Mountains of sand surrounded her for miles on end. The sun showed no remorse for the pariah, scorching the land beyond recognition. If this was not the definition of Hell on Earth, it sure had to be close. Her soft and delicate skin was protected by her thick poncho, which had a hood that protected her neck from the hateful light of day.
She took a swig of her water. The water wet her dry and cracked lips, dried blood staining from lack of nourishment. Dirt rested between her fingernails. She ran from her town of Beijing a few days ago. And as the water dampened her parched throat, she recalled why she was here.
Screams echoed through the streets. Men with guns shouting at the top of their lungs, tears flowing down her eyes. Her body felt like it wanted to explode, her bones burning with a heat worse than fire itself. And as the area around her froze over, her body heated up violently.
Bullets stalked the poor teenager as she ran for her life. They were hauntingly close as she ran through the alleyways and streets of China. She was working with a fishing company, trying to get by as an outcast and a reject to society when she found it.
A crystal that had the power to change her life forever. And change her life it did, but not in the way she expected. Dreams of being rich were turned to stone as cracks formed along her skin, becoming gray and hardening as she became rock for but a moment. What followed then were the sensations of freezing followed by rapid burning. Her boss who, for lack of a better word, treated her like shit and nothing more than a work slave was frozen, frost beginning to form over his figure. The surrounding water began to freeze too, and she felt this immense fire building up inside of her. Like she was going to explode. That's when she started running. Running as fast and as far as her legs would take her.
Which led her to the wasteland of a desert that she found herself in. And as her racing thoughts started to come to a finish line, a deep fear surfaced. The water that wet her throat stopped. Panic set in the young girl's mind as she started running for her life.
Her vision blackened as she reached out to the infernus of the ocean of sand. Screaming out to something, praying for anything to come save her. She collapsed, countless miles from civilization…
Some Time Later…
To her surprise, she woke up in a cot. The sounds of birds chirping graced her ears and sunlight peered into a window made of bamboo and wood.
There was a cross mounted above a door. She stood in awe for a moment and took in her surroundings. The smell of rosemary and lavender danced in unison around the room. Books were scattered across tables and some candles burned an odd velvet in a corner.
Her feet, which were dirt-less and cleaned beyond belief, landed on the cobblestone floor. It was well polished and swept of debris. Mandarin, which she could barely read, was scratched into the wooden surface of one of the walls.
She felt at peace. It was an odd feeling, like she was weightless but there was something there in her heart which replaced the pain she once felt. It was scary and she missed having the weight of the world on her back. She began to steadily walk, trying to figure out where she was. She barely knew how to speak the language she was raised around and so trying to get by was hard. Her hands found a long wooden stick she could use to waddle.
Her brown hair was damp, meaning someone had recently bathed her. It was further proven by the fact she had a bathrobe on. Her hand reached the door and she opened it wide.
There was a garden full of beautiful flowers and birds. Tall stones surrounded it from all sides, with two entrances opposite each other. Her face lit up. The garden reminded her of some of the traditional Chinese temples she had seen in drawings and paintings. That was when she heard the sounds of sandals clicking on a cobblestone pathway.
Her eyes snapped to the source. Her instincts told her to run. Run as fast and as far as she could, but her legs locked in place. She began to tremble as the figure came into view. She had grave trust issues, especially of adults. The way she was rejected, betrayed, backstabbed, and unloved by those she sought for protection created a mindset that buried itself into a place so deep, it would never reach the light of day.
A man who was relatively tall by her standards was dressed in an orange traditional Chinese outfit. His hair was in a bun and he had a sharp and well trimmed beard. He had a pen in one hand and another hand firmly gripping a book. He looked up, seeing this girl with surprise.
"My my. You're up sooner than expected-" The girl shouted incoherent words. As if she was trying to say get back. The man put his feathered pen in his book and closed it shut. Tears began professing a deeply rooted pain the man was shocked to see. With each saline drop of water, he saw a suffering he couldn't imagine anyone having to go through.
He held up his hands defensively, attempting to calm her down. It wasn't effective in the slightest. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a dumpling and held out his hand to her. She calmed down for a moment, refusing to take it still.
He tried his best to be reassuring to her, coaxing her to take the treat from his hand. Her stomach rumbled, driving her against her better judgement. She was starving, it had been days since she had eaten. He pulled out another one and took a bite from his, as if showing her nothing was wrong with it.
Her soft fingers plucked the thing from his hands, and she began to nibble on it, retreating slightly from the man. As she ate, the man decided it would be a good time to introduce himself. "Call me Monk Zakhaev. I'm..." Judging by the look on her face, he was not sure the young lad was listening to him. "I'm from the Siberian peninsula…" He knelt down to her level, which was effective in causing her to stare at him. "I'm not gonna' hurt you."
And for a brief moment, she felt that deep dark void in her heart yearn out towards this man. Trust. It was foreign and unwanted. Those words broke her at her core. She never knew what it was like to have a proper caretaker.
In all her years that she had roamed the Earth, love was one thing she was rejected for so long. Speaking of which, she had no idea how old she was, just that she was a teenager.
She steadily approached the man, dropping an almost completely eaten dumpling into the grass. The man hugged her and from that moment onward, she learned to feel love. And while someone would wind up raising Hell on Earth to fill the void in her heart, the warmth she felt just then made her forget all her troubles.
Seven years passed and she had grown to call the man a father. There were other children who were like brothers to her, Davi, Adrian and Yui. He had taught her so much. She was beginning to look like a young woman and would have to venture out into the world alone. Zakhaev estimated she was around twenty or so, and it coincided with her memories so he rolled with it. She would've been the last to leave the temple after Yui.
Monk Zakhaev decided to dub her Eden. It was a pleasant name and she liked it, so she went with that. And in addition to giving her a name, he decided he would teach her the tools of the trade called survival. Zakhaev taught her English above all other languages, Mandarin falling just behind. He said the West was more friendly than the East and she grew to trust his words.
On top of that, upon discovering her… talents, he taught her to refine them. And refine them she did. The internal pains she felt were no more. Whenever she was confused or panicked, she learned to be able to keep her abilities under wraps. She learned that her powers were not to freeze things solid, but to absorb energy in whatever form they came in. This was proven when she attempted to absorb the heat from raw sunlight. It was far slower than absorbing something's heat energy, but it worked. It was further proven when she attempted to absorb sound energy, being successful in muting an alarm clock from a distance. She realized that her power had a range of only a few measly meters. No matter how hard she tried, she could only edge it just a few centimeters more.
The next thing the man taught her was how to love. He, being a Christian monk, used the bible to give examples and while she was agnostic, she found the scriptures as something that one could live by. And if more people learned to love one another, maybe others wouldn't have to go through what she went through.
She learned to fight, and good at it was an abysmal understatement. Eden was able to take down her larger brothers, who were good in their own right, with ease. Even Zakhaev, her mentor, was bested many times by his own fighting style. She excelled at the sword and it became her weapon of choice. Zakhaev taught her how to disarm and disable, never to kill. He always said killing was a primal instinct, and that a good-natured, upright human should never have to take the life of another human, no matter how bad.
She found herself in disagreement with it, but she never learned how to kill anyhow so the point was mute… Now, Zakhaev had a proposition for her. He never personally experienced Eden's abilities, but figured that he knew enough about them to tell what she could do. He had a pistol pointed at her. It was loaded with blanks.
"Eden. I want you to try to disarm me..." He stood at a distance, that way if she tried to run at him, he would fire, letting her know she failed. As soon as she took the first step, he held his hand up. "Use your powers." She was alarmed and doubted herself.
"But. But what if I-"
"You won't. You know yourself better than you think. Believe in yourself. And if you can't, believe me, 'cause I believe in you." Eden didn't like using her powers around humans. It was dangerous, but Zakhaev thought she had enough control.
With a gulp, she opened up her palm and focused on stealing the energy from the gun. After a second of apparent nothingness, Zakhaev tried firing the gun. To his amazement, the trigger was frozen in place. Water vapors began freezing on the surface of the pistol.
He smiled, dropping the gun, watching the plastic parts of it shatter. He nodded his head and Eden followed up with a smile of her own. "Follow me." The two walked together through the garden she was raised in. "So… Eden, do you know what you want to be when you leave?"
When no answer was given, he stared at her. In truth, she had no idea. She was still lost despite being found by Zakhaev all those years ago. "I guess… An engineer or something. Maybe a police officer?" Zakhaev, being the expert he was at reading Eden, let out a chuckle.
"I think I know what you want..." She was a fighter. Inherently. And it made sense given her upbringing… Or lack thereof. He found her out in the desert with cuts, bruises and scars across her body. Out there, under the light of the all seeing sun, she was shattered, broken into many fragments.
And it was showing. He could tell she was vengeful. She wanted to go back to Beijing and right those who had wronged her all those years ago. Show them that she was better than them, but no matter how much Zakhaev drilled 'forgive not forget' she wouldn't overcome.
She wanted to face her past, but in a world this big and with such a lack of technical assets, she knew it would be nearly impossible. And so she settled to dish out her justice as close to home as she could get.
"You want revenge." Eden sighed. She hated when he worded it that way. "I will tell you again. Revenge is a fool's game."
"It wasn't fair. Not one bit. What I went through no one should ever have to go through-" Her voice was a growl. He cut her off there. She could imagine it now, her hands around the throat of one of her traffickers that sold her off to a brothel, or beating one of the restaurant owners she worked for for locking her in a dark storage closet for days at times for slipping up.
"Exactly. So you shelter the people that were in your position. As I have done for you, you should do for others." Eden didn't want to keep up the conversation. Lucky for her, the monk opened up a new line of conversation.
"Speaking of which. Father? Why did you rescue me?" Zakhaev had rosary beads in one hand which he clutched. There was an aura of mystery around the man. He didn't seem to age, even over the course of six years.
"Love." That was all he said. Eden was taught many things, namely human behavior. Simple love was seldom a motivator for someone to do something like what he did. Her feet slowed as she pondered this. There had to be something deeper. "Until the number of people I have helped the way I have helped you or your brothers or all those in the past exceeds the number of stars in the night sky, I will not stop."
Such dedication to humanity… She wasn't sure if she believed in saints and sinners. They seemed so mythical, but if there was any proof, he sure as hell was it. Eden still doubted that Zakhaev did this just for simple love, but she assumed she would never know.
"You said you wanted to be an engineer." She slowly nodded her head. "So… What ideas have you come up with?" Eden was hesitant to start, but she did.
"I don- I don't know if you'd be okay with it..."
"Shoot." Zakhaev said as they walked out of the garden and into the sunlight with Eden. There was a pathway that lead down the high mountain they were on. Clouds fogged the pathway creating a heavenly grey tone. No matter how many hours she spent watching this place, it was always beautiful. Zakhaev walked up to a chair and sat down, pulling out a feathered pen and a book.
"Well… I. I started making a suit."
"What type of suit?"
"It's a very durable, lightweight suit. I made it with the cloth from the village..."
"What's it for?"
"For exploration and stuff." Eden was beating around the bushes.
"Well then I don't think you need a ballistic vest, hmm? It's a combat suit, Eden." The girl groaned. He did it again.
"...Yes. It's a combat suit. But it can be used for plenty of other things too!" Zakhaev seemingly ignored her, continuing to write in his journal. "I could cross the Gobi with it! I could dive deep down into Lake Baikal."
"And a bird could walk the Earth… Eden. I have taught you all I can to avoid vengeance. But truly it's up to you. The path you want to take is long, windy, coarse, and leads to nowhere but the fires of Sheol." Eden sighed.
"Yes, Father..." She turned on her sandals and walked back to her room across the garden. She felt rejected. And it didn't help that the chirping birds watched her, judgingly.
Eden walked into her room, opening her closet which had her workbench in it. There sat her combat suit. She was impressed with herself, but just wished Zakhaev would be with her too. A Tanto and a long, stylized Jian laid by its side. The suit had a built in grapple hook that could also fire deadly sharp bolts. Her suit came with a cape she could use to glide and a ballistic mask with some night vision lenses. It was still prototype, but it was getting there.
A stack of books laid on the workbench. Textbooks of electronics, ballistics, spectrometry and other physics and engineering books were strewn across the floor.
At her most basic level, she never wanted to feel vulnerable again. And she was sure this was how she'd do it. Eden smiled to herself. Even if this didn't quite make Zakhaev proud, it made her feel good. She supposed that may have been one of her issues. She was still searching for his acceptance, to which he replied 'don't look for acceptance, look for love.' But still... She guessed it was her bad childhood coming to haunt her like always.
Three good and long years passed and the day she would claim as her own had arrived. On that day, she decided to remember she was human, and that death would eventually come. A birthday of sorts. And with her for her tenth or so "birthday", she was moving out.
She packed her bags which had her combat suit in it. Zakhaev was waiting at the entrance of the garden, watching the sun begin to set. Colorful oranges cascaded into the now violet and blue sky overhead. Candles and torches were lit creating a beautiful, scenic view.
Zakhaev heard her footsteps before seeing her. "At the crack of dawn. The last one will leave," he said to himself. He turned to face her. "Eden… I believe you're ready for the world." He pulled something from his pocket. It was his version of the Cross. It was covered in thorns and served as a symbol. He put it in her palm and closed it. "But only if you try."
The thorns poked at her soft skin. Her brothers all got gifts, beautiful and dressed with gems and gold. Her own was just a measly wooden cross with thorns. He looked her in the eyes… No, the soul. "I give you this..." His face was serious. "As a reminder. You're life, above all others that I've cared for is the most torn. You seek acceptance, hoping that the void in your heart will be filled." He shook his head. "Never with love nor with age; acceptance or with time will it go away, but with something far greater than Humanity itself. And thus, you must carry your demons, as much as it will hurt you, until that day arrives."
Eden tended to read between the lines when he went all super wise sage on her. And in doing so, she found her childhood. She couldn't stand to be reminded of her time as a kid. The tears that would never roll down her face found themselves at the bottom of her internal well, always waiting to overflow in a downpour of pain and anguish.
And Zakhaev, with his words, implied her revenge story wouldn't give her closure either. She had no words for him, taking hold of her 'gift', staring at it for a long time as she walked back to her bedroom.
Her blood stained the edges of the thorns. There were carvings on it, plenty of them and it'd take her time to decipher what they meant as they were written with an odd use of Mandarin and Latin. She stowed it away in her bag and found herself in her bed the next moment. All was peaceful in her mind for but the briefest of moments…
"Eden! Eden! Get up!" The monk shouted her name. He stood at the door with some panic on his face. "You need to run! Take the back entrance down to the airfield." He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and ran up to her, placing it on her palm. "Give this to a man named Lan. He will ensure safe passage."
That was when she heard helicopters, men shouting and armored vehicles outside the garden. She was startled.
"Father! What's going on?!"
"Get your bags and run! The Chinese are here. They have an army outside, you have to leave!" Her eyes narrowed.
"No. I wanna' fight with you." Zakhaev shook his head.
"Don't! My purpose on this Earth has been long fulfilled. Yours is just beginning. Do not throw it away. Run!" Eden grabbed her travel bag still reluctant to leave. She took the slip of paper. It was a letter from what she could tell. Her train of thought was breached by gunfire. "Please. You need to go." His voice was steady and soft, as he showed her a button his thumb held down. A dead man's switch. Eden's eyes widened and tears began to run down her cheek. She shook her head.
"No... No- No- No. Don't do this! Please!" She begged.
"This will give you plenty of time to get to the states. You'll be much safer there." Zakhaev wouldn't hear her pleas and began walking out into the Garden. Men shouting Chinese and the sounds of gunfire filled her ears.
She ran out the door, seeing Zakhaev stand amongst at least a few dozen military men. Before the monk could speak, the words escaped his mind by a hollow point as he was showered in bullets.
Clouds of blood professed a coming of times as Zakhaev's thumb slipped, causing a string of explosives to go off around the garden. Eden started sobbing as bullets chased her down as well. She got a glimpse of her attackers. They wore wolf masks as if they were hellhounds with their insignias.
She ran out the back entrance, moving as fast as she could. Without looking back, she felt the wrath of Heaven and all its angels open up as the mountain began falling down around her. And she ran. Ran as if Zakhaev never existed, as if the paradise she spent her adolescence in never existed, as if she hadn't stopped running when she was out in the desert…
The prologue's done! \(._.)/ This is my first published FanFiction in quite some time. I hope to publish a chapter every week but I doubt that will happen as I'm juggling this FanFiction and another one about Halo. Not my Halo: Mortal Extinction but something else that I'm far more proud of. I'm still working on mastering World and Character building which is the reason Mortal Extinction never got finished. Leave a review and let me know what you think! - 3/24/20