After Fate Fell

19 • ELLA

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

Ella, there's also something I have to tell you, Marina says to me telepathically.
Six and John have been taken. We believe by the U.S. Government.

Shit.
Why would they take them? Why is this happening Marina? I ask. I'm so irritated by the fact that we could save this planet from imminent destruction, and then this is their thanks?

I don't know. Agent Walker was with them though, Marina tells me.

Agent Walker? I just talked to her before I left and she said she was leaving the F.B.I... was this a trap? Or did they just track her every move? I'm not sure. What I do know is that now, we have to get Six and John back. Some luck we have.
Do you know where they would take them? I ask.

We were thinking D.C. because where else? But then again there are a lot of places they could take them. I guess we're just hoping D.C., because if not.... she trails off. But I get the idea. If not, we may never find them again.

Ok. So Five and I are in Mexico City, so we're a lot closer to D.C. So we'll go find them. You guys, go find Sam. I send her the location that Legacy gave me. And then go find Adam. I also send her Adam's location. We all need to reunite. Once we come together, we can deal with what's next.

And when do we go back to Lorien? Marina asks me. I'm honestly surprised she would ask this, that she too is thinking about our return with such excitement and impatience.

After we kill this thing, I tell her.

There is an audible gasp from Marina. I didn't know you could gasp telepathically, but she just did.

Is everything alright? I ask her.

Just memories, she says. Memories that I so badly want to hold on to. But memories I so badly wish I could forget.

I decide not to ask, because I can tell she is having a hard time. Between all of this, Six and John being taken, Lorien's energy being depleted, returning to Lorien, and now whatever memory I just conjured up, she's definitely got to be overwhelmed. So I don't press it.

Good luck, she tells me. Be safe Ella.

//

Five and I quickly went back to where he's been staying since the war ended, and we started packing all of his stuff. I was so surprised at how easy it was to get him to come with me. I'm happy, but the Five I remember wouldn't typically act like this.
We're on a plane from Mexico City to Norfolk Virginia, and it's been a while so I'm hoping we'll land soon. Five is snoring beside me, but there's no real reason to wake him up other than the fact that he's annoying me. So I let him sleep.
As I sit on my umpteenth plane trip, I think about everything that's happened to us so far, everything that's happening right now, and everything that's still to come. It's overwhelming. But it also somehow makes me smile. We made it through staying in hiding, we made it through a war that could've claimed billions of lives but we stopped that from happening, we made it through this odd period of after-war confusion.... what makes us think we won't make it through what lies ahead of us? I know that we will. Together, we have been able to do anything. So that's what we'll do, we'll do this together.

I decide to try to contact Six and John, because it's worth a try. I'm so confused at the telepathic message Six sent me, when she was exasperated and was acting like she was in dire need of my help. At the end, she said she was okay. But was she really? Was that after she had been taken? I don't know. I reach out to both her and John.

Six, John, it's Ella. Please respond.

Nothing.
A couple more minutes, nothing. I'll try again. Individually this time. That way I can focus all of my energy onto one person.

Six! Can you hear me? It's Ella!

I'm straining, using all I have, focusing everything on these few telepathic words.
No response.

John! Please respond John. We're coming to help you guys.

Nothing. What could possibly be so wrong that they can't even contact me telepathically? I am able to contact Marina, who is in India right now, but I can't even contact John and Six who are just a few hundred or a thousand miles away? How is that possible?

Ella?
It's John.

Yes John it's me. Are you guys in D.C.? We're on our way to help you, I tell him. I'm so relieved to hear his voice again, even if it is just telepathically.

We escaped. And no... Ella, we're in Paradise.