Spectrum

1.3: Black

Out of all the names that would've come out of her mouth, Tate never thought Juliet would be one of them. He had heard from the stories that Caspian told him that Juliet was dead, right?

Surely it's just a coincidence. 

But he couldn't know for sure; how many people did he know that were named Juliet? One, and she was sitting in front of him. The Barcelona Juliet was dead though, right? The only way he could know for sure was either by asking Caspian, which probably wasn't an option, or asking the woman in front of him. 

"B-Barcelona Juliet?" The story came to his mind as his keeper told it:

"She was the most beautiful woman I had ever held, Tate… long, silky hair, that softened under my touch, such soft skin, and small little nose that I would always tap when she would say something adorable." Mister Caspian sighed as he told the young child the story. "We felt something, Cooper… some sort of attraction. It's complicated, but I'm sure you'll understand someday." Taking a deep breath and sniffling slightly, the keeper continued. "But the terrible thing, Cooper, is that she couldn't stay. Nothing good ever can… she signed up as a nurse, and she took a bullet t-to… a bullet t-to…" Scenes played through the old man's mind, scenes of heartache and sadness, the slow motion that seemed to exist as the bullet pierced through her skin, staining the white nurse garb she adorned a bright crimson. He couldn't tell the young boy that he had seen all this happen, seen all the blood staining the ground as soldiers fell left and right. 

He couldn't tell this child what a colorful world was like, because that colorful world was gone; and he would never see the sunlight anyways. "To the heart. At least, thats what the doctors said. Back then, doctors could do almost anything… except save my poor Juliet." 

"So Caspian told you?" Frankly, the female hadn't expected anything less from her lover.  Their desire for each other had been passionate at least, sweet nothings whispered in small ears behind bulletproof doors, and exchanges of flowers and other things - boxes of chocolate and bright fruits of many colors. They had taken color for granted back then, back when grass was… 

She thought a little bit, then paled; she couldn't remember what color the grass had been. When she tried to conjure up a mental image, all she got was gray. Gray, white, and black. 

But none of the colors of the spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, or purple.

This made the matter at hand even more imperative to be accomplished. She leaned forward on her desk and stared at the small boy in front of her. He seemed to be staring at nothing, his milky eyes fixated on a seemingly nonexistent dot in space. 

"Yes, he told me about you… but he said you were dead." Confusion and hurt filled the boy's voice, with just enough of an undertone of betrayal to be saddening. This was understandable to Juliet - her time on the battlefield had been enough for her to know all about spies and betrayal. Hell, for all she knew she had fallen in love with one. 

"Well, sometimes people have that nasty knack of surprising you, don't they?"  a small chuckle followed these words. "Either way, I am very much alive, and I can only imagine how pleased Cas will be." Quiet followed these words, and Tate cleared his throat, presumably to keep down the bile he felt rising at the thought of Caspian. 

"I am afraid that I am unaware of Caspian's whereabouts. Mister Stone came and took me from my flat this morning. He attempted at making me believe that he was Mister Caspian, but I knew better. That's when he took me here. Ah, and speaking of which, why am I here?" Juliet (though she knew Tate couldn't see) clasped her hands under her chin and gave another hum of approval. She had been waiting until he asked that, trying to scrounge up an answer that would allow him to want to stay within the SRU. Possible answers flew through her mind, dead ends and lies as she struggled within a half second to come up with a good response. 

"Well, Tate… there is quite a long answer to such a short question, and I'm sure you have time for it." Pause. "All you have seen throughout your life is complete and utter darkness, if I am correct to assume?"

"Yes Ma'am." 

"Well, that's no accident. You see, a while back, there was a war. A terrible war, between all the corners of the world, called the Color War. You may have heard bits and pieces about it from Caspian, through the process of him telling you about me. Anyways; people were dying left and right. No one was exactly sure why were were fighting, but some of us did. And by some of us, I mean the SRU." Juliet paused for a moment and looked at the teen in front of her, his black hair sweeping into his eyes and her heart breaking a little; he found no reason to push it away because he had no use for his eyes. 

"And what does that mean?" 

"The SRU stands for Spectrum Range Unit. We found out that scientists were creating a type of biochemical that would remove all saturation from the world. So, our government decided to go to war, thinking that it would solve everything. They always do that, go to war to 'solve things'. You want to know what it solves? The only thing it solves is human overpopulation." Anger radiated off of her now; it was obvious even to Tate that she was very passionate about this subject. "Anyways, we went to war and we fought for years. However, just as we thought we'd won, the enemy scientists decided to play a trick on us, a trick that we sent our best agents in for. They failed, and the bomb that they had created exploded, covering our planet in an inky black and white. However, they made a backup plan. Ten people, (who as babies had been scattered across the planet with a certain Caregiver or Keeper) were dispersed, each one with a key to reverse the biomechanics of the bomb's aftereffects. One of them can only see darkness, one can only see…" Her voice trailed off, her face twisting in a sad contortion as she tried to retrieve a fallen memory. "Red, I think it was called. I haven't been to the libraries in such a long time, I really must go sometime soon; it appears I am forgetting the colors entirely!" despite the fact her voice sounded cheery, her disposition displayed the complete antipode of happiness entirely. Instead, it displayed sadness and fear, loss and heartbreak for memories so dear disappearing entirely. "Now do you understand? We need you - and nine other people - to reverse this. Please. Help us, Tate. We can fix you, and all of the rest of this." She stood, and walked over to where he was sitting, still looking off into the distance with a contemplative expression adorning his face. "Please." 

Thoughts flew through the teen's mind. He could finally get to see Caspian, but at the same time he was angry with him for not telling him he was… disabled like this. Disabled. It seemed like such a foreign word to him. To him, disabled was like the three-pawed cat he had heard mewling outside his door the day before, not too entirely different as this.

"Yes. I'll help you."