The Imperial Warrior

Chapter 14- Good Things Fall Apart

The only good thing about his room was the view. Starlight filtered in through his window and Kyle could feel the compound growing on him far too soon. A cold breeze blew into his room and he begrudgingly made his way to the shower praying for hot water. If they wanted him to be ready by 6, he wanted hot water by 5.

To his fortune, the water was scalding on his skin and he took his time savoring it. He had an inkling that the rest of his day was not going to be as enjoyable. He ran down his eight flight of stairs and reached the arena just on time. He thought he would have been the first one but several kids were already there. He was relieved when he realized that they had come only a few minutes before him. He saw Alan tying his shoes near a bench, which had a frightening number of weights around it, and went there.

"Good Morning!" He mustered all his chirp into the words. Alan looked up and waved at him.

"You are on time, good." Kyle couldn't help but feel that he was back in school all over again except this one was filled with athletes who were going to eat him alive. Luckily, he had packed his running shoes. He wiggled his toes inside them, trying to calm his nerves. "Drake is in-charge of Level 1 kids so start warming up. He should be here soon."

Kyle looked around to see other kids doing various forms of stretches and tried to mimic their actions as much as he could without it being obvious. He also couldn't help but notice that almost everyone around him was younger than him. He wondered what levels the others were but no one had their badge on. He removed his from his neck and kept it beside his jacket. Drake came a minute later and Kyle got up to meet him. He figured he would be just like Liam in his treatment towards him, but Drake didn't acknowledge their time before at school at all. He simply eyed him up and asked him, "Can you run?"

Kyle grimaced thinking about his asthma but then he remembered the last few times he had run around Arcane without getting breathless. He nodded his head. He was about to take off when Drake stopped him, "Without the shoes." He said looking at Kyle's feet.

Kyle looked down at his own feet and then saw that none of the other Imperials were wearing any footwear either. Drake answered his question before he opened his mouth, "We aren't here to train you for an event or a sport, Kyle. We are here to make you uncomfortable. We will trigger you every day. Over and over again, until you learn to control it yourself. Are you ready for that?" There was no sneer in his tone. He talked to him plainly, asking him if he was up to the challenge.

"I am." He didn't know how he managed to sound so sure when he was terrified beneath. Drake pressed a button on something on his phone and Kyle figured he must have started a stopwatch. He took a deep breath and ran towards the path marked for running.

The ground under wasn't clear, but he had expected as much. He tried to land his feet as softly as he could but each step made him flinch. The circle wasn't a very large one so he had to keep going around it over and over again. Kyle tried to tune out his surroundings and think about something other than the tiny stones which seemed to have been purposely laid out for him. He looked at the sky and wondered if Anya had finally come back home or was still staying with Alex. He felt ashamed that he hadn't thought about home since he had reached the compound. He had been so looped into this new world that he was losing his old one. He couldn't bear the thought of his father waking up to find an empty house.

He had become so lost in his thoughts that he had stopped paying attention to the terrain. He stepped on a pointed stone and yelped. This was such a dumb idea. He wasn't going to get triggered by running over a few stones, he was just going to get annoyed. But he wasn't going to quit either, so he gritted his teeth and kept running, hoping that Drake would tell him that his time was up soon enough.

The familiar burn in his body had intensified more than he ever let it but he wasn't going to stop. Not today. He clutched his stomach and went on. His steps faltered soon enough and he realized his pace had reduced considerably. He couldn't see clearly and the trees meshed in the background. He cleared his eyes, but he was too late. He hadn't seen Drake come in his way; one leg extended to trip Kyle.

Kyle fell on his face. He was so mad when he realized that he was tripped on purpose that he didn't understand the difference between anger and that old power taking over him. His hand stopped trembling as he made his way towards Drake.

"Kyle. Control it. Think." He could hear Drake talk but it was of no use. His body had taken over and his mind receded to some corner where reasoning and logic were forgone. He went head first into Drake but it was of no use. He was an ant in front of an elephant. Drake didn't even budge at his shove. He tried again and again until his own arm had begun to hurt. That's when he could stop. Drake was still saying something about control but Kyle didn't listen. He slumped down to the ground.

"Why didn't you stop me?" He could hear how weak his voice sounded and hated himself. He wasn't raised to do this. He didn't want to do this. He didn't want any of it. He wanted to go home and hide under a blanket until he was okay again. He punched the ground in frustration. Drake didn't look even slightly fazed by his sudden outburst. He thought about Roy yesterday and reckoned this must have been pretty common. He saw that his vein was fading slowly.

"Kyle," Drake put a hand on his shoulder and gestured him to stand up. "Listen up. I know you are asthmatic so we are going to have to work extra hard on you. First, you need to learn to access the power that lies dormant in your veins," He said looking at his vein which had become a dull grey.

"Otherwise, you won't be able to make it with your physique." Kyle knew he didn't mean it as an insult but it burned him all the same. "I can't help my asthma, Drake." He said pointedly.

"Yes, you can." He sounded so sure that, for a second, Kyle almost believed him. "I'm going to change up your regimen, Kyle. We can't use the same techniques on you." He said in substantiation.

"Why? Did my blood tell you something different about me?"

"No, your blood is same as us. It's the fact that we train the others from age 5 onwards, not at 17. Your body hasn't been honed into submission. It will be ten times more complicated to train you." Kyle knew he was late but he didn't think that mattered. But after listening to Drake, it became all too clear to him that he was the only teenager in the arena who was getting trained instead of training someone else. He would make do, he told himself. He would put a hundred times more effort if that meant he didn't have to deal with any more urges.

"Okay, so what do you want me to do now?"

"Come with me." Drake took him back to garden and made him sit on the ground. "Meditate." He told him.

"Derek already taught me the breathing exercises." He told in protest. Sitting still would only send his thoughts in directions he would rather not let them wander off to. "Do you want to access the power you have without going all hulk or not?"

Kyle exhaled and sat down.

"Good. Now try to focus your hearing on the arena. Tell me if you can make out anyone speaking." He recalled Derek telling him a similar thing in the locker room. In retrospect, it was Drake who made Derek teach him at least that much, saying that he would need it eventually. He shut his eyes tightly and tried to listen.

"Nothing is happening, Drake." He told him with a sigh. He knew it wasn't going to be easy but he didn't expect to fail in everything he was told first thing in the morning either. Drake must have seen his disheartened expression but he didn't say anything. He looked like he was thinking of something when suddenly he brightened up, a sinister smile on his face. He ran back towards the arena without saying a word and came back with a smirking Liam in tow.

They both stood towering over him and Kyle resisted standing up as much as he could. It didn't help that he already felt so inferior in front of them.

"Alright, Kyle. I'm going to give you a trigger phrase. You will repeat it every time you feel the pull of an urge okay. Even the slightest feeling that would are about to lose control and you will repeat those words like a mantra. Over and over again, until you calm down. And then when you have that energy access just near, you will use that to listen. Only listen for now. We'll reach the rest later." Drake told him.

Kyle thought it was as good as a plan as any.

"One problem though," He told him, squinting his eyes as the sun was now right in front of him.

"How will I get triggered. It's not something I can induce."

Liam smiled and said, "Oh don't you worry about that." Kyle grasped what he was talking about. While running Drake had tripped him on purpose, to see how easily he was triggered. And now he had called Liam to add on to the fun. Great, that was just great.

"What is the phrase?" He asked resignedly.

"7 texts, 2 am, halfway there, don't say you are calling me." Kyle balked at that.

"Those are song lyrics, Drake."

"I know. It's easier for a phrase to work when it has a rhythm. I know you are familiar with this one so it should be just fine."

Kyle was clearly very skeptical of the plan but he went along. What's the worst that could happen, he told himself.

He raised his head towards Liam and challenged, "Do your best, Hammers."

Liam didn't need to be told twice. He slapped Kyle right on his cheek hard enough that he could hear ringing in his ears. He definitely wasn't expecting that. Drake shuffled on his feet and it was enough to tell Kyle that he hadn't seen that coming either. Whatever problem Liam had with him; it was personal.

He was raising his hand for another blow but Kyle wasn't so dumb this time. He took a step back at just the right moment and then ducked to punch Liam in the stomach. He didn't know why he always aimed for the stomach while punching one of them. He needed to work on that, he noted to himself.

Liam let out an annoying laugh which made it clear to Kyle that he hadn't made a dent in him. This just aggravated him further so aimed for his face this time. Liam caught his wrists and twisted them wickedly, not caring for the bandage on Kyle's bad arm. After that he could feel it happen, the temptation to give in to the urge. It was just a micro-second but and so his mind had completely forgotten the trigger phrase. Drake hadn't.

He put an arm on his shoulder hard enough that Kyle couldn't push him away. He felt his injury throb and came back to his senses and repeated his phrase over and over again until he couldn't think of anything else. Once he was sure he wasn't going to lose control, he closed his eyes and focused in the direction of the arena. He thought he almost heard Alan's voice but it was overshadowed by Liam whispering furiously to Drake.

"You should have let me hit him." Liam was seething himself and Kyle realized that the people with him were threats too. They could just as easily lose control and hurt him, or anyone around them. Maybe they should all just stop pretending that they had their Imperialism under control and go quietly into the pit.

"Liam!" Drake pulled him away from Kyle but not far enough that he was out of earshot. "Sins of the father, remember. Kyle doesn't know anything." That stopped Liam from erupting but Kyle could see that he just needed a trigger. He decided to return the favor.

"What's your problem, Liam?" He marched towards the two boys with a swagger he knew he was faking. He put his arms behind to hide their shaking.

"Aren't you getting into the wrong twin?" He regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. There were some lines that weren't meant to be crossed. But it was too late, Liam's eyes went completely dark as he came to hit Kyle right on his face.

***

Her parents' lawyer had contacted her after the funeral and told her that they had left all their property to her with Ryan as her guardian until she turned eighteen. She didn't know what to do with that information so she put that too on her growing pile of things unaccounted for in her life.

She had always been very organized and planned, time tabling every spare minute of her time because the day never seemed to have enough hours. Now, all she had was time. She was still doing her coursework but you could see that she didn't do it with the same fire anymore. Before, every assignment was an opportunity for her to grab, now, she took life as it came. It was better to have no plans than them being ruined over, she had decided.

Ryan was trying his best to take care of her but she was almost grateful that he was having a hard time dealing with their deaths as well. It made her happy that she was not the only one who felt like her world had been smashed down.

She was getting up to go to the kitchen and start prepping for dinner when Ryan bristled her off.

"I hope you don't mind, I brought take out for us. You like Chinese, right?" He scratched his head and she could see the resemblance between Kyle and Ryan. She had lost her appetite for food but she nodded nonetheless. Ryan made her sit on the table as he heated the food and removed plates from the cupboard. That was a sign that he wanted to talk to her.

She had tried her best to dodge questions from anyone at school, and much to her guilt, kissed Alex to make him stop looking at her with that expression like one wrong word and she would have broken. She knew there was no way out of this one.

"How's school been going?" Ryan asked her once after taking a seat in front of her. She could almost feel the echo of Kyle's presence on the seat beside hers. She brushed that thought away and told him about their new History teacher. Once, Ryan was satisfied with the small talk he asked her, "Can we talk, Anya?"

She knew him well enough that he would have let her go if she told him that she wasn't up for it but something in her wanted to hear about her parents. They were dead, but they were still a part of her life- denying that would have been counterproductive.

She nodded but kept her eyes on her plate. Every time someone took their name, it all she could do to hide her tears.

"Your father's lawyer, Mr. Saw, he gave me some things that Henry wanted me to have in case something ever happened to him. Nothing special, all your legal documents, his grandfather's watch, and a letter with instructions to pass it on to you." She looked up at him to make sure that she wasn't imagining him saying this. All she wanted was to hear their voice again, and to read her father's words was more than what she could have hoped for.

"Why did he think something was going to happen to him?" She asked him suspiciously. Did her parents know their life was under threat? And if they did, why wouldn't they tell her anything?

"No, nothing like that." Anya's face blatantly told him that she didn't believe him.

"It was something, both of us did. I wrote a letter for Kyle and he did the same for you." He looked apprehensively at her. She figured that they must have had their reasons for their weird little pact and Ryan was clearly uncomfortable sharing them so she didn't inquire any further.

"I wanted to wait a few days after the funeral to give it to you." He added further and went to get it from his study.

He kept it on the table. She immediately recognized the envelope. Her father had sent her to buy a couple of them not less than a month ago. Her name was written on the top in her father's elegant scrawl. She ran her fingers over the letter thinking about her father sitting on his desk penning down his last words to his daughter.

"Your father was my best friend, Anya. I don't know where I would be without him. And I see so much of him in you. Every day. They would have been so proud of you." His tone was unfinished but by the time Anya turned to see him, Ryan Jones was long gone.

***

Liam walked away after giving Kyle a b****y nose. He was too tired to fight anymore and Drake knew it too. With his injured arm and now a b****y nose, even Drake pitied him. He trudged back to his room and fell asleep on the bed immediately. He woke up to a ringing sound and looked around for his phone. When he remembered that it was off, he frowned to see where the noise was coming from. He saw that the metallic desk in front of his bed had a small drawer. He opened it to see a phone and a laptop inside it. At least Imperials made good on their promises.

"Hello?" His voice was hoarse with sleep. Kyle started setting up the laptop as he heard Derek say, "Where are you? Lunch is almost over." He saw the time and immediately ran down the steps to the café. He could not afford to miss another meal.

"Hey, look what the cat dragged in," Khia said as Kyle entered the room. She was on her way out, much to Kyle's dismay. He served himself to his satisfaction and sat at a table with Derek.

"How was training?" Derek's resounding smile was enough to tell Kyle that Liam had already filled him in. "I'll spare you the gory details." He told him.

After his stomach was satiated, he asked Derek, "Can I send my father a message?"

A dark look crossed his face, "Why?"

"What do you mean why? I just disappeared into thin air with you. He needs to know that I'm alright." And that he won't be coming home for a while, he grimaced at that.

Derek gave it a thought and said, "Well, I don't see the harm in that."

Kyle bowed his head, happy that for once he wasn't getting reproached for his requests.

"Oh, while you are at it, check your inbox for a mail from the compound. Alan cooked up a schedule for you while you were napping." Kyle wondered how they were so efficient in their systems. His phone had come filled with the numbers of almost everyone he knew at the compound and a whole list of other names he didn't recognize. An email-id had already been set up for him.

"Sure thing," He dug the phone out of his pocket and opened the mail.

8 am- 10 am: Mental Training

10 am: Breakfast

11 am- 3 pm: Physical Training

3 pm: Lunch

4 pm- 8 pm: Compound Duties (to be assigned next week)

He showed the message to Derek who gave him a thumbs up. Kyle was so glad that his training time had been shifted to 8 am. Not that it meant he could get to sleep in. After today's session, he had decided to wake up early and do some exercises on his own. He had to do everything possible to get in line as soon as he could. He was already a couple of years behind everyone else.

"What are compound duties?"

"You must have noticed that we don't have a lot of adults around. So, we have to make do on our own. This place doesn't run itself, Jones."

Kyle again ignored the way everyone at the compound seemed to sneer while saying his last name. He had enough problems already without picking up fights with everyone. His entire body was so rigid after today that he knew he had to take a trip to the infirmary to get something for his arm. At least he had remembered to take his antibiotics on time.

"Were we always like this?" He asked Derek.

"Like what?"

"Did we always give in to our urges?"

Derek shook his head. "I told you about the true-blooded ones, right. They were what we were supposed to be. They had all the power we get during our urges without having to train to hone them. Their veins never ran black, they never stopped being themselves or turned into beasts. And yet, they were invariably stronger. Better. Faster. Superior. And above all, they were immortal" He spoke about them with enough admiration that Kyle couldn't help but smile. It was a rare sight to see Derek Aukland admire something.

"Immortal?"

Derek nodded and said, "That's why they were killed."

When Kyle didn't say anything, he continued.

"Well, we really know much only about the Black family. There were the king and queen, of course, and they had three kids. Ivan, Iris and Ian Black."

Kyle didn't need Derek to tell him the rest of the tale. Alan had told him about the mysterious fire which killed their last monarch.

"You think we would have still been a monarchy, had they lived? We would have still been a kingdom?"

"I do. They were our only hope."

"Hope for what?"

"To remove our curse."