Chapter 2 – Different lives (2)

"Psyand, please calm down," I say, while hugging Psyand from behind, while also holding her from moving.

"Ms. Scelesthe, my mom," Psyand cries.

We were in the middle of the rubbles of the part of the hotel. A few had died after staking themselves, or hitting their head too hard, and some were badly injured and taken away.

Lost-Bird had gone to investigate what happened. Wrap was with that new guy, holding him down. Rusk and O had gone to help a few injured, O was quite famous, and Rusk… I asked him to wear a mask. Witch was standing at a distance, unable to get herself closer to the despaired Psyand. Thunder was MIA.

"We will find her," I say. "Please let us help you… you need to tell us about this person."

And this way, after finding Thunder, and everyone coming back, we end up camping in a nearby forest-place. We sit around the fire which we had set up.

"My name is Pratham. I also go by God-Mode… I was there to stop you from causing harm to O, but I guess we got wrong idea on each other. I'm sorry," the guy, after having woken up, said. So after getting lectured that he should never again say his real name, which it was, out loud, by Rusk, he sits around the fire with us too, unbound.

"You feeling okay?" Lost-Bird asks Thunder, for the hundredth time.

"Yes… no parasite in my head, as long as I can think of."

"Shouldn't we be asking the girl if she is fine?" Pratham asks.

"I need to find my mom," Psyand sniffs.

"Okay… anybody want to start?" I ask.

Everybody looks away, avoiding eye-contact, with worry and embarrassment. We did indeed think of not telling our stories… so it was rather sudden, and demanding.

"I was born with it," Pratham says. "I just used to wander off to this other dimension by myself. There it'd get hard to breath and move, as if there is a weight. It basically felt like water, but worse, though I had never been to water before that. But that experience made me a good swimmer."

"I was born with it too," Psyand mumbles.

I look at her, and then at Pratham. "So you are like a professional swimmer?"

"Been to competitions and all, so yes. State first."

"That is nice."

Pratham glances at Psyand, who keeps looking at the fire.

"I go to another dimension, which has a direct projection into this. There I'm stronger, so I can lift this dimension objects easily, and can be bullet-proof and all. I learnt to control it slowly," he laughs. "For some reason I couldn't see your hand extension in my human-form, but there I could."

"I guess we are connected," Psyand mumbles, while breaking a branch in her hands, into bits. "I'm a dragon. My mother's side of the family is."

"Me too. And I'm also the successor of the king of dragons, Rustizen Villers. Who was the successor of Max, one of the first dragons of Earth. But I just… don't know about my parents," Rusk laughs with embarrassment.

"I-I'm an orphan," Lost-Bird says. "I grew up in anathashram – you know, the…"

"Orphanage…" Rusk says. "I was raised by a dragon-aunt though… who got taken away by Saturn."

"We could find her. My sister works for Ring, well, which I always thought was just TBC, but yeah, The Ring. So she can help us find… Also, she was just a person who tied me Rakhi in the orphanage, and we act as siblings since then."

"She is dead. I found her corpse," Rusk says, and Lost-Bird looks speechless, which makes me crack-up a bit, but I control. "Saturn had her gem taken."

"The Executive works for Saturn," Psyand says. "He killed my dad, so that he can be closer to my family, because they had me. And he acted all along saying that it was just training for me to get better and do good things but… we found out, and then started living near HMT."

HMT, that was the place where the bus incident happened.

"We knew he had a tracker in my mom. He was supposed to have it in me, but… my mom didn't want me hurt. And my mom also wanted to protect me. But where could we have run off with a tracker in her?"

"But where could he have taken her?" I ask.

"I think Thunder may have an answer for that," Rusk says, looking at Thunder, who flinches at this.

"Well, so my turn after all came… you guys remember Spotlight?"

"Who?"

"Wait, isn't it that illusion girl? She was screaming for me to not take her spotlight," Lost-Bird explains.

"I'm sorry I did that," a voice comes, and I unsheathe my sword.

"What the hell?" Pratham asks.

"Guys…" Wrap says.

All of us get alert, and I push my sword towards her neck, and she disappears.

"Okay, stop, you need to listen. I knew this would happen," Thunder sighs.

An illusion? But why?

"What the hell are you doing, scaring us that way?"

"Guys, really relax, she saved my life. So we need to give her a chance," Rusk says.

"Who exactly…?"

"Hi," I hear the same voice again, and find her… Spotlight. Right behind Thunder. "It's been a while."

"Okay, who is that, and who did you slash at?" Wrap asks.

"Thunder makes illusions, and so does she. But she killed a lot of people back in the apartments," I explain.

"Then shouldn't we be knocking her out?" Pratham whispers.

"Guys, relax," Rusk says. "As I said… she saved me."

"From who?" I ask.

Rusk tries to figure words out. "Well, I was about to transform in front of Saturn, back in that building with O. And she stopped things, by getting Silver-mask to illude."

"Silver-mask?"

"Saturn was in control of that building?" Lost-Bird and Wrap ask and exchange glances.

"Yeah… it was the same one who talked to us, back in the apartments."

"Well, there are actually way too many Silvers, it is about one or two per state. This state has only one, up-to my knowledge," Spotlight says.

"Oh right, you work for Saturn. You should know," I say and look at Thunder.

"Look… both… well, Edward may have indeed worked for Ring. But her… she was with them, but wrongly. She didn't have a choice," Thunder says.

"You didn't, Feather didn't, Forcerer didn't. Right, sure."

"I was part of human trafficking," Spotlight says, and I feel my heartbeat stop. She looks at our reactions and scoffs. "Bet none of you relate to that part."

"Actually… I was," O says. "I'm sorry it happened to you. I don't know who you are but… it must've been hard."

Spotlight stares at O.

"It was a shit deal. But both of us ended up with powers," Spotlight scoffs. "I don't like what I did. But I had to. I don't care on saving people's lives, I just wanted to be free. But also, you helped me get free, so as a thank you, I'll help you. The kid's mother will be taken to Singapore, to the academy there. I don't know what purpose she'd have there but, every powered-individual and others are trained there, to be a Bronze, Silver, or Gold. Unlike the labs where we slaves are made."

Was this the same person who I heard of?

And I wanted this one to be dead, as if she is a waste, I just… said it didn't matter if she lived or died. I must have been nothing better than the traffickers to her.

"Bronze are basically psychos, who don't have powers but basically will act as suicide bombers and all, taking as many as they can, with themselves. You'll see a lot of those. Silvers are the leaders of a particular area, usually a whole state. They manage ideas from The Examiner and make as much chaos with their high connections."

This was a whole set of characters with jobs… it indeed was known to be a plan, but they evaluated it in such a way… knowing that, it just feels worse and worse.

"Golds are powered-individuals. They don't have particular number for an area, these are sent to areas with possible big threats of powered-individuals who don't co-operate, or where they can cause the highest damage. Your area's Golden was that being, seemingly. I wouldn't have known, I was not even a Bronze, just a slave asked to look out and evaluate the area, with Edward."

But Edward never said it this way… he couldn't have been… but it never seemed like it, except for the time… when he shot Feather and Wrap.

"There is only one Examiner. And it seems your team has piqued him, the probable leader of Saturn, as he himself asked for this guy to be put down. That is why I had to save him from the Silver. He and that bird guy seem to be very special."

That must be Feather.

"And that is all I have to give. Thanks for not killing me up until this moment. I'll take my leave," Spotlight says.

"Wait," I say, and she stops to look at me. "Ju-"

"-what, you think I did it for pity? No. I don't care. I don't want you to relate with me or something. As I said, you made Saturn think I'm dead, they won't come to find me. So I was just thanking you. Now bye."

Spotlight just walks away, Thunder glances at us and runs to follow her.

Of course what she did was wrong but… were the reasons enough to make her actions valid? And was it valid for me to relate to her, with my cowardice?

***

"Hey, please stop," I say, trying to stop… Spotlight. What even was her real name?

"I don't require your pity either," she screams.

"I don't pity you, I just relate with you. We were… on the same project, you know. We both experienced the shit deal," I say.

She stops and looks back at me. I see tears running down now, tears which hadn't appeared to me just a second ago, were already pouring. She had become experienced.

"It is just not fair! I just lived as a normal person, and so many threats to life, and I end up getting kidnapped. There, people took me as a toy. And they sold me to a place which took me as a trained dog. And then I get powers and have to still be afraid, to use it at all. If I use it for good, the ones who gave me powers would hate it. If I use it for bad, the stronger powered individuals who act so fucking wise would hunt me. WHAT THE FUCK DO I DO?"

The voice echoes by a lot, making me flinch, and get goose-bumps.

"How about not listening to them?" I ask. "The world… is full of people who choose one side. It is shitty to be under either, because the past will always be brought up and they… won't like everything of it. So we don't belong on either side."

"Then… where do we even go?"

"I don't know…" I shrug. "But there could be more fucked up people like us two out there, right?"

"Perk… I didn't hear from him for so long."

"Then let us do that," I say, and she stares at me, with unknown eyes. I barely knew her… I couldn't possibly understand what that reaction of hers meant.

"What… is your name?"

I give an awkward smile and laugh. We really didn't know each other, but went through some shit. And… it felt funny… even to her.