Kali Ch. 04 - Reunion

"Look, what reason do I have to lie to you? I've lost my friends, my brothers and sisters, well over half my memory. Mainly though, I have lost my wife, I just started to remember her when I got stupid doing this," Shiva said, hanging his head. "I need your help, something I have never, from a human."

Call me a softy, I don't know. I reached out, shaking Shiva's hand. "Alright, let's go."

Almost immediately, we were hundreds of miles away. I looked up the mountain, seeing what appeared to be another chamber. I looked closer, swearing I could see the symbol of Kali on the rock face.

I sighed, OK, I could for the first time see why Shiva was so aggressive. I had been dealing with the same type of loss as he was, well, somewhat. Then again, I thought he should see why the hell I wanted to be left the hell alone. Then his story hit me, he had been alone. Alone, a hell of a lot longer than I had.

I thought about it longer, dropping into a chair that had appeared behind me. "So, you were the same way when you first released your wife Kali?" I asked.

A slight smile came to Shiva's lips as he shook his head no. "No, I was by far worse, I said some really asinine things to my wife. You know the saying, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, yeah believe it. You might say that Kali was far beyond pissed off."

I winched as I thought of what Shiva had done to me, a female? To an asshole male? Yeah, I could see a lot of anger there.

"So, she's not going to want to get revenge or be angry when I let her loose, right?" I asked.

"Well," Shiva started, "at you no. In general, yeah, I think she might. All of us had only been out a year when we tried to open the tombs of the lesser gods. It, uh, had the effect like the original battle between Me and Vishnu."

"The original battle?" I asked.

"Yeah, Vishnu and I have always disagreed to a point. I guess it was a few years ago, well a few thousand for you," Shiva said, as a faraway look came to his eyes. "In all this time I remember every word, we were both angry. He had said I was a disgrace to the God realm, I responded in kind. Needless to say, we went at each other. We were both at full power for the first time in a very long time."

"Didn't the other gods, your wife, try to stop both of you?" I asked.

"Oh, they tried, though, the first casualty was my wife. We used so much power that all the other gods had no defense. Subsequently, our full powers locked all of them away. I was nearly out of my mind, 'til I realized that Kali was gone. I was calm, then worried and ashamed. Vishnu took advantage, not realizing I was sane again. The blast knocked both of us in opposite directions, me, without a memory nor realizing I had powers, as a god," Shiva explained.

"So, in a sense, Vishnu was as you are right now," I said.

"Perhaps," Shiva said. "He had been at it a lot longer; he did things differently. Now, he and all the others are locked away, especially Vishnu. I need to release as many, well you, while we still have a chance to save everything."

This last bit got me worried, "Save everything?" I asked.

"Yes, there is a balance that we keep, along with the other god realms. Thankfully, I have felt two, with a third increasing in their influence. That is perhaps why we have survived, though now that I am out, we need to release the others to restore the precious balance," Shiva told me.

I nodded, then stopped, "you do realize that it took me almost a month to break into your chamber. What in the hell makes you think I can get to the others faster?"

A small smirk crossed Shiva's lips, "why, you have me, of course."

I rolled my eyes when he said this, "for once no offence? What makes you think it will go faster with your help? Remember all of you got trapped again after last time. I'm not really feeling all that much confidence, if you help."

"Oh, I've learned quite a lot since last time. I said that I would help you. I am not that foolish to believe that I can open it. I can, however," Shiva said as several heavy digging pieces of equipment appeared.

I could only shake my head, "and just how am I..." I started when Shiva touched my forehead. "OH shit!" I yelled as the knowledge of running all of them, flooded my mind. "Shit! Shit! Too fast, OH!" I crumpled to my knees as Shiva touched my forehead again.

"My apologies," Shiva said as the pain disappeared. I looked up at Shiva, not believing the words Shiva had spoken. "I, too, have experienced what you just did. Unlike you though, I was not given a reprieve. Kali said she had to leave me like that. I believe at times she intended the pain I suffered."

I only nodded, still afraid that if I spoke the pain might return. Shiva shook his head, pointing to his head. I had forgotten that Shiva was attuned, mostly to all my thoughts.

I slowly stood staring at Shiva, my mouth hanging open. "I don't believe that I have ever heard of any of you apologizing."

"As I said, much has changed, as have I. I do not wish to experience the utter aloneness that I did. When it was just me, in my mind, with no memory, it wasn't that bad. Now? I am not sure if I can last through a long time of it," Shiva said, a look of sadness on his face. For the first time, I believed all that he had said.

I looked at the backhoe, then jumped into the driver's seat. I was soon driving the teeth of the bucket into the large stone-like slab covering the chamber.

I worked all day surprised when I had gone several feet into the slab. I knew it was thick but several feet? It was actually getting harder to press in with the bucket. I stopped a few hours later, seeing that I was at least eight feet.

I nearly dropped off the machine as I went to get something to eat and drink. Almost immediately, a shaded tent appeared beside the machine, leading me to crawl in. Lying against the couch, I accepted the large glass that was handed to me, taking a big gulp. I was immediately spitting and sputtering the wine from the glass.

I looked at Shiva, "you trying to kill me? That will dry me out far more than the heat will."

He nodded then handed me another glass filled with cold water and ice cubes. "Ah!" I said, "that is better, much better."

"I keep forgetting you are human, not a god," Shiva said, then several platters of meat appeared.

Again, I stared at Shiva, "forgot?" I almost shouted, then stopped seeing an almost lost look on Shiva's face. "I was expecting it to be thick but, this is ridiculous. I'm about eight feet now," I told him.

Shiva was nodding as his face dropped in sadness. "At least you have help. The last time I only had a pickaxe. I worked for over a month, we... I don't have that type of time." He looked at the hole I had dug so far. "It appears to be much thicker than it was before. I believe I was in before now."

I threw my hands up; great I was going to die out here before I got through.

Shiva was suddenly beside me, "no, I won't allow that to happen. Ryan? Do you think I am as vindictive as that," Shiva asked.

"Well," I said as I took another bite, finally starting to feel better. "You are the god of destruction, what do you expect me to think?"

Shiva started to speak, then grew quiet. "I can see where you might think that. True, I am the god of destruction, though you might say that is my job."

"Job?" I said, somewhat shocked. "Destroying everything is your job? Give me a break I..." I stopped. I hadn't met any other gods, so who was I to say it wasn't true?

"Yes, from the start, we all have had a responsibility or job, as you humans say. I don't really like the destruction; it was found that my decisions were better than any others. Though, like all families, I have found that there are always, in family fights. In our case, it puts part of the world in jeopardy," Shiva said.

"So, tell me," I started. "You mentioned that part of your memory was gone. Just how much of it have you recovered?"

Shiva started to shake his head, then seemed to have a moment of clarity. "The last time I was about forty to forty-five percent. Oddly enough, I feel as if I have half, a lot better than before."

I was nodding running all I had learned through my head. A stray thought crossed my mind. Could he really protect me from Kali? Especially if she was as pissed as he had described her before. I remembered that anger could provide a hell of a lot of extra power, with a god. Heaven help me.

I started to turn to Shiva to ask when he said, "I will do the best I can, I'm sure she won't kill you."

"HEY! You said you could protect me, not going to be much help to you if I am after all dead," I told Shiva.

A small smile came to Shiva's lips that installed me with even less confidence. I then noticed that Shiva again, had an odd look on his face. For a moment, he grabbed his head, then looked at me with more clarity.

"Well," he started, "that will surely help. It seems that I have recovered a bit more memory. Now, I think I can protect you even better."

I just looked at him as if he had lost his mind, (more of it I was afraid). He then looked at me again.

"No, I actually gained more, it appears that I also know that you are almost through. I need to set up what I can against Kali, though now? I have more knowledge than I did before," Shiva said, with seemingly more confidence.

I wasn't that convinced, I mean really, with all his powers and he had only about half his memory to use them. Shit I thought, this was starting to feel like every other bad situation I had gone through.

"Alright," I said after an hour, "we might as well get back at it. I guess the sooner they are out, the sooner things can go back to normal."

The look that Shiva had on his face again, wasn't instilling much confidence in me. He turned toward me a moment later, then his face went blank.

"I will do all I can to ensure you survive," Shiva said, a small smile on his face.

I stopped, staring at Shiva. "As I said before, you might want to put more into it than that. Me ending up dead is not going to help your cause much at all."

His astonished look at me almost had me walking away again. "Look, I am not going into this to die a few times."

"I am working on things. As I said, I have more memory than I did before. I just hope that Kali's returns faster than mine," Shiva said.

"WHAT!?" I shouted, "you really expect me to go into this knowing I am going to die. Have you lost your ever' lovin' mind?

"It won't be more than a few times," Shiva said nonchalantly.

"Won't be more than a few times! Once is one time too damn many! You said you had more of a hand on this," I shouted.

"I..." Shiva started, then was staring straight ahead again. Another small smile lit up his face as he nodded. "I might need to keep you around more, I just had another section of memories open. I'm glad too, I wouldn't have thought of that 'til it was too late."

I could only stare at him again; this god said the strangest things at times. When I didn't say anything, just continued to stare at him, he turned toward me. For a moment he seemed to be lost, than thought of what he'd said. "Ah, I see. This new knowledge has shown me there are more precautions that I should take."

I smirked a moment. I was, after all the first he had hinted, that could actually help him. Though, the more I thought about it looking at him, the more I hoped that the new knowledge actually helped.

"Alright", Shiva said, "Let's continue, with two of us things should settle a bit."

I took a big breath as I climbed back onto the backhoe. So, I thought, I wasn't that far from breaking through. I soon passed nine, then ten feet. This stone seemed to be far harder than Quartzite. It was a natural stone that I found out was almost as hard as Diamond, from what I saw? What I was trying to get through, was a mix of both mineral rocks.

I looked at the teeth on the bucket of the backhoe, since I knew they couldn't use magic. What was it? I shook my head as the teeth didn't break nor did they dull, an impossibility in the real world. Finally, with a narrowing area to dig in, I was almost at twelve feet. The low hissing sound I heard was what first alerted me to the fact we, or rather I, was in trouble. A shake of my head, I decided to keep going, breaking through at exactly twelve feet.

With an extremely loud roar, a swift moving, blue blur erupted from the hole I had created. It seemed to rise a few hundred feet as I was getting the hell out of the immediate area.

I knew when all the noise stopped, that I was pretty much done for. From everything Shiva had told me, there was no way in hell that this was going to end well.

I still made a run for it, thinking (unrealistically) that Kali would miss me. Even as I was passing the tent that had been set up, I swear that I could feel Kali's eyes searching the area. A moment later I could also swear that I could feel her eyes lock on my fleeing form.

You know, they say that when you die instantly, that you really don't feel a thing. I want to let you all know, that is a freaking lie, a BIG lie. I felt everything, especially the burning, searing horrible pain.

The whole time, I was cursing Shiva with all of my last breath. Right before everything went dark, I felt her turn her attention to Shiva.

Good, I thought, perhaps she would dish out the same pain to him. I was finally at peace, at rest, then I was just as suddenly ripped from it. To say I was pissed as hell, would be the understatement of an eternity.

I awoke to Shiva and Kali's faces above mine. I tried to move to punch Shiva in the face, suddenly realizing, I had no damn body.

I growled seeing the smile on Shiva's face, "you absolute asshole!" I shouted, seeing not only Shiva but also Kali cringe. I turned toward Kali, "I did not mean you, Kali, you had no choice in this matter. No, I was referring to the asshole next to you."

"I told you I would protect you, I..." Shina started.

"Protect me! I died you son of a bitch! Imagine all the pain you experienced before, multiple that by ten. Then, just then, you might see why I am so upset. I have half a mind to say the hell with you, leave and forget all this shit!" I said, though I was just a bit calmer, I was still seething.

I could feel my shoulders starting to reemerge. I thought back to what had happened. "You were the reason I am now free of the confinement. I am trying to heal you as fast as I can. In his rush to free me, he only kept your lifeforce here. I am recreating your container for it, my power and memory is unfortunately worse than Shiva's," Kali said, her look of gratitude looked genuine.'

I nodded to her, noticing that almost all of my chest was back, along with my arms to my elbows. I took a deep breath that surprised me, wishing I could heal a lot faster. My eyes opened wide as I was almost immediately healed to my waist with both hands intact.

Kali smiled at me when she saw this, though turned a glare towards Shiva. "I am sorry Kali; I was in a hurry to get you back. With Vishnu gone, I needed you to...", Shiva said.

"What!? You mean to tell me that 'til you were out, all of us were sealed up?" Kali said. "There are times, husband, that I wonder how you get through."

"Kali," Shiva started, "as was told to me, with the responsibilities we have, we were to focus only on them. As you well know, I destroy. It is all I have done for a very long time. This being a full leader is as new to me as it is to you. Both Vishnu and I have shared it for so long, I am unsure about many of the decisions."

Kali stood there staring at Shiva, then a small smile came to her lips. "I do believe that," here Kali stopped with a strange look that took over her features. Shaking her head for a moment, then a look of clarity came to her eyes. "Just like last time, I believe that you are changing. Changing for the better."

Shiva could only stare at her, his mouth hanging open. I guess mine was too, Kali was looking over to me as a small giggle came from her. "Here I thought you wouldn't be able to remember anything from that time," Shiva finally got out.

Another smile came to her lips, "you said you have more memories; you should know that with you out? Any of the others that you release," here she looked at me. "Are able to recover their minds a lot faster."

"Strange," Shiva said, "that didn't occur when I was released, as a matter of fact, you seemed to enjoy my pain."

"No husband, not enjoy. Though there were times that I might have pushed a little further than I should," Kali said with a sad look on her face. A look that I saw that really didn't reach her eyes.

I looked back to Shiva to see if he had detected this. No, he didn't seem to notice. Then again, I thought, with Shiva, the way he'd been? Who could really know? The one thing I didn't notice the whole time since I had been back? Shiva hadn't picked up on my thoughts, as a matter of fact neither had Kali. Later, after things had settled more, I found this was a good thing.

I was feeling that almost all my legs were back; my feet now were also starting to emerge. I could see that both of them were waiting for me to be whole again. Hell, I felt lucky that I had survived, though, wasn't going to say anything about it.

"I am sure that you will want to rest after all this," Shiva said. "Me and my wife need to spend some time together. I also need to make sure that this does not happen again. As I said before, I experienced something like this before."

I started to say something, then decided that this time? I was better served keeping my mouth shut. I started to nod to the both of them, then was suddenly within the tent I had passed.

I also noticed that the healing that had started seemed to accelerate quite a bit. Too bad I thought that they hadn't left me any clothes, almost as fast as with the healing I was fully clothed.

It was at that moment that I also noticed that everything that I enjoyed was there in the tent waiting for me. I reached for several large platters, pulling hand-fulls of food just stuffing my face.

Damn, I thought, why in the hell was I so damn hungry? Then I thought, no, I wasn't just hungry, I was in fact damn near starving. Again, I thought that was strange. I hadn't really thought that I had done that much to have as big an appetite.

Another thing I noticed was the fact that I was still eating after almost an hour. I looked at my body. What had they done to me after they brought me back? I started to call one or both of them, then shook my head. Nothing pissed a couple off more than when talking or sex was interrupted.

I finally finished, then sat to write. I looked around trying to find something to write on. A flash beside me while I was looking had a notebook appearing. When I saw it, I smiled. Well, I thought, Shiva was trying to make up with me obviously.

Odd as it was, everything that had happened came to me with upmost clarity. Once I started, it seemed I couldn't stop 'til I had all of it down.

It was a few hours later that both of them appeared. "Ah! I see that you are dressed, have eaten and are ready to go," Shiva said, then touched his head. I knew from before that more of his memories were starting to open.

Shiva smiled then waved a hand, everything vanished. Then we did. I assumed that we were going to Vishnu's tomb or chamber. I, of course, was wrong. Up the mountain we were before, I swear that I saw Rama's Glyph/symbols.

I shook my head. Why did I think that Vishnu's anger was going to make Kali's pale?