132 See the Truth

Enough! Jayde thought. I am not so weak as to allow these f*ckers to see me break. Straighten her spine, Jayde lifted her shoulders, raising her head proudly she tilted her chin slightly, before smiling coldly at Vice President Xi.

"Nicely done," she said emotionlessly.

"Don't worry SN1098, I have a much better surprise for you," Vice President Xi said, his dark brows tangling in a scowl.

"Really?" Jayde quirked her right eyebrow.

"Please enlighten me?" Jayde asked keeping her voice steady.

"Oh, I would much rather show you," Vice President Xi said in a low dangerous voice.

Jayde felt a chill creep down her spine at Xi's statement. Her fingernails bit into her palms as she clenched her fists. Her face still cold and expressionless, she just curled her lips into a small cool smile.

Vice President Xi wanted to lunge across the desk and tear her face, he hated that Jayde could make him lose his control.

Beep, Beep.

The intercom on Vice President's desk sounded, notifying him that the bridge was contacting him. Giving a smug smile of satisfaction, Vice President Xi activate the com channel.

"Report."

"Sir we have arrived," Captain SG312 voice came through the com channel.

"Excellent," Vice President said happily.

"Come SN1098," he said standing up and walking to the electronic door. "Your 'present' is waiting for you."

Jayde stood up and braced herself, her instincts were screaming at her that she was about to come face to face with something horrifying when she walked out that door.

Following Vice President Xi onto the bridge, Jayde stood quietly about three feet to the left of him.

Smirking Vice President looked at Jayde. While staring at her, he ordered "Computer, forward observation screens on."

The blacked out screens in the front of the bridge flickered briefly before coming into focus. The screens showed a beautiful M-class planet with three large landmasses surrounded by a cerulean ocean. Each of the poles had a large white mass. Instead of normal green landmass, the landmasses were a riot of colors, bright purples, neon pinks, and fiery orange.

Unconsciously Jayde lifted a trembling hand to cover her mouth, she could feel her whole body going numb as she recognized the planet in front of her — Eden, the Centauri homeworld.

The last bit of rationality snapped within Jayde mind, as she screamed, "you bastard" as she lunged for Vice President Xi, Jayde had moved at such lightning speed that her nails had already pierced Vice President Xi's cheeks before the neuro restraint activated locking her down — paralyzing her where she stood.

Vice President Xi stumbled back, regaining his balance he sent a vicious look to Jayde standing there like a statue, her hands still raised, her nails covered in his blood. Her lips were drawn back over her snarl, her eyes glowing with bloodthirstiness.

"You bitch!" he roared, as he raised his hand and backhanded her across the face.

Since Jayde was frozen her body tumbled awkwardly onto the floor, still held in the same position.

Taking a deep calming breath Vice President Xi lifted his hand and straightened out his hair, before tugging his suit into place. Reaching into his breast pocket he removed a handkerchief and wiped the blood of his cheeks.

Turning to Lawrence he pointed to Jayde on the floor.

"Take that piece of trash down to the planet, let her stand there among the ruins until she rots."

"Aye Sir," Lawrence said smartly, before reaching down and hauling Jayde's frozen body over his shoulder.

Lawrence made his way to the shuttle bay, taking one of the medical emergency shuttles, as they were the only ones that had medical beds equipped, he tied Jayde to one of the beds, then he ordered the pilot to fly them down to the surface of Eden.

Once they had landed in the main city, he picked up Jayde and maneuvered her outside to the middle of the main city, where he placed her frozen body in the city's main plaza. He made sure that Jayde could see the pure destruction of the city.

The only part of Jayde body that was still working was her eyelids. Lawrence had instructed the neuro restraint to release that part of her body, as a human who doesn't blink for a long period of time will go blind, and he didn't want her to miss out anything [1].

Once satisfied that Jayde was placed just right, he returned to the shuttle and ordered the pilot to return to the 'Raptor'.

Jayde stared at the scene in front of her in despair. The city lay in ruins, numerous corpses lay around her, and she could see her people standing in queues surrounded by guards being led in transport ships. She could hear children screaming for their parents as they were ripped away.

Jayde felt as though someone had ripped something out of her, she felt hollow and empty as she watched everything happening in front of her. Why am I so f*cking useless, she thought.

I wish I had never been born, her soul screamed.

With that last thought, Jayde started to retreat from the world, her thoughts and feelings shutting down.

***

Dragon Realm

Ren was ripped from his sleep, bolting from his bed he looked around cautiously. He was sure he had heard a grief-filled scream. Sensing nothing out of the ordinary, he sat down wearily on his bed, rubbing his forehead, gods I am so tired, he thought.

Tomorrow he would be meeting with Laolong and Xinglong to discuss Shaolin.

All of a sudden Ren could feel his beast going berserk within the cage in his mind. By the gods, not again, he thought. Mustering his magic Ren started to weave it to strengthen the cage, but no matter how much magic Ren sent, the beast wouldn't calm down if anything it was becoming more frantic.

Alarmed Ren reached out to it, he was terrified that he would lose control of it, if that happened he would turn instantly and the dragon realm would be bathed in blood, hell the whole of Doha would become a bloodbath.

Ren wasn't being arrogant, he knew first hand just how powerful his beast was. When that little infant girl had died, he had given his beast free reign, nearly a million Zartonesh devils had fallen to his beast.

[What is wrong?] he weaved his thought using his magic to his beast. It was extremely difficult for Ren and his beast to communicate since his beast didn't speak but used imaginary and emotions to get across his point.

Ren wasn't sure if other demons could communicate with their beasts like he could, he had once tried to bring up the subject with one of his elder advisors, but the old demon had nearly had a heart attack, Ren had to spend hours calming the old demon down, and making it out as though it was just a hypothetical question. To this day that elder still gave Ren wary looks whenever he saw him, as though Ren was about to turn into a devil at any moment.

Ren's beast sent back an image of amber eyes. Ren's heart lurched at the image, this imaginary only meant their true-mate. Sending out his magical sensors as far and wide as he could Ren tried to sense his true-mate, feeling nothing he felt a twinge of disappointment. He had hoped that his beast had sensed her.

[She is not here.]

An image of the amber eye's slowly fading appeared in Ren's mind, then a sense of pure sorrow filled him. Ren knew that pure feeling wasn't his.

[Are you saying she is in danger?]

A gravestone appeared

[She is dying?] Ren asked alarmed. No, that is impossible, why couldn't he feel it. Ren immediately searched his mind for that tiny hairlike bond, shocked he could see that that tiny bond was slowly unraveling.

No! he roared silently. You can't leave, I haven't found you yet.

Desperate. With only his instinct to guiding him, Ren started pumping his magic into the hairlike bond. The unraveling seemed to pause. This was not a solution, his magic would soon be exhausted.

[Take me to her,] he demanded of his beast.

Amber eyes covered in shadows and then a picture of Ren being a great distance from the eyes.

[I am too far away?]

A sense of frustration filled Ren, he realized that he had misunderstood the meaning.

Cage opening, black wings leaving the cage, amber eyes being taken out of the grave, black wings returning to the cage.

[Are you saying you can save her if I release you?]

Cage opening, black wings leaving the cage, amber eyes being taken out of the grave, black wings returning to the cage.

[How do I know that you are telling the truth that you will return to the cage?]

Black wings kneeling, begging, black wings returning to the cage.

"I am out of my f*cking mind to even think about it," Ren whispered as he got off his bed and paced his bedroom.

But Ren knew that his beast wasn't lying, their true-mate was dying, he had seen their bond unraveling, and this was more than physical death, this was soul death, if her soul died he would never have a chance to find her.

Ren wasn't even sure how her soul could be in such danger, but he couldn't keep on feeding her magic to keep her soul bound to Doha, it would be impossible.

"F*ck!" Ren cursed.

Calling his manservant, he made his trusted servant take a blood oath to secrecy, then handing him a sword he told him should he start to turn to behead him instantly, not to hesitate or the whole of Doha would be in danger.

Wide-eyed his servant blood swore that he would do as ordered. Ren then sat down on the floor, with his trusted servant behind him, closing his eyes, he then did something he had sworn he would never do — he released the seal on the cage in his mind.

***

Jayde had been retreating when a strange feeling filled her, confused she paused for a while, what is this feeling? After a while she started to lose interest in trying to puzzle out what this feeling was, she started to move again.

Something called to her. She paused. Listening. A sense of warmth. Longing. Sadness. Curious Jayde turned back, drawn to the yearning call she started to move towards the feeling. Every time she paused — a soft croon, a song but not a song filled her mind.

The blackness around Jayde started to fade, as she was slowly tempted to leave her safe place. Opening her eyes she saw the familiar scene of Eden in ruins.

No, she didn't want this, she screamed.

A warm feeling encased her body it strangely felt like soft feathers. Like huge wings had wrapped themselves around her.

Then a strange guttural voice echoed in her mind.

See — Truth.

Jayde had a sense of pure exhaustion from the being that had just spoken, as though it had used up every ounce of its strength to speak those two words to her.

The wings around her slowly faded, and with it, clarity entered Jayde's mind as she really took in the scene around her.

What truth did that 'being' want me to see, she asked herself.

Carefully Jayde examined the devastating scene in front of her. Something is off, she thought.

Thinking back to her last visit to Eden, Jayde went through everything in her memory about her last visit to Eden.

Snow! That's right, when I left four months ago it was the beginning of fall, it should be snowing now, why is it still autumn.

As soon as that thought entered Jayde mind, it started to snow.

What the...

Jayde then looked at her people being loaded in the transport ships, most of the people she didn't recognize, but one heavily pregnant woman stood out. Jayde tried to recall where she had seen her. The memory suddenly popped into her head. It was on the last day of her visit to Eden, the young woman had given Jayde a bouquet of flowers.

Seeing her bulging stomach Jayde had asked her when her baby was due, the shy young woman had answered in less than a month. With that memory, the scene in front of Jayde flickered and the pregnant woman disappeared then reappeared carrying a baby.

WTF!!!

This isn't real, as Jayde thought that, she felt a sharp pain on her left ear. Lifting her hand she clutched her ear, did that freaking cat bite me again?

And with that grumbling thought in her mind, the world in front of Jayde disappeared.

***

Dragon Realm

Ren was watching that hair-thin bond in his mind, infusing it with a continuous stream of magic, praying that he hadn't made the biggest mistake of his life when he noticed the bond strand starting to glow slightly.

Withdrawing his magic, he observed the tiny bond. In front of his eyes, he could another strand slowly interweaving into the original strand, making it stronger. Just then he felt his beast's soul returning, it immediately climbed back into the cage in his mind.

[You were successful?]

A sense of pure joy and elation filled Ren.

A small bouquet of wildflowers.

[No, I should be thanking you. You saved her when I couldn't.]

Tiny bond. Magic surrounding bond. Ren's body with black wings. Amber eyes leaving grave.

[Yes, you right we both saved her.]

Pure exhaustion hit Ren as he was sitting on the floor.

[Sleep. You did good.]

Sensing his beast falling asleep, Ren dismissed his servant, then slowly he crawled to his bed, he didn't even have the strength left to walk. Climbing onto his bed he flopped down. With his lips curled into a small smile, he fell fast asleep.

***

Jayde opened her eyes to find herself in a small grass field. Takara was frantically nipping her ear. Jayde gently lifted up the snow kitten and looked at him. Tears pooled in his big blue eyes as he stared up at her grievously.

"Was it all an illusion?" Jayde asked uncertainly.

[Jayde!] Isha shouted.

[Jayde!] Yinxin frantic voice echoed in her mind.

[Jayde!] Reiko wailed.

--

Notes.

A nice long chapter for you awesome readers! Just want to take this opportunity of thanking each and every one of you for the wonderful support you have shown me.

[1] True fact

Food for thought.

I remember years ago watching the first Matrix film, and it made me think how do we know that what we are experiencing is true. How do you really know that yesterday actually happened? Our memories tell us that yesterday happened, but can we really rely on those memories?

I mean if someone went back in time and changed the past, then wouldn't our memories change? So then wouldn't that mean yesterday actually didn't happen, that maybe yesterday was different but we just don't remember it?

Or even maybe you are in a system like Jayde, without even knowing it, being tested but thinking that your life is true because your memories tell you it true.

(^_~)