Spirit Unbreakable

The darkness was a miasma consuming him. He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he had last seen light. It could have been days, or merely hours, Riumi had no way of knowing. Hader had no intention of making his stay here comfortable. His sole purpose was to break Riumi’s will and he was off to a very good start. Riumi lay in the engulfing darkness and contemplated the few hours he had spent with the director of the UNG before being thrown into this oubliette.

After he had made sure that Mikomi was safely away, escorted to the nearest Guardian base by Shanahan and Sira, he had turned to greet his fate. Hader had stood tall and smug, much like his Korean counterpart. His domineering presence was enhanced by his six foot frame and martial look. Riumi was dealing with a tactician. His job was keeping the peace, by whatever means necessary, and it was clear that he didn’t play nice. Riumi could play that game as well. He may be their property now, but that didn’t mean that he had to be cooperative.

Walking into the sterile building, he confronted Hader. Sira and Shanahan had vanished with Mikomi and only a handful of guards stood with Hader.

“You may have me bodily in your possession, but that doesn’t mean you will find me giving you answers readily,” Riumi said.

Hader just looked smug and scoffed. “We have ways of enticing uncooperative subjects.”

Those were the last words Riumi had heard from a human being before he was incapacitated and taken to the room he now resided in. He felt that there had been an interval of time that had passed between his awakening in the dark oubliette and when he had been drugged. His body felt violated and he was most definitely wearing different clothing than the set he had been wearing upon arrival.

In the pervasive darkness and utter and complete silence, Riumi had only touch to truly rely on. He had explored his confines the moment he became aware that he was actually awake. Groping around the room, he realized that it was a very small space. He was quickly apparent that the roof was low enough that he was unable to stand. It was a square room that could maybe fit three people in it. For the undetermined duration of his stay here, he had not been supplied food or water, and had not seen anything. All this deprivation reminded him of an oubliette, which had over time come to mean a place of forgetting.

He didn’t know how much longer he could hold on to his sanity in here. With no stimulation, and lack of nutrition and hydration, he was starting to lose his grip on reality. In the oppressive silence, he heard whispered voices, saw lights that vanished when he looked directly toward them. He would follow hallucinations and even talk to himself thinking that he was somewhere else, only to be brought back to the confining space.

He kept relieving the last moments of his life on Vespen, over and over again like a looping video. It was in his mind that he should have been looking for Shylaya. Why had he been wasting so much time? Then he would remember that he hadn’t remembered Shylaya until it was too late.

So much for promises. I can’t even keep myself safe, let alone her. It was as these thoughts kept cycling through his head that he found that he was staring at a sudden insufferable light all around him. He felt hands grab him and lift him from his prison. Their touch set fire to his body as he was suddenly bombarded with sensation. With this new blindness of light and incomprehensible sound, it was like a protective layer had been peeled off him and every nerve was exposed and raw, all these sensations too much to bear. He felt himself being dropped unceremoniously into a chair and pain seared through his arms, radiating from his wrists as he was secured to it.

He started to orient himself to his surroundings, the light coming back to a semi-tolerable level. It was a sterile room. Blinding white. Blurry forms broke up the starkness of the room working around silver tables and other devices that Riumi couldn’t quite make out, his eyes still unable to focus. A dominating presence stood before him and suddenly he realized that all the incomprehensible noise he was hearing could be pulled apart.

Background white noise, pulled from the alarms of equipment, pulled from the breath and movements of the people around him, pulled from the voices, each separating into their own sound until it all made sense again. He focused on one voice. The last voice he had heard before descending into that dark prison: Hader’s.

“How are his vital signs? Are we going to able to proceed or might I have overdone it?” Hader asked a person off to his left.

Riumi felt something prick his skin and he let out a cry, the pain magnified by his experience. His own voice reverberating in his head caused him to reel in pain.

“He should survive. He should be rehydrated more, but I think we should start this before he becomes more lucid. Rehydration will just accelerate that.”

“All right,” Hader replied. Riumi felt a warm sensation flowing into his body with those two words from Hader and the world that had been coming into slow focus blurred once again.

Hader came close to Riumi’s incapacitated figure and whispered in his ear; even that made Riumi wince in pain.

“Let me give you a history lesson while we wait for the drug to take effect shall we. I know how much you like those. I want you to know exactly what is happening to you.

“Long ago in Earth’s history experiments were conducted to try and make people more willing to give up secrets truthfully. They started off in the nineteen thirties with barbiturates, sedatives, and hypnotic drugs that altered your state of mind. One of the more common ones was called sodium pentothal. They were classified as a form of torture and band from use. They were still readily used in some psychotherapy to coerce the subjects to reveal vital information, but were most often unreliable, making the patient more willing to talk, but no more willing to tell the truth. Over the years they were abandoned. Then about fifty or so years ago, one of our research facilities discovered a wonderful combination and synthesized a new ‘truth’ serum that we call Wilvutrumat. It works well on its own, but even better if the subject has undergone some conditioning, namely sensory deprivation.

“How do you feel, Riumi Takahashi?” Hader finished.

Riumi felt completely disconnected from the situation. In truth he suddenly felt nothing at all. Somehow what they had done to him made him not care about anything in the least. At the same time, he was compelled to answer.

“I feel nothing,” Riumi replied, his affect flat.

Hader smiled. “We are ready to begin.”

Riumi saw a screen off to his right that a man was hovering over; it revealed a set of vitals that Riumi considered for a moment and concluded were his own.

Hader pulled Riumi’s attention back towards him. “I have some questions for you.”

“All right,” Riumi replied.

“We have already concluded that your genetic makeup is not that of a human. What species are you and where do you come from?”

“I am of a species call the Levanith and I come from a planet called Vespen. When translated into common, it means earth. I guess that means that my planet and yours share a common name.”

“When did your people start invading our world?” Hader asked ignoring Riumi’s added comment.

Riumi paused to think. “I’m not entirely sure. I was really young when I left Vespen. I think around the time that your ancestors were in their medieval era.” Hader looked surprised by this information yet continued.

“Why were you sent here?”

“To save my planet.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Our world had been invaded by an overwhelming alien force and my people were becoming extinct, so they sent me and others to Earth so that our species would survive.”

“You plan on invading Earth? How big is this force? How far have you infiltrated? When is your final attack coming?”

“I was not given the details of our coming to this planet, only that we were to sleep a long time and save our species. The ones that were sent with us were to tell us the details and train us.”

“Train you?”

“In battle tactics and fighting styles.”

“Who are us?”

“Me and my betrothed, Shylaya.”

“Are the ones that came with you of the same species as you?”

“We did share a common ancestry in the distant past. They were called the Shidenen and were part Levanith and part human.” Hader recoiled at this statement.

“Hybrids?” Hader walked away from Riumi and consulted someone outside of Riumi’s view.

“I never considered a blending. I didn’t realize their genetic structure was compatible with our own. If they have been infiltrating us for as long as he implies than more than half our population could be hybrids. I never considered this kind of invasion.”

Riumi watched Hader pace the room and felt something, a slight twinge in his head which caused him to be nauseated. With the room spinning, Riumi began to feel completely awake and completely aware.

When Hader came back to finish his interrogation, Riumi was completely in control of himself.

“When does the rest of your species plan on invading?” Hader asked.

“You’re twisting my words. You’re not evening listening to what I am saying. You are so set in your mind as to what I am you can’t hear the truth even when it’s been spoken straight to you.”

Hader looked at the doctor monitoring his vitals. “His metabolism is breaking up the drug faster than I can administer it. He’s too different from human anatomy for me to compensate. I could kill him if I administer much more,” the doctor replied to Hader’s stare.

Hader looked at Riumi. “Fortunate for you, I need you alive.”

“I’ll tell you anything you want to know if you would listen to me. My people never planned on invading. Our planet was being attacked, we were all dying. They were just hiding us here. We never intended to take Earth from you. We just needed a sanctuary.”

“Why did you hide yourself from us? How long have you been spying on the citizens of Earth and infiltrating our society? You can’t use subterfuge and call yourself friends. Only enemies spy on one another.”

“It wasn’t like that. It was a long time ago. More than a thousand years in your past. We were far too advanced to make proper first contact. We wanted you to learn and grow on your own.”

“Excuses and lies.”

“If we had wanted your planet so badly, we would have taken it from you when you were underdeveloped technologically.”

“If what you say about your planet being attacked is true, it sounds like you had your hands full taking care of the alien invasion and had no time to implement any invasion plans here on Earth. Sounds to me that your people knew their planet was going to be destroyed and needed to find a new home. Under so much stress from the enemy on their home world they had to implement a more subtle plan to invade Earth. That is where you come in.

“You were young you say? Do you think that the details of their invasion would be too much for you to handle at that time? Would they not wait instead until you were old enough to carry out your mission to tell you the truth? All the while, you and your betrothed slept as the Shidenen infiltrated humanity with hybrids waiting until you awoke to take over, repopulating the earth with a more docile and compliant hybrid population.”

Riumi remained silent contemplating his words. As twisted as this man was, his words made sense. My people would not consider that as a viable alternative, would they? Riumi couldn’t remember enough about his culture to truly answer that. Was I sent to Earth to save my race by populating this planet?

“That can’t be true.” Riumi finally yelled.

Hader put his hand on Riumi’s shoulder. “But you can’t be sure about that, can you?”

“I –” Riumi tried to refute his claims, but it all seemed somehow to fit. Contacting humans in disguise, observing their culture, sneaking, spying, never revealing themselves and asking for help. Always hiding. Even he was hidden as a human instead of being the Levanith that he was. A web of lies and deceit, all on the part of his people. Could Hader be right? Was he sent here to invade Earth? The Shidenen were Levanith/human hybrids. The genes of his people were interwoven with humans after a thousand years. It was quite likely there wasn’t a single human being anymore that didn’t have some Levanith within them.

“You can’t deny it, can you? All that propaganda is starting to unravel. And you are left with a simple truth,” Hader came close to Riumi once again and spoke in his ear, “you are the enemy.”

Hader walked off to one side of the room and grabbed a Flimsy from off the nearby table. He held it up for Riumi to see. Hovering above the surface of the Flimsy was a rendition of a skeleton, various data was laid out in columns on the surface of the Flimsy underneath it.

“We did a little examination of you before you awoke. And you know what we discovered?”

“Obviously that I am not human, for if you found that I was I most likely wouldn’t be sitting here right now,” Riumi replied. His mind was still grasping at straws trying to make sense of the previous conversation.

He felt nauseous, and he didn’t think it was from the drugs. In all his time here on Earth, he had never considered himself any different than the human beings that had raised him. Until recently, he always thought of himself as one of them. It resonated harshly within him to be called the enemy. Even if everything Hader said rang with a sort of truth, he just couldn’t believe that his people would do malicious things to the inhabitants of Earth. At least, he knew it wasn’t within him to do so.

Hader magnified a portion of the skeletal structure and held it closer to Riumi’s face. “I think the most intriguing thing that we discovered about your species is how truly different from human beings you are. I think you have more in common with the birds of Earth than the humans. It was fascinating to find out most of your skeletal structure is made up of hollow bones, just like those of a bird. It’s a wonder you don’t have wings.” Hader looked to Riumi for a response. Riumi stared back tense. He never thought that his anatomy was so different from a human. He did after all look like a human being.

“Nothing to say for yourself? You know I could go on. Your ribs for example have the same uncinate processes that birds have as well, hooks on the bones that strengthen the rib cage. And your musculature is incredible, so different from a human being, mapping them would be interesting, especially in the back by a curious set of bones that seem to be underdeveloped.”

“What are you trying to say,” Riumi finally replied. He knew why he was so different. He knew what the set of bones and muscles were for, and he was getting the distinct feeling that Hader did as well.

“I’m trying to say that you look far too human on the outside for the inherent differences on the inside. I am saying I am curious to know what you really look like.”

“What are you implying? That I somehow am showing you a different face than my true one? I can assure you that what you see is how I have always looked.” Riumi said this with confidence, no lie on his breath. He had, after all, never grown his wings before being sent to Earth.

Hader smirked and wandered back to the table. He set the Flimsy down and instead grabbed a syringe. Holding it into the light above and examining it with a careful gaze he began to speak once again.

“The most interesting thing about discovering that Einstein-Rosen Bridge in that cave you found in France was we also discovered a lot of data about your home world. Not much of it has been decipherable, but we came upon this little concoction in the database. It’s an unimaginably toxic substance, to a human. Do you know anything about epigenetics, Riumi?”

“I was more into history than science,” Riumi replied. He didn’t like the look of the needle in Hader’s hand or the proximity it had to his own restrained body.

“Epigenetics is the process of turning on and off genes. There are certain compounds that are able to either activate a gene or supress it. It has been very helpful in eradicating a lot of genetic disorders over the years that it has been practiced. This compound seems to be one such agent, just not one meant for a human being. Since it came from the database from your peoples Einstein-Rosen Bridge, I think that means it’s meant for you. Care to see what is lurking beneath the surface of your skin, Riumi.”

Riumi tensed as Hader came nearer to him with needle in hand. As much as he wanted to have his wings back, he certainly did not want them back at the hands of his captor.

“I thought you said that was toxic. Didn’t you say you needed me alive?” Riumi said. He tensed in his restraints and pushed himself as far into the chair as he could go. He struggled against the restraints as his terror over the situation grew. Being coerced, drugged, and interrogated was one thing, something his mind could displace. What Hader held in his hand was an untested unknown substance that may or may not be meant for him, synthesized by people without complete knowledge about it.

“Toxic to humans yes. I have the utmost confidence that you will survive, however. Though I can’t say it won’t be painful. Our scientists took the liberty of enhancing the compound to work at a more accelerated rate. Seeing as it was meant to be ingested, I’m sure an injection right into the blood stream will speed it along as well.”

Riumi’s body reacted with sudden fear, no longer in his control. He could imagine in his mind the terrible pain that he would feel with accelerated growth of his wings. He clearly recalled the ‘growing pains’ that he had felt when they had been growing naturally, on many occasions he had been bed ridden with the pain, only sufferable from some meds that his parents had supplied. Natural as it may be for his kind, painless it was not. He struggled at his bonds, only to feel strong arms clutching at his body keeping him motionless. Hader gave Riumi a superfluous grin and injected the needle into his IV.

Riumi felt a sudden fire in his arm outlining every artery as it raced up his arm towards his heart and disseminated to every part of his body. He heard himself scream from the pain of it as if his blood was boiling.

In the haze of pain, he felt his head being restrained and felt a sudden sharp pain in his right nostril as a tube was forced into it and down his throat, nestling in his stomach. It made him suddenly unable to speak.

He heard someone tell him in a gentle voice that it was a nasogastric tube, there to help him get nutrients as he went through his change, but he didn’t care about that. All he cared about was the fact that the pain of boiling blood was coalescing into two spots behind his shoulder blades, pain so intense that he felt his body would rip apart at any moment. His only thought was of getting rid of the pain.

He heard faint voices in this haze of pain and wished he could talk to them and tell them what was going on inside him, but he couldn’t find the words through the pain or the tube shoved down his throat, and instead he just listened and tried to hold onto those words instead of the pain. He grasped at the words, but they were lost as he succumbed to the darkness that was trying to encompass him. Muscles no longer tense, he fell back in the chair limp, a fever consuming him.

Shanahan paced the room furiously. The moment that he and Sira had entered the building Hader had them removed from the scene. They had been debriefed and immediately escorted off the premise. It had taken Shanahan days to get back his access to the boy, only to be shoved into the observation room beside the interrogation room. It had taken all his will to sit there and watch Hader do those things to that boy without getting up and running in there to assault the man. His methods were cruel and unnecessary.

Though Riumi seemed to be a boy of few words, even after the Wilvutrumat had lost his effectiveness, he had given truthful and forthcoming answers. Had there not been guards specifically posted at the doors to the observation room, Shanahan would have been in there to stop the interrogation. The moment that Hader had injected Riumi and he could hear the pure agony that he was in, he could no longer stand by and watch and instead gave the guards a glare that meant death to any that stood in his way and they parted to let him by.

Shanahan rushed into the room and Hader just looked at him angrily.

“I thought I told you that under no circumstances were you to interfere with my interrogation of this alien.”

“Your interrogation is clearly over, Hader. What did you do to him? Can’t you see he is in a lot of pain? Why is no one trying to alleviate it?”

“The boy is no longer your concern, Shanahan. You served your purpose here and I am sure that you will get your reassignment shortly. Until then, I will ask you to not question my methods.”

“Your methods are insane, Hader. The boy was being cooperative. There was no reason to torture him.”

“He was being evasive and hiding things. I clearly questioned him about the status of his appearance and he denied that there was a difference. Even staring at the differences he wouldn’t budge. I had the means to uncover that lie and so I took it. How are we to accurately learn about these aliens unless we see their true nature?”

“I understand your need to uncover the truth, Hader, but can you at least make it less painful for him? I think you have put him through enough.”

“Alas, Shanahan, that is not within my power. The kind doctors here tell me that they are not sure how our drugs will interact with his system during this… change. It could quite likely kill him. As I know that this drug won’t kill him, and I do need him alive, I am afraid he will just have to bear with the pain until his transformation is complete. As you are so concerned with his safety, I am sure you wouldn’t want me to risk his death.”

Shanahan stared at Riumi’s suddenly limp figure. Looking back at Hader, he hit the table with his fist, cracking the Flimsy display. “Goddam it Hader, you are a heartless bastard.”

Hader walked past Shanahan towards the door calling out as he went, “No Shanahan, your just too soft for the work. Why not think about changing professions.”

The fire in her blood erased all other thoughts from her head. She no longer saw the room around her or the people that made up the council. Instead she saw blinding white, heard the dull thrumming of machines, and smelled the sharp scent of cleaning supplies. Pulled into this sudden waking vision she realized completely and with full confidence that these were no dreams. Most importantly, this was happening right now. She tried to focus on the fact that this was not her pain, but it was too overwhelming. She could feel it bleeding through her wings. Remember what Brium taught you. Find your control. Regain your own thoughts. Disengage. It was painfully slow, untangling herself from the source of the pain. She felt nearly spent by the time she could actually feel the touch of Malik’s embrace and the cold stone floor beneath her crumpled body. The voices came back slowly, followed by her vision. She finally saw Malik who looked absolutely terrified.

Upon seeing her gaze, he visibly relaxed. “I thought I had lost you there. Are you okay? What happened?” Malik rushed his words when he realized that Reniko was back with him.

“I have to go back. I can’t lose this connection. I have to help him,” she muttered incomprehensibly to everyone except Orric, who informed Malik of what she was attempting to do.

“Just tell me you are going to be okay,” Malik whispered knowing there was nothing he could do to stop her. He could see the urgency in her eyes.

“He’s in a lot of pain. The intensity of it solidified the connection. I need to help him Malik.” Malik nodded. Reniko closed her eyes and went limp in his arms as she delved deep into Riumi’s mind.

The pain was like a red curtain clouding not only his other senses but even his thoughts. It was an ebbing tide pulling at the shores of his awareness, something he could not face and so he retreated, relinquishing his hold on consciousness and escaping to the safe blackness of his mind.

Alone in the complete darkness inside, his mind played tricks on him. Racked with pain and fever, the darkness took on shapes and colours. Patterns of red silk overlaying the blackness around him, coalescing into shapes and forms. Finally a form stepped into his mind, and with it his own form took shape. He grabbed her hand while her features were still lost to the darkness. Her soft grasp suddenly made the pain ebb away and he could hear her whispering to him.

“Concentrate. Concentrate on my voice. Can you hear me?” the shadowy figure asked.

“Is this real?” Riumi asked the form. It felt more real than the pain he felt still pulsing at the edges of his mind.

“Never mind that. I’m here to help you survive the transformation you are going through.”

Riumi had sudden flashes of the events that had led up to this moment, as if they were being snatched from his mind by this ethereal form.

“Riumi, listen to me. You have a capacity within you to compartmentalize yourself. You can take your consciousness and shelter it from what is going on around you. Have you ever done this before?”

“I don’t understand.”

The presence let go of his hand and instead gently placed her hands on his head. “Think of yourself the way you are, and think of yourself as the way you have to be. Are they different to you?”

Riumi thought for a moment of what made up his existence and compared it to what he was at that very moment. Pain consumed him, but he did not have to be the pain. He saw himself as he was and as whom he wanted to be.

“Good. Now concentrate on the differences between them and make them two entities instead of one.”

“I don’t understand.” Riumi said; he felt himself retreating from the shadowy figure and back towards the pain. She grasped him tighter, using her will to shield the pain.

“You can do this. It will only work if you do this. I could force the compartmentalization, but it would only be temporary and I doubt it would last long enough for you to get through this. Concentrate on the differences between who you are and what you have to be now. Divide them into two different bodies.”

Riumi looked at his hands and suddenly saw double vision. The sight of it was disorienting and frightening. He tried to pull away and follow the after image but the figure held him in place. “Let it go. Don’t be afraid. When you choose you can step back into that form. For now you have to protect your mind.” He relaxed and felt a sudden rush as the pain left him. Instead of feeling the pain, he was looking at another him experiencing the pain. He felt suddenly weak escaping and leaving it all to someone else.

“Only a fool would think that taking it all head on would be beneficial. You called me here because it was too much. If you let yourself feel everything your body is going through it would destroy you. Think of this as a way to endure it, not an escape. In the end you will be whole again, but right now you need to protect yourself. When this is over do you think you can find your way back?”

Riumi looked at his other self and then at the shadowy figure. “All I have to do is step back into him, right?”

He saw a faint smile form on the figures face still hidden by shadows. “You’ll be all right. Hold on until I can get there.”

“What do you mean?” Riumi asked. “Why can’t I see you very well? Who are you?”

“Your mind is untrained. The connection between us is breaking now that the force that brought me here is fading. I’ll teach you when I find you, Riumi. Until then, just stay strong. Remember what I taught you here and I’ll come to you as fast as I can.” Her form faded and Riumi was left staring into the darkness watching his other self out of the corner of his eye. Alone now and unable to connect with his other self, he decided to instead ponder the mounting questions this encounter had surfaced. The one thing he knew for sure was that that girl was like him. That girl was Levanith.

Reniko’s eyes fluttered open taking in the dying light of her surroundings. She could feel the soft weight of the blankets that surrounded her and realized that Malik had moved her to their bedroom. She sat up and Malik was instantly beside her.

“You had me so worried,” he said clutching her hand in his.

Reniko looked out the window. “How long was I gone for?”

“Five hours. I was so worried. What happened?”

Reniko took in a deep breath and peered into Malik’s eyes. “Malik, the other Levanith that was sent to Earth, Riumi, he’s alive.”

“I don’t understand? How do you know that?”

“Those dreams I have been having, I know for a certainty now that they are not dreams. In the council room I felt his pain. His pain made me remember when Trokar was injecting the nanites into my brain. I had to help him.” She thought back to that experience, to the manipulation of her memories that Trokar had tried to use to control her. That was when she had understood that she could compartmentalize and shield her true self from the world. She hoped that Riumi was strong enough to make himself whole again when the time came, unlike herself. She had nearly succumbed to Trokar’s torture and lost herself completely. It had only been Malik who had saved her from that darkness. When he had thrown down his weapon and refused to defend himself against her alter ego Shylaya’s attacks and she had stabbed him with her blade, the violent shock of what she had done had awoken her true self. It was his complete faith in her that had made her whole again. From what she had seen of Riumi’s mind, she was sure that he had the inner strength within himself to accomplish what it had taken Malik to do with her. Reniko could only imagine what he would become with the training that she had had. A force to be reckoned with I am sure.

“You mean that you Engaged him, like Orric? How is that even possible? How could you Engage someone across the galaxy?”

“Orric always said that distance doesn’t matter and I guess that Levanith can Engage other Levanith like they can with the Teoko. But that doesn’t even matter right now. What matters right now are the memories that I gleaned from his mind. I got a lot. More than I think he really wanted to give, but he was dealing with too much agony at the time to shield himself from me, as well as not having any idea what was happening.

“Malik, we have to find a way to Earth. We have to make that our top priority. The UNG, the government on Earth, they have Riumi in custody. They have already done terrible things to him and I am afraid what else they are going to do to him. I told him to stay strong, that I was coming for him. We have to save him.”

Malik’s face became hard and determined. He stood up from the bed and strode to the door. “I’ll get Dertrik and we’ll figure out something, Lyss. I promise.”