The memory flashed and that boy’s expression morphed from one of warmth and kindness to hate and bile.
His face was crisscrossed with battle scars.
A fresh one sprouted blood that ran down his cheek.
He’d lost an eye at some point and it weakened his depth perception.
I was pleased about that.
I stood facing him, our blades flashing and tinging off each other as we attempted to get the better of each other.
I recall being calm and collected as our masters watched on in silence.
The rest of the class did too.
I misjudged the angle of his incoming blade and it tore another hunk of flesh from my body.
He attempted to push the advantage but I was there to shut him down and took another pound of his flesh.
We were engaged in the final test to become a Shadow recruit.
Our task was to fight those from our previous lives and shed everything we had once been.
To become something new.
I roared and delivered a series of powerful blows that first disarmed him, and then threatened to end him.
I beat him but did not take his life.
We were too valuable to lose.
My eyes met my friend’s again and there was no longer any sign of the warmth we had once shared around that birthday table.
Not a shred of our old selves remained.
The memory shifted once more.
To the moment before the Shadow arrived on our planet.
The sky was lit up with bright purple flames of jagged fire, pink shadows, and yellow after effects.
Me and my family watched as the lights played over our faces, making our shadows dance across the floor in sporadic and schizophrenic movements.
The storm had only just begun.
I was frightened.
My mom held me close and pressed my head to her breast, the coarse fabric of her cardigan itchy against my cheek.
“The passing of a new storm,” my father lamented. “I wonder which direction our future will go.”
His voice was laced with curiosity.
I wasn’t curious at all about the unknown.
I knew deep in my heart things couldn’t be better than they currently were.
I didn’t want anything to change.
I was happy being a farmer and had no dreams of exploration or fighting alien wars.
It was shortly before that when two figures appeared.
I didn’t see them arrive but they were sat around the kitchen table in the morning.
Their names, at least, were clear in my infant mind:
Froah and Nem.
Still, their faces were blurred, as if someone had placed a thumbprint over them.
No matter what they said or did, their voices warped and wobbled.
As a child, I was not afraid.
The fear came later when I noticed the pair enter our second barn.
It was dilapidated beyond use and as part of their agreement in helping us with farming, were granted its usage.
I crept inside and found something I never should have seen.
It was a ship, but unlike any I had ever seen before.
I was in awe and reached out to touch it.
A strong hand snatched my arm from the air.
I struggled to pull away but Froah’s grip was too strong.
He peered down at me calmly with not a hint of anger on his face.
He hushed me to silence and smiled.
“Your curiosity will get the better of you one day,” he said.
I was shocked but unafraid.
I couldn’t explain why that was.
He took me inside the ship and made me promise not to tell anyone about it.
And I never did tell anyone about it.
Or did I?
I never intended on telling anyone but sometimes things slip out…
I gasped and bolted upright, my head striking something hard and metallic above me.
The metallic arms of Computer’s surgical programs scuttled out of the way.
I took a moment to blink and take in my surroundings.
My vision was clear but my mind was foggy.
I recognized where I was and felt relieved.
The moments leading up to arriving here were a little hazy and unclear, much like the memories from my childhood I recalled just a moment ago.
Pain…
There was lots of pain.
The bolt of plasma, I thought.
I reached for my shoulder and put my hand where I had felt the searing heat that ate through my flesh so easily it was as if it wasn’t even there.
Nothing hurt like a bolt of white-hot plasma.
And if it had struck just a few inches to the left…
It would have been over.
Then how did I get into the medical bay?
The M’rora wouldn’t have hesitated to pull the trigger.
So what stopped him?
The haze gave way to a flash of memory.
Ava put herself in harm’s way to protect me.
She knew there wasn’t a remote chance the M’rora might fire if there was a chance he might strike her.
They argued, their words indistinct and warbled.
They might have been speaking with drums.
Something about how she shouldn’t trust me, that I was a liar…
But she chose to help me anyway.
“Better the devil you know than the one you don’t,” she’d said.
She was more right than she knew.
We were both devils in a way.
We had the same goal if we managed to take her.
She would return with us to our worlds and follow through with the fated mate ceremonies we each fostered in our cultures.
You fool… You damn fool…
She never should have trusted me.
I was the liar and I was going to betray her.
I had reached her first and formed a bond with her before the M’rora could.
And in doing so, I had ensured she chose me over him.
Not that he would accept this as defeat.
I knew him as well as I knew myself.
He wouldn’t quit.
He would continue to hound us.
He wasn’t about to give up at the first hurdle.
Why would he?
Not when there was so much at stake.
I leaned forward in the chair.
“Computer. Full report on the ship.”
“Systems are at full power. We are heading for the Rift. We’re passing through the Jag Fuba system now.”
Jag Fuba…
My home system.
I shook my head.
No, not my home.
My former home.
Happy faces danced around a fire and the children chased a piglet…
Eating birthday cake…
And sharing my first kiss with
