Strangers and Shadows (18 page)

“What do you want with me?  Why am I here?” Kid asked.

“Shh, dear.  Calm down, is that any way to talk to your mother?” the White lady asked.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Kid asked, his face turning white just like the anger in his chest.  “My mom’s dead!”

The White lady tried to take Kid’s hands in hers, but Kid pulled them free, wildly looking around for an escape.

“I know this is difficult for you to hear, but I am your mother, Kid.”

Kid shook his head back and forth, as if the very motion could unmake the truth of what he felt in his gut.  He tried to back away, but his feet would not listen. His knees buckled and his vision blacked out as he fell to the floor.

When he came to, Kid was lying in a hospital bed.  There was an IV in his arm, and something was attached to his forehead on both temples.  Must be hooked up to one of those brainwave machines, he thought.  He remembered seeing a show about brainwaves back in the apartment with Jack.  Sure enough, he looked over and saw the monitor that was displaying his vitals and his brainwave activity.

The door opened and the White lady walked in.  She had said she was his mother, but Kid didn’t know what to think.  In fact, the more he thought about it, the more nervous he became.  His heart started beating faster and a mini panic attack commenced.

“Ah, you look much better Kid.  For a while we were a little worried, so we ran some tests to make sure you didn’t have any serious illnesses.  Turns out you just fainted from a system overload… too much stress.”  She stroked Kid’s hair as she talked to him.  “You should rest now.  Everything is alright, I finally found you, and you’re home now.”

She stood and began moving toward the door, her aide waiting for her just outside the room.  She stopped and turned back. 
“I’m sorry about all this,” she began, “I know this can’t be easy for you.  To be honest, it hasn’t been easy for me either.”

“My mom’s dead,” Kid said.  “She was killed by a crazy man with a giant robot.”  It was the first time Kid had explained aloud how his parents had died and he realized how peculiar it sounded.

“I’m aware of what happened to the man and woman who raised you, but
I
am your mother.”  She waited for further objection before continuing.  “When you were just a baby—well actually,
before,
you were a baby—before you were born, I had you stored as an embryo.  Do you know what that is?”

Kid nodded.  In truth, he wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but he guessed that it was whatever babies were before they were babies.  

“I did this to protect you—”

“Protect me from what?”

“From
whom
actually… Our relationship with our allies in the Sixth Verse was quickly unraveling as distrust grew on both sides.  I thought it best not to bring a baby into the world at such a time of dangerous conflict.  Unbeknownst to me, the conflict would drag on for years.  It’s worse now than it ever was.

“Somehow, an agent of the Sixth learned of your existence and stole you away, no doubt hoping to use you in a plot against me and our world.  I have searched for you for years, and only just now found you.  As soon as I learned where you were, I sent my own agents to retrieve you and bring you here to safety.”

Kid was waiting for his bullshit alarm to start blaring, but something about the woman’s story wasn’t tripping his internal lie detector.

“Let’s say I believe you—” Kid was not absolutely sure that he did, but until more information came to light, what choice did he have?  He could only be wary and proceed with caution.  “Why did you kidnap me?”

The woman claiming to be his mother cocked her head to the side.  “Come now, if they would have asked you to go with them to another universe, would you have followed them willingly?”

Kid had to admit, she had a point there.

“We simply didn’t have the time necessary to explain ourselves, but we do have that time now.”

“What happened to Jack?  The man who saved me from the riot… Where is he?”

Lady White frowned, “I’m afraid he’s been taken by our enemies.  Last we heard he’d been arrested in the Fifth but now he’s vanished from the holding cell.  No one can find a trace of him anywhere on world, which probably means that he isn’t.  Our best guess is that he was captured by the same people who were after you.

“We only had a slight window of opportunity to get you out of there.  If we would have had more time… We tried to rescue your friend too, but… I’m sorry.”

“You’re going to get him back though, right?” Kid said, agitated and on the verge of tears.  He could feel them welling up.  Why was all this happening to him?  And why did the people around him keep getting hurt?

Lady White stood and came around the desk, opening her arms wide.  “I can see how upset you are.  Come here.”  She walked to the side of his bed and wrapped her arms around him.  

Despite his anger and lingering doubts, Kid let himself be comforted.  It felt good there in her motherly embrace, soothing.

“There, there… Of course we’re going to get your friend back.  We are not the sort of people who would let something like this go without a response.”  She broke the hug and knelt down face to face with her son.  “There
is
something you can do for us that will help us rescue your friend.  In fact, it could be vital, if we are to succeed.”

“What is it?” Kid asked, already knowing he would do whatever he could to help get Jack back.  Jack was more family to him than anyone.

“We have a plan to end the threat from the Sixth forever, but in order to implement it, we need someone from the Sixth to help.”

“What’s so special about someone from the Sixth?  Why do you need one of them?”

“That’s a good question, Kid.  You’re such a smart boy… The inhabitants of the Sixth have evolved into what you may know as
telepaths
.  They are able to interact with each other and in some cases, the physical world, using only their minds.”

“Do you have someone from the Sixth?”

“Well, see… that’s where
you
would come in.”  She paused for a moment, her voice trembling slightly as her eyes grew watery.  “Your father was from the Sixth… He was one of the first casualties of the conflict… We loved each other so much…”  She blinked and single tears streaked down her face.  “Anyway, you see, that makes
you
from the Sixth.  Do you understand?”

Kid nodded, but he didn’t really get it.  All he could think about was getting Jack back.  Once he did that, he could get to the bottom of all this other bullshit that had been piled on him today.  “What do I have to do?” 

A smile came to Lady White’s face as she explained.

Start At Once

There was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” Lady White said.  

Asher entered the room, closing the door behind him, his long hair slightly disheveled, but otherwise appearing well kept.  Ever since they had returned with the Prime Minister’s son, Asher had seen less and less of Ava, and try as he might, he couldn’t seem to get ahold of her.

“Forgive me for intruding,” Asher said, “but I was wondering if you had heard about our home yet.  Is there any news?  Can we go back soon?”  He was growing more bored by the hour in the Seventh.  Even with the band and the endless hours of entertainment that were available on every vid network, Asher found himself merely wanting to go home.  Back to his world of lamps and horses—back to simplicity.

White’s face showed concern.  “Why, I told Ava earlier today that we had heard from the Fourth.  Everything is fine now.  Ava’s mother returned, and the darkness, whatever it was, is now gone without a trace.  You two are free to go home anytime you like.  Didn’t Ava relay of any of this to you?”

“No, she didn’t.”  Asher was dumbfounded. 
Why wouldn’t she tell me about this?  We can go home now.
  “Forgive me once more, but you wouldn’t happen to know where I could find her, would you?”

“Of course, dear, just one moment.”  She stared off into nowhere, accessing the information.  “She appears to have gone into the city.  If you want, I can have someone take you to her, or I can send the coordinates to your band.” 

“Thank you, but that’s alright.  I think I’ll just wait for her to return
,
” Asher said.  The city was so large and even with an escort he felt alone and swallowed up by it.  The fear was irrational, to be sure, but he felt like if he wandered too far out there, he would be lost forever.  “If she contacts you, will you tell her that I’m looking for her?”

“Certainly, Asher
,
” Lady White said, like a gentle mother.  

Asher left the room, quietly closing the door behind him.  

“
Poor fool.
”

Asher went back to Ava’s apartment in the embassy building and waited.  And waited.  Hours later, Ava still hadn’t returned.  

Finally, overcoming his fear, and tired of pacing around the room and thinking of every bad thing that might be happening, Asher decided to go for a walk.  

It
was night, but you could hardly tell from the illumination of the city.  It was almost as bright as the day had been.  Floating lights lined the streets and sidewalks, flowers in some kind of shiny pots hung from the lights.

He wasn’t sure where he was going, and it didn’t really matter to him at the moment.  The only thing Asher knew for sure was the ache in his heart and the feeling of—well, he wasn’t sure.  Betrayal, perhaps.  Why wouldn’t she tell him about being able to go home?  And why was she off touring the city when their people needed her back home—when
he
needed her?

After an hour, or maybe it was two, Asher couldn’t be sure, there was probably some easy new way for him to tell the time in this fancy new world,
but fuck this world
—Asher headed back to her room, feeling little better than when he had left.

When he arrived, he found that Ava had returned in his absence.  She was just coming out of the bathroom in a bathrobe and her hair up in a towel.  She looked every bit the woman that Asher had fallen in love with, and, yet, he couldn’t help but feel that something was off about her.

“There you are,” Asher said.  “Where have you been?”  Then, realizing he was making demands of the queen-to-be, added, “I was worried about you.”

“I was out seeing the city with one of Lady White’s aides.”  She went on as though everything was fine and glorious in the world.  “Oh, Asher you should have seen some of the things…”  She was staring off in the distance, reliving the memories of the day and the sites seen.

“Ava… There’s something I want to talk to you about.”  For all the time Asher had spent thinking about it, he still hadn’t figured out how to say what he was about to.  

“Can it wait?  I’m
exhausted
and I want nothing more than a hot meal and a long sleep.”

“I’m afraid it can’t
.
”
 
Asher could see this was not going to be easy.  “I spoke with Miss White earl—”

“That’s
Lady White
, Asher.  You’ll do well to show proper respect.”

“Of course, my apologies, I was unaware that was part of her title.”  

“She is to be considered Queen here, for as long as we are in this Verse, is that understood?” 

“That’s kind of what I wanted to talk about…  I was speaking with Lady White earlier today, and she informed me that the darkness was lifted and your mother had returned and we could go home now—”  

“
What is your point,
Asher?”

“My
point
is,
why aren’t we home yet
?  I thought we had come to find a way to lift the darkness from our world and then return.”  He couldn’t understand how she was being so casual about the matter.

“I’ve spoken with my mother.  We aren’t leaving.”

Asher’s jaw dropped.  He was absolutely shocked.  “
What?  How… why?
”

“I convinced her that there is much that we can learn from our new allies, and truth be told, I wouldn’t be upset if I never set foot on that back water world ever again.”

“Is that really how you feel about our home?  What about
the people? 
And
the palace?

“What can I say, Asher?  I’ve seen the light.  The light of a real civilization.  This world is centuries ahead of us, and they’ve learned to use thinking machines without destroying themselves as we did.  There’s
so much
we can learn.  Emery, one of Lady White’s agents, was telling me about their nano-tech, and he thinks I could be a suitable candidate for it.”

“Ava,
what are you talking about?
  Do you realize how you sound?”  Asher couldn’t believe what he was hearing.  This was absolutely absurd.  These people—
this civilization—
was built on everything that Asher’s world was not.  There was a reason why his people had forsworn the thinking machines.  He found it hard to believe that the Queen would change her mind on one of the founding principles of their society so quickly.  Especially without seeing this world for herself.