 
D.J. Hoskins

Paralysis
First published by Tales of Romance Press 2020

Copyright (C) 2020 by D.J. Hoskins

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

D.J. Hoskins asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

First edition

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Dedication

To your struggles.

#  Contents

  1. Books By the Author
  2. Special Offer
  3. 1. DESERT ADVERSARY
  4. 2. DOME
  5. 3. THE COGA
  6. 4. TITUS
  7. 5. SUBMERGED
  8. 6. LOSS
  9. 7. GREY ROOM
  10. 8. EXAMPLE
  11. 9. FLIGHT
  12. 10. RESISTANCE
  13. 11. TOXIC SKIES
  14. 12. COLD
  15. 13. AFFINITY
  16. Afterword
  17. About the Author
  18. Also by D.J. Hoskins

# Books By the Author

**Dark Light Series**

1. Paragon

2. Paralysis

3. Panic

_4. Pogrom -- coming soon_

**Crown of Dust Series**

_Draconian -- coming soon _

**Exomech Series**

_Cryogin -- coming soon_

**Cortic Series**

_The Color of Fire -- coming soon_

**Other Works**

My Life As Death

# Special Offer

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# 1

# DESERT ADVERSARY

**-- MELISSA--**

"The Paragon's in one of those?" Akane asked. The hood of her billowing red robe flapped in the desert's arid wind like a flag against her slender frame. Sand buffeted the dunes a hundred feet below. Beside her floated a bald black-cloaked man, whose milky white gaze followed a string of automated cars escorted by a large military convoy as closely as her own.

"The hell-spawn is in the transport of the cars," the man said coolly. "Eliminate her retinue and send her spirit to Vitate for judgment." He looked at Akane with blind eyes. "She shouldn't be alive."

The woman bowed her head. "Understood." Crossing her arms over her body, Akane unsheathed her katanas--long curved swords from their scabbards at her sides and brandished them before her. A blood-red glow flared along her hands and stretched onto the blades. "What a shame," she said. Her titus burst into flames along the polar-steel. "Vargas, they brought a convoy of bodies."

"Such is the fate of those who worship Paragons," the man said. Closing his eyes, he placed his hands together and, like a ghost, vanished into the wind. Akane fixed her gaze onto the plasma copter heading towards her and crossed her swords.

"May you return to the Vitate and the source," she said. "Your ashes will not make it to a funeral." She swept the swords behind her and, using their flames, shot through the air like a rocket.

* * *

Staring out the dark window of the automated car, Melissa fidgeted with the issued ear protection in her hands. In the distance, beyond the sound-proof glass, a plasma-copter flew, drifting along the sky's clear blue as lazily as a whale did the sea. It was, however, much smaller than the marine beasts of the ocean. In comparison, it was more the size of a magna seal with the white flares of its turbines trailing it in a hazy streak, not unlike underwater bubbles.

Below it stretched the sandy wasteland of the Narfobi Desert. Relatively flat and pockmarked by weeds, the land had a stark beauty with its rolling copper sands and vast emptiness. Seemingly devoid of life, it was a place without shelter, the merest drop of water, or food of any kind. It was a harsh environment, renown for its fast winds, unpredictable sandstorms, and years between rainfall, it was the hottest place in the kingdom with temperatures escalating beyond the mid-hundreds.

However, contrary to its appearance beneath the blazing sun, it was Kaiga's treasure and strongest asset. More productive than the largest factories and more coveted than the deepest gold mines, it was a precious resource closely guarded. A farm of thousands of solar panels glittered over the horizon as well as the cyper-tanks of a military installation for its security. Absorbing the light titus of the sun, the panels converted the overabundance of solar power into a splurge of condensed, endless energy.

Two cyper-tanks rolled along Melissa's side of the military convoy, their transparent tracks turning over the terrain as smoothly as a boat sailed through water. On the opposite side, two other tanks matched them in speed and formation. Five of the ten soldiers of the elite squad were mounted across each set of the dual tanks. The elites rode atop the vehicles standing up as normally as one did the ground. Locked in place by the gravity function of their lift-boots, they were protected from the blazing heat and sun's adverse glare by solar gear.

Melissa turned from the window in a huff. She gave Principal Leptin a pointed look beside her. "Is all of this really necessary?"

"It is."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"But, are you really, sure?" Melissa asked. She gestured at the overkill of a convoy. "Because this...is ridiculous."

"Your safety is paramount, Melissa," Kevin said. He looked up from the seat across her. "Stop asking."

"It's not like we're going to war," she muttered.

"The Victashia would beg to differ," Leptin said. He scrolled through virtual reports with a bored expression.

"Why couldn't we have just flown?" she complained. "Nothing is happening."

"Nothing is supposed to happen," Kevin countered.

"It's cramped."

"It's a land-car," he said.

"It's stuffy."

"Then roll down your window."

"You're not helping Kevin. My butt hurts."

He gave her a dour look. "Then go to sleep."

She crossed her arms and turned her gaze out of the window. "We've already been on the road for an hour."

"And you've already started complaining."

Melissa rolled her eyes. "Because if we'd flown, we would've been at Corpus by now."

"True," a grey-haired man said from the seat across Leptin. A full bird colonel, his solar gear was thinner, more lightweight, and of better quality than his soldiers. His pale green eyes reflected in the dark tint of his window. "It seems like it'll go on forever, doesn't it?"

"Don't change the subject, Pele," Melissa said, omitting the rank from his name. He offered her a smile, ignoring her blatant disrespect. There was a humorous twinkle behind his eyes.

"Paragon," he said, "the probability of you being shot out of the sky is higher than traveling by--"

"Nope," Melissa said and turned her face to her window. "I don't want to hear it."

"Then stop talking about it," Leptin said.

She snapped her face to him with a stare. "I _will_ talk about it because it's stupid."

"The desert isn't endless, girl," the headmaster retorted. "We will eventually arrive at the point of transition. You'll see the green of Corpus soon enough."

Melissa gave him a withering look. "And how soon is that?"

"Another three or so hours according to--"

"Ugh, _why_?" Melissa whined and tapped her head against the window. "Screw my life."

Harbored within the second to last car in the row of six unmanned vehicles, they raced across the open road at breakneck speeds. Inside, the inertia was mitigated, and vibration controlled to the point that it seemed they moved nowhere at all. Desert passed into more desert sand into more sand. Even with the visual of passing through the environment, Melissa felt neither here nor there.

"When we get to near Corpus, we'll visit one of its beaches before your reception. How's that, Melissa?" Kevin asked. "It's on the coast of the Insie Sea in the Province of Kiko so we should--"

"And if we get there too late?" she asked, bitter, "You'll just dump me in my new school."

"Melissa--"

"Whatever," she said, putting her chin on her hands. "I just wish it we were there."

"Wishing won't get us there any faster," said Leptin.

Melissa rolled her eyes. "Obviously... Can't we take a break? I'm sore."

_Paragon,_ Shadow said in her head. Its tone carried a strange sense of urgency. _Something 's here. _

Melissa sighed. _Save me your jokes, Shadow. No one 's--_

_Something ...powerful. _It continued.

She looked at Leptin as he stared at her.

_What do you mean?_ She thought back. _What --_

"What direction?" Leptin demanded, putting a hand on Melissa's arm. Kevin looked at them, alarmed.

"What's going on?"

The Colonel also stared at them.

_It 's already here._ Shadow said darkly.

"Who?" Leptin asked, his dark gaze penetrating. "Victashia?" He gave Colonel Pele a sharp look. "Alert your units."

Melissa felt Shadow shake a head it didn't have. _Its aura is heavy,_ it said and paused. _We may not survive._ The purple-eyed blonde plastered her face to the window as the Colonel wired his units.

"Code blue to convoy," Colonel Pele called into a cabled hardline radio. "We're in red for an adversary suspected on radar. Be on alert. I repeat--"

"There!" Melissa shouted, smudging her finger to the glass. Beyond it, in the distance, two dark figures floated in the air against the light of the blazing sun. A moment later, one vanished, while the other blasted towards a plasma-copter trailed by flames. Leptin shoved her head down as the figure disappeared behind the military craft.

"Victashia's made their move!" He yelled and glanced at Colonel Pele, they exchanged a look. The headmaster touched his nano-computer. "Put me through to central," he said into it. "Connect me with a Keeper." Melissa looked toward him and glanced up at the window.

_The Victashia ... _she thought. _Are they here for me?_

"Code Blue to Convoy," the Colonel shouted into the radio. "Enemy sighted, prepare to engage. I repeat--"

Skidding, the car turned. Flipping from the backlash of an explosion, glass shattered and the roof caved in as the car ramped up and careened off the road. The radio left the Colonel's hand as shards of glass flew into his eyes. His blood splattered onto Kevin's face, and body went down in a spasm ending his life. The smell of smoke rose into the air as fire and metal rained from the sky. A burning shell of what was once a plasma-copter descended from the sky like a falling bird. Looking down at it from where it had flown, floated the figure.

# 2

# DOME

**-- MELISSA--**

Melissa groaned as Leptin pulled her out from the hot metal of the land-car. Aerodynamic and fuel-efficient, it was a vehicle built for speed, not battle. Blood flowed freely over her eyes from a cut on her forehead. It clotted in her ears from the aftermath of the blast. The headmaster patted her face with more urgency than concern.

"Come on, girl," he said, shaking her by the shoulder. "Get yourself together." Opening her eyes with a cough, she leaned against Leptin's knee, dazed.

"What?" she said. "Where...?" She winced and touched her ears. She stared at the blood on her fingers. For a moment, it didn't register. Watching, she heard nothing but a loud ringing as the plasma-copter hit the earth. The desert took it in with a cloud of dust, spraying sand in all directions. Melissa closed her eyes against the wind that followed. Pellets of sand nicked her exposed arms and coated her lips. Coughing, she wiped her face. Leptin was saying something but not to her. _Who?_ She wondered and thought back to their last moments in the car. _Is it the Keepers?_

She looked back as Kevin stepped out from the side of the car. He wore a grim expression. His eyes were no less hardened when they found hers. She reached for him impulsively, and he went to her side like a father did a child.

"Kevin take her," Leptin said and stepped away offhandedly.

"Understood." Taking a knee beside her, Kevin lent Melissa his shoulder. She winced as the ringing in her ears intensified and cried out. Her fingers came back wet with blood as she put her hands to her ears. Seeing it, Kevin cursed and looked at Leptin. "I'm going back for her ear protection."

"Where's the Colonel?" the headmaster asked.

Kevin gave him a dark look and turned away. "His eyes got shot with glass. He's done, it must've gone to his brain. He didn't have a pulse." Kevin ducked back into the vehicle.

"Damn." Leptin shook his head. "What a pathetic way to go out."

Watching him crawl into the shattered glass of a window, Melissa's lip quivered. _Is this what I get for being a paragon? A life where people only die around me?_ She grimaced as a sharp pain, fiercer than the last shot through her ears. Her hands shook as she felt the blood seep through her fingers. Unlike her, Kevin and Leptin wore their ear protection. They'd never took them off. Retrieving the fallen headphones in the car, Kevin returned to Melissa.

A sudden movement caught her eyes, and she watched as five soldiers soared into the air and shooting into the aftermath of the thinning smoke. The glint of metal flashed amongst the cloud of dust as the same figure which had downed the plasma-copter, engaged them. Seemingly all at once, their bodies began to fall.

Watching also, Leptin ran a hand through his hair. "Damn it. What the hell's going on?" He pulled out a radio strapped to his side and pressed its button. "Command to Convoy. Report."

"Alpha Fire to Command," a deep voice replied on the other line. "Captain Holor, sir. Blue Wing is down. The confirmed target has executed half the Elite Troop. My plasma-copter is routing to engage and ground unit, Delta-One is charging to fire." A boom split the air as a ball of blue energy left the cannon of a cyper-tank. Its backlash sent a rippling cloud of dust rolling back, raining sand down upon them from a wave over fifty feet away.

Melissa screamed. Holding her ears in agony, she curled into a ball. Blood dripped from her ears, and her vision blurred in starts and fits. The entire world seemed to have flipped. Up felt down. She couldn't tell her right from her left, but it was her hearing which truly felt gone. She felt as if someone had jabbed her in the ears with a knife.

"Kevin take care of your charge!" Leptin barked. "We don't have time for this."

A little disorientated from the blast himself, Kevin staggered out of the car with Melissa's ear protection. Putting a hand on her shoulder to steady her, he fitted the headphones over her ears. "You're okay," he said. "Do you hear me, Melissa?" He squeezed her arm. "You're just fine." Pulling out a pill capsule, he popped it into her mouth and clamped a hand over her lips as she gagged, coughing. "Don't spit it out." His look was stern. "Swallow." She did, and he stroked her hair. "Good."

After a moment, her disorientation and nausea faded. The ringing in her ear dulled and pain accompanying it, numbed to a faint throb. Pulling her up by the arm, Kevin helped her to her feet. "Now, let's move."

"Command to Convoy," Leptin said. "Code Blue is down." He referred to the Colonel. "The Black Train has been compromised. Engage the enemy until Priority One is back in route. We need immediate cover. How copy?"

"Copy," a multitude of voices replied in quick succession.

"Alpha Fire to Command," Captain Holor said. "Is backup from standby units affirmative?"

"They've been notified," Leptin said. "Do your job and hold it down."

"Copy."

The headmaster released a breath and lowered the radio. He gave Melissa a heavy look and strapped the radio back to his side as the five remaining elite soldiers of the former ten dropped from the air to land before them. One, a soldier with a lieutenant's insignia marking his lapels, stepped forward. He saluted Leptin, his soldiers behind him snapping to attention.

"Lieutenant Lin reporting, sir," he said, his young voice muffled by a mask.

"Very good, lieutenant," Leptin said, returning the salute. "Give your extra mask to the Paragon."

"Yes sir," he said and unstrapped a clear unactivated self-regulating mask attached to his belt. He handed it to Melissa. "It's an honor to meet you, your reverence."

"Yeah," Melissa said, and taking the technologically advanced piece of plastic, she fitted it to her face. Almost at once, her head cleared as she inhaled clean air filtered from the surrounding dust.

Lieutenant Lin glanced at their flipped land-car. "Is Colonel Pele, really...?"

"He's dead," Leptin said. "And we're leaving. You five will be escorting the Paragon. Initiate the distress signal right now. I want the backup units to be able to locate you when they reach the area. Set your radars to max, and be on alert for anything within or around a ten-point radius." He turned his gaze to the sky. "This Victashian has exceptional mastery over the air."

"So, it's confirmed that its the Vitate Order, sir?" Lin asked.

Leptin was dour. "Who else would it be?"

"Alpha Fire to Command," Captain Holor said over the radio.

Leptin pulled out the device. "Command on line."

"Hostile sighted, sir. Alpha Fire is engaging."

Staring at the radio for a moment, the headmaster released a breath. "Good luck, Captain."

"Tango. We will not fail--"

Melissa stared listlessly at the sky as a long flaming projectile hurtled from the hand of the figure in the sky. Spinning like a missile, the projectile shot through the plasma-copter and turned out its other side. The weapon staked into the ground and detonated. The blast knocked a cyper-tank sideways, sending it careening onto its head and rendering it useless.

A plume of smoke waved from the shot plasma-copter like a banner. Turning in the air helplessly, fire licked the holes in its sides as it spun out of control for a moment, before it rained down in hellfire. Shrapnel scattered in the explosion and fell from the sky in a hail of steel. Melissa jumped, wide-eyed as a metal shard speared the ground by her foot.

Kevin pulled her back. "Get behind me."

"Damn!" Leptin cursed, watching the copter fall. An alabaster-white aura glowed around his hand as he pointed it at the sand behind the elite soldier. Turning his arm in a sweeping motion, a wall of sand rose up to block the rolling dust following the crash of the downed aircraft. He turned from it and put the radio back to his lips. "Command to Convoy," he said. "Ground units."

There was a pause then a feminine voice arose with a thick southern accent. "Ground to Command. Personnel Captain Danish of Delta One."

"What's your status?" Leptin asked.

"Alpha Fire is down. The distress signal has been released. Backup units Grey Nine and Gold Fighter are in route. Estimated arrival is thirty minutes, sir."

"Copy. Priority One is unsecured. Order to all units, engage the enemy until backup arrives, or Priority One returns to route."

"Copy," the other commanders replied.

"Delta One to Command," Captain Danish said. "Company ground units are preparing to engage. Full artillery is a go."

"Copy," Leptin snapped back. "Don't stop until the Victashian's dead." He looked up at the figure scathingly. "Shoot it down."

The figure in the sky, a black-haired, red-cloaked woman spread out her arms as she fell towards the ground. Booms stirred the air as cyper-cannons shot balls of blue energy at her, and the gunfire of turrets reloaded to spit out bullets the size of fists. Whirling around in the air, the woman dodged and evaded the barrage. Drifting over a ball of energy, she cut a bullet clean in half with one of her swords only to flip back in the wake of another.

Bypassing another energy ball, she cloaked herself in her red titus. Engulfed in a glowing aura of blood-red, the bullets shot at her, ricocheted. Crossing into the guard of a cyper tank, the elite mage stepped atop it. As its gun turrets turned in to fire upon her, she cut them off at the base. The two other tanks paused their assault too wary to risk friendly-fire.

The woman sunk her swords into the tank's metal hatch and possibly killing someone below in the process. Taking a breath, she exhaled a torrent of flames from her mouth. Breathing the fire into an air bubble formed between her palms, she gathered the blaze into a ball-shaped mold the span of her arms. Jumping up, she took her katanas with her as she dropped it.

"What's that?" Melissa asked, watching as the woman shot back into the air. The enemy's white teeth glinted in a smile. The fireball she'd left, crumpled the tank beneath it, melting its frame. Leptin's eyes went wide.

"Get down!" He roared, throwing up his hands. A wall of sand went up at his command and coiled over the group in a layered dome. Sand showered down upon them as the shockwave of the close-range blast knocked them off their feet. Although the foundation of the constructed dome shook, it held.

The backup lights of the suits of the elite soldiers lit up to illuminate the dark makeshift chamber. Amongst them, Lieutenant Lin was the first to stand.

"Thank you, sir--" he began.

"Don't thank me yet," Leptin cut curtly. The headmaster retrieved his radio and stood himself. "There's no telling if we're coming out of this alive. It isn't over."

The ground shook under as the remaining tanks shot rounds of artillery fire. The intertwining booms of energy balls and shells of battle flew into the air. Then something deeper and more ominous rumbled outside the thick sand walls.

_The fireball 's rolling._ Shadow said grimly, cutting in amongst Melissa's racing thoughts. _It 's going to take out the others. _

Staring at her for a moment, Leptin put his radio to his mouth. "Command to Convoy. Status."

"Delta Three to Command," a weary voice replied on the line. "This is..." the person trailed off and swallowed, "Personnel Master Sergeant Comely."

Leptin exchanged a look with the lieutenant. "Where's your captain?" he asked.

"The command in charge has fallen from a stroke," Sergeant Comely replied. "Captain Nelson is out of commission."

Leptin closed his eyes and released a breath. "Copy. What's the situation, Sergeant?"

"We're currently engaging the enemy," the Master Sergeant said and cursed. "Shoot another at it! It won't stop. No--" The radio glitched into static. After a moment, Leptin shut it off.

# 3

# THE COGA

**-- MELISSA--**

Another explosion shook the dome. Chunks of sand fell overhead, breaking apart as they hit the ground. Standing on her knees, Melissa lost her balance as the earth beneath her shook. She fell onto her hands. No sooner than she did, Kevin grabbed her by the arm and pushed her body into the warm sand.

"Stay down," he said.

The dome had been strong enough to withstand the shockwave of the first blast at short range but not a second. Shrapnel cut through its walls like paper. A shard of metal caught one soldier in the throat and knocked her off her feet. She went down gurgling in a pooling puddle of blood. Another soldier fell with one in the chest. Leptin waved up another wall to protect himself, shielding the lieutenant and another soldier behind him in the process.

A crater-like hole had opened in the side of the dome facing the blast. Chunks of sand fell across its entrance. Beyond it, a molten ball of fire churned in accordance to its master's direction overhead. Rolling over the desert terrain, it liquefied the sand it touched and turned it to glass as it flew toward its next target--the last operating cyper-tank. The wreckage of the fireball's last victim burned, not fifty feet away. Melissa could almost make out the charred shapes of bodies amongst it.

Leptin cast a glance back at the two dead soldiers and lifted his hand. Tendrils of his white titus shot into the sand and rose shimmering over a thick mud wall that closed the hole and shrouded the dome with another layer.

Melissa looked at the elite soldiers. Lieutenant Lin pressed his hands against the spurting wound of one of his men. A jagged piece of metal jutted out of her leg and was embedded deep into the woman's flesh. Her screams of agony filled the dome as another man and fellow comrade, extracted the metal with a good old fashioned jerk. Flesh tore, and blood spurted into the air, pumping out into the sand.

The uninjured soldier unrolled a strip of gauze from his pack and began to wrap the wound. The blood, however, did not stop. After wrapping it for the sixth time, the soldier looked up at his commanding officer. His fingers shook, and breathing came in short gasps.

"I think--I think it hit an artery."

"You--you hit a what?" the woman shrieked, grabbing his arm with a bloody hand. "You hit my artery? Are you insane--" She sucked in a breath as the lieutenant shifted his weight off of her leg. "What--what are you doing?"

"We're saving your life," the officer said. Even so, his eyes were wide and fearful.

"I'm dying," the woman shouted. "You're killing me!" Her eyes rolled back in her head, and her body began to shake as she went into shock.

"Harington!" Lieutenant Lin said slapping at her face. "Wake up!"

"Sir, get back on her leg," the other soldier said. "We--we just need to restrict the blood flow."

The lieutenant nodded and did so. "Harington," he said, staring at his soldier. "You're going to live. We're going to survive--"

"No..." She groaned and swallowed. "I'm dying." The other soldier looked at the officer, his hands were coated to the elbows in blood.

"Sir... she won't stop bleeding."

"So, keep wrapping her leg!" Lin ordered. "She's going to make it. She has to. I'm not going to let anyone else die under my command. I've already lost..." He jumped as Leptin touched his shoulder.

"You don't command life," the man said gravely. "You don't get a choice in this."

Another explosion rocked the chamber, and the lieutenant was knocked back from his troop. Blood gushed more fervently from the woman's leg, and her eyes began to wander as a clump of sand dropped from the ceiling. Regaining his bearing, the officer scrambled back to his soldier's side.

"Sir," his last man said and closed his eyes. The lieutenant looked down at Harrington. Her eyes stared up, blankly in death. "She's gone."

The officer sat back, winded. The tears brimming in his eyes streamed down his face. He covered his mouth with a hand as he hung his head, his shoulders shaking with quiet sobs. The other soldier looked on silently before turning to Leptin.

"How long do you think the dome will hold?"

Another explosion sounded outside as the woman destroyed the cyper-tank that'd previously flipped onto its side from her projectile. The blast was closer than before and shook the dome to its foundation. A metal rod, a remnant of shrapnel, shot through its walls and into Lin's back, putting him out of his misery.

Mud seeped in from above, and the dome's sandy base sagged as it finally caved in. Melissa jumped as the muffled yell of the last soldier went out like a flame beneath collapsing walls. Kevin tightened his grip on her arm. She looked at him as the cool sensation of his indigo titus washed over her. Then, their world went black.

"Melissa," Kevin said. She opened her eyes. Darkness surrounded them save the glow of the warden's titus cloak over both their bodies. It was a shield that easily withstood the weight of the fallen dome.

"Are you alive?" a voice asked through Melissa's nano-computer. She watched Kevin touched his own.

"I have the Paragon," he replied. "We're under my titus shield."

"So, her titus signature is cloaked?"

"Affirmative."

"Good. I'm making an opening."

Light broke into Melissa's vision as the mud parted for them in a tunnel which dipped into the caved-in dome. A heavy shadow of the headmaster stood at its end, looking down at them. Kevin pulled Melissa to her feet and keeping his hand on her arm, led them back to the surface.

"Good," Leptin said again. "You're still alive." The bags beneath his eyes seemed deeper. Sand clung to his disheveled hair, the once fresh dress shirt he'd worn now stained by dirt and mud. Worse for wear, he appeared twice as old.

"What's going on?" Melissa asked, weary. "What have so many people...died for?"

Leptin's look was tired. " _You_."

"I--I didn't start this," she sputtered. "This--this is--"

"It's doesn't matter what you think," the headmaster said. "This is the reality. You can't escape it through words, you can only fix it through action." He spoke to Kevin. "Melissa is the prime priority. We can die, she can't."

Melissa cast a glance back down the tunnel, her mouth a thin line. Somewhere beneath the hill of dirt and sand, that last soldier suffocated. The headmaster turned as the black-haired woman fell from the sky.

"Now, for the real task at hand."

Descending on a backdrop of flames, steel wreckage, and charred bodies, the red-cloaked woman, dropped lightly onto the ground. Like a bird's wings, her cloak floated down after her in a train.

"So, you are the lone survivors," she purred with a smile. "Congratulations." She twirled her twin swords. "Now, prepare to die."

Leptin gave her a level look. "You're of that clan," he said, staring into her rainbow-colored eyes. She was a Coga, an elite among elites. A celestial lancer and bearer of the eyes of creation. "The sacoga," the man continued. "No wonder you could wreak this havoc. I would've killed any lesser mage."

The woman didn't answer. Pulling a sword back, she threw it deftly at Melissa. As if on instinct, Kevin stepped into its path, blocking the paragon with his body. The sword grated against his titus shield for but a moment before sinking into his gut. The man gasped and stumbled back, his face contorting in pain. Melissa stared at the blade's flaming tip which stuck out of his back, and watched the steam rise from his body as the fiery sword cooked him from the inside. Trembling, she touched his arm.

"Kevin!" She stared as he held the sword's decorative hilt in his hands. A tear dropped from her eyes. "Where's your shield? Where--where'd it go?"

Leptin grabbed her arm and jerked her back. "Stay behind me."

The red-robed woman's gaze was mild. "How unfortunate," she said, looking at Melissa. "You moved. And I was hoping for a clean kill."

Kevin gritted his teeth and fell to a knee. His mouth parted in an agonizing groan as the sword pulled out of him and flew back into its master's hand. Heaving, he puked. Red tinted his lips as his blood was absorbed into the desert sand. He held his abdomen pitifully and swallowed as his breath quickened. Blood dripped from his wound. The superheated sword had cauterized his flesh, leaving cooked muscle and organs to fester.

"Ke--Kevin!" Melissa cried. Hanging his head, he made no indication he'd heard her.

The woman stepped forward and appeared suddenly by Kevin's side as if she'd teleported. She gave Leptin a cool look as she lifted her other blade. "It's not in my interests to prolong suffering," she said and brought it down. Passing through his neck, the sword severed Kevin's head from his shoulders.

Melissa screamed.

The woman's eyes cut to the girl and brandishing her blade she sidestepped the headmaster and slashed down at her.

_Guard!_ Shadow yelled. A clang rang out as silver metal snaked from Melissa's hand to block the sword. For a moment, they grated on each other before the woman pulled back.

"So, you have teeth," the woman said. "You can defend yourself. So why..." She glanced at Kevin's head with narrowed eyes. "He died without purpose."

_Get your head in the game._ Shadow chastised Melissa. _Your life is my life too. Have a little courtesy and at least try to keep it._ After a moment, it added more quietly. N _o matter how many times you imagine it, the clock 's not going to turn back. He's dead, Melissa... Let him rest in pieces._

The woman flipped back before Leptin could make a move. "Oh?" she said and cocked her head. "But I have to go through you first? You would like to lay down your life at the feet of your goddess?"

"It'll be you who dies," Leptin assured.

The woman smiled. "It is a duel then."

# 4

# TITUS

**-- ALEX--**

"We're here."

Alex coughed as a hand, pulled off his black hood. Blinded by the glare of the mid-day sun, which flooded through the air-car's open door, he flinched. Nearly tripping as he was dragged out by a guard, he stumbled clumsily onto soft sand. Behind him stretched a road. Further up along it, a digital yellow caution display cut across the street at an intersection, blocking off the area from other cars. The blue and red lights of police cars flashed from both ends of the road, extending the restriction to pedestrians.

Blocked off... It was a strange concept. Alex turned from the road to the deserted beach. Its tall palm trees waved in the breeze, and gentle waters rolled in and out like languid breaths. The place felt oddly familiar. Looking up, he caught the purple glitter of the Dark Realm's barrier stretching up against the blue sky atop a mountainous cliff. Yes, indeed. It was the same place he'd fallen. His gate into Kaiga.

His eyes passed over a large speedboat. Tied to a small dock, it bobbed in the water, its stern rolling with the lake's languid waves. Pearl white and of a sleek, cutting design, it was the same one that'd driven him to shore just hours before. Hours? The flight back had felt no more than ten minutes.

Why was he here? He looked at the guards. Under Wilson's orders, they'd cajoled him out of the black building rather quickly. Escorting him to top-level and into a private sky-garage, they threw a hood over his head and shoved him into a vehicle. It was obvious he'd flown again. The feeling was similar. A sense of weightlessness and strangely serene flow-like glide, the impression of drifting through water without waves. He cast a glance at Wilson's air-car parked in front of his. Why had they brought him here of all places?

Wilson coolly stepped out of his vehicle.

"This is the same beach as before..." Alex said and looked at a guard. "Isn't it?"

The white-collared man shoved him forward. "Walk."

Alex stepped down a short-wired railing and walked off the gentle incline onto the pale sands. He paused and looked back at the Director. "Hey, Wilson--"

"It's Director to you," the man said, brushing him by.

Alex bit his lip and glanced at the guards that trailed behind them. He eyed the guns in their holsters. He didn't want to be at the end of those barrels again. He had to be careful, cautious with his words, and vigilant of his actions. He walked after the Director.

"Why did you put a hood over me?" he asked. "I'm not a criminal."

"Oh yes," the man said and waved a hand at the air, messing with his digital display. "Well, it would be problematic if you memorized the route... Blindfolds come off so easily."

"How can I memorize anything if we were flying through the air?"

"Hmm," Wilson said, preoccupied. For a moment, Alex wondered if he was listening. "If you're able to deduce that you could be capable enough to escape," the man continued. "The Keepers requested no chances be taken with you, you see. Zero tolerance. Oddities always bring such object curiosity..." He stopped and looked back at the youth, dropping his hand. "They have high hopes for you, Alex. It's not due to luck that you fell into Kaiga, it is fate."

"Ri--right..." Alex said, resisting the urge to sneak a glance at the guard behind him. "But I pledged my loyalty to, uh, Kaiga."

The Director's eyes narrowed. "Newfound loyalty can be a fleeting thing."

Alex didn't reply.

Without another word, the man walked on.

"Why are we out here?" Alex asked after a moment, following.

"Oh," Wilson said, not looking back. "So, you remember this beach?"

"This lake's the same one I fell into, isn't it?"

The Director stopped at the water's edge and turned. "We're here to test you."

Alex raised an eyebrow. "On my potential?"

"What Earth calls magic, Eurther calls titus," Wilson said solemnly, looking across the lake.

Stopping, Alex stared at him. "What?"

"Titus is the energy of this world. Clean, replenishable, everlasting; it's an invaluable resource and a powerful weapon...for those that can use it."

"What are you--"

"It's simple, really," Wilson said, his eyes fixed on the water. He put his hands together in a prayer-like attitude as a wave washed onto the beach. Lifting a hand, a cool blue mist emanation seeped out of his skin. Enwrapping his fingers, its glowing color engulfed his hand in a translucent film. The man pointed a finger at the receding wave. Almost immediately, its water responded and rose into the air in a clear stream. Breaking it off from the tide, Wilson curled his hand in a claw-like motion, molding the liquid into a ball. He turned his wrist over as the water settled into his palm like a balloon. The cool blue film shimmered over its makeup, acting like a layered skin. The Director's equally blue eyes settled back on Alex.

"Now," he said. "Try. Replicate what I did."

Alex stepped back, dumbfounded. "What? I can't--it's a trick. You just--"

"Just what?"

Alex stared at him, then the blob of water.

"Spit it out," Wilson demanded, dropping his hand. The molded liquid, however, floated in the air independently.

"How did you do that?" Alex asked. "How are you still doing it...? Magic?"

Wilson's eyes narrowed. "Is that what it looks like to you? A simple illusion?"

"Are you telling me it's something else?"

"I'm controlling the water, Alex."

"No, you're not," the youth snapped back, his green eyes jaded. "That--it isn't possible."

"It is. Or do you claim your eyes deceive you?"

"You," Alex said, pointing. "You're deceiving me." He laughed. "You're messing with me. Do--do you really think I'd believe you're actually...holding water or something? I'm not that gullible."

Wilson cocked his head, amused. "Am I?" He flicked a finger and water squirted out from the blob to Alex's face. Turning away with a gasp, the blond wiped his sleeve across his eyes before looking up with a glare.

Wilson looked down on him. "You lack awareness."

"You just sprayed me out of nowhere."

"Then you should've moved."

"Douche," Alex muttered and straightened. "Fine. How did you do that?"

Wilson's eyes crinkled. "Oh? Have I finally forged some belief in you?"

"Are you going to keep asking questions or give answers?"

"Ah, I see. So, now you want an explanation."

Alex glowered. "Stop beating around the bush."

"Yes," the Director nodded. "That is the expression you should have. One should only approach titus with serious contemplation and concentration."

"What are you even talking about?" Alex asked and wiped his sleeve across the rest of his face. "Just get to the point."

"If you think it, Alex--if you can imagine an outcome, you can bring it to fruition," Wilson gestured to the floating blob. "What I did with the water is but one example. Now, everything in this world has titus. Titus is the life energy of which everything at its core is made. Everything created from titus is and will always be life-wards in some form. Water, for instance, is the densest form of titus and most malleable. If you fall in it, it will eventually lift you up yet...it can still drown--"

"Yeah," Alex said. "You're delusional."

"Am I?" Wilson smiled thinly. "Yes, I suppose your small mind would think that. You oddities are all the same. Ignorant, arrogant, and close-minded. Why do you think that is?"

Alex raised an eyebrow. "We're logical?"

"No, you're unaware. Unconscious to possibility." The Director shook his head. "No, rather, you ignore it. You actively deceive yourselves, limit yourselves and condemn anything outside the realm of your own thinking. You've formed a concept of reality, based solely upon your experiences. Something beyond what you ordinarily perceive, such as titus, you negate as truth. Your truth."

"What are you--"

"Belief is truth, Alex," Wilson continued. His eyes were intense, expression impassioned. "What is real or unreal? Who decides that? Who laid down that law? Someone had to. All rules are created and come from the mind. For all we know, this could all be a dream, yours or mine. From what limited perspective are you viewing the world?"

"I--what?" Alex said and touched his head in thought. He swallowed. "Wait. Your drift is... it's kind of hard to follow."

"Yes. Your head would hurt, wouldn't it? You're letting in information you previously overlooked. Or should I say willfully ignored?"

"You're making--"

"Sense?" Wilson gazed imperiously. "Of course, I am."

"No. That's not what I meant."

Wilson ignored him. "Every world operates on the basic laws of cause and effect," he continued. "Both Earth and Eurther. Titus relies on one's thought process. Not only their belief but their fundamental creativity. A manipulator builds the desired outcome in their mind and brings it forth into reality with their will. They ask and receive. Belief is the law of imagination."

"O--okay..." Alex said.

"Oh?" Eyes searching, Wilson took a step towards him. "Am I finally getting through to you? Good. Repeating myself in different ways is tiring. Now, let's move on. There are two types of people in Eurther. Conductors and insulators. At the ground level of manipulation, you must first understand that the body is a conductor. Shock it with electricity, and you can restart a heart or stop one. Titus manipulation turns on the same concept but flipped. Instead of being shocked, a user sends out their titus to shock their surroundings into their image. Most people, however, conduct the energy as well as wood--they are insulators. Like everything--animals, elements, and objects--they harbor titus within the core of their being. It inhibits their makeup like a fingerprint unique to them. However, being insulators, their cores are blocked by a dense layer of negative titus which inhibits their ability to send their own titus into the external world."

"Can they be unblocked?" Alex asked, humoring him.

Wilson waved a hand. "Yes, if they want to die."

Alex stared at him. "What?"

"Their titus cores are their souls, you know...or like them, if you will. Unlike conductors, they don't have excess. Their negative layer protects them from sending out life energy they don't have to spare. In essence, it keeps them from extinguishing their life."

Alex gave him a quizzical look. "And what happens if I'm one of those?"

Wilson gazed at him, irritated. "If you are, this long-winded explanation would be for nothing, and I will have wasted my words, but...I digress."

"And if I am a conductor?"

Wilson smiled. "Then, you have potential."

"Why?" Alex cocked his head. "I don't get it."

"You're an oddity." The man was dismissive. "Your mind is small. If not for the Dark Realm, you'd be as much a dud as any other tierless worker. Another cog to aid the production of the factories and keep the corporate cycle running strong. For Kaiga's sake, I hope you are not. However, I'll leave that for fate to decide. Perhaps you are, perhaps you aren't. Regardless, you will be of some use in the end."

Alex stared at him.

Wilson turned his gaze to the still floating ball of water. He moved his hand in a sweeping motion, and the titus layer holding the mold vanished, letting the water fall into the sand. "Above all," he said, looking back at the youth. "To manipulate titus, you must possess one unyielding requirement, belief."

Alex laughed nervously. "What are you...like, writing a book or something?" he asked. As soon as he said it, his eyes cut to the holsters of the guards. "Uh, I--I mean, it's a cool theory and all, but magic's not real. You can't just poof anything into reality just by thinking. It's insane."

Wilson sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair. His eyes were suddenly distant as they looked out across the water. "I tell you the truth, and you think I am lying."

"You can't expect me to just believe all of this without any proof," Alex said. "That's just common sense."

"Common sense," Wilson scoffed. " _Proof._ " He sighed. "It's like the records say. Oddities are dullards. What happened to blind belief?"

"It's dumb."

Wilson looked at him. "Is religion dumb?"

"Of course not, it's--"

"It's the same concept."

"No, it's not," Alex said, furrowing his brows. "Religion is... _different_."

The Director folded his arms and fixed him with a patient expression. "Different how?"

Staring at him for a moment, Alex looked down, at a loss for words. He curled his hand into a fist. "It's not the same," he said, meeting the man's cool gaze with an irritated one. "Titus...whatever it is, you just made it up, right? That' s--that's your test, isn't it? For me to tell if your lying."

Wilson gave him a withering look. "What would be the point in that?"

"To...test my awareness?"

Sighing deeper still, Wilson rubbed his temples as if truly disturbed by the boy's insolence. "Why would I have spent so much time--my time, mind you, explaining something that doesn't exist?"

"I don't know."

"Where's your common sense then?" Wilson asked. "Where did it go?"

"Okay," Alex said. "Let's say you're right--"

"I am right," Wilson snapped. "A closed mind is a dead mind, and yours is conditioned."

A jolt shot through Alex, and he cast a glance at the guards behind them. "So--so you're saying I can use titus too, right?"

"Perhaps," the man said wearily. "Manipulation is commonly a hereditary ability."

"So," Alex said. "Now, you're saying I can't use it?"

"The Dark Realm is the origin of the world. A land of pure titus. You came from there to here so you might have potential."

Alex gave him a confused look. "I thought you said it was a theory."

"Yes, because no one who has entered has ever returned...at least not from Eurther," Wilson said, giving him a hard look. "You should give up on going home unless you wish to be lost to the void."

"I..." Alex began and swallowed. "My--my loyalty is to Kaiga."

Wilson's eyes turned from him slowly. "Perhaps it is, perhaps it's not. Humans have a tendency to hang onto what no longer serves them."

"How do I start using titus?" Alex asked, jumping as the man's gaze snapped back to him.

"Believe you can."

"Can't you give me more to go off than that?"

"No."

After a moment, Wilson's expression turned thoughtful. "Well," he said. "I suppose you should know that if you're a tier, a manipulator, that you will be boxed into levels according to your range of power. It is a simple color code that even a dunce such as you could grasp. Starting at white, it ends at gold. The higher your tier and level, the stronger you are. Do you have any more questions? No?"

"You didn't let me say anything," Alex griped.

"Let's begin," Wilson said. "Prepare yourself."

Alex stepped away, taken aback. "We're starting now?"

"Move the sand."

"Huh?"

"Move the sand," Wilson repeated, impatient.

"Move it? That's imposs--"

Springing up from the waves, in a short spurt, water blasted Alex in the face.

"Wrong," the Director said. "The correct answer...is how."

"But I can't! I don't know--"

"Wrong."

Blasted again, Alex sputtered and wiped his eyes. "Quit--" The water shot out once more in a spurt swifter than the last. "How?"

"That took you a while," Wilson commented, amused. He gestured to the sand. "Now, will it to move."

"Will it to..." Alex looked at him, blinking water out of his eye. "I can't--I mean, how? How am I supposed to?"

"Believe you can."

Wilson pointed a hand at the sand before him, and after a moment, Alex mimicked him halfheartedly.

"Imagine what you want the sand to do..." the Director said, turning his hand as he lifted it up slowly. "Decide where you want it to go, and have it consent accordingly." A thick stream of sand twisted up from the rest. Reaching Wilson's hand, it stopped. The man cut his hand in a slicing movement, and the bottom half of the sand dropped off and collapsed back into the beach.

"After that, shape it." Hooking his fingers, Wilson turned his hand one way then the other, causing the remaining sand to spin in on itself like a tornado until it flattened into a thin pancake disc. "When you want the manipulation to stop," he said. "Say end."

The sand fell to the ground.

Turning his eyes from his imposed mentor, Alex turned his own hand.

_I have to do this,_ he thought. I _f I master it ... If I'm good at it, maybe they'll let me go home. Tradeoffs are how people work, and governments function. Give this for that. Kaiga can't be any different. They need me like I need them. Otherwise, we wouldn't be out here right now._ He stared at his hand. _I have to make this work._

"Imagine..." he said and breathing in, he exhaled. "What to do...what to do..."

Closing his eyes, he lifted his hand up slowly, ever so slowly, focusing on his hand and driving his concentration to that sole point. He imagined the sand doing what Wilson had done. Visualizing its rise, it's twisting into a pancake disc. He expelled all doubt and sentenced any opposing thoughts to an internal execution. His hand, only his hand, and sand rising up to it in a surge.

"Rise..." he said quietly. "Rise to me." The sand at his feet shifted slightly, then a thick column of sand, the size of Wilson, erupted into the air. Twisting in on itself, it spiraled up past him in its stretch for the sky. Swaths of sand showered down in all directions, spurting out wildly from its top like a geyser.

"Alex!" He heard Wilson shout over the roar of the sand. The ground trembled in its wake, sending convulsing waves across the beach in a rolling tide.

"Release!" Wilson said and grabbed him by the shoulder. "Release Alex!"

Alex snapped open his eyes. He stared at the man for a moment, dazed. Like Wilson and the guards around them, a colored titus film surrounded his body, but while the Director's was slate-blue, Alex's was jet black. Turning his gaze to the sand geyser in a panic, Alex flung the man's hand off him and as if on cue, three more sand columns, larger than the first shot up nearby, erupting from the beach as lava would a volcano.

"End it now!" Wilson yelled. He grabbed Alex by the shoulders, shook him hard, severing his focus from the chaos.

"End, end!" Alex choked out. The sand froze as his black titus infused in it, vanished, dissipating in the wind. All at once, the columns began to fall. Forcing his head down, Wilson held up a hand and called a warning to his bodyguards. Their hands were already raised, expressions tense. The sand came down on them in earnest, collapsing on itself like a building. It hit Wilson's shimmering blue force-shield with full force and repelled, spilling over it. Sliding down its sides, it piled around both Director and oddity as it returned to the beach.

_Wilson 's doing this? _Alex thought, losing the strength in his legs. Vision blurring, his sight darkened as he collapsed.

# 5

# SUBMERGED

**-- MELISSA--**

A bead of sweat dripped from Leptin's chin as Akane's blade grated against the silver whip a foot from his chest. The glint of her dual sword flashed in the sunlight as she twisted into sideways slice. A smile played on her lips as her blade skirted across another wire and diverted their stabbing counter. She dipped away from one, ducked another, and dived to the side, rolling away in a swift retreat.

"Too slow, Shadow," Leptin chastised.

_Be thankful,_ it retorted. _You 're still alive. _

Getting to her feet, Akane twisted out of the path of a downward slash and bobbed under a jab of another wire. Forced back, sparks flew as she turned away a wire with her blade, and it grated past her. Catching one with the metal heel of her boot, she pulled her leg around with the kick and drove its head into the ground. She released a breath as two more cables shot for her. In the wake of their pursuit, she rammed her swords back into their sheaths and jumped off the ground into a standing backflip. Influencing the titus in air, she flew up and out of range.

The wires halted their pursuit after extending themselves a fair distance from Melissa.

"Attacking us is a violation of the treaty," Leptin called out.

Akane smiled. "Then it's broken." Dipping down into dive, the flames of her katanas back out at her sides, she skimmed the wires as they reached out for her. Rolling around, she bypassed them easily, pulling her swords to one side for a double chop.

White titus wafted around Leptin's hands as he jerked them up. Suddenly, beads of water rose from the desert. Transmuting midair, they converted into hardened spikes of concrete as they shot up toward their adversary like anti-air rounds.

Feinting to the side, Akane flipped around and slashed her swords in the air as the spikes changed course. They blackened through the wave of fire before falling like duds of clay. She twisted in the air and brandished her swords in a flourish of steel as the wires curved back around. Sparks flew in a resounding clang. A flurry of wires and blades of fire clashed together in midair, locking and unlocking in a fervent frenzy for blood.

Leptin spread his feet and slowly lowered his hands. A sudden surge of water spilled out of the dirt beneath his feet and pooled around him before spreading to submerge the surrounding area in ankle-deep water.

"Fire versus water," he said, watching as Akane slipped away from the wires, only to be caught again. "This should be interesting. Shadow, keep your distance," he ordered. "And cover my blind spots."

_Like I 've been doing? _It said.

Akane twisted around the wires in an evasive maneuver and broke off in a dive. Leptin's eyes went wide as she appeared above him. A smile spread across her lips as she flipped down and swung a blade for his throat. Leptin leaned back, and the sword missed his jugular by a hair. Very nearly taking off his nose, it skimmed over his face. Akane's dismay turned to frustration as she lighted onto the ground behind him and stepped in for a counter slice across his spine.

Responding to his will, a wall of water shot up at Leptin's back. Steam rose as Akane's flaming swords passed into it. Hot metal sunk into the muscle of the headmaster's shoulder and continued across his back in a grazing downwards slash. The man gritted his teeth against the pain. A flash of silver appeared and weaving around Leptin, the fluid wire engaged the woman.

"Late," the man gasped, stumbling forward.

_Sorry,_ Shadow said.

Akane met the wires head-on. Knocking one aside with the back of her blade, she jumped up and used it as a stepping stone to flip over its diving counterparts. A cable snapped out as she landed and swept her feet out from under her. The woman tasted watery mud as it laid her out in a splash. Leptin's watery surge had created a half-shin deep pond. At its edges, a piling wall of sand continued to rise, preventing water from flooding out. Their flames dosed, steam rose around the woman's blades. The wires, however, didn't give her a second to breathe. Akane winced as a riveted wire grazed her side as she rolled away before more wire-heads followed the first into the ground around her.

Turning into yet another roll, she whipped around and engaged in a brief blade lock with a wire. Moving her head, she avoided being skewered by another in the eye. Overwhelmed, she pushed back the wire with her blades before beating back two others in the fight to stand. Her eyes flew to their corners as a cable snaked in from behind. Flipping her wrists, she threw her swords into the air and clapped her hands together. The filmy red of her titus burst away from her body in a forcefield. Bouncing off of the barrier, the wires were blown back as Akane snapped her fingers and ignited the air.

The woman snatched her falling swords out of the air and looked back to lock eyes with Melissa, who watched the action from the corner of her shield. Water sloshed in a cloud of steam, and waves rippled through the rising pond as Leptin dropped the water wall he'd pulled to defend himself. Akane's gaze shifted to him murderously.

Ducking under a wire's swing, she stepped into a lunge. "Quickstep," she said.

A flash of red light lit beneath her feet, and water went up behind her in her dart forward. Her white teeth parted in a smile and bringing her katanas around, she swung. Time seemed to slow as she swept the swords forth, fire licked the air, and droplets of water dissipated as she cut for Leptin's midsection.

"Die," she breathed.

Eyes wide, Leptin paled as the woman's swords slid into wet concrete. Akane stumbled forward and with a jerk, pulled her blades free from the sagging mud clone.

"A duplicate," she realized. Her eyes cut across the pond. Leptin shimmered into existence, releasing the water mirage placed on his real body.

Akane gave him an annoyed look. "You moved."

"And you're done," he said and raised a hand. "Concrete Release." He dropped his arm. "Harden!"

Watery hands grabbed Akane's legs and snaked up around her body. Pinning one arm to her side, they grabbed her other and transmuted into hardened sludge. Immobilized, she gave him a dark look. "Do you think this will stop me?"

"It's the first step," Leptin said.

"I am a Coga!"

The headmaster smiled. "Soon to be dead."

Leptin pushed his hand forward and bent his fingers. The ground rumbled, and pond water stirred for a moment before a concrete wall studded with spikes rose behind Akane. A surge of water shot up beside it and collapsed into the figurine mold of a large towering man. Lifting the top of the wall by with a hand, the figure pulled it back over its head. Leptin dropped his hand, and the water figure swung the spiked wall down upon her.

Akane closed her eyes and exhaled. "Angelic Flames."

Her hair paled, and white fire erupted around her body. Ash blew back into the air as the shield deteriorated in the wake of the flames, its concrete crumbling into dust before its heat. The hand of the water giant burst into steam. The woman flexed her hands over the hilts of her swords; the concrete hands that once held her, sizzled on the water, their powdery embers going out beneath the surface. She opened her eyes and pointed a sword of white flame at Leptin, who stared at her in shocked disbelief.

Steam rose around her in a billowing cloud against the fire of her titus. In her wake, the pond's water rapidly evaporated. She stepped forward onto solid ground. "I will have you die here."

Leptin pushed his hands at her, and a wall of water surged up from the ground in a wave. "No matter how hot your flames are," he said, transmuting the tide into a sludge of wet concrete. "I will smother them out!"

Shrouding her in its shadow, the muck rushed towards the woman like a tidal wave. A plum of ash burst into the air as Akane swung a sword. White fire beating back the dark rain which followed, flickering like a candle, it illuminated the brief depression in a brilliant ray of light. Advancing like an angel of death, the woman walked on undeterred.

"All things return to ash before these flames," she said, raising a blade. "Your fate will be the same."

"Shadow," Leptin said and stepped back with furrowed brows. "I'm reaching my limit." He turned his eyes up to the open sky. "Abandon me."

_Understood,_ it said.

Leptin closed his eyes.

Melissa shakily rose to her feet as she watched from the sidelines. "Shadow," she said, anxiously, gripping the edge of her black shield. "What did he say?"

_We have to go._ It said. _Now._

Melissa stared at Leptin open-mouthed, her lip trembled. She bit it. "What did he say I asked!"

_Melissa,_ it snapped. Its voice cracked out in her mind like a whip, and she froze, quivering. _We have to go. You have to live._

"But--" she said and lurched forward.

_No!_ Shadow screamed, and the girl stopped. She stared at the ground as Shadow morphed the obsidian shield into a canoe-like object. Blood dripped from her palms as she dug her nails into her hands. A tear rolled from an eye as she blinked.

"It isn't fair."

_Get in the boat, Melissa. He can 't protect us anymore. Move. We have to run or die._

Hiccupping, Melissa turned and climbed into it. She sat, putting her head into her hands as her silver metals hooked into the makeshift boat and dragged her forward. Leptin watched her go with a sigh and turned his gaze to Akane, who watched him a couple of feet away, waiting.

"You've done well," she commended. "Few have ever made it so far against me. I never thought I would have to use these flames against your ilk." She pointed a blade at him. "Speak. Say your last words, I will end this but in an instant."

Leptin chucked and extended his arms. "I suggest you do the same. Concrete Coffin!"

The ground rumbled and split open as a torrent of water surged up from the depths of the desert. It rose like a geyser and twisted to loop down onto its master. The water wrapped around Leptin in a ball, and lifting him within its embrace began to expand. Akane looked on as the bubble reached her and laughed. A cloud of steam blew around her in the water ball's futile attempt to capture her.

"Is this all you have?" she taunted. "More water?"

Pain arched through Leptin, and air bubbles rose from his mouth as he brought his hands together. Closing his eyes, he reached down into the innermost part of himself for the dredges of what titus he had left. It wasn't enough, but he'd already passed the point of no return. Delving deeper, he tapped into his life titus and opened his eyes. The water swirled about him iridescently, shimmering in the light of the sun like a mirage. Within it, he could make out countless rainbows.

Rather than fear, he felt acceptance. Unlike the blackened bodies of the soldiers on the battlefield, he had the privilege to choose his end and faced death grimly with open eyes. They shone with clarity, reflecting a determined resolve of purpose in sacrifice.

The water's temperature spiked into a seizing boil as the ball overwhelmed Akane's flames and pulled her in. A dark red stream drifted up from Leptin's nose, his veins were sharply outlined against his face and hands from the intense heat, cooking him from the inside. He willed the massive ball of water into the sky and folding his hands, entwined his fingers. Bubbles surged from his mouth in a cry of agony, and the water beneath his feet transmuted into concrete. Flowing over his foot, blood spurted as it crushed it.

Swimming against a swirling current, Akane fought to keep at the ball's edge. Her eyes widened as concrete spread out from and around Leptin's body below her, dying the iridescent water an ominous pink shade. His dark eyes were already clouded with death. Shoving a sword back into its sheath, she clapped a hand over her mouth. Akane was reaching her limit. She flipped around in the water and kicked out for the top of the ball, desperate to beat the climbing concrete. Rolling past Leptin's chin at a rapid pace, it smothered him completely.

Bubbles exploded from her mouth in a stream as the current tossed her body to the side like a rag doll. Grimacing, Akane jammed her remaining sword into its scabbard and closed her eyes. Letting her arms drift behind her, she flexed her hands. Fire erupted out of their centers. Water dosed the blast in a rush, but its power rocketed her forth, straight through the surface of the ball's mold. Snapping her eyes open with a gasp, the woman fell back in the air as the concrete ball below solidified.

Forcing her aching body to move, she drew a sword and turned towards the solid orb as she came down upon it. Driving the blade into it, she rode the giant mass down as the flaming katana cut through it. Less than a quarter way down, the sword snapped off and flailing, she threw out her hands. Red titus lit around her body, and she managed to control her descent for a few moments before her titus cloak sputtered and died.

Braving the last ten feet at a freefall, she tossed the hilt of her broken sword aside as she hit the desert floor. Rolling off the top of a dune-like a ragdoll, she tumbled head over heels into the fold of a sand drift. Dazed, she looked up with a cough. She lay within the fringes of a massive shadow. Wisps of white titus dissipated from the concrete ball above like a shockwave as it began to fall. Coughing, she wiped her mouth with the sleeve of a shaking arm and staggered to her feet. She wasn't in the clear yet.

"Quickstep..." she murmured, and as the drudges of her red titus gathered at her feet, she stepped forward. Shooting out from under the ball like a missile, she cleared its enormous shadow. However, as the mass crashed into the earth, her body left the ground. Flung into the air like a ragdoll with her reserves of titus all but gone, she flopped into the sand at a roll. Falling over herself without the slightest dignity or bearing, she tumbled into the face of a dune.

Opening her eyes, Akane groaned as she forced herself up into a sitting position. She covered her mouth and descended into a round of coughs before retching. Her back arched violently as she vomited a slew of fluid and undigested food. She stared at it, listlessly for a moment before spitting. Wiping her mouth, she sat back.

"I should've used a clone," she muttered, unclasping a compartment in her uniform. Pulling out a capsule of dark pills, Akane unscrewed its top. Dumping a few into her hand, she chucked them back into her mouth and swallowed. After a moment, a smile played over her lips as the titus enhancers began to replenish her energy. Staggering to her feet, she snorted and wiped her nose before doggedly starting forward with hooded eyes.

Red titus enveloped her body as she stepped onto the air. Rising, she drew her last sword. Her gaze drifted from the sinking concrete ball out to the desert horizon.

"Now for the girl."

# 6

# LOSS

**-- MELISSA--**

Melissa's vision blurred with tears. Blinking, they streamed down her face. Kevin's head sat in a pool of blood, his body lay nearby. Pained surprise was his face's last expression. His once chillingly cold grey eyes stared out emptily, cloudy. They would never blink again. A strong hand grabbed the Paragon by the shoulder as she stepped towards him with a choked sob.

"Get ahold of yourself," Leptin hissed and jerked her back. Stumbling, the purple-eyed girl tripped over her feet in anguish. The headmaster caught her before she could fall. Hanging her head as he held her, Melissa sagged in his grip, still crying. She couldn't grasp the situation. She didn't want to. The shock was too much.

"Kevin..." she sobbed, closing her eyes. "No..."

Twelve years she had known him. In the lab, he had been her guardian. In the academy, her warden. She'd known neither love nor loyalty from the military man, but her attachment and bond had been enough at most times to fill the void.

Flames glinted on steel. The sight rushed into her vision as the black-haired woman swept her duel swords down into her. Two holes opened up in Melissa's hands, one silver and one black. A dark blob shot from the circle from her right and spread out in an umbrella shell over her and Leptin, shielding them. The man's grip loosened from her arm, and the headmaster let her fall tearfully into the dirt as the clang of the woman's swords rang out over the battlefield. Melissa trembled and slowly pulled her knees to her chest. The black shield held without the slightest dent, crack or shudder. Her adversary's flames harmlessly roared out across the dark metal.

Wiry silver metal whipped out from Melissa's left hand and shot through the center of the obsidian cover. The red-cloaked swordswoman bent back as the arrow tipped wire struck out of the shield like a knife through water. As it passed through, the surface of the black shell rippled. Too fast even for her reflexes, the silver metal sliced by the woman's neck in a noticeable graze. Turning to the side, Akane flipped out of the way.

Flames licked the air as the katanas twisted in a sandy breeze, free of their wielder's hands. They flew wildly through the air. One tumbled down a low sloping dune while the other skewered a charred corpse by the wreckage of a fallen tank. Regaining her bearing, the woman held out her hands and called them back to her.

_Wake up!_ Shadow snapped at Melissa. _I 'm protecting the two of us when you should be protecting yourself._

Looking up, the girl hiccupped between her sobs. "I--I can't..." she said, her breath catching in her throat. "I'm not strong. Kevin--" Her eyes stared at the black metal of the shield. "Let me see him."

She sucked in a breath and touched the cold metal. She ran her fingers down its surface. For a moment, she stared at it, then at the dust caked on her hands and the cracked and broken remnants of her once fresh manicured nails. Beyond them and past the shield, Kevin's body lay, broken, wounded, maimed... _headless_.

"Open..." she said, her voice a hoarse whisper. Responding to her command, a hole spiraled out of the shield's center to reveal Kevin's body several feet beyond. Sticking her arm through the space, she leaned forward. Her violet eyes were large and intense--touched. Mentally, she was not all there.

_Melissa!_ Shadow shouted as the girl locked eyes with the red-cloaked woman prowling outside. The woman lifted her swords with a malevolent smile.

The Paragon returned her gaze dully. "Oh, that's right," she said. "You're here to kill me." A moment passed, and her eyes drifted back to Kevin's body. "Please..." she implored, reaching out further through the hole. "Just let me see him."

A hand closed around her collar and jerked her back as the woman lurched forward, sword in hand. Desperate, Shadow closed the hole, too late. The shield fell around the blade and morphing over it, the black metal stopped to hold it in place. A quarter of the katana protruded into the dark shelter. Its razor tip strayed just inches from Melissa's throat.

"Come quietly fledgling paragon," she heard the Victashia hiss from the other side. "You of such fragile constitution and poor conviction. I will put you to rest. Come. Step out, and I will make your death as swift as his."

As if caught in a trance, Melissa tentatively eased forward, her eyes fixed on the edge of the blade. Leptin jerked her back before she could throw her neck down upon it. Reacting to her rashness with a sharp command, Shadow cut the katana with the shield like a guillotine. Shearing off the blade, her alter-ego closed the black metal's hole completely.

"Let me see him!" Melissa screamed and twisted in Leptin's grip. "He's my--" She stopped and stared at the broken blade in the sand. "My..."

"Your what?" Leptin asked and pulled her away from the sharp metal before she could get any ideas. Dragging her another foot for good measure, he dropped her. "Kevin was a soldier. That's all he ever was and will ever be. Now, he's dead."

"No," Melissa said, shaking her head.

"He's dead, girl."

The Paragon looked away from him in denial. "No, no, he' s--he's my..." She turned her eyes blankly up to the sky. What was Kevin? She didn't know. She'd never thought about it. He'd always been there. He was always supposed to be there. That was his role. His purpose in her life and sole existence. It was his place.

_He 's not your friend, _Shadow said, voicing what she would not. _He 's not your relative. _She felt the voice draw close. _He 's not your father._

Melissa flinched.

_He is dead._ She could feel a smile spread across Shadow's nonexistent face. N _ow, and forever. He is nothing. Nothing more than your warden, your jailer ...your chain. Why do you cry for him? Do you even know?_

Her breaths quickening, Melissa ripped off her necktie and coughed.

_Hey ... _Shadow taunted. _Why? Why, oh, why do you cry?_

"Kevin," Melissa said and choked back a sob. "He--" She caught Leptin looking down at her. Averting his bloodshot eyes, she swallowed.

_Kevin is dead,_ Shadow said, tactless. _He 's gone. What about that, do you not understand? He died for you._

"No..." Melissa hiccupped, shaking her head. "He--"

_He died for you!_

The girl hit the sand with her fist. "He died in vain!"

_Then avenge him,_ Shadow urged. _Kill --_

"I can't!" Melissa snapped. She closed her eyes and curled her fingers into sand. "I--"

_You can!_

"It won't change anything," Melissa sobbed, placing a hand to her burning chest. "He's gone, Shadow. He's never coming back! Never."

_You are the Paragon!_ Shadow snarled.

"I can't bring back the dead."

_Bring him back?_ Shadow scoffed, incredulous. _Why?_

Melissa opened her eyes.

_Did he not treat you like an ant? A tool to be used and discarded?_

"He didn't deserve to die."

_Yet he 's dead, and you cry. Pathetic. You're pathetic. For all the hundreds of millions of Kaigians who look up to you, I wish the world could see you now. _

Melissa's shoulders shook as tears fell through the open holes in her hands to dot the sand below. "The strong are not strong," she said. "The weak are not weak. Death on top of death, hatred piled on hatred... What has it ever solved? I'm the one they want. I caused this. Kevin would never have--"

_I 've had enough you. You sniveling excuse of a paragon. You taint your title and scorn your rank. Kevin would be ashamed._

"I--I'm not a machine."

_Pah,_ it said. _You don 't know what you are. _

"You're proving to be a rather poor adversary," the Victashia called out as she paced before the black shield, looking for an opening. Her broken sword was restored. Spanning as long as its twin, it looked like it had never been cut. "What honorable opponent lets their enemy hang and wait? If you wish to duel, then duel. I will not stand by idly while you decide." She raised her voice. "Why not stick your head out again Paragon? I will free you of your pain. I promise. I won't miss a second time."

Melissa could feel Shadow turn its nonexistent eyes to the portly headmaster. _Leptin,_ it snapped at him. _Say something. The Victiashia is prattling on, you worthless --_

"I'll get her out of here," the headmaster said and glanced back at the girl. "Of that, you can be sure. Even if it costs my life, Melissa will get out alive." He ducked from under the black shield and stepped out into the open. "Shadow, shut up and do what you were made for."

Shadow folded arms it didn't have. _More fighting, less talking, headmaster. Let 's see if your words hold true to your title. _

The woman's eyes lit up as Leptin emerged. "Your goddess sounds confused, old man," she taunted. "Will you comfort her a little longer, or have you finally decided to come out and play?"

Leptin returned her smile with a glower. "I've come to kill you."

The woman laughed. "Like the rest of your pathetic army?" she said, sweeping her sword at the battlefield. "This burial is grander than the one they would receive at your honorable ceremonies. Saluting and parading, it does nothing for the dead. However, dying at my hands? Akane Silone Coga? That is a true honor." She pointed a blade at Leptin and flipped her other sword behind her arm. "Come, so I may complete this graveyard."

She was a young woman, no older than twenty-five. A stark beauty not unlike the flames of her swords, she had a striking appearance. Her hair, bound in a high ponytail, flowed down her back in a glossy river of black and angular almond eyes reflected the colors of the rainbow. Her sharp features enhanced the pigments of deep purple, violent red, electric blue, meadow green, and golden amber, which swirled together to form her brilliant hued irises, so rare, gemlike in their appearance. Almost otherworldly, she was an unnerving enigma against the copper desert, her mysterious scarlet cloak lending her the fabled guise of a false legend. The red fabric billowed back to reveal the purple fire emblem of Victashia outlined boldly against her thin white mesh uniform.

Lunging, Akane whipped her flaming sword around in an arc for Leptin's head. The headmaster clapped his hands together as Melissa's fluid silvery-white metals shot out from the back of the shield in four whip-like wires. Like the heads of a hydra, they split from one another. Three wires lagged behind at Leptin's side while one swept up to parry the sword. 

# 7

# GREY ROOM

**-- ALEX--**

Alex opened his eyes to stare at an unfamiliar ceiling. A glass monitor displaying his vitals slowly beeped above him in line with his heartbeat. He turned his head to the side and blinked, confused. _Where am I?_

An armed man watched him from the wall across from his bed, two more guards stood at parade rest by a panoramic window to his right, and another two kept silent vigil before the room's silver door. They wore white collared uniforms with dark futuristic shades over their eyes and curly wires in their ears-- _Wilson 's men,_ he assumed.

Alex looked down. His clothes had changed. He no longer wore the scratchy automated jumpsuit. Rather, he was in a dress--a pale unmanly hospital gown, softer than cotton and smoother than silk. It wasn't his only change in circumstances. Two metal chairs coddled a short tea table in a nearby corner while a large fixture hung over his bed. Stark grey wallpaper wrapped around the large room, and although spacious, it was dimly lit and comprised of little decoration.

A hand touched his arm. A woman in grey turned from a futuristic container holding his IV to look at him. The air was frigid, but her fingers were colder. Her pale gaze was just as cool. Noting he was awake, she pulled her hand away without a word. Her black curls bounced as she stepped away and disappeared behind his bed with a clipboard.

"If the recording is correct then..." said a voice in a strange gravely accent.

"Yes," he heard Wilson reply. "Then he might be a--"

"Pardon my interruption, your excellency," the nurse said. "The Oddity is conscious."

"I see," Wilson said. Alex looked back as the Director stepped into view. The man appraised him for a silent moment as if he'd become an object of sudden value. Alex swallowed.

"So you've woken," the man said finally. His dark eyes glittered in the room's dim light. Alex shifted his eyes as a red-haired man joined Wilson's side; he was the other voice that'd been talking earlier.

"Where am I?" Alex asked and sat up nervously. "What is this place?"

The red-haired man folded muscled arms. "Well," he said, "some call it a prison for the ill, others, the home for the mental." He smiled ruefully, hinting at a joke.

Alex didn't get it. "What?"

"He means a hospital," Wilson said and gave the other man a dry look. His eyes shifted back to the boy. "That's where you are."

The red-haired man held out his hand to Alex. "I'm Director Neal Jones," he introduced himself. "It's a pleasure to meet you, son."

"Son?" Alex said, taken aback by the familiarity. He winced as the man's hand closed around his. One director threatened to kill him, and this one fairly broke his hand as they shook in greeting.

Neal was a bull of a man, thickly muscled, tall and intimidating. Shaven in the back and gelled in the front, his rust-red hair was cut militarily. The copper strands which fell over his eyes made him look enigmatic and imposing, yet his expression was likable. His wide-toothed grin appeared more cunning than genuine, and deep green eyes were not unlike Alex's own. He was younger than Wilson and in his early thirties, if not more so. His dark suit seemed almost small on his build--stretched and taut around his chest and arms, his physique made the gold lapels on his shoulders look flashy.

Alex pulled his hand away, wary. _Another director, so he 's like Wilson?_

"You don't have much of a grip, do you?" Neal said, and chuckled. "But how can you? With those frail arms."

Alex felt his face grow hot, and a redness come over him from the comment. He clenched his fists but couldn't find a comeback. What was there to say?

"Ignore him," Wilson said with an offhanded glance at Neal. "He's immature."

"It's better than being old," Neal said. "At least I still have a sense of humor."

"Lineage reflects class." Wilson smiled cooly. "And your crudeness reflects yours. Only those lacking background stoop to the level of the backgroundless."

The red-haired director's eyes were like ice as he put a hand in his pocket nonchalantly. He offered the man a stony smile. "I knew you were stiff," he said, "I didn't think you were jealous. That's what this is about, right? You throw a petty low blow just because you had to work for your position." He gave a mirthless laugh. "How bitter. You ought to think about pulling out that rod you've got stuck so far up your ass."

Wilson stepped away and calmly eased back into one of the tea table's chairs. "There's no need to get so offended. I simply said the truth." He appraised Neal with a knowing half-smile as if he beheld a secret no one else could have. Slowly, he folded his hands. "A commoner can be adopted into the nobility, but commonness doesn't leave the man. Average stays average. That is how life is set up to be, we may struggle," he said and raised a hand with a shrug. "But if at the bottom we begin, at the bottom, we will end."

"Ah, well," said Neal. "You're quick to predict your own future. Interesting, I didn't even have to tell you."

The older man's eyes narrowed. "I am not tierless trash."

"I'm half-tierless," said the young Director. He placed a hand on the low tea table and leaned in close. "But, I was also an exalted prodigy, unlike you."

"Why..." Alex said and flinched as the gazes of the two men swung to him. He could feel his fingers tremble as he wrung his hands atop the bedsheets. It was obviously not the best time to step into the conversation, and under the Director's unsmiling expressions of civil hostility, he felt his timing couldn't be worse. Unfortunately, they were the only ones who had the answers to his questions and thus, the only ones he could ask. He straightened against the bedframe in the attempt to project his false confidence as real. "Why am I here?"

"And now the oddity dares to open his mouth," Wilson said and chuckled. The smile didn't reach his eyes. "Do you even know where you stand?" He asked Alex and raised an eyebrow, "hmm?"

The sixteen-year-old shifted uncomfortably. He was all too aware that the room's guards held guns. "I, um," he said and coughed to clear his throat. "I--"

"Silence," the dark-haired Director ordered contemptuously. He shook his head. "The nerve. One would think you'd understand your place by now." He gave Alex a withering look. "But it would not be the first time I would be mistaken. How could you expect someone like me to listen to riffraff--"

"I--I just wanted--"

"No, shut up," Wilson snapped. He ran a hand down his stubble of a beard to smooth away his scowl. Slowly he shifted his gaze back to the Oddity. "I will not sit and listen to the mindless questions of one such as you. Preposterous. And a mere oddity--it is time you understood your place." The man leaned back in the metal chair with an imperious air. "Henceforth, you will know yourself to be a prospective tool of the nation. That, is your present status. Your existence is identified as an individual who displays a very promising inclination of titus potential. Nothing more, nothing less, but as you are not scaled, your present value is too small to be of consequence to our great federation. Do you understand?" The Director pointed a gloved finger at the blond boy. "You are no one. The only record you have in Eurther is what I entered in. It can be erased just as easily and you, with it. Speak again without clearance, and I will reevaluate the need for your existence."

A drop of sweat rolled off of Alex's chin to drop onto his clammy hands. He bit his trembling lip and swallowed. Nothing had changed. Titus, the beach, the sand...any, and every accomplishment so far meant nothing. He had risen no higher, was befitted no assurance to this trial of which rules had yet to be explained. He was treading on ice. His life balanced on the cord of a string, and like a tightrope walker, any moment could be one he would fall. But if one thing was clear to him, it was that anything he said--wrong or not-- could threaten his survival.

Wilson waved a hand at Neal. "Junior-class, why don't you do your job? I have yet to hear his clearance for discharge. Or would you have me report your sector's inefficiency in regards to a task of this magnitude?"

"It's nice to think you'd try," Neal said, and after a moment, he turned to Alex. "How do you feel?"

Alex looked from one director to the other and back again. "A little dizzy," he said finally. Looking down, he licked his cracked lips. His throat hurt, and mouth was parched, but otherwise, he felt fine. While his hands shook, there were no repercussions to his body from his first use of titus, none that he noticed anyway.

Neal gestured to the woman standing off to the side. Responding to the summons, the nurse stepped forward with a bowed head.

"Your excellency," she said. "How may I be of service?"

"Give me his data."

"About time," Wilson muttered and drummed his fingers on the table impatiently. "Hurry it up. The Keepers want a confirmed report on him by today."

"I know," Neal said as he took the offered glass clipboard from the nurse. Scanning it over with his eyes, he passed his hand over the device's digital interface and began to swipe through charts. Alex watched him for a moment then began to pick at the clear film holding the IV needle in his wrist. Why he was here was the question. A hospital of all places. Just how dangerous was titus? Could it let him go home? Such questions shouldn't be asked...not with Wilson anyway.

"Leave it alone," Neal said and pointed at him without looking up. "Keep your unsterile fingers off the IV. You're interrupting my work."

Alex let the IV line alone. "You're a doctor too?" he asked.

The Director glanced at him. "Doctor is an outdated term," he said and swiped to another chart. "I'm the Director of the sector of science. A licensed physician."

Alex paused a moment, confused. "Isn't _physician_ an older word than doctor?"

"They're synonyms."

_Then what 's the difference? _Alex thought.

Wilson's cold eyes turned to the nurse. "Have you been giving the Oddity the right amount of fluids?"

"Yes, Excellency, I--"

"He looks pale."

Alex shook his head quickly. "I'm not."

The older Director's gaze was unnerving. "You are," he said.

"I'm just..." Alex looked down as he trailed off, "tired,"

"You shouldn't be," Wilson said. He looked at Neal. "He was supposed to wake recovered."

"He overexerted himself," Neal said. "A two-hour power nap won't alleviate the shock his body experienced, no matter how much we drug him." He cleared the clipboard's screen with three deft taps of a finger and handed the device back over to the nurse. "Get the Oddity a glass of water."

"Black tea for me," Wilson told the woman as she left the room. He leaned back in his chair. "So, what will water do for the Oddity that drugs can't?"

"It'll clear his head."

"I slept for two hours?" Alex interjected. His face was one of disbelief. The time lapse from the sands of the beach to the grey walls of the hospital felt only within minutes of one another. The directors mild expressions told him it was not a lie. He felt an odd sensation as a chill ran through him at the revelation. The air in the room felt colder, his reality his place on the bed and the medical grey walls more serious. Was fluid time an aftereffect of using titus? Or was he reading too far into it? "What happened?" he asked the directors. "How did I end up here?"

"The answer to that question is beyond your comprehension," Wilson replied.

"You fainted," Neal said. "No, collapsed, is more the word. It's uncommon but not rare for first time titus users, especially when they are not properly taught their limits."

"Common for his type," Wilson said. "He's an Oddity."

Neal gave the man a look. "You pushed him too hard."

"It was his first try."

"Doesn't mean--"

"Enough," Wilson said and waved a dismissive hand. "What's done is done. I explained to him the fundamentals, and this--"

"I saw what happened in the recording," Neal snapped. "You goaded him to try a sub-element. He was ignorant...still is. You should've started him on water where titus is abundant. Its three times less dense in sand."

Wilson chuckled. "You'd rather have him blow up the lake instead? His capabilities are far beyond your understanding. Only a sponsor can understand the needs of his charge."

"Only if the sponsor is competent."

The dark-haired man raised his brow. "Oh? And I'm not?"

"You played with his life. You should've cut him off the moment he showed potential--"

"Pah," Wilson scoffed. "The ordeal hasn't even given him a scar."

Neal's eyes flashed and grabbing him by the collar, he jerked the man out of the chair. His deep green eyes brewed with anger. "He is not your pawn. He's an instrument federation, a potential cadet that could aid us in the mission to our bright future."

Wilson put his hand lightly on Neal's and squeezing a pressure point in the wrist, twisted the other man's grip into release. His deep slate-blue eyes were as warm as fresh snow. "Do not touch me, junior-class," he said.

Neal rubbed his wrist as he stepped back. "Every resource is necessary to destroy Victashia," he continued reproachfully. "Already, this war has gone on for a century."

"Not technically," Wilson said, coolly adjusting his uniform. "The hit on our Paragon was reported within the last--"

"To hell with your technicalities, Wilson. This weapons-building ceasefire is no less the cold war that it appears. Jamieh did not succeed, Victashia survived--"

The senior Director gave him a look. "Kaiga will prevail amidst the rise of the cockroaches. We have the power of the sun," he put a hand on the younger man's shoulder and squeezed with a malicious grin. "The vermin will learn to die. Do not get timid now."

Neal was silent for a moment before finally shrugging off the hand. "You don't understand. The Oddity--"

"He is not our only hope."

Neal pointed at Alex's monitor display, exasperated. "His mental faculties were almost stressed to the point of dysfunction. If I hadn't stabilized the Oddity in time--if he had been rushed in ten minutes too late, he would've been brain dead. You toyed with an asset of Kaiga because of curiosity."

"Right, right," Wilson said, nodding. "But is that concern or frustration you are expressing? I really can't tell."

"What I say is not a joke--"

"Obviously."

"Had you played a bad hand Wilson, and I pulled the plug. Your risk would have ended you."

"No doubt, nothing would have made you happier."

Alex looked at them, stunned. A part of him wasn't processing what he was hearing. What was Neal saying? He almost...

"Wilson. You aren't fit--"

"I responded to the report first," the man said. "Not you."

"I was adjourning a meeting for a conductive weapon prototype."

Wilson smirked. "Ah, your titus research, of course, that is what you'd blame. It really doesn't pay to be second, does it?" He smiled. "But pining for prime jurisdiction now is...pathetic, wouldn't you agree? No matter how much you whine, the Oddity is under my watch, my sector. The Keepers entrusted his custody to me." The man brushed past Neal with a dismissive wave and smug expression, "This exchange is over, junior class. Do your job and make him better Neal."

"Don't tell me how to run my sector," Neal said after him through gritted teeth. "His care is still in my hands."

Wilson looked back at him, indifferent. "This facility doesn't truly belong to you."

"And neither do the corporations to you," Neal snapped back. "The sectors are a gift, and our positions a privilege."

"Everything is a privilege to the undeserving," retorted the senior Director. His eyes shifted to Alex before he turned toward the door. "I have plans for him today. Send him out whole."

# 8

# EXAMPLE

**-- ALEX--**

The guards at the door stood aside for the director as the edges of the silver door lit green and slid open, following a face scan from its camera. On the door's other side, the nurse acknowledged Wilson with a bow of her head. Hovering above her hand, lay a bronze tray of tea and water.

"My regards," said the director as he took a cup of already poured black tea.

"Wil--Wilson," Alex called after him. "What--"

Ignoring him, the director walked on as the door slid closed.

"So," Neal said, sitting back in the chair. "Shall we begin?"

"Begin...?" Alex said, uneasy.

Neal put his hands together. "Direct your questions to me now, blondie. Your caretaker's a busy man." He smiled. "I'll fill in for him."

"Uh..."

The red-haired director leaned back with a smirk. "Don't look at me like that, kid. I'm not going to cut you up, just ask a few questions. Understand?"

Alex nodded.

"Good." The man glanced at the nurse. "You're done, get out."

"Yes, your excellency," the woman said and bowed. With a flick of her finger, she set the floating tray onto the table before the director. The silver door slid open as she neared and closed promptly behind her.

After a moment. Neal turned his eyes away from the door. "Ah," he said and exhaled dramatically. "Free at last."

Alex glanced at the remaining three guards in the room, confused. Two had gone with Wilson, but the others had stayed behind. They were not alone.

"Ignore them, they're mute," Neal said as if reading the Oddity's mind.

Alex's eyebrows raised. "What?"

The director waved a hand. "Wilson is the peculiar type. He likes taking such hindrances. Tortured prisoners of war, elite research projects...if they can't speak, he takes them. Something about communication being easier that way."

"That's--"

"Strange," Neal said. "Yeah. Everyone's strange in Kaiga kid. Strange or fake." He lifted the sole glass of water on the tray to his lips and sipped. "The tierless pretend to like their jobs, the tiers suck up the nobles they despise and the nobility fawn over a king they pray they could topple. It's a brilliant show of crap. An indispensable hierarchy of backstabbing backstabbers. Pawns controlling pawns. Yes, in this world like your last, it's all about making connections with pricks." He waved a hand at the door. "People like Director Stiff-Cake. You got to love them, there's no shortage, unfortunately. "He sat the water back onto the tray. "When people become adults, they have their authenticity conditioned out of them." He sighed and folded his arms. "But how are you feeling this grand afternoon?"

"The same?" Alex said, uncertain to what he was getting at.

The man shook his head. "No, not that. I'm not asking about your health. I already know your vitals are back to normal. I just wanted Wilson to leave." He gestured to the room. "I'm asking about this place."

"This place--?" Alex asked, tentatively. "The hospital?" He glanced at the guards. He still couldn't shake the presence of the white-collared men standing in the room. Something was odd about the setup.

"Kaiga," the director clarified and smirked. "How do you like this farce of a place? How is our hospitality? Are you enjoying being dragged from one place to another like a dog? I doubt you've ever had so little say. Have you adjusted to your lack of rights yet?"

Alex could feel the eyes of the guards. He forced a smile. "What--what are you talking about?"

"You see," Neal said, leaning forward. "I've done some research on your country. The States of America or whatever."

Alex tensed.

The man watched him a moment, reading his expression. "Don't worry," he coaxed. "Whatever you say won't be held against you. I'm not like Wilson."

"You're a director," Alex blurted.

Neal sighed. "We aren't all like him...that diehard. He takes it too far." He shook his head. "I'm not going to point a gun at you to force out a statement of loyalty. You can trust me on that."

"But..." Alex said, his eyes flicked to the guards. They were as silent and still as statues. "You do want loyalty."

"Anyone can say anything, Alex. Government wants drones. Uninformed people are the easiest to manipulate and control. Kaiga and Victashia, they're all the same. The Oracle goes up on a podium and delivers sermons about just laws without explaining to her populace that next year's taxes will be higher, while the children of families stay up late wondering as to why they won't see their tired, overworked parents until late at night. But as she says, it is for their freedom. Freedom for who?" He said bitterly. "How free are any people, who must slave from dawn to dusk to put food on the table and keep up their mortgage payments. That is bondage like slavery. No Victashian citizen is free from debt, unlike Kaigans. Only the government has debt. All of our citizens pay with cash backed by the value of titus ore. Bankruptcy, therefore, is not an option. Either you have money, or you don't."

Alex stared at him. "A debt-free system? How does that even work?"

"Huh," the director said, unimpressed. "So they do let citizens go into debt in America. I guess the oddities textbooks were true. But still, it must be painful to have your ego stepped on and have everything you've ever known and had, vanish like mist. Kaiga is not America. After all, we lack the same...rights. That is what you call them?"

Alex hesitated. "Can--can you even say this?"

"Am not I allowed to?" Neal asked and laughed. "I'm a director. I oversee a sector. Censorship doesn't apply to me."

Alex couldn't help but stare. Censorship? His gaze turned to the door, suddenly wary. He half expected Wilson to barge in with one of those plasma guns and zap him. For all he knew he could be behind it, listening.

"You see, my grandmother was Kaiga's last Oddity," Neal continued. "Once, she was an American like you. She was a doctor there and married a higher up here, and hence this place was erected in her honor. She was pretty powerful in her own right. The most powerful weaver of wounds. She was deadly with a scalpel too, not to mention--"

"Is there a point to this?" Alex asked. "I mean," he shifted uncomfortably. "The guards and--"

"Right, the point," Neal interrupted. "Well, her last words were, 'disparity spans both worlds.'" He paused and stared at Alex. "What do you think that means?"

Alex averted his eyes. "I don't know what you want from me. I--"

"You see," said the director. "I've always wanted to know what she meant by that. Disparity. But since you're from there, I figure now I have the chance."

A beep rose into the air, and red digital numbers flashed atop Neal's skin. "Ah, damn," he said, glancing at his wrist. "I have to order your discharge." He held out his hand and stood. "We'll have to talk next time then."

Alex stared at the hand and curled his own into fists. He didn't want to experience that handshake again. "What did Wilson mean by I had potential?"

"Oh," Neal said, dropping his hand. "Hmm, how should I put it?" The man stroked his short goatee and looked at him, suddenly serious. "You have a powerful command over titus. Kinda like... Well, you don't want to know. Or rather, I'm not going to tell you. If you are one, though, I'm sorry."

"Wait," Alex called as the director headed for the door. "What do you mean?"

"It's nothing you won't soon find out."

A red outlined the door instead of green with Neal's approach. The young director folded back his hands with a knowing expression. Guns lifted from the holsters of the guards in the room to fix on the red-haired man as the door disengaged from a command on the other side. Sliding open, the hospital door revealed Wilson's solemn face.

"Oh..." Neal said unsurprised. "So, you were listening."

"Dissent, junior-class, is a dangerous crime," said Wilson.

"One, I'm well aware."

Wilson smiled. "Good." Pulling a translucent rod from behind his back, the man sent an electric charge through Neal as he tased him through his suit. Copper hair spiked to their ends, and the young director shuddered with wide eyes from the shock. A yell left his lips and dignity his spine as he collapsed into a gasping heap. Two guards behind him started forward and grabbed him by the arm. Tapping his taser rod on his palm, Wilson looked down at Neal with a vicious smile.

"How did that feel?" he asked.

Neal's eyes lolled. "You can't detain...a director," he wheezed, blinking. "House Jones controls--"

"This is only the beginning," Wilson promised, tapping the deactivated stick under the younger man's chin. "A mere fraction of the suffering Kaiga will demand for voicing your views against king and country. Your house has no jurisdiction when it comes to matters of treason."

"What lies are you trying to spin?"

"Nothing you didn't already admit. I did warn you, you know. Within the last hour of the Paragon's ambush, King Maldrex officially dissolved the ceasefire treaty with Victashia. Kaiga is officially at war."

"The Keepers--"

Wilson tapped the square device hooked under his ear with a broader smile. "The Keepers heard you quite clearly and are interested in questioning you." He put his foot on Neal's back and pushed his face into the cold tile floor. "Humph, I was right. Being on your knees suits you."

"Wa--wait," Alex said. Swinging his feet over the side of the bed, he ripped out his IV and monitoring cords and stumbled towards Neal, wide-eyed and trembling. "Wait--you can't. He was talking to me. He was talking to--"

The air left his mouth as a guard's fist sunk into his belly. Blinking back tears, Alex choked as he was jerked back by his collar and sat onto the bed by a firm hand.

"He didn't--"

The next blow came harder and no less unexpected. Stars burst into his vision as knuckles bloodied his nose. Holding his face, the teenager snorted up blood and watched through blurred vision as the privileged director was handcuffed by anti-ore and dragged out of the room. Neal's shouts echoed through the hall.

"No, no! You can't do this! I wasn't notified! I didn't mean it, I didn't know! I--I demand a trial! Let me go! I am noble, you idiots! Noble!"

"Your excellency and what of the Oddity?"

The coarse words of the guard whose hand held him, grated in Alex's ears. The boy opened his green eyes as Wilson turned.

"Prepare him and get him out the door," the man ordered. "The Keepers want his potential scaled at the enclave."

"Understood."

Alex scarcely took another breath when a black hood was roughly pulled over his head. Pushed forward, Alex stumbled as he was shoved out the door.

Perhaps it was true, what Neal had said. Anyone could say anything. Who was strange, and who was fake? The guards weren't mute.

# 9

# FLIGHT

**-- MELISSA--**

Red tattered fabric billowed out behind Akane as she flew over the massive concrete ball. A cloud of dust still surged up around it. A third had already sunk beneath the dunes. It was hard to believe the mass was the grave of its maker. The black-haired woman looked at it silently. She recalled how it had swallowed the headmaster whole, breaking his bones and crushing his skull.

"Those who reach too deep into the soul, fall to its power," she observed aloud. Had she not pledged her life to Vitate, her fate would've been the same. It was her conviction that had kept her alive, she believed. Vitate had surely protected her. Even now, she felt the deity watched. Yes, the holy mother observed her progress. Kill the Paragon. End the war. Failure was not an option. Death or success. Only one could be the outcome for a Coga.

The carnage of smoking tanks flipped cars, and scattered shrapnel on the ground left more the impression of a historical memorial than a battlefield...if one could overlook the bodies. Akane tore away her gaze, expressionless. She would find no Paragon here. The headmaster had made sure of that when he got in her way. No. The fledgling would be elsewhere. The girl's actions had been strange. Her personality out of sync with her actions. Her decisions had been erratic and volatile--irregular.

The child had nearly thrown herself on a sword desperate for death one moment before defending the headmaster with a supportive offense in the next. There was conflict to be sure. To the woman, she was more than an abysmal experiment to be ended, the teenager was a turbulent variable. Birthed from titus. A spawn of science. Inhuman. She was a threat to the world. Akane had no doubt, the girl's death would save millions. With her birth, Kaiga had managed to resume the Endless War.

Akane fixed her angular eyes on a point in the concrete ball's rising dust cloud and waved a hand. Manipulating the air before her, she sent a gust of wind in a burst from the center of her palm to clear a hole in the dirt cloud. Narrowing her concentration as she flew into open sky, her gaze shifted sharply, and she dropped for the ground. The red glow of her titus cloak sputtered as she stopped midway. For a long moment, she scanned the desert dunes before slowly drifting forward. She could've sworn she'd seen something. In the right of her peripheral, she caught a faint train of dust rising just out of sight. Her eyes snapped to their corners, and titus cloak flared bright.

Long black hair whipped behind her as she shot off through the air like a rocket with a sudden burst of speed. Her colorful gaze darted to a fro, scanning the sands below in an avid search for a wisp of dust before fixing on a moving tread of sand stirred up amongst the dunes.

White teeth showed as Akane's lips pulled back in a smile. "Found you, little fledging."

A speck of a small figure raced along the belly of the desert, braving the scorching heat of the midday sun to escape. Smoothing her grin out, the dark-haired killer flipped her lone sword into a more comfortable position with a flick of her wrist as she began to drop altitude.

"Did you think you could get away?"

Falling from the sky, Akane flipped back in the air and stepped lightly onto a high dune. Sunlight reflected off the steel of her blade as she brought it up before her. Down beyond it in the shadow to the dune, the Paragon sped along within the folds of her metals makeshift sled. Watching her, the Victashia sighed. "I don't have the stamina for another round of close combat." Her voice beheld a bitter tang.

In one swift movement, the woman sliced the sword through the air as she turned the blade down. Metal grated on steel as she slid the blade back into its scabbard. She held her sword hilt a moment longer, reluctant let it go, unwilling to pass bloodshed for logic. She had wanted to see the monstrosity's body run cold on her blade, see the light go out of the girl's eyes in death, and pour bloodied sand onto the body onto the slackened face of Kaiga's false prophet. She wanted to make it personal.

"What a shame," she said. "The fledgling does not lack teeth." Finally, she let go of the sword. Death was to be risked when execution was certain. But when one method was passed up, another took its place. There were other ways to kill. "Yes," she continued begrudgingly with eyes still fixed on the Paragon. "To snuff out a strong flame, tact is necessary."

* * *

Melissa stared at the sky through violet eyes. An ocean of blue, clear, and untouched, its serenity was void of the merest cloud. Stretching in all directions, the sky like the desert, seemed to go on forever. Endless. Free. Unlike at Aizer, however, there were no birds. It was a false paradise. For beneath the wrath of a scorching sun did all things burn.

Forlorn and missing the easy pleasantries and air conditioning of civilization, the girl ran her tongue over cracked and bleeding lips. The promised columns of Corpus felt like a lie and the city oasis where it lay just as surely an ideal. Beyond the dunes, Melissa could see nothing. Each one Shadow pulled her over rose into yet another, ever onward into a dusty horizon. Crossing a desert of endless sand without direction or compass was a futile endeavor that bordered on suicide, but it was not so much the destination that mattered as escaping what killed behind her.

Her golden hair had unraveled from its crown-like style, and flowed freely behind her, played with by the wind. Sitting with her hands wrapped about her legs and chin on her knees, Melissa hugged herself beneath the meager shade her black metal boat offered. Shadow was in control. It led the way with the silver metals of her left hand. Woven into the sides of the makeshift canoe, the white metal offshoots rowed, dragging her through the sand. Dipping and pulling, the eight nimble wires moved rapidly, and although they managed a brisk pace, the breeze that accompanied their speed through the desert's heart was hardly a relief from its dry baking heat.

When would it be over?

It was a question Melissa couldn't think, not without Shadow's reply. Yet, she felt the question. Its weight burdened her mind, just as surely as exhaustion gripped her body. The attack felt longer than the short time it had endured. Its aftermath left her shaken and neurotic, unstable. When would it end? Every time she blinked, a glimpse of red flashed into her vision. Bodies and the pungent smell of blood. The deaths. The destruction. The roil of blood beneath her skin. Her ears rang with the screams of the dying. They were fresh in her mind. The voices on the radio. The fallen elites. Leptin's coffin... Kevin's headless body. His agony and his end. _In the sand,_ she wondered, _do his eyes still stare?_

"Where are we going?" Melissa asked quietly.

_This way._ Shadow replied in her mind.

"This way...where?" the girl rephrased.

_As far from the Red Raven as possible._

"Oh, she is one?"

_Who else could she be?_

Melissa listlessly brushed back a strand of hair. "Then you don't know."

_Who else in Victashia could be so strong?_

"I don't know...don't care either," Melissa added in a murmur.

_She 's a Coga._ Shadow clarified.

Melissa closed her eyes. "Oh?"

_A damn celestial lancer._ The ego continued, cross. _That holy Oracle wants our head, Melissa._

The girl didn't answer for a moment. "Then let us die."

_I am not dying._

"The convoy was destroyed," Melissa said. "The plasma-copters exploded, cars flipped, elites were slaughtered, and tanks were put out of commission." She gritted her teeth as her voice rose, and shoulders shook with suppressed anger. "Kevin is dead, and Leptin is dead when I should be dead--"

_I 'm not dying. _Shadow repeated resolutely. _So living is your only choice._

"I can't survive out here, Shadow. I'm--I'm not an elite."

_You 're the Paragon. _

"I can't--"

_Shut up._

"There's no one here but me!" Melissa yelled and bit her trembling lip. She stared out into the distance with a desperate expression. "There's no one to protect me. I can't--"

_We don 't need protecting!_

"Shadow," Melissa sniffed. "I'm not trained for desert survival. Look," sunlight washed over her hand as she reached out of the shade. "I'm already burning."

_Trival._ The ego scoffed. _Sunburns can be cured._

"I want to be rescued. I want to be at Corpus already."

_And I want my body back._

Melissa pulled back her arm, expressionless. "It was never yours, to begin with."

A rumble stirred the earth. Reaching out, she clutched the metal side of the boat with a lurch. "Shadow!" she cried out.

_Hold still._ It snapped, uneasy. _Don 't move._ A low tremor rolled beneath her feet, followed by a long ominous stir within the trembling earth. _Don 't move._ Melissa could feel Shadow reaching out with her untapped senses, calling upon power she didn't understand to pinpoint out the source of the quake.

"Is it the--"

_Shut up._ The alter-ego snarled. _Don 't speak._

_Kevin would 've figured this out by now. _Melissa thought, anxiously. _He would have acted._

_And you wonder why he 's dead._ Shadow thought back.

_He --_ Melissa began.

_Stop!_ Shadow said. _Stop, just stop everything you 're doing. I can't concentrate with you interfering._

_I 'm not doing anything._

_You 're talking!_

Slowly around her, the sand began to shift. Melissa watched a patch of sand trickled down the slope in a steady stream. "Shadow..." she said quietly. "Do deserts have sand avalanches?"

_She 's here. _Shadow muttered.

Melissa looked up. "What?"

_Close your mouth, Paragon. You 'll bite your tongue. _

A belt of black metal extended over Melissa's waist, and the boat lurched forward as the white metals sped up the pace.

"What are you doing?"

_Running._ Shadow said. _We need to get out of here. If you face her, we 'll die._

# 10

# RESISTANCE

**-- MELISSA--**

Akane raised her extended hand. Red, fiery titus pulsed along the veins of her skin in her arms like the cracks in magma. Copper-gold sand broke off from the dune she hovered over in larger and larger sheets. She closed her fist over her head. A ripple quaked through the massive dune in a foreboding shudder. Sand coursed down its sides to pour down in waves like water giving rise to a masking dust cloud. Akane brought her hand down. "Thermal Phoenix."

The sand below her spasmed and glowed molten orange before peeling back into an eruption. Magma spewed, and smoke curled as a geyser of lava surged up into the air. A sandstorm roared out from the dune and raced down its slopes with the force of an avalanche to storm into the lower desert. The winds moved across the landscape at blistering speeds, carrying along with it an intense heat which made the grains of the sand it washed over glow and pop like the embers of fire.

* * *

_Brace yourself._ Shadow told Melissa, sensing what she could not. _It 's coming._

Anxious, the girl turned back her head with fearful eyes. "What is?"

The wind rushed into the boat like a tidal wave. Pushing it into the air, the raging gust flipped it forward. Melissa jerked against the metal belt across her waist, the breath was forced from her lungs and body hung suspended as the hull of the boat fell back to the earth. Hot dust and sand flew up as the metal canoe speared the ground. Shielding her from the burning sand, Shadow closed the boat's open roof, shutting Melissa in a capsule of obsidian metal.

As the girl lurched, she was vaguely aware of the white metal which retracted into her hand just before her head smacked into the side of the black cocoon. Battered by the buffeting wind, the capsule rolled in a tumble across the scorching ground before being forced into the side of a small dune.

Melissa blinked against the darkness and weakly pressed the fingers of her hanging arms against the capsule's roof. With her body halfway out of its metal scrap, it was all she could do to keep from falling against the roof. The capsule was upside down. Air left her with shallow breaths, and a trickle of sweat rolled against her forehead to drop onto the roof she could not see. She gasped with a shudder as the black cocoon shifted in the dune.

The cool metal bade no comfort to her disorientation, she felt crammed in the small space, her body cramped and sore. Turning her eyes first one way then the other, she pressed again against the top of the capsule, trying in vain to reach the open air. Stifled and hot within the sealed confines of the cocoon, she was like a body within a coffin. The heat of her body sapped her strength as it trembled from shock. It was only a matter of time before she slipped from the strap completely to crumple against the capsule's other side.

"Shad--Shadow..." Melissa begged, tapping the metal with her fingers. "Shadow, please..." Shutting her eyes, she bit her lip. "Do something."

_Pathetic as always._ The alter-ego replied. _And you call yourself a Paragon. Must I save us every time?_

White metals slipped out from Melissa's palm and passed fluidly through the black metal roof. Splitting itself into four wires, the silver titus dug into the ground and clawed forward like a spider and pulling the capsule along, rolled it right-side up. Opening her eyes, Melissa flinched against the blinding brightness of the desert sun. Black metal folded back like paper, receding into itself overhead, back into its umbrella-like compartment.

_You 're safe. _Shadow announced. _It 's over._

Tentatively, Melissa opened her eyes. "You' re--you're sure?"

_Look for yourself. The sandstorm has passed._

Looking out timidly, Melissa grasped the edge of the metal boat with shaking fingers and leaned over its side. The warm wind whipped her hair, washing it in a sandy breeze. Beyond a copper stretch of sand, into the distance, a column of fire twisted up in a spewing blaze that reached for the sky. Stunned, the girl shrank back fearfully.

"What the hell is that?"

_The Coga,_ Shadow said, _she 's here._

"For me?" Melissa breathed, already panicked. "Why? Why now?"

_She means to kill us._

"Then--" she swallowed. "Then why are we--why are we still here Shadow? Why aren't we gone yet? We should be running. We--I shouldn't be here. Protection... I have no tanks, no drones--"

_Open desert and endless dunes._ Shadow retorted with a dry laugh. _Where is there to run? There is nowhere to hide. Turn tail and death would come in a heartbeat. No ...standing our ground is our only chance._

"You mean to have me sit here while that--" Melissa pointed at the geyser. "That thing! Builds up strength--?"

_The reinforcements are on their way. At this point, all we can do is hold out until they arrive._

Melissa shook her head. "No... No, Shadow, we have to leave. We have to run." Sitting back, she let her hand slip from the side of the boat to flop weakly into her lap. Rescinding the metal strap across her waist, she brought her knees up to her chin and buried her face with them. A shuddering sob racked her chest, and she sniffed.

_Oh?_ Shadow laughed. _So you still have tears?_

"I'm supposed to be at Corpus."

_And the king wants the Oracle dead. Boo-hoo. The entire world wants what it can 't have. _Melissa felt the ego's senses reach out for the power resonating from the geyser. _Quit wallowing and watch the enemy. There is yet still more to come._

Choking back a sob, Melissa didn't answer. _When will it end? Why did I have to suffer? Why wasn 't I born normal? Why...I born at all?_

_This is what it means to be hunted._ Shadow's cold voice sent a chill through her. _Fight or die._

To kill or be extinguished. Self-preservation. The will to win, the desire to live. _Hunted._ Yes. That was what this was. Lifting her head, Melissa felt a brooding calm grip her as she turned her violet eyes onto the glowing sands. The heat of the passing storm wave had left behind had not yet died. It was the answer. Her salvation. Reaching out, she grabbed the boat's side and threw herself forward. Only death would make this torment end. Diving over the side, she felt a sort of relief soothe her soul until she hit the ground.

A keening wail tore from her throat as she screamed. Agony tore through her body as black smoke rose from her body. Fire lit her clothes, and the smell of burning hair filled the air as flecks of glowing sand kindled it like embers to hay. The intensity of the heat storm had scorched the sand, burning it into unprecedented temperatures. It seared her skin on contact. Cracking, Melissa's flesh began to peel as she rolled head over heels down the slope of the dune. She flopped onto her side in a crisp heap and let loose a shuddering gasp. Looking out through bloodshot eyes beneath burnt eyelashes, she writhed about like a madwoman. The once flawless skin of her face dropped off in exchange for an appalling makeover of red burned flesh and cauterized bleeding. Her clothes were a blazing nightmare and former golden hair, a blackened patchwork of flames and despair.

Above, the sun mercilessly added to her torment. Beating down on her like an oven, it left no part of her flailing body untouched by the highlight of its rays. The desert was deaf to the measure of her shrieks, which rang out across the stark landscape, indifferent to her pain. Like a spatula to an egg, cool black metal slipped beneath her body for blistering cold relief. It scooped her up on Shadow's command and gently enfolded her fried body, blanketing her within a soothing embrace.

_You are such a fool._ Shadow's voice rang out in her mind. _Did you really think death would come so easy?_

* * *

Warming her hand by the geyser's rippling heat, Akane smiled. "And now, for the grand finale."

Slowly, the black head of a bird of prey seeped out of the geysers lava. Followed in turn by a large metallic skeleton, an avian the size of an eagle slipped from the gurgling magma to step out onto the air.

"With this," the woman said. "The end is sealed."

Inserting two fingers into the dying geyser, Akane pulled out a long strand of white fire. The silver flames rippled in her hold, whipping about as if alive. The Coga lightly glided around the lava spurt and running a finger up the suspended eagle's beak, tapped it twice. The bird's mouth dropped open, and the mage slipped the wiggling fire into its mouth.

"Breathe," she said and looked on as the flame slid down the bird's throat and swirled into a large sputtering ball within its stomach. Brushing a finger back along its skull, onto its head, Akane imprinted the bird with it the image of Melissa. White flame spiraled into the sockets of its eyes, sparking with the ominous light of newfound life. Fiery wings sprouted out from its sides, and with a flap, it took to the air.

* * *

A probing pressure pulsated in the back of Melissa's head like a river against a dam. _You are weak._ Shadow's voice rose in her mind. _Unworthy. Pathetic. Useless. You cannot hold me, Keepers._

Confusion sparked into pain. The girl no longer felt the callous aftermath of her burns. Mummified, her black metals soothed the pain, numbing it. Such agony had already been rendered null and void. This was different. _Internal._ A grudging animosity grew beyond the reaches of her mind, sinister and angry. It was a thing suppressed. An entity of which she could not name, something far removed from memory. A spasm shot through her head with a jolt, conjuring a throbbing pound behind her closed eyes, leaving her dazed and disoriented. Vulnerable.

_Do you know what happens to the weak Melissa?_ Shadow asked. Its haunting voice echoed through her mind. _They are eaten by the strong. Give in._

_Stop it, Shadow._ Melissa thought back, pleading. The probing grew stronger in her mind, sharper and the pain more piercing. _My head! Stop, stop ..._ Her thoughts became weaker and less prominent with every passing cry.

The piercing pain began to dig into her consciousness, penetrating something soft and supple before attempting to peel it away. It was as if someone was scraping away her soul, chipping at her being one pass at a time. Unbearable torment, a stabbing perturbing torture, the agonizing affliction of slowly being sanded away.

_Stop fighting me!_ Shadow ordered. _Let it happen. Give in._ Its voice rang out like a powerful whiplash, its presence overwhelming, suffocating. It was the entity, Melissa realized as her consciousness began to split. It was trying to pry her open. This was a takeover.

_Get out!_ Melissa screamed inwardly. _Get out of my head! Get -- _

A blood-curdling shriek lifted from her lips, and her body arched and shuddered as she--her consciousness, being, and personality began to melt away like a wick to a flame. Shadow was killing her.

_No._ Melissa cried, her voice hardly above a whisper inside. _Stop ... You can't. It's impossible. Prohibited. Forbidden. _

Her head tilted back, and burned eyelids snapped open, revealing glowing purple eyes. A serene calm washed over her, and the sharp probing feeling vanished as something strange and enigmatic rose within her. It was her, and yet it wasn't. It was something beyond her, superior, an override.

"Unauthorized." It said.

_Don 't try to hold me!_ Roared Shadow. _I am -- _

"Silence." The monotonous voice said through Melissa's cracked lips. " _Persona Number One,_ your resistance is denied. You shall not pass. Return...or be eliminated."

# 11

# TOXIC SKIES

**-- MELISSA--**

Akane rose into the air as her geyser fell before her. Gurgling, it popped, spurting up in its last act of defiance before it began to ooze down the slope of the dune with its descent of death, the ashes to a greater flame. The woman turned her colorful eyes up at her winged creation, and for a moment, she watched it before dropping her hand.

"Seek and destroy."

Gliding on fire-strewn wings in a lazy loop, the bird tilted back its head with a screech. Then it turned its beak down and leaving left a trail of flame in its descent, dove for the ground. Akane crossed her arms as a man in black appeared in the air beside her. She grabbed his cloak and watched the avian dip into the desert.

A massive explosion erupted from the earth, and a blinding flash rose within the desert's heart; turning on itself in a spiraling half-sun, its destruction rivaled the radiance of a star. Vehement heat and brilliant fire spanned nearly a mile in its wake. Copper sands glowed the bright amber of molten glass, sparse green weeds became mournful grey ash, and skittering creatures died on impact, leaving black bodies behind. On the outskirts of the blast, the fires of burning brush seemed to wave in the wind like banners. A cataclysmic shockwave echoed the detonation, rolling through the desert with a deafening boom. Topping the devastation above, plumed a black mushroom cloud that rose up as if to join the clear blue sky.

* * *

Melissa blinked, and the glow of her eyes vanished. Lifting a shaking hand, she winced as she brushed her damaged face with burnt fingers. Her head and thoughts were clear. An eerie quiet spanned over her mind. Shadow's presence was smaller, faint, and diminished, cowed. For the first time in too long a moment to recall, she felt at peace. Silence reigned without interruption or disturbance.

At last, she was free. Releasing a small sigh, she stared off into the darkness, then her black metals shifted and layering up around her without her consent, they were promptly followed by her silver titus. Within another breath, she pitched forward. The ground rumbled, shaking violently in a teeth-chattering vibration she could feel outside her cocoon. Extending forth in a spinning bundle of wires, her white metals burrowed into the ground and dragged her down with them at breakneck speeds as they retreated deep into the earth.

_Shadow!_ Melissa thought, pressing her hands on the inside of the shell. _What are you doing?_

The ego's reply was as terse as it was clip. _Saving our life._

* * *

Akane observed her handiwork from a far distance in the skies. Her fingers clenched the black-robed arm of a hooded man.

"You did well to teleport me away, Vargas," she said to her bald companion.

"It's been a while since I've seen it," the mage replied. He appraised the explosion's aftermath curiously with dark-rimmed eyes. "It's rare to see you go so far."

"It was necessary."

Vargas nodded. "So, I assume she's dead?"

"Naturally," said Akane. "Not even the first paragon, Jamieh Cooper herself, could survive such a blast."

"The abilities of Paragons are not alike," Vargus reminded, turning his blind gaze upon her. "Did you succeed?"

"A Coga never fails."

"Or so the saying goes," Vargas said lightly and turned his unseeing gaze back to the destruction. "Kaiga will see this as an act of war, Akane."

"We've been at war for a long time," the woman said with a small smile. "This just forces Kaiga to accept it."

"They'll do so..." the man said, "only if their Paragon is alive."

Akane's smile flattened. "You doubt me?"

Vargus put a hand to the woman's head. "Let us return," he said, and closing his eyes, they disappeared.

* * *

"Let me out!" Melissa yelled and pounded a fist against the inside of the black cocoon.

_Shut up._ Shadow ordered. _You 're messing with my concentration._

"What's going on?"

_The Coga launched her attack._

"I--" Melissa's words were cut off as she smacked her head against the curved walls while a shudder rocked through the earth with the passing of the shock wave.

Melissa screamed, putting a hand on the walls on either side of her. "What's going--what's going on? Shadow? Shadow, what's going on?!"

_Get ahold of yourself, you 're not dying._

"The earth is moving."

_There 's an explosion above ground. _

"What?"

_We 'll stay down here until things calm. _

Melissa swallowed a breath. "I think I'm going to be sick."

_We 're out of the range of the radiation. _

"Radiation," Melissa said, blinking against the darkness. "What's that?"

_Banned titus and one of the deadliest._ Shadow replied. _If I acted a moment later, we would be dead. The woman 's beyond the perimeter of an elite to be able to withstand such potency...as expected of a Coga. _

The ground continued to shake as Shadow dove them deeper underground. Lying there, staring blankly at the blackness, Melissa's thoughts drifted back to Leptin, to Kevin and her fallen convoy. A Coga. A Red Raven. It was no wonder they hadn't stood a chance. In the past, Victashia's kept eight mages in a special forces regiment known as The Vitate Order. The handful of elite's had stood on Kagia's _" do not engage"_ list for decades. Capable of wiping out waves of troops in one-man armies, they were adversaries deemed too dangerous to meet head-on in open combat. The current reality remained the same as it did in the past. The Red Ravens of the Vitate Order--mage killers, warmongers, anarchists, they were those who left rivers of blood in their wake.

Melissa closed her eyes. _Second Paragon. Hope of Kaiga._ What pretty words. If she died here, there would be no one the people could pray to save them. _Which is worse?_ She wondered, _failing to save or failing to try?_ She had never seen battle. Now that she had, all she wanted to do was run away. _Paragon?_ She opened her eyes. _I just want to be normal._

If Shadow heard her, it didn't comment.

Time passed as she lay there. Seconds felt like minutes and minutes like hours, but eventually, the shaking of the earth subsided.

_We 're going back up. _Shadow said, changing directions with the capsule.

_What about the radiation?_ Melissa thought back.

_I 've relocated us, _It replied. _We 're far enough away._

Like a tarantula crawling out of the sand, the white metals dug out onto the surface and pulled Melissa out with it. Flexing her left hand as they returned to her, she exhaled. Around her, the black metal capsule retracted, and she sat up with a sigh.

"Finally, open air."

The entirety of her body was encased in dark metals. Expelling the pain of her burns, they acted like a second skin to her first while slowly healing the damage done by the fiery sands. Stepping out of the metal boat, Melissa walked along the desert.

_What are you doing?_ Shadow inquired.

"Stretching," Melissa replied. Turning, she looked back. Her violet eyes widened, her adversary had conjured a scene nothing short of devastation. A deep black scar carved into the desert, the titus bomb had left a valley behind. "This..." she said. "Was I worth all of this? Victashia fears me so much?"

_They don 't fear you._ Shadow said. _They fear Jamieh, and the First Paragon 's cells are in you. What length do you think a nation wouldn't go to prohibit its own destruction? They killed a Paragon once, they can do it again. To win a war, kill the leading soldiers. Kaiga taught them that. The last time they faced us, their mages fell by the hundreds, a kill count made possible only by a Paragon's hand._

"I was born to protect--"

_You were born to kill. And if you make it to Corpus, you 'll step out and annihilate them. _

"It's not like I caused this war," Melissa said, clenching a fist. "Even if I wasn't born--regardless if I was or wasn't here, Paragon or not, people would still die. War would still rage. Nations rise and fall Shadow, that's the cycle their doomed to repeat."

_Right._ Shadow agreed. _And you 're just a pawn of another game._

Looking down, Melissa didn't answer.

_We have to keep moving._ Shadow said. _If the Red Raven senses us, the woman will come back to finish what she started._

"A Coga never fails," Melissa muttered.

She felt Shadow nod in silent agreement.

"Where are the reinforcements?" She asked.

_Already here._

The sand stirred, and wind whipped about her as three plasma copters flew overhead. Shielding her face, she waved a hand and circling back around, two copters fanned out while one eased directly above her. Their engines would've been deafening had her black metal shell not covered her body. Beyond them, she heard but muffled noise. A beam of light passed over her, and her feet left the ground as the copter's anti-grav transmitter reversed to ferried her into the air.

She reached up as the cockpit door opened, and taking her hand, a soldier pulled her inside.

Melissa climbed into the large chamber and sat back against the plasma-copter's dull grey walls. Finally, it was over. Fifteen soldiers shared the space, all armed with solar gear. Two men in the front stared out the tinted glass of the air vehicle's guide-space, pilots of navigation.

"Disengaging," said the co-pilot over his radio. "Priority One is secured. Rerouting to the academy."

Copy," a voice in static replied. "Good work, captain."

The co-pilot saluted to the visual dias. "Thank you, sir."

Melissa jumped as a hand touched her arm.

"Are you alright, your reverence?" asked the soldier who had pulled her up.

"Yes."

He stared at her a moment before waving over a medic. "We'll get you taken care of, ma'am." He turned back to her, not put off by her metallic appearance. "You're safe now."

"I'd better be," she snapped.

"Don't speak," ordered a small woman in white. Looking at her a moment, the medic turned to the man. "Get her up. She'll need full treatment from the rehabilitation pod."

The man nodded and put his hand on Melissa's arm. "Come with me, Paragon."

Getting to her feet, Melissa allowed herself to be led through the large chamber and ducked beneath a low door as they entered a small back room. Blue light ran along the walls and zig-zagged across the floor in no particular order, yet all led up to a long square pod embedded in the wall.

"I'm fine," Melissa said tersely and pulled her arm back warily.

"You wouldn't be covered head to toe in that," the woman gestured at the girl's metals, "if you were fine. Come. The chamber will knock you out for a spell, but your body will be stabilized and return back to normal within an hour."

After a moment, Melissa stepped forward. The medic lifted her hand to the pod's blue glass. Responding to her touch, a white scan passed over the screen for identification before splitting open to reveal a white cushioned chamber within. It enclosed around the Paragon as she stepped in. Inside, Melissa fidgeted and watched anxiously as pale blue gas poured around her and put her to sleep.

# 12

# COLD

**-- ALEX--**

Alex's bare feet were cold against the hospital floor. Elite guards marched one ahead, one behind with two more flanking him on either side as he was dragged through the hall. Their boots clicked in sync, and guns jostled in holsters. His arms were held in a grip like iron, they gave off an intimidating military air. Rough and painful, the elites' fingers dug mercilessly into his skin with force enough to pinch a nerve. Stiff with fear, he dared not resist. A word from Wilson would be all it took to set guns upon him. There was no sense in giving them any excuses.

Alex blinked. Bright light poked holes in the dark hood over his eyes. The artificial brilliance seemed to mock his impaired vision, limiting him to make out nothing but the figure of the man before him and the outline of another who walked further ahead. Wilson, he supposed. Shadows of others, elites, and staff alike with tierless workers in tow drifted past without a word. His existence was ignored, avoided, and overlooked.

No faces turned his way, or curious looks were offered. It almost made him wonder as to how many times the place had witnessed a prisoner's transfer. The conditioned took no risk at interference, not for a stranger, not for a boy. It was as it always was, be it America or here, the people lived only for themselves. Blind fear and petty emotion, he could feel their relief that at least they were not him, shunned and discarded by the society whose disapproval they feared.

Stumbling as he was turned sharply down another hall, Alex nearly tripped as his toe stubbed against hard metal. Jerked to a stop, he heard a door behind them slide shut. He swallowed, trying in vain to contain his panic within the confined space. _What are they doing? Why have they stopped?_ He balled his trembling hands. _Is this some sort of death by a firing squad? Is Wilson lying? They don 't need me, after all?_ All at once, his thoughts evaporated as the chamber began to move. The floor dropped, easing them down with the descent of an elevator pod. He was on a high floor.

Amidst the cold silence, Alex was aware of his own harsh breathing. Despite the frigid air, a bead of sweat rolled down his forehead. He could only rely on himself. In this world, he was alone. Void of rights and freedoms of any kind, dehumanized, and unprotected by laws. Here his record consisted of little more than his blood type and birthday. He lived as if invisible and breathed as if dead, a simple name in a network of drones. In that way, Kaiga was not so much unlike America, and yet it didn't change that here, his presence was gauged as an anomaly studied by authorities he didn't know. His use was under evaluation by a foreign nation whose technology he could not fathom, or power comprehend. If he proved worthless, what would be the cost?

Reaching ground level, the elevator doors dinged open. Prodded from behind, Alex started forward. Guided across a long stretch of tile, he flinched as a warm breeze passed him by. Gruggy heat and summer humidity, low conversations, and clamoring footsteps of a trickling crowd met him with the fresh air of the outside world. He was amongst a populace he had yet to see, in a world he had yet to discover. Pulled along, his feet brushed over rough concrete. Open space. Each step prolonged the mystery of an unknown destination. Every moment which came and passed heightened his anxiety and fear.

_What will they do to me?_

He tensed as a hand fell upon his shoulder and stopped him. A low rumble stirred the air, followed by a rushing gust from an air vehicle. Clean exhaust, hot from its churning motor, brought sweat to Alex's forehead, causing the dark hood to stick to his face in patches. Suddenly it was harder to breathe. The hand on his shoulder lifted and yanked back the hood. He recoiled with a grimace. No sooner than he opened his eyes, he was shoved forward. Unbalanced, he stumbled, tripping over his own feet, fell hard. Skin tore and bloody cuts scuffed of his hands and knees to reflect on white concrete. Looking up, he flinched. Wilson watched him coolly. Dropping his hand from the device by his ear, the Director gestured at him.

"Get up," he said. "I don't have the patience to spare."

Clasping his arms behind his back, he turned his gaze upon a second air-car, which eased down within the tinted honeycomb overhang. Self-automated behind dark windows, like the first, the other air vehicle lowered into the space Wilson had directed. Overhead the carport's cell began to close, dropping the party in darkness for a spell as black glass rose up from divets in the floor to enclose them in a private chamber.

"Up," said the guard beside Alex. Clasping a hand over the Oddity's neck, he jerked him to his feet. Cowed and cowering, Alex trembled in his grasp. Afraid of a punch that never came.

"Reporting," Wilson said with his hand to his ear. He snapped a salute with distant eyes. Besides Alex, the guards stood at attention. They were in the presence of an higher authority, one the Oddity could not see. No doubt it was the same one which monitored him. Placing a hand atop the air-car, the Director looked out over its roof. His gaze stared in the direction of the surrounding dark glass but was focused on his nano-computer's display. On the other line, he spoke to a person of rank and esteem. Wilson dropped the salute. "The Oddity is en route. We will arrive shortly at the location, your supremacy. The air-vehicles have just landed. Yes, ma'am, will do." He gave the air a sharp nod and raised a hand to his display to cut the visual. "Crown and glory."

"Crown and glory," the elites echoed behind him.

"What--what are you going to do to him?" Alex asked as the car door lifted open.

Wilson looked at him. "Did I say you could speak?"

"I--"

"Soldier," the Director addressed the guard who held Alex. "Put him in the car."

"Wait!" Alex squawked as he was jerked towards the second car. "I just--I just want to know!" He looked from the car's dark leather to Wilson frantically. "I just want to know..." The guards paused, waiting for their superior's confirmation.

"Know what?" Wilson asked.

"Neal." Timid, Alex pressed on, forcing himself to get the words off his chest. "What--"

"It has nothing to do with you," the Director replied. Turning his back on the Oddity, ducked into his own car.

"Wilson..." Alex watched as the man's door shut. Slowly, he shifted his eyes to his guards. Grabbed by the arm, he cried out as they twisted it up behind and shoved him into the second car.

* * *

"Get out," said a guard.

Spit flew from Alex mouth with a gasp. A boot carved into his back with a well-aimed kick, knocking him forward, face first into sand. The grains of the beach passed through his fingers with ease. The control over his life had slipped away. Ever since he had fallen into Kaiga, he'd been its captive. Possessing fewer rights than a dog. He lay there face against the dirt, a beaten man. He did not want to stand, did not want to speak nor fight any longer. He closed his eyes. _Home._ He just wanted it to be over.

A steel toe swung into his stomach, forcing his eyes open and breath from him. Emitting a wheezing cough, he shook and held down a groan with the remains of his pride.

"Stand," a voice above ordered.

Black boots blurred into his vision. Alex's heart skipped a beat, then pulsed faster. He lifted his head and moved an aching body. In being treated like a worm, looked down on, stepped on, he felt nothing akin to the lust for revenge or the burn of anger. Like a wounded animal, the terror of being hit again seemed to fill his very core. _Learned helplessness._ Perhaps it was what drove the broken. Maybe its what alarmed the free--the oppression of subjugation.

Stepping, stomping, and stepping on someone again. It broke spirits. The abuse and redundancy killing dreams.

_Home._ The word felt foreign. All he wanted to know now was how to stop the pain. Digging an elbow into the sand, Alex crawled onto his knees. His abdomen scorched like fire and seemed to tear across his torso in a rending blaze. He seethed and holding his aching side and reached out weakly with the other. For what, he wasn't sure, dizzy from the pain.

_Let it be over,_ he thought. _Stop treating me like a toy._ Squinting against the bright glare of the late noon sun, he looked up and stiffened. Cool blue eyes looked down at him alongside his guard's dark pair. Wilson watched, belittling with his gaze alone. Alex closed his eyes with a sigh. _I wish I 'd never come here._

# 13

# AFFINITY

--ALEX--

Jerked up by a hand, Alex staggered to his feet.

"Come along," Wilson said, turning. "There are matters to attend to. The Keepers don't have all day. Their Surpremacies don't wait on Potentials."

Pushed forward, Alex started after him. With every step, the link of chains clinked around his wrists like a broken record. "Why am I handcuffed?" the youth asked quietly.

"Protocol," Wilson said. "It's easier that way."

"So...you're just going to leave my hands like this?"

The Director stopped. Clapping his hand on Alex's shoulder, he leaned in close. "I explained your place to you once before. Press me to do so again, and I will guarantee you'll receive a less cordial, more painful lesson to keep these...outbursts at bay. Take note from my elites. Now, stop asking these useless questions. If I do not speak to you, then you should not speak, simple. Silence is key when in the presence of an authority."

"Yes..." Alex began and flinched under Wilson's acute gaze, "Sir."

"That's it," the Director said, patting his arm. "Be a good sheep and stay quiet."

Sunlight twinkled on azure blue waves. The large lake extended out to a towering cliff-face topped by an elusive swirling purple haze. The Dark Realm was just as inviting on the side he stood, as it had been when he'd fallen in. He didn't want to be here, but couldn't go back.

The beach's beige sands had returned to their original appearance. The scarred landscape of muddy pits and hilly mounds from the aftermath of his conjured sand columns were like they'd never been. Tethered to a small dock, the large speedboat which had ferried him to shore that morning bobbed amidst languid waves. Watching Wilson's back with pine green eyes, Alex assumed as the man stepped onto the wooden planks that they were traveling across the water.

_What potential does he suspect I have?_ He wondered as the Director stepped onto the vehicle's deck. _Was the beach a test?_ Strands of his beach blond hair ruffled in a breeze that passed through the thin fabric of his hospital gown and pants.

Wilson sat back into the cabin's far seat and touched the device beneath his ear. "Reporting, your supremacy," he said, speaking through his nano-computer's display. Around Alex, four pairs of boots snapped to attention with the Director's salute. "The Oddity is boarding the vessel on Lake Aspire," the man continued and paused, listening to orders. "Yes, ma'am. Understood. I will send notification as soon as we break entry into the enclave." He lifted a finger in the air to disengage. "Crown and glory."

"Crown and glory," echoed his guards.

Responding to his gesture, two guards stepped into the boat after the Director and sat at his side. After a moment, the man looked to Alex. "Escort him aboard."

Pressed down into the seat across Wilson, Alex shifted uncomfortably. Opening his mouth to ask a question, he closed it and turned his gaze out onto the rolling waves.

_Where are we going?_ He wondered with a sinking stomach. His gaze lifted to the cliff. _What enclave?_

The Director's gaze was absent. "Prepare yourself, Oddity."

"Why--why?" Alex asked, nervously.

"You'll see." Wilson flicked a finger at the air, swiping a command on his virtual interface. Responding, the speedboat rumbled to life with the revving of its starting motor. "Destination," the man said. "Scaling Enclave."

"Routing," an automated voice replied and unraveling its tether, the boat pulled itself away from shore. Surf sprayed up, and the wind whipped through Alex's hair as the vehicle sped through the water.

"Your abilities and affinity will be scaled," the Director continued.

Alex stared at him. "And that means what?"

"Your aptitude for titus will determine your future."

"Aptitude? Aren't I good enough? I--I did that sand thing on the beach--"

Wilson held up a hand, silencing him. "Power is only power if it can be compared to others. Every mage aligns more strongly with some affinities and sub-affinities than others. The scale of titus your body can withstand to conduct must be measured if you are to ever know your limits and what bounds you operate in. Stamina is key. An overexerted soldier is as easy to kill as a sitting duck."

Alex felt his blood go cold. "Soldier?"

Lifting his hand to his ear, the Director averted his gaze. "Your Supremacy," he said with an expression of reverent respect. "Yes, ma'am, we are entering it as we speak. Have you connected to the recorder?" He bowed his head in acknowledgment. "Understood. We'll be arriving momentarily. I will notify you. Yes, ma'am." He nodded. "Yes, his personality is malleable, unlike her... No, I don't believe there will be any complications. The procedure is unnecessary. Yes, ma'am, he is very aware of his choice, although his attachment is questionable. Yes ma'am, he has." He paused for a long moment then bowed his head once more. "This servant understands. As always, I am honored to be of service, your supremacy. Crown and glory."

"Crown and glory," the elites repeated.

Wilson dropped his hand from his ear. "It's always something."

Alex continued to stare.

"What?" the Director demanded and leaned back with crossed arms. "Do you want to know what that was about?"

"Yeah--"

"Too bad," the man looked away with an irritated expression. "Old bawds... They've become too full of themselves, just because--" Catching himself, he ran a hand through his dark hair and stared out across the water. "Well, it doesn't really matter."

"What doesn't?" Alex asked, tentatively. Bits and pieces were all he ever got from overhearing such conversations. Fragments that connected to a larger truth he had yet to know.

"Stop asking questions," snapped the curt reply.

Coming up along the cliff, the speedboat slowed and eased into a hollow opening in the dark rock. Automatic headlights switched on as they sailed into the darkness of a dank tunnel. Beyond the hum of the motor, water dripped from the low ceiling to echo off the walls. Sailing out the other side, sunlight washed over the pearl white stern with a warm welcome. Encircled by the high jagged walls of an enclave carved within the cliff, the boat drifted to a stop within the shallow waters of the shore.

"Arrived," confirmed an automated voice as the vehicle's doors swung open. Wading out into the water, the party started for shore. A white stretch of sand slanted up into a stone path of a small oval cave. Leading the way, Wilson touched his hands together as they entered a dark room. The slate blue aura of titus formed around his hand before gathering into a ball in his palm and lighting into a flame. Illuminating the dark chamber, the light danced along smooth stone walls to refract off of a large black tablet. Engraved with ancient inscriptions and rune-like symbols, a small flat circle large enough for a hand diverted into its center.

"What is it?" Alex asked quietly.

Ignoring him, the Director stepped forward and pressed the palm of his other hand to the stone slab. A ripple of blue-grey light washed through the tablet from the center out, only to disappear as quickly as it had appeared. Red numeral etchings lit up along the side of the stone as a white glow climbed up along the rune inscriptions from the bottom. Shooting up past the number 5 within the first few seconds, it began to slow past 7 before finally managing to inch up just past 9.

"This," Wilson said, "is my scale. The level 9 is the third degree of an elite mage, all those below 7 are mid-level or low-level trash, all rank fodder for the front lines. The higher it rises, the stronger your conduction. The grey-blue color you saw first represents my affinity, water. It's the same color as my aura as it is for most mages. Some scientists theorize auras correspond with eye colors, but such a hypothesis falls short when you consider the Cogas' rainbow deformity."

"The Cogas?"

"A petty Victashia clan. Headaches, all of them. If the Paragon was mature, then they'd be less of a threat, but I digress. My affinity of water permits me to dip into its less malleable sub-elements, mist, steam, and ice. The ability to form clouds and influence the weather is also possible, especially with a couple of decent mages. Have a multitude, and one could make a hail storm rain." The man gave the Oddity a cool look. "Now, you touch the stone."

Shifting his gaze to the tablet, Alex stepped forward and after a moment's hesitation, placed his hand within the circular divet. No colored glow extended from the middle to the slab's outer edges. Feeling his cheeks warm, embarrassed, Alex began to pull away. Grabbing his arm, Wilson kept it planted.

"Don't move your hand," the man snapped, watching with avid eyes. "This is an evaluation." Biting his lip, the Oddity did as he was told, fearing that with every moment, one would be his last. If they could find no use for him, then surely they'd ensure he'd cease to live. Was that not how dictatorships worked?

A dark red color like that of bloodshot up through the etched inscriptions in a rapid flood, blowing past 9, it surged through the highest number of 10 and bled out into the cracks of the chamber. Crawling up the ceiling, the red glow flowed across the floor and extended down the short stone path entrance to end at the sand. Stunned, Wilson extinguished the titus flame of his palm, allowing the cave to be illuminated by Alex's ominous glow of red light.

"What--what affinity is this?" Alex asked finally, looking back at Wilson.

Pale, a bead of sweat trickled slowly down the Director's face. It was as if he'd seen a ghost. He stared at Alex for a long moment in shocked astonishment, then touched the device below his ear. Nodding, he mouthed a few words without speaking, allowing for his device to forward the interpretation to the authority he spoke to through his display. Finally bowing his head after some odd moments, he snapped a salute. "Understood, I will fulfill the honored duty." Tapping the nano-computer to cut the chat, he lowered his hand and turned his gaze back to Alex.

"You...pass."

# Afterword

Thank you so much for reading Paralysis, the sequel to Paragon.

We hope the continuation was as much a blast to read for you as it was to write for us. Now a bit about the book from us siblings--storyline of the Dark Light series is the original idea of Jason (the older brother) and detailed scenes were expanded by Davena (the younger sister), especially the battle with Akane. It was long going but we're happy its done. We'd feel privileged to know if you enjoyed it.

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#  About the Author

**Authors - Siblings - Military Veterans**

The author of the Dark Light Series and My Life as Death---D.J. Hoskins is brother and sister duo. Military veterans, we believe our experience lends an edge to our work. While we enjoy sending characters into conflict, we're not all about war. There is something of an emotional realism and political touch to our sci-fi & fantasy. Over the years we've been deeply influenced by Asian work, most notably Japanese Anime and Chinese Dramas. Despite being separated half-way around the world, due to assignments, we do our best to still find the time to write.

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#  Also by D.J. Hoskins

Join us in in the next book of the Dark Light Series.

##  PANIC

Alex thinks he's made it.

Melissa hopes she's safe.

They will not be given rest.

**Watch closely. The end has yet to come.**

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