Consequences and Changes

Every action has a consequence, Skye is about to find out hers and it will change everything. A sequel to Persuasion.


Ch 9

They continued their trek in silence. He walked in front of her without looking back trusting her to follow him. "Lucas" she called out his name, he continued walking. "Lucas, I need to stop to rest"

He stopped and turned around. "We don't have time, I don't know how far behind us they are"

"It's not for me" She told him. "And I need to eat something"

Lucas studied her; unsure if he should trust her, his instincts told him yes, but they had let him down before. So many questions rolled through his mind, she wouldn't be asking to stop so they would get caught, would she? Was she lying to him again? Or did she really need to stop because of the… he couldn't bring himself to finish his thought, saying it would make real and he wasn't ready to deal with that yet. He looked up at her and her beautiful turquoise eyes pleaded with him, he couldn't say no. "Fine, we can rest for five minutes" He slid his bag of his shoulder and unzipped it. He reached in his bag and tossed her a piece of fruit.

She caught it, sat down on a flat rock and took a bite. As she chewed she looked around. She'd never been this far in the jungle before. It was like entering another new world. They were enveloped in a canopy of trees as tall as the buildings in the domes in the future. The array of vivid colors spread out before her was breathtaking. There were beds of blossoms in pinks and reds. Little yellow flowers peeked out between gnarled roots. Clumps of bright orange, deep crimson and white blooms cascaded down branches. If she wasn't in her current situation she would marvel at the beauty of it.

Lucas was suddenly in front of her holding out a canteen of water. "Thanks" she said and took it from him.

When she saw him attacking Taylor, the solider in her came out and she acted on instinct, aim for the biggest center of mass, shoot to kill not to wound. "Who saved you after I shot you?" she asked.

He looked at her as he finished chewing. "Mira" he replied.

Skye nodded, now wondering what Mira wanted from him. That woman didn't do anything unless it furthered her agenda. She knew how to come to you when you were at your weakest.

After her father died and she knew her mother didn't have much longer. So she took a bottle of his whiskey and went to the only place that calmed her down, Snakehead falls.

The sun beat down on her, she could feel it burning her skin but she didn't care, she tipped the bottle back, her face scrunched up as she forced the liquid molten down her throat. She had to take deep breaths afterwards she'd never drank liquor as strong as this before. It was her father's favorite; he was saving it for a special occasion.

She sank to the grass and took another swig eliciting the same reaction. She stared out across the stream at the equations that were written on the rocks. For some reason studying them always calmed her down. Quantum Physics was never her top subject but she got the basics. One side had something to do with the portal and the time fracture, the others were unfinished.

She heard someone come up from behind her it was too late for her to do anything and in her semi drunken state she wouldn't have been able to do much anyway. She turned her head and saw a woman standing there. She was tall, toned, and dressed in jeans and a light grey tank top.

"Jameson's, that's expensive whiskey" she said to her with a smirk.

"It's my dad's, he's not going to miss it, he's dead" she told her taking another drink.

"I'm sorry to hear that" The woman said without putting any emotion behind the words. She stood next to her and stared out at the rocks. "I'm Mira"

"I know who you are" she told her without looking at her. She had arrived on the Sixth pilgrimage two months ago. She noticed them because they had to be the fittest pilgrimage to come through the portal. They all looked like athletes. She also noticed that very few children came through with them. She heard they were mostly lottery winners but she still found it odd and made a mental note of it.

Mira smiled. "I figured you would, you don't miss much do you?" she turned to look at her now.

Squinting from the sunlight she looked up at her. "What do you want?"

Mira tried to look appalled by the question. "What makes you think that I want something?"

She sighed. "You wouldn't have followed me out here, if you didn't"

"I knew you were a clever girl, I just wasn't aware how" Mira replied.

"So what do you want?" she asked again more forcefully she wasn't in the mood to play games with this woman.

Mira smiled at her. "What if I told you I can save your mother?"

"I would say you were lying. There is no cure for Syncyllic fever" she said stoically.

"There's no cure that those overpaid government peons know about" Mira told her with malice in her voice. "There is a cure out here" She said throwing her hands out. "In the place they don't want you to see. The jungle is filled with plants and herbs that can cure any ailment." She paused to let her mind take that in. "There is a cure for Syncyllic fever and I have it"

She put the bottle down and looked up at the woman. "And why would you help me, I'm nobody"

Mira smiled and came down to her level. "I figured we could help each other, Skye" she said using her name for the first time showing her she knew exactly who she was talking too.

"And how would I be helping you?" she asked curious now. These people were on her radar, she saw the way they looked at each other when they passed each other in the streets. Taylor would tell her she was being paranoid and maybe she was thinking about what they were up to keep her mind focused on something other than her parent's dying.

"By doing what you already do so well…listen" she said to her. "Listen and observe, tell me what's going on with the colony and I'll save your mother"

She wasn't drunk enough where her mind wasn't working, she knew what she had agreed to do. She knew it was wrong and she knew what the outcome would be if she got caught.

It would've have destroyed Taylor if he knew that she knew about the Sixer rebellion beforehand. But that distraction and the chaos it caused was the only way for them to get her mother out of the colony unnoticed. No one would question her mother's empty bed they'd assumed that someone else took her out to be buried in the mass grave with the others. It wasn't hard for her to pretend that's what happened, the guilt had torn her up inside. Taylor found her drunk and inconsolable on the floor of her house. She knew the risks and she knew she couldn't stand by and watch her mother die, not when they had a cure.


She didn't say anything else when they continued walking. He finally stopped when they reached a small clearing of trees that had leaves so long they touched the ground. Her brows furrowed as she watched Lucas walk around like he was searching for something.

He walked over to one of the trees and reached his hand up. He pulled his hand down quickly and she watched in amazement as a wooden latter descend down the trunk. "Let me test it" he told her and began to climb up and was swallowed up by the tree.

"It sturdy" he said as he came back down. She nodded grabbed the first rung and climbed. He smiled to himself, no hesitation at all. Her recklessness always excited him. He followed her up.

She looked up as she reached the top and saw that the ladder led to an opening of a wooden platform. She poked her head through and pulled herself up. This was another tree house, probably the first one he built, all the furniture was more crudely put together. There was a desk and a chair in the far corner, a table with another chair and a bed put together with what she guessed was bamboo and dinosaur skin.

"This is where I lived after I was banished from Terra Nova" Lucas told her hoisting himself up. He lay flat on the ground and pulled the ladder up closing the gap in the floor. "No one will find us out here"

Great she thought to herself, she really didn't think all the way through with this plan. She wanted to get Lucas away from the colony and she succeeded but now what? She was supposed to be a brilliant strategist but all she really seemed to be good at was getting herself out of one situation and put into another.

She walked over to his desk, her hands leaving prints in the dust. She looked over the desk and saw faded blueprints of the portal and earlier versions of his equations, the same ones she'd seen on the rocks. She turned her head slightly and saw him standing across the room. She turned around and leaned against the desk.

An awkward silence descended across the room as neither of them knew what to do or say next.

He sat down on the chair rubbed his hands along his thighs to his knees, then clasped his hands in-between and brought his lips to his hands with his elbows resting on his knees. He breathed out loud then peered up at her.

"So what now?" she asked tired of the silence. It was already too quiet out her in the depths of the jungle.

Lucas swallowed. "I don't know, I wasn't prepared…prepared for this" he told her avoiding looking anywhere but at her. Because all he saw now was that swollen bump.

"You think I was?" she asked incredulously. She knew she had three months to deal with her pregnancy but that didn't mean she was anymore prepared for this than him. "Because being a teen mom was always my life's ambition" Lucas' eyes widened from her remark.

Skye licked her lips. "I kind of knew, before Dr. Shannon told me I was pregnant." She gave a small laugh. "I tried to ignore it, tried to pretend that it wasn't possible. But I knew that it was."She paused to meet his eyes. "I'm eighteen Lucas, I wasn't ready for this either, but it happened. We're having a baby. And if you can't deal with that, then what am I doing here?"

"I don't know" he replied. "…I don't know what I'm doing anymore" he told her rubbing his hands over his face and through his hair, he had a plan but everything got turned upside down the moment she announced she was pregnant with his kid. He couldn't be a father; he didn't know the first thing about being father besides how to hate his.

"Well you better decide" she told him. "It dangerous out here for me"

Lucas jumped from his chair. "I won't ever let anything happen to you" he told her firmly walked over and stood right in front of her. "I'll protect you, both of you" his face inches from hers, his electrifying green eyes locked into hers.

She saw the determination in his face and knew that he meant what he said. Whatever betrayals and lies had happened before, things were different now. She was still confused about her feelings for him. There was something between them and she knew he felt it too.

He was beautiful, dangerous and wild just like the jungle. He was a man whose hatred ran so deep he lost his humanity along the way. If they were going to raise this baby together she would have to do her best to find what Lucas had lost, his heart.

Tbc…