9. Nine

Nine

Kira - Somewhere else

The rift spat Kira out in the same manner in which she entered. Tumbling backwards, ass over tea kettle like the newbiest of novices. As if she hadn’t spent nearly every day of the past 92 years training to be the biggest threat in the room.

Her back hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of her. Dots of black ate at her vision. Her stomach heaved.

Don’t throw up. Don’t you dare throw up.

That would be the cherry on top of this sundae of spectacular failure.

Pallas sauntered out of the rift while she was still trying to get her bearings. "I was expecting more from that ship of yours. It’s a tiny bit run down. Somewhat lacking as a flagship of House Roake’s heir. What’s the matter, Nixxy? Your house experiencing financial difficulties?"

"Pallas," Kira snarled.

The world heaved as she flipped onto her stomach. Kira was forced to stop and breathe lightly through her nose as the motion set the world to spinning.

Fuck spatial dislocation and her idiot brother. Tuann teleportation devices didn’t cause this kind of reaction.

No. This awfulness was limited entirely to the use of Pallas’s messed up little ability.

"Is it because they don’t support your suicide mission? Is that why they half assed your ship’s retrofit?"

Kira tuned Pallas out, his babble a low drone as she pushed herself upright. Devastation settled slowly over her at finding herself no longer on the Wanderer. Or any ship for that matter.

Stone walls had replaced metal ones. The floor she knelt on was made from the same material. The chamber was massive. Not something you’d find on a ship in space.

Its architecture wasn’t of human design. Not Tuann either.

This place felt old. And abandoned. Dust had accumulated on the floor and stairs, disturbed by Kira and Pallas’s arrival.

Three steps as wide as the room’s length led up to a landing. Beyond it was a giant door that seemed almost narrow given the breadth of the rest of the space.

"What the fuck did you do?" Kira’s question was spoken in a low tone. Her manner outwardly calm.

Pallas pointed at his chest in fake surprise. "Me?"

Kira stared.

His hand dropped. "I thought you’d be more grateful."

"Grateful?" The word was almost a hiss. "You kidnapped me!"

He’d taken her from her ship. She was alone. Against the greatest trial she’d ever faced. On a planet whose location she didn’t know the first thing about.

"You ruined everything! I had a team. A plan. And now it’s gone."

He didn’t even look sorry.

A deranged smile played on his face as he watched her meltdown. As if he found all this vastly amusing.

Should she just kill him?

Tempting.

Except the last time she’d tried, it didn’t exactly end well for her. Three broken ribs. A shattered wrist. And so much internal bleeding the doctors were surprised she survived.

The only thing that had soothed her wounded ego was that Pallas had been in equal if not worse condition.

Pallas’s smirk grew predatory. Practically goading her. Dancing on her last nerve. Tip tap. Tip tap.

"Someone is feeling spicy." Pallas pretended to shiver. "Go ahead. You know you want to."

"Don’t push me," Kira warned.

"What’s the matter, Phoenix? Afraid? How do you expect to accomplish anything if you’re pissing yourself right out of the gate?"

The last thread controlling her anger snapped. Rage roared to the forefront of her brain.

Kira launched herself at Pallas, her hand withdrawing the sheathed akieri blade that had once belonged to her father. A flex of her ki and the blade unfolded, the pieces snapping together with a snick that made her soul sing. Almost as much as the glowing lines that riddled the length of the metal. Like fine cracks on an egg’s surface.

Pallas threw his head back as he shouted with laughter. It stopped a second later. His smile insane. "Finally."

Kira slashed the akieri at him. "Fucking psycho."

He was just as unhinged as Kira remembered. Normal people didn’t seek out constant battle.

Pallas watched the blade getting closer and closer, doing nothing. Only at the very last second did he shift backwards. Just enough to let the blade whistle past his nose.

"I’ve been looking forward to this," he informed her, his expression orgasmic. "You have no idea how much."

Kira reversed her slash, aiming the blade at his eyebrow and the stupid piercing winking at her there. "You talk too much."

A black shield blocked Kira’s attack. Her arms shook with the force of the collision, the reverberation reaching all the way to her shoulders.

"Shall we dance, little sister?" Pallas taunted.

"I thought we already were."

Pallas’s smile broadened. His wrist flexed. The whip he’d had concealed in his hand shot out, the end wrapping around the hilt of Kira’s akieri. "Then let’s get rid of this."

The sword was ripped out of Kira’s grip. The blade remained for a brief instant before the lack of ki caused it to collapse back into itself. The hilt fell, clattering against the stone.

"We wouldn’t want another accident," he said meaningfully.

Pallas tossed his whip away, holding up his hands to show he was unarmed.

"Fine by me."

Kira preferred it this way anyway.

She punched him in the face. The sight of blood spurting satisfying in a way that should have concerned her. What did it say about her that she got off on causing harm to another living creature?

Then again, his chortle as he wiped away the blood under his nose was worse.

Kira snapped a kick at his chest. "Fucking crazy asshole."

He took it without even flinching, his grunt the only indication she’d connected.

"My turn," he said with a bloodstained smile that should have warned her.

It was like something exploded as Pallas went on the offense. Kira was forced to retreat, taking a blow to her cheekbone. The second to her sternum.

She ducked, barely avoiding a backhand to the face.

"More!" Pallas screamed.

Kira turtled in on herself, using her arms and fists to protect her core and face, unable to cope as Pallas rained blows down on her.

"Is that all you’ve got?"

Kira erected a shield as he hammered at her defenses. It collapsed less than a second later.

"Gonna have to do better than that," Pallas called.

Kira sidestepped his next charge, wrapping ki around her fist and then sinking it into his stomach. His breath exploded out of him as he folded forward.

"How’s that?" Kira snarled.

She hammered a fist into the back of his head.

Or at least that was her plan.

Pallas vanished, a cocoon of black energy enveloping him before it, and he, disappeared.

Kira whirled, her guard up to protect her from what she knew was coming. Only his attack didn’t land from the direction she anticipated. It came from the side.

She had an instant to push ki out of that side of her body then Pallas was on her. He lifted her and threw her across the room.

Kira hit the ground and rolled.

Pallas barreled toward her as she fought to her feet. Two hundred plus pounds of pure muscle belonging to a sadistic madman.

Kira braced, only having time to think that this was really going to hurt. Then Pallas was on her.

The next few seconds were a blur. Kira a fury of fists and teeth as Pallas egged her on.

"That is enough!"

There was a clap like thunder as Pallas and Kira were shoved apart. A sheet of pure ki descended between them.

Kira panted, catching her breath. She was in a box. A prison. Temporary but a prison nonetheless.

Curious, she knocked her knuckles against the wall in front of her. It felt real. Solid.

No matter. She could break it. She just didn’t want to waste her energy was all. Instead, she’d be magnanimous and leave it standing. At least until she got bored.

"Are you two children? What is wrong with the both of you?" Selene demanded, descending the steps to stalk across the room toward them.

Her sister’s heart-shaped face was creased in a thunderous frown. The serenity that normally defined her personality missing. Her expression was all exasperation and frustration as she glared at the two she’d separated with her soul’s breath.

Pallas didn’t acknowledge her presence, pondering the smear of red on his fingertips as if he’d never seen his own blood before.

Selene made an aggravated sound as she switched her attention to Kira. "What were you thinking?"

Selene had not just asked her that.

"Are you blind?" Kira threw her arms out to indicate their surroundings. "Look around us, Selene. At where we’re standing. You kidnapped me. Off my ship. During a rescue mission. A rescue mission aimed at saving Elena. You tell me what I should be thinking right now."

Selene sent Pallas a horrified look. "Tell me you didn’t."

"She needed an extraction. I gave her one."

"I had a ship. A crew. Allies. How the fuck do you expect me to do anything now?"

Because the forty three sure as hell weren’t going to help her. Kira had been down that road before. She’d be lucky if they stayed out of her way long enough for her to accomplish anything.

She’d be alone. Against a planet of her enemies. No back up. No plan. Nothing.

Buzzing filled the space. Like a thousand insects swarming together.

Sparks flickered from the spot where Pallas’s rift had deposited them earlier.

"That’s impossible," Pallas snarled.

The air parted. A black slash opening as a figure leapt out of the void. He landed in a crouch.

"Graydon," Kira gasped.

Pallas stared at the emperor’s Face with an expression Kira had never seen on her brother’s face before. An emotion somewhere between repulsion and fascination.

"Pallas, how did this happen?" Selene asked, the intrusion leaving her unsettled.

She wasn’t quite hostile. Yet. But Kira could see on her face what they were all thinking. That the forty three were not going to like this. Not one tiny bit.

At least, they’d blame Pallas this time.

Pallas shook his head, his expression locked down tight.

Kira stared at him in dawning realization. "You can’t explain, can you? You don’t know how he followed you."

How delightful. If she didn’t already love Graydon, this would have changed her mind. Any man who could get the best of Pallas deserved her esteem. If only so she could worship at the altar of his greatness.

"It’s not possible," Pallas hissed in a rare loss of control.

That was the thing about Pallas. As psychotic as he was, he never reacted from an emotional level. Everything he did came from cold, hard reason. And piss poor impulse management.

"He looks awful real to me," Kira observed as Graydon prowled toward her.

He looked her over, his gaze lingering on her split lip. The bruises already forming on her cheek and under her eye from the blows Pallas managed to land.

"You didn’t actually think after that stunt in the palace that we wouldn’t come up with countermeasures, did you?" Graydon taunted, his expression slightly murderous as he glanced at Pallas. "Naive."

Kira released a puff of air. Finally. Someone crazier than Pallas.

Jin would have loved this.

She aimed a resentful look at the J1N puttering around the ceiling. He’d been circling since their arrival, his ’eye’ aimed at the ground.

Graydon glanced at Selene. "We meet again, Lady. It’s good to see your condition has improved."

Selene dipped her chin in a respectful nod. "Thank you."

They each looked up at the man who’d appeared on the stair landing at some point during the chaos.

He was tall and lean with wire frame glasses that made him seem more harmless than he actually was. He looked like a scholar. Maybe a professor of some kind. The cut of his clothes did a good job of hiding the muscular physique that would have called that illusion into question.

"How is it that you both have more brawns than brains?" Alexander asked Pallas and Kira in a crisp voice.

"Fuck off," Pallas informed him, echoing Kira’s sentiments exactly.

Alexander’s expression tightened, his shoulders rising and falling as he fought for control.

"If you wouldn’t mind releasing this," Graydon said to Selene, tapping the shield that held Kira captive.

Pallas sneered. "What’s the matter? You can’t handle something this simple?"

In a movement almost too fast for the eye to follow, he slashed a hand across Selene’s ki shield. It collapsed, dissipating as Pallas stepped out of the cage.

"I could, but I didn’t want to be rude." Graydon bowed an inch in Selene’s direction, his manner respectful but not subservient.

"You’re acting childish," Selene informed Pallas.

He rolled his eyes, not responding as he stalked up the stairs. His path intersected with Alexander.

"Move," Pallas growled when the other didn’t shift to allow him passage.

"There’s plenty of room. Go around."

The two men faced off. Pallas on the step below. Alexander looking down at him with a superiority that would have made Kira want to smack him if she’d been in Pallas’s place.

"Pallas," Selene rebuked.

Kira watched in fascination as the men stared each other down, their hostility thick enough to strangle. Admittedly, she and Jin hadn’t spent much time around the forty three since becoming adults so she didn’t know if this level of antagonism was normal for them.

A boom from the chamber beyond the door ended the face off.

"Next time." Pallas shoved his shoulder into Alexander’s as he moved past the other.

"Charming bunch," Graydon observed.

"You have no idea," Kira muttered, stepping out of the cage as soon as Selene dropped the walls.

Graydon probed the wound on Kira’s cheek. "He got you good."

She winced, avoiding his touch. "He has a habit of doing that."

The skin over Graydon’s features went tight.

Kira caught his hand before he could do anything unwise. As dangerous as he was, the forty three were united. Any threat against one was a threat against all. Even Graydon would have a hard time against such odds.

"Explain what’s going on, Selene," Kira ordered as her sister came up to stand beside them.

"I can’t," Selene confessed. "Pallas’s orders were to check on your condition and facilitate an extraction in the event you were being held against your will. He was never supposed to kidnap you."

"Looks like someone didn’t get the memo," Kira muttered.

Typical Pallas. The man was a loose cannon, way worse than Kira had ever hoped to be.

At least she’d never kidnapped anyone.

Except that one time with Odin. But those were extenuating circumstances.

"There’s something else going on," Selene said with a shake of her head.

Kira’s gaze caught on her, finally registering the uncertainty that Selene was trying to hide. There was apprehension on Selene’s face.

"What do you mean?" Kira asked.

Selene wet her lips, her gaze darting up to find Alexander before she looked back at Kira. "They’re here."

Kira’s forehead creased. "How many?"

"All of them."

Kira rubbed her eyebrow in confusion. That was different. The forty three rarely gathered in force. They considered it too dangerous.

No wonder Selene was on edge.

"Does Alexander know what they want?" Kira asked.

Selene shook her head. "No."

The forty three didn’t follow a strict hierarchy in the same way the Tuann or even certain factions of the Consortium, like the military, did. It was probably a consequence of their upbringing. Their ability to follow orders from anyone not themselves as poor as Kira’s own.

While there were no technical leaders, there were those whose opinions and voice carried more weight.

Alexander was one of them. His role more like that of an elder than a leader. Selene would be too if she hadn’t turned herself into a practical hermit to keep the children’s existence a secret from the forty three.

Except for Selene, Elise, and Alexander, Kira didn’t have much cause to meet with the rest of the forty three. Pallas was more of an enemy than a friend. The others she’d encountered every now and then, but most gave her a wide berth when they came across her. The only things she really knew about them were what she remembered of them as children.

For them to exclude one of the few people Kira had significant contact with from their decision making process was a concerning development. Particularly when she was about to walk into a room with them.

"They’re forming factions," Kira noted softly.

She never thought she’d see the day. They’d always been so united.

Selene seemed as troubled by that prospect as Kira.

"What do they want?"

"I don’t know," Selene confessed.

Kira looked up to find Alexander watching them closely. If she didn’t know better, she’d say she and Selene weren’t the only ones worried.

"Kira," Selene called, the soft ache in her voice making Kira still.

She could see the guilt that haunted Selene. The question of ’what if’ likely keeping her up at night. Maybe she could have prevented this, she’d tell herself. If only she’d been there.

That was the thing, though. The past didn’t change just because you wanted it to. The only thing guilt accomplished was wearing you down and destroying your soul.

"I want to go with you," Selene confessed.

Of course, she did. She’d raised Elena when it was too dangerous for Kira to do so. Her protective nature and sense of responsibility were why Kira had entrusted her with Elena in the first place.

"No."

"She’s my niece too," Selene choked out. "For the first time in an eternity, I wish to rampage. To be the monster our masters created me to be."

"That’s exactly why you can’t come."

Once you went down that path, it was so hard to come back from it. Selene wasn’t like Kira. She had vulnerable lives counting on her. How would she offer them the softness they deserved if she was mired in darkness?

"Elena needs something to come back to. That’s you."

If Kira and the rest didn’t make it, Selene was her back up plan. She’d be there to step in if the worst came to pass.

Kira met her gaze fully. "Protect yourself and the rest of the children. That’s how you help."

Selene’s composure cracked. A tear rolled down her cheek, only to be dashed away a second later.

"Very well. As you wish." Selene jerked her chin in an acknowledgment, stalking up the stairs and past Alexander without another word.

"What was that about?" Graydon asked with a penetrating stare. As if he was trying to peel her layers back to see what was beneath.

"Oh, that’s right."

He didn’t know. At least not all of it. He’d been apprised of the fact Selene was the caretaker for an orphanage but not where all those children had come from. Selene’s contacts would have whisked the children away before any investigation could be launched.

Finn must not have told him either. Kira was a little impressed at her oshota’s discretion. Loyalty like that was hard to find. Particularly when it touched on a species-wide trauma.

"There are more children in Selene’s care than just Elena," Graydon guessed.

"That’s why I like you, Graydon. You catch on quick."

There was a time when she’d also hated that about him.

"I was under the impression the forty three were the only ones to survive," Graydon said slowly.

"That’s what they tell themselves," Kira allowed.

"And the truth?"

"In reality, there were many other camps like the one we escaped from."

Graydon seemed to expand, his anger making him appear larger. "You mean there are more of our children out there."

"That remains to be seen," Kira answered.

Though she was almost certain there were. She’d caught traces of them a time or two. Nothing definitive. Just enough that she had her suspicions.

Apparently, the Tuann had troublemaker stamped all the way down to their genes.

"It would be more accurate to consider the children Selene was referencing as their offspring," Kira said, watching him carefully.

These were secrets she had killed to keep. The children weren’t like the forty three. They were less Tuann—and more other. Where the Tuann might accept the extra bits and bobs in their own child’s genetic makeup, they might not be so magnanimous with those created later.

Graydon’s face went carefully blank.

There it was. He’d caught on to what she was saying.

"The emperor would protect any child of Tuann bloodline. No matter how minute the traces or what else had been added," Graydon said.

Kira released the breath she was unconsciously holding.

That was good. Very good. Graydon wouldn’t say something unless he believed it down to the core of his being.

"He might—but what about the other Houses?"

The emperor was one thing. The Houses another.

As honorable as Kira had come to see the Tuann, there were still several things about their society that gave her pause. Their obsession with bloodlines and lineage among them.

Graydon’s expression was careful as he nodded. "That is always a possibility, but there is still room for a middle ground. Torvald, at least, would protect them. I would stake my life on it."

Kira relented, giving him a truth that she had only shared with a very few. "I can tell you I’ve never met another survivor, but I do know our camp wasn’t the only one. Jin and I found evidence of others. By the time we visited though, they’d been shut down. I don’t know what happened to the subjects."

She hoped they’d escaped.

"The children in Selene’s care are likely the descendants of the forty three and those in the other camps."

"This is what you and Jin have been doing all this time."

Kira nodded. "In addition to searching for the Tsavitee home world and Elise."

Graydon studied her carefully. "Every time I think I’ve found all there is to love about you, you show me otherwise."

Kira’s gaze caught on his tender expression, the affection and love in it making her stomach flutter.

She cleared her throat, glancing at the stairs where Alexander was still waiting. "Since they brought me all this way, I suppose I should see what they want."

Though she didn’t want to. Her patience for the forty three’s games was at an end. Had been for a long time.

Graydon patted her back in silent support. His presence a steadying influence as she started for the steps.

"He should remain here," Alexander warned as they reached him. "They won’t like that you brought him."

"I’ll let you be the one to tell him that," Kira said, side-stepping Alexander.

If he could make the emperor’s Face remain behind, she’d stand on her head and sing the Consortium’s anthem backwards.

Graydon offered Alexander a genial smile that didn’t soften the stone cold stare that came with it. "Where she goes, I go. Was I not clear in my earlier actions?"

Kira snickered lightly, unsurprised when Alexander was the first to back down. He turned on his heel, stalking through the mammoth door.

"Your siblings seem to be a little hard headed," Graydon observed.

"You could say that again."

Kira tilted her neck back to look up at Graydon. Once upon a time, his cockiness had made her semi-homicidal. Who would have ever thought there would come a day when that arrogance was used for good?

"You should be honored. You’re the first outsider to ever meet all of them face-to-face like this,” Kira teased.

"Oh, I am. You can’t imagine how hard my heart is beating with gladness."

Kira snickered as she took the lead, entering the same door her siblings had disappeared through. They walked through a short hallway, entering a large, circular chamber that reminded her of the ruins of a colosseum.

Most of the roof was missing, allowing moonlight to stream onto the floor. Its soft light cast the majority of the audience stands into shadow.

She stopped in the center of the room, carefully studying the darker shadows sitting in the tiers above.

"The forty three," she told Graydon softly.

The first people she’d cared about. And the ones who’d never forgiven her for choosing Jin over them.

Petty bastards.

Sensing her anger, Graydon’s hand slipped into hers, the rough calluses on his palm oddly comforting. "You don’t have to talk to them if you don’t want to. Fighting our way out of here is always an option."

One side of Kira’s lips tugged up. "Shouldn’t you be ecstatic to meet the Tuann’s long lost children?"

"You forget—I’m not here in my capacity as the emperor’s Face."

Ah, yes. That’s right. He was here as her shield.

"Don’t tell me. Is this him?" a woman declared excitedly, her voice seeming to come from everywhere.

Graydon dropped Kira’s hand, his en-blade appearing in his palm as he went on the alert.

A woman appeared, crouched on thin air directly in front and above them. She balanced on her toes, seemingly on nothing. Her face was painted with heavy, theatrical makeup that obscured her features. Except for her eyes which were wide and fascinated as she focused on Graydon.

Kira caught Graydon’s arm. "Don’t react."

From the looks of things, the forty three had decided to test Graydon. Kira remembered it from her times in the camp. It’s what they did on the rare occasion someone new entered the group.

They were learning his limits. What made him tick. What made him angry.

"They won’t hurt me."

Though there was that one time they’d broken her arm. And her leg.

"I’m reasonably sure they won’t," Kira added.

Graydon gave her a look as if to ask if she was kidding.

Kira shrugged. "They’re unpredictable."

"Don’t tease the poor man. The Tuann aren’t known for their humor." The woman lay on her stomach in the air, her knees bent and her feet kicking lightly behind her. "Of course, we’re not going to kill you. We went to a lot of trouble to invite you here."

The woman paused, her smile growing until she was grinning as wide as a jester. "At least we won’t kill you today."

"Keep messing with him, Thea. I’ll let him do what he wants," Kira threatened.

It was one thing for Kira to stay Graydon’s hand. Another to listen to this woman taunt him.

"Don’t play with strangers, Thea," someone called from the stands. "You don’t want to be contaminated with their madness."

Thea pretended to be horrified, theatrically pressing her hands to her mouth and quailing away from them.

"No wonder you pretend they don’t exist," Graydon said to Kira, not taking his eyes off the other woman. "I’d avoid them too."

Thea dropped all pretenses, revealing the cold blooded killer that was inside. "Careful, puppet. We won’t kill her, but you’re not so safe."

Graydon looked delighted at the threat. "Give me a reason to act. I beg you. Your head is currently only still attached to your body out of consideration for Kira."

The silky tone in his voice had alarm shooting through Kira. It seemed he’d done a very good job of hiding his rage. To the point where she’d thought he’d let slide what Pallas had done.

Instead, he’d been suppressing it. And now it was leaking through. Just itching for a target.

"Enough, Thea," a man rumbled from the shadows gathered at the base of one of five statues guarding the top of the wall. Haldeel warriors all of them. Their implacable expressions conveyed solemnity and expectation. As if they were waiting for those below to prove something to them.

Their presence answered part of the question of where they were. Haldeel territory. The oubliette they were standing in was evidence of that. It was a sacred proving ground that the Haldeel once used for combat and judgment. It had largely fallen out of fashion in the past thousand years or so, to be replaced by the quorum and games like the stratagem.

The oubliettes still existed though. Mostly on planets that had been in the empire for a long time.

Occasionally, challengers still appeared, but it was rare.

A hushed somberness pervaded the space. An almost holy feeling imbuing the atmosphere.

Kira scanned the statue, noting the Haldeel armor it wore. A more ancient version of what she was used to. The distinctive paneled skirt allowed for free range of movement for the eight prehensile appendages that made up the warrior’s lower half. A spear-like weapon similar to the trident they used in current times was held in their hands.

As fascinating as the peek into Haldeel history was, it was the man standing at the statue’s base that drew Kira’s attention.

Her eldest brother. Her personal nemesis. And the man who while not officially recognized as the forty three’s leader, certainly acted like he thought he was.

"Hello, Ryan," Kira said, focusing on the place where she knew he was standing. "I take it I have you to thank for involving Elena in my business."