Lumiea

Year -19 (L.D.)

Despite her age, Aeryn did not often feel young. The fight to make it to Iyla and then to bond to her squad had consumed so much of her life that her world had narrowed, and with it time, so this cause she'd given so much for felt timeless and all-consuming. Her life had not been measured in years nor her years in months or days but in each battle she'd waged to make it to this point.

Petrin's eyes–brimming with the conviction of a man who knew more of the world than her–made her feel young and childish. Aeryn knew nothing.

She wanted to say she was fighting for Earth. When she'd stood in the Ceremony Hall at Iyla and looked up to see the image of Earth for the first time, Commander Vehru had told them they would liberate the planet from the plague of violence, poverty, and oppression that ruled the innocent people there. But then Vehru had also told her that fighting rebels protected her world.

Not once while hunting down rebels did Aeryn ever feel as if she protected anything.

So athough she did not know this man and had no reason to trust him, her heart recognized the truth in his words as one which had already been filling her heart day after bloody day as an Iylan soldier.

"You've seen it too." Petrin tilted his head to the side, studying her. "There's suffering in your eyes. You've seen the blood that soaks your uniform and stains your soul."

Wisdom from training tried to speak reason to her. Never trust the words of a captor during an interrogation. A basic, obvious truth. What if Vehru had been the real captor, though? And their entire world her hostage. Aeryn had devoted too much of herself to becoming a liberator of worlds for her to simply trust anyone. It was with her hands she pulled the trigger on Joon and took the last remnant of his wife, Rory, from his stiff grasp. Had Aeryn fought all this time for Vehru, herself, or liberation?

It wasn't a question she really needed to ask herself.

"You think there's hope for Earth?" Aeryn asked.

"The Ephemorian are human, no matter how advanced they are. Humans have weaknesses."

"What does the Witness do?"

Petrin lowered his gaze, seeming to think. "It's dangerous to share information and I've already given you so much. But then again, if I can't trust you, I have to kill you." Sorrow filled his eyes as he looked back up. "The knowledge will die with you in that case."

"Just tell me, please."

"You become Rory." He nodded. "Like her, I mean. Commander Vehru takes your memories from you and sends you ahead to Earth a decade before Liberation Day."

"Why? What purpose could it serve to take the memories?"

"Think about it. Why would Vehru want someone on the planet early?"

"To start working. She'd want someone to prepare the planet." Aeryn leaned back against the cold wall. "It lets them know there's life on another planet capable of reaching them."

"And?"

"And… I don't know. That it's not threatening? Because some amnesiac on an alien planet probably won't jump to world domination."

"You're halfway right. It is still threatening. How did this person get here? What happened to their memories? Did someone send them or were they running? Did they just take a wrong turn somewhere?" He leaned in. "The questions all come down to this. Who is out there? When there's no answer, something dangerous happens. Terror takes over. And terror left to fester for years desensitizes you to threat."

"Psychological warfare."

"You also can't spill her secrets if you don't remember them. Do you know what kind of person Vehru chooses as the Witness?"

Aeryn shook her head. "I imagine someone capable of helping her take over a planet."

"Vehru has plenty of soldiers to wage war and take the planet by force. The Witness does what no one else can. They earn trust."

A cold fist of dread squeezed Aeryn's stomach.

"That's why her Witnesses are kind, trusting, altruistic people. It's rare for someone like that to make it to Iyla, so the kind of person who ends up in a position like yours is also incredibly resilient. A perfect weapon. A wolf in sheep's clothing who actually believes they're a sheep."

"No." Aeryn shook her head. "I don't… I never would have wanted this program…" Her breath came in short spurts. The idea of having her memories taken, being abandoned on Earth, set up to unwittingly earn the trust of the people and soften them for Vehru's invasion–it was too much to think about. "Does it really work?"

"It does. It's not her only strategy. But it's a very effective one."

"We had a Witness on Lumiea then? How have we never heard of it?"

"Vehru decides what history records. Hell, she decides what our own minds remember."

"You're saying she wiped everyone's memory?"

"No. That's not necessary when you can control people in much simpler ways. I'm sure she resorted to that when she needed to, but when Commander Vehru forbids something from being mentioned, people dare not even think about it. You know this too well."

True. When had Aeryn realized they would not liberate Earth but conquer it? She hadn't allowed herself to think it, but she knew it was true before today.

Petrin sighed. "Vehru gives the memories back to the Witness when she's ready for them to have it. If you become the Witness, you won't be able to stop her from sending you or taking your memories. But if you plan beforehand, you'll regain your plans with your memories."

"If she can take memories, does it mean she can read them too?"

Petrin hesitated. "I don't know. We've suspected it, but from what my parents taught me and from what I've seen, it doesn't make sense. If Vehru could read minds, then she would have stopped a great many people from doing a great many things, including those whose memories she stole."

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"Everything you're saying could be a lie."

"It could be. Vehru could also be lying. What's your truth? Do you even know?"

Her truth? Her heart was filled with a home long lost and a new family searching for her now. All Aeryn had wanted before was to get into the program. Now she just wanted to hold onto what she loved. Truth seemed too elusive to catch hold of.

"My truth is that you have me tied up in a basement."

"We could use Vehru's line and say we liberated you from her forces." His sly smile defied the seriousness of the situation. "I would rather tell the truth, though."

"So you want to influence the future Witness and kill those you can't sway. What makes you think Vehru will choose any of us after you've tampered with our minds?"

"Because she hasn't stopped us. You think we get away with anything without Vehru looking the other way? Maybe she really can read our minds and there's some grand purpose to all this. What I know is that my people are good. But no one is that good. She should have recaptured the Aerolux by now."

Another fucking trial. Vehru may not have planned this one but if she did know and just didn't stop it then she was testing her all over again. And if she really didn't know, then she was weaker than Aeryn thought.

"It sounds like there's as much hope for Earth as Lumiea," Aeryn said.

"Unless we can spread the message to all the Witnesses. Maybe one planet can't win against the Federation. What if we all fight? What if Earth is willing to fight for the next planet? And this is the first ring in a chain that will one day bind the Federation."

Aeryn caught herself smiling sadly. "You're an idealist."

"I–"

Screams and gunfire erupted up the stairs. Petrin ripped to his feet, turning.

A train had crashed right into the hideout. That was how loud the commotion was. Aeryn sat back against the wall and tried again to undo her bonds, wide eyes on the door as pounding footsteps grew louder and louder.

"Aeryn!" The voice exploded from the hallway just before a deafening crack erupted. "Aeryn!"

A large figure burst into the room, ripping the door clear off its hinges and throwing it against the wall in one smooth motion as if it was weightless. Jace looked like a stranger in that moment, a ferocious, feral stranger heavily modded and muscled. Aeryn had gotten so comfortable with him that she'd not really noticed what a threat he'd become.

The sight of him and his rage froze the room for a split second.

Jace jumped down the stairs and landed flat footed with his hand already curling around the neck of one of the shocked rebel soldiers. Her friend's familiar features twisted and hardened into a mask of rage.

How had he found her? Where were his guns?

The closest soldiers ran for him while the others trained their weapons. But Jace seemed unstoppable. He'd thrown the man he was holding against the splintered debris of the door and knocked away the next one with a single swing of his arm. The floor moaned and the room shook with the power of Jace's rampage, so the vibrations shot straight to Aeryn's heart. Guns fired, but Jace shot across the room with trails of his thrusters looking like smoke at his heels.

His shoulder rammed into one man. Fist rocketed into another's skull.

Red glowed from his palms as he flung himself toward two more rebels. Blasts from rebel laser guns popped like fireworks, but Jace moved so swiftly, she couldn't even tell if he'd been hit. Until one shot ripped his shoulder back in a spray of blood right as he grabbed the face of a rebel. Somehow, it didn't slow him down or seem to faze him. Jace slammed the man on the ground so hard he bounced.

He raised his hand toward the last woman, clasped his wrist to brace his arm, and blasted her with a beam of sparking electricity. His own arm jerked from the shock of the discharge.

With everyone else down, Jace twisted for Petrin, eyes as hard as when he first entered, and ready fists hazy with energy.

"No, Jace–" Aeryn shifted to block him but forgot about her bindings and nearly fell. "He has information. He helped me."

She worried that he hadn't heard her. Jace's stare remained locked on Petrin, but her friend had stopped moving. The room had stopped shaking. And Aeryn knew her words had reached him.

"Jace–"

"Weapons," he barked at Petrin.

The man slid everything across the floor, including his mods. Jace frisked him and then shoved him toward Aeryn.

"Release her." Jace's voice was as rough as sandpaper. "Now."

The fear emanated from Petrin like heat, but it hadn't made him tremble or cower. He'd gone silent with it. Silent and careful. Slowly, he lifted his thumb and pressed it against the pads on the restraints to unlock Aeryn's wrists and ankles.

Before she could even rise on her stiff legs, Jace rushed to her side and lifted her by her arms. Her feet hovered above the ground for a moment until he settled her down, the hardness on his face softening into worry. No. Not worry.

Fear.

"Are you hurt?" His eyes traveled down her body, hands gripping her arms tight.

"No. You're the one who's hurt." She reached for his shoulder but hesitated with her fingers close. "You know you got shot, right?"

Aeryn worried he'd gotten so lost in his rampage that he really had no idea.

"I can't really feel it," he said.

"You will soon. That's just your adrenaline. We need to stop the bleeding." This time, Aeryn ripped her arms away before he had the chance to move her again and plastered her palms against his wound, prying a grunt from his lips. "See? You felt that one."

Fingers–sticky with blood that had trailed from his shoulder and down his arm–lifted to her cheek and lightly grazed her skin. "I thought I'd find you dead. I thought…"

Aeryn couldn't draw in a breath. Her lungs were empty and her heart was pounding out of control from the sudden battle. Maybe from his eyes on her. Maybe from the way he'd roared her name. Maybe from how afraid she'd been, too, that he wouldn't make it out of here alive.

Jace hooked his arm around her waist and clutched her against his chest. There was nothing to separate them. What if he felt how wildly her heart beat? Aeryn bit her lip, neither drawing her arms around him nor pushing him away. Just resting against him as he embraced her.

Still holding her, Jace turned his head toward Petrin, who'd had the good sense not to move or speak.

"Tell me everything," Jace said. Pain laced his voice now. "Otherwise, you die."

Petrin's glossy eyes had a faraway look. "You killed them all."

"You took Aeryn." Jace offered no apology, but her heart was breaking now as she allowed herself to register the blood splattered across the floor.

"I had decided not to kill her if that's any consolation," Petrin said.

"Motherfucker," Jace said.

"Say what you need to say, Petrin." Aeryn cast him a look of warning.

Some of the blood on the ground belonged to Jace. She had to stop the bleeding, not get distracted by guilt. Where was his bag with the medical supplies she needed? He had nothing. No weapons or equipment. What the hell happened? She glanced at his fuel to see it was almost empty.

Aeryn pulled her long-sleeved shirt off, leaving her chilled in her tank top, and wrapped it around Jace's wound. He gasped when she tied it tightly. His shoulder slumped now, his breath more ragged. Surely someone had a patch. She'd have to hunt one down.

"Lumiea's Witness was my grandmother," Petrin said, eyes on Aeryn. This stopped her in her tracks before she could look for a patch. "When she regained her memories, she warned Lumiea not to give in. Vehru let her. Said every world deserved a Witness they could trust. But it wasn't the same for her husband. If he didn't fight for Vehru, then my grandmother would die." Petrin nodded. "They fought on opposite sides of the war. He died toward the end. My grandmother fell for another soldier who decided to hide here on Lumiea. My grandfather. They came to understand that my grandmother's rebellion had played into Vehru's hands. They'd fought a physical war, not a psychological one."

Aeryn swallowed hard. "What are you trying to say?" She could tell he danced around something.

"I invited you here," Petrin said to Jace. "Surely, you didn't think you made it here before Vehru on your own."

By the knowing look on Jace's face it was clear there was much more to this story, and perhaps an explanation as to why he had so little with him.

Petrin's voice lowered. "I'd thought we would take you down but clearly I underestimated your abilities, even though you're so fresh of a soldier." He looked to his fallen comrades again. "I wanted to know who would fight the hardest for Aeryn. Who cared about her the most. Because the Witness Program isn't just about the Witness. It's about who they leave behind." Tears brimmed in his eyes. "Just my luck that you two are so dangerous together."

Aeryn recognized the conviction shining bright in Petrin's eyes. Before she even saw his hand shift to press deeply against his eyes, or heard his roar start to form, she shoved Jace hard toward the door, her instinct screaming danger.

But with all of Jace's mods and enhancements, he was faster than she could hope to be. Instead of taking the precious split second to save himself, he wrapped his arms around Aeryn and flipped her away from Petrin.

As they lunged forward, a sledgehammer of heat slammed into them. The sound followed, a real explosion this time. A deafening roar even more angry than Jace screaming her name.

Her own scream was lost to the noise. Her body scraped against the ground and slid until it felt all of her skin had burned off her back. A crushing weight squeezed the breath from her lungs.

Then a chilling quiet.