The Collab...

Chapter 22

By Reichan

Kuri awoke with a start. He had been dreaming. In his dream he had been walking through a field of tall grass, and he had been a woman. The woman’s long, heavy hair cascaded over her shoulders and down her back as the hem of her long robe, wet from the dew, slapped against her legs. She had walked toward a rise in the center of the field, ignoring her body’s cries of pain.

Kuri’s dreamscape had looked familiar to him, and though he was asleep and only half-conscious of himself he had recognized it as his home. Central District. The Core, or rather, where the Core would have been. But in his dream there was only grass that stretched endlessly over the ancient earth.

Kuri the woman walked with difficulty to the very center of the rise, and upon reaching it collapsed, her robes fanned out in a circle around her. She knew she was dying and that she would never make it back to her homeland, so she lay there in the grass, her chest heaving, too weak even to cry out in pain. A sudden warmth enveloped her, and her body began to glow, the light growing ever stronger. She was a being of light, pure energy. All that she had been, her life and consciousness, melted away in a final flash and she was gone. The energy, Ether, sank into the ground where she had lain, consecrating it. That was where the dream had ended.

Kuri had had this dream before, night after night the same turn of events. He couldn’t begin to figure out why, but he thought it must have some significance. And then there was the other dream that visited him no less often. In this dream Kuri again was a woman, but a different one in a different time.

This time Kuri the woman was running toward the Core, toward a being inside the machine. She needed something from this being, but Kuri’s dream would not tell him what it was. Running, running…her feet pounded on the pavement…had to get there before it was too late. She was almost there, could nearly reach the door, when chaos erupted in an explosion of roaring noise, heat and flame. Kuri always woke up screaming from that dream, his face wet with tears. He hated these images of death and desperation that would not leave him alone.

He lay there on the floor of the small room for a second, then heard a soft crunching sound and sat up with a start. Cisia sat a few feet away, her back to him. Kuri was immediately frightened…her body glowed red and in her hand she held a syringe filled with green liquid, what Anika had called J-10. She crushed the syringe slowly in her fist and let the liquid ooze over her hand. She picked up another. There were two more lying on the floor amid a puddle of J-10 and broken glass. Silently and swiftly, Kuri moved toward Cisia. He had to stop her, without the J-10 they had no way of controlling her. He snuck up behind her and grabbed hold of her wrist. She screamed in pain, dropped the syringe she was holding and drew back her hand as if Kuri’s touch had burned her skin.

"Radhani!" Cisia hissed the unfamiliar word at Kuri in a voice that sounded not at all like hers. "I will deal with you later, witch."

Kuri held his hand, wondering at the sudden pain and Cisia’s words. When he had touched her, he had felt an intense heat, a burning that she obviously had felt too. He looked up at Cisia, and found her staring at him with dead eyes. He felt a pressure on his neck and saw that he was floating. Kuri saw the imprint of his hand around Cisia’s wrist. It was the only part of her that did not glow red, but her flesh was not damaged despite of it. It was the last thing he saw before he blacked out.

Hearing Cisia’s scream, Talehn and Anika woke, startled by the sudden noise.

"Shit", Anika thought, "This wasn’t supposed to happen. How did she recover so soon?!?"

Anika felt in her jacket for the metal box of syringes, but found it nowhere. She wanted to panic, but reminded herself to keep her emotions in check. She looked up at Cisia, but she was gone. The boy Kuri lay on the floor breathing shallowly. He was unconscious, and Talehn leaned over him, trying to revive him. Kuri woke moments later, swallowed a few times and looked as if he was about to speak.

"A…Anika…." Kuri rasped "Th…The J-10. Cisia destroyed most of it, but…..m..my pocket….look in my pocket…."

Anika moved over to where the boy lay, saw the tips of two syringes peering out of Kuri’s pocket, and grabbed them.

"Kuri, well done…"

"Anika….go, find Cisia…." Kuri looked genuinely afraid.

"Talehn, stay with Kuri. Here, take these." Anika tossed a cell phone and small handgun over to Talehn, then ran out of the room. She had to find Cisia, and Darian too. Who knew what Cisia was capable of in her condition?

Kuri dragged himself up to a sitting position with Talehn’s help minutes after Anika left. He gradually became aware of a throbbing ache in his wrist, and as he raised his arm in front of him, Kuri noticed a black mark on the underside of his wrist, above his veins. It looked to him not so much like a burn mark, which was what he had been expecting, more like a symbol of some sort. It hadn’t been there before. Talehn saw the mark too.

"Geez, kid. Musta been painful." He said.

"What are you talking about?"

"That tattoo. How’d you manage that without damaging your veins?"

"I…it’s not a tattoo…" Kuri began to explain the events of the past few minutes to Talehn as they sat in the room under the Core.

Meanwhile, Anika ran frantically through the streets of Central District. How would she ever track Cisia down in this maze of metal and glass? She needed help badly. Suddenly, her shoe came in contact with an object on the ground, sending it flying straight towards a brick wall. It hit hard, and came to a spinning stop. Anika stopped running, and instantly recognized the object as a pager. Reminded of her own, which she had neglected to check in her haste, she felt around for it in her jacket. Nothing. She picked up the pager she had just kicked into a wall, and looked at the display. Call Darian. It *had* been hers, after all. Anika dropped the now-useless broken pager on the ground, and ran off to find a phone.

Cisia ran through the streets, away from the Core. She had felt uneasy while she had been there under Dalarius’ influence, had felt a faint horrible feeling like needles pricking at her skin. It felt like something had been trying to swallow her alive.

"Good girl…trust your instincts. You must never go back there, under any circumstance. The Ministry is trying to get you, and your companions are helping them do it."

Cisia tried to ignore the voice in her head.

"Don’t try to block me out! Listen to me, you must not go back there, do you hear?!? And do not let the boy near you. He’s dangerous."

"Boy… you mean Kuri? But…"

"Do not question me, girl!" The voice was angry now. "That boy will ruin me-ah, er…ruin us!"

"Who are you anyway?" Cisia suddenly became afraid. She couldn’t get the voice to leave, and she knew it wasn’t just a part of herself that she was talking to. It was another being, and she sensed something sinister from it.