The Sankari Legends Book One: The Scars We Hide
Chapter Eight: Sabin

I landed in the middle of the floor in Zig’s bunker. Once I managed toget my head to stop spinning, I looked around in shock. Megan was sitting inthe floor not far from me, holding her head and blinking rapidly, her facelooking green around the edges.

“Meg, are you…” I started to ask, right as she jumped up and sprintedinto the bathroom.

“The first time’s the worst,” Emmalie remarked casually from the chairshe was sitting in. I realized with a twinge of irritation that she was sittingin the same chair Alia had sat in last time we were here.

I frowned at her as I stood up. “How did you do that?”

Emmalie smirked. Apparently it was a permanent expression for her.“Because I’m me, that’s why.”

“You’re a teleporter too?” I asked, completely confused. “Is thereanything else I should know about, or do you have every power?”

“Hmm, I can’t shape-shift,” Emmalie answered. “Well, at least notwell. And don’t worry, I’m not nearly as strong of a telekinetic as Alia oreven as strong of a telepath as your friend Tyler.”

I was about to say something more about her not being able toshapeshift well or the fact she knew about how strong Alia and Tyler were whenMegan finally emerged from the bathroom, her face still pale and her walkshaky.

“What. The. Hell?!” she shouted, coming to a stop right in front ofEmmalie. “Look, I don’t know how you are able to be a telepath, teleporter, andtelekinetic all at once, and honestly at this point I’m beyond caring. But nexttime you make a teleportation jump like that, you will tell us beforehand!”

Emmalie laughed, not put off by Megan’s statement.

“I will most certainly try,” she answered.

Megan glared at her for a few more seconds before smiling slightly.“Okay, thanks. Now, if you don’t mind… could you please explain how the hellyou managed to transport us to Inon? Because what you did should beimpossible.”

I couldn’t help but allow a small grin of my own as I notice Megan wasshedding her tough soldier demeanor and allow her true self to show through toEmmalie. While I never claimed to have the best ability to remember things,pretty much all of my memories of Megan from when we were younger were that shealways wanted to figure stuff out. It was good to see that at least that hadn’tchanged about her.

“You know, I’d love to answer that question,” Emmalie said. “But Ithink there’s someone else who would be able to explain that much better thaneven me.”

“Well thanks, Emmalie, but I don’t know if that’s quite true.”

Megan and I turned towards the stairs, where three people had justwalked down into the bunker. I couldn’t help my mouth falling open as Irealized who they were.

“KC?!” Megan exclaimed at the same time I said “Tyler!”

“What are you guys doing here?” Megan asked.

KC smiled. She was one of the senior drill leaders for the SituationalSpecialists at Edil—which was Alec’s specialty, I remembered. I didn’t knowmuch about KC, other than that she was pretty well known around the academy forbeing one of the most powerful teleporters of our generation.

I knew she had graduated in the same class that Zig had, most likelyat the top of her specialty. (That was the only way to be able to become asenior drill leader). She bounded forward to embrace Megan, and I couldn’t helpbut laugh at the two of them. Where Megan was all ivory skin and light, KC wasa rich brown, her unruly black hair only reaching the top of Megan’s shouldersand standing in stark contrast to Megan’s blonde. Her accent, a thicker versionof Alia’s, showed that she was from the Valta territory.

As I looked away from KC and Megan my eyes met Tyler’s and he grinnedthat crazy lopsided grin that he’d had since we were kids growing up in Aelstontogether. He shoved his light brown hair out of his eyes as he crossed the roomto stand in front of me, pausing only a second before grabbing me and squeezingme as tight as he could.

“Long time no see, Raider,” he said. I let out a laugh and squeezedhim back,

It’s good to see you too, Tyler, I thought.

He let go of me and took a step back, his pale blue eyes glinting witha mischievous edge, like they always were. I let out a breath and grinned back,I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed him.

We all turned at the sound of someone descending the stairs. I wasshocked and surprised when the eyes of my younger sister met mine.

“Nicki!” I rushed forward and grabbed her up in a hug, then set herdown. “What are you doing here?” I asked seriously, “Are you okay?” My mindwent into overdrive as I thought of everything that could’ve happened, becauseNicki wasn’t supposed to leave the academy under any circumstance. First yearstudents were kept on the campus year round, unless and extreme circumstancearose. Then it hit me.

“You saw what happened, didn’t you?” I asked my sister. I didn’t feelthe need to hide her secret in this crowd, though I should’ve maybe beenskeptical about Emmalie since we had just met. But she probably already knew,being a telepath. KC seemed to already know, and even though I hadn’t reallyasked Nicki if I could tell Megan, I had.

Nicki nodded, her bright green eyes - identical to my own - met mineand conveyed her calm. That was the thing about her: she was rarely surprisedby anything.

“I’ve seen a lot of stuff, Sabin,” she said. “Some of it was Alia andAlec getting captured, some of it had to do with Edil. The rest I haven’tcompletely made sense of but…”

“It’s alright,” I said. I put my hands on my shoulders and drew her infor another hug. I knew from experience Nicki got frustrated when she couldn’tfigure something out. I’d always tried my best to make sure she understood itwas okay when she didn’t know everything—that her powers already gave her a lotmore of a heads up than what most people got. I decided to shift the subject ofconversation, letting Nicki go, “But I’m still not sure why you’re here?”

KC set her hand on Nicki’s shoulder.

“Nicki’s here on my authorization,” KC explained. “We knew somethingwas going to happen, and Nicki knew she needed to tell you. So we worked it outto where you and Megan could meet us here.”

I nodded slowly. It was all starting to fall into place. Except forone detail that Megan was nice enough to point out.

“How does she fit into all of this?” Megan asked, hitching her thumbtowards Emmalie.

“We needed two strong teleporters,” KC said. “I was coming from theacademy with Nicki and Tyler, so we had to rely on Emmalie to replace you guys.”

“But… how do you know her?”

“I knew her when I was younger,” Tyler said. “I was born in Aelston,you know, but my family moved to Bundok when I was three. I met Emmalie there.I moved back to Aelston when I was eight and hadn’t heard from her since untila few weeks ago Nicki told me that some red-head from my past was going tore-enter my life or something like that? I didn’t believe her, at least notuntil I was visiting my brother in Aelston and I literally ran into Emmalie onthe street.”

“From that point on, we’ve kept in touch,” Emmalie finished. “Tylerand Nicki both expected they’d need my help with something, or else I wouldn’thave ever come back.”

Megan nodded slowly. I wondered if she could see into Tyler andEmmalie’s memories to check their stories. After a few seconds, she finallysaid.

“Okay, fine. So why are you guys here? I know you said something aboutNicki seeing what happens… but why?”

“We have a plan,” KC said. “You guys won’t be able to rescue Alia andAlec on your own, so Tyler and Emmalie are going to help. Nicki and I are goingto work to figure out what might happen to Edil.”

“What do you think is going to happen there?” I asked Nicki.

Nicki shook her head. “I don’t know. I couldn’t see it clearly. But assoon as you guys get going, we’re going back. I think that there’s somethinggoing on among the top leaders of the academy.”

“But you don’t need to worry about that,” KC said quickly. “Your mainpriority now is getting Alia and Alec back.” She frowned and added on, “We’regoing to need them, no matter what lies ahead.”

We all grew quiet at this, but a moment later the silence was brokenby Megan. “I just have one question.” She turned to Emmalie. “Where are ourhorses and the rest of our supplies?”

Emmalie simply chuckled.

“So that’s where Alia and Alec are being held?”

As it turned out, the “konna encampment” we’d been sent to investigatewas a gargantuan building, built out in the middle of nowhere.

Four stories high, the building was twice as long as it as wide. Itwas surrounded on all sides by a tall, barbed wire fence. It was hard to seefrom where we were standing, but behind the building there seemed to be somekind of drilling field. It honestly looked like a typical military outpost, ifit weren’t for the smothering pressure of dark energy in the air.

Emmalie had teleported us here after we’d managed to map out a solidenough plan, which had taken most of the morning, so we ended up staying inInon, despite mine and Megan’s protests.

“Every minute we spend here is another they’re with the konna!” Meganhad protested. “We can’t just abandon them.”

“We aren’t,” had been KC’s kurt reply.

We left that night, right after the sun went down. Without knowingexactly what we were going to be facing once we were inside, we knew that anyplan we did come up with would most likely change, but Megan and KC both feltthat we at least needed some kind of idea of what we were supposed to be doing.

I refocused on the konna building. The dark energy surrounding it putme on edge, and I could tell by the way he was fidgeting that Tyler was feelingthe same way. Neither Megan nor Emmalie seemed to be too bothered by it, but Ididn’t stop to wonder why that may be, even though it did strike me as odd.There were too many other things about the building that was weirder than whythose two weren’t seemingly affected by the dark energy.

The oddest thing was that there was absolutely no one in sight.

“This is what we were suppose to scout?” Megan asked. “How on earthdid Commander Mecah expect us to do that?”

“Maybe he didn’t,” I muttered. I admit I’d been thinking about thesame thing. While Mecah had never given us completely clear details on whatthis encampment was, and Megan hadn’t gotten anything from the IGSs in Inonexcept a relative location, I feel the fact that the encampment not being acamp but instead a large building would’ve been a detail that shouldn’t havebeen left out.

I remembered what Nicki had told us, about her suspecting somethinggoing on with the higher ranking officers at Edil. Could Commander Mecah havesomething to do with that?

Focus Sabin,Tyler said in my head. Ishot him an annoyed glare while he smirked.

Meanwhile, Megan and Emmalie had started to go over the plan… again.Normally I would’ve been helping make the plan. I had been trained as astrategist while I was at the academy. But I also knew Megan was just as goodof a strategist as I was, so I was letting her handle this plan.

“Okay, Emmalie, here’s what I’ve got: assuming you can teleport usinside the building, we split up from there. You and Tyler will connect allfour of us telepathically so we can communicate. We’ll each search a differentsection for Alia and Alec.”

“And we’ve gotta be stealthy,” Emmalie said. “We can’t risk gettingcaught ourselves.”

“Right,” Megan agreed. “Anyway, once we’ve found the twins, we let theothers know and then get the hell out of there.”

“Sounds simple enough,” Tyler commented.

“Which means it probably won’t be,” I muttered.

“Well, obviously this is a ‘if-everything-works-out-perfectly-and-goes-according-to-plan’plan,” Megan stated. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a map. Sheknelt down on the ground and flipped the map over so that the blank backsidewas face up. Then, pulling a pen out of one of her other pockets, she went towork drawing back-up plans.

Of course it won’t be, Sabin.

I looked up suddenly, wondering where the voice had come from.

“Did you guys hear that?”

The other three shook their heads. Tyler gave me a funny look.

“You okay man?” he asked.

“I…” I frowned, not knowing what to say. The voice had come out ofnowhere—gone as suddenly as it had appeared. “It’s nothing, don’t worry aboutit.”

“Okay, well I’m going to walk over here to see if I can locate a goodspot to teleport us in,” Emmalie said, her voice hinting that she was startingto think I’d gone insane. Maybe I had.

She walked off in one direction, and Tyler wandered off in the other.I could tell he was trying to separate himself from the rest of us so thatmaybe he could sense the minds of the other people inside, despite the factthat we were still a good distance away. Despite the fact that he liked to notbe serious , and was generally immature about most things, Tyler took his jobvery seriously. When it came down to it, he would always do everything withinhis power to help. It was probably the reason why we were such good friends—Iwas the same way.

With both Tyler and Emmalie off playing with their powers, Megan wasthe only one left close to me, and even she wasn’t paying attention. She wastoo busy drawing plans on her map.

I turned away from her and concentrated. I didn’t know who was talkingin my head, but I could tell it wasn’t the same kind of communication to expectfrom a telepath—even a really powerful one like Tyler or Emmalie. It wasdifferent… which meant whoever it was may not hear me if I tried sendingthoughts back.

I don’t know who you are, I thought, pushing the thought towards the strange voice as much as Icould. But you need to get out of myhead, now.

I stood still for a few minutes, fully aware of the other threeshooting me the occasional glance every so often. I chose to ignore them. Istayed silent for a while, but soon it seemed like the mystery voice was gone.

Oh, I’m not gone Sabin. The voice saidright as I thought that, I’ll always be here. But you might as wellconsider your friends as gone. Because that’s what’s going to happen. You’llfail them as their leader and then- They’ll be gone.

I shivered despite the heat. I didn’t understand what was going on,but I couldn’t do anything to stop the growing sense of dread building in my stomach.

Megan looked at me with concern. She was about to say something whensuddenly the sound of Tyler shouting interrupted her.

“Bugs!” he shouted. “Stay away! Dammit I said stay away!”

“Tyler?” I asked, just as Emmalie started called out.

“Guys? Did it suddenly just get really dark? I can’t see anything.What is going on?”

I looked up at the sky and noticed it had gotten a bit darker out.

“Yeah I guess it has, Emmalie,” Megan answered. “But it’s still lightout enough to see.”

“No it isn’t,” Emmalie insisted. She was looking in our direction, butI could tell she wasn’t actually seeing us.

Meanwhile, Tyler was still yelling about bugs. I couldn’t see anyaround him, but I knew that one of his worst fears was of bugs.

“Sabin,” Megan said, grabbing my arm. I turned to look at her. “Ithink I know…”

She stopped short when her eyes got a faraway look in them. She pulledaway her hand and took a step back.

“No,” she breathed.

I looked in the direction she was. What I saw surprised me. Walking towardsus, head held high, was a woman who looked scarily like Megan, only shorter,and with a bit darker hair and eyes.

“Sabin, Megan,” the woman said calmly, her voice even. “Glad to seeyou made it here safely.”

“Where are Alia and Alec?” Megan demanded. I looked at her and noticedthe look of pure hatred she was sending at the woman.

As I looked closer at the new comer, I realized she did look familiar.I couldn’t figure out where I would’ve known her from, though. It wouldn’t havebeen the academy, she was too old for me to have been there at the same time asher. Besides, she didn’t look much like the Edil type. Especially if the wayMegan was glaring at her was any sort of tell.

The woman waved her hand dismissively at Megan’s question. “Oh,they’re somewhere. You know those two. Always wandering off and getting introuble.”

Megan didn’t seem to have any patience for the woman’s games becausethe next thing I knew she’d pulled out her gun and had it pointed straight atthe stranger.

The woman didn’t even flinch, and kept walking towards us.

“Put that away, Meggy,” she scolded. My eyes widened at therecognition of the nickname. It was the same nickname that Megan’s… but thatwas impossible.

As if she knew what I was thinking, the woman flashed a small smile atme before looking back at Megan. “Now, Meggy, just sit tight. There’s somethings that I want you and Sabin to see…”

No sooner had she said that did she disappear. Not only that, but as Iturned back to ask Megan if she’d just seen the same thing I had, I realizedwith a shock that Megan was gone too. And as I strained my ears to hear, Inoticed even the scared voices of Tyler and Emmalie had vanished.

“Some leader you are,”a voice said from behind me. I spunaround and saw—much to my surprise—Alia standing there. Her hands were restingon her hips and anger radiating in waves from her. I felt my cheeks heat up ina blush despite my best efforts when I realized that she was only dressed in asports bra and shorts. Her brown hair, while normally held together in a tightbraid down her back, was falling out in places, covering parts of her face. Shelooked beat up and run down, like she’d been through hell and back.

“A… Alia?” I asked. “How… how did you get out? Megan said you and Alecwere captured.”

“Yeah, and a lot of good you did protecting us,” another voice—thisone I recognized as Alec’s—said from my right.

Alec stepped out and stood next to his sister. He looked just asragged as she did—maybe even more. He was shirtless and for a brief moment Icaught myself wondering if I looked like that when I didn’t have a shirt on.

Get your head on straight Sabin, I scolded myself. Try andfigure out what’s going on.

“Look, I tried…” I said. “Guys, we were trying our hardest to helpyou. Megan and I were working to get into…”

“Megan and I?” I spun around once more to see Megan standing behindme. Unlike the twins she was fully clothed, and by fully clothed I mean she wasin full military uniform. I frowned, knowing Megan hadn’t been wearing when I’dlast seen her only a minute ago. As I studied her uniform more, I was shockedto see that she was wearing the uniform of a Class III Alpha, which was thehighest rank anyone could be awarded.

“Honestly Sabin, you’re giving yourself far too much credit,” Megan continued.“You wouldn’t have even been able to figure out what happened to Alia and Alecwithout my help.”

“Megan?” I asked. “What are you doing here? Why are you dressed likethat?”

Megan, Alec, and Alia all laughed in a cold way. Chills ran down myspine. I could tell something was wrong.

“I don’t understand… what’s funny?”

“You, Sabin,” Alia said. “You think you’re such a great leader, buthonestly it’s amazing you’ve gotten this far without losing even more of yourteam.”

“What are you talking about?” I snapped.

“Oh I think you know,” Alec said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Last year,” Megan clarified. “For your graduation mission.”

My breathing hitched. Of course Megan would’ve known about that, butAlia and Alec?

I wrestled back the flashbacks of gunfire and my teammates fighting tomove around me. I pushed away the sight of my supervisor struggling to hand methe orders for the mission before she died. How did Alia and Alec know abouthow close our mission had come to failing? And why were they bringing it up?

“Your leader died and gave you the command,” Alia continued. “But youfailed didn’t you? You barely managed to complete your mission, and your team…they all almost died Sabin, because you couldn’t lead them!”

“And you can’t lead us, either,” Alec said. “Why else do you thinkAlia and I were captured?”

“I’m sorry!” I cried out, panic welling in my chest as my breathingsped up, “I was coming to save you, I was going to-”

“Sorry doesn’t cut it,” Megan retorted. “You can’t lead Sabin. Younever have been able to, and you never will. You see this uniform?” Shegestured to the uniform she was wearing. “You aspire to someday have thisuniform? To make your dad proud, right? Well you’ll never achieve that!”

“She’s right you know.”

I felt my heart drop when the new voice spoke. I turned around onceagain to see Nicki and Tyler standing a few feet away. They were both dressedin uniforms of high ranks as well: Tyler as a Beta and Nicki as a First Gamma.It’d had been Nicki who’d spoken.

“You want to become a great leader to make Dad proud,” she said. “Butyou aren’t even a competent leader. How do you expect to become a great one?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but realized I couldn’t. All the wordsstuck in my throat.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to speak, because the sound of Emmalieshouting interrupted our conversation.

“Sabin! Sabin, it’s not real!”

I felt someone grab my shoulder and I spun around to face Emmalie.

“Sabin,” she said. “What you’re seeing isn’t real! None of it’s real.”

As she spoke, the others around me: Tyler and Nicki, Megan, and Aliaand Alec all vanished. I gasped as it suddenly became easier to breath. Thecold feeling of dread and panic I’d been feeling went away.

I looked behind Emmalie and saw Tyler bending down to check on Megan,who was down on her hands and knees crying. This Tyler was just as I had lastseen him, dressed in his IGS training clothes. Gone was the Beta uniform. Itwas just normal Tyler. When he sensed me looking at him, Tyler looked up at me.

“Dude, you look like hell,” he said.

I didn’t trust myself to speak, since I was still recovering from whathad just happened. But I managed to respond with a hand gesture and a fewstrong thoughts directed at Tyler, but I’m pretty sure Emmalie heard them too,since she snickered.

Tyler snorted when he heard my thoughts, but looked at me withconcern. “But seriously, are you okay?”

I took a deep breath and stepped away from Emmalie. They both watchedme cautiously. I knew they were worried, and honestly I didn’t blame them. Whathad just happened to us… I understood what it was, but I didn’t really want todwell on it much.

We’d been attacked by a takot—afear spinner. I didn’t really get how the powers worked, but I knew it was oneof the stronger konna powers. It was a power that was used to show enemies whatthey feared most and therefore render them incapable of fighting.

That was what I’d just seen. My worst fears brought to life throughimages of my friends and my sister. Justlike they had been last year when my graduation mission team was attacked by a takot.

Two years in a row, I thought.

Don’t think about that, Tyler sent back, meeting my eyes and giving me a stern look. I don’t know what you just saw, but whathappened last year is in the past. We need to focus on the here and now.

Of course Tyler knew what I had meant. He’d been on that team lastyear. Because of that, and my failure to be any help at all to my team, he nowhad a prosthetic right arm.

“Sabin,” Tyler said firmly, not bothering to speak through thoughtsanymore. He walked over and gripped my shoulder—using his right hand. “Stop.Stop thinking about that, okay? If you want to have a sob party later, that’s fine.I’ll bring the ice cream. But right now, we’ve got to help Alia and Alec.”

I took another deep breath and shook my head to clear my thoughts.

“Right,” I said. I looked over at Emmalie, who gave me a determinednod. We might have just added her to our group, and she may not have had anykind of formal military training (a fact we were currently overlooking) but atthat moment, I was thankful to have her.

“Thank you,” I said to her. Then: “How’d you manage to drive heraway?”

Emmalie waved her hand dismissively. “Oh, you know. Just by being me.I told you I was amazing.”

I scrunched my nose, not really satisfied with her answer, but knowingI didn’t have time to waste pressing for more. I let it drop and turned toMegan, who had stopped crying but was still kneeling on the ground with herhead down.

“Hey Megs, you okay to go?”

She looked up at me, nodded, and then stood.

“Yeah, I’m good. Just… give me one…”

She didn’t get a chance finish her sentence before she turned aroundand puked on the ground beside her.

When she had regained her composure, Megan stood up and looked at me.

“Sorry,” she said. “Let’s go.”

But I wasn’t convinced she was okay. I had planned to just let it go,but the way she was struggling to recover…

Tyler gave me a look, one that I understood easily.

I took a breath, something I seemed to be doing a lot recently.

“Megan, is there something you need to tell me?” I asked. “I assumeTyler and Emmalie already know, but is there something that I need to knowbefore we continue with this mission?”

Megan looked at me with an expression I couldn’t exactly interpret.She was silent for a few seconds, but then she finally spoke up.

“I guess there isn’t really a point in hiding it. You were there whenshe was appeared.”

I thought back to the strange woman who’d shown up right before the takot visions had started—the woman Ihad no doubt was the takot. I couldn’t deny the resemblancebetween her and Megan, nor the fact that Megan obviously seemed to recognizeher. Hell, she’d even seemed familiar to me.

“That woman,” I said slowly. “You’re related to her, aren’t you?”

Megan nodded. “She… she’s my sister. Brittany.”

I stared at her, my eyes widening. I had known Brittany back when wehad all lived in Satama. She was about five or six years older than Megan, andhad never been very nice to us, though if I remembered correctly her and Meganhad been fairly close. But I’d never thought she’d become a konna.

“But… how?” I asked. “I mean, Brittany was mean to us as kids - ormean to the rest of us anyway. Maybe not you. But enough that Alia nicknamedher ‘Brat-ney’ but… she became a konna?”

“It really isn’t that hard to believe,” Megan said. “Considering…”

She paused, seeming unsure of what to say.

“Considering what?”

Megan took a deep breath.

“Considering my dad was also a konna.”

I couldn’t help the shocked look that came across my face. Megan’sdad… was a konna? But that couldn’t be right at all. Everything I rememberedabout Mr. O’Carroll was him helping other people, taking care of Megan and Zig.Sure he’d been kind of quiet and reserved, but a konna? I didn’t believe that.

Tyler was watching me intently, seeing how I would react. Emmalie wasshuffling uncomfortable, which I found very out of character for her, but Ididn’t say anything. Megan was looking at me with a still unreadableexpression, but I could see a faint hint of desperation in her eyes. She neededme to understand what she was saying.

“Your dad is a konna?” I asked.

“Was,” Megan corrected. “He died a few years ago.”

“Was… sorry,” I said. “But that means…”

She smiled sadly. I noticed her eyes flashed briefly between theirnormal light blue and a darker color of blue to match her sister’s.

“That’s right,” Megan said. “I’m half-konna.”