Fragment of Destiny

Demetrius opened his eyes and found himself standing in a small dark room. He blinked to clear his vision, but nothing changed. Taking a tentative step, a dull pulse rippled across a murky puddle at his feet. With each new step, the room lightened a shade the pulses stripping away the darkness until everything became an ashen gray.

Before him, an enormous wall of billowing smoke blocked his path. Touching the wall his hands burned like he had spent far too long in the sun. Despite the pain, he pressed on sinking his arm down to his elbow. The more he pressed the more the barrier resisted. Dark soot belched from the wall covering him in a layer of ash that clung to him like lead weights. As he pressed on the burning only intensified yet something powerful drew him from the other side, willing him forward far beyond his own endurance. The thick smoke clung to him like thousands of tiny fingers, each blazing hot as he became fully engulfed. A moment later he broke from the smoke all pain forgotten, instead, he felt the prickle of frost on his face. Without warning his body began to move of its own accord, unbidden the thought, I need to find Tess and Samuel entered his mind. It was odd. The thought was clearly his own yet it seemed to come from some unknown place. Tracks in the snow at his feet led him to a boy of about fifteen and he knew him.

“Brian, wait up. Are you sure they are this way?” Demetrius heard himself say feeling his tongue and lips forming the words. It was the voice of an adolescent still in the throes of puberty.

“I am positive. I told you, man, I saw them land over this ridge. Now let’s go I am freezing up here,” Brian said before turning down a snowy incline.

A sudden wave of understanding washed over Demetrius. That was right, they were supposed to meet Tess and Samuel, then make a camp for the night. It had been part of their training for the trial of ascension. They were his team, his friends.

Demetrius started down the hill, his body on the cusp of motion when the world began to fall away. He felt invisible bonds like bars of iron pressing against his consciousness as he was squeezed from this body, only to be dropped in another.

For a long moment, everything was dark save a single point of light on the horizon. Quickly feeling returned to his body, warm water churned about his legs as he moved steadily towards the light. Fear and despair seemed to lace every part of his being. He would never find his crystal, he was going to die here. The surety of that though penetrated him to his core. Without warning, darkness pressed in around him and the light was snuffed out.

A moment later pain blossomed in his chest, his lungs were straining and his throat was raw with ragged breaths. A furious determination leapt up inside him with each step. Light filled his vision and Demetrius found himself moving at a dead sprint. Glimpses of buildings flashed in the periphery. It was a clear summer day, a good day for a run, but this version of himself was not running for exercise. Reaching down into the foreign mind that had once been his own he felt one overriding thought. It was of Tess, and she was alive. The consciousness was a flurry of emotions but blazing above the rest was the profound need to see Tess for himself.

Up ahead a fence with a guard post blocked his way. Several metal rods came up from the ground meant to stop skimmers from entering without authorization. Demetrius disregarded them and kept running. Someone called after him, but he paid them no mind. Ahead he could see a hulking black skimmer, he was not sure how he knew, but Tess was on board, he was sure of it.

The skimmer glided to a stop just outside a large enforcer’s hanger and the side hatch opened. Two large enforcers emerged follow by someone in a student’s uniform. A moment later something struck him hard in the back, and he crumpled to the ground unable to move. He could hear the clatter of heavy boots approaching. As his vision faded and he was pulled from the memory, he caught a glimpse of the student’s face. It was not Tess, she was still lost in the storm. The last thing Demetrius felt was crushing despair and a realization that by tomorrow morning, any students who had not returned would be officially declared dead.

Demetrius could hear someone yelling in the distance as the blackness gave way once more. The voice sounded faint, but it gradually began to grow louder.

“I told you to give him a tour of the facility not leave him in my office!” A man Yelled.

“Seriously! I can’t be expected to get any work done babysitting your pet project. You are the one who offered the kid an internship. You deal with him. I have real work to do,” A door slammed then everything was silent.

When at last the vision came into full view, he found himself sitting in an office with an annoyed looking man adorned by a mop of grey hair. He paced back and forth gesturing wildly with his hands but not saying a word through gritted teeth. At last, he stopped his pacing and faced Demetrius. Taking a deep breath, he put on a fake smile.

“Welcome to the Imperium Lab Corps. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything for you to do just yet, and I have a pressing deadline coming up. I guess now that you have seen the operation you can go home for today.”

“Please let me stay, there is so much I need to learn. I won’t get in the way I promise. I could…” He heard himself pause trying to think of anything that would keep him from having to go home. “I could read some of the lab’s research notes. Maybe on a past project and get an idea of how this place runs so I can fit in.”

The man nodded at the idea. Demetrius felt a wave of excitement shoot through him when the man turned and typed a few commands into a nearby terminal. A small drawer slid open, and he retrieved a datapad.

“Here, with this, you can look at any set of declassified notes you would like. It is linked to the Imperium lab corps library, not just the genetics and bio-engineering division. So, I suppose you will find more than enough to keep you occupied for the time being.”

Taking the datapad from the graying man Demetrius zipped through its content with unreal speed. A glance at each page was enough to hold everything firmly in his mind.

The vision lasted only a moment more before he was once again ripped away, the pattern of being torn from a memory and transplanted in another becoming somewhat less jarring.

This time the darkness lingered, and he could feel a panic beginning to set in before at last light and sound returned. Demetrius stepped into a freshly illuminated lab. He was the first one there, that was good, it would give him time to take a look at what Samuel and Elroy had given him the night before. He followed Elroy’s instructions and gave the signal when he was ready. Carefully he inserted the data chip into his work terminal.

The display filled with complex segments of code. Demetrius knew his former self-had understood what he was looking at, though to him it had no meaning. Swiftly his hands moved over the keypad, program run boxes flashed and disappeared in the background covered by more and more cascading work tabs.

He felt his old mind churning to make sense of the enormous gobs of information. The more he uncovered, the more it confirmed his hunch, The code was malravian in nature. Someone had used malravian genetic code as an encryption algorithm for compressed files.

His fingers moved like lightning over the keypad, loud clacks ringing in his ears as he rearranged the genetic code. Suddenly the screen came alive with hundreds of tiny file boxes full of scrolling data overlapping each other layer upon layer near on to infinity. It was the mother lode. Each file containing detailed information on supposedly prohibited research.

Like a mad man, he rapidly cycled through the pages of each file taking in the information at a glance before moving on to the next. All this information, the euphoria was glorious! Arthur was right! Malravians did reproduce through partial organic cloning.

His revelry was cut short, however, as he came upon file after file of weaponized malravian research. Corwin was trying to make them smarter, even worse they were trying to create a cross between malravians and humans. Thirty pages later, they had done it. They had grown their own hybrid.

Then Demetrius stopped, his eyes glued to a report. It listed Samantha LaBou as the lead researcher of the first successful hybridization. Labou the name was familiar and he recognized it from his own memories not just those of his former self.

“No,” He muttered under his breath. All of the original scientists had been killed. The monstrosity they created had ripped the crystals from there flesh before sucking them dry.

Demetrius read on, and with each new file, the research became even more sinister. Corwin had spawned mass amounts of clones, far more than could be considered academic in nature.

Demetrius was sure Samuel would love to have this information. If only he could find a location of Corwin or its members, Samuel could mount a raid and put an end to their madness. Demetrius didn’t have time to finish reading through all the files. Suddenly the door to his office flew open and a squad of enforcers in full combat gear rushed in.

A sudden shock shot through him as he stared down the barrel of six rifles. How had they known, Elroy had assured him the chip was untraceable. He opened his mouth to protest, but nothing happened. The image froze, and he could no longer feel his body. Then the blackness closed in around him.

Demetrius could hear a man’s voice calling his name. He sounded so far away. Something pinched his shoulder, and a rush of adrenaline flooded through him. His eyes shot open and he sat bolt up on a couch in a cluttered room. For a fleeting moment, his eyes flicked from side to side looking for the squad of enforcers.

“Hay, Demetrius.” A man said waving a hand in front of his face. “Demetrius, relax you’re ok.”

“Where am I?” Demetrius asked. Then a rush of memories came flooding back to him. “Wait, I know. This is Raiden’s Den, in Crescent City isn’t it?”

“How’s your head?” Yami asked.

“Fine,” Demetrius said brushing off the question.

“That will be it for today. We were getting too close to your arrest. As you can imagine it was traumatic, I wouldn’t want to force you through that again.”

“Thank you.”

“Do you have any questions about what you saw?”

“These crystals. What are they?” Demetrius asked.

Yami sighed as he plopped down beside Demetrius, “Every year when Imperium children come of age, they are thrown into the mist called the ascension storm. They must find their crystal or die trapped forever in another plane of existence. When a person comes into bodily contact with their crystal for the first time, it binds to them, and they become bound to it as well. From then on whenever that person touches their crystal it is activated. All crystals possess the power to give their host a special ability. A person’s ability must be discovered then mastered otherwise they can pose a danger to themselves as well as others.

“Central, the heart of the Imperium, has an entire sector dedicated to prepping students for the trial and for unlocking the ability after they return. But like I said, some do not return they die. Like your friend Brian. You remember him, now don’t you?”

Demetrius nodded. He did but only from the one memory and as an outsider looking in.

“Other adolescents either don’t get to participate or end up with crystals like Tess where the experts can’t figure out its use. Those people are call crystal-less, the scum of society. Like me, and just about every other person in Crescent. It’s only those with privilege who get to train and take the trial.”

“It’s almost funny that I had a crystal but now that I am here, I am a crystal-less.” Demetrius mused struggling to grasp the importance. “What about Tess is she a crystal-less too, being here in Crescent and all?”

“No, she has a crystal and a powerful one. Only her ability was not discovered in the Academy.”

“How is that possible?”

“It is something they do not test for and likely had no concept of. Tess’s crystal gives her the ability to absorb the mist into herself. Because of this, she has been plagued with visions from the crystal's previous owners. She may even have the ability to absorb mist from another person’s crystal similar to that hybrid malravian from the Corwin files you saw.”

“If that’s true then how could she possibly have been branded a crystal-less?”

“Because… without coming into contact with another person’s crystal her ability would never manifest.”

“But how can that be, aren’t there people with crystals all over the place in Central? How could she not have come into contact with someone who had one?”

“It is not enough to merely be around a person with a crystal or even to touch them. She would have to make contact with another person's crystal, that would be like…like…” Yami’s face contorted in a frown as he searched for the right words.

“It would be a very intimate thing, like touching another person’s soul almost?” Demetrius asked.

“Something like that, more a taboo really, than an intimate gesture.”

“You said that Tess could also see visions from the people who had her crystal before her. So then when a person dies the crystal dies with them? Or does it bind to a new owner?”

“That is a good question and one I do not fully have the answer to. We know that they do not bind to a new owner however they seem to retain their energy at least in part. I for one believe that the energy fades in time or perhaps all at once if a new host is found.”

“Wait, you said they don’t bind to new owners, isn’t that a bit contradictory?”

Yami’s eyes lit up for a moment as a small mischievous smile tugged at the edges of his lips. “I know you don’t remember your trial, but when a student enters the mist, they are taken to a place that is, well, not of this world. It is the place that, I believe, all of the energy inside the crystals returns to eventually. Then it is recycled again for the next generation. If a new host is found during the trial, then the crystal here in our world dies instead of slowly depleting like a helium balloon. But again, this is just my personal opinion. I have very little verifiable data to prove any of it.”

“That seems quite farfetched.”

“If you could remember your trial you would not think so. As for me since I never went on the trial I have only the records of history to reflect on. Some of which are so old that there is no way to verify the validity…”

Yami was still talking but Demetrius was distracted. Tess had entered the room and was leaning against the door frame listening to Yami’s hypothesis. At once, Demetrius felt himself go flush. She wore a snug black shirt and matching black denim pants. Her green eyes locked on him and a smile parted her lips when he noticed her.

“Admeta told me, I would find you two here,” Tess said when Yami finished talking. “You could have woken me you know.”

“I…” Demetrius fumbled his response as Yami talked over him.

“Because you looked so cute all sprawled out on the bed, I thought we would let you sleep. I know how little of that you have been getting recently,” Yami said. A spike of jealousy flared up inside Demetrius at the too familiar tone.

Yami looked from Tess to Demetrius before standing and retrieving his dark sphere, “I have a report to file. If you will excuse me, I am sure the two of you have a lot of catching up to do.”

The door clicked shut behind Yami leaving Demetrius feeling both happy and awkward. He didn’t know how to act around Tess. Her very presence made him nervous but in a good way.

“How is the memory recovery going?” She asked in a gentle voice that made him blush again. Then she was navigating the piles each movement sure as she came to sit beside him.

“Um, it’s going… Not good actually. I hardly remember anything. Yami tried to lower the inhibitor strength, but that had no effect. That round thing though, what did he call it? The…”

“Sensorium.”

“Right. That thing helped a bit. I was able to re-live a few old memories. It’s odd, I don’t remember them from actually being there. Instead, I remember them as a passenger in my former self’s body. It’s a very odd way to remember the past. Though the longer I was there, the more real it all felt. I can’t believe how fast I used to be able to learn things. I guess that had something to do with my crystal then?”

“Part of it yes,” Tess said. She sounded sad at the mention of his crystal.

“Tess, what happened to my crystal?”

She turned away from him, “It was taken away.”

“Is that why I went crazy? Yami said that they are bound to a person’s soul. Is that what happens to people when they lose their crystal, they go crazy?”

She nodded, “I am sorry Demetrius.”

“Why are you sorry? You didn’t have anything to do with it. Did you?”

“No. I’m just…” She paused as if searching for the right words. “Just, sorry. I was so jealous of you and Samuel. Then you started working with my father. Being the one he adored when all he could see in me was a failure. It felt like Yami was the only one who did not reject me. The only one who did not look at me and see trash because I was a crystal-less. I wanted to die Demetrius.”

Demetrius winced at her last words and felt a hollow pit in his stomach at the thought of her death. “I never thought of you that way Tess. I may not have all of my memories, but I can say for certain that I never thought of you like that. You were my friend.”

“I’m sorry,” Tess said wiping tears from her eyes, and Demetrius realized that she was not the only one crying. “Demetrius I am sorry. I was just so ashamed I could not face you or Samuel or anyone.”

On impulse, Demetrius reached out and grabbed her hand. Without warning, she turned and fell on him with an embrace. He felt his entire body warm at her touch. Tentatively he wrapped his arms around her, as warm tears created wet splotches on his shirt. This was not at all how he had envisioned, reuniting with Tess, but it would do. At least he was able to hold her in his arms at last.