The Lost Sentinel

4 “You are the third reincarnation.”

Tan P.V.O

Hanika turns with a huff and leaves the room. She is not happy about the situation. That makes both of us.

I also don’t want to be here. I now regret stepping on the ship without thinking about it thoroughly. I am a thief. I don’t have any abilities, besides thinking of ways to get into someone’s house or a building to steal some precious artefact. I am not the save the world kind of guy. There is no way I’ll be able to remember to be this Master Gin they are talking about. And to quote Rhine…we are definitely doomed.

I turn to look and him. He doesn’t look happy with the situation either. His eyes roam over me as if he can find something within me that will ease his mind.

I am not the man you’re looking for; I want to tell him. 

“Follow her,” Rhine says before I can say anything. I stand there not moving. “Master Gin, he let himself die, knowing he’ll be reincarnated. He had the hope that with the new technology and my research we would have a chance to stop the second coming. But looking at you now I’m not so sure.”

“Then leave me here,” I say.

“We can’t, we have to try. Go to the sentinel room, remember what you can and we will talk,” Rhine said wheeling himself to the control station.

I turn and walk out. I startle as I find Hanika waiting for me a few paces from the room. She turns and start walking as come close.

It wouldn’t kill her to be nice, I think as I follow her. We walk through the ship. Bright lights are hung above us illuminating spaces. Indoor plants are placed at strategic places with pure white couches that look like they haven’t been sat on in a long time.

The ship gives off the air that there should be more people on it. But I’ve only seen two people so far.

“Where is everyone?” I ask.

“They are all dead. Rhine and I are the only sentinels left. Everyone died in the war,” she says tonelessly. She sounds like a robot with no emotions.

“What war? I’ve never heard of any war,” I try to think of all the wars I’ve learned about in school. Did she mean those…world war one, two, the gulf war, United states and Iraq…which one did she mean? There were no spaceships or aliens in either war.

“It’s not the human kind, genius,” she says sending me a scathing look over her shoulder. “Humans like to think they are the only living beings. There is a world out there. And everyone fights for resources and land as much as humans do. Now, the focus is on earth our home.”

“But I thought you said you are not human. How do you live on earth?” I ask baffled.

 “Because I do, and I protect it. It has always been like that since the beginning of time. We, the sentinels are the protectors of earth from other species. We stop them from venturing too close to earth, and fight them if they attack. But since our numbers have dwindled there has been many sighting of extra-terrestrials on earth. Governments have proof that there is life out there, and maybe it’s time they know so they can help us. The Second Coming is going to affect everyone.”

“Wow,” I say because this is too much to take in. I never knew that there is life out there. And I might be part of it.

Hanika comes to a stop in front of a door. She opens it and then steps inside. The light automatically comes on as they sense her movements.

I walk in behind her. And watch her go to a stone dais that has unlit candles and what looks like incense sticks.

She lights the candles and then burns one of the incense sticks. Vanilla fills the room. I look around the room wondering what is it they want me to see.

To the left of the room there are three glass boxes, each on its own raised platform. Hanika walks to that side after she’s done at the dais.

I follow here there, and come to an abrupt stop as I see three bodies lying in there.   

“Come closer,” Hanika says turning to me. Her eyes are hard as if she’s daring me.

Damn…I really don’t want to do this. But I can tell that she waiting for me to bolt so she can go to Rhine and say that I am not good enough.

I step forward. And come to a stop next to one of what I see now are glass coffins. Inside the one next to me is man who looks to be in maybe his twenties, wearing white robes that look pristine. He looks like he’s frozen in time, not decaying or anything. My eyes roam over his still body, coming to his hands folded over his chest.

His right hand catches my eyes. He has the same birthmark I do…

I step closer to look at it properly. The lines weaving over his fingers to his wrist are the same, except his is longer disappearing into the sleeve of his robe.

I stand there frozen.

“What the…” I say shocked out of my mind.

“He’s you…you are him…as well as the others,” Hanika says pointing at the other two coffins. I walk to them and stare at their right hands too. It is the same birthmark. And they were also different in length. I can see it since they both have short sleeved robes. The second man’s birthmark comes to his elbow, while the other comes to his upper arm, just above the elbow.

hmmm, that’s interesting.

What made it grow like that? I ask myself staring at my own hand. My birthmark ends right at my wrist.

I wonder where the original Master Gin’s birthmark ends.

“You are the third reincarnation,” Hanika says. Her voice sound strained, and pained. “It has to work this time…I don’t think I can go through this again.”

I look up at her, because there is something in her voice, that makes me think that she has a personal attachment to Master Gin.

I clear my throat feeling like I am witnessing something I shouldn’t. And it is so unlike the tough girl image that she wears like a second skin.

“He died three times,” I say as it finally hits me. He failed and died three times! Air whooshes out of my lungs, at the thought of this being me. No way… “Are you crazy? I am not doing this. I am not going to walk to my death, and end up like him. Drop me off at the nearest station please,” I say walking out of there.

No. There is no way I am fighting some aliens in out of space. I am a thief. I don’t fight…or run. I walk down the hallway not sure where I am going because I didn’t exactly look where I was going when Hanika was leading the way.

I stand in front of a large glass window, and stare at the vast darkness.

This is out of space, huh?

If only Mak could see this. My hand goes into my pocket and I touch the coin. Its warmth seeps into my veins bringing me comfort.

I’m glad he’s somehow here with me.

I stand there staring at the outside space for a while. And then I start walking, roaming the vast ship.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Hanika P.V.O

“How did it go?” Rhine asks as I step into the control room. He has his nose deep into the books and paper he’s been researching ever since Master Gin died. A computer screen blinks in front of him as his hands move over the keyboard.  The scan images of Master Gin’s body swirl in a 3D image on the screen. All the images are of the original Master Gin, and the two reincarnations.

I look away, because I don’t like to see him like this. I never did. To me he was not the hero who had the world on his shoulders, to me he was my love. The man who was supposed to be alive, and with me…married and living our lives. Sometimes I wish we were humans, so we could have had the chance to live our lives the way we wanted to.

“Not well. He freaked out as I thought he would,” I say coming to stand beside Rhine. He looks up at me, his eyes wells of knowledge and intelligence. “I told you, we need to think of a plan B.”

“I can’t fight,” Rhine says looking down at his wheelchair. While the war killed most it crippled him. I know that sometimes he wished he could die, because he felt useless, but he is more helpful more than he knew, because he gave me hope that we will overcome this war too.

“And you can’t fight on your own, Hanika. You are one of the fiercest sentinels I’ve had the pleasure to fight next to, but on this one we need Master Gin. He set up The Second Coming so that it is more of a tournament than outright war, remember?” Rhine said pulling out the interstellar agreement that all the aliens species signed. Hanika remembered. Master Gin had wanted to save lives, both on earth and out. But if they lose the tournament, earth was up for grabs…the apocalypse will begin.

The tournament was a good idea, that is why she believed that they could come up with a plan B. She was powerful, she just needed to get stronger so that she could handle her spirit sword – be able to feed it as she fought. As much as it feed from every kill, it feed from her too. So she needed to be strong to endure it.

Master Gin was ideal since he had the ability to wield power from all Five elements (Wood, Water, Fire, earth and metal) and form bonds with Magical Beasts.

But his reincarnation was nothing but a useless thief.

“Yes, I remember,” I say. “What are you thinking?”

“Master Gin, had time to cultivate his power since most of the sentinels were still alive and he could hunt for artefacts and absorb their power. But with the other two reincarnations there was no one to hold off the aliens from attacking us so that they could train, and search for the artefacts,” Rhine pointed at the screen, at the birthmark that showed how far they went in cultivating their power. Only Master Gin’s birthmark had reached his shoulder. He was powerful when he died. He just needed more time to reach that state of immortality.

“What are you saying exactly that we are doomed no matter what, because we don’t have time? And Tan doesn’t remember anything for him to harness Master Gin’s power and follow in his footsteps,” I say, because truth be told there is no way we can stop the apocalypse. I could enter myself into the tournament but that will not be enough. I also need time to cultivate my power or my spirit sword will kill me. That fight with the Thebes earlier took everything out of me. I stare at my hand. The wound where my sword cut me as it fed was healing. It didn’t go deep this time…but in a tournament where the aliens will send in their best warriors it would be worse.

“We really need him, don’t we,” I say feeling defeated.

“Yes we do. And I might have a solution to our time problem. We only have a two weeks until the tournament starts,” Rhine says shifting books and papers in front of him. He points to a scripts in an ancient looking book. I lean down, and the word Mount Gi pops out at me.

No. He can’t send him there. He didn’t know how to fight. He will die the minute he steps on Mount Gi. Mount Gi is place where a person wishing to increase his power through fighting, goes. The fights are to the death.

It’s like a crash-course to cultivating power, instead of training in martial or mystical art. The person is thrown into the fights in order to activate their spiritual root – to awaken their innate talent. The fights are intense and most people don’t survive, because only their soul is sent there, and not their bodies – although it is said that they have a bodily form when they reach Mount Gi.

“He has to go to Mount Gi,” Rhine says as if he can sense the retort on my lips.

“He’ll die,” I say closing the book. I might not like Master Gin’s reincarnate, but I don’t want him to die.

“He has Master Gin’s innate power within him. What he needs is for that power to awaken, and he he’ll be ready for The Second Coming.”

“What if it doesn’t happen?” I ask feeling like everything is against us.

“It’s a risk we have to take,” Rhine says his voice hard and uncompromising.

“And what will happen to his other half. I suppose you’re going to split him in two,” I shake my head. This has never been tried before. Even Master Gin has never tried this.

“You and him will hunt for artefacts here on earth so he can absorb as much power as he can,” Rhine says sighing. “And then maybe we might have a chance.”

Hypothetically speaking it might work. And if he comes back from Mount Gi as the winner it might work. But he didn’t know the first thing about fighting.

“You’ll have to convince him to go,” I say knowing Tan will refuse. He isn’t as strong as I hoped he would be.