Lucid

FOUR

"It's all in the mind" he said slowly and sternly
"What?" She looked at him utterly confused,
"Dreams ... they come from our minds! They're not real," He was desperately trying to translate to her the reality of their reality.
"Dreams??? Wha- what are you talking about?" She looked even more confused
"Yes dreams, do you remember what they are?"
"Yes yes of course I know what they are, dreams..." she repeated "yes, what do you mean they come from minds??"
"Dreams are made up Xia! They aren't real and they come from minds, from our minds, they don't exist anywhere else but in our mind," he looked intensely at her as if almost begging her to understand,
"You're not making sense Ten, I'm understanding all the words that are coming out of your mouth but it doesn't make any sense; dreams are what they are, what's this about minds and being made up, stop this! Why are you doing this? You're not making any sense and we're running out of time!"
He could tell that this was not going to work, but he was really desperate and they were indeed running out of time. He looked over the vastness of the city searching his thoughts for a way to help her to understand, the city had never looked so beautiful, he had never seen it from this vantage point before, even more beautiful on a clear day such as today, everything looked still and peaceful he wondered if this was the last time he would ever see it, what was happening to them at that very moment however, was pure chaos, what was he going to do? Xia was not understanding, how could she? She could have easily calmed the situation. If only she knew that she could; this was her world, the only world she knew at the time. He knew he wanted too much too quickly. But he had to try, he had to try something, anything. He was getting desperate,
"Xia they're coming, you know this right? Bu-"
"What the hell Ten, of course I know, what do you think I'm trying to do here?! Get us the hell out of here!" She cut him off . At this point she was definitely upset. Their lives were at stake and he was not cooperating, Why was he doing this? They didn't have the time to be arguing, Their only option was to be in sync and work together and here he was trying to derail, trying to upset the mission with crazy words about dreams or whatever.
"Ten you just need to calm down, calm your mind and focus! Like what the hell? Now is not the time, we need go! NOW!"
If only she knew that that was exactly what she needed to do, not him, but Ten realized it wasn't going to happen now so he adjusted, reluctantly. "Okay Xi, what's the plan here?" he had hoped and painfully given up the thought of her knowing and seeing the truth. He would have to play it out as it was, and time was really closing in on them, the  Senticols would be there any second now, they needed to move fast. If they got to them he knew that potentially that could be it for both of them unless she changed it but he couldn't waste anymore time trying to get her to.
Xia was desperately looking through the room trying to find the starter she knew they needed to get out of there because there was nowhere to hide. Their only option was to escape with the helicopter. She was relying on Ten's aviation skills to save their lives.
In reality though he could not fly anything but he could if she wanted him to so he kept looking for the starter. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a strange looking box at first it looked like a pet plant but he noticed there were no leaves, and the stem looked hard and shiny, too shiny. There it is! Ten grabbed the box and smashed it to the ground,
BANG! there was a loud bang on the door, then they heard a machine whirring,
"We're out of time" she looked at him and he could hear the fear in her voice "they're here" she was scared.
"No we're not. Found it!" he held up the starter and her eyes lit up. She ran out to the helipad,
BANG! The door was not going to survive whatever the senticols were using, he grabbed the stem looking starter, Xia was already in the helicopter, "Ten do you know how to get us out of here??!" She screamed as the noises outside the door intensified. Ten was decidedly clicking buttons and starting up the helicopter, then they heard it and it's as though time slowed down, the door fell. Six senticols rushed through guns drawn, and immediately started firing their pulse lasers!
"TEN GO!" Xia screamed. Ten inserted the starter into the scanner, they heard "Access Aproved" the blades fired up, he entered the destination, pulled the lever back and got them airborne, but would they make it? The air lasers were destabilizing the rotors. They started to lose altitude.
"HOLD ON!" He released and dropped altitude suddenly. Xi was screaming "Teeeennnnnn!!!"
Ten grabbed the lever and with all his might he pulled up,
"I got it, I got it! " he flew around the building in the opposite direction to the where they were aiming their shots.
The Senticols could not fire at them anymore lest they shatter the very structure they were standing in. They had escaped, what a relief but that was too close a call they barely got out in time and that was unsettling for him. Xi looked super relieved, she was in disbelief ,
"oh my god Ten how did you do that?" Her voice was shaky " we almost died!"
"I had to." He replied but what he really wanted to say he couldn't, not now. He knew that if they hadn't gotten out in time there was so much more at stake. He was deep in thought barely flying the helicopter, all He needed was a safe place to land.

"Ten,  wake up, wake up... te-!" Ten shot up and grabbed his pulse laser, "shh shh don't worry it's just me." she said calmly as she gently touched his face. He relaxed and lay his head back on their pile of bags.
"You okay?" He asked
"I'm okay," she smiled "are you okay?"
"I will be." he let out a heavy sigh and looked around, he had been in this exact scenario so many times before, but each time things were changing and becoming more and more risky.
"I think we should be okay here for a couple of days, we're right over Bells bridge, they can't track us after the the bridge, the ions messes up their comms," he knew he needed to reassure her and keep her calm.
"I know." She hesitated but continued "I tried to call him but... don't worry I didn't get a signal not even a little, but don't you think they'd come look for us here? Do you think he's coming?" She looked sad, almost as if she wanted Reigh to find her. Ten ignored the sadness, he just needed her to sleep.
"Maybe" he said " but the risk may not be worth it for them, outsiders will take them down the minute they cross the bridge...they won't risk creating a war they're bound to lose. I know this is hard Xi, but you can't call Reigh anymore. He's one of them now. You just can't"
She looked at him glassy eyed. Reigh wasn't who she thought he was, he had lied to her for the Senticols, but her heart was still with him.
"How could he do this to me? I can't believe he did this to me" Her shoulders dropped and she sobbed softly.
Ten pulled her in toward him. Holding her as he'd always wanted to, she lay her head on his chest and wrapped her arm around the top of his abs, he could feel her warm tears on his shirt, he too felt sadness but for an entirely different reason, all he wanted to do was rescue her from herself and this world she created, By far this was the worst world she existed in but for Xi it was all she knew. He let her cry, the circumstances deserved it. Xia wiped her eyes and pulled away, he felt the absence as she got up because he wanted to hold her forever.
"You're right. I know you are, I just can't believe he would do that to me, even when I saw all the signs that he was working for them I chose to ignore them," she let out a heavy sigh "Maybe I should take a rest then maybe go search for something to eat" she threw a stack of bags on the ground next to him "I'm really tired, are you okay to take the first watch?"
"Yes of course, you should rest" this was their way out, his only hope was that eventually she would get them home.
Something to Eat. He laughed to himself . He had never eaten in her world, he could not even feel hunger but she didn't know that. She didn't know that any of this was a dream, her dream; the Senticols, the outsiders , their mission, Reigh! None of it was real, and only he knew that fact and there seemed to be no way to make her understand. Could she even understand. He was not sure ,
He had no control over the worlds; which one they'd wake up in, The new ones that recently appeared and the older ones that were recurring but some were turning into mares. All he had was the truth and hope that one day she'd wake up in reality and he could love her as he wanted to. He didn't know how long his jump device would last and his lab was in dream ten, that was the one he entered and that was the only way he knew how to take her out of her worlds, they just had to make it back in time, He needed her to sleep.
"You should rest it's been a very long day."
"I know but I still feel nervous, maybe I should take the first watch"
" There's no need for that Xi, you know they're not coming out here, You know this"
She sighed and her body relaxed "I know"

She cozied up right under to him because it was chilly out in the open. They had found an abandoned building right after the bridge. It smelled really badly; like toxic. Thankfully they wouldn't have to be there for much longer. He watched her fall sleep. He lay next to her and synced his jumper device to her earrings, the earrings he had made for her, the earrings she did not even know she wore because of him, it was his only way to stay with her and navigate the dreams. He saw that they synced and lit up. This was all new to him, but so far he had successfully travelled with her for one dream month but in reality it only equated to one week, in this world time moved very quickly, but he knew that he couldn't last much longer he needed to get out and refuel his levels in the real world or his physical body would give out and he needed to figure out how to do so without losing her because he wasn't stuck inside the dreams but she was, Xia was a physical and mental captive of her own mind. He looked over at her, she was well asleep now, he knew another world was coming and that he could try something new. He lay down next to her and went to sleep.