UNTITLED: Book One

DAY 136.75

To be human is to seek strength

Forever grow

What is strength? Do you know?

“It’s nice of you to join us.” The Dawn Hero continues. She looks his injured body up and down then turns her head at a slight angle. “You don’t look so good, Warden.”

The Warden coughs up blood on all fours while his blades slowly orbit him, forming a shield around him that flickers in and out of view as if tiny flies are constantly flying into it. At least, that’s what it sounded like to Solara at first until she listened closer. She finally hears it for a split second—Aiye and Thema too, a high frequency screech coming from his direction. His mental stamina is finally breaking down, Solara observes.

At the same time, Thema notices his current state and shifts her weight while she readies herself to finish what Solara started. That’s when Solara finally realizes Aiye is there. Her mood completely shifts.

“Aiye!” She shouts in excitement. His eyes light up too.

Thema halts her attack and looks away annoyed, then after realizing her reaction she steps back in shame. Why the fuck am I so bothered? …They’re just the same idiots.

“Sol!” Aiye shouts back and they begin to move toward one another to embrace, but they’re stopped by The Dawn Hero who steps in between them, placing her hand on Solara’s chest, gently moving her back a couple steps.

Solara awkwardly complies, confused on if she should immediately try to punch this lady for that, or try to show respect for Aiye’s sake.

“Woahhh there now child. Slow down. That’s my boy and you’re his daughter, let’s not forget that.” She says while pointing to the weakened Warden, her evil aura perpetuated by the constant mischievous grin cracked across her face.

The Hero walks around Solara, looking her up and down, and then grabs her chin and moves her head side-to-side as if inspecting her. The Broker, Thema and Aiye all looked surprised. Surprised at the disrespect, but also that Solara wasn’t doing Solara things about it. Thema kind of leans back a bit as if expecting something, Aiye cocks his head back too, just a little bit.

With her cheeks still in The Dawn Hero’s hand, Solara glances over at Aiye and observes his hesitation. She then decides to make one more attempt at diplomacy.

Holding back her frustration, but her fists clenched, she speaks through Dawn Hero’s grip. “We’re only related by blood, but Aiye is my family! And I’m the one who got him like that!” Solara gestures in Warden’s direction.

Dawn Hero removes her hand from Solara’s cheek and brushes off her comment with a wave of that same hand. “Child, you know that’s got nothing to do with me. I already know you and my son are close. As a parent myself, I know love when I see it. The bond between you and my boy, but also, the… love, that your Father feels for you. As twisted and fucked up as I’m sure it is presented, it’s there, and unfortunately for you I can feel it. It feels desperate. And gives me ideas on how to break him.”

She says that last part as she looks at the Warden who is on one knee now, struggling to stand. Then she points at him with an open palm, purposely trying to make it a scene. Mocking him.

“I mean look at him, the mighty Warden! Bringer of The Fall! Destroyer of worlds! On. His. Knees. His defenses can stop the strongest weapons from our strongest battleships, and yet he’s down like this because he got…” The Hero double-takes at The Warden to see his injury. “…he got poked, in the ribs. Huh. Now how in the world did he let that happen? I wonder. I mean, why would he even let his guard down this much when he knows you only intend to harm him?”

“Because he thinks he knows everything, and that makes him easy prey…” Solara says, glaring at him on the floor.

“True!” Then The Hero gets in Solara’s personal space and places her hand gently to her cheek, “But mainly because of love, darling. Love, that’s why. And it’s because he cares about you that I have to take you from him. My boy will heal without you, eventually. He has this one after all.”

She points to Thema, who looks brows quickly scrunch in disapproval and confusion, before she goes back being alert. Holy shit. This whole situation is a ticking time bomb. I need to go after Tozi and Junaid.

“Anaye…” Aiye reaches out for her to stop. She gently waves him off with her free hand.

“No, it’s Mom now sweetie. And Mom is going to get rid of this one… and her daddy. Their family is bad for everyone. Surely you can see that? Besides, you’ll still have this one.” She says casually as she once again points to Thema. “I’m sure you and her can get along.”

Solara swats her hand, pissed now. “Get the fuck off me! And I’d like to see you try!” She gets in The Hero’s face, “You know, you talk a lot of shit for someone who just got here! Who the fuck do you think you are anyways??”

“HAH, some fire! She’s got some fire! And yes, well, you can blame your father for that, right?” The Hero replies.

“You know that’s got nothing to do with me, girl.” Solara snarls, using the Hero’s words against her.

This strikes a chord with the Hero. She manages to crack a grin while her eye twitches, trying to contain her sudden frustration. The two of them stare each other down. Then, all together, The Hero releases the tensions with a long sigh. Her jet black pupils return to normal as the black fades away.

Aiye grabs her arm gently, “Solara is good people. She’s been my only family since I’ve arrived. And The Warden, he’s going to die here anyways, by all of us here?? Look around!” He gestures to everyone standing around. Broker. Electrum. Thema. Her. Himself. Solara. “Can’t we just let this go?”

The Hero turns to Aiye with a sorrowful smile. “Baby, I’m sorry.” She begins to slightly shake her head, “I hope someday you will learn to forgive my weakness.”

AIye shakes his head, a defeated look on his face as his fingers slip off of her. He’s unable to hold on to someone he doesn’t truly know, “Don’t.”

The Hero’s eyes return to jet black, then she whirls around towards Solara and punches her directly in the chest. Too fast for Solara to react. Aiye blankly stares at nothing in particular as he is too shocked and confused to react.

Thema, who is still weakened from using her sword so much, tries to slash down on The Hero, but they all forgot Electrum was there. Thema’s wrist is caught mid-swing and she’s tossed, across the top of the city towards the Narra tree, by Electrum. Then The Hero proceeds to wipe the floor with Solara.

Her first sucker punch catches Solara off guard, not just in speed but strength. Solara hesitates for a moment. She’s seen fast. That’s not new. But she’s never actually experienced being punched by someone this hard and this fast. Outside of her training, or torture—whatever you wanna call it. The point is it’s different, and Solara’s hesitation is all The Hero needs to hit her with another combo before sending her flying.

The Warden, still on one knee, weakly reaches an arm up to command his blades but Electrum roundhouse kicks him. His shield holds up but the force of her attack rattles him around inside of it, then it sends him over the edge of the destroyed portion of the city as though she’s just kicked a ball. Electrum spits, probably cursing herself internally for letting him go. But, while falling through the city’s shield that recognize him as a friendly, he launches a counter attack at Electrum. She runs towards him while she blocks and parries his blades barraging her, but she pauses at the edge because she knows that she can’t send an attack at him through these shields. Outsiders can’t come inside, or leave.

Next, she turns to The Broker who is barely conscious now, heaving and laid out flat on his stomach on the ground.

Despite the defense system making it more breathable as a wartime protocol, The Broker has been fighting the atmosphere on top of the city this entire time, and losing. Nobody really noticed him, but suddenly, just as Electrum takes a step towards him, Thema jumps up next to him, puts her hand on his shoulder, and then the violet lightning teleports them away—leaving just Aiye and Solara on top of the city to fight the enemies by themselves.

—

Thema and The Broker thunder back into The Eye. Thema crash lands onto the island, sending the black sand flying and splashing into the dark waters. The Broker falls directly into the dark waters that illuminate large enough to match his impact. Thema claws and crawls herself up to her knees where she throws up. She stares around in a daze while a ringing in her ears goes on for some time until she notices The Broker, soaking wet, shaking her shoulder.

“…hear me Thema? Thema!” The Broker shouts into her ear.

“Agh! What the-” Thema’s hearing returns just as he shouts into her ear and she cringes and pushes him away by the sudden screaming in her already enhanced ears.

The Broker is thrown back into the waters by her push. She shakes herself off and gathers herself while Broker comes wading again through the water and back up to the spotlit, black sand island.

“My apologies. I was just checking if you were concussed, or something worse.” He says as he tries to wring water out of his clothing.

“I mean probably, shit.” Thema replies annoyed but also half-paying attention as she shakes her sunglasses through the water to clean them.

“So what is the plan? We missed the chance to finish off The Warden and I doubt that fall will kill him. Furthermore, we left those two to fight the enemy alone. They might be two of the strongest, but Aiye does not seem to be in the right mind right now.”

Thema puts her sunglasses on after drying them on her pants, “Tough shit. That’s their fucking problem. Our problem, is that we need to evacuate this entire city, now. I don’t have nearly enough energy to do all that fighting right now and I definitely can’t just teleport everyone. I think my head would literally explode if I tried… Literally. But since you like stealing babies—apparently, Aiye’s mom has made this personal because of you. You and The Warden. This war is just as much your fault as it is his. All the deaths that result here, are on your hands. And since she wants this world to burn because of the two of you. I brought you here to begin your penance. First, we’re gonna need your ships, Broker.”

“Very well then, I understand. Tell me what I need to do to be of service.” The Broker replies sincerely, aware and thankful that Thema is unaware of his full list of crimes.

Thema fills him in on her plans and the important characters to watch for. “…so imma call them now.”

“Right now? It will take a while for them to arrive right? Perhaps us teleporting to them would be much faster?”

“Nah. I need them here to show them everything.” She waves her hand and images and videos of everything going on outside pops up all around them.

Broker jolts a bit, taken aback.

“By the way, Broker, you’ve been here before haven’t you? You don’t seem too surprised about this like everyone else who’s visiting it for the first time.”

“I have been here before, perhaps a handful of times. Long ago.”

Thema rolls her eyes at that last part, “Of course you have…”

“This is, however, my first time seeing this surveillance technology. Back then, without knowing about this ability, I was never quite sure why it was called The Eye. All theories were pure speculation.”

“Aren’t they always?” Thema asks rhetorically as she stabs her sword into the ground with two hands, then takes a knee in front of it.

“Will you be all right?”

“No.” She bluntly responds before teleporting Tozi and Junaid into The Eye.

Thema falls to her hands and heaves, but there’s nothing left to throw up this time. Tozi and Junaid see her immediately and run to her, tackling her with hugs and greetings. The Broker watches with a smile before guilt floods in and erases it from his face, replacing it with sorrow. It is hard to remember that these are still just kids.

“…and also, NEVER do that again! I NEVER, EVER want to be sucked up into some teleportation portal against my will, EVER again—not even from you!” Tozi shouts while playfully punching Thema in the shoulder.

“First it was The Warden, then you! I am not a fan! I also haven’t fought in some time so I am glad to see you!” Junaid echoes Tozi’s sentiments while jokingly shadow boxing circles around Thema.

The Broker observes him, a bit baffled. He had assumed the boy was somewhat of a mute. The silent, friendly giant type. Huh, interesting. He makes a mental note of this before he and Junaid finally make eye-contact. Junaid finally notices The Broker standing in the water in the shadows. He immediately stops circling Thema and reverts back to his silent and serious self.

“What’s this?” Junaid bluntly asks Thema who’s finally standing now, holding up her two hands as if to tell them to hold on.

“-What’s what?” Tozi asks as her head snaps to the direction Junaid is looking. Her smile immediately turns to a disgusted frown. Then she spits, “…Oh. That.”

Tozi spins toward Thema, about to question her before Thema beats her to it, “He’s going to help us with the city. That’s the only reason he’s here. We need his resources. The surface- the others out there fighting alongside us. Afterwards, baby thief over here can go die in a ditch somewhere for all I care.”

“Hm. So you already know.

“Yeah… Kinda picked up on it when Warden, The Hero and Aiye were around at the same time. Solara too—long story. But right now, I just want us to get a move on. We gotta go soon.” Thema starts to move before she’s stopped by Tozi.

“And what about what we want?” Tozi counters.

“Hm? What do you mea- ?”

“I said, what about what WE want, Tay? You said for all YOU care. I noticed you didn’t include anyone else.”

“Well, I mean it was just a figure of speech? In fact, that line was just something I read out of a book honestly, like everything we know, but still. I don’t even know- ?” She shrugs confused at Tozi’s seemingly sudden increase in hostility.

“Ugh. Look at you! You even look like him Thema!” Tozi exclaims with her arms out.

“Like Broker?? Wha-?” Thema replies.

“NO. The Warden! You’ve got the weapon, the glasses, the room.” She looks Thema up and down. “…the power. Calling us as you please and telling us what to do.”

Thema is taken aback, “Don’t do me like that Tozi. No.” She says, feeling offended.

“I’m just saying—.” Tozi begins, but Junaid comes up behind her and puts his hand on her shoulder, pulling her closer to his side. A suggestion that she should stop. But it’s too late, Thema is already offended:

{

“You’re saying a lot, Tozi. You’re coming at me, at a time like this, and all I’m wondering is ‘Why start shit??’ I mean really! What do you even want from this? Gain from it? Do you want me to shit on all my preferences? To say, ‘I admit…’ That I still can’t be original. I admit, that I might’ve wanted something different now. That maybe now I want to be more visible—less hidden while, I’m fighting for more than just the individual. But here I am, arguing with you because I put some glasses on and spoke of what I want.”

}

Tozi replies:

{

“Standing there with your sword, I was just scared seeing you hold it—not knowing. Not because of its power, but because you might be scared, sad and lonely. Ending up like The Warden. Where fear’ll hold you. Because then we’ll fear you, you’ll fear you, and your own thoughts too. Until you become some thing you cannot, and do not like. But I trust you. I do.”

}

“I was just worried is all.” Tozi finishes. Junaid echoes the sentiment with a simple nod.

Thema nods for a moment too, trying to retain some sense of professionalism, for some reason unknown reason to herself. So she breaks that and then all three of them rush to embrace in silence. They hold it for some time until The Broker clears his throat. He’s been watching the view screens this entire time, his eyes on Aiye and Solara’s fighting. Them completely forgot, or wanted to.

“I am sorry to interrupt, but we have been in here for quite some time… I think? One cannot be entirely sure in a place like this. The point being, that while this moment is truly beautiful, I must remind you that there is a war and this city will likely fall soon. As you have mentioned Thema.”

Tozi’s head snaps to Thema. “I mean, you can’t miss the giant chunk missing, but falling?? What’s this piece of trash talking about?”

“Well, that’s why I called you here. I wanted us to plan how we’re going to get everyone out of here because I think with everyone fighting up top, this place won’t last much longer. Like I said, The Hero, Electrum, The Warden, Aiye, and Solara—all up there. They’re fighting up there and there’s way this place holds up.”

“Electrum?” Junaid asks.

Thema explains real quick before bringing focus back to the plan. “…and so we need to go. Like now.”

“Wait, but Tay, can’t you just like teleport us all outta here? I doubt we’d enjoy it but it’d be the fastest way, for sure?” Tozi questions.

“I could, but I feel like I’d die afterwards, or worse, become like Sollar. I don’t have much in me right now. I’m barely standing as it is.” Thema removes her glasses for a second to show her eyes.

“Oh shit!” Tozi exclaims, taken aback by Thema’s bloodshot eyes with bags under them. “Yeah, no, put those back on.” she says as she takes Thema’s glasses and puts them back over her eyes. “Much better.”

Junaid chuckles and Thema smirks and says sarcastically, “Thanks, but also fuck you.”

They step back from their embrace and then Thema bear hugs a smirking Junaid, lifting him off the ground, before she finally continues discussing the plan, “Ok, COOL. Well, we spent a lot more time here than I had hoped—like a lot. Sooo, while I can’t teleport everyone in the city, out of the city, we’re gonna go down right now. Get the people. Get the ships. Get the fuck out!” She says the last part more frantically as she finally glances towards the view screen to see Solara and Aiye’s battle on top of the city.

Tozi and Junaid follow her gaze and see it too, first shocked as the two of them are just now paying any real attention to these screens , but also because of what they just now witnessed occurring during the battles up top. “Yeah! Let’s go now!”

“Grab on! It’s easier for me that way!” Thema says as she crouches.

They all rush to grab on, including Broker who hesitates for a moment with one last glance around the room before placing a hand on Thema’s shoulder. They all teleport out of there and into the city.

Everyone is running around in a disorganized panic while alarms are blaring. Bunches of people simply run around the group, despite them being who they are—AND, teleporting right into the middle of everything. Everyone is far too panicked to care about any of it.

Thema is dry-heaving yet again, and also bleeding from her nose. Junaid has a comforting hand on her upper back while he watches what everyone is running from.

“…Oh my.” The Broker mutters to himself.

“…No way.” Tozi says a bit louder than him.

It turns out it was mostly the city workers and a handful of Old Guard ordered to remain in the city, that were running. All New Wave, that are still in the city, are standing around the scene. A few even come running up through the fleeing masses. All to see this.

Thema looks up to take a better look now that the initial wave of sickness has passed. It’s The Hero holding a defeated and battered Solara by the neck. She’s unconscious and her face is badly beaten and bleeding. Her shoulder looks dislocated too. All the while, The Hero herself has just some bruises and a bit of blood.

Thema’s eyes widen. This was not part of the plan. Because, although she hoped Solara would get her ass whooped, she’s only now realizing that she never truly believed Solara would ever lose. Like she would somehow beat the superpowered Hero. So she echoes The Broker and Tozi’s sentiment, “…Oh fuck.”

The thunderous drum strikes once…