Dangerous Illusions

Chapter Five: Pheonix Tears

"Linx?" It was dark out, nightly bugs sang a chorus only he and they could hear. Linx turned around to find Maddox coming and taking a seat next to him in the grass a short distance from the house. "You okay? You've been...quiet and distant today. Except with Kiy. Which is a good thing. But you've had this look about you. And you've been sitting out here for hours."

Linx blinked and gazed out into the darkness. He didn't speak right away and Maddox gave him room to think. "I've been getting Kiy to open up about what happened to him. There's so much he never told me, Sam. So much he's always kept to himself. So much he's never let me see before. Do...do you remember when we were kids and we were on the training field...when that one colonel came to watch us and oversee our development?"

Maddox nodded. "How could I forget? It was the first time I ever saw you angry. It was the first time I had seen Kiy cry."

They had all just engaged in hand-to-hand combat, each displaying their own triumphs as well as weaknesses that needed to be worked out. What areas they needed to train harder in.

Now they were all standing side by side, each squad line making up a platoon the size of any great army. Everyone stood at attention as this colonel inspected them, walking slowly. He was an adult, therefore much higher in authority than any child of equal rank. He stalked by each of them with a look of hidden approval at what he had seen in their growing combat skills. His face was stern. Spine straight and he carried a stick made of some alloy with a thick scrap of leather bent in half at the end, fastened tightly so as to not come apart.

When he approached Linx's group Linx heard the smallest intake of breath that carried with it the sound of pure terror. Linx glanced down to his left and the images that filled his mind shot him with such a rage as he had never felt. Kiy's terror equaled that of Linx's rage at the sight of this particular person. And as the man smiled an evil sneer, he reached out toward the boy. In a moment of pure instinct to protect, Linx had the man on the ground, his hands clasped tightly around the man's throat. Before Linx could damage him further, he was ripped off him by hard, gripping hands. Kiy gripped onto Maddox, his small face buried in Maddox's side. He wasn't crying but Maddox felt him shaking. Zim, taking Linx's lead, put his other teammates behind him, ready to protect. To kill. Zim and the others watched as the guards dragged Linx away, his limp body no longer putting up a fight. None of them knew when they would see him again.

They were confined to their quarters until further notice. Three days later they finally brought back Linx, beaten and battered. Bruises covered his face and body in a morbid paint by numbers and the guards dumped him unceremoniously to the floor. They said nothing and with that, they were left alone.

"Kiy didn't say anything most of the time you were gone. He screamed and cried and panicked. He bunked with me. He was distraught. We were all kids...but he was still such a baby...barely seven...and even with all his knowledge and capabilities, he depended so much on you." Maddox looked over at her friend, his eyes hidden in the shadows. The moonlight kissed his cheeks sending off reflections of slowly falling moisture. Maddox didn't comment on it.

"He had hurt him so badly, Sam. So much came rushing at me in that split second. And then he was reaching for him. I would have killed him had they not hit me in the head and dragged me off." Linx partly smiled. "Still though...no one tried touching him again. Not until they took him on that planet."

Maddox contemplated inquiring further, hesitated, then shrugged as her decision was made. "What happened to him, Linx?" Linx shook his head slightly as he continued to stare out into the night. "Look...I know you want to protect Kiy. We all want to protect Kiy. But you're just as much family as he is and our need to protect you is just as strong. I know you don't want to break confidence between you, but you don't have to hold onto it all on your own. It's okay if you confide in me as much as it's okay when Kiy confides in you."