The Sankari Legends Book One: The Scars We Hide

After my brother ran out of the room, followed closely by Megan (who so rudely told me to stay behind), I settled down into the chair beside Sabin’s bed, grumbling a few of my favorite swears as I did.

“What was that about?” Sabin asked, obviously trying to get a conversation going that wasn’t my profanity.

It was common knowledge among the PCS specialists at Edil that I was proficient in the art of cursing, swearing, and all around foul mouthing. Both those who were in the years before me as well as those after knew all too well that when I got ticked, words would fly. By this point Sabin was more than accustomed to my language choices, especially after all the shadowing I had to do with him last year. It’s an annoying tradition at the academy for third years (as in those about to graduate) to let second years (as in those who have another year left before graduating) shadow them for a couple of weeks at the end of the year. I’d had the… misfortune of shadowing Sabin right after he’d come back from his graduation mission. Needless to say there was quite a bit of frustration between the both of us, and because of that Sabin got all too used to my foul language.

Anyway, Sabin had never been as big into swearing as I was (or even Megan, for that matter), so it didn’t surprise me when he opted for “distraction”.

I indulged him for the simple reason that I hoped he would have a better explanation than I would for what had just happened.

“I was hoping you could tell me,” I said. “Unless you were asking why I just stormed into the room, in which case I think that gutshot may have affected your brain, Raider, if you can’t figure that out.”

“You’re pissed,” he observed.

I shot him a glare.

“No frickin’ duh,” I retorted. “Megan should’ve told us the truth. I mean, yeah there maybe wasn’t time for her to give Alec and me her whole life story, but just a small little ‘oh, by the way…’ would’ve been appreciated.”

“Why is it so important to you?” Sabin asked, his voice surprisingly calm.

“Because we risked our lives, and she didn’t even have the decency to say ‘Oh by the way, my dad was a konna and now my crazy sister is chasing me and wants to capture me and you guys may be in danger because of that’!”

“You’re being dramatic Alia,” Sabin said. “Megan had her reasons for not telling us the truth. We need to respect that. Besides, I’m sure she isn’t the only one of us who’s kept secrets.”

I started to make a snide comment back at him about where he could stick his secrets, but stopped when I felt what could only be described as a low buzzing in the back of my mind.

“What… what is that?” Sabin asked. “Do you feel a kind of humming? Like, in your head?”

“Not a humming,” I grunted as the buzzing picked up intensity. “More like an annoying buzzing. What the hell is that?”

The buzzing continued to grow to the point where I felt like a swarm of bees was flying around my head. I covered my head with my hands and closed my eyes, hoping that would help.

When I closed my eyes, I finally noticed the images flashing before my mind’s eye. I didn’t understand what they were, but I found I couldn’t resist the mental pulling effect they had on me. Without agreeing to or really even wanting to, I felt myself reaching towards the images. Normally, I wouldn’t consider myself a timid person, but at that moment I had no clue what I was up against, so I just barely reached out to poke what I sensed was the nearest image.

Doing that resulted in a balloon popping effect where suddenly hundreds upon thousands of images were flashing across my mind’s eye. At the same time that happened, I heard Sabin suck in a breath beside me. He must have been experiencing the same thing I was.

I tried to focus on the images and realized with a start that they felt like memories, which didn’t make any sense, because everything I was seeing happened during my first two years at Edil, and I know that there was no way in hell Sabin and I ever drunk-flirted at a party. But all the same, I couldn’t deny that these memories were real, and that everything I saw had actually happened.

The memories bombarded me all at once and I didn’t know what to think. Within a matter of seconds, everything I thought had been true about the past years at the academy changed and was replaced by completely new yet strangely familiar memories. It all happened so quickly that before I knew it, the visions were over and the annoying buzzing had left my skull feeling eerily quiet. Beside me, Sabin breathed out heavily, letting me know he had finished his fast-forward through memory lane as well.

We sat in silence for what felt like forever, both of us trying to process what had just happened. My head was pounding with the new (old?) memories. In them, I saw that unlike what I had thought before, Alec, Megan, and I were all reunited when we first arrived at Edil. Sabin later joined us when he was assigned as the strategist to our first-year training course team. The four of us had gone through the years as really close friends (even more, in Megan’s and Alec’s case, as they became an official “couple” around the beginning of the first half of our second year). But then, just a short time before our third year and Sabin’s first year as an officer-recruit was about to begin, something changed and suddenly we weren’t friends anymore. Hell, I didn’t even know Alec was at the academy. I only knew Megan from the occasional drills our specializations would run together, and not only that, but I for some reason couldn’t stand her. I don’t even know why that was, as we seemed to be best friends in my new memories. As for Sabin, in my new memories I saw us as being really close and dependable friends. Even though I doubted the legitimacy of my memory of us actually being drunk at one point and flirting with each other, we did have the kind of teasing relationship where we would constantly rag on each other but never truly mean any of it. But prior to the memory-rewrite, we hadn’t been “friends” or “buddies” or whatever. The way I remembered it was us having a very strict and business like relationship. He was always the higher ranking and I had to respect that. There wasn’t any goofing off or pranking Alec and Megan while they were on a date. It was all just so… stiff.

Eventually, I spoke up, but I made no effort to make what I had to say sound intelligent.

“Uh, what just happened?” I didn’t like the way my voice shook.

Sabin didn’t say anything for a few minutes. Finally, when he did speak he said: “I think Megan just did something to give us back our real memories.”

I frowned. “Our real memories?”

Sabin nodded. “Can’t you tell the difference?”

Sighing dramatically, I focused on the new images implanted in my brain. Sure enough, I realized Sabin was right. Something about these new (old? I still was confused on that bit) memories just felt like a much better fit for my life. All the jokes shared with Sabin, all the fighting tips and reading list recommendations shared with Megan, the fact that Alec and I actually had seen each other before just a few days ago… they all had a feeling of truth about them.

“I… I guess you're right,” I said to Sabin, my voice holding a bit of surprise in it. “But… why?”

“I don’t know,” Sabin answered. “We’ll have to get Megan to explain when her and Alec get ba...”

He was cut off by the sound of Tyler and Nicki shouting in the hallway.

“They broke off my freaking arm!” Tyler’s voice carried into the room. “That’s just totally unfair. They can’t pick on the guy with only one arm!”

“Tyler, move!” Nicki shouted. “We’ve got to get to the others.”

Sabin and I exchanged concerned glances as the two ran into the room. Nicki slammed the door behind her and made to move a large cabinet in front of the closed door before realizing it was too heavy for her to move. Growling with frustration, she turned to me.

“Alia, we need to barricade the door. Can you move this?”

I didn’t bother why but instead reached out with my good hand and slid the cabinet in front of the door.

“What the hell is going on?” Sabin demanded, moving his gaze between Tyler and Nicki.

“That freaking plant controlling witch tore my arm off!” Tyler shouted. I was concerned for a second before remembering (thanks to the new/real memories that were now settling into my head) that Tyler had had a prosthetic right arm since his and Sabin’s graduation mission last year. Of course, it also helped that Tyler was currently waving said prosthetic around with his good arm, shouting about the injustice of picking on someone’s disability… I tuned him out as both Sabin and I turned to Nicki for a calmer explanation.

“There are konna in the infirmary,” she said. “They’re looking for you and Alec, Alia. We ran into them, got into a fight, the girl that can control plants used a vine to pull Tyler’s arm off. Of course, we wouldn’t have had a problem if Tyler hadn’t suddenly had a brain explosion or whatever that was.”

Tyler pointed his prosthetic at her. “That was not my fault. Something funky happened with my memories.” He turned to us with a surprised look on his face. “Is it true you guys really drunk flirted at our graduation party last year? Or did I imagine that?”

I don’t know whose face was redder: mine or Sabin’s.

“I… I wasn’t actually drunk,” Sabin said. “I can’t get drunk. My shifter abilities give me an increased healing factor as well as an increased metabolism. I metabolize the alcohol before it can affect me.”

“So wait, you weren’t drunk? But you acted like it!” I protested. Because there was no denying the fact that I had actually been drunk at that point, though whether I was going to own up to flirting with Sabin while intoxicated was still out for the jury to decide.

Sabin’s face flushed an even deeper crimson than it already had been. “Yeah, uh, I may have pretended to be drunk… to make you feel better.”

I wanted to smack him in the face, and I would have, if I hadn’t sensed the immense konna energy coming from outside in the hall. So instead I settled for glaring at him menacingly while I moved to stand beside Nicki and saying “We’ll finish this discussion later.” Then I turned to Nicki.

“Since Tyler only has one functioning arm and Sabin is still confined to his bed, I guess we’re going to be the one’s fighting these baddies off.”

“Excuse you miss ‘I-got-drunk-and-flirted-with-my-best-friend’, I can still fight,” Tyler protested. To prove his point, he tossed his prosthetic arm to Sabin and pulled out a handgun from the back of his jeans.

I rolled my eyes and glanced at Nicki, who had pulled her collapsible bo staff from where she kept it strapped to her back.

“There’s three of them,” she said. “We’re going to need Lefty’s help, as much as I hate to admit it. You aren’t quite in fighting shape either, you know.”

“Not like we’ve got a lot of choices,” I said, shrugging. “Besides, I feel fine.”

“Don’t call me ‘Lefty’,” Tyler muttered. He moved to cross his arms over his chest before he realized he only had one arm to cross.

“I can help too,” Sabin said from his bed.

“No!” all three of us responded simultaneously.

Sabin frowned. “I can at least shoot a gun. And trust me, I’m a better shot than Alia is.”

A loud banging on the door drew our attention away from Sabin.

“You said there were three,” I confirmed with Nicki as I moved to a fighting stance, cursing the fact my hand was still in a cast. Since I was technically a mental power, it wouldn’t really inhibit my fighting abilities, but I still didn’t like the bulkiness of it. “Which three?”

“Well, there’s that plant girl,” Tyler muttered, cocking his gun and aiming it at the door as it continued to shake. “And that scrawny little quick guy who likes to play keep-away with people’s prosthetic limbs…”

“Tyler, focus!” Nicki ordered.

“And that really big guy with all the muscles. I don’t remember their names, but Emmalie and I fought them back at the konna facility when Megs and Sabin were rescuing you and Alec.” Tyler finished just as the door gave one final shudder and came crashing in. The cabinet flew across the room and probably would’ve taken off all of our heads if I hadn’t reached up to catch it midair first.

Following the door into the room walked three of my favorite least-favorite people: Cayne, Lettner, and Daphne, or as I liked to call them, B-S (short for Big Stupid), L-S (short for Little Stupid), and Stupid Priss (or S-P, to keep up with the whole initialing thing).

“Oh, look at the all lovely people I don’t want to deal with!” I shouted before launching the cabinet towards the three konna.

Of course, Cayne (a.k.a. B-S) caught it as Daphne and Lettner split up to go after Nicki and Tyler.

“So I guess it’s you and me, huh B-S?” I asked, smirking as I caught sight of the cut on his neck and the bandages wrapped around his leg. “By the way, I love the bandaged look. It works for you.”

“Shut up maggot,” he growled right before barreling towards me.

“Hmm, maggot, can’t say I’ve been called that one yet,” I said, jumping up and flipping over his back. I fought off the wave of nausea that hit me. Apparently, Nicki was right about me not quite yet being in fighting shape. But too late to worry about that now.

Gotta keep moving. Gotta keep talking, I began to repeat in my head.

“Of course, not everyone can be as gifted as me when it comes to picking out nicknames for my enemies,” I offered while throwing whatever I could towards my assailant. I couldn’t hear gunshots, which meant either Tyler was down or he’d realized that he stood a better chance of hitting Nicki, Sabin, or me than he did of hitting the runner Lettner.

Off to my left, I heard Nicki shouting something I couldn’t quite understand, along with Sabin trying to offer helpful tips to the three of us from his spot on the bed. Poor guy must have felt extremely useless.

I sensed a fast moving object coming in from the right just in time to pull the cabinet in front of me to block Lettner’s path. With a satisfying crash, he ran into it.

Ha! Nice one Als, Tyler’s voice sounded in my head, followed quickly by a panicked Look out! in Nicki’s voice.

I just barely managed to dodge the hospital bed being swung at my head as B-S tried to hit me. With quick reflexes, I dropped to a crouch and kicked my leg out, catching Cayne’s leg and kicking it out from under him. I rolled out of the way just before the bed landed on top of me.

“Hey now, that’s not very nice,” I said popping up to my feet.

Cayne grunted and pushed himself off the ground.

“Shut your face, you little brat,” he said, throwing a punch at me.

I ducked, but not enough to where I didn’t feel the air go past my face. I reached out with my telekisenses for other things to throw at him. But I didn’t find anything in time to hit him before he took another swing at me—this time firmly connecting his fist with my side. I hissed in a breath as I more so heard rather than felt a couple of ribs crack. But that was the only reaction I gave.

“Little brat, huh? Now you’re getting really original, B-S. I’ve never been called that before.”

Alia are you okay? Tyler asked.

I heard your ribs crack, Sabin said. So no, she isn’t okay. Get him away from her.

I’m fine guys, I grumbled, even though in reality I really wasn’t fine. My middle was exploding with pain, and even though I was fighting it off as best as I could, I could feel my energy draining. I hadn’t been at full energy even when this fight began, but I’d always been told I was horrible at judging my own limits.

I did a quick recon of the room. Lettner was still out for the count after he decided to turn into a cabinet battering-ram. Nicki, who was currently the only physically whole person on our side, was doing her best to keep Daphne’s attention away from both me and Tyler, who was currently helping Sabin to his feet—I assume to get him out of the room. So really, it was just me vs. Big Stupid. I could deal with that.

I thought about how I had handled him in all of our previous scuffles. He was a classic strong-armer: big and built like a freaking tank, but slow and sometimes clumsy. I could definitely use that to my advantage. I smaller than him and much, much faster. Plus, I had the advantage of attacking from behind even if I stood directly in front of him. Of course, that would work best if my powers were at full strength, which unfortunately they currently weren’t.

So instead, I ended up dodging attacks all the way across the room until I found myself back to back with Nicki. As soon as my back made contact with hers, I felt a surge of energy course through me. Suddenly, I could feel the strength of my powers pulsing through my veins and I had the urge to hit something really hard.

Alia, Nick, Sabin says to pull a switch, Tyler relayed to both our minds.

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Nicki muttered under her breath. So without even speaking, I ducked as Nicki back-flipped over me, landing solidly on Cayne’s head before kicking off again, pulling another flawless flip and landing on the other side of the room. I didn’t pause to marvel at her athleticism—it wasn’t much of a secret that the IGSs were some of the most physically fit specialists at the academy.

As Nicki engaged Cayne, I turned my attention to Daphne. Or, more so, I was forced to pay attention to her when she lashed at me with one of many vines she had growing around the room. I jumped out of the way right as it was about to latch onto my leg. I could see how Sabin had thought it was better for me to fight her instead of Nicki. Nicki was better at hand-to-hand combat than I was, which is what we had to use against Cayne. Daphne, in comparison, relied on distanced attacks, which I was good at countering. And, since I was able to keep my distance from her, I could start using my second power—also known as my big mouth.

“So Daphne,” I started. “Can I call you S-B? I’m going to call you S-B. Anyway, why are you guys here? Other than wanting to beat up on me and my… whoa!”

I stopped mid sentence as I had to dive out of the way of a vine whip headed for my face. I popped up to my feet and retaliated by launching a few IV poles in her direction. She dodged my attacks unfortunately easily. I swore under my breath and reached out for more things to throw. My powers were back, which was a blessing, but I was still limited as to what I could actually do with them. Unless…

I took a breath and glared at Daphne. I hadn’t used my powers directly against an actual person in months… not after what happened the last time I did that. But I didn’t have much of a choice otherwise. Daphne and I were evenly matched as far as attacking from a distance had to do with it, but even if she was able to get me wrapped up in one of her vines, she wouldn’t be able to stop me from using my powers. I, on the other hand, could stop her.

Of course, that plan would’ve gone a lot better had I actually been paying attention and had noticed Daphne wrapping vine around my torso. The vine pulled tight and I gave a cry of pain as it squeezed my already cracked ribs. Then, with a harsh yank, I was suddenly sailing out the window and into the garden outside.