Fallen + Marli & Lalo (Fallen Invasion, #3)

by Mia Mitns

  “What we did was,” Kallen said. “I can’t actually believe I did it. After all of these years, all it took was seeing the others, and I snapped right back into my role.”

  Phew, he knew her.

  “It’s not your fault,” she said. “What they did to us was wrong. It’s going to take years to get away from it. Chances are we’ll need therapy. I try to do right by being in the force, staying away from new arrivals. It is going to take a little time to persuade them all.”

  “But I did nothing,” Kallen said. “I stood and watched her tear him apart.”

  “You knew she wouldn’t murder him. And you couldn’t do anything out of their normal training there. They need some time on Earth then you can talk to them. Besides, you know the Emperor has to be sending down spies. If you stopped them, you would be marked to be killed eventually.”

  Kallen was full of sorrow. I had never heard him sound so sad. “She was one of the excited ones,” he said. “She got a lot of kills in the other towns. She loves the chase. And I love her.”

  “Naya will change too,” the woman said. “They all will. These are not the most dangerous ones. That’s Dak and Marcus.”

  I took a deep breath in. Please let Marcus be a common name. Naya. Naya. Remember that name.

  We heard the uncomfortable sound of a chair being dragged across the floor then the chair creaked as someone sat on it.

  “You have to remember Kallen,” the woman continued. “We changed with this earth too. You were once like them. That’s why you lead.”

  “But that was long ago. We had time to relax. Naya said they gave her quotas. She gave them to me. What happened today was merely one of her quotas. It’s going to happen again but be much worse. We have to stop her. She is assigned to keep an eye on the people at the hospital. She will transform that guy she attacked. I’m sure of that. I don’t truly know how to stop her because I switch back to that leader. That superior, lethal monster when I’m around her.”

  “Kallen,” the woman said.

  Lalo moved closer to the kitchen. We saw Kallen sitting on a bar chair and the woman, who also had long, dark hair and brown eyes, stroll over to him. She leaned into him and rubbed his hand.

  “Forget about being with her,” she said. “And be with me.”

  “Martinez.”

  “Don’t Martinez me Kal! Call me by my name!”

  “Don’t call me Kal! I am not that monster! Not here!”

  Martinez sniffed like she was about to cry. “Why do you always choose her? Huh? When we were little, and she wanted nothing to do with you, you chose her. When we were teens, and she was hanging onto everything Lalo said, you chose her. And now that she’s here, in our home—Earth, you choose her. We were better together Kallen, remember? For a few years we were happy. Then she says she is coming here permanently and you chose her again.”

  She sniffed some more but no tears trickled down her face.

  “Shelie, I’m sorry, but I love her,” Kallen said.

  “But she doesn’t love you.”

  “She will,” Kallen said. “The earth will transition her like it did to me.”

  “Not in that way.”

  “It will. And if not—”

  “If not what?” Shelie said. “You’ll go after your little neighbor over there. Your neighbor that you told everything about yourself except that you are the alien you’re obsessed with. That neighbor, Marli.”

  “Don’t,” Kallen said.

  “Don’t what? She also has a hold on you. The kind where you make sure you protect her from us and forget about your duties. Too bad you forgot about the duty involving finding Lalo. We had a lead. We knew he was here. Now, everyone knows something is wrong.”

  “It’s not that big of a deal. We’ll still find him first. We have a bigger army now.”

  “It is that big of a deal,” she said. “He is unique. Whatever he decides—”

  ”But you found out he remembered nothing,” Kallen said.

  “Yeah, and it’s only a matter of time until he remembers everything,” Shelie said. “You did nothing Kallen. And he landed closer to you. I at least inspected Marli’s house and talked to him.”

  “You could have exposed us if she saw you running around her house that fast at night. You also lost Lalo so ...”

  Shelie huffed. “At least I did something.”

  “Yeah, you made him hide.”

  “You try following one of the most powerful and smartest aliens, and we’ll see how you do.”

  “What you seem to forget is that I am pretty powerful and smart myself,” Kallen said. “So are you. Naya, she has the same abilities as Lalo. However, she kept them hidden because she didn’t want to be used like they are using Lalo.”

  Lalo made a move to take a step forward, but I pulled him back. I didn’t know this Kallen.

  “I think it’s a good time to tell Marli, don’t you?” Kallen said. “She needs to know the full extent of the crisis she is in. I’ve sensed Lalo hanging around. It was the first morning he was here on Earth. I haven’t seen him. Saw some man get out of Marli’s car last night. They went shopping. I figured at least he can help protect her.”

  “No human can stand a chance against him,” Shelie said. She relaxed. “And why are you so focused on her?”

  “I’m positive she’s a connecter. I think someone she works with has more information about what’s going on that we can’t see. I think she gets visions of Lalo’s connector. That’s why Lalo has to find her. But he can’t see her abilities unless she lets him.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because you would come out of nowhere,” Kallen said. “Draw unnecessary attention. This is a small town.”

  “I’m sure she’s there now,” Shelie said. “Everyone was advised to stay home. We need to tell her. Lalo, he has his ways. He will find out in an instant.”

  “Not necessarily. Not if he doesn’t remember.”

  “Look, I’m sorry Kallen,” Shelie said. “The stress modifies my mood. This invasion is about to happen and we aren’t prepared to fight.”

  “I know and I’m sorry too,” he said. “Let’s go help Marli.”

  Shelie agreed and grabbed Kallen’s arm to get him up and out of the seat.

  They were coming straight for us. Lalo made sure my arms were secured around him before we flew straight up to the top of the ceiling. Well, I felt like I was flying, but Lalo had jumped. He secured his hands and feet on the walls, in the corner of the foyer. Seconds later, Kallen and Shelie walked under us and out the door.

  Lalo waited a minute to let go of the walls and land back on the ground. My legs were jelly as Lalo helped me peep out the nearest window over to my house.

  Shelie and Kallen were halfway there. I wanted to open the window and scream out, but I wasn’t sure. Kallen was part of some sort of terror attack. He helped hurt some people. How could I trust him? What if he was the tall man in my dreams? What if he also directed others to kidnap the homeless people? If he was who we were searching for, we would need to be careful around him. They could have detected us and made up all of that stuff about having remorse.

  Then again, what if they were telling the truth about Lalo? Was I dependent upon some super powerful killer? Was it even safe for me to live with him anymore? What if he remembered why he was there the next day after he arrived?

  He does remember things randomly, or so he says. He could be pretending to not remember to get me to let my guard down. If Lalo finds those guys from my visions, they could hook up to attack everyone.

  But I couldn’t put him on the street with all of the police in the area. What if he was the key to stopping the bad things from happening? What if he had been evil but changed?

  Kallen and Shelie were at my house. They saw my car then started running around my house when no one answered the door.

  “We have to face them,” Lalo said, directing his attention to me. “They might be able to help.”

&nbs
p; “But I’m not sure they won’t kill us,” I said. “What if these were the two I saw in my dream? How can we trust them after Kallen did something horrible to someone? He’s never told me any of this information. He was simply obsessed with aliens. I didn’t know he was one.”

  “We’re going to have to take that chance. He wants to protect you.”

  “But protect me from whom? The bad guys? You? Lalo, they have been seeking you.”

  “I remember Shelie,” Lalo said. “I left the house that day, trying to find answers. I ran into her then knew I had to hide. But if she wanted to kill me, she would have tried that day.”

  “She wouldn’t have killed you in public,” I said.

  “But I gave her the opportunity,” Lalo said, “out of sight.”

  I was furious that Lalo left the house. He could have been taken away from me. This alone made Kallen and Shelie’s beliefs about him seem true.

  Lalo helped me shuffle out of Kallen’s house. As soon as we opened the door, the alarm rang. Shelie and Kallen snapped their heads toward us like animals do when they hear an unexpected sound. Kallen lifted a remote, ending the alarm. Then they ran to us.

  Lalo wrapped me in his arms and we met them in the grass.

  Kallen smiled. “Marli, I’m so glad you are alright. We thought—” He reached a hand out toward me, and I pulled back. The joy in his face faded. “We need to go inside. Let’s go to your house.”

  “Why mine?” I asked, keeping an eye on Kallen.

  He stared at Lalo.

  “It’s more familiar to you,” he said. “It will help you relax. You don’t trust me anymore. You will feel safer there.”

  “You can still murder me in my own house,” I said.

  “That won’t happen,” Lalo interjected. “Let’s go.”

  Kallen desired to travel behind us. We stepped to his side. I guessed Kallen thought Lalo would do something. I was worried that Kallen would throw bags over our heads and drag us out to some abandoned warehouse.

  Chapter 12

  Kallen, Shelie, and Lalo sat at my table. I got everyone some water and sat next to Lalo, who held my hand. It was weird that I had more trust in a stranger I met days ago than one of my new best friends.

  “So here we are,” Kallen said.

  “Who are you Kallen?” I said. “Who are you really? What did you do? And who is she?”

  His eyes met Shelie’s for approval.

  “She is Shelie,” Kallen said. “I am Kallen; the same Kallen you’ve known.”

  “No!” I said. “In your house, minutes ago, you admitted to killing or hurting someone. The Kallen I know would never do that.”

  “This has to do with what I’ve been secretive about—who I’ve been aiming to protect you from,” Kallen said. “It’s why I turned into who I did. Marli, I was once like them. You need to know what we did over there in Greele was necessary, but wrong.”

  I wanted to run. I became so tense that it became hard to breathe. I didn’t know Kallen was talking about the people in Greele. He was a monster! How could I ever trust him again that is if I was allowed to live?

  “Marli, please just listen,” Kallen said, placing his hand on my knee. “I’m not going to hurt you. Shelie is not going to hurt you.”

  “But you’ll hurt someone else,” I said. “You’ll hurt other humans that are useless to you. Where are those children Kallen? Are you going to hurt them too or have you done it already?”

  “It was necessary to do what we did in Greele to show we are heading towards our purpose,” Kallen said. “If it didn’t happen, more of us would be sent down to do the job, my lead position would be taken away, and our troops would carry out the desires of someone else. Yes, those children are gone. But we have a plan for them. We needed to take them. To train them for their protection.

  “Marli, like Lalo, I am Masqysava. This is Shelie Martinez. She is also Masqysava. We are aliens to this world. We came from a planet in outer space. I can’t tell you which one, due to security, but I can tell you that you are in the middle of an invasion. The disappearances all are a sign of our invasion. Some are meant to show we are ready and nothing more. Some are to get people to safety. One, we don’t know who performed. Others are to use people. Your blood can be valuable at times to us.”

  “Blood!” I said. “I-I can’t ...”

  “Yes,” Kallen said. “We have been invasion mode for more than fifteen years. There were several waves of Masqysava sent down to Earth. Most of the early visits were to investigate Earth and its people. We knew that your planet was much more kind to our bodies. Our theories become true year by year. We can only survive on our planet for a certain amount of time. Then it will be too hazardous for us to live there. So we have been trained since birth to be able to come here, to Earth, and live.”

  “And eliminate us in the process?” I said. “Move us out of the way so there is space for your kind?”

  Lalo’s grip on my hand loosened. His eyes began to narrow. His gaze fixed on my table. It was like he was in a trance.

  “At first, no,” Kallen said, taking a peek at Lalo. “The original idea came from a different emperor. She believed we could live together. She almost went as far as to sign a treaty with the United Nations. But things went sour. We lost communication with the Masqysava sent to live on Earth. We searched for but never found them. And all ideas about peace with humans were destroyed.

  “Our emperor still didn’t want to be violent, so she modified our approach. We would sustain our life on Earth but be unknown to others. The idea didn’t last long. When she got word of humans tracking Masqysava to capture and run tests on us, her tactic adapted into a violent one. The humans, at least most humans, would have to go. Or become our slaves. We’ve studied all of your history. We weren’t going to be the ones going down.

  “When she stepped down, a more intense leader took her place,” Kallen continued. “He said humans inherently don’t reason beyond their own needs. Therefore, all humans other than connectors and their families would die. That is the order that exists today. And while the connectors are being saved from death, they would become our property. If you were connected to evil Masqysava then you would most likely be tortured.”

  “Why are you telling me this?” I said. “If you are going to make most humans extinct and enslave me.”

  “Because,” Kallen said. “I don’t want to kill or own you. I need you. We need human allies. Lalo doesn’t remember. You may be able to help us with him too. And, most importantly, we want to stop the invasion.”

  “You and I both,” Lalo said. “I was ready to hunt you down this afternoon when I saw what you did. So my question is how can we trust you?”

  “You can’t,” Shelie said. “At least not right now. Not until you remember.”

  “Won’t I be lethal when I remember?” Lalo asked.

  “It depends on which side you choose,” Kallen said. “Your memory, what happened that made you come so early, might be able to help you with that.”

  “Memory huh?” Lalo said. “You know something about mine? You told us who the Masqysava are and why we are here. But why am I here?”

  “You don’t remember having fun, running along the hills, playing in the sands and waters?” Shelie asked.

  “No,” Lalo said.

  “Good,” she said. “Because we didn’t. The water outside our compound was too hot to play in. There were hills of rocks, but they were also too hot. Yes, our bodies can adjust to weather changes here, but it gets overwhelmed at home. If you ever stepped in the sand there, you wouldn’t have lived to tell about it.”

  “Okay it was too hot,” Lalo said. “What does this have to do with me?”

  “Everything,” she said.

  “So what did we do?” Lalo said.

  “Train,” Shelie said. “And absorb human culture. I think that’s why our missing don’t return. They don’t want to be found.”

  “That is if they weren’t captured by the governme
nt,” Kallen said. “I, along with other commanders, put together the program where we fit ourselves into society here. Many of us were everywhere, living lives along with humans, working with them. Of course we weren’t allowed to choose from too many jobs. All had to be positions we could use.

  “About two years ago, a few of us were very successful and got to the top of the government,” Kallen said. “Then some got into secret places inside the government. Then they saw what humans did to us. That sparked the kill all and invade ideas I spoke of. But to exterminate all we needed a smart, charismatic alien. It certainly didn’t hurt that he had a superpower, one where you could vanish at any moment. He would lead us because of this ability. The Emperor only knew of one.”

  “No,” Lalo said shaking his head. “I’m not who you say I am. I’m not a leader. I don’t want to exterminate humans.”

  “You are,” Shelie said. “Everyone knows you. You were chosen to lead a team. Then you were chosen to lead the leaders. You are our chief Lalo!”

  “I wasn’t and I’m not,” Lalo said.

  Shelie faced Kallen. “Maybe this is why he came early.”

  “What do you mean?” Lalo asked.

  “When did your desire to harm humans dissipate? After you landed or before you departed?” Shelie said.

  Lalo stared at the wall and closed his eyes. A few seconds later, he opened them. “I don’t know,” he said. “But I do know this. If any of you attempt to hurt Marli, you will pay.”

  “We’re on your side Lalo,” Kallen said. “That is if you want to stop this invasion, and it seems like you do. Come. Talk to the others. They are waiting for you to lead.”

  “I won’t,” Lalo said. “Not until I can remember. Not until I know for sure.”

  “Keep in mind that you need to tread lightly,” Shelie said. “That’s the reason we wanted to find you first. Yes, Earth has changed us some. Our side doesn’t want to be killers. It would be foolish to think that Earth hasn’t changed others for the worse. Especially others who don’t want to be found.”

  “Point taken,” Lalo said.

  “I’m glad you’re safe Lalo,” Shelie said. “But I have to go. I told them I was inspecting this area.”