Tabbi's POV
I took in every word that Smoke wrote in that small notebook. Being able to read his handwriting was a usually useless skill, but it came in really handy here, obviously. I couldn't help but shed a few tears at the poetry, it really was beautiful. He didn't give himself enough credit for how good at writing he really was.
I had read through almost the whole thing when Kuai came by to check back in on me.
"Feeling a little better?" Kuai asked, as he walked into my room.
"Yeah, a little bit. Kuai, I miss him so much. I wish I could tell him how much I love this," I sighed, as I closed the notebook. "I wanna tell all of them I miss them,"
"I know," Kuai nodded. "It will be okay, Tabbi. I'm sure, wherever the real Smoke is. He knows you love it,"
I could tell that Kuai was really trying his hardest to comfort me.
"Am I stretching too far if I ask you for a hug?" I questioned, tilting my head.
"I...I'm not really one for-" I cut Kuai off by standing up, and giving him a hug anyway. "-hugs..." He finished. He reluctantly hugged me back.
"I'm really glad you're here, Kuai. I don't know what I'd do if I had to go through this alone,"
"I would not let you go through this alone," Kuai pulled away as fast as he could. "I'm going back to bed now. I just wanted to see if you were doing okay,"
"Is it okay if you stay in here with me?"
Kuai hesitated. "If you will feel safer with me in here, I suppose I can,"
"Thank you,"
Kuai nodded. "Anything that I can do to help,"
"If you want, I could sleep on the floor, so you'll be comfortable,"
"No, Tabbi. This is your room. It's your bed. You sleep up there. I'll be fine down here,"
Kuai sat down on the floor, cross legged.
"Are you going to meditate?"
"Yes. And it would be a lot easier if you would stop talking," Kuai replied.
I reached onto my nightstand and pulled out Smoke's poetry again.
"Tabbi, your page turning is loud," Kuai complained.
"Well I'm sorry I'm not Kenshi, I can't move the pages with my mind,"
"It still would not be silent even if you were Kenshi. Just because you would be able to move the page with your mind does not mean I wouldn't hear it,"
I shook my head, and put the book back down on my nightstand.
"Hey, Kuai?"
"What now?" Kuai asked with a sigh.
"Can you teach me how to meditate?"
Kuai sighed loudly again. "Some other time. You should sleep, now,"
"Sleep? Why?"
"Tabbi, we have lots of work to do tomorrow," Kuai opened his eyes and stood up. "Do I need to tuck you into bed to get you to get some rest?"
"No, but it would help," I replied.
Kuai crossed his arms. "Please, Tabbi, go to sleep. You need to be well rested if you'll be helping me lift heavy things tomorrow,"
"Fine, I'll go to sleep. What time will you wake me up?"
Kuai shrugged. "I will wake you up when I wake up,"
"Aw man I'm gonna have to get up at like 4am,"
Kuai set up a bed on the floor. I reached over my nightstand and twisted the knob on the lamp to turn it off.
I rolled over onto my side. I knew Kuai was asleep already, because he started snoring.
How he falls asleep so fast, I'll never know.
I eventually fell asleep too, but it took awhile. And when I did fall asleep, it wasn't enjoyable. What exactly the nightmare was about, I couldn't remember, but I did remember it was about me being a Revenant.
A couple hours into sleeping, I jolted awake. I was sweating, and gasping for air.
Kuai, who was still asleep on the floor, woke up as well.
"Tabbi?" He asked, jumping up. "Are you alright?" He sat down on my mattress, next to me.
"I'm fine...just...just a bad dream," I replied. "Kuai, I'm scared..."
"Why?" He asked, tilting his head.
"What if we can't rebuild? What if we can't recruit other students? What if-"
"Tabbi, you need to calm down," Kuai placed his hand on my arm reassuringly. "We will be alright. I will send the message out to General Blade as soon as I um...figure out how. And we will rebuild. I told you it will take time. Lots of it. But as long as we try, it will happen," Kuai sighed. "Now go back to sleep,"
"No, Kuai, I can't," I shook my head. "Not after that dream,"
Kuai sighed. "Do you uh...need another hug?" He questioned.
"Are you...really offering to hug me?"
"Just do it before I change my mind," he rolled his eyes.
I wrapped my arms around his waist, and his went around mine. He pulled away after a few seconds.
"Good, now?"
"A little better," I shrugged.
Kuai looked at the watch on his wrist. "It's almost 6. We should get to work, actually," He got up off my bed, and and stretched a little. "Let's go,"
I rolled my eyes. "Do we have to?"
"Yes," He crossed his arms. "Now get up. We have a lot of work to do,"
I got up and made my bed. "What are we doing first?"
"We need to clean up. Starting outside," Kuai offered. "or, we can find a way to send a message to General Blade,"
"We could go up to the village and use a phone there?" I asked.
"Good idea. You go do that, and I will start the clean up. Come straight back when you find an answer,"
I nodded. Kuai walked out of my room, so I could change.
"Be careful, please," Kuai sighed after I was done getting dressed. "If there is any trouble at all, tell me, and I will speak with the head villager,"
"You mean the mayor?"
"Sure," Kuai shrugged.
I crossed my arms. "I'll be back in a little bit,"
It had been a long time since I'd been to the local village, and it was very weird being there after having been gone so long. It was hardly a village anymore. It looked more like a town.
There was a man standing next to what looked like a payphone, looking very upset.
"Sir, may I use the phone?" I asked.
The man stepped aside. "Yes, but be quick. I need to be back on the phone with my lawyer as soon as possible," he crossed his arms.
"Um...do you have any change I could borrow?"
The man sighed, and reached into his pocket, handing me a few coins. "You don't have to pay me back, it wasn't much,"
"Thank you," I put the change into the phone, and dialed the number Sonya had given us.
"Hello?" It was Johnny who picked up.
"Hey, Johnny, it's Tabbi. Can you put Sonya on the phone?"
Johnny sighed. "No, I can't, because she's not here. What do you need?"
"Kuai and I need to contact people about joining the Lin Kuei. We need help. Is there any way you and Sonya could spread the word out?" I asked.
"Maybe. Could you come back in a little bit and I'll tell you if we figure something out?"
"Yeah, of course. I'll talk to you later. What time should I come back?"
"Maybe 2pm,"
"Okay, bye, Johnny," I hung up the phone.
"Did I hear you right?" The man standing next to the phone asked. "You're a Lin Kuei?"
"Yeah..." I trailed off. "Something wrong with that?"
"No, no. It's just that I haven't seen any Lin Kuei around here in a very long time. I'm pretty sure the last time a Lin Kuei was here, a massacre happened,"
I crossed my arms. "Well I can assure you that I'm not like that,"
"Are you kidding? Lin Kuei are mercenaries. No shit, you're all like that. The last time your kind was here, half of our town was murdered. Your clan needs to answer for your actions. I'm calling the police station,"
My eyes widened. "Shit!" I tried running out of the town as fast as I could.
"Hey, get back here!"
When I turned to look behind me, there was a whole group of people following me. "Fuck. Shit, no!"
After about 5 minutes of running, I was back at the temple. The only bad thing was, I took about 50 people there with me.
"Kuai!" I yelled. "Help!"
Kuai, who's back was turned to me, jumped and turned around. "What's-"
"The town freaked when they found out I was Lin Kuei!"
"You killed half of our people!" A man in the crowd yelled.
"Everybody calm down!" Kuai shouted.
"Calm down? Our people are dead because of you!" A woman retorted. "You're insane if you think we're calming down!"
"Just calm down, we can work this out,"
"Stop it!" One man, out of the crowd seemed to have the most power. He was most likely the mayor of the town, at least I'd assumed he was. "May we have a talk about this? All of you need to go back to your homes. Now. I will deal with the problem,"
They all listened, which surprised both me and Kuai, the huge crowd of people, apart from the man who commanded them, turned back and went back to town.
"I'm Mayor Waters," The man bowed. "You must be the Grandmaster,"
"I..." Kuai shrugged. "I suppose I am now. I'm Grandmaster Sub-Zero," Kuai held his hand out, and the mayor shook his hand.
"And this must be your wife,"
"No," Kuai replied. "This is Tabitha. My second in command,"
"Ah, I see," Mayor Waters nodded. "I want to apologize for the actions of my people, though, they are justified. Members of your clan came into my town, and slaughtered my people,"
Kuai and I shared a look of confusion. "How long ago?" Kuai asked. "If this was recently, then I apologize for the actions of my people,"
The mayor sighed. "This happened last year. The people who came here, are the only people we have left,"
"What did they look like? The Lin Kuei who came here? What did they look like?" Kuai questioned.
"They were robotic. I assumed all of the Lin Kuei had gone through cyberization. Apparently, not,"
"Then, that wasn't us," Kuai replied. "Tabitha and I were not...a part of the Cyber Lin Kuei. We are working on disarming the Cyber Lin Kuei. But first, we need to rebuild here," Kuai paused, to take a breath. "And, we can't do it by ourselves. The only reason Tabitha went into your town was to talk to a contact in America about spreading the word out,"
"I promise, I wasn't trying to start a town wide freak out," I nodded. "I'm sorry I started this,"
"No," Kuai shook his head. "Don't apologize. I can't control the actions of the Cyber Lin Kuei. Therefore there is nothing for us to apologize for. You must turn back to your town. I want no business with you," He crossed his arms.
Mayor Waters nodded. "I understand. My people won't bother you again, so long as you stay out of my town,"
"Wait, I need an answer back from Johnny. He told me to come back at 2:00 so I could get an answer," I said, in a small panic.
"Do not worry," mayor Waters sighed. "I will have someone give you the message. I suppose I will head back now. Goodbye, Grandmaster," He bowed, and went the other way.
I let out a long sigh. "Kuai, I'm so sorry, I didn't think-"
"It's alright, Tabbi. You couldn't have known they'd freak out," Kuai crossed his arms. "If anything I am not angry at you. I'm angry at them,"
I nodded. "I just feel like it's all my fault. If I'd been quieter or-"
"Please, stop," Kuai sighed. "I told you, I'm not angry with you. It isn't your fault. Now, we have more things to take care of. Let's get back to work,"
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Time skip
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At this point, a few months had passed. The temple was pretty cleaned up, and we had more students than we could've hoped for. Things were really starting to look up for us. Until we had to face our enemies.
We had been preparing for this day for a while. Today would be the day that the Lin Kuei clan takes back it's honor, and destroys it's enemies. Sektor was going down.