The Sankari Legends Book One: The Scars We Hide
Chapter Twenty-One: Alia

After my brother ran out of theroom, followed closely by Megan (who so rudely told me to stay behind), Isettled down into the chair beside Sabin’s bed, grumbling a few of my favoriteswears 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 thePCS 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 aswell 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, especiallyafter all the shadowing I had to do with him last year. It’s an annoyingtradition at the academy for third years (as in those about to graduate) to letsecond years (as in those who have another year left before graduating) shadowthem for a couple of weeks at the end of the year. I’d had the… misfortune ofshadowing 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 biginto swearing as I was (or even Megan, for that matter), so it didn’t surpriseme when he opted for “distraction”.

I indulged him for the simple reasonthat I hoped he would have a betterexplanation than I would for what had just happened.

“I was hoping you could tell me,” Isaid. “Unless you were asking why I just stormed into the room, in which case Ithink that gutshot may have affected your brain, Raider, if you can’t figurethat 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 forher to give Alec and me her whole life story, but just a small little ‘oh, bythe way…’ would’ve been appreciated.”

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

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

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

I started to make a snide commentback at him about where he could stick his secrets, but stopped when I feltwhat 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 thebuzzing picked up intensity. “More like an annoying buzzing. What the hell isthat?”

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

When I closed my eyes, I finallynoticed the images flashing before my mind’s eye. I didn’t understand what theywere, 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 towardsthe images. Normally, I wouldn’t consider myself a timid person, but at thatmoment I had no clue what I was up against, so I just barely reached out topoke what I sensed was the nearest image.

Doing that resulted in a balloonpopping effect where suddenly hundreds upon thousands of images were flashingacross my mind’s eye. At the same time that happened, I heard Sabin suck in abreath beside me. He must have beenexperiencing the same thing I was.

I tried to focus on the images andrealized with a start that they felt like memories, which didn’t make anysense, because everything I was seeing happened during my first two years atEdil, and I know that there was noway in hell Sabin and I ever drunk-flirted at a party. But all the same, Icouldn’t deny that these memories were real, and that everything I saw hadactually happened.

The memories bombarded me all atonce and I didn’t know what to think. Within a matter of seconds, everything Ithought had been true about the past years at the academy changed and wasreplaced by completely new yet strangely familiar memories. It all happened soquickly that before I knew it, the visions were over and the annoying buzzinghad 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 likeforever, both of us trying to process what had just happened. My head waspounding with the new (old?) memories. In them, I saw that unlike what I hadthought before, Alec, Megan, and I were all reunited when we first arrived atEdil. Sabin later joined us when he was assigned as the strategist to ourfirst-year training course team. The four of us had gone through the years asreally close friends (even more, in Megan’s and Alec’s case, as they became anofficial “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 anofficer-recruit was about to begin, something changed and suddenly we weren’tfriends anymore. Hell, I didn’t even know Alec was at the academy. I only knewMegan from the occasional drills our specializations would run together, and notonly that, but I for some reason couldn’t stand her. I don’t even know why thatwas, as we seemed to be best friends in my new memories. As for Sabin, in mynew memories I saw us as being really close and dependable friends. Even thoughI doubted the legitimacy of my memory of us actually being drunk at one pointand flirting with each other, we did have the kind of teasing relationshipwhere we would constantly rag on each other but never truly mean any of it. Butprior 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 likerelationship. He was always the higher ranking and I had to respect that. Therewasn’t any goofing off or pranking Alec and Megan while they were on a date. Itwas all just so… stiff.

Eventually, I spoke up, but I madeno effort to make what I had to say sound intelligent.

“Uh, what just happened?” I didn’tlike the way my voice shook.

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

I frowned. “Our real memories?”

Sabin nodded. “Can’t you tell thedifference?”

Sighing dramatically, I focused onthe 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 justfelt like a much better fit for my life. All the jokes shared with Sabin, allthe fighting tips and reading list recommendations shared with Megan, the factthat Alec and I actually had seen each other before just a few days ago… theyall had a feeling of truth aboutthem.

“I… I guess you're right,” I said toSabin, 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 Tylerand 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’tpick on the guy with only one arm!”

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

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

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

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

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

“That freaking plant controllingwitch tore my arm off!” Tyler shouted. I was concerned for a second beforeremembering (thanks to the new/real memories that were now settling into myhead) that Tyler had had a prosthetic right arm since his and Sabin’sgraduation mission last year. Of course, it also helped that Tyler wascurrently waving said prosthetic around with his good arm, shouting about theinjustice of picking on someone’s disability… I tuned him out as both Sabin andI 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 afight, the girl that can control plants used a vine to pull Tyler’s arm off. Ofcourse, we wouldn’t have had a problem if Tyler hadn’t suddenly had a brainexplosion or whatever that was.”

Tyler pointed his prosthetic at her.“That was not my fault. Something funky happened with my memories.” He turnedto us with a surprised look on his face. “Is it true you guys really drunkflirted 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,” Sabinsaid. “I can’t get drunk. My shifter abilities give me an increased healingfactor as well as an increased metabolism. I metabolize the alcohol before itcan affect me.”

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

Sabin’s face flushed an even deepercrimson 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 fromoutside in the hall. So instead I settled for glaring at him menacingly while Imoved to stand beside Nicki and saying “We’ll finish this discussion later.”Then I turned to Nicki.

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

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

I rolled my eyes and glanced atNicki, who had pulled her collapsible bo staff from where she kept it strappedto 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’tquite in fighting shape either, you know.”

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

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

“I can help too,” Sabin said fromhis bed.

“No!” all three of us respondedsimultaneously.

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

A loud banging on the door drew ourattention away from Sabin.

“You said there were three,” Iconfirmed with Nicki as I moved to a fighting stance, cursing the fact my handwas still in a cast. Since I was technically a mental power, it wouldn’t reallyinhibit 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 toshake. “And that scrawny little quick guy who likes to play keep-away withpeople’s prosthetic limbs…”

“Tyler, focus!” Nicki ordered.

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

Following the door into the roomwalked 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 LittleStupid), and Stupid Priss (or S-P, to keep up with the whole initialing thing).

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Of course, not everyone can be asgifted as me when it comes to picking out nicknames for my enemies,” I offeredwhile 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 betterchance of hitting Nicki, Sabin, or me than he did of hitting the runnerLettner.

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

I sensed a fast moving object comingin from the right just in time to pull the cabinet in front of me to blockLettner’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 thehospital bed being swung at my head as B-S tried to hit me. With quickreflexes, I dropped to a crouch and kicked my leg out, catching Cayne’s leg andkicking it out from under him. I rolled out of the way just before the bedlanded on top of me.

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

Cayne grunted and pushed himself offthe ground.

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

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

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

Aliaare you okay?Tyler asked.

Iheard your ribs crack,Sabin said. So no, she isn’t okay. Gethim away from her.

I’mfine 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 myenergy draining. I hadn’t been at full energy even when this fight began, butI’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 cabinetbattering-ram. Nicki, who was currently the only physically whole person on ourside, was doing her best to keep Daphne’s attention away from both me andTyler, who was currently helping Sabin to his feet—I assume to get him out ofthe room. So really, it was just me vs. Big Stupid. I could deal with that.

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

So instead, I ended up dodgingattacks all the way across the room until I found myself back to back withNicki. As soon as my back made contact with hers, I felt a surge of energycourse through me. Suddenly, I could feel the strength of my powers pulsingthrough 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,” Nickimuttered under her breath. So without even speaking, I ducked as Nickiback-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. Ididn’t pause to marvel at her athleticism—it wasn’t much of a secret that theIGSs were some of the most physically fit specialists at the academy.

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

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

I stopped mid sentence as I had todive out of the way of a vine whip headed for my face. I popped up to my feetand retaliated by launching a few IV poles in her direction. She dodged myattacks unfortunately easily. I swore under my breath and reached out for morethings to throw. My powers were back, which was a blessing, but I was stilllimited 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 afterwhat happened the last time I did that. But I didn’t have much of a choiceotherwise. Daphne and I were evenly matched as far as attacking from a distancehad to do with it, but even if she was able to get me wrapped up in one of hervines, she wouldn’t be able to stop me from using my powers. I, on the otherhand, could stop her.

Ofcourse, that plan would’ve gone a lot better had I actually been payingattention and had noticed Daphne wrapping vine around my torso. The vine pulledtight 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 gardenoutside.