I am posting the first chapter only for now, as a little taste of what's to come, while I work on finishing up the last few chapters. Team Free Will makes a brief appearance near the later chapters but it's not of import.

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"But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you." Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince.

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The very first thing he noticed was that there were many, many stars in the sky. Stars like freckles—or was it that freckles were meant to be like stars? Stars like water splattered on the sidewalk. (How did he know what that looked like, though?) Stars as trillions of tiny pinpricks dusting the violet-black velvet in silver and blue and glitter. They mesmerized him. Made him ache, and he hadn't a clue why.

"They almost make you believe in God, huh?"

He jumped, with a sharp intake of breath, whirling as he stumbled to his feet. Looked up at the man standing before him—tall and broad, yet somehow lean, dark-skinned and dark-eyed and far too handsome. Like if expensive cologne were a person. He hadn't heard the man approach, but a car sat with its headlights on several feet away, with the door open.

"What's your name?" The man held out his hand.

A string of words flitted through his mind. Names. The final one struck him as probably correct but entirely a bad idea to use. There was one before, though... "Luce," he said. "My name is Luce... or maybe Nicholas." He felt as though the first few names were brothers or loved ones he'd forgotten. He wished he hadn't forgotten. They seemed important. They made his chest tighten.

"Well, Luce, my name is Elikai." He took Luce's hand and shook it, with a smile. "What are you doing way out in the middle of nowhere?" His height, rather than seeming threatening, made Luce feel somehow safer.

Luce let his hand drop, with the warmth of another person lingering against his palm. "Elikai..." He glanced down at his shoes and the tattered edges of his jeans. "That's a good name." He looked back up at the sky. Realized Elikai had asked him a question. "I don't know where I am or... who I am."

"You don't know who you are?" Eli ran one broad hand across his buzz cut. "You gave me your name, though. That's a start." He focused his eyes on Luce—they were very deep and black in the moonlight.

Luce shook his head. "No," he raised his hands to stare at his palms, lined and rough and wide. "No, those were just... the most familiar names in my head. I know... five." He paused. "Sam... I feel like the name belongs to someone who is me, but not me... Michael and Gabriel are... brothers or something close. I think I left them alone a long time ago. Nick is like Sam but different. It makes my ribs feel warm. Lucifer is the last name and it makes my head hurt but it seems to fit along the insides of my veins." He folded his fingers in on themselves and felt the bones creak as they moved. The gravel under his soles made a rustling noise, as he scraped one foot slightly to the side.

Elikai frowned. "You're kind of strange, you know that?" But then he smiled, a little bit.

"I imagine I must be." Luce huffed the smallest of laughs and craned his head back again to stare at the sky. He wanted it to suck him into its depths and wrap him around in stardust, safe and sparkling. He breathed shallowly through his nose. The air smelled of something he didn't know the name for, but he liked it. "What you said, earlier..." He returned his gaze to Eli with a tilt of his head and heavy eyelids. "You don't believe in God?"

Elikai snorted. He shrugged, sticking his thumbs in his pockets and tapping his fingers against his thighs. "I don't not believe in God. But I doubt he really cares much for us, if he's hanging around." He followed Luce's previous line of sight to stare up at the milky way. "The sky is beautiful, but there are also things like cancer and AIDS and starving children in countries with skyscrapers taller than the clouds." He sighed. "I just don't know. Do you believe?"

"I can't remember."

Elikai laughed, quietly, and it was a very gentle and soothing laugh. Low and smooth. "Well, what do you remember, then?"

"Nothing more than heartache."

"Wow." Eli grinned. His teeth flashed white in the darkness. His eyes crinkled at the edges. "You're a real piece of work."

Luce blinked slowly at him, with his forehead creased deeply. But his mouth turned up at the corners. "I don't really know how to act, so... forgive me if I am a tad strange." He pinched the collar of his shirt and slid his hands down the buttons. The green t-shirt underneath fit him perfectly. He assumed the clothes belonged to him. He found nothing in his pockets. "I don't seem to have any identifying information."

"Well," Elikai looked Luce up and down. "You're two hundred miles away from the nearest town, so... You want a ride?"

Luce tilted his head again, like a cat. "I'm going to assume that two hundred miles is too long for me to walk, and say, 'Yes. I would like a ride.'"

Elikai laughed and Luce honestly couldn't see what was so funny. But he followed the other man to his sleek blue car. The engine's sound startled him, and he had to have help to fasten his seatbelt, but they were driving fairly soon, down the long black stretch of asphalt.