“Come in James,” she called.
He smiled as he approached her, coming to stand behind her, embracing her and kissing the back of her neck. “You look beautiful,” he whispered softly in her ear, deeply inhaling the scent of the perfume she had just sprayed on.
She smiled and leaned back into him. “Thank you, . . . you don’t look to shabby yourself,” she said as she took in his appearance, which was a pair of black trousers and a tucked in formal white button down shirt with a few of the top buttons undone, revealing a T-shirt underneath and his cross.
“I have something for you,” he said mysteriously, releasing her and reaching into one of his pockets. He held up a bright platinum necklace with a pendant of a small diamond encrusted crescent moon with a star on the tip.
“It’s beautiful!” Ava exclaimed turning and giving him a quick kiss. “Please, will you put it on me?” She said as she turned back to the mirror.
He felt pleased that she liked his gift and wasted no time fastening it around her neck. He wanted to give her something to break her habit of wearing her gold locket every chance that she got.
“This will go perfectly with the earrings that Emma gave me to wear to the concert,” Ava announced as she removed her grandmother’s earrings from her ears and placed them inside the box, next to the locket. Then she placed the small sparkling dangling earrings that she adored into place. “I think I’m ready now,” she said smiling at James, who offered his arm to lead her to whatever the surprise was.
They walked down the steps of the main house and out into the heat and onto the terrace. Just when Ava thought they would turn towards the gazebo on the beach, he steered them the other direction towards the rose garden. The sun had just started to set as they entered the garden, which had been turned into an elegant dining area.
“Surprise!” Everyone shouted at her as soon as they entered the festively decorated area.
“Thank you . . . this is all so beautiful, but what am I being surprised for?” Ava said with confusion.
“Ava! . . . It’s your birthday!” Lizeth announced.
“My birthday? But it’s the wrong day and the wrong month.” She said, looking at James, still confused.
“Actually . . . you are right. It isn’t your birthday, it was about six weeks ago. I’m sorry we missed it. We recently calculated it out for you since the time is different here,” James explained.
“I had no idea,” she sounded astonished. How could she forget her own birthday?
“We’re happy that you’re here and we can celebrate it with you now!” Melanie said as she and Lucas came to give Ava a big hug. The others followed suit and she finally observed her surroundings in greater detail. Pretty white lights had been strewn around and hung festively against the backdrop of the flowers, creating a romantic and happy ambience. It would be even more beautiful when the sun completely set. The garden almost reminded Ava of a past Valentine’s Day she spent with Wesley. She squashed that thought as soon as it surfaced. It was beautiful and there was an elegant table set up for dinner. After a little while everyone was settled and dinner was served.
∞
“Set us down over there,” Wesley pointed to an empty field off the coast; away from what they could tell was a developed city. They wanted to attract as little attention as they could to maintain the element of surprise. The whole mood of the ship had changed as both Wesley and Naomi could now sense that Ava was near. Although the ship had gone undetected, they would be visible once they stepped outside of it. They would also be able to feel any of the Asterions nearby, and be felt by them.
After their descent and un-eventful landing they powered up the small courier that was hidden in the cargo area of the ship and eased it onto the ground. As a group they decided to leave Ash with the ship on standby while Wesley, Andre, and Naomi would go in closer to try to retrieve Ava. They did not know how heavily she would be guarded and felt the best plan to try would be for Wesley to teleport in once they got closer and bring her back. They hoped to avoid a confrontation at all costs until Ava was safely aboard the Principia.
∞
After dinner, Blayke and James retrieved their guitars and took turns playing for everyone to dance to. Everyone seemed happy and relaxed as the night sky became visible overhead, showing just how beautiful the stars and the little lights were. It was a warm evening with a soft breeze flowing through occasionally. Sphene was heading into autumn, and although it was a tropical environment and was warm all year, it was noticeably cooler in the evenings.
“Are you ready for your cake Ava?” Emma asked. “We had to keep it inside because we didn’t want it to melt out here.”
“Sure, that sounds great!” Ava replied, sipping on her glass of champagne.
Moments later she appeared carrying a multi tiered elaborately decorated cake with sparklers fired up. James exquisite voice led the way to sing and extremely old fashioned “Happy Birthday” song that embarrassed Ava. When the singing ended she blew out the sparklers, but apparently they were the trick kind that kept igniting several times for her to blow out, much to the amusement and clapping of her family.
After the applause had ended, Ava noticed that James and some of the others exchanged some concerned glances.
“We forgot the plates and serving utensils, . . . we’ll be right back,” Emma said sounding a little off, motioning for Lizeth to come with her. The two of them quickly walked back towards the house. Ava noticed that what they had gone to get was actually sitting on one of the tables against one of the walls further away.
“Is something wrong?” Ava asked looking around at the faces in the garden, starting to feel butterflies in her stomach as the mood had drastically changed amongst her family. She could tell by the surge in their energy.
“I’m going to take a look around, stay right here Ava,” James said softly as he motioned for Blayke and Nicholas to come with him. They also walked out of the garden, fanning out as they passed the exit.
“What’s happening Melanie?” Ava asked, starting to panic as she looked around.
“We don’t know yet, Ava. It would be best to stay calm,” Lucas said serenely, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“Maybe we should go back to the house . . .” Ava said uncertainly. Then, suddenly, the lights to the entire property, including the garden went out. Ava started to feel very nervous and she clutched her crystal wine glass like she was holding on for dear life. Lucas left Ava with Melanie and drifted over to the entrance to the garden and peered out.
“I think I sense something Mel,” Lucas said, calling to her. “Come over here please,” he said calmly.
“I’m going to be right over there Ava, stay right here,” Melanie instructed, walking away.
Ava stood very still watching her friends walk away from her. It was dark, but the moon was nearly full, shedding light on their situation. Suddenly she had an idea. I bet this is a training exercise of some sort, the thought. They are trying to scare me into some critical thinking survival skills or something she reasoned. She breathed a sigh of relief as she sensed James’ energy drawing near. She took a step backwards towards the table she had been sitting at earlier and bumped into something. The something startled her into dropping her wine glass and the sound resonated like a bomb going off.
Things seemed to happen impossibly fast after that. Ava screamed as some very strong arms closed around her, struggling before she knew who was holding her, but she recognized the energy after a few seconds. It was James, but he felt different, the energy was slightly different. It had been so long since she had felt it, and it was building, gaining momentum for teleportation. It wasn’t James. Lucas and Melanie were there in an instant, tackling them and bringing them down, halting the process. The arms clasped around Ava protected her in the fall so that she was not injured. Once the fall broke, the arms released her and she rolled to her feet on guard just as how she had been taught, taking a ready stance with her fists up.
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Then it seemed like all Hell broke loose as the lights miraculously came back on and Ava saw them. She brought her hands to her face and gasped as she looked upon Wesley, Naomi, and Andre, who looked relieved to see her, but ready for anything. It had been Andre who controlled the lights she realized. She dropped her fists and started to run to them when Melanie and Lucas grabbed her, pulling her back.
“Let her go,” Wesley commanded authoritatively. “She’s mine!”
“We’ll see about that,” James’ stern voice countered as he appeared in the garden, flanked by his family who seemed to be ready to fight if needed.
The two halves of the whole locked eyes on each other. They did not speak, they did not need to. Being this close together, Ava could sense the animosity between their collective essence. Their powerful energy saturated everything, stinging her. It was almost as if their mind had also merged and they were having a private heated argument between themselves as they walked towards each other in the center of the garden.
Andre and Naomi backed up, James’ family doing the same, bringing Ava with them, giving the two of them space. It was apparent that the two families no longer had an interest in fighting each other; this was clearly about Ava only. She wriggled free of the death grip her new family had on her and stood there watching the two people she loved most in this world size each other up. Andre and Naomi quickly moved around towards Ava.
Naomi raised her hands partly up. “I have no quarrel with you,” she said to Melanie as she approached Ava.
“Nor I you,” Melanie responded, eyeing them cautiously as they came before Ava.
Naomi enveloped Ava in a bear hug, followed by Andre. The two of them stood with James’ family, each keeping a hold on Ava while the oldest Asterions in existence prepared to face off. Wesley was angry, extremely angry, as far as Ava could tell. She had never seen him this way; he almost appeared as though he had a light shine to his body from the anger. He wasn’t dead after all and she felt elated. She wanted to run to him, to hold him, to kiss him. But she couldn’t, not when he was in such a defensive mode. Ava started to panic. What if James stopped Wesley’s heart? What if Wesley ripped James to shreds? She held her breath, waiting for one of them to use their abilities to hurt the other. But they didn’t. She could sense something between them. They couldn’t use their abilities on one another for some reason. All they had was their physical strength. It seemed Wesley finally had enough of his private conversation with James. He lunged at James, sending them both flying backwards onto the ground, they both grunted loudly. And then it began.
The two of them launched into a full blown fist fight, while the others stood by calmly watching with, it seemed, no intention of intervening. James rammed his fists into Wesley’s face and chest, sending him crashing into the table they had just eaten dinner on. The table collapsed, flinging wood pieces everywhere. The birthday cake slid down the table and almost landed on him but he moved quickly and was up in an instant. Ava watched in horror as Wesley punched James in the face, grabbed him, and threw him over the wall of the garden out towards the beach. He teleported out there to attack again but James was already on his feet, punching Wesley fiercely in the abdomen, knocking him down. Wesley rolled out of the way just in time for James to issue a punishing blow to the sand, which went flying everywhere.
“Stop them!” Ava screamed to Andre and Lucas. Her face was already flushed with tears and heat from being so upset. The two men made no moves to break up the fight. The sound of fists pounding on flesh sickened Ava. She had never seen such a brutal fight before. The two of them wouldn’t stop; they just kept pummeling each other. James was advancing on Wesley, trying to force him back towards the water. Wesley appeared to be aware of what was going in. If they couldn’t overpower one another, they could try to drown one another.
“Do something! Please do something!” Ava begged the Asterions she was standing with on the beach. Naomi and Andre had released their hold on her after they followed the fight onto the beach. They stood in a semicircle observing the vicious confrontation going on. It was clear they would not, or perhaps could not, interfere from whatever Asterion code of ethics they were following. However, Ava was not going to stand by and watch these two great men kill each other over her. Her mind raced, she had to do something to get them to stop fighting. She looked around her for something, anything she could use to distract them. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a gun in Andre’s holster. Of course! It was the same one he had on E.S. Number One.
In one swift movement Ava turned, reached under Andre’s jacket and wrenched the gun out of the holster. She slipped out of their grasp and she ran down the beach as fast as she could, aimed the gun, and fired two red blazing shots in the air. The two rivals still paid her no attention and kept fighting. Ava knew she probably had mere seconds before one of the family took the gun from her so she inhaled a deep breath and aimed. First at James, she fired a few shots.
He looked up, alarmed, and stopped fighting. He raised his hands and used his ability to deflect the shots while Ava then aimed the gun at Wesley and fired another two shots. He stopped his attack to summon the energy to quickly teleport away from the blasts. Ava advanced on them now that they were apart from one another. “This fight ends here . . . right now!” Ava shouted at them, her voice shaking slightly. She had tears welling up in her eyes as she spoke. The other Asterions had come up closer to behind her but no one tried to take the gun away from her.
“You taught her how to shoot?” Wesley growled angrily at James, looking at Ava in astonishment.
“Somebody had to teach her how to defend herself,” he retorted with a smirk, beaming at Ava.
“Ava, put the gun down please,” Wesley begged quickly, putting his hands up. He was clearly worried that Ava had other ideas on what she could do with the gun, praying suicide wasn’t one of them. He wiped the blood away from his split lip on his sleeve. It was hard to see in the dark, but it was healing and the swelling was already going down.
“Not until you listen . . . both of you!” She said sternly glancing cautiously at them.
James picked up on Wesley’s concern and stepped further away from him. “Okay, we’re listening to you Ava.” He produced a handkerchief out of one of his pockets and mopped up the blood that had run down his face from his broken nose that was in the process of healing.
“Ava, James, Wesley, . . . everybody just calm down,” Naomi said soothingly. Wesley continued to breathe heavily out of anger, staring at James. “Wesley, we found Ava. Look, you can see for yourself that she hasn’t been harmed. Why don’t we hear what she has to say?” Naomi reasoned coming closer.
Ava lowered the gun but backed away from Naomi, unwilling to relinquish it just yet. “There’s no reason to fight like this! This is my life . . . and I will decide what to do with it!” She raised her voice, and it came out sounding very stern. She turned to Wesley a little calmer, “We thought you were dead. I’m so relieved Wesley. You have no idea what I’ve been through.”
“Then tell me, please tell me,” he said soothingly, moving closer to her.
“Stop right there Robinson!” James said sharply, moving in closer himself.
“Enough!” She yelled. “No more fighting, I can’t . . . I just can’t. . .” She said softly, unable to finish her sentence, tossing the gun away from all of them in the sand behind her, where it was promptly reclaimed by its owner.
“It’s going to be all right, look, I’m fine, come and see for yourself,” Wesley said calmly to Ava. She glanced at James and then slowly walked towards Wesley, raising her hands to touch his face. He enveloped her in a passionate embrace, holding her tightly, feeling her energy. She wrapped her arms around him and started crying. It took every ounce of self control James had not to interfere and break it up.
“I was so worried about you, I thought he’d hurt you. I’m so sorry Ava, you have no idea how sorry I am,” Wesley said softly to her.
James snorted. “
As if I would ever harm her. She’s infinitely safer here with me than she was with you.”
“All right, that’s it! Ava, say goodbye to your kidnappers, we are leaving,” Wesley said with finality, clutching her to him possessively.
“Like hell you are! Don’t even try to disappear with her Robinson, or I’ll tear your ship apart!” James threatened.
“No! Wesley, we aren’t leaving now,” Ava said suddenly, pulling away from him.
“I don’t believe this Ava! You are not going to do this to me again!” Wesley bellowed at her. Ava surprised even herself by instinctively taking a few steps back.
“Careful Robinson, you’re scaring her,” James scolded coming closer enough to Ava to take her hand. Wesley stared at the handholding as if he were in terrible pain.
“No . . . this can’t possibly be happening. You can’t have feelings for him Ava . . . after all that he’s done to you . . . to us?” Wesley choked out. “He abducted you!”
“It’s more complicated than that . . . James and his family saved my life on Kyanos.” Ava said plainly.
“What are you talking about? We saw the cave they chased you into . . .”
“That was my fault. I went exploring and accidently fell in. If James hadn’t come and pulled me out, then I would have died of dehydration.”
Wesley stared at Ava in disbelief and thought for a moment. “It still doesn’t make what he did right!”
“What is right in your book Robinson? You left a defenseless human alone in a desert on a strange planet while you went off to war. What if you had been killed, she would have starved to death eventually.”
“Ava can handle herself. And my people would have come for her.”
“Not if they were dead. And what of your enemies? Have you defeated them? We saw what they did to the Andromeda. One of them told us they killed you,” James said matter-of-factly.
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