Our Existence Is Scandal

✦39✦

I had no idea what I was expecting.

Astra sat in her cell with a look on her face I could only describe as 'desperately wanting to die'. Her eyes stayed trained on the computers on the screen, they followed the movements of the camera with sharp darting between each one as if dreading when someone would finally appear in them. I could see the exact moment on her face when they finally appeared in the frame, when I squinted, I could almost see the shadow of movement in the reflection of her gaze.

"They will kill you if you try this."

Before she could lock eyes with me, I turned my gaze to my damaged cage. "You underestimate me-

"This dream of mine was stupid-childish," From the corner of my eye I saw her hang her head almost in shame, droplets began to roll down her face, "I forgot my existence did not belong to me."

"I have so much to show you."

Heat that I had never felt before enveloped the room, beads of sweat almost instantly began to build by my hairline and I didn't have to turn my head to know who had arrived when the door opened. I let out a breath, cracking my fingers slightly as footsteps entered the room.

The temperatures only rose as they approached Astra's cage. "We should have you back in the sky by sunrise."

She didn't respond, and I think they knew she wasn't going to so their gaze fell on me next. "How long will they be attached?"

The next voice I recognized, "The metals quite thick," Lionel explained, walking around my cage with a friend behind him, "We've been using your laser for the last couple of hours but so far it looks like we're going to have to wait a bit more."

"How much more?" A second voice spoke up, like the first it was monotone and uninterested. Almost lifeless like a recording was being played.

It made me think of Astra and her desperation to be alive and how much she had in common with these 'sun rays'.

"Harrison over here is going to check for us."

The man beside him, looked surprised as if hearing about this for the first time and opened his mouth to protest but once he saw the look Lionel shot him, he swallowed his words and slowly approached us. "Is there a way to turn it-

"I'm not telling you to stick your eye in it Harry, just check if we're actually getting somewhere," Lionel scoffed.

I almost felt amused by how determined he seemed not to look at us and turned my eyes to Astra instead. "Duck," I said making her frown.

"She speaks?" One of the rays said.

"Too much if you ask me," Lionel grumbled kicking the back of my cage as if to tell me to shut up.

Harry got close enough to the laser, and I repeated myself as I leaned back slightly in my cell. "Astra duck!" I slammed shoulder hard into the door of my cage and it slammed open and into Harrison's neck pushing him face first into the eye of the laser. He did not even get a chance to scream before it burned a hole through his skull, but it didn't matter as I was already free. Using my free hand, I slammed my palm into the side of the machine making it move away from our handcuffs but also around the room.

Astra almost broke her neck ducking away from the laser and it swung towards the rays who one managed to dart away from whilst the other was split completely in half. But that didn't matter, the laser also burned through the walls of Astras cage, and she was now free too.

"You bitch!"

The feeling of a metal rod slamming into my spine had me falling to my knees but before he could swing it into the side of my head, I caught his wrist and using my shoulder as a pivot I swung him over me making him crash into the machine. Ripping the weapon out of his hand I kicked it away before turning my attention back on his groaning from.

"I'll show you just what a bitch I am," I promised him, before reaching down to grab the short blond hairs on his head. He struggled against me as I lifted him up and began dragging him to the golden light as he kicked and yelled. He tried making a grab from my ankle but instead he was met with my boot crushing his wrist into the floor which only made him more hysterical.

I stared at him as he cried waiting for him to look at me and watching his eyes go wide as the gold of the weapon lit up his face. "I'm going to burn your people off this planet," I told him before grabbing the spine of the laser and pointing it at him.

"That was a great little show."

For the first time since they entered, I finally faced one of the rays. It stood tall, barely a person and almost painful to look at. It seemed not worried about its dead companion nor the humans I'd just killed. Instead, its focus remained on Astra who had never stopped looking at it. "Now switch off the laser."

I continued to stare at it, as the smell of burning flesh filled the room. Once I felt that it had burned Lionel enough, I let his body drop to the floor before wiping his remains on the side of my pants. The side of the laser stayed in my hand and my eyes darted between Astra who was mouthing at me to listen and the creature beside her who had a weapon pointed at me.

"Maybe if you comply, we'll give you a ride home after that. So that you are not left on Mars." It tried convincing me.

"Do you know her?" I asked it, gesturing to Astra.

"I know you would not die for the moon," It replied honestly as its eyes fell on where we were still joined. "We underestimated the metal used to bind you, when you are free from her you may go."

The room suddenly flickered black for a moment, and I glanced at the computer screen to see that a bunch of the cameras had gone out. Following the power cut was commotion and the sound of many footsteps and people moving beneath us. "The humans are occupied with a beast that is currently devouring their home, we have time to leave before they remember they want you dead," The ray explained quietly, "I will not use force if I mustn't, the moon seems to care for you so you will be unscathed. An emotional moon is not something anyone here is willing to deal with."

"Astra."

She looked away from me, "Please turn off the laser."

"And you will drop me off anywhere I choose?" I asked again, my eyes still on the girl I'd spent the last week with who couldn't even look me in the eye."

"There is enough fuel in our ship to get you to another galaxy at most, from there you will be on your own."

"And" I swallowed, "The moon?"

"It will be exactly where it needs to be."

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