Tamar stood and slowly walked towards Malachi. From where she was, she saw that he was covered in gore from head to toe. It streamed off him in tiny rivers that coursed around his chiseled muscles. Hearing her walk towards him, he whirled, his blades coming to guard once again then relaxing when his eyes met hers.
Tamar had no idea what to say. What could she say? She'd known he was powerful, but just how powerful she'd had no idea. He was like a nuclear furnace stuffed within a man's frame. All that power, yet he showed none of it. He hadn't revealed anything to her on their travels. If she hadn't seen what he'd just down with her own eyes, she'd have never believed it, never, not from him. Only she couldn't deny this. He had just destroyed more than fourteen full companies of Saltek, along with their Rougarian commanders. He had even taken out every one of the drop-ships.
Before she could come up with something to say, Malachi stumbled, balanced himself, then dropped to one knee. His right hand went to the ground, and she watched him try to push himself back to his feet, but by the time she reached him he was over onto his back, his breaths coming in shallow pants.
"What's wrong?" Tamar yelled. Skidding to a stop, her feet kicked up dust and pebbles as she came to his side.
"That, was not as easy as it looked." The glow in his eyes dimmed, and he went very still. The only sigh of life was the steady rise and fall of his chest.
"He did this all for me, me?" She muttered, grabbing his hand and holding it. She'd be damned if she'd let him die for her. No one else would die for her, especially him.
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"Captain, we're getting incoming data from our capture team. They seem to be having some difficulty." The young Rougarian tech pointed towards the main viewer and hit a final button on the console in front of him.
The main viewer came to life at the front of the bridge to a scene of absolute chaos. Saltek bodies fountained into the air and a piercing screech crackled over the silent Rougarian bridge.
"What is that thing?" Captain Vapade muttered.
Approaching the main bridge walk way he stared at the image before him. It was unlike anything any of them had ever seen. Red energy leaked from skin of coal black as it sprang to its feet. Standing at the epicenter of destruction, a sword of red held in each hands the entire bridge crew gasped.
"It looks human?" A voice from the tech pits.
"Quiet!" Vapade cut them off with a single curt command.
For the next few minutes, the commanding officer of the Rougarian battle carrier watched as a single human decimated three of the most highly skilled fighters his race had ever produced and made it look easy. The feed cut out when Silvar fell and the heavy smell of stress hormones hung in the air. He couldn't blame them. For many of his crew, this was their first combat mission. He'd been thankful that so far there had been no real combat to speak of. The Saltek cannon fodder had been more than enough to conquer this mud ball without his officers having to join in.
Many had been disappointed when he'd forbade them from joining in on the slaughter. But he had reasoned with them that none of them had ever witnessed a Saltek blood frenzy before. He had, and they were always effective, but not pretty.
Now a threat was presenting itself that seemed too much, even for three full Rougarians, and where were the other eleven officers? They had sent fourteen landers to the surface. It had seemed a bit of over kill at the time, but the Prince had ordered it. Now Vapade wondered if they shouldn't have sent more.
"Sensor officer!" He barked at the young Rougarian at the sensor suite.
"Yes Captain?" His reply was crisp, yet he didn't rise from his station.
"You have the bridge. I have to report this development to the Prince at once." With that, Vapade strode from the bridge over watch and to the nearest lift. He had no idea how his news was going to be received.
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"What happened?" Malachi managed to mumble through a mouth that felt like it was full of thick pudding.
"MAL!" He knew that voice, that accent was so familiar, yet he still couldn't place it.
"Come on Mal, wake up. You've got to wake up. You can't leave me here."
Then it clicked. Tamar, she was talking to him. So he wasn't dead after all. All he could remember was trying to get to his feet while feeling like the world had been dropped on top of him.
He tried to crack an eye open, but the effort was like prying open a safe with a butter knife. What happened? He'd felt like the king of the world one second, the next he was face down on the concrete.
"Your body is not ready to be channeling that amount of power. I told you that when you first came out of time stasis. But you seem only interested in hearing what you want to hear. This time, it almost got you killed." His onboard chided him from the back of his mind.
Tamar saw an eyelid flutter and grabbed the sides of his head, with hands that trembled.
"Come on, open those eyes. You can do it. I know you can." From this close, she could see his eyes beneath his suit and as one slowly cracked open, she gave a heavy sigh of relief.
As soon as she could see that both eyes were open, she balled her right fist and punched him in the shoulder.
"What were you thinking, Mal? You almost killed yourself!"
"I really hate that nick name." Malachi moaned.
Tamar's mind was a whirl, but came to rest as his last words went through it.
"Is that so?" she replied, an evil smile covering her face.
"You can get off me now." He motioned with his head that she was sitting straddle of his chest.
Tamar looked down. She hadn't even noticed she climbed on him until that moment.
"EEEP," with a quick hop, she was off him onto her haunches beside him.
"Sorry about that."
Stars blossomed in his head, as if with a slight shake he'd bounced his brain against the inside of his skull. But he did manage to complete the maneuver and gain a sitting position. His vision continued to go in and out of focus and after a few minutes, he began to grow tired of just sitting there. So he gathered himself, got his feet under him, and pushed himself off the ground. At least, that's what he was planning. What actually occurred was something quite different.
His knees buckled, his vision went black and his face impacted the cement once again. With a shriek, Tamar was atop him once again, rolling him over, her wide yellow eyes looking down into his.
"Okay, that didn't go at all like I planned."
"What is the matter with you?" Tamar cried. "We have to get moving. Those things know exactly where we are now. We don't move, we're dead."
And as suddenly as it began, it was over. In one smooth motion, Malachi stood to his feet. His body still ached, but he could feel energy flooding through him again. The reappearance of his HUD also brought their situation into crystal clear focus.
Tamar screamed at him with all the volume she could muster that he was not going to do it again, that he'd told her he wouldn't until her words blended into a shriek of defiance as he bent low and in one smooth motion picked her up and vaulted into the sky, three seconds before twenty-eight high yield plasma artillery shell blanketed the spot they were just standing in.
Tamar could feel the blast wave of pressure pass over them and realized if Malachi had waited to explain the situation to her they'd both be dead, okay, he might be able to survive something like that but she knew she'd have been nothing but a very very small smear on the chewed up concrete. That still didn't mean she was happy about it. When they landed, she was going to give him a piece of her mind.
"I'm sorry I did that to you. But if I hadn't gotten you out of there we both could have been killed."
Tamar opened her mouth to give him what for, past the roar of the wind then stopped. Had he just apologized, to her? She racked her brain, and for the life of her she couldn't remember a single soul ever saying they were sorry to her for anything. He was the first person in her life to be sorry for something he'd done to her.
"I know I told you I wouldn't do that again without asking, or at least telling you why," he craned his neck to look over at her. "But under the circumstances I hope you'll cut me a little slack." He tried his best approximation of a grin, which brought a smile to Tamar's mouth by its sheer absurdity.
Why was she finding it so hard to stay angry at this man? She'd never had a problem holding onto her anger with anyone before. Why could she not hold on to it against him?
Because he hasn't given you a reason to. A voice deep in her mind told her.
"No, there was no one this good. No one cared just because they wanted to, everyone always wanted something, everyone." She growled to herself.
But what does he want? He's already told you what he wants, just information, that's all.
The voice in her head answered her.
Tamar closed her eyes, looked away from him so he couldn't see the single tear that flowed down her cheek before the wind carried it away. She would not trust him, she couldn't. Her heart was as cold as stone. It had been stabbed so many times it had grown a stone covering for protection, and it would take a lot more than this man to open it, no matter what he did.
Soon the gentle motion of flight, coupled with the breeze through her hair lulled Tamar into a deep sleep. She never would have thought flying would be so peaceful,so free from fear. Her eyes popped open when she realized it wasn't the flight that was so peaceful. Tamar shook her head, no that couldn't be what she was feeling, she wouldn't let it. But deep down she knew, and that feeling terrified her. The reason she felt safe, even though she was hundreds of feet in the air, wasn't the feeling of flight. It was the feeling of being in his arms.
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