Chapter 10: Chapter 9: Poison

Mr. Jenkins had arrived promptly the next morning to deliver Xenia to the White House. She was greeted by what seemed like an army of secret service agents along with Master Chief John Washington.

Xenia greeted him with the utmost grace, “Master Chief Washington, it is a pleasure to see you as always. I can breathe easier knowing you are around.”

John nodded and said, “We are happy to welcome you to the White House, you are a sight for our sore eyes, especially given the occasion.” He then waved her over to the side as he said, “If you wouldn’t mind, it is our protocol to screen everyone, without exception, before entering the White House.”

Xenia was happy to comply and stepped to the side. Nero who followed silently and closely behind her also stepped to the side.

Xenia wore a knee length black leather pencil skirt and a rather tight-fitting white buttoned up long-sleeved shirt. John began to pat her down, and it quickly became apparent to him that it would be exceedingly difficult to hide anything within her tight outfit. She then removed her high heels which were scanned; she was allowed to keep her black nylon stockings in place without removing them. After a short process, she was cleared for entry.

Nero was next. The man was so wide that John Washington actually had to walk around him in order to pat him down thoroughly. It was like inspecting the circumference of a tree trunk. John Washington pat Nero’s back and said, “What is this long, metal object I feel?”

Nero removed his jacket to reveal a hidden sword sheathed along his back. Washington eyed the sinister appearing blade that had ki energy radiating from it, and he said, “This will have to stay up front with us if you don’t mind.”

Nero looked to Xenia for the ultimate decision. After all, she knew better than John Washington that this was a prized ceremonial blade for Gladiator Champions, and it had been imbued with ki from Empress Victoria herself. He wasn’t keen to part with the honorable and powerful weapon.

Xenia quickly said, “Would it be okay for Nero to keep the blade and stand guard out here? The blade is a prized weapon in my Empire, and it would be unusual for a warrior of his caliber to part with it willingly.”

Washington nodded and gave orders to his secret service agents via radio, “Princess BloodStar’s Chief of Security, Nero, will be joining the perimeter patrol. Please show him the same respect you would show Princess BloodStar.”

Xenia and John entered the interior of the White House along with a full unit of agents as an escort. It wasn’t long before the group reached a military blast door that occupied an entire wall. John typed in a code and scanned his palm and retinas on a nearby biometric keypad, and the doors began to slowly open as an alarm sounded and an overhead voice warned ‘Please stay clear while doors are in motion’.

The doors finally halted their movement to reveal a large elevator. John turned to Xenia and said, “After you Princess BloodStar.”

She entered the large cargo elevator with metal walls and floor, and the group of agents followed after. They began to descend swiftly what felt like at least tens of stories underground. Xenia couldn’t help but to think to herself, “This is quite remote. They went to a lot of effort to build this. I guess weaker nations must create more reliable defenses.”

The elevator abruptly came to a stop, and the doors opened to reveal what appeared to be an exact replica of the interior of the White House above. The windows even emitted an artificial light as if they were on the surface. John motioned to her, “This way please. I will lead you to the President.”

He made haste as Xenia followed promptly behind. The agents who had been accompanying them stayed back near the elevator prepared to take action if needed.

After several turns and long hallways, John led them to a room filled with portraits of prior presidents. The room had been outfitted as a medical bay, and on the bed before her, Xenia gazed upon a nearly lifeless President on a ventilator to maintain his breathing.

Waiting in the room for her arrival were Senators Davis and Hammond along with Vice President Morrow. Xenia quickly ran over to Senator Davis and said, “Arthur! Thank you again for coming to my gala last night. It meant the world to me!”

He smiled and gracefully responded, “As I said, it was my absolute pleasure to attend.”

She then turned to the other gentlemen and said, “Senator Hammond and Vice President Morrow. A pleasure to meet you both in person at long last. If I’ve learned one thing in my short time in your country, it is that it has strong leaders at the helm.”

They exchanged their graces before Morrow said, “You have not only proven your skill in the healing realm, but you have also shown that it is both safe and quite literally… miraculous.”

Xenia turned to the President lying in bed and asked, “How long has he been sick. What happened if I may ask? It may help as I use my ki to heal him.”

Hammond walked around to the other side of the bed and said, “It started about six months ago. He had weakness in his arms and legs that has shown an insidious progression. After a few months, the weakness spread to his entire body. After five months, the President could no longer breathe from his diaphragm failing to function properly. At six months…” He pointed to the President in bed, “… this is where we stand.”

Morrow continued, “We did not reach this point idly though. We have tried all known Western medicine therapies and medications to either slow, prevent, or cure the spread of his weakness. Diagnostically speaking, I am ashamed to say that we don’t even have a small clue as to the etiology.”

Hammond walked to the foot of the bed nearing Xenia and said, “Princess. We have asked you here to cure him, but we also have another request. Forgive our ignorance but the two requests may yet be the same.”

Xenia nodded, “The goal of our nation’s cooperation is to reduce one another’s ignorance. Please ask me anything you like. I am happy to help in any way possible.”

Hammond grunted and said, “To be frank. We have reason to believe or at least suspect foul play in all of this. His ailment began temporally related to other events. What we would ask, is it possible to both cure him and extract any potential poisons on board, so that we may analyze them for our investigation?”

Xenia maintained a serious demeanor as she said, “That is not a problem. Should I detect anything, I can concentrate it outside the body as I remove it. The healing process will be distracted from though meaning components such as telomere repair in regard to aging and genome repair in cancer prevention will not be fully realized.”

Morrow, Hammond, and Davis all met eyes and nodded in agreement. Morrow turned to Xenia and said, “This is quite acceptable. You have our thanks for being here. You have our trust to treat our President. And you have our bond going forward regardless of this outcome.”

Xenia inwardly loved the sound of his words. She approached the bed and placed her hand on the chest of the President and concentrated her ki aura; however, unlike other times she had healed in the day prior, the ki did not enter via his bloodstream. Instead, the ki outstretched from her hand an enveloped his entire body in a white aura.

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She held the aura in place for nearly a minute before she said, “Ah hah! Found it!” She furrowed her brow as hundreds of small metallic particles began to form a small sphere above the President.

The three men looked on and Hammond let out a hushed, “I knew it!”

Xenia performed this poison extraction for another 5 minutes until she was sure to have it all removed. She then used her ki to move the metallic ball to a specimen container and drop it in. She picked up the container and sealed the lid as she gave it a discerning look.

She rolled it around in the container and examined it for nearly a minute before merely saying, “Hmm.” She then passed the container to Senator Davis and said, “Every last atom of poison has been removed. The President’s body will take approximately 12 hours to restore normal function. After which, he will need another 12 hours to rest. If I may, I would like to see to his good health tomorrow before I leave your great country.”

Morrow nodded and said, “Yes, yes please! The President will want to personally thank you, I am sure of it. You must stop by tomorrow. I insist.”

Hammond meanwhile was inspecting the poison sphere himself now. He shouted, “What is this? Do you have any guesses Princess BloodStar?”

She gave a heavy sigh and said, “I wish I didn’t know. But I am sorry to say that I know exactly what that material is.” She paused and said, “The nature of that material may lead to political instability between another country. I would prefer if you came to your own conclusions on this matter, so I may be uninvolved in any provocation accusations.”

Hammond said, “God damnit. I know what it is then! It’s Carillium isn’t it?”

Xenia was genuinely shocked at the old man’s prowess with his poisonous metals. She even donned a surprised look as she said, “I daresay we have an expert in the room with us. Just how did you come to this conclusion Senator Hammond?”

He put the container in his pocket and said, “Two ways. One. I’ve expected this outcome for some time given the proximity of a Sage Empire dignitary visit only days prior to symptom onset. And two. Quantities of Carillium of this magnitude can only be procured in the Sage Empire. It is an extremely rare and extremely expensive metal to mine even within the Sage Empire.”

What Hammond didn’t tell her is that he also knew the timing of all of this along with the BloodStar’s Empire historical feud with the Sage Empire made for a cosmic display of coincidences. And he didn’t believe in coincidences… which is why what Xenia said next caught him off guard.

She sternly said to him as if to rebuke his semi-accusation of the Sage Empire, “Careful who you point fingers at unless you have more proof than a mere coincidence with a dignitary. This is exactly what someone may want you to think!”

Her tone was that of someone more experienced scolding a younger, less experienced peer. She was polite but also stern enough to get her message across. Hammond thought to himself, “What a truly clever girl. She knew I was suspecting this is all too coincidental, and she had the balls to call me out on it. Gently, but bold nonetheless. She will either be a worthy ally or a challenging opponent in the future.”

Davis had just finished receiving a radio message and said, “This will all be settled in the days and weeks to come.” He looked to Xenia and said, “Can you please use discretion with the knowledge you’ve gained here today, so that we may conduct our investigation and create our policy in response to the events that have transpired?”

Xenia said, “You have my word.” Davis said, “Good.” He then gave a worried look to the others and said, “Let’s all agree to put this aside for the moment then.”

Morrow looked to Davis and said, “Is everything alright?”

Davis shook his head, “No. I’ve just received word that we are under attack on the surface.”

Hammond said, “And who is attacking?!”

Davis drew in a deep breath and said, “…Corvus… the ninth seat of the Karasu Clan.”

The room went deathly silent. No one dared move a muscle as they all tensed up in fear.

The silence was then broken by Xenia who let out a choked laugh as she tried to hold back her full-on laugher. “Corvus? He’s the ninth seat. How dangerous could he be? Karasu himself would be a formidable foe. Possibly even his top seats. But he only holds nine seats total to train with the weakest pupil being the ninth seat.”

Morrow said, “Forgive us Princess BloodStar. Our military, although historically mighty, has some of the weakest ki users when it comes to military force. Our own Master Chief relies on a domain that nullifies ki, so that we may fight on a more even battlefield. He has astounding talent and success when it comes to taking on individuals and small platoons. But even he can’t change the tide of an assault single handedly.”

Hammond nodded, “After our Master Chief, we have around 300 ki users whose power is useful on the battlefield. They are an essential part of our military in today’s modern world, and they are mostly scattered in various squadrons. But as Vice President Morrow says, we are also amongst the weakest in the world when it comes to the number of peak ki users in our own military.”

Xenia nodded as she thought to herself, “This does make sense. Although anyone can technically cultivate ki through martial arts, naturally powerful users of ki are born at a rate of about 1 per 1 million. This means that in a world of a population of about 6 billion, there are approximately 6,000 powerful ki users. Furthermore, about half of these do not participate in militaristic activities either because they are too young or have no interest.”

The United States had a respectable number of ki users in their military when compared to other nations of the world. What they lacked was a true trump card, someone who could stand their own and radiate hope to others as they entered in battle against other ki users.

Xenia raised her hand and gave a carefree motion as she said, “Isn’t that why we are going to be such a worthwhile alliance? Lest you forget, Nero is an amazing ki user. I daresay he could rival the heirs of many Master Families. Possibly even some of the weaker Heads of Master Families.

She outstretched her hand and said, “Give me the radio.”

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