Chapter 2
"Do you think we got her too hard?"
"No, there was just enough charge to knock her out, not kill her."
"Are you sure? You haven't been very right lately."
"Finn!" A smack rang out in the room and I moved to find whatever made the whiny noise after it to hit it to shut it off. I ended up smacking a soft face and brushing my hand against something rough but also gooey.
"Eugh!" I cried in disgust, pulling my hand away and wiping it against myself. "What did I just touch?" Piper laughed while Finn just sat there, pouting on the ground. I heard a hiss and a familiar laugh enter the room. I looked up saw Gale smirking while leaning against the doorframe. But our door isn't metal… I'm sure as anything that our shack wasn't metal. Oh no.
I was pretty sure that the three people in my room saw my realisation, because Gale rushed forward to begin comforting me and Piper and Finn moved to the other side of the room giving us space. "Gale, please, please, please, please, tell me I am not aboard the Condor." I pleaded. I saw the apologetic look in his eyes; I could pretty much hear his apology. 'Regi, I'm sorry, but family sticks together. We'll help you get over your fear together, it's all going to be okay!' But before I let him say anything, rage filled my entire body and I just couldn't control it.
"Regi…" Gale began.
"What." I growled back. Gale gestured to my eyes.
"Your eyes, they're gold." My anger calmed down, confused, I looked into the mirror that Gale picked up to show me my eyes. When I saw them, they were just turning back to the dark brown they always were.
"So… has that happened before, or is this a whole new thing?" Finn asked as all eyes turned to him, all still stunned by what happened.
"Her eyes turned gold?" Aerrow asked sceptically as he listened to Finn explaining what happen.
"And I swear I saw a cup fly off the table."
"Uh huh…" Aerrow and Finn turned when they heard the bridge door hiss open. Gale and Regina walked through the door, Gale in front walking confidently with Regina gracefully walking close behind. They're definitely from Terra Reign. Aerrow thought.
Did Finn blab about me to Aerrow? Am I going to get kicked off now? Are they going to read a book and actually realise that I was a monster? It'd be news to me but still. So many questions ran through my head making me even more nervous than I was before about coming onto the bridge. I grabbed Gale's hand and he squeezed back reassuringly.
"How are you feeling Regina?" Aerrow asked kindly as we approached them by the table in the centre of the bridge.
"Scared, nervous, you know, the usual." I joked. I sat down trying to calm my nerves and forget that we were thousands of feet up in the air. Aerrow nodded and chuckled.
"It's okay, I'm sure you'll get use to the flying." He said. I'm guessing he's not going to ask about what happened before… Good. I breathed a tiny sigh of relief. Gale left my side to go and chat to Finn, probably about different types of precision weapons. Those two have been connected at the hip since they found us on Reign. Aerrow seemed to look as though he was studying me from the corner of his eye. Don't trust me? That's probably a good idea. I thought.
"Okay, Aerrow. I got the maps." Piper announced as she walked on to the bridge laying down various maps of different terras on the table. Half of the maps seemed to be pretty old, hundreds of years old even. I wonder where she found those.
"What's all this for?" I asked, I noticed that Terra Reign was one of the old maps on the table. A feeling of nostalgia washed over me and I suddenly started to feel homesick, it hadn't even been that long since we left.
"The Rex Guardians – despite reluctantly telling us due to their 'honour' – has trust us with the job of finding their Rex Crystal. It's said to be one of the first crystals of Atmosia!" she exclaimed excitedly. It feels just like yesterday she was telling me all about her floater crystals… oh wait.
"So why is Reign on here?" I asked now starting to see a connection. Terra Reign, Terra Rex, Terra Cyclonia, Terra Atmosia, and Terra Deep were all here.
"Terra Reign is one of the first Terra's to exist, which means just like the others, it has one of the first crystals, rightfully named the Queen's Stone." Piper explained. I still didn't quite get it though. If all these Terra's had their own stone, then they must be on their own Terra's right? But why would we be looking for Terra Rex's crystal?
"All the crystals were scattered throughout all of Atmos, and in a week will be-,"
"The Founder's Ball." I finished for Aerrow, the look of surprise on his face quickly vanished but he nodded and continued.
"And this year it's on Terra Rex." Gale and I looked at each other knowingly. We knew all too well about the Founder's Ball, our mother not only told us stories about it but snuck us into one when it was held on Reign at one point. Well, that was before she was a wanted criminal. My brows furrowed in confusion, but there was never the Queen's Stone there.
"The Founder's Ball has never had one of the stones present before, why would they need theirs now?" Gale asked, he must've been thinking the same thing I was. Piper and Aerrow looked at each other confused.
"How do you know?" Piper asked, "The Founder's Ball is for royals or invited guests." I think she thought she insulted us because she then suddenly started to apologise saying that anyone could be invited or that there was no reason for us to be invited.
"Piper, it's okay. We weren't invited. Our mother snuck us in one year." Gale chuckled, as he moved forward to take one her hands in his own and help it up in a gentlemanly manner. "But, your apology has been accept, regardless of the other party." He lightly brushed his lips across her knuckles, but that was enough for her cocoa face to turn a deep cherry red. Ah traditions. Gotta love them. Piper was dazed for several minutes, even after Gale had stepped back and let go of her hand. She only snapped out of it when Aerrow coughed to get her attention.
"Piper? The mission?" her head turned slowly to face Aerrow and saw that he was being serious, so she snapped to mission mode and continued on with the briefing. Finn had disappeared during the whole gentleman act from Gale, and knowing that I wouldn't be apart of this mission I went to go and search for him, Aiden thinks of Finn as another big brother, so wherever Finn was, Aiden would be too.
I searched the rooms, and the bathrooms – you never know – and I couldn't find them anywhere. I made my way towards the hanger bay, hoping they would be there looking at the bikes. The door hissed open and I walked in searching the hanger for Aiden and Finn, but they were nowhere. I was about to leave until I heard a yell of excitement from the other side of the hanger. Blue sky was staring back at me, fluffy white clouds persuaded me to step outside onto the landing strip. I couldn't help myself, fear or not, that cloud was so damn fluffy and I wanted to touch it.
I stepped over the threshold and the cool wind brushed up against me from all angles; at this moment I was glad to be wearing pants. Feeling the wind through my hair just going crazy and throwing it, every which way felt incredible, like washing your hair for the first time in years. Then I stopped myself, really? Washing my hair for the first time in years was my example? I really do need to get out more. I giggled to myself, for such a silly example to try and explain such a wonderful feeling was just hilarious.
"REGINA STOP!" I heard someone yell, before I knew it, I had twirled and skipped my way to the edge of the landing strip and had fallen off. And that was it; I was falling backwards into the clouds and into the wasteland. I was done for. But I wasn't going to go without screaming for my life. My arms flailed wildly as I fell through the sky, I even tried flapping my arms or something just to try and get myself to stop falling, but obviously, that didn't work. While I was twisting in the sky, trying to do something to keep me up, I saw a blue and red skimmer fly towards me. A hand reached out to me, so I quickly flung my hand towards them but they quickly flew away. Feeling sort of betrayed I braced for the wastelands. I wouldn't have to wait soon as I passed through the clouds, everything got very hot, very quickly and I saw the lava below. My vision quickly faded to black and the last thing I heard was "I got you."
"Regina darling, could you get your mother for me?"
I nodded and bowed to Queen Katalina as I exited out of the hall full of red and gold accents on the banners that hung on the wall, and the soft red carpets with the Terra insignia that lined the polish ivory floor. I waved to the guards that stood outside the doors whilst quickly making a left to a small corridor that could pass for a simple crack in the wall. After a few quick steps through the corridor I found myself in a large identical decorated hallway that looked as though it stretched for miles. Running down the hall I came up to the mirror that assisted in the wonderful illusion, brushing down my skirt lightly I took a right into the maids chambers where I knew my mother would be. But what I saw before me scarred me for life.
A scream escaped my mouth before my mother quickly ran to me covering my mouth to stop any further sound from coming out. Locks of her chocolate hair fell in front of her face making her gold eyes appear even brighter. "It's okay my princess, it's all okay. Will you promise not to tell your brother?"
I just stared at her, bewildered that she would ask such a thing. A guards body lay in the middle of the maids chambers, not moving, not breathing, covered in blood, broken glass, and knives stabbed into his chest. My breathing quickly became shallow but her bloody hands moved my face to keep me looking at her and away from the body. "Do you promise me?" she asked sternly. I shakily nodded my head and she held out her pinkie, I slowly interlocked mine with hers and the promised was sealed.
After helping her with cleaning the chambers, we ran through a small corridor and exit at the back of the castle. I shivered and hopped from one foot to the other, attempting to warm myself. My mother led me to the side and close to the edge of the Terra while helping her carry the body of the guard, I knew all the guards in the castle and wondered why I had never seen this man before. But before I could figure out where from, my mother quickly through the body off the terra. Throwing me with it.
As I fell, I saw her raise her had at me and her chocolate brown eyes flashed gold. I stopped falling and began to ascend, once I got back up on the ledge she wrapped her arms around me, apologising over and over about how it was all an accident and how none of it ever meant to happen. "My Princess, soon, Queen Katalina will pass and the whole Terra will be in chaos. A bad, bad queen will try to take the crown and I will do everything in my power to banish her from the throne and the terra. She is a false queen and shall never have the throne for as long as I live." She rested her thumbs on my temples. "But first, I need to take some of your memories away."
My eyes shot open, Gale and Aiden sat on the floor by the wall talking about Gale's mission with the Storm Hawks, and Aiden's first time on the skimmer with Finn. Ah, so that's where he was. I cringed and moaned as I held my head between my hands, there was a pounding in my head that pulsed through my body. The boys got up from their spot on the floor and rushed over to me. "Regi, are you okay? Come on, talk to me Regi, what's wrong?"
"Well if you stopped talking, I could tell you!" I remarked as I rolled to face the wall. There was an awkward silence until I realised that they wanted me to speak. "There's this awful pain in my head, but I'm okay, it'll go away, I know it will." They didn't seem to be convinced, but they didn't press on. I turned back over to their worried looks and grabbed their hands, squeezing them both gently, reassuring to them that I was okay.
"Do you remember what happened?" Aiden inquired. I tried to sift through the dream that lingered in my head, but I could only remember looking for him.
"I was… in the hanger bay… looking for you. But, that's all I remember."
"You… You fell off the Condor." Gale murmured. That can't be right! I'll be damned if I go near the edge of the Condor, let alone fall off it. "Finn, Junko, Aiden, and I couldn't get to you in time. But Aerrow, he thought something was wrong when you left, so he followed you, and he's the one that caught you."
I laughed. "That can't be right! I wasn't followed, I was thoroughly looking for Aiden, I'd have seen him if he was there. And it must've been you who caught me, Gale." I didn't even notice that someone had entered the door until Gale shuffled to get comfortable. Hiding behind him was Aerrow.
"Yeah, I didn't want to freak you out. You looked determine to find Aiden." He said awkwardly while rubbing the back of his neck. I smiled at his awkwardness, it was cute I have to admit. Knowing that I must thank my saviour with a kiss on the cheek made me blush, only because it was in front of my brothers. I gathered myself and got off the bed, pain free and gracefully – as a citizen of Terra Reign should be – sauntered over to Aerrow. But before I could do anything, red lights and an alarm rang throughout the entire ship.
"Must be Cyclonians." He stated as he ran out with Gale and Aiden following close behind. I quickly grabbed Aiden's arm.
"And excuse me, Aiden. Where do you think you're going?" I asked loudly so I could be heard over the sirens.
"I'm going to help them, Finn found a way I could help them fight from the ship!" He stated, I let him go and he quickly sped off towards the bridge. Just as I was leaving too, a wallop passed in front of my door, giving me a big smile and a polite wave as he went by. Was that really a wallop? Huh. Cool. I thought.
"I think you should stay here, just in case. I don't want you falling off the Condor again." Aerrow stated as he ran back. I raised an eyebrow at him.
"Do you really think you're going to keep me in here? If my brother's are going to fight, so am I!" I exclaimed, no way was everyone else going to get all the fun. I could see the thought process in Aerrow's face as he tossed up between locking me in the room, or letting me fight. Well, he sort of picked the first one. He locked us both in the room. "What are you doing?! Aren't you the leader?"
"Yes, but they're after you. And they're not Cyclonians, they're The Forever Knights."