*Note - this story is written for fans of the Tempest series by Julie Cross (Tempest, Vortex, Timestorm) and probably won't make much sense if you haven't read the books)

Two years have passed since Emily helped Jackson create the Timestorm that saved the universe from an inevitable Vortex. The next mission she must take on: High school. In 2011.

April 5, 2011

Kevin says I should write down as much about my life as I can remember, but I don't think he realizes that I remember everything. Every tiny microscopic detail. And when I think about putting those days, years, details into words, that's when it becomes clear to me…there wasn't much life in my life. Just a few shiny glimmering moments. Those are the only ones I'd write about. The ones I can feel so strongly it's like the memories themselves have a pulse.

I remember my birth, or at least just after—the sterile smell, the gloved hands, the masked faces. And yes, this sounds a lot like a present day birth, but the difference was, no one touched me. I emerged from a machine. A robot carted me to a different machine. The gloved hands touched the equipment. Not me. I was experiment 1029—The Untouched.

The ache I had felt for human contact was so strong, even as an infant, it caused constant physical pain. But that was the purpose of the experiment. To teach me to ignore those basic instincts and hopefully, become stronger as a result.

All of Dr. Ludwig's efforts were ruined in a matter of seconds when I was 1,982 days old, or about five years old, as they say here in my new present. Some time in the middle of the night, alarms sounded and red lights flashed throughout the entire Eyewall Headquarters. The always locked door to my room swung open and I wandered out into the hall. People raced in every direction, flipping switches, checking monitors, putting every security back into place because someone had taken it down. Standing frozen, in that corridor, I heard a voice, sharp and filled with something completely foreign to my ears at the time and now I've realized, it was emotion, panic.

The voice shouted, "Emily!"

I didn't know who or what "Emily" was, but the tone compelled me, the urgency, the importance of that word. I turned around to look at the person, now only about ten feet from me. He wasn't a man. But he wasn't a child like me either. He wore a guard's uniform—dark blue coveralls and black shoes. I'd seen plenty of guards before, but none had even made eye contact with me, let alone spoken aloud.

"Emily," he said, walking closer. "Are you alright?"

There was that word again. I knew every foreign language by that age and I'd never heard," Emily."

The alarms and sirens screeched louder and I covered my ears to block out the sound. A voice boomed through the intercom system, "Doctors…please verify the location of all experiments. Do not, I repeat, do not alter the subjects."

The guard knelt down in front of me, his dark hair almost covering the piercing green eyes. No one I'd come in contact with had eyes that color. His face reflected pain…so much pain but it was the complete opposite of the pain I'd fought since infancy…the desire for fulfillment. He, on the other hand, was overflowing with something I couldn't even recognize. Something I still haven't pinpointed yet. But we both were hurting. Just different kinds.

"Let's get you back in your room," he said. "Ludwig's probably on his way."

I remember being sealed to my spot like glue, staring at this face that I knew was either terrible or beautiful…but either way, it was something more...so much more than anything I'd ever seen before. And then the unexpected happened. The guard picked me up. No gloves or mask, just his skin touching mine. I remember how warm it felt, and how I was sure as soon as he let go, I'd always be cold. He held onto me so tight, even as he shut the door to my room and used his fingerprints to lock it.

"Guard number twenty eight," a voice said through the intercom…Dr. Ludwig's voice. "You're off your usual route."

He set me down in the center of the room and backed away. Already, an icy chill swept through me, inside and out.

"Yes, sir," the guard said, his tone changing to the hollow flat sound I was used to hearing from other people. "A few doors unlatched in hall E…I saw it on the monitor and there wasn't anyone to alert."

"Fine, fine,"Dr. Ludwig said. "Can you verify the presence of Experiment 1029?"

"Yes, sir," he said, turning those green eyes on me. His face was such a contrast to the voice he used to speak to Dr. Ludwig. "Present and accounted for."

"Thank you," Dr. Ludwig said and the crackle of the intercom dissolved.

The guard breathed a sigh of relief and then he crossed the room in two quick steps, fiddling with the buttons on the wall. And looking back, I think he was turning off the reception so no one could hear him speak to me and maybe he turned off his locator so his status wasn't flashing in my room.

"Everything's okay," he said, the soft warm voice returning. He knelt in front of me again, like he had in the hallway. "You look so…young."

I didn't have any words to say to him. Talking wasn't new. Touching was. My little hand had a mind of it's own, lifting toward his face, my fingers tracing along his jaw, feeling all the different textures of another person's skin.

"You're so…so…prickly," I said, feeling my own smooth cheek with my other hand to compare.

He smiled and slowly, tentatively put his arms around me, squeezing me tight. My body stiffened at first and then I was too warm and safe to not relax. He lifted me off the ground again walking toward my bed. "You should probably get back to sleep."

I didn't say another word as he pulled the cover back and set me down in the bed, bringing the blankets up to my neck. He sat on the floor beside me and when I closed my eyes, I felt his hand touching my hair, smoothing it back away from my face. I almost wanted to grab his fingers and hold them there, against my head forever. That's how wonderful it felt. But it made me sleepy at the same time and I started to doze off.

The floor creaked a few minutes later and my eyes flew open, seeing the guard with his hand now on the door knob.

"Are you leaving?" I whispered and he nodded. "But…but will you come back?"

Pain filled his expression again and for the first time in my entire life, I felt tears burning in my throat and my eyes, leaking out without permission.

He hesitated and then turned his back to me saying, "We'll see each other again, Emily. I promise."

The next time I saw him, three years later, he was flinging his body in front of me after three guards all fired shots at me, and I watched as the bullets pierced through him, instead. I only saw him falling. I was swept away by Jackson. He shielded my head under his shoulder and I couldn't even look back until we were a good fifty feet away from the building. And then it exploded into a million pieces.

I've never asked Jackson if he saw…if he watched the guard before he fell. Because it doesn't matter. We can't change it…we shouldn't change it. The good in that destruction, that day, out weighs any bad. But I still think about him.

-Emily