed like some type of hospital bed. I didn’t know where I was, but it was somewhere foreign. Far from Vancouver or the United states. I wasn’t sure how I knew that, I just did. No one was with me, my energy signature was the only one in the room.
Master Aki must’ve seen it on my face.
“Now wake up,” he said. “Push.”
Can I really control this?
I focused again on my body, in the supposed hospital room, and wrapped the words ‘Wake up’ in my mind, filling them with energy. I imagined what it would feel like to wake up, a
nd then pushed that into my energy signature, into my body lying back on Earth. There was a cracking feeling as the breeder snapped away from the cord that was my energy, and then nausea rolled into me.
My eyelids snapped open. “I’m waking up!” I said, as that familiar feeling came over me, and I started to cry. I was crying a lot lately, but I couldn’t help it.
‘Dawn, I’m waking up. Thank you for everything! I loved sky home. I’ll see you soon,’ I sent to her.
‘Dawn was happy to show Kit sky home.” Her reply was instant. “To keep her safe. Kit will end the Dream Wars.’
That was the last thing I heard before I woke up. It played around and around in my head, until my body left the Dream Wars, and my eyelids snapped open. As suspected, I was staring at the ceiling of a hospital room. The white draped linens smelled of bleach and I sat up, noticing there was a tube in my nose, and down my throat. I tried to scream, panicked, and a pretty blonde nurse ran in with wide eyes.
She mumbled something in another language, and then a male doctor came in.
“You’re American?” he asked, with an accent I couldn’t quite place.
I just nodded, pointing to the tube in my nose and throat. He motioned for the nurse to handle it, and she began to remove the tape.
“You were in a coma. We… didn’t think you would survive. The tube has been feeding you,” he stated.
Holy shit. That breeder bitch almost killed me.
The nurse motioned for me to breathe in deeply. I did and she yanked the tube out, making me gag. “Where am I?” I asked hoarsely.
“Copenhagen.”
I’d always wanted to see Denmark. Not like this though.
“Thank you so much for keeping me alive,” I told him.
He nodded, still looking at me like I was a ghost. “You were found under a bridge, in the middle of the road.”
That breeder bitch tried to get me run over too!
“I had an issue in the Dream Wars,” I offered.
That he seemed to understand. “You military?” He motioned to the chair that held my guns and Kevlar suit.
“Ex-military. Now I’m in private security,” I explained.