After Fate Fell

36 • SAM

1 year, 3 months, and 16 days after it all.
•SAM•

The last couple minutes have been absolutely insane and I'm trying to stay calm even though that is probably the last thing I should be doing right now. When the sandstorm started, Five and Nine started arguing about which way to go, Five was making his choice in hopes of not getting lost or off track, and Nine was making his in hopes to outrun the storm. I doubt either got their way, though, because last I saw, Five was already drifting off ever-so-slightly away from the river, and Nine wasn't able to outrun the storm.

When Nine wouldn't give up his idea of turning off into the desert, away from the river, to try to beat the storm, of course we all wanted him to rethink his decision. As nice as it would be to avoid the storm, truth is, we also didn't want to get stranded out in the middle of the Namib, separated from the others. And also, we knew there's no such thing as "outrunning the storm", because no matter how fast we went, it would catch up to us evenutally. Once Nine finally turned north, away from the river and into the unknown, the storm was already upon us. It was a decision that he didn't think over at all, and that he didn't want to hear anything from the rest of us about.

Six tried multiple times to stop him, yelling at him and trying to grab the wheel. We all wanted to turn the car back around, but it wasn't going to happen.

"Six, try using your weather augmentation legacy!" Adam yells, and we all stop fighting, realizing that this could be the solution to all of our problems.

Six looks back at him, completely dumbfounded. How had none of us thought of this? She looks out her window and up at the sky, at least where the sky should be, and reaches her hand up. She grimaces, taking a deep breath and puts all of her energy into this one action.

The sand slows noticably, but it's far from stopped. She keeps her arm upward and keeps working, trying to get the storm to completely stop. Mostly I've seen her summon storms or rain to help us have the upper hand in a battle, so I wonder if getting rid of weather is harder than summoning it.

The winds begin to slow even more, but it's still too much to see the other car.

"Turn back!" Six yells at Nine. "Don't you see that we didn't avoid the fucking storm! Are you happy now that you had your dick-measuring contest with Five? Now turn this fucking car back around so we can actually survive in this fucking desert instead of getting ourselves stranded in the middle of nowhere to die. I'd rather spend the rest of my life with an actual piece of shit than spend my last days out here with you and your ego." She yanks at her hair, trying to control her anger, but it's not working. And that's when I look out the window and notice the storm that her anger is causing. All of the progress she just made in slowing the storm has been reversed.

"Six, try to cool it," I say. "We need you to stay calm so we can find our way back. I can handle Nine."

She looks like she's about to bash my head in on the window, but then she sees the reason I'm telling her to calm down. The sand outside is thick and completely opaque. Until she looked up, it was still picking up speeds. She closes her eyes, takes an even deeper breath than before, and reaches her hand up to the sky.

"Nine, we have to turn this car around," I tell him. "We have to get back to the other group."

"Then why don't they just come to us Mr. "I'm just doing this to defend my girlfriend?"" He sneers, pushing his foot even harder on the pedal. And that's when my fist smashes into his face.

Six stops controlling the weather and grabs him by his only arm, pulling it over his shoulder until it's almost going to pop out of place.

"Now either you're going to get into the back seat like a good little bitch, or you're going to take a little nap and wake up with a lot more bruises than you already have, in a lot of places you don't want them either," she says, glancing down for a second for effect. All the while the car is still in motion with no hands on the wheel. The car stays mostly on a straight path, but it bobs and weaves as it meets new sand dunes beneath its tires.

"Adam, grab the wheel," Six says, motioning to him. He reaches up and puts the car back into control.

"Fuck all of you," Nine says. "You can't let me make a decision even once."

"No, you can't make a decision against everyone else's will, against everyone else's cautions. At that point, it's not even a decision, you're just being a dick," Six says, her eyes never leaving his. "Now you're going to get into that back seat by yourself, or we're gonna have to help you."

Nine sighs and motions toward the backseat. Six lets go of his arm and he climbs over the seat, sitting in the seat between Adam and I. All the meanwhile, the car is slowing down because nobody is pressing the gas, and Adam is controlling the wheel from the backseat. Six moves toward the driver's seat, but Adam stops her.

"No," he says. "You need to focus on getting this freaking storm to stop. Just because we have the wheel doesn't mean I have any idea where we are or where I need to go." He jumps into the driver's seat and slowly starts to turn the car around, hopefully leading us back in the general direction we came from.

Six continues working at stopping the storm using her weather augmentation legacy. I can tell it's taking her much more focus and time than it should be, probably because she hasn't had a need to use her legacies much, now that the Mogs aren't trying to fucking kill us all every three seconds.

"I think that's enough turning," I tell Adam. "I feel like you've already turned way over 180 degrees man."

"I was just about to straighten the wheel out. I'm pretty sure this is the direction we came from," he responds, not looking back, too focused on keeping the car in control.

"Okay. I hope you're right," I say. I wanted to say something to dig Nine for all of this, but then again, he's sitting right beside me now, and also, his one arm is still stronger than both of mine. I'm not about to pick a fight with a guy who's already pissed at everyone in this car and the other one too.

Finally, through Six's efforts to control the storm, the winds start to slow significantly. There's still sand blowing around, but we are finally able to see the ground, instead of just having our windshield full of sand. I guess it still is, but at least it's the sand on the ground instead of the sand in the air.

Adam sighs a sigh of relief, and Six almost collapses of exhaustion. I can tell she's completely drained.

"You did amazing, love. Now try to relax," I tell her.

"Don't call me love Sam. We've been over this," she groans, eyes still closed, head against her seat. She's sweating profusely. Controlling the weather is probably one of the most exhausting legacies, I suppose. It just takes so much focus, time, and energy. Which is why I definitely wouldn't be able to do it.

"What?" I ask her, smiling. "It wasn't sweetie or honey or anything like that! I'm trying Six at least give me that," I tell her.

"Whatever. Love is fine as long as you promise--and I mean it--to never call me either of those," she laughs, still sweating, eyes still closed.

"I promise," I say. And I just hope that I am able to say those words to her again someday. On Lorien. On our new home.