Author’s Note: This chapter has one of my infamous scenes. Read at your own risk.

Chapter 30: One Night

Date: November 25, 3007
Time: 01:50
Location: Navasota Island

The life of the night seemed to be stowed away in an instant. Not even the piercing white full moon could reveal my burning soul. I was damned, and I knew it. But as I stood there amidst the silent EDEN, I felt the slightest sensation of hope, of courage, of life. For a brief second, I could almost see the golden gates of heaven stretching out before me. But in a flash, it disappeared from my grasp, and I found myself looking at the dark faces of the men once more.

“EDEN Disassemble!” Mikhail roared, and immediately, his soldiers silently vanished into the night. Even I was mildly surprised at their stealth and uniformity, something no mere footman could achieve. Mikhail had good men, and I sensed he knew that from the smirk upon his face.

He turned to me, staring into my emerald eyes as if to read me like a book, “It’s late, Nova. Even Shadows need rest.”

Immediately, my training sprang into action, ignoring all sense of logic and reason, “I do not need rest! I never need rest! I am a Shadow!” I cried out the Dominion’s Shadow Creed. A part of me was sickened by the thought of rest, but the other beckoned for a warm shower and a soft bed. It was a binary choice, but I couldn’t make it.

Mikhail chuckled heartily at me and shook his head, “My, my, the Dominion’s trained you well.” He motioned behind him, “Come, we will find you a nice soft bed and a hot shower.” At first, I remained stationary, wary of any traps, but my mind seemed to give up on its detection skills. Sighing in exasperation, I followed. I felt the others’ minds wonder inquisitively, but started after Mikhail and me nonetheless.

Night had always been my favorite time. The shadows enveloped everything, leaving you senseless and numb to all else that moved. It was the perfect environment to be alone. But in reality, I was never alone. I was always with my mind. It tortured me like the devil, yet it loved me like a father. The shuddering of the trees around me sent a chill down my back. Something menacing was lurking behind the corner of my mind, a shadow of a doubt. This night was not over yet.

Suddenly, I stopped dead in my tracks. Rage bubbled up in my heart as I slowly looked down at my outstretched leg that was an inch above the ground. In the pale moonlight, I could see the tiniest string attached to the pin of a concealed landmine right below the soles of my boots. F***er… I thought to Mikhail, who had casually walked on. Closing my eyes, I read in Mikhail’s mind how to disarm a mine, and instantly disabled the bomb below me.

Up ahead, Mikhail had stopped, and was brushing a set of vines aside. I could see a metal door being uncovered beneath the foliage. With a loud creak, the massive latch swung open, and Mikhail ripped the door open. I could hear the rusty hinges protest in agony as Mikhail manhandled them.

The corridor was dimly lit, much like all of the other ones in this whole goddam complex. We followed Mikhail through the maze-like passages until I came to a door. He looked at me and nodded. Taking the hint, I opened the door with my mind and strode into the dark room. It wasn’t impressive, but it was habitable. There was a small bed in the corner with a shower covered by a light blue curtain on the other side. Everything I wanted. Mikhail smiled and slammed the door behind me. I could hear his boots echo down the hallway as he lead the others to the other parts of his headquarters, leaving me alone with my mind once more.

My eyes shifted around suspiciously, but my mind told me it was safe. Setting my rifle down on the bed, I unzipped the back of my black environmental suit and laid it beside the S-36. Groaning in relief from the sudden loss of equipment weight, I sat down on at the foot of the bed and removed my boots and gloves. I threw my night-vision goggles down on the bed and took off the rest of my combat uniform. The concrete floor was cold upon my feet as I made my way towards the shower.

The water rained down like manna from heaven. It was cold, bloody cold, but it was bliss at its best. It seemed to be so long since I had properly showered; I could almost feel the filth of my body wash away down the drain, physically, emotionally, and mentally. My teeth chattered in the frigidity of the shower, but I smiled nonetheless, for it was the best I had felt all night.

All of a sudden, I heard the latch on my door click open. My emerald eyes flung open; I could feel someone in the room, watching me from behind the shower curtains. Cursing under my breath, I concentrated with my entire mind and mentally looked for my rifle. It was a man, judging by the heavy footsteps that seemed to close in around me. And then, I found it, the gun now a cold lump of steel in the hands of my mind. I swung it around at the unknown target and locked and loaded it. The footsteps ceased in an instant.

“Nova?” his voice called out. My heart suddenly rose, and I lost concentration on the rifle, causing it to drop to the ground with a loud clang. It was him. I could always recognize his voice. Funny how he would come to visit me at two in the morning without knocking. Actually it wasn’t very funny at all. Pissing me off at the dead of the night was the smart thing to do.

“What do you want?” I replied coldly, reflecting the temperature of the water still sliding down my bare body. There was a silence from the other side of the veil; I could barely hear his breathing over the tumult of the shower.

But then he responded, and I could not help but feel a little flattered, “I… I wanted to see you… I mean… After all of this time…” He trailed off in awkwardness. I switched the shower off and stood there, dripping wet, my heart pounding. My one and only love was standing a foot away from me on the other side of a thin sheet of sky blue plastic, but I could not move. I would not move. The silence was deadly, like the noose just before it was pulled around your neck.

“Damiver…” I managed to whisper, though I had no idea what to say after that. But then, I realized I needn’t have said anything, for he suddenly wrenched the curtain open and pulled me into his arms in a kiss. My mind instantly snapped back, realizing I was unclothed in his presence, but I could not move. Something wild and bizarre was rooting me to the ground, and I had no control of my feet anymore. Instead, Damiver whisked me up in his arms and landed me on the bed.

Suddenly, more memories flooded back to me in that split second. The snow storm, the strange men, the deaths, the night, it all seemed so distant, but so familiar. And then I found myself looking up at the same Damiver I had known years back before any of this had happened. Before my training as a Shadow, before the Dominion took me away, before my life ended.

I could feel his heart beat against mine, his body radiating an intense surge of warmth. And I let him take control, for I could not deny that I had not dreamed about this. I felt like a princess in a long lost fairy tale, and he was my knight in shining armor.

Date: August 1, 3005
Time: 18:00
Location: In Low Orbit- The Academy

The sun streamed in through the immense pressurized glass panes separating life from an infinite vacuum, unchecked by the usual atmosphere of the world. The sky here was always night, whether with the sun or without. Space was a magnificent thing, in a terrible, deathly, not-so-magnificent kind of way.

“Next!” the words were muffled as they reached my ears. The air inside the entrance hall had gotten intensely warm, and the long drawn out line in front of me only made matters worse. I felt like an animal lead down the line into the furnace, unable to escape my imminent doom. The men and women standing in a single filed line that stretched across the entire length of the gigantic hall inched forwards at a snail-like pace.

The hand slammed down on the table as it skillfully copied down information about me that even I didn’t know. My brain ached from the mental voices of those surrounding me, but I could not get a reading from the silent man with the pen scribbling away on the clipboard he possessed in front of him. Then, with a sharp motion, he pointed at a door behind him without even looking up at me.

My feet carried me on autopilot. The latch clicked and the metal door creaked open, revealing a small circular room full of machines surrounding a metal table that was tilted up at a slight angle. Suddenly, the door slammed shut, the metallic bang reverberating endlessly off the curved walls. And then, my mind screamed out in pain, as if a thousand knives had just pierced it.

I clutched my head in agony and fell to the floor. Men in white lab coats lifted me up and shoved me onto the table. Leather straps magically extracted themselves from the bottom of the table and wrapped around me, rendering me immobile. I tried to cry out, but it seemed as if my voice had run away from me. Perhaps it made the right choice.

Trembling in the confinement of the straps, I looked around wildly, my emerald eyes darting from man to machine back to man again. “What are you going?” I asked in a timorous voice. They all worked silently and efficiently, not even pausing for a millisecond to answer me. Fear was all I felt; I was helpless like a caged creature, unable to fend for itself in a circus of freaks. I was the main attraction.

“This might hurt just a little bit,” a tall man suddenly interrupted the silence. Then, without warning, he raised his right hand, as if preparing to strike me. By the time I noticed the syringe in his hand, it was already too late.

I was falling into an infinite darkness. All sense of time and space seemed to pry itself away from me, leaving me an empty shell, a vessel. Was I dead? Was this the purgatory in between heaven and hell? But there was light at the end of the tunnel, light that brought life rather than death.

I saw my parents, reliving our best moments together in the parks of Orbis, poking and prodding at the numerous but friendly pixies that meandered around. The looks on their faces and mine seemed to match in a perfect harmony. Only I was a spectator now, merely a passerby walking down memory lane.

The brief image of serenity was replaced by a night sky above a glittering white mansion. I already knew what was going to happen, but I was not prepared to witness it one more time. It was already too much the first time. The screams and shouts of both my parents at each other, their argument long forgotten, ringed in my ears. I saw myself sitting in the corner, tears silently sliding down my face in helplessness.

And then the fateful scream, the sudden lash of anger and rage. It killed them in an instant, everyone and everything. I, alone, was left in the house unscathed. I remembered my mother and father’s last thoughts of hatred towards each other and closed my eyes shut, trying to block the flood of tears. But like all dams in an apocalyptical torrent, my eyelids opened up, unable to suppress my emotions any longer. I was falling and crying in darkness, surrounded by the memories of my sad life.

Then, he came into view: Damiver with his tattered green bandana that represented his old rag-tag family. I wanted to run up to him, to hug him, to feel his warmth one last time, but my body could only fall. He smiled at me and floated away, dissipating into nothingness. Through blurry eyes, I could see my tears falling away from me in the opposite direction.

Suddenly, I heard a gunshot. My mind immediately registered the sharp crack, and I cried out in agony, fury, rage, wrath. I knew full well what this meant, but I still could not believe it happened. Damiver was not dead. He couldn’t be dead.

But his image never resurfaced again, and I cried out again and again, releasing all of my grief into the world, wishing I would die, wishing my life would end so that at least I would be with him in hell.

My aggression levels skyrocketed, and I suddenly felt tremendously cold, as if I had just fallen into the deepest pit in El Nath. The blackness around me turned a milky white which swirled around me as if to hypnotize me. Then, I heard another loud boom, but this time, my brain could not tell what it was. The world slowly but surely reformed in my eyes, and I found myself back in the circular room with the gadgets and equipment.

The men were shouting and running around frantically; there was an acrid smell of smoke lingering in the air. Suddenly, I realized the leather straps had been torn off, as if a giant hand had come down and yanked off the bounds. Rising up, I tore the many sensors the mysterious men had placed on my head and chest. My head was pounding.

One of the men reached over to me and tried to force me down again, but in a sudden impulsive thought, I sent him flying through the air. He hit the wall with a sickening crunch and slid to the floor, unconscious. The commotion must have gotten all the others’ attentions, for they all bore down on me like vultures on a dead boar.

The next instant, they were all sprawled on the floor, either groaning in pain or knocked out. I made for the door, but before I could open it, the handle had already turned. The metal barrier swung open, revealing a woman about my height with jade green eyes and jet black hair with amber streaks. She wore a peculiar smile upon her face and closed her eyes. Blackness overwhelmed me in an instant. But this time, there were no more memories. They were gone from me like a bad dream. I was not Nova anymore.

Date: November 25, 3007
Time: 04:20
Location: Navasota Island

I opened my eyes. Pure blackness enveloped me, blocking out all signs of life. But then, I felt him, in the bed next to me, sleeping soundly. I smiled and remembered what had happened. It was like living the life of someone in a fantasy movie. Every choice made was a right one, every road led down to victory and triumph. I felt as if nothing could go wrong now, pushing everything else aside just for these few hours.

If only… but I stopped my train of thought right there. I did not want to finish my sentence. The very idea of a brand new tomorrow sickened me, and I closed my eyes again. The constant soothing sound of Damiver’s eased breaths gave me a sense of comfort, and I snuggled against his warm body.

My eyelids started to veil the emeralds in my head. The world around me was lost in a swirling blackness, and I entered the dream world with an open heart.