My eyes flutter open catching a glimpse of the evening sky above. The trees look tropical and obscure my view of my surroundings just a bit. I lift my head off of the soft patch of dirt I was in and find myself immersed in the jungle with my armor in backpack form next to me. A fire blazes in front of me with a man sitting on a log in front of me. He is a tall man, with a skinny yet toned build and long hair falling down around his head just touching his shoulders. His face is chiseled with a very defined chin and red marks of paint on his cheeks and on the bridge of his nose that is vibrant against his dark brown skin. He is shirtless with leather wrist cuffs on and ragged trousers. He is sharpening a knife with a wet stone and doesn’t seem to notice I am awake. I try to sit up quietly but feel a sharp pain against the small of my back. I grunt a little feeling a wave of nausea and throw up on the ground in front of me. “You might want to keep your head up and relax, you overdrew your lightning spirit so it is going to take a while before you heal,” he says in a voice I recognize. I notice a log behind my head and rest my head against it. He tosses me a fuzzy skin pouch filled with water and I quickly gulp it down letting the water run down my throat and satisfies my quench. “Yes please, drink all my water, I don’t mind,” he says in a very sarcastic tone. I stop drinking and cap the pouch.
“My bad, sorry about that,” I say to him, “Do you mind if I ask who you are, and what I am doing here?” I have a bit of an annoyed tone in my voice, as far as I know I was about to accept death before this figure, I guess this guy, saved me. In the moment it felt right, I felt like I should die for what I have done, for becoming one of them but now with the barrier back up I finally feel like my head's clear again. The flashbacks start coming to me, I see all the people and the horror as I burnt innocent and guilty men and women to a crisp, I start to feel sick at my stomach again and I am forced to close my eyes and just concentrate on holding in the next wave of vomit. “Chammel,” he says, I stare at him a little bewildered having no idea what language that is. He sees my look and rolls his eyes,“that's my name dumbass, I saved your life, in case you couldn’t tell, if it weren’t for me you would be that cheese that those people in Europe make, I think is called like...”
“Swiss cheese?” I answer.
“That's it,” He replies and stands up revealing his tall figure. He had to be at least 6’3 and had the build of someone who had been training to fight since he was a young man, a lot like me. When he turned away from me and started walking towards a tree with low hanging fruit on it I notice he had a giant black tattoo across his back that looked like a compass with bold black points and pieces of a puzzle fitting together inside of it. The other more strange thing was that along with the man scars from knives and swords there were little holes all across his back that had been scarred over that I recognized as buckshot from a shotgun.
“Holy crap,” I say in a shocked tone, “I have seen many gunshot wounds in my life, and from the look of that scar pattern, you should be dead.”
“Really? Are you sure? I mean it’s not like I haven’t been told that before, wow thank you doctor, what's the cost of your examination.” He takes down a yellow spiky fruit and starts slicing it open and eating it. “I know I should be dead,” he said, “the organization I work for is very good at healing those who are.” He stops and thinks for a second, “physically challenged? I think that is the right word.” He comes and sits back down and just from the short conversation I have had with this dude I can already tell he and I aren’t going to get along.
“Well, thanks for the sarcastic jokes and for saving my life but I have...,” I check my wristlet and the time glows in blue in the air, 5:42 p.m. “About 4 hours before I am getting extracted from the country to go back home and I need to find Becca, It has been a pleasure.” I pick up my backpack and start walking through the jungle towards the lights off in the distance that are visible above the treetops.
“How does it feel to be superior,” I hear Chammel yell from behind me, “I hear most remnants go crazy from the memories.” I stop dead in my tracks and turn around facing towards him. He is staring down at his food but looks up to give me a slight smile and have this look in his eyes that says
“What do you mean,” I ask in a rushed tone, “Who are you dude?” He stands up and puts his hand to his forehead in a salute and stands up straight in a stiff military form, obviously to making fun of my commanding words.
“Chammel Aguilas, warrior of the Andorian guard under the leadership of the great Zozaket, rank level 5, part of the physical legend task force.” He sits back down and goes back to his fruit like nothing has happened. He moves his hair out of his face and looks me dead on. “I believe you and I talked on the phone when I was trying to talk to Leqhoa.” At this my eyes widen and my anger starts to build up inside, coming like waves of water, building and drowning me out. I expect to see the lightning or a hallucination or something but instead I just feel sick and start to collapse. Chammel looks at me with an eyebrow raised, “OH! The barriers in your mind haven’t been removed have they? That actually explains quite a bit. Hang on,” he reaches into a satchel next to him and pulls out a little green tablet then throws it into the fire. A green billow starts to form from the flames, It starts to form and shift until it starts slowly coming towards me, looking to engulf me. I start to move back a bit trying to move away from the terrifying poison cloud coming towards me, but it comes in to fast and comes all around me. I feel it entering through my nose, eyes, and mouth burning as it moves through my body. It feel as if my body systems were each shutting down until the cloud moved its way into my brain and I started to scream from the pressure in my head, but then the barrier broke loose. I felt it crumble, completely crumble and this time it wasn’t going to be fixed. I felt happy, I was smiling, a big wide smile I hadn’t done since I was a kid. I felt emotion and joy like never before, literally like never before. The green smoke exited my body now in a white form as it slowly rose into the sky. “How do you feel,” Chammel ask. Things have never seemed so vibrant, I actually notice the colors and the beauty of the world around me. The world wasn’t literally black and white beforehand but it might as well have compared to how I feel now. I looked at Chammel smiling widely, then I start crying, feeling the sadness of all the pain I had caused others and how many people I have hurt who were just trying to live their life. I start laughing, thinking about all the funny times Davis and I had and how much he means to me over the years, I went through a full cycle of emotions from love to hate, from disgust to curiosity, I felt it all for the first time and it hurt, but felt amazing to...feel.
“What did that smoke do,” I ask Chammel. He looks at me with a solemn face.
“The smoke removed the psychic barrier in your mind keeping back your emotions, it may have removed one but there are still two more holding your memories and powers back.” He said, “I need you to sit down.” I sit down on the log across from him and watch the smoke from the flames rise high into the sky and create this sort of ominous feel around the fire, I start to feel worried about what we have to talk about. “This is going to be hard for me to tell you, especially with you trying to get a handle on your emotions, but you need to know. Your father, Commander King, isn’t your father.” I feel lead footed like I had a few hours ago and as if my spirit wants to sink into the floor, depression starts to over come me. “I’m sorry to tell you this but you needed to know.” he says in a very sincere tone.
“How do you know?,” My voice came out a little angrier than I intended but once I started going I couldn’t stop, I didn’t really have a filter anymore. “You kidnap me! Hold me in the forest! Put some weird smoke in my head! And then tell me my entire life is a lie?! Who do you think you are, you have no right to talk to me, you don’t know anything about me! I done with this crap point me in the right direction and get out of my way or I don’t know how well I am going to be able to hold in the lightning.” I say as sparks cringle down my arm in a threatening way. Chammel looks at me with a stone gaze, I wanted my words to strike fear into his heart but it’s hard to tell if he even heard the words at all. Instead of acknowledging what I said he speaks softly.
“The black mask,” he says. I fall to the floor when he says this and my mind starts to race trying to find the memory that works with those words, everything gets blurry and my vision seems to be cutting in and out between two different places, Chammel continues. “Black cars,” flashes come across my face of blood, fire, and black. “The yellow palace,” I see a yellow building crumbling and masses of concrete falling all around me. “Your brother and sister,” I start to hear voices all around me, screams and gunshots overwhelming my senses. Chammel starts walking around me as the hallucinations plague my mind forcing me to rely on the ground for stability. “CHICHO,” The hallucinations stop. I look around and I am no longer in the jungle, I am in a tiny house. I am the younger version of myself again. I start walking towards an open door that goes to the outside world but the light is too bright for me to see anything outside. Another little boy and girl that are older than I run past me with a half inflated soccer ball that has brown blotchy spots all over it. They wave for me to follow them as they run out the door, I start to follow them but a large woman stops me and hands me a plantain. She starts to say something to me but it is muffled for some reason. She smiles at me and I start to cry for a reason I can’t understand, but the feeling is uncontrollable and I cry like a baby at just seeing her face. She grabs my cheek then walks into a small room behind me. I start to walk towards the door once more and hear the sound of kids playing and laughter, the sound is so enticing I want more than anything to join in. As my foot was about to cross the threshold, I hear a voice behind me.
“Chanel,” I turn and see a tall strong man, his being radiates pride and honor and I can’t help but admire him just by looking at him. He seems perfect, like everything I have ever wanted and hoped to be but never knew how to reach, his face was rough and chiseled from working hard everyday of his life and he had a machete sheathed at his side, the same machete I had received from my “father” in the other hallucination. I find myself in my normal body again looking down on the scene of younger me looking at this man. At my normal size, I am about his height and we look a lot alike. He kneels down before younger me and smiles wide and pure, and all the worries and wants I have melt away. He puts his hand on my shoulder and starts to speak to me in my native language. “Next year you have to start getting your hands dirty in the mud,” he says to me with a concerned look, “are you sure you are ready for that?” I find myself nodding with my younger self. “Ok, well I just want you to know how proud I am of you, the way you always care about your brother and sister and how you always play fair with the other kids,” he says, “I can see the workings of a great man within you. I need to know this, you may be too young to understand this right now but later in life I hope this will come to aid you when you need it most.” He stands up and puts his hand on my shoulder looking deep into my eyes. “Mercy is what separates us from the animals, our ability to forgive someone when they don’t deserve it is what gives us the edge. True strength comes from sparing someone even when it would be so much easier to punish them.” He smiles at me and I reach out towards him but instead of touching him I touch the bark on a tree. I look around and find myself back in the jungle, and Chammel is gone. I wipe tears from my eyes and go to pick up my backpack. Though I have no Idea where I am going, or what to do now, I start trekking through the jungle, letting the tears roll down my cheek.
-
I walk for an hour or two through the jungle just letting my emotions come in, I try to get used to this whole “feeling” thing. I feel one of the psychic barriers in my mind, probably the one controlling memories, being building itself back up and the images start to slowly fade away. I still have the knowledge of the memory and what I believe to be the truth, but when I try and get the memory fully back, it feels as if it is stuck on the tip of my tongue. I am covered in sweat and feel grimy as I walk but it is almost a refreshing feeling, the feeling of getting work done and doing something for yourself. About an hour back when the shock lifted and I was able to think I realized I could use the GPS on my wristlet to find the EP, extraction point. I come up on a clearing large enough for a plane at about 8:30, 30 minutes till extraction. The night air is thick and humid just like the stuffiness of the jungle. Because of the low level of pollution in the area the stars in the sky look radiant and beautiful like I have never seen before. I look up for a while watching the stars dance in the sky and admire their extravagance. I suddenly feel a strong push in my side as I am looking up and find myself tackled to the ground, I look down and see the emerald eyes of Becca looking up at me. I stand up and wipe the grass and dirt off of me and she gives me a hug that I don’t return.
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
“What happened Chanel?,” she said with strong amounts of worry in her voice, “I brought the president to safety and when I came I was met with scorch marks everywhere and you were gone?” She moves her hands around making motions as she talks for what happened. I look at her with a feeling of pure rage. As glad as I am to see her anger boils inside me and I have to hold back my lightning from burning her to a crisp. She notices that I haven’t said anything and grabs me by the arm. “Are you ok?” She asks. I push her arm off mine and watch as her worried look turns to confusion, she starts trying to analysis me and use her training with reading body language to tell my mood. “Chanel,” she says kinda stepping back, “I have seen you get the crap beaten out of you and get chewed out by your dad in front of everyone at Eyre and I have never see you this mad before...” she tries to continue but I interject.
“He isn’t my father,” I say finally meeting her gaze, “but you already knew that Leqhoa.” She steps back a bit more with a look of complete bewilderment running across her face. I can’t tell what she is exactly feeling but it looks like anger and confusion with a little bit of curiosity in the mix.
“How do you know that name,” she finally says?
“Your friend Chammel told me!” I say waving my hands around to further express my anger, “you asked him here didn’t you? He was the one on the phone right? I’m not an idiot Becca!” Lightning starts to spark from my hands striking my hands, she jumps back quickly out of fear.
“He removed the barrier?,” she looks at me, frightened and excited, “Chanel this is a great thing, you have no idea how long I have been trying to save you.” She puts her hands in front of her and tries to keep me from advancing towards her.
“Save me!” I yell at her, “How have you saved me? By lying to me? Telling me you're my friend? If you really were trying to save me you would have gotten me away from the man who killed my father a long time ago! Why am I remembering? Why is it that as soon as I kissed you I start having hallucinations that turn out to be buried memories!” The lightning gets more ferocious as my anger grows. The lightning was a blue color but as I let the emotions come it starts turning into a crimson color.
“Chanel please calm down,” she says as she trips over a rock and falls down, I am now looking down at her as she is truly afraid. She is the ant, and I am the boot. I should kill her, I could, it would be so easy. One little blast and she is gone I don’t have to deal with her lies anymore. As I extend my hand to fire the final blow I hear the voice of my father, my real father, come out of the darkness of my memories. I don’t see his face or see anything really all I hear is these words,. The lightning starts to turn back to blue as my anger begins to die down. The giant engines of the plane can now be heard above us. With our...with the clans technological advances we have been able to achieve planes that can have a vertical lift off and landing. It comes down landing in the clearing about 30 yards away. Its white frame glistens in the moonlight and the emblem of the tiger blazes more ferocious than ever. “Please Chanel,” She says as the wind from the engines blows her auburn hair across her face, “I promise I will explain everything, just please get on the plane.” I let the lightning die then walk past her towards the jet. She starts to get up and follows a good distance behind me. The pilot congratulates us but we don’t reply to him. We sit in the cabin in complete silence, as far apart from each other as possible. We take off and ride through the air for a good hour before Becca moves and sits across from me at the mahogany table.
“Start from the beginning,” I say in a straight neutral tone, trying not to get to angry. She takes a deep breath and looks down before she starts to speak.
“My name really is Becca but it isn’t my name anymore,” she says not meeting my eye line. “I was given the name Leqhoa when I found out I was a member of the the Stormcallers, under the classification of Blizzard.” I had no idea what any of her words meant but I continued to listen to her anyway. “I know that doesn’t make sense but I promise it will. I am a member of an organization that was founded in 1522, it was formed from the remnants of the Aztec empire after the Spanish conquest over it. We call ourselves the Andors and we only take the best, most skilled warriors in the world. There are many clans and parts to the Andors, I won’t get into that right now, the important part is some of the members of the organization many years back started to develop abilities for an unknown reason. They called these people which translates to mean legends, these people had control over different aspect of nature and forces in the known world. They split into different clans within the Andors and created the three ruling legends. You and I are members of a clan called the Stormcallers, out abilities deal with controlling the sky and things that come from storms, the others are the Earthwalkers and the Seaguiders, each has different classes inside of each legend group that is based off of your particular ability which yours is really cool because you're a lightning subclass which is extremely rare but I am getting off topic.” She gets more and more excited to be able to talk to talk about the...Andors? She moves her hands wildly and rambles a lot as she tries to pinpoint one talking point instead of many.
“What does this have to do with me?” I ask.
“Right sorry,” she says shaking her head, “Ok, so about 500 years ago the leader of the Wuxing order, Eyre, found out he was a Earthwalker under the subclass of Quake. He was found by an Andorian and taken to become one of us. But when he got there the counsel of ruling Legends found him reckless and unworthy to be trained in his abilities. He tried to plead with them and ended up getting pretty angry causing a massive Earthquake killing many Andorians. Instead of killing him, they took away the thing most precious to him, his abilities. A Seaguider named Yosef had the ability to subtly mess with someone's mind and manipulate their DNA.” She says in disbelief, “it was an impossible ability. No one had ever seen it before but it helped out with getting rid of problems for our people.”
“Your people,” I correct her. She stares at me for a minute before returning to her story.
“Anyway, Yosef went to remove his powers but Eyre having a silver tongue convinced Yosef to join him saying that with their combined powers they could rule the world. As it turns, out he was right. He and Yosef escaped taking a relic that is very precious to our clan called the Stormcaller sword with him. They ran off and started the Wuxing order and started subtly controlling the world and actively looking for any Legends in the world and taking them into his order. But Legends were to uncontrollable and had too much free will to take another life without just cause, so Yosef found another way. He started creating barriers in the mind of the Legends too and making it to where they were basically robots working for their purpose and suppressing their powers and memories until they needed them. An example is like Johnson, I don’t think he even knows he has powers.”
“Ok but that doesn’t make sense,” I says, “If they started doing this then what is a remnant?”
“I was about to get to that be patient,” she says, “Sometimes if the mind was strong enough the powers would break through the barriers and the Legends would start to go crazy thinking they are seeing hallucinations but really it was suppressed memories. This started to drive them crazy and ended with them either going crazy and losing control of their powers or in death.”
“So I am going to die now since I remember my powers?” This actually did scare me a little bit, the thought that I am either going to die or go crazy just because I have a powerful mind according to her.
“NO! no, you won’t,” she said kinda hasty, throwing hers hands up, “Chammel got rid of the emotion barrier I am guessing? That means we have to get rid of the other two but as of right now the hallucinations should stop for a while, until the barrier comes down.”
“Ok,” I say, “I just have one or two more questions.” She looks at me with a raised eyebrow, she seems confused by my calm demeanor.
“Ok go ahead?” she said kind of suspicious.
“Are you a remnant or a Legend? And why me, why are you telling me this? Why are you here for me?” I ask. She contemplates the question for a second before answering.
“I am a Legend. I never had the procedure done to me because I infiltrated the camp as a teenager. I am sure Councilor Jao told you I was having hallucinations, I was just faking them to make it seem like I was a remnant. If I had just used my powers without the hallucinations or them controlling me to do so, they would have known I was a Legend.” She stopped for a second and caught her breath, then her attitude turned solemn and she looked me in the eye, her emerald eyes looking deeply into mine. “I don’t know.”
“I’m sorry? What do you mean?” I ask her.
“I don’t know why I am here to get you.” she said trying to figure out how to explain it in her head, “I was told to come here and find ‘a boy named Chanel’ and observe his behavior and extract him when I felt it was time to tell him the truth. As to why the Andors want you, whether it is for your powers or something else, I honestly don’t know.” She reaches out and grabs my hands, “I really do care about you Chanel, you may have been my mission for all these years but just over these past three days I have realized you mean a lot to me. I don’t know where we stand but I need you to know that I didn’t betray you, please you have to believe me.” I move my hand away from her grip and sit there staring out the window, she puts her hands in her lap and looks out her window, a few tears come down her face. I should have cared but I didn’t, the anger in me was fighting the compassion and anger is a deadly foe. I watch as we pass over the ocean and let my mind move from the tension in the room to the feeling of flying over the world, and seeing the vast ocean below. When I finally gather up the courage, I throw salt on the wounded I had just opened in Be...Leqhoa’s heart.
“When we get back to Eyre I am requesting a new partner, I don’t give a damn about your mission, I need someone I can trust. Right now that isn’t you,” I say without looking her in the eyes so I don’t have to deal with feeling her pain. I can feel her gaze on my cheek and hear sobbing coming from her direction, but I just ignore her, letting the fiery tingling sensation of anger burn my other emotions, making me feel...Cold. It is kinda crazy, seeing as I have had these emotions for only a couple of hours now, how I can feel the flames of anger and embrace them with open arms, but even as it burns up my insides and takes over, there is no heat, just the cold touch of a hardened heart. She deserves this, she does! She lied to me, gained my trust, pretended to care about me and I completely fell for it because she is a pretty girl. Is there really anything to like there? She is petty and desperate and her strong demeanor is crushed by her spirit to be loved and accepted. Well she won’t find that here, not anymore! She may have the attraction of a beautiful woman but the heart that lies beneath is wicked and cruel and I will not deal with her suffering and her pain just because she is pleasing to my eyes. She lied, and cheated, and then judged ME for doing the same! She has been following me for years knowing that my life is a lie and that the man I call my father never was! And still I feel her resisting. She telling me King isn’t my father but doesn’t know why she is here to get me? How does that make sense? How could she know and integral truth that would break down the metaphorical walls of my reality and not tell me how or why she knows it! I can not deal with her, with this, with anything! If I have never felt before then I can feel it now and the new Chanel will not take any of it. Her, my “father”, the order, Nothing!
But she has done so much for me. She told me the truth. She did what she was told. Isn’t that all that any of us can do? She entered a dangerous mission into one of the most dangerous organizations in existence to find me, to save me, to impede me from a life of believing I have a father who thinks that killing and genocide are ok. I mean his life motto is . I mean how evil is it that this man who probably, almost definitely, killed my father and then raised me my entire life pretending to be father of the year? did he actually care for me or am I a means to an end? It doesn’t matter, he isn’t my father and I will never forgive him for taking away a man that I looked up to so much and not giving me the chance to become more like him. Should I be scorning her for saving me from a life of lies by telling me a lie? I mean she really did take me away from ultimate danger and being used as a weapon to their purpose. In fact had they already done that? Would King do that? My head starts to hurt trying to process all the pain and heartache from the development betrayal and hatred I now feel for a man who took away my childhood and made me into his killing machine. I start to feel the cold flames flicker and die out as rage, although very intense, fades quickly and I feel sorrow wash over like streams of water trying to balance me out. I can’t take back what I said, nor do I want to, but I was ruthless to her and she didn’t deserve that. I look at her as tears stream down her face. She refuses to look at me, but I still open my mouth to ask her a question.
“Who was that bald man with the crazy Arthurian sword?” I ask just to try and break the silence, and also because the man was plaguing my mind a bit. A man who could take a decaying bullet to the head and only have a few drops of strange golden blood come out is someone I want to know about. Could he have been an Andorian or something else and new? He’s probably another Legend but what kind? She finally looked at me with wide, bloodshot, emerald eyes wid.
“The Tem...” She was about to finish her answer when the plane exploded.
