Chronicles of the Kiridians

If you want to know true friends don’t look at the hard times

It’s easy for people to give a sympathetic smile, or a shoulder to lean on

Instead, look in your times of triumph.

Those who truly care will be around supporting you

Those who don’t will show their true colors

Kidnapping a king has to be at least in the top ten of things I thought I would never have to do. Yet, here I am. Walking through a huge, fancy, extravagant castle spaceship with a weird name with a group of other royals who are trying to stop him from killing them. All the while pointing a blaster at his head.

Something tells me the fun is just getting started.

“What’s your plan here, little girl?” taunts the king to his oldest daughter. “What you take me hostage and get you through the ship, then I let you just walk away? This is sixteen years in the making, Anya! You have to have a better strategy than this. Then again, Edwin was always the strategist- OW!”

Brodie snickers as he smacks the king on the back of his head. The impact was loud enough to catch the attention of everyone in the group. Anya looks at her brother gratefully as she continues to walk. I hear her take a deep breath before she stops at the entrance of the hallway.

“This is the main hallway. There are bound to be plenty of people walking these halls,” she tells us. “Now is the time to chicken out if you’re going to. There is no turning back once we do this.” she looks at Joey and I specifically and I shake my head.

“I’m in this for the long run.”

“Very well,” says Anya as she turns back to face Brodie and my dad. “Don’t allow him to wiggle free. This upcoming moment is detrimental to getting out of here. No one is going to rush us with a blaster to his head,” she turns to the King and glares at him with ice in her stare. “And if they do rush us, then blast his head off.”

For the first time since I’ve been reintroduced to the king, I start to see him look worried. At the very least this is going to make him look weak in front of all of his people. A king who looks weak will go to great measures to ensure that he isn’t. While our plans are very limited to what we can actually do, there are great risks to this that far exceed the idea that this is sane.

Anya takes a deep breath and then straightens up her back. Raina comes directly beside her and grabs her hand. They walk hand in hand leading the way down the hallway. We follow directly behind as the king continues to wiggle and try and get out of the hands of my father and Brodie.

“Don’t just stand there you idiots!” he screams at the people as they stare at us in shock. “Help me! Do something! Don’t just stare at us slack-jawed!”

“I wouldn’t do that,” says Anya as she stops in the middle of the hall. “Lena is ready to use her powers on anyone who gets in our way. She will not hesitate to let the full range of her ability out on a single person. If you value not only your king’s life but yours, you will stay back.”

“Do not listen to her!” shouts Delmund. “This girl has no idea what she is doing! She didn’t even know she was Lena until recently!”

Oh lord, this is falling apart so quickly.

“Don’t let them frighten you my brave Kiridians! Defend me for I am your King! If you fall you will be loved as a hero among your people!”

The people in the hall continue to stare at us in confusion. I can see their eyes starting to question the entire situation. If something doesn’t happen soon, this could be one messy situation. The blood of the king will be on our hands.

“Lena,” says Anya looking at me. I still get a bit confused when people call me by my original name. I’ve been Kara for so long, is there enough room for me to be both of these things? “It’s time for you to show the people what you can do!” says Anya. “Step forth and demonstrate your great power!”

My heart stops beating as the realization that everyone I care about is suddenly thrust onto me. I take a shaky step toward Anya who nods at me feverishly. “Don’t be scared!” she shouts loudly. “Show the people the mighty Lena!”

“I don’t know what I’m doing!” I quickly whisper to Anya. “This isn’t fair of you at all!”

“We don’t have time for this, Lena,” she commands. “Do it.”

I take a deep breath and close my eyes. The only time I’ve ever been able to access my power is in times of great distress. Like the first time Ralph and Brandon came to my house, or the time in the woods the sword randomly appeared. Those we all times where I was surely about to die. How do you just command power on demand?

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. I begin to remember everything I know about my past life. My affair with the king, the sword and its legend, the battles I supposedly fought. I take many deep breaths before I feel my mind start to completely clear out.

My body becomes paralyzed, and I am unable to move as I watch the inside of my mind change. My memories as Kara scatter around me, floating around my conscious like moving pictures. My eyes open, and I’m suddenly in a dark room. The memories that once danced around me have since moved, and in the very center of the room is a single light shining down on a woman in a chair. She looks weak, but she’s holding on.

“W-Who are you?”

The woman looks up in shock. She stands quickly to her feet in a fighting position and moves to the edge of the light. “I am Lena!” she says proudly into the darkness. “Step forward and let me see you!”

I shakily move through the darkness and toward the light in the center of the area. Lena steps back as she hears me approach, and on the very edge of the light as it hits my face I see Lena’s jaw drop. “I’ve been waiting for what feels like forever to meet you, Kara.”

“How do you know me?” I ask her. “I know nothing of you.”

“Step into the light and turn around,” she motions for me.

My body freezes as I stare at her. She has not moved from her portion of the light, and that rings as a red flag to me. Granted, I can see the same chin that I have and the same eye color. The similarities of this Lena are much more Kara than the one my mother created that night in the room.

“As you’ve grown older, your past life has started to fade further and further away from your memory. The light represents the part of you, or us, that was before we were saved by Nova’s sacrifice. If I step out of the light, your past self will be but a memory in only the people that knew me. Or us,” she corrects.

I slowly make my way into the light and turn around. Little blue squares travel around the black space. Each of the blue squares represents a memory of my current life. From inside of the light, I’m able to see an area in the very back of the situation we are currently in.

“I’ve watched your life unfold since you were a baby, Kara,” she says looking at me. “Everything that you’ve been through I’ve been right there. You’re in a little bit of a situation now, aren’t you?” she says shaking her head. “I promise I’m not stupid. Well, I was, it got me stabbed, but Delmund wasn’t always what you see today.”

“What do I need to do?” I ask her. “Anya is wanting me to access her powers, but I don’t know how to do that,”

“There have been a few times I’ve had to fight my way through the darkness to help you, Kara,” says Lena as she extends her hand. A blue light dances around her arms and she shoots it forward. “It’s worked in those moments, but I’ve grown very weak from helping.”

“How can I help you?”

“Touch my hand,” she says. “We will combine what is left of your old life and your current one. Once we are one again, you’ll have unlimited access to the powers we posses like you once did,” she explains as she extends her hand.

“But I don’t know if I want that past life as a part of me,” I whisper to her. “There are so many things that you did, and what if I don’t want to remember? There’s an easy way out of this, and that would be for me to just walk out of here and into the darkness.”

“Kara,” Lena sits back down on the chair. “You could very well do that, but all of what you were before will only ever come from the mouths of people. You have control over the narrative. Your memories are yours, Kara, you can do with them what you will.” she nods. “But you can’t run from your past forever. One way or another it will come back and haunt you. You can either run from it as long as possible or embrace it for what it is, apart of you.”

I look at her with tears welling in my eyes as I look at all of the memories that circle around this small slab of light leftover of my past life. Lena looks at me expectantly and sticks out her hand. “So what is it going to be Kara?” she asks me. “Are you going to embrace what we were or are you going to risk it all?”

I look down at my hand and bite my lip as I look at the woman in front of me. I reach out and shake her hand and she smiles at me light erupts and fills the once dark area. The memories of just Kara are no more as both Lena and I have connected. One hallway, one blue side, and one red side. The hallway leads to the scene Anya and the others are waiting for me to demonstrate my power.

I take a step into the hallway and walk quickly toward the scene. It is time for me to embrace this past of mine. Even if it isn’t something I want.

“We don’t have time for this, Lena,” Anya commands. “Do it.”

A rush of memories come into my head, and once again I can recall the use of my powers. I lift my hand and watch as a surge of green light erupt around me, and I float into the air. People gasp as they watch me float above the floor, and then shoot a green beam into the air.

“No one will stop us,” I command.

People shrink back in fear as I float ahead of the group. Joey and Raina jump up and down in excitement as the king continues to call out for his people to save him.

“Kara! How can you do this?!” calls Joey excitedly.

We walk out of the ship and move toward the exit of the property that they’ve hidden the ship on. I walk to the edge and turn around to face the king. “What do we do with him?” I ask Anya.

“We leave him here,” she says kicking him in the back of the knee and watching him fall to his legs. “Stay down if you know what’s good for you. Unless you want the wrath of Lena,”

“I’m not scared of her!” he says as he gets up and attempts to swing at me. I float out of the way and come down to the ground. I extend my hand and sword appears in my hand as I hold it in the direction of the King.

“I remember everything,” I lie as I hold it in his direction. “Don’t test me, Delmund.”

He looks at me awkwardly and backs down. “Don’t think for a second I won’t find you, kids, again,” he snarls as he turns and runs back into the ship’s hidden area. I look at the others and through the distance, I can hear people screaming gathering in the ship’s area.

“We need to run,” I turn and begin to run toward a wooded area across the street from the property. “I can hold off a few people, but I don’t think I can hold off the many.”

“The night is just getting started,” says Brodie as he quickly follows behind me. “Let’s just hope we manage to make it through.”

We all make it to the wooded area just as a fleet of men with bountidos rush out of the area and release them off their leashes. “Find them!” screams the king. “Find them and bring them back!”

“Stay together!” whispers Anya as we maneuver our way through the trees. “This could get ugly.”