Aeon Legion: Labyrinth (38 page)

Watchtowers encircled an open
yard while three layers of razor wire fences stood at the perimeter.
Several dark clad guards stood, unconcerned, just beyond the fences.
However, the other prisoners caught Terra's gaze. She recognized
several tirones, but felt relieved to see her team absent.

All stood silent without the
means to understand one another. Terra doubted anyone understood
English so she instead walked along the edge of the fence, looking
for any weak point. She was about to make a second lap when two
tirones grabbed her and dragged her behind a small wall just outside
the guards view. One held a sharpened utensil at Terra's throat. The
other put a finger over her lips to signal Terra to remain quiet.
Several others joined them.

The other tirones all had
sunken eyes and bodies slender from malnourishment. Numerous cuts and
bruises marred their faces. They talked amongst themselves in various
languages. Often one would turn to Terra and say something she didn't
understand. Finally, someone Terra recognized stepped out. He wore a
US cavalry coat over his training uniform.

Terra tried to remember his
name. John?

He turned to Terra. “Do you
speak English or Apache?”

“English,” Terra said,
still standing tense with the makeshift knife at her throat.

“Okay. I need you to listen
to my question and answer very carefully,” John said in a slow
southern accident. “Who was your primary instructor at the
Academy?”

Terra spoke in a slow
deliberate tone. “Centurion Nikias.”

The others turned to each
other speaking the name Nikias. A few of them nodded. It was then
Terra understood. They were translating to each other. Finally they
let go of the knife and released Terra.

A man Terra recognized as a
Native American spoke to John. John then turned to Terra. “Right.
Sorry about that, Miss.”

Terra rubbed her neck. “What
was that about?”

John shrugged. “We had to
make sure you weren't another snake. They have used spies more than
once.”

Terra's brow knitted. “Spies?”

John sighed. “Messed up our
first escape attempt. Whose team you from?”

“Zaid's. I acted as a decoy.
They were trying to contact Saturn City to get help.”

John glanced up to make sure
no guards were watching them. “Did they succeed?”

A gunship landed nearby. All
the prisoners gathered to watch. Terra forced back despair when she
saw them drag Zaid, along with most of his team, off the transport.
Hikari was still missing though.

John shook his head. “Guess
not.”

∞

The next day was much the
same. Beatings, torture, and then a brief respite in the courtyard.
Still no questions though. Now she was hungry, tired, and her entire
body screamed in pain, but she still looked forward to at least being
able to talk with Zaid and the others. Maybe they could come up with
a way to escape. As with her, Zaid and the rest of his team got
shoved out into the yard that evening with the others.

With Terra's prompt
intervention, they avoided getting their throats slit like almost
happened to her. Thankfully someone spoke Arabic and could speak with
Zaid. Terra asked Zaid where Hikari was. John relayed the question to
an Apache who relayed it to several others. After a moment the answer
came back.

John turned to Terra. “He
says Hikari escaped.”

“Good,” Terra said, more
to herself.

Another gunship landed and the
tirones gathered to see the newcomer.

Terra and Zaid frowned when
they saw Hikari. One soldier who dragged Hikari still smoldered while
the rest had disheveled uniforms as though they had endured an awful
beating during Hikari's capture.

Terra stood for a long moment.
No one was going to help her. No one was going to save her. They were
on their own now.

Zaid nodded to Terra and
pointed at the ground. He had drawn out the courtyard in the dirt and
motioned for the others to join him. Terra understood Zaid's hand
signals. He had made his entire team learn them. They didn't need a
sonic cipher to communicate and they had no more reason to wait for a
rescue.

∞

A few days felt like several
lifetimes to Terra as she reflected while still tied to the chair.
The torture continued everyday with some worse than others. She also
learned the true meaning hunger, hunger that was painful. It would
have been unbearable if it wasn't for all the other pains in her body
that gave her perspective. And the fear. The fear was always present.
The only thing that kept it in check was Terra's cold hatred of the
monsters who tortured her.

She tried to remember her warm
little quarry back home. She had a home right? Those memories offered
no comfort nor did they add to her torments. They just seemed
surreal. Or was this place surreal? Maybe it was the lack of sleep.
Terra hated going to sleep. Sleep always ended with a hard kick
awake.

Terra struggled to focus. The
only times her mind felt sharp was in the yards with the other
prisoners where they planned and plotted.

Plans had changed several
times. Most broke under torture, including most of Zaid's team, and
were never seen again. Now only Zaid, Hikari, and Terra herself
remained along with handful of other tirones from different teams.
Despite the desperate situation, small things gave Terra hope.

One day the guards forgot to
put the bag over Terra's head when another escape attempt distracted
them. When they dragged Terra though the hallways she mentally noted
every corridor she saw and relayed the information to the others.
Over time they drew a map of the facility.

Other tirones noticed similar
slips. One overheard talk of rising tensions in the camp between two
rival factions. The pieces gradually fell together and the team
leaders agreed on a plan. All they needed now was opportunity. This
hope kept Terra going. Well that, and her Torturer's irritation.

The Doctor growled as he slung
a blade across the room. “This stupid girl and her absurdly high
tolerance for pain.”

Terra clenched her jaw and
remained unflinching. She didn't want to give the doctor the pleasure
of seeing her in pain if she could help it.

The doctor balled his fists.
“I have never seem someone so stubborn! Just a scream? A moan! Even
a twitch!”

Terra continued to stare at
the wall. She had made of point of not reacting, speaking, or even
moving during her torture.

After a moment of pacing, the
doctor picked up a new tool and turned to Terra. “Well I guess I
better try something new. Um. I was suppose to ask you something
wasn't I? Oh well. I'm sure I will remember when we get started
again.”

The doctor finished
sterilizing his new tool when the Captain walked in with two other
soldiers.

“Captain,”the doctor said.
“I was just about to get started again.”

The Captain spoke, hatred
bleeding through the mechanical distortion of his voice. “You
disgust me. I should have done this a long time ago. Execute him
immediately.”

The other soldiers grabbed the
doctor and dragged him outside the room as he struggled.

The doctor screamed. “No.
Stop! I order you to st–”

A loud blast and a flash of
light silenced him just out of Terra's sight.

The Captain turned to the
other soldier in the room. “Purge the doctor's loyalists. I will
finish this interrogation myself.”

The soldier saluted and closed
the door behind him, leaving Terra alone with the Captain.

The Captain grabbed a towel
and dabbed Terra's face, cleaning a spot of the blood and dirt. He
offered her a drink of water from a canteen.

Terra stared off into nothing.

“It's not poisoned,” the
Captain said. “If we wanted you poisoned we could have done so.”

Terra took a sip which eased
her burning throat.

“You did well. I couldn't
have asked for more from my own men,” the Captain said in a kind
tone, though Terra found the mechanical buzz off putting. “I
apologize about our methods. When one pursues revenge for as long as
we have, it's easy to find oneself becoming the villain without
realizing it.”

Terra continued to stare at
the Captain's armor. She avoided looking at his eyes. They were the
only visible part of his face.

“I should be honest with
you. We need the shieldwatch to enter Saturn City. We will use it to
invade the city, free our comrades in Tartarus, and assassinate war
criminals in the Aeon Legion.”

Terra shifted her gaze to the
Captain.

“I thought that would get
your attention. The Saturnians recruit those lost to history to fight
their wars for them. This also keeps recruits ignorant of their many
atrocities. They saved your life didn't they? That's how they work.
They give you a second chance at life to ensure complete loyalty.
Then they seduce you. Fight for them and they let you live in their
hedonistic utopia while we Kalians stand as only a memory, an echo of
our former glory.”

After a moment, Terra
remembered one of Shani's lectures. The Aeon Legion had fought with a
people called the Kalians. It didn't make sense though. The First
Temporal War happened centuries ago. Wouldn't they all be dead by
now?

“They taught you about the
Kalian War right? We are all that is left of the Kalian military. A
few hundred of what was once twenty million soldiers. All with just
enough singularity tech to keep us alive,” the Captain said as he
pulled up a chair with it's back facing Terra. The Captain sat
backwards on it with his arms resting on the top. “Let me tell you
a story and when it's done you will give us the code for your
shieldwatch. I know you will because you are like me. You have a
sense of justice.”

Terra tried not to make eye
contact again though she wasn't sure what to do any longer. The
manual didn't tell her how to resist this.

“I wont lie to you. Starting
that war was a terrible mistake. In our arrogance, we thought if we
bombed the city they would capitulate. Instead they formed the Aeon
Legion and began a bloody march to destroy us. You cannot understand
how terrifying it is to see one legionnaire slaughter thousands of
your comrades. We couldn't match their technological edge. We lost
that war and paid for our sins. Now it's time for them to pay for
theirs.”

The Captain shifted in his
chair and pulled out a photo. He stared at it. “I had a family I
fought for. Ironic that the war claimed them and not me. Someone you
know killed them. One of the Legendary Blades, Cerberus though you
know him as Praetor Lycus Cerberus.”

Terra's gaze snapped to the
Captain, but shivered when she saw his cold, hate filled glare.

“I thought you would
recognize him,” he said in a cold tone. “Lycus is one of the
worst war criminals in the Legion. His blade, Cerberus, spilled a
river's worth of blood and none of it was enough to satisfy him. He
butchered thousands of soldiers, even those who tried to surrender.
The death of my family at his hands was merely one of his many
crimes. There were others. Orion cultivated his own garden of
corpses. He would wade through any amount of blood and death for his
precious city. Many others such as Pythia and Deucalion would go on
to the claim the title of Time King or Queen and commit further
atrocities, ruling time like mad emperors. They made the worst
tyrants in history seem noble in comparison. Another monster is
Silverwind.”

“What? No,” Terra said
before she caught herself.

“Oh yes,” the Captain
said, leaning closer. “Alya Silverwind. There isn't a Kalian alive
who doesn't still curse that name, though we had different names for
her like Bloodstorm. She killed more soldiers than most of the other
war criminals put together. She was completely lost in darkness.
Consumed by revenge.”

Terra stared at the Captain
while questions boiled in her mind. She knew to avoid getting drawn
into conversation or risk giving away information.