Pride x Familiar (57 page)

He lowered his body while keeping upright and
level.

His right fist cannoned toward me.

His attention was riveted on me and me
alone.

He never saw Rina send a bolt of violet light at
a steep angle into his back.

His barrier-field spared him from being
immolated by the intense energy.

I had no time to squint as light flashed and
colors reversed.

I barely had enough time to raise my blades
toward him. I didn’t even think of sharpening the piercer-fields
that surrounded the blades.

Catapulted forward by the bolt of energy
crashing into his barrier-field, his fist connected early, striking
the barrier around my left shoulder.

But his torso rammed into my outstretched arms,
despite the barrier-field protecting it.

I felt the piercer-fields penetrate his
barrier.

I felt the blades slide into his body.

His momentum carried him bodily into me, and I
was knocked back a half dozen feet, landing against empty chairs,
scattering them like bowling pins before coming to a stop with his
body on top of me.

I couldn’t hold onto my barrier field; my
concentration was failing me.

My over-clocked state reverted back to normal,
and I felt his full weight on my arms.

I managed to concentrate enough of my will onto
my gauntlets. The blades retracted, sliding back over my forearms
and elbows – sliding out of his body.

I felt a warm wetness splash onto my chest,
making it hard for me to hold him up and off my body. But the
Symbiote inside me strengthened my limbs and muscles, and I was
able to push the large man off me.

He fell away to my left, rolling onto his back
as he did.

I struggled to my knees, and crawled up and over
him. As I did, I extended my blades once more, and aimed for his
chest and throat.

“Give her back,” I croaked, my voice breaking
and failing me.

He was wheezing loudly, and I guessed I’d
punctured a lung or two. But he looked at me with mirth in his eyes
even as bloodied spittle stained his lips.

I raised my right arm high, and yelled, “Give
her back!”

He laughed and more blood escaped his mouth.

“Then die!” I screamed.

“Enough!”

The shout rocked the air, probably amplified by
a skinsuit mike. It was a woman’s voice, and for a moment my body
trembled.

I didn’t turn to face her, but kept my right arm
at the ready for a downward strike that would stab through his
heart.

*
Cappy—wait! Wait!

My whole body trembled.

Below me the large, barrel chested man jerked
faintly, and coughed up more blood. But that smile never left his
lips. He kept looking at me with amusement in his eyes.

I wanted to plunge my blade into his face.

The woman addressed me in a calm voice that
contrasted with my feelings.

I heard her clearly as though she were standing
beside me.

“That’s enough, Caprice. We’ll do as you
ask.”

I swallowed.

It can’t be. It can’t be. That voice. That
voice.

What? Why—why am I crying?

“Caprice…you’ve done enough. Don’t let this end
in bloodshed. You’re too young to be taking a life.”

I swallowed hard, then worked up the strength to
rise to my feet.

I could barely see the man anymore, let alone
much of my surroundings.

My tears were like a thick veil covering my
eyes.

Nonetheless, I turned and faced in the direction
of the woman who called out to me. The Valkyrie Armor fed my
Awareness spatial information, and I knew exactly where to
look.

I blinked away the moisture in my eyes, and
looked at the woman dressed in a black skinsuit and long, flowing
coat.

“…Mother…?”

She smiled at me, and favored me with a faint
nod. “Hello, Caprice.”

My thoughts fell apart.

I could do nothing more than sway and stare at
her.

She took a few steps closer. “
Induran,
this is Gabrielle. The girl I instructed Dumas to take
aboard…release her. Set her down with an effect-field. Be gentle
with her. I don’t want her harmed.”

Slowly, coherent thought began to form inside my
mind.

Slowly I began to sift through the multitude of
questions.

I settled on one.

“You…you’re alive?”

She nodded sadly. “Yes, Caprice. I am alive. I
had to leave you. I had to leave Pharos, and Artemis, and my
precious daughter. My death was faked, and it allowed me to hand my
Valkyrie Armor to you. It was a parting gift.”

I stared at her, barely comprehending her
words.

She indicated the man on the ground. “Caprice,
step away from him. You don’t want to continue this. He is a
comrade, and I will fight you if it means protecting his life.”

I swallowed heavily. “You would fight me?”

“Yes. You are my daughter, and nothing will ever
change that nor the love I hold for you, but I made the choice to
cut my ties to the past. Whether I love you or not, I will fight to
protect my comrades and my new family.”

I stared at her with confusion plainly written
on my face. “New…family?”

“Crimson Crescent is my family now.”

Now I felt anger well up inside me. “Why? Why
did you leave me? Why did you make me believe you were dead?”

“For the righting of a wrong. For the promise of
tomorrow.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I don’t expect you to. I expect you to listen
to me, and to do as I say.”

The anger inside me wavered, like a candle flame
caught in a breeze.

Then it strengthened.

I clenched my jaw, working the muscles for a
heartbeat. “You’ve cast me aside for them, yet you expect me to
obey you?” I snorted derisively. “Don’t make me laugh.”

She nodded gently. “The girl will be returned to
you. You said it yourself, if she was taken then you would take one
of us.”

I swallowed again. I had indeed said something
to that effect.

I stepped away from the man lying supine on the
floor.

I gave him a wide berth as I watched the woman
that looked and sounded like my mother walk between scattered
tables and chairs.

She arrived at the man’s side and picked him up
easily, her strength as a Familiar enhanced by the black skinsuit
she wore.

“Damn fool,” she muttered as she put her
shoulder under him. “I told you to inject a vial of Aventis blood
into your body. Now look at yourself.”

He laughed in shame. “Yeah, you were right.”
Then he looked at me. “She’s a lot tougher than I expected. She
definitely takes after you—” He coughed again and my mother shook
her head in pity.

“Damn fool,” she repeated. “
Induran
,
we’re done. Pick us up on the roof of the cafeteria.”

I forced my hands to relax as I watched my
mother half carry the man across the cafeteria’s top floor.

Rina asked, *
Cappy, what do we do?

I sucked in air helplessly. *
Nothing. We do
nothing.

I continued watching my mother and the man she
supported.

Rina gasped loudly in my head. *
I see the
girl. They’re using an effect-field to lower her to the
courtyard.

Rina walked over cautiously to the curved glass
wall of the cafeteria overlooking the northern courtyard. I noticed
one of the window panes had a large hole in it.

Rina must have shot out the generator in the
northern courtyard while I was busy fighting with the large
man.

My mother stopped walking. “
Induran
, can
you give us a hand”—she jerked in surprise—“what was
that
?”

A loud boom rocked the cafeteria. I looked up
and through the trans-steel ceiling I saw the massive black
starship drift sideways.

A flash of golden light against its portside,
followed by a second boom a millisecond later.

Through the transparent ceiling I saw something
dart around the ship. It looked small, and I wondered if it was
some kind of fighter craft. But when it slowed down for a moment, I
saw that it had a vague humanoid shape, with sharp angular wings
extending from its back like leaves off a branch.

What the Hell is that?

Another flash of light, and another boom.

The darting humanoid figure repeatedly struck
the quantum reaction shields and barrier-fields protecting the
starship, rocking it with each attack.

I looked around me at the interior of the
cafeteria and noticed that almost all the students had crawled away
from east side of the building. They had crawled away to escape the
fight between myself and the large man.

“Damn it,” my mother cursed. “Another Warlord?
They had another Warlord at their disposal?”

I stared at her and saw her eyes widen.

Was she listening to a voice carried along by a
Fragment Link?

My mother and the man she supported shared a
long look.

Then she faced me and spoke solemnly. “It didn’t
have to be this way.”

Her words elicited a snort from me.

I was about to retort further when I heard
Maya’s thoughts on the Fragment Link.

*
Caprice, Rina—can you hear us?

*
Maya,
I cried out. *
What
happened?

*
They took us down, and then they left. They
went right by us. But they left in a real hurry like their butts
were on fire. What’s going on out there?

*
Something’s attacking the Crimson Crescent
ship. It looks like the Crescent team can’t escape now.

I almost felt like laughing.

After their dramatic entrance was there to be no
dramatic exit?

With troubled looks, my
mother
and the
man she supported gazed up through the transparent ceiling.

I looked up too, just in time to see a narrow
beam of golden light rake the reaction field protecting the ship’s
portside. The field rippled and I saw the air shimmer hotly.

Then from somewhere to the west, a beam of azure
light lanced across the sky and connected with the darting humanoid
fighter. The Warlord immediately began dancing a zig-zag pattern,
avoiding many of the subsequent beams of light that chased it
across the sky. I watched it juke and jink about, then suddenly
disappear from view when it rocketed somewhere to the south.

Sparing my mother a glance, I risked walking
quickly over to the cafeteria’s southern windows and looked up into
the sky.

Some distance away and high above the habitat’s
buildings, two humanoid shapes – two of these Warlords – drifted
several hundred feet apart.

They were like two opponents sizing each other
up after the initial flurry of flying fists.

I watched them with a mixture of exhaustion and
confusion.

Without warning one Warlord charged the other,
and a fierce aerial dogfight broke out in the sky within the
habitat.

(Caelum)

I floated in a sea of white nothing.

There was no horizon, and there was no sense of
up or down.

I remembered a similar sensation during a school
trip where the class visited a pilot training center. There was a
chamber utterly devoid of artificial gravity fields, so once inside
you felt completely weightless. The lack of gravity affects the
liquids inside your body. I remembered feeling initially nauseous,
but I didn’t barf up like some of my Regular classmates did.

It was the same inside the Vault. I felt
weightless and lost because there was no point of reference to
gauge my orientation.

But what really bothered me was the whiteness of
the place, though I guess black would have scared me to death.

And yet, somehow I sensed that this emptiness
wasn’t really empty.

I could
feel
my Awareness being brushed
by objects floating in the nothing along with me.

What the Hell could they be?

Celica had explained the Vault was used for
storage, and she’d said there was something inside she needed to
retrieve. I had already surmised it was the skeletal armor she’d
summoned moments before tossing me into the Vault. But going by its
name alone, I had to figure this Artifact was used as a
vault
, and important items were placed inside.

Huh…important items.

I could only think of two things – Fragments and
Artifacts.

So then why the Hell had Celica tossed me in
here?

Why did she want me floating around with the
other pieces the Prides had recovered from inside the Hurakan
Nebula?

Didn’t she say you needed a connection with
something outside in order to get
out
?

But I wasn’t a Fragment or an Artifact, so how
could I have a connection to something outside?

Then I thought of Caprice, and Simone,
and…Haruka.

Could they be my connection to the outside
world?

Those three are so much trouble. I’m all over
the place when I think of them.

I grabbed my head then ran my fingers wildly
through my hair.

It was getting long. I’d need to get it cut…if I
ever got out of here.

I looked myself over.

Strange, I can see my body and I have tactile
sensation.

And I’m breathing too.

I hadn’t even noticed that I was breathing until
now.

How could there be air inside the Vault?

I looked around, turning my body but everything
was just white so I had no idea how large the interior could
be.

And then I sensed the objects again, lurking
around the peripheral fray of my Awareness.

I concentrated on them, and pictured myself
moving toward them.

They moved away, scattering like a school of
fish before a shark.

Damn.

Wasn’t there anything inside here that could
help me? Anything at all that I had a connection with? Maybe there
was a Fragment or Artifact I could call out to. Maybe I could bond
with one and use it to force my way out.