Aeon Legion: Labyrinth (28 page)

Isra moved in line with the
objects as she pulled out a dagger sized aeon edge blade from her
belt. It shimmered silver like Alya's aeon edge though much smaller.
She loaded a small clip filled with a row of glowing blue cylinders
into the back of the blade before shutting it. The orb on the guard
lit up bright blue as a semi transparent edge formed on the blade.
The edge glowed a faint blue while grainy static flickered on the
surface.

Isra turned her side to the
row of objects and spread her feet out before throwing the blade at
the manikin. It passed through the manikin, the stone pillar, and
even the metal beam without slowing before gravity pulled the blade
to the ground. The blade stuck downward into the floor while leaving
a hole a little larger than the blade in the three objects it had
pierced.

She drew another dagger and
loaded a clip. Isra charged the manikin, slashing through it with the
dagger before weaving around it and cutting through the pillar. When
she slashed at the metal beam, the manikin had fallen in half and the
stone pillar began sliding in two with a clean slice. The blade
passed through the first three objects as if she cut through air. A
loud clang sounded when the metal beam hit the floor and Isra turned
to the tirones. “This is what the blade does by itself. Now watch
closely. This is what the burst function does when you pull the
trigger.”

Isra jumped and slashed at the
large steel obelisk. Before her dagger connected, she pulled the
trigger. A surge of power flared from the edge of the blade. The
edge's faint glow bloomed into a blinding flash of pale blue light.
The obelisk shattered into chunks with a loud crack. When the spots
in Terra's vision faded, she saw the twenty foot tall, ten foot thick
steel obelisk now laying as a pile of debris.

“That,” Isra said as
though she had done the most boring thing in the world, “was the
burst function. Each burst takes one stasis cell in a clip so use it
wisely,” she said as a spent cell ejected from the dagger clanged
twice on the floor like an empty bullet casing.

The rest of the tirones gawked
in awe.

“That was so cool!” Terra
said after a moment of silence.

Others gave her strange looks.

Terra composed herself. “I
mean that was an excellent demonstration, centurion!”

∞

“You have to teach me how to
use that sword,” Terra said as she looked up at Alya. Terra had
gotten lucky when she went to the hill to study. Alya had showed up
out of nowhere as usual. “Please! You have to. It's so cool!”

Alya pursed her lips as a
light breeze blew through her silver hair. “Minerva, what does cool
mean? Context early 21st century Americas, Continuum Lambda.”

“Cool. A slang term meaning
something appealing, aesthetically pleasing, stylistically superior,
or a state of behavior that is considered good amongst a social
group. A close Saturnian equivalent would be infinite,” Minerva
said from Alya's shieldwatch.

“Oh,” Alya said. “So I
guess that means you like the aeon edge sword then?”

Terra nodded.

“And you want me to train
you in swordsmanship skills?”

Terra nodded again.

“No.”

A chill wind swept across the
hill, as if hastening winter's arrival to the city.

Terra's smile faded. “Why?”

Alya drew her aeon edge sword
and pointed it at Terra. Her hushed tone held an edge of menace while
she spoke. “You think this is cool?”

Terra leaned back as the tip
loomed in her face.

“Do you know what this is?”

The edge remained off, but
Terra still winced when the blade drew close. “It's a sword.”

Alya's eyes narrowed. “And
what are swords made to do?”

“Kill people,” Terra said
while leaning away from the sword a little more.

Alya lowered the sword.
“Hammers build homes, bows hunt game, axes chop trees. Swords.
Only. Kill.”

Terra averted her gaze.

Alya lifted the blade and
studied it with narrowed eyes. “This is a tool of death. Too many
see it as a tool for glory. They see it as a symbol of romantic
ideals. I see a shining silver blade after I wash off all the blood.
This isn't a thing you should admire, but a burden. You haven't seen
an aeon edge cleave through a person yet. I have seen endless bloody
fields so choked with corpses that one could walk from one side to
the other without touching the ground. Swords do not make glory and
if they do, then it is no glory any of us should wish for.”

Terra continued to stare at
the ground.

Alya looked at Terra and her
expression softened. The breeze around them became more gentle as she
sheathed the blade. “Sword strokes given cannot be taken back. Time
cannot fix everything. Don't repeat the mistakes of so many others
who wielded an aeon edge without the sobering understanding of its
true purpose. A tool for death.”

Terra nodded.

“How about I show you
something else?”

Terra looked up at Alya.
“Really?”

Alya smiled. “How is your
shieldwatch training progressing?”

Terra pouted.

Alya grinned. “Sour
expressions are not flattering. Trust me. This will be, oh how did
you put it? Cool.”

They both walked into a nearby
forest and hiked on a trail. The trail led to a stone path. As they
followed the path Terra noticed the colors change from fall to
spring. Terra wondered why this place was set to a different weather
schedule. She had grown accustomed to Saturn City's precise weather
control. Although Saturn City could schedule weather, it still
followed the usual cycle of seasons for most of the city. This was
the first exception she had seen.

Brown faded to green when they
reached a large glade. When she saw it her eyes widened as she
gasped.

The glade was vast, at least a
mile wide and filled with every flower imaginable. Flowers bloomed in
large colorful patches while the garden teemed with butterflies and
birds of all kinds. All the garden gleamed like an eternal spring,
though cold winter set in outside the forest.

“It's beautiful. Is it a
garden?” Terra said, still awestruck.

Alya nodded. “This is
Kairos's Garden. A garden for the fallen. I have a few things to show
you here. Have you had much success with a shieldwatch yet?”

“No. I can't get this stupid
thing to work,” she said as she searched through the shieldwatch's
menu.

Alya shook her head. “It
will take forever if you do that. The best thing about a shieldwatch
is that it can work on mental commands.”

Terra looked up at Alya,
confused.

“Think. Don't just press
buttons. If you spend too much time searching through menus, then
someone will cut you down while you stare at buttons,” she said
before she walked into the glade. “The shieldwatch doesn't just
allow you to control time, it connects you to time.”

Terra followed as they moved
through the garden. She tried to feel time like Alya had said, but
she felt just as she always did. “I don't feel any different.”

Alya grinned. She picked up a
small stone and tossed it in her hand before slinging it at Terra's
face. Then Terra sensed it.

Like a reflex, Terra felt
something coming towards her. Her hand moved to grab the rock so fast
that she only saw a blur. Terra stared wide eye at the stone. “How?”

Alya's grin widened. “The
shieldwatch is linked to your nervous system. It's a part of you. It
even Sped your reactions. Humans are already connected to time. We
perceive time moving forward. A shieldwatch expands and strengthens
that perception. The more you use your shieldwatch, the stronger the
connection.”

Terra thought back to the past
couple of weeks. Upon looking back, she realized that she had used
her shieldwatch unintentionally a few times before now. “So I just
think and it works?”

“More like it's another part
of your body. You can't just think about it, you have to will it.
Just thinking about raising your hand doesn't make it happen.” Alya
pointed to a green humming bird at a nearby flower. “Focus your
eyes on that bird, then Speed your sight.”

Terra looked at the bird. It
shifted from flower to flower, its wings a blur of motion. She
focused on it and felt something different. It was as though she
possessed a second sight waiting for her to use. The hummingbird came
into focus. She saw the jewel colors of its feathers with its wings
moving in perfect detail. There was no motion blur at all. Everything
now appeared in near perfect detail.

Terra turned to Alya,
confused.

Alya held up her arm and moved
it from side to side slow, then fast. “When I move my arm, your
mind can only process the image so quickly. When I move slow, your
mind has time to process the images so there is no blur. The
shieldwatch can Speed your nervous system so you have time to see
every detail.”

“So I would never want to
turn that off?”

“That would not be a good
way to conserve power.”

“Conserve power?”

“We will get to that in a
moment,” Alya said. She then ran and jumped into a tall tree,
landing with grace on a high branch.

“How did you do that?”

“I Slowed gravity. You have
already done this. Try it.”

Terra jumped once and stumbled
to the ground. She tried again and felt the flow of time on gravity
just like during Zaid's training a few days ago. After a third try,
she acted on the feeling and Slowed gravity around her. Her body
slowed and fell like a feather drifting on the wind. When she landed
on the ground, she ran towards a nearby tree and jumped. She flew
through the air. Terra grabbed a large branch as she drew near,
though she hit the tree harder than she had expected. After
struggling, she climbed onto the branch.

She tried to jump down a
moment later when she heard her shieldwatch beep. “Battery power
critically low. Shutting down non essential functions,” came
Minerva's voice from Terra's shieldwatch.

“What?” Terra said just
before her connection with time vanished and she stumbled to the
ground.

Alya jumped next to Terra,
offering a hand. “And that's the most important lesson. Conserving
power.”

Terra rubbed her knees as she
stood. “Well that didn't last long.”

“Your connection to time is
new.”

“What difference does that
make?”

“The more you use your
shieldwatch, the more you become connected with time. The longer the
connection, the more efficient you become with using your power.
Shieldwatch battery power never changes, but you can accomplish more
with less effort as your skill increases. Your shieldwatch recharges
itself over time, but cannot Restore itself if broken. Remember too
that while you can take another shieldwatch, you cannot use it to
Restore yourself if injured. Every shieldwatch is attuned to the
original user and using any other ability will drain the stolen
shieldwatch quickly.”

Terra considered this. It made
sense for there to be limitations. Still though, this was the first
time she hadn't regretted coming to the Academy. This is what Alya
had meant about getting a taste of the shieldwatch's power.

As they made their way through
the garden Alya taught Terra how to put things in stasis fields by
Stopping time. After her battery charged, Terra practiced Stopping
several butterflies in stasis before releasing them. She learned that
larger more complex creatures were immune to being trapped in a
normal stasis field though you could slow them down with it,
sometimes. Alya also explained how to use the shieldwatch to enhance
reflexes and speed, but when they approached a small hill at the
center of the glade Alya became silent. When they drew closer Terra
discovered why.

At first, Terra thought she
was standing in a field of crosses, but saw that they were, in fact,
aeon edge swords that had all been plunged into the ground tip first.
Alya walked between the countless swords somber and silent. She
glided between the blades like a silent and gentle breeze, her
expression stoic. As they walked through the field of blades Terra
wondered why these weapons, so valuable, lay discarded here to rust.
Flowers grew around them and each had a name engraved on them. Then
Terra realized this place was a graveyard. A memorial to the fallen.

Alya stopped in front of an
aeon edge sword that stood near the center of the garden. Engraved on
the blade was the name Kairos and black roses twisted around it. She
knelt, running her fingers across the face, feeling each letter and
smiled slightly. She touched the black rose, holding the blossom.
“Orion put this blade here and told me I needed to move on. She
always liked black roses. Said they were like her.”

“Were you close friends?”
Terra asked softly.

Alya nodded before her gaze
became distant.

Terra hesitated. “Who was
Kairos? I mean if it's not too painful to talk about her?”