The Substitutes: Contract

The First Battle

The idea of passing the buck of an intergalactic conflict onto someone else should have weighed on Sam's moral compass more than very little. But as he thought about what Kyu had told him he could figure out exactly what holding onto the Gift meant; a big red flashing target on his sister's head, even if she had no desire to use it. Random attacks from out of nowhere, perpetual danger from tricks and traps, all sorts of unusual, life-threatening circumstances that would upset her to no end. All in all, needless undue stress and misery for the both of them, and that was without considering the natural conclusion about what the alien activity might mean for Earth itself. The unpleasant line of thinking brewed as he found her where he'd left her, albeit raiding a tube of crisps.

At a sight, there was no denying that the two were siblings, with their shared soft cheeks and sharp green eyes. However, once that was established, it usually took a minute or two for an outsider to confirm that they'd been raised in the same household. While Sam kept his hair cut short and proper, Sara had no concerns for her appearance, with a frayed black shroud running down the back of the pyjamas she wore consistently when not required to go to school. Today was day four of her current set, and both hair and clothes were in dire need of cleaning. Not that she'd take a shower of her own accord, claiming she had more important matters to attend to at any given time of the day. There was a similar lack of shame at subverting his orders as she handed the packet over, only the slightest curling of lips as Sam swiped the last few for himself.

"All gone?"

"The crisps or the 'rat?'"

"Yes."

"Sara, that thing in your room isn't a rat. Did you know what it was when it started talking to you?"

"Obviously. It's clearly not from Earth. Had no way to classify it. Also, he was being chased by bigger monsters when he ran into me."

"And you let it drag you into its problems? You've been told about touching wild animals, and this is far more serious than that."

"If he was captured, I was going to be erased. No witnesses, the big one said. Taking the power seemed wise. It made blowing up the big one very satisfying. Also, I got to be a magical girl for a day. Also satisfying, but once was enough. I don't want to become a witch."

Sam tried and failed to tame his shock at the idea of waiting at home endlessly for a missing sister that wouldn't return with no explanation as to where she had gone. It showed.

"Don't worry, I was fine."

"That's really not reassuring when I'm only just finding out about this. You could have been seriously hurt, or even killed, and we wouldn't have known what happened to you!"

"Don't shout." Sara bit back, covering her ears.

"I'm not shouting."

"You're getting louder. That's shouting. Stop shouting."

Concern was misdirecting him into a dead end. He took a deep breath and bit down harder than necessary on a crisp to settle his nerves.

"You're right. I'm sorry."

"Accepted."

She didn't lower her hands from the side of her head. Not that it would prevent her from hearing altogether, no matter how she could pretend otherwise. Time to try again, adopting a more tempered tone.

"You can see why I worried though, can't you? That thing Kyu gave you is dangerous. It'll end up drawing more of those monsters here, regardless of what you want. Which means more fighting. And they're not going to wait for you to be ready. They could attack you at school, here at home, anytime. You don't want that, do you?"