I actually did it. The one thing that my Beloved Leader had been trying to achieve since the Loric Garde had first escaped Lorien and landed on earth; I broke their Loric charm. The Garde had always been sure of one thing; that they couldn't be killed out of order of their numbers, but that was no longer the case. Five could be hurt; now so could the others. It was a huge accomplishment. Why do I feel so awful about it?
Sitting in my room, I was awaiting Five's return, the anticipation slowly killing me. He had been taken away by Ethan as soon as Deltoch had finished congratulating me. Five had been congratulated too, for training me so well.
The door finally opened, making me jump. Ethan walked in, with Five directly behind him. I felt a rush of relief, even though I knew that I hadn't even struck him that hard. At least, it didn't feel like it was, I had barely put any strength into it. His right arm was bandaged, and I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. I didn't even notice what Ethan was carrying.
"I can't believe this is happening." Five grinned wildly, almost as if he didn't care about being hurt at all. It eased my mind a little bit, but I still couldn't help but feel guilty.
"What's happening?" I asked, directing the question to Ethan rather than Five, since I couldn't stand looking at that bandage on his arm.
"You weren't informed?" He raised his eyebrow, seeming rather annoyed. He was holding what appeared to be folded clothes in his arms.
"No." I shook my head. "I've been sitting in here all this time waiting for Five to return." I added.
"Beloved Leader wants to meet both of us." Five answered excitedly before Ethan could get a word in.
"That's awesome." I smiled. Finally! It's about time.
"Not just Beloved Leader." Ethan told us. "There are many high ranking Mogadorians coming out this evening with their families. A lot of them are already here. They have all come out to see the promotion of the two Loric Commanders, as well as the main event." Commanders!
"Main event?" I frowned. Wasn't our promotion the main event?
"The execution of Number Nine." Five explained. He sounded confident, but his eyes betrayed him. Ethan didn't know him as well as me, so he didn't see what I did. It was only for a moment, Five seemed to catch on to what I saw and tried to hide it even more. "It's about time. Time to show that bastard what true power looks like. I'll teach him to disrespect the lower numbers."
"Excellent," Ethan smiled, satisfied with Five's answer. "Here are your new uniforms," I reached for the clothes eagerly. He left without another word and as soon as the door was closed, we changed out of our training clothes and into the nice, loose fitting uniforms. I pretended not to notice Five struggle and wince when his arm got caught on the sleeve. When our uniforms were on nicely, we eyed each other down, silently inspecting each other. Five was the first to speak.
"So this is finally happening." He grinned, buttoning his last button on the bottom of his shirt. "We get to meet Beloved Leader,"
"And you get to kill Number Nine," I added, secretly analyzing his reaction.
"Yeah," He beamed. This time, it was harder to read him. Either he was genuinely prepared and excited to kill one of his fellow Garde, or he was just really good at hiding it. "That bastard has had it coming for a while. I'm glad that he can finally be killed."
"But now you can be killed too." I said what we were both thinking out loud, without even meaning to. "Does that bother you at all?"
"A little." Five admitted. "Being able to feel pain will definitely take some getting used to, but I guess I'm just like everyone else now."
"Not quite." I shook my head. "Not everyone is as powerful. Certainly not Number Nine." I added, trying to boost his confidence.
"Let's go see who has all come to see us." Five grinned, sticking his hands in the uniform pockets. He showed no reaction to my mention of Number Nine. Will he be able to go through with it? I tried to study his face to get a reading but he turned towards the door before I could. He'll be able to do it, I'm sure. He's strong enough.
"Can we stop by the training room and rub it into their loser faces first?" I pleaded, imagining the horrified and hateful expressions that would arise once they heard that I, the one person that they truly despised, would be their superior by nightfall.
"Of course." Five grinned, his eyes sparkling in amusement. "We'll show them the power worthy of Commanders," For the rest of the trip to the training room, we didn't speak, each trapped in our own excitement.
We burst through the door confidently, all eyes immediately turning to us. I grinned when I noticed a few of the garde's groan once they saw us, their annoyance for our grand entry clearly showing, however they were smart enough to hold their tongues. They stood frozen as we approached them, waiting for us to make a move.
"Meet your new Commanders." I gloated, puffing my chest out a little to appear more intimidating. As soon as the words were out of my mouth, the group erupted into snorts and protests, the very response that Five and I had predicted.
"Commander?" Harley retorted, crossing his arms. "You ain't no Commander." Everyone quieted down and waited for whatever was to come. I love that I always had them anticipating what would happen next, it made me feel more powerful.
"Not yet he's not," Sabrina scoffed.
"I heard that there is a Ceremony later on today that we all have to attend," Holly shuddered. They all have to watch as I get promoted whether they like it or not. This thought makes me smile even wider, which I can tell irritates some of the others. "I guess now we know what it's about."
"What makes you so special?" Evan growled, clenching his fists and taking a step towards us.
"Evan," Julia, a girl that rarely ever spoke, tried to stop him, grabbing his arm and catching everyone off guard. I couldn't help but smile, sensing her fear. When I punished one, I punished them all; clearly Julia didn't want to experience my wrath since it was never her fault for the assault inflicted on the group, always either Derek, Evan or Sabrina for running their mouths, or a couple others for their witty remarks. "Stop before you get the rest of us involved with your shit." She hissed.
Julia suffers with everyone else because of their idiocy. She's the only one who's not completely useless. Everyone else's attacks can be replaced by Vatborn soldiers. Sheer numbers would defeat a handful of these wimps easily, no need for the waste of resources to keep them alive when Vatborns are so disposable.
Julia's legacy is the power to heal physical wounds, which wouldn't really help her in a combat situation but could be useful when a teammate was on the verge of death, particularly me or Five, who could now be killed.
Maybe I'll spare her this time, since she has never really done anything to me personally. Show them that despite being the asshole that they forced me to, I can still show a little bit a mercy. Her long, silky brown hair made me think of Melody's hair, which would have grown to be about the same length as Julia's. I hated myself every time I thought about my sister, whom it was likely that I would never see again.
"You are the weakest one out of all of us," Evan continued, despite Julia's warning, wrenching his arm away from her before going on. "We've all been training here our whole lives," he growled. "We watched our friends that never developed legacies die; they were useless cepans according to the mogadorians." He spat 'mogadorians' as if it was the foulest word he could think of.
An outburst like this was insubordination, punishable by death and by the uncomfortable shift in the group's expressions, they all knew it too. Evan was alone but didn't seem to care because he kept going.
"You are just some dumb kid they found outside and Beloved Leader chooses you, instead of us, to be a Commander of his armies? What an idiot!" He was boiling in rage, I could almost see steam escaping his nostrils.
The damage is already done before he can try to take back his words. An insult against the Beloved Leader is worse than insubordination.
Evan drops to his knees, screaming in pain from my legacy at the very same moment that Commander Deltoch bursts through the doors with a group of vatborns behind him. I don't turn my head to see them, but I know they are there, slowly walking up behind me as I torture Evan. From my peripheral vision, I see the vatborn soldiers step towards Evan with their weapons but Deltoch holds up his hand, ordering them to stand down.
"Increase your intensity." He orders me, and without hesitation, I do. It's the stupid idiot's fault for speaking out against our Beloved Leader. Whatever happens is on him. Evan's wails bounced off the walls of the empty training room, the horrified expressions from the others were frozen in shock and fear.
"Please! Stop!" Evan begs, the words barely audible over his pitiful cries as I take a few steps closer to him, as if minimizing the distance in which my power travels will make it stronger. If I weren't enjoying hurting him so much, I almost would have felt bad for him. "Please just make it stop!" A wave of telekinetic force comes rushing towards me, but using my own telekinesis, which is way stronger than Evan's, I shift the force into a different direction, knocking Derek and a couple others off their feet instead.
No one dares speak out in his aid in fear of joining his punishment. Friends or not, to side with Evan would mean to join him in death. He was on his own now.
"Take a good look." Deltoch bellows, it takes me a moment to realize that he is talking to the others. "This is what happens when you betray the kindness that Beloved Leader has offered you. You will suffer horribly," He looks at me again, giving me a cold, hard stare that I know is a silent order to amplify my assault.
I smile when once again, Evan's screaming becomes louder. I stop only when Deltoch raises his palm to me, the same way he had told the vatborns to stand down. Crumpled on the floor, humiliated in front of everyone, I'd never seen Evan look so defeated. Unable to suppress my enjoyment, I grin widely.
"T-thank you," Evan coughs, scarlet droplets spraying out of his mouth. After two failed attempts, he barely manages to sit up, his hair a sweaty, tangled mess. There doesn't appear to be any physical wounds, but he looks like he is in critical condition. The smallest movement of his muscles resulted in a wince of pain. He looked so pathetic that I almost felt sorry for him.
"Thanks?" Deltoch growls in a low voice and I watch Evan's eyes grow wide as he realizes his mistake. "Andy," Deltoch snaps suddenly, never taking his glare off the boy. "Do you remember what I said you would have to do when you first came here, to prove your loyalty?"
"Of course, sir." I answered as calmly as I could, in fear that the slightest hint of doubt or hesitation would result in my own punishment.
"Consider this your moment to prove yourself worthy of Commander status," he says calmly, still glaring intensely at Evan, who was still half-laying, half-sitting on the ground trying to recover. "Kill him. Show this imbecile the power that makes you so special." Of course he was watching the whole thing, Evan is a fool who dug his own grave.
"Yes, sir." I reply, using my telekinesis to float a sword over to me. Evan must die in order for me to advance. My heart was pounding so loud that I thought Deltoch could hear it.
"With your legacy," Deltoch growls, I detect a hint of annoyance in his voice so I immediately let the sword drop to the ground, the loud clanging of it hitting the cement ringing through the room. "Be creative," he adds, the hostility in his voice replaced with amusement.
Taking a deep breath, I pour every ounce of my focus into my legacy and direct it all to one place; Evan's brain. I can feel the power coursing through my body, through each vein, the power growing more intense with the more focus that I put into it and, vividly imagining what I want to do to Evan in my mind, I'm almost surprised when it actually happens.
All of my power was focused and contained into one little area, Evan's brain, and like a balloon with way too much air, caused the melon to pop. Screams echoed through the room once more, only this time it wasn't Evan's. Blood and brain matter splattered the ground in front of the other garde and the ones closest to Evan, which happened to be Derek, Sabrina and Holly, were covered in his bodily fluids. Gags and squeals erupted from the blood spattered crowd and as Evan's headless corpse lay in between me and them, a large pool of blood started pouring from the gaping hole in his neck where his head once was. The only clear remains from his head was a singular ear that was slowly being covered in the rapidly growing pool of blood. The cries from the garde were cut off by Deltoch's slow, menacing claps.
"Well done, Commander." He grinned wickedly.
Sorry it took so long for this update :) What did you think? I'm open to any suggestions :)
