Chapter Twenty

After a few moments, we stood to leave and catch up with the others. He had a bit of struggle getting up off the ground, but I was able to heave him from the floor. We pushed through the doors and began our long journey down fifty flights of stairs.

Quickly, I noticed something was off. The walls.. were covered in color.

On the way down, Chief must have asked the Colored if they could show her how to find her color. If you were any part Colored, whether it was one percent or one hundred, you could produce unlimited amounts of color.

So they must have taught her. The stairwell walls were coated in the five that I recognized, my mother's deep purple included. Then there was a sixth: A vibrant, lime green.

"I guess Chief's color is lime." I said, taking another step down. We passed a sign for the 42nd floor.

"I guess so." He said, right ahead of me. He touched the lime-coated wall to our right.

"Wait, Grace." He stopped and turned to look at me. He took my hands. "So, your color comes from your heart, right?"

My heart rate was rising. I looked up at him, my eyes still alight. "Yes?"

"And anyone with any sort of Colored heritage can make it?"

"Yes!" I said with rising enthusiasm.

"Maybe.. you could help me find my color?" His eyes were bright with hope.

I beamed, my most genuine smile all day. "I'll show you."

"Okay first, close your eyes." He did. "Now, there's a power deep within you. It hides with your soul. It emerges from your soul to your heart, and that's where it becomes physical. Once you can truly feel it coming into existence, and you feel it gathering in your heart, that's when you can call it to your hands. Once it's physical, it's really easy to control. You simply have to ask."

"Got it?" I finished. His hands were still wrapped around mine.

"Yes." I peeked to see if he was being serious. There wasn't a trace of humor in his expression.

"Good. Now. Mentally, politely, ask your soul to provide you with color."

Moments passed. My color finally decided to speak. You've done very well. And this will absolutely work if he's any part Colored.

I mentally smiled and replied, I know.

Slowly, I opened my eyes. I whispered to him, "Do you feel it?"

He whispered back. "Yes."

"Is it gathering in your heart?"

"Yeah. It's dripping in."

"That's good. That's how it starts. Keep your focus. Now, once you feel that you have enough, ask your heart to pump your color through your veins and into your hands."

He let go of my hands, and his tropical red crab began to trickle in the center of his palms. He opened his eyes and looked at me. They were the brightest red I'd ever seen.

He gathered more and more, until it was dripping to the floor. "Feckter! Look!"

I grinned, glad that he could do it. "You're doing it! Okay, bring your hands together and form a sphere."

He clasped his hands together way too quickly, and his color splattered everywhere. In my face, in his bright red eyes, onto the walls. Slowly, smiles grew on our faces. I quickly gathered some Carribean teal and made a collection of arrows. I asked that the tips would be soft, so that they wouldn't hurt him, even if I accidently threw them.

His bright eyes widened with wonder. "Woah! How do I do that?"

"I was trying to teach you, doofus." I dropped the arrows, and they absorbed back into my skin, back into my veins. "It's just practice. Okay, try again."

He gathered more color and created a circle, then rose it into a sphere. It spun and spun like clay on a potter's wheel.

"Good! Now try a sharp, glassy cube." I kept my eyes on his color. "Just ask it to be what you need."

He smiled at me while he worked as his creation. It formed an oval, another sphere, until it finally gained edges. Then they got sharper, and shaper, until the cube looked like it could cut anything. And it looked as shiny as glass. I could see my reflection.

"Dix, this is excellent. Try a star."

"Feckter, you make it look easy."

I laughed, and watched the cube become a six-pointed 3d star. "Perfect. You're a natural."

"Now. Try to throw something at me."

It was very clear he called it to act like a water balloon, because that's exactly what it was shaped and acted like. And he kept throwing them.

My ponytail was a mess of his color. "Nice!" I said with a laugh, and began running down the stairs. I threw a teal shield up just to see what he could do. Three water balloons of his color hit the shield before he reacted.

When he saw it, his entire face jumped with surprise. "Wow. That's incredible."

I let it down, breathing quickly. "Yeah. Thank you. It's what we used to protect ourselves from the bullets."

He shook his head, his color returning to him for a moment. "You never cease to amaze me."

I gave a soft chuckle. "That's not even all of it."

Before he could even process the words, I had called upon my color and produced a long, turning slide all the way down the stairs. "Race ya!"

I jumped on the teal slide and began to pick up speed. Dix was close behind on a bright red slide of his own. He was propelling himself by shooting color out of his hands, above his head. He had nearly caught up to me.

I caught a glimpse of a sign. Level 14. I didn't think he knew how to stop.

We continued down the flight of stairs, each on our own brightly colored slides. The teal and the red were so opposite that it created a wonder in and of itself.

When I saw the sign for the 3rd floor, I used quick thinking and put a thick Carribean bubble around me and Dix. We lost all our momentum and fell to the bottom of the bubble laughing, as we rolled to the bottom floor. It hit the exit door and stopped completely, tumbling us onto each other.

We were laughing from the bottom of our lungs, and gasping for air. He was a tangle of limbs under me, and it was hard to sit up. I eventually found some hold, but collapsed right back onto him. Coincedently, it was right next to his chest, and I fit right under his shoulder. He was still laughing, and grabbed hold of me so I wouldn't hurt myself.

I finally caught some air. "Dix," I breathed. My chest hurt in a good way. "I should probably deflate this."

Between breaths he said, "Yeah."

I willed my color to open a small hole in the top. Air began to escape, and the hole let out a shrill whine as the thick bubble deflated.

Immediately we burst into laughter at the sound. "It.. sounds like.." I couldn't even make out the words.

He imitated it, with a girly sort of screech, and I lost it again.

I opened the hole wider, and the bubble deflated faster, until we were just two teens sitting in a puddle of my now-liquid color. We took in fresh air, and finally regained the ability to speak.

"Okay, Dix.." I took a deep breath. "We should probably get home."

"Yeah," he wheezed and grabbed the doorframe of the exit door. "Let's go."

When we returned home, going down the elevator, it was nostalgic. We hadn't been this at peace in a long time.

I leaned against the side of the elevator, just like I used to. Except this time, my shoulder erupted in pain.

I sucked in air, having flashbacks of when I got shot, when my mother pulled a bullet out of me. A new wave of agony swept over me, and I stumbled to the side.

"Woah," Dixter said, catching me. "What's wrong?"

I hissed through my teeth. "My shoulder."

His expression immediately became concerned. "Can I see?"

I shifted my shirt down so that the wound was exposed. My mother's color melted to the floor, collapsing without any sort of will tied to it. He called some of his color and began to spread it over the bloody area.

Instantly the pain died down. "Oh, thank you. That's much better."

He sighed. "What else are you hiding from me?"

"My leg.. from all those nights ago. I'm not sure if your color would heal an older wound, but–"

"It doesn't matter. Whatever hurts you."

I leaned down and pulled up my pant leg, showing him the fading scar. It was still sore, and I bet that his color could heal it completely.

Gently, he spread his crab red over my fading wound. It immediately began to heal.

When he stood, I recalled everything that he'd been through before. Then I remembered his arm.

"Dixter! You broke your arm." I grabbed his wrist and drew color from my veins. I was wrapping it quickly as we spoke. "You can't just forget to tell me these things."

"Yeah, well, when you first bandaged my chest I was laying my arm on top of it. So I was healing it without telling you."

I rolled my eyes. "Tell me next time."

"Okay."

The elevator dinged its pleasant note. He turned to me and spoke with sadness in his voice. "This is my floor."

I put a hand on his face. "You sleep well." I kissed his cheek. "And let me know how your wounds are in the morning.

"Good night, Grace," he said, beginning to walk away.

"Good night, Braz," I replied, watching him leave.

He glanced over his shoulder at me. "I love you."

"I love you too."

The elevator doors closed.

The following day, Braz came to Sytra and I's dorm early in the night. He said he wanted to check on everyone, but I knew he just wanted to be with me.

He'd gotten his phone yet, and his dorm mates never found out that he was the president's son. He told me that they never had to know. He simply said that he was sent on an extra long mission, and they seemed to buy it.

Sytra and I had figured everything out. She was no longer mad at me for not going after Dix, because I had saved him in the end. I was no longer mad at her for disagreeing with my decision, because she was right and I did the right thing in the end.

Sytra basically woke up and invited Colves over. Her boyfriend, the one that reminded me so much of a little duckling. A fluffy, blond duckling that knew how to cook.

Dixter arrived before Colves, simply because a part of him needed me. I knew this because a part of me needed him.

The first thing he did was knock, and I opened the door. He had a B.L.A.D.E. logo hoodie on, black sweatpants and unkempt hair. I didn't look much different. He embraced me tightly, avoiding my wounded shoulder. "Sorry Grace, I just had a nightmare that my dad killed you and.." He didn't finish.

"Shh shh sh. I'm here and I'm safe. You're safe."

My words seemed to calm him.

"What do you need from me?" I asked him, pulling back and looking into his eyes. They were still as vibrant as yesterday. My guess was that once you found your color, your eyes remained alight since you could call on your color at any time.

"Could I just.. be with you?"

I smiled. "Of course." I let him walk in and collapse on the couch. I sat next to him and played with his hair, reminding him that we were safe.

After a moment of this, he asked, "Hey, are your wounds alright?"

A small smile grew on my face at his concern. "Yeah, they healed really well overnight. I think I'm going to need a few more days of it though."

"That shouldn't be a problem." He played at the strings of his hoodie. "I can come back and reapply them."

"I'm pretty sure if you still genuinely want the color to stay in place and to continue what you originally meant for it to do, then it should stay in pla–"

He held a hand up to my lips and shushed me. "Don't tell me."

I smiled. "Okay."

A moment passed. "How are your wounds?"

"They're good! Same as you, though. I'll need a few more days."

"Sure."

About twenty minutes later, Colves arrived. Sy and him chilled on the couch with us while we just enjoyed each other's company.

Then Chief's voice spoke from the ceiling. "All agents, please report to level 5 for an agency meeting in one hour. You don't need to bring anything. I repeat, an agency meeting in one hour. Thank you."

I was quite enjoying my time with Braz, and I kept that to myself. My best friend wasn't quite so conservative.

"Chief, we just sat down! Out of ALL the times in the world, you absolutely had to pick this one!" She rolled her eyes.

"It's okay, Sy." I said, drifting my hands through Dix's hair. "It's probably important."

"She's right." Colves said, touching her hand. "Chill."

But she had her typical Morning Sytra attitude. "I do not chill, Butter Boy."

"Aight. I'll make you some coffee." He stood to make some. "You like.. a lot of extra cream and sugar, right?"

She gave her the most Sytra face I'd seen in a long time. A unique deadpan only she could pull off.

"Alrighty then." He kept his eyes down and focused on getting the coffee pot out of the cabinet.

It was hilarious to me watching them together. They were so opposite of each other in so many ways that everything seemed to balance out.

Fifty minutes later, we were all dressed and headed to level 5. The elevators were a lot less crowded than we were used to, and that thought alone made me sad.

We stepped out on level 5, and we saw Chief standing onstage. The crowd was alive and buzzing, but it was half the size it usually was.

Chief held a microphone in her hands, and tested it out. "Test, test." Then she cleared her throat. "Agents."

The noise went from a hush to a whisper to silence. She gazed upon what was left of her agency. "Thank you for the constant respect I receive. I would not have the same success running B.L.A.D.E. without all of your support."

She stopped moving, and she got very excited. "Guys! WE WON!"

A huge scream of cheers erupted from everyone around me. I yelled a "Woop!"

She pumped her arms in the air. "We did it!" She waited for the noise to settle down before continuing. "We've defeated M.A.S.K.! The white agency that had beat us down for so long, it is gone. We no longer have to live in fear, we have no reason to be violent, we have nothing to fight any longer! The threat is gone!"

A shorter, powerful moment of cheers.

"Even the spies! Everyone that served M.A.S.K. while living in B.L.A.D.E.'s HQ has left. They have no leader, no power here. They just disappeared into the streets of Kistra. And I hope they never return.

"We will now become a refuge for the homeless and abandoned of Kistra. We will be known as the caregivers, the providers and the shelterers. We have a vital role to play in this city, and now we have a brand new skyscraper to play it!"

She smiled at the new wave of cheers. "But of course, we couldn't have done it without our little Alka. She was the one who called in P.I.S.T.O.L., the savoir that defeated the M.A.S.K. agents that we could not. Alka, come on up here."

More shouts and yells of celebration. Alka emerged from a place in the crowd and made her way to the stage, where Chief invited her to stand next to her. She was wearing a bright pink dress with a white waist ribbon that tied into a bow at the front.

She looked down at the nine-year-old. "So, how did you do it? Are you originally from P.I.S.T.O.L.? How did you contact them?"

She gave her the mic, and Alka started answering. "Yes, I was sent here from P.I.S.T.O.L.'s base in Fendstrael, another city across the world. They planted me here, In Kistra, when I was younger. I was sent to see if any organizations here were worthy of their help. Of course, P.I.S.T.O.L. tested this with kindness. When B.L.A.D.E. took me in, I could tell that I'd found a kind place. So I simply used my communication device directly to them, and they replied saying that they were on their way. They came in some of their fastest helicopters, and helped you all defeat your enemies."

The crowd cheered again, loving the little savoir on stage. "Oh, and they speak French and English over there!"

The crowd got wilder, and Chief gestured for her to go back into the crowd. I left the pocket of my friends to find her and congratulate her. After a few moments of searching, I found her near the front, and led her back to my group in the back.

"You were amazing onstage!" I offered her a smile.

"Thank you, Fecktier!" She beamed her childish grin.

Chief went on, her voice echoing through the speakers. "And let's also not forget our new members.. The Colored of Reidhak! Come on up here!"

More cheering, shouting. It took a moment to get everyone on stage, but once they were, the crowd loved them even more. My mother was last onstage, and she was searching the crowd for something.

It took me a moment to realize she was searching for me. I glanced back at my friends, and Dix gave me an encouraging shove towards the front. I waved quickly to them and dove through the mass of people, trying to get to the front. I eventually did, and waved at everyone next to my mother. She grabbed my hand, and we greeted the crowd together.

Chief went on to describe our "heroic acts," as well as the things that these prisoners were forced to endure. Then she described our power.

"It's like nothing you've ever seen. Show them, would you?" she asked the row of Colored.

I conjured my Carribean teal, my mother her deep purple, and everyone else their respective colors. Some formed shapes, some showed off weapons. I made a bow and arrow set, and my mother made a force field to demonstrate.

And then Chief activated her lime green, shocking the crowd. She immediately produced confetti, throwing her lime all over the crowd.

"Ladies and gentleman, this is color!"

The crowd was stunned. Amazed. They couldn't keep their eyes off us in front.

I guess Chief had heard the Colored speak about their power, because she added, "And if anyone in the crowd has any amount of Colored blood, they can have the same power too!"

Because of the amount of Colored energy in the room, awakenings were much more likely to happen. I asked Chief for the microphone by gently taking it from her hands. She nodded and let me have it.

I began to speak. "Do you all want to know how to awaken your color?"

A lot of shouting, of cheering and encouragement.

"Okay. First I'm going to need everyone to become completely still, and completely silent."

It took about two minutes for these things to happen, but once it did, a beautiful hush came over level 5.

I did the same thing with them as I did with Dix. "Your color comes from a deep, dormant place inside of you. It hides right beside your soul. It emerges from your soul to your heart, and that's where it becomes physical. Once you can feel the color within you, and you feel it gathering in your heart, that's when you can call it to your hands."

"Now, be silent. Politely, mentally ask your soul to provide your color."

Several moments ticked by.

"I hope you can feel it in your heart. Once you feel like enough has collected, simply ask your heart to pump both blood and color, and that it would send your color to your hands. That's where it can become anything you want."

At first, nothing happened. It was just a quiet room with a bunch of standing B.L.A.D.E. agents.

But then, the first burst lit up the room. It was a Colored burst, and it was the color of rust. He looked at his hands like he'd just become a new person. His eyes were a bright reddish-brown, his color.

Others followed. Greens, blues, yellow and reds. Every color you could imagine, someone had something close to it burst into the physical world.

My eyes were already alight, but watching almost everyone else gain their color was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen in all my life. So many different hues, different heights, variations, sizes, shades and tints, it was wonderful. The air began to fill with all the different colors of B.L.A.D.E., and that is when I knew that there was nothing else on Riedhak that could ever compare to this agency. I would belong to it, and this city, for the rest of my days.

Chief grabbed the mic and pumped her fist into the air. "What do you say we go coat that horrible white skyscraper with color?!"

The crowd went bananas. They charged out into the elevators, people were pushing and shoving to get out. I hoped Dix and my friends were okay.

I stepped off the stage along with my mother and the original Colored. I noticed Dix squeeze out from the crowd and run to us. "Feckter.. I almost died.."

I snickered. "Don't you think you're being a little dramatic?"

"I think.. you need to cover me.. in your color.." He was gasping for air as an act.

I rolled my eyes for the millionth time. "We can wait to go up like everyone else. You're fine."

It took about fifteen minutes, but soon enough, everyone was out of level 5. We were the last elevator ride out.

The streets were flooded with agents, but since it was nighttime, no one cared. We were careful when crossing the road though, since Kistrian drivers were notoriously dangerous with their driving.

"Come on!" People were shouting and stumbling, trying to get to the skyscraper as quickly as possible.

Once everyone got there, the front of the building was already colored. All different hues, all different shades, tints, you name it, the front had it. The stairwell was absolutely coated, and people showed no mercy to the old enemy HQ's blank walls. It didn't take long for a single floor to be absolutely smothered in our agency's color.

The five original Colored, my mother, Dix, and I all watched as the windows, the outside, the entire building was just being coated and coated with color. We stood on the ground level, looking up in a kind of awe.

My mother spoke first. "Your agency is really something, Grace."

Dixter shot me a look, like How does this person know your name, it's kind of a special thing to hand out to random strangers.

"Dixter, meet my long-lost mother. Mom, meet my soulmate and boyfriend," I said with a smirk. Neither of them were expecting the other.

"Oh, hello." She didn't seem to know what to say.

Dixter glanced between me and her. "Is this who I have to get approval from?"

I nodded with excitement.

He cleared his throat. "Well then hello, Mrs.. Uh.."

"You can call me Martyline," she said with soft eyes.

"Hello Mrs. Martyline. I hope your evening has been a pleasant one." He was imitating some kind of posh rich person, and my mother found it hilarious. She had fits of laughter as he acted random old courtesy to her.

"Thank you for gracing me with your presence. Your daughter and I have been in cahoots for a little bit, yet we've known each other since we were but young children."

My mother could hardly contain herself. "Grace, you've found a special one."

I chuckled along with her. "Yes. Yes I have."

By now, he was imitating a hat being taken off out of respect, a bow, everything. It was quite a scene.

My mother spoke again. "Though I do wonder if you two have a certain soulmate's colors?"

"Oh, you mean like when they mix they glow and time slows down and everything is magical for a moment before it all falls back to reality?"

Now, she looked intrigued. "Exactly! How did you know?"

Dixter let up the act and came by my side. "There's a color market that we know of that had our colors in stock, so when we threw them up in the air together, time seemed to stop when our colors mixed in the air. It was a whole thing, and everyone was staring at us."

"Yeah."

She looked between us, as if asking us something with her eyes. "Do you know what happens with real color?"

I shook my head, and Dix shrugged as if he wouldn't mind trying. We stepped away from their group, a little farther from the ex-M.A.S.K. HQ, and stood some distance apart.

Then we both drew our color at the same time, throwing it into the same area, running towards each other. It was what we did at the color market except dramatized.

Our colors collided in the air, once again forming a unique shade of purple. Once again, time slowed down, and the only thing that mattered was my soulmate in front of me.

Our eyes. They were alight not only with color, but also with the strongest thing in the entire universe: Love.

Our color formed a sphere around us, then a separate ringlet pattern that folded into dots. The sphere brought us off the ground, the ringlets formed around us. Large, crystal looking rings of each of our colors, Caribbean teal and tropical red crab, flew around us as we were lifted off the ground. Slowly, the patterns of our colors closed and closed, bringing us closer and closer together, before the rings closed altogether and we were embracing tightly. All I had was thoughts for him.

Look at him. He's been through so much, made so many mistakes, but I will love him anyways. Why? Because I was made for him and he was made for me.

He threaded his fingers through my hair, keeping my head against his shoulder. The crystals melted, the dots dripped into each other, the floating color all fell into a puddle below us. Then our color gently set us back down, and all the color we threw collapsed into one liquid state below us.

We were still in each other's arms. I felt wet tears on my sleeve, and I pulled back to look into his eyes. Those red, brilliant eyes. They held so much adoration for me. "I think I've hopelessly fallen for you, Braz."

"Well, I know I have desperately fallen for you."

It was in that moment, that Colored, magical moment, that I understood something. It wasn't the amount of weapons you had. It wasn't the soldiers you had on your side. It wasn't preparations, the late nights up, the coffee-stained blueprints of your enemy's skyscraper. None of those things really mattered in the final battle.

It was the relationships. If it wasn't for my relationship with Alka, I don't think that B.L.A.D.E. would have won. If it wasn't for Dixter and I's relationship, I'm not sure he would have exposed his father the way he did and allowed him to be killed. If it wasn't for my relationship with my color, I doubt I'd even be alive right now.

So please. Above all else. When you think about what's important, when you truly consider the values and focuses of your life, remember this:

If you don't love, you haven't lived, and if you've never lived, you've never loved.