KEREN

Come his eighteenth starday, a wall formed around Ethan he had no strength to crack. It wasn't enough to push his hardest, to try and fix the broken toy — to remember every route of the underworld so Ethan never had the added worry. Another morning of the same business, the same listening. Meetings upon meetings, with the next one coming up Keren was meant to act as security detail, with Ethan inside listening to the actual discussions — the most recent one taking place in North Park of all places.

Ethan kept himself on guard with every street they passed. People milled about in front of the storefronts, ignoring the history beneath their feet. One shoot-out between two syndicate families and the victim it took.

He remembered the long night after the funeral. Fuzzy memories, where he childishly leaned into Ethan for support, ignoring the fact Ethan needed it himself. For protection stolen from him by the suits in life. Tension choked the air between them, so Keren shifted to put himself between the street and Ethan, his imagination drawing him to so many conclusions about what happened that day.

No laser rifles unloaded the releases. No masked attackers declared bloody war on the streets of Roxton. If fear remained, the knowledge he had drowned it from beneath his feet. Keren sighed, then frowned when Ethan scooted to take his previous place, near shoving him back into the safety of the civistreets.

"Ethan," Keren mumbled. "You do know they have anchor shields to stop cars from rolling onto the sidewalk?"

"You never know," Ethan replied. "Why? Don't like it when I smother you?" His grin shifted, a dead reflection of what once was. Or Keren imagined it. "I don't enjoy having patrol routes in North Park, but I can't trust it with anyone else. It has to be me."

No, it doesn't have to be you. Fists tight, Keren stomped around him. "Ethan, I really, really don't need you protecting me, alright? People think I'm useless enough." Keren released the sigh building in his lungs. "I need to figure myself out, so can I please decide which side to be on?"

Ethan blinked. "Look at you, trying to boss me around. Why are you so interested in the street anyway?" Keren studied the gentle pulsing of the dividers, cars purred past. He lurched when Ethan placed a hand on his shoulder. "Keren?" he asked, worry laced his voice. It disappeared in an instant the moment Keren looked him in the eyes. "You're really not the type to size up cars."

It's not like I'm going to fly anyway, I don't... Tires squealed in a vibrating tempo inside his head. "No, I want to have an escape on the off chance you become too overbearing."

Ethan released him at his words. "Chalen will meet us at the front door of the meeting place, and Keren—" Keren scowled when Ethan pressed a hand over his eyes, tightening his arm around his neck. "Baby brother ain't old enough to go into the big meeting." His smile returned, a light tease and full of mock cooing when he pinched his cheek. "Baby brother has to stay where he's meant to be and watch out for party-ruiners."

Keren shoved him with a scoff. But... this is what I want. Just a little. Something familiar. Familiar, warm, and safe... He stepped forward when Ethan let him take the lead, but Keren refused to lower his guard. Not in North Park, not where Mother lost her life.

"Ethan?" Keren questioned as Ethan kept his pace. "Can you please tell me if something's going on?"

Ethan waved his hand at him, and Keren ran face-first into the wall once more. "It's nothing you need to worry yourself over. We're just trying to sort some stuff out."

"You saying that doesn't help."

Ethan raised an eyebrow. "Remember what I said about needing to know things, Keren." He pushed his fist into his shoulder. "Come on, we're near the meeting place."

I hate not knowing. I'm kept out of the loop, because the less I know... the safer I am. But what does not knowing really keep me safe from? Keren observed Ethan when he took his confident stride, hands in his pockets with a content expression on his face. And yet... Words unspoken boiled his stomach, but Keren brushed it off as making his breakfast wrong. Ethan had barely any time to make it because of his constant running around for the family. The city night buzzed into being with the crawl of the evening sun as Keren finished the route with Ethan and met up with Chalen and another Associate of the Malakai's.

"Keren." Chalen stopped him from following Ethan up the staircase inside, where Father's shadow intermingled with other patches of darkness. He shrunk back and bit down on the same, childish need before when Ethan glanced back at him. Too large a wall. Back to him, Ethan hurried up the steps without a word of goodbye. Shoulders weighed down by rocks, Keren shuffled behind Chalen into a small, empty room save for a couple of mattresses, with the window leading over the fire escape. "You'll be watching here. I have a guy in the roof shack watching the streets, and I'll be right down the stairs." He prodded my belt, with the two holsters holding his chain blasters. "You got everything?"

"Yeah." Keren folded his arms. "I'm alright, Chalen. Thanks."

Chalen patted his shoulder, and left him alone on the windowsill overlooking the alley with none of the security Ethan brought. Music rang from somewhere from the night club closeby, where people drank, ate, danced, and were free. Free to live. Free to follow their dreams. Free to not become monsters.

Keren slipped out the rest of the window and leaned his stomach against the railing, arms dangling against the current of wind, rocking back and forth to the distant tune. Several beats played in quick succession, and sent a pulsing throb through his ears.

Evening gave way to the night.

Stars speckled the void's expanse, and Keren counted the ships which flew over him. Tiny scouts. Large Titans. Each one, free to retreat from the planet's atmosphere and upwards into the aetherium space. Grand adventures and the wings of freedom.

Music blasted louder, and Keren lowered his head into the alley when the trash shuffled. An animal ducked out of the shadows and rushed into the empty civistreet. Boredom crushed his ribs when he bobbed his head to the sounds, trying to imagine himself somewhere else, flying in a ship. Over planets and through swirling stars.

Keren raised his head from the cup of his palm when a click sounded throughout the alley. Yawning, he listened and waited, learned. Behind him, the room remained empty, and Chalen hadn't checked in since the last turn of the hour. Nor did Ethan. Alone, Keren shuffled through his pockets for a late-night snack, though stopped at the continuous clicks.

It was more annoying and created a dissonant tune beneath the music along the nightclubs. Keren slid down the platform and kept to the shadows in investigation. Next to the compactor, Keren rifled through some old boxes, his fingers cupping around a diamond shaped noisemaker. It snapped against his skin and failed to work. Hm. It stopped making noise when he dug his thumb into the broken piece.

This looks like some sort of hotwire... Keren pocketed it and checked over the alley, tracing it all the way to the storage square deep within it. As he held the defective hotwire in his hands, a trickle of malice rain slid down his spine. He raised his head at the constant, nagging feeling in his mind when it drove his hand onto his holster to grab his chain blaster. Terror choked him as he pointed it at the shadows. Keren snapped his head around the corner into the backstreets, with his only light coming from the building where the meeting took place. Am I imagining things?

Everything fell silent, and the hotwire stopped clicking.

Keren blinked at the pulse of a stealth apparatus, near hidden by the camouflage of light.

Keren took a step back for the apartments, to tell Chalen.

To tell Ethan.

A scream lodged into his throat when one shadow lunged forward when he drew closer to the light. Their gloved hand pressed against his mouth, Keren struggled when the two shadows latched onto him and pulled him from the building. He fought. He fought and fought and he couldn't get away. Unable to screech for assistance, Keren swung his foot out, to hook onto one of their ankles or kick them where it hurt the most. He flailed his arms to grab onto something, anything, to set himself free when edevic cuffs locked around his wrists and snapped him into a magnetic place. Fuck, why me? Keren kicked once more with another wriggle of defiance, cracking his shoulder against the shadows. His heart slammed against his ribcage when someone grabbed him from behind, and he lurched his head back, meeting someone's jaw from the grunt they let out.

Free for an instant, he readied himself to fly straight back to Ethan.

Something pressed against his face, a familiar, agonizing hiss, where Ethan fought, but collapsed all the same at his feet. Sweetness overpowered his nostrils with its cruelty as he tried to dig his fingers into the hands which kept it locked against his face. He choked when the hisses intensified. No! Tears welled up, but he tried to find the solar rage. No. No, no no. I can't let them do this! I can't! He squirmed against his own heartbeat roaring through his ears. Over and over when the rest of him cowered and remained weak. Another hiss rang through his ears.

"Are we sure this one will get the message across?" one of the shadows mused, unperturbed by their own actions.

Prickles swept down his legs when they dragged him into the back of a transport. Over and over again, with no Ethan to comfort him.

No!

His strength dissipated, but he never had any to start.

Keren grunted when his back cracked against the bed of the transport, he tried to stand, but he bit on his tongue when one of the shadows slammed their heel into his arm. Keren gazed at the light of family, the one thing he needed to protect. Defective.

One of the shadows leaned over him.

What do you want from me? Tears pooled up in the corners of the world, but he still wasn't frozen.

"Let's go, this is a Malakai," the shadow said and stood up. "Boss will want to handle this himself—"

Gorgot jaws snapped bone, and he rode on the solar tornado to send his foot straight into the shadow's crotch when he dared to reveal the opportunity. He found a grin forming on his face when the shadow gasped out in pain, loudly, recoiling back out of the van. Keren lurched up to pull at the magnetic bracers, but the world cracked when the butt of a weapon smashed into the back of his head.

Stars.

Close enough to touch and fly.

No... I can't let them take me. Not to another location.

Keren flinched when the shadow hopped back into the transport and threw him deeper into it. "Couldn't stars-damned behave. Typical," the shadow said and pressed the hissing mask tighter around him. "Get us out of here, they might've heard that."

I need to breathe! Keren screamed out to space. I can't let them...

It overwhelmed his senses with numb ferocity.

One of the men sat on the other side of the transport, while the one he kicked crawled into the front seat with the driver. Stars dammit. Am I cursed?

Keren checked on the outside before the doors closed, drawing his attention to the windows.

The fury of a thousand green nebulae met his gaze from the second floor window at the foggy shape leaning out of it, quickly disappearing into the light.

The door snapped shut, and Keren flew into space, cursing his inability to fly himself.