Chapter Twenty-Six

The sky was dark. I sat down on the couch that faced towards the large glass windows overlooking Merak. It felt like I was in a strange movie as I stood looking out onto a sea of darkness. I was alone. It almost felt good to have some time to my thoughts.

Everything had changed so much over the past few months. We had just been living in OnxyFive not too long ago performing pointless checks of the perimeter. At that time, I had hated Luther. Now, here we were back on the same team. Thankfully, no one could see me roll my eyes.

The lights from the buildings caused a twinkling effect on the RaCO below. It glistened under the pale light. It was everywhere on Merak, even flowing through my veins. I picked up my medallion and looked at it. For as long as I could remember I had wondered about this stupid necklace and now I knew. It wasn't just a piece of jewelry, it was necessary for my survival. It was the one thing keeping my RaCO in balance. It wasn't opening any sort of special time travel mechanism. The Jump Line was in my thoughts. That's why it hadn't worked when I was stuck for three years in a different time. I didn't know to think about travel. I didn't know it existed. Tapping on the medallion had just been something they had told us we needed to do to jump through time.

The realization almost made me feel silly. I had thought about many things over those three years, but had primarily been focused on being alone. I hadn't really let my imagination explore the unknown.

I wondered if Theo had found Aurora yet. Would he be able to talk with her and more importantly...would she listen?

Samuel suddenly appeared next to me. His facial muscles taunt. "Did Theo go to find Aurora?"

My head whipped in his direction. "Who?"

"Aurora. I know you heard me say her name."

Every hair on my arm stood up. "Maybe. Why do you ask?"

"Because I'm trying to make myself feel better. I've known for too long that we have kept her away from the two of you. Secretly, I have hopped for this day for a very long time. You deserve to be together."

"I agree. We do deserve to at least know one another exists and you should feel bad that you kept her from us....from me"

Tears stung my eyes. I turned my head away from Samuel so that he couldn't see my disappointment.

Suddenly, the darkness outside of my window was interrupted with a flash of light, causing me to blink several times.

"What was that?"

"Stay here," Samuel responded as he disappeared.

He returned after several seconds of being gone. His eyes now looked like mine, almost as if he had been crying, but that didn't seem like something he would do.

"What aren't you telling me?" My heart began to race as I questioned him. "Tell me what you know Samuel."

"I looked back out of the window. Everything was dark again, but the landscape seemed different. The lights weren't twinkling as much as they had been just a little bit ago.

My voice grew quieter. "Samuel, what happened?"

He sat down on the couch and motioned for me to join him. "There was an explosion. It happened so fast, but a number of the new Ciphers were in the area at the time."

"Was anyone on the team injured?"

"I don't know. I saw everyone, but Theo."

"Maybe he wasn't there—"

His voice grew deeper, "Audrina said he had just been standing in front of her trying to talk to Aurora. She had a mad expression on her face."

"What does that mean?"

"Esa, it means we don't know what happened to Theo and Aurora. The team says they were there one minute and then gone following the explosion."

"Were they injured?"

"We don't know. They're just gone."

"We need to find them!"

"The team is out looking—"

My entire body went rigid. "Don't tell me that. You've said that before and I later found out you were lying."

"Esa, I'm not lying—"

"But how do I know that? You've lied many times before."

Samuel paced back and forth in front of me. "Esa, there was an explosion. We know several Ciphers are missing. Theo and Aurora are among that group."

"Marie has something to do with this," I seethed. "I know she is somehow connected. We need to go and find her."

Samuel put up his right hand. "Stop. I'll go and find her, but you need to stay here."

"Why? She's my mother."

"Because she doesn't want to see you."

"I don't care!"

"Esa, just let me talk to her. I'll be back in just a little bit."

Samuel disappeared. The room suddenly felt very large...and empty.

I walked over to the window and stared at the area where I had seen the burst of light wondering just what happened. Had someone intentionally caused an explosion or was it an accident? Something told me it wasn't an accident.