Tragic visions slowly stole my life
Tore away everything
Cheating me out of my time
I'm the one who loves you
No matter wrong or right
And every day I hold you
I hold you with my inner child
••••••••
Serenity...
It's been long time since Nate has taken time to think of that old incident. And that time of their young, inexperienced lives altogether.
And what once had been journey to somewhat dream place they were so confident existed.
Now he just knows such things doesn't exist. Not for men like him and Narcho. They'd been fools blinded by youth and taste of adventure unknown. All things coming from times and times away.
Nate still has little idea what went wrong on the rooftop but he still feels the aftermath of that fateful day. In fact there's a lot he cannot remember.
But he does know Noel also suffered and that it still bothers the slightly older man. For that they both can only blame the girl that became their remake. But is she?
••••••
I need serenity
In a place where I can hide
I need serenity
Nothing changes, days go by
••••••
Serenity...
For decades upon decades Noel being the sap he was hid his majority of feelings and emotions from anything and anyone alive and bloodless equally. He's been known as the "Narcho" from the times before the time. Mostly it was because of the training in the factory he had to endure and by seeing the little boys like him receiving terrible punishments for ever letting even the slightest emotion show. He became his own shadow to hide the true side of him from the one they made out of him. And he learned that he must show absolutely nothing to the outside world.
Mentally toughest decision one could make and sometimes there just wasn't a way to return.
"Narcho" in an ancient language of a race that once fulfilled every nation's wet dream of a perfect soldier means "shadow of a soul" somehow it made his callsign in the early days and for reasons still foggy it stuck to him like second skin. So he just became Narcho and life went on.
••••••
I need serenity
In a place where I can hide
I need serenity
Nothing changes, days go by
••••••
Serenity...
Nate looked at himself in the mirror but only thing he could see was dying man of age still full of life and hope. He saw his ragged face from days long lost and times of another lifetime. A full journey of endless fight for life. Nate saw his tired face and immediately felt every fiber of his body sag in the exhaustion. He was damn tired of it all. All the time twenty-four/seven every single cell throughout made a fight against time and an illness he learned about only after half his life.
She would have known the way to fight and they all knew. The little fighter of generation above. She was their "Panther" and she had an actual twin sister whose name was River. They found her callsign later and unexpectedly. So she became literally opposite from her sister- "Blink". Because the speed she possessed was even more than theirs. She was capable of maintaining speed like nobody except "Sonic" who was another boy born faster than blink of an eye and capable of outrunning a bullet. But he was several generations above so done with training already. "Blink" was theirs and so they befriended her and "Panther" as their little personalities grew and learned friendship.
Serenity was special. She always was up to a game. She always challenged them. But it was Noel who had some kind of other connection with her. But Nate never was angry enough about it. Maybe he became slightly jealous but he had River to keep close to.
Until one day there was something terrible going on and it changed something none could save.
••••••
I feel the black reaching out
I hear its song without a doubt
••••••
Serenity...
They were all roughly seven years old and the commotion on the first floor was not entirely their business. As the littlest they were often told to muck off. Being the thirteenth generation of what they referred factory especially. However they still were little children who were curious and wanted to be involved and included. Nobody wanted to be an outcast.
Logically they'd hide away in events to see what was going on and see what things they could bring.
It was only when they found the vent and crawled like good trainees they were to the larger holes by the side of it since there was best visuals on the room below.
Their bodies cramped around the few large outlets within the tube and they looked.
With intensity of a seven year in front of danger they all collectively gasped as they saw two of their group being punished for something in a way that was entirely unusual on their compound. Also they noticed that their current trainer was also down. It occurred only about a year after that what that had meant.
Death at the hand of the superior.
It took them three or four more years to figure out something was wrong with the system. Something had tainted their facility and all the order. It took them countless training sessions and smidge of change here and there for years to pass before it became visible.
And their lighthearted days were over. It first happened with River. She was always showing not only her speed skill but also one of different capacity. And she had been taken to some extra training sessions she was never allowed to speak of.
But there was this little boy who accompanied her after those sessions. But the had no clue. Not even Serenity. They'd gone separate because of that.
Another two years later it happened for the first time. At that time they didn't realize right away. Only after the ginormous display of what basically deemed as magic River went on against the other boy who most of them just put as the clone of Nate. But nobody knew as the boy never spoke.
The display was full of bright lights and swooshing colors twined into arc above and around the two. And they obviously had some internal dialogue of sorts. To some it reminded of combinations explosion and northern lights with a splash of dramatic effects and something dark in between them.
And this was going on for hours. As they couldn't get closer due to enormous force shield enclosing them watching was all.
They all saw the eyes of River glowing silver and hair flying around n the wind as the boy's superb blue orbs were glowering rivulets of gold. And the cascade of varying colors whipping and clashing against each other within the transparent glove their force had created. Zips and zaps of energy keeping everyone else twenty feet away.
But it all ended suddenly just as it begun. In a huge blossom of explosion and painfully white light that ended with a flash of darkness so dark it didn't even had a sound. And just like that it was over. Feeling of vacuum and nothingness.
The whole room woke up some time later and found the body of River but not the boy. He was gone like never existed.
Only River.
But she never woke up nor made a movement. She was forever still and locked inside. She was indeed alive but her mind was almost not there. Some esoteric form of her mind kept her vitals running but that was all. After farewell they never saw her again. And Serenity never smiled again.
Later that year they made a plan for following year. The three of them. They'd escape.
Seventeen weeks later the major series of explosions and chaos erupted during nighttime and during the massive blow that flew them off they managed to sneak outside only to fall into a spaceship-like machine and waking up somewhere else.
It had been unexpected turn to their lives but thankful nonetheless they made their street lives to the best.
Some decade later, filled with endless adventures and jobs that made their blood thrill and shrill in excitement, Serenity made Noel and Nate choose the next step. And either she had no idea or she just was at the edge of her own inner demons before they could move a muscle the whole rooftop exploded into myriad of colors and sparks of force field going off. It was all any of them knew before darkness overcame their badly battered bodies.
It was all they were left of their sister.
•••••
Nate to this day ever thought of their old days. It's been a lifetime and a half ago and while it was his health on the line he chose to not remember the way her eyes sparked that red glow and her skin crawled with black smoke-like essence. It was day he hoped to never remember at all and there he was waking up at night to cough up the mucus of his stuffed lungs and wincing at the pain it tore at his chest. The way his breath caught in his throat and shuddered through his trachea.
With shaking hands and barely gripping the small flask of inhalation solution as if it could do mere helping while his eyes shone cerulean in the reflection of the white bulb of light outside.
Nate was never one to hold on to bad memories. He always tried to stuff the good ones in the forefront oh his mind. It was simply easier.
But not tonight.
Tonight he was struggling really hard with the finality that came to a disease with a lethal threat. He squeezed the small container with all his might and pulled in his breath like it was water to a dried flower.
It took two hours on nebuliser with highest setting and strongest solution to gain his breath back. It's never been this hard before and Nate felt his days draining away even heavier. He just had to do the job and get his money. There was no way in hell he'd let his past run up to him and strangle all this hard work out. No, he's not letting it. Not this time and never again.
Once again with the scene at the great hall before his eyes Nate choked on his breath and a strangled sob escaped. And this time he couldn't, nor wouldn't , stop the painful flow of hot tears streaming down his face. It was just too much.
The memory of the girl who once took them in stride and beat the hell out of them in the fields and then just didn't go away all the while tugging her quiet twin along and letting the other one to play with the boy.
That boy…
Who was he? What happened to him? What happened to River?
Serenity…..
••••••••
Being a man made of steel he rarely let the fears to come back at him. Only rarely he allowed himself do the second thinking and doubt his decisions.
It was that day again. The one that took so much but allowed so little in return.
And he was more than tired to pay for his own idiocy. Yes a fool and big one.
The great "Narcho" was idiot and while he could fly literally anything he still was idiot when it came to lower-than-sky things. People usually didn't confuse nor affected him. But that day they did. And they did before.
He was still so little when he witnessed what he today knows as full blown burnout of a person that possessed powers higher and greater than they could control. River burned high and bright until her mind and body couldn't keep up. And it all overcome her and exploded taking another person with her.
Now he knows that the boy was one of the kind. He also had the powers of natural coming not just the transgenic implantation before he even formed an embryo. It was possible and it happened just not so suddenly. And they had been the psy-op part planned to reform in the years coming. Those were the mental kinds of abilities and some even possessed real mind control capabilities.
It's been scary at first but somehow he just sensed River and boy didn't mean anything bad.
Except that day.
Something ticked them off and it blew up ugly into their faces.
Noel just rubbed his face with his stiff hand. It's happened again. The nerves in his wrist lost the connection with his brain and frizzled. Another day when another explosion happened. That one took out half the building and even part of the street. It pushed him off the rooftop and he went flying.
A nerve hitched and he clenched it as best as he could.
Memory of falling sensation ingrained in his body's memory. His consciousnesses already had been gone. The red fiery in Serenity's eyes as she raged. He didn't mean to say he wanted stay behind. All he wanted was to say he had new idea and that they cloud use a break from stealing. He needed a break from that. It's been taking toll on his body and mind back then.
Forcing his mind control over his fine body and pushing at molecular level wasn't a walk in a park on best days. And it's been going on for years without a day off. He was loosing it. He needed to fly and to rest.
Nate was the one that made it feel like a breeze. But he was struggling as well.
Noel knew for a while his friend and brother was struggling with some health issue. It was hard to tell what but he knew Serenity must know. She was the mental type just like her sister just different however somewhat same.
He was the shadow man like Nate. But Nate was also technopath. He could touch the electronics and make them listen to him. He could command machines and let them do his will.
He wished he had it though.
It'd come super handy on the ship like Enterprise.
He'd be more of use if he could talk to engines and know what's up.
But all he could do now was to crawl his way up to deck and try to pilot the thing. Or tumble into a battleship and shoot at the enemy.
It's all his capabilities were left to be.
His thoughts jumbled slightly as he kept clenching his fist. The red in her eyes reflected deep inside his heart as the force of energy fed up all the coverage of force field trip system on that damn building. She should be called Phoenix instead. At least she looked like one. Going out in flames only to be reborn. And maybe she had. Noel could only hope.
Because one day he'd like to ask her if it was worth it. Just to tell her it truly wasn't and she'd been unfair.
After all it aggravated what was originally wrong with Nate and also made his heart ill.
Not to mention her outburst caused him tremendous injury that will never heal. His body was shattered beyond hope and only miracle got him back up. But it still was a ticking bomb of when it'll be taken away once again.
Maybe even forever….
•••••
Tragic visions slowly stole my life
Tore away everything
Cheating me out of my time
I'm the one who loves you
No matter wrong or right
And every day I hold you
I hold you with my inner child