Chapter 10
Clave's Past part 1 of 2
Markus lay on the operation table with his arms, legs, waste and neck tied to the table with leather straps. To his left, a tray full of various syringes filled with different kinds of dust. His right side had monitors showing his heart rate, aura levels, blood pressure and various other life signs. And at the foot of his bed stood Indigo, wearing a pair of bicep long surgical gloves.
"I thought you said I wouldn't need to be opened up." Said Markus looking down to where Indigo stood.
"You don't. I just wear the gloves 'cause I like the way feel." She says before taking a pinch of the latex glove from her wrist, pulling it a little and then letting it slap back against her skin. "Ohh... Kinky." She said teasing her experiment.
Markus was eager to move on before the images in his head got too graphic.
"So you said the first test is to see which dust best suits my aura. How do we do that?" He asked.
"Very easily." She said confidently.
She brought another rolling table to over to his left. On top of the table was a small metal box, which had a pressure gauge style dial and circular, rubber lined whole on the top.
"With this do-hickey I can find out without so much as scratching you." she said, almost reassuring him.
She then grabbed two wires that were also attached to the box. One which had a plastic clip, which she placed over one finger, and another with a blood pressure strap, which she wrapped around the bicep of the same arm. She then pressed a button on the front of the device, which turned on the machine and inflated the arm strap.
"No pain so far, right?" She asked, patronizingly. "Next, all I need to do is insert one dust crystal to see if there's a reaction. It a pretty ingenious machine, really." She said picking up the first crystal to be tested, and plugging it into the circular whole. "First up is green."
The needle on the counter rose slightly and somewhat anticlimactically.
"The weak reaction tells us that your body isn't very compatible with whichever type of dust that's in the machine." She explained as she ejected the crystal and reached for a new one.
One by one, she tested each type of dust to see which is most compatible with her guinea pig.
"And the last one... black." Said Indigo.
The needle on the dial showed the strong reaction of the dust. And the glow of the crystal, whilst part of the circuit, confirmed it.
"And there we have it. You're strongly compatible with two dust types. Black and white. Now we can move on to the elements which you're most compatible with. This test will hurt." She said, inserting the white crystal back into the machine and standing at the head on the table. "Ready, sugar?"
"Ready for what?" Asked Markus. A little on edge from what she had said.
She placed her hands on the young man's shoulders, closed her eyes, and created a large glyph over his body. The glyph was unlike anything Markus had seen. Its purple pattern was weaving through the air above him, like a ribbon caught in a gentle breeze. It finally formed a solid glyph, with several circles equally spaced around its perimeter. Then as the glyph slowly spun around, positioning one of the circles above Markus' head, they displayed one of the world's elements each. Wind, water, fire, earth and lightning.
"Tell me. What part of this is supposed to hurt?" Asked Markus.
Indigo opened her eyes and gave a small smirk.
"Above you are the five elements of nature and in the compatibility machine is a dust crystal which is giving a strong reaction to your body. Now we need to know which of these elements can be added to your system that doesn't ruin your compatibility with the dust." Explained Indigo. "And there's only one way to expose your system to the elements... This is what's gonna hurt."
Just as she finished talking, the glyph burst into life once again. Its ribbon like form reached down and placed a sixth circle on Markus' exposed stomach. The circle containing fire then moved and repositioned itself above the newly laid circle.
"Fire!" Yelled Indigo, as she summoned a cylinder of fiercely burning flames down onto Markus' belly.
The young soldier could only scream out in pain, as the heat burned through him, the flames plunging him into agony. He convulsed against the leather straps which restrained him, only to prove that there was nothing he could do to make it stop. The flames then ceased, and the flame that was in the original glyph's circle had been extinguished. This proved to Indigo that fire wasn't a good match for him. The next element moved into position.
"Wind!" Yelled the merciless scientist. Which brought a hurricane of ripping air currents, tearing down on her test subjects stomach.
Bathed in pain, Markus' mind started to unravel. Images of his unimpressed mother started to stand over him and started to ridicule him.
"You think this is pain?" Asked the judgmental hallucination. "Try giving birth to boy, knowing he can never amount to anything except disappointment. The greatest thing to happen in this family, since its integration into the rejects of the Clave, is when your father died and forced them to take notice of us!"
"Lightning!" Shouted Indigo.
A continuous shower of lightning bolts made every muscle in his body convulse out of control.
"And now your master plan is to show them how strong you are?!" Markus' mother continued. "Look at yourself Markus! Is this the look of someone deserving of praise?! The only thing you could do that'll get you into that castle is applying to be their new jester. At least then they'll be laughing to your face instead of behind our back!"
"Earth!" Announced Indigo. And a column of churning mud, rock and shards of stone dug at his raw flesh.
"I bet that Ashton boy wouldn't even be flinching at all this! Pride, self respect, honour and the rest of that bull shit, keeping him strong! God, the thought of that family's pride, coupled with that look on your face! I would vomit if it would stop me from having to experience such things!"
"Last one. Water!" Said Indigo. As she activated the last of the elements and its fury.
A thin and solid jet of water blasted at Markus' abdomen. Then more appeared, closely packed together to the original. Then several more groups like that appeared and stared to rotate around the centre cluster of jets.
"That's a thought. I wonder if my life would have been better, had I of given birth to the Ashton boy instead of you." The hallucination pondered. "He would probably have raised this family to greatness years ago. Instead, we're stuck in the slum of this family. We're not even fit to be in the same army as them. Your father thought we could be as good as them. But why are we even talking about them in the first place?! They have no clue who we are, what we're feeling or why we're even still here! If this new power of yours gives you anything, make it the start of that castle crumbling down!"
*WWWRRAAAAAHHHHHH!*
Markus let out one final scream as he was suspended between consciousness, unconsciousness and his mind snapping. And just as Markus was nearly killed by the strain that was put on his body, the water torrent stopped. The purple ribbon of the glyph faded and the second stage of the procedure was over. Markus attempted to look down towards the suspected whole in his gut, but he was somehow unmarked.
He looked up at Indigo and asked, "How?" Exhausted as he was, the one word was all he could muster.
"The test was for your aura, not your body. So even though you felt as if the elements were burrowing their way through you, it was your aura which was getting hit. And I was paying attention to the read out on the machine to check how compatible your aura and the elements were, with the crystals."
"So... What were the results?" He asked
Indigo pointed a finger over to the crystal, which was sat in the machine. The crystal had beads of water droplets attached to it. Indigo then walked over to the crystal and examined it further.
"Well this is interesting." She stated. "These water droplets are frozen. Your element of choice is water, but in its solid form. And now we know that, we can get to work on installing the dust receptacles."
"And what's the first step of that?" He asked, with a little more colour in his cheeks.
"Well... That's a lot more complicated." She said, playing with her hair. "The technique for this is like giving you a whole new aura. So we have to break down your current aura before we can, basically, replace it. If we had access to someone who could neutralize the aura you have, that would be a different story. But unfortunately, that's not the case."
"Whoa! Hang on!" Markus said in surprise from what he had heard. "I thought this was meant to enhance my current aura!"
"Well here's the thing. Imagine you've just had a new kidney put into your body. In some cases the new organ can be rejected, because the body sees it as an invading threat." She explained. "The dust aura can be treated the same way. So to avoid that happening, we need to remove what would see it as a treat in the first place. In the case of the kidney, we would give you anti rejection medication to suppress your immune system. But what would detect your new aura as a threat, is you old one. So we've got to scoop it out first."
"And what about getting one of these aura neutralizer, things?" Asked Markus.
"It's not a thing, it's a who. Aura neutralization is an fairly rare semblance. I've only every read of a hand full of times that people have been born with that ability." She said, ensuring that Markus knew that it had to be done this way.
"Ok." He agreed consenting, and thinking of the image of his mother that had appeared before him. "Let get started."
Indigo moved back over to the head of the table, and placed her hands on either side of Markus' head. He felt the gentle warmth of her hands on his face. She then leaned in and pressed her lips, seductively, upon his forehead. She then lifted her head away, revealing the purple lipstick left on his forehead.
"Sorry, sugar. This is going to get pretty uncomfortable."
With those words said. A glyph like ring appeared around Markus' ankles, wrists and forehead. They stared to glow brighter and brighter and the warmth of Indigo's hands turned into a ferocious burning.
"If you pass out during this, I assure you, you'll wake up a new man." Said Indigo, as a sudden cold sensation engulfed him.
The last thing Markus thought to himself, before darkness encroached over his eyes was,
'Is this what dying feels like?'
His body was coated in such agony that his brain couldn't come up with a way to react. His mouth was open, but harboured a silent scream. Every muscle in his body felt like they were convulsing so much, that they would tear themselves away from his bones. However, his body was motionless. The darkness spilled over his eyes, as his consciousness left him. And in that moment, his last thoughts were of his father.
Fifteen years ago
"I've been called for protection duty." Said a father, sat at a table with his family.
A young girl, at around the age of 2, and a 3 year old boy were sat either side of the table eating their curry dinner. And sat at the end was a heavily pregnant wife.
"You mean that you're going to see the family in the castle, daddy?" Asked the little girl.
"That's right, Gina. Daddy's going to make sure they're safe as they go through the trial of blades and shades." Said the father with a loving smile on his face.
"Are you bringing Getsuga with you?" Asked the little boy with an excited smile of his face.
"Sure am, Markus. I'm going to use this to keep the main family safe, and make them all really impressed." He answered, making the little boy's eyes widen and giving him an excited grin.
The little boy was young, but already aspired to be like his father. A nobleman of the Clave army. Respected by the inner and outer villages, and having regular meetings with a Clave family second lieutenant. The mother, up until now, remained silent. By her expression you could tell her distaste for any subject that involved the main household.
"Shouldn't you be leaving the main family to care of themselves? I mean they're not incapable of doing so. You have your own family to protect, Rick." She said with her hand on her swollen belly.
"Hayla, you know that the more we do for the main household the more they do for us. It's a symbiotic relationship." He answered.
"I've known you for over 10 years and you never have anything bad to say. And you seem to get excited whenever you get to do these boot licking jobs for the main family. Why is that? I mean, my family has never really tried to do anything to get noticed by those elitists, but you have no family left. When I met you, you were just a skilled warrior boy who was all alone. But now you have us. Why bother with the main family?" Hayla asked, causing the young Markus to drop his smile.
Rick stood up from his chair and walked around the table to his wife's side. Placing one hand on her shoulder and the other on the back of her head, he embraced her in a warm and loving hug.
"One day I'll tell you all everything that I'm working towards. But until then, I can only keep doing what I'm doing." He said cryptically.
Although clearly frustrated with his reply, Hayla's angry to the main family melted away. She could never stay mad in the warm arms of her husband. He then moved away from her and towards a wooden cabinet. He opened the doors revealing his Getsuga. The strange weapon had a wide double edged blade, with two other blades either side instead of a guard. A small handle, which was only big enough for his one hand to grip comfortably, was fixed to the end making the weapon look somewhat like a dagger, especially as the main blade was only 10 inches long from tip to the grip. Rick fastened a holster for it to his lower right leg and slipped in the main blade like a knife into a boot.
The young boy sneakily grabbed an apple from a bowl of fruit from the centre of the table before silently throwing it towards his father's back. In an amazing single movement, he stomped his right foot on the floor, which extended the weapons handle to a spear's length and into his hand. He turned whilst spinning the weapon with both hands and the weapon extended, spiralling, towards the apple. In an instant, the apple hand been split in two and the two halves had been pierced by the side blades. The spear head stopped extending in between the two children, who giggled and took half an apple each. He smiled at his young ones, before re-holstering his weapon.
"I'll be back before daybreak. Don't worry, and make sure not to go into the woods tonight." He said before turning to the door, and making his way out off the house.
'That was the last time I saw him alive.' Markus thought to himself, as his wide open eyes regained their vision.
"Welcome to the new you." Said Indigo who was sat to the side of the table.
Markus' restraints were already removed allowing him to sit up. He placed a hand on his head and rubbed where he could remember one of Indigo's hands burning the side of his head. He went to move his hand away but paused when he saw the purple, tattoo like, bracelet around his wrist. He then checked his other wrist and then both ankles, and found that they had been branded with the same mark.
"Don't worry about the fashion statement, they're the outlets I was telling you about. Them and..." Indigo stopped taking and walked over to Markus to show him his reflection in a hand mirror. "This one."
A final band was across his forehead, and although the parts going on the side and back of his head was covered with hair, the hair that was covering the markings had turned purple as well.
"Now then, do you want to test out your new abilities?" She asked.
Markus didn't reply. Instead he climbed down from the table and walked over to an office chair which had his clothes folded on it. He put on his underwear and trousers before walking to a locker next to the chair. He reached inside and pulled out his lance which he took and placed it on the operation table. Markus took a moment, and took a deep breath. Holding the lance with one hand on the handle and the other on its shaft, he let out his breath whilst twisting the two in opposite directions. He then pulled the handle and a segment of the lance away, revealing a storage compartment. And within that was his father's weapon, Getsuga.
"I'm ready." Said Markus, as he drew the weapon and squeezed the handle tightly.