Chapter 20: Chapter 6: The Shield Of Earth (WILL BREAK INTO PARTS SOON)

The first thing Zavier noticed was the throbbing headache. On a normal morning he would just roll over and bury his head into his pillow. He instinctively began to roll over to follow this routine and immediately stopped as dull pain radiated from his right shoulder. The pain served as a jolt to wake him up. His body was not in good shape. He was lying on a cot in a pitch black room. His right arm was elevated above him and in a brace. As he moved his facial muscles around he could feel the tension in his face was some serious scars. It was going to take some courage to face a mirror in the next few weeks. The other noticeable thing was how tired he was. He had just woken up from a pretty long rest and he probably needed another one. I can’t do that right now. He was in a lot of pain, but his mind was racing with questions. The one thing he needed was light in this room. To be able to see and look around would help as getting his bearings physically would put him in a place to frame what had happened to him recently. His life, his parents, his school, his job, and May strangely felt like a distant memory despite him only being twelve waking hours removed from Yafu showing up in his room. It had to have been the shell shock of the events, if he could figure out a way to return to his normal schedule and put this behind him it might soon feel like a fever dream. He definitely would need more than a reciprocating twelve hours to get past the single wildest day in his life, but he could definitely feel the same as he did before in time even if the earth shattering events would almost never leave his thoughts for the rest of life.

The first step to this was figuring out where he was. The second thought he had was eventually explaining the injuries he suffered to his parents. Zavier scowled to himself as he realized he would have to get his car away from the old hotel as soon as possible. It would be unpleasant if he had it there after the damages that were done. He wanted no link for the police to follow to him when they investigated what would appear to be incredibly destructive vandalism. This goal put a premium on speed. Despite this urgency, he didn’t feel comfortable moving in the dark. He needed to alert the staff of whatever hospital he was at that he was awake.

“Hey.” Zavier said very quietly into the black, feeling like a bit of an idiot. Doubling down due to a lack of other options and a touch of impatience Zavier called out again this time a little louder. He laid there quietly for another few seconds before he heard footsteps on his right and the door creaked open. Bright sunlight raced across the room as the swinging door let more and more of it in. Wherever he was, it was the middle of the day. Not a good sign considering he went out around sundown. Zavier finally got a good look at the room he was in. It looked like an unfinished basement. He sat in a plain wooden bed with his arm hooked into a makeshift cast that was elevated by a rope nailed to the ceiling. The bed was the only furniture in the room besides a small wooden chair in the opposite corner of the door. The floor was gray stone and the walls appeared to be some type of plain white drywall, Zavier really couldn’t tell exactly what material was used. It was not a modern room and he was not in any hospital he was familiar with. Strolling into the room was the same woman from the hotel room. She was dressed in a thick fur coat and plain brown pants. Hardly the attire for summer in the Pacific Northwest. Seeing her finally jogged the rest of Zavier’s memory of what had happened particularly right before he had blacked out. His thoughts on getting his car away from the hotel now seemed foolish and unimportant in the short-term. The more pressing matters were Yafu and who this woman was.

The woman walked over to Zavier silently and reached for the rope holding his arm up. Fiddling with it for a brief second she unlatched and slowly released her grip, giving Zavier time to bring his arm gently to his side. The feeling in his shoulder was not pleasant but being able to rotate it downwards was probably a good medical sign for his recovery.

“It’s separated and you had a fracture in the humerus. I would not move much for now.” the woman spoke in a quiet distant tone.

“My friend, he was at the hotel with me, is he-”

“My teacher will be coming in shortly, answer his questions honestly before asking you own,” the woman interrupted. Zavier did not have the strength to protest. He stayed silent as the woman filed out, leaving the door open enough to keep the room from going dark. Zavier sat there staring blankly at the plain white wall in front of him for about ten minutes before the door opened again.

This time a man appearing to be in his late thirties walked in. He was about the same height as Zavier with short brown hair and a 5 o’clock shadow beard that wrapped around his rounded face. He was clearly in good shape but had a bit of a frail look to him. His eyes were a dull hazel. He was wearing the same clothes that the woman had been wearing before. Once again it was very strange to see someone decked out in full winter gear in the middle of April. The man kept his eyes focused on the chair as he pulled it in front of Zavier’s bed and sat down.

He then made eye contact with Zavier and spoke, “Zavier Trippett, of the United States. More specifically the state of Washington.” His monotone and gruff voice was very unpleasant to listen to. “You’re eighteen years old, are you not?”

“Yes.” Zavier replied. He would give his best effort to answer this man's questions in an efficient manner so that he may ask his as soon as he could.

“Eighteen years on this planet and we are only now just meeting.” the man said with an exasperated smirk. “You wouldn’t believe how incredible that is.”

“I guess not.” Zavier replied, still keeping his answers as concise as he could.

“Zavier, I protect this world from outside threats. Interlopers who would come here with powers that would make them the most dangerous people this world has ever seen. It is my life’s work to keep them away from our planet. The spell you saw Shen perform is the only way to reach this planet from theirs and it only works to transport people to where there is another user of spirit energy. An anchor, so to speak. Since Anenna and I were the only spirit users on this planet, defense has been rather simple since these invaders are always funneled to us. That is until now. You inexplicably have the necessary energy to be an anchor, something that should be impossible within Earth’s barren population. It is a security risk this planet hasn’t seen in a long time. You could be the tool for devastation you can’t imagine. You almost were. So it is of incredible importance that we find out how a walking weapon greater than the atom bomb was living a ho-hum life in random suburb in the Pacific Northwest.” The man then stopped and gave an indication that it was Zavier’s turn to speak.

Zavier was drawing blanks. Given his condition his mind did not really consider anything other than pure honesty. “I have no idea. I had no idea about anything until yesterday afternoon. I just want out.” Zavier hoped this man would heed his pleas and realize he was just a victim of chance.

The man looked away for a split second and laughed. “You’ve been out for nearly a week, not a day.” Zavier’s heart sank as this revelation. An absence that prolonged would be unexplainable. The man continued, “I do believe you. I have a way of getting into people’s minds and your memories match what’s available about your life. The fact that there is nothing there is actually more disturbing than the alternative.”

Zavier was immediately hung up on the mind and memory talk. “How much did you see?” Zavier asked, barely concealing how distrubed he was by this intrusion.

“I promise you, I don’t have a need for every memory you’ve made growing up. I don’t have that ability to that level. I simply got a snapshot of what your mind thinks of when it is asked who you are. It’s a bit of an advanced technique. It isn’t as intrusive as you might think and we didn’t know how long you’d be out. You might be upset about it but the fact that it was enough to confirm you were not an active participant in this plot has a lot to do with you being allowed to wake up.”

Zavier felt a pang in his chest. The implications of them being ready to murder him in his sleep did not make him feel very safe in this place anymore. He really needed to figure out if they were going to let him go but he was more scared of learning their intentions than he was ready for. After dancing in his mind as to how or if he should ask, Zavier decided to switch gears and try to get the information a little more indirectly. “Did you save my friend? He was at the hotel with me.”

“He survived, although barely. Anenna really did some fantastic work. Your friend is fortunate. He is still in recovery right now. We will wait to question him before deciding how to proceed.” Zavier found his phrasing at the end rather ominous. Yafu was technically “an invader” and it was clear exceptions for that action would be hard to come by with these people.

Zavier had to say something, he owed Yafu that much. “He was here by accident, he was trying to stop Shen from bringing more people here.”

“There could be a lot of explanations for his behavior. We just don’t know until we ask him. We don’t blindly trust people who show up at our door with crazy stories.” The last part seemed to be a pretty clear shot at Zavier, but he had no response for it as the man walked back out the door. Deep down he knew it was true. It was only now lying in the bed in his broken state that he began to bemoan his circumstance. If he had just told Yafu to go fuck himself back in his room that afternoon. He didn’t know at the time that Yafu was unlikely to kill him or hurt his family but it was a better risk in hindsight than what he did. What was he thinking? How did Yafu talk him into going into the craziness so quickly? If he had just stopped to think, to digest all the crazy stuff that was flooding into his life he could have made better decisions. He was basically a prisoner to people he did not know who might kill him and he was still lucky they showed up to save his life. If only he could have gone back, back to any moment before he walked into that hotel, he could have let Yafu go on his own. He would have definitely suffered the consequences of rolling the dice in hindsight. So what if Shen and his friends showed up at his door that weekend. He should have given himself every opportunity to keep living his normal life and see if this all went away. Zavier spent a while ruminating on this before tiring himself out with the mental backtracking and hypotheticals. Not particularly wanting to fall asleep again, it was a testament to his exhaustion that he just let the heavy eyes come on and nodded off to sleep again.

“Wake up.” The female voice seemed to grab Zavier from the void of sleep and yank him back to the world. Sitting in the same chair as the man had been sitting in earlier was the woman again, Anenna. She was holding a thick wool coat and pants similar to the ones her and the man earlier had been wearing. “Put these on, it's cold outside.”

Zavier gave her a confused look, “It’s damn near summer, I’m good with my T-shirt and jeans.”

“You’re in a much colder place than your home. You need these, especially since the sun is going down.” Anenna had a very matter of fact tone. Zavier got up, quietly happy he could without too much difficulty. He slipped on the clothes and began to follow Anenna outside. It was critical he got a good look at his surroundings. The fact that he suddenly needed eskimo clothes in April was a disturbing development. He immediately knew why the second he walked out the door. He had to stop to catch his breath as he was hit with cold thin air. They had to be on top of a mountain. It also took a second to adjust to brightness as all he could see in the distance was the gleam of miles and miles of slowly mountain peaks. The room he had just walked out of was a part of a row of rooms that all emptied out into an open courtyard. There was a corresponding row of rooms directly across from him. To his right there was a small archway that led into the wilderness and to his right about thirty feet away was a long set of stairs heading upwards to what looked to be very similar to a gothic cathedral. It was a godsend the enclave they were in walled off the wind. Zavier could hear it blowing fiercely against the walls and it had to have been near zero degrees without the windchill in the enclave.

Anenna cut diagonally to a room across the courtyard closer to the grand stairs heading up to the large building on the peak. “Your friend has woken up, he’s not cooperating until he sees you.” She had to shout even being next to Zavier due to the wind.

“Where are we?” Zavier shouted back

“What?”

“Where are we?” Zavier put as much volume as he could into the repeat.

“On modern maps, Eastern Greenland!” Anenna yelled over the wind.

Zavier began to trudge over to the room he had been pointed to. Anenna trailed closely behind him. He was so taken aback by Anenna’s response that he could not accept it as true despite it fitting the evidence. How the hell was he in Greenland? 

Zavier finally reached the door and opened it using his left arm. He was rather awkward since it was his off hand versus a pretty heavy door but he managed to get it open enough to squeeze through. Anenna pushed the door all the way open rather forcefully behind him. The room was basically identical to the one he had been recovering in. Now that he had walked into one, he was pretty unimpressed. They had him and Yafu staying in a glorified broom closet. Yafu was lying flat on the bed with the exception of his head gently elevated up at a slight angle with a pillow. He was almost unrecognizable due to the amount of bandages that covered his body and face. Zavier cringed. Yafu really was on death’s door. Besides the bed, there were three chairs in the room. One of them at Yafu’s bedside, the other two up against the wall facing him. One of the latter two was occupied by the man who had spoken with Zavier earlier. He motioned to Zavier to take the seat next to Yafu. Zavier obliged.

As he sat down, Yafu turned his head to see Zavier as he sat down. Zavier smiled warmly. The most he could do at this point was make Yafu feel a little better. “How are you feeling?” he asked, trying his best to ignore the rest of the room.

“I can’t believe I’m alive. Did you get Shen?” It was astounding how quickly Yafu moved his concern from himself given his condition.

“I…” Zavier started not really knowing what to say since he couldn’t really say for sure what had even happened.

The man across from them sensed Zavier’s uncertainty and filled in “He’s no longer on Earth. He has chosen to escape back to the Biterrne. It was his only real option once Anenna showed up.”

“Even though he was practically immobile in his current state, Zavier could have sworn he saw Yafu slump as he spoke, “So he got away?” Yafu's eyes were watering.

“He’s never getting back here!” Anenna snapped. She had taken the seat next to the man.

“We don’t know that!” the man took a scolding tone. Anenna leaned back as he spoke. The man let a few seconds of time pass before continuing. “We only know he found a way using this boy,” he said as he motioned to Zaiver, “to be an unwitting anchor. Unless we find out exactly how he did it, we are in the dark for preventing it again.”

Yafu replied almost immediately after the man had finished speaking, “What is your name?”

“Arigo. But it is of no use to you.” the man replied. Zavier had to respect Yafu’s immediate straightforwardness with these strangers even as clung to life.

“It does. I know you successfully searched my thoughts while I was under. I can feel traces of your presence in my subconscious. You learned a lot about me in my weakened state, I figured knowing your name would at least help even things up so we can talk.”

“You are going to answer my questions. And that is it.” Arigo replied coldly.

“Why should I? You’re planning to kill us both.” Yafu replied defiantly. “It’s so obvious. You're keeping us alive to get information to stop Shen or anyone else from getting here again. Once you have it, we’re liabilities. Zavier’s an anchor and I”ve got to be one of the few people to make to Earth since the King.”

The mention of the word king caused Anenna to shoot a concerned look towards Arigo. His face fell into a deep scowl. Zavier might have been imagining it, but he swore he saw a slight white glow and felt a deep angry vibration emanate from the man for a split second.

“I have no choice.” Zavier felt like he should try to bolt from the room when he heard Arigo say that. It’s the natural reaction when someone admits they’re planning to kill you. To get the hell away. He didn’t move however. His bout with Shen had him pretty convinced there was nothing he could do to stop any of these people including this man from doing what they wanted. He had to hope that Arigo changed his mind.

“You do have a choice. You haven’t considered the downside to killing us. Or at least Zavier.” Zavier’s appreciation for Yafu was two-fold. He was staring down his probable killers hoping to strike a bargain. And the bargain wasn’t even for his own life.

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Arigo smiled. He was at the very least amused by Yafu forthrightness. “Enlighten me.”

“You have no idea how Zavier exists as an anchor in this world.” Arigo nodded as Yafu spoke. “It’s alright, even I have not figured it out and it's bothered me longer than you since I first met him.”

“It’s disappointing to learn you can’t offer us help to explain it.” Arigo replied, clearly meaning to rattle Yafu over disappearing leverage.

Yafu ignored the implied malice and trekked onward, “But you need to keep Zavier alive until you figure it out. What if there are more Zaviers out there? You have to understand him before you can know for sure. I’m sure you saw in my core memories that I did you a big favor disrupting the Fang’s first ritual back in Revival City. I’m not sure someone else is going to stop them a second time.” It was quite a bit of information overload for Zavier but he had grown a little numb to it. What really mattered to him was Yafu’s reasoning for him living seemed like it had a chance.

“I guess I will thank you for your help but I can’t let you live because of it. It’s harsh but the stakes are too high.” Arigo maintained his smile.

“What’s the rush?” Yafu replied.

“No rush but no reason to put it off.” Zavier had to admit he was entertained by this whole exchange. Yafu really had balls, that much was clear, but he was running out of time to make his case and it seemed bleak.

“I spent the last two cycles studying the Poison Fang, I know them better than the Junta back home. Plus I watched the ritual up close. The Fang will try again. I can be helpful to have around.”

A period of silence followed. It was clear Yafu believed he had made his closing argument. As much as the jovial tones of Arigo and Yafu had made the conversation seem less serious than a man begging for his life, the silence offered no such illusions. With all three pairs of eyes on Arigo he finally spoke.

“I need to go to my quarters for a bit to plan. I’ll let you know my decision by sundown. Whatever it may be, it will come quickly. I’ll give you that much.” With those anticlimactic parting words, Arigo got up and turned to leave. As he was exiting, he turned around and spoke to Anenna, “Keep them in this room. They don’t have the means to run or hide anyways, but it’s best to avoid any unpleasantries.”

Anenna nodded and Arigo walked into the courtyard shutting the door behind him. The three of them sat in silence for the next hour or so. Zavier was probably less phone-addicted as his peers but still felt fidgety without it. He wasn’t going to bother to ask for it but he privately lamented not having it. He had no idea how he was ever going to explain this to anyone, much less his parents who were likely worried sick. Eventually his concern boiled over into simmering anger and he turned to Anenna barely masking animosity in his words. “What did you tell my parents?”

Anenna was startled by this sudden question after a long bout of silence. She composed herself quickly and responded “Nothing, it’s counterproductive to communicate with other people.”

This really pissed Zavier off, as the building frustration of the day had left little room for him to not boil over, “It’s kind of your responsibility if you kidnap me!”

Anenna shot Zavier a look dripping with contempt, “No, it isn’t. I protect the world and that’s it. You and your family are not important enough for me to make any other choice. I did what I was supposed to do. Besides you were the one who had the power to prevent this.”

“How!? I am by far the least powerful here. I had no ability to affect things compared to any of you.” Zavier's voice had slowly built in volume. He was a step away from a shouting match with this woman.

Anenna did not seem to care as she maintained her voice at an annoyed but conversational level as she spoke, “You always have the most power over your life. You have no understanding or appreciation for this. I helped my teacher look through your core identity and review your memories leading up to your encounter with Shen. You had so many chances to walk away when it was the obvious choice. You even mulled it several times. But never seriously. You were always going to keep going along and not because you had no power but because you were desperate.”

“How?!” Zavier was not a fan of the armchair psychologist routine from anyone much less this strange woman.

Anenna's voice now raised to match Zaviers. “In addition to your memories, we poured over all the information we could find about you while you were recovering. Every record of you or anyone you had crossed paths with looking for something. Something remotely interesting or impressive. A clue as to why you spontaneously have this hidden treasure trove of soul energy potential. But there was nothing. Your life is woefully unspectacular so much so that it has to be intentional at some level. Your life and your being is pathetic and I think you’re self aware enough to know that. You took all these extraordinary risks not because you were brave but because you knew there was nothing else special coming in your life. You had no choice at that point but grab desperately at any opportunity and you have the summation of the choices you made in life leading up to that point to blame for your condition now.”

Zavier felt hot blood run to his face, the heat painfully inflaming the scars around it. In Zavier’s mind, this woman was clearly a bitch who needed to justify killing an innocent kid. That much was clear to Zavier. He was not going to give her the satisfaction of a response. Either way, he was going to be rid of her soon, whether she and Arigo released or killed him.

There was another long bout of silence. Anenna and Zavier had shifted to face away from each other. Zavier spent the time going through his head imagining every response he could say to this woman to show her that it was she who was pathetic. A lapdog to her teacher. A woman living in the most depressing isolated place he had ever seen. A person who’s highlight of her life was kidnapping some kid who had nothing to do with her. She probably hated his life because hers was terrible and it was far from his fault.

“So you know Shen?” Yafu's croaking voice interrupted Zavier’s brainstorm of hate.

Anenna looked up, hesitating for a second before realizing the question was for her. “No, but I know of him. I don’t care for his friends so I don’t care for him.”

What a surprise! Zavier thought to himself sarcastically.

“We’ll have to exchange notes, I don’t like his friends either.” Yafu replied cheerfully. Yafu had to be given credit, he was already blindly charging back to his goals.

“We should avoid talking much until my teacher gets back. He’ll make determinations as to what is done.” The underlying message was clear from Anenna. This was enough to shut Yafu up.

More time passed as the three of them sat there in silence. The sun began to slowly set outside. Zavier was pretty sure Yafu fell in and out of sleep during this time. Lucky man. The plain wooden chair Zavier was in was far too uncomfortable for him to dose off despite his desire to. Mercifully, Zavier heard footsteps coming back. He stood up straight in his chair. He definitely felt like one of those people awaiting a verdict for first degree. Yafu had also woken up from his most recent nap. Even he could not hide his anticipation.

The door creaked open a little more than it had before and Arigo walked in and sat back down in his chair. All four of them stood in silence for about twenty seconds. It felt like an eternity. Arigo then opened his mouth and spoke slowly, delicately choosing each word. “I have thought it through. This is an unprecedented situation. The standard protocol is to remove any potential threats to the delicate balance of Earth.” Zavier hung on every word, his stomach knotted up as he tried to not slip into despair, “However, Zavier's case is so unusual that it is essential to understand it before we eliminate it. I consider myself a master of these types of things but I am at complete loss as to what caused Zavier’s condition. I am going to send you to the only other person alive I can trust who knows more than me on these matters. Once she has understood the phenomena that threatens this world, I will take action knowing I am not doing so blindly.” Zavier was a little confused as to what he decided but it did sound like he had more time to live. Thank god for Yafu. Zavier felt dread reenter his body seconds after it had left. Arigo had made no mention of keeping Yafu alive.

“I’ll only cooperate with Yafu alive.” Zavier blurted out. He doubted he had much leverage, but he was going to throw everything he had at this to repay Yafu for most likely saving his life.

Arigo scowled at Zavier, clearly upset he had spoken over him. “You will cooperate regardless. But Yafu will be kept alive through this process. His knowledge will prove crucial for this operation.”

“Teacher, you aren’t serious are you?” Anenna chirped up after staying silent initially. Zavier quietly reveled in her alarm. She had definitely assumed they were dying today. “You can’t trust them.”

“I cannot.” Arigo replied. “Which is why you are going with them. You need to keep them strictly focused on the mission and guide them to the destination.”

“I don’t want to leave you here alone, you need me here.” Anenna snapped back with a petulant look on her face.

“No, I don’t.” Arigo said flatly. It was very refreshing for Zavier to see Anenna get the same treatment she had given them earlier that day. “I can handle anything that tries to come here. especially with Zavier and you off-world, I should be able to cut off any other paths here.”

Off-world. Zavier had been so excited about living to another day that he had not fully paid attention to Arigo’s plans for them. He prepared to speak up but Anenna beat him to the punch, “I need to be here, I’m all that’s left, I can’t leave you!” Her voice had started to let some emotion trickle in.

“Keeping you here forever would be a grave mistake. I have kept an exception for you to be on Earth since you were a newborn, despite your powers, but the time has long come for you to leave this world as you do not belong here. Radia brought you here to me to keep you safe, but you are strong enough now to go back to her.” As Arigo finished his last sentence, Anenna stormed out and slammed the door behind her.

“What’s her problem?” Yafu mused playfully. Zavier shot a concerned look toward Arigo to see his reaction. He was not amused but he was not all that angry either. Yafu had been given a new lease of life and was already living dangerously again.

“She will get over it and you will need her to guide you.” Arigo turned to Yafu as he spoke, making sure he was paying attention, “I can transport you all from this place back to Revival City. Zavier will be lost in that world and Anenna won’t be much better so you are critical for helping them navigate. From there, you have to cross the Warm Planet to get to the Soul Academy on the other side of the planet. I’m certain you heard of it.”

“I have, but the interior of the continent is a dangerous place once you leave Revival City. Plus going the other way is a mess with all the storms and island politics. This sounds like a difficult mission.” Yafu countered. Zavier would have loved to contribute to the conversation, especially to avoid any difficult missions but he was out of his depth on extraterrestrial geography.

“It is for most. But Anenna will be strong enough to handle things as long as you avoid certain places. Plus I arrange to get you some help in Revival City.”

“What kind of help? I might not be compatible with some types of help there” Yafu replied.

“I’ll let you know before you leave. The more important piece of this is your destination. You will get to the academy and find a teacher there named Radia. She will help you. Once you are in her custody, her word is mine and there will be consequences for disobeying her.”

“I think you overestimate the things I can be threatened with.” Yafu retorted

“You, I will have Anenna kill. Or I will leak your information to Junta and let them hunt you. For Zavier, I have other options. Make no mistake, I will sacrifice a few lives on Earth to do as much as I can to keep the rest of its people safe.” Arigo had turned to face Zavier as he spoke the last sentence. It did not take much thought for Zaiver’s mind to drift to his parents. “You will leave in the morning tomorrow. That should be enough for Anenna to prepare herself. For now, rest. I will come back to finish healing you tomorrow as well, Yafu.” With that Arigo got out of his chair and motioned for Zavier to walk with him out of the door. Zavier picked himself up slowly and meandered out the door.

“We need to talk privately. Come with me to the temple.” Arigo motioned up the stairs to the large building at the top and began walking towards it. Seeing no real choice other than compliance, Zavier followed him up.

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