A/N I don't own Skyland. Don't forget to review!
Mila entered the room… She was instantly blinded by the harsh white light coming from the ceiling.
During her worry stricken lapse sitting in the lobby with Oslo, she had envisioned a terrible scene. Her mind had constructed several episodes of what awaited her when she entered. Marcus's mangled body on the floor… Or perhaps blood smeared walls dangling with chains and shackles. Maybe a torture chamber over there with terrible instruments designed to inflict pain, like some kind of medieval dungeon.
What she saw when she finally entered, surprised her even further than what she had expected. Not for its gruesomeness, no, but for the fact that it was simply a large, empty room. The walls and floor were all made of the usual smooth metal and the bright lighting came from a large convex window on the ceiling.
A skylight… Use the skylight.
Her eyes found a zigzagging crack in the glass in the upper right corner; it contrasted light grey against the white sky. Perhaps the glass had fractured with condensation, for its constant exposure to the weather. Of course, it made sense to have a bright skylight illuminating the room, so that seijins could constantly refill their energy.
She took another shaky step forwards to let Oslo enter behind her. Her eyes set on the figure, on the other extremity of the room, sitting with his back against the wall. Mila couldn't help feeling relieved, for the pirate's condition wasn't as terrible as she had expected it to be. After all, like Priscilla had said, he was Oslo and Mila's prisoner, so they had the 'privilege' to finish him off.
Still, Marcus was beat up. His face was bloodied and bruised. There were dark bloody patches scattered across his jacket.
The prisoner was hunched forwards and he didn't even look up when they entered the cell. Even if he didn't seem incapacitated, what with having only bruises and cuts, Mila reminded herself that it wasn't as simple as it seemed. Nothing was certain. The beating, she guessed was the brigs' work. Guardians didn't bother with such things. No, if she guessed correctly, the first thing they would have wanted from him were the coordinates to the rebel hideouts. He must have endured serious seijin attacks to his thoughts, perhaps he had already been driven to insanity…
Mila looked away and stood aside as Oslo entered the room. The door hissed shut behind him. The young guardian stood beside her now, trembling with anticipation.
"Stand up!" Oslo ordered immediately.
Marcus flinched and looked up; he had a blank look in his eyes, as if he was thinking of something else and not quite seeing who stood before him. His gaze focused on Mila as he pushed himself up shakily and leaned back against the wall.
He was pale, but he still had that look of angered determination on his face; a look that wouldn't take defeat as an option. He stood up proudly and straightened his shoulders, waiting for the unexpected. Mila was amazed that he had managed to hide the rebellion's information through this. He would fight to the death for his cause; this much was obvious.
He was still looking straight at her and Mila wanted more than anything in the world to explain that she hadn't set him up. Well, not on purpose at least. She still felt terrible that this nightmare was partly her fault. She would never have betrayed him intentionally… However, she couldn't just voice the truth since cameras were hidden everywhere here, she would instantly blow her cover. She was supposed to have been kidnapped by this criminal, she hated him. She was forced to play the part, at least for now.
Mila side-glanced in Oslo's direction, his blond hair glowing even paler under the skylight, his grey eyes narrowed; a smirk stretched on the corner of his mouth. He was going to enjoy this. The infinitely long seconds that passed by were so silent and tense, that the three young people were simply staring at each other, waiting for something to happen; one bore an a look of steely determination, another smiled slightly, enjoying the stressful atmosphere, the other stood there at a crossroads, her heart beating so fast that she half intended it to burst out of her chest. She was expected to kill Marcus. She couldn't! Then again, if she refused, then Oslo would finish the job for her… She somehow had to play the part and then find some way out of here… Maybe she had enough energy now; she could use that window to-
Without warning, Oslo had lifted his arm and sent a jolt of energy at Marcus. The pirate was thrown backwards with a yell; he sprawled on the floor, wincing in pain.
"Might as well have a little fun while we're at it right Mila?" Oslo laughed.
Mila's fear changed to fury which was suddenly uncontainable. No, she would not play the part! She would not stand aside and watch Marcus die!
Her fists clenched, the room tilted on its axis, the colors merged together, grey and white. White and grey. Spinning out of control… What was going on? She felt a tugging feeling in her gut, as if she was being yanked upwards, as if her very being was being pulled apart. Everything flickered out of focus…
Abruptly, Mila was transported elsewhere; in a vision flash.
It wasn't the future however, this had all happened before. The Academy's auditorium materialized in front of her and once again she was looking at the audience, and at the Sphere dignitary in charge of the Academy. Everything looked strangely realistic, not like the hazy memories in one's mind. It was as if she had gone back in time. Mila was the invisible bystander, no one could see her; she could even see her old self sitting in the row of seats. How strange… What was happening?
She looked down but her own hands were of wispy consistency - she was made of pale blue smoke, like some kind of ghostly apparition… Suddenly, it felt like she had just taken a gulp of frozen water as someone walked right through her. Not beside her, no, he actually passed through her misty body. It was the most bizarre thing she had ever felt…
She stepped aside, and saw that it was that rebel boy, Katie's brother, being dragged by a couple of brigadiers. She gasped and drew closer, no one could see her anyways, and she stood beside Katie.
"Katie!" Mila yelled, but she couldn't hear her, she even tried tugging on the girl's sleeve but it felt like she was trying to grab water, it kept escaping from her fingers.
"Kill him." The dignitary ordered.
Katie stepped back and shook her head.
"Kill him." He repeated slowly.
"No." She murmured.
"Excuse me?"
"NO! I won't. He's my little brother, please I can't…"
Mila knew what was coming, Katie was held back by other brigadiers… She didn't even have time to blink, that it had happened again; she didn't know if she would have closed her eyes anyways, she couldn't peel her eyes away from that boy's face. That expression of fear and despair. His face swollen and soaked with tears.
"No!" She shouted, even if she knew it wouldn't do any good.
The scene unraveled once more; the loud cracking sound of a gunshot. Mila winced as she looked at the growing pool of blood. Her old self did nothing; she just sat there, gaping.
Why wasn't she doing anything? It was the strangest thing but she wanted to slap her old self. She should have stepped forwards to help the boy or at least Katie. Her eyes scanned the graduates on stage; none of them bore her expression of terror.
Brainwashed fools, that's what they were! Unable to react to the simplest instinct of protection, of sympathy for their classmate who had just watched her family member die. Mila understood, that all these years when she gossiped about Katie with the other girls, how they laughed at that stupid girl who couldn't concentrate in class. How weak she was...
Katie wasn't weak, she had been the strongest; to be able to tolerate all those years at the Academy, to live through a kidnapping, to survive her brother's death. Even to this day, she was fighting in her own way against the sphere, telling her to use the skylight… the skylight, she had to get back!
It was clear to her now, the Sphere hadn't been her destiny after all. Perhaps it had always been so.
Maybe, there had always been something inside her that knew it.
Her destiny did not lie in a Prophecy; her destiny was what she wanted it to be.
She had a choice!
The memory dissolved. Mila drew in a sharp intake of breath and almost lost balance. She was back in the cell with Oslo and Marcus. They hadn't noticed her vision, it must have lasted only a fragment of a second that stretched longer for herself. In fact, she was still standing in the exact same position she had been in before being whisked off in a vision flash. Oslo looked in her direction; everything seemed to blur in slow motion… Now was the time to choose.
It was the Sphere or the Rebellion.
"Go on Mila. Unless you want to receive the same treatment of course…" Oslo said as time settled at its normal pace once more.
The guardians met each other's gaze. Mila nodded sternly. She had made her choice now; everything was clear.
There was no going back.
Oslo's eyebrows lifted in contentment as Mila's hands started fizzing with blue light. The boy finished shaping another energy orb in his hands.
Marcus had gotten back on his feet when he received the energy blast in the stomach and slammed back into the wall behind him. He slid down the wall and remained there, utterly spent.
Mila's arms started glowing, and she gave Marcus the most credible glare she could manage; while Oslo was watching her in approval, she heard the satisfying click as the door locked. The mechanism was fairly easy to manipulate with her powers, and now the door was locked from the inside. She spun around and faced the blond guardian, her arms crackling with blue light.
Mila couldn't hear anything but the rushing hum of force through her body and her heart beat thumping in her ears; her anger was pulsing deep blue, tapping into her energy reserves. Even her eyes were blazing with energy, her irises flashed white-blue. She had never felt such an overwhelming sense of all-consuming anger; she wanted to hurt. She wanted to kill.
Oslo whitened with realization but it was too late; he caught an energy orb square in the chest and was knocked backwards. He slammed right next to Marcus with a startled yell; the air was knocked out of his lungs. He gasped in pain and tried to scramble to his feet but found himself held back; the rebel had wasted no time for this opportunity and he had tackled the scrawny teenager to the ground. They rolled around on the floor, fighting. Marcus, being the taller and stronger of the two, pinned him down in a matter of seconds.
There was yelling and shouting on the other side of the entrance. There was the sound of hammering on the metal door.
Mila immediately destroyed the cameras on the ceiling, one by one with short, concentrated beams of energy; her body radiating with flames of bluish-white light.
An alarm sounded.
"Let go of-" Oslo's voice was cut short as Marcus gripped his collar and punched his face. Hard. The guardian was out like a light, a line of blood trickling from his nose. Marcus stood up and kicked Oslo in the stomach for good measure; the boy was motionless.
The yelling on the other side of the wall increased as other voices were joined in. The alarm was so loud that Mila had to resist the urge to clamp her hands over her ears.
It's all over, she panicked, they'll enter and kill us both. No. She would not allow it, not after all this trouble.
Marcus hunched forward to take his breath and the girl instantly rushed to his side and placed a still-glowing hand on his shoulder.
"Marcus, are you alright?" She asked, her whole body still trembling with energy. Where she had gotten this strength she did not know; but it was an amazing feeling.
Marcus jumped aside defensively at her touch and Mila drew back in surprise. The seijin concentrated and the white energy flashing like a halo around her faded; she approached him, cautiously this time.
"Marcus? It's me Mila…" The rebel took a step back. "I swear I didn't set a trap... There's just no time for this, I'll explain later… we have to go. Now."
She was discouraged by the wild look in his eyes, the way he glared at her like she was a stranger. He turned away and started pacing wildly around the room, looking for an escape, occasionally slapping the walls to find a foothold of some kind. There was no way out… He stopped right under the skylight on the ceiling and looked up. The problem was that he didn't have anything to climb onto, and he cursed loudly.
Mila moved towards him carefully, he was blocking the way... If she was to get them out of here, she needed space to blast the window to pieces.
"Marcus, move… I'm going to destroy the skylight."
The door started to dent under the thumping of seijin blasts. Marcus was so strange; he acted as if he didn't even hear what she was saying, she was scared that if he didn't recognize her, he would ultimately attack her. Seeing how he wouldn't answer she pushed him aside and stood under the dome. She lifted her arms upwards and focused on that fissure in the window.
Come on, come on…
The door was denting, there was a small gap now…
The fissure split further, dividing its roots along the curve of the glass; the whole skylight window was rumbling and flashing blue under her effort, small particles of white light swirled around. The glass was immensely heavy because of its thickness… If it wasn't for that fracture, she couldn't have done anything…
Break!
She refused to die because of a translucent barrier that wouldn't let them escape! Her arms shook under the pressure.
BREAK!
The glass exploded.
Most shards of debris were blasted outside, like leaves in a gust of wind, but some others came raining down into the room. She sent another shockwave in the air to blow splinters away, however most glass fragments fell inside despite her efforts, their sound of impact on the floor like a million tinkling bells. One plunged its pointed end on the floor inches from her feet and shattered; she shielded her face with her arms.
A sharp pain in her left forearm…
"Stop!" A female voice called from the dent in the door. Mila motioned towards Marcus and enveloped him in a blue light, she sent him flying upwards, out of the hole and onto the roof.
Oslo was still lying in the corner, he was unharmed by the shards; he moaned and lifted his hand to his nose. Mila glanced his way briefly. He had made his choice and she had made hers; it was time to move on. The metal door clattered to the floor with a resounding ruckus. Mila didn't wait to see who was coming out; she jumped upwards, giving herself a boost with her powers.
Her body rocketed upwards and she landed in a crouched position on the slippery roof of the building. Since the roof was composed of solar panels and glossy windows, it was hard to stay in balance. She swayed were she stood under the strong winds which cut her breath short and whipped her hair backwards. She looked back down the shattered hole in the roof just as robotic outlines of brigadiers rushed inside. She powered an energy discharge and released it with a yell on the automatons; there was a flash of bright light and she staggered backwards as metal shrapnel blew out of the opening. Anger and pure fear had given an edge to her powers but already she had overexerted herself, her energy was used up. She would have to rely on her legs now.
It was time to run.
She grabbed Marcus's arm seeing how he just stood there behind her, staring blankly into space.
"Come on!" She yelled over the blustery weather, she yanked harder on his arm but he wouldn't budge. She couldn't move him, so she grabbed his shoulders and turned him to face her; she stared right into his eyes.
"Marcus. Look at me-" He was looking at her, but his eyes weren't focused on her face, they seemed to pass right through her.
"Look at me. Listen to me okay? We have to run, do you understand?" Her voice was quivering with urgency. For a moment he focused like he was seeing her for the first time. "We have to run now." She repeated and he finally nodded distractedly.
She released her breath in relief; he could understand her now, his mind was recovering from the seijin attacks to his memories.
"Come on then." She encouraged and started off with a jog which he seemed alright with, so while still keeping a firm grip on his wrist, she led them into a sprint across the slightly inclined roof.
Mila knew that the docking bay was on the other side of the colossal building, behind that spire. Her mind went blank for a second - how did she know the docking bay's location? She drifted in confusion for a moment before shaking her head the slightest bit. She needed to concentrate. The Hyperion could be in the docking bay, maybe... It was a chance they would have to take. That ship was their only path to freedom, and if her suspicions were correct, Oslo would have trailed the Hyperion back here since it was the only prototype example of its kind; if the Sphere could build more replicas… They would be unstoppable in sky battles. No, they needed to save the Hyperion as well, there was too much at stake; stealing any other sphere ship would be too risky, what with all the tracking devices in them. Mila glanced back. No one was giving them chase yet.
The problem now was; how would she get them down? They were at such a long way from the ground that she worried she wouldn't be able to get them to destination in one piece.
The building wasn't a perfect rectangle shape she noticed; it was formed like a pointed hourglass, with the spire in its center, where the two inverted triangle points met. The sides were all of a perfectly smooth glass surface and centered on top the edifice was that glass spire, it acted as a light house, a beacon of brightness to guide approaching ships.
The roof grooved upwards as they ran towards the spire. They would need to be careful, not to lose balance since they would have to go around that spire to reach the other side of the edifice. The only relatively flat surface went around the needle, the rest of the panels were furrowed and curved downwards towards the edge of the roof. The point looked small from the distance but up close, it was almost as large as a water carrier. She could see the great light mechanism inside the glass; an enormous spotlight.
They came to a halt in front of the towering structure. The flat stretch of roof circled the spire and beyond that, was the void. A forty story fall to hard cement. First thing first; get to the other side of the roof and try to figure out how to land on that adjoining lower roof belonging to the docking bay.
"Okay, we need to go around… to get to the other side." She shouted over the winds. Marcus said nothing; she took that as a yes. They couldn't backtrack at this point, it was too hazardous; no, the only way to go was forwards.
It couldn't be so difficult right? They just have to be careful and… not die. Soon, they started inching around the massive glass structure to get across.
The roof slanted downwards and they had to keep balance on a small horizontal stretch of panel no more than two feet wide. There was a groove in the cement base of the spire that they gripped to for support as they inched slowly on the icy roof.
They were already half way to the other edge of the roof, she was almost there… She glanced at Marcus, her hair whipping wildly around her face. "Nearly there!" She encouraged him.
He didn't seem to even notice what was happening. He just followed her with dull, expressionless eyes, his unusually pale skin contrasted with bruises. What was he doing? He was barely holding on to the side of the wall!
"Marcus! Hold on to the side, you'll slip-" Mila gasped as the sudden high winds made her lose balance. She swayed in place, flapping her arms about crazily to keep balance and… she fell over.
She slammed onto her back and instantly slipped down the steeply slanted roof of solar panels, towards to edge. Her palms tried to stick to the panels but her momentum was too fast, she only succeeded in burning her skin with the friction. The edge was coming towards her!
Mila screamed in terror and grabbed hold of the edge with her left arm at the last second. Her arm jerked painfully as her body swung over the edge of the roof and hit the vertical wall. She yelled in pain and tried to keep hold of the sharp edge of the roof with her slippery fingers; she reached up with her other arm to grip the edge as well, gasping for breath. The girl started pulling herself upwards slowly, her legs kicking uselessly in the air. She managed to lift her head over the edge and rest her chin on the roof. She groaned as her hands clawed forwards, trying to keep hold onto something to pull her up; the perfect, gleaming surface greeted her teasingly. There was nothing to grab onto… Mila slipped back down, once again hanging by her arms.
She was at least ten meters lower than the base of the spire now and she looked downwards and gasped. She must have been forty stories high and she hung before a wall of cement. No foot holds. The blurred ground, so far down, was waiting for her to fall.
"Marcus!" She cried out.
Mila struggled to pull herself over the edge again but every time she managed to poke her head above, she'd slip back down the slick panels. Her left arm ached, she looked up to see a shard of glass embedded in her skin, the fabric around the wound was bloodying, forming a patch of purple against the blue sleeve. Mila hadn't even noticed it until now; she squinted and a lone tear traced down her cheek from the strain on her injured arm.
The seijin tried tapping into her seijin energy but there was nothing left. If she tried to use her powers now, this would mean having to use her own life source and ultimately kill herself with the effort. There was nothing to do about refilling her energy either: the cloudy-grey weather was getting worse; there was no sunlight. She doubted that she'd have been able to float herself up with the raging winds anyways.
Mila hung on for dear life as the winds rocked her to and fro, her feet dangling over the void.
"Help!" She pleaded in panic. "Help me! Marcus, please!" Her voice broke and her vision blurred with tears.
The minutes dragged by. Marcus wasn't coming… What was he doing? Was this some kind of revenge? Or had he already fallen off the edge?
Mila groaned as her arms cramped painfully. The icy draft was numbing her fingers.
She was slipping.
So this was it, the last thing she would see; the cement ground, rushing forwards at the speed of gravity. After all these efforts, she would simply die. Act as an example for the students of the Academy.
The girl imagined a sphere official pointing at her corpse. This mangled body belongs to the stupid girl who dared stray away from the Sphere.
Mila could barely hold on anymore… Her fingers were slipping away ever-so-slowly.
She still had things to do! She had just found her true self and she was going to die before she even had a chance at life! The injustice of it all.
Her left hand lost hold completely and swung uselessly at her side.
Perhaps she did deserve this, all these terrible deeds that she had completed for the Sphere; stealing water for the dying citizens of Skyland. She could just hope that Marcus would find some way to escape without her; if he hadn't fallen to his death already…
Her right hand lost hold completely.
She screamed.
Time slowed down as adrenaline pumped through her veins, she felt like she was floating in place for a millisecond.
She fell…
Everything was jerked to a stop: something tightened around her wrist. For a moment she gazed downwards in awe, waiting for the fall that never arrived; a high pitched whine sung in her ears. Was she dead already?
She looked up in shock to see Marcus, struggling to pull her up. Her vision had narrowed to tunnels, she could barely see anything but the flash of his dark eyes.
"Mila!" He yelled; he seemed to be out of his daze now. "Help me, pull yourself up!" His voice shook under the effort. "Pull!" He repeated and Mila shook her head to clear her blurred vision; her drooping eyelids shot upwards and her eyes opened, alert and focused.
It was like awakening from deep sleep; she had brushed against death and now something was stopping her, pulling her back to life. As if in a dream, the girl reached up her other arm to clasp the side on the roof. Marcus grunted and tugged as he knelt awkwardly on the angled roof, pulling her upwards. She could now lean over on her stomach… He dragged her onto the roof, until only her feet were sticking over the edge; she placed her palms on the icy surface and lay there for a second, her face against the angled panel, catching her breath and shaking uncontrollably. Her face had taken a sickly white-green tinge. She grasped the glass in her left arm with trembling fingers and yanked it out briskly, she stifled a moan; the glass slid off the roof and fell away. She felt a hand on her shoulder, shaking her… the voice seemed far away now.
"Mila, come… Get up." Marcus gripped her arm and helped her onto her knees."We have to hurry!" He shouted over the whistling winds. She looked up at him; his eyes had lost that terrible, vacant stare. Why? She didn't know, but she was relieved at least to hear him speak again. She ignored her jelly legs and started crawling back up, careful to keep still when the winds raged. Marcus followed.
They edged towards the spire and Mila was finally able to stand on a horizontal surface once more. Her whole body was trembling from her near-death experience. She wanted to thank Marcus but there was simply no time; their escape wasn't guaranteed yet. At long last, they arrived on the other side of the spire and they sprinted off across the other side of the angled roof.
On the edge of that roof, Mila looked down; there was the docking bay… But how would they get there! Her eyes spotted a small metal maintenance ladder on her right, it was aligned against the side of the building. It was probably designed for electricians. The ladder led to another, lower roof which was at least twenty stories above ground.
"Thank sky!" She exclaimed as she pointed it out to Marcus. Maybe her plan hadn't been so hopeless after all. She kicked open the metal grid blocking the way to the caged ladder.
She nodded towards the ladder and started climbing down the slippery metal rungs without hesitation. Ice had had built up against the steps and she knew that if she slipped, it would be as deadly as falling off the roof itself.
"Don't slip!" She yelled at Marcus, a few rungs above her. If he fell then she would too.
They had to hurry; enough time had been wasted already! She was taking two rungs at a time now, to go faster; the ladder was contoured by a metal safety grid, so they were generally hidden by the crisscrossing bars which were the same bluish-black panel colour found on the roof.
Dark clouds were building up in the sky and soon snow started falling. More and more snowflakes whipped around in the air, blinding her, sticking to her eyelashes. Weather changed fast in Skyland; its patterns were almost unpredictable. She was chilled to the bone now.
After a few minutes, the arduous climb was over; the steps ended abruptly about three meters above the next roof and they had to jump to the other, thankfully flatter, panels.
Mila jumped down, she skidded on the snowy roof and fell face first in the snow. Marcus jumped down next to her and fell over. Mila cursed and wiped the snow from her face; she looked up at the ladder that disappeared in the swirling snowflakes.
The girl pushed herself up and swayed slightly, the world was spinning again; Marcus grabbed her arm and she steadied herself.
"It's fine. I'm fine…" She argued.
Something caught the corner of her eye in the snowy air, the dark outline of a fin in the sky, approaching towards the roof. It was a shark in a sea of churning white... She pointed towards it.
"S-15!" She hissed. Marcus cursed and ran off, pulling her along.
The wind had taken a turn for the worse now and the snow blinded everything. White, whiteness everywhere... Where could they hide! They were out in the open, and the ship's silhouette was drawing even closer now… In a way, the snow storm was useful, it hid the escapees from sight; also, seijins would have more difficulty using their powers in this minimal light. But the ship could eventually spot two dark figures against blank whiteness!
"Over there!" Marcus yelled over the wind, pointing at a hazy patch of grey in the accumulating snow. He bent down in front of some metal structure that Mila had trouble distinguishing. Upon further inspection, it proved to be a ventilation shaft, leading inside the building. If she remembered correctly, then they were standing right on the roof of the docking bay; this tunnel could lead them inside…
"Should we go in?" She asked.
"Don't have a choice!" He yelled, as the whine of the S-15 engine drew nearer. He ripped off the gridiron and a rectangular hole of darkness lay ahead.
She cast him a quizzical look. There was no other way.
He was the first to go climb through, his shape disappeared in the dark. Mila waited a few seconds and entered, making sure to replace the gridiron behind her. The whine of the S-15 engine rose to a pitch as it flew past, Mila glimpsed its receding shadow through the grid. It was heading for the roof… She shivered. To say that they had escaped in the nick of time was an understatement.
Darkness engulfed her as she turned towards the tunnel. She crawled forwards, the dull metallic thud of her knees and hands against the shaft walls. Marcus should be in front-
"Ahh!"
There was an abrupt drop through the shadows until the shaft curved into a slide and landed her in a flat ventilation tunnel. She tumbled over once and slammed into something. She toppled onto it and that something groaned; she realized that she was lying right on top of Marcus, her face inches from his.
The sound of their panting in the cramped space echoed with a metallic twinge inside the passage; his chest rose and fell under her.
"Sorry." She panted, squinting because of her aching, beaten body; there wasn't one inch that didn't hurt at this point. It was strange to find relative silence once more, to stop for a few seconds to catch her breath in this terrifying escapade for their lives.
Mila couldn't see anything, but she felt his breath against her cheek; she reached forwards and found his face in the gloom. Mila trailed her fingers down his forehead, down his nose, brushed lightly against his lips and chin. He moaned slightly when she placed her cold fingers against his cheekbone. He'd had a bluish bruise there earlier, she had forgotten.
"Are you alright?" She asked him concernedly.
"I'd be better if you got off… " He groaned.
She pulled back from the kiss she had been leaning in for in the darkness and she blushed angrily. "Oh right, sorry…" She tried to get off of him in the awkwardly tight space, her elbow dug into his stomach.
"Oww…" He hissed.
"Sorry, I can't see a thing…"
"Just move here-" Marcus meant to help her but poked her eye with his fingers by accident.
"Ouch… Marcus!"
"Shh…"
There was a dull clang and Mila rubbed her head. "I just hit my head on the wall…" She moaned as they shifted around again, trying to untangle themselves.
"Mila, get off already! You just kicked my-"
"I know! I just can't see where I'm going!" Mila managed to roll off and she inched backwards.
After much complaining, get-off's and don't-touch-that's, they were on the move again. Continuing their crawl through the vent, Mila was glad that it was complete obscurity; otherwise he would have seen the disappointment on her face.
They crawled through the shaft, occasionally having to backtrack when they reached a dead-end. He hadn't wanted to kiss her; maybe she was too pushy, after all there was no time for romance now… Still, it bothered her.
She wished that they could have taken Katie along with them but there had simply been no time, plus, she could be anywhere by now… In retrospect, perhaps it was a good thing that she hadn't tagged along since their survival wasn't assured yet.
Soon, Mila spotted brightness on her right.
"Marcus, look…" There was light...
She turned into that ventilation tunnel and Marcus followed behind her. There were small slits of light on the shaft 'floor' that gave view of a large docking area, with many levels. It was stocked to the brim with ships, vessels, transporters of every kind; the large 'S' symbol evident on their sides.
The workers inside, had they looked up, would have seen two pairs of eyes inspecting the interior of the docking bay through the slots in the ceiling.
If they had strained their ears enough, they could have heard a faint whisper, saying; "We have to find the Hyperion in all of this?"
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