Keepers: Blood of The Fallen (9 page)

We went. We were going to go there regardless. I figured there had to be a reason that Kavars couldn’t cross the line into the western part of Alburia. I had a feeling that Kneulton had a fear of us. I also had a feeling that there were more of us, maybe even an entire population. I couldn’t have only been one of a few malfunctions. I was wrong about that. Although I was disappointed that there were no Kavars waiting for us, I was just as happy to see what was waiting on the eastern border. An entire civilization that Kneulton was unaware of, existed right outside of his eyesight. I couldn’t believe it, but I was really excited.

When we crossed over the obvious borderline—it was literally a line in the ground that separated the gold streets from the concrete ones—we were asked to walk through a security x-ray machine, by some guards dressed in all black. These guards were different than the temple’s guards. They were dressed in uniforms that had the appearance of military, but they lacked patterns, stripes, or flags. They had some sort of protection underneath; I assumed it was bulletproof. We walked through the security gate, but not without complications. They stopped Asia and asked her to present her identification. She only had her state ID in her bag.

They told her that that wasn’t what they wanted to see. Then, they let us through, because they knew we obviously weren’t from Alburia. We must have looked entirely too dumbfounded. We walked into the half of Alburia that would be known as the ghetto on Earth. Every city has a bad side, and it was obvious which was which in Alburia. It was amazing how we were so easily able to walk around uncontested, but we were aware of the situation. The good side of Alburia was not hard to walk around in, but it wasn’t welcoming. We walked into a brick building with the words Stand And Fight, across the top of it, in some sort of goop.

When we got inside, we noticed that the building didn’t look differently from most city hall buildings in Mississippi. There was a secretary and a leader, who we later found out was simply called Leader—it was his nickname since birth—and he was waiting in his office, just behind the beautiful secretary. If it were Earth, I would think she was a Latina from somewhere like Tampico. She was probably the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life, but my heart already belonged to Asia, the most beautiful woman I had ever actually met. The secretary only looked up at us for a second, to say, “Leada’ is free. Y’all can go right on ahead and see ‘em,” with a cute little voice, similar to Betty Boop but not as exaggerated. She sounded like she was Latina but born and raised in Mississippi.

Before I realized it, I had been standing there staring at her for two minutes. Awkward. “Hello?” I could finally hear Asia talking to me. “Are you ok? What’s going on, Mo?” Asia asked.

“Nothing. For some reason, I thought she had more to say.” I said, shaking off the infatuated stare.

We walked into the office where Leader was, and he didn’t even look up from his desk before he said, “Oh my god… A Kavar and a Fallen Keeper…” Then he looked up at us, with his glasses falling half way off of his nose. He was smiling. He pushed the glasses up on his nose, before saying, “I have waited for the day that we would have the honor of being in your presence. You seem humbler than the Keepers out east, and your clothes are definitely more modest than theirs. What are your names, if I may ask.”

“Mo…Um, Moses. She’s Asia.” I said.

“Moses and Asia. Wonderful names. They make perfect sense too!”

“What do you mean?” Asia asked.

“Well Ms. Asia, you are also of Asian decent, are you not?”

“How do you know of Asia?”

“Oh…you’re unaware of where you are. While this planet is Alburia, you are in a city called Asia Andromeda. It is named after Asia, of Earth, but not just the continent, after you as well...by default, of course. Moses is the true leader of Asia Andromeda and of Earth, due to him being the only Kavar left. The only way to fulfill the prophecy is if Moses accepts his role, which I assume is happening now.”

“Wait…how did you-”

“The prophecy was made years ago.”

“You said years, you have time here?” Asia asked.

“That stupid Keeper law…no offense.”

“None taken,” we said simultaneously.

“The Keepers in Alburia Andromeda—they named their city after the planet and the galaxy, yes—has a rule against time, because they fear an uprising from those monstrosities that they create. No one lives a full life in AA, except for the High Order, and no one else is allowed to know that.”

I was standing there staring into this man’s eyes, as he told us that we were a part of a prophecy that was meant to free people of the Keepers’ rule. I gripped Asia’s hands as we were told that Zeus went down fighting with the same Keepers that he was trying to protect, from Navarium-made Titans. Some of my favorite stories were about the Greek gods, and I never had any clue that they were actually real. Zeus was a Keeper, not a Kavar as Quazo stated, but Hercules was a Kavar. To finally hear the real history was mind blowing. Had it not been the end of the world, I would have been more interested, but we had to free Tana and do something about the Earth’s population. I needed a way to do that, and I knew it wasn’t going to be a snatch and walk type of situation; otherwise I would have done that when I had the chance.

Asia was quiet, just as she had been for a while, but this time I could see the look of hard-thought all over her face. She was trying to think of something to ask Leader. I beat her to the punch, though. I asked him how we were supposed to fix what had been done to Earth. He didn’t have a real answer to the power of Binatai, but he had a half-baked plan. He knew that Binatai couldn’t use his powers inside of a building, which was why he would never show up inside of a building, even when he was called upon, because his powers had a connection with nature. Each Keeper had something that they connected with, and that enabled their hidden abilities. The same worked for me, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it could possibly be. Asia was sure she just needed it to be quiet for her abilities to work. She was wrong.

Leader led us into the basement of the city hall-ish building, where they held training sessions for the military they’d built. There were plenty of weapons to learn to use, but I didn’t understand why we would need weapons. “You’re special on Earth, but here, your powers only work until Kneulton knows you’re here. They have something in the temple, in an underground cellar that prevents us from using any kind of powers. None of us have ever gotten close enough to get a look at it. We’ve lost so many lives trying,” Leader said, disappointingly.

3

After Leader’s sob story, Mo went over to tables that were littered with several hunting weapons. I wasn’t sure about any of it. I loved Mo, but he could be so gullible and naïve sometimes. I didn’t want to rush into anything; I never did. I hated when he did it. I kept my mouth shut about a lot of things, but we had to eventually go to sleep, and I wasn’t going to let him drag us into a war that never really existed. Sure, it was obvious that the people in Asia An. wasn’t living as good as the people in Alburia An. I was more concerned with Santana and the rest of the people of Earth.

For one, Mo never really questioned anything. He would hear something and believe it. I had stood there and listened to Kneulton tell us that all humans were Navariums, and we saw the Navarium version of Santana go ape-nuts on us. At some point, all humans—Navariums—could do that. The world would, for sure, succumb to its inevitable destruction. I guess I had my weaknesses as well. I was a very trusting person. I always wanted to see the good in people, and I probably observed way more than I should have. Mo was more of a talker; he always wanted to talk to people, to get to the know them. I just studied people’s behavior. He was naïve, and I was far too nice. I guess that’s what made us a great pair.

He didn’t notice that Santana was unable to comprehend what was going on. She didn’t even really know that she was trapped in there for as long as they wanted her there. I really didn’t want to fight, but I was prepared to do what I had to do. I didn’t believe that Santana was a prisoner. I believed that Kneulton told us that, because he didn’t want us to take her. That room was just a room, and if Santana wanted to leave, she would’ve done so when she had the strength to do so. This new guy, though, Leader, he was a different character. I had a feeling everything he was telling us was a lie. He had a lot of negative things to say about the Keepers in Alburia An., but he had nothing but positive things to say about Mo and I. I knew that he didn’t really know what he pretended to know. Not everything was all silver roses with us. Mo wasn’t the stable kind of Navarium; he was the kind we saw jump out of the window that night. Fortunately, he was also a Keeper. In order to remain a Kavar of rational thinking, it must have taken everything in his being, on a daily basis. I was a fallen Keeper. I was always a fallen Keeper. I was born with the dishonor.

If Leader really knew us, he would know that. He would know that we were not stable, and having us around would only eventually bring trouble. That was why he had us searched upon entry to the city. We didn’t have our possessions searched; they x-rayed our bodies. They were looking for something inside of us. My assumption was they were looking for source energy that shouldn’t have been in us. They were looking for created killers from Alburia An. Only, Mo was part Navarium, so he couldn’t have been created with the new machines, and I was a Keeper, with a state ID from Earth that says I was born in 1989. I really doubted that they would be making fake state IDs in Alburia, so I wouldn’t really be able to fake it.

I didn’t know what kind of ID they expected to see, though. I had a bad feeling about all of them. The guards, the secretary who was watching Mo too closely behind his back, and Leader all seemed to be too clichéd for my comfort level. It was like he represented the resistance against the Keepers. If it were really the case, that little resistance would have already been wiped out. I was still on the fence about who to believe, but I would never leave Mo’s side. He was my everything, and I couldn’t see myself without him. I had lost all of my family, and I had no intention in losing my soul mate in some pointless war.

“Mo, can I talk to you?” I asked, as I pulled him away from Leader. I didn’t want him to touch any of the weapons yet. I knew the moment he did, he would not want to put it down. That was just his mentality. He was born for it, but he was not raised to be prepared for that war. I couldn’t let him do it until we were both sure it was what had to be done. “Are you sure about this?”

“To be honest: No.”

“Then why are we down here? Let’s go somewhere, discuss it, and sleep on it.”

He let out a small puff of air, “Yeah…you’re right. Let’s talk about it, and we’ll come back tomorrow or whatever it is they call the next day here.” He smiled that smirk that he knew I couldn’t resist.

I smiled back, blushingly I’m sure. As he walked over to Leader to ask him where we could find a place to sleep, I took a walk around some of the tables. There were machetes, dart guns, pistols, shotguns, and bow arrows on one table. I wasn’t interested in becoming Jason, a ninja, a gun club member, nor Katniss. I just wasn’t in the position to make that call. I wasn’t the one that held so many lives in their hands. Mo was the only person who could see things from both sides of the field. The Navariums would need compassion if they truly were good people, and they would need a punisher if they were evil. That was Mo and I…the Angel of Death and the Angel of Mercy. I just wasn’t sure which of us was which.

When Mo came back to me, he held a slip of paper that had an address on it. It was an empty building with one good apartment in it. It was furnished and stocked with food. It wasn’t the most beautiful place in the world, but it
was
better than nothing. We went into the bedroom to find the bed, clean bedding and all. It was clearly not a hotel, but someone had been keeping the place together. We decided against eating, due to a lack of sleep for a day and a half and secretly, because I didn’t trust Leader.

While Mo was in the shower, I went into the closet in the bedroom and found two wardrobes, one male and one female, hanging. I also found another set of adult female clothes in a basket and some child’s clothes in a smaller basket. All of the clothes seemed fairly new, but also worn, like they had been at a dry cleaner. After my shower, I put on some of the clean pajamas from the basket, and got into bed. Mo was also wearing some clothes from the closet: a tank and a pair of shorts. That was when I saw the scars on the back of his shoulders. “All of those scars. From working with Santana’s dad?”

“No. I wish.” He said chuckling. He turned over and wrapped his arm around me.

“Well, then what are they from? They look pretty bad.”

“You should see the rest of my back.” He was still chuckling.

“What happened?”

“Well, I can’t keep anything from you, because eventually you’ll ask about why I am the way I am, when it comes to my parents.”

“Your parents? The scars? No…”

“When I was little, my dad had this problem. He worked a dead end job, and I’m sure it was hell to keep all three of us supported.”

“That’s no excuse-”

“He would be so frustrated with work. He’d come home, and mom would be cooking for him, but something as simple as the trash not being taken out, would set him off. He would always stop by the bar, before he came home. Once he put a couple of drinks down, he would either be really angry or really loving. The days he was really loving were far and few.” His eyes were tearing up. “He was just really angry all the time. I guess being a Guardian who’s a Navarium, complicates things…I digress. He just had no other way to get his anger out. He couldn’t find a suitable stress reliever. He would just wail on me. Soon after, he’d apologize, and all would be well. Well...”