Day Nine
Renee and Liam were left speechless. They had no clue what to do. Should they just let it be, or should they try to resuscitate him? How do you even resuscitate a Taelon? The sky cracked with thunder. Liam took Renee's hand seeking some kind of comfort. It shouldn't end this way. Not like this…
They both approached the body and took its cold hands. They could barely touch it. The façade was gone. Soon it would disintegrate. They could feel it departiclizing. When Renee tried to touch the body's head, her fingers passed right through it as if it was nothing more than a ghost.
"There's got to be something we can do," Renee whispered. "We can't just sit back and accept this."
Liam had not heard her. He was listening. Mem'na had told them that when the time came, he would either hear or feel his companion calling to him. That was when he would know he was truly needed. Therefore, he listened. He quieted his mind to all the sights and sounds of the night storm.
Renee started pushing the body to awaken it, but her hands just passed right through. Blue particles of energy began to rise.
"Liam, we have to do something! Liam!"
Something told Liam to go to the window. He slowly rose and walked towards the tiny opening to the outside world.
"Liam, don't leave me here with him!" Renee cried. She tried to turn on the energy shower to see if that would work.
Liam looked outside. He had felt the weather grow colder. The sky had cleared suddenly, and in the moonlight, he saw tiny white flakes begin to fall.
"It's snowing, Renee."
"I don't care! Liam, help me!"
"Shh!"
Renee administered a look containing both pity and anger. His companion's death had put Liam in some kind of shock. He was too mesmerized to help anybody.
"We have to help him!"
"Renee, just listen for a second," Liam said. "Remember Mem'na? When he needs us, he will call for us. Just listen."
Renee sighed and moved away from the body just to humor Liam. Liam leaned forward to observe the corpse more closely.
I am dead…I am dead…I am dead...I am…dead…
Hello twin. I do not know if you can hear me. I especially do not know how to tell you this. I knew that if I told you this when you were awake, you would never remember it. So Tay'jay told me to talk to you while you slept.
I am dead…I am dead…
Your name is Da'an. You were born of Bel'lie, the primary parent, and Ja'lan, the secondary parent. In approximately sixty days, you and I will be taken to the priests, and when you return, you will have severed all ties with me. My older sibling and I will be strangers to you, and I will never see you again.
A great deal of pain and suffering await the both of us. One of us will survive it, the other will not. I still cannot tell which one for certain, but I assume it will be me. I assume it will be me because I am not strong enough to deal with this. Every time I had a terrible vision, I needed you there with me. You protected me and you comforted me. When I saw our planet die, I would have been driven mad without you. That is why, despite what many people think, I know that you are so much stronger than I will ever be. No matter how much someone hurts you, you never show your pain. You never show fear, and every time someone thinks they have destroyed you, you return stronger than before.
Da'an…
You are the only one strong enough to break free of the prison. I can see the prison bars, and so will you someday. For those Taelons that can see the prison bars, the prison will consume them. Your choice is either to forget or to die. You will forget about it because of the priests, and I will die. I will be driven mad by my own visions. I will die, and so will you, unless you can free yourself. I know you can. You were meant to.
Da'an…can you hear me?
Never be afraid to stand tall. Never be afraid to take chances, and especially never be afraid to ask questions and stand against your masters. They are not holy men, Da'an. They are not your masters, and you are nothing like them…because unlike them, you have the power to change. You have the power to face your darkest side. You have the power to conquer the beast within.
Da'an awoke to find himself buried under a grave of thick and wet mud. He could barely breathe. With all of his strength, he pushed his hand upward reaching for the surface. When he found the open air, he began to pull himself. Slowly he dug himself out of the hole. When he resurfaced, there was still no sky, it was still dark, and it was still raining. With little success, he tried to wipe the mud from his face. When he saw his arms, he found that his exo-covering had been shredded. His left forearm was exposed, and the exposed part was littered with cuts and gashes. His entire exo-covering on his left arm was gone save that of a tiny piece wrapped around his wrist like an awkward bracelet. He could feel that several pieces on his back and on his left foot hand been torn off. He tried to stand, but he was so tired that he collapsed to his knees. He wanted to believe Ma'el's words, but he could not forget about those terrible hands representing all the lives he had ruined. He could not forget all the hurtful words his friends and family had said.
When he lifted his head, he found a terrible sight. It was a battlefield. Taelon warships were flying over a devastated Earth. There were dead bodies everywhere. Volunteers and genetically altered humans were marching on a torn and destroyed city. They found families—women and children—hiding in the ruins. The younger ones, they captured and put in shuttles. The older ones they shot execution style. Pockets of resistance were popping up all over, but they were easily neutralized. Above the warships, Da'an could see the Mothership where Zo'or stood with a ruthless grin on his face.
Sandoval led one of the squadrons. In between the squad, Liam and Renee were in cuffs with tattered clothing and burns all over their face. Sandoval brought them to their knees and warmed up his skrill. They lifted their heads. They were looking at someone in the distance. Da'an searched in the direction his friends were staring and found…himself! He was standing atop a tattered building in a black and militant uniform with red eyes in a cold and callous glare. Sandoval looked up as well to acknowledge him. A cruel smile glided across his face. Looks of sorrow and anger appeared on Liam and Renee's face. He nodded to Sandoval and turned his back on his friends. Sandoval fired two shots and Liam and Renee collapsed.
No!
"Yes!" the high priest's voice whispered. He was alone now with Da'an. He grabbed him by the arm and jerked him to his feet. "This is where you belong. You were melded into complete obedience and designed to be our weapon. You cannot run from this, Da'an. It is why we chose you. You were chosen to convert the non-believers. You were chosen to get inside their minds and turn them into our servants. Humanity is nothing more than a soldier and a surrogate. Your duty to our species was to make the conversion easier for them. You were doing such an excellent job too."
"You cannot treat people like this," Da'an panted.
"You cannot run from your destiny," the high priest said. "This was the purpose of the Synod. This is why we protected you. Death, destruction, experimentation, torture, abduction, subterfuge—even when you try to do good, you fail. You fail because you were not meant to help them. You were never meant to aid the resistance. You were meant to destroy them. That is why you betrayed them. You were meant to! You cannot redeem yourself from such unspeakable crimes. It is far too late. You belong with us."
"You are not a holy man…and neither am I."
"Ours is not the path of evil. Theirs is. They are impure beings meant only to be soldiers and surrogates. Ours is the path of righteousness. This is a holy war, and only the purest souls will survive. Even if you did flee, no human would have you. As far as they are concerned, you are just like them. Those humans back there do not care for you. They want you to die. They want you to fail. No one will ever have you but your brethren. You were meant for us. When we win this war, you will forget all of this and you will appreciate our efforts. Just give in. Just listen to the voices of our brethren. They are calling to you. No human will ever care for you. No human will ever love you. Only the Commonality is for you. We will always love you no matter what you do. We will always forgive you no matter the sins. We will always protect you no matter how badly you are injured."
I am sorry, Ma'el. I am not strong enough.
Da'an gave in and collapsed in the priest's arms. The high priest began speaking a prayer of forgiveness in Eunoia.
I am so sorry, Liam…Renee.
Da'an…I don't know if you can hear this, but it's me. It's Liam. I want you to forget the past and all of your sins, because I don't care about that anymore. You are not like the others. You never were. You are going to get through this because Renee and I are here to help you. We don't think you're a monster or a beast. You are our friend, no matter what happens, you will always be our friend. You've made it this far all by yourself. You've faced every memory and every challenge with courage and understanding. You will not quit, not when you're this close. You have to come back. You have to come back and fight. We need you. I need you.
Da'an opened his eyes to see Liam. He was looking straight at him with a face filled with hope.
You are nothing like them…because you have the power to change…
Da'an felt his strength return, and in one large swing, Da'an knocked himself out of the high priest's arms.
"You are not a holy man!" he yelled. He pushed his hand outward, and the high priest was thrown backwards.
"You ungrateful faithless harpy!" the high priest yelled. "After all that we have done for you! Look at yourself!"
"No! You look!" Da'an shot back. "For over two-thousand years, you manipulated me into believing that I was a dark, cruel and treacherous killer. But as far as I'm concerned the only people out there who are dark and cruel are people like you!"
"How dare you!" the high priest roared. "You dare to undermine me!"
He unleashed a stream of fire from his belly, but Da'an somehow blocked the blast by placing his arms in front of his face.
"A holy man is virtuous," Da'an said launching a bolt of energy at the priest. The high priest dodged it by teleporting before it could hit him. He responded with his own powerful burst of energy. "A holy man is selfless." Da'an absorbed the priest's burst into his own hand and launched it back at him. The high priest rushed towards him in lightning speed and knocked Da'an on the muddy floor. "A holy man is tolerant." The entire muddy ground began to harden, and it grew hot. The rain that fell was not strong enough to convert the ground back into mud. It merely evaporated back into the sky. "A holy man embraces peace and understanding." Da'an stood on the hardened, hot ground. The wind began to pick up. "A holy man has courage." The high priest found his own power beginning to drain. The entire ground caught on fire, and the rain continued to fall. The blackness cleared to reveal a sky that was split by a crack of lightning. "A holy man is righteous." Da'an's eyes turned red. The rain turned into mist once it hit the fire and grew like a clear flame, shrouding Da'an's figure. "But most important of all…a holy man knows when to set his followers free."
The tornado of fire and mist slowly moved towards the priest. "I am not your pawn!" Da'an's voice echoed. "I am not your killer! I am not your slave!" A radiant burst of flames struck the priest's mask like a celestial arrow, shattering his mask. Behind the mast was the face of a very bewildered and frightened Taelon.
"What is it you want?" he whispered in a normal and…very mortal voice.
Ma'el had been correct. Da'an understood Ma'el's words perfectly. He saw his true strength, he saw the true face of the priest, and he knew his plan. The flames opened to reveal Da'an's true self. Strands of hair the color of the fire rose from her head. A white dress revealing a very feminine and humanoid figure had replaced Da'an's torn and tattered biosuit. "Mere tricks and premonitions are not the strongest mind," the blended voices of Da'an and Ma'el whispered, "and the soul is not limited to its own sins. To wound the calm, compassionate, and clear water is to only make me stronger. Split the sky with lightning and I am there. Melt the ice with fire and I rise."
"Blasphemer," the high priest said angrily. "You are nothing more than a traitor. Your parent was right. You are a demon. You may be free, fiend, but you have won nothing today."
"And neither have you."
"This is far from over."
The high priest teleported away, and the chaos subsided. The voices of the Commonality were gone—forever silenced. The sky cleared, and it began to snow.
Da'an's body jerked back into its façade. Liam and Renee jumped backwards. The façade phased in and out as if Da'an was devolving again. However instead of producing a beast, it produced a woman. The biosuit turned into a white dress, and a full head of red hair had grown. The monitors indicated that a heartbeat had restarted. Da'an jerked back into awareness and let out a deep gasp. She pushed herself onto her stomach and began coughing violently.
Liam and Renee rushed to her side, and helped her sit up.
"Da'an!" Liam whispered. "Are you okay?"
"I am freezing," she shuddered. She hunched over to overcome the sharp pain in her abdomen. Liam and Renee took their blankets and wrapped them around Da'an. A stinging sensation caused Da'an to look down as Liam and Renee whispered words of comfort and rejoice. Energy was escaping from several punctures in her hand, where the blue rose with the lithium thorns had cut her.
So she had been worthy after all…
