Today was officially my last day of High School ;_; I'm so sad happy right now, haha.
But back on topic, here is chapter 16 of Reversed. I don't know how I feel about it, I couldn't think of any other way to do a chapter like this...ehh, you'll know what I mean when you read it, if you read it xD I would highly appreciate critique and comments on this chapter in particular, but only if you feel up to it. Enjoy! It's full of big reveals.
Also, 3,969 words. Chapter 17 will be fun to write, I'll post it as soon as I'm finished with it.

Chapter 16: Star Sized Secret

"Her foot prints end at the water's edge, Sir!" one of the minions shouted in surprised.

The Logic was seething with barely capped rage, "Then after her!" He hissed. He glared at the two fish before him, "The both of you!"

"Do you really think she would have gone into the pond?"One of the two men behind him asked.

"It's the only place she could have gone; she must be hiding in the reeds or holding her breath. You two should search the surrounding area just to be sure."

The thoughts walked off in opposite directions as the minions knelt their robotic bodies down to dump themselves out of their glass domes and into the pond. The water was still murky and full of swirls of mud were it had recently been disturbed, that was a good sign the female human had gone this way. The first minion, a creature with a turtle-like head on a lobsters body, swam about the shallower regions and investigated the clusters of pond grass while the other, a flounder type specimen with needle teeth and serrated fins, searched the depths.

The first minion reached the rocks near the far end of the pond and tapped on a few of them with his claws. He came to the conclusion she wasn't hiding around the boulders and met with the other minion at the center of the pond. "Any luck?" The flounder asked, and the other shook his head negatively. The both of them resurfaced, "She's nowhere in the water!"

"She isn't in the trees on this side, either!" A thought shouted.

"I've found something!" The second thought stood up from his knees from where he'd been searching the bushes with something fuzzy and covered in dirt in his hands. The thing was wriggling in an attempt to escape.

"That's the girl's minion," The Logic growled as he approached. He snatched the teddy bear from the man's hands and gripped it by the throat, bringing it close to his face to he could look the machine in its sparkling black eyes. "Tell us where she is, you obsolete automation!"

"Classified," Abraham responded resolutely.

"Then you do know where she is." The Logic's hand tightened around Abraham's plush neck.

The robot was unwavering, "That information is in my confidence. Ms. Ritchi is no place you have not already investigated, simpleton."

"Simpleton! You're the one who's simple, you basic machine! Tell us where the human female is immediately, or I will be forced to extract the information from you myself and shut you down permanently – Arrgh!,"

The Logic dropped Abraham in momentary shock as suddenly beams of light erupted from Abraham's eyes and directly into his. He brought his hands up to cover his eyes in reflex and staggered back, then took his hands away to blink a few times. "It's blinded me! The atrocity has blinded me!"

Abraham took to all fours and dashed away into the shadows, but not without one of the thoughts seeing and giving chase.

The Logic rested against one of the many trees as he massaged his eyeballs. Eventually he began to regain some of his ability to see, and the first blurry thing he saw was a glowing orb floating in his direction though the woods. Had he not known what it was, he'd have thought he was hallucinating. "Where have you been?" He asked the sphere tersely, though he expected no response.

Within the orb was a translucent jellyfish of a pearly color which gave off a soft light. It rippled its body languidly within its tiny levitating enclosure as it moved horizontally through the air. The other minions, who had reentered their pseudo-bodies, backed away suspiciously as the third, bodiless minion approached the pond. The jelly was absent of any antenna but mysteriously still had control over the orb's movement.

"I still don't understand why we were forced to bring that thing with us," The thought who was still present mumbled, "I don't trust anything without a bilateral brain,"

"It was an order from the Mastermind herself. I don't understand it either, but I won't question it from her."

The two men and two minions watched as the Jellyfish disappeared into the water in a straight line; the course looked either to be premeditated, or aimless, both were equal as likely, and it never once faltered in its casual speed.

Roxanne began to regret her decision to swim through the tunnel beyond the holographic rock when she realized how long it was. It was dark and claustrophobic, with barely enough room to use her arms in some places, while in other areas she was practically crawling her way through. She kicked desperately with her legs, forcing herself to go as fast as she could. A swift current helped pull her in her desired direction, swimming backwards was not an option and turning around was impossible in the small space. Her lungs burned and she was getting dizzy, she couldn't resist the urge to take a breath much longer but she kept her mouth clamped shut. Where was the end to this thing? She was duly aware that the tunnel was at a downwards angle and she was swimming deeper underground.

And then there it was - the mouth of the tunnel's end. Roxanne grabbed the rim of the opening and pulled her way through, then pushed off with her feet towards the water's surface where a green light shown. She felt herself go through something that was denser than water, and was surprised when she fell down from where she had emerged, landing hard onto a hard surface, shoulder first.

Disoriented wasn't the proper word to describe the way she currently felt, in fact it was an understatement. Roxanne didn't even try to comprehend how she could have been swimming down through the water, and then fall down out of the water without going up first. Instead she laid there with her eyes squeezed shut, breathing hard in loud gasps and feeling sore.

When she opened her eyes after a long while of focusing on inhaling and exhaling, she saw above her was a huge green bubble of water miraculously holding its form around a hole in a plain grey wall. It was so large it encompasses part of the ceiling as well, but from what Roxanne could tell the ceiling was rather low anyway. Scooting on her butt to sit up a little, she reached out to touch the water's surface. It didn't immediately give away to her palm and was rather slimy, but when her hand went through it sent a great ripple through the mass. No water escaped when she took her hand out though her skin was wet, the hole she created in the membrane disappeared. Huh. Roxanne thought to herself numbly. That's something new. Not like everything else today has been normal.

Slowly she turned her head left to find what looked like an endless hallway of empty blackness. Looking right provided the same thing. What a wonderful place to be afraid of the dark. Her back ached as she sat up straighter and turned around, her blue eyes trailed up the floor behind her. It was made of metal and stone, or something like it, and a potential tripping hazard was provided by deep trenches. She counted six trenches, each slightly different in size, from about a foot's length to a foot and a half and about five yards apart from one another, and they all stretched infinitely into the darkness of the halls. Roxanne wondered if they were tracks to some kind of vehicle. Her eyes continued to rise until she saw the other wall opposite her. It was a good distance away from her and rather shadowy, but she could see large bulky shapes taking up space there. It was time to stand up and investigate.

With a slight groan, Roxanne crawled away from the water bubble and shakily stood up. Her legs trembled and her bad ankle throbbed more than ever, but she started to walk forward anyway. Previous thoughts of this place being some kind of tunnel for a train or metro were dashed when she got closer to the trenches and saw they too were plunges into never ending darkness. She was careful stepping over them as she hobbled toward the farther wall.

The only light in this place was what managed to leak through the long tunnel beyond the water bubble, which was beneath rocks and a pond with various plants, all of which was hidden in a wood, not to mention the star was down by now. In short, there was little to no light at all. Roxanne shook off any remaining moister from her hands and reached in to grab the two dehydrated spheres in her pocket. Their glowing blue quality provided enough illumination to help her see.

The bulky shapes turned out to be control panels of some sort, but none like what Roxanne had ever seen before. The technology looked ancient – foreign even. Everything was layered in a thick blanket of dust, and Roxanne wondered what kind of forgotten place she had stumbled upon. She ran her hand over one of the panels, gently brushing away the filth to reveal a keyboard. She risked pushing one of them, and was rewarded with a faint tap sound, but nothing else happened. It was strange seeing a keyboard that wasn't flat, or chrome, or touch screen.

A cabinet caught her attention. She tugged at the door a few times and it finally opened up, giving much resistance. She had to put a lot of power into the action; the door simply did not want to budge. Once fully agape, she looked inside. She gave a gasp and covered her mouth, it echoed throughout the passage. Before her was something she didn't believe still existed on this planet.

With trembling hands she reached in a picked up one of the many books from the stash. "Oh my life…" Her heart was filled with a strange excitement at her discovery. It was rare to find items so aged. Things weren't allowed to get old on Caelumar, because it wasn't long before they were obsolete and replaced with the next best thing. Newer, better, faster, stronger, smarter. Cleaner, shinier, crisper, more orderly.

The books before her were tattered and brittle, paled and with broken spines. And they were absolutely beautiful. The volumes still on the shelves seemed to be manuals and guide books, and they all seemed interesting. But the tome she held in her hands was particularly unique, because it was a journal.

It was leather bound with a plain front and back, and it creaked as she opened it. The first page had written on it the name 'Infinend'. Roxanne let out a shuddery breath. This journal was hand written. Not typed, hand written. Hand writing was a dead art, one she hadn't even bothered to teach herself. Flipping through the pages she saw the hand writing changed from entry to entry. She concluded that Infinend was not one, but many authors. It was a book filled with the thoughts and stories of forgotten individuals. Chills raced up her spine. Roxanne couldn't wait to read it. There wasn't much else for her to do while she stayed hidden.

Roxanne suddenly realized that the light and the room had grown, and was continuing to grow. Had someone followed her? She looked back to the water bubble and saw the light was coming from the tunnel. Without much thought, she threw herself into the cabinet and closed the door, which was luckily far easier to close than open. Her heart was racing again, or perhaps it never stopped racing from before, she wasn't sure. Her head wasn't exactly clear right now.

Fresh concern flooded her thoughts when she saw what exactly had followed her into the secret hole, and she wondered if she was seeing things. A jellyfish within a water filled orb emerged from the bubble with barely a ripple, made its way to the very center of the hall, and simply stayed there. It pumped its glowing body aimlessly, the orb concrete mid-air. Roxanne contemplated the danger of being seen by a jellyfish, if jellyfish could even see, but decided not to take a chance. It had come down here for a reason, and it gave off an ominous vibe.

After a few minutes of doing nothing, the jelly retreated exactly how it came. Roxanne let out the breath she'd forgotten she was holding in and put her hand over her heart. She climbed out of the cabinet and looked regrettably at the shelf of books she had squashed with her rear; luckily she didn't damage them much further than they were already.

She looked at the journal she still held in her hands and back to the water bubble. Despite her confidence that she hadn't been seen and that nothing else would be coming down to search for her, she decided to stay close to the cabinet in case she needed to jump inside again. Roxanne sat down on the freezing floor with her back to the cabinet doors and opened the book up to its first entry, trying to ignore how cold and wet she was. The date written in the upper corner of the page was unintelligible, and the words were in the symbols of a language she didn't recognized. Frowning, she turned the page. This time the words were in her native tongue, she guessed the first entry had been written twice. Skipping ahead she found this was the pattern throughout. How curious. Flipping back, she returned to the first entry and began to read.

"It is the same thing each time with these Earth-Tones, always thinking of bazaar new projects that would be otherwise impossible without our technology. Pyramids, statues, and walls for no other reason than to honor deities, it's completely illogical. They even view us as some kind of supernatural race and worship us as gods. They would be hopeless without us. We, the Sky-Tones, have such intelligence and inventiveness held within out massive craniums, while their cranial capacity is much less impressive."

Roxanne paused. How old is this journal exactly? These Sky-Tones sounded like the Scirians enough, but these Earth-Tones…she continued the entry.

"Being forced to cohabitate with their kind is unfortunate and unfair. No matter how distant we keep from them, they merely return and pray harder at our feet for our miracles. And no matter how pleasurable it is to be treated as divine, we cannot help but feel we are meant for something greater beyond our humble origins. We Sky-Tones are planning a voyage to relocated somewhere past this sky, to a place we can call our own dominion. I believe the voyage will be successful. What better explanation for the color of our skin than it being a prophecy? Sky blue – clearly our kind is meant for great things beyond the stars.

~Infinend"

She shivered, but not from the cold. These Sky-Tones were most definitely Scirian, that much was clear. The other bits of information she was given were confusing though, and made her feel odd. The next entry only added to it.

"The planet we have claimed is completely blue from afar, and mostly water. Blue is our signature color; clearly this was meant to be. It shall be called Caelumar. No longer are we 'Sky-Tones'. We are Skyrians, for we have conquered gravity and space, we are of the sky.

~Infinend"

Roxanne went to the next page and felt her chest tighten.

"From Caelumar we have watched the Earth-Tones. They have renamed themselves 'Humans'. They should call themselves 'Humor-mans' instead, because their slow progression is comical. I find it hard to believe we evolved from such a pathetic ancestor.

~Infinend"

The journal hit the floor and it was kicked away in a flurry. Roxanne hugged her knees to her chest and tried to control her breathing as she stared at the book now sprawled out on the floor, pages down. Scirians and Humans shared an ancestor. No, scratch that, Scirians evolved from Humans. They were a branch of Human being! If this was so, why does everyone act like she's an alien; why isn't this common knowledge? How does no one know about Earth? What other huge secrets did this diary contain?

Roxanne wasn't sure if she wanted to find out, yet her natural curiosity over powered her apprehension. She had to know. Taking a deep breath, she picked the book back up and continued where she left off. She skimmed a passage about the discovery of intelligent fish on the newly claimed planet, and the decision to experiment with combining robot technology with living organisms. The following passage caught her eye again; it had been written several years after the previous ones.

"When we relocated to this planet, we were well aware of its slow revolution around the Sun. We did not know until recently, though, that its path of orbit is extremely eccentric. Currently, we are at the perfect position with the Sun for life sustaining conditions. Eventually this will no longer be the case. Slowly but surely we are venturing further and further away from the Sun, to the point where our planet will become frozen and inhospitable. Whatever the case, however, we refuse to return to Earth. A plan is in development to save Caelumar. By using materials from the neighboring planets we will construct a massive retractable dome which will cover the entirety of the planet, preserving the atmosphere and keeping us warm until we are once again close to the Sun.

~Infinend"

Looking up from the text, Roxanne studied the tunnel she was in once more. It dawned on her that she must be in one of the places the domes retracted to, hidden completely under the crust of the earth. The trenches in the floor weren't tracks; they were the edges of the dome. According to the next date, it wasn't until 2,500 years later the journal was picked up again to be written in. By the entry's words it seemed the book had been forgotten by society, until an event came that was paramount enough to write down on paper.

"Many developments have been made since the last time ink was put to paper in this antique record. We are polishing cyborg technology, specifically the engineering of sentient ichthyoids capable of comprehending language and communicating, as well as having the ability to manipulate machines with brain signals to perform simple tasks. Our scientific clarity and understanding of the universe has become our legacy, and our domination of the sky is ancient history. We have renamed ourselves once again. No longer are we Skyrians, now we are Scirians! We are people of science! The most important event to pass was our departure from the Solar System. Caelumar's orbit was too extreme and as a result escaped the Suns pull. For a while we drifted through space as a wondering planet. The domes we built to protect us held up, though, and we survived under a metal sky. Fate was in our favor, however, and destiny came upon us when a new star pulled us in. The star was named Igneefe in honor of the newly ignited flame of our life here in this system. Other planets orbit this star. Discovery awaits.

~Infinend"

She briefly read the next paragraph, which was about making contract with the Povoirians. It described them as humanoid with intelligence beneath their own, and with strength in their physical and other natural abilities. It went on to say studies would be discreetly conducted upon them and their planet, after making allies with them. The passage that followed gripped her, and Roxanne found she could not stop reading once she began.

"Looking back at our humble beginnings, we have found the Humans have begun to advance at an increasing rate. We feel it would be in the best interest that the scirian race stays ignorant of Earth and Human existence. If it was known, people would be tempted with the concept of integration. This should be avoided at all costs. By sending out multiple probes into space we will use cloaking technology to completely hide the Solar System. When observers look up into the sky, they will see nothing but blackness. From now on we are our own species. We have always been on this planet, and we have always orbited Igneefe. Destiny, let it be so.

~Infinend"

"Observations of the Humans are concerning. They are now advancing at an alarming pace. Already have they breached the sky and have begun exploring well beyond their own moon. This is an aggressive race. Something must be done, will be done.

~Infinend"

"A prototype weapon has been designed. We call it a Star Catalyst. It is designed to travel to the core of a star and quicken its expiration. We will continue to perfect this first model.

~Infinend"

"The Catalyst Model 1 has been launched in a direct course to the sun. It will penetrate in exactly 16 earth days. It will activate on contact. In 1,000 years, the sun will die. Infestation of the Human kind will be prevented in their extinction, fate willing.

~Infinend"

Even before Roxanne could comprehend what she had just read, tears began to stream down her freckled cheeks. The death of the sun wasn't a natural occurrence. The human race hadn't simply ended; it had been exterminated, by no other than the blue people her parents had sent her to for her own protection. Oh, how wrong they had been. How very, truly wrong.

Understanding hit her like a ton of bricks. It was no wonder she had been targeted by the scirian government, she was a parasite whose existence was never supposed to be known. By simply being here, she was threatening to reveal a secret that had been kept for eons. And now, thanks to Deciemesh, it was a well known fact to anyone who knew the true history of this planet, that their master plan had been unsuccessful by the survival of two unfortunate souls.

Bernard. I have to warn Bernard! The thought came to her in a rush, but she didn't stand up. She couldn't. Her legs were numb and so was her mind. She could only bring herself to curl up into a ball and weep while digesting the horrific information. She wished Abraham was there.

The Logic brought a hand up to his ear and pressed a button on the communicator he was wearing. Today had been a long day of failure for him, but hopefully it hadn't been a total loss. They had been given orders to do away with the female first, but he had sent his own minion out to investigate the male for when his time came.

"Thrashers," He annunciated into the air, "Thrashers, can you hear me?"

"Yes, I can hear you, Sir." A gravely female voice replied. She sounded worried.

"We've ran into some complications involving capture of the female. What's the status of male?"

"We'll, Sir…" The voice was reluctant to speak.

"We'll, what?" The Logic growled.

"The male has vanished, Sir. He's no were to be found."