Star Crossed: On the Line - 2. A Well of Embers

The trip home was about two days long. Tony and Alicia were rather quiet during the trip. It’s not exactly new for Tony, but I know Alicia isn’t as bubbly as she usually is. I just stared out into all the stars. I love watching them. They help me fall asleep. I don’t get pleasant dreams though.

The first night was strange. I kept feeling like I was missing something. I thought it was just lack of body heat, but I wouldn’t dare ask to sleep with anyone from the team. I know my place among them. I am an alien to them and so they don’t entirely like me. Lucky for me, my team is pretty great. I try and think back on any missions or time we’ve had together, but I only get strange moving pictures that look as if they were painted. I frown out the window. I keep pushing to even normal everyday memories, like my room back home with Enyod, the only other Alentian I know. The metal room is just painted along with Enyod. This doesn’t seem right at all.

When I pushed my thoughts away and tried to sleep, I was haunted with nightmares of my past. The masters started off by being the first ones to invade my dream. Tanner told me they were exiled from Firelight long ago. The nightmares started playing back to back. From the three of them taking advantage of me to My mother being murdered by a man in a mask. The mask is painted in the dream yet it seemed solid enough to completely hide the face hidden behind it. Everything from my time in Utrio was playing out in my mind. Lucain sacrificing himself for me. Arnio and Aileta keeping me safe. Everything leading to Tony and the team coming in to save me. Everything becomes painted when they show up.

The second night of dreams left me feeling pretty lonely. I dreamed of being with someone. I couldn’t see their face but it felt like the safest I’ve ever been. I could feel the warmth and care even if his skin was hard like rock. I was in their arms. A cage of safety. It was all very familiar yet I don’t know who it was. When I woke I just rubbed on the smooth rock in my necklace. I don’t know where it came from. My mind tells me it’s a piece of a horn. How do I know this? I wish I knew where I got it. It’s a dark grey and when I rub on it, It calms me. It’s special to me...I think. Maybe as special as the beads and cloth I put in my hair?

Alicia voices calls from the front saying that we are home. I look out expecting possibly a painted world of red paint like in my dream. Instead it’s a solid red planet, Ember. It’s a small planet like Utrio. They even share the fact that there is only one city. The only big difference would be that the city is about three hundred miles under the surface. The edges of the city from the ground all the way to the top is covered in rock and metal. Mostly because the planet has lava surrounding the top on the surface. It’s used to melt down the metals that hide in the caves under the city. Most of it is melted down in factories at the top circle of metal to sell. The open circle above the city is the only way in and out.

The main problem to me is that the citizens have lived here far longer than Firelight has. Firelight had invaded and turned them into slaves. Now all of them work in the mines everyday. I am against it entirely. I was a slave myself after all. I’m pretty sure Enyod doesn’t approve as well, but we both know not to step out of line here. We aren’t exactly wanted here. Tanner, the leader of Firelight, only wants us alive because of our abilities. I am still not quite sure what Enyod can do since he refuses to show me. He is usually by Tanner’s side during the day.

It makes me sad to see the citizens of Ember stripped of their freedom on their own planet. They never thought they would be invaded and so they didn’t bother to prepare for such a thing. Poor fools. They are all around my height when fully grown. They have orange smooth skin and their eyes are as big as a fist. They also have four arms that can almost reach past their knees, and have heads the shape of a upside down bell. The only place with any hair on their bodies are on their necks and shoulders. They almost look like they are wearing a permanent scarf.

There are some that work in the buildings that other teams and I live in. Seeing them again will bring bad memories of home again no doubt. Speaking of memories, I find it strange that any memories of the slaves seem quite clear. Not at all painted. Maybe it is because looking at them has affected me more?

Alicia lands us on the top of our building and we all hop out. The last member our team finally greets us. Their painted face fades instantly in my mind and becomes clear as I look up at him. Dozer is his name. He looks at me with a frown before turning to give Tony a mean look. Tony in turn crosses his arms and returns the look. There is just an awkward stare off between the two until Alicia steps in and smacks both their heads.

“Alright enough! We will talk about this later.” She says and walks past them into the door that leads to the stairs. The two guys turn their gazes to me. Dozer gives a huff and turns to follow Alicia. I just stand there frozen until Tony sighs and turns to walk in as well. I wait a few seconds before walking in as well. I am not sure what I did honestly. I don’t remember doing anything that would cause them to be angry at me. I try and remember what I possibly could have done but I am only met with painted memories of our team sharing smiles and laughing together. Did something happen here while I was gone?

I steer clear of them and just go straight to my room. It’s the smallest room in the building and it’s right next to the closet full of cleaning supplies. There are two beds on either side of the small room. Only about five feet of space between the beds. I don’t really have anything to do so I guess I can just wait on Enyod.

~~
~~

I breathe air in and out slowly to calm down. Remy passes me a water bottle and I lift it up and chug it down fast.

“Did you really have to break the bag again? That’s the third one today.” Remelia sighs with her laptop in her lap. I’ve talked to every director in U.U.P.P. today to try and warn them of possibly any spies in the squads. While we said this a few months ago because of George, we wanted to make sure and have everyone questioned again. Can’t be too careful. I really hope we can manage to find one. If they have any idea of where they took Mekaias then we can get him back.

“Sorry.” I huff out and sit on the ground next to her. She turns to me in disgust and pushes me away with her fingers.

“You’re disgusting and smelly.” She turns back to her laptop. “I’ve sent pictures of the aircraft they used to see if anyone knows where it’s from.” She rubs the sides of her head with her fingers. “It’s just a waiting game again.” She sighs and closes the laptop.

“We’ll find him.” Remy says as he straps on some gloves and goes to ready a training bot. “For all we know, he could be killing them all right now. He’ll send us a call, and then we can go back to how things were before Firelight became a huge menace.” He smiles in our direction before turning to fight. I do miss when we just explored planets and helped those in need. Not constantly raid any Firelight bases that we find. I bet Mekaias would have loved doing that.

I give a weak smile and then lean my head back against the wall. I hate this useless feeling. We couldn’t find Firelight before, so how are we possibly going to find Mekaias? I didn’t like how he just talked to that guy as if it was the most normal thing in the world. He acted as if he was a normal friend. I saw him get shot in the head the day he went to kill George. It was only for about half a second before the drone I was using was shot down, but I saw him fall down to the ground after the first shot went off. I guess I didn’t see blood. I know I possibly just thought of the worst conclusion possible. I just felt my heart stop when I saw that Mekaias wasn’t on the ground when I went to go find him. Remelia even went through the camera footage to try and see what happened. One second he is there and then a cut in the video skips to him being gone.

“I’m going to take a shower.” I say and stand to leave. I don’t know if they really even heard me to be honest.

I stand in the water and just sigh. I can’t believe I let this happen. I told Mekaias so many times that he was safe with us. Now look. I think I have an idea of what George did to Mekaias and it brings a burning rage inside of me. I wish I could have killed him myself but Mekaias did it instead.

George sent a message to Kane saying that he was leaving us and joining Firelight. As soon as the interview was finished in the morning, we flew home as fast as we could. Everything seemed fine and normal. Remelia tracked George’s location of his phone.

Mekaias was quieter than usual until he asked if we were going after George to kill him. It brought a bit of a shock to everyone. I think everyone just brushed it off thinking that maybe he thinks that normal to do. He has killed many people before after all. I knew though. I knew that he doesn’t enjoy killing people so something was up. When I found him alone in the room, just sitting on the bed and staring at the wall, I asked if something happened. I could see his shoulders tense and I knew something did. He just shook it off and acted as if nothing did. He just said that he needed to kill George. He had his mind dead set on doing that. I couldn’t do anything to convince him otherwise. He told me he was leaving just before sunset. I offered to join him but he refused. The only thing he’d allow is for me to follow him with a drone.

I knew he’d be fine. At least I thought so. After George’s head was popped off, he walked out the front door and a gunshot went off. He fell to the floor, then another gunshot and the drone died. I just remember not being able to breathe for a good while. I ran to Remelia and Remy’s room and we hopped into a car and drove straight for Mekaias. When he wasn’t there it felt like the end of me.

I didn’t want to do anything because what was the point? I lost my soulmate for good because I was stupid enough not to follow my instincts and stop Mekaias. Too stupid to not stay home and not bother going to that interview. I just knew something was going to happen and I lost him because of it.

The Director said that it’s best for the squad to just stay home and 'heal' over the current events. Yeah that was a bunch of bullshit. I didn’t want to sit home and think about how I killed my soulmate. It was all my fault. What did I do to heal? I drank my heart away. I needed the haze to not think about what I have done. I also stayed in the training room most days because I refused to look at the bed that felt too cold and empty. To think that the day before was almost perfect. We finally made another step in our relationship and it was all crushed in an instant.

Now that I get to see that Mekaias is very much alive, I’ve never been so relieved. He’s alive and not dead. I have to keep telling myself this because it just feels like I’m going to wake up at any moment. However, I’m pretty sure a dream wouldn’t have have my soulmate in the enemy’s hands. I shiver at the thought of what he is going through over there. I hope he’s careful. I don’t know what he’s doing but it’s definitely risky. I only wish he could send us the coordinates of wherever he is. Why hasn’t he even tried to communicate with us?

I just stand there in the water for a moment before it hits me. He’s angry at us. He doesn’t trust us at all. We-no...I let him down. I promised him that he was safe and then he got hurt. He is only doing this for himself now. It is all my fault after all. Why would he want help from people that lied to him?

~~
~~

“Thanks a lot.” Dozer growls and shoves a finger at my chest, ”I just love having to be on a team with a guy that can’t hold his temper. Now look at us! We have a fucking cat boy on our team. Way to go, Tony! Way to go.” He turns and plops onto his chair.

“It’s not my fault that Officer decided to start bossing me around.” I glare at him.

“He was just giving you pointers on what you should be working on with your training!” He exclaims and smacks his hand over his eyes. “Alicia! Please help your idiot of a brother.”

She just sighs and continues ignoring us. “I’m busy.” She is just painting her toenails right now. I can't believe just how busy she is. Must be a damn hard life! “He doesn’t seem that bad anyways. Kind of quiet really. Already sounds a lot better than little girls like you.” We both turn to her and scowl. She just rolls her eyes without even looking at us. “You both are drama queens.” I just scoff at her and get up to leave. I don’t need to hear any of this from these two.

I decide to walk to the cafeteria. I’m sure it’ll be better than this. As I’m about to open the door to leave, the Older Alentian fumbles in front of me. He bows his head and steps out of my way. I just roll my eyes and keep walking. I just love having two fucking aliens in my building. Let them entertain each other I guess. Means they leave me alone. They can just lick each other for all I care.

~~
~~

The ceiling is weird. I feel like it’s missing something. I swear when I close my eyes I can imagine little tiny stars scattered all over it. A bit ridiculous I guess, but it sounds nice. However, If I keep my eyes closed for too long, I swear I feel the memories of being locked in a room start creeping in and trying to be at the full of my attention. I shake my head and open my eyes. I push those memories back and concentrate on the good. For instance, stars that could live on the ceiling of my room. Successfully completing a mission. My team smiling. Though I can’t exactly imagine that one very well right now.

A knock on the door makes me sit up straight. Enyod opens the door and silently walks in. Strange. No longer painted in my head finally. He is rather rough to look at honestly. He has brown hair that is pulled back with a headband. In some sections of his hair wrapped in cloth and filled with beads. He has a lot more than me. One of his ears look as if they were cut up a bit. He has one bright yellow eye. He wears an eye patch over the other. I’m guessing it was pulled out otherwise he would be able to heal his eye. He is extremely tall. Definitely taller than my mother. He has to lean down a bit to not hit the ceiling. He sits down on his bed and gives me a small smile.

“Hello, Mekaias. How was your trip?” He wears a dirty robe. No longer white. It has special markings around the edges on the bottom. Some are faded and some are ripped off. I think I recognize some of these words. It’s Alentian. My mother had tried to teach me some words. Mostly the ones used in temples back home that were used to teach about the magic our lives hold. They are pretty patterns of curling lines that never disconnect. Magic is believed to always circle back to where it came from. It was something they always praised and studied. I didn’t really care for it when I learned about it. Seeing the words now is rather interesting.

I freeze when I realize I am on the floor with some of the fabric in my hands. I look up and drop it instantly. He just looks down at me with a smile. “Sorry.” I move back. I go to sit down on the bed but then realize I’m still in my suit. I should change.

“You are only curious. It’s fine.” I turn to the small dresser by the foot of my bed. I dig around until I find pajama shorts and a tank top. I peek over and see he hasn’t moved.

“My mother taught me a small bit of words. I’ve never seen them before.” I give a small smile before I start going through all the zippers hidden in the suit.

“I could teach you more if you wish.” I’m finally out the tight suit and feel like I can breathe. “I see you still have some of our ways.” I look over and he motions the area over his cheek. I reach up to mine and meet the beads and cloth.

“I guess I couldn’t run away from it all.” I turn back and put my clothes on before laying on my bed. “You have a lot.”

He gives a small nod before laying on his bed as well. His legs hang off a fair amount sadly. “I’ve lived a lot longer than you.” He gives a chuckles but closes his mouth instantly. We both look towards the door. “I have forty-two lost ones.” he sighs.

“I have eleven. I need another bead to add sadly. I never got the chance to get one on Utrio.” I sigh at the memory of Lucain.

“Perhaps we can go together into the city to find the best bead for them.” I smile and nod.

“Only if you have the time.” I say. I need a nice red bead for Lucain.

We lay there in silence for a moment. I frown at how his legs hang over the bed. That can’t be comfortable at all. I stand and turn to reach my hands under the bed and pull. I keep pulling until it’s right against his.

“What are you doing?” He asks, sitting up on one elbow. I drop back onto my bed.

“Bring you legs onto the bed. It’s more space for you. Hanging over the edge looks awfully bad for you.” Not to mention this brings body heat that I know the both of us crave. I know he needs it because he doesn’t fight me about it. I curl with my back to him and he brings his legs higher onto the bed.

For a moment we are just laying there enjoying the warmth until he whispers his thanks. I lay there trying to count stars in the back of my eyes. Eventually I fall into sleep.