The Dangers of Playing with Re'carusha
Chapter Four
The portal rematerialized giving Da'an, Liam, and Harmony look at the scene before them, Zo'or on the ground leaning against the wall, Sandoval a foot away from him, also against the wall, and a large number of volunteers and bridge crew lying unconscious across the bridge after apparently being thrown there. Sandoval and Zo'or were looking at them in surprise and the command chair was just turning to reveal an almost mirror image of Harmony, only this one was wearing black. Da'an and Liam had no time to consider this as Harmony's opposite immediately began speaking.
"You," snarled the other Re'carusha in contempt, "you dare show your face here?" "I would think after the pitiful challenge you issued to me before, you would be lying in some ally licking your wounds." Her tone and inflection so greatly resembled Zo'or's normal voice that Da'an, Liam, and even Sandoval momentarily glanced at the Synod Leader, who had the grace to look somewhat perturbed. Then the attention of every conscious being was centered on the confrontation between the two beings that had been split so abruptly.
"Why will you not admit that we are one, Sister?" Harmony pleaded. "Our quest cannot be completed until we are reunited." "Join with me, come back to me."
The black-clothed girl grimaced, "I will never welcome your return, I am much more efficient as I am." "I have expelled the weakness from me, and I will never know doubt again." "I am free, and I will not take up that bondage again." the girl crowed.
"The chosen will not follow you," Harmony insisted passionately, "they are pledged to help the planet."
"I intend to help the planet, do not think that I have lost sight of our objective, I am merely better equipped to contend with the challenge now that your weakness is no longer a problem." "I am without indecision, I am unstoppable." Harmony's sister leaned back in her seat with a satisfied look on her face, "Besides, it is not as difficult as you believe to control these beings, even the Taelon was not much of a challenge." She snorted contemptuously, "They are ruled by emotions and plagued by fear, I can keep them under control with the barest execution of my will."
"Sister, do you not remember that we were placed together for a reason, we are to temper each other, there must be a balance kept." Harmony tried again.
"A balance between strength and weakness?" She grimaced, "Unnecessary." "Leave, sister, before I tire of your pleas, I could destroy you now if I cared to."
"How will you defeat the wrongness without me?" Harmony inquired a bit sharply.
"The question is not how I will survive, but how you will?" Her sister corrected, and then she turned to the assembled Taelons and humans. "And now you will choose, the winning or losing side, choose carefully!" she cautioned.
Liam pulled the rest of the chosen into a group. "Alright, any suggestions?" he asked, looking around the circle.
"I suggest you do something, Major." Zo'or said scathingly, "you are the only protector here who is uninjured.
Liam looked at Sandoval, checking for any obvious injuries, "Are you ok?" he asked, looking concerned.
Sandoval seemed surprised by the question, but explained about the mind probes the Re'carusha had sent out. He had had time to ask only a few questions while the verbal sparring between the Sisters was taking place. "I am fine, Major."
"Alright," Liam said turning his attention to the Taelons, "we are obviously supposed to choose sides here." "Da'an and I had a conversation with Harmony at the embassy," Liam said, quickly filling them in on their previous activities, "we believe that they are both here to stop the violence that has been going on for some time between the Taelons and Humans."
"Really," Zo'or said, trying not to sound as interested as he really was, "and how does the Re'carusha intend to do this?"
"As near as Da'an and I can figure, the Re'carusha need to be rejoined to be able to fulfill their mission, Harmony is willing to join, but apparently her sister isn't as eager."
"We must convince her that the wisest course of action is to recombine with Harmony, to save our species'," Da'an insisted quietly.
"I believe the girl has made her position regarding her sister quite clear," Agent Sandoval stated calmly.
"Then we must change her position," Da'an responded.
"And how do you propose we do this?" Zo'or asked, his tone was still derisive, but it seemed more by habit than by any real ill-will.
Da'an frowned and turned to Liam, "Liam?"
Liam stepped forward, "I think that we can force Harmony's sister to join with Harmony if we refuse to help her." "We have all the leverage we need, the Re'carusha can't accomplish their mission without the help of us, the chosen, all we have to do is refuse to help Discord unless she joins with her sister."
"Discord?" Da'an said with an amused smile.
"Well, if she is Harmony's opposite," Liam trailed off, blushing slightly at their scrutiny.
"It does make sense," Sandoval said, pulling the attention away from Liam. He ignored their surprised expressions at his words and continued, "Are we agreed then, we tell Discord that we will not help unless she joins with Harmony?"
Everyone nodded, though Zo'or a bit reluctantly. "All right," Sandoval said with a slightly worried expression, "now the only question is who is going to tell her." He gestured towards the Re'carusha who was glaring at her oblivious sister.
"I will deliver our assessment," Zo'or said in an uncharacteristically quiet voice, he closed his eyes for a moment and they watched as he composed his facial features into a look of superiority and condescension, he then opened them and nodded to signal his readiness.
They turned to the impatiently waiting Discord and her sister who was now sitting on the floor, completely ignoring her surroundings.
"You have made your decision then?" she said haughtily.
"We have." Zo'or said just as arrogantly as she. "We have decided that your proposition is unacceptable unless you and your sister agree to re-coalesce." "We believe that the risk to ourselves is intolerable unless every possible precaution is taken to assure the liberation of our species, your chances of defeating this wrongness is much more satisfactory if you are complete." Zo'or's entire speech was delivered with such a ring of absolute conceit that it was difficult to imagine that he was at all nervous about the Re'carusha reaction.
Discord stared at the determined group before her with absolute incredulity, which was slowly replaced by a look of uncontrollable rage, she slowly hissed out her next words as though she could barely contain her anger. "I will not join with her, and if I cannot have your support, I certainly will not allow her," here she paused to glare furiously at her sister's unmindful form, "to have your assistance either." Discord leaned back, and then screamed.
The sound waves coming from her were so powerful they were actually visible, but they seemed to be slower than normal sound waves, nonetheless, Sandoval barely had time to aim his skrill at them and fire before they reached them. As the energy blast left his skrill Sandoval clutched his head with a moan of pain, however the sound wave was dispersed by the blast.
Discord smiled at Sandoval's obvious discomfort, "Agent Sandoval, you will find operating your skrill will be quite painful for awhile, it will take some time for you to heal after I removed your motivational imperative." She gave them another malicious smile, "I believe it is time for to discuss your situation again, I may forgive you for your brief," she paused, "miscalculation."
Liam, Sandoval, Zo'or, and Da'an glanced at each other quickly. Zo'or leaned over and placed a hand on the side of the very confused Sandoval's face. He closed his eyes and initiated a low-level sharing, probing to discover the depth of his implant's injury.
"He is too badly injured for me to heal, I have accelerated the healing process, but it will not be complete in time to save us from the next release of the Re'carusha's voice," Zo'or said.
Da'an looked at Liam with an almost pleading expression, "Liam?" he asked softly.
"Da'an," Liam said, they seemed to share something between them, communicate through the very expressions in their eyes. Finally Liam nodded and gave Zo'or and Sandoval a slight smile.
Da'an reached over and, ignoring the looks from his child and Sandoval, touched Liam cheek affectionately. Liam covered it with his own and gave him a small smile and a more confident nod. Sandoval and Zo'or looked on, wondering what was going to happen, certain that the Major was implementing some contingency plan he and Da'an had already designed.
Da'an turned to Discord with a confident air, "We see no need to alter our previous decision, you have our answer."
The girl glared at them, but seemed to be trying to control herself, "You are under the mistaken impression that I will not hurt you because you are the planet's chosen," she said angrily. "I do not have to kill you, I can merely injure one of you severely, the others will then help simply to avoid further harm to the one I choose to hurt."
Liam then stepped in front of the group, "Very well then, if you have everything worked out, you've heard our answer, twice."
The Re'carusha glared fiercely at them and this time screamed even louder. Da'an pulled the group as closely behind Liam as possible as he activated his shaqarava , shielding the entire party from the effects. Discord's eye's widened, but she screamed again and again, this time Liam dissipated them with an energy blast from each of his hands. Obviously realizing she could not defeat the chosen, she screamed one last time and ran to the portal, activating it before she could be stopped, she made a clean escape.
Turning back to his group, Liam sat down on the floor to catch his breath, after firing in such quick succession he would need a few minutes to cool down. Zo'or had been staring at him for awhile, but now he was talking to Da'an in rapid-fire Eunoia. "Probably demanding an explanation of my life story from him," Liam thought wryly. Suddenly Sandoval sat down next to him.
"So, you're a hybrid," Sandoval stated more than asked. "I guess that explains a lot." he added.
"Yeah," Liam didn't know what else to say, he wondered if Sandoval suspected his parentage.
"How old are you, anyway?" he asked.
"Less than two years," Liam said, not wanting to name an exact date.
Unexpectedly Sandoval smiled, "I always thought you were a little naive to be a SI veteran." He paused, considering what he was going to say next. "How did you do it?" he asked.
Liam looked at him, puzzled, "Do what?" he asked.
"Fit into a world where you were brand new and yet had to live like you were ten times as old as you really were?"
"I had help from my friends, and I have the memories of my mother and father," he added, avoiding Sandoval's eyes.
Sandoval looked down, and then back at Liam, confusion and vulnerability shining in his face, "Will you help me?" he asked.
Liam looked at the man who had so recently regained his humanity and his emotion and nodded his consent, he only needed one word, "Yes."
~Looooong chapter, hope you liked it, if you didn't why not flame me! It's relaxing, interesting, and down-right fun! Like a family board game night, you can express yourself and get your family involved! Have everyone sit around and think up new and better reasons for why this is the worst story you've ever read! No one can complain that you don't spend quality time together!!!! ~ Y. W.
Chapter Four
The portal rematerialized giving Da'an, Liam, and Harmony look at the scene before them, Zo'or on the ground leaning against the wall, Sandoval a foot away from him, also against the wall, and a large number of volunteers and bridge crew lying unconscious across the bridge after apparently being thrown there. Sandoval and Zo'or were looking at them in surprise and the command chair was just turning to reveal an almost mirror image of Harmony, only this one was wearing black. Da'an and Liam had no time to consider this as Harmony's opposite immediately began speaking.
"You," snarled the other Re'carusha in contempt, "you dare show your face here?" "I would think after the pitiful challenge you issued to me before, you would be lying in some ally licking your wounds." Her tone and inflection so greatly resembled Zo'or's normal voice that Da'an, Liam, and even Sandoval momentarily glanced at the Synod Leader, who had the grace to look somewhat perturbed. Then the attention of every conscious being was centered on the confrontation between the two beings that had been split so abruptly.
"Why will you not admit that we are one, Sister?" Harmony pleaded. "Our quest cannot be completed until we are reunited." "Join with me, come back to me."
The black-clothed girl grimaced, "I will never welcome your return, I am much more efficient as I am." "I have expelled the weakness from me, and I will never know doubt again." "I am free, and I will not take up that bondage again." the girl crowed.
"The chosen will not follow you," Harmony insisted passionately, "they are pledged to help the planet."
"I intend to help the planet, do not think that I have lost sight of our objective, I am merely better equipped to contend with the challenge now that your weakness is no longer a problem." "I am without indecision, I am unstoppable." Harmony's sister leaned back in her seat with a satisfied look on her face, "Besides, it is not as difficult as you believe to control these beings, even the Taelon was not much of a challenge." She snorted contemptuously, "They are ruled by emotions and plagued by fear, I can keep them under control with the barest execution of my will."
"Sister, do you not remember that we were placed together for a reason, we are to temper each other, there must be a balance kept." Harmony tried again.
"A balance between strength and weakness?" She grimaced, "Unnecessary." "Leave, sister, before I tire of your pleas, I could destroy you now if I cared to."
"How will you defeat the wrongness without me?" Harmony inquired a bit sharply.
"The question is not how I will survive, but how you will?" Her sister corrected, and then she turned to the assembled Taelons and humans. "And now you will choose, the winning or losing side, choose carefully!" she cautioned.
Liam pulled the rest of the chosen into a group. "Alright, any suggestions?" he asked, looking around the circle.
"I suggest you do something, Major." Zo'or said scathingly, "you are the only protector here who is uninjured.
Liam looked at Sandoval, checking for any obvious injuries, "Are you ok?" he asked, looking concerned.
Sandoval seemed surprised by the question, but explained about the mind probes the Re'carusha had sent out. He had had time to ask only a few questions while the verbal sparring between the Sisters was taking place. "I am fine, Major."
"Alright," Liam said turning his attention to the Taelons, "we are obviously supposed to choose sides here." "Da'an and I had a conversation with Harmony at the embassy," Liam said, quickly filling them in on their previous activities, "we believe that they are both here to stop the violence that has been going on for some time between the Taelons and Humans."
"Really," Zo'or said, trying not to sound as interested as he really was, "and how does the Re'carusha intend to do this?"
"As near as Da'an and I can figure, the Re'carusha need to be rejoined to be able to fulfill their mission, Harmony is willing to join, but apparently her sister isn't as eager."
"We must convince her that the wisest course of action is to recombine with Harmony, to save our species'," Da'an insisted quietly.
"I believe the girl has made her position regarding her sister quite clear," Agent Sandoval stated calmly.
"Then we must change her position," Da'an responded.
"And how do you propose we do this?" Zo'or asked, his tone was still derisive, but it seemed more by habit than by any real ill-will.
Da'an frowned and turned to Liam, "Liam?"
Liam stepped forward, "I think that we can force Harmony's sister to join with Harmony if we refuse to help her." "We have all the leverage we need, the Re'carusha can't accomplish their mission without the help of us, the chosen, all we have to do is refuse to help Discord unless she joins with her sister."
"Discord?" Da'an said with an amused smile.
"Well, if she is Harmony's opposite," Liam trailed off, blushing slightly at their scrutiny.
"It does make sense," Sandoval said, pulling the attention away from Liam. He ignored their surprised expressions at his words and continued, "Are we agreed then, we tell Discord that we will not help unless she joins with Harmony?"
Everyone nodded, though Zo'or a bit reluctantly. "All right," Sandoval said with a slightly worried expression, "now the only question is who is going to tell her." He gestured towards the Re'carusha who was glaring at her oblivious sister.
"I will deliver our assessment," Zo'or said in an uncharacteristically quiet voice, he closed his eyes for a moment and they watched as he composed his facial features into a look of superiority and condescension, he then opened them and nodded to signal his readiness.
They turned to the impatiently waiting Discord and her sister who was now sitting on the floor, completely ignoring her surroundings.
"You have made your decision then?" she said haughtily.
"We have." Zo'or said just as arrogantly as she. "We have decided that your proposition is unacceptable unless you and your sister agree to re-coalesce." "We believe that the risk to ourselves is intolerable unless every possible precaution is taken to assure the liberation of our species, your chances of defeating this wrongness is much more satisfactory if you are complete." Zo'or's entire speech was delivered with such a ring of absolute conceit that it was difficult to imagine that he was at all nervous about the Re'carusha reaction.
Discord stared at the determined group before her with absolute incredulity, which was slowly replaced by a look of uncontrollable rage, she slowly hissed out her next words as though she could barely contain her anger. "I will not join with her, and if I cannot have your support, I certainly will not allow her," here she paused to glare furiously at her sister's unmindful form, "to have your assistance either." Discord leaned back, and then screamed.
The sound waves coming from her were so powerful they were actually visible, but they seemed to be slower than normal sound waves, nonetheless, Sandoval barely had time to aim his skrill at them and fire before they reached them. As the energy blast left his skrill Sandoval clutched his head with a moan of pain, however the sound wave was dispersed by the blast.
Discord smiled at Sandoval's obvious discomfort, "Agent Sandoval, you will find operating your skrill will be quite painful for awhile, it will take some time for you to heal after I removed your motivational imperative." She gave them another malicious smile, "I believe it is time for to discuss your situation again, I may forgive you for your brief," she paused, "miscalculation."
Liam, Sandoval, Zo'or, and Da'an glanced at each other quickly. Zo'or leaned over and placed a hand on the side of the very confused Sandoval's face. He closed his eyes and initiated a low-level sharing, probing to discover the depth of his implant's injury.
"He is too badly injured for me to heal, I have accelerated the healing process, but it will not be complete in time to save us from the next release of the Re'carusha's voice," Zo'or said.
Da'an looked at Liam with an almost pleading expression, "Liam?" he asked softly.
"Da'an," Liam said, they seemed to share something between them, communicate through the very expressions in their eyes. Finally Liam nodded and gave Zo'or and Sandoval a slight smile.
Da'an reached over and, ignoring the looks from his child and Sandoval, touched Liam cheek affectionately. Liam covered it with his own and gave him a small smile and a more confident nod. Sandoval and Zo'or looked on, wondering what was going to happen, certain that the Major was implementing some contingency plan he and Da'an had already designed.
Da'an turned to Discord with a confident air, "We see no need to alter our previous decision, you have our answer."
The girl glared at them, but seemed to be trying to control herself, "You are under the mistaken impression that I will not hurt you because you are the planet's chosen," she said angrily. "I do not have to kill you, I can merely injure one of you severely, the others will then help simply to avoid further harm to the one I choose to hurt."
Liam then stepped in front of the group, "Very well then, if you have everything worked out, you've heard our answer, twice."
The Re'carusha glared fiercely at them and this time screamed even louder. Da'an pulled the group as closely behind Liam as possible as he activated his shaqarava , shielding the entire party from the effects. Discord's eye's widened, but she screamed again and again, this time Liam dissipated them with an energy blast from each of his hands. Obviously realizing she could not defeat the chosen, she screamed one last time and ran to the portal, activating it before she could be stopped, she made a clean escape.
Turning back to his group, Liam sat down on the floor to catch his breath, after firing in such quick succession he would need a few minutes to cool down. Zo'or had been staring at him for awhile, but now he was talking to Da'an in rapid-fire Eunoia. "Probably demanding an explanation of my life story from him," Liam thought wryly. Suddenly Sandoval sat down next to him.
"So, you're a hybrid," Sandoval stated more than asked. "I guess that explains a lot." he added.
"Yeah," Liam didn't know what else to say, he wondered if Sandoval suspected his parentage.
"How old are you, anyway?" he asked.
"Less than two years," Liam said, not wanting to name an exact date.
Unexpectedly Sandoval smiled, "I always thought you were a little naive to be a SI veteran." He paused, considering what he was going to say next. "How did you do it?" he asked.
Liam looked at him, puzzled, "Do what?" he asked.
"Fit into a world where you were brand new and yet had to live like you were ten times as old as you really were?"
"I had help from my friends, and I have the memories of my mother and father," he added, avoiding Sandoval's eyes.
Sandoval looked down, and then back at Liam, confusion and vulnerability shining in his face, "Will you help me?" he asked.
Liam looked at the man who had so recently regained his humanity and his emotion and nodded his consent, he only needed one word, "Yes."
~Looooong chapter, hope you liked it, if you didn't why not flame me! It's relaxing, interesting, and down-right fun! Like a family board game night, you can express yourself and get your family involved! Have everyone sit around and think up new and better reasons for why this is the worst story you've ever read! No one can complain that you don't spend quality time together!!!! ~ Y. W.