(Futuristic)

[I plan on making this a real book ;) ] "If we're going to get out of here, we're going to have to work together. After that, we can go back to killing each other." I shouted as phasor shots hit the buildings around us, making the two of us push harder as we ran.

"Oh, fine," I heard mumbled through clenched teeth.

I tried my best to refrain from tripping the irksome official running beside me.

Officer Jazma Rayze has a lot of guts coming after me, especially considering what I was doing in this quadrant of the galaxy. If I weren't so hung up on finding her brother I would actually take time out of my busy schedule to beat some sense into her. It's her brother I'm looking for, one would think she'd be grateful and join me.

But no...I'm an unruly space pirate that needs to be flogged and hang just like in the olden times. As if the robotic body replacement parts that riddled my once beautiful frame wasn't punishment enough.

Another bombardment of firepower plowed through the various obstacles around us as we ran, blindly navigating the rundown and wire exposed streets of a poorly kept area of town. Gross soliciting neon lights blinking, muddy streets with pockets of trash troves, and hooded figures that smelled like five-year-old milk made me want to take a shower. Thunder clapped overhead as more lasers fired past our heads. Nevermind about the shower then.

Turning a corner I slipped on the mudding ground, my knees grazing the ground and my hand keeping me up. I could hear Rayze struggle as she too tried to navigate the turn. I stood and shook off mud only to retreat backward.

"Nope, nope, nope, nope."

I quickly turned my back to the barricade of super soldiers and tanks, running into Rayze and ignoring her shouts of protest as I grabbed her hand and pulled her down a different alleyway.

"Where are you going, the ship bay is back there!"

"Unless you want to get blown to bits," I glanced back at her and tossed her hand away, "shut up and follow me."

I heard her groan but her slapping footfalls behind me didn't falter. Confident she was following, I raced down the pattern of alleyways I knew almost better than my own ship. The sound of busy street life reached my ears before I saw it.

I skidded to a halt behind a crumbling plaster wall. Rayze came to a stop next to me, our heavy breathing clogging my senses for a bit before I could listen to what was going on. Carefully I peeked around the corner, taking in the busy streets and open shops.

Right across from where we hid were two doors that lead to the small hanger I kept my ship. Well, I kept it underground. Illegally. But on one has ever found it. No officials were in sight but that didn't mean there weren't any "bossy bots" around to alert anyone. Good thing Rayze came searching for me in street clothes. She's not an Official anymore. As soon as the streets got a bit denser I turned to Rayze and nodded.

But right before I could stand up there was a shaking explosion, making the lights of the shops flicker and the people on the streets scream. A smallish shockwave hit us and I coughed as the air cleared. My heart dropped as I checked across the street again. I winced and huffed as I pressed my back to the plaster wall.

"Aww man!"

"What?" Rayze whispered harshly.

"They blew up my ship!" I motioned back to the explosion, my heart heavy and my eyes wide with anger.

Rayze peeked over the top of the small wall and scowled. "Perfect." She turned back around and slumped down next to me, her arms propped up on her bent knees. "I wanted to blow it up."

I scoffed. "First come, first serve." I turned over the side again, almost not believing my last five years of scavenging was now a smoldering pile of metal. "Pity you missed the firework display." I turned back to her and shrugged.

Rayze eyed me wearily. "The plans to find my brother wasn't on there was it?"

I rolled my eyes and pulled out a small disk the size of a ring. "Yes. I leave all things precious to me in my only hard earned bit of property." I dropped the ring disk in her hand angrily. "Lucky you I didn't feel like leaving it behind."

Rayze took the ring disk and studied it. "We need to see what's on here."

I nodded, letting out a breath as I searched in my back for what I have left of my life. "I know and the reader was in my ship. But," I pulled out my trusty multi tool and tossed it up lightly, catching it with familiarity, "I have this so I can just make one out of the circuits on your ship."

Rayze tossed me the ring disk and folded her arms, leaning back against the adjacent wall. "And how are we supposed to get to my ship. You said there was a barricade of some kind."

I tapped my multi-tool against my chin and hummed as I thought. I glanced up at a passing transporter, its lights blinding me for a moment. It drew my attention to a series of rooftop walkways used for sentry during wartime scares. Usually, they were off limits but the most recent scare had just ended three days ago. The officials hadn't put up the barbed electric fences yet. I looked back to my ship, or what was left of it and sighed. This had better be worth it.

It was my fault he was missing. Jayvin wasn't even supposed to be around me, let alone on the planet's surface. He was supposed to be on his convoy transport to the new outer system helping the Old Leaders secure a peaceful union with the outer planets. As a skilled fighter and natural born leader, I wasn't surprised when he told me he couldn't help me with my goods orders anymore. I was going to miss him but I wasn't going to stop him and force him to be a "space pirate" with me. I was the one who hacked the Official's data stream and brought his application for the position to their attention. I didn't mind, he would have a better chance at making it in this galaxy.

But for some reason, Jayvin had this notion that he could take me with him. He thought that if the other Officials saw me and my skill with being a quick thinker and being discreet they would be impressed. Even the Old Leaders would want me on their recon missions or internal affairs. But I didn't take kindly to being told what to do. I told him thanks but no thanks. I liked being my own boss. Made things work smoother and less messy. Plus I didn't have to cut back on my payments or rewards for a second or third party. Save for when Jayvin helped.

So when I saw him leaning against my ship the day of his departure I was shocked. Then I was angry. I yelled at him, pushed him, and told him to shove it before he even opened his mouth. I didn't want him to be like me. Sure, he was older by a few years and he could make his own choices but I didn't want to be responsible for the day he turns to me and I see hatred and sorrow in his eyes because of the life he lived. I could hardly stand looking in the mirror as it was.

But he was resilient. I remember the last thing he did and said to me before he left to be the leader he was meant to be. He took my shaking hands and held them until they stilled. Then he moved his hands up to my upper arms, giving them a reassuring squeeze as he flashed me his lopsided grin. His green eyes like glowing orbs of excitement as he peered into my boring brown ones.

"Reem," my nickname sounded nice in his solid but kind voice, "one day, I am going to make sure that the world sees how amazing you are. Thanks to you I now have an amazing opportunity to better our lives. I'll get to show my sister I can do hard things and I'll get to finally pay you back for saving my life all those months ago."

I rolled my eyes but let him continue.

"But most of all," he lowered his head so we were just a breath apart, making it difficult to think clearly for a moment, "I will show them that people like us deserve a chance at changing the world. The galaxy even. Especially when they desperately need us but don't know it yet."

I just stood there, staring at him. He held onto me like I was his anchor. Honestly, I play the tough girl all the time but really I needed him just as much, if not more than he needed me. He was my anchor. I would have grown misty eyed if it wasn't for the beeping of his communicator.

Jayvin smiled, placed a sudden and hasty kiss on my forehead then took off, chuckling as I continued to stand there, staring at the back of his dirty blond head still trying to process what just happened. Then he was gone. Of course, I tracked him until he got to his convoy and into space. Two weeks later, the war scare happened and at the same time, he went missing. All traces of him vanished along with his little, deployed convoy. But no one seemed worried. Not even the Official's database set up any alarms. I had been searching for him since.

It wasn't until three days ago I found the information I was looking for, my little ring disk of importance. That same day I ran into my arch enemy. Again. But this time she wasn't here to force me to pay fines or taxes, or even set me up in jail for a night, she had come to force me to confess to killing her brother.

I tried to tell her otherwise but she wasn't the listening type. We have had run ins for years, but usually, her brother was around to calm her down. But now that she's lost her brother and her position in the Official's regime, I couldn't blame her for wanting to punch my lights out. I'd want to punch my lights out.

Another transport flew overhead and I nodded. The rooftop walkways were our best bet at this point. I turned to Rayze who was still glaring at me. I raised a brow and point up with my multi-tool.

"I hope you're not afraid of heights."

Rayze looked up and her shoulders sagged. "No, but I don't like how out in the open it is."

I almost laughed. "Oh ye of little faith," I whispered as I got up and started sneaking off to the closest ground point, "Do you really think the sentries would keep their posts out in the open like golden targets for enemy war ships to freely drop bombs on them?"

"How should I know, Dovi."

I stopped us at one of the ground points, a small ladder leading to a beat up box looking doorway that held the secret to the sentries. I turned to Rayze and nodded up the latter.

"No, no they wouldn't. And seeing as how they haven't put the gates up yet, we are free to use their installments." I started climbing up but then paused, looking down at her with a slight wince. "Well, for the time being."

Rayze rolled her eyes and let out a heavy breath. "Remira Dovi, I swear."

I just smiled to myself as I reached the box at the top. Stepping in, taking care to not tip the Officials scanner, I reached up and opened the electrical housing unit. Carefully I programmed it to release two cloaking bracelets set for two hours, a single sentry shift, and closed the housing unit. The box hummed to life and glowed green. With a high pitched squeal, it blasted me with air as a robotic arm shot out and clamped a shiny black bracelet on my wrist. Shaking my head and blinking I stepped out of the box, letting Rayze inside.

"Just wait a second, it needs to scan your body first."

As she was getting prepped I looked around. The path back to where Rayze parked her ship seemed clear enough. But that barricade will need to be taken care of. I reached behind me and pulled out my sword. It hummed to life as it extended from the size of a dagger to that of a true saber. I heard Rayze step out, a disgusted sound escaping her lips.

She shivered. "How is it that I feel even more disgusting than before?"

I swung my sword, the light of the blaster resilient, curved, flat blade glowing bright enough to cast a faint afterglow with each swing. "Just be glad you're not wearing your Officials uniform anymore. Then you would really feel nasty working alongside me."

Rayze gave me an exasperated glare then glanced at my sword before starting down the roof paths.

"Space pirate," she mumbled.

"Space pirate," I imitated her with an annoying voice. I skipped up to her, ignoring the creaking of the old woods slats that was our path that kept us from falling to our deaths. "You might want to follow me seeing as how I know where I'm going."

"I know where my ship is. You don't."

"Tell me and that can easily be fixed. We will be traveling a lot quicker while we are up here but I don't have too much trust in these sentry shields." I waved my cuffed wrist in her face. "Anyways, it would be hilarious to see their faces once they notice the ship taking off with no one piloting it."

Rayze cracked, smirking a bit. "Yellow district, right behind a sheet factory."

I winced. "Was it a white sheet factory?"

She nodded. "Yeah, why?"

I stowed away my saber only to pull out a supplement pill. "We are going to need one of these. Lucky for you I have two left."

She hesitantly took one out of my hand when I offered her one of the gray pills, my head throwing back as I swallowed mine. Her eyes widened as she realized what they were for.

"You can't be serious," she threw back the pill, "of course I would park in a radiation zone. Why are they still operational in there if you need pills to pass through?"

I shrugged. "Dunno. It's not lethal yet."

We didn't talk for the rest of the way there. Good thing too because I wasn't exactly in a talking mood. Yellow district was the reason the war scare happened three days ago. Someone thought it was an attack when really it was just a leaked factory power source causing the people to get sick. But because no one had died Officials didn't see a need to use valuable resources quarantine it yet. I knew a lot of people there, good people. And now they were getting sick. So much for future technology and world peace.

I focused on how I was going to be able to reach my deep space contact without my long distance radio signal. Petty Officials, like Rayze, weren't sanctioned the good ships. Not until you reached General Official, then you started to see the good stuff. Looks like I'm going to have to work with what I got. I smirked. Maybe I can get her to let me steal a GO's ship, it's not like I was ever law abiding to begin with.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by Rayze, her voice loud compared to our journeying silence.

"Why are you looking for my brother?"

I almost stopped walking. I glanced at her and shrugged a shoulder. "Someone had to. You didn't learn about his missing until three days ago."

"I have a job, unlike some people."

I jumped down a few steps as we came up to the barricade from before, right where the roof paths ended. "Yeah well I have feelings and compassion," I looked at her, "unlike some people."

Instead of retorting back she just stared at me. But then she blinked and moved to stand next to me as I stopped at the edge of one of the roofs. Looking down between an alleyway I could see the soldiers and their bots strolling about, laying down, and looking pretty much bored. I turned to Rayze, reaching for my saber and extending it.

"Ready to liven up this crew."

She pulled out her gun and charged it on, looking up at her ship just a good sprinting distance from here. "Let's get this over with."

The distance to drop down not being too great, we figured falling right in the middle would give us the best chance to catch them by surprise and shoot our way out to her ship. Still having about thirty minutes on these bracelets, give or take fifteen, we would be completely invisible to them. Except when we get hit. Once we get hit they would be able to see us as the thin shielding layer shimmers back into place. These aren't meant to keep us safe, just undetectable.

With a nod, we both jumped and started fighting. Had I not been focusing on finding the fastest route to her dingy ship, it would have been hilarious to watch as bot and soldiers alike freaked out as they realized they were under attack.

As far as Rayze and I are concerned, we are always at each other's throats. That is until we find a common enemy. Suddenly we are completely in sync. Back to back I quickly fell into the role of defense as she played offense. It didn't take long before half of them were down before the other half had time to come to their sense. I almost started to enjoy myself.

Almost. Until Rayze opened her mouth again.

"Do you usually risk your life for people who mean nothing to you?"

Deflecting an incoming laser, I turned to her. "I'm not a monster, I don't kill everyone I see," I grunted as I fought off a bot, slicing it in half. "Only the ones who make life a little too difficult for my liking."

Rayze shot back men trying to come up from behind. "Then why haven't you killed me?"

I almost laughed. "You make things exciting sometimes."

She glared at me before taking a few more shots. "How charming. But..."

I rolled my eyes. "But, if I were to kill you I wouldn't have my in on the Officials and I probably wouldn't be alive."

We instinctively hooked arms and swung each other, my blade blocking and slicing as her gun took shots. Thankfully, it wasn't raining so it wasn't too slippery but just enough to move around with accelerated ease. The blue from Rayze's gun matched my sword making the ground glow with blue around us as they reflected off the left over puddles. The soldiers and their orange guns seemed to do them a disservice by blinding them with each shot. Blue was softer on the eyes.

Rayze grunted as she pulled me over, my blade coming up in time to block a stray laser to her face. She nodded in thanks before she continued.

"I'm glad you know who would win in a fair fight, now that your ship and precious gadgets are gone."

I did laugh this time. "Don't flatter yourself, Rayze," I jumped on a bot and sliced off its arms then its head, sparks flying as it clunked to the floor, "You're not dead because of your brother."

There was that look again, the one she gave me on the roof before we jumped down. The fighting had come to a lull and we were able to run. But that didn't stop Rayze and her intent to keep talking. The sentry shields had worn off so we didn't have time to waste.

"Why should you care what he thinks? I don't even know why you would be going through all of this to go find him when I can clearly do it myself and you are not any farther than I would have gotten by now."

Then she stopped running. I groaned. Turning around I gave her a "what" face, but she just stared at me, open mouthed.

"You...you like him," she whispered, pointing at me.

My face flushed and I couldn't help it. She took a step forward and nearly shoved me.

"No, no you don't like him. You love him."

I didn't say anything, I just bit my lip and looked anywhere but at her. I knew these stupid feelings of mine would get me in trouble one day. Sister or no sister, the fact Jayvin was missing was eating me up inside, enough to kill me.

"You love my brother." She shook her head, not seeing the group of soldiers coming around the corner.

Ignoring her and her epiphany of new information, I grabbed her arms and yanked her hard, tossing her to the side as I brought up my sword. But I wasn't fast enough. Two shots hit my body, making my muscles seize and body trimmer. I fell to the ground, almost in slow motion. But once I hit the old wet pavement, I fought for breath at the sudden blow. I blinked, angry my vision started to already fade. So fast.

I saw a finger moving about, bursts of light racing across my vision as blurred soldiers and their bots were fought off. The figure, Rayze, moved to my side and reached down, scooping an arm under my arms to make me stand. Red hot pain shot up throughout my body making me gasp for breath.

I shook my head as best I could, my voice coming out strangled and choppy.

"Leave me. I....my ship had....you can't carry..."

Rayze scoffed. "Would you shut up and let me save you. My brother would kill me if he knew I just let you die." She looked down at me and, from what I could tell, smirked. "I'm not completely without feeling. Besides, they blew up your ship. That was my job."

I wanted to laugh but instead, I coughed into my empty hands. My eyes widened. "My saber...."

"Got it right here, pirate."

I leaned on her heavily as we stumbled closer to her ship. Not soon enough we were inside the small Official patrol transport. She set me down on a table, rushing to grab supplies to fix my wounds. She fumbled with some bandages but I reached down and stopped her with shaky hands.

I shook my head. "It's no use," I whispered then coughed, feeling blood bubble up in my throat, "I was shot right through."

Rayze shook her head. "You are not dying, not when I found the girl my brother wouldn't shut up about but wouldn't tell me who. You're the one who got him the position. You are the one who brought him back to life in a way I could never have." She grasped my hands and forced them away from my wounds. "Stay still or it's going to hurt even worse."

I felt a sharp pain in my leg then things started to feel loopy. I turned my head to her and winced. "You have a sleeper shot?"

"The strongest stuff."

I nodded, letting my eyes close. "You could have started with that, you Official Idiot."

The last thing I remembered before falling into the beast sleep on record was the sound of Jazma Rayze laughing and mumbling something about how good of a story this will be for the grandkids one day.