A Touch Of Lightning (COMPLETED!)

Chapter 38 Rift Wraith 1

       

Chapter 38 Rift Wraith 1

"Face me now, Ninja. Face me with those eyes, if you can." Callin demanded.

He stood over Ahleena, his bone web slowly receding back inside. He could feel it, once again fusing itself tightly to his entire skeleton, giving his bones inhuman strength, like liquid steel. He wished it were bonded to his heart, wished its primal strength was there for him to use now.

Ahleena rolled over onto her back and looked up at him. Really looked at him. Her eyes were not the icy emptiness of the Ninja. Instead, they were painfully human, so filled with devastation, so vulnerable, they reminded him of the look in Mirage's eyes the day they took her away from him. The day they tore her apart, from the inside out.

Looking at her wounded eyes, seeing them ravaged by memories of unspeakable torment, he thought of Mirage. And he realized Mirage had known what was to happen that day in the lab, when they had taken her away from him. It explained so much.

He shoved those memories aside the way he always did, burying them under a screaming wall, an avalanche of fury, carried by the focused intent of total revenge. And as always, he felt it fester just a bit more, felt it etch its poison-filled scars just a bit deeper into his soul. He wondered how long until he broke.

Ahleena broke the day her parents had died by her hands, whiplashing into the empty mindset of the Ninja. A focus so pure it wasn't human. And now, he had shaken that focus. What would happen now?

He stared down at her, momentarily paralyzed with indecision. This was what he had wanted. He had wanted to break down her walls, to get her to see him as a friend, to trust him. The way she had done for him. And now, faced with her soul-shattering agony, he wasn't sure how to proceed. Besides Mirage, he had never had a friend. He found he had to consciously ask himself "What would a friend do now?"

He let his instincts take over and held out a hand, offering to help her to her feet. She stared at it like it was an alien thing, like she hadn't the slightest clue as what to do about it. Tears brimmed in her eyes, threatening to fall like a torrent, threatening to undo her. She didn't move. She didn't let the tears fall. Callin understood. She was more paralyzed than him.

"It's a helping hand. A friend offering to help you up. That is what friends do. Take my hand, Ahleena." He coaxed her gently. Speaking aloud, not trusting his own shaken mind to connect with the storm he could feel within her.

Ahleena made her decision and reached up, clasping his hand with hers, and pulled herself to her feet. Tried to pull herself together. But Callin wasn't about to let that happen just yet. He used their link once she was standing in front of him, throwing his entire self into the link and casting it towards her through their handgrip.

She rocked back on her heels and shut her eyes as their minds entwined through their perfect mind-link, suddenly finding herself on the receiving side of that momentary desperation where she felt like she was about to lose her sense of self within him as their minds blended.

It was a fleeting thing, that panicked, core-deep battle, but it made her understand him that much more. Because she knew immediately it was what he felt every time they spoke through their link, every time their minds touched too deep. And in light of the memories he had shared of Mirage, of his time in the Lab, she now understood why.

They stood, holding hands, blending memories and thoughts, eyes shut, for minutes. Finally, she opened her eyes and looked at him.

"Why? Why do you share so much with me, when I've never done anything to deserve your trust?" She whispered brokenly. Truly off balance more than she could ever remember. Not even feeling like she recognized her own voice. Some distant part of her mind wondered if she were dreaming.