Intergalactic

CHAPTER 9: Plan B

I've been sitting in this room for the whole night. It's not pretty. I have so many things to think about...it's the only thing I can do in here - think. Think about Daròn, what happened... Did he really forget? I thought I did the right thing by trusting him, but how would he remember? I shouldn't have let him go, I'm so stupid! But he is more stupid! I mean...what was he thinking? That he would magically not be affected by the time loop?
I literally have no idea what to do. And I also don't know what they are going to do. The king is probably making plans on how to kill me...
Now let's think about the situation, since it's the only thing I can do in this hell hole.
So, let's recap this whole full of nonsense story:
All this time, every day that had passed since his arrival here, the king had been doing the same thing. Every single day he would invite all the Atlanteans to tell them to be cautious with me - with outsiders. This means that he knew I would come one day. And this leads us to question #1: How? Answer: I have no clue...YET.
Okay, so let's go back to the past...maybe there are some things I haven't considered. And there's another question I don't have an answer for. Question #2: Why is he still alive? 
As they told me, he lived on Earth, right? He was a pilot, and he was sucked in by the Bermuda Triangle, just like Atlantis did. But the question is how did he manage to...not die? The Atlanteans had the force field which protected them, okay. But he had nothing to protect him! His plane was destroyed when I saw it, and it still is. This doesn't make sense. Again. He should be dead!
Unless...what Daròn and Aquamarine said was right. They made a connection between me and the king. We both stayed alive at a time-place we couldn't. I stayed alive because I went to Andromeda in person, because the Bermuda Triangle teleported me there. What if the king was teleported there too? What if he had the same mission I do? Oh my God. Now it all makes sense! His mission was to save Atlantis from the loop. The loop kept the Atlanteans from going to Andromeda, and the king's mission was to solve this problem! But he didn't! He took advantage of their memory loss and he became their king...
And then, the aliens gave me a double mission. Now I know what I have to do: kill the king, and save Atlantis from the loop.
Now, there's one more question: How on Earth am I going to do that?
I need a plan. But first, I have to find a way to get out of here. And what do I do after that? I have to prove to everyone he is human.  All I need is this thing that paralyzes humans. If I shoot him, they will see he is not one of them!
I've been thinking for so long, and my head is full of thoughts. I feel this dizziness again, the one I felt when I realized they keep forgetting, that day I woke up to see they didn't remember me...or remember anything at all. But, this time this dizziness is way worse. I am losing it -my consciousness. I feel a very vivid warmth running in my vains. I feel some kind of power floating in me, through all the parts of my body. I looks at my hands. They are on fire. Seriously! They are on fire!
I look around me, there's nothing I can put it out with. But how did it light up anyway? I start hitting my hands on the wall until I think to myself...why aren't I dead yet? Wait...It's not burning me. What the hell? I keep looking at the fire coming from my hands. It's as if I am the one who lighted it. Oh...shit. It's the experiment!!! The reason I left Earth, this experiment that I thought would never work - works! I finally exposed my superpower! No shit! Take that Milo...
I can control fire?  I try to make the fire fade a little bit and I oddly...manage to. Now the fire is gone, but I still cannot take my eyes away from my hands. I just keep looking at them, and I slowly turn my head upwards, and I stare at the jail bars with a wide smile. Oh, yes. I can smell a good idea coming...

*Listen to this while reading the next paragraphs*

I run towards the door and grab two of the bars, I close my eyes and with a big cringe I slowly start to melt the material from which they are made of - it's from another world. Get it? Okay, I'll shut up.
When I manage to melt the bars I start moving them in order to make a path for me to get out. And when I do, I look at both sides of the hall. Silence - but too much of it for me to describe it as normal. It's as if everyone is gone. Wait... I look outside the small window - the only one I could find in the room. I look at the sun, and it's in the middle of the sky. Maybe they are all at the meeting, but why? The king already found me, what else does he want from these people?
I head to the end of the hall, there, I find a room that looks like it belonged to someone who "worked" there. I get in, maybe I could find a weapon or...the paralyzing bullets, what did Daròn call these..? Inboos! Oh, and here they are! I take some and put them in my pocket and with them I also put a very small thing in which I am supposed to put the inboos in and shoot. Just like a human gun, but less...deadly.
I turn back at the door of the room to get out, but there's a shadow out there. Whose? I don't know. I hide behind the door,  holding my gun, ready to shoot whoever it is.
The man steps in the room and closes the door as if he knew who I was and where I was hiding. Then he comes closer to me and when the deem of lights reflect on his face I get even more stressed. And my will to shoot was even bigger. I hold the gun with more strength.
"Heather, put the gun down!" Daròn demanded scared as he was.
But I was so serious that I hadn't come to realize that he still remembered. He remembered my name! He had never forgotten. This is so good. Or maybe not. Maybe this makes me want to shoot him even more. If he does remember then why did he betray me? But, how did he remember, really? Maybe when you once stay out of the force field at the time of the loop change...you stop being part of it?
I keep pointing the gun at him.
Daròn puts his hands up and steps back. "What is wrong with you?"
"You!" I tell him with a strong voice. "Why did you let them take me?"
"I can explain! It was all part of the plan. Look! Everyone is in the gathering now and you are in the kingdom!" he says full of hope.
"Yeah, in jail! What is the gathering about? I am here! What else does the king want?" I shout at him.
"Me!" He says, his eyes ready to cry. I step back. I don't understand what is happening. "Heather, shoot me."
"What the fuck are you saying, Daròn?" What is wrong with him? "No." I say and hide the gun behind me scared. If I shoot him nothing will happen because he is Atlantean and I know that but...I just want him to relax!
"Heather, there's something I didn't tell you about the inboos. And that's the fact that when you shoot an Atlantean on the head, only then he gets paralyzed, unlike humans who are more vulnerable everywhere except their head. So basically, Atlanteans - head, humans - everywhere except the head."
"And what is your plan? Shoot yourself on the head? I need help! Not you paralyzing yourself!" I shout trying to make sense.
Daròn grabs the gun from me determined and points it at his head. I can't let him do that, he is the only person who can help me right now, I can't lose him again! Why is he doing that?
"Daròn!" I try to move his hand, however stronger than me he was,  before he does anything stupid. But he does. He shoots himself. I stand there looking at him, waiting for the moment he falls down. That moment never comes. He just stands there, looking at me full of anger. Not for me, but for the fact that...Daròn is human. That's why he was telling me about these things. That's what he wanted to prove.
"How..." is the only word I manage to utter, but it seemed more like a sigh rather than a word.
"I'm his son." He says, and from his voice anyone could understand that he wasn't proud of that. Who would be?
"I am the king's son." He repeats. It looked like the news were new to him too. I honestly have nothing to say. The only thing I can do is hug him with compassion. I was so sad for him, and he was even more sad.
"The reason of the gathering, Heather. Do you know what it is?" He smiles, but that was not a happy smile. But the kind of smile you make when everything goes wrong...the "mad laugh".
I nod negatively.
"For the outsiders. To catch the outsiders. Because it's not just one." By 'just one' he meant me. "I am one of them too."
"Wait, why wouldn't he just trap you yesterday when you volunteered as a hunter?"
"He tried to. But not the way he did with you. He wanted me to take his side. But I refused, and now he is after me too."
"How did you get away?"
"How did you get away?" He says putting emphasis on "you".
"It's a long story." I answer.
He raises his eyebrows. "Exactly, mine too. Now let's go." He grabs my hand.
"Go where?" I stop him.
"You have a mission to accomplish. You have to save my city's ass." He was repeating my words. "Mine as well..." He continues and we leave the room. When we reach at the door which leads at the place where the king was, before opening  he gives me the gun with the imboos.
I look at it and then back at him. "I don't need that." He looks at me confused. "I have a better gun..." I say with a smile and I open the door with determination.