A Touch Of Lightning (COMPLETED!)

Chapter 37 Treacherous Links

The block diagram showed how the labs were trying to breed the children to have the powers of both Flayer and Weaver. Or if that didn't work, trying to find a genetic strain of Flayer that was capable of controlling the entirety of the Flayer power. Alongside that, they were working on Weavers that had some mixture of a Flayers powers but could still exist without one.

The document explained how there were only certain, very unique properties of Flayer and Weavers that were compatible with each other. That if a Weaver was matched up with the wrong Flayer, they either ended up killing each other, or themselves. The document had numbers detailing how many had died, either by suicide, by their powers ripping themselves apart, by experiments, and by the lab guards in self-defense. The numbers were beyond staggering.

Callin was so disbelieving about what he had just learned that he found himself gathering his control, just so he could ask Ahleena more. Perhaps he wasn't truly lost. Perhaps there was still hope. He met her eyes and flinched back from the frigid emptiness howling about within them. And he understood immediately.

He understood her this way, this purely defensive Ninja, so focused she was completely safe from emotions. Safe from the torment of her own memories. Safe from the memory of her childhood.

As he stared in her eyes, he abruptly felt unreasonable fury rise up within. She had put him through this, all of it, guiding him, teaching him, giving up everything for him. Even absorbing the agony of his lashing powers so he could sleep at night, sparing him from waking up covered in blood, in screaming pain as his armor slashed him apart in vain attempt to shield him from nightmare memories. And she never asked for anything in return. In fact, she made sure he wouldn't be able to give anything in return. Every time there was anything that came close to her, she fell into the Ninja, protecting herself, shielding herself, hiding behind the ultimate warrior.

"There is nothing here, is there, Ahleena?" His voice was quiet, yet all the more potent for it.

She blinked, but otherwise showed no emotion.

"There is nothing between us. Not Master and student. Not friends. Not even acquaintances! At least acquaintances know the other exists. And you don't exist. All you are is a puppet front for the Ninja!" He accused, his voice rising with each word. He realized he was on his feet, in a crouch, his power snaking wicked, blue lines around his body from head to toe.

Ahleena was also standing, equally ready, just the smallest of a bone-chilling smile disgracing the corner of her mouth, watching him like a predator about to strike. Watching him with the emptiest eyes he had ever seen.  She still didn't speak, enraging him further.

"You can't even speak to me, can you?! Look at you! You're a shell of a person! Look at you!!! Whatever battle you fought long ago, where your parents died by your own hand, you LOST! YOU LOST!!!!" He screamed, his claws extended so far his fingers poured his blood onto the ground, red marks on the white sand, bearing witness to the agony playing out on the beach.

Ahleena moved. Like a liquid blur, impossibly fast, explosive motion with unerring precision, she darted forward and struck. Her palm-strike connected with the exact center of his chest, transferring incredible force, fracturing his ribs and hurling him bodily across the beach. He bounced off the rock wall and collapsed forward onto his hands and knees, coughing weakly.

Still Ahleena didn't speak, stalking silently toward him. He lifted his head and grinned at her, his mouth a blood filled mess.

"Trying to crush my heart with your hands, Ahleena? You already crushed it, remember?"

The electric blue lines lashing about his body were focused over his chest, snapping and hissing, and Callin could feel his healing power accelerating with it. He bones popping as they straightened out, the fractures sealing shut, torn cartilage stitching back together with gritty crunches. He violently flexed his arms and legs, a sudden move that snapped him to his feet like a cat, perfectly balanced and ready to fight.

Ahleena went sideways, a rolling cartwheel entwined with a twist so that she was ready to fight in any position throughout the move if he attacked. It was Ahleena through and through. Always ready to fight, no matter where she was, no matter how she moved. He paced her, watching, waiting, understanding. The moment her motion stopped, the moment she was standing still, he struck.

Behind her the sand sprayed into the air as hundreds of tiny, bone white tendrils shot up from below, little liquid strips waving like snakes. Bone tendrils that had burrowed out of the bottoms of Callin's feet and under the sand. They were interlaced, a web of glittering white lines emblazoned with brilliant blue sparks.

Ever ready, with instincts and reactions honed to perfection by the cruelest taskmaster, Ahleena ducked forward in an evasive roll. But she wasn't fast enough.  The web followed her movement, dropping down and covering her, wrapping tight, instantly snaring her and pinning her in place.

The very moment she was immobilized, Ahleena struck telepathically. And Callin was ready. Her mental spear flew into an open link in his mind, past any of his defenses, past any of his inhibitions, directly into the nightmare memory of the day he had left Mirage behind at the Lab. The memory that cut him to the core and shook him in its teeth like a helpless rag doll. The worst memory he had. The memory he never wanted to face, never wanted to think about again.

Ahleena was engulfed in the memory, reliving it like she was there, like she was him and going through exactly what he had. And he followed along, using their link to re-live it with her, next to her, shivering uncontrollably the entire time.

She watched as he turned his back and ran. She watched the guilt core him out with every step, etching through his bones and burrowing into his heart, spreading poison everywhere. She watched him rationalize it, watched him logically know he had no choice, but hating himself every step of the way.

And she watched him forge that guilt and hatred into the fortress that he had used to surround his mind. The defense that kept others out...and kept him prisoned within.

She watched herself tear that wall down.

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