The Twins

Chapter 9: Payoff, or Payback?

Part Four: Pink

  Rio went over to help Kyra right away. Matthew saw a note attached to the knife stuck in her leg but Rio ignored it, instead cradling her in his arms and speaking softly. It was a show of emotion that surprised Matthew but one that he supposed he should have seen coming.

   Matthew stood up, a bit shamefully, and walked over to the two rebels. When he could hear them speaking he paused. "We have to go after them." Kyra muttered,"Garrick's our best chance at survival! We have to get them back." She was struggling, trying to stand while Rio held her down. He didn't answer her, only shook his head. After a moment he turned to Matthew,"Make sure she doesn't move." He said gruffly. Matthew rushed forward and the two switched places.

   "If we leave now we'll have a better chance at catching them! They haven't gone far! Just need to make my teleporting work again." Kyra muttered, struggling a bit harder. She stopped when the knife began to twist.

   "I found it." Rio called as he bent over and retrieved something from the ground. He walked back over,"This is what is suppressing our tokens."

   Matthew almost collapsed with relief. It wasn't his fault after all. The feeling soon passed though as the situation sunk in though. Garrick was gone, Kyra was injured, and they had no clue what they were going to do.

   After the dust had cleared Amani sent out several other rebels. When they arrived and Matthew had given a quick explanation of what happened (Rio had gone silent for some reason) they worked together to carry Kyra back to camp. When there, Marie immediately went to work. Rio dissapeared with the knife while Kyra was being healed and came back with a very stressed-looking Amani in tow.

   "They have Garrick, our most valuable soldier, and Saru Tokai suppressing devices? Fuck this." Amani muttered bitterly. Kyra slowly sat up and Marie turned her focus to the three boys at her left. "So," she began,"what will we do now?" Amani chuckled,

   "I wish I knew." He responded with a fake smile. He fumbled,"I mean obviously we're going after them, I just don't know how we're going to do it." Rio started walking away without a word,"Hey! where are you going?" Amani called out to the older boy,"We should be talking in the conference tent where the whole camp can't hear us." Rio retorted without breaking stride. Amani looked sheepish,"Ah, right, I'll go get everyone."

     Neither Matthew nor Marie were invited to the conference tent. Now that Matthew knew why his Token hadn't worked he felt better, but not compleatly. His first and only task to help with the rebellion and he fucked up. Didn't matter if they were supressing his intuition, he should have realized something was wrong when it wasn't working. He should have noticed that it was getting harder to think, though he must have thought he was just getting overwhelmed.

    While Matthew was having a personal crisis along with the rest of the camp Marie was chatting up anyone who would talk to her. She smiled and laughed just like she normally would, or maybe even more than normal. He had no clue whether she was pretending or she was just that immune to stress.

   A few minutes passed. The people who walked by said that they thought they heard yelling from the conference tent,  but couldn't make out who it was or what they were saying but they all agreed that tensions were high. Almost right after this Amani showed up asking Matthew to join them in the tent. Matthew agreed, he didn't have much choice, and as he walked he noticed that Amani's eyes looks desperate. His features were sunken and lined, a stark contrast from the Amani he had seen that morning. Matthew's stomach dropped. He felt bad before but now? Yikes.

   Inside the tent was Kyra, Rio, Carson, Amani's parents, and now, Amani and him. They all looked scared, angry, or sad except for Carson. When Matthew walked in Amani's father scoffed,"really? What help will he be?" Amani snapped back suddenly,"He was there Dad, and he has his token."