by Dani Hoots
I wondered if the reason the transportation was so screwed up had to do with Recar being independent, wanting to maintain their way of life, so they don’t bother to change anything or make sure it was orderly. I knew Jack wouldn’t bother adding buildings or changing streets unless he absolutely had to, which meant it had to have been blown up or something. There just was too much paperwork involved.
Ah, that’s what it was. Paperwork. Ironic for a ‘business man’ to hate paperwork.
So they would rebuild buildings if they got damaged in some kind of brawl, but they would make them almost exactly the same as they were before. Which made me wonder how many times each building had been damaged and then restored. It would be hard to tell, even if I went through all the paperwork that was supposed to be issued, because I had a feeling in my gut a lot of the time it got ignored, that some of the things repaired had been done under the table.
I made my way on the underground train and listened as stop after stop was being called by the automatic speaker. I knew all the names by heart, knew where each one led, where the different connections were. I didn’t really have anywhere I wanted to go, nowhere in particular, but once the name ‘Dragon’ was called, I decided to step off and head up to the street. Why that name stood out from the others, I wasn’t quite sure. It could have been just because the fact a stop was named ‘Dragon’ stood out to me, as it reminded me of Sanshli with the statues of dragons guarding the building that Nygard had been placed in. Maybe it was a sign, that somewhere near this exit may just help me figure out how to find Sanshli after all.
Yeah, if I could ever be that lucky.
I wondered if I could find a place to stay around here, until I made my way into the hills just outside town, past where all the bandits lived, because I knew that they were out there, waiting for some unsuspecting traveler to rob. Maybe for the heck of it I would rob them, give them a little taste of their own medicine. Though it was definitely something I would do, I didn’t feel up to it, not with everything going on.
I did need supplies though, I wasn’t going to go out there empty handed. There was nothing out there, no shops or restaurants that I could visit if I needed to. I would have to be prepared.
One problem was in order to do that, I would need money. Sure, I had pick-pocketed a man earlier to get on the ship, but this was Recar we were talking about. There weren’t as many people that were easily tricked as there were in the rest of the galaxy. These people were used to pick-pockets, common thieves, gangs, so forth. I would have to be very careful if I wanted to find money. I would need to find a tourist that didn’t have a bunch of locks on their credits. Most knew of the seedy reputation of Recar, they knew the risk if they didn’t make sure their credits were secure on them.
The best place I could probably find money was at a bar. At least the men there were drunk and were easily distracted by a woman. I would keep an eye out for a bar that looked good to try my thieving skills at as I walked around. I would probably have to go to a few bars to get enough money though. Staying at one would just be a death sentence if anyone figured it out.
At least I didn’t have to worry about being considered a criminal here. It would just be part of daily life here.
I wandered the familiar streets, not paying attention to where I was going. I felt as if it was where I needed to go, a place my mind subconsciously took me. It was weird, it was a feeling I had since I left Anosira. A feeling in the back of my mind, as if it was taking me where I needed to go. I kept my head down while walking. I didn’t feel like holding it up high, I felt like disappearing with the crowd.
Keeping on the blind path that I was going, I felt my body stop. I wasn’t sure why, it just felt like my legs didn’t want to keep moving, like I needed to be where I was. I looked up to find that I had stopped in front of a small pub. It was quaint, with the name ‘Royal Straight’ in red neon lights plastered on the side. It looked like a good place to play cards, but sometimes looks were deceiving. It could just be a plain bar that wanted to have a gambling feel without the paperwork needed to run such a thing.
That is if they ran it legally. There were probably a few rooms in the back. There always were.
It was sort of underground, at least the entrance was down some stairs. It made it all the more conspicuous, as if only a few brave souls that weren’t criminals would ever enter this bar.
Which felt like the perfect place to hang out and pickpocket some people.
I stepped down the stairs, still debating if this was a good idea or not. It was raining, thundering behind me, just like the last time I was on Recar. At least this time I didn’t have a crime lord trying to kill me. Well, not yet anyways.
Taking a deep breath, I turned the door knob and stepped inside.
“Sorry, we aren’t open yet. Come back later.” A young waitress came from the back kitchen. Her hair was red with tight curls, and she had a thin face. Her cheeks were covered with freckles and I didn’t think she could be a day over seventeen.
I should have noticed it was still morning. I was all messed up from the space ride here, not thinking about the time change. For me it was almost dinner time. “Sorry, I don’t know what brought me here. I should have noticed you weren’t open, it’s still morning.”
I started for the door when I heard another person come out from the back.
“Wait!” the man called after me. I turned to find a tall, dark haired man standing in the doorway. He just stared at me, gaping. Why he was looking at me like that, I had no idea. I just stood there, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah? What is it?” I asked, not quite sure why some random guy would stop me from leaving a bar that wasn’t even open yet. It seemed strange which made me curious and was why I didn’t just turn and walk away.
He stepped closer to me, silent. His eyes were a beautiful shade of blue, ones I could stare at for hours. Not many people had that color blue and I always admired it. It seemed almost supernatural in a way.
The man smiled after a moment. “Cadi?”
My eyes widened. Only one person would ever call me that. Even though I thought it wasn’t possible, it had to be him. It had to. “Jack!”
CHAPTER 20
I didn’t hesitate as I ran and jumped into Jack’s arms. He was taller and it was odd being in love with a person in a different body, even though at least this time I knew it was him. He had recognized me, against all odds.
His new arms wrapped around my body. He was still just as strong; I could feel it. His face was scruffy as usual and his hair as shaggy as ever. It didn’t matter what century we were in, he would keep to the same look, but I knew he could pull anything off. He had that kind of distinct demeanor. The ‘say anything about how I look that isn’t good and I will kill you’ demeanor that I always liked about him. It was also why he insisted his nickname was ‘Handsome Jack’, not ‘Crazy Jack’ like everyone called him when he wasn’t around.
I started crying, tears soaking his already dirty dress shirt. It made me feel weak, honestly, but at this moment I didn’t care. My love was back from the dead. I finally had found him, against all odds. “They told me you were dead. They said they killed you.”
He stroked my back. “Shhh, don’t worry, I’m here. It’s okay. They would never be able to kill me.”
The strangest part of the change was hearing a different voice. His Recarian accent, of course, was still there. But this voice was different. This voice more direct, if that was the word. It was crisp and to the point. It was still Jack’s, though, and that was all that mattered to me.
I let him hold me in his arms. His shirt dried up the tears I shed. Tears for the past year that I was away from him. The past year where I didn’t know if he was alive or dead. It all came out, every tear I repressed. Every tear that I denied. I never cried, I never had reason to. Not until I heard Joss say those words that I had always feared. That he had killed him. It was a lie, but I didn’t know that then. If he could, Joss would have kil
led Jack years ago. If he foresaw this, he wouldn’t have even hesitated.
I was glad he didn’t say anything about how I was in this state, a state I never thought I would find myself in. After Father died in front of my eyes, after enduring what I did in the Kamps, I didn’t think I could shed another tear of sadness. I thought I had endured all that I could, that there was no way my body could endure it any longer, as if my emotions had turned off. I guess that was a lie I just told myself, a lie that I thought I was protecting myself with.
Jack looked up at the barmaid. I thought about commenting how she looked like the secretaries he used to have, but decided not to. I didn’t want to start that fight up again, though when I thought this I swore I heard him chuckle a little bit.
“Jane,” Jack began. “You and the rest have the day off, go let the others know. I’m not opening today. I’ll pay you all your salary. Just let us be alone alright?”
She gave me a suspicious look, as if she couldn’t understand why I was so important. I trusted Jack didn’t do anything with her, he knew I could kill him in so many different ways, though that didn’t mean she didn’t want his attention.
“Alright.” She turned and entered the kitchen. Jack kept me close as the workers left, stroking my hair gently.
“I missed you so much,” he whispered into my ear after everyone left. We could finally talk about what had happened without worrying about anyone overhearing, wondering what we were exactly. I know if I heard two people chatting about time travel, and that someone was from the future, I would try to listen in as well.
Jack went on. “I thought about looking for you but I didn’t know where to start. Figured if I stayed put, you would find me. Guess I was right.”
I took a deep breath to gather myself. I let my weakness show and now it was time to put it all back away. Go back to the person I was, someone who was strong enough to fight anything. “I wasn’t looking for you, I thought you were dead. For some reason, my intuition led me here. Pure happenstance.”
Jack pulled me back and looked at me, as if he was trying to figure something out, how I could have found him. I wondered if he thought I was lying, that I had known this whole time or something. After a moment, he smiled. “Let us catch up.” He pulled me to a booth and sat me down. “Tell me what happened.”
I closed my eyes. So much had happened since I last saw him, between being with my brother and with Joss. Yet it felt just like yesterday when I woke up in this time. “A lot. Jack, I don’t even know where to begin.” But I gave it a shot anyway. “We were transported back in time.”
“I gathered that. New body and everything.”
I laughed. I missed how sarcastic and cocky he was. We were like two peas in a pod. “Now you know how I felt on Sanshli. When I first woke up, Rik was Wes.”
Jack rubbed his chin. “The leader of the Republic? Chancellor Wes Atkins?”
I nodded. “Then Will and David are his generals. I was a ‘general’, if that is what you could call it. It felt more like I was a prisoner of war, but what could I expect? My brother hasn’t ever trusted me, not after he found out I was the Empire’s Shadow. I was there for a while but Rik was pissing me off so I decided to leave and find the Empire. I knew Neil would be waiting for a chance to get me alone, to get me to come back so that he could use my powers. I let that happen. I was there for a little while. I thought...” I paused, not wanting him to know what happened with Tom. “I thought you were with them. I found out you weren’t and Neil said he killed you. Then I ran.”
He bit his lip, watching as I thought about what Tom had done, lying about being Jack. I didn’t want to tell him what had happened, ashamed that I could have been fooled so easily. That, and the fact I almost slept with Tom.
“They lied to you just like that? Just to see if you would give up everything for me?” he asked.
I blinked. I had never said he was the reason I ran away, that I had risked being punished to tell him that I loved him, or really Tim who was pretending to be Jack. I had thought it, yes, but I knew for a fact that I hadn’t said anything out loud. “What?”
Realization of what he had said was apparent on his face. He knew he spoke too soon, that he let it slip out.
Which meant only one thing.
“Cadi—”
I frowned. “You can read minds can’t you?”
He nodded slowly. Of all the powers, it had to be that one, the one I dread the most, the one that was the most painful to deal with. Yes I could try and mask my thoughts, try and hide them from everyone around, because at this point I doubted there was a person out there who couldn’t read my mind. But it grew tiresome, just another thing to have to worry about, to have to be conscious about.
Why couldn’t people just stick to their own minds? Why did it always have to be that they were reading the minds of others, especially when they have the coveted ability?
“That’s all I need, another person in my mind.” I rubbed my forehead. Why everything kept getting more and more complicated, I had no idea. I just wanted it all to simmer down and settle, but it didn’t seem like that was ever going to happen anytime soon. “So then you know what happened with Tim.”
Jack rubbed the back of his neck, as if thinking of the best way to deal with him. If I knew Jack, which I did, I could guess all the fun things he would do with him, which hopefully he would let me take part in. “I’m going to kill him the next time I see him.”
Though I agreed, I really agreed, it wasn’t his idea. It was Joss’. “It wasn’t just him, he was ordered to act like you.”
“Yeah, I’m sure he protested.”
I didn’t blame him wanting to kill Tim, I was right there with him. But there was a lot more at stake. We had to defeat Nygard, we have so much to do before we could think about petty revenge. But if the time came, I would definitely want revenge. “What are we going to do next Jack?”
He bit his lip and closed his eyes for a moment. As he opened them, he pointed at my pocket. “Let me see that gem.”
Of course, instead of asking me about everything, he just read my mind. Everyone seemed to enjoy doing that as of late, act as if actually talking to me was too much trouble. Jack was probably just having fun with it, finally able to see what’s going on inside my mind. I know he had always been curious, as I was never truly open to anyone. This was probably a dream come true for him.
I sighed as I handed him the gem. “It can tell us where Sanshli is, problem is I don’t know how to use it. All I know is that the darkest light will show the location. So maybe if we shine light through it? But what the darkest light is, I have no idea.”
He examined it closely, as if I hadn’t already done so to look for clues. There was nothing on it, nothing in it. It looked like an ordinary gem to me. Maybe Violet was mistaken. Maybe this gem was a decoy and the other had been stolen. Seemed unlikely though, as it was fully enclosed in the hollow brick.
After Jack found nothing strange about the gem, he handed it back to me. “We will figure it out, don’t worry Cadi.”
I missed being called Cadi, that name that had been taken away from me a year ago. No one called me Arcadia, other than Wes, which had more to do with his stubbornness than it did caring that my life was a lie, that I wasn’t truly the person I once thought I was. Jack made that all go away, though. He made the change, the whirlpool that I had found myself in slow down. He made me feel like I was myself once again.
“Worry?” I asked. “I have to defeat Nygard, Jack. You think that will be easy? You think I can defeat a legend?”
He grabbed my hand and kissed my fingers, his lips gentle even though I knew he didn’t want them to be. It probably took him a lot of restraint, as it always did. “I think you can do anything, if you set your mind to it.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Well, I will always be at your side. You can count on that. Your wish is my command.” He did a little bow, as if he was some kind of gentleman or something. Though, out of
everyone I knew, he definitely was a gentleman in public. He knew all the things he needed to do to get a woman to like him. It was… concerning, actually, though I liked it sometimes. Lance came in at a close second though, as he was just polite to anyone. In his case, it made him weak and an easy target for some while for Jack it made him all the more cunning. I would never outright admit that to him and I made sure to hide that thought in my mind before he could read it.
I sighed. “What we need to do is hide this. If I know Neil, which I do, then he is going to come looking for me. He will find out about the gem, especially if Dan reveals I had disappeared for a few minutes on Ttkas to get it. And then, after we are ready and figure out the location of Sanshli, we must get everyone to go there together, then defeat Nygard and those that serve him.”
“Oh, is that all? Sounds simple,” Jack teased.
“Yeah, as easy as it has been for the past year. So easy,” I commented. I really couldn’t wait until it was all over. This mission felt like it was going on forever. Though, in hindsight, it really had been going on for thousands of years. This was just our end of it, I couldn’t imagine all that Brayen and Violet had gone through for this, to keep the universe at peace.
Jack added. “Getting your brother to do anything will be an interesting experience.”
Ugh. I didn’t even want to think about my brother and trying to get him to do anything for me. He didn’t think with a straight mind. I swore his brain was just wired for idiocy now. “Don’t even get me started. But I can tell him it’s the only way to end this, the only way to get Amanda back. Then he will go.”
