Little Lightning

Chapter 10

The first time Zyan had ever seen the girl, he was seven.

He had long forgotten her name. She wore her bright red hair in pigtails, purple butterfly clips on both sides. She was always smiling, her gap tooth on display for the whole world to see. She wore the same purple shoes everyday, a matching jacket with some sort of faded message written on it. Whenever he asked her what her favorite color was, she would say all the colors but purple. It changed every time he asked her.

She was his first friend. The one and only friend he'd ever had.

She was dead.

The day she died, he vowed never to trust anyone again. The little girl, with the bright smile and loud voice, had died because she was his friend. Because, unknowingly, he had made her a target by befriending her.

So when he saw the girl kneeling on the ground, long dark brown hair tumbling down her shoulders, slim hands clutching her head, he was struck with the worst kind of nostalgia. The kind he didn't ever want to feel.

The little girl had been in that precise position when she had died. The only difference was the hair color. Perhaps that's why he had moved forward and taken away the girl's pain.

When he had seen the girl's eye color, something stilled in him.

That green was the green of the one and only girl he had ever loved. The same green of his one and only friend.

The same green that went dull and lifeless the moment he had protested.

The same green that haunted his dreams, that seemed to follow him wherever he went.

So he needed to know. He needed to know why she looked so much like the girl Zyan had known, he needed to know if there was a connection. But before he could see anything of importance, she had pushed him out with more force than what should have been possible, catching him by surprise.

But the thing that surprised Zyan the most in the time he had been on this planet was not the girls likeness to his childhood friend, not that she had recovered from his shock so quickly, but the fact the she had defended him. Ok, so maybe she didn't defend him exactly, but at least she stopped them from killing him right away. Not that that did any good in the end.

So imagine his surprise when the girl strode into the room he sat in. He stared at her, able to see her features clearly for the first time.

His first thought was she was the sea. 

Luscious deep brown hair tumbling down her shoulders in soft curls, pale green eyes as sharp and keen as a hawks, ringed with thick black lashes. But that wasn't what made him think of the sea.

It was her stance.

She stood as if she could take on the world. She stood as if she had been through a thousand different battles and survived. She stood like she held the weight of the world on her shoulders, weighing her down and beating at her bit by bit, and yet still stood tall.

She stared at him as if daring him to challenge her, as if saying 'try it, i dare you'. Getting over his initial shock, he let his signature smirk slip.

"Well well, if it isn't the girl who tripped up the stairs." He drawled casually, leaning back in the chair he sat in. His shackles clanked together loudly. In the dim light, he saw her cheeks redden slightly.

"Well, if it isn't the boy who invaded my mind." She snapped back. He shrugged lightly, like they were arguing about the weather.

"What brings you down to the deep dark parts of this building?" He inquired, his posture relaxed. Her posture on the other hand, tightened.

"I have questions." She clipped.

"Am I supposed to have answers?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. She didn't say anything, only watched him. He sighed mentally. Geez, this girl was nowhere near as much fun to toy with as he thought. "Even if I did have answers, I can't guarantee I'll give them to you." He let his chair fall back to its full four legs. She glared at him, a vein popping out in one of her fists.

"Why not?"

"Cause I don't feel like it." Her fists clenched. He resisted the urge to smile smugly. This girl was so easy to annoy. "Where's the other dude? He seemed awfully protective of you. You together or something?" Her teeth hit each other with an audible clack.

"No, we're not." She gritted out. He grinned for real this time.

"Really? It sure seemed like he was completel--" Before he could finish his sentence she fisted his shirt roughly and pulled him close.

"Watch it." She snarled, her face mere inches from his own. "The next words out of your mouth had better be something nice, or your execution date just moved up." A sudden fear rose in him as he looked into her eyes. There was a fire in them, and he had a feeling that if he wasn't careful the fire would consume him and burn him alive. He raised his hands up, palms towards her, as a sign of surrender. She released him harshly.

"Dang. You're one scary chic." He said, rubbing the back of his neck where the collar had chafed.

"Now do you have answers?" She asked him, folding her arms, eyes narrowed.  He smiled slightly, a slight sliver of fear still lingering in him.

"Fire away, princess." The vein in her hand popped up again.

"What did you do to me when you made me go unconscious?" Zyan blinked. He was not expecting that to be her first question.

"I found the source of your pain and shut it off. Though I did not expect you to go unconscious."

"What do you mean, the source of the pain?"

"I mean, where your body was causing the pain. It thought you were under attack, so the pain was a warning for you that something bad was happening."

"So you shut down a part of my mind?"

"Yes, essentially." She grit her teeth again.

"Next question. Where did you come from?" Zyan hesitated. There wasn't away for him to explain where he came from without explaining his entire life, and he'd rather not do that to a girl that just threatened to kill him.

"I came from a planet in the next solar system over. The Bluetiens invaded and I had to escape." There. That wasn't completely a lie.

"Bluetiens?" She asked, her tone curious.

"A group of vicious people set on destroying planets and finding some sort of weapon." Zyan answered her unspoken question.

"I see." She said thoughtfully. He was struck by how different her mood was compared to only a few minutes prior. "What do you know about these Bluetiens?" He shrugged.

"Not much." He dug through his memory. That part was true. "But I do know one thing."

She looked at him, an eyebrow raised, her gaze skeptical.

"They're planning on attacking some planet called Earth."