We walk through the jungle, in awkward silence for a while just following the instinct of Curtis. I feel extremely uncomfortable being behind the the most clingy father I have ever seen and possibly the most uninterested daughter. I try to contain my curiosity but I am continuously thinking of questions to ask Curtis. However each time I try and speak up Becca glares at me with her heart of ice and the air around me drops at least ten degrees so I have learned to just be quiet while we walk. However I don’t necessarily need to fill the void of conversation because it seems that Curtis is doing that by himself. “You have grown up since I last saw you nutter butter, how have you been? Is the Wuxing treating you well? Have you made any friends? Your powers seem to have gotten stronger wanna spar to see how far you have come against your old man? It has been a while since I got to see that icy blizzard around you.” No response, she continues to walk forward looking stronger, more composed than I have seen from her in since I met her. Usually when it comes to me she is more vulnerable and willing to tell me her life and even cry but with her father? She stands like she is ten feet tall dealing with the nuisance that is her father with her icy demeanor. I watch her honestly a little amazed at this change of spirit but my mind goes back to its constant curiosity which gets harder and harder to contain.
“Um hey, Curtis?” I say automatically feeling the a chill through my body as Becca pierces my soul with her icy aura, I try not to look her in the eye, too afraid her emeralds will hurt my soul. “We have been walking for awhile with no end in sight for the jungle, where exactly are we going?” Becca glares at me harder but I focus on the back of bald head in front of me.
“Great question,” he says clearly happy to have the conversation, “you see our base is nowhere near where we are now. We were much closer when we were in Mozambique but I couldn’t get you out since well...” he chuckles a little, “you killed two of my Legends trying to capture you.” I move past the uncomfortability of what he just said for the sake of getting an answer, Curtis does seem to trail off a lot almost as if he is nervous in some way.
“So we aren’t going to get there anytime soon?” I ask nervously. He laughs and doesn’t answer my question. “But didn’t you teleport earlier so we could get to Becca?” I say trying to keep the conversation going.
“Oh yeah, that's because of this baby right here.” He pats the sword on his back that I just now notice it is glowing constantly, “It allows me to use light energy to contort space so I can move small distances. I would need a major power source to get us to England.” He says more nonchalantly than I would like. The more I discover these feelings the more annoying Curiosity becomes, it is literally a constant itch I don’t know how to control. The itch is constantly bugging the side of my brain so much so I can’t help but continue to ask questions despite the fact that Becca’s glare is clearly telling me to stop.
“Two questions, one what is that sword, two did you say England?” I feel frostbite creep up my legs, actually feeling really good in the dense jungle humidity.
“Ah yes! This is Magellan, a sword that used to be owned by the former member of the round table, Magellan himself, he names the sword after him. I slayed him a long time ago and this sword swore allegiance to me.” A flurry of questions bombard my brain, but he continues before I can ask. “Besides of course I said England, where else would Camelot be.” He laughs to himself and shakes his head. I open my mouth ready for the rain of questions to come down upon Curtis but get stopped by Becca’s hand over my mouth. She stares me dead in the eyes, even though she isn’t using her powers I am completely frozen. She lets go and continues forward and we walk in silence again. We walk a few more miles before coming up on a large river.
“Perfect!” Curtis exclaims, “We will camp here till morning.” Curtis promptly sits down at the bed of the river and closes his eyes, he takes out his sword and places it in the ground in front of him. “Father in Heaven thank you for bringing us safely through the jungle, and thank you that I didn’t kill my daughter when I brought down the plane she was in.” I look over expecting Becca to be annoyed as was common over the past couple of hours with her but instead she actually has her head bowed and her eyes closed. She listens to Curtis’s prayer carefully and seems to be praying herself. She is a Christian? How could I not have known? She sure cusses a lot. The prayer ends and Curtis changes back to his jovial self, Becca opens her eyes and continues to look annoyed. “Alright,” Curtis says pulling his sword out of the ground, “we will build a shelter for the night and I will explain as much as I can about your current situation. I’ll get the wood for the fire and shelter. Becca you and Chanel go fishing for some nutrition.” Becca rolls her eyes and heads over to the river running into Curtis as she does. For the first time since meeting him, Curtis’s demeanor changes drastically, he looks legitimately sad, as if he is really affected by his daughters disinterest in him, just as quickly he changes back. He smiles widely and heads off into the forest.
I stand in the water with Becca, throwing knives from my armbands stabbing one fish after another as the water sprays up hitting my face and chest while Becca sends ice spikes into the water in a tank top and shorts, mercilessly massacring many fish. I keep glancing over at her trying to find the words to say but always coming up short. I mean so much just happened, I told her she is the worst and I don’t want to be her partner yet she hugs me showing she really cares, then we got taken down by her father and ended up having to fight androids in the jungle for an unclear reason before traveling through the jungle for hours having to deal with a father she doesn’t necessarily like right now.
“I’m sorry,” She says breaking my thought process. “I know this has been a weird day for you, it’s just things haven’t always been great with my dad.” I feel curiosity coming but this time another emotion is counteracting my need for answers.
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” I laugh a little, “If anyone understands family problems it's me.” She pretends to listen to me but I can tell her mind is somewhere else. I think for a minute then come up with a possible way to cheer her up. While she is distracted I reach my hand deep into the river and bring forward a giant wave of water coming towards her. The water rushes coming in towards her head ready to drench her, but just before it does it suddenly freezes very quickly and falls in chunks to the ground. “That's just unfair,” I say, she laughs and crosses her arms.
“That was just a dumb idea,” she says slyly, her eyes glow icy and little droplets of water start to rise from the water freezing instantly.
“Hey um, Becca, this isn’t funny,” I say stepping back.
“No?” She says still with a sinister gleam in her eye, “Let's call this pay back ok Ares.” The droplets fly through the air at an incredible speed coming towards my body. My mind kicks into overdrive, I quickly think and a golden shield forms in the area from my knife and the other vial in my armband, I catch the shield and feel the impact of dozens of tiny icy bullets bombarding the shield. Becca’s eyes both say to me and I dive to the side, penetrating the deeper water beneath me and swim as fast as I can away from the pellets striking the water. I feel my vision getting hazy and the lightning growing stronger but try everything in my power to keep myself from losing control. I swim a good ways around her jumping into the shallow part of the water and hurling my shield at her back. She quickly vaults over the shield, spinning in the air and is standing face to face with me holding a rather long ice dagger to my throat, she hesitates, looking into my eyes and that gives me the chance to surprise her. I lean my head in and see her face blush thinking I am going in for a kiss but before our lips touch I kick some water on her. She opens her eyes and I smile widely.
“I win.” I say with a glimmer of pride. She pushes away from me, obviously trying to be mad but we both find ourselves laughing and falling into the water together. We stop for a little while just staring at the jungle around us and taking a moment to see beauty in the midst of chaos. We just sit, and watch, letting time around us. There is a lot I want to say, a lot that honestly needs to be said but the more we sit the more I realize this isn’t the time. I know she had to kiss me to release the barrier in my head, I know she betrayed me for her own personal gain, and I know a piece of me resist her and doesn’t trust her fully. However there is something here that makes me feel close to her, makes me want to fight for her, maybe it's shared experience or a sense of feeling close to someone besides my father and Davis, but I have to trust her. We are partners.
“You look like a dork whenever you're thinking,” I look at her a little mad that she broke my train of thought. I splash her with a little bit of water and watch the adorable look on her face as she laughs. I get up trying to contain the blushing in my cheeks.
“Whatever Athena,” I say walking out of the water towards my backpack. I throw a shirt on and look around at the jungle. Becca joins me drying off and we both prepare the fish for dinner tonight. We talk and share stories like old friends, I tell her about Davis and I taking Rico’s apples, she tells me stories about joining the Andors, it's nice to have a normal conversation that isn’t filled with the tension of the past couple of days.
“Hey guys,” I jump scared by hearing the voice behind me. My adrenaline jumps into action, immediately I summon a knife into my hand and thrust my hand backward trying to stab the voice. I feel a hand grab my my arm and before I know it I am being thrust through the air, slamming into the water below. I hear voices through the water, trying to process what just happened. I emerge from the water feeling an enormous headache and see Curtis standing at the shore of the river laughing and grabbing his stomach. Becca is next to him scolding him but also trying not to laugh. “Chanel,” Curtis says through a series of laughter, “you flew like 20 feet! You should have seen your face!” He falls to the ground laughing harder and beating his hand against the earth. I slowly come out of the water, contemplating throwing a knife into Curtis’s eye but realize that wouldn’t necessarily go well for me. As I come out of the water Curtis fill the once comfortable silence telling us of the animals he saw in the forest and showing us the fire would got for us, which is literally a pile of about ten large trees. I realize I don’t have other shirt since I planned on this being two days. “Here!” Curtis yells, seeing my predicament. A giant shirt lands on my head, at least three sizes larger than I would wear. I put it on letting my new dress flow past my knees. I turn looking at Becca and Curtis who both explode in laughter. I decide to ignore their laughter and move on.
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“Curtis where did you come from?” I ask.
“I teleported behind you, I wasn’t expecting that, I didn’t want to scare you so I let you know I was there but you tried to shank me so by instinct I chucked you into the river.” He smiles as if everything he said makes the most logical sense. I want to protest but Curtis claps his massive hands sending silence across the entire jungle. “Now, It’s time we talked.”
-
We sit around the kindled fire Curtis made from one of the trees. It burns brightly illuminating the space around us, almost blocking out the moon. Given that Curtis took down a small forest to provide us fire wood, we created three separate shelters making the river bed look like early mesopotamia. The three of us sit around the fire eating the fish and waiting for Curis to speak. After Curtis’s third or fourth fish he finally speaks up. “Where should I begin?” He ask, mainly talking to himself, but I speak up anyway.
“Did you know my father?” Curtis nods slightly gaining a more serious attitude.
“Your father was a member of the Andors like I was back in the day.” he says.
“The secret society Becca was telling me about?” I ask.
“Indeed,” he says, “your father was a caring, kind man. We fought side by side for years in many battles trying to bring peace to the four secret societies, but while the KNRT and the other three orders get along well, the Wuxing has always had a grudge against the Andors. In fact your mission in Mozambique to save that president, that was a plan by the Wuxing because the president is actually creating a military force against the Andors.” My heart drops a little bit, I thought I was doing something to help people, to protect order in the world but it appears I helped cause chaos. “You don’t have to worry though,” curtis says, “As I was leaving I saw a member of the Andors kill the president.” I look at Becca and she looks just as surprised as I was.
“Thats impossible!” Becca yells,”I got the president to safety, he was escorted by a guard.” Curtis nods his head.
“yes well that guard turned out to be Chammel.” There is that name, the name of the man who saved me. Becca looks just as astounded clearly recognizing the name, Curtis shakes his head and continues. “Anyway, your father, was a member of a special task force within the Andors to take down the rise of the Wuxing in helpless countries so they couldn’t progress forward and conquer more regions, however while we were on mission in the Dominican republic something...” Curtis stops for a minute trying to find a way to form the next sentence,”went wrong.”
“Wrong how?” I asked her.
“Wrong in the form of a woman. Her name was Fema,” I feel a tingling sensation in my brain, I suddenly see the image of the woman in the run down house from my episode in Jungle around Mozambique. “Chicho, your father, fell madly in love with her. Especially after finding out her power. Behind Curtis I see a woman, young, beautiful, yet looks weary with fierce wonder in her eyes. Her eyes glow crimson and tears stream down her face, as they stream down mine.
“What was special about her power?” Becca ask, not noticing the woman behind Curtis.
“Well to explain that I have to explain a totally different story.” He answers.
“Your story is all over the place,” I tell Curtis as sweat streams down my face just from being in the presence of this woman.
“I know it is just hard to explain everything that leads up to why I am here with you now, and why I can’t let you go.” He says a little eery, “back in the times of king Arthur, in the time when I was known as Cornell. Arthur tasked the members of the round table with finding four special object. Two were the swords of light, two were the swords of darkness, these blades were created thousands of years ago by the greatest summoners and wizards in the world. Including the likes of Morgiana and Merlin along with Khansu-chan and Siddra rasha himself. Forged in the fire of a dragon's breath the four blades were suppose to be held only by those considered worthy to rule the world, once they were created one blade was given each of the creators who were to find who was worthy of being a king. I believe you have heard of Excalibur the Holy blade of Arthur?” I nod my head, “Well this blade on my back is its sister, the second of the holy blades.” He unsheathes his sword and stabs it into the ground before us. “This blade is immensely powerful and extremely important to my clan and has been by my side since the day I took it from its previous owner. However the sword Excalibur was lost to us many, many years ago, and it is the constant effort of my clan to find it. The two other swords are the direct opposites of the holy swords known as Nether blades.” The woman's eyes glow brighter and seem to radiate power, the sword before me didn’t seem to bother me before but now its mere presence feels as if I am standing next to the sun. “Pesadilla, and the darker more unholy blade known simply as the dark blade.” My feet turn to lead at hearing that name and the woman smiles, I feel lightning burning my insides trying to come out. “You see the while Merlin and Khan Su-chan had good intentions creating the swords, the two others did not. They created Pesadilla and the dark sword to counteract and destroy those holding the other two swords.” The woman starts to bleed from her fingers. “After these events a huge war was waged using the four swords, you may have heard of the fall of Camelot in Arthurian mythology? This was the end of that war, the first never war as it was called because many believed it never happened. As a treaty for the war the 4 clans were formed each dividing into separate parts of the world, each gaining one of the four sword. However Excalibur was lost and I stole the Sword from Magellan, but the other two were passed down as the four original clans disbanded through poor regulation to the four clans there are now, KNRT, The Wuxing order, Andors, and the Dark Summoners.” I concentrate holding in my lightning as the bleeding woman starts to walk towards me with the blood dripping slightly beneath her fingers following behind her. “That brings me back to story with Fema...your mother.” The woman smiles and is now standing directly in front of me her eyes glowing in their crimson horror, her blood dripping down to the floor. She reaches down to touch my face and I find myself standing up and tripping back onto the ground. The woman walks towards me and I try to crawl away but is as if she is keeping me in place. She stands above me, reaching down to cres my face, she leans down and puts her lips next to my ear. I feel the subtlety cold dripping of blood hitting the side of my face and running down my cheek like a cold finger tip. She opens her lips to say something but then see a bright light and open my eyes to see I am sitting by the fire once again. Curtis and Becca have their auras up and have their powers at the ready.
“What is going on?” I ask looking around.
“Just as I thought, it has already began to infect you.” Curtis says sheathing his sword.
“What has infected me?” I say a little concerned. Curtis stops for a minute pointing to the area around me, suddenly I see why they were prepared to fight. The ground around me is scorched with a faint crimson glow, the sand mud seems to be holding an electrical current and one of the shelters we set up is on fire. “I...I-I did that?” I ask.
“A minute or so ago your eyes glowed Crimson and you wouldn’t talk to us. Then lightning start sparking around all around us. I was fine but a strike did...” he trails off a bit looking over at Becca. She seems to be fine but a she is sweating a lot and his trying to contain her pain, there is a burn mark on her side that glows faintly crimson in the moonlight. I stare in horror seeing what I have done.
“Oh my gosh Becca, I--I I...” I try to think of what to say but I am flustered beyond belief as my mind tries to understand the events that just happened.
“I’m fine,” she exclaims putting a hand up to stop me from saying more. “I know it wasn’t your fault, you can’t necessarily control your powers.” She sits down clutching her side. I try to walk towards her but curtis gets there first.
“Stand back Chanel please.” He doesn’t say it rudely, more with a mass amount of sincerity, there is the man who was trying to joke around and enjoy everything anymore, he was now more like a leader, or a dad. He took out his sword and held it infront of his face kneeling next to Becca. He starts to say something under his breath and the sword glows brightly releasing tendrils of light that pierce through the night and enter Becca’s wounds. She wheezes a little bit as the tendrils touch her body, Curtis touches her face, “I am sorry sweetie.” He looks legitimately sad to hurt his daughter in anyway, which speaks volumes of how he feels about his daughter. The light recedes and the burn mark is gone with it Becca’s breath evens out and Curtis puts his sword away. They sit for a second clearly having a moment before Becca comes back to reality and hits Curtis’s hand away.
“Thanks Cornell,” she says half-heartedly. Curtis clearly looks hurt but doesn’t say anything against her. I break through the awkward tension with my own question.
“What happened? What did I do? Why is it crimson?” I ask a little to freaked out at the moment. Curtis sighs.
“That is what I was trying to explain,” he says, “your mother was a member of the dark summoners, the holders of the dark blade, not much is known about what happened but somehow the Dark sword...entered her.” He says in the weirdest way possible.
“Gross,” Becca says with a smile. I laugh a little to break the tension.
“Not like that,” he says glaring at us. “Anyway when we found her in the Dominican her body was rejecting the dark blade that was in her body, but there was no way to get it out. Our first encounter with her she burned down and entire village just by being in it, and there didn’t seem to be anyway to stop her onslaught. However your father was a special type of Andor, he was the only member of the Stormcallers able to control lightning in various ways and forms. He was a great warrior, and an amazing tactician who loved the Andors but...he couldn’t leave her behind. We found out that he could use his ability to neutralize the sword inside of her saving her life in the process, but it wasn’t a one time fix. He decided to betray the Andors and ran away with her and I didn’t see him again till many years later when I met you.” When he says that I remember the dream I saw while I was knocked out after the plane crash.
“When I was born.” He nods then looks at me a little confused.
“How did you know that,” I shrug a bit, and Becca answers for me.
“The Memory barrier is still active in his head,” She says, “It may have broken down at some point after Chammel removed the emotion barrier.”
“OH that's why he’s acting like a sensitive little kid, he doesn’t know how to handle his feelings.” Becca nods her head but I try to object, feeling a little hurt by his words. “Anyhow when I met you as a child your father told me the truth about your situation, along with your brother and sister. You see each of you were Legends but you in particular were...” Curtis stops looking down at my wrist and frowning at my wristlet. “What is that?” I look down and see a faint blue glow from my wristlet and look over to see the same blue light from Becca’s as well. I press the top of the wristlet and see three terrifying words come up over a map of the area,
“They are almost here,” I say.
“No,” a voice says behind me, “We are already here.” I turn looking towards the the right side of the tree line and see the family helmet of two glowing yellow eyes with a yellow cross across the mask, Davis. “Sup Ordinance,” as he says these words he pulls a tiny cylinder from his side that quickly expands into a long staff.
“Davis,” I say holding up my hand trying to protest, I look around me see glowing eyes coming from all around the jungle. The entire Garroter task force is here.
“It’s Battleborn here Ordinance,” he says with the straightest tone of voice I have ever heard from him, “We have a lot to talk about.”
