I was ten when I saw my first human. I can’t remember much about it except that it was funny looking and screamed a lot. I also remember laughing when my father told me that this ugly squirming thing was going to save us.

I didn’t believe it then.

I do now.

And it disturbs me when I think about it now, seven years later – the fact that this thing…this living thing was tied down and screaming in terror whenever we looked at it and I had laughed at it. I had thought it was stupid and annoying and not worth the small amount of attention I had given it.

I wonder if that’s how they see us. Stupid and weak – easily taken, easily destroyed.

The Mantriz are the reason we had any contact with the humans at all.

My father knew it was a bad idea to let them in, to share our planet with them, to share our home, to trust them. But it wasn’t his decision. The elders decided to have compassion for them despite the fact that they knew how they lived, what it was in their nature to do – to assimilate, to absorb, to control, to destroy. They thought they would be protected by a contract – a stupid piece of paper that said our two races would agree to live in harmony. No ultimatums were listed – no backup plan if things didn’t work out. Nothing.

We should have left The Mantriz on their planet, should have let them die with it. They had destroyed it after all. It would have been fair.

It doesn’t matter.

I don’t know why I’m thinking about this.

What’s done is done.

They are here and we are going to die.

But everyone else…those held captive, those not considered a direct threat, those enslaved…

There is hope for them.

After it became clear that the fate their planet had suffered was going to be repeated here, the elders, led by my father, finally decided to do something, to plan, and eventually to fight back.

It began when I was ten years old.

Patrols were sent out to find humans and "borrow" them for a short time in order to explore their bodies, their minds, their social structures. The humans were always brought back after they were finished with them, for the most part unharmed as far as we knew.

I’m wondering if they had told us the truth about how the humans reacted to our experiments whether or not we would have cared. I doubt that we would have given it a second thought, but if we had we might have been glad of their pain.

We hated those creatures because we were angry with what our parents were making us do.

Our parents forced us into learning how to act like humans, think like humans, look like humans. And it was only the four of us. No one else had to go through what we did for the good of the community, for the good of our race…

In our world none of us have names, and we all look the same. Our identities are forged by our thought patterns which are easily recognizable to another of our kind.

The Mantriz are like us in that respect.

We communicate through what is called the Collective Consciousness. All thoughts and feelings are open and shared. If one is in pain we all are. We were disconnected from the consciousness after we were given human names because the thoughts we were broadcasting were unpleasant. We were disturbing the elders, not to mention our parents, and they had had enough.

Anger is frowned upon in our community.

Anyway, as I said, we were given human names. I was now "Sarah". My friends were now "Tom", "Julia", and "James". Ugly names for the ugly creatures we were about to be transformed into.

We were the prototypes - the sons and daughters of the ones in charge. We knew we would be ostracized, we knew we would never be accepted in our community again. It was a sacrifice forced on us by our parents, by our elders, by the scientists who forced us into changing our bodies.

I still remember that day and it still hurts, it still infuriates me.

One by one they went into our minds and forced us into the change, all the while sending us soothing feelings and thoughts, telling us that this was necessary, that they were depending on us to be strong.

I could barely hear them over the screams that were tearing through my head as my body stretched into a new shape, as my insides changed, as vocal cords burned their way into existence until I screamed with a human voice.

When they were done with me they put me in a room with "Tom" to rest and adjust.

We were now fourteen, and had known each other for nine years.

I didn’t recognize him.

I didn’t recognize his face, I couldn’t feel his thoughts, couldn’t read him to make sure he was who I needed him to be.

We sat there on the floor together, holding each other and crying, and after a while he wanted to see my face. At first I wouldn’t let him. I was afraid he would think I was ugly. I was afraid he wouldn’t want me anymore.

He had gently pulled my hands away from my face, and stared into my human eyes, as I stared back into his. And then I knew. His eyes were different, but what was behind them was the same. I knew him and he knew me. He still loved me, and he thought I was beautiful.

Julia and James had come in soon after. Julia had been quiet as she sat down beside her brother and I. James had remained by the door, glaring sullenly at the lock, then down at his hands, then back at the lock, trying to determine whether or not the extra digit on each of his new hands was going to hinder him in breaking it.

We lived in that place for two years, just the four of us and the ones in charge. We discovered that we could do things neither our race nor the humans could do. We were taught to use these abilities in order to fight the Mantriz. We practiced on each other, on the things they put in our rooms to make them feel more like our long forgotten homes. And when we felt we were being treated badly or not being listened to, we practiced on the ones in charge.

We discovered that we didn’t need anyone but each other, that we belonged with each other – Julia with James and me with Tom, and eventually we began to forget the reason why we had been changed. We had translated our early fear and sadness into pride. We were special. We could do things no one else could. We became selfish and self–centered, we…we forgot the fact that we were weapons, that we would eventually have to fight.

At the end of that second year, we were forced back into our original forms. I had dreamt of that moment for so long, and when it came – nothing.

I felt uncomfortable.

I’d look down at my hands, alarmed when I saw that the skin was silver, and that there were only eight fingers instead of ten.

I’d look at my friends and not be able to recognize them at first by face or, once I remembered how to navigate the Consciousness, by thought. The Collective Consciousness once my safety net, my comfort, my home, felt confusing and invasive. It wasn’t a part of me anymore and I couldn’t understand it.

Eventually I was able to sort them out from the others’ whose thoughts and feelings were swirling all around me – Tom’s confidence, Julia’s strength, and James’s passion. I recognized them and clung to them as we were led out of the building we had lived in for years as humans and stepped out into the world we had once been forced to leave behind.

I wanted to run screaming back to my room and lock my door.

Carnage.

Death.

Despair.

The feelings of hopelessness and fear from the dead as well as the living came hurtling at us from all sides. Those who weren’t bound in chains wandered listlessly down the once beautiful but now filthy and broken streets with haunted eyes, their movements slow and dreamlike. They were beaten.

And we were expected to make it all better.

We were only sixteen and we were expected to save the world.

James kicked at the stones, he kicked at the ground. He tried not to be afraid as he wandered down the streets. He was a warrior. He should fear no one and no thing. He had killed two dozen Mantriz in the battle last night - he had the burns and bloody scars to prove it. He never healed them. He always kept his battle wounds visible as long as possible to prove to himself that he was still alive. It was easy to forget when everyone around you was dead. He stepped to the side as one of his people drifted down the walkway. He reached out with his mind, a feather soft caress against the dull orb of its consciousness and he felt nothing.

Walking Dead.

This one would fall any minute.

James shrugged and continued on his way. There were a lot of them walking around, wandering until they finally died. The Walking Dead were the ones who were ripped from the Consciousness by the Mantriz. The Mantriz would first capture them and then tear into their minds, separating them from the Consciousness, before sucking out any information they could. In the beginning the Mantriz had used to use their prisoners as links to the Consciousness – as a means of getting inside in order to learn what they could, to learn their enemies’ weaknesses, their strengths, before destroying them from the inside. They leaned from the few times they tried to get to them this way that the Sentreye Consciousness without a moments hesitation would kill the prisoner themselves the second they sensed that they had been infiltrated.

Now the Mantriz went through it individually, grabbing random people hoping they had information that would be of use to them, then sucking their minds dry and letting them free after they were done to wander the streets until they finally died.

There were a lot more Walking Dead in this area. They hadn’t gotten here in time. The Mantriz had taken over half the city before they were finally able to break through. They had killed maybe sixty Mantriz last night, but had lost over a hundred of their own fighters. If every victory of theirs came at such a price, once the Mantriz finally were defeated, there would be no one left on the planet to celebrate.

James stepped around a body, and then stopped, sending out feelers for anyone who was still alive. He was on recruiting detail this time. Julia had wanted to go with him, but he had said no. He didn’t want to have to worry about her getting grabbed. It wasn’t like she couldn’t take care of herself – in terms of the psychological warfare the Mantriz liked to use, she was probably better at fighting it than he was. Her powers were mentally based while his were energy based - He blew things apart, she broke them down from the inside. Julia was more than capable of handling recruiting, he just wanted to do this alone. Tom and Sarah were planning their route to the next city and Julia was trying to repair some of the Walking Dead they had taken back from the Mantriz last night. Most of them weren’t completely gone yet, and she was doing everything she could to bring them back. Everyone had their job – and for now, this was his.

There didn’t seem to be anyone to the east, and he turned to make his way down the next street then froze. He felt them before he saw them...like little cold needles at the back of his neck and a clenching in his stomach. He ducked into the alley just as a group of maybe twenty Mantriz rounded the corner.

He could handle ten on his own…but twenty…

He forced himself to calm down. He had to relax, keep his thoughts and feelings under control otherwise they’d feel him too. He took deep breaths, feeling his power pool in the palms of his hands in readiness.

Through his haze of repressed fear he could feel Tom touch his mind, and he pushed the feeling completely out of his head. He didn’t want him to know he was scared of dying.

James… came the feather soft question and he sent him an image of his situation and his plan in answer. He could feel the Mantriz coming closer and raised his hand, holding it towards the opening of the alley.

No James…too many…

They’ll find me…nowhere to hide…fight….

No…Walking Dead…

Walking Dead…

He understood. Quickly he pushed Tom and all thought out of his mind. He felt nothing, he thought nothing. His arms fell loosely to his sides, his power dissipating, the tension in his body gone, leaving him limp. His eyes glazed over and his mouth became slack as he let his body wander where it would up and down the alleyway.

If it was convincing he’d live.

If not…

He’d kill himself before he let the Mantriz into his mind.

He felt their shadows touch his skin as they passed the alley. He let his body walk into side of the building, and a few of them snickered. He felt anger surge up in him. He couldn’t help it. He wanted to rip them to pieces.

A couple of them turned back to look at him again as the others continued on their way, and he desperately forced the feelings out of his head.

Blank, blank. Nothing, nothing.

He threw up a wall against the emotions threatening to burst forth and initiate his power.

Blank, blank, Nothing, nothing.

They watched him for a moment longer, and he bumped into the wall again.

Satisfied, they turned away and joined the others.

He waited for a long while before letting himself feel again, letting himself think again, and as soon as he did Tom, Julia, and Sarah rushed into his head.

I’m fine he answered them, Should I follow?

Tom and Julia answered at the same time. Julia said no, and Tom yes.

He listened to Tom.

He was their leader. He knew best.

He followed as closely as he dared, keeping his mind as blank as possible. In a way he was the best suited for this – for tailing the Mantriz. Yes he was rash and prone to outbursts of emotion and power, but when he concentrated, when he really tried, he was a master at keeping his emotions in check, in keeping them locked away almost to the point where they didn’t exist all. And that was important. If they sensed anything from him, any glimmer of hatred, of fear, they would know they were not alone, they would know they were being followed. They would sense him and then reach out with their own set of feelers and identify him, pick his brain dry, and eliminate him.

They had almost caught him in the alley, but that was because he hadn’t been prepared - they had caught him off guard. But he was ready now. He was calm, deadly calm. He was focused. His stone wall was firmly in place.

They stopped suddenly in the middle of the street and formed a small circle. One by one they stepped forward and disappeared. He waited until the last one had gone and went to where they had been standing. There was a circle on the ground that was different in texture from the rest – more blurry, with a little bit of shimmer that was quickly disappearing. He wondered briefly if he should let it close and attempt to open it again himself to see if this was a real door or if it was a temporary one made for a one time entrance. If it was a one time deal he’d lose them. If it was a real door it might be secured and if he opened it it might alert them. If he jumped in now, before the shimmer was gone he might be trapped down there.

If, if, if…

What the hell was this? He wasn’t a thinker – that was Tom’s job. He wasn’t a worrier, he never took precautions – that was Sarah’s. He didn’t prepare, he didn’t plan. Julia did that best. It was one of the only things she had in common with her brother. He was a do-er. As a team they protected each other, they made up for each other’s weaknesses. Alone…

Alone no one was around to save the impetuous ass of the "do-er" if he did the wrong thing. He would be unprotected if he made the wrong decision.

He didn’t care. He barely gave his thoughts a chance to reveal themselves to him before leaping into the circle and abandoning himself to his nature and the fate that waited for him below the surface.

He expected darkness, but there was none. It was so bright it hurt his eyes. He was in a hallway, a long narrow hallway with a white floor, a white ceiling, and white walls. There was no one there. He walked down the hallway, listening for any sign that they had been alerted to his presence. He was too excited to be scared. This was a base. It wasn’t one of their compounds, their fortresses that they broke into regularly topside. This place was different. This place held…secrets…They had made an effort to hide the entrance, to keep it unknown…which meant there were probably a lot of them down here…The leader was probably down here…

If he was caught he’d barely have time to whisper a goodbye to his friends before they’d be inside of him tearing him apart. But he wasn’t thinking about that. He was thinking that this place…knowing about this place would prove a major turning point in the war in their favor.

He flipped his brain into scanner mode, saving everything he was seeing even though it was just walls and whiteness. The hallway seemed endless. He stopped and turned around. He hadn’t walked that far but he couldn’t see the end where he had started. When he had come down there had been a wall at his back. He couldn’t see it anymore. It was like it had disappeared. He turned to look at the wall on his right. He squinted at it, wondering if there was a door somewhere, wondering if it was like how it was with the entrance to this place – if you didn’t know to look for it, you couldn’t see it.

Before he had just been walking down the hall not looking on either side of him, but straight ahead. He hadn’t noticed any change in the texture or color on the walls to signify a door and so he had ignored them. But now he stopped. He stopped and he stared at the wall until he saw them – little silver lines stretching into a rectangle – they glimmered just a little bit – like the circle in the ground. He turned to look at the other wall and he could see them now. Door after door after door stretching behind and before him. He didn’t know which one to choose.

He closed his eyes and let his body wander further down the hall letting his subconscious choose for him. It was something he’d been working on with Sarah – trusting himself, his instincts.

He opened his eyes.

He found the door he hadn’t known he was looking for until now. It looked the same as all the others, but the strands of silver outlining its shape seemed a little brighter to him. Chances where that that was a bad thing. It probably meant that there was a flock of Mantriz in there, or maybe there was only one, but it was powerful. Somehow he still wasn’t afraid. He had chosen this one for a reason.

He placed a hand on the door.

It shimmered in welcome and he stepped through.

There was a human inside. A female. She was hunched over in the corner, her hands pressed to her face. She was crying.

He quickly changed into his human body so she wouldn’t be afraid. She couldn’t hear him over the sound of her own tears and he watched her for a moment, mesmerized. He’d never really seen one up close before. He looked at her. It was amazing…the little diamond patterns on the back of her hands that pieced together her pale skin…beneath it he could see the light threads of blue stretching their way from her knuckles to her wrist, to her arm. He could see the light golden hairs on them, almost invisible. He could see the bones under her skin, under the long fingers covering her face, tangling in her hair as yellow as the sun…

She was made of colors…

Why had he ever thought humans were ugly…

She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

He stepped in a little closer and she finally noticed him. Her eyes were as green as the sky…they were shining as she stared at him. He couldn’t find his voice…her eyes, her lips that curved into a wobbly smile left him speechless and immobile as she leapt to her feet and flung her arms around him.

"Leyx…Leyx is that you?" Those hands, those fingers were on either side of his face and she lifted her head from his chest to look into his eyes. She giggled. "This is so strange…." She wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand then brought it back up to his face, caressing it. "You don’t look like you…I can’t feel you anymore…" her green eyes clouded again. "I was so scared…I thought…I was afraid I’d never see you again…" He swallowed, he didn’t know what to say, what was going on. His mind was swirling in confusion and her fingers… so soft…tracing the line of his jaw…he couldn’t think - he could only feel and stare at her, at her face, her eyes. She frowned. "Why are you staring at me…?" She bit her lip and whispered. "I’m ugly aren’t I? I’m hideou-"

"No…" he said hoarsely, finding his voice at last. He was barely aware of the usual tickling sensation that always flooded his throat the fist few moments of human speech. He was staring at her still, and found that his hands were holding onto her even as she tried to step away. "I’ve never seen anything like you…you’re amazing…beautiful…" She shook her head, coming back into the circle of his arms, touching his face again, his lips.

"I was so scared here without you…don’t ever leave me again…I can’t do they want us to do without you…I need you Leyx…" She lifted her face up to his, her breath whispering across his lips.

When they had been changed all those years ago they were not only given human bodies. The Elders had given them human thoughts – memories of things without the emotions attached. He knew what sand was, what it felt like under bare feet. He knew what the noise of an engine roaring to life sounded like. He knew the taste of ice cream, of chocolate. He knew the touch of leather, of cotton. He knew what it was to hug someone. He knew that what she was giving him was a kiss and what it meant to humans.

Such a small word for such an amazing thing – all sensation and color and spinning and dizziness and touch and feeling and emotion. The feeling of her lips and tongue her hands and her hair under his fingers. He had never imagined anything like this existed…the thoughts they had been given...they hadn't prepared him for this sweetness…

He felt his mind fall open with a burst of light, his walls melting, his pleasure surging through his body, his mind, his thoughts tangling with hers…Her mind was open as well and he ran to it, wanting to see, taste, and touch more of her, all of her.

He saw her screaming. He saw the Mantriz holding her down…only she wasn’t a human…she was one of them…

They entered her mind, he felt the searing sharp pain along with her, felt his own eyes fill. He felt her body change, stretch into a new shape – a human shape. He had felt all this before…the first time all those years ago they had changed him…Tom…Sarah…Julia… The agony of that fist time all over again was almost too much to bear and he flung himself away from her, gasping for breath.

He looked up at her and she was staring at him, breathing hard, her eyes wide with fear.

"You’re not Leyx…"

"No…"

She raised her hand. He saw it glow, saw the light seeping out of the skin from each finger and sliding down the length of them, pooling in the palms and getting brighter and brighter, hotter and hotter…She shared his power…she could do what he could. She aimed her shaking hand at him, her ragged breathing tearing through the air, choked with human sobs, and he closed his eyes…

He concentrated. The second she felt him touch her mind she’d let go of the energy she was holding back. He had to be quick. He reached out and found the part of her mind that controlled her power – it was the same part that controlled his. He knew where to find it without searching and he blocked it.

Her eyes widened as her power dissipated with a sizzle and the excess drops of power fell to the ground, burning little holes in it. She looked at him. She knew what he was doing. She closed her eyes and pushed him away sending her voice with it. It tore through his mind and his ears.

"Get out!"

The force of it flung him back against the wall. He turned his body around as he flew through the air, his feet hitting the wall instead of his head and he ran up it, absorbing the momentum, and landed right in front of her, his hand outstretched and seething with his activated power. He looked at her. She looked at him. They were frozen in a standstill – his glowing hand inches from her face and hers inches from his. The orange light illuminated the tear tracks on her cheeks. She was scared, but her eyes were hard. She was determined to stay alive.

"I’m not ready to die yet…" she growled.

"Neither am I…" He saw her swallow nervously as she realized she couldn’t connect to the Mantriz and ask for help. She must have been disconnected like he had been when he went through the change. "No one’s coming to help you…"

He didn’t even give her a chance to answer. He reached out to her mind again and found what he was looking for and squeezed. He dropped to the ground just as her power shot out from her hand skimming over his head and burning a hole in the wall. She collapsed to the ground, unconscious, landing on top of him. He sat there for a moment, stunned. He had been able to navigate her mind so easily…he had been able to find what he was looking for without a seconds hesitation…like he knew her…

It had been the kiss. The kiss had opened a momentary connection between them, and his brain, still in scanner mode had memorized her mind, storing it away so he could use it if necessary.

He looked down at her. He had stopped the flow of air to her brain just for a moment – long enough to knock her out. She’d wake up any minute. He closed his eyes and touched her mind again, finding the place where her power resided and turned it off. That wouldn’t last long either. The next time she tried to use her power she’d know what he had done and just fix it. At least it would give him a moment to…to what? Grovel for his life before she blew him up? She was just as strong as he was…only a little shaky from the change. He'd hate to see what she was like when she was completely focused. He felt her shift in his arms and stopped the airflow again. He wasn’t ready for her to wake up yet but he couldn’t keep doing this. She would die if he did.

What did he care? She was Mantriz. She was scum.

But she had gone through the change. The Mantriz had forced it on her. They were planning something and he had to know what it was.

He got to his feet and hefted her up over his shoulder. He waved his hand over the scorch marks in the room trying to make them disappear but could only manage to lessen the black scars to a murky brown. It would have to do. He stepped through the door, quickly scanning the hallway for any sign of Mantriz, and then ran down the hallway the way he had come. He had to put her to sleep again one more time before he reached the end of it.

He stared up at the ceiling and he could see the silver threads shining in the shape of the circle. How the hell was he supposed to get up there…

He remembered what he had had to do with the door, and stared at the wall until he saw them. Little rungs along the side leading up to the circle. He put one arm around her waist over his shoulder, securing her to him and began to climb. He reached the top and pushed her through, and was about to lift himself all the way up when he felt something grab onto his leg and pull. He slid down a few rungs and looked down. There was another human looking girl there with eyes and hair as dark as the starless night. She was trying to pull him back into the hallway. He felt her try to push her way into his mind, felt her try and stop the airflow but he threw up the stone wall that the other one had melted earlier and blocked her. He pulled himself up escaping from her weakened grasp as her power bounced off of his wall and flew back at her. As the circle closed behind him he heard her calling for the one he had taken.

"Cerise…!"

She stared at them through the glass. She had tried to use her power but couldn’t, and had taken up pacing and throwing them dirty looks instead. Julia had managed to keep her power turned off, and Sarah kept the airflow to her brain low, keeping her groggy and powerless. James looked at Julia.

"This is taking too much out of you…" He said and she smiled with a shrug.

"It’s either this or she melts us…" Sarah frowned in concentration.

"I can’t keep this up much longer – she keeps fighting me and the second she wins she’ll be strong enough to push you out…" The door opened and Tom slipped inside.

"One of us should go in there." He said nodding at the girl. "Enter her mind, find out what’s going on…why she was changed…"

"I’ll do it." James said, meeting Cerise’s eyes through the glass.

"Are you sure you’re up to it…? You’re not as strong at mind searches as we are…" Sarah said carefully and he shook his head at her unable to explain.

"I can do it with her." Tom nodded.

"I’m coming in with you. I’ll watch your back while you’re connecting in case she breaks Sarah and Julia’s hold."

She glared at them as they came into the room, but stepped back until her back was pressed against the wall as they came closer. She was scared. He could see her berating herself for showing it. He wanted to tell her that they weren’t going to hurt her…but he knew that if they had to they would. She was the enemy.

"You aren’t human…" she said.

"And neither are you…Cerise…" Tom answered and crossed his arms in front of his chest, blocking the door.

"Why were you changed?" James stepped in a little closer and she stepped up to him, refusing to be intimidated by him.

"I.Don’t.Know."

"What do you mean you don’t know?"

"I don’t know!"

"I don’t believe you!" She paused for a moment, breathing hard, glancing at Julia and Sarah through the window…

"Get…get them out…of my head…" She looked at him, her eyes tearing. "It hurts…" She whispered and he swallowed.

"Right. So you can use your powers on us? Do you think we’re stupid?"

"I won’t do anything…I promise…"

"And we’re supposed to believe you…?"

She took a deep breath and stepped in even closer. She reached out and touched his face, like she had the first time, and closed her eyes. She showed him her mind, that she wasn’t going to hurt anyone that she was just scared…that she had never felt anything like that before…the kiss…

And suddenly she was pulling away, she was being ripped away from him as she fell and he caught her before she hit the ground.

"Sarah!" he growled at her annoyed, and she stared at him through the glass her eyes wide.

"I thought she was hurting you…I…I didn’t kill her James…"

Tom came to his side and knelt down beside them as her eyes opened. James looked at him. "Tell them to let her go…"

"Are you sure?" He looked at James, then at the girl. He nodded at the window.

"I’m trusting you." James said to her and she took a deep breath as she felt her mind clear.

She sat up, shrugging his arms off of her. She looked at Tom uncertainly, and said quietly, "What are you going to do to me?"

"We don’t know yet." Tom said. "It depends on how cooperative you are." She snorted and rubbed her forehead, glaring at the girls.

"I can’t tell you what I don’t know."

"We know you’re Mantriz…"

"So? I know you’re Sentreye…"

"Stop being difficult!" James snapped and her eyes flashed at him.

"Stop giving me so many opportunities!"

Tom frowned. "Why were you changed?"

"I told you I don’t know."

"Then how were you changed?" James said impatiently. "How did you get to that room?"

"I might ask you the same question." She said coldly.

"Answer his." Sarah and Julia entered the room and came up to them. She stared at her hand, traced it’s shape with her other one.

"They took me."

"Who took you?"

"My People…They grabbed me and told me they needed me. They didn’t tell me for what, they didn’t tell me why…they just took me. They made me into this…this thing and then they put me in that room and left me there. I don’t know anything else I swear."

"Are there any others who were changed?" Sarah asked. Cerise swallowed and glanced over at James before answering.

"No." He knew she was lying. There had been that girl in the hallway that had tried to stop him from taking Cerise and then there was her lover…Leyx…

He knew she was lying about everything else too.

She knew why they had changed her

Tom looked at him and James looked away from the girl who was begging him with her eyes not to say anything.

"She’s lying." He said. "There’s one male named Leyx that I didn’t see and there’s a female – dark hair, eyes – she was changed as well."

"Reyne…you saw her…?" Cerise grabbed onto his arm. "Is she okay? You didn’t hurt her did you…?" Her eyes hardened and her grip tightened. "If you did I swear I’ll –" She glared up at Julia as she was cut off. She muttered something soundlessly under her breath at her and Julia said calmly.

"I’ll give you your voice back if you stop threatening and lying to us…" Julia raised an eyebrow at her in question and Cerise jerked her chin at her in agreement.

She cleared her throat experimentally and crossed her arms over her chest. "I’m done talking anyway. You have a problem with that you can just kill me now."

"So what do we do? Do we believe her? Do we kill her?"

James’ head shot up at the last suggestion. He fought the urge to clamp a hand over Sarah’s mouth as she leaned against the counter beside Tom and looked up at him, waiting for an answer.

"Well if what she’s saying is true…that she doesn’t know anything…then she’s not much use to us…" Julia said coming up behind James and dropping her chin on his shoulder. "Was she telling the truth James…?"

He shrugged, murmuring that he needed more time alone with her…that he needed to sift through her thoughts some more to be able to determine whether or not she was lying about not knowing why the Mantriz had changed her even though he knew she was. Sarah, Tom…Julia…they were his family. Cerise…Cerise was nothing to him. Why should he care if she was alive or not. She was Mantriz.

So why was he keeping her secret? He hadn't made the conscious decision to do so...the words were coming out of his mouth, the words that were delaying her departure from the base, from his life... even earlier, he had ignored every opportunity during the interrogation to confront her when he knew for a fact that she was lying to them...

He didn't know why he was protecting her, and he didn't like it

"She might be worth something to the Mantriz…" Tom said turning away from the window to look at them all. "We could keep her for a while…see if they send anyone to bargain with us. We may be able to get some of our people out…"

James watched Cerise through the window as Tom spoke. She was sitting in the corner of the room facing him, sitting with her legs crossed. Her powers were back and she was playing with them. She cupped her palms out in front of her, and closed her eyes. Thin orange tendrils of smoke appeared from between her fingers and wove themselves together until they formed a miniature animal…what humans called a horse. It ran in place over the plains of her hands and she smiled at it. She lowered her hands and it floated in mid air, the orange glow lighting up her face and touching her hair. She looked up from the glowing horse and met his eyes. They gazed at each other through the orange haze and the shining glass, Tom’s voice a dull murmur in the back of his mind. After a moment her mouth tilted up in a smirk and she made the horse a little bigger and guided it towards the window. James held his breath wondering if he should stop it, but he couldn’t move, he could only watch it coming closer and closer. Julia was facing the window as well but her eyes were closed as she rested her head on his shoulder, nodding every once in a while at what her brother was saying. Sarah was completely focused on Tom as well.

He was the only one who could see what was about to happen. He opened his mouth to yell at everyone to get down as the horse reared up. He saw her out of the corner of his eye, still looking at him, watching to see what he would do. She raised her hand from her lap and snapped her fingers. The fire horse immediately dissipated into tendrils of faded power that floated away from each other up to the ceiling as Tom turned back to the window to look at their captive. She stared back at him innocently, twirling a lock of gold hair around her finger.

"James…?" Sarah was frowning at him. "Are you alright?" Julia opened her eyes and he felt her hand sneak up from his chest and lightly push his chin up, closing his mouth.

He had volunteered to stand watch over their prisoner for the night. Julia had simply nodded and told him to "call" one of them if he got tired, and Tom had clapped a hand on his shoulder, telling him to be careful. Sarah had given him a look though. A long searching look and he wished suddenly that he hadn’t been so quick to nominate himself for the job. He watched them leave the room and turned to the window. He felt Sarah come back in and he looked at her reflection in the glass beside him.

"Don’t let her get to you James…She’s dangerous…I really think one of us should be here in case she tries to manipulate you…No matter what she looks like...she's still Mantriz."

"I can take care of myself." He snapped at her and felt bad about it. She was just worried about him. He started to turn around and apologize, but she had already gone.

He turned back to the window where Cerise was lying on her back with her legs resting against the wall. She was painting little orange spirals into the air above her head. She stopped suddenly, sensing his eyes on her and rolled over onto her stomach, propping her head up on her hands, and stared back at him.

He walked over to the glass door, never taking his eyes off her as he opened it, stepped inside and walked up to her. She rolled over again, onto her back, and gazed up at him from the floor. He saw her suck in her breath but refuse to flinch as he knelt down, and leaned over her, his hands on either side of her head.

"That wasn’t funny." He breathed, still determined not to lose the staring contest, and cursing himself for not sounding more intimidating.

"What?"

"You know what I’m talking about." She shrugged still looking into his eyes, smiling as she remembered the look on his face when she had increased the size of the horse as it charged the window.

"I was bored."

"Bored."

"Yes. Bored. Besides…" She said softly, and he tried not to notice as the breath that accompanied her words brushed his lips. "I like…horses…I like a lot of the stuff they put in here…" She said and tapped the side of her head with her index finger. When she brought her hand back down it brushed his arm and he blinked. "I win…" She murmured.

"No you don’t." She frowned sliding out from under him and sat up.

"I believe you blinked."

"Whatever." She drew her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them looking up at him from behind her knees.

"Was she okay?"

"Who?"

"Reyne…I haven’t seen her…I haven't seen anybody…since...before I was changed..." He frowned, finding it hard to reconcile his idea of the Mantriz – cold heartless killers with her. She was warm. She was worried about her friend. She was scared. She had had many opportunities to kill him and she hadn’t done it. It was disturbing. She wasn’t acting the way she should.

"She was fine." He said gruffly. "I didn’t see your mate…" She flushed and pushed her hair out of her eyes.

"Leyx is not my mate."

"Why would you…greet him like that if he wasn’t?" He asked thinking of the kiss and trying to keep his voice steady.

"Because I was scared...I thought I would never see him again and I was so happy when I did and I remembered that human-thought and it felt right…but…it was different than what I meant..." She swallowed uncertainly. "It wasn't him. It was you…you were trying to trick me."

"No I wasn’t"

"Then why did you make yourself look human?"

"I thought you were human. I didn’t want to scare you." She swallowed again.

"Why are you in human form now? I mean all of you?"

"We’re more comfortable like this. We don’t really fit into the Consciousness anymore…when we were taken out it changed us and when we were let back in it…it wasn’t the same. We prefer to communicate with each other in this form. It’s easier. We change into our real bodies when we’re with the others…" Why was he telling her all this? It was stupid telling her things about himself, about all of them. She could use it against them…She could use it-

"I don’t know how to do that…" she said softly.

"What?"

"Change back…" she whispered, tears filling her green, green eyes. "I don’t mind though…this is better…being…disconnected is better…I feel like…my thoughts are my own…I’m my own…" he nodded at her, understanding.

The Mantriz and Sentreye…as different as they were, they both communicated through mindspeech, through a form of collective consciousness that resulted in a loss of individuality. It wasn’t something you missed, something you mourned, because it was a part of you…but being ripped away from it…finding out who you really were without the others…there was no way you were able to go back to sharing yourself until you weren’t yourself anymore after that...not after you had that taste of freedom.

"We aren’t all like that you know…" she whispered, brushing a tear from her cheek.

"Like what?"

"Like what you think…Killers. Destroyers." He was silent, watching the tear she had taken from her face as it slid down her wrist. "Do you think I’m like that?"

Don’t let her get to you, James…She’s dangerous…I really think one of us should be here in case she tries to manipulate you…

She's still Mantriz.

Sarah’s words floated back into his head and he stared at her. She bit her lip.

"You don’t…you can’t…" she murmured. "If you did you’d be afraid of me…of being here like this alone with me…you would hate me…"

"How do you know I don’t?" She gazed at him and he felt himself sinking, sinking into that light, into the memory of her mind and the touch that had opened it to him.

"Because I can feel you…It's how I know not to be afraid with you...you don't want to hurt me...I can feel you..." She repeated softly, then whispered, "And if you’d let yourself you can feel me too…" He closed his eyes at her words. She was right…he could feel her at the back of his mind, slowly embracing him, slowly giving him her warmth, her light, her color, her beauty…

He felt her lean forward. He felt her crawl up to him and touch his face. He felt her lips against his…and he saw that the kiss she had given him before…when she had thought he was her friend…she hadn’t meant it to be what it had been…it had exploded and become the joining of their minds because it was him…because some part of her soul recognized his

He felt her surprise and confusion swirl around him in an orange and red haze…the color of the shared power that throbbed in their veins…he felt her desire and his tangle with each other as his mind fell open under her touch. And then he felt her sorrow. He felt her regret.

I’m sorry…

Her voice was a feather soft whisper in his head and suddenly the orange haze was disappearing, taking the warmth with it. Her mind was closing to him, and then he couldn’t feel it anymore...he couldn't feel anything anymore as she reduced the airflow to his brain and her sad face disappeared behind the dark flowers of unconsciousness blooming before his mind's eye…

He felt a tendril of someone else’s mind brush against his and he lashed out, shoving off the thick blanket of unconsciousness that had wrapped itself around him until he hadn’t been able to breathe. His eyes snapped open and he became aware of his fingers tangled in Julia’s long blond hair, pulling her face towards him, towards his glowing hand. He cursed, realizing where he was, who he was with, and his power fizzled. He let go of her and she slumped to the floor.

"Julia…I’m sorry…I hurt you…"

"No…" She got to her knees and leaned over him on the bed. "You just scared me…I was trying to get in to see if I could help you wake up…"

"I could have killed you…" He whispered and she pushed his hair back from his forehead, smiling a little.

"Good thing for me you opened your eyes before you released that energy…" She lifted her hand to her face and healed her cheek that was a little pink from being so close to the heat of his power.

"I’m sorry…" he whispered again and reached out to touch her face when she finished. The skin was pale again, the slight burn gone.

"James I’m fine…" Her face hardened. "What about you? She knocked you out…really out…you were gone for a good twenty minutes…for a second I thought…" She shook her head, unable to voice her fear, and pressed his open palm a little closer to her face.

"She got away didn’t she…"

"Tom and Sarah are out now looking for her…she couldn’t have gotten that far…What did she do to you…?" He swallowed, looking at her, looking at her face cradled in the palm of his hand, and when she reached out and touched him, traced his cheekbone with the tips of her fingers, he closed his eyes wondering why it didn’t feel the same...

It wasn’t the same because Cerise had been manipulating him, making him feel things for her he should only feel for Julia.

The only reason he hadn’t felt those things for Julia was because he’d never touched her like that before…but if he did…he would. He knew he would because Julia was right and Cerise was wrong. He knew if he kissed Julia he would feel those intense emotions swirling through his mind in a plethora of colors…and they would be brighter, more beautiful because…it would be real. He reached out to her, desperate to prove it.

He lifted his head from the pillow, and guided her lips down to his, cupping her face in his palms, feeling her long hair caress his bare shoulders as she leaned over him and…nothing. Softness, yes…but…no light…no colors…no wave after wave of dizzying emotion. She lifted her head and he watched her as she closed her eyes, flipping through her human-thoughts to find the name for what they had just done.

"Kiss." She said opening her eyes and smiling at him. This time the word sounded…appropriate…it’s smallness no longer inadequate. That’s all it was. A kiss.

"Julia…Did you…feel anything when I did that?" She frowned at him and brushed his hair away from his eyes.

"Of course I did, we were touching."

"No I mean…did you…feel me…inside of you…inside of your mind…not reading it, not searching it just…just a part of it?" He tried to keep the hopeful note out of his voice but he couldn’t help it. She shook her head at him, confused.

"Was I supposed to?" She laughed. "Human expressions of love…they don’t open the connection…"

"Never…?" he whispered and she took his hand again.

"James you know how it works…you can only achieve a connection like that if you’re with the one you’re meant to be with and if you’re…doing it the proper way…"

"The Sentreye way…"

"Yes…James what’s wrong with you…why…" Her voice faded as he looked deep into her eyes and she saw the confusion there, the desperation.

"We should try it." He said "We should try to connect…that way…Why haven’t we before…?" She was silent for a moment, before answering him.

"Because we never needed to…" she said softly. "We already know we love each other…I never thought we had to prove it…James what’s gotten into you…"

"I don’t know…I don’t…Julia…haven’t you ever wondered…if we weren’t right for each other? I know you love me. I love you…you know I do but…wouldn’t it have happened…wouldn’t we have connected with each other with that first touch if…?"

"What are you saying?"

"Haven’t you ever wondered if there was something more out there…something more than what I could give you…?"

"I’ve…I’ve never really thought about it I guess…"

"Me neither…" he said quietly. "We just accepted what was right in front of us didn’t we? There were four of us. Tom and Sarah…they’ve been connected to each other for as long as they’ve known each other…and we’ve…you’ve been my best friend…my…sister…for as long as I’ve known you…when did it turn into something more…? …I don’t even remember… It’s like…we decided that it would make sense if we were together…because you and I…no one else could understand you the way that I do and no one else could understand me because of what happened to us… It seemed only natural that since Tom and Sarah…that me and you would…we…we would complete the square…"

Her head was bowed, her hair hiding her face. He gently brushed it away, afraid that he had upset her. But she wasn’t crying. He should have known. His Julia never cried. She was thinking, mulling over what he had said. She looked up at him.

" Maybe…Maybe you…you’re right…we did sort of fall into this didn’t we? Because it was easy…because we wanted…needed what Tom and Sarah have…What made you…?"

James looked at the floor, not wanting to talk about what had happened with Cerise, not wanting to talk about the fact that whatever she had done to him, real or not had knocked some sense into him, made him realize that something was missing.

He heard her sharp intake of breath and met her eyes.

"You did it with her didn’t you? You connected…"

"I don’t know what it was…she could have just been making me think we were connecting to…to distract me…" he said bitterly. "It might have all been a trick….a manipulation like Sarah had warned me about…maybe that’s all all of this is…what I felt…these doubts I’m having about us that I never had before…" She was quiet as she studied him.

"So let’s see if your doubts are right…"

"You mean…?" She nodded and sat beside him on the bed, pulling him up into a sitting position until they were facing each other. They leaned towards each other, closing their eyes as their hands cradled each other’s faces and their foreheads touched. They were both quiet for a moment, holding their breath until she whispered, "Anything….?"

"No…" he sighed pulling back.

"Me neither…" she said opening her eyes.

"Are you…are you disappointed…?"

She was quiet for a moment then said, "No…I…I thought I would be but…No…are you?"

He shrugged. "Maybe a little…" She smiled softly at him.

"You know I still love you?"

He nodded, "I still love you too."

He laid back down on the bed and pressed his fists to his eyes, trying to make sense of everything, and not knowing where to start, not knowing where to find the balance he had lost the second Cerise’s lips had brushed his. Julia laid down beside him and rested her head on his chest.

"What was it like…?" she murmured. "The connection…?"

"It doesn’t matter…it wasn’t true. She made it up, made me think that’s what it was. It was a lie."

"…Are you sure…?"

"Julia she’s Mantriz. She’s the enemy. Our people and hers…they’re different…we aren’t meant to be together…it’s wrong…Besides it wasn’t a connection. It was a trick. I should have expected as much from her…from a Mantriz. I should have been more careful…" he swallowed painfully then remembered Tom and Sarah out there trying to clean up his mess. "Is Tom angry…? That I let her get away?"

"It’s not your fault James…Tom…he was worried about you…he’s angry at himself for not realizing how dangerous she was. It’s so easy to think that because there’s only one we can handle it…But they’re stronger than us…"

"They’re not stronger than us." He said. "They just fight dirty. They use our own minds against us. We’re capable of that. Sarah knows how to do it. But we don’t. Because we’re the good guys." His jaw clenched and she felt his body tense as he remembered how easily Cerise had gotten into his head, how easily she had tricked him. Betrayed him.

"James…?" She lifted her head from his chest to look at him.

"Maybe it’s time we fight dirty too." He said and she shivered at the coldness in his eyes.

After we left the building for the first time in two years we were led to another compound. It was time for us to begin our field training. We were left under the care of The Protectors…our version of what humans call the police…

The Protectors came into being when the first wave of Mantriz came almost eleven years ago. The purpose was to maintain relations between our two races…basically to make sure no one "got angry" with each other, and to clear up any disputes in general.

Eventually the Protectors became our defenders. They worked only for our people and the Mantriz had their own version.

Their Protectors were stronger than ours and there were more of them…

They wanted to wipe us out, they wanted us gone so they could have the entire planet, it’s resources and it’s life to themselves. They began slowly – an accident here, and there – they even killed a few of their own to alleviate suspicion. By the time we all started to catch on to the fact that the Mantriz population was growing and ours was dwindling, they had stopped trying to hide it and started killing out in the open. They’d line up and close their eyes and just…push with their minds and those who were the weakest would drop down in the street dead, empty. Those who may have been of use in determining a way to expedite the extinction of our people were taken, and when they were seen again…they were Walking Dead.

After that first siege the Protectors took everyone who was left in the city and hid them long enough to teach them how to throw up mental blocks to protect themselves, to keep the Mantriz out. We had already changed by this point and were still in the process of adjusting to our new bodies, our new powers inside the compound while this was happening. We had learned of the sieges at the new compound where the survivors taught us, trained us how to focus our energy even more and turn it into something deadly.

All Sentreye have some degree of power, but for some reason ours went beyond the usual telepathy. We knew it had something to do with the change. The Elders had told us all they had done was give us a few human-thoughts and guidance to help our bodies stretch into a new form but that couldn’t have been all they did. All Sentreye can shapeshift, but they can’t change what’s on the inside. A normal Sentreye in the form of a human would not be able to speak. Sentreye do not have vocal cords. If you put your hands to its chest you would not feel a heart beat. Sentreye do not have human organs… But we did. Even when we’d change back to our original forms our hearts, our lungs, our vocal cords our bones were still there, only smaller, compacted. These differences in our bodies, plus our inability to truly become one with the consciousness again, kept us on the outside. Our people tried to accept us, and they trusted us to lead them into battle once our training was complete, but they were always a little wary of us and maybe a little sickened because of what we were, how unnatural we were.

We were hybrids.

We realized this during the training sessions when whenever we activated a power that was not Sentreye we automatically slipped into our human forms.

We went to the Elders demanding to know why this was, why we were so different when they claimed all they had done to us was implant a few thoughts and guide a shapeshift – something that we would have been able to do on our own when we came of age anyway, and they admitted that they had introduced human DNA into our systems. They admitted that the change which we thought at the time had only taken minutes had actually been days…days of taking us apart and putting us back together again into something more than Sentreye and something less than human. We didn’t know how the Elders had managed to change us so completely and they refused to tell us. I think they were afraid of one of us being caught and the Mantriz finding out how to "modify" their own people the same way through the information they’d find during the mindsearch.

Humans are powerful. More powerful than they realize. Our scientists were able to take pieces of the human mind, pieces that the humans themselves had not even begun to understand and use, and meld them to ours. The result was a new type of power that developed the ones we already had, that pushed them to the limit and then beyond.

Tom and James were able to make their energy tangible - it seeped out of their hands and when they used the mental skills they had been born with to direct this energy at a target, the effects…they were impressive. Julia and I discovered we could lift things with a thought, we could break things down from the inside – we could pick apart the brain of a Mantriz and turn it into a Walking Dead in a matter of seconds. But we did have our limitations. After large expulsions of energy, Tom and James would need a chance to recover, to replenish what they had lost and the strain of using our mental powers – especially in interrogating a Mantriz who had so many defenses and so many traps built into their minds…we were often left with pounding headaches that left us immobile for a few minutes. In our world very rarely do you have a "few minutes" to spare before you have to fight again. So whenever we did use our powers in a battle, we used them sparingly. If we had had been more human and less Sentreye we would have been able to use our powers without any problems at all…we would have been unstoppable.

The Elders realized this. They knew that if they had to change us again, had to bring us to the next level, they would not take our Sentreye bodies and add human DNA. They would do just the opposite.

They believed that if we were completely human, with our Sentreye powers still intact, we truly would be unstoppable. There would be no way the Mantriz could defeat us. The only problem was that they could not take us to this level on our own planet. Humans can not survive here for long – as strong as their minds are, their bodies are a different story. If we were changed that completely we would die. This final change was a last resort, and The Elders were not even sure if that step would even be necessary. As it was, even with our limitations the four of us were doing well in battle. Although our victories were never easily accomplished, the Mantriz were slowly being defeated, and it began to look as though our planet would be saved, our people would be saved.

That was until they somehow discovered the secret to our powers, and our Elders’ fear came to life.

The Mantriz began changing their own people, and when we met the Mantriz versions of ourselves…everything fell apart.

I knew someone should have stayed with him Sarah and Tom crept down the darkened street, their eyes and ears open, searching for the girl.

You’ve said that already Tom answered her quietly and stepped over a body, shaking his head sadly as it began to wither before their eyes. It must have just fallen. Sarah took his hand and led him away from it.

We’ll stop this Tom…they won’t win… he squeezed her hand before they let go of each other to search opposite sides of the street.

…I think she did something to James… she said after a moment

What do you mean…?

I’m not sure exactly…it’s just that when he brought her in he was so…quiet… He barely took his eyes off of her…like he was trying to make sure we didn’t do anything to her…I’m just saying his behavior was weird…Whenever we’ve had opportunities to interrogate Mantriz before he…he’d get pretty vicious with them…

You think she was controlling him…?

I don’t know…I just…I think it’s really important that we find her…that we find out what she can do…what powers she has…If she’s part of a new breed of Mantriz we’re in trouble… Besides…don’t you find it a little upsetting that she was changed? The only reason I can determine why she was is if they’re planning o- She cut herself off as she reached the end of a freestanding wall of a broken down building. She had heard something. She motioned for him to join her and he ran across the street, his feet barely making a sound, and they stood there together, their backs against the charred side of the building, listening.

They heard footsteps and a soft affirmative answer to the question, "Reyne…is that you…?".

Tom pressed his hand against the building’s wall and slowly its molecules began to separate from each other until there was a small hole. He looked through it and saw their Mantriz and another one - the dark haired girl Cerise had called Reyne – embrace each other.

"What are you doing out here…?" Cerise whispered.

"I was looking for you…I saw him take you…the human…"

"He was Sentreye…"

"Sentreye…? How…"

"I don’t know. I don’t know how they found the base…"

"How many were there?"

"Four…four were in human form…I also saw a few dozen of the Protectors on the grounds…" She looked around, searching for any sign of them or the "humans". It’s not safe out here alone…where’s Leyx…where’s-"

"I haven’t seen them yet…"

"Not that we’d recognize them if we did…I don’t even recognize myself…"

Sarah looked up at Tom and he nodded at her. They both reached out at the same time, and when their feelers brushed up against the minds of the two Mantriz nothing happened. They had their defenses up and they couldn’t be broken through. Cerise’s head shot up as she felt the probe and immediately initiated her power. The other girl, Reyne, closed her eyes, concentrating, and the small hole in the wall that Tom had created became larger and larger until the entire wall disappeared.

"Two against two…" Cerise growled at them as Tom and Sarah initiated their own powers, simultaneously slipping into their human forms. Tom’s power came from his hands, but was a cool blue as opposed to James’ and Cerise’s fiery orange. A purple hazy mist surrounded Sarah as she initiated hers and she lifted a chunk of a fallen statue in readiness. "At least it’s fair now…" Cerise took a step forward. "Four against one…that wasn’t very sporting…"

"It wasn’t four against one." Sarah said coolly lifting the statue a little higher, daring her to make another move towards them. "It was one against one. You lost and James won. Get ready to lose again."

"He didn’t win the last time…" She murmured, and Reyne risked a quick glance at her, feeling a flash of guilt from her friend.

The purple haze around Sarah turned a deep plumb as her anger pushed the statue up higher until it cast a shadow over the two Mantriz. Cerise’s hands glowed even brighter in response, and the ground sizzled as drops of light dripped from her palms. Then suddenly the sizzling stopped, and the air surrounding her was no longer tattooed by swirls of orange. Cerise looked down at her hands and glared at Tom and Sarah. "You know I wish you guys would stop doing that." She said and closed her eyes as she tried to flip her power back on with an annoyed scrunch to her forehead.

Tom stared at her. "We didn’t…"

"I did." Reyne said quietly and Cerise turned to look at her.

"What the hell fo-" Suddenly she slumped to the ground, and Tom and Sarah stared at the dark haired girl, stunned at what she had just done to her friend.

"I just cut my odds of winning this fight in half. I’m making myself vulnerable to you." She spoke slowly, looking Tom in the eye, sensing he was the one in charge. "I’m not going to fight - I don’t want to hurt anyone. I just need to talk to you." She took a deep breath. "I'm asking you to trust me." The sky green halo around her body faded into nothingness as she deactivated her power.

Sarah still held the statue aloft even though Tom’s hands, once glowing with electric blue fire, dimmed to a softer, lighter hue.

"Why should we?" Sarah asked, glancing at Cerise’s prone body, sickened by how the other girl had cut her down, sickened by her betrayal.

Reyne blinked at her.

"Did you not see what I just did?"

"Yes. I did. I saw what happens to people who trust you." She thought she saw a flicker of shame in the girl’s eyes, but decided she must have imagined it. She glanced up at Tom who had been silent. He was watching the girl carefully.

"I didn’t kill her." She said tightly to Sarah then turned back to Tom and murmured, "I didn’t invite you in." He blinked at her, realizing she had caught him attempting a mindsearch. "I was telling the truth when I said I needed to talk to you. I’ll not subject myself to a mindsearch. I’ve already shown you how serious I am."

"Why do you want to talk to us?" Tom asked her, turning down his power a little more and Sarah stared at him incredulously.

Why are you humoring her? It’s a trick Tom…

Maybe not… He ignored her protests and told her to put down the statue. She ignored him and he sighed turning back to Reyne, waiting for her answer.

She was standing there, looking down at her fallen friend, her hair a curtain across her face, and when she pushed it back her hands were shaking. Her eyes, as dark as the night over their heads, shone with the light of the twin moons reflected in her unshed tears. When she finally spoke, her voice trembled with fear. "Because I'm afraid of them. I'm afraid of my own people." She took a deep breath and looked down at Cerise again. "Look, she is going to wake up soon and she is not going to be happy...and I am not doing that to her again. So make your decision now – either you trust me and take us back with you so we can talk or we continue where we left off." She paused, looking Sarah dead in the eye, and said, "I may be afraid of my people but I am not afraid of you."

Tom nodded at her after a long moment and held up his hands, his power completely dissipating with a gentle swoosh. She nodded back and they both turned to Sarah.

She swallowed then slowly put the statue down. She trusted Tom…even if she didn’t trust Reyne or Cerise…she trusted him.

Something was happening inside of him. Something he didn’t understand, something that scared him.

That something was making him trust a Mantriz.

The moment his eyes had met hers and he heard her voice, calm and confident even though those eyes were begging his for trust and fearful that he would not give it…he felt it…a…falling down inside of himself…and it wasn’t as terrifying as it should have been…this willingness…this need to let his barriers crumble and leave him exposed, vulnerable to her…

Being near her made him feel safe. It made him feel alive and free. It took him a moment to grasp those feelings since it had been years since he had touched them and they felt…wonderful…

He wanted to let her in…wanted to show her his soul and he wanted to see hers, to touch it, to hold it to his and sink into an oblivion of her and escape the pain, the death and destruction of the world around them. He wanted to find freedom from the madness in her. He wanted to feel alive again…free…safe…

As her power swirled around her, vibrant and alive and…her…he had wanted to fall into it, he had wanted to feel it wrap itself around him…

And then it was gone and he was snapped back into reality realizing that she could have struck out at any moment during his little vacation from control and killed them.

But she hadn’t killed them. She had trusted them not to hurt her. She had trusted him and he immediately felt the tension leave his body, the fight sliding out of it, as he lessened the flow of his power.

But he was still curious. A part of him still wanted to see…wanted to know why he had felt this way, why he had wanted to trust her so badly, and he had reached out to touch her mind, just to see if he could get that feeling back, and she had caught him. She had thought she was being searched.

He had wanted to prove to her that that hadn’t been what he meant, that he hadn’t meant to offend her, and that’s why he did it - why he turned off his power, leaving them equally vulnerable. Leaving them equal.

Walking their willing prisoner back to their base, Cerise slung over his shoulder, still unconscious, his mind began to clear. He had been annoyed at Sarah before for remaining on the defensive even after he had made it clear she was to back off but now he was relieved. Relieved that she had ignored his command for the first time since he had become their leader. They had had no real reason to trust this creature, and yet he had. He was relieved Sarah at least had been able to keep focused and alert.

When he and Reyne "talked" he had to make sure she would be present in case the girl tried to cloud his mind again.

"You’re brave…" Tom said softly as he locked the door to Cerise’s cell. Reyne reached out and touched the handle, her fingers sliding over it guiltily.

"I’m cruel." She corrected him, meeting his eyes at last.

"She’ll be fine in there…nothing will happen to her…I promise she’s safe with us."

"For now…" Sarah mumbled under her breath, and Tom stared at her. Reyne didn’t hear and continued with them down the hall.

"She’s terrified of you...all four of you…"

"She didn’t seem afraid of us at all…" Sarah argued stepping between the girl and Tom. "It took two of us to keep her from melting the compound."

"She was afraid…" Reyne sighed as they stepped inside a room, empty except for a few chairs and a couch. She sat down on one of them, watching as Tom sat down in front of her, and Sarah took a seat near the door as though she were expecting her to make a run for it. "Cerise doesn’t think when she’s sacred…she acts…" Tom nodded, thinking of James, then drifted back to his thoughts of her...her hair...how it shone under the harsh lighting, like a black sea with moonlight glinting off the waves around her face. He blinked at her, trying to shake her out of his head, terrified at how difficult it was to do so. "Besides…" She continued giving Sarah a pointed look, "She was defending herself. Your people took her – you picked the fight here, not us…"

Sarah stared at her, her voice deathly quiet. "What did you just say?"

"You heard me."

"You "picked the fight"!" she exploded, shaking with anger, near tears as she thought of everything she'd heard about from her parents as a child, everything she'd seen since being led out of that building all those years ago to face their dying world and the ones who were killing it. "Your people did – they started everything…all the killing, the destruction! How dare yo-"

Sarah… Tom called her name softly and she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.

I’m sorry. I know screaming at her won’t help us. It won’t happen again...

That’s not what I was going to say… She stared at him from across the room and he thought to her, I wanted to make sure you were all right… He was concerned. Sarah never let on how she felt about things. Whenever he'd ask she'd tell him it didn't matter and that he should concentrate on how the enemy was feeling instead. She kept everything inside, never showing him how their life, their station in it, the things they'd seen, the things they'd done affected he-

Stop thinking about me, and think about our prisoner – she told us she wanted to talk so let her talk. I won’t interrupt anymore. He started to push her a little and she glared at him until he gave up and turned back to Reyne.

Her face was white, her fingers tangling in the hem of her shirt, and clutching it in her fists.

"You’re right…" she said softly, looking up at Sarah, who blinked at her. "This is all our fault…you’re completely right to hate us – me…but I…I’m telling the truth when I say I didn’t know."

Sarah snorted again in disbelief and Tom looked at her, beginning to doubt her words for the first time.

"How could you not know?" he said.

"Because they didn’t want us too." She swallowed, and slowly unfurled her fingers from her clothes, flexing them a little, trying to calm herself so she could speak without bursting into tears or ripping into her palms with her fingernails. "Our consciousness is different from yours. You…Sentreye share everything…you’re all a part of each other, what one knows all know…You’re one being with many parts…" she looked up at him and attempted a crooked smile. "Which is why I’m assuming you have such strange names…they gave you human ones didn’t they? Because you didn’t have any of your own…" he nodded and she went on. "It’s a little different with us…we have names, we have individual identities…but our thoughts are shared too…well…monitored really…and our consciousness…it has the ability to control us…make us do things we may not want to do…But the thing is, I didn’t realize what was happening here until I was disconnected after the change…They made us all believe that we were the innocent ones here…that we needed help and you let us in under the guise of friendship and then…and then tried to kill us all…I know now that that wasn’t true…that it’s just the opposite They made us see what they wanted us to see…"

"How did you learn the truth? I’m assuming you didn’t learn it from your Elders…"

"No…the Council…they don’t know I know…that Leyx knows… He's a friend of mine who was also changed" She explained.

Sarah stood from her chair by the door, cautiously taking the one beside Tom and leaned towards her, malice no longer coloring her eyes, her voice, as she asked, "Why were you changed?"

Reyne looked at her, and frowned.

"To fight the four of you of course. To kill you."

"I figured that was what it was…" Tom said quietly. "When James brought in Cerise…I realized that your people must have figured out how to do it, make the change…She’s so developed at her powers…she has so much of it…how long were you all in training?"

"A year…but we haven’t seen each other until today…they trained us each separately…Today was the end of our sessions though… Kieran and I – he’s the fourth…his father is one of the heads of the Council…and so is mine…"

Sarah sucked in her breath and shot a look at Tom.

She’d be worth a lot if we bargained

"I know what you’re thinking." Reyne told her. "It won’t work. They’d kill me first and just find someone to take my place. And I’m willing to bet the one who replaces me won’t care about the truth – they’d do their "job" no matter what and come after you… But ah…as I was saying…Kieran and I were brought before the council earlier today and they explained to us what our new…positions were… They didn’t bother to bring in Leyx and Cerise since we - Kieran and I, are expected to lead them and our Protectors… and I was fine with it then…with fighting all of you…but when I went off to find the others I ran into Leyx and he said he…he had been practicing on one of your people that we had captured…reading his mind and…he saw everything… He saw the truth…" She took a deep breath, wrapping her arms around herself trying to shake off the chill of discovering everything she was taught to believe in, expected to give her life for was a lie…that she had agreed to change herself for a lie… "He feels the same way I do about all of this…he was so angry and… He was upset. I told him I’d go find Cerise and tell her what he’d learned and when I finally found where they were keeping her I saw your friend, James, taking her. I went back to Leyx and told him to cover for me if Kieran or anyone asked where I was and I went to look for her…and ah, she found me and then you two came along and here I am… I wanted to talk to you to make sure it was really true…what Leyx said…" Reyne looked at Sarah, her eyes shining. "I know now it is…I am so sorry…"

Sarah swallowed, fighting back her own tears. "Thanks but that doesn’t really help us does it?"

"Unless there’s some way you can get your people to see the truth…maybe then they’d stop fighting us…"

Reyne shook her head. "No. Everyone would have to be disconnected to be free of the Council’s influence and the only way they can do that is if they’ve been changed…And as you know that’s a long and painful process so…" She sighed, "Besides…I don’t think it would matter to some of them… They’d keep fighting…Like Kieran…he’s not evil like the Council…but this is all he knows…he’s given up a lot to be who…what he is…and his father…His father’s powerful and he does what he wants…"

"We’re still stuck then…this war…it’ll go on forever…or until one of us is dead…"

Reyne nodded at Sarah and said, "We’ll make sure it’s the right side that stays alive. I’m willing to help…"

"You’d betray your own people…"

She looked at Tom and said softly, "After what they’ve done I want no part of them – neither does Leyx…and I’m sure once I talk to Cerise she’d feel the same way…and if you win…if you find a way to defeat the Council…shatter the consciousness…maybe there’d be hope…hope for all of us…I’m willing to risk my life for that…"

"Then I was right the first time." Tom said softly, looking into her eyes.

"About what?" she asked, her own voice just as quiet.

"You are brave."

She awoke in the white room. She knew where she was and for a moment concern for her own safety was overwhelmed by her fear for Reyne.

And then she remembered what Reyne had done. She remembered that her best friend had betrayed her.

She slowly got to her feet, her entire body shaking, and she wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stop it, trying to stay calm as she searched the room. Her eyes found the door and she knew it was locked. She couldn’t unlock it with her mind - that was Reyne and Leyx’s forte but she could melt it...

She didn’t even try.

She was too exhausted, too drained from the amount of energy she had used today. Leyx and Kieran didn’t know where she was, had no way of finding her and Reyne had betrayed her, had handed her over to the Sentreye to do what they wished to her. She was alone. She was trapped. She was scared.

She couldn’t stop shaking. She leaned against the wall for support, pressing her forehead to it, and closed her eyes as tears slipped down her cheeks.

She knew they would kill her. It was what they had wanted to do in the first place. If they came…if he came to do it, she wouldn’t have the power to fight back, to defend herself.

She had been so close to safety…Well as close as one of her kind could get – which was away from the Sentreye. Despite how she had acted around the four of them earlier she had been terrified the entire time.

Her people were afraid of them...The Four…

Based on what the Mantriz Consciousness had let her see, in the early battles victory had come easily...but that all changed when The Four made their first appearance on the battlefield...

The Mantriz were worried, scared of them… and they had instilled that fear in their people, in her, hoping it would fuel their hatred, hoping it would make them fight even harder… And it worked – the fear did that – it made her blind to everything but overcoming it and facing them head on, lashing out with all she had…but afterwards…afterwards she was left breathless and shaking.

Her father had been massacred during one of the battles and the consciousness had shown it to her. That’s why she had agreed to let them do what they wanted to her…why she let them turn her into this…thing…because they had said it was what her father would have wanted. It was a way for her to avenge him.

But she was still afraid. She was still haunted by the image of his charred body, his mouth open in a silent neverending scream…but the Mantriz Consciousness didn’t know that. She had been disconnected – her fears were safely hidden. The only ones she had ever confessed to were Reyne and Leyx – not Kieran. He was her friend too but he would have told, he would have suggested they replace her with someone less…cowardly.

The war meant more to him than friendship.

She hadn’t realized she was in the presence of one of her greatest fears…a Sentreye…one of the actual Four…until after she had kissed him…touched his mind and realized it wasn’t Leyx…and then fear-fueled-survival mode had kicked in and she had lashed out without thinking about why she had been able to connect with him like that…why she had kissed him like that when all she had meant it to be was a friendly little joke – greeting her human-looking friend in a human way.

But it hadn’t been her friend...it hadn't been Leyx…it had been him…James…it had been his lips…his hands in her hair…his mind swirling and tangling with hers…

She had known the second their lips met it wasn’t Leyx…and she hadn’t cared… She hadn’t felt endangered…she had felt peaceful and safe…warm, and shivery…content…happy…understood…found…

And then she had a flash of him at a compound surrounded by Protectors and other Sentreye who were urging him to find his power, his energy and focus it. She saw it leave his hands in a flood of light, she felt his pain, and when he stopped the flow and looked down at his hands she saw them too. They were burnt. Burnt to blackness. He had healed it himself, assuring the others that he was fine, that this had happened before…which wasn’t entirely a lie…his hands were usually always a little fried after a discharge but it had never been that bad before…it had never hurt so much...

She herself usually had sore hands whenever she used her powers but nothing like that had ever happened to her…but of course she had never been able to achieve a blast like that…he had leveled the building they had been practicing on…

Her concern for him, her desire to protect him from any pain had flooded through her, blindsiding her for a moment until she saw other memories…memories of three others…memories of being taught by Protectors, being welcomed by Sentreye, being hailed by them as heroes...

That was when she finally forced herself to acknowledge who he was...what he was...

It wasn’t until she was alone in that room after they had questioned her that she began to really think about what she had felt and seen.

She realized she had connected with him…connected with him in a way that left no doubt in her mind about who he really was to her – he wasn't a Sentreye…he wasn't one of The Four…He was James…her soulmate…

She had been sickened at first…sickened that she had been bonded with him…with an enemy…with one of the killers of her people, her father…but then the memory of his touches came back to her…so soft and gentle and uncertain…the memory of his memories…how painful almost all of them were…and she ached for him…she ached for that boy who knew so little of happiness and love…and so much of death and loss. She understood him…his memories mirrored her own…his soul knew hers and that was how she knew she would be safe with him. He wouldn’t hurt her. To hurt her was to hurt himself.

When she touched him again she had done it because she had wanted to feel him again, she had wanted to make him see what was right in front of him…that that warmth in the back of his mind, that tenderness, that trust had been her…

And then she broke it. She closed herself off from all the things he was sending back to her, she put him to sleep because she saw a chance to escape.

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him, trust that what he was telling her with his heart, his mind, was true. It was that she didn’t trust the others. She was still scared of them and so she ran, she escaped, until Reyne had brought her back. And this time it was even worse. James would not be there to protect her from the others. He would let them kill her if he didn’t do it himself.

And she wanted to be angry at Reyne for her betrayal, for thrusting her back into her worst nightmare, but she couldn’t summon up the emotion, because her betrayal had been worse. She had betrayed her soul and for that she deserved whatever he wanted to give her.

Reyne was silent when Tom told Sarah to find the others. She was silent when the door clicked shut and they were alone and she felt his eyes on her. She wasn’t afraid. She was something else…

Talking to them…going with them had not been planned, and she was a firm believer in plans.

You had to have a plan.

She had left the safety of the Mantriz compound with the purpose of finding Cerise and bringing her back, of telling her what she and Leyx had learned, of coming up with a plan to do something about it.

She had felt him before she saw him…like a tender breeze slipping across her skin in a gentle caress… She felt him, she knew where he was and she broke down the wall, found the hole he had made and made it bigger until she saw him through a haze of swirling brick particles and the world stood still for a moment as their eyes met.

Everything suddenly became so clear…she could see ash and dust floating through the air in the darkness…she could see the paths of moonlight sliding down from the sky to meet them…she could see the wind touch his face and lift his hair away from his eyes…his amazing human eyes… she could hear the wind’s sad whistle…she could hear his heartbeat and it matched her own… she could hear the crackle of a power being charged into life…snaps and pops and fizzing sizzles and she was yanked back into reality with her best friend beside her preparing to battle him and one of his people.

She knocked her out.

That hadn't been part of the plan.

She made herself vulnerable to Sentreye.

Also not part of the plan.

Her mind had shut off, reveling in the memories of what she had felt just moments ago when she had looked into the eyes of the Sentreye boy…the leader of the Four…and saw her soul. Her mouth went ahead without her and things were coming out of it that she had never admitted out loud – that she was afraid…that she was afraid of her own people…and ashamed…so ashamed that she was a part of something so evil…

"Reyne…" He said her name and she wanted to hear it again, wanted to watch his mouth as he said it. She looked up at him, waiting for him to stop the silence that was saying far too much. He was nervous being alone with her like this. She was too. "How were you chosen…I mean all of you…?"

"All of our parents were on the council so we were the obvious choices…"

Kieran and Cerise had been the first to agree to it – Kieran hoping to gain his father’s respect and favor, Cerise because she was in pain, because she needed revenge for what had been done to her father, because they had made her believe it was what he would have wanted. Leyx had agreed for reasons unknown, but she suspected it was because he didn’t want to be left behind. He didn’t want to lose them.

She herself hadn’t really had a choice…the moment Kieran had said yes it was decided. She was his fiancé. She was expected to stand by him and if she didn’t they would kill her. So…actually she had had a choice – death or the change. It hadn’t been so difficult to make at the time…she had believed in the cause, was willing to fight, to defend her people…but that was before she found out the truth…

If she had known then what she knew now she would have gladly chosen death…

In a way she was doing that now by deciding to help the "enemy"… She was trying to make up for the mistake she had made. She was trying to make the right choice this time...

They would rip her to pieces when they found out.

They would tear into her mind and shred it slowly…but she wouldn’t scream for mercy – they would not give it, and she would not give them the satisfaction of hearing her beg.

She would stand silent until she fell.

"It won’t happen…" Reyne looked up at the sound of his voice. He was leaning towards her, his hand finding the edge of her seat and holding onto it because it was as close as he could get without touching her. "They won’t hurt you…I won’t let them…You’re willing to fight for us…what makes you think we won’t for you…?"

"You knew what I was thinking about…"

"Yes…" he said softly, "But I wasn’t searching you, I-"

"I know…I…I can feel you too…"

"You know what I’m thinking?"

"Yes…you’re wondering where I got this from." She lifted her wrist from her lap and looked at the burn on it. "Training session. This morning. I haven’t had a chance to heal it yet." That had been one thought of his…but there were others…others where he contemplated the curve of her mouth, the dark crescent moons her lashes made on her cheeks as she looked at her hands instead of at him…the way that one lock of hair kept falling into her eyes no matter how many times she pushed it behind her ear… He thought about pushing it away for her, thought of his hand brushing her cheek as he did it. He thought about touching her lips with his own and feeling more than her mouth, feeling her soul.

She was thinking the same things about him…

She was thinking that if she only took one memory with her into the afterlife it would be of his eyes…his beautiful eyes and the way they were looking into hers right now with such wonder and acceptance and love…

Love...

How could she love him? How could he love her? They were different…they barely knew each other…

I know you…

They were enemies.

How did they know it wasn’t a trap…that it wasn’t a lie…

Because my heart knows your heart…my soul found its place within your soul…my body beside yours is where I was meant to be…

They leaned closer to each other, barely aware that they were doing so…being drawn towards each other as the thoughts that whispered through their minds became one…one that spoke of a love that would never die…

"I’m not doing this…" she whispered against his lips, "Are you doing this?"

"I’m not making this happen..." he murmured back, his lower lip brushing her upper "It just is…"

"Because it was meant to be…"

"Because we were meant to be…"

Their lips met and the world left them alone for a moment as the war faded into the background. The pain of who they were and what they could never be was swept away by the swirling of two minds falling open to each other and two souls being forever joined...

James walked briskly down the hallway knowing exactly where she was without having been told. He could feel her still in the back of his mind and he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it because he liked it…

He wanted it gone.

He wanted her gone.

It was a lie – all of it – it was a trick so she could escape.

He refused to think about why she hadn’t just killed him, why she had let him live.

He almost wished she had killed him. That would have been far less humiliating than this…picking a fight with a prisoner because his pride was hurt and he was embarrassed at how easy it had been for her to get inside of him and make him believe…

She was going to pay for it.

If she wanted to get out this time she would fight him face to face, hand to hand. No fake connections that tempted him to lose himself in her…just the cold certainty that only one of them would be leaving that room alive.

He reached the door and shoved it open.

She was facing the wall, her hands pressed against it on either side of her face. At the sound of his footsteps she lifted her head and slowly turned it towards him. He faltered when he saw her cheeks stained with tear tracks and she ducked her head into the crook of her arm wiping them away before turning to face him.

"Fire up" he said and she stared at him. He swallowed, suddenly not wanting to do this anymore. She looked…different…she looked tired and sad… "Do it…" he said his voice a near whisper and she shook her head at him.

"I’m burnt out…I don’t have any energy left…"

"Fine." He said tightly needing to get this over with before he changed his mind. "I’ll give you some of mine." He stepped in even closer to her and held his hands palms out in front of him. "If I’m going to fight you, it’s going to be fair."

He wouldn’t attack her while she was weak, vulnerable, like she had done to him. It wasn’t his way. As much as he hated her he wasn’t going to stoop to her level to insure a victory. She nodded understanding all of this and tried to ignore the dull pain in her heart as she came to him and placed her palms against his and...

And nothing happened.

She let her mind brush up against his, and all she felt was the coldness of stone.

She should have known he wouldn’t let her in…it was stupid of her to try.

She looked at their glowing hands, trying to concentrate instead on accepting the energy he was feeding her body…his energy…

It was too intimate…sharing his essence with him...she couldn’t not look at him…

She lifted her head from their hands and met his eyes. His face was hard, but she saw a muscle in his jaw clench and a flicker of something hot smoldering behind his cold eyes.

He was arguing with himself…trying to decide whether or not he should just kill her now during the transfer by giving her too much energy and letting it burn her up...having it be over, having his revenge…

She closed her eyes, waiting for the pain, for her death, and then she felt him…felt his mind touch hers like rays of sunlight creeping through the chinks in a stone wall…more and more until his mind broke through and met hers…

He couldn’t fight it anymore…

Their fingers parted and slipped in between each other’s, tangling and griping, pulling each other in closer…

He felt her breasts brush against his chest and opened his eyes with a sharp intake of breath. Hers were still closed, her head tilted back slightly, her lips gently parted and waiting…

She was beautiful…her skin glowing with an inner fire…shimmering with their power…he was feeling it himself…waves of heat undulating throughout his body and exploding in his brain, exploding in memories of what her lips had felt like…her fingers in his hair and the tentative caress of her tongue…

The warmth was pleasant at first…the way it made him shiver…the way it tumbled through his blood, making him feel alive…

And then it became even hotter…painful…and he realized he was still transferring his energy to her and the pain he was feeling was her own, but she refused to let him go because feeling him through the pain was better than not feeling him at all.

He pulled his mind away, desperately trying to stop the flow, and yanked his hands from hers before he hurt her anymore. When he finally regained control he looked up at her sick with the loss of her mind, her hand, in his.

There was a sheen to her skin…like gold liquid moving just beneath it…she was golden…a shining golden goddess…looking stricken with her hands empty and in the air.

He couldn't take this anymore...he couldn't stand this confusion... this insistent longing for something he could never have...for something that was wrong...

"Fire up…" he said it again, his voice crumbling into a broken whisper.

"No…"

"Please…"

"I can’t…" she cried, tears streaming down her cheeks flushed with energy and the memory of him. "You first…"

He stared into her eyes breathing hard, lifting his hand…

And he couldn’t do it.

She took a shaky step towards him and he didn’t back away, he didn’t fire up his power. He stood silent and still, feeling her in his head and in his blood. She stopped right in front of him and he looked down at his hand that had somehow found hers and saw that it was glowing too.

He felt her trembling fingers touch his face and he gently traced the path of her tears down her cheek to the corner of her mouth with his own. He lowered his lips to hers, her fingers sliding to the back of his neck and urging him closer, closer…

They sprang apart as the door opened, gasping for breath and control against the urge to blast Sarah out of the room and melt the door shut.

"Meeting down the hall…" She said quietly, taking in the sight of their flushed skin and the charred circle surrounding them on the floor. She stared at James. He looked away first and she turned on her heel leaving the room and shivering a little at the sudden coolness of the hallway after being surrounded by the warm air of the cell.

Julia sat down in the chair beside her brother’s. Sarah had called to her in her head a little while ago to find Tom and Reyne. When she had stepped inside the two of them had been sitting together on the couch, their heads bowed, close together. She cleared her throat and Tom’s head shot up before he slowly moved away from the girl and to the chair in front of her. They didn’t say anything to her as she sat down and waited for Sarah to return with James and Cerise.

She looked from her brother back to the girl again.

They were communicating with each other.

They weren’t talking but they were saying something to each other with their eyes, with the way they never left each other’s faces. Julia knew she should be disturbed by this…upset…wary as Sarah would have been if she were here, sitting here and witnessing this…

But she wasn’t disturbed.

It was beautiful.

The air around them was beautiful, the gentle looks, the parted lips…were beautiful…

She was in awe of them…of the power that floated around them in a blue and green shimmering cloud that made her hold her breath and yearn for a part of that peace, that tranquility…that love…

They were barely aware that she was there.

When the door clicked open and Sarah stepped inside, the cloud dissipated and they looked away from each other. Reyne stared at the floor, a faint blush to her cheeks and Tom blinked at Sarah like he had forgotten she existed. Sarah sat down on the arm of his chair, not noticing anything was wrong, not noticing that Tom couldn’t look her in the eye.

Sarah's attention was focused on James and Cerise, and Julia tore herself away from Tom and Reyne long enough to see what she was staring at.

Their skin glowed and they looked equally willing to run away and to each other as James leaned against the wall, watching as Cerise made her way to the couch and sat down beside her friend.

Julia stared at the girl…the golden girl that had made James so furious and happy all at once… She had sensed what he felt for Cerise when he had spoken to her before and now she could see it. It was similar to and so different from what she had observed between her brother and Reyne. She could see their feelings swirling around them reaching out in tendrils of orange and red mist then pulling back as soon as they brushed up against each other… They were cautious, afraid…but Tom and Reyne…they had accepted it the second it had happened, they had given into it, surrounded themselves in it…

James and Cerise were fighting it...they were fighting each other…whenever it looked as though they were beginning to give in they fled again, pulling back almost frantically, trying to ignore the fact that they needed...that they wanted each other.

Julia looked at Sarah, shocked at what was happening all around her…shocked that she was witnessing from the outside what she had dreamt of, what she wanted for so long and hadn’t been able to find with James…the Connection…the joining of minds and hearts and souls to the one you were meant to be with…

She saw it happening to James and it wasn’t with her…she saw it happening to Tom and it wasn’t with Sarah…

Julia looked at her and saw that Sarah didn’t know. She couldn’t see it… She had her hand against the back of Tom’s neck and was running her fingers through his hair absently…something she’d done countless times before…but Tom wasn’t smiling up at her now, he wasn’t closing his eyes at her touch. He was staring at the floor, his shoulders drooping with guilt…and Sarah didn’t know…she didn’t see what was right in front of her…

Tom did not belong to Sarah any more than James did to her.

Julia sat still, frozen with shock and a hint of jealousy as the girl who had stolen her brother’s heart away from her best friend proposed her plan.

"…The three of us…Leyx, Cerise, and myself…one of us will come here to you every few weeks…reporting what we know, what we’ve learned…anything that might help you anticipate an attack from…from us…anything that can help you evacuate an area the Council has it’s eye on…I don’t know how long it will last before they find out…but this will have to be good enough until we can think of something better…Leyx and I can try and work on our people since we’re the strongest at dealing with the interior barriers that may have been put up by the Council to block out the truth…maybe we can find a way to disconnect a few of them…get them to help us… I was told with Kieran this morning that you’d be assigned to recruitment Cerise…" Reyne’s voice softened when she spoke directly to her friend, obviously uncomfortable with what she had done to her earlier and unsure of how she was feeling about everything she had told her about their people and what they had done.

Cerise hadn’t looked up from the floor once since she had sat down and Reyne had related to her, James, and Julia what she had already told Tom and Sarah, and when she finally did look up, her eyes were glistening with tears.

She met Julia's gaze and they stared at each other.

"Cerise…?" Reyne continued gently, "You’d probably be doing most of the runs over here…The Council will be watching me and Kieran closely…making sure that we’re…doing what they want…leading the way they want…You and Leyx can get here with less of a chance of being disco-"

"Leave me out of it." Her voice was hoarse, and she swallowed, licking away a stray tear that had slipped down her cheek. She finally looked away from Julia to Reyne, who blinked at her.

"Cerise…Cerise did you not hear what’s been happening…do you not understand what we’re a part of…that we have a chance to fix this…"

"I understand. But I can’t help…I…I won’t…" She said quietly, closing her eyes as she heard James shift near the door.

"I thought you weren’t what I thought…" he said bitterly.

"And what was that?" She whispered as another tear escaped from beneath her lashes.

"A killer, a destroyer..."

"I’m not…I’m not…" She shook her head and angrily wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. "I’m not killing anyone…I don’t intend to go out on a mission and destroy a town full of innocent people…I can’t do that…I don’t know if I ever could have…but…I can’t help you. I will not help you hurt my own people – especially if it’s like you said – that they don’t know…I can’t betray them…I can’t betray him…" Cerise spoke to Reyne, knowing that she would understand, knowing that she knew that the him was her father. "And I can’t have this be for nothing…" she stared down at her human hands, still tender from the transfer, still alien to her own eyes after a year of seeing them glow, seeing them burn.

"Then what do you want to do?" Reyne asked quietly, "Do you want to live your life serving them…the Council…fighting for a cause you know is corrupt, wrong? I know you’re in pain…I…I know you loved your father…He was a good person…better than most…Cerise…fighting for what’s right would not dishonor him…had he known what we do…he would have helped…"

You don’t have to be afraid…I’m not… Tom looked at Reyne…hearing her thoughts to Cerise, and James’s head snapped up as he heard Cerise’s answer.

I’m not you Reyne…You don’t know what I saw…what they did to him…

They stared at each other for a long moment. Cerise looked away first and took a deep breath.

"What are you going to do?" Sarah asked, leaning forward, frowning at the girl, unsettled that her attitude was so different from Reyne’s. Cerise slowly lifted her head and met her hard gaze with one of her own.

"I won’t tell anyone where you are. I won’t tell anyone about the alliance that’s being created here tonight. Whether or not I will help Reyne and Leyx…I don’t know. I need some time to think…but I will never lift a hand against any of you…That’s all I can promise for now…"

Sarah narrowed her eyes, a "that’s not good enough" getting ready to erupt from her lips, but Julia gently touched her arm, looking at the girl once again.

She understood her reluctance…she had every right to be confused, every right to feel cornered…They had basically tried to force the decision on her.

Julia looked into her eyes…the eyes of James’s other half and knew that she would find her way, that she would make the right decision.

Reyne and Cerise stood from their seats. It was time to leave. Reyne nodded solemnly at them, wordlessly promising that she would keep her word and do what she could. Her eyes lingered on Tom’s face before she turned away.

Cerise followed her to the door but stopped when James caught her by the wrist. They stared at each other for a long moment, neither saying a word, until finally James let go. His fingers trailed down her hand as she stepped past him, through the door without a look back.

There are no definites in this life, no security, no promises that "everything will be alright". There have never been any murmurings in the darkness to ease our fears, our nightmares away when we were children and dreamt of what the awful Mantriz could and would do to us.

We were never promised that what was done to us would be worth it in the end, that we would win.

No definites.

No security.

No promises.

There was a bit of ragged hope here and there, but not much else besides the belief that no matter what, the four of us would be together.

We all believed that.

We all believed that even if one of us fell, the spirit, the essence of our fallen friend would still be there – not in the hidden labs that were prepared to make a new body and start all over again, but there in our hearts, in our powers that would throb into action and swirl around us burning away the smell of blood and death.

All our lives we had depended on each other, loved each other. We held James the night he discovered both of his parents had been destroyed, and he held us when the same thing happened to ours. Only Tom and Julia’s mother had survived and we clung to her even as she concentrated all of her efforts on helping the Elders, the Scientists (including my father who was not dead, although after the change I preferred to think of him that way) into turning us into killing machines.

We never saw her again after the change. Julia had said that she was still alive, but waiting until we came back to her…back to one of the labs where we would be reborn…where we would rise from the ashes of our former selves only to lead the same lives of fighting a never ending battle.

We did what we were instructed to do. We went to our training sessions, we learned to use our powers. We fought, we killed…and the only thing that kept us going, that kept us sane was each other, and the knowledge that even though we knew there would never be a definite victory, that there would never be a night where we felt secure enough to sleep with both eyes closed, or a time where we would be comforted by a promise that the good guys always win, we knew we would always be connected to each other, would always belong to each other, and would always find each other again, in every world, in every life.

We were soulmates.

Julia and James.

Tom and I.

We all believed it.

We all believed it unwaveringly until we let ourselves be infiltrated. Until we let ourselves trust Mantriz.

Things changed after we decided to work with them, after we decided to let them feed us information.

Tom and James changed.

James became even more silent and withdrawn than he already was, and not even Julia could snap him out of it. She would merely smile sadly whenever I suggested she get into his head to see what Cerise had done to him and repair the damage, and say softly that it wasn’t necessary. I would have done it myself except for the fact that I was worried about Tom.

Ever since we were children our minds were open to each other and now he was closed. He made a conscious effort to block me out as though he were afraid of what I might see. I went in to his mind that night, the night the two Mantriz girls had left our base to return to their own, and I found her there. Reyne. The girl with the night in her hair and the stars in her eyes.

She had made him believe he was in love with her…that he had connected with her on a level that we had never come close to reaching.

I didn’t believe it for a second.

She had made him doubt his heart, and I suspected that Cerise had done the same to James.

I didn’t confront Tom about any of this. I worked on him, took away his thoughts of Reyne a day at a time, refusing to feel guilty about sneaking into his head because I was just repairing the damage she had done. I was healing him. I was not doing it because Tom was my lover…I was treating him the same way I would have treated any of my people infected with a Mantriz power.

He never even knew I was there, we were so used to having each other in our minds… He didn’t even notice me despite the block he had put up because he was thinking of her...

And for a while it worked. The walls came down, the block disappeared and things between us were back to normal. It lasted until she came back.

She was there again in his mind the second she stepped onto the grounds, before any of us had seen her, before our Protectors brought her before us, and I realized that the only way to remove her from him was to not have them see each other any more. But I couldn’t do anything about that. Even though I suspected her of attempting to break down Tom from the inside, of trying to influence him little by little until he became her pawn I couldn’t voice my fears that ultimately she would betray us – that this whole set up was an excuse for her to get close enough to work on us, to break us down one "visit" at a time. I couldn’t accuse her of any of this without getting heat from the others because the information she gave us was true. We were able to save the lives of hundreds of Sentreye because of what she told us.

And it wasn’t as if Tom were lacking in his fighting skills…and neither was James for that matter. They fought as ferociously against the Mantriz Protectors then as they ever had…but I couldn’t help wondering what would happen when we were face to face in battle with Reyne - when we weren’t fighting the stooges of "The Council" but their own no-longer-secret weapons that Tom, James and even Julia seemed to believe were ours as well...

Reyne.

Cerise.

Leyx.

She wasn’t exactly sure when she had lost the ability to dream in color but she supposed it must have been sometime after they had made their first foray out into the world after being holed up for all that time.

She used to dream about the sky at night when she was alone in her windowless room, trying to recall the vivid green of it and the way it would melt into that thick black color that looked so soft and so gentle as it cradled the bright stars that danced around the sister moons glowing with a white fire. Her dreams could never do it justice, could never improve upon any of it. Because it was already perfect. Their world was perfect. It was blue and green and purple and orange and yellow and white and…and beautiful…but now…

Black and white.

Brown and gray.

And occasionally an obscene red that dried to a cruel rust.

She couldn’t even take comfort in the fact that the sky remained the same because she could no longer allow herself to look up at it. It was too dangerous.

She had to keep her eyes on the ground at all times, always be aware of what was in front of her, beside her, behind her, otherwise they would get her. They would capture her, they would kill her. Those who looked at the stars now could only do so from their graves, and although she missed her sky she was not willing to pay that price. She was needed here on the ground among the blackness, the whiteness, the brown, the gray, the red.

The only colors she saw now were the colors that came from them - Tom’s cool azure, Sarah’s deep, glowing purple, James’ fiery red-orange, and her own blinding white. That was the only thing she had loved about their training sessions, and the only thing she loved about their battles…when their powers would pulsate and throw their light on the ground, spreading through the stagnant air and making everything, for a moment, look alive again.

She dreamt in black and white – she wasn't able to replicate the colors of their powers anymore, and eventually she stopped trying because it only made her sad…

It hadn't used to be so hard. When she was in the compound during those first few months when she was still able to remember her world and all it's beauty, she had been able to easily conjure up Tom’s azure...

She only had to tell her self...

Tom’s essence is like the earth…solid and blue, a thousand different tiny crystals, every one a different shade, under our feet, pushed together to form our ground…like what the humans called "sand"…

Sarah’s essence is like the ocean tumbling over itself, it’s purple waves so dark they almost look black, but capped by lavender…

James’ essence is like fire…strands of red and orange and gold and yellow, twisting together to become a warmth, a burning, waving in the white wind but never extinguishing…

Her own essence…it was that white wind…gentle wisps that floated through that green sky, that cooled that blue earth and soothed that tumbling ocean…that calmed that ferocious fire…

When she dreamt of their powers in those early days she had been able to recreate them all because of her memories of what her beloved world had looked like…but now they were gone…she had no reference…only black and white…and sometimes red…

And then one night she saw the sun again...and it wasn't black or white...

It was yellow.

The night after they had returned from evacuating Cedrigal, a neighboring city, thanks to Reyne’s information, Julia had fallen asleep to find herself in a dreamscape that she did and didn’t recognize as her own. For some reason her dreams always included one thing – a piece of a statue she had seen once when she was a child and then again when she was older, after it had been broken. It was a hand – a large hand lying palm up on the colorless ground, it’s fingers gently spread, waiting to catch something, to be given something. She didn’t know why it was always there, she didn’t remember what the rest of the statue looked like…she just remembered the hand…and she remembered thinking as a child the fist time she had seen it how nice it would be to curl up in it, to be lifted up and away, sheltered by the slightly curled fingers from all harm…

Being held…

There were never any people in her dreams other than walking dead, wandering aimlessly among the rubble, and most of her time on the dreamscape was spent running after them and trying to heal them. Which of course she never could. Occasionally there were battles where she and shadows of her friends fought a faceless black cloud that always won in the end...

But that night there was someone different there - not a walking dead, not a shadow, or a cloud...but a boy who looked as human as she did.

It confused her at first. Her dreamscape never had humans in it - Sarah's did sometimes though - they were usually strapped to tables and screaming. She had wandered into Sarah's dreamscape once just to see if she could and hadn't gone back since. She wondered if she had done that now, accidentally entered Sarah's dream but...no...it must be hers - the statue was still there - it was her touchstone in the dream world, her anchor. And there was a human on it.

He was standing on the palm of the broken statue's hand, and she watched as he stepped onto the first finger then hopped to the next, then the next, then the next and then back again. While he was hopping from each of those four fingers he was tossing bright yellow balls of light, of power, into the air around and around in circles, humming a tune to himself.

She was entranced by the yellow color, so bright and vivid as it traveled the air, met his palms, and returned to the air again, until he noticed her and dropped his game.

Her face fell as the balls hit the ground, melting into a puddle, and he immediately took a step towards her murmuring, "Don’t worry I can make it come back…"

When she finally raised her eyes and looked at him instead of the puddle of gold light on the ground, she saw that he was in color too – just as she was. Not as bright as the puddle had been but color all the same…

He had blue eyes and they searched hers for a moment, trying to determine if she was scared of him or just sad that he had stopped juggling. His hair was a rich brown that fell into those eyes as he bent his head to his fist, blowing lightly into it, and then uncurling his fingers one by one. When his hand had opened there was another yellow ball floating there between them. A mist of a lighter version of the color swirled around it, and an old long forgotten memory pushed its way to the forefront of her mind. The sun. She remembered the sun. It looked just like that ball. The next time she was outside, if she dared to look up, let her guard down just once long enough to look up…she’d see that that was what it looked like.

He smiled as she reached out to it and another appeared from the mist, and another and another and another. She watched as he guided them up, higher into the air, over their heads, and then joined them until they were one big yellow ball that glowed and swirled and warmed.

"The sun…" he whispered. And she nodded staring up at it in awe, unafraid of attack, unafraid of him. "You miss it…" He sighed as she nodded. "I miss it too…" he said. "I guess it’s the only thing that stays the same…no matter where you are…what planet…what life…it’s always there…always the same color, the same size and shape… Sometimes the sky that holds it is a different color though…" He smiled and she looked at him, cocking her head to the side curiously. She had obviously made him up. She had been so lonely lately, especially after realizing she didn’t have a soulmate…that James belonged to someone else…Cerise…so it made sense that she had created someone for herself in her head to ease some of the loneliness…

What didn’t make sense was that her dream friend was in color, and the power she had come up with for him was too.

She wasn’t going to ruin it with too many questions. She was just going to accept it and hope it lasted a while. It was the nicest dream she’d had in years.

"What color was your sky?" she asked.

"I don’t remember…" He stared up at the sun he had made blinking back tears…or maybe it was just the brightness. "I was too young when we left…This is all I know…" he said quietly with a gesture towards the black and white rubble and broken buildings that surrounded them. "They said it was beautiful here…"

"It used to be…" she whispered.

"Show me?" She bit her lip and looked down at her hands.

"I can’t."

"Sure you can…"

"No I…I can’t remember the colors…" They were quiet for a moment, sitting together in the statue’s palm, and he reached out and gently brushed a tear from her cheek.

"Show me your power?" she frowned at him and he smiled at her again softly. "Trust me…" She nodded slowly, and closed her eyes. She did trust him.

She pushed with her mind, and when she opened her eyes again her white glowing power swirled in front of them in the shape of her body. It was a different kind of white from the black and white around them. It was bright, it shimmered, it-

"It‘s beautiful…" he murmured.

It was like a glass shadow without any of the darkness.

Rays of his light slid down from the sun he had created to tentatively touch her power, and when it did…

An explosion of color streamed forth from her glass "body" – reds and blues and oranges and greens and purples and yellows… They swirled around them, sweeping away the rubble, pushing the buildings back together, coloring in the whiteness, the blackness that had haunted her dreams for too long…

And suddenly she was a child again looking down on her beautiful world cradled in the hand of the statue of her father that now stood tall and proud, unblemished by fire, by war.

"The colors were inside of you all along…"

"How did you know…?" He smiled shyly.

"White - it…it um…it’s made up of all the colors there are…It was a human thought I had in here…" he tapped a finger to the side of his head.

"Thank you…" she whispered and he blushed, smiling out over the blue landscape, at the blazing flowers of fire that lined the roads and reflected off of the tall silver minarets as the peaceful purple ocean kissed the shore.

"We ruined it all didn’t we…" he murmured sadly, and she took his hand in hers.

"No…The Mantriz did…"

He raised his eyes from their joined hands and frowned as he met hers.

"That’s what I meant…"

She awoke slowly to the sounds of Sarah getting dressed. She was on recruitment detail this morning, scouring the broken city for any Sentreye in hiding, hoping some of them would be brave enough to fight with them. She was glad she had gone yesterday because it would have killed her mood if she had to get up now and face that… She felt so good she just wanted to lie in her bed and feel this tingling, this warmth, forever.

She had had another one of those dreams last night…one of those dreams about the boy with the brown hair and blue eyes that she could actually see were blue and brown because he had brought her color…he had helped her find it in herself. It gave her hope.

Reyne was coming today…and she would be bringing them more bad news – some of which they could do something about and some of which they couldn’t… They couldn’t act on everything Reyne told them…it would look too suspicious if they showed up at every "secret attack". Julia hated that. Doing nothing…but they had to protect Reyne and anyone else who was helping them. Drawing suspicion to the girl would only hurt them in the end. This was the only way.

She sighed, starting to feel her usual rotten mood creeping back in, shoving away her thoughts of the dream boy and his smile…

"Julia…? Are you awake?"

"Unfortunately…" She mumbled into her pillow as Sarah paused from opening their door.

"Reyne will be here soon…" she said quietly. "If I don’t get back in time could you please keep an eye on Tom?…and James too of course…just in case?" Julia propped herself up on her elbows and looked at her friend standing beside the door, clutching her jacket closed, suddenly looking very young. Young and scared.

"You still don’t trust her do you?"

Sarah opened her mouth to answer then closed it and shook her head.

"Just…please make sure they’re careful…I’m worried about them." She nodded, then flopped back down on her bed as Sarah slipped quietly out of their room, shutting the door gently behind her.

There was no reason to be worrying about Tom in her opinion. He actually seemed…at peace for once…almost happy for the fist time in years…especially at the end of the two-week mark when Reyne usually made an appearance.

She made him glow.

The thought of her made him happy and she was happy for him, not worried at all…

If there was anyone to be worried about it was James. He most definitely was not happy. Cerise hadn’t accompanied Reyne on any of her visits and James refused to ask after her. He was short with everyone when he wasn’t silent and brooding alone in his room where he usually retreated to and stayed in for as long as he could until his stomach forced him to come out for dinner.

Julia didn’t understand that – Cerise’s refusal to come. Julia hadn’t imagined what she had seen in her eyes – Issues or no with the "situation" between their two races, she wanted James. What’s more, she needed him. Julia was willing to bet she was just as miserable as he was.

I’d die for what they have with each other and they don’t even want it…I know life is unfair, but this is just cruel…

A knock