Chapter 7: Part 2

The J-Wing raced out of the desert and into the holiday resort. No sooner had it landed then it was surrounded by soldiers with weapons raised. Apparently they'd already tracked Adis down and were probbably going through the resort looking for her. Joshua stood and stared at the massed ranks of troops. There were too many to fight.

"Gentlemen, you may or may not know me, but you can call me Seb. You know, the fire guy. I notice that only a few of you have normal eyes and I would ask you to remember that in addition to me, you are in the presence of Joshua Lightwalker, another somewhat famous fellow. Famous among many other things for blowing a lot of stuff up. I suggest you go about your business."

I was a brilliant speech; even before Seb had menacingly raised one hand, a sliver of flame twisting on the tips of his fingers, many of the soldiery had turned to flee, against the wishes of the few level-headed members present. Even more fled as a burst of flame shot forth, snaking in and out of the assembled ranks, spreading panic and scattering those present. Seb nudged his friend who had already drawn his sword.

"Don't ask about the eye thing, I'll be fine, be quick!"

Joshua didn't need telling twice; he dashed across the compound, occasionally knocking down disoriented soldiery, being buffeted by deflection bullets, and dodging more lethal rounds. He tried to recall which room Adis was in as panicked resident mingled with investigating soldiers who hadn't seen the chaos outside. When he reached the right door he kicked it down.

The room was empty.

Something grabbed his leg tightly, dragging him down. Josh yelled and swung his sword, stopping short when he saw Adis's face, both breathing a short sigh of relief. The kiwi crawled out from under the bed and dropped the broken lightbulb she was clumsily holding. This wasn't quite what she'd planned for a vacation.

"Adis, we have to get out of here, and fast. Just hold on..."

Josh walked calmly out into the corridor with Adis still clutching him before swinging both his swords down in a wide arc. There was a *crack* and two walls of stone grew from the ground, splintering the floor and walls as they extended upwards, cutting off the soldiers that had been converging on them. Josh kicked down a door that was now splintered beyond recognition and dashed out a staff route into the park outside. The chaos had subsided a bit, with the few soldiers remaining firing on Seb. Several were ashes. There was a burst of flame that covered their sprint to the J-Wing before the hatches closed and the ship took of, still suffering light fire from the now devastated resort below.

"Don't yell at me later..."

"Huh?"

"You'll find out soon enough..."

Adis stopped looking at the remains of her holiday, now smoking and with two great gashes through it where the stone walls were already crumbling under the absence of sustaining force. She glared at the assembled group for a few seconds before heading off to her room, Seb did the same leaving Joshua with the girl he'd just met and her machine. It had taken time to get it onboard but she'd insisted it not be left behind. He was worried, they'd have to pass the former location of the Beacon to get to their destination and he wasn't sure how she'd handle it. As it was when they left the atmosphere the girl shuddered and gave a quiet cry.

"...I'm sorry. But there's nowhere else we can go. Everyone on Mobius will be looking for us, and if they find out you're the sole survivor of that ship, well,t here's no telling what they'd do, suspicion is high and people have been lynched for 'too lucky' escapes. Whatever's going on, I promise we'll get you somewhere safe and get you back with your parents."

*sniff*

The girl started crying again when Joshua had finished his explanation. Josh sighed and tried to calm her down, but that was a lot harder than he first thought. Eventually he had to let her have HIS room, the one with the comfortable bed, forcing him to sit up watching the controls all night and wondering about the mysterious machine, what had happened and what to do next. Good old Zac; he may be a bit ...dimwitted at times, but he could at least handle situations by himself. Never had that ability been more evident, or more needed than his first date. Joshua chuckled at the memory of it.

Nothing had gone right the ENTIRE night, and Joshua knew, because he was spying on them the entire time, revenge for a particularly embarrassing prank he'd suffered. Zac had nearly knocked the poor girl out, and hurt himself when the two went dancing. It was only some quick talking, which surprised Joshua, to save the entire night, and the girl from running out in tears.

Compared to his brother, he didn't really feel comfortable going on dates, in fact, most of the time he'd spent with girl girls was to keep them happy, and that had led to a lot of accusations and arguments especially with a certain trio. And no doubt there was more to come. Why on earth had he even thought for a second about marrige? It must have been a fit of reckless optimism. He wasn't exactly keen on the idea of settling done anytime soon. And having to put up with ONE girl crying was bad enough.

And there were so many downsides. Sure people went on about romance and bonding and doing things together, but it was a dangerous and unpredictable universe out there and he'd spent his entire life fighting. Nearly all of it. What kind of living was that? How could you ever be happy with a wife and children knowing that any nutcase out to get you would use them as bait? How could you keep a happy home when your job was, at the end of the day to kill people so more people wouldn't die? It was a tired and overused cliche, but it was right, with great power was great responsibility, and with responsibility came sacrifice. He could never imagine himself married, let alone as a father. You'd always be watching them, dreading seeing them suffer, even dying before you... like Rachel.

Okay, enough with that. He must be getting crazy with the lack of sleep. He hadn't had a decent night's sleep for about a week. Most of the late nights were either training, writing and studying the records he'd found or playing some video games he'd brought back with him. His days were spent in a similar way. Only filling out a few forms and spending time with Adis. The time they spent together let him rest his eyes a bit. It all helped to keep his mind off the dreams.

Joshua groaned at their memory. The shadows, pathways, staircases, it was all meaningless to him, or, he'd begun to fear, it HAD meaning, he just didn't want to know it. Nevermind, it'd come to him eventually. For now, maybe he could get some sleep; and when he awoke, they'd have landed on Saurepth.
And THIS time, NO annoying dreams!



* * *

Slumped in her seat, Shade slept fitfully. As usual, it was the dream, the same dream as always, and as always she could see herself dreaming it. It was just a few years ago, just before she'd left to join the military, she could see the scene in her mind, herself younger and slighter, approaching her house, dreading what was within.

"Great, just great, and the day was going so well too."

"That you Shade? Talking to yourself again are you? Oh what a pain, that I should see my own daughter go to madness!"

"Mother, please!"

"Don't use that tone with me! You've been neglecting your training again!"

"Can't I just do something normal for once? Other kids-"

"Other kids, other kids! They're OTHER kids my girl, you're you! You know what they are? Accidents, that's what! No purpose or meaning to their pathetic cotton-candy lives! You want to be an accident too?"

"No mother, I just-"

"I knew I should've got rid of you, I should've tried again, you've been nothing but one disappointment after another! How can you expect to accomplish anything if you're not even going to TRY?"

"Yes mother."

"Yes mother, yes mother; are you retarded or something? Stop standing there all self pitying and DO something girl! Don't make me hit you, sometimes I think that's the only way to get a sensible response from you!"

Shade watched the scene play out mutely. She'd seen it so many times before, LIVED it once, but each time served only to rekindle the hatred she felt for that woman, for what she believed in, for the whole (-) mess. The anger grew inside her, like water under pressure, and as always she pushed back, fanning the flames of rage into a blue-white streak of pure anger. With a start as sharp as breaking glass she left the world of dreams and opened her eyes.

And awoke.