After Fate Fell

16 • SIX

1 year, 3 months, and 13 days after it all
•SIX•

They must've given us some type of tranquilizer or something, because I don't even know where reality ended and my bizarre nightmare began. All I know is that somehow, the three of us ended up on a small, private plane, with the same guards watching over us. I don't know how long we've been on this flight or how long we still have to go. I don't know anything honestly. None of this makes any sense.
I scoot over, closer to John and Agent Walker. A few of the guards are eyeing me and giving me stern looks but I don't give a damn. They better at least let us talk amongst ourselves. They haven't even explained anything, so how are we not supposed to be curious? Angry? Confused?

"Hey guys, how long have you guys been up?" I ask.

"John here has been up since takeoff apparently, and I've just woken up minutes before you," Agent Walker tells me.

"Did anything happen that would explain any of this?" I ask, mostly to John since he's been awake the longest.

I ask this hoping that maybe in the time I was still under the mystery drug's affect, somebody sat John down and explained everything to him, and then he nodded and everybody was happy because it made sense. Maybe it was something like "Sorry we took you but it's really important and you can leave as soon as we land." But I guess that's just me dreaming. Because I know it's worse than that, because first off, that wouldn't even have a purpose, and second, I know that Agent Walker said that the government wanted us to start an army of Garde for their own political gain. So this must be the lengths they would go to get us to join. Kidnapping us. So much for American democracy.

"Nothing," John's empty answer snaps me back into this reality of the fact that there are no "happily ever after"s. At least not in my life.

Even when it's over, it's not over. Even when you win, you don't win. Even when you want to go home, you get kidnapped by government officials with no clear escape.
Even though I haven't fully admitted it to anyone, it's the truth. I want to go home, back to Lorien. It's really the only plausible next step for us. Coming here, to Earth, was an escape, a temporary home for us, if you can even call it that.

"Home" is a place where you feel yourself, you feel safe, and it's a place that you are supposed to love. Earth is none of those. I haven't been able to be myself in full capacity ever since I left Lorien as a young child. I feel like there's so many parts to me that I haven't discovered yet or that I missed because of the fact that I've been forced to go into hiding and then fight a war on a planet that isn't even mine.

I've never felt safe here on Earth, not even once. I've been taught to always be on edge, be ready to fight for your life. Don't trust anybody. How am I supposed to feel safe when that's all I've known on this planet?
And I have not found a love for this planet. I have a strong liking to many aspects of life on this planet, but I have too many bad memories here, deaths, endless running, war.

This is not my home.

So as soon as we get out of this goddamned situation, I'll bring it up to the others. Because it needs to be addressed. We can't stay here. We just can't. It doesn't feel right at all.

"We're landing in ten minutes," one of the guards says to another, breaking me out of yet another trance.

"Alright soldiers, lets gear up. We have someone who would love to meet you," one of the guards says, and I realize she's talking to us.

I turn to John, and I can see the wheels in his mind turning. He's thinking the same thing as me: once we are in whatever facility they'll be keeping us in as soldiers, we will have almost no chance of ever escaping. We could live out our entire lives and never get the chance to see anything other than war again. Endless war. The thought makes me want to convulse.
So in the transfer, from the plane to the building, or to a car or whatever we're going to be in after getting off the plane, during that transfer is our only chance to escape. And we'll need every bit of strength and focus we can get.

I start to try to focus my mind, closing my eyes, taking deep breaths.

I look up, and see that Agent Walker is catching on. I just hope we can pull this off. I look over at John, and it's then that I notice a small glow coming from his clenched fist. His lumen. The light is constant, it doesn't flicker, doesn't go out. He's getting the hang of it again. Now I should try.

I close my eyes and try to focus on my weather-controlling legacy. I try to just create a small raincloud outside of my window. I focus for a long time, probably a few minutes, I don't know. I open my eyes. And there it is. Just as I had hoped. A perfect little cloud, just where I wanted it outside my window.

We're ready as we'll ever be.

The plane shudders, and the guards all look toward the cockpit. Agent Walker jumps out of her seat, lunging for a guard.

This is it.