The Rebel *Sequel* (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 28 - pg. 20 - 11 / 2 / 24
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Re: The Rebel *Sequel* (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 24 - pg. 18 - 9 / 6 / 20
Welcome back! Life has been hectic, and I might not come back during November - Nanowrimo, but here's the next part!
As we're getting closer to the climax of the story, are there any flashbacks you guys would like to see? Something in their past you're curious about? About the PodSquad or any other character?
Part 25: Anywhere But Here
November 2nd, 2011 - New York
1 : Michael
In his other life, Rath had easily absorbed information from multiple sources about multiple threats. Leaders would always have enemies, especially when said leaders were young and idealistic and wanted to change the world.
In this life, Michael had learned to look for threats hiding behind every shadow. He had no reports and no spies and no situations to keep his eyes on. No, he had special unit agents, alien enemies, and whatever Dave had, to deal with. Rath could plan. Michael had to react.
In the last couple of years, with Rath’s memories intensifying, Michael had taken a few lessons from his former self. Rath had known how to project an aura of authority and order people around, which were useful skills when Michael was walking into the Rebels’ headquarters. He just had to nail it.
Beneath the warehouse, a dozen identical hallways led to a dozen different places. It was designed like a maze to confuse the enemy. It told Michael that the three shapeshifters who lived here were ready for trouble, the kind no one needed today. So when Luke introduced Ray and Michael to the rebels who ran the place, tensions were already high for ten different reasons.
“Is this everyone?” Michael asked Luke as he met one elderly woman and two young men.
“Yes, General. Eight shapeshifters were assigned to Earth. Four for the Invisible Guard, one for Liz’s protection, and three to oversee communications and other duties.”
In front of him, three expectant faces practically stared in starstruck awe. Rose, their chief scientist and only woman of the group, looked at him with slightly curious eyes. After all, he was Antar’s last cloning experiment. For someone who could take on any form, he wondered why she’d chosen to be old. Was she old, herself?
And then there were the twins. He had absolutely no recollection of shapeshifters being brothers. It was a big no-no to take each other’s form, so he had no idea how to solve the puzzle in front of him—and no inclination to do so. Tall, lean, around mid-twenties, they would look right at home at an Air Force base. One was Lance, and the other was Finn, and they both had the military air that accompanied seasoned soldiers.
These were the men charged with security—the first line of defense in case of trouble.
These were his men.
“Van informed us they were bringing Zan here,” Lance said, “He fainted at their meeting, but that was more than two hours ago.”
“And Van isn’t here either,” Luke said in a grim tone.
“No Max, no Van,” Michael said, unhappy.
“But there is a Dave, right?” Ray asked Lance, who nodded once. “Where is he?”
“Trying to piece back together the Network from our main computer room,” Finn said. “We might find Van and Zan that way.”
“There’s a thought,” Ray said, knowing full well the phones were beacons to their locations. Michael, Luke, and Ray had gotten rid of theirs, but what about the others? Was someone carrying their phone to this secret location? “Can you take me to him?” Ray asked.
Finn glanced at Michael, a silent question of what the General wanted to do. Michael nodded, and off the two went. There were so many questions Michael wanted to ask Dave, starting with why shouldn’t I just let the rebellion kill you? But all that would have to wait a bit longer.
“Our first priority is to find Zan and Van,” Luke said, used to making plans and being the one in command. Still, Michael had something else in mind right now.
“Yes, but first, where’s Isabel?”
A look passed between Rose and Lance, one that neither Michael nor Luke missed.
“Tell me she wasn’t harmed,” Luke said, knowing what Michael would do to all of them if she had.
“She’s in custody,” Lance said, visibly annoyed. If Isabel hadn’t put up a fight, then he had no reason to kill her.
“She surrendered,” Rose elaborated. “She’s aware of her crimes against the crown.”
“Not that nonsense again,” Michael said, exasperated. “Why is it so hard to see that she was being used?”
A frosty silence met his words. Luke and Lance would never speak up against his authority, but Rose, even if a rebel, was not beheld to the same military sentiment.
“When your entire race has been enslaved for seventy years, General,” she said, “you’ll get justice on whoever you can, even if she was just being used. It was her hand that opened that door, after all.”
“You don’t want justice. You want vengeance.”
All three shifters looked at him with cold in their eyes. Gone was the starstruck aura, replaced with the dark air that followed rebels everywhere. Vengeance or justice, they were getting it. It dawned on him that the moment he stopped being the General, he had no chance against three trained shifters. He wondered if Isabel had weighed her options against them, too, and had decided to surrender instead.
“Take me to her,” he said. No one moved. “Look, she’s better than I am at sensing Zan. For all we know, she’s the only link to our Fearless Leader right now. Even if he’s unconscious, she’ll be able to talk to him.”
Maybe.
It was as good an excuse as any. More importantly, they actually led the way.
2 : Isabel
A lifetime ago, a princess had believed the lies of a cruel, cunning man who’d told her she’d held the keys to bringing her world together.
A lifetime ago, Vilandra would be both horrified and relieved to be sitting at a makeshift cell while awaiting some sort of trial for crimes committed against her brother.
This time around, Isabel felt the same way. Sitting on the floor of a narrow, concrete cell, she couldn’t stop thinking about Khivar, about her role in Antar’s current situation. About how one person could change the world—for the worst.
The cell was some ten feet wide and three feet large, and instead of bars, it had some sort of invisible force field. Crystal clear to have a view of her worst nightmare: Jesse trying to understand who Vilandra was.
“Look, if they believe Max is Zan,” Jesse said as he paced the cell in front of hers, “then all Max has to do is issue some royal pardon or something, right?”
Despite her dark mood and the darker situation, she chuckled. “I don’t think these people are going to let me off the hook that easily.”
“What? Why not?”
“Because we’re both symbols, Jesse. Zan is the symbol of what was great about Antar before Khivar. I’m the symbol of who opened the doors to the usurper. I’m the reason Khivar is there, and we are here.”
Jesse stopped pacing and looked at her. “I don’t understand why you believe you deserve this.”
“Well, I did open those doors,” she said, not looking at him. She was back in the palace. The navy blue of the door had Zan’s Royal symbol painted in silver. She was smiling as she reached for the doorknob. Everything is going to be all right, now!
“Did you want your brother dead?” Jesse asked in all seriousness.
“Of course not!”
“Did you know Khivar was going to kill him? Kill you?”
“I should have,” she evasively answered.
“Had he been declared an enemy of the state—I mean, the crown?”
“I—no, not publicly, not exactly.”
“So you had no intention of causing Zan’s death, no way of knowing this man was going to destroy your family and the monarchy, and no one had forbidden Khivar of setting foot on the palace. Don’t you see it? You were just a pawn.”
She sighed. She owed it to Jesse to explain the whole thing, but it was so painful. In the last couple of years of gaining her memories back, she’d always been so angry at her past self. So angry and so helpless. How could Vilandra have been so naïve? The Lonnie from New York had been the exact opposite of that. Hell, even Isabel would be a better ruler than the princess who’d been raised for that.
She looked up at Jesse, and for the first time in her life, she finally admitted the truth out loud: “I believed him.”
“Who?”
“Khivar, of course. Zan wanted social changes that needed to be done. Unpopular changes. Khivar latched onto that, spun a tale of everything wrong with change and Zan’s reign, and I believed him. I honestly thought Khivar was coming to sit down and talk to Zan, and then my stubborn brother would understand the world as Khivar had made me understand it. I never saw Khivar’s intentions, never saw how he was manipulating everything and everyone, but that’s not the point.”
Tears formed in her eyes and silently rolled down her cheeks. “I did betray Zan, Jesse. I betrayed what he believed in, what he knew was right because those truths were rather inconvenient. Because I was a princess who didn’t need to change and didn’t want to change. And in the face of a man who told me what I wanted to hear, I devised a plan that would secure Khivar a fair audience. And I knew my brother couldn’t stand being in the same city as him. They despised each other to pieces. But then I grew impatient, I grew hostile towards Zan, and then lashed out at Rath, who was advising my brother to take it slow. But the thing is that I believed Khivar, and I was willing to risk a lot for his views to prevail.”
“Even Zan’s life?”
“No, never that. No one’s life, never. But in principle, I did betray my brother, and I do deserve to be on trial.”
“I can’t believe I have to say this, but you do realize you’re not Vilandra anymore, right? Why is Isabel Evans less important than Vilandra? Why is your legal status in this life less than her legal problems in the other? I mean, help me understand here. Are you Vilandra? Is Isabel a fake identity you’ve taken on Earth?”
“If I’m not Vilandra, I have no idea what these rebels would do to Max,” she pointed out as if that had been Jesse’s question all along.
“Isabel. Are you my wife?”
“Of course I am!”
“Then why does this past life of yours holds you prisoner? You could totally be out of here in two minutes. These cells are useless against your powers.”
“Because I remember, okay? Because I remember Vilandra’s actions, her thoughts, her choices. I know her as I know me, and she needs to have consequences.”
Jesse shook his head. “She died! And then her family died! Isn’t that consequence enough? My God, this is insane.”
“This is why I didn’t tell you. I know it seems crazy, that it sounds crazy, but until these rebels showed up, I had no reason to face Vilandra’s betrayals. No one to answer to. But now that they are—” she cut off, sensing through her connection. “Michael’s here,” she said, standing up and moving towards the force field to have a better look of the corridor.
“Well, maybe his General persona can get us out of this mess,” Jesse muttered.
On her other side of the connection, Max’s presence faded again. What is happening to you, Max?
3 : Liz
“Are you sure you people want me to drop you off here?” the taxi driver asked as Jade told him to stop by the side of the road. It was, by any estimation, the middle of nowhere.
“Yes,” all four occupants said at once, with various degrees of anxiety.
“Okay, okay…crazier stuff has happened, I guess,” the driver muttered.
Crazier than an interplanetary civil war fueled by cloned royalty who works for a shadowy man? Liz wondered as Maria paid the fare. Jade still looked like Max and still wouldn’t let go of her wrist, but at least his eyes weren’t glazy anymore.
They all waited a full minute until the taxi was no more.
“Well, if there’s an axe murdered around here, now would be the time to go find him,” Kyle said as they turned to look at the dark unknown behind them.
“He wouldn’t get a chance,” Maria said with determination as she started walking straight up, following her connection to Michael, most likely. Kyle followed her, but when Jade tried to walk, Liz just turned to look back to New York City.
“What is it?” Jade whispered.
“Max…I think—I think he’s coming this way, but there’s this—this fog, I guess, it’s getting thicker again. Jade, do you have any idea what might be happening to him?”
Jade shook his head in the exact way Max would. It unnerved her.
“You must have been watching us for ages to act so much like him,” she said as she finally followed her friends. It was slow going since none of them had cell phones to illuminate the path, but a path there was.
“It is my primary duty to guard you, but when the King is present, we all have to be able to take his place at a moment’s notice.”
“Must be weird to live in a society where no one knows if the person in front of you is the person in front of you,” she said. She’d never given much thought to Antar and its alien cities and citizens, mainly because Max never wanted to talk about it. She never pressed, but now that she was walking to Antar’s headquarters, she realized how little she knew about her husband’s other duties.
Was I really that naïve in thinking Antar wouldn’t come back to reclaim its king?
“There are many laws to regulate that,” Jade said, “and we respect them for the most part. It used to be…different before Khivar took power and made us his scapegoats, but it’s never been…right. Not until Zan took it upon himself to fix the system. Many thought that was the beginning of his downfall, but now he has a legion of supporters.”
“Including Van, right? He wants Max to rule, but then…what would Van do? Without a rebellion to lead, I mean.”
Jade paused for a moment while Maria cursed at something in the overgrown grass.
“I have no idea. It’s hard to think about a future when we don’t fight. I guess he’ll take his cue from whatever Max decides.”
“Rebuilding might take ages,” Liz said as they all resumed their walk towards a tiny yellow light in the distance. “Is Antar destroyed? Like infrastructure is ruined and stuff?”
“Not really,” Jade said. “We don’t fight wars in the way you think of wars. Nowadays, it’s more like a quiet desperation that sips through everything. Large cities have been abandoned. Our four sister planets are full of fleeing Antarians who bring their misery and their problems to their doors, all wanting Antar back. Of all the planets, Antar has always been the beacon of knowledge and prosperity. Still, you can’t have that without people or without your leader wanting fundamental advances. Khivar has never been able to legitimize his power, and seventy years is a long time to not fulfill your promises.”
“Sounds like dictators everywhere,” Kyle said. “They never know when to quit.”
“But Antar is a monarchy,” Maria said, “They’re stuck with whoever rules until they die, right?”
“Antar’s political system is far more complex than simply monarchy, but technically, you’re right,” Jade said. “Zan was deemed too young when he came into power, but he died too young as well. His reign is the shortest recorded in the last five millennium.”
“How long does an Antarian actually live?” Liz wondered out loud. “I mean, in human years.”
“About two-hundred, give it or take a couple of decades.”
Kyle whistled. “No wonder they think Max, Michael, and Isabel can still be a thing,” he said.
“I’m married to an old man, figures,” Maria muttered.
“Is that true?” Liz asked, stopping in the middle of the road. “You still think Max should come back and rule? After all you’ve seen here, do you even think he’s going to pretend to be Zan and start ruling?”
Jade stopped, just a silhouette against the night sky. He sighed. “We need Khivar to end. That’s all I really care about.”
A non-answer. She didn’t like it.
“Will you take him away from me?” she asked directly. Jade’s grip faltered at the unexpected question, and Liz finally got her wrist back. “Will you?” she pressed, knowing this was the last opportunity she would have to ask Jade questions in private.
“Yes,” he finally answered in Max’s quiet voice, “to end Khivar’s reign, to restore order to Antar, to finally be free…Yes, we will.”
As we're getting closer to the climax of the story, are there any flashbacks you guys would like to see? Something in their past you're curious about? About the PodSquad or any other character?
Part 25: Anywhere But Here
November 2nd, 2011 - New York
1 : Michael
In his other life, Rath had easily absorbed information from multiple sources about multiple threats. Leaders would always have enemies, especially when said leaders were young and idealistic and wanted to change the world.
In this life, Michael had learned to look for threats hiding behind every shadow. He had no reports and no spies and no situations to keep his eyes on. No, he had special unit agents, alien enemies, and whatever Dave had, to deal with. Rath could plan. Michael had to react.
In the last couple of years, with Rath’s memories intensifying, Michael had taken a few lessons from his former self. Rath had known how to project an aura of authority and order people around, which were useful skills when Michael was walking into the Rebels’ headquarters. He just had to nail it.
Beneath the warehouse, a dozen identical hallways led to a dozen different places. It was designed like a maze to confuse the enemy. It told Michael that the three shapeshifters who lived here were ready for trouble, the kind no one needed today. So when Luke introduced Ray and Michael to the rebels who ran the place, tensions were already high for ten different reasons.
“Is this everyone?” Michael asked Luke as he met one elderly woman and two young men.
“Yes, General. Eight shapeshifters were assigned to Earth. Four for the Invisible Guard, one for Liz’s protection, and three to oversee communications and other duties.”
In front of him, three expectant faces practically stared in starstruck awe. Rose, their chief scientist and only woman of the group, looked at him with slightly curious eyes. After all, he was Antar’s last cloning experiment. For someone who could take on any form, he wondered why she’d chosen to be old. Was she old, herself?
And then there were the twins. He had absolutely no recollection of shapeshifters being brothers. It was a big no-no to take each other’s form, so he had no idea how to solve the puzzle in front of him—and no inclination to do so. Tall, lean, around mid-twenties, they would look right at home at an Air Force base. One was Lance, and the other was Finn, and they both had the military air that accompanied seasoned soldiers.
These were the men charged with security—the first line of defense in case of trouble.
These were his men.
“Van informed us they were bringing Zan here,” Lance said, “He fainted at their meeting, but that was more than two hours ago.”
“And Van isn’t here either,” Luke said in a grim tone.
“No Max, no Van,” Michael said, unhappy.
“But there is a Dave, right?” Ray asked Lance, who nodded once. “Where is he?”
“Trying to piece back together the Network from our main computer room,” Finn said. “We might find Van and Zan that way.”
“There’s a thought,” Ray said, knowing full well the phones were beacons to their locations. Michael, Luke, and Ray had gotten rid of theirs, but what about the others? Was someone carrying their phone to this secret location? “Can you take me to him?” Ray asked.
Finn glanced at Michael, a silent question of what the General wanted to do. Michael nodded, and off the two went. There were so many questions Michael wanted to ask Dave, starting with why shouldn’t I just let the rebellion kill you? But all that would have to wait a bit longer.
“Our first priority is to find Zan and Van,” Luke said, used to making plans and being the one in command. Still, Michael had something else in mind right now.
“Yes, but first, where’s Isabel?”
A look passed between Rose and Lance, one that neither Michael nor Luke missed.
“Tell me she wasn’t harmed,” Luke said, knowing what Michael would do to all of them if she had.
“She’s in custody,” Lance said, visibly annoyed. If Isabel hadn’t put up a fight, then he had no reason to kill her.
“She surrendered,” Rose elaborated. “She’s aware of her crimes against the crown.”
“Not that nonsense again,” Michael said, exasperated. “Why is it so hard to see that she was being used?”
A frosty silence met his words. Luke and Lance would never speak up against his authority, but Rose, even if a rebel, was not beheld to the same military sentiment.
“When your entire race has been enslaved for seventy years, General,” she said, “you’ll get justice on whoever you can, even if she was just being used. It was her hand that opened that door, after all.”
“You don’t want justice. You want vengeance.”
All three shifters looked at him with cold in their eyes. Gone was the starstruck aura, replaced with the dark air that followed rebels everywhere. Vengeance or justice, they were getting it. It dawned on him that the moment he stopped being the General, he had no chance against three trained shifters. He wondered if Isabel had weighed her options against them, too, and had decided to surrender instead.
“Take me to her,” he said. No one moved. “Look, she’s better than I am at sensing Zan. For all we know, she’s the only link to our Fearless Leader right now. Even if he’s unconscious, she’ll be able to talk to him.”
Maybe.
It was as good an excuse as any. More importantly, they actually led the way.
2 : Isabel
A lifetime ago, a princess had believed the lies of a cruel, cunning man who’d told her she’d held the keys to bringing her world together.
A lifetime ago, Vilandra would be both horrified and relieved to be sitting at a makeshift cell while awaiting some sort of trial for crimes committed against her brother.
This time around, Isabel felt the same way. Sitting on the floor of a narrow, concrete cell, she couldn’t stop thinking about Khivar, about her role in Antar’s current situation. About how one person could change the world—for the worst.
The cell was some ten feet wide and three feet large, and instead of bars, it had some sort of invisible force field. Crystal clear to have a view of her worst nightmare: Jesse trying to understand who Vilandra was.
“Look, if they believe Max is Zan,” Jesse said as he paced the cell in front of hers, “then all Max has to do is issue some royal pardon or something, right?”
Despite her dark mood and the darker situation, she chuckled. “I don’t think these people are going to let me off the hook that easily.”
“What? Why not?”
“Because we’re both symbols, Jesse. Zan is the symbol of what was great about Antar before Khivar. I’m the symbol of who opened the doors to the usurper. I’m the reason Khivar is there, and we are here.”
Jesse stopped pacing and looked at her. “I don’t understand why you believe you deserve this.”
“Well, I did open those doors,” she said, not looking at him. She was back in the palace. The navy blue of the door had Zan’s Royal symbol painted in silver. She was smiling as she reached for the doorknob. Everything is going to be all right, now!
“Did you want your brother dead?” Jesse asked in all seriousness.
“Of course not!”
“Did you know Khivar was going to kill him? Kill you?”
“I should have,” she evasively answered.
“Had he been declared an enemy of the state—I mean, the crown?”
“I—no, not publicly, not exactly.”
“So you had no intention of causing Zan’s death, no way of knowing this man was going to destroy your family and the monarchy, and no one had forbidden Khivar of setting foot on the palace. Don’t you see it? You were just a pawn.”
She sighed. She owed it to Jesse to explain the whole thing, but it was so painful. In the last couple of years of gaining her memories back, she’d always been so angry at her past self. So angry and so helpless. How could Vilandra have been so naïve? The Lonnie from New York had been the exact opposite of that. Hell, even Isabel would be a better ruler than the princess who’d been raised for that.
She looked up at Jesse, and for the first time in her life, she finally admitted the truth out loud: “I believed him.”
“Who?”
“Khivar, of course. Zan wanted social changes that needed to be done. Unpopular changes. Khivar latched onto that, spun a tale of everything wrong with change and Zan’s reign, and I believed him. I honestly thought Khivar was coming to sit down and talk to Zan, and then my stubborn brother would understand the world as Khivar had made me understand it. I never saw Khivar’s intentions, never saw how he was manipulating everything and everyone, but that’s not the point.”
Tears formed in her eyes and silently rolled down her cheeks. “I did betray Zan, Jesse. I betrayed what he believed in, what he knew was right because those truths were rather inconvenient. Because I was a princess who didn’t need to change and didn’t want to change. And in the face of a man who told me what I wanted to hear, I devised a plan that would secure Khivar a fair audience. And I knew my brother couldn’t stand being in the same city as him. They despised each other to pieces. But then I grew impatient, I grew hostile towards Zan, and then lashed out at Rath, who was advising my brother to take it slow. But the thing is that I believed Khivar, and I was willing to risk a lot for his views to prevail.”
“Even Zan’s life?”
“No, never that. No one’s life, never. But in principle, I did betray my brother, and I do deserve to be on trial.”
“I can’t believe I have to say this, but you do realize you’re not Vilandra anymore, right? Why is Isabel Evans less important than Vilandra? Why is your legal status in this life less than her legal problems in the other? I mean, help me understand here. Are you Vilandra? Is Isabel a fake identity you’ve taken on Earth?”
“If I’m not Vilandra, I have no idea what these rebels would do to Max,” she pointed out as if that had been Jesse’s question all along.
“Isabel. Are you my wife?”
“Of course I am!”
“Then why does this past life of yours holds you prisoner? You could totally be out of here in two minutes. These cells are useless against your powers.”
“Because I remember, okay? Because I remember Vilandra’s actions, her thoughts, her choices. I know her as I know me, and she needs to have consequences.”
Jesse shook his head. “She died! And then her family died! Isn’t that consequence enough? My God, this is insane.”
“This is why I didn’t tell you. I know it seems crazy, that it sounds crazy, but until these rebels showed up, I had no reason to face Vilandra’s betrayals. No one to answer to. But now that they are—” she cut off, sensing through her connection. “Michael’s here,” she said, standing up and moving towards the force field to have a better look of the corridor.
“Well, maybe his General persona can get us out of this mess,” Jesse muttered.
On her other side of the connection, Max’s presence faded again. What is happening to you, Max?
3 : Liz
“Are you sure you people want me to drop you off here?” the taxi driver asked as Jade told him to stop by the side of the road. It was, by any estimation, the middle of nowhere.
“Yes,” all four occupants said at once, with various degrees of anxiety.
“Okay, okay…crazier stuff has happened, I guess,” the driver muttered.
Crazier than an interplanetary civil war fueled by cloned royalty who works for a shadowy man? Liz wondered as Maria paid the fare. Jade still looked like Max and still wouldn’t let go of her wrist, but at least his eyes weren’t glazy anymore.
They all waited a full minute until the taxi was no more.
“Well, if there’s an axe murdered around here, now would be the time to go find him,” Kyle said as they turned to look at the dark unknown behind them.
“He wouldn’t get a chance,” Maria said with determination as she started walking straight up, following her connection to Michael, most likely. Kyle followed her, but when Jade tried to walk, Liz just turned to look back to New York City.
“What is it?” Jade whispered.
“Max…I think—I think he’s coming this way, but there’s this—this fog, I guess, it’s getting thicker again. Jade, do you have any idea what might be happening to him?”
Jade shook his head in the exact way Max would. It unnerved her.
“You must have been watching us for ages to act so much like him,” she said as she finally followed her friends. It was slow going since none of them had cell phones to illuminate the path, but a path there was.
“It is my primary duty to guard you, but when the King is present, we all have to be able to take his place at a moment’s notice.”
“Must be weird to live in a society where no one knows if the person in front of you is the person in front of you,” she said. She’d never given much thought to Antar and its alien cities and citizens, mainly because Max never wanted to talk about it. She never pressed, but now that she was walking to Antar’s headquarters, she realized how little she knew about her husband’s other duties.
Was I really that naïve in thinking Antar wouldn’t come back to reclaim its king?
“There are many laws to regulate that,” Jade said, “and we respect them for the most part. It used to be…different before Khivar took power and made us his scapegoats, but it’s never been…right. Not until Zan took it upon himself to fix the system. Many thought that was the beginning of his downfall, but now he has a legion of supporters.”
“Including Van, right? He wants Max to rule, but then…what would Van do? Without a rebellion to lead, I mean.”
Jade paused for a moment while Maria cursed at something in the overgrown grass.
“I have no idea. It’s hard to think about a future when we don’t fight. I guess he’ll take his cue from whatever Max decides.”
“Rebuilding might take ages,” Liz said as they all resumed their walk towards a tiny yellow light in the distance. “Is Antar destroyed? Like infrastructure is ruined and stuff?”
“Not really,” Jade said. “We don’t fight wars in the way you think of wars. Nowadays, it’s more like a quiet desperation that sips through everything. Large cities have been abandoned. Our four sister planets are full of fleeing Antarians who bring their misery and their problems to their doors, all wanting Antar back. Of all the planets, Antar has always been the beacon of knowledge and prosperity. Still, you can’t have that without people or without your leader wanting fundamental advances. Khivar has never been able to legitimize his power, and seventy years is a long time to not fulfill your promises.”
“Sounds like dictators everywhere,” Kyle said. “They never know when to quit.”
“But Antar is a monarchy,” Maria said, “They’re stuck with whoever rules until they die, right?”
“Antar’s political system is far more complex than simply monarchy, but technically, you’re right,” Jade said. “Zan was deemed too young when he came into power, but he died too young as well. His reign is the shortest recorded in the last five millennium.”
“How long does an Antarian actually live?” Liz wondered out loud. “I mean, in human years.”
“About two-hundred, give it or take a couple of decades.”
Kyle whistled. “No wonder they think Max, Michael, and Isabel can still be a thing,” he said.
“I’m married to an old man, figures,” Maria muttered.
“Is that true?” Liz asked, stopping in the middle of the road. “You still think Max should come back and rule? After all you’ve seen here, do you even think he’s going to pretend to be Zan and start ruling?”
Jade stopped, just a silhouette against the night sky. He sighed. “We need Khivar to end. That’s all I really care about.”
A non-answer. She didn’t like it.
“Will you take him away from me?” she asked directly. Jade’s grip faltered at the unexpected question, and Liz finally got her wrist back. “Will you?” she pressed, knowing this was the last opportunity she would have to ask Jade questions in private.
“Yes,” he finally answered in Max’s quiet voice, “to end Khivar’s reign, to restore order to Antar, to finally be free…Yes, we will.”
"There's addiction, and there's Roswell!"
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Re: The Rebel *Sequel* (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 25 - pg. 19 - 10 / 23 / 20
Will they finally be free??
So glad you are hanging in to complete this story.
You make my day so happy when you do.
Of course Isabel didn't change much from Vilandra's personality.
Thanks!
So glad you are hanging in to complete this story.
You make my day so happy when you do.
Of course Isabel didn't change much from Vilandra's personality.
Thanks!
Re: The Rebel *Sequel* (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 25 - pg. 19 - 10 / 23 / 20
Keepsmilint7 said "will they ever be free?"
Good question. Isabel is in a cell because of Vilandra and Max is considered the King, to be Zan and therefore to go back to Antar and leave Liz behind. It's clear but what is Michael's? I mean, if Isabel, for the antarians, has to pay for Vilandra's crimes, if Max has to give up everything for his Zan side, what is Michael's past coming back to haunt him, the same as Max, giving up his Michael life to become Rath again?
Good question. Isabel is in a cell because of Vilandra and Max is considered the King, to be Zan and therefore to go back to Antar and leave Liz behind. It's clear but what is Michael's? I mean, if Isabel, for the antarians, has to pay for Vilandra's crimes, if Max has to give up everything for his Zan side, what is Michael's past coming back to haunt him, the same as Max, giving up his Michael life to become Rath again?
Michael : From day one, I knew you were the girl for me, I never wanted anyone else.
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Re: The Rebel *Sequel* (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 25 - pg. 19 - 10 / 23 / 20
You guys ask the toughest questions! But I guess if Rath were to suddenly take over Michael, he would want to go back to Antar and follow his duty. Which, incidentally, inspired the first part of this chapter. Hope you like it, xmag!
Part 26 : Long Shot
June 6th, 2009 – Seattle
1: Michael
He’d always been attracted to high places, he just hadn’t known it. It wasn’t as if there were skyscrapers in Roswell, after all. His first real taste had been that one night in Las Vegas, where Maria had booked the penthouse. He’d liked the luxury of the whole thing, of course, but what he remembered the most about their room was the view: Dazzling lights and tall, strange buildings, all promising exotic adventures and dreams come true. He’d never gone back to Las Vegas, but that thirst for high places had stayed with him till this day.
This time around, he bit his tongue about tourist traps and went up to the Space Needle. It was a clear day, and he could see all the way to Mount Olympus, the bay, and the sea. He could feel a flash coming, too; he’d been preparing for it for days now, something to do with high places of all things. He was grateful for the signs—so he could stay away from Maria—but the waiting always tested his patience to its limits.
He sat down on a bench, and when he looked up, the Palace met his eyes. Red and golden banners hung from the main entrance, and he had the strangest fleeting thought: of course, this is before Zan’s time.
Rath had graduated from the military academy not a week ago, and he had a couple of days off before reporting to duty. Someday, he would become Antar’s Second in Command, General to the Mighty Forces of his Majesty, and he would sit down every day to have breakfast with the future king. Today, though, he was at the bottom of an exceptionally large ladder, with no idea where he would end.
He was giddy.
“I’m proud of you, Son,” a man said beside him, and he immediately stood up to attention. For a moment, he looked straight ahead, letting his father’s praise wash over him. His father had retired from the military a few years back, but it was his steps Rath had followed. He wouldn’t be here without his advice and guidance.
“Thank you, Father,” he sincerely said, breaking his rigid form and hugging the man he so admired. He hugged him a little too long, desperate to take this memory back with him.
“In a way, I’m envious of this place,” his father said, taking a long look at the Palace. “They will take you in and become your second family, while I’ll rarely see you from time to time.”
Rath smiled. His mother had complained about the exact same thing when his father was gone for long stretches of time.
“Have you thought about where you would like to be stationed?” his father asked.
“Not yet. I’m undecided if I should go for the Intelligence branch or the Frontier Exploration one.”
“Ah, your beloved maps. You were always good at making those.”
Making them, deciphering them, navigating them. Rath’s keen sense of direction and topography was already legendary among the cadets. But that was more of a hobby. The real challenge laid within the Intelligence Community, and he’d always liked a challenge.
“And if both fail, there’s always the Palace,” Rath said, shrugging. His father laughed.
“You have no patience for intrigues,” he said, honestly.
“But it’s like a puzzle, right? Gathering intelligence and separating truths from lies.”
“Lots of backstabbing, and frontstabbing, too. Power attracts all kinds of people, Rath, and rarely the good kinds of people, if you understand my meaning. Wanting to be in the Palace is like wanting to be in the middle of a giant snake nest. Every single one of them wants to be close enough to the kings and queens to snatch a little bit of their power. And if they let them, they’ll end up dry.”
That’s no way to live, Rath thought, as if he could already see the Throne Hall and the king himself sitting there. Who do you trust? How do you know they want to help you reign and not work on their own agendas?
“In any case, you’ll have years to decide and settle on your path. Learn deep and well from all the places you’ll be because every bit of knowledge will help you on your way up.”
But Rath had already decided, right there and then, that he wanted to work as close to the royal family as he could. Because someone had to be the good kind of people inside that place, right? Someone had to spot and ward off the power-hungry and the ill-intentioned ones.
Someone had to protect the king.
* * *
2 : Kyle
September 15th, 2009 - Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean
“You’re absolutely going to love Japan,” Sybelle said as Kyle watched over the window to the immense expanse of the sea. He needed something to distract him, so his mind-reading skills didn’t overwhelm him.
Why did I ever think that a twelve-hour flight was a good idea?
Most of all, he tried to avoid Sybelle’s thoughts. It was bad enough that he would get stray thoughts from her from time to time, but doing it on purpose would just be horrible.
Max, Michael, and Isabel were clear beacons in a sea of foggy thoughts, but they understood what it was like to have powers and how hard to control those could be. They were resigned to his intruding mind the way they were resigned to Michael’s outbursts of power. But then again, Michael was better at those, and so everyone expected Kyle to get better at his, as well.
The real problem was Kyle’s lack of training. Oh, Liz had very creative ways of helping him get better, but the truth was that all he wanted was not to do it at all. Not accidentally, at least. He was afraid that if he got really good at it, then he would never be able to shut it off. So, he didn’t practice—he just winged it.
Which, honestly, resumed how he’d been living for the past six years of his life: winging it. He wasn’t all-powerful like the alien trio. He wasn’t romantically involved with any of them. Except for his mind-reading, he was no one exceptional or remotely interesting when compared with the other people in his crowd. He wasn’t the champion, the sportsman, the guy who scored points for the team. If Max Evans hadn’t saved him and made him a part of the I-know-an-alien club, Kyle would not be here, trapped on a plane with a full-blown headache threatening to obliterate him because of a power he was barely able to suppress.
Can the bathroom line get any longer?
Why does the menu have Japanese food only?
I can’t believe they serve ice-cream!
Sumimasen!
Thoughts in English were easier to pick than in any other language, but this plane was full of Japanese people, and their thoughts were growing by the moment. He had to do something and do it fast.
“You know, I never got the full story about how Dave became your godfather,” he said, desperate for the conversation to distract him. “Heck, the first time we met, you called him your father, if I remember correctly.”
She blushed and turned to look at her lap. For someone as outgoing as Sybelle, that was a first. “I kind of do that with everyone who works for him,” she said, blushing even deeper.
“Because that scares the crap out of them,” Kyle said, impressed.
“Well, yeah. He doesn’t like me doing it, but I know I’m the closest thing he has to a daughter, right? I mean,” she said, lowering her voice, “I know I’m not supposed to ask, but I have these wild theories about what he does.”
Every time Sybelle was around, there was an unspoken agreement that no one would mention their deals, their powers, or anything remotely bad about Dave. It had never really occurred to him that Sybelle was in the dark about what Dave did on a general basis.
“What does that bright mind of yours think he does?”
She put her hand in the air and counted with each finger: “There was a time I thought he worked for some government; then that he was part of the mafia; then that he was this super mad genius trying to take over the world,” she ended, with three fingers in the air. Then she just smiled fondly, lowering her hand. “Nowadays, I think that whatever he does must be boring. Like you see those James Bond movies, but you never get to see all the paperwork and bureaucracy all those spy agencies require.”
You aren’t that far off, girl, he thought. Dave was involved with governments and the mafia, and in a way, he was a sort of spy, indeed. He just happened to work for himself.
“So, you think he goes on missions all over the world with a gun in one hand and a martini in the other?” he joked. She laughed.
“I can’t imagine Dave shooting anyone. That’s why he has Ray,” she said, shrugging. “Jake’s his childhood friend, they have history together, but Ray is their bodyguard. And neither likes me very much,” she said, shrugging again.
“Now, that’s not true,” Kyle said, smiling. “Everyone who gets to know you loves you. But it’s like Michael, you see? We all love him, and he’s great at telling things as they are. But don’t ask him to go Christmas shopping with you because he’s a nightmare of never-ending ‘this is a commercial scam’ commentary that everyone can do without.”
“Well, Christmas is a commercial scam,” she said with all seriousness, and then burst out laughing at Kyle’s incredulous face. “I love Michael, though I think all of your friends are wary of me. Don’t think I haven’t noticed how everyone stirs the conversation away from my godfather.”
“He…well, he has a lot of power over our lives,” Kyle admitted.
“He has a lot of power, period,” she said, and this time she meant it. “He found me in a village when I was six and saw something in me that was worth fighting for. And every time I see something scary or someone tells me I can’t do it, I remember that. He believed I was strong, so I believe I’m strong. I hope you see that for yourself, Kyle. Whatever Dave saw in you, it means you’re special.”
Oh, I am, just not in the way he knows, or you know for that matter.
“I’m just happy to be nominated, really,” Kyle said. “It’s my friends who are a big deal.”
She frowned. “I don’t see them around here,” she said, turning as if they had missed the Pod Squad boarding up. “Kyle, this is the first time Dave has allowed anyone connected to him to be with me. Alone. That’s what I mean when I say you’re special, silly!”
Whatever Kyle was going to say, it got wiped out by the bright grin on Sybelle’s face. It was true. He was here because he was Kyle Valenti, not because he’d been driving a van into the unknown, not because Max Evans had inadvertently given him powers. He had earned this place beside Sybelle by just being himself, no powers included.
And maybe, if this worked out between the two of them, he would have a future of his own as well.
* * *
3 : Jade
December 1st, 2009 - The Compound
“What are you reading?” Violet asked as she poured herself a cup of hot coffee. They couldn’t taste it, but just like their wards, it woke them up just fine.
While Max and Liz were here in Dave’s hidden compound, well-protected behind impenetrable walls and deep underground, then all shifters were on vacation. Sort of. The five of them were living in one of the cabins above ground, awaiting orders. Things were unstable on Antar—more than usual—and Van had ordered Dave to gather everyone in a safe place, at least for the next couple of weeks.
“I’m catching up on molecular biology,” Jade nonchalantly said while sipping his own coffee. It was early morning on a snowy day. Hopefully, His and Her Majesty would stay indoors so Jade wouldn’t have to be guarding her.
“Why?” Violet asked, confused.
“So I have an idea of what Liz is doing in the lab. It can get incredibly boring after a while. Besides, it’s interesting.”
By this point, Jade could easily attend his third year in college and ace his biology tests. He’d gotten good at stashing books above tall shelves and read while Ms. Parker was sleeping. It was a good thing shifters needed little sleep, or his one-man operation wouldn’t be feasible at all.
He turned the page and kept reading.
“I’ve been reading about engineering,” Violet said out of the blue.
“Oh,” Jade said, looking up. He was far more used to Violet’s constant reminder of their duties than hearing about her personal time. “Mechanics?” he asked, assuming it would be useful in the event Max needed help with a car.
“Aerodynamics, actually. Defying gravity,” she said, sheepishly. Antar had mastered the skies eons ago, not to mention space travel. Being on planes, with such low technology ensuring one could go from one place to the next, was Jade’s least favorite transportation mode.
“I think defying is the important word there,” he joked. They weren’t rebels for being tame.
“I’ve been thinking,” Violet tentatively said, “that if we do stay on Earth, I mean, afterward, when the Zan question has been settled, what would I like to do.”
“You want to build planes?” he asked, curious.
“Fly them,” she said, for a moment looking proud—and then self-conscious added, “Maybe…I mean, nobody knows what the future holds, right? It’s far more likely that we go back and aid Zan or Van to gain the throne than—”
“I want to continue Liz’s work,” Jade said, interrupting her. She looked surprised, and so did he. He had never really said that out loud. “She’s never going to be able to pursue it, not once the deal is off. Once the Zan question is settled, as you put it, Liz will no longer be under Antar’s protection, and I’ll be out of a job. I love Antar, you know I do, but I don’t want to go back and die there. One way or another, I’m staying here. And this,” he said, holding the large book in both hands, “is what I’ll be doing. I don’t know if Dave would allow me to continue her work, exactly, but we have to be prepared, right? In case we can have a life afterward?”
“It’s a long shot,” she warned.
“We’re guarding the hybrid clone of a king who fell more than sixty years ago, Violet. If anything, our entire Rebellion is built on a long shot. I’m more than willing to work for that, no matter how slim the chances are. If nothing else, at least we have something to dream about, don’t we?”
“You know, Jade, sometimes I think you’re the odd one out, but then you say the darndest things that remind me what I’m doing here.”
“You mean, the privilege of knowing Antar’s future king?”
“No, the privilege of being able to plan a future, Jade. However this ends, whatever I choose at the end, I’ll always be grateful for having you to remind me of that.”
Ten minutes later, they were both happily reading about the future that might just be there when this was all over.
Part 26 : Long Shot
June 6th, 2009 – Seattle
1: Michael
He’d always been attracted to high places, he just hadn’t known it. It wasn’t as if there were skyscrapers in Roswell, after all. His first real taste had been that one night in Las Vegas, where Maria had booked the penthouse. He’d liked the luxury of the whole thing, of course, but what he remembered the most about their room was the view: Dazzling lights and tall, strange buildings, all promising exotic adventures and dreams come true. He’d never gone back to Las Vegas, but that thirst for high places had stayed with him till this day.
This time around, he bit his tongue about tourist traps and went up to the Space Needle. It was a clear day, and he could see all the way to Mount Olympus, the bay, and the sea. He could feel a flash coming, too; he’d been preparing for it for days now, something to do with high places of all things. He was grateful for the signs—so he could stay away from Maria—but the waiting always tested his patience to its limits.
He sat down on a bench, and when he looked up, the Palace met his eyes. Red and golden banners hung from the main entrance, and he had the strangest fleeting thought: of course, this is before Zan’s time.
Rath had graduated from the military academy not a week ago, and he had a couple of days off before reporting to duty. Someday, he would become Antar’s Second in Command, General to the Mighty Forces of his Majesty, and he would sit down every day to have breakfast with the future king. Today, though, he was at the bottom of an exceptionally large ladder, with no idea where he would end.
He was giddy.
“I’m proud of you, Son,” a man said beside him, and he immediately stood up to attention. For a moment, he looked straight ahead, letting his father’s praise wash over him. His father had retired from the military a few years back, but it was his steps Rath had followed. He wouldn’t be here without his advice and guidance.
“Thank you, Father,” he sincerely said, breaking his rigid form and hugging the man he so admired. He hugged him a little too long, desperate to take this memory back with him.
“In a way, I’m envious of this place,” his father said, taking a long look at the Palace. “They will take you in and become your second family, while I’ll rarely see you from time to time.”
Rath smiled. His mother had complained about the exact same thing when his father was gone for long stretches of time.
“Have you thought about where you would like to be stationed?” his father asked.
“Not yet. I’m undecided if I should go for the Intelligence branch or the Frontier Exploration one.”
“Ah, your beloved maps. You were always good at making those.”
Making them, deciphering them, navigating them. Rath’s keen sense of direction and topography was already legendary among the cadets. But that was more of a hobby. The real challenge laid within the Intelligence Community, and he’d always liked a challenge.
“And if both fail, there’s always the Palace,” Rath said, shrugging. His father laughed.
“You have no patience for intrigues,” he said, honestly.
“But it’s like a puzzle, right? Gathering intelligence and separating truths from lies.”
“Lots of backstabbing, and frontstabbing, too. Power attracts all kinds of people, Rath, and rarely the good kinds of people, if you understand my meaning. Wanting to be in the Palace is like wanting to be in the middle of a giant snake nest. Every single one of them wants to be close enough to the kings and queens to snatch a little bit of their power. And if they let them, they’ll end up dry.”
That’s no way to live, Rath thought, as if he could already see the Throne Hall and the king himself sitting there. Who do you trust? How do you know they want to help you reign and not work on their own agendas?
“In any case, you’ll have years to decide and settle on your path. Learn deep and well from all the places you’ll be because every bit of knowledge will help you on your way up.”
But Rath had already decided, right there and then, that he wanted to work as close to the royal family as he could. Because someone had to be the good kind of people inside that place, right? Someone had to spot and ward off the power-hungry and the ill-intentioned ones.
Someone had to protect the king.
* * *
2 : Kyle
September 15th, 2009 - Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean
“You’re absolutely going to love Japan,” Sybelle said as Kyle watched over the window to the immense expanse of the sea. He needed something to distract him, so his mind-reading skills didn’t overwhelm him.
Why did I ever think that a twelve-hour flight was a good idea?
Most of all, he tried to avoid Sybelle’s thoughts. It was bad enough that he would get stray thoughts from her from time to time, but doing it on purpose would just be horrible.
Max, Michael, and Isabel were clear beacons in a sea of foggy thoughts, but they understood what it was like to have powers and how hard to control those could be. They were resigned to his intruding mind the way they were resigned to Michael’s outbursts of power. But then again, Michael was better at those, and so everyone expected Kyle to get better at his, as well.
The real problem was Kyle’s lack of training. Oh, Liz had very creative ways of helping him get better, but the truth was that all he wanted was not to do it at all. Not accidentally, at least. He was afraid that if he got really good at it, then he would never be able to shut it off. So, he didn’t practice—he just winged it.
Which, honestly, resumed how he’d been living for the past six years of his life: winging it. He wasn’t all-powerful like the alien trio. He wasn’t romantically involved with any of them. Except for his mind-reading, he was no one exceptional or remotely interesting when compared with the other people in his crowd. He wasn’t the champion, the sportsman, the guy who scored points for the team. If Max Evans hadn’t saved him and made him a part of the I-know-an-alien club, Kyle would not be here, trapped on a plane with a full-blown headache threatening to obliterate him because of a power he was barely able to suppress.
Can the bathroom line get any longer?
Why does the menu have Japanese food only?
I can’t believe they serve ice-cream!
Sumimasen!
Thoughts in English were easier to pick than in any other language, but this plane was full of Japanese people, and their thoughts were growing by the moment. He had to do something and do it fast.
“You know, I never got the full story about how Dave became your godfather,” he said, desperate for the conversation to distract him. “Heck, the first time we met, you called him your father, if I remember correctly.”
She blushed and turned to look at her lap. For someone as outgoing as Sybelle, that was a first. “I kind of do that with everyone who works for him,” she said, blushing even deeper.
“Because that scares the crap out of them,” Kyle said, impressed.
“Well, yeah. He doesn’t like me doing it, but I know I’m the closest thing he has to a daughter, right? I mean,” she said, lowering her voice, “I know I’m not supposed to ask, but I have these wild theories about what he does.”
Every time Sybelle was around, there was an unspoken agreement that no one would mention their deals, their powers, or anything remotely bad about Dave. It had never really occurred to him that Sybelle was in the dark about what Dave did on a general basis.
“What does that bright mind of yours think he does?”
She put her hand in the air and counted with each finger: “There was a time I thought he worked for some government; then that he was part of the mafia; then that he was this super mad genius trying to take over the world,” she ended, with three fingers in the air. Then she just smiled fondly, lowering her hand. “Nowadays, I think that whatever he does must be boring. Like you see those James Bond movies, but you never get to see all the paperwork and bureaucracy all those spy agencies require.”
You aren’t that far off, girl, he thought. Dave was involved with governments and the mafia, and in a way, he was a sort of spy, indeed. He just happened to work for himself.
“So, you think he goes on missions all over the world with a gun in one hand and a martini in the other?” he joked. She laughed.
“I can’t imagine Dave shooting anyone. That’s why he has Ray,” she said, shrugging. “Jake’s his childhood friend, they have history together, but Ray is their bodyguard. And neither likes me very much,” she said, shrugging again.
“Now, that’s not true,” Kyle said, smiling. “Everyone who gets to know you loves you. But it’s like Michael, you see? We all love him, and he’s great at telling things as they are. But don’t ask him to go Christmas shopping with you because he’s a nightmare of never-ending ‘this is a commercial scam’ commentary that everyone can do without.”
“Well, Christmas is a commercial scam,” she said with all seriousness, and then burst out laughing at Kyle’s incredulous face. “I love Michael, though I think all of your friends are wary of me. Don’t think I haven’t noticed how everyone stirs the conversation away from my godfather.”
“He…well, he has a lot of power over our lives,” Kyle admitted.
“He has a lot of power, period,” she said, and this time she meant it. “He found me in a village when I was six and saw something in me that was worth fighting for. And every time I see something scary or someone tells me I can’t do it, I remember that. He believed I was strong, so I believe I’m strong. I hope you see that for yourself, Kyle. Whatever Dave saw in you, it means you’re special.”
Oh, I am, just not in the way he knows, or you know for that matter.
“I’m just happy to be nominated, really,” Kyle said. “It’s my friends who are a big deal.”
She frowned. “I don’t see them around here,” she said, turning as if they had missed the Pod Squad boarding up. “Kyle, this is the first time Dave has allowed anyone connected to him to be with me. Alone. That’s what I mean when I say you’re special, silly!”
Whatever Kyle was going to say, it got wiped out by the bright grin on Sybelle’s face. It was true. He was here because he was Kyle Valenti, not because he’d been driving a van into the unknown, not because Max Evans had inadvertently given him powers. He had earned this place beside Sybelle by just being himself, no powers included.
And maybe, if this worked out between the two of them, he would have a future of his own as well.
* * *
3 : Jade
December 1st, 2009 - The Compound
“What are you reading?” Violet asked as she poured herself a cup of hot coffee. They couldn’t taste it, but just like their wards, it woke them up just fine.
While Max and Liz were here in Dave’s hidden compound, well-protected behind impenetrable walls and deep underground, then all shifters were on vacation. Sort of. The five of them were living in one of the cabins above ground, awaiting orders. Things were unstable on Antar—more than usual—and Van had ordered Dave to gather everyone in a safe place, at least for the next couple of weeks.
“I’m catching up on molecular biology,” Jade nonchalantly said while sipping his own coffee. It was early morning on a snowy day. Hopefully, His and Her Majesty would stay indoors so Jade wouldn’t have to be guarding her.
“Why?” Violet asked, confused.
“So I have an idea of what Liz is doing in the lab. It can get incredibly boring after a while. Besides, it’s interesting.”
By this point, Jade could easily attend his third year in college and ace his biology tests. He’d gotten good at stashing books above tall shelves and read while Ms. Parker was sleeping. It was a good thing shifters needed little sleep, or his one-man operation wouldn’t be feasible at all.
He turned the page and kept reading.
“I’ve been reading about engineering,” Violet said out of the blue.
“Oh,” Jade said, looking up. He was far more used to Violet’s constant reminder of their duties than hearing about her personal time. “Mechanics?” he asked, assuming it would be useful in the event Max needed help with a car.
“Aerodynamics, actually. Defying gravity,” she said, sheepishly. Antar had mastered the skies eons ago, not to mention space travel. Being on planes, with such low technology ensuring one could go from one place to the next, was Jade’s least favorite transportation mode.
“I think defying is the important word there,” he joked. They weren’t rebels for being tame.
“I’ve been thinking,” Violet tentatively said, “that if we do stay on Earth, I mean, afterward, when the Zan question has been settled, what would I like to do.”
“You want to build planes?” he asked, curious.
“Fly them,” she said, for a moment looking proud—and then self-conscious added, “Maybe…I mean, nobody knows what the future holds, right? It’s far more likely that we go back and aid Zan or Van to gain the throne than—”
“I want to continue Liz’s work,” Jade said, interrupting her. She looked surprised, and so did he. He had never really said that out loud. “She’s never going to be able to pursue it, not once the deal is off. Once the Zan question is settled, as you put it, Liz will no longer be under Antar’s protection, and I’ll be out of a job. I love Antar, you know I do, but I don’t want to go back and die there. One way or another, I’m staying here. And this,” he said, holding the large book in both hands, “is what I’ll be doing. I don’t know if Dave would allow me to continue her work, exactly, but we have to be prepared, right? In case we can have a life afterward?”
“It’s a long shot,” she warned.
“We’re guarding the hybrid clone of a king who fell more than sixty years ago, Violet. If anything, our entire Rebellion is built on a long shot. I’m more than willing to work for that, no matter how slim the chances are. If nothing else, at least we have something to dream about, don’t we?”
“You know, Jade, sometimes I think you’re the odd one out, but then you say the darndest things that remind me what I’m doing here.”
“You mean, the privilege of knowing Antar’s future king?”
“No, the privilege of being able to plan a future, Jade. However this ends, whatever I choose at the end, I’ll always be grateful for having you to remind me of that.”
Ten minutes later, they were both happily reading about the future that might just be there when this was all over.
"There's addiction, and there's Roswell!"
Re: The Rebel *Sequel* (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 26 - pg. 19 - 12 / 9 / 20
The memories seem to come easily and naturally, out of the blue even. Good thing or bad thing? It makes me wonder if at some point, our human antarians won't get lost in their memories, becoming who they were. I hope not but the way it's going, it could be. I think Liz and Maria anchor Max and Michael as humans. Without them, they would become who they used to be on Antar.
Michael : From day one, I knew you were the girl for me, I never wanted anyone else.
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- Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:34 pm
Re: The Rebel *Sequel* (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 26 - pg. 19 - 12 / 9 / 20
Great to see the new part.
Loved the backstabbing and front-stabbing too. The world is full of that.
Yes, 12 hour flights aren't a good idea, but is there any other way???
Kyle is happy to be normal........
Agree with XMAG, Liz and Maria were the anchors for Max and Michael!
Loved the backstabbing and front-stabbing too. The world is full of that.
Yes, 12 hour flights aren't a good idea, but is there any other way???
Kyle is happy to be normal........
Agree with XMAG, Liz and Maria were the anchors for Max and Michael!
Re: The Rebel *Sequel* (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 26 - pg. 19 - 12 / 9 / 20
I just wanted to say I loved this series and I hope you get inspiration to finish it.
The writing is great and I love the story path you carried us readers on.
Fingers crossed for a good ending as well.
The writing is great and I love the story path you carried us readers on.
Fingers crossed for a good ending as well.
Re: The Rebel *Sequel* (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 26 - pg. 19 - 12 / 9 / 20
I have always loved your writing and I have read ALL of your stories on this board over the years!! I know you must be busy with your novels BUT I would love to read this story to its ending!!! If there is any chance that those chapters that are gathering dust could be posted it would be such a huge gift!! You are an amazing writer and you must be super proud of your novels on Amazon!! Please consider wrapping this one up!! In the mean time I will just have to reread your other stories.
Thanks for sharing your gift with words on this board!! BK
Thanks for sharing your gift with words on this board!! BK
- Misha
- Addicted Roswellian
- Posts: 428
- Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2002 10:44 am
- Location: Guatemala City, Guatemala
Re: The Rebel *Sequel* (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 26 - pg. 19 - 12 / 9 / 20
You know what? I'll finish the story for Nanowrimo this November
I do have the next two chapters ready, and part of the reason I stopped writing was because I ran out of ideas for the "past" chapters, so I'm just going to skip those and center on getting the gang together and out of trouble
Expect something next week as I go revisiting my notes!
Misha
I do have the next two chapters ready, and part of the reason I stopped writing was because I ran out of ideas for the "past" chapters, so I'm just going to skip those and center on getting the gang together and out of trouble
Expect something next week as I go revisiting my notes!
Misha
"There's addiction, and there's Roswell!"
Re: The Rebel *Sequel* (CC ALL, YTEEN) Ch. 26 - pg. 19 - 12 / 9 / 20
I'm so glad you haven't given up on that story. It deserves an ending, after all those years. Good lord, when did you start posting it, anyway?