Chapter 35

Next day Curare discharged me and sent me back to my own camp.  Before I left, she also thanked me for my help in saving her son Dendro and told me I could always count with her if I needed help.

Inionri was waiting for me and she took me to where the others were waiting for me.

“How are you feeling?” asked Lamia as soon as I entered the room.

“I’m much better, thanks.”

“We have been discussing our possibilities” said Agis, “we agree that it would be too risky to take you back to the Palace so we decided that your best option is to go with Geb to sector 7.  The only problem is that Pacorus doesn’t want you to go, he ordered you back to sector 32.”

“We need to find a way to take you out of here without anyone noticing it,” added Lamia.  “I think that it would be better to send you to sector 15 with Kozlak and Lobishomen.  I’m sure they will be willing to receive and protect you.”

“But either option we need to do it without Pacorus finding it out” said Geb.

“Or maybe I could stay in sector 32” I felt everyone staring at me like I was crazy.  “If Caracalla or Kamose find out that I’m not longer in sector 32 or that I’m recovering my memory all I will accomplish is for them to wipe my memory again” I explained.

“We won’t let them do that,” said Inionri with confidence.

“And how are you going to stop them?” I asked.  “In case you have forgotten Kamose is the emperor and he controls everything.  If he decides to kill me no one will stop him.”

“My father won’t allow that to happen.”

“Your father is just a general of many.  He can’t confront the emperor or he will end up on his bad side.”

“So you want to go back to sector 32?” Asked Agis, he looked mad at me.  “You prefer to go back to those animals rather than coming back with us?” before I could react Agis threw me to the floor and straddled me, pinning my hands above my head.  I was scared, terrified, I couldn’t move.  “Do you prefer to be just a toy? Is this what you want?”

It was chaos after that.  I could feel the floor shaking and then I saw Agis being wrapped by Inionri’s hair and yanked away from me.

“Calm down,” asked Lamia as she hugged me.  I wanted to get away, I didn’t want anyone touching me, but her arms didn’t move.  “Calm down, it’s ok” she asked me again and I noticed that I was crying and trembling in her arms, I was terrified by Agis’ actions.

“Don’t think that you can defend yourself just because of your fluke with the New World Clan,” said Agis as he struggled to get free from Inionri.

“Enough!” Roared Geb.  The fighting stopped at once, we were all too stunned to do otherwise.  “I don’t like it any more than you Agis, but this is not the way to handle it.  You don’t need to be so cruel about it.”

“I’m just trying to understand,” said Agis.

“Pacorus said it, we are all in danger if the emperor finds out what we did, don’t you see that she is trying to protect us?” Explained Lamia.  “She is willing to go back to that place if that means we’re going to be safe.  Which is totally unfair” she told me, “you are taking the option from us, we want to help you.”

“You have helped me,” I tried to order my thoughts, “you helped me remember who I was, you gave me a choice.  It won’t be the same, I’m not the same, but I need time to figure out what to do and you need time to understand what is at risk.”

“I don’t think is a good idea.” Agis said before he stormed out of the place.

“I agree with Agis, this is not a good idea,” said Geb, he was angry, but more controlled than Agis.  “I don’t want you to go back to them.”

“I need to start doing things by myself” I tried to explain to them, “I won’t always have one of you to protect me.”

“You could if you wanted to,” said Geb.

“You know that’s not true, it’s not that easy.”

“I will talk to my father,” said Inionri, “there must be something he can do about this.”

“I will talk to Kozlak as soon as I can,” added Lamia, “maybe his father will be able to do something, I’m sure that Shahzadi would have done something if she was alive, Lobishomen should respect her wishes and help.”

“In other words,” said Vikomt, “all we can do right now is try to get the people with real power to speak for us.  I’ll talk to my father, I’m sure he and Sultana’s siblings will be willing to help.”

“That’s sounds like a plan,” said Lamia cheerfully.  “Now that we know what to do, we should enjoy the time we have left.”

Agis stayed away from us, he was mad at me and the situation, he even kept Lamia and Vikomt away as much as he could.  What happened with Agis scared me the most, he was someone I liked, someone I trusted and I haven’t been able to fight him back, what would happen when Agmong decided to attack me again?  He had tried to kill me during the battle, I knew he was angry, he would try to hurt me again.  I had spent so much time being afraid of him that I wasn’t sure what would I do once I had to face him again.  Would I be strong enough to stop him?  I wished I was.

I couldn’t say goodbye to Agis and that made me feel bad, it wasn’t how I wanted to repay him for what he had done for me.  Geb and his people traveled with me to sector 32.  I spent the night with Geb, Inionri and Echrad when we arrived in the sector.  The next day we would say our goodbyes, I didn’t know it was going to be so hard.

“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” asked Inionri yet again.

“I’m sure this is what I have to do.  I need to thank you again,” I told them sincerely, “I can’t explain how much it means to me that you found me again.”

“It means the world to us.  Finding you was the best thing that could happen to us, I just wish that it was in better circumstances.”  Geb hugged me and I felt small and vulnerable between his powerful arms.  He kissed me, it was a tender kiss, it showed me how much he cared.  “If something happens, if you need help, call me and I promise I will do whatever I can to help.  You don’t need to be alone anymore.”

“Thanks Geb.”  I knew that he meant every word, but I also knew that I couldn’t ask more from him.

I stared at them as they made their way back to their sector.  It was early, I guessed my group should be having breakfast so I headed back to the barracks, I needed some time alone to get used to being back.

I reached the entrance and it took me a while to work up the courage to open the door.  As soon as I walked inside I could feel that something was wrong.

“Hello again Sklave” said someone to my right, as I turned to see who, I felt the hit to my head.

I fought not to fall, not to black out, but I couldn’t fight back as they put a bag over my head.

“Welcome back Sklave” I recognized Agmong’s voice. “I see that you left your bodyguards behind.”

“I don’t need bodyguards,” I tried to sound confident.  “And my name is not Sklave, I’m Kaiserin.”

“The visit from your friends was not good for you, you have forgotten how to be a good soldier” I heard Agmong getting closer to me as he spoke.  “But don’t worry Sklave, I will remind you how to be a good obedient and submissive soldier.”

A memory came to me, ‘You can control what you can feel’, my mother’s words.  I haven’t remembered how to use my powers like that, but I knew that I could use my telekinesis without depending on my sight, so I had to experiment.  I couldn’t see the men holding me, but I knew where they were standing.  I used my mind to push them away, then I lifted the bag off my head just in time to see Agmong taking his whip out of his belt.

Agmong attacked me, but the whip didn’t touch me, I stopped it just an inch away from my skin at a safe distance from the electricity that I knew was flowing through it.  Agmong’s men were surrounding me, just seven out of 30 had made it back and they all were ready to submit me.

“What are you doing standing there?” Yelled Agmong.  “Stop her.”

I felt my head pounding, the pain was getting worse and I had to stop it quick.  One of Agmong’s men grabbed me and I couldn’t get free, I panicked and started to scream.  Someone else grabbed me and the fear got worse.  They were after me and I had to stop them, I knew that if I let them stop me then the nightmare was never going to end.

One of them approached me carrying chains, when I saw them, I used my mind to grab them, I put them around his neck and lifted him.  Using my mental hold on the chains I used him to stop the men walking with him.  Once the man with the chains and the other two were down I took the chains again and threw them at the men holding me.  I walked backwards until I had my back to the wall.  They were still coming at me, Agmong kept telling them to stop me.

I was shaking, I wasn’t sure if it was because of the fear or the pain, both kept increasing with every step my attackers took closer to me.  I felt the punch before I could see that someone had gotten to me.  I was thrown to the floor and someone sat on top of me and started punching me.  I wanted him off me, I wanted him dead, so I used my mind to break his neck.  He fell over me and I struggled to get from under him.  I saw a fist coming my way and I barely dodged it.  I turned and hit the man who had attacked me in the back of his neck, he fell and I grabbed his hair and started to hit his head on the floor over and over again, until the floor was red with his blood.  Someone grabbed me by the waist and lifted me until my feet were off the floor, another man was coming at me with a knife.  I hit the man holding me, first on the shin, then in the stomach, as I felt his hold weaken I got free, just in time to dodge the knife that the other man had thrown me.  The knife hit the wall behind me and I used my mind to grab it and threw it back to the one that had attacked me.

Agmong tried to use his whip on me again, but I once again used my mind to protect me, the whip fell on one of his men instead.  I tried to get out of there, but when I was reaching the exit a bullet hit my leg and I fell.  The one that had shot me was about to do it again, but I took the gun from his hand with my mind and used it to shoot a man that was about to attack me.  Once I had the weapon in my hands, I kept shooting everyone who moved until I ran out of bullets.  I was out of ammo and Agmong was still moving.  I threw my weapon to him, using my mind to add extra force, but he dodged it easily.

“You won’t be able to stop me,” he said as he prepared his whip to attack once again.

“That won’t work on me again” I told him, “you won’t touch me.”

“That’s what you think.” I prepared for his attack and I was surprised when the electric shock ran through my body paralyzing me.  “It was a good try,” he said as he got closer to me, “but now it’s time to pay for your actions.”

“He walked to one of the tables and tore off one of its legs, he used it to hit me, putting all of his strength behind the hit.  I felt the tingling in my body that meant I was recovering from the electric shock as Agmong lifted the table’s leg to hit me again.  Before he could hit me, I grabbed the rest of the table and launched it against him, the table exploded into fragments.  My vision filled with dark spots, I was in pain, both mental from using my powers and physical from the blows.  Agmong recovered quickly, he was furious.

The pain and the fear were filling me, but I couldn’t allow Agmong to win, I knew that if he did, it would destroy everything I had accomplished since my memory started to come back.  I grabbed a piece of wood from the table and pushed it through Agmong, but it didn’t stop him, he attacked me again.  I couldn’t dodge, but I put my arms above me to protect my head.

“You can’t stop me,” he screamed at me, “you won’t stop me.”  And he was right, I couldn’t stop him, he didn’t have to deal with pain, he wasn’t slowing down, but I was, the pain was crippling me.

I concentrated on the table’s fragments and started to throw them at him while I tried to get away from him.  For Geb it was so easy to stop him, I could think of many ways for Geb to stop him.  I used my mind to push Agmong back, but as soon as my force stopped, he launched himself at me again.  I repeated the action several times until I could push him to the wall, but he kept coming at me.  The wall started to crumble because of the repeated hits and I saw a metal structure under the plaster.  I concentrated on the metal and pulled it outside the wall until they were outside, pointing to me.  I used what I had left of my strength to push Agmong through the metal bars until his body was pinned to the wall.  That’s the last thing I saw before my vision went dark.

I was cold and in pain.  I heard a weird noise.  I was tired and wanted to remain sleeping, but I knew that I had to wake up, there was something I had to do.  The noise repeated and I forced myself to open my eyes.  I saw Agmong pinned to the wall.  The noise was Agmong trying to free himself.  He had one arm already free and was using it to move along the metal bars away from the wall, but his advance was slow.  There was a blood pool under him, but more surprising was that there was fear in his eyes.

I started to laugh.  I didn’t know why, but the scene was funny.  I pushed Agmong back destroying all his hard work.  He looked at me and started to drag his body through the metal bars again.

“What does it feel like to know you won’t be able to escape?” I asked him.  “What does it feel like to be powerless, to have your life in the hands of someone else?” Agmong tried to answer, but nothing came out of his mouth.  “You will die today” I pushed him back, although there wasn’t much advance yet.  “You won’t be able to hurt anyone else.”

I stood up and went to look for a first aid kit that I had in my trunk.  Like I had done many times before I sat on my bed to treat my wounds, I cleaned the shot on my leg and then put a bandage around it.  I examined my body for wounds, I had a cut on my arm and many bruises, but nothing bad.  Once I finished, I grabbed a chair and went back to where Agmong was.  He was once again almost free, one more push and he would be free of the bars, but I pushed him to the wall and a frustrated scream got out of him.  He was pale and weak, but he kept trying to get free.  I put the chair in front of him and sat.  I watched as he advanced, waiting until the last moment to push him back again.

After a while I heard the doors opening behind me, but the door closed, no one had walked in.  Twice again the door opened, but no one came inside and I could see Agmong’s hope of getting help dying.

“No one will come to help you,” I repeated the words he had told me so many times, back to him.  “No one cares if you live or die.  This is your new reality and you have to get used to it, the sooner you accept it, the better for you.”  I was enjoying seeing how our roles had reversed.

My words affected him, I saw him renew his effort to free himself, but he was weak from blood loss and couldn’t do much.  He fought until the last minute, but it was a lost battle.  I couldn’t inflict on him the same pain that he had given me, but I could make him feel useless and desperate.  I stayed in front of him until the end, my face would be the last thing he saw before he died. I wanted him to know who had defeated him.  I had won, and at the end he knew it.

 

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