Untitled 6

I am laying down on the ground when I wake up. I look around and see that the circle of light has receded, leaving everything in darkness besides our cells. She’s moved, and is sitting with her back to me, seemingly with her lower legs in the ground. I sit up and see that there is pool of water in the ground that I didn’t notice before. From the smell, it’s probably saltwater.

“What’s that?” I ask, shaking my head to clear the cobwebs. Ouch. Bad idea.

“Ocean water,” she responds, as if it’s completely normal to be dipping your legs in sea water in a prison cell, as if I  am the weird one, for not doing it.

“Why?”

“Why not, Nosy?” I can’t think of a response.

“When are we going to escape?” I ask, changing the subject.

“In 7 minutes and 18 seconds. 17 seconds. 16 seconds. You get the point.”

“What time is it?”

“7 minutes and 13 seconds until we escape.”

“Thaaaaanks,” I drawl. “What should we do until then?”

“Enjoy the quiet while we have it,” she responds.

“I think I’ve had enough of quiet,” I quip.

“On the contrary,” she replies. “You scream the entire time you sleep.” I grimace at the memories of my dreams. Not ready to open that can of worms, I change the subject.

“So, what exactly are your powers? If we can get rid of the PDn device, I’ll need to know what’s you and what’s the enemy,” I probe.

“I umm... as in useful battle powers? I can echo movements... I can fight, but I can’t take on an army of superpowered people.”

“So you’re pretty much useless,” I say. She’s hiding something, and I think that I can make her accidently reveal it if I make her mad.

“Not at full power,” she snaps, then bites her lip as if she’s said too much. Good.

“Full power? Like a battery? Wow. I’m teaming up with a human charger. Great choices, Darknight.”

“**** you, Darknight,” she takes a deep breath. “I’m a siren.”

“So you can sing? That’s helpful,” I scoff. I’m trying to make her angry. People tend not to think of what they’re saying when they’re angry.

“No, my singing can manipulate people into doing whatever I want. I could make you choke yourself to death right now. I could convince you to use your powers to let me escape, leaving you behind. If I wanted to, I could take over the whole **** world. Is that good enough for you?”

“Then why haven’t you escaped?”

“I need ocean water. Without it, my powers don’t work, and I die. They’ve learned how to give me just enough to keep me alive. Why do you think the guard was so insistent that I stop singing? Because my voice is dangerous, that’s why. You want to know why I’m here, Darknight? Do you want to know why I’m here? Because it’s my fault that my brothers got captured by S.W.O.R.D, it’s my fault that they were brain-washed, and it’s my fault that they were killed. Do you want to know why I was captured? I was seeking revenge, and wasn’t good enough. Won’t ever be good enough. Do you feel better, now that you know my life story? Huh?”

“I know barely anything about you,” I grumble under my breath. A tiny red dot flashes in the bottom of her pupil.

“Alright, alright, I get it,” she mutters, and the red dot disappears. She plasters on a smile and a good attitude, which I wouldn’t be able to tell was fake if I hadn’t seen her pissed off a second ago. “Ready to go?” I nod and one of her fingertips opens up and what looks like a lock pick comes out. She bends her arm unnaturally and reaches around to the lock on her door. In a couple of tense moments, it springs open. She dips her arms into the saltwater one last time and walks out and to my cell. It takes a little bit longer than the other one, it seems, or maybe I’m just crazy. The door finally opens with a metallic scream, the protesting hinges’ dying protest. I walk out, and I realize that although Kyndra is really tall for a girl, I’m still taller than her. She seems wary all of a sudden.

“How about you don’t kill me and I won’t betray you?” she offers. She doesn’t seem very powerful right now. I could pluck her off the ground and smash her through the wall, and she couldn’t do anything to stop me.

“Deal,” I say. “Are you scared or something?”

“What? No! I’m in a room with the most dangerous man in the world, and I’m fearless. Totally,” her voice is thick with sarcasm.

“Let’s just escape,” I say, turning and trying to peer into the darkness.

“The exit is right over here,” she says, pointing. I follow her lead, and she leads us to a set of double doors, which she illuminates with a flashlight extending from her finger. I try the door and it’s unlocked. Weird. I open the doors all the way and we creep down the hallway and to the exit door.

“Stop right there!” a voice shouts. I whirl to see a couple of guards holding strange-looking spears charging into the hall from the other direction. One presses a button on his spear, and electricity dances between the pronged tips. The spears look more like tridents, really, but who am I to judge? Kyndra and I attack them, easily outmatching them. She opens a door to the right of the dungeon and go in. Inside, there is a huge array of weapons. Katanas, broadswords, shortswords, longswords, normal swords, knives, long daggers, staffs, guns… You get the idea.

“I might leave with more than I came with,” Kyndra laughs, and I can’t tell if she’s joking or not. She grabs a dagger, a longbow, which came from an archery section I didn’t even notice. She swings a quiver full of black-tipped arrows over her shoulder and walks over to the sword wall and grabs two katanas in an over-the-shoulder sheath.

“What?” she asks, as I stare at her. “Oh, right! That’s what I forgot.” She goes back to the knife wall, grabs a thigh sheath, and a something that looks like a sheet of really thick fabric, full of throwing knives. She straps everything on and looks at me.

“Aren’t you going to grab anything?” she asks. I nod and pick up a double-handed broadsword. I didn’t have any weapons on me when they captured me, but I doubt that the person the sword belongs to will need it anytime soon.

“Let’s go,” I say grimly. She nods and we quietly slip out of the room. She heads up a flight of stairs and I follow. Weirdly, we start to hear battle noises before we reach the main lobby area. We reach the door and stop to take a few breaths, having just ran up at least three flights of stairs, if not four. There’s no windows on the door, so we can’t see what’s going on. Maybe more than a few.

“You ready?” Kyndra asks, and I nod, gripping my new broadsword. She pulls her katanas out and kicks the doors open in one fluid motion, and the battle sounds multiply.

Chaos is the only word I can use to describe what’s happening outside the doors. I recognize Jay, Darkling, Pyra, White Ninja, and our friends from Serephimbia, as well as the Dirthawkers. Did they finally come to rescue me? As soon as I clear the doors, I can feel the effects of the power-suppressing device fade. Darkling catches my eye. As soon as I have access to my power again, he’s sensed me. I shift my broadsword to one hand and wave. Then I charge into battle against the S.W.O.R.D. officials, swinging my broadsword left and right, people falling dead or injured with every swing. I used to relish the heat of battle. Now I’m doing all I can to keep unpleasant memories from forcing themselves into the front of my mind. I barely register Kyndra fighting somewhere near me, killing precisely with every stroke. Blood pounds in my ears. I can feel darkness creeping into the edges of my vision, but I push it back. I have to maintain control of my powers.

“How’d you escape?” Jay yells over the battle when I come up to my fellow REBELs.

“Well, Kyndra did most of the work,” I admit, gesturing with one hand at my new friend, who, as I speak, is taking on more than ten heavily armed officials by herself. Jay looks where I’m pointing and starts, but I’m not paying too much attention to her. I’m about to suggest that we help Kyndra when, with some cleverly and carefully executed strikes, she has them all on the floor, dead or badly wounded. Jay blinks. I think she’s surprised at how fast Kyndra moves, but when I look again, I see recognition in her gaze. Does she know Kyndra, like Kyndra thought? I shove the thought aside. I can’t worry about that now, we need to get out of here, I can tell that Kyndra is getting weak again. I have a sudden idea. Can Jay summon ocean water to boost Kyndra’s powers?

“Jay,” I shout, “We need ocean water.” She stares at me, confused. “Trust me,” I insist, “it’ll help.” She nods and stretches out one hand, closing her eyes. I can almost imagine her stretching out with her mind, reaching for the salt-water of the ocean. Then she jerks her hand backwards, like she’s pulling something. Nothing happens for a moment. Then there’s a soft rumbling noise. It gets louder and louder until there’s a lull in the battle. Officials look around to see what’s going on. Jay’s eyes flicker open, and she smiles evilly. A second later, a wave of salt water crashes through the windows on all sides, spilling into the room and drenching everyone. Kyndra looks up in surprise and catches a face full of it. I laugh as she sputters and coughs, trying to recover. Then she catches my gaze as she tastes that it’s salty. I nod.

Now or never, siren girl.

The water moves until it is all grouped around her. Rising a few feet into the air, she opens her mouth and starts to sing.

[End POV]

Author's Note

Kyndra, Kyndra, Kyndra, WOO