Pieces of the past

Landing lightly in the town square, Amirah jumps from the transport ship, drawing her sword. Looking around, she gestures for the pilot to lift off. Pressing the communication unit in her ear, she whispers.

“What do you see?”

“The demons are gone. There are six heat signatures in the infirmary building. Seems the demon signal disappeared after those surges of energy.”

“Thanks Joe. I’ll head there now. Can you pass the message along that the city is clear and they can send the squad in to secure it?”

“Will do Amirah. Stay safe out there. They won’t arrive until at least the morning.” Turning the communicator off, she makes her way to the infirmary building. Stepping inside, she finds the five women gathered around an unconscious Magnus.

“How long has he been this way?” At her words, the women start and draw their weapons. Finally relaxing as recognition crosses their faces. Stepping forward, Lana bows deeply.

“Lady Amirah. It’s good to see you, but why are you here?” Walking over to the girls, she checks Magnus’s status on the infirmary monitor. Sighing, she gestures for the lancers to relax.

“I came as soon as I saw the number of demons that were here. What was their leader’s name?” Stepping forward, Ikane hands her blade over to Amirah.

“It was Arthur.” Sighing, Amirah removes a shimmer from her belt and places it over the blade. Pushing the small button on the side she watches as the red demon blade changes to a regular Katana once more. Handing it back to Ikane, she walks over to Magnus. Checking the chart on the wall, she frowns.

“I suspected as much. Wait a moment, Lana, what is your status?”

“We’re still at level one limiter release. Magnus’s control unit was broken during the crash, and we haven’t been able to replace it yet.” Removing a small PDA from her belt, Amirah types a few buttons.

“Limiter reset. Amirah Doyle, Authorization code zero, three, two, one, alpha.” As she finishes her command, the lancer’s limiters reset, and Magnus visibly relaxes.

“That should help him recover. I’m here because I was hoping to avoid this exact situation. I warned him not to do this. But here we are anyway. I know you all have questions. But before that, let me tell you what I can of Magnus’s past, without stepping on what’s his to share.” Before she can start, a hand grasps her arm.

“It’s okay Amirah, I’ll tell them.” Turning to grasp Magnus’s hand, she frowns.

“You should rest Magnus. Using your blade is far too much for your body to handle and your wounds aren’t fully healed. You shouldn’t push yourself.”

“It’s okay Amirah. They should hear the story in its entirety and I’m the one best suited to tell it. After all, I was there when it all began. I’m well enough for that at least. But are you sure? The Vatican won’t exactly be happy with them knowing the truth.”

“Don’t worry about the Vatican. I’ll deal with them. Go ahead.” Sighing, Magnus shifts himself in the bed, so he’s propped against the wall. Gesturing for the women to gather around, he starts once they’re seated.

“I’ll start with my true identity. As you may have guessed, I am a demon. But the demons aren’t what you think. This may be hard to believe, but this entire war started nearly five hundred years ago. Back then, there were multiple countries, and they were all fighting for supremacy, all trying to come up with newer and better weapons. This inevitably led to human experimentation. Such experiments were condemned and illegal, but it didn’t stop countries from doing them in secret. Someone codenamed the first successful human acceleration serum DMN-06. There were problems with the serum and a handful of those were injected with it became something else entirely. It’s this mutation that you know as the demon virus. The first batch of test subjects for the zero six serum were all from the same orphanage. With no families of our own, we were prime for military use. We were trained from a young age to be lethal weapons with no ties to anyone but those that trained us. Arthur, Ikane and I were all selected to take part in the serum trials. A few things happened and something went wrong with the second batch of Serum. This created the demon spawn and the Demons as we know them now. As for the rest, that’s a tale for…another…time.” As he finishes, his eyes close. Reaching forward, Amirah places her hand on his arm.

“Magnus?” As she softly speaks his name, quiet breathing comes from his mouth. Lowering him onto the bed, Amirah puts a blanket over him and gestures for the women to move into the next room. Once they take a seat, Amirah looks at them all.

“I know you probably all have a few questions, and I’ll answer what I can. As for the rest of the story, let’s wait until Magnus is well enough to tell it unless you would like to continue Ikane?” Shaking her head, Ikane looks around the table before replying.

“I don’t know the full story. I’m a few years younger than the rest and most of that time is now a blur to me. Some parts are locked away behind mental blocks because of the PTSD it caused for me. Were it not for Magnus, I would’ve ended up dead or worse.” Letting out a sarcastic chuckle, Lana looks at Ikane.

“What could be worse than death?”

“You saw the demon spawn Arthur was controlling? That’s worse than death. Those who had the lesser serum or weren’t freed from the control units all became play toys for the higher Demons. Those like Arthur and who he’s taking orders from.” Pivoting Amirah rounds on Ikane.

“Arthur’s taking orders? Why wasn’t I told about this? Who’s in charge?”

“I’m not sure. If I had to take a guess, its got to be Vivianne. She’s the only one twisted enough for Arthur to follow. And he mentioned her. Magnus seemed pretty shocked.”

“Damn it, if Vivianne’s involved, things just got a lot worse.” Slapping the table, Celeste stands up.

“Wait a minute, can we just stop for two seconds? We just found out that our leader and one of our close comrades are both demons. On top of that, demons aren’t really who we think they are, and Magnus’s psycho brother is working for, apparently, some even worse chick. Can someone please explain this all in a way that makes sense? I’m sure we’re all in agreement that it’s pretty reasonable to at least explain to us what’s happening, given the bombshells you just dropped.” Finishing her sentence, Celeste sits back down. Sighing, Amirah looks around at the women.

“Vivianne is one of the original researchers that developed the serum. Once she found it worked, she dosed herself and a few others with a modified version. Unlike DMN-06, the one that she created didn’t change the appearance of the user. It was far superior to 06 and was codenamed Zero R. I was a junior researcher at the facility and was one of the few that was dosed. I’m not a demon like the others and Vivianne, she’s the worst of all. She sees people as tools to further her experiments. Nothing more and nothing less. It’s one of the reasons I founded the Vatican. To protect the remnants of humanity. I’m not sure why Arthur would work with her, but I can say I’m not all that surprised. Arthur was one of the few who became twisted after taking the serum. Luckily, there’s only a handful of demons like him remaining. Magnus made it his mission to put down the rest, and he did so with extreme prejudice.” Looking up from her hands, Ikane gestures towards Magnus.

“When did he perform the unification?”

“I don’t know Ikane. I only found out quite some time after. And he confirmed it would no longer be possible for anyone else to perform the procedure. He tracked down and destroyed the remaining test facilities. He is, as of now, the last unified demon.” Leaning back in her seat, Amirah looks around the corner to the sleeping Magnus.

“As for what unification is and entails, even I’m not a hundred percent sure exactly. But I Know it unifies your psionic power and demon blade and infuses them into your body. That doesn’t sound like much, but it increases your power exponentially. That’s something I’m glad that Magnus made sure that we would never have to face. But I think we’ve discussed this enough for now. You all have more than enough to digest. I will remain with Magnus. The rest of you head to the barracks and get some rest. The village is free from demons now and a drop ship with supplies and soldiers will arrive in the morning. I’m sure there will be plenty more for us to do then. Goodnight, ladies.” At her dismissal, the five women get up from their chairs and head out into the night. Getting up from her chair, Amirah takes a seat next to Magnus, watching over him as he rests. Brushing a stray hair from his face, she smiles sadly at his sleeping frame.

“For a moment there, I thought I may have lost you. You never know when to stop, do you?” As the silence settles over the infirmary, she leans back into the chair, worry filling her eyes.