by Sarah Carter
“You’re just worried that there’s something that will finally take you down.”
With a shy shrug, Claire says, “A little, but I’m also not a super hero.”
Nudging her, Damien teases, “Hey, superman had kryptonite.”
“True. Is it a rock?”
“No honey, it’s not a rock. Let’s go get something to eat.”
Ariel rubs her stomach. “I’m starving.”
Aurora chimes in. “I want buffalo wings.”
“Not sure if we have any of that on the ship. We do have great chefs.” Damien walks to the door and opens it. Everyone walks out.
“You’re not going to cook,” Claire replies, turning to him.
He twirls his finger around in the air. “My brain is reeling from everything. I’m in such a state of shock. You were shocking. This is beyond crazy.”
Xander says, “We always kind of suspected we were part Kenga.”
Damien looks at him and whispers, “Watch what you say through the ship. We can’t have this get out.”
“We really are a secret group of freaks,” Claire laughs.
Ariel raises her hand. “I want a cape.”
Aurora exclaims, “I want a tiara!”
Turning to her sister, Ariel says, “How do secret groups have tiaras? Capes, yes. Tiaras, no.”
“You can have my tiara if I get one,” Claire states.
“Better on my head than up Damien’s butt,” Aurora declares, with a big smile.
With a jerk, Damien asks, “Why would I have a tiara up my ass?”
She replies, “Claire was going to tell you to shove it.”
Damien spins to Claire. “What? What did I miss?”
“Long story,” Claire says, waving her hand. “I just don’t want to wear a tiara.”
“Why would you?” He asks.
Aurora interjects, “She’s going to be a princess.”
“You think we wear crowns. Have you ever seen us in public?” Damien asks.
Claire scoffs, “Following the Merjyet line has never been my thing.”
“There are no tiaras,” Damien states. “That’s so very human.”
“Do you wear anything to signify who you are?” Aurora asks.
He nods. “The family crest on either an arm band or bracelet.”
“I’m wearing an arm band,” Claire declares solidly.
“Have you not been to a formal event yet?” Aurora inquires.
“Remember, no one knows about us,” Claire replies.
Crossing his arms, Damien says, “Hopefully they find out soon. I really would like people to know we are off the market. I’m tired of still getting hit on, and I’m even more tired of watching you get hit on.”
Claire bats her eyelashes. “My eyes are only for you.”
“I know baby, but I’m so proud that you’re my girl. I want to tell the world.”
“That’s so sweet,” Claire whispers walking up to him. She gives him a soft kiss. “I love you.”
“I love you too and want to tell people that,” he states seriously.
She puts her hand on his chest. “Fine, once this is done we will have a coming out party.”
“Thank you.”
“Now,” Claire says. “Food. Must consume food.”
“We’re almost there,” Damien replies. They walk through a few hallways and then come to a massive cafeteria. There are multiple food stations. Damien leads them to one.
A chef is standing there. “What would you like today?” He asks, bowing his head.
“Spaghetti!” Claire exclaims. “Lots of it!”
Ariel chimes in. “Garlic bread. We had spaghetti with garlic bread once. It was so good.”
The chef says, “It won’t take long.”
Xander suddenly hears, “Xander.”
He spins around and sees Trinity. “Trinity,” he gasps. “I have to go to the hallway,” he says to Damien. Damien nods. When Xander gets out there, he looks at Trinity. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, sorry,” she apologizes. “Someone came up in Shima.”
“Are they gone?” He asks.
“You have to come help Jennifer,” Trinity pleads.
Putting his hands on her arms, Xander asks, “What can she do?”
“I don’t know,” Trinity replies, shaking her head. “I have never seen it, but she changes things.”
“What do you mean?”
“She changes water into stone. She can turn metal into air. They say she can control the elements.”
“When did this start?”
Trinity’s eyes get teary. “A few weeks ago. She is fighting back. The older kids won’t let me around her. The Collector is hurting her Xander. You have to come. Please, you must save her. You must save us all.”
Xander pulls her into his arms and hugs her fiercely. “We are coming Trinity. I promise you, we will find you. We will be together soon. We have a safe place to go. We are going to finally be taken care of. The Neturu are kind and compassionate people.”
She looks up into his eyes. “I’m scared Xander. For the first time, I am scared. What if The Collector finds out about us? What if they hurt me like they hurt Tray? He’s never going to walk again.”
“We’re coming,” he replies. “We think we have a way to find you.”
“How?”
“I can’t tell you,” he sighs.
“Why can’t you tell me Xander. Don’t you trust me?” She looks up at him with big eyes.
He grabs her hands into his and squeezes. “Of course I trust you. I don’t have permission to say anything.”
Looking around at everyone, Trinity asks, “Permission from who? One of them?”
“I can’t really say Trinity. Once we rescue you then you can meet them. They are wonderful people.”
“Can you tell them I say hi?”
Xander smiles. “Sure.” He looks at everyone. “Trinity says hi.”
“Tell her we miss her!” Aurora exclaims.
Trinity smiles broadly. “I miss you guys too, so much.”
He looks at Aurora. “She misses you a lot, too.”
“Who are the other two?” Trinity asks, looking at Claire and Damien.
Pointing to Claire, Xander says, “That’s Claire and I can’t tell you his name.”
“Why?”
“You’ll find out when we rescue you.”
She looks up at him. “Are you sure the Neturu are nice?”
With an enthusiastic nod, Xander says, “They are very nice. They’ve done nothing but help us. They are so welcoming. They are coming up with plans for us. We’ll have real homes. Kind people to help with the kids. It’s going to be such a change, a good change.”
Trinity smiles. “That sounds so nice.”
“Do you know what they can do?” Xander exclaims.
“No, what?” Trinity replies.
“They can get rid of my scars.”
A big smile sweeps across Trinity’s face. “They can?”
Xander nods. “Yeah. It may take a while but they can get rid of them. That means they can get rid of the girls. That means they can get rid of everyone’s!”
Her eyes light up. “Do you think they could heal Tray’s back?”
“Maybe. I will have to ask.”
She grips his hands hard. “To think there may be hope for all of us.”
“Why do you have such a different view of The Collector?”
“I don’t know,” Trinity whispers, looking away.
“Trinity,” Xander sternly says. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“They have been very mean. They’ve hit me three times…hard, across the back.”
Growling, Xander says, “I will kill them.”
“Honestly, I never thought there was something outside of the institute. All we were ever taught was that they outside world was full of hate, war and starvation.”
“I won’t lie. All of those things exist but it’s full of love and happiness, too. Kindne
ss. So much kindness. It’s incredible we’ve met some of the nicest people.”
“I’m excited to meet them. I should go before anyone gets suspicious.”
Xander brings his hand up and strokes her face. “Okay. I love you.”
“I love you too, Xander. Hopefully you come soon,” she whispers, leaning into his hand.
“Check back tomorrow.”
“I will try,” Trinity replies. “Bye.” With that she disappears.
Looking at Damien, Xander says, “We have a problem.”
“What?” Damien says.
“Well, it’s what Jennifer can do.”
“What can she do?”
With a heavy exhale, Xander runs his fingers through his hair. “I guess she controls the elements.”
A confused look crosses Damien’s face. “What do you mean?”
“She can turn water into stone. Metal into air,” Xander replies, gesturing with his hand.
Damien’s eyebrows raise. “You can’t be serious.”
“That’s what Trinity says, but she can’t see it. She is only being told about it.”
“Then we don’t know for sure,” Damien replies.
“She wouldn’t lie or make something up.”
“I’m not saying that she would, but we don’t know for definite what she can do. That sounds even more out there than your abilities. We just need to concentrate that there may be someone else with powers. We need to rescue them as soon as possible.”
Xander sighs. “I guess she is getting punished. Trinity is really scared. She is getting hit now. There’s so much going on.”
“We will work as fast as we can.”
“I know…”
Walking over, Damien puts his hand on Xander’s shoulder. “We should concentrate on one thing at a time. You guys are hungry. Let’s deal with that.”
“Okay,” Xander exhales.
*****
There is a knock on the door and Xander sits up. He rubs his sleepy eyes. There is another knock. “Yeah, hold on!” He calls out. Walking over to the door, Xander opens it. Claire is standing there. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Get dressed quickly.”
“Why? What’s wrong?” He asks, worried.
“They have figured some stuff out but we need your help.”
“I will get dressed right now. Give me a minute.” She nods and Xander shuts the door. With great haste, he quickly gets dressed.
When he opens the door, Claire raises an eyebrow. “You weren’t kidding when you said give me a minute.”
“We had to learn to get ready really fast,” Xander says. “You didn’t want to receive punishment.”
Cracking her knuckles, Claire glares. “I can’t wait to get ahold of this collector and shut down this damn institute. I want to burn it to the ground but Damien says absolutely not. I guess we need any technology or information that we can find. I asked if we could burn it to the ground after that and he shook his head at me. So then I asked if we could blow it up. That would be even better. He proceeded to walk away from me. I will have my way.”
“I will push the button.”
“I will fight to get you to do that,” Claire replies, with a curt nod. “Now, let’s go.”
They make their way through the ship and come to a room. Walking in, Xander looks around. One wall is covered in screens and computer panels. “Whoa,” he exhales. Turning around he sees a lot of electronics on the wall. “Where are we?”
“Well, actually, a top secret room, but we need your help, so I’m trusting you not to say anything,” Damien replies.
Mr. Paulson steps forward. “We have come up with a few things.”
“Like?” Xander says.
“Mason’s cuff,” Dr. Galliger says. “Also, Claire’s gloves.”
“It’s only been three days,” Xander gasps. “Seriously?”
Smiling, Mr. Paulson says, “We had it done yesterday but needed to test it.”
“How did you test it?” Ariel asks, walking into the room with Aurora and a guard member.
“The cuff we threw on Claire. She is more similar to Mason than a normal Neturu,” Mr. Paulson replies.
“It screwed with my energy,” Claire says. “That’s for sure. It made my skin crawl a little bit but I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t absorb energy. I couldn’t shift once I had energy.”
Damien crosses his arms. “We may have come up with something that will change our security. We now have a way to keep Neturu from shifting. It was a good idea Ariel.”
Ariel blushes and looks down. “It was just a simple idea.”
“It was a good idea,” Dr. Galliger says. “You should be proud of that. If you want to do more with your scientific knowledge, then I urge you to do so.” She smiles broadly.
“What about Claire’s gloves?” Xander asks.
“That we have no way to test,” Mr. Paulson sighs. “It will shock people. We’ve tried that, but we aren’t sure what kind of an effect it will have on him. We just have to hope it works.”
“When are we going to Australia then?” Ariel asks.
Claire answers, “As soon as possible.”
“We need to start to search for the institute,” Mr. Paulson says. “Can you describe what you saw?”
“At first it was mountainous,” Xander says.
“We went over a few bodies of water and rivers,” Aurora says.
Dr. Galliger turns to her. “I have never thought to ask. When you are combined with each other do you both see what you are doing? How do you decide what to do?”
“We can talk to each other,” Aurora replies. “That’s what The Collector was trying to get us to do seamlessly is shift together. We don’t think about it much anymore. We just do it.”
“How interesting,” Dr. Galliger murmurs, just looking at her. “Someday, I would really like to understand you more. All three of you.”
“As long as it doesn’t hurt, I will do it,” Xander replies.
“Let’s go over a few maps,” Mr. Paulson says, pressing a couple of things on a screen. A giant map shows up. “You said you ended up in Casper.”
Xander steps up to the screen. “Yeah, but we have no idea how long we flew. It was sometime in the morning when we escaped. When we got to Casper, we hid out for three days. Literally, hiding. We finally came out to get something real to eat. We had to steal clothes and food.”
“Xander grabbed a guy’s wallet and we took a bus away from there,” Aurora states.
“Where was the sun when you got to Casper?” Dr. Galliger asks.
“I don’t know,” Aurora replies. “We were so scared and exhausted. Ariel and I fell asleep for hours. Xander watched out for us.”
Dr. Galliger turns to Xander. “Can you remember anything about when you got there?”
“No, we hid out in this warehouse,” Xander says. “We didn’t even know it was a warehouse. We knew nothing. We were terrified.”
“Can you try and see if you remember anything?” Damien urges.
He closes his eyes and thinks. “There were a lot of kids on the streets walking. They all had backpacks on.”
“They must have just gotten out of school!” Claire exclaims. “So, that’s around three o’clock.”
Mr. Paulson types in a few things. “If we guess at how fast you were going from the calculations we had from when you left with Claire and combine that with how many hours you flew, this is the area of which you could have come from.”
Everyone stares at the screen. “Well that narrows it down,” Ariel snorts.
“You said it was mountainous,” Dr. Galliger says.
“Over half of that is mountainous!” Xander exclaims.
“Whoa,” Claire gasps, stepping back.
“What?” Damien asks.
She looks at him with wide eyes. “Lexi’s back.”
Chapter 12
Claire
Mommy. She hears in her head.
“Lexi?” Claire hesitantly says.
Mommy, go to the map.
“What’s she saying?” Damien asks.
“Shhhh,” Claire says. “Okay, Lexi.” She steps up to the screen. “What do you want me to do?”
Point finger at map.
Claire does. “Are you going to show me something?”
Lexi, Mommy come for Lexi. Mommy come for others.
“Are you at the institute?”
Mommy must come. Lexi alone. Others don’t know Lexi.
“No one knows about you,” Claire exhales.
Lexi special. Lexi not allowed by others. Mommy come. Mommy come before it’s too late.
“Okay, can you show me where you are?” She asks.
Go towards big water.
Claire starts to go left. “This way?”
Yeah, Mommy great. Go, go, go, go. Claire slowly moves her finger. Stop Mommy! Claire does. Mommy go to the cold.
“What do you mean go to the cold?”
Mommy goes toward the snow.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
Mommy goes towards Mommy.
Stopping dead, Claire says, “You know where we are?”
Mommy by the snow.
She turns towards Damien with shocked eyes. “She knows where we are.”
“What!” He exclaims.
Map Mommy. Claire shakes her head and goes back to the map. “Go North?” There is no comment. “Lexi, should I go up? Up towards Mommy?”
Yeah. Up towards Mommy and Daddy.
“Mommy and what?”
Daddy. Daddy doesn’t believe. Lexi make him believe.
Claire looks at Damien. “Guess you have a kid, too.” She can’t help but laugh. He raises an eyebrow. Claire turns back to the map and starts to go up.
Stop! Go big!
“I think she wants me to zoom in,” Claire says to Mr. Paulson. He does. “Tell me when to stop Lexi.”
Mommy stop. Mommy go toward Mommy and then go towards Daddy.
“Like literally towards Daddy?” Claire asks.
“Towards what!” Damien yells.
“Shut up Damien,” Claire snaps. “Okay, Lexi. I’m going to go north. You tell me when to go to Daddy.”
Go Mommy, Mommy, Mommy. Now Daddy! Stop. Water that look like Minna.
“Minna? What in the hell is Minna?” Claire asks, turning around to look at Xander.
He comes forward. “It’s a type of flower on Jiub. Why?”
