Dark Demise

by Rebecca Royce

  “I can’t get you dinner. We don’t have enough time. But I got these cookies before the explosion. I thought they might do.”

  With ten minutes, this was perfect. I took one chair, and he sat across from me. “This is ridiculously adorable.”

  He smiled. I did like how I seemed to be able to make him laugh and grin when others found him so completely intimidating. “I’ve seen that people tend to like chocolate. I don’t have much of a taste for sweets, but I wanted to get it for you, and they say sharing the meal is important. I tend to just eat as I go.”

  I took a bite of the cookie. Chocolate tasted different on Sandler One than it did here. That was true for a lot of the food I ate. “I think the chocolate on Sandler One is slightly less sweet. I mean, I know all dark chocolate isn’t as sweet, but this is milk chocolate, and it does taste different. Thank you. I love that you did this.”

  He sat back in his seat. How was he already done with the cookie? I tried to chew faster. “I’m glad. I wanted to make you smile. You light up every room when you do.”

  I nearly choked. “Thank you.” I was going to work on compliments. “Can I ask you a question?”

  Rohan leaned forward. “Please do.”

  “How did you end up here? I know Canyon’s story. But how did you come through the black hole?”

  He took my hands in his. “I did a lot of things in the name of Evander. Some of them were worthy, some not. I didn’t know the difference.” This was so close to Canyon’s story. I bet if I asked Sterling, he would have a similar one, too. Evander made Super Soldiers in labs to do their dirty work, and a few of them came to understand they didn’t want to be those men.

  “Go on.” I thought better of it. “Unless you don’t want to.”

  He shook his head. “I set aside my weapons on a planet called Welks. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t raid the homes there so Evander could be even bigger. Not on the backs of those poor people. They were starving. So, I was to be executed. Born in a lab, killed in one.”

  I touched the side of his face. “Rohan, I’m sorry. I don’t want to cause you pain. I shouldn’t have asked.”

  He leaned forward and pressed his forehead against mine. “No, we need to know one another as best as we can. I didn’t fight back. Where was I going to go that they wouldn’t find me? I was… tired. I wanted to save people. Not kill them. Soul tired. I had no wish to die. Hard to explain, really. At that time, I was simply numb to anything. Canyon arrived. He’d escaped and came for me. We’d worked together, many times. He heard what was happening. Told me about the black hole Sterling had chased his love through. Perhaps we could go see what there was there. We were on our way to do so when we encountered Evander ships, and so we followed them to see if we could help whoever they were after. We met Melissa. The rest, as they say, is history.”

  I’d been kissed by two different men, and neither time had I initiated it. This time was different. As gently as I could manage, I pressed our lips together. He gasped just a little at the contact and then deepened the embrace.

  Our kisses were sloppy until we figured each other out. He wasn’t practiced at this and neither was I. Every nerve ending in my body stood at attention and screamed yes, please! He moaned against my mouth. I wanted him. Right then. I…

  A knock broke us apart, and I sat back in my seat, breathing heavy. “Sorry to interrupt,” Jackson’s voice called through the door. “Time to go.”

  Rohan sighed, rubbing his eyes. “Just a second,” he answered Jackson. “Can you do me a favor?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  He shook his head. “She says so easily. You don’t know what it is yet.”

  “That’s true.” He was just a little rumpled from where my hand had been in his hair. “But this is you. And me. Part of this… thing we’re doing is that we do favors for one another without question.”

  Rohan made a sound I couldn’t decipher in the back of his throat. “If you knew how dark I could get, you wouldn’t make that statement.”

  I leaned forward. “I’m a Sandler, Rohan. I’m good with dark. What did you need?”

  His smile was nothing short of wolfish. “Yes, I’m going to ask you. I just like this. The back and forth between us. How fast it is. How easy it comes. Sorry, your kisses have muddled my brain. I want you to take me to bed last. Can you do that? Take the other three and then me. Just for tonight.”

  Seemed like an easy thing to promise. “Unless there is some medical reason, you can count on that happening.”

  He stood. “Great.”

  I still didn’t really understand. “Why?”

  Rohan shook his head. “I’m not going to tell you.”

  Well, I supposed that was better than telling me let’s talk about it later like everyone else did. Rohan opened the door, and I walked through it. Jackson waited in the hall. He tugged me to him, kissing me on the lips. “Do you really plan to sit in that chair the whole time?”

  I nodded. “I see you and Ari have been discussing this.”

  “And Canyon. He’s not happy about it either.”

  Rohan turned around. “What chair?”

  The aforementioned Canyon waited in the doorway for us. “She sat, even slept, in that uncomfortable chair in the Med Bay the whole time we were gone and means to do it again.” Canyon reached out his hand and Jackson let go of me when I walked into Canyon’s embrace.

  He was warm, and I wondered if he’d just gotten out of the shower. His lips lowered to mine, and I gasped slightly. The others had kissed me before, but this was the first time for Canyon. He lifted his head as he stroked his hand down the side of my face. “I had to know before I went.”

  They were going to leave me with a clouded head. “Know what?”

  “If that was as sweet as I thought it was going to be.” He gave me a wide grin. “Your light is so bright right now. Just how I want it to be.”

  He ushered me through the room into the Med Bay. Ari had clearly fussed with the chair. My covers were on it, as well as my pillow, but he’d also wrapped a sheet around the back to make it more comfortable and found some kind of ottoman to put near it so I could stretch out my legs.

  Ari pointed at the chair. “Should be slightly better.”

  “More than slightly. Thank you.” Canyon let go of me, and I walked toward Ari who kissed me, hard. I’d never been kissed before Jackson did it, and now I was spinning from all of the attention.

  Ari let me go, stepping back. “We made her blush. Pretty color on your skin.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Stop it.”

  He laughed, and behind me, so did Jackson. They were all there. I guessed it was time.

  “Guys, this was scary tonight. I mean, I get that we handled the ships that came but be careful. Where are you going?”

  Jackson hopped on his table. “Back before this happened. We can’t undo this. But we can see what’s next. Your father has a base where we think he’s hanging out. It’s on the edge of Sandler One. Makes no sense that he’s there, except it seems on his main world there is an uprising. This is all good news. We’ll know for sure.”

  “It’s really too bad you can’t go back and stop the attack altogether.” I hooked my tablet to his med machine. I wanted their before and after readings.

  “It would break the machine.” Canyon got into his spot. “I mean, forgetting that we’d alter the future and maybe destroy something important, the machine would overload.”

  I touched his knee. “How do you know that?”

  “He basically talks to machines.” Rohan sat on the edge of his table. “He’s a genius.”

  I kept my gaze on Canyon. “You basically talk to machines to the point that you know it would overload. But you can’t build a new scanner or understand, exactly, why this one works?”

  Rohan laughed, throwing his head back. “She sees right through it, Canyon. And you thought it would just be us who questioned you.”

  “Canyon might be able to do it if he gave i
t any thought.” Ari sighed. “But he keeps insisting that Keith, Judge, and Wes build the time machines.”

  I stepped back. They looked ready. “Been to the future to know?”

  Canyon finally spoke again. “Some things don’t have to be seen to be known.”

  I really didn’t have an answer for that. I supposed for Canyon that was true.

  Rohan picked up the scanner first. It was the old one that somehow had made its way all the way back to Orion on the other side of the galaxy for Diana to find it years ago. The device sat in the corner, always off. I liked the routine of this. I’d only seen this twice but it seemed some things were always in the same space.

  “Good luck.”

  Like before, they popped away from me. I sat down on my chair. Somewhere in time and space they’d gone, and all I could do was stay here, wait, and feel their kisses on my lips.

  The eight hours dragged. I dozed for two of them in the chair, read my book, straightened up the little bit of mess that happened during the attack. My tablet turned back on, connecting to the server. Makenna must have thought it was safe to be back online. I was going to ask Paloma about her, today.

  I scanned through the reports coming in. Most of the damage seemed to be in the family quarters section, where I had been. No one was killed, but they were treating a lot of young children for injury. I saw red when I read that. I bet my father’s people had done that on purpose. Attacking where the families lived.

  I sighed. Getting my blood pressure up wasn’t going to fix anything right now. I made a list of things that had to be done to make this place more comfortable for them. I did actually leave the room to set up their wake-up snacks ahead of time. Nothing bad happened in my absence, but I practically ran to the Mess and back. It was up and running. In fact, everything had returned to working order pretty quickly.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Melissa giving direction. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen her. She called out my name and was quickly by my side. “Are they okay?”

  “They are.” I nodded. “How are you? Everyone doing well?”

  “Shaken, but fine. Diana and Asher had a lot of this when they were young, and they’re both fine. We’re sending Asher off on a shuttle to battle. I can’t believe he’s old enough, but he is, and this is what he wants. Maybe the years of this made them stronger.” She sighed and then scrunched up her nose. “I had the strangest dream about you the other night. I can’t remember it but… you were in it.”

  I laughed. While I really didn’t want to be rude to Diana’s mother, I’d been away from the room and wanted to get back to it. “Dreams are like that. I almost never remember mine unless they’re memories.” Like the unfortunate one I’d had of my father recently.

  Melissa blinked rapidly. “Right. Memory dreams. Good luck, Waverly. I think you’re perfect to manage this with them. I hear through the grapevine there’s love brewing, too. They’re great guys.”

  There were rumors? I jarred at the news. Well, of course there would be. Ari and I had made a scene. With that thought, I left Melissa to get back to waiting.

  Eight hours on the dot, the scanner popped back followed by the guys. I knew instantly this time was different. Rohan gripped his hand, he doubled over from the waist. “What happened?” I was there, as fast as I could be.

  Ari was at my side, holding the table and Jackson jumped off his seat to grab the tablet. He started talking as he inputted what info he needed to give. “We know the location of all of their ships, and we know they have five hostages from us who are hurt, injured. Your father is trying to turn them. Rohan let himself be captured to see them.”

  “My pain receptors are dulled.” He rocked back and forth. “So I can endure for a long time. But this was hours of torture with fire. It’s just hit me.”

  I grabbed him, pulling him to the med machine. “In. You can recover from the time travel in here today.”

  He didn’t fight me and got in. I looked at Ari. “Go lie down before you hurt yourself. Burns I can do.”

  “Fuck. Okay. Yes.” Ari listened to me, and Jackson moaned as he settled back down.

  Canyon looked steady. “Rohan will recover from this. And I knew you would be the right person to save us all.”

  Diana had used that phrase for me, too. I shook my head. I was barely keeping it together. In no way was I saving them all.

  They all started talking again, except for Rohan who was out cold in the med machine. The readout looked like he’d be in there an hour. Just in time for him to get up and go to his own bed. Perfect.

  If any of this could be called perfect…

  We lived in a universe where we had to travel through time to save lives and beat my father. I knew other people had parental issues, but boy did mine take the cake.

  I didn’t have any time left to feel sorry for myself. Jackson opened his arms. “I can’t let you go there, Waverly. They’ll take you away from me. They’ll come and tell me I’m not good enough to be here, that I’m just the son of a traitor.”

  I hugged him tightly. “Sshh. Silly man. No one is taking me anywhere. Lie back, okay? Can you do that for me? I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

  His blood pressure had skyrocketed. So had Canyon’s and Ari’s. It was a good thing they were so healthy. The med machine would keep Rohan’s vitals in check. Jackson did as I asked. I kissed his cheek. “Have good delusions, not bad ones.”

  I made my way to Canyon. He actually smiled at me. “I can see the color again.” I tugged on his arm to lay him back.

  “What color is it this time?”

  He cocked his head to the side. “Slightly blue. I think. I might be misidentifying colors. I don’t know them.”

  He didn’t say anything else so I left him to his vision. His brain waves jumped around. Someday a person smarter than me was going to have to do a study on how this worked, exactly. Ari stared at the floor. I touched his leg. “How are you doing?”

  He raised his gaze. “I lost my girl.”

  “You did?” I checked his readings. He was on par with the others.

  He nodded. “I didn’t know I was hurting her. I’m just an idiot. I made her feel bad. The one woman I care about and I showed her just the opposite. What’s the matter with me? She’s going to love these guys that are like brothers to me. And I’ll have to watch.” A tear slipped from his eye. “She’s never going to forgive me.”

  My heart squeezed. “Oh, I think she’s going to forgive you.” I helped him to lie prone again. “And I think you’re going to kiss the heck out of her.”

  His eyes closed. “I hope so. I feel like I’m home when I’m with her.”

  He hadn’t said that to me before. I smoothed his hair off his face. “Only good thoughts now.”

  I sat and waited for their next round of delusion. These were secret times, just for us to share.

  Ari stumbled getting into his bed. “You should have a room here. Move in here with us. It doesn’t make sense how you have to go running around.”

  I didn’t mind that idea. “Let’s see what the others say. If everyone wants that, I’ll come.”

  “They want it. Trust me. On this, I can be sure.” He rubbed his eyes, pulling the covers over himself. “What do I talk about when I’m under?”

  I knelt next to the bed. “Sad things.”

  “Like what?” His eyes were clear for the moment. He’d been the first to wake up this time.

  “The first time was about your father hurting your mom, how you defended her, and then left. Today was about thinking you’d lost me.”

  He snorted. “I’m a basket of joy.”

  I tugged the edge of his long hair. “Sweet man. Don’t worry about anything. Just rest. Thirty hours from this moment, you’ll wake up and it’ll be a new set of whatever problems are happening then. All is well right now.”

  “Waverly.” He sighed, his eyes closing.

  I got Canyon to his room next. He pointed a finger at me, before he
climbed in to sleep. “No almost getting killed.”

  “I’ll do my very best.”

  I really would. If for no other reason than I didn’t want him to have to get up too early and strain himself again. Jackson mumbled the whole way to his room. He was hardly awake, and then he face planted into his pillow. I rolled him over and covered him up. He never stirred.

  Last was Rohan. He had to come out of the machine. I ran back in to get him just to see him sitting up and waiting for me. Had he taken himself out of the machine? It was almost impossible. But then again, this was Rohan.

  He jumped down, showing me his hand. “Doesn’t hurt anymore.”

  “Good. That’s what the machine should do—fix you.” He walked slowly next to me. This was what he wanted, to go last.

  He held out his hand. “Come lie down with me.”

  Oh, his reasoning suddenly made sense. I grinned. “Rohan, I don’t think you’re going to have the strength to do anything in that bed. You’re going to be out in a minute.”

  He snorted. “Just want to sleep with you, Wave-y.”

  I kicked off my shoes. I was ready for some rest. It would be nicer to be with him than all alone in my room. I crawled in next to him, and he settled down on his side facing me, his arm over my stomach. “Good. This is good.”

  “I can’t stay here thirty hours.”

  He shook his head. “Stay as long as you want. Some dates end like this right? Lying in bed together, in the darkness?”

  His words slurred just slightly. I touched is chin to feel the slightest growth of whiskers. “They do. I mean, I think they do. I have as much experience dating as you do.”

  He didn’t answer me. His eyes were closed. He breathed quietly. Rohan was warm. They were all safe. I exhaled and closed my eyes. For the next few hours, this was just what I needed.

  11

  The Calm

  I slept for eight hours wrapped up in Rohan’s arms. He was so silent, so still. Canyon had been, too. I wondered if that was a Super Soldier thing. I got dressed and, after stopping to glance in on the others, went back to my room to shower and get ready for the day. Fortunately, there was enough time to see Paloma before I started my shift.