by Stella Sky
“Sidney,” I offered with a laugh.
“Ah,” Jareth took my hand. “Sidney. I am Jareth.”
“So, tell me,” Jareth began as he wandered back over to a holo-screen in the center of a large table at the far end of the room. “How is it that you’re not in captivity, Sidney?”
“I guess I just got on Tessoul’s good side,” I teased, offering flirtatious eyes to the Vithohn.
“A difficult thing to do,” Jareth said and then gave a full body shiver. “How do you combat this unbearable cold?”
“Sweaters,” I shrugged. “Indoor heating.”
“I told you!” Tessoul said with a laugh.
“And what do you do here, Jareth?” I asked.
The blue creature stopped mid-march and turned to look at me. He blinked twice, and with a wide, thin smile he said, “I am a–”
“–Strategist!” Tessoul interrupted.
I wasn’t sure if the sudden outburst was a cover-up or simply impatience for his slow little friend’s speech. I began to perceive it was the former when Jareth looked up and offered Tessoul an odd expression.
“Sort of,” Jareth said. “Yes.”
“And you’re not Vithohn?” I asked, acting like their exchange wasn’t completely suspicious.
“No. I am Socrora, from Avelon,” he said, continuing his slow march back to the screen.
I looked at Tessoul and offered a smile, crossing my arms as I wandered over to Jareth, wanting so badly to pick him up and help him along.
“How did you come to be teamed up with the Vithohn?” I asked.
“My planet was overrun by foreign life,” he said, his voice twittering between factual and panicked. “They propelled from the rocky ground and started taking over the land. They were large with spikes all down the spine, though I never got to research them further. Tessoul rescued me out of a hollow.”
“So you do have a heard?” I mocked and looked at Tessoul. I offered him a ginger smile, imagining him coming to Jareth’s rescue like some sort of sweet protector. The thought made my heart lilt, and I quickly looked away.
Jareth put on a ridiculously long finger and corrected, “He promised that if I made myself useful to his time, I could travel with them.”
“Ah,” I said, cocking both my brows. “The con-artist pops up again.”
“Well,” he mocked. “Nobody gets a free ride.”
“Uh-huh,” I said.
“It was a true shame,” Jareth lamented, hoisting himself up on the swivel stool before him. “Most all of my people were wiped out. I use the term people loosely, here. As you humans might use 'soul' to describe a living thing. Because obviously, we are Socrora.”
The blue creature began to laugh then, a hard laugh from his gut that echoed. It was the equivalent of a high-pitched child’s laugh, an uncontrollable, ‘Hehehe,’ someone might do when they’re out of breath from laughter.
Tessoul and I exchanged a curious look, and we both began to laugh. Not at the joke, since I couldn’t really identify that there ever was one, but at how hilarious his friend thought it was.
“I'm sorry that happened to you,” I finally said with a smile.
Jareth’s voice died down then, and he wiped his face. “Yes. Well, I'm sure you know exactly what that feels like, miss.”
“But onto happier topics...” Tessoul guided us.
“It's true,” I offered a shrug. “My people were almost wiped out as well. It's been... hard. Very, very difficult to regain any sort of footing but... Tessoul and I have come to an understanding of how we might all be able to work together.”
Then, for the first time, Jareth seemed like he was interested in our conversation.
“Is that right?” he asked slowly.
“I hope so,” Tessoul offered, still from the far end of the room.
Jareth nodded to me and said, “Then you really have found in him a new man. I only wish I could have come to the same alliance with those who took over Avelon.” The man seemed emotional then, grabbing at his throat as though he could massage out any sadness that was welling up, tightening his ability to speak.
“They wiped us out in a single day. My family, our city. All reduced to rubble. I never knew who they were or what they wanted. Where they came from,” he managed to finish.
I gave a sympathetic nod. It was true. I knew exactly what it felt like to have my species preyed upon and reduced to nothing. I could relate to him right down to the fact that Tessoul was the one to save us both from our fates.
Then something suddenly occurred to me.
“On Avelon? AP-7?” I snapped.
With no small level of intrigue, Jareth said slowly, “I don't know.”
My eyes quickly traced the lab, and I grabbed a tablet and pen, scribbling out the location of AP-7 on the galaxy map. “Here, by the Sundren stars. The largest blue planet, here?”
“Yes,” Jareth said slowly, taking the tablet from me. “Yes, that's it!”
I looked back down at the paper and bit my lip. “It was the Gnash. The ones who invaded your planet.”
“How... would you have come to know this?” the blue creature asked.
“I didn't, but Karen did. She was a space researcher. She led us before, well, before we came here. She told us that the Gnash were these spiked creatures.” I began to sketch them out, to the best of my memory.
I knew I must have been hitting the nail on the head when Jareth once again snatched the tablet from me with a horrified expression as a deep emotion welled up in him.
“What do you know of them?” he asked.
“Um. Not much, unfortunately. They are an elemental lifeform. Not sentient.” Jareth stared at me then, and I twirled my hand as I went on. “If they destroyed your people, they didn't know they were doing it. They move on instinct, not emotion.”
“So...” the blue creature set his long fingers across his forehead and looked up at me with water streaming from his eyes. Tessoul finally approached and set a hand on Jareth’s shoulder.
“So, it was not a personal attack?” Jareth finished.
I shook my head and crossed my arms uncomfortably. “I'm sure it ended up being quite personal, but it wasn't meant that way. They were just trying to survive.”
He nodded. “I see. What happened to them?”
“I'm sorry, I don't know.” I shrugged. “Karen might have more of an idea but... I'm really sorry.”
“I'm sorry too, Jareth,” Tessoul offered in his smooth voice. “But... you're welcome family to us here.”
Chapter Eight
Tessoul
Sidney had been at our base for weeks without incident, save for one argument. She told me that the humans deserved Earth more than we did and told me that we would never survive without them. She told me I was ignorant of suffering.
“You never had anything threatening your people,” she spat, surefooted and self-assured. I hated that and loved it all in the same breath.
“Is that so?” I scoffed back.
But she was wrong. The Kilari were an ancient race of aliens who were once the Vithohn’s bitter enemy. We had battled for centuries over our planet in a great war. We lost our people until there was a quarter of us left, just a fourth of a whole race of people.
Which was nothing, compared to what we’d done to them.
By the end of the war, they had been eviscerated in a bloodbath of revenge that ended their civilization forever.
I told her that, and she’d snapped her lips shut. An odd sight for her.
That was the first moment I realized I loved her.
Having her here meant I got to see what life was like from the other side. I got to have her in my bed every night, talking to her and hearing her quips and stories. I got to watch her and sleep with her in every way we could think of.
Then there were days like this where I watched from the mech platforms as the other Vithohn looked at her like a piece of meat, getting hard watching her.
She’d made a qu
ick friend in Jareth, but I seemed to have to accompany her most other places for fear that she would get attacked in one way or another.
Of course, Araxis was happy to meet her, welcoming her into the fold. He and Karen made a habit of inviting her into their quarters so they could all discuss what they should do about the war. How we could all work together and become friends.
I wanted to be supportive, but I couldn’t think of how we could get all of the Vithohn to relent to them. While some openly desired the women, those who were drawn to them and often tried to have them without consent, there were just as many who were ready at a moment’s notice to kill the girls.
Tiffany, Sidney had said, used to be one of her friends. Now the vixen wouldn’t speak to Sidney or Karen, preferring life with her Vithohn mate in seclusion. If she had ever been behind the idea of giving the Vithohn humanity, she no longer felt the need to fight for the cause.
There were days where she was my mate, and then there were days when I would run into Vithohn who were like me.
Or how I used to be.
Then I would remember the hatred: the aggression that led to so much slaughter. I thought about the pink pools in the forest and how willing Sidney was to destroy us
These thoughts wreaked havoc on me. They twisted my insides and made me regret ever meeting her; other days it made me want to give everything back. Give it all back to her and her people and apologize a thousand times for everything we’d ripped away from them.
Today, we’d run into a Vithohn who wasn’t letting Sidney by in the hangar. He’d watched her with lascivious thoughts and, while I knew that having her would bring his mind back to him, I couldn’t bear the thought.
I watched her from afar, wondering when I should step in and Araxis came up beside me.
“Kills you, doesn’t it?” he said smugly.
“I want to kill him,” I corrected with words thick from saliva.
“Yet, that’s what you were,” he laughed.
I turned to regard him and gave a knowing stare. “What?” I spat. “You want my apology? I’m sorry.” I shrugged. “I didn’t know.”
“I know!” Araxis said, his words lilting up in his vowels.
I hated his kindness at that moment.
“How do you deal with it?” I said, my eyes still following Sidney as she endeavored to get by Tarsus. I was close enough to keep an eye on her but far enough away that I couldn’t hear what she was saying. Though from her tone, I could tell she was being her mouthy self.
Araxis watched me, wondering whether or not I was referring to jealousy or guilt.
“Guilt?” he finally decided. “It’s hard. All I want is to make it right, but I feel like that’s going to result in a slaughter.”
I frowned at him and turned so he had my full attention. “You’d kill your own to ensure the human race’s survival?”
He blinked and laughed at my question, surprised by it. “Wouldn’t you?” he said.
I blinked, unsure what to say back. I supposed I would. But I hoped it wouldn’t come to that. My attention was stirred from him when a large crash sounded in the hangar.
I watched as Tarsus grabbed Sidney with his spire, twisting the limb from the back of his neck and roping it around her, pulling her into him with animal instinct. My body thrust forward, and I raced down to the hangar, only to be beaten by Kuburak, a broad and strong member of our warrior clan. It seemed Tarsus wanted to rape her and Kuburak was so disgusted that the former would ever want to mate with a human that he’d decided to kill him.
Kuburak launched forward, moving his limp tentacle up his back and forcing into Tarsus’ throat, pulling him back by his teeth. The two took turns on each other, punching and drawing blood with a simple rip of their claws against the other. In a vain attempt to pull the tentacle from his throat, Tarsus launched Sidney forward, and she yelped.
I ran to her and watched in horror as a brawl broke out in our hangar, Vithohn at each other’s throats, both taking sides over who was in the right and for what should be done with the human females.
I swooped in, grabbing Sidney in my arms and searching her body like she were my hurt child; I was frantic and worried. I pulled her close and looked back at the brawl, then up at Araxis. He didn’t move or make to stop the fighting. Instead, he looked into my soul and reaffirmed everything he had just said to me.
We would end up tearing one another apart over these girls, and there seemed to be nothing we could do about it but pick a side.
I watched as the Vithohn cleared out from the hangar and stared at Sidney.
“Go back to the room,” I ordered and stormed off. I hadn’t seen her for hours then, unsure why I was so angry with her to begin with. She was the one who got attacked, wasn’t she?
Maybe I hated her for bringing it to my attention: for making me see the monsters we really were.
I wandered far past the facility and let myself get lost. There was a neighborhood beyond the forest. It was where I’d first heard of Sidney. It was where Dreicant had followed the humans in and got souped by their inhumane trap.
I thought on that for a long while; I thought of what happened back at base.
It seemed like there were only two places I went when I was following something more than instinct: here and the mountains.
This neighborhood was full of yellow houses from before the war. Long bungalows with fenced in yards and playhouses. I often found myself climbing the roof of this particular home—the one with the big red door.
I sat on the top of the roof: a tin roof with moss and crisping vines growing up the sides. A wind went by that nipped at my skin through my thick armor. I stared up at the stars highlighted by the lack of light in the park. They twinkled, and I wondered if they were looking back down at me.
These people… weren’t so bad, it seemed.
I had been wrong about a lot lately, and it was becoming less of an annoyance and more of an ever-growing black hole in my gut. It twirled and grew and ate at my guilt and repentance, which only seemed to make it bigger.
My legs hung down into the air, dangerously edging toward falling. My ears flicked back as I heard the ladder move and squeak against the unit. Sidney.
I didn’t move my head; I didn’t acknowledge her. Just stared skyward.
I felt her set a warm hand on me, using me as leverage to steady herself as she plunked down next to me. I thought about the snow that had piled next to me and how wet her pants were, and I thought about the shivering cold, cobblestone road she traveled to come this far south of the neighborhood.
“We need to go back,” she said brazenly, kicking her legs out over the awning and taking a dusting of snow with them.
“In time?” I said with a bitter laugh.
“Yeah, that must be what I meant,” she joked and then suddenly went serious, setting her hand on my arm. “We have to go back to my camp. My people.”
I flicked a brow up but didn’t make eye-contact. “I didn’t realize you still had people,” I mocked lazily. “You told me they were all dead.”
“Self-preservation: ever heard of it?” she dismissed. “I lied, alright? I was scared. I didn’t want you to come back and hurt us.”
I didn’t reply, though thought ‘fair enough’ and thinned my lips.
“It isn’t safe here,” she persisted.
I wasn’t sure if she was trying to twist the proverbial knife, but it was working. I met her eyes then, hazel and honeyed.
“You seem to get along fine with the girls,” I offered.
She frowned, deep-red brows narrowed and arched to show just the right amount of dismay. “You saw them, Tessoul.”
“Yeah, I saw them,” I admitted in a low breath. “Weren’t you the one who said we could calm them down?”
I felt a sudden pang of ill in my body: a soaring of wet heat that searched my whole body. My hand moved instinctively to my stomach, and I shook my head.
“What’s wrong?” she asked then, moving her han
d over mine.
“Nothing,” I brushed her off.
She said we could fix this; she fixed me. Now she was saying she wanted to leave? Leave me enlightened and then let me sit here to stew on my feelings—my guilt—until it killed me. I clenched my teeth and pressed my eyes shut.
“Please, let me go back,” she began again with a surprising softness. “Better yet,” she dared, “come with me. Let’s try and convince the girls.”
“How?” I shouted, and her hand drew away from me. “How can we convince them? It’s impossible. Look at us,” I said of the Vithohn, “At… them. We’re monsters.”
“That’s not…” she began but seemed to think better of whatever had raced so quickly to her tongue. “Tessoul, please.”
“Look what we’ve done,” I said tersely.
“But you didn’t know any better. Now you do,” she said as though it were all as simple as that. “Let’s do what we talked about. Please, we need to fix this.”
I narrowed my eyes then, grabbing her gaze once more.
The wind blew hard again. It was so cold I barely had the ability to catch my thoughts as they breezed by.
“Why did you sleep with me?” I asked.
“Too handsome to ignore,” she teased with flirtation in her tone. On catching the sight of me, she shrugged and said, “Moved in on a hunch, I guess.”
“Why me?” I repeated. “Why not Dreicant in the forest?”
Sidney looked stunning then, tucking a lock of red hair behind her ear as the wind continued to whip it away.
“That was you, wasn’t it?” I repeated.
“Yeah, that was me,” she said, suddenly elsewhere; defensive. “I guess I wasn’t feeling very frisky.”
“Stop joking, for once. Why me?”
She looked down at her hands as though they had the answer, splaying them out before her. “I just…”
Sidney hesitated for so long then that I was sure whatever she said next was going to be a lie, no matter how much I wished the opposite were true.
“I sensed something in you,” she concluded. “I just felt a connection to you. You seemed sad.”
