Arcadia : The Hidden Child

Chapter 16

CRASH!
My eyes flew open and I sat straight up.
Where was I?
I looked around.  The room was all white and I was laying on a table.
"You're awake."  It was somewhere between a statement and a question.
Franz?
I turned to look to the right of me. 
Franz.
"Apologies for the loud crash, it seems I'm still learning my way around this new place."
"What am I doing here?"
"You seemed to have overstayed your welcome in the Valley of the Dead."
"Valley of the Dead?"
"Not the official name of course." He was picking up the tray which had just fallen.  "But it's quite the appropriate name, don't you think?"
"Tristan?" 
"He is fine, well fine enough.  He was quite upset with you and," he turned to make sure there was no one else in the room, "I imagine himself."
"Why?"
"You went," he motioned his hands in a circle around his ears. 
"What?"
"He didn't really say.  But by the time he got you here you were talking about Cash being held on Arbotoo... craziness."
Oh the hands around the ears.  I laughed.  He meant crazy.  "Crazy?"  I motioned with one finger in a circle around my ear.
"Ah, yes, I see the difference."  He finished picking everything up off the floor and placed it neatly back on the tray and guided it over to me.  "Let's give you a quick check, you know the drill."
This seemed like such a common occurrence between the two of us that we almost moved in synchronicity throughout the check.  "Thank you."  It was no use fighting him. He knew I wanted to go and I knew he had to check me over to report back to Tristan and I didn't want him to get in trouble.
"Are you ok?"  He said as a floating ball passed around my head and hovered briefly in front of each eye.
"Yes."
"Are you really?"  He tilted his head.
"I shouldn't have stayed in that field as long as I did.  I'll admit that."
"I'm not talking about the field."
"Those people that Damian killed because of me?"
He nodded.
"Yes.  I need to meet with Tristan so we can put together a plan to free those people and destroy Damian's compound."
He raised his eyebrows.  "Maybe you aren't as well as I thought."  He touched two beads to my wrist and numbers flashed in the air in front of him.  "You are not overheating and your pulse seems steady and all of your brain synapses seem to be functioning correctly."
"Why would I have a fever and why would you think my brain whatever is not working?"  I waved the image of brain between our faces away and looked him in the eyes.
"You can't go after Damian."
"I am, with or without Tristan and he knows that."
"It will have to be without."
The metal device stopped buzzing around me and went back to the tray.  "What do you mean without?"
He pushed a button on the tray and it glided back to the wall.  "Your health is fine."
I jumped off the table.  "Where is Tristan?"
"He's gone."
"Gone?  What do you mean gone?"
"He dropped you off yesterday and we haven't seen him since, which is rather unfortunate because I wanted to look him over, as I was concerned about his health too."
I laughed.  "He thinks he's invincible."
"You two would make a great couple."
"Excuse me?" My cheeks flushed.
"You both think the same." He winked.
"We don't."
"You do."
"No."
"Yes."  He held up his hand.  "You both have a fighter background, you both protect the ones you care about at the expense of yourselves, you both deny you have feelings for one another and you both think you are invincible."
I squinted my eyes at him and noticed how he slipped the feelings comment in there.
"See you can not argue with someone as wise as myself." He winked and smiled.
I rolled my eyes and walked out of the room. 
"I will see you back here in a couple of hours."
"Another checkup? I am fine."
"No checkup.  That is how long I feel it will take you to do something stupid and end up back in here."  He smiled and blew me a kiss.
The door closed between us.
Franz thought I would do something stupid, I laughed at the notion.  I turned to walk towards the cafeteria, I had no idea what time it was but I was starving.
"Ara!"
I turned to see Cash riding up on disc.
"Hey."
"What happened between you and Tristan?"
"Not sure what you are talking about." My mind raced back to the field and the kiss.
"He left in a frenzy to go get you and then came back, dropped you off, sat by your bed for a while and then took off."
"He sat by my bed?"
"That's the only thing you heard?" He rolled his eyes.
"I heard the rest."
"You two."
"What do you mean?"
"I think you know what I mean."
"Not you too."
He pulled me on the disc.  "What do you mean?" 
We started guiding through the hall.
"I'm going to the cafeteria."
"I know and what do you mean?"
"Franz was saying pretty much the same thing."
"Well then it must be true because Franz is the smartest guy I know."  He stopped at the front door of the cafeteria and gently pushed me off. "Discs can't go in the cafeteria...Oh, and don't tell Franz what I said...  I'll deny it." He smiled. 
The lights on the disc went out and it flew up into the air and melded into the wall.
I grabbed some food while Cash grabbed a drink and followed me to the table.
"You know." He took a big gulp.  "I've never seen him act the way about any girl, the way he acts about you."
"You're just saying that."
"No I'm not."  He took a bite of food off my plate.  "He really likes you and you like him."
"It's not like anything can come of it..."
"Why not?"
"Things like that don't work out for me."
"Maybe because you have always been looking in the wrong places."
I let out a moan and continued eating my food.
"When are we going to talk about going after Damian, you know I can't let all of those people stay there, he will have a never ending supply of people to torture me with."
"About that."
"Don't do it."
"I have to."
"You don't."
"I do."
"I don't want to have this argument with you."
"We aren't arguing."
"You may want to look up the definition of an argument."
"No." He smiled.  "We are having a conversation."
"Ok." I took another bite of food.
"You want to go after Damian and I get it, but you can't, that is no longer your role."
"No."
"Yes Araleigh.  You are future ruler."
"I. Don't. Care. Cash," I enunciated every word slowly.
"Well you don't have that choice anymore."
"The hell I don't!" I yelled.
I looked around and noticed people were staring at us, so I smiled meekly and waved my hand and then looked back at Cash, lowering my voice, "Look.  I have to do this, just this one time then I promise I will try to lead a calmer life... but I have to do this.  He killed those people because of me... he killed a child because of me..."
"You are infuriating."
"You've known this." I smiled.
"I'm not going to stop trying to get you to change your mind."
"I expect nothing less from you."  I finished my food in silence while Cash was just sat staring at me.
"Are you done?" He snapped, but in a playful tone.
"Yes I suppose so.  Are you done?"
"Done with what?" He jerked his head back.
"Staring daggers into me."  I grabbed his hands.  "This one time and then I'm done."
He rolled her eyes and nodded.
My comm's device buzzed in my pocket and I looked at Cash.
"Don't look at me," he laughed.
I pulled it out and looked at it and my stomach turned.
Damian.
I punched the button and a small image of him wearing an all white suit, appeared in front of me, "Good afternoon Araleigh, I'm surprised you picked up."
I bit my lip but didn't say anything.
"I see." His smiled quickly changed to a sinister grin, "I guess you didn't like my gift to you?"
"Your gift? You mean the dead bodies you left on our front lawn?" I spat.
He shrugged his shoulders, "I told you what was going to happen if you left," he cocked his head and inclined his chin, "And you left.  Don't blame me for what happened, rather look in the mirror... you could have kept them safe."
"You made the choice to kill them you sick bastard!"
"Now, now, now," he paused for a second and then continued, "Tell me, how is your Charlie doing?"
"Charlie? What did you do with him!" I snapped.
"And your dear Tristan? Should you have let him out of your sight?"
Cash was waving his hands in the air, so I looked at him.  "Don't show emotion," he whispered, "End the call."
I knew I should, but I couldn't.  I looked back at Damian.
"Is everything ok?" He smiled without mirth.
"Everything is fine," I said calmly.  Cash gave me a thumbs up and then motioned to end the call again.
"I don't know about fine..."he said slowly.  "You should really keep your people close Araleigh.  I would hate for you to get anyone else hurt.. say your brother or your mother."
I bit my tongue.  He was trying to get a rise out of me, trying to test me but I wouldn't let him win again.
He must have sensed that because he said, "Well Araleigh, as always it has been a pleasure." He lowered his voice, "We will be chatting again very soon." His image was gone.
I shoved the comm's device back into my pocket and stood up, shaking my hands.
Cash stood up and walked around the table to pull me into his arms.  "It's ok.  We are going to get him," he whispered into my hair.
"What's going on?" Ty asked walking up and then saw my face, "Oh lord, what happened?"
I pushed away from Cash, "Damian called to torture me."
"Does he have Charlie?  Is he ok?"
"I don't think he does or he would have used him to torture me even more.  I think he was just trying to get a reaction out of me to see if I knew where everyone was," Micah walked up to stand behind Ty, "You need to stay close, I can't risk anything happening to you guys."
"When are we going to go after him?" Micah asked slamming his fist into his palm.
I looked at Cash, "Do you know? Tristan left, did he give you or Mars orders?"
Cash shook his head, "He didn't say anything to me about it, except that he would be off comm's."
"Off comm's?"
He nodded, "We can't reach him."
I added, "And he can't reach us if he gets in trouble."
He bounced his head casually from side to side, "Yes, but I don't think we have anything to worry about."
"You don't know that," I snapped, a lot harsher than I had intended.
"Araleigh, Tristan does this from time to time, he is fully capable, you don't need to worry about him."
"Good luck with that," Ty said to Cash.
I shot a glance at Ty, who raised his hands in defense.
"All I meant by that was when you care for someone you are like a mother bear."
I narrowed my eyes and puckered out my lips, I was not buying his bull, but I let him have it.  "Let's go.  People are looking at me and I need to get out of here and find Mars."
"We'll come with," Micah offered.
I didn't know him very well, but he seemed as eager as I was to stop Damian, although I didn't really know what that meant.  Did I want him dead?  Maybe punished and kept away from everyone... did they do something like that here?
I made my way down the hall with Cash, Micah and Ty following behind.  I passed Ivan and Venus talking in the hall, but when she saw me, she left Ivan and ran up to catch me.
"What's going on?" She asked in her light melodic voice and then turned around and saw the guys behind me, "Ok, what's going on?  Is everything ok?"
"No.  Damian just called so I am trying to find your brother to figure out the plan for stopping Damian."
Her eyebrows raised, but she didn't say anything else.
I walked into the workout room and saw him in front of the room leading a small class of six people on how to throw and block a punch.  He looked up and saw us standing there and his face dropped for a second before he looked around the class and calmly said, "Great job all, now get into your pairs and practice on each other, motions only, no contact," he spoke the words calmly and slowly walked towards us.
"What's going on?" He asked quietly.
"We need to talk."
He threw his hands in the air, "I am teaching a class right now," he added when he saw my face, "but it will be over in a couple minutes, can it wait until then?"
"Yea, sure," I nodded, feeling a little bad I had just barged in on his class.
He nodded and then moved back to the front of the room, "Good job all, now if you haven't already, go ahead and switch sides." He walked back in forth in the front of the classroom with his hands clasped behind his back, observing them hit and block for a few minutes.
He was a good teacher I thought, very patient.
"You guys are doing great, let's go ahead and throw one more punch and call it a day."  He watched them practice their last move and head towards their towels to wipe their face. He waited until everyone had left the room before he walked over to us.  "You want to tell me what's going on?"
"Damian just called me."
"Shit."
"It was bad," Cash offered.
"What did he want?" Mars asked.
"He wanted to torture me, to let me know those people were dead because of me..."
"You know it's not your fault, right?"
I shook my head, "Yea."
"Araleigh.  You are shaking your head no, but saying yes.  You are lying to me, you do think it's your fault." He grabbed my shoulders, "It's not your fault." He enunciated.
I wasn't going to have this argument with him, "Can anything be done about Damian?"
He shrugged his shoulders, "We are working on a plan."
"We who?"
"Tristan and myself."
"Tristan isn't here," I said irritated, "And you don't know when he will be back do you?"
"No, I don't know.  In all transparency, he said to try to hold you off from going after Damian as long as I could, that I needed to buy him time."
"Time for what?"
"He didn't say."
I stared at him for a long second.
He laughed, "I promise, I wouldn't lie to you.  I don't know what he is doing, where he is or when he will be back."
"Ok, so what are we going to do in the meantime?"
"I want to go do a bit of recon before we do anything."
"Perfect, I will go with."
"Not going to happen." Mars said.
"I can promise you, that I will be going." I reassured him.
Mars looked to Cash who shrugged his shoulders, "I think we need to keep her involved on this one."
Mars blinked hard, "Your funeral if something happens to her."
Cash batted his hand dismissively.
"When are we going to head out?" I asked.
"Tomorrow night, I want to meet with the team tonight and run through some drills.  You can all meet back in here after dinner."
We walked out of the room and I looked towards Venus, "You don't think he's going to box me out do you?"
She shook her head, "No, he likes you and thinks you are competent.  He has to make an attempt to keep you out of it, but he thinks you are one of the better fighters," she hesitated but then added, "You just need to keep your emotions out of it.  I know you hear that a lot, but they will cloud your judgement and we can't have that."
I got back to my room and stood at the door for a moment, "Thank you."
"For what?"
"For being honest with me."
"Oh! Anytime," she winked.
I jumped in the shower and freshened up, it wasn't long before dinner, but I wanted to be ready.
I hurried through dinner and was the first to arrive to the workout room, so I waited patiently for Venus and the others.  Mars came in after awhile and laughed when he saw me sitting on the bench.
"You didn't have to rush through dinner."
"I didn't."
"I find that hard to believe."
"Maybe a little, but I wasn't super hungry, I had a late lunch."
He nodded and then Venus, Micah and Cash walked in, followed by two other people I had never seen before, a woman with bright red hair slender build, and a man with a tattoo across his face and neck.
"Team, this is the team," Mars said, "There has been a slight change of plans, there is word there is something happening at his compound.  Micah and V, I want you to go do some recon tonight," he looked at me, "You and I will talk after."
I rubbed the back of my neck, I was upset and he knew it.
"You guys grab your bags and head out." He turned to the rest of us, "Tonight I want us to practice some different techniques." He paired up the two new people and told Cash to wait for me and then gently guided me to the side of the room. 
I couldn't help but feel envious after watching Micah and Venus walk out of the room.
"Before you do anything, I want you to know this isn't personal.  We can't take the whole team tonight, they have increased security, we need them to get in and out, sending a whole team in could cause problems, and if I was the reason that you got hurt, Tristan would have my head.
I took a deep breath.  "Fine."
"Tristan, being Tristan, knew this was going to happen when he was gone so he made you a gift."
"A gift?" I felt my cheeks go flush.
"A go bag." He handed me a black bag.
I opened it up and saw a black headpiece, face mask, face paint and a sharp looking knife, very different from the ones I had seen on Earth.  It had a small, easy to grip, black handle with a short black blade that looked smooth, and almost reflective."
"That is a Oobalong blade, it is made up from the Ooba ore on the island here, very rare and very sharp."
"Oh."
"Only the best for Tristan's girl," he joked.
"Tristan's girl?"
"I have seen the way you two look at each other."
"It's nothing."
"Ok." He said dismissively.  "Go ahead and partner up with Cash and work on close combat moves."
I tucked the knife into my boot and made my way over to Cash.
"What's that?"
"An oobalong blade???"
"Tristan give you that?"
"Maybe."
"Hmm."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing," he smiled.
"Ok everyone we are going to work on close combat moves tonight." Mars said interrupting our banter.
I couldn't help but wonder what he meant though.  Everyone seemed to notice the thing that was going on between Tristan and myself, but I didn't even know what it was.  We were like hot and cold, well him anyways, I feel like I know what I want... I wanted it that night in the field...
"Let's go Araleigh."  Cash teased, pulling me from my reverie.
"Let's."
He moved forward to strike.