Ace awoke to the conversations of everyone in Team 57 was having on the shuttle pod towards the SS Andromeda.

  His face was squished up against the window, and his eyelids fluttered as he tried to tune out the noise. He ran his fingers through his bright red hair, stretched, yawned, and paid the several conversations no mind because he felt like something was more important. A strange feeling came over Ace like he had forgotten something, but he couldn't remember what it was. It was a weird feeling, to know that you forgot, but couldn't remember what you forgot!

  So he told himself, if it was really important, I'll remember it eventually.

 It was a private shuttle pod instead of a public one, so they could mingle and talk among each other in the fancy brown leather seats their First Cadet, Levi had arranged for them. He had attempted to get their first mission as an easy job, the client, his cousin, the famous singer Rikka Slater-White. All they had to do was patrol the halls as bodyguards, keep an out for any shenanigans, and a free concert was included as well!

  Levi was talking, softly and whispering with someone in the seat nearby.

  " I saw her. She was eating fingers an—"

  At the mention of cannibalism, Ace shot out of his seat like a rocket, surprising the others sitting next to him. He turned to his left and his best friend, Fenton looked like he was caught stealing something. Fenton grinned and came up with a quick lie.

  "We're just talking about a video game," he said.

  He swept his black bangs out of his face and averted his eyes as he lied, and Ace knew he was lying because he never looked someone in the eyes when he did so, but he couldn't understand why he was. Ace gave him a death glare, and Levi took his chance to escape to the other side of the cabin next to John, but it wasn't much of an escape. He was a tall man and had to slightly bend when he got up so his head wouldn't hit the small pods ceiling. It made his getaway look more cartoonish than that of an evil mastermind.

  "What are you hiding from me," Ace asked.

  "Nothing," Fenton replied.

  "It's not fair that you can see what anyone is thinking, but won't tell me what you're thinking. Why were you talking to Levi? Doesn't he hate us?"

  Fenton couldn't up with another lie, and he decided to bargain.

  "I'll tell you after the trip. I don't want to ruin it," he said.

  "I already feel like something might happen," Ace said. "Candice broke up with me, Levi made First Cadet instead of I. It just sucks."

  Fenton squeezed Ace's shoulder and told him he would be fine.

  "You're probably just nervous about our first job. It's ok, everyone is."

  Ace accepted that it was just nerves, and he started to feel a bit better already. Fenton knew everything would be fine, as Candice and Ace seemed to break up and then make-up frequently, so it was simply a day of the week that ended with the letter Y.

  Reassured that it was just nerves, Ace turned his attention out towards the window again as they approached the SS Andromeda. The SS Andromeda was a space cruise liner that was safe, huge, beautifully decorated, and made for the rich and famous. Its exterior was made to imitate an actual cruise ship on earth. It was white and had many windows all over. The inside had top-of-the-line facilities for the privileged to enjoy.

  Levi could sense everyone in the cabin felt like they weren't up to the task, but he stepped in.

  "There's nothing to worry about," Levi told. "This will be easy. Just make sure to keep your Fealty Rings on. They have trackers so if anything happens the main base can find you."

  "Oh my god, something is going to happen to us where they will need to find OUR BODIES," Harmonia shouted. "We're going to die."

  Like a few astrals, the side effects of her abilities made her look...odd. She glowed a soft pink, like a walking radioactive ball of happiness, and consistently smelled of fresh laundry, her beauty sometimes scary more than pleasing. Her looks changed with her emotions, and she went from her usual pink to a dark purple of panic.

  "No. No," Levi grumbled.

  The conversations in the room turned into well, if I'm going to die, I'd like it to be in a such-and-such way. By the time the shuttle pod had docked to the SS Andromeda, everyone was back to their usual ridiculousness, and it would be another day of skating by on the bare minimum, which Levi was trying to avoid, but he didn't know how he was going to get fifteen people into shape in time for their end of year performance tests. Some of them were caught cheating, and judging by how things were going, many in their team wouldn't be passing.

  He tried his hardest to improve on the weakest link.

  Ace.

  They all walked down the long glass tube with the other passengers into the heart of the ship. Pulsing soft blue lights at the bottom meant to excite the passengers, accidentally made Levi set off bits of electricity from his fingertips forcing him to walk faster, trying not to cause another electrical accident by not keeping his powers in check. He quickly walked up to him and tried to give him another chance at making up for cheating earlier, grabbing Ace by his shoulder from behind, making him yelp in surprise.

  "Sorry. I just wanted to let you know that you're going to be in the main group today, okay?"

  "Okay," Ace replied uncertainly.

  Fenton's eyebrows arched up, his eyes flashed purple, and he quickly scanned a new target's mind before he could leave.

  Levi quickly jogged off into the ship and Ace was left even more confused by his recent behavior. Ace hated Leviathan but was never sure why.

  When Levi and Ace first met during training, Levi was quite friendly. So friendly, actually, that Ace started to think that he had ulterior motives, and told him that he wasn't interested in dating him. He denied it all, but Levi's reaction just solidified Ace's theory. Levi adamantly said that he wasn't gay, which just further made Ace try to be kinder, to assure him that he wouldn't tell anyone.

  Ever since that day, Levi was quite horrible to Ace, yet recently he went back to being friendly, confusing him even more.

  "He's just trying to apologize in his own way," Fenton said.

  "I wish he would make up his mind if he hates me or likes me first," Ace replied.

  "Checked his brain. He can't figure out what to do most days, don't worry yourself," Fenton laughed. "Lights are on but no one's home."

  Ace snickered, but then he suddenly remember he had to actually work.

  "I'm in the main group. I get to meet this famous lady everyone's talking about," he excitedly said.

  "What about Candice," Fenton asked.

  "....."

  Fenton immediately regretted mentioning her, and like summoning a demon by its name, she passed by the both of them in the hall, searching for her own suite. She was a tiny woman, but second strongest in the entire team, behind Levi, and Ace never understood why she was with him if she kept breaking up with him. This time he worried was different because she claimed she left him for someone else which she never said before.

  "I'm going to the first shift," Ace mumbled.

  While Ace walked through the halls of the ship his mind ran in circles, trying to figure out who Candice had left him for. He knew it was someone stronger, or taller! It must be Levi! He couldn't date Ace, so he took Candice! Or that he pretended to like Ace just to get close to her! Both were wrong. Once Ace had an idea in his mind, even if it was wrong, he would run with it like he stole it.

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  As he arrived at Rikka White's suite, he realized he was being ridiculous, and knocked on the door.

  Levi answered it, and he was annoyed.

  "How is it that someone who can teleport is always late?"

  "I can only teleport to places I've been or seen. I've never been to her room before," Ace exclaimed.

  Levi pursed his lips shut and decided to be the outside security, so he waited in front of the door.

  Inside Rikka's suite, Ace was greeted by her personal bodyguard David, and another one of Ace's team mate's Gabriel. Gabriel was neatly dressed, wearing a rosary, and his brown hair was well done. He looked like he was about to go to work at an office instead of protecting a client, versus David, who wore all black, had a short, curly mohawk, and a gun at his side. Ace and Levi were dressed a lot more casually and Rikka didn't care, she wasn't that serious about security on her ship.

  She could handle herself fine.

  She just couldn't use her ability on board out of fear of killing everyone on the ship.

  But she did care about Ace.

  "Rikka, this is overkill,” David complained.

  "No, it's not! They're those pervert stalkers who want my BODY!"

   Shivers went down her spine and she dramatically clutched her body, making the worst face she could muster. Keeping the same pose she looked David dead in the eye, with authority only the rich could have.

   "Could you get me some food, please? I'm hungry."

  David obliged.

  "Sure. Nothing is going on anyway.”

  "Wait,” said Gabriel. "Let me come too, I'm hungry.”

  Once they left, Ace was nervous alone with Rikka.

  There was nothing to be nervous about, Ace told himself. She looks like a normal girl. She just happens to be rich and famous, and beautiful and smells nice. That's all.

  That's what he kept telling himself to calm his nerves, but it didn't work

.  "Finally, they're gone,” Rikka sighed. "I wanted to get the two of us alone."

  Ace's face flushed, his mind replaying the different intros to the many porn videos he watched online. All that was missing was the bad music, the strong lighting, and the strange house with minimum furniture.

  "W-what do you mean,” he asked.

  "Oh, don't pretend like you don't know, silly." Rikka leaned back in her puffy purple chair, with bedazzled legs on the bottom. She pointed a finger straight at him and grinned wildly. "You're just like me. How did you get one?" She pointed at his small cloth bracelet around his wrist, and she could feel the intense energy coming off of it.

" I have no idea what you're talking about,” Ace replied. "You're-"

  Rikka got up from her chair and grabbed his wrist. Hard. Rikka held out her necklace for Ace to feel its own power, but he didn't feel a thing. He was confused and a little scared.

"You have a celestial object. Just like me! That's why I wanted so many bodyguards," Rikka explained. "The celestials can't fall into the wrong hands. I can usually take care of myself, but I can’t use it's power on the ship, or else it would explode!"

"What's a celestial?”

  Rikka gave Ace a good, long, look.

"You seriously don't know, do you?”

“No. Let go of me,” he said.

She gripped harder.

"This bracelet was made from the blanket my dad found me in. You got me confused for someone else," Ace explained.

Rikka was still gripping onto him fiercely and she looked at him, up and down, trying to see if he was lying or simply being dumb. She inspected him and started to see that there was something worse going on.

  "Someone did something to you,” she said.

  Rikka's eyes flashed bright and blue. She saw things that others couldn't and scanned him up and down, knowing that someone had hurt him. The handiwork of Maximillian, and her father, Rico, was all over Ace. She could see that someone had rearranged his mind, and whatever they did to fill in the blanks somehow made it all worse.

"They blocked you from seeing the truth. To help you maybe, or just to hurt you," Rikka mumbled.

  She held his hand and shivered, wondering what had happened to him, nervous to see what was inside. Rikka had seen many horrible memories, but, these seemed worse than everything she had ever seen.

  "Come here. I will show you the truth," she pleaded.

  Ace snatched his hand away and Rikka was angry with him.

"Don't you want to know the truth," Rikka screamed. "They hid you from yourself!"

  Rico's work was impressive. Ace didn't want to know, because he had implanted many subconscious thoughts into his mind, to keep him stupid and weak. Rikka saw his handiwork all over, her father’s marks of those he hurt.

  Like scars, they lined his arms and legs, his chest and face, and it terrified her. Rico had not only hidden bad memories and replaced them with good ones, but he had replaced good memories with bad ones, scrambling his brain like eggs.

  "You're so confused. It's okay," she told him. "Let me help you."

  "Don't touch me," Ace growled. His eyes turned an intense black and Rikka shot up from her chair. Like all Slaters, she was ridiculously tall, taller than Ace even. She stared him down and tried to reason with him.

  "I won't hurt you," she said. "I promise. I just want you to hear his voice."

  "Is this some kind of religious thing," Ace shouted. "You wear the same dumb thing Gabriel does!"

  "Don't be rude," Rikka hissed. "I'm offering you the power of the gods, and you dare to reject me?"

  Before Ace could argue with her, she grabbed his right hand and put it over his eyes. She was strong, but Ace was stronger. However, he was afraid to fight back, because she was a woman. A rich woman, at that. He didn't want people to think he had done something, alone in a room with a crazy woman who spoke of seeing and magic.

  "Close your eyes,” she commanded.

   Ace closed his eyes and his heart raced as Rikka moved his hands away from his shut eyes and placed hers instead.

  "True sight is my power. You will see through the lies,” she boomed.

   Ace's head felt strange, and his body tingled all over. He felt like the air was being sucked out of his lungs and he gasped for air.

  "Open your eyes.”

  She pushed her hand hard, into his face, as if she were pushing something out of him and Ace shuddered, feeling gross all over.

  Like he needed a bath.

  That the room was wrong.

  Something had changed and he didn't know what.

  "Nothing has changed,” he lied.

  "Look at your wrist.”

  Ace looked at his wrist, but instead of a cloth bracelet, what he saw was a metallic bracelet. It was silver and had a golden band that went through the middle.

   "You changed my bracelet to metal,” he exclaimed.

  "No! I've never met someone with so much power to be so stupid! Dad has clearly done something horrible to you!"

  “You need help,” Ace replied.

  "Be quiet! Listen! You have been blinded for so long you can't hear him!"

  Suddenly the door opened. Gabriel and David were back, and with food.

  "Is everything okay,” asked David. "You look upset.”

  "Oh, I'm fine," Rikka grinned. " We were just arguing about the best movie."

  Rikka turned back into her bubbly self, causing Ace to question if everything had ever happened, and he fumbled with his bracelet, now metallic. It was silver and gold, and looking at it, he knew he had it before. From somewhere. He just couldn't remember. Every time he did, it was like a wall was pushing inside his brain, and he would sweat, the mental exertion becoming physical.

  The longer he looked at the bracelet, the harder the wall would push back.

  The smell of BBQ filled the room, wrapping Ace inside a warm embrace. All the arguing had made him hungry and he grabbed a barbeque sandwich with shredded pork. "Thanks, David, I love this stuff,” he said.

  "Yeah me too,” said a voice next to him. Ace turned and saw a young man. He looked familiar.

  Everyone was eating their sandwiches, totally ignoring him.

  "It's a shame I can't eat this stuff,” he said. "I just love the smell of meat.”

  Everyone continued to ignore him. Then Ace realized.

  They're not ignoring him. They can't see him.

  Ace got up abruptly and made an announcement.

  "Bathroom."

  He exited the dressing room, and the strange man followed him. Ace eyed him from the side while walking down the hallway, worrying if that Rikka’s crazy was contagious. He was sure this is what people meant when they said, rich people were different and didn’t think like regular people.

   He seemed to have tan skin, with blonde hair. In fact, Ace felt like he had met him from before, but wasn't sure from where. He seemed happy, about something, and wasn’t sure what was so exciting, as they walked down the red carpet hallway. His armor was silver and gold, and his cape glowing and iridescent. It was hard not to look at him, impossible anyone could not see or hear him, as the man was huge, at seven feet tall. Ace looked both ways down the hallway to make sure no one else was around, still afraid that he was insane, so no one would see him talking to himself.

  "Why do you keep following me,” he hissed.

  The strange man was shocked and pointed at himself, as if he were addressing some other invisible knight, with a soft sparkling glow in an empty hallway.

   "You're talking to me?”

  "Yeah, you,” Ace snarled. "You some kind of psychic stalker? How come no one else can see or hear you?"

  After years of being ignored, someone had finally seen him. The poor young man was starting to believe that he was a ghost all along, and the years he and Ace had spent together were a fabrication of his lonely mind.

  Little tears came out as finally, someone had seen him, no longer would he have to suffer loneliness ever again.

  "Years, it's been years since you've acknowledged me."

  The man began to sob, and Ace awkwardly patted his arm. It didn't do much, because he was covered in head to toe in armor, and all Ace did was simply smack metal.

  "Uh, it's gonna be okay, uh..,” Ace trailed off. "What's your name??"   

  "Invictus." He wiped the snot from his face and his tears faltered. "You should know. You named me, Ace."

  "That woman made me crazy just like her," Ace said quietly. "This is impossible."

   Invictus grabbed him as he turned to walk away. "No, you're not. We're best friends. I kept you safe when I was still a blanket. Remember?"

  Ace thought hard and then he remembered. Invictus.   

  When Ace was a kid he had a blanket his father found him in. It was plain white, nothing special. As Ace grew up, he loved to use the blanket as a cape. He would pretend to be a knight. And every day he would play knights and dragons with his imaginary friend, Invictus.

  When Ace got too old to carry his blanket everywhere, his father turned a piece of it into a bracelet for him. Eventually, he grew up, and Invictus went away. He was never real. Or so he thought.

   Invictus was standing right in front of him. An actual knight. His armor gleamed in the hallway, and his long cape shone of many colors, and for some reason, standing closer to him, Ace started to suddenly feel at ease, his worries washing away.

  "You're not real. You're my imaginary friend,” said Ace. "Emphasis on imaginary."

  "That hurts," cried Invictus. "After we promised to be best friends forever. I'm not imaginary at all!"

  He side-eyed Invictus who was clearly hurt. He faded away, glaring at him, his cape turning a harsh and bright red, and Ace's mouth hung agape.

  He could feel Invictus' anger and it was disconcerting, that maybe he wasn't crazy. The ramifications of a sentient blanket made him question if he wasn't just a sock stuck underneath someone's bed. He didn't want to know anything more, because the small truth he had learned made everything around him feel wrong.

  So he decided to actually go to the bathroom, to wash his face and calm down, but while there he forgot, as he usually did, what he was doing, and did not return to his shift.