Valkyrie Hunter

Intense bright light surrounded me. Not the burning glare of the desert sun but a white light that seemed to come from everywhere. A strange fog swirled around my ankles like some old fashioned horror vid. The ground felt solid beneath my bare feet not cold and not burning hot. Whatever clothes Mouse had given me were gone I was naked and in a strange place. I could be certain I wasn’t on Saros my intended destination. I was somewhere else. My first thought was Melanos but it didn’t have that cold stale feeling.

“Hello?” I called out feeling a little stupid doing so.

Silenced greeted my call. I don’t know how I knew but I was sure I wasn’t alone.

“I know you are there so don’t mess with me you bastards!” I decided I was dealing with the Guardians. They’d tried something in this vein before but something about this made me unsure it was them.

A brighter spec of light appeared hovering above the fog.

I focused my attention on the light spot. “Who are you and why am I here?”

“The ‘Place’ is unimportant,” A voice said it seemed to come from all around me.

“Fucking Guardians!” I muttered. I was becoming more certain it was them. “You were warned against pulling a stunt like this again.” I stated boldly which is hard to do when talking to the air in nothing but your skin.

“We are not those you call the Guardians. The Avacore have no reason to be here.”

“We?” I guessed that Avacore were the Guardians original name. I really didn’t know or care about that. What I did note was that the voice had said ‘we’.

The light spot split into two. I now had two hovering lights.

“Ok so now you can tell me who you really are and why am I here?”

“To talk,” one said.

“About what?” I tried to call to Mouse with my mind. I never got an answer.

“Your influence on the Janari,” the other voice told me it sounded vaguely female.

“The who?” I’d sort of guessed they were talking about the Keepers but I waited for the answer.

“Those you know as the Keepers.”

It wasn’t that much of a surprise the Keepers had an original name. “You still haven’t told me who you are?” I made it a demand.

“We have many names, a number of those you will not be familiar with. We are currently called the First Ones or Ancients.”

“Oh really then stop hiding in the shadows and show yourselves?” I felt my scepticism grow.

“We are?” the first voice told me sounding confused.

“You aren’t really,” I stated firmly.

“Alright have it your way,”

The glowing lights shifted becoming more human liked finally coalescing into solid looking figures. One was older male and had pale skin with grey hair. His companion was dark skinned with a mane of chestnut hair. I recognised them as the President of Saros and his PA the last I’d seen them was at the Gala on Saros. The Gala, Ljufu had organised to trap those traitors involved in the plot to destroy the city and blame it on the TCA.

I snorted. “Nice try at least this time you didn’t show up as my family?”

“Just accept this for the truth,” the President’s PA said.

“Oh you take the form of someone I’ve seen on Saros. The President, come on you awarded me a medal?”

“We are for the moment?” the President said. “We’ve been keeping an eye over the world for a very long time.”

“So why did you greet me at the Gala?” I was suspicious and rightly so.

“Because you stopped mass murder.”

“But this isn’t about that so what do you want?”

“You are a disruptive element.”

“Really if you are so powerful I’m nothing to you.”

“The Janari hold you in great esteem,” the PA stated.

“Jealous is that what this comes down to?” I know I was being harsh I was sick of these word games.

“Jealousy, no,” the President said. “You altered their form.”

“The computer did that using my DNA.”

“Incorrect the Janari haven’t told you the full truth,” the PA said.

“In what way?” I wasn’t sure what point they were making.

“It wasn’t your DNA they harvested but your ovaries?”

I couldn’t have felt more surprised. It made some sort of logical sense, which was why they had duplicated my form. If they had grown to full adults in such as short time it was mind boggling? How they managed to achieve that was beyond me. So that was what Digger referred to, my essence made them it also made the copy of me. What I didn’t understand was the how and I wasn’t going to ask these two. I’d reserve that until I spoke to Mouse again if I got that chance.

“And the point is?”

“It isn’t their true form.”

“Oh like the Guardians hiding their true forms behind my family?” I said harshly and meant it.

“The Avacore had been dealt with,” PA stated bluntly.

“These same so called Guardians that planted a device in me so I could kill the Keepers?”

“That was stupid, to carry on with a vendetta long after the Janari were destroyed. We have watched over the few that remained.”

“Yeah you left them as digital images of themselves and let the computer get invaded and then left them to die in a planet killing explosion?” I shot back my anger notching up a bit.

“We did what we could their computer sustained their forms and we couldn’t shut it down not without destroying them,” the President said.

“I hear that but you still left them in a state. It wasn’t until I came along that anything happened. You would have left them to die?”

“You did help release them but they shouldn’t have done what they did.”

“Oh you mean left them as digital images?” I said sarcastically.

“Please be at peace?” The PA tried to placate me.

“Enough,” the President told her. Then turned his attention to me. “And you have changed the Janari so they no longer answer to that name.”

“Is that such a bad thing?” I replied.

“This is what the Janari should be,” the PA said.

An image appeared in the air between the two. I was shocked at what I was seeing. The image was far beyond what I had imagine what the Keepers had looked like. The image showed me a creature with the torso of a human. The head was elongated and had a mane of feathers instead of hair. The creature had human limbs but the arms and legs ended with claws. Two wings sprouted from the backs. In fact the whole image reminded me of the Ancient Greek stories about Harpies. I guessed there was some truth in the stories. Yet in those stories Harpies were vicious horrors that feasted on human flesh. According to Digger and Mouse I had ancient Keeper DNA that had come from an Exile. One they had exiled as a killer. Perhaps there was some truth but then again there might some exaggeration. My Keeper DNA had remained dormant until the Elders had altered mine. My mind whirled with all the information I had been given. I couldn’t reconcile the image I was seeing with what I knew about Harpies and the Keepers I’d met. I kept in mind that these Keepers were pacifistic remembering Scout’s story of how they were slaughtered. No way that was faked. I hardened my heart to the two in front of me. They had forbidden the Keepers to contact me seeming to think I’d altered them away from what they were. So what, they were still who they originally were even if they had stolen from me. I wasn’t sure what these First Ones wanted but I was damn sure that they wouldn’t leave us alone. I might not be happy that Digger and Mouse lied to me about their origins and that they had taken my eggs to make themselves.

“I see and this means?” I said bluntly.

“Stubborn,” the President said there was no heat in his voice. “I can’t prevent the deterioration of Janari values and they’ll continue to hide their involvement with you. I am trying to prevent their eventual destruction. You are hastening their end.”

“Blood and family,” I said. The Valkyrie quote was ‘Blood and Clan’. It seemed appropriate at this occasion.

The two First Ones sighed together.

“We can’t stop you and we cannot and will not stop the last of Janari. It was our fault that this happened. We let their race die and not helped restore it,” The President said with a wave of his hand.

“They will continue to protect you no matter what we say. And you will you do the same. I cannot make you forget the Janari anymore than they would forget you. I just wish this happened in a different way,” the PA told me.

“Good now send me back!”

“As you wish mother of the Janari.”

My vision blurred and I felt myself move.