Chapter 15: Storytime

  "I think he's slept enough," said a voice. "Oh, stop bitching," said another. "Fuck off, I'm tired of waiting."

  "What's going on?" Waking up, Slava was greeted by Kolya holding the wrist of a seemingly pretty angry Sasha.

  "You're finally awake, you piece of shit. After everything that I told you, you're still bullshitting me? And you want to go back in time? It's fucking impossible and even if it was, was your plan to just leave us here without saying a word?" she asked, noticing his eyes landing on her. She was fuming. He could somewhat understand how she felt, but he had a debt to repay and most of all questions to ask.

  "It's not like you would've believed me. You already accuse me of lying most of the time. And what was I supposed to say? 'Oh, you know that nightmare I keep having? Yea? Well, it shows my sister materializing a sword out of thin air and slicing a huge wave of metallic debris in half. Oh and remember how I say that I keep seeing her dying? Before that, she somehow kills one of The Union's Pillars. And when she dies she cracks and falls apart. I didn't know what to believe, forget about recounting the tale." Sasha and Kolya stared at him absentmindedly. All of that was true, but saying he was wholeheartedly honest would be a lie. At least with this, they would forget about his goal for now. It was a slip of the tongue. They didn't seem to take him for an absolute lunatic, at least not yet, which was fortunate.

  "This doesn't make sense. What kind of domain allows its user to summon a sword?" Kolya finally said. He had completely forgotten Slava's comment on the Pillars.

  "I still don't know what that domain thing is, but that's not the only thing she did. She also redirected lightning. She could summon magma from the depths of the earth. Not to mention her insane speed and reaction time. Oh and I think she also had angel wings? I don't really remember." While Sasha's jaw dropped even further, Kolya burst out laughing. Such a thing was absurd, even amongst the Pillars, none had such strength. The only person who could theoretically contend with that would be the Shén and that was because no one knew what they actually looked like or what they could do.

  "Wait, you're not joking," he finally said, noticing no one was laughing with him.

  "This all sounds like the worst nonsense I've ever heard, but with everything that's been going on lately, I don't know what to think," Sasha finally sighed. He could understand her. Although you could say he never really saw it like that. Having this sight present itself before him almost every night made the absurdity look normal.

  "Ok, I think I should clear some things up before we go any further than this. Are y'all ready for storytime?" Kolya exclaimed. Slava was intrigued, maybe he'd get some new clues. Seeing no one protesting, Kolya began removing his tank top.

  "You see, in the last century, the wars, conflicts, and disasters, oddly enough, forced humanity to develop faster than it ever had before. On the surface, the world was split because of two different ideologies, freedom and equality." Slava knew that. The Union promoted equality. Anyone could achieve anything, as long as they had the strength to do so. If they studied a subject enough, the Shén would grant them a gift worthy of their effort. "Ah…" everything seemed to come together. He understood now.

  "But underneath hid an underlying variable that motivated all of these conflicts. A variable that would give control, a variable that gave power. Some feared it and some sought to control it. That variable was the Awakened." As these words came out of his mouth, the top of his back lit up. The red hue spread down revealing beneath his tattoos a circle with a flaming fist at its center.

  "Holy shit!" Exclaimed Sasha. Slava, on the other hand, didn't say a word. He had seen it so many times.

  "Oh, you never noticed? When you use it, it glows," he said, giving her a glance. Hearing his words, she shifted her gaze towards a mirror behind her as her eyes began glowing in a purple hue. Seeing her back glow through her shirt, her expression shifted to one of astonishment.

  "How is this even possible?" She murmured. He didn't know either. There was clearly something going on, but he couldn't explain it.

  "Before you guys start asking questions, let me explain where we came from," he said, putting his shirt back on. "Awakened started appearing after the Tsaritsa was dropped. That event and its repercussions brought fear and despair, but most of all, it brought innovation. Millions started working on ways to save our planet. With this, some people began to understand the underlying nature of the world, leading them to awaken and grow closer to certain domains. As their knowledge and understanding grew it slowly got them closer to the domains they tried to understand. They started to be able to exert their influence over these domains, giving them something akin to superpowers. Like an imprint, the domain would manifest on a user in the form of a tattoo. It would always begin as an empty circle, but as time went on, it would morph into a representation of the perception that the user had of their domain." Sasha was about to interrupt him when their eyes crossed and he continued. "'But what are domains?' you might ask. Well, there is no definite answer to this question, but essentially, it's your sphere of understanding of a certain subject or object."

  "So what's my domain?" Asked Sasha almost as soon as he was done.

  "That's for you to find out," replied Slava pensively. He partially understood. For example, the Pillar his sister fought was known as "The Lightning God", but he wasn't restricted to using lightning. His "domain", as Kolya called it, encompassed far more. He could manipulate a certain portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, the movement of charged particles, and far more. Some thought the essence of his powers was magnetism, but only he could know the true source of his strength.

  "Exactly!" Exclaimed Kolya. "No one can understand your domain better than you." Sasha's expression turned pensive. After a while, she frowned.

  "I get all of that, but why do we never see them here?" It was a valid question. How could such a thing be hidden?

  "I was getting to that, can I continue my story?" There had to be something in the law allowing them to remove or at least silence them without anyone noticing. Seeing them both nod, he grinned.

  "Now, where was I? Ah, yes, since you guys already know most of The Union's story, I'll skip over it. We all know that The Union was the first to display any signs of Awakened during their expansion." Yeah, that was how they had taken over half of the world. It surprised everyone. The only ones who seemed to have the capability to resist them were America. Expance had swiftly made modifications to their tech to counter these new threats.

  "So it was only a matter of time before they started spreading all over the world. Well, the government saw what was coming so they created the AITF, the Advanced Investigation Task Force, that would make sure the Awakened disappeared. They implemented the AI protocol, the Advanced Investigation protocol, a detection tool designed to alert the AITF of any Awakened activity in any piece of hardware."

  "Was this also one of Expance's implementations?" Thinking this, Slava glanced at Sasha. Her expression was grim.

  "Before the Awakened even had the chance to understand what they were, they were apprehended and erased from the records. To the public, these events are referred to as 'manual overrides'. And so the Awakened became the Tainted and they became a symbol of The Union and their 'foul experiments'. Whenever any Awakened escaped the authorities, they were reported by their peers as Union spies." By the end of his tale, Kolya's expression grew grim.

  "That's fine and all, but how did you get all that information? And how do we know we can trust it?" said Slava, breaking the silence.

  "I think I've overwhelmed you enough, I'd like to have you take in what I just told you before anything else," he paused. "Just trust me for now, I'll tell you everything in due time," he said, smirking, as his eyes shifted to Sasha's dazed expression.

  "Woah! Woah! Woah, wait!" She suddenly said, "how does all that have anything to do with Slava's situation?" Slava could see it, she was conflicted and confused. If what Kolya had said was true, she would have to rethink everything she knew about her family.

  "I think my sister might've been one," Slava answered, trying to distract her.

"What the fuck kind of understanding allows you to basically do anything and why the fuck did her skin crack?" Sasha exclaimed in shock.

  "I have no idea, but I think…" stopping himself, he took a deep breath, "I think my adoptive mother might have known something. She…" His expression turned grim. He hated this feeling. The lump in his throat not letting him speak.

  "I don't know man from what I heard, she was acting pretty weird," said Sasha, cutting him off. "I knew you'd say something like that so I took the liberty to look into your mom's condition," saying this, her eyes shone. "You have your contacts on?" He didn't like using them, he'd rather use less invasive methods of communication. That and they were uncomfortable to wear after a while. Although he would use them when necessary. Seeing him nod to the side, she shifted her gaze towards his desk. When she did, the screen turned on and the warped figure in front of it disappeared making way for a projection of the earth.

  At a glance, a few things stood out. Most of the eastern hemisphere was blurred out. The part where Europe was supposed to be was covered in white, while below it, the top of Africa was covered in luscious greenery. The rest of the world looked barren. Oceania was almost exclusively yellow, and so was most of the inland of the American continent.

  As Slava was starting to take in the details, the map suddenly zoomed in. Soon the projection displayed the scene of a hospital.

  "This…" Slava's words got caught in his throat.

  "Don't worry about it, we'll figure it out later, for now, I want to show you guys something. I think you'll find it quite enticing," interrupted Kolya. Turning around, he continued, "give me a minute, I need to call someone first," grazing his temple, his eyes momentarily lit up in a blue hue.

  Slava couldn't believe his mother had been transferred to the National Psychiatric Institute.

  "Hey Serena, it's me, remember the thing I told you about… Yea, let's meet there." His eyes dimmed back to their original color as he turned back around. Slava was stunned.

  "Wait… Serena? Like Serena the medic? The plant biologist? Wasn't she killed in a manual override incident you got involved… oh," stopping himself, his eyes shone in realization. Seeing his expression, Kolya couldn't help but laugh.

  "Yea, the medic, I'll explain later, for now, follow me," he said leaving the room.