Ascendance

13

My head hurts, fuck. I groaned, trying to ground myself back into reality. There's dried blood on my nose and a few bandages on it. I know because I'm feeling them on my nose. 

"Erika. Erika." A voice says. I try to remember who it belongs to.I recognize it. It's Karenina. She's looking at me strangely and concerned.

"Can you hear me okay?" She asked, blotting my forehead.I look at her, my vision is blurry and my ears are ringing. Oh joy, I have a fucking concussion.

"What happened to them?" I ask, thinking of my squad mates.

"I don't know. I really don't know. I hear and split myself from the squad I was assigned to. I found you lying in your own blood and some cephalopod corpses." Karenina says, looking down. 

"They probably got captured." I say in a bitter tone. I crumple my fists. "They tried to fight back, I bet."

"Probably. You probably have a concussion." She shakes her head. She offers me a bottle of water. I'm thirsty and my head is spinning. 

"Probably. I'm surprised I didn't hurt anything else." I say, trying to stand up.

"It's the vest. The googles probably helped a little." She offered me a hand.I got up slowly. I look at my surroundings. It's a storage room. There's boxes and stuff everywhere. 

"Where are we?" I ask, feeling confused. 

"I found it when I was trying to find a place to put you in. You're been out for three hours but I don't know how long you were there for." Karenina says, staring at the ground. "I did first aid."

"Thanks. But why did you do all of that?" 

"I guess you remind me of myself when I was your age." She spoke sadly. 

"What were you like?" 

"I was a drug addict.I spent my days too high to care about anything. I was only sixteen when I first went to jail. My mom kicked me out the house after I refused to be a child bride to my cousin. I fell in love and that turned out well.  I got pregnant at seventeen. I didn't want a child. I knew I was in no shape to raise or love one." She sighed, looking at me. 

"You were in a terrible place." I say. If this is what Kyra and Karenina's lives were like, I wonder what Brendan's life story is. 

"I was. I stopped for my baby. I got myself to the adoption agency and told them I didn't want my child." Karenina said. "They matched me up with a nice family. The woman had trouble conceiving a second child. They wanted my child. They were godsends. They insisted on paying my rehab, my doctors' bills, and my hospital bill. They got to see my child. I got my shit together and started to finish high school. I got clean. I was starting to regret my choice to give her up for adoption." She pauses and I can see her eyes are watering. "She was so beautiful. She looked like me when I was a baby. I thought to myself, maybe I could change my mind and keep her. But then I doubted myself. What if I relapsed? What if I failed her? I couldn't bear the idea so I gave her up. Bad idea. I relapsed and overdosed on cocaine a few days after her parents picked her up. I got wrapped up in dumb shit and I ended up at the Agency." 

I stood there in shock. I started to piece everything together. My parents had adopted me. My mom wasn't able to keep you, they said. But she wanted us to have you. My mind is working at Karenina's story. I understand. If Karenina was seventeen then and she's thirty nine, about thirty four.....it's been twenty one years.

It finally hits me in a way that hurts way, way worse than my broken nose, my current tension headache or my dry throat. Karenina could be my mother. Then I think back to the similarities in our faces and hair. She is definitely my mother. 

"You're my mother..." I say, feeling overwhelmed by everything. Maybe she was just a nice person but I always felt like there was a reason for her behavior around me. 

"I am. I wish I had said something before." Karenina sighed. "I know you have lots of questions." 

"I do." I look down. "Are you the Diaz parent or.." 

"No, it's your father. But I don't know if he was part of the Agency or not." Karenina looked at me. "I have a feeling that the Leader knows. I'm worried about you." 

The door slams open and I see the cephalopods. I turn my attention and shoot them with my handgun. I kill two before one escapes me and grabs me by the neck. I let out a gasp as it's choking me. I try to grab my other gun but it slaps it out of my hand, snapping the bone back in the process. I can't even scream with me not being able to breathe. I noticed they got Karenina. 

"Don't kill that one. The Leader wants to see her." One of them says to the one holding me. 

"And this one?" One of the ones in octopus form holds her upside down. 

"Just kill her." He says, waving his hand. 

I try to pry myself out. Karenina looks me in the eye. She bends over to her boot and pulls out a knife. She throws it straight into her captor's head and he drops her. 

"Leave my daughter alone!" She runs to the cephalopod as it switches forms to the octopus form. The grip around my throat loosened and I hit the ground. Karenina grabs my gun and shoots it. The alien growls and slaps her to the boxes. She hits the wall, her head snapping back and she folds over, blood coming from her head. 

"Karenina!" I shout. And then I'm hurled to the wall, again. I'm surprised if I don't die. I hit the wall and fall on my face. Frick.