The Sankari Legends Book One: The Scars We Hide
Chapter Two: Alec

There wasn’t anything around me. There was light, but it wasn’tblinding. I couldn’t really describe what it was like. Confusion crept alongthe edges of my mind. Hadn’t I just been on the way to Inon a few minutes ago?Why was I here? I remembered that guy—Tyrone—and the weird anti-energy whateverstuff snaked across my body then… nothing. I was just… here. I didn’t remember how I got here, but Idid know that I had to get back.

“Well, would you look who it is,” a female voice broke through theeerie silence that pierced my ears. “The long lost Parker boy. Hello, Alec.”

I turned around and was met with a pair of striking violently darkblue eyes. I started when she held my gaze, her cold and calculating lookboring into me. A prick of familiarity ran through the back of my mind, but wasgone as soon as it came.

Her thin lips stretched into a forced smile as she studied me.

“Who are you?” I asked, finally replaceing my voice. “How are youdoing this?”

“You’ve changed so much since I last saw you,” she continued, asif I hadn’t said anything. “I remember when you first discovered your powers…you were so young then. Didn’t realize your fullpotential.”

“I’m going to ask again,” I growled. “Who. Are. You?”

Her mouth turned down and her voice was resigned as she said, “I’mdisappointed you don’t remember me, but don’t worry, it should come back to yousoon enough.” Her mouth fell back into it’s harsh line.

“What do you mean?”

“Really, Alec, I thought you were supposed to be the clever twin. That’s why you’re hereinstead of Alia.” I bristled at the way she said Alia’s name, like a threat.

“You stay away from her,” I spat.

“Oh don’t worry, she’ll be here soon. There are certain things weneed from her as well.” She stepped closer towards me.

“A test is coming for you Alec. For you, your sister, and the restof your team. All of you are going to be tested.”

“Why?” I ground out.

“Because you are all,” she paused as she searched for the word,“special. Each and every one of you. And you personally Alec… you haveinformation. Information that is very important to me.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“That’s okay,” she said. “You don’t need to. Just know that oneday, Alec… One day very soon, in fact, we will come for you. And when we do,”She turned her back to me and walked towards the door, stopping with her handrested on the handle, “When we do, you won’t be able to stop it.”

My heart was pounding swiftly in my chest as I said in a low tone,“I’d like to see you try.”

“You will.” She gave turned to me and the corner of her mouthlifted and a shiver shot down my spine, “But for now you need to return to yourteam.”

Just like that, she disappeared, and I fell into darkness onceagain.

I woke up to the sight of blonde hair and bright blue eyes rightin front of my face. It was her. My body jolted into action, moving on instinctas my arms lashed out to shove her away from me. I quickly realized that itwasn’t the woman from my, whatever had just happened when I heard Megansputtering from the ground.

“Thanks for that, Alec!” I saw the spilled cup of water on theground beside her and instantly guilt shot through me. But her tone wasbetrayed by the small grin on her lips, “It’s about time you woke up!”

“Megan?” I groaned, holding my head. The sudden movement had senta spiking pain through my temples. “What happened?”

“There was a fight,” she said. “You and Alia caught the runner.But he got away and this other guy… he… I don’t really know what happened buthe knocked you unconscious.”

I lifted my head and looked at her for a few seconds. Now that myhead was starting to clear, I scolded myself for thinking she was the womanfrom my dream. Of course, though, there was a slight resemblance. They hadsimilar facial shapes and the same kind of nose and they both had wide,calculating eyes, but Megan’s eyes and hair were lighter colored. I blinked andthen turned to look around at the rest of the room.

I saw I was in an underground bunker of some sort. There wasbarely any furniture besides the couch I was on. There was a coffee tableplaced in front of the couch that Megan was sitting on, as well as a few otherchairs. Alia was sitting in one of the chairs across the room. Her arm waswrapped up in a bandage from where she had been cut in the fight earlier andshe wore a scowl on her face as she flipped one of her knives through themiddle of the air towards a target hung on the wall across the room. It hit thebull’s eye dead center. She briefly madeeye contact with me, but her eyes quickly resumed their place of attention onher knife.

I turned back to Megan.

“Where are we?”

“Inon,” a male voice from the doorway said. I looked up and saw atall, blonde man that was practically a mirror image of Megan. “The borderguards found you guys shortly after the konna attacked you. They brought youstraight to me.”

“Alec, I don’t know if you remember him from seven years ago, butthis is my brother, First Gamma Zachary O’Carroll,” Megan said.

I started to stand up, as was proper procedure when beingintroduced to a ranking officer, but a wave of nausea hit me and I doubled overand collapsed back down onto the couch.

“Don’t try to stand yet,” Megan scolded. “We don’t know exactlywhat happened to you, so we aren’t sure how to treat you but we do know thatyou need to rest.”

“I brought some clothes for you to change into, once you head’scleared enough,” Zachary said.

He walked over and sat down next to his sister on the coffeetable, setting a set of clean clothes down beside him. I was surprised to seethat he wasn’t wearing a uniform, but instead had on a pair of blue jeans and aplain white t-shirt. After a quick glance at Alia, and then at Megan, I noticedthat they were also out of uniform. It was hard to see what Alia had changedto, but Megan was wearing a t-shirt that was too big for her (I assumed it wasprobably her brother’s) and a pair of pajama pants. I glanced down to take notethat I was still in the clothes I’d been wearing earlier. They were stillslightly damp from the river.

“What about the mission?” I asked, looking back up at theO’Carroll siblings.

“Don’t worry about that right now,” Zachary said. “I’ve contactedthe academy and explained what happened. I said that it was a surprise ambushand that all four of you handled it excellently, but there were someunfortunate injuries that occurred, and that you would need extra time to gainback your strength.”

“What did they say back?” Megan asked, obviously as new to thisnews as I was. Across the room, I even noticed Alia perk up a slight bit andturn to listen to what Zachary was saying.

“They granted you an extra day here in Inon. Apparently, theattack has alerted them that you might be slightly ill equipped for thismission, so they have asked us to add extra weapons to your supplies. Otherthan that though, I believe Commander Mecah was pleased to hear that you foursuccessfully drove the konna away from Inon’s borders, which is actually true.You four did a surprisingly good job, despite the fact that something like thisis well above your pay grade, so to speak.”

“Gamma O’Carroll, or Zachary…” I started.

“Since when do you call me by such a formal name, Alec?” heinterrupted. “You always called me Zig back when we lived in Satama. Besides,Gamma O’Carroll sounds too stiff, and no one calls me Zachary except our mom.I’ve been known as Zig since Megan could talk. She’s the one who gave me thename.”

He playfully ruffled Megan’s hair, despite her best efforts topush him away. I watched their exchange briefly before I glanced over in Alia’sdirection and noticed she was watching the O’Carrolls as well. I wondered ifshe was thinking the same thing I was: that this is how siblings were supposedto interact. As if she sensed me looking at her, Alia’s gaze moved over to me.Instead of the glare I would have expected, her eyes were soft and for thefirst time I could actually see the different emotions that she was hidingthere.

Megan apparently noticed the two of us looking at each other andnudged Zig in the arm. He caught on, and bent over to pick up the cup Megan haddropped earlier.

“I’ll go get you some more water, Alec,” he said. “And Megan, Iwould also like to talk to you and get a better account of what happened aswell, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure Zig,” Megan said, jumping to her feet and starting to followZig out of the door. “I’ll be back in a little while guys. Oh, and Alia? Pleasetry to remember that Alec iscurrently on the mend right now. Try not to hurt him too much.”

Then she and her brother were gone, leaving Alia and me alone.

We sat in silence for a few minutes. I don’t think either of usreally knew what to say to the other. Alia was sitting defiantly in her chairwith her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes glaring at the floor. Ifiddled with a string on the arm of the couch for a while. Alia eventuallymoved from staring at the floor and instead threw more knives at the target. Iwinced every time one hit.

I fought for the words to say to her, but I couldn’t think ofanything. What are you suppose to say to someone you’ve just been reunited withafter almost seven years of not seeing them? Trying to say ‘hi’ hadn’t workedearlier, and I’m positive it wouldn’t be appropriate now. I took a breath.

“How’s your arm?” I finally asked.

Another knife threw at the target. Bull’s eye. Alia flicked herhand back towards herself and all the knives that were stuck in the target flewback towards her. She levitated them in the air above her head for a whilebefore finally lowering them down onto the table beside her.

“It’s fine,” she muttered. “Just a little scratch.”

I knew that she was just saying that, trying to sound like shewasn’t bothered by any of this. Of course, if she was anything like me—which Isuspected was pretty likely—her arm was the least of her worries at the moment.

“Alia…” I tried again to start a conversation, only to have Aliasnap up her head and glare at me. For a second, I was scared that her kniveswould suddenly start flying at me.

“Shut up,” Alia said in a low tone. “Just shut up Alec, okay? Iwant to be mad at you, and I can’t do that when you’re talking and acting likeeverything’s okay between us when it isn’t.”

“Why are you mad at me?” I asked.

“Seven years,” was all she said.

“That wasn’t my fault.”

“We were at the academy together.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“You should’ve.”

I gave an exasperated sigh and lean back further into the couch.

“You don’t think that it wasn’t hard for me?” I asked after ashort pause. “I was taken to live with a bunch of strangers I had never evenmet before, Alia. At least you had Aunt Imeria and Waren.”

Alia snorted at the mention of our great aunt and cousin, who shehad been sent to live with seven years ago.

“Oh, yeah like that’s any better,” she said. “Growing up in a poorseaside village in Valta with your decrepit old aunt and your jackass of acousin who loves nothing better than to ruin your day. Being telekinetic whenyou’re surrounded by a bunch of water and air elementests? Trust me, going toEinoth was the best thing that could’ve happened to you.”

“It wasn’t as good as you would think,” I said quietly. “I wasliving with Dad’s family—all fire elementests. They also hated Mom. When Idiscovered I had the ability to control water as well as fire… well, let’s justsay that wasn’t really taken with a grain of salt. Sure, I lived in theirhouse. But I was never part of their family.”

“But still Alec, you were in Einoth!We grew up dreaming about being able to go there. Dad told us all thestories—about how Einoth was the most beautiful place in the world—unaffectedby the war, living with four colonies in peace. How can you have notappreciated that?”

I smiled slightly. Alia was sitting on the edge of her chair now,looking at me expectantly. She didn’t seem angry anymore. Just eager.

I considered what had just happened. Had I really managed to getAlia to crack her shell, even just a slight amount? When we were kids, I hadbeen able to do that pretty easily, but I was out of practice now. I didn’twant to lose her now though, so I smiled slightly.

“I guess, when you put it that way… There were parts of my lifethat were pretty good. I traveled through the colonies quite a bit, since Dad’sfamily basically ignored my existence, and I had to replace somebody to teach meto manipulate the other three elements. That was the best—being able to see allof the different places in Einoth. Dad’s stories were true. It really is abeautiful place. Of course… I’ve never been to the coast though.”

Alia bit her lip for a second before standing up and walking overto the couch I was sitting on. Without even asking permission—not that I reallycared—she sat down at the opposite end from me.

“Living on the coast did have its perks,” she admitted. “And Mom’sfamily did fortunately accept me, despite my different powers. It was stillawkward at times though. I couldn’t play all the games the other kids could,because I didn’t have the same powers. And living with Aunt Imeria and Warenreally wasn’t too horrible. Waren and I actually could get along most of thetime. And Aunt Imeria makes the best food…”

“And I’m sure they supported your decision to join the academy,right?”

Alia nodded. “Aunt Imeria wasn’t exactly thrilled about me goingoff to fight. I think Waren was jealous a bit, but since he was leaving thesame year to go to the Elementest Academy in Einoth, he go over it prettyquickly. But all in all, no one told me I couldn’t.”

“I wish it had been like that for me,” I said. “I was basicallytold that if I left, I’d never be welcomed back.”

“But you went anyway,” she said.

“I had to,” I answered. “It was… It was what Mom and Dad would’vewanted me to do.”

That hung heavily in the air between the two of us. It had taken along time for me to come to terms with what had happened to our parents, and Ifigured the same went for Alia.

After minutes of silence, Alia finally spoke.

“I miss them Alec,” she said softly. She looked down at the floorin front of her, pulling her knees up to her chest and hugging her legstightly.

“Everyday since they’ve been gone,” she continued, “I’ve tried andtried to do what I think they would want me to. I went to Edil because Ithought they would want me to. I agreed to be a PCS, even though I could’vebeen a Situation or even a Stealth Fighter Specialist… all because I figuredthat’s what they would want of me. But Alec… We were ten when… when ithappened. I don’t know what Mom and Dad would want.”

As Alia spoke, I could see her protective shell falling away. Shewas letting herself be vulnerable in front of me. I knew immediately thiswasn’t the same girl who had thrown me into a bookshelf earlier today.

Without thinking, I reached out and placed my hand on Alia’sshoulder. At first, she seemed like she wanted to pull away from me. She lookedup at me with shock and confusion. But instead of recoiling like I expected herto, Alia did just the opposite. She closed the distance between us on the couchand wrapped her arms around me, buried her head in my shoulder and started tocry. Surprised as I was, I carefully wrapped my arms around her back and heldher as she cried.

“I thought I had lost you too, Alec,” she muttered. “Not in thesame way as Mom and Dad, but it was close enough. They took you away. I didn’tknow if I was ever going to see you again.”

“It’s okay Als,” I murmured. “It’s okay.”

I don’t know how long we stayed like that, but somewhere duringthat time I felt tears start sliding down my cheeks as well. I couldn’tremember the last time I had cried. But sitting there on that couch, holding mycrying sister in my arms—my sister who I hadn’t seen in seven years… I justcouldn’t help it.

So we sat there together in Zig’s bunker, letting years of pent upemotions go. Eventually, Alia stopped crying and sat up.

“Sorry,” she mumbled. “I just…”

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I understand. My guess is you’ve beenholding onto that for the last seven years, right?”

She nodded. We sat quietly for another minute or so while Aliaused the sleeve of her shirt to wipe the few remaining tears from her eyes.Then, very unexpectedly, she pulled back and punched me in the arm.

“Ow!” I exclaimed. “What was that for?!”

“For being at the academy and never bothering to look me up,bozo,” Alia retorted. “And, also, it was a warning. If you ever tell anyone about my breakdown that I just had, I swear I willmake you regret it until the day you die.”

“Consider me warned,” I said.

“Oh, and Alec? Thanks.”

I grinned. “No problem, Sis.”