Himiko: Warrior (17 page)

I can do it.
Matt surprised himself a little at that thought. But he really believed in it now.

Yes. And with the three of us, you can do anything.
Pietr rubbed his shoulder and then got up to help the others clean the kitchen.

***

It was a certainty that followed Matt the next day. Pietr and Aki were both somewhat hesitant about what they were going to do, but Matt wasn't worried. He knew exactly what to do to make this work.

"So, how do you do that freak thing? You need to touch them, right?"

Matt didn't take Sam's bait, just nodded and pulled Aki and Pietr in close. Then he reached out to split a fallen tree trunk.

The old wood sort of exploded, showering them all with splinters and a considerable number of insects.

"Would you stop that?" Aki sounded irritated as he brushed bits of tree trunk out of his hair.

Sam looked a little overwhelmed. "Uh, yes. I guess that's about it. A little more control would probably be a good thing."

Sam quickly found his old self, though, and began putting Matt through his paces. It was a bit difficult to control all of that power in the beginning, but Matt quickly caught on, and he moved things and split tree trunks and broke branches the rest of the morning. He didn't tire at all, and it felt incredible to be able to keep going and going, feeding on the power from his mate and his mentor.

Please, no more!
It was Aki's moan that finally stopped him. He looked at his mentor in surprise.

It might seem easy to you, but you're doing things neither of us ever learned. We're getting a little dizzy, here.

To Matt's astonishment, Pietr completely agreed with Aki.
I need something to eat. And maybe some ReGen.

Matt realized that his mate was right.
You do look a little green around the gills
.

I... What?
Pietr's hands went up to his neck, checking as if to see if there were any fish parts there. Okay, so perhaps Matt's mate really was tired.

It's a saying! When will you start getting your idioms right?

Well, pardon me for not understanding the parts of our language that you've mauled.

We haven't mauled anything. And what do you mean, "your language"?

Well, why do you think English is such a common language on Earth?

Uh, I don't know -- because the Brits were all over the place and brought their language with them?

A language as inconsistent as English? No way. You picked it up from us, of course.

What the fuck? No, we didn't!

"Uh, guys?" Aki's voice was mildly confused. "Could you maybe argue on the way? Because we're really hungry."

Matt looked up to see Aki, Sam, and Jerry watching them with equal parts amusement and resignation, and he blushed slightly.

"Okay, let's go. I can beat Pietr's ass on the way."

That's what you think. Now, about how the language transferred...

Matt groaned out loud as he started walking toward the cabin.

***

It was a little strange suddenly being the one with the strongest powers. Pietr and Aki didn't understand how he did most of the things he did, and even Sam reeled when Matt took a short cut and split a tree in four at one shot.

Things turned tricky when he had to use the power against another being. Sam, without hesitation, forbade him to do anything physical; his trainer looked a little panicked at the mere thought.

Matt was far more reluctant to attack any of his friends mentally. "What if I do a tree trunk on one of you?"

A collective shudder went through the Himika as they looked at the remains of the first tree trunk he had tried to split.

Sam wouldn't back down, though. "You just have to keep from doing that. You have to learn how to control it. You can practice on me."

That was either a very brave or a very stupid offer. Matt leaned strongly toward the latter. Then he got an idea.

Pulling together all of his self-control and the power of the three of them, he carefully reached out for Sam's mind.

Sam resisted, putting up a good fight. But instead of using force, Matt dodged Sam's defenses and slithered in where Sam's attention was lowest.

Suddenly, he was in the middle of Sam's mind. It was astounding to be this intimate, especially since he had barely communicated mentally with Sam before.

Sam was shocked and instantly wanted to fight Matt. However, Matt wouldn't let him. Instead, Matt let a layer of soothing thoughts simmer through his mind, forcing Sam to relax. Sam gave in surprisingly easily, and with that, all of his inner defenses went down.

This was someone who had been through hell. Without a mate, Sam was always aware of the fact that he wasn't complete, and it haunted him. Then there were the memories of the war, and the deep pain from witnessing the death of Stor, his best friend and Jerry's mate.

And Sam loved Jerry.

Sam knew it was hopeless; not so much because Jerry didn't like him, but because Jerry couldn't love anybody at all. Not yet, and perhaps not ever. But Sam had accepted the fact that he could at least be close to Jerry and help the other Himiko as much as possible.

It was such a noble decision that Matt got tears in his eyes.

Then he started when he realized what he had done. This was eavesdropping, but a lot worse. This was violating the most fundamental principles of privacy. Gingerly, taking great care not to hurt Sam, he pulled back.

Sam stared helplessly at Matt.

"What? Did it work?" Jerry sounded impatient.

"Yeah. It worked," Sam answered, his voice tight. Then he fell to his knees.

What happened?

Both Pietr and Aki were shouting at him, but it was Jerry who went to Sam's side, gently helping him sit down. Robbie joined them, looking worried.

"I couldn't feel what Matt was doing at all." Aki's voice sounded a little accusing. "It felt as if there was a limit at Sam's shields, and I couldn't see past that."

Me neither. What happened?
Pietr was less than happy at being shut out, but it was such a relief that the other Himika hadn't seen what Matt had seen.

"I was just a little too rough," Matt said.

Sam looked up at him.

Matt nodded almost imperceptibly. He would keep Sam's secrets.

Sam nodded back, and there was a deep gratitude in his eyes.

"But you're okay?" Aki had broken their mental connection as soon as Sam fell, and now he was looking at the kneeling Himiko, real worry in his eyes.

Sam nodded, and Robbie did the same. "He'll be fine. We're just playing with hardcore stuff here."

You might say so. Matt took a deep breath.

"The good news is that I think I got it. I know how to use it now."

Thank god. Because that was just a little creepy.
Their connection hadn't been broken, so Pietr wasn't in any kind of distress. He just hadn't been able to track Matt like he usually did, and that bothered him.

Yeah, a little. And I can't even say I won't do it again.

I know, Matt. It's okay.

Matt couldn't count how many times he had heard those words over the last few days. Perhaps he should start believing them.

It would save us a lot of work, honey.

The smack that followed was inevitable. Really, Pietr should have learned his lesson by now.

***

"How did the Warriors practice? I mean those who used their abilities for real?"
It was early afternoon, and they were at the meadow again, ready to begin another training session.

"We didn't practice!" Sam sounded outraged.

"Yes, they did." Aki's voice was quiet. Matt remembered Jerry's words about Aki being close to Stor's murderer.

Sam turned to Aki, a shocked expression on his face.

Aki looked away. "They played with other Himika. I don't think they ever did it with the intention of killing someone, but they were definitely bullies."

And Aki had been so close to becoming one of them. Matt could sense his mentor's revulsion at that thought.

"Okay, so that's not an option." What the fuck was he doing now?

"I think it actually might be." Aki sounded a bit surer of himself now. "You leave us behind anyway when you do it, so you don't really need to use the combined power of the three of us to practice. It was really easy keeping up the connection."

Matt nodded. He hadn't even had to think about that.

"Then we just spar. Like we did when I taught you how to shield. You try to break my shields, and I try to defend myself. Just don't fry my brain."

After what had happened to Sam -- and to the tree trunk -- Aki had to be very, very brave to suggest this. Matt really appreciated it.

He still did his very best to kick his mentor's ass.

Aki reeled back when he felt Matt's attack.

"Jesus, Matt! What have you been doing since I trained you?"

Matt thought about apologizing. Then he remembered: sucking it up. He attacked again, and this time he almost got through an opening in Aki's defenses before he gave his mentor a break.

Aki bent over, gasping, while supporting his hands on his knees. Robbie was watching him with raised eyebrows, and Aki looked questioningly at his mate when he got back up.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. You did ask for this," Robbie answered.

Matt grinned and attacked again.

***

Matt had been practicing all of the last three days, Sam and Jerry pushing him as much as they could without exhausting him. It wasn't as hard as it used to be; Aki and Pietr had almost unlimited power when they united with him in their strange trinity of energy, and they stopped getting queasy after a while.

Even when he practiced mental attacks on his own, he did all right. He was fed and ordered to drink and to sleep at regular intervals. If the reason for his friends' babysitting hadn't been looming over him, Matt would have lost his temper a long time ago. As it was, he worked harder than he could remember ever doing before -- and he had worked his ass off after bonding with Pietr.

"We better stop now. You have a good grasp of it, and we don't want to tire you out too much before tomorrow," Sam finally said the evening before the demonstration.

Sam looked grim, but he wasn't overly pessimistic. Matt knew that this was another of those things he wasn't supposed to know without Sam telling him so, but it was still nice to know that the Himiko wasn't sending them all on a suicide mission.

"Aren't you forgetting one thing?" Aki looked skeptical. "How are we going to explain that we're bringing a human to the meeting?"

Sam opened his mouth to answer. Then he shut it again.

Pietr saved the Warrior, though. "That's easy. I can just say that he's having a bad day. Everybody knows that he's been injured, and, well," he looked a bit sheepish, "I've sort of kept his power hidden to everybody."

Sam looked at him in surprise.

Pietr shrugged. "I didn't want them to assign him to something he didn't want to do." Like he had been himself.

Matt hugged his mate, unconcerned about the other Himika in the room.
Thank you, baby. After this, we're...
"Going on vacation" sounded a bit lame when they were about to save the world from an evil mastermind. But there was so much they were still learning about each other.

Pietr understood, though. There was gratitude and a quiet, undemanding love in his mate's mind, and Matt let himself absorb it. Then he pulled back.

"I'm ready to go now."

It proved very easy to get Matt into the room where the meeting was being held in Washington, DC. The meeting room was near the Mall, enhancing Matt's suspicion about the purpose of the meeting. They saw a glimpse of the demonstration on their way; it looked like there were tens of thousands of people there, and it was still another hour and a half until the demonstration was supposed to begin.

Pietr wrapped an arm around Matt's shoulder as they neared the building. It was a part of his disguise as injured human, but it felt really good. He let his mate know it, know exactly how grateful Matt felt to have met the Himiko. In spite of everything and no matter what happened to them today.

Pietr leaned in and kissed him.
I love you, okay? And I'll be here for you every step of the way.
Even if he messed up. Even if things went horribly wrong. More than all of their exercises back at the cabin, this made Matt feel calm. He would do what he could.

The guard in the foyer gave Matt an unusually sour look. Pietr did his thing where he grew right before Matt's eyes.

I have a meeting with the Assessor. This is my mate. Let us through.

After that, there were no problems whatsoever.

Matt clung to Pietr, letting his steps go a little unsure and looking down as if his eyes were too sensitive to the light. He had his shields built up as solidly as he could. But he kept a fake layer on top on them, a disguise if anybody dared defy Pietr and impose on Matt's mind.

The Assessor did, as soon as they stepped into the Himiko's office. Matt had been prepared, although he couldn't bring himself to believe that any Himiko really would do that, even this one. But the Assessor did, without doing much to conceal the rough search of Matt's mind.

Matt whimpered and swayed. He didn't have to fake his discomfort, but he added a sense of bewilderment at the confrontation with such overwhelming power. Unfortunately, it wasn't an exaggeration; the Assessor's energy felt different from anything Matt had ever encountered. Their very rudimentary plan suddenly seemed deeply insufficient, and a single week of practice was laughable in the face of this solid, impenetrable wall of immense power.

I thought so.
The Assessor's inner voice was strangely impersonal. Matt didn't do anything to hide his relief when the Himiko withdrew without finding the barriers protecting the real him under the weak human disguise.
He was channeling your power when we met last.

Pietr shrugged.
It's what you would expect. He is human, after all.

There was an almost invisible grimace on the Assessor's face.
He most certainly is. Why did you bring him? And Robbie?
He looked reproachfully at Aki, too.

He can't seem to recover from the attack. He had another migraine yesterday, probably because I was away from him for too long. And his migraines are my migraines, so I need to keep both him and his doctor close.

Matt took that as his cue to sway and reach out for Aki to support himself, resulting in the two Himika helping him to the couch in front of the Assessor's low table. He sat in the middle, with Aki and Pietr on either side and Robbie, Sam, and Jerry in the chairs to their left. So far, so good.

The Assessor expertly kept all of their conversation silent. Matt had to admire his skill; it seemed like no effort at all for him to control both his own message as well as the other participants' contributions. It was brutal, too. Jerry gasped as the Assessor yanked Matt's teacher none too gently into the conversation. The Assessor didn't notice the other Himiko's discomfort, or maybe he just didn't care. The way the Assessor seemed to create a barrier between himself and others, even as he was communicating, was almost sinister; it was like talking to a machine.

Matt leaned on Pietr, letting his outer layer of thoughts stray and bump clumsily against both Aki's and Pietr's minds to conceal what he was about to do. Only when they were deep in conversation with the Assessor did he dare so much as brush by the dictator's mind.

Nothing.

The surface of the Assessor's mind was so strong and so impenetrable that it was almost reflective. Only at the very last moment did Matt manage to control his attempt to find out more; if he wasn't very, very careful, his investigative probe would bounce off the impossibly smooth surface and be redirected at God knows what, revealing him immediately.

But that's illegal!

Matt had been too occupied with his work to pay attention to the conversation. Now he heard Jerry's outburst.

I didn't think that would be a problem for you. Of all people.
There was a slight derision in the Assessor's words.

Hey, I don't want to spend the rest of my life in a cell somewhere. I'd fucking love to beat those short-ears to a pulp, but not if that's the price to pay.
Jerry sounded harsh.

I can assure you that you won't be punished for this. Quite the opposite. I have given this a lot of thought, and I believe it's time to change the rules a bit. We are off-planet, after all.

I'm not so sure the rules should be changed. They are rules.
Matt had to admire the way Aki carried himself. You'd never think that it was Matt's friend and Robbie's mate behind his cold and proper exterior. He really sounded like he cared about the rules more than anything else.

The Assessor nodded, smiling encouragingly.
Oh, I quite agree with you; it's not something that should be done lightly. Only, we have a real problem on our hands.
He made a dismissive gesture.
Nothing we can't handle, of course, but... bothersome all the same.

The Assessor kept on describing the crowd gathering at the Mall, only a few blocks away. Matt's attention almost wavered when he heard that; they had so little time. Then he went back to the task before him, doubling his attempts to find a way into the Assessor's mind.

It was completely fruitless, and Matt got more and more desperate until he got just a bit too clumsy. The Assessor clearly felt him, and immediately turned to look at Matt.

Matt didn't have to fake his whimper; from what little he had learned about the Assessor, he knew that his blunder was enough to end his life right here and now. He squeezed his eyes shut, faking dizziness, and leaning into Pietr.

"What happened? Matt?" Pietr shook him, none too gently.
He gets so sensitive now and then. You never know where you have him.
There was nothing but cold annoyance in his mate's mind, and the icy condescension was enough to make Matt whimper for real this time.

Well, keep him in line. Otherwise we'll have to experiment with the alternative chip.

Matt cringed as he got a slight echo of associations along with the Assessor's words: humans as mindless slaves without any will of their own. Perfect humans, in other words.

With a start, he realized that he really could read the Assessor; however, the images were almost imperceptible because of the Himiko's protection. Matt had to trust his instincts and accept the elusiveness of the images instead of striving for the clear pictures he usually got. He relaxed and tried to sneak close, trying to catch the echoes of the Assessor's thoughts like he had done unintentionally with Aki, Sam, and Jerry the last couple of days. Careful to disguise his presence, he tried to see what he could get out of that. The result was terrifying.

The Assessor was evil.

There wasn't any other way to explain it. The Assessor's mind seethed with malevolence, and it was so disgusting that Matt almost got sick. The Assessor was also very different from any Himiko Matt had encountered; his mind didn't reach out in an attempt to create that kind of understanding that seemed to be the distinctive trait of normal Himika. The common connection that, according to Aki and Pietr, kept Himika sane.

Instead, the Assessor held back, watching for opportunities to manipulate his surroundings until he got what he wanted. He was power crazed to a degree that bordered on insanity.

Suddenly, Matt didn't have the slightest problem with the task ahead.

Matt only gradually came back to the conversation around him.
So, you want us to... crop their numbers? Or just incapacitate the humans?
It was Sam's voice. Matt held his breath; the answer would confirm if they really were going through with this. He still wasn't going to do anything potentially harmful to the Assessor if the Himiko only wished to uphold law and order.

I want to make sure that we don't see a manifestation like this again. That means destroying enough humans to teach the rest a lesson.

Free rein?
Jerry grinned, sounding so bloodthirsty that Matt felt sick.

You can kill as many as you like.
For the first time, the Assessor smiled.
As a matter of fact, I think I'll make that an order.

The words were there, spoken between them. Deep under his shields, Matt could feel Pietr pulling all of his energy together. Matt casually let his left hand wander toward Aki. It was going to have to be soon, whether or not Matt had found an opening.

Sam saw Matt's hand hovering over Aki's and nodded almost imperceptibly. Then he stood up.
Let's get to it. I can't wait to use my skills for real.

The Assessor got up, too, a little taken aback with Sam taking the initiative. Matt took the opportunity, grabbed Pietr's and Aki's hands, and stood up, too. He felt the energy going through him and attacked with the power of all three of them combined.

The Assessor took a step back as Matt let all their power fly against him. It was only a fraction of a second, though. Then he hit back, and Matt screamed.

The Himiko's power was overwhelming, all the more so because he was completely uncaring whether he hurt anybody or not. As a matter of fact, harm was his goal. Matt had no idea how they were going to defeat someone like this. How Matt was going to defeat someone like this.

Matt still tried, though, out of sheer desperation, pulling on the power of the two Himika united with him and lashing out again. The Assessor brushed off the attack almost casually and hit back once again. Matt could hear an awful, shrill sound in the room, and he was faintly aware that it was coming from himself.

This wasn't a fight at all. Matt pulled up his shields tightly around them, building them as high as he could, and just tried to survive. He briefly felt Jerry trying to help; then the Himiko was thrown against the wall, and Jerry fell to the ground, lifeless.

The pain from the merciless attack was excruciating by now, and Matt could feel Aki's power starting to falter. His mentor's rigidity was no match for this whirlwind of mindless, evil power.

The inflexibility that worked so well for the Assessor in building a hard shell didn't give Aki the power he needed, and his energy crumpled, forcing Matt to support him doubly now his own force was gone.

The Assessor gave a triumphant roar, and Matt felt the Himiko collect all of the immense strength behind that impossibly inflexible surface again, this time to finish them off. Matt closed his eyes and fumbled along the Assessor's walls in one last desperate attempt to find a weakness. There were none, only unbreakable walls that reflected any feeble attack Matt made.

Reflection.

In the endless moment before the final attack, Matt pulled up their shield again, as strong as before, but this time mimicking the reflectivity of the Assessor's impenetrable shield. When the final attack came, it rattled Matt to the core, and Pietr swayed next to him. Matt desperately tried to keep his shield up, but he could feel the cracks developing. It was only a matter of seconds now.

Bend, don't break.
Aki's words were almost too weak to hear.

Triumph shot through Matt when he understood what Aki was trying to tell him. In a movement that made Pietr cry out in fear, he yielded to the Assessor's force, letting his shield retreat so much that it almost touched the core of their beings. The movement allowed his shield to heal, and he concentrated on reshaping it, creating a rubber-like texture.

Matt felt the split-second of bewilderment from the Assessor when his force hit the foreign surface. Then Matt's shield sent all of his enormous power right back at him, and Matt felt a blinding explosion of power and rage when the Assessor's shield shattered under his own force.

Matt cried out when the razor-sharp shards of energy and anger hit his shield, but he held on, desperate to protect his mate and his mentor. He poured his very last power into his shield, and then he felt the immense pressure from the attack disappear as suddenly as it had begun.

Matt opened his eyes, the sudden quiet in the room ringing in his ears.

Are you okay? Pietr?
His first instinct was to reach out for his mate.

I'll live. Fuck, that was scary.
Pietr was shaken, and Matt had drained too much of his energy for him to be entirely steady on his legs, but he would be fine. He leaned on the wall as Matt took in the rest of the damage.

He almost didn't see the Assessor at first. Then he found the Himiko lying on the floor, eyes open but staring into empty space. Matt cautiously reached out mentally. There was nothing there.

"Is he dead?" Matt's voice sounded odd, and he looked around the room.