+1+
My first week was like bootcamp. In addition to teaching me
to shoot Sera had decided I was weak. She made me run with her and Callum every morning, and by run I mean after the first half mile of their 10 mile trek I stumbled and threw up, then was yelled at by Callum
Then they dragged me down to the basement, not for shooting practice, but to lift weights. Some of the others were there and I felt like a little girl compared to them. Sera and Leon were competitive with each other. Leon wasn’t a runner but he could lift like a heavy weight champion. He bench pressed more than her but they were even in deadlifts. I didn’t know what the mission was but I hoped to at least get a six pack out of it.
One day I watched like an idiot while Sera and Callum took turns giving each other steroids. What I didn't know was that I was next, she said they would toughen me up and she didn’t even pretend to look away when Callum yanked my pants down and shoved the needle into the top of my ass.
I also realized the reason I didn’t see the Prince or Sera
at meals was because he made her eat with him on the terrace, where he could keep Sera trapped and
look down on everyone else. Paris had recovered from his paralyzed state quickly and he was
constantly pissy about it.
“You don’t know what it’s like”, he’d said one day while hovering
around us outside, “Being paralyzed like that. I’m always afraid it will become permanent."
He and Isobel circled us while Callum and Sera made me do yoga. It seemed kind of like a girly thing to do but I had no choice.They both stood like statues on one leg
“That could actually happen”, The Doctor Demon, Damien, said from where he was tanning and put the joint back between his lips.
“Shut up”, Seraphina snapped with her eyes closed.
The Prince was always hovering like a stalker, he looked over at me as I tried to master the sunrise position. Izzy told him he had to walk everyday to build strength. Considering his size it wasn’t doing much, it seemed pointless but Izzy still did it anyway. I also noticed he and Izzy were holding hands.
“Would you rather be in pain, Paris?”, Seraphina asks, “Don’t you trust me ?”
“Implicitly, love”, he said, “but I fear the one time I won’t be able to comeback from it.”
Sera and Callum break the pose at the same time. Whether it was running, push ups or lifting weights they had a funny way of always being in unison.
Callum sneaks up behind Isobel and picks her up, she squeals in surprise.“Callum”, Izzy shrieks
“What ? I got you”, he says to her.
He throws her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry drops down to do some squats with his arms tight around her. Izzy seems both resigned and embarrassed over his attention.
“How much do you weigh “, Sera asked me placing hand on my core and back
“Uh, 200”, I lied. I could feel her cold hands through my shirt.
She moved away from me and to Paris, she started circling him and he held his hand up defensively in front of her.
“Don’t you dare, cupcake”, he says backing away from her.
“Are you drunk ?”, she asks cornering him against the concrete fence
“No”
“I’m not going to drop you.”
“Oh, I know. I just need a bit of dignity, love”
“That’s not what you said last night.”
"That's not nice", He laughs nervously and slaps on that wide torn smile. He sidesteps her, then lets his guard down she grabs him and struggles bit to lift him over her shoulder.
“Fuck. Sera” he says
“Scared ?”
“Actually I’m a little turned on.”
A love song fro the 90’s starts to play out of nowhere and
Sera puts him back down. She heads over to the table where her phone, an older iPhone with a bright pink cover is ringing. I see Diana’s face fill the screen. She picks up the phone quickly and heads inside.
“Hold on Honey, what now . . .”
+2+
The next morning she
isn’t dressed for our usual morning run. She
is wearing black pants tucked into a black polo shirt. She looks neat and clean.
“Wake up. We’re meeting”
I grumble something. It's do damn early
She repeats herself this time dragging me out of the top bunk. Her arms are folded and she doesn’t flinch or look away while I throw on some clothes. I follow her downstairs where the foyer has been turned around so all the furniture was in a circle. The Prince was sitting in the center playing a game on his phone
I take a seat in the front and The Prince lifts his head and smiles at me.
“Now that everyone is here”, he says, “My beautiful wife has called this meeting. The floor is yours, Gorgeous”
He says the last part like it’s her name, fucking insulting.
Sera glares at him, clearly not wanting to be the center of
attention. Her hand clutched around a glass of orange juice mixed with muscle-building
supplements.
“I spoke with Diana and she has a line. A woman who wants out of New Aeterna--”
“Sera”, Paris cut her off, “We can’t help anyone cross the border right now. We have to prepare for Theo’s misson.”
“Yes, however—“
“It was your order, love”, he said, “We can’t risk anyone getting captured. Our numbers are small enough as it is.”
“I agree with Paris”, Isobel pipedup, “Paul almost got recognized last time.”
“There are children involved”, Seraphina said and Paris looked up from his phone “We can’t abandon the people who want to get out. Our new member can go, he needs to get out in the field---“
“Okay”, Paris said his eyes not meeting her, “I trust you. If you think it’s safe.”
I was waiting for someone to at least ask me if I wanted to go.
“We can’t send Theo in alone”, Izzy gestures to me.
“I’ll go with him”, Sera says cooly.
“I can go to”, Izzy volunteered, “I’ll take the risk of getting caught. I'm not that important.”
“We can’t risk losing you, Isobel.” Seraphina says while casting a harsh look as the little boy who had put his hands in her orange/protein drink, “You can handle the communications.”
“Fine”, Isobel agreed, picking up the drink and putting it on a high shelf out of the boy's reach.
“If you are in, Theo”, The Prince said, “There is one more thing you need.”
The Prince opened up his shirt, the same insignia Leon had on bicep, except this one is over his heart. There is also a long stitched incision that runs from the left corner of his mouth down his his neck down to his abdomen, like he’s been cut in half and put back together.
Over and over again.
My eyes go back to the insignia. . . it’s not a tattoo, it’s been burned into his fucking skin.They wanted to brand me like a fucking cow. When I look around I notice everyone has the same brand. Even Isobel has one on her ankle.
“Uh”, I started, “I um”
“No brand”, Seraphina says and I relax, “I don’t need him in pain. He does this with me, he lives and then he gets the mark. Leon, prepare him. I’ll talk to Diana and we leave tonight.”
Everyone breaks and Leon pulls me aside into the kitchen and to be honest the prepping goes over my head. He uses words I don’t understand and shows me paper maps of the city. Izzy sits in and tries to help.
Afterwords Izzy disappears. She comes back in with a garment bag and sewing kit.
“Should I be worried”, I asked
“No”, Izzzy says, “It’s easy. You go to the meet up point in New Aeterna. Our SGI contact Oberon will be there with the escapee. We transport them to Helion City and take the sewer back. Sometimes there is trouble but nothing we can’t handle. Certainly nothing Sera can’t handle..”
Izzy opens the garment bag and inside is a MS solider uniform. I put on the gray undershirt and flat collar gray jacket. The pants fit me perfectly, I never thought I’d be in one of these get ups.
“So. . .What made The Prince change his mind?”.
“The kids”, Izzy says inspecting the uniform, taking in the shoulders with clips. She starts making quick marks and measurements.
“He likes. . .kids ?”
“Paris wants a big family one day. Once Helios is gone he wants to like adopt some of the war orphans from New Aeterna. He wants a life away from war and violence, where all Sera has to be is a wife and mother. Where Helions, New Aeterna and Helios are a distant memory.”
“I can’t believe he wants to tie her down like that. Sera’s not that stupid."
“Hey, don’t call my best friend stupid. It’s romantic”, she pokes me with a needle.
“Wait. . . she’s your best friend ?”, I quirked an eyebrow
“Hey, have you seen my other options”, she says poking me with a needle “Plus we both have a bit of a darkside”
---
Before the mission I go running, just to clear my head. People didn’t run recreationally in New Aeterna like they used to. When you see people running for their lives during a war. . .It just didn’t look right anymore to do it for fun.
Izzy brings me the now tailored Helion uniform and I look good in it. The seals indicate that I am an MS soldier and a little powder gives me a more sallow MS solider look. I head down to the lobby a complete bundle of nerves.
I’m greeted by Seraphina who is coming in from the garage. She is in a Helion Forces uniform, it has shining metal on it like a mid-level Helion solider. She made the uniform look good. The starched gray jacket and double row of silver buttons along with the creased pants and shiny black boots don’t give anything away. She’d done something to make her lips less pink
I catch a wiff of a balmy spicy cologne on her, she looks at herself in a floor length mirror admiring her own eyes which look a brighter shade of blue.
“You look horrible”, The Prince says as he comes down the stairs.
“Fuck you”, flies out of my mouth when I realize he wasn’t talking about me.
“Took the words out of my mouth”, Seraphina says to her reflection.
The Prince moves to stand behind her, smoothing down the back of her jacket and he grabs her ass.
“Oberon will meet you by at the overpass on 118h. Here” He hands her an envelope bursting with Helion notes.
She opens the envelops and surveys the money inside.
“What’s this ?” she says.
“Oberon's job is getting dangerous, he just wants something for his hard work. It’s not a big deal.“
“Since when are we paying our contacts? This is about the
cause not money."
“Darling, It won’t matter once we—"
“It matters.” Sera cuts him off.
“And it’s not much more than Paris paid him last time.” Izzy
cuts in from where she is smoothing my jacket.
“Paris”, Seraphina folds her arms, which are a bit restricted in the uniform, “You paid Oberon last time ? ”
“It’s the only way Oberon will do it now, Helios has been cracking down on his staff since that clusterfuck with Aria. If paying Oberon is what I have to do to help people escape from that hell, then fine. I’m not turning my back when the people in that city needs me. Your job is to carry out my orders. . . not question them.”
She stares him down and he places the money in her inside pocket. Paris helps Seraphina into her jacket, then he carefully turns her around to face him
She kisses him good-bye. When she pulls away The Prince reaches for her again and pulls her down to him, he opens her mouth with his thumb and bites her bottom lip. The kiss last for a few more seconds before Seraphina ends it. Sera turns back to her reflection, running her fingertips over her lips. Seraphina turns to me like I’m the only one there and mouths.
“Let’s go”
+3+
Isobel drives us to the man-hole where I’d come through 5 days ago. We pass a bunch of radiation and “Do Not Enter” signs until we reach the isolated corner.
Seraphina hands me a long range walkie talkie that looks
like a open/close cellphone.
“We have 6 hours”, Seraphina explained concealing the gun under her jacket. I do the same.
“Sera”, Isobel chimes in.
“What”
“… take off you rings”
Seraphina clasps her hand and pulls off her wedding rings, placing them in an inside pocket.
“Don’t shoot unless it’s a last resort. Absolute last." She checks the knife holster on her ankle.
"Got it."
Pulling on yellow ponchos to protect our uniforms, we slip into the sewer and walk the same path Leon had taken me on my first day. I’m nervous. . . What if I don’t prove myself ? I could kind of shoot but would that be enough ?
When we climb out the sewer it’s 8 pm in Helion City, as expected the MS soldiers who are supposed to be guarding this part of the grounds are slacking off. Helion soldiers usually stay near Helion Castle when they aren’t on duty.
It never occurred to me how rarely I see Helion women on the street until now. Sera is the first one I’ve seen in person. Sera keeps and eye out as we walk down the street. She stops in front of Helion Castle and looks over the gold gates.
“We shouldn’t loiter “, I whisper.
“Come again ?” she snaps at me, “If you want to make it out of this alive you’ll learn not to give me orders—“
“No”, I cut her off, “You bought me along cause I know the city. I know the written and unwritten rules of New Aeterna better than any of you, I lived here everyday for ten years. You’ve been gone. I know things. . . Let’s go”
Her lips part slightly and I think she is turning to follow me, but instead she graps my arm, throws a knee into my thigh and throws me flat on the ground, the sole of her shoe crushes my neck. She has a knife in her hand pointed down at me. It’s not unusual to see the Helion soldiers disrespecting MS soldiers. Helion’s are always at the top, even ones who claim to be Angels.
“You are not special”, she says devoid of all emotion, “Anyone can do The Prince’s Mission. I’ll kill you right now and not think twice about it. My husband will be upset but he’ll get over it.”
She loosens her grip on the knife and it slides towards me, I close my eyes as it barley skims my cheek and falls to the ground.
“I. . . I’m sorry”
She steps off of me and looks back at the castle.
“I don’t want you apologies. Pick up the gun and let's get the fuck out of here."
She turns down the street and she has that strong, holier than though stride all Helions have. People move out of the way as we walk. I try to seem aloof and crazy like the other MS soldiers.
Out next step is to get a car, we are supposed to meet this Oberon at an overpass Uptown. Helion soldiers had no trouble finding transportation. It just wasn’t pretty.
Sera casually steps
off the street and in the middle of the road. A white convertible full of diplomats
kids slows down. She looks at me to do the dirty work.
“Um. . .key”, I say
to them. I ‘d seen this a billion times. Soldiers commandeering cars, “Official New Aeterna business, Get out now."
“Do you know who my mom is ?”, says one of the kids
“I said get the fuck out”, my voice was uneven. Then I remembered the illegal gun I have in my pocket. I reach for it but Seraphina stops me.
She grabs the driver and pulls him out of his seat and onto the groud, he’s maybe a little younger than me. The other scramble out and I take the passenger seat in the convertible. She pushes to start the car and flies through the streets and to main island of New Aeterna.
She makes a wrong turn and we end up down by Central Park.
We’re already running late. She parks in a fire lane and heads into the park. I follow her unsure on what’s happening, she sits on a bench.
“We used to come here. Paris and I. It was neutral territory for our kind back in the day. I’d run and he’d. . . try to catch up to me. Callum was there to I guess but . . .”
She takes her cap off, her hair is slight mussed. She closes her eyes and breathes in the night air. I don’t know what comes over me but I stand across from her. I lean toward her, holding the back of the bench for support until I am level with her lips, she parts them slightly, silently begging me to kiss her. Then opens her eyes she stands at the same time and rams awkwardly into me.
She touches where her mouth had slammed into the side of my face. She looks at the ground for a second and then at me and then walks toward the car,“We’re going to be late.”
+++
“Your late”, the man I assume is Oberon says. He’s a Helion solider, based on his missing eye I can guess why he turned on General Helios.
Behind Oberon is a mom and two kids. The runaways I presume.
They have on small book bags and are dressed in threadbare clothes. Life was
hard for me, but I always knew some had it worse. Mom always complained how all
the new construction, city council jobs were mostly given to men.
Sera unhooks handcuffs from her belt and hands two to me. We have to make this look good like we are transporting prisoners . I hesitate when I realize how small the handcuffs are. . . they’re for the kids. Only In New Aeterna
I cuff the kids who are crying, the mom smiles though.
Making sure they know this is for show. I try to reassure them this is just a game.
“Hold up, Princess Seraphina”, Oberon says mockingly, “Where’s my. . .thank you”
“You want. . . all of
it”, she says cooly reaching for the money in her pocket.
“Should be 500 per head”, he said
“Oberon”, Sera said, “You used to care about doing the right thing. Fucking over Helios. Getting people out of this fucked up regime. You pledged your loyalty to My Prince. What happened to you Oberon ?”
“Nothing in life is free, Seraphina. You know that. Come on. . . I helped Paris get you out of Cuba and I almost got caught. You owe me.”
“That was five years ago. This is about saving people. Once you lose focus you become useless.”
“Hey, I’m sorry. That’s the world we live in”, Oberon said, "I’ll take the money and we cut ties forever. I won’t tell anyone anything—“
“You’re not getting any money from me”
“You always had to be a cold bitch, Seraphin-“
The bullet stop him mid sentence, the squelching sound that follows make me throw up. Then comes a raging scream on Oberon's part. Oberon grips the bleeding wound on his leg, the handcuffed family looks like they want to run.
Sera steps closer to Oberon and presses the gun to his head.
“I want you to know you were dead the moment you asked The Prince for money”, she said “This is about saving people, who didn’t have a choice. You used to want redemption not riches. You’re collateral damage now. You know to much for me to let you live.”
“Sera . . . I’m sorry. . .I won’t”
“You’ve already proven yourself to be a man who will do anything for money. That’s not who we need.“
“Wake up, Seraphina”, he says, “You can’t win . Helios is unstoppable. New Aeterna is forever. Your husband has to just fucking make peace with it and move on. Don’t kill me. I’m sorry. Seraphina I’m sorry. . . please. I saved your---“
“I don’t want your apologies." She whispers
She shots him in the heart and he dies instantly. I realize a white gold casing had shot clean through him and rolled near my feet.
Never in ten years had a bullet killed a Helion. They were invincible. Until now
"I want your respect", she says quietly
I notice a red light on Oberon's watch is glowing
“Sera” I point it out to her. It’s a panic button, I’d seen MS Soliders use them to be found when they needed back up.
“Fuck”
Sera uncuffs the family so they have easier movement
“We need to move." she tells them.
I stay by the family and try to be a shield around them as
we head out to the car, the mom huddles over the kids in the backseat as
Seraphina drives at top speed.
White and yellow sirens flash in the distance as she drives
full speed towards the bridge to Helion City. The sirens aren’t to far behind us and Sera
jerks to a stop on the Helion City
bridge. She closes her eyes. The Helion Arial Forces swarm down on us from
above, she squints at them like she's never seen them fly before.
“Fuck”
She finds her gun and gets out the car. She then aims the gun at the descending Arial Helions, shooting
them in the heart and watching them fall from the sky like wounded birds. The gun clicks empty and she throws it back in the car and motions for me to give her mine. She makes quick waste of the Helions in the squad cars.
12 bodies are slack on the bridge, blood is quickly pooling. The kids are stone quiet in the backseat.
“I’m sorry”, Seraphina says to the mother.
“What”, the mom says, “Drive. . . let’s go. Get us out”
“I can’t. They’ll swarm us once we get to Helion City. It’ll be to hard to take you to the passageway”
“You should have paid that man”, the woman said.
Seraphian shook her head.
“Oberon was never going to let you go. He wanted you to get caught. . . so he could get paid to ferry you out again. He let you bring bags with you. He knows to never allow that.”
“What am I supposed to do “, she is in tears holding her kids, “At least take my kids. Please. They won’t last in those child prisons.”
The woman shoves the girls towards Seraphian but Sera hakes her head.
“Don’t abandon your babies”, she says then she sends a quick text on the clam shell phone, she goes to one of the squad cars and pulls out the dead Helion driver.
Our only saving grace is that there aren’t that many Helion
soliders to respond, but they wouldn't be long. Sera gives the keys to the squad car to the woman.
“Home is a corner on 145th. Please take my kids, at least.”
“Go”, Seraphina jumps out the car and pushes the keys in the woman’s hand, “New Aeterna will fall soon, and uprising is coming. Hold on just a moment longer.”
“I. . . wanted. . .out”, she says, “I promised them we were getting out”
“I’m sorry.”
Sera drops the bribe money into the woman’s hands and watches as the woman drives off in the squad car toward Helion City. Behind us I hear more squad cars.
Sera’s gun clicks empty.
She looks at me and at the bridge, she nods to me and we both start to run towards Helion City, hoping we can get there before a blockade goes up. I lose speed at the 1 mile mark.
Up ahead new Arial soldiers drop from the sky and settle on either end of the bridge. MS soliders are also moving in.
We’re trapped..
“Is”, Sera says into the walkie, “We’re going to lose contact. If we’re not at rendezvous in an hour. . . assume the worst.”
At the same time Sera and I run for the railing, grab a suspension and jump off the bridge and into the icy Hudson river below.
+++
At one point all I see is midnight blue. I see Sera holding her breath and willing me to survive with a hopeful expression. Things go dark and blurry for me after that. Ice cold water slaps my face and I just have to put one arm infron of the other. I just swim and kick my legs. At one point Sera is holding me and powering through, the cold doesn’t bother her and we float and power through freezing dirty water.
I’m exhausted when she finally pulls me onto shore. The walkies are dead and I have no idea where on the New Jersey coast we are. Sera peels off her uniform jacket and I do the same. Helion soldiers were not welcomed in the Mainland U.S. We walk in silence. Sera quietly curses to herself as we walk along the highway.
We rest for 30 minutes and finally walk for an hour to Sweet Sights. It’s 10pm when we walk through the doors. Diana immediately drags us upstairs to a small makeshift apartment . I collapse on a chair and Seraphina takes the bed.
“Where are the refugees ? Are you guys okay”
“I fucked up”, Sera says stripping off her wet clothes, tears are falling from her eyes and she turns her face into a pillow, “I fucked up.”
Diana turns up the heat and throws a couple of blankets over us. She leaves for a moments and comes back with some hot tea.
“I called Izzy she’s coming to get you. She was worried”,
Diana said setting down the giant mugs. Seraphina pushes away the tea.
“I—coffee, I need coffee. I need to stay awake, honey”, Seraphina sits up and wraps a blanket around herself.
The tea taste like mildy sweet water, Sera and I just stare into our mugs until Diana comes back with the coffee.
“You okay.” Diana asks.
Seraphina shakes her head
“I can’t go back there. I lost it during this mission. I was just so frustrated. It’s been ten years of this shit.”
“Boss man is going to want answers”, Diana tell her.
Seraphina curses and recounts the whole thing to Diana. I don’t catch the end of the conversation because I fall asleep. I’m throttled awake seconds later and thrown fully dressed into a warm shower.
“Hurry up”, Sera calls from the other room, “Isobel will be here soon. When we talk to the Prince you say nothing.”
The water warms me and my mind is churning again. When I get
out and dress in the clothes that had been left out for me I find Isobel and
Sera waiting for me downstairs.
Silence falls over all of us as we head back to Bayonne.
Sera drinks another cup of coffee on the way back to the safehouse and has a cigarette.
“. . . so we failed ?”, Izzy says to Sera, “ Paris and I have never not gotten someone out. Not in the eight years we’ve been doing this.”
“Oberon wanted money not freedom. He was never going to let them go.”, she says, “ I don’t understand what happened to him.”
“Well, did you have to kill him ?”, I piped up. She glares at me
“He kept saying my name. He never says my name.” Sera said to Izzy, “He would have sold me out to Helios for money or better treatment. I know it.”
“What about the other 11 guards you killed to save yourself”, I have to ask.
“What about the family we were supposed to get out?”, Izzy asks, “Did you get them somewhere safe.”
“They aren’t going to make it.”, she admits and shoves open the door.
+++
So, this chapter showed a little but about what Paris' resistance does. Timeline wise- Isobel and Paris put together the resistance when Paris escaped imprisonment eight years ago. So they've been working together sans Sera for a while which is why they appear so close. Yeah, they might have dated for a few months too.