Author's Notes:
Man. Not getting easy to craft out these chapters from here on out. I've already crafted three drafts for this one to experiment with the feel which hadn't been right till this one. May the Lord give me more brain juice to do my studies and gather ideas for writing the story to portray it the way I want.
The surgical team worked tirelessly in the operating room, ever since they received the emergency from Sagarmatha Air Base. Even then, it was hard to believe who their patient was.
"Number 20." Noore called for a different scalpel from the surgeons as she worked on the fifth gash. She was working against the clock because of his blood loss and when her fellow doctors wanted to use anesthetics with adrenaline she disallowed it. Only she knew the consequence of invigorating his blood with accelerating chemicals, he could very well blow up the entire hospital on his own.
"Right, stitch this one." She finished the gash wound and wiped the sweat off her brows as her nurses did as she asked.
"Doctor, we're on to the last plasma packs for A+!" The nurse announced to the surgical group.
"Tsh!" She had even told them to submit a resupply of that blood type as it was unusually common in Kyrat.
(Bepepepepe) His heart rate was going out of control for the last five minutes straight. Running at 140 beats a minute.
"What the hell is it?! We've sealed a majority of his wounds! We've bloodbagged half the supply of plasma and type A+ blood! What is causing all this, an unknown toxin?" The Royal physician complained as he'd reviewed the data on his injuries beforehand with Noore yet nothing of that sort was found.
"Let's not think about it first! Help me stitch the last one together then we can try a cocktail of anti-venom." Noore straightened out her temporary medical colleague whom Pagan loaned to her.
She turned his side over to check the last gash as her nurses applied the alcohol to wash away the coagulation agent that had been applied by the pilots to stop his immediate bleeding. Then threw the operating sheets over him wound. The working light was shone down into his wound as she took a pair of thin scalpels and tweezers to begin work with removing foreign debris. From the previous wounds had a few exotic objects like a broken tang of a kukri, shards of sharp granite yet no bullet wounds.
Knowing the world that he fought in was based upon blades and barehands, Noore thought about it no further. But that was when she noticed it deeply embedded in his wound, normally the rest would have throught it was merely part of his armour fabric. But Noore's keen eyes could see it was of a different colour, a violet thread. She removed it as she naturally needed to remove all foreign debris before sealing the wound.
(Beep) (Beep) (Beep) And his heart rate dropped back to stable levels.
This was a surprise to the other doctor and nurses who thought he had finally managed to stabilize on his own. But Noore found that to be too much of a coincidence, she carried it with her tweezers and dropped it into a small container for her to examine later. The Royal Physcian took over from her to do the stitching process as he regained confidence to do so.
Noore huffed a sigh of relief that this op was over and removed her mask as she walked to the table to grab her bottle of water to hydrate.
She gulped down the fluids that seem to moisten her throat and sat back to relax. She thought about what Ashley was doing at home while she was performing this emergency. Probably playing that makeover video game on her laptop after finishing her studies. Noore's most pressing concern was for Ashley's future, would she take her back to the states or should she stay here to raise her. Noore knew she had been deeply involved in the revitalization effort of Kyrats economy and so out of convenience the choice should be Kyrat. Then again, Ashley like herself were US citizens, would she feel betrayed that she had been robbed of a different and perhaps better life in the states?
There was no guarantee Kyrat and now the Himavana Alliance would reach first world level standards by the time she became a young adult. She smiled to herself at these thoughts, she could finally call Ashley her own, even if she was the daughter of one of her families' murderers.
She was all in all, a sweet child and it was no wonder Paul, De Pleur put such high precedence over her wellbeing and comfort. At first, it was about repaying the sin for having her revenge against Paul who died in the most horrific manner, in despair. In a way, Ajay had been true to his word.
He had given her a way of living on.
Noore picked up the small container that held the seemingly harmless thread and twirled it within the jar. Curiously, streaks appeared in the inner walls of the container. It surprised her to see as she guessed what had caused it. That thread was ultra thin and razor like.
(Plop) Something fell from the table holding Ajay's bloodsoaked possessions stripped from him for the surgery she'd been leaning against.
"Mmm?" The sound was heavy and a shadow was square indicating it was a book of some kind.
Noore reached down to pick up what appeared to be a small journal-size leather-covered book. The Royal Physician was stabilizing Ajay's symptoms and keeping a watch, giving her all the time in the world to read a bit. She didn't feel guilty for reading what appeared to be Ajay's journal from the first entry as he had already given her his trust to hold the darkest secret of all, and that was the end game result of Kyrat and of her. Ajay had altered her doomed fate and was now working on Kyrats.
And yet, why did it feel that there was still something else he had yet to tell her she could find within this small insignificant booklet?
Amita's trip was a sudden uncalled one out of her works on training the newest batch of recruits to the Mukti Tigers. To think they had come such a long way from a raggard-tag band of cornered abandoned Golden Path fighters to becoming a paramilitary organisation endorsed by the then-Marquis of Kyrat, Badala. Now they were a growing armed militia of eight thousand. It didn't seem like much in comparison to the original formation with the Golden Path but it was still substantial for their area of protection which was stronghold Baghadur.
In fact, it was excessive for their region of protection which encompassed Baghadur, Delta Barracks and the Royal Airport itself as major infrastructures they watched over. The Golden Path was no longer in Kyrat to threaten them, or so the public had been made to believe.
She was being informed by the private channel with Layak on the news as was her right as the Commander over the Tigers to know the most critical information regarding the defense integrity of Kyrat.
This piece was the most disturbing yet.
Badala had been beaten, coming back in a near dead state. Layak promised to fill her in on the details on behalf of the Army High Command whom were doing everything to suppress this sensitive bit of information. She had come alone despite the insistence from her fellow Tigers to have a few escorts with her.
It took a while but she finally reached her destination via Royal Police escort who helped gave her a smooth trip straight to Kyrat General Hospital where Badala was being operated on. The Police escorts bid her farewell and left her to find her way inside the building. At the lobby, Layak was already waiting for her.
"Good timing, I just arrived and was on my way there."
"Fill me in, Lieutenant." Layak only felt like talking when they were in a quieter part of the hospital on the route to the operating room. When he was sure nobody was nearby, he filled her in.
"The Marshal has enacted a full lockdown on this news so that it does not reach the public and especially the informants of the Duke's enemies in the Echelons."
"What happened?"
"He went on a solo mission to retrieve a foreigner by the name of Daisy Lee, he had some sort of acquaintance with her prior to his arrival to Kyrat. But she entered Golden Path to do something really stupid I won't even bother to say. So, he went to rescue her and sprung their trap they set instead. Can you imagine fighting in the hornet's nest? Anyway, Specialist Major Khati happened to be operating in the area and assisted them in extraction. This was his report that we're basing our assumptions of the 1st Lord's intentions were in infilitrating the Golden Path stronghold on his own."
"How did you know about all this?"
"He ordered a napalm strike just forty-five minutes before the distress transmission by detail flight by Lupus Caelum was received under Major Khati's codes to High Command were sent."
"Does the king know?" Layak was a little astonished that Amita whom was originally a militarized advocate against the King was acknowledging him as one.
"There's no way we can hide even that from him, the Marshal went this morning to tell him." Amita understood that Arjun had just taken up the hardest job upon this fuckfest, to calm the king's rage.
"…" Amita sighed as she walked with Layak to the ICU ward without asking another question.
"So who knows about this now?"
"Apart from me and you, there's Lady Noore who's currently operating on him. 3rd Lord Saraswati and ….. (Sigh) 2nd Lord Vasu know as well as Lady Kadayat, Lieutenant Hamal and Condotierri executives Samson and Ricardo. The rest who've seen or know his status have been placed under a suspension for a week."
"My god, how did this happen?" Like Achilles, invincible to combat suddenly getting shot by an amateur arrow by Paris to his heel and ending his reign of victory. The integrity of all that Badala built in his façade would tremble as each day passes when the news reachs the public.
They arrived at the ward that was specified to them by the nurse at the lobby, knocking before entering. Inside were five others already standing around with Saraswati seated next to him and a blonde-haired woman standing at the furtherest corner of the room watching from afar. Amita had a guess that it was that Daisy Lee woman Layak talked about. Badala's former acquaintance.
Of the five, she could recognise three. Samson of the Condotierri PMC, a long-standing acquaintance of Badala since the failure of the Meh Teh offensive on their end. Standing beside Saraswati whom was holding the only seemingly good hand not heavily bandaged on Badala was Captain Kadayat. Supposedly Yuma's intern and adoptive daughter, she personally never pictured Yuma the maternal type but Maya was evidence that her assumptions were false. She was at the Homestead Bhadra lived in with Saraswati and Badala, so they had a little bit of time to get acquainted. Amita found Saras to be delightful, she shared a mirroring experience of being the only female in their ranks to rise on their own power, besides the fact that Maya and Saras had almost equally powerful backing. Saras chose to join the Royal Army in contrast to the Royal Guards and therefore received supposedly equal treatment. Saras was quite a dear to talk to as well, she could even consider herself a friend to her, so it hurt to see her wear that face like she was in the midst of losing something precious and was helpless to stop it from happening.
On that, they were the same.
She made her way over to Saras and knelt next to her. "Amita….." She responded weakly, Amita could see that her lips were pale as if she hadn't hydrated or eaten or slept for that matter as their were dark shades on her eyes. When did she arrive? Badala was supposedly in surgery twenty hours ago, meaning…..
"Saraswati…. I won't pretend not to feel you." Saras responded with just nodding her head once whilst wearing a sad smile. It made Amita feel that her words had triggered off something worse.
"Come here." Amita reached out to her with open arms, Saras immediately understood and embraced her tightly.
"Ahem." Layak tried to remind them that there were still others watching.
"Give them a moment, Layak." Jeevan nudged him for being too formal.
It was at this point when Noore came into the private ward given to Ajay at the corner of the hospital, she had intentionally booked this room for him for her discussion with this select group she'd asked to come and were notified of Ajay's apparent state.
Noore went over to silently check Ajay's temperature, pulse and breathing along with an eye test and twitch response. She then sighed as the results she knew were the same.
"Noore, how is he?" Saras asked the most concern of all, the others were just as equally concerned though.
Noore received Saras's hands and said with an assuring tone. "I will get to that in a moment, don't worry."
"Why are we really here, Noore?" Amita asked as she sensed this gathering was for something else.
"We could have come on our own time yet you seem to have gathered us here purposefully." Some sensed this, some didn't.
"…"
"Lady Noore seems to want to entrust us with something she only wants us to be aware of." Layak said to affirm himself of what he understood.
The Seven of them entered preparing for the worst. What they came to was Ajay hooked to a life support system with bandages across much of his body and face like he'd been in a car accident but his limbs were still there.
Noore had come over with a clipboard with his x-ray scans and general assessment.
"Condition…" Was all Saras cared to ask from Noore while she ran a hand over his face, she couldn't care less about anything else.
"Saras, what I'm about to say you need to promise me that whatever it is, you must-."
"I asked for the CONDITION!" She roared. Everyone's hearts had jumped when Saras of all people had shouted in the most frightening manners. It just went to show that even she had a side that could not be tested for patience. After her outburst, a silence matured on the room before Noore sighed and flipped to the first page of her overall report.
"Multiple gashes from blunt melee objects and shrapnel from stone. Fractured left Femur due to brute force and to the right lower arm. Right Lung punctured by broken ribs. These are all the major injuries he's sustained… But that's not all of it I'm afraid." Noore thought it better to answer her instead of arguing further when everyone was at their tipping point here and there.
"Wh-…What do you mean?" Daisy asked most concern.
"We tested him for limb and pain stimuli as well as pupil dilation in reaction to light. And….. there was no response."
"Santo Dio!" Samson was the first to get it and responded expressively.
"What?" Layak asked next to him.
"Badala….. He's entered a coma."
Hearing Samson declare that sent shock rippling through the rest of the people within the op room. Especially Daisy, who looked at Ajay with a troubled expression. The rest looked to Noore who nodded in confirming his condition.
Noore looked over to Saras whom she was most concerned about hearing this piece of info. There was a frightening silence and lack of reaction from Saras that worried her the most. She would have never expected the next stream of events after Daisy mouthed off the words "I'm sorry." Out of reflex in her guilt for landing Ajay in this situation due to her ignorance of the reality.
Because it was when Saras had swipped a pen off the table and kicked the back of Daisy's knee bringing her to her knees, where she grabbed the back of her skull and placed the pen in against her throat.
"Uh!-.." Daisy's eyes widen at the sudden motion that struck while she was completely off guard, not that she was even on guard to begin with. What paralysed her motions further was the frightening look that Saras had on her face that was directed at her.
"Saras!-." Noore had no time to react as the rest were stunned that Saras's natural had completely flipped 180.
"Huh! You're sorry?" She said in a spiteful and ridiculing tone to Daisy. "You've made many mistakes in your life Daisy Lee. One was giving up on Ajay… and now-…. You've put him into a state like this not because of naivety or a friend's brother-."
"Colonel! Put down the pen!" Layak called out in vain as she carried on.
"I've listened to you mumble for half and a day now in the waiting room-… How this was your fault- how if you hadn't gone on a hopeless trip this would never have happened.. WHERE DO YOU GET THAT PRIDE? When did he still belong to you, you selfish bitch!?" Saras burst out in anger as her pen pressed into Daisy's neck till blood was apparent.
"Why couldn't you just leave with what you had when you were all safe and sound?! Why did you have to put my Ajay in harm's way for your ego?!" All thoughts of sorrow disappeared from Daisy when a person whom once had a friendly and warm attitude towards her viewed her as the cause of Ajay's predicament. But also, the object of absolute hatred.
However, this all ended when a vice-like grip plied Saras's hand off of Daisy holding the pen against her throat.
"Of all the people…. Why you?" Saras was momentarily confused by the person who had chosen to intervene. Maya's face showed tell tale signs of a complete calm, too calm in fact.
"Your interrogation serves no purpose but to exert your emotions upon her for your own selfish reasons." Saras's expression flickered as she too realised that her emotions were taking reign of her actions. For years, she'd never reached the point that she would have lashed out like this but the nuisance that Daisy posed with her presence and the stress that piled up from the day caused her emotions to fly out of check.
"If she wants to talk then she'll talk, in the mean time I think Noore has something to say to all of us. Can you promise to stay your hand just this once?" Of all the people who would seek to calm her it would be the most impulsive of all in the past. Saras's hands loosen as the fountain pen was taken from her by Maya.
"He will recover eventually and you know it. What would he think if you personally wrecked yourself over something he put his all to bring back safe and sound.-."
"I get it! Don't talk to me any further about her!" Saras waved as she leaned against the table behind her.
"You were saying, Doctor?" Maya told her to initiate the discussion she wanted them to hear and understand.
"Right. Before we start, I'll need you all to swear and oath that you will not reveal a shed of this outside." She looked at every one of them who raised their hand and swore to her. Her last swearer was Daisy who was seated. "I…I swear."
"Is this wise, to let a civilian like her here, Doctor?" Layak asked.
"She's already been exposed to some secrets that cannot be erased from memory, she's in the danger zone of being hunted for her knowledge whether she likes it or not. So she'd might as well hear it, all of it." Noore reasoned to which Layak replied no further.
"Alright, what I'm about to tell you….. no one else knows, not even Pagan. (Sigh)…. Now, how do I even begin?"
At first, there was no reaction. But then, it begun to become more and more absurd to them as they heard further. Immortal bodies, self-regeneration, magic. The witch behind it all. It was difficult to associate what was fiction into reality…. And yet, some of them had the strangest feeling things they'd encountered were affiliated with it as well. Especially Jeevan, Maya and Saraswati.
"Something like this-…" Layak still had trouble comprehending.
"It feels like we're in a fairytale or fantasy fict…"
"Huh! I bet someone will write about this in a book of his!" Samson remaked sarcastically. "Or maybe a fanfict….." He murmured to himself with not much care.
"Fuck! No wonder Sabal was so hard to kill!" Jeevan cursed upon coming to a revelation, he seemed to accept it pretty fast given his encounter with Sabal.
"You're not telling me you really believe this crap, do you? And Lady Noore, you of all people, a woman at your level of profession is talking about rather unscientific means." Layak was a tough nut to convince, but Noore was not the least bit shaken.
"I can give you physical evidence." Layak was confused and a bit interested to know. So were those that hadn't had any encounters.
Noore beckoned them to follow her downstairs after she'd obtained a blood test syringe and a beaker. She then went over to Ajay and drew some blood from him and poured it into the beaker before bringing them down to the open fields. Samson had been made to fetch a fire extinguisher from the lobby as she said they'll need it.
Then she drew out another syringe that was labelled as a medical drug called Epinephrine, what was commonly known at the pharmacies as Adrenaline.
"Put a drop into the beaker with the blood. And fall back as quickly as possible after you drop it." She handed him the syringe, Layak didn't refute although he had a very bad feeling when Noore brought the rest away from him where the beaker was placed in open ground.
It was just adrenaline and some blood in a beaker, what could it possibility do to him?
(Dip) (BOOOOM) Layak fell on his buttcheeks completely stricken stiff as an explosion had just blown the ground in front of him. Thankfully, Samson was made to dig a hole for the beaker to be lowered into, to much of the force was vented upwards instead of towards him.
Samson immediately reacted to the burning ground by putting it out, while the rest looked flabbergasted at the sight.
"What the hell!" Layak turned to Noore in dismay that she had made him set off a bomb, he usual calm and logical persona collapsed with the sudden prospect of death.
"I told you once you placed a drop to retreat as fast as possible."
"You could have told me the danger of it first!"
"I could have, but then you wouldn't really understand the seriousness of what I had just revealed to you prior." Layak had a feeling it was Noore's way of getting back at him for questioning the soundness of her judgement.
They returned to the ward once they'd witnessed and cleaned up after their little experiment, Noore locked the door behind them and closed the windows so that the least amount of sound escaped and was heard by someone outside.
"Noore… what was that?" Maya asked the shocked by this as much as the rest.
"That was blood."
"There's no way in hell, blood could possess that kind of reaction!" Layak responded as the straightman for this group.
"Correction, that was his blood." Noore explained after lighting herself a cigarette which she almost never did since her days as a married woman. They remained silent for her to explain.
"(Puff)… There are things that till today we cannot explain with a thesis or theory, like whether we're alone in this known universe, angels and demons exist, or perhaps if there were Yetis in the Himalayas." She chuckled, although she had yet to see one Ajay's journal had told her much.
"…." Saras was the most familiar with this after her own encounter.
"His blood contains no extra substances nor compounds that you wouldn't find in anyone else's blood, its exactly the same. And yet, even from the small experiment its clear his blood has a consequential amount of explosive yield and fuel his body generates."
"Is this even possible?" Samson asked.
"A similar instance happens everyday even though we aren't aware of it. In pregnant mothers, their body produces a particular group of enzymes which allows the growth of the fetus on rapid proportions on certain stages of pregnancy. Ajay's body takes the same pathway even if it isn't genetically that way. Healing wounds that were fatal, granting him enormous proportions of strength and perception for short bursts of time. From this theory, it can be picture far more easily and physically, its wearing for the body." Noore had guessed the whole cycle of Ajay's use of power in a more scientific way even if it wasn't scientific to begin with.
"I'm sorry-…. Ajay?" Layak wondered why she kept referring to Badala as Ajay, was this his real name?
"Ajay….. Ajay Ghale?!" Jeevan suddenly looked at his mentor with widen eyes.
"What?!" Layak turned to Noore for confirmation.
She neither confirmed nor denied. But from the serious look on her face and that fact that she isolated them to tell them this meant-.
"No…. How?-….. Mohan's son?" Layak stepped back feeling reluctant to partake in whatever they had in-store.
"Grow a pair, lieutenant." Maya told him from the side.
"E-excuse me?"
"The fact that she's willing to disclose this to you means Noore has sufficient trust in your ability to handle it and keep your mouth shut." Layak took a while to get a hold of his bearings, then he turned to them.
"And you knew this all the while?"
"It wasn't exactly a secret back then, only when he built the persona of the demon."
He looked at Saraswati who seemed only occupied with looking at Ajay, but had a feeling she was aware as well, only himself, Samson and Jeevan weren't.
"By the gods, (Sigh) This is just too much." He sat on the seat behind and rested his head upon his hands.
Jeevan took this time to process his thoughts into queries he had for Noore.
"There's one question that still bothers me, why is teacher on the King's side?" It was in fact the question that loomed upon him and Layak's mind the most. Samson wasn't really affected by who Ajay was as he was a foreigner. The rest already knew who he really was.
"I'll give you a short summary of things, so pay attention and try not to be too shocked every step of the way." Noore sat next to Layak as she repeated the story that Ajay had told her and the girls.
Mohan sending Ishwari and Ajay to Pagan as spies, the affair she had with Pagan resulting in Lakshmana and her death as a result of Mohan finding out and going rampant. This reign ended with a bullet to the head in self-defense. Ishwari took Ajay to the states and that was the end of the short summary.
Layak could not prevent his jaw from dropping every step of the way. It was an absurd story stacked upon a whole series of absurd stories.
"This-…." He was speechless at the end of the story. "I need a smoke." He asked off Noore who generously passed him one as well.
"If that isn't enough to satisfy why, then just take it as both of them simply indulging in each other's selfishness. Pagan wants to make amends for all he's done through Ajay. And Ajay wants to atone for his own and his families past sin by using Pagan's connections."
"I'm not really sure what all of this means, but can we get back to why the boss's blood does that?" Samson asked as he was left to listen to a story he had no clue of but guessed it was his employer's drive.
"The Devas and Golden Path get their strength from the witch. But Ajay's was unintentionally received from an entity named Yalung." While Noore said it normally, it was like thunder in the ears of the Kyratis.
There had always been an association of Yalung to Ajay's Demon, but to think there was an actual connection, it also meant that said entity was real.
"This is too intense."
"No-… Nononono-…. I- I just can't accept this."
"Man up, Layak. The demon is real- so what?" Maya called to her fellow officer.
"So what? Witches, demons, Rakshasa, the fucking Yetis!? Badala said it was a concoction for incredible resilience to punishment called untouchable!"
"And do you really think a drug is capable of doing that?"
"I-… I don't know… can it?" Noore rolled her eyes to Layak's insecurity. She chose him because he was the closest to the directives of the highest military authority, Arjun. She didn't want this to reach the Marshal's ears because it would severely impair his ability to craft out strategies in future for fighting an opponent with this kind of capability. Layak would proved helpful in ensuring his plans did not fail with his newly acquired intel.
"Of course it can't, no drug can alter a human's ability beyond his or her general physiology. Yet, you hear Ajay bend metal, kill rhinos with his barehands and survive an equally devastating wound like that and survive? The Golden Path beat him, that should give you an idea of what kind of level they've achieved." Maya straightened things out on behalf of him to the rest who had some doubts.
"How did he get it then?"
"That's a story of another time, but to honest, even he isn't so sure where. Only that it awakened from dormancy when we first met." Noore could not forget that day, when the demon awoke and slaughtered everything that would harm him before converging upon Paul and almost killing herself.
"You obviously have some intentions for letting us know this, Doctor." Jeevan reminded them that she had a reason for gathering them.
"Yes I did. And if you're prepared then I'll say it, if not then I'm afraid I'll have to kill you." To say it that way meant she had intentionally picked for them to have no say in the end.
"I can see that doubt in your eyes, Lieutenant but I can assure you. Before I became Marquess Najjar, I was the Arena mistress of Shanath. I processed a thousand souls, men and animal through the gates to slaughter one another each day. Part of the job also entrailed feeding the dishonest and incompetent to my hungry tigers." Noore smiled cruelly as she gave him a reminder that not too long ago, she was just as savage and cruel as Pagan and Badala.
"….. What will you have us do then?" Layak finally gave in to her demands. Noore smiled with satisfaction as she turned to everyone else.
"You now know the real dangers that are posed to Kyrat, so use it to keep a watchful eye on those mountains. Because like it or not, Golden Path are returning and the demon will not come to the people's aid anytime soon."
"Are you serious?" Layak felt a massive headache returning from the things he'd heard today.
"Ajay didn't end up like this because Mohan was compassionate towards him, and neither was he."
"….. To think he would turn against his father." Layak shook his head.
"The reason I've brought you here to tell you this is to stand in for him, not just till he recovers. Unless you want another instance like this to happen or worse that is."
"""…""" They understood Noore's rationale behind her calling upon them now.
"One last thing." She said to them.
"While Ajay wields powers of that demon entity, it's not without price."
"Price?" Jeevan remarked.
"Did he sell his soul or something?" Layak had not paid much attention to his words when he said them.
"I DARE YOU TO SAY THAT AGAIN!" Saras boomed loudly as she chasted Layak. Saras was becoming more and more frightening by the minute with her more frequent outbursts for anything against Ajay. It worried Noore to see her personality shift in this way because of possibility of losing Ajay became more apparent.
"No, Lieutenant. But it is just as bad." She said to cut in on the confrontation Saras was about to have with her father's secretary.
"What do you mean?" Saras asked as she had not heard of this part before, she had previously assumed it was his lack of control of the demon within. But Noore seemed to know something she didn't.
Noore was looking her way, most concern with how she would receive this news.
"Don't worry, I won't do anything unsightly again I front of all of you." She said to Noore and the rest lightly.
Noore sighed, it was like how Ajay had been forced to tell Noore of her family's departure yet was happening as time went by instead. Noore had read every page of the journal of Ajay, confirming what she already knew and things she didn't ever imagine. A cruel world where there was no happy ending, only death and despair. And its unwitting champion of that broken world was Ajay Ghale, son of Mohan and of Golden Path. Destroyer of Pagan and his Royal Armies. To think he would give that much of himself for their futures, Noore was more convinced to stand with him all the way even if what meet him in the end was a cruel fate. That was the fate she would share as his accomplice.
But now, he didn't have to be alone in this. She could entrust a few with this to help protect that which meant to Ajay the most. He wouldn't just have her to depend on now, protecting Kyrat was a group effort and by doing this for him he would understand when he awoke. You can't fight the world on your own.
"His memories."
"…..W-….What?..." Daisy's body begun to shake as the words slowly took root into her psyche as she processed it and begun to see the true horror.
"For every time he calls upon the demon's strength, it takes away not just any memories of the past. But the most precious and treasured memories he holds on to. And as time goes by, so to will the memories of the present until-."
"I'm-… I'm sorry, I just-…just need to!-." Daisy stepped back unbalanced and knocked the chairs around as she backed away. Upon her cheeks fell streaks of tears, she quickly covered her mouth with her hands to muffle the cries she was about to give out and pushed her way out for the door to leave.
The rest were left in silence, they now understood the terrible price he paid for contending with Golden Path while everyone remained ignorant to the truth. And why did Ajay hide it from them?
So they would not feel the weight of the odds stacked against them, so that they could see hope at the end of their struggles and soldier on. But most importantly, he cared too much for them to allow this knowledge to corrode their thoughts. So they could brightly go about their day to day activities in making Kyrat great and prosperous, so that there would be a façade of peace about the air. Peace was what Kyratis had yearned for so long and with the end of the Civil War had the privilege of basking in its wonderful freedom. To be told that Golden Path had returned with this kind of capability would shatter their peace with no apparent prospers of it returning, dwindling their hopes.
"I'll go after her, I need to discuss what she and the other Americans will be doing after this." Maya walked out ever calmly to find and talk with Daisy about what she planned to do with her. But it was not to rule out she was just as shocked by what Noore had claimed about Ajay's use of this ability. To think that all this while, he'd been sacrificing something even she wouldn't dare give up besides giving his all every time. A pain pulsed in her chest unlike any other, but she chose to let her current affairs distract her feelings for the time being until she had time to sort them. She passed a quick glance at Saras who wore an emotionless and calm face, too perfect of any sort of pain or sorrow that she could tell she would burst at any moment just as she had numerous times today. She was just waiting for the right moment to be out of sight to do so. Noore was here for her so it was within manageable boundaries. Even so, she could not feel anymore sorry.
"That's all I have for you, as hard as it is to accept, I hope you'll use this information to prepare appropriately. Do your best and God speed." She had sort of dismissed them as she returned to reading through the data on the clipboard on Ajay's status.
She'd left them with answers, but they only had more questions in need of answers. Unfortunately, this was her limit in answering. She would leave them to sort things out so that the person in question would answer their queries when he awoke. At least….. that's what she hoped.
She had no definite answer to when he would awake, he might stay a vegetable throughout his life for all she knew. But she hoped. That was all she could do as a friend since as a General Practitioner, could not help him wake, he had to do so on his own.
She managed to get others involved in these matters that had stayed between her and Ajay for too long. There was a limit to what she could do, so the rest would cover areas she couldn't possibly manage. Defensive measures, the political circuit, troop morale and employee assurance. All these were covered by the six individuals. Now that the rest had left save one, she could now attenf to her friend's needs.
"Saras, I'd like to-."
"If its alright, Noore. Could you leave me with Ajay for a while?" Saras said with a smile having turn down her offer of comfort. Noore was reluctant to do so at first but seeing a bit of plea in her tone, Noore softened and gave in.
"Alright, I'll leave you with him. I'll return in a half hour to check on Ajay's condtion."
"Mm. Thank you, Noore."
"Don't mention it, ever darling. Remember to approach me for those meds later."
"Alright." Satisfied with everything, Noore left and closed the door behind her to return to her office to manage the reports on the rest of the patients. She was running a hospital for two hundred other patients, not just Ajay after all.
But she knew what Saras would do when she left her in the room alone.
It was only a while after the door was shut behind her that Saras collapsed into a kneel beside Ajay's bed. She pressed her face against the mattress, for if she didn't…..
The sound of her crying her heart out would have resounded throughout the building.
…..
…..
The smell of burning flesh and wood awoke his senses. Ajay opened his eyes to a world coloured in red and orange, this was due to the burning cities that daunted down below and around him from the bell tower he stood on. The fires of the burning mountains and blood was what defined this world of red and orange light.
Where had he seen this scenery before? That's right, it was during the dream where he returned back to his supposed original timeline, one where Saras killed him.
Ajay flying-foxed down the power line towards the ground to find a kukri lying at the floor which he picked up. He had the strangest feeling about this dream, was it even a dream? Why was he able to maintain consciousness of his surroundings and his own thoughts? Something didn't feel right about this place and reality, he would need to get to the bottom of this soon.
It almost reminded him of the visions of the Kalinag Thangka.
So why was he here? He thought about it while he made his way down to the nearest town to investigate. What was he doing before waking up here? He couldn't remember that well, only that he'd been in some fight with a very dangerous force. Golden Path perhaps.
But what he could recall was the use of the second form of martial art, Four Seasons Pandemonium that allowed him to beat that opponent of his-….. Sabal, it was Sabal!
-Sunnovabitch! He's still alive. That bastard keeps coming back like Rasputin, how many more times does he need to die before he'll finally stop coming back?-
But Ajay wasn't that deterred by the outcome, he knew he wasn't dead himself and he had acquired enlightenment on the second stage of the Royal Martial Art. The summer form. For years, the learners had thought summer meant a hot and burning time which translated to aggressive moves with power and might. But then, what did Spring which was energetic and powerful mean then? He wasn't sure how he came to the conclusion it meant basking in the warm radiance and sending it back. It had something to do with his deadly calm-like state when he was in a near-death moment from blood loss. It would allow a normal person who could use it the ability to contend with an altered being in hand to hand, in theory.
Apart from this was a nearly endless list of questions in his head he knew weren't easily answered by those not in the loop. Everything his father said, every word, he heard it. It was clear they had something meant for him, the witch intended for him to be some sort of sacrifice, most likely….. to the resident demon imprisoned under the mountain. That was not the most unusual thing he had heard from him, he could have sworn Mohan said…..
"Yalung was… Kalinag?..."
Ajay shook off these thoughts for later as all these questions served to multiply in his head when he questioned it, he was still no closer to finding out where this place was. He jogged down the hill to the town but it was completely empty. In fact, this place was completely void of any living thing, not even birds. Yet it wasn't all quiet as the sound of burning buildings and crackling embers that still glowed from the town ruins could be heard the clearest.
"What is this place?" He asked thin air no expecting any reply.
"Home." But one came anyway.
Ajay jumped as he turned in the direction of the voice that sounded too familiar. It sounded like himself.
"Who goes there?" He said with his wits about him.
A figure shrouded in the shadow of a razed building remained where he was.
"To think you haven't even figured that out yet. Who do you think you rely upon during the most dire of straits….." The figure walked into the red light of the burning surroundings to reveal unto Ajay who he should have know was there yet it slipped his mind on every turn.
"When you felt the uncontrollable rage, let loose from its faucet. When you wish to smite an adversary you couldn't stand the sight of. To do the dirty work when it was too much for yourself to do!" Its tone became stronger as it spoke further.
What stood before him was a person he would never have thought was actually alive. Or to be more specific, didn't know that it had a life of its own.
"It would be none other than me." Standing before him cladded in the same armour and mask crafted by Chiffon and Samar yet different was none other than a projection of himself, an alter ego.
And his inner demon.
"It's you." Ajay stood on his guard higher than he'd ever been. His likely opponent was the most terrifying of all. Because he knew everything about Ajay and perhaps even more since he'd devoured his memories in exchange. The demon could be told apart from him due to the replica armour and mask actually being fused to its skin, a tell-tale sign to differentiate him from the demon as his doppelganger.
"And now, you've fallen into the very same cage as your beast. What do you expect your Tiger to do with you?" It smiled wryly at him with an insatiable thirst.
For a moment, Ajay's facial expression was sullen. He of all people knew what he was facing, the true terror of Golden Path, the Demon of Lanka. And now he would have to face it to protect his life, he'd had difficulty with the Devas already, but to deal with this….. he could feel despair seeping into his heart, and yet…
"…ahahaha…..ahahahahHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAA!" He let out a maddened laughter to which the Demon was not surprised at all to see. It had in fact anticipated this day to come as well. Ajay looked to the demon with a ravenous smile of equal measure as he twirled the kukri in his fingers. It had finally come.
"Well…. Then have at it then!" He raised his kukri the only weapon he ever needed to fight with, even if his odds were stacked against him. The Demon laughed wildly when it's challenge was met with a firm response.
This was the day they could battle for the ultimatum….
Where either Ajay would win over the demon through submission, or the demon would shackle Ajay in the recesses of his mind for all eternity.
….
….
Ten Vedic Talismans
Ten Sacred Guardians
Seal the wrathful asura, beneath the everwinter mountains
Four perish, two stand by the Indomitable one
Six Talismans shattered
Leaving the shackles to the Asura weakened
The seventh Sacred Guardian
To the seventh Talisman, Hasten in its waning
…
…
