Terra nervously played with her hands as she sat in the passenger seat of a smaller vehicle. Yesterday, Vazerio had contacted the other Rebellion branches with information about her skills and the head of the Rebels had wanted to meet with her personally. Although Terra was confident in her fighting skills, she had really only been in two real battles, and never on such a grand scale. And if they were actually going to war against the Capitol just because she could take some physical damage...

“Don’t be nervous,” Vazerio told her when he had glanced over and seen her worried expression. “The Captain will love you, she’s always been a fan of small things.”

If Vazerio had been trying to ease her mind, it wasn’t working. Terra took a deep breath and focused on the things outside the window.

They were out in the desert again driving to the Rebellion outpost and she could see Hayland City disappearing into the distance. She wished that she had Podinal or Beiwot to help break the silence and distract her, but Vazerio claimed that it was much faster and less expensive to travel with just two people since it was a two-day trip. Terra was only twenty minutes in and already bored out of her mind, regretting not having taken a book, and Vazerio wasn’t exactly the easiest to talk to. She could feel his eyes on her when she was looking out the window, but whenever she turned to see what he wanted, he turned away and shut his mouth. Eventually, she called him out on it and he finally spoke.

“Where are you from?” She could tell that he was uncomfortable asking, but didn’t know why. It was a perfectly reasonable question considering her defense mechanism and affinity to manipulate a black crystal.

Knowing they had a lot of time on their hands, she went ahead and started her story from the beginning; the river. She went on to tell him all about Roger and his family, and about the quest they went on to find out who was responsible, leading her to find her crystallized memory tucked away. Terra surprised herself by remaining stoic throughout the entire story, even when she described how Roger had tried to save her and died in her arms. When she looked over to Vazerio, she was glad to not see a look of pity in his eyes.

“Wow, that’s a lot.” He stated, staring back out at the road. An awkward silence passed between them.

“So there are other worlds?” He finally asked, eyebrows raised. She nodded and another silence filled the car.

“What about you?” Terra questioned.

“What about me?”

“Where are you from? Why’d you join the Rebellion besides the obvious reasons for fighting the bad guys?”

Vazerio thought about what he wanted to say for a while, so long that Terra thought he’d just ignored her question.

“I was raised in the Capitol,” he began. “My father was General of the Southern Sector, meaning he governed pretty much everything from Yanos to Frentel, so I was raised to take over. I was a pretty spoiled brat, even though that was only a few years ago. One night I heard a commotion in the ballroom in my house and saw my father being held at gunpoint. Some person dressed in black had a crew behind them was making a fool of the one person I looked up to. I was too scared to do anything so I just stood there watching this whole thing unfold. They gave my father an ultimatum; give control up to them or they would take over by force, starting with killing my family. That’s when I saw my father break down, telling them to have mercy on him and to take whatever they wanted, including me.

“I didn’t know what to do and was too frozen in fear that one of them came up behind me, but instead of hurting me or capturing me, he whispered in my ear; ‘If you want to stop us from taking over the world, join the Rebellion,’ and then he gave me a slip of paper with an address. I ran away that night and found the place we’re going to after a week of wandering around. The leader informed me of all the corruption that was really in the Capitol and I knew I needed to make a difference. They gave me that building in Hayland and told me I needed to find at least two other recruits for the cause by the end of the month otherwise they would take it away. I found five others. We’ve been together ever since.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Terra let his tale sink in and did some calculation in her mind. Five others? Who was missing?

“Who was the other member?”

He hesitated before giving in.

“You’ve met him. His name is Nighet and he controls electricity.”

Oh, so that was him. No wonder Vazerio was so against her killing him. She stared at her feet, suddenly interested in how scuffed up her shoes were, wishing she hadn’t brought up the topic. But since it was already in the air...

“Why is he fighting us now?”

“I don’t know. About two months ago he defected without so much as a goodbye. We all thought he had been kidnapped, but then we ran into him on the field. You saw Roip’s scar. I don’t know if its naivety, but I still think that the Capitol took someone hostage and is blackmailing him into working for them. But if he went as far as to hurt Roip then I have to treat him as an enemy.” His tone hardened and Terra knew she wouldn’t get any more answers on this topic.

“If you’re from another world, how come you’re fluent in Lorentian?” Vazerio asked.

Lorentian? Terra thought she had been speaking English this entire time; she’d have to ask Alter about that later.

For the next six hours, they discussed the logistics of there being other worlds and dimensional travel. Vazerio still couldn’t seem to be able to wrap his mind around the fact Terra had been on a planet with only one sun and a moon, but there was no solid proof Terra could muster up beside the clothes she had been wearing when she had come, and she had burned those weeks ago. He also couldn’t believe that there were magic rocks that could grant wishes and give her back her memories. She pointed out that the fact that people here had special powers and they were unexplained, so why couldn’t he believe in magic rocks?

They ended up stopping in a small oasis town called Eveahim and found a small inn that was practically empty. Apparently, they didn’t get many guests this far out into the desert. They settled down in a room with two beds, Vazerio knocking out almost immediately. Terra grabbed a few credits and went into town in the hopes of finding a general convenience store was was open. The suns were setting, so she wanted to make it back to the inn before it was completely dark and Vazerio noticed she was missing. At the end of the street, she finally found a bright neon sign that read 'Open' in big purple letters. She found what she was looking for, paid, and rushed back to the inn.

She opened her brand new compact mirror and gave Alter a little hello.

“About fucking time!” Alter vocalized. “And I’m glad to see that you’ve mastered the art of the black crystal. It gets way more interesting later on when you get more.”

Terra ignored Alter’s comments since even if she tried asking about them, Alter would just claim that she that she wasn’t ready yet and would find out later.

“I’m going to meet the Captain of the Rebellion tomorrow.”

“I know. Prepare yourself since she is a lot to handle. You really need to prove yourself to her since she’s probably not going to let you fight. Oh, and you should know that you can call out for your crystal even when it’s not near you.”

“What do you mean?”

“That means you can throw it up to five meters away and just call it back. It’ll literally fly back at you. Keep in mind that black crystal is the only thing that can hurt you, so just don’t stab yourself if you miss catching it.”

“What?”

“You haven’t noticed? Black creature? Dark Alter? Both black crystals, although one was physical and the other mental, so I guess I can’t really blame you. Try it out if you don’t believe me.”

Ducking into an alleyway to avoid prying eyes, Terra cautiously drew the black crystal from the pouch at her waist and transformed it into a dagger. Carefully, she drew the blade against her index finger and winced when a line of blood appeared. She was about to stick it in her mouth to stop the bleeding, but she noticed something odd. Thinking it was just the lighting, she raised her finger to a nearby lamppost, but there was still no change.

Sprinting to the inn she quietly eased into the room and held her bleeding finger up to the light next to her bed. It wasn’t just a trick of the light; her blood was black.