UNTITLED: Book One

DAY 136

The path to sanity

Is found insanity

Sane is insane

For a while, The Dawn Hero’s eyes continue to dart between The Warden, Solara, and the city as her emotions rapidly change. Soon, everyone on the island who paused their fight start fighting again, and after gaining some composure, she looks closer at Solara, then at The Warden—then back at Solara, and snarls.

Now glaring at The Warden, she angrily says through her gritted teeth, “How fucking ironic…”

Then she crouches as her suit lights up brightly again before she launches up and into the sky, exploding towards the city, off to see her baby boy—leaving Solara and The Warden there, staring at one another.

Both The Warden and Solara then turn to watch her fly off toward the city as the night falls. Both uncaring that Heroes can fly now. Solara shakes off the worried look on her face before she spins toward The Warden, “Aiye has a Mother??”

“That’s the first thing you want to ask me? Your obsession with that boy never ceases to amaze me.” The Warden replies.

“Just answer!”

She hears footsteps approaching and turns around to see Tozi and Junaid running up to them. Junaid is carrying both The Broker and the pilot. Once they’re within earshot, they stop and Junaid gently sets down both of them. The Broker pats himself down and straightens his clothes while he thanks Junaid, who politely nods.

Tozi, wary of The Warden, runs up to Solara’s side, “Solara, the city! We gotta go, like now! The Hero is heading that way, what’s going on??”

Solara, caught off guard by the relief she feels when seeing Tozi putting some trust in her again, mutters a reply, “I think that might not be a problem. I think the Hero is Aiye’s Mom. Right?” She directs the last question towards The Warden.

“WHAT?” Tozi exclaims.

The other two, with their New Wave hearing react as well. Junaid’s head shoots up with a surprised grunt and shock across his face. The pilot, sweating profusely and barely hanging on to consciousness, looks over to them with a confused look. She then mutters something to The Broker who is leaning down to hear her. No reaction.

“Yes, the 11th Hero of Core…” The Warden begins.

Core? Tozi mouths questioningly.

“…is Aiye’s mother.” He continues.

“He has a mother… We have mothers… Is she also-?” Solara begins, hopefully.

“-Aiye’s alone.” Warden interrupts.

“I didn’t think we had mothers…” Solara says, lost in thought. She’s confused on how to feel about this her realization. It should have been obvious, but with all the strangeness of the city tech, she just made assumptions.

“What would possibly make you assume such a ridiculous thing?” Warden condescends.

This makes all of their minds race with thoughts. Confused on what to feel. The idea of having parents is enough to give them hope for something, but also the knowledge that they were likely taken from their parents—devastating.

“The fact that we were EXPERIMENTED on. That we were created in a fucking lab!” Solara shouts back angrily.

“No you weren’t.” The Warden bluntly replies, impatience showing.

“Yes we were! STOP LYING. We all remember being in the labs!”

Junaid, Tozi, and the pilot all wear sad looks on their face as they think back to the excruciatingly painful lab visits they made over the years. The creepy doctors and sharp metals. Painful injections.

“…Always having blood drawn in that cold grey room!” Solara continues.

This catches Tozi’s attention, leading her to a depressing, yet confusing realization. She puts her hand on Solara’s shoulder, “Solara…I think he just means you. You’re the one who wasn’t created in a lab.”

“No!? I remember-?”

“-I heard. And I just realized that your memory of the lab visits is different than what we all experienced.” Tozi replies while gesturing towards the other two.

The Broker remains silent and still. Sadness across his face.

“I-… I-… What the…” solara stumbles back a couple steps.

“Yeah.” Tozi nods, letting go of Solara’s shoulder.

The Broker finally walks up. The Warden takes notice.

“The boy has aged…”

“Hello, ######.”

Hearing his own name again makes The Warden’s eye twitch. They can tell by the way his cheek moves, Tozi and Solara, as they both look back and forth between the two old men.

“How did the child of the greatest surface dwellers come out so weak, I wonder?” Warden mocks, trying to return the favor.

“Insult me all you want, but you will always be one of us. Simply wielding super weapons and making super soldiers will not make you any more like them. It is why they are here to end you, after all.” Broker replies.

“Interesting, coming from you. I remember a time when you were young and desperate to be like me. To be one of us. Desperate, and willing to do anything—did, anything.”

Solara looks at The Broker, “What’s he talking about?”

Tozi, feeling as though it can’t be good, walks back to Junaid and the pilot to check on her current state.

“I- I…” The Broker fails to get any other words out.

“Shy, are we? You are such an important piece to all of this…Broker *scoff*. Isn’t that why we called you that? You brokered the supplies, and people, necessary to create the New Wave. To bring us back to glory. However, I still regret listening to your suggestion and taking Aiye.” The Warden says the last part sourly.

Tozi storms back towards The Broker and chokes him with her remaining arm, lifting him off the ground, seething with anger.

“YO, chill! He’s a fucking smuggler and rat, we know this, but it’s not that deep! He’s been manipulated like everyone else-.” Solara moves to stop her, but Junaid comes up and gently stops her. His face is rage-filled as well.

“TELL HER! TELL HER EXACTLY WHAT THE FUCK HE MEANS ABOUT YOU!” Tozi spits in a roar, her face red with rage.

“You’re killing him dumbass!” Solara, seeing the life drain from The Broker, flips Junaid down and then punches Tozi away. The Broker drops to the ground gasping for air.

The Warden just watches on, always the silent observer, occasionally glancing towards the city, now in flames on top. He is getting increasingly impatient and is eager to head back to the city, but not before he ends this rebellion here, first.

After some time, Broker finally gathers himself. His voice is currently messed up from the damage from Tozi, but he talks through it, not making eye contact with anyone.

“I found the kids.”

Tozi is snarling at him with intent to kill, gnashing her teeth and grunting out angry breaths like a predator holding back their impulses.

“Say what you really mean, Broker.” Solara says looking down on him, her tone unfriendly and very serious now.

“I took children—all of them, to give to him.” The Broker points to The Warden. “Everyone except for you, Solara. I even took Aiye. I am so sorr-“

“Don’t.” Solara stops him bluntly. Not wanting to hear any more. Not wanting to ready to lose anyone else just yet.

“See. They were never your friends. The weak ones fear you. Those on the surface are just as evil as you think me. They also fear you. And you hate it. I know you do,Sso change it. Take your rightful place as the strongest, daughter.” The Warden says to her.

“I stole no one!” The desperate Broker frantically looks between all the New Wave kids to explain himself. “I swear it! I swear… We were all dying. Our economy—fuck the economy! Our planet, was failing ever since the Dark War and so many families were failing too. DYING. It was the only way to save our future. So we offered food to families willing to give up their healthiest child. The food storage beneath this very island. We offered it—I offered it, and I took the kids to this island, or directly to the registrars.”

“The factories.” Tozi corrects, still angry, but now leaning towards hurt while losing herself in thought. Her mind reeling from this news.

“How many?”

Everyone turns to Junaid walk up, holding the pilot in his hands. Her eyes are drooping as she's barely hanging on now, and perhaps from the sadness she also feels from this news.

He repeats his question. If Tozi didn’t know him so well, even she wouldn’t be able to understand what he’s feeling. But she knows when Ju is angry. Truly angry.

“How. Many?"

“…Millions.”

Tozi gags and lurches over, choking on a cough as she drops to her knees and her one arm. Junaid closes his eyes and lifts his head toward the sky.

“B- but, there’s only just a few hundred of us…” The pilot says very weakly, apparently still coherent.

“The price.” The Warden says with an almost religious conviction, completely devoid of empathy for everyone present, and everyone lost. His reminder of what Amala once told him. “This is why he is known as “The Broker”:

{

“When our waters tamed they began to drain into an abyss along with my plan to save us. So The Broker brokered a deal between life and death when as he came up, then cast aside his old name to help change us. And save us. Then down the line he came up with the plan to make the Earth quake—a shake up.”

}

The Warden casually shrugs.

{

“But with enemies on all sides, we needed something more than for them to fear us. The fire in our hearts was not enough. We needed to turn flame, Sun. So he brought me a child from any family that didn’t need one. I took them in, orphans—gave them purpose, and made New Wave cubs.”

}

No one replies. No one has the energy right now to tell him to shut up. It’s silent for what feels like an eternity before Solara finally breaks it.

Solara sheds a tear. “I want to leave this place. Take me back to the city.”

Solara’s crying catches everyone off guard. No one has seen her ever do such a thing. Tozi doesn’t know if she should approach her, she’s angry, hurt and scared now. This makes her feel ashamed. It makes her feel like she’s back to her old, timid self. That “weak” her.

The Broker wants to embrace Solara, because this is obviously a turning point where love can prevent her from—no. He too, is too scared, and far too ashamed.

The Warden steps forward and raises one of his daggers. A force field, similar to the opaque violet moon he made to block the attack from the Hero, surrounds them all. But inside it is pitch black. Not even the New Wave can see while inside it, nor hear?

Solara also notices that his attacks never screech. It dawns on her that he must be capable of doing a whole lot more than what he’s shown off so far.

In what feels like just a second, light peaks in as the field drops down like water dripping down a rock. The light is barely lighter than being inside the field but it’s light nonetheless.

When the field finishes dropping down, they feel the water beneath their feet. Solara’s eyes light up briefly as she tries to hold on to her sunken expression and conceal her excitement. The Eye! Finally.

Everyone is taking in their surroundings. The shallow water that dimly illuminates with a grayish light wherever you step, not enough light up this dark room, but just enough for you to show where you stepped. The ceiling and the walls are either non-existent or too dark because it looks as though, if you were to walk towards the wall or fly up to the very high ceiling, you’d keep going forever. Swallowed by darkness.

Then, lastly, in the distance, a tiny island located in the middle of the room that looks like it could only fit a few people. It’s the only lit up place. Like a dark and dim, yellow spotlight shining down on it—also not bright. This place was made for their eyes, but it’s a wonder how The Warden sees all this with those sunglasses he wears all the time. Does he memorize it, or does it have something to do with the weapons? Solara wonders. Why does he even wear those?

The Warden walks through the water and towards the island. Once there, he takes a seat on the ground, cross-legged as if meditating. Junaid carrying the pilot, along with Tozi, walks up to Solara.

“Solara.” Tozi says gesturing her head towards the pilot to remind her.

Solara nods in acknowledgement and is about to ask her father, but he beats her to it.

“Lay her down in the water.” The Warden says calmly. He’s not shouting, but somehow his voice can be heard, quite well, all the way from where he’s sitting. Not because of their super hearing, but actually as if he’s speaking directly in their ears.

Reluctantly, Junaid gently tries to lay the pilot in the water. Except, her body floats on the water instead of sinking into it right away. They look up at The Warden who simply twitches his wrist while holding a blade. The water engulfs the pilot and pulls her under quickly. Tozi reacts immediately, dropping to her knees and sticking her arm in the water in hopes of catching her. But she pulls her arm back, puzzled, there’s nothing? They all back away startled.

“She’s in the infirmary now.” Warden assures.

This is when Solara finally realizes that The Broker is not with them. Their recent bond was shattered by that devastating news earlier, but she feels some concern because if he’s not here, then either he was left back on the island—or worse, he’s been sent to his death. Some way, some how.

The thunderous drum strikes once…