The Lost Sentinel

7 Back on the ship.

Hanika P.O.V

 I return to the ship. Tan still looks dazed. Being ripped into two can’t be easy. Now, one half of him is there while the other is here. He must be going out of his mind. But we don’t have time for him to acclimate to the situation. We have to move…we have work to do.

I come to a stop in front of him. He stares at me, and at the closed door. I can tell that he’s terrified.

I can’t feel sorry for him. He is our only hope. And he needs to become strong fast.  

“Stop looking so surprised. Rhine told you what’s going to happen, now let’s go. Rhine?” I say my voice coming out meaner than I thought. But I don’t take it back.

I close my eyes turning the sympathy I feel into the strength I need to get through this.

“Yeah,” Rhine says wheeling himself back to the control room. We silently follow him there.

“Where do you want to begin?” he asks pressing buttons on the control panel the large glass window turns dark becoming a computer screen.

“It’s going to be a race around the world. We have ten artefacts that we know of, that hold power that can be absorbed by a sentinel,” I say walking closer to the screen. A map of the world appears and ten dots around the world appear on the map indicating their locations. Mostly are in museums, followed by ruins and temples of ancient times. The artefacts, especially the ones that hold power are objects that people in ancient times used. They are personal objects, mostly the kind a person would use every single day of their life. Use it enough times that the object becomes part of the person, and the object inevitably absorbs the person’s spiritual power. In many cultures the objects were buried with the person.

Archaeologists have excavated many of the artefacts. There aren’t many still left in their proper resting places.

But Rhine and I have searched for ten, and found their locations in preparation for the reincarnation of Master Gin. They are not enough, but they will do in order to give us a fighting chance.

I never thought we will have to do this in a rush, otherwise I would have gone myself to find them, so he could absorb them now, and help his other half on Mount Gi.

But I never imagined he wouldn’t return without any power or Master Gin’s memories on how to reignite his power.

“We can start with the ten we identified. The first one is in Ayutthaya temples, Thailand,” I say pointing to the red dot pointing to that location. Rhine zooms in, showing an aerial view of the Wat Chaiwatthanaram temple. The waters next to it sparkle like a pearl.    

“Are you ready?” I ask Tan. He takes a minute to answer me, that I turn to face him. “Tan?”

“Yeah,” he sniffs squaring his shoulders.

I stare at him feeling sorry that he was dragged into this. But he is the last sentinel whether he likes it or not. He doesn’t have a choice.

“Okay. Rhine, you will drop us off,” I tell Rhine. “Tan come with me.”

We walk out of the control room. He follows me down the hallway deeper into the spaceship. I take him to a room with a white padded floor and wooden benches lining the walk.

I take off my boots and step onto the padded floor, I walk to the middle and sit with my legs crossed over each other.

I stare at him waiting for him to do the same. 

“What are we doing?” he asks staring back at me.

“Meditation.”

“I don’t meditate. As a matter of fact, I can’t sit still for more than five minutes. There is a reason why my foster parents always returned me. I can’t seem to fit into any box – and being quiet and sitting still wasn’t one of them. I always suspected that I might have ADHD or something…” he says touching his temples in a thoughtful pose.

I quietly stare at him.

He goes silent after a while.

“You really don’t care, do you?” he asks finally taking off his shoes. He steps onto the padded floor and comes to sits in front of me.

“My job is to protect earth. And I will drag you to every artefact I can find so that you become the sentinel you’re supposed to become. And I don’t care how I get you there. As long as I get you there. Now…” I say breathing deep, calming the rage that is taking shape inside. If he doesn’t die first. I’m going to kill him myself, “close your eyes and focus on your internal energy.”

“My what?”

“The energy that flows inside you…your internal power,” I say. He frowns at me in confusion. I shake my head losing my patience.

Why did Master Gin choose him of all people?

“Give me your hand,” I say reaching for his right hand. I stare at the black lines that run over his fingers and his wrist. I stare at the last few lines on his skin just above his wrist. The lines glow green.

 I run my fingers over them, and I can feel the pulse of power I don’t expect to be there, especially because he’s supposed to be fully human. Master Gin’s power hasn’t been reignited within him yet.

“Did you absorb power?” I ask, because there is no other explanation.

Tan pulls his hand away. I hold on to it.

“I picked up a stone in the basement. It melted on my hand,” he shrugs.

“You absorbed its power,” I say, surprised it happened so fast, without him focusing on doing it.

“If you say so,” he gives me another shrug.

“I say so…and that was careless of you. Not every artefact has good spiritual power, some habour evil in them. And when you absorb the spiritual power it might harm you or another.”

“How do I tell the difference?” he asks his eyes going big.

“Give me your Mak,” I say referring to the coin. He stares at me as if he doesn’t want to. I shove my palm at him. 

He reluctantly gets to his feet, and shoves his hand into his pocket. He pulls out the coin, and hands it over to me.

I touch it, running my finger over its smooth surface. Peace, comfort and care floods my system.

“Touch it and tell me how it feels,” I say handing it over to him. He takes it from me, and closes his eyes as he runs his thumb over it.

“Warm. And I feel like Mak is here with me,” I says opening his eyes.

“That’s how it should feel. There should be a good feelings radiating through you, not chaos or a sense of foreboding.”

Tan nods, sitting back down.

I take his hand, and encourage him to close his eyes. And we start to meditate.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...

Somewhere in Outer Space:

A large fleet of ships drift in slow moving motions. On one of the large ships a telecommunication device beeps signalling an incoming message.

Message: ¦ • ⁄‼‗ ‡ ₀⁰ ‽ ‹‒‒› ⁄‼‗ ‴ ₀⁰ Ⅎ↑ ⃝₲ ⁰ ‼‗₥

“Translate,” says in a raspy voice.

Translation: The lost Sentinel found. Thebes tagged him with a locator. Current locations Mount Gi and Sentinel mother ship.

“They found him then,” he says again. “Ababddon.”

“Yes, master.”

“You go to Mount Gi. He must be weak if he had to go there, killing him won’t be difficult.”

“Yes, master.”