NorthernMage here with chapter 7, Outcasts! I swear, the amount of times I just want to high-five N and Renina in this chapter...anyway. Let's get to the story!

Guard: NorthernMage doesn't own Pokemon or FTL.

Outcasts: The Slug are being thrown out of the galaxy-and Renina's Slug genes are awakening.

Age:
N: 12
Renina: 11

General POV

Something was about to happen.

The senate had been more active than usual, and with the added guards, they hadn't been able to sneak out like usual, to their combined frustration.

Well, they couldn't sneak out of the senate. Around it was a completely different matter.

'Do you want to go this time?' N asked Renina as they looked at the air vent that would take them to the room that had been under guard for a good fortnight now. They were in the corner of Renina's room, and they had managed to move the bed to uncover the vent with a lot of pushing. Renina shrugged.

'Sure. Why not?' she replied, removing the cover and climbing in, banging her head on the roof. 'Hey N?' she called back to him.

'Yeah?'

'Can you even fit in here anymore?'

'Well, yeah, I guess.' N came and showed her, but both of them could tell it was getting a bit harder for him. 'At least you can fit easily.' he told Renina, who nodded.

'I might not be able to for much longer either, though.' She crawled into the vent, and out of sight.

A while later, Renina turned a corner and looked down through a grate into a room where all the activity had been around. The hallway before it had been completely covered in security cameras, and when they hadn't known what was going on earlier, they had nearly been questioned, until the guards realised who they were, and just told them to stay away. The voices were hard to hear through the grate, and from the height she was at, it wasn't easy to see who was down there. After a few minutes it became easier, because they started talking one at a time.

'We don't know what this could produce! It could create a war!'

'Or it might not, and protect us!'

'There's likely things they know, and might be willing to share with us if we're diplomatic with them!'

'King Ghetsis, what do you think?' Instantly the entire conversation (it was more of an argument to be exact) fell silent. Here it comes, Renina thought, inwardly sighing.

'Are there any obvious benefits to us by keeping them?'

'No, but-'

'Since there are none, we get rid of them.' She could hear chairs being pushed back.

'But what if there's retaliation from them?' the first voice demanded.

'We retaliate back.' As all the people started to leave the room, Renina began to crawl back along the vent. Who were they talking about? N might have a better idea.

When she got out of the vent at the other end, N wasn't waiting there like usual. They had agreed to wait for each other when they did this. She went out into her main room and looked, but he wasn't there either. As she went and moved her bed back into place, she knew what she had to do.

Now lying on the bed, she grabbed her holoplate, and quickly dialled N's number, and started to message him.

N?

Renina! Are you back?

Yeah. Where are you?

I heard a lot of people coming, so I went back to my room.

Oh.

Anyway, what did you hear?

They're thinking about getting rid of someone. It must be someone powerful, because one of the people there was worried about a war.

Just going to take a stab in the dark and say that wasn't Ghetsis.

Duh. Who do you think they're thinking of getting rid of?

No idea. Hang on, did you hear that?

No, what was it?

Suddenly the holoplate ran out of battery, and the screen went black. Great, just great, Renina thought as she plugged it in to charge.

As night fell, and N ate the dinner that had been dumped in front of their rooms, his mind went back to what Ghetsis had been talking about. What's going on? he wondered. Honestly, he was kind of sick of the way Ghetsis treated them. They were people, not machines that could be just ignored. Suddenly, a burst of light lit up outside, and N instantly dumped the food and raced to the balcony. To his right, on her balcony was Renina, who looked as interested as him to see what was going on. The entrance to the senate was lit up, and surrounded by guards was Ghetsis.

'The Slug are an alien race. They do not want to help us, and there is nothing useful gained by us protecting them. Therefore, all Slug, and people with active Slug powers, will be exiled immediately from the separate united systems.' He looked to Renina, who stared back at him. His Slug powers had been active for a while now, nearly a year.

Does he know? she mouthed to N, her mouth hard to read against the fading light. He shook his head, hiding the fear. It was only a matter of time until Renina's Slug genes started working. Then they'd both be at risk.

That night, Renina lay in bed, looking up at the ceiling. The look on N's face when he looked at her terrified her. She was eleven, but still saw him as everything to her. During one of their escapes outside, she had seen a boy and a girl around their age. The way they had acted with each other wasn't even close to how N and herself acted. But then, they're not in here. We only have each other. Slowly she fell asleep, as she had grown out of the need for N to come and check on her at night.

She was...somewhere. Renina looked around but she couldn't see anything except impenetrable black. Then, everything changed. She was floating in space, stars glittering and planets wrapped in cloud. Instinctively her hands shot to her throat, and after a few moments Renina realised she wasn't going to suffocate.

She felt herself being pulled, and was suddenly in front of a yellow planet. As she watched, a shockwave ripped through space, knocking her back a little. The planet dissolved into a blazing ball, and as it imploded, ships shot past her, but none showed signs of noticing her.

Then, she was fiercely tugged amazingly fast towards a planet, and was thrust into a sealed area. Above her was a metal roof, and the ground sloped down in a bowl shape, with a relatively thin rim around it for walking on. A man was securing a large box to a huge pillar, one of three supporting the roof. As she had a closer look at the pillars, she realised they were actually huge pistons. As the man finished, she was pulled far upwards, through the roof, and seeing a building, she realised it had been a room under the building. The building, which was covered by mist, started falling into the hole, and breaking apart.

Then, scenes started flickering through her mind almost too fast for her to see. A hooded person was changing bullets out of a gun, and inserting some kind of needle instead. They hurried out of the room, and started running down a hallway. Partway down, they entered a room, and climbed into a vent. They crawled down the vent and after a while, they stopped and pointed the gun out of a hole in the wall of the vent. Everything became foggy for a moment, and for a split second Renina's entire vision was taken up by the image of two eyes opening. As the fog cleared, ten silhouettes took it's place. As she watched, one more joined them. Then, she fell backwards, and as she tumbled down, into deep space, she felt like she had plunged into cold water.

Renina's eyes shot open and she sat up, gasping. 'What was that?' she whispered to herself. She felt as if her body was in overdrive, her senses working too well. A horrible thought occurred to her. What if that was my Slug genes awakening? It can't be, not today! She took a deep breath. Calm down, it could just be a dream. She looked to her bedside table where her holoplate was charged. She concentrated hard on it, and after a few minutes, it slid over to her. Renina covered her mouth and tried hard to keep calm. It's going to be fine. Just don't let Ghetsis find out either of us have active powers. As she slowed her hyperventilating breathing, her adrenaline drained away and she soon fell asleep again, this time without dreams.

When she woke up next, she tried to remember the dream she'd had. Darkness, then light, a burning planet, a building that was falling into a hole and breaking apart as it fell, someone climbing along a vent and aiming a gun out of a hole, someone hurriedly swapping something out of the same gun, a silhouette joining ten others, and then just eyes opening. That's all I can remember, but I'm sure it was more than that! Giving up, she got dressed and hurried to where she ate every morning.

She was the last to enter by a few seconds, and quickly sat down beside N. Time went by as they ate. When can I tell him? He needs to know! Underneath the table, she tapped his leg. His eyes flicked to her. She put her hand on his chair and wiggled it, making it look like a worm, but N got the idea: it represented a Slug. She then tapped the side of her head, completing her message: My Slug powers activated. He stared at her in complete shock.

Fake being sick, a voice inside her head said. It sounded like N. She looked at him in confusion. Telepathy, remember? she heard, again with N's voice.

Ok, she thought back. In a heartbeat N had started making pained noises, and she followed his lead as they wandered out of the room, pretending they were sick. The moment they were out of the room, they made for Renina's room.

'Are you sure?' N and Renina had been testing out Renina's powers the entire day, but there was still a part of N that really didn't want to admit it. 'It could be something else. I mean, isn't there something about people knowing what the other person is thinking?' Renina sighed.

'N, that's with twins, and rare I think. Even with that, how do you explain the telekinesis?'

'Magnets in the walls of the senate?'

'Why would there be magnets?' Renina asked him, stunned but frustrated at his answer.

'Some dumb security reason, I don't know. Practically everything Ghetsis does is for a stupid reason, why not this too?'

'N,' Renina said quietly, 'magnets don't explain my holoplate moving exactly when I want it to.' A small smile spread across her face. 'It doesn't explain how I can do this, either.' Slowly but surely, N started to lift up off the floor. As his feet reached her chest level, he dropped and Renina collapsed, panting.

'Renina!' He ran over to her. 'Are you okay?' She nodded.

'I'm just really...tired.' she mumbled, closing her eyes. Her breathing changed to soft and slow, and N realised she had fallen asleep. He took a look at her, and thought hard.

I can't get her actually into her bed, but I could try and get her onto the couch. Grabbing Renina's arms, he pulled her slowly towards the couch in the centre of the room, and eventually got her up onto it. Sighing, he left the room, and went to go and sleep as well.

After the past two days, now that both of them were in danger for the rest of their lives...

He didn't want to deal with Ghetsis for a while.