Nexus

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, it's been quite a while since I found the necessary inspiration to continue this, and I finally found it. How? I won't say, as it will spoil the next installment of this chapter. Enough of my babbling, and as always, reviews and constructive criticism are always appreciated!

Nexus
Chapter Five: All Come Together
Part One


Ariano and S’Jini looked through the one-way glass at her mother, the ruler of her people. Tavo and two other Avaaniite medics had opened up her leg to attempt to extract the artillery slugs still embedded in her body.

“How did To’resh manage to stay alive with those things still inside her?”

“She’s a resilient one,” Ariano quipped, his arm around S’Jini’s shoulders, his wrist and shoulder tentacles patting her shoulders reassuringly. “She has to be strong for her daughter and for her people.”

S’jini looked up at Ariano and smiled softly. “Thanks, Malinara.” She looked back to the operating room. “The translator we gave Tavo seems to be working fine.”

Ariano chortled. “True, but he won’t be able to rely on a translator forever. He’s really good with languages, though. Watch, come the end of the week, he’ll be speaking Avaani better than Universal.”

She laughed lightly as Tavo looked to the Avaani surgeons, who nodded at him. He bowed lightly and left the operating room.

“Well, the doctors are impressed by his passion.”

Ariano nodded. “That’s true enough. I’m surprised that he worked with more precision and care than the other two doctors.”

“Well, not only is she a patient, but she’s also royalty, and my sister-in-law’s mother,” Tavo said as he stepped into the observation area still in his medical garb. “I requested that they take care of her as carefully as I did. I’ll be overseeing the remainder of the operation.”

“We can watch from here,” S’Jini said. “I don’t want to leave my mother right now.”

Tavo smiled warmly. “I know you’re worried about…” He thought of the correct term. “…To’resh, right now, S’Jini, but we just left a wedding, your wedding. It’s Human custom to enjoy each other’s company away from all your troubles during your honeymoon.”

“But…”

Tavo waved her away. “Look, I can take care of things here, and if that Councilor Mavinu comes looking for either of you, he can talk to me.”

Ariano smiled and fished for something in his pocket. Finding it, he tossed it to Tavo. “It’s a transmitter. If you need help, use that to contact Rohadin. T’Arek won’t give you trouble as long as he’s around.”

“Where did Rohadin go?”

“He had to take Edwyn and Karissa to an old friend of ours,” he replied, glancing at S’Jini. “Rohadin mentioned something about keeping Edwyn out of sight for a while.”

“Why?”

Ariano shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”


* * * * *


The vehicle slowly descended on the raised landing platform, the engines’ whine dying slowly. The craft’s top- and bottom-opening gull-wing doors hissed open, Rohadin, Edwyn, Karissa and Swift Wind stepping onto the platform. Without waiting for them, Swift Wind approached a flight of stairs and began to advance downward, Rohadin close behind. Karissa tugged at Edwyn’s robe sleeve as she noticed the two silent figures, beckoning him to follow.

“Where exactly are we?” Karissa asked Rohadin in a low voice.

“You could call it my base of operations,” Swift Wind answered, hearing them. “I call it my home.”

“But why in the quietest part of the Western Quadrant?”

Rohadin was about to answer when Swift Wind cut him off.

“You know that Ariano used to be a mercenary, sijan?”

Edwyn nodded as Swift Wind reached the bottom of the stairs and put his left hand on a palm scanner beside a sand-colored door.

“Well, Ariano used to come to me for information on his targets. He pulled off the actual hits alone, but together we did the planning.” The palm scanner chirped as the door shifted quickly to one side. “He found me injured during one of his earlier hits, one that went dangerously wrong despite having succeeded in taking out his intended target.”

“Why did he save you?” Karissa asked as the four of them stepped past the portal into an elevator. “He could have just as easily killed you.”

“He let me live because of something I was searching for at the time.”

“And that being…?”

“Information,” Rohadin replied. Edwyn and Karissa turned around to see his skin smoothly change color to a silvery-blue hue. “Information on our people and our forebears.”

Edwyn nearly fell over. “You’re Anjor, too?”

Swift Wind laughed. “Ariano, Rohadin and I are all Anjor.”

Karissa’s jaw dropped. “You mean all those blue Avaaniites back at the tavern were…”
Rohadin nodded. “Most of them were. The rest of them were what the Avaani refer to as Deepwaters. They live and work in and around bodies of water.”

“Construction of underground facilities and other things like that?” Edwyn asked.

Swift Wind nodded. “Yes, but that’s not important.” The elevator shook briefly and slowly started to descend. “What matters right now is why you’re being hunted, and why Rohadin and Ariano have gone to such lengths to protect you.”


* * * * *


The blond young man grinned lazily, his eyes half-open and his left hand behind his back. “Come on, Turel, you’re starting to bore me. The other slaves said you were the best fighter of your group.”

The bronze-skinned young man, wearing only the tattered remains of jeans, lowered into a fighting stance, the long hollow pipe serving as his weapon pointed at his adversary. “I am the best, you sick monster. And I’ll prove it.”

The blond young man’s grin grew into a malicious smile. “Show me.”

Turel took a deep breath and charged towards his opponent, his makeshift weapon flashing in a blinding arc over his head. He expected to feel some form of resistance, either from a parry, a block or an actual hit, but his whole body shook as the ringing of metal on metal sounded around them. He fought the vibrations coming from the pipe as he saw that his swing had missed his opponent by just bare millimeters, though it looked like his enemy didn’t have to work at all to dodge.

Turel recovered quickly, puling back his weapon and slashing in a sideways arc, determined to at least make some form of contact with his adversary. He smiled with satisfaction, which quickly contorted to a frown of dread as he watched his opponent effortlessly maneuver around the swing. His adversary pivoted on the toes of his landing foot, working up momentum in a spin and flat-palming Turel in the chest.

Lights were flashing in Turel’s vision only to be intensified by a solid kick to the side of his head. He looked up in a daze to see that his opponent still had his left hand behind his back, and his uniform hadn’t even been creased.

“You disappoint me, Turel,” the blond said, clicking his tongue and looking at his fingernails absent-mindedly. “I thought you would present more of a challenge.” He looked over to the shadows. “Captain, Turel has a sister, does he not?”

Turel heard no answer as rage began to boil within him and he faded into unconsciousness.

“Give me the location of her cell. I want her to give Turel something to think about when he comes to and he returns to his darling sister’s arms.”


* * * * *


Edwyn flipped through the pages of an old, weatherworn book, unable to make out any of the alien language.

“Why are you giving this to me, Brother Swift Wind?”

Swift Wind smiled. “Just call me Swift Wind, Edwyn.”

Edwyn shrugged, still pursuing his question.

“Edwyn, you’re not familiar at all of Torujor history or Torujor mythology, are you?”

He shook his head numbly. “No.”

Swift Wind smiled. “The Torujor, like the Avaani, were very superstitious and had plenty of their own signs and symbols of good and bad luck, much as Humans did back during the days of Ancient Earth.” He took the book from Edwyn and opened it. “This book holds all of the recorded Torujor legends.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

Swift Wind moved quickly to the tall bookshelf to his right and took out another book and moved to a terminal at the foot of a massive sand-colored globe with several embossed continents.

“This file here,” he said, as a holographic window appeared before him with Universal text, “is the Universal translation of this book. It took me the better part of two years on the Universal Time Calendar to translate it.”

Karissa nodded. “That’s all well and good, but it still doesn’t explain a lot.”

Swift Wind looked up at her and Rohadin, who stood behind Karissa with his arms crossed. “This book contains prophecies recorded by Torujor scribes, as well as information on them.” He straightened up as Edwyn took a seat at the terminal and began to scan through the translated file. “Every prophecy recorded by the Torujor has come to be, including the destruction of their planet by what scribes called ‘The Crimson Sky’.”

“That’s required knowledge in Universal Alliance history,” Edwyn said, briefly looking up from the computer terminal.

“True, but Torujor records even foresaw the exact day of the coming of The Crimson Sky, as well as when they would land on Ancient Earth and make first contact with Humans.”

“Swift Wind,” Edwyn interrupted. “This one specific legend…” He looked up at Rohadin. “You can’t possibly be serious.”

Swift Wind’s face bore a wide, knowing smile. Rohadin nodded and returned the smile as Edwyn went on, looking back at the translated file.

“There’s a legend of two beings that aren’t Torujor yet have Torujor blood. These beings are able to manifest almost anything and everything to suit their needs. They have the potential to possess unlimited strength, could obtain near-limitless knowledge, and could move with such speed that it was deemed otherworldly.”

“What legend is that?”

Edwyn looked up at Swift Wind, Karissa and Rohadin. “It’s the Legend of the Valayan.” He glanced at the translation, his eyes wide. “The Legend of the Shifters.”


* * * * *


A young woman with her arms full ran hastily through the empty roads of a marketplace, looking behind her every so often, not bothering to stop. She stopped for a moment, thinking it was safe before ducking into a dark alleyway. She knelt down on the ground as something in her arms started to cry.

“Shh, shh,” she hissed. “It’s all right, Edwyn. You’ll be okay, just keep quiet for Mommy like your brother, all right?”

“There’s really no point in trying to shut the child up,” a malicious male voice said behind her. “You never did get away.”

Abruptly, she turned stood and turned around to see a dark silhouette blocking the way out of the alley, a sword in the figure’s right hand glistening in the moonlight.

“You!” she hissed. “You’ll never have my children! They will not be used for your gain!”

The dark silhouette laughed. “Your children are already lost to me, useless wretch.” The figure moved closer. “Once I drink the blood of your sons from my blade, I will be one step closer to ruling this world and the entire universe.”

The young woman shook her head. “Not if I can help it.” She shut her eyes and began to mouth out a mantra.

A pair of emerald eyes widened in realization and lunged for her. “No! You won’t stop me, you impudent woman!”

“I won’t stop you,” she said, “but at least one of my sons will.” Her eyes flared open as a bright blue aura surrounded her. She spoke so quickly and so quietly that the only sounds heard were the fluid sound of metal grating against bone, followed immediately by a sudden gasp being wrenched from the woman’s throat. Wordlessly, she slumped forward onto the blade.

The assassin chuckled as emerald eyes glowed in the darkness of the alley. “You were too slow.”

The malicious smile contorted into a frown of dread as the assassin saw the paling face of the woman impaled on the sword rise, her determined and defiant gaze mixed with a smile of satisfaction.

“For the life of my sons, haste does not matter.” She thrust her palm at her killer, stopping just short of his face. A green field flashed before him, searing his eyes. He screamed and howled in intense pain and frustration, dropping the sword.

“My face! It’s burning!” The killer clutched at his face, turning pale gray and withering like a dying tree.

The dying woman before him fell to her knees, the sword still punched through her body. She wheezed weakly as she became too pained to breathe.

“Goodbye…” She pressed two fingers to the crying baby’s forehead. “…Goodbye, Edwyn.”

In a flash of white light, the baby, carrying cloth and all, disappeared.

The woman looked to her killer, now growling with rage and still clutching his face. She smiled defiantly.

“My one son is gone from you forever,” she gasped. “And you will never be able to touch my other son…”

She fell to the ground on the sword as she slid down the entire length of the blade and fell to her side. Her lips moved soundlessly.

“…Unless you have Xeon…”


=[ End of Part One ]=

A/N: Yeah, I know it needs work, but bear in mind that this is not the official draft of the story. I will tweak it here and there to make it more...novel-worthy. Don't forget, reviews and constructive criticism are always appreciated!