FS93: *Sweat drop* Please don't kill me...
EK94: ...
FS93: I know I was supposed to have this up eons ago, but I kinda got busy
EK94: ...
FS93: and then I kinda forgot about it...
EK94: ...
FS93: Please say something...
EK94: ... I hold no responsiblilty of this taking so darn long. It's her fault.
FS93: Uhm... Enjoy?
Chapter Four: Journey to the Past - The Warehouse by the Bay
Naomi followed Elodie through the labyrinth of streets. She realized they were heading towards the sea when the breeze picked up and she smelled salt on the air. They came out of the dark streets, and Naomi found herself on the rocky shores of the bay, foamy water lapping at the rocks and throwing spray into the air. She could see the city directly across the water, sparkling like millions of gems in the sunlight. Looking down the beach, the saw a large, dilapidated building standing near the water, and assumed that was their destination.
"It's been a long time since I've been back here," Elodie whispered, staring at the building.
"What is this place?" Naomi asked.
"This was the home of an old friend of mine. I met him five years after I ran away from the orphanage. He was a loner, like I was, but he was much different than I. He saw how desperate my situation was, and he was determined to be my friend. To this day, I'm not sure what made him take pity on me when no one else did."
Elodie chuckled softly, her mind swirling with memories. "He chased me around for a week, trying to convince to give him a chance. I was still afraid he would betray me, but I eventually got sick of him pestering me and came here with him."
Elodie and Naomi had reached the front door of what the latter now saw was an old warehouse. Naomi followed Elodie inside, staring around curiously as she was lead through the building. The smell of decaying wood and sea brine was thick in the stale air, and the place looked as though it hadn't been touched for a couple years.
"You lived in this old dump?" Naomi stated wrinkling her nose. "With a guy?"
Elodie laughed at her tone. "It wasn't this bad back then. But, yeah, I did. For two years."
"Two years?"
"Yup. The boy's name was Kalin. He was my best friend - after I learned to trust him. He taught me how to duel and fight, and he showed me that there was still some good in Satellite. With Kalin, I was able to let go of some of me fear and gain self-confidence. He made me stronger than I had ever hoped to be. He taught me to believe in myself and in my deck. He even helped me control my powers. This choker around my neck was a gift from him. It's specially wired to help me stabilize my powers. He took a terrified, helpless, hopeless girl and turned her into a fighter. We had many great duels together, Kalin and I. He was the miracle I had futilely hoped for, for years."
"But what happened?" Naomi asked. "I mean, obviously you don't live here anymore so something must have happened..."
Elodie stopped in front of a door and reached for the handle. Turning it, she opened the door and stepped through. Naomi followed and found herself in what only could have been a boy's bedroom. The bed, which was no more than an old mattress on the floor, still bore a moldy blanket and a moth-eaten pillow, unkempt and messy. Old copies of comics and maps and such were scattered across a tabletop; the closet stood open with a few items of clothing left in it. Elodie approached the table, and Naomi was unable to see her face as she sifted through the papers.
"I ran away," Elodie finally muttered in answer to Naomi's question. "Again."
"Why?"
Elodie picked up what looked like an old photograph. "I was scared. I had become to close to Kalin; I knew it would probably kill me if he left me. At the moment, I thought the only solution was to leave before he had the chance to. It was selfish and cowardly, I know, and I regret it very much."
Naomi could tell. Elodie's tone was miserable and guilt-ridden, and the way her shoulders slumped forward told Naomi she still felt the full weight of what she had done. Looking over Elodie's shoulder, Naomi saw the picture was of a brunette girl with a red jacket and hazel eyes sitting on the beach next to a tall, lanky boy with long-ish icy-blue hair, pale skin, and eyes like molten gold. Both of the kids in the picture looked to be in their early to mid-teens, and they were smiling at the camera as Kalin snapped the photo. Naomi couldn't help but notice how close Kalin sat to Elodie, how his arm was casually wrapped around her waist, how much the two of them looked like a couple...
"He loved you," Naomi realized, looking over at Elodie. The psychic's eyes showed unbelievable pain and remorse as she gazed at the photo and, at Naomi's comment, she bowed her head miserably, closing her eyes. That was the equivalent of a 'yes' in Naomi's book. "Did you love him?" she asked.
Elodie sighed, dropping the photo back on the table and pinching the bridge of her nose. "I don't know what I felt, Naomi. I was only sixteen. I could feel Kalin's affection for me, and there were times I thought I felt the same. But I didn't know what it was; I didn't know what love was. It scared me, Naomi. I was confused and frightened. I was still in too much pain from my past to be willing to get that deep in with someone. I was afraid the attachment I felt to him would turn out to be my own undoing. So I broke the connection. I ran away, but this time, there were many times I looked back. There are times I still think I'm looking back, even now, after all of these years..."
Elodie dropped into a chair near the table, her elbows resting on the wood and her hand covering her face. Naomi watched the psychic take a deep, shuddering breath, trying to compose herself. Naomi was at a total loss for words; she had no way to relate to Elodie in this instance, for she had never really felt romantically for anyone. But she was shocked to see that Elodie was still in so much pain from what happened, and despite her suspicions, she wished for some way to ease the hurt.
"Did you ever see him again?" Naomi asked quietly.
Elodie raised her head, looking out a nearby window with glazed, pain-filled eyes. "Not until just recently," she answered in a slightly choked voice. "A while after I left, he found some other guys - the same guys who are now my best friends, ironically enough - and formed a gang with them. But this gang was fighting to free Satellite and make the streets safe for everyone, not the other way around."
Elodie shoved a large piece of folded paper toward Naomi, who picked it up and unfolded it. The paper was a map of Satellite, she realized, but the different districts were colored over with black marker.
"One by one, Kalin and his gang took down all the duel gangs in each of the districts," Elodie explained. "But Kalin didn't want to stop there. Freeing Satellite was his dream, and his very soul was dedicated to complete domination through dueling. It became an obsession for him. The rest of the gang left, hoping he would get a grip on himself if he was left alone. They were wrong."
Naomi felt cold dread shudder through her at the psychic's words. She could tell by the way Elodie spoke and how her hands shook that something bad was coming.
"It was about a year after I'd left," Elodie continued, closing her eyes again and covering her face with her hand. "I was there, the night he went overboard. I had a vision of what he was about to do, and I went out to stop him. But... I was too late."
"What did he do?" Naomi asked , her voice almost a whisper.
Elodie looked at her through her fingers. "He went after Sector Security."
Naomi gasped. "He tried to take them out? by himself?"
Elodie closed her eyes again and nodded. "He planted a bomb in their tower and tried to blast them out of Satellite. When they went after him, he fought back with everything he had. He severely injured one officer. And he... he killed another."
Elodie slumped forward, the weight of the memory still crushing her. "I was there just in time to see Security drag him away, kicking and screaming. His friends were there too; like me they had tried to stop him from what he was doing. They never knew I was there, though. There was nothing I could do. I could only watch as he was carted off to the Facility.
Naomi felt as though she had been kicked in the stomach; she knew exactly how Elodie felt. She too had been forced to watch as security took her brother and closest and friends away. But unlike Elodie's friend, they had done nothing so drastically wrong, and they had been handed over by one they thought had been a friend...
"I was nothing less than torture," Elodie whispered, "to think about what had happened to the boy whom I had once called my best friend. I could feel everything he was going through in the Facility because of my powers. The worst part was the guilt I felt. I know I had broken his heart when I left, and I though that was part of the reason he went mad. It was even worse when he died."
Naomi stared at Elodie in horror, her heart dropping into her stomach. She knew how it felt to lose a friend to death, as well. The night her brother had been taken, her best friend had been shot, trying to escape. She had died right before Naomi's eyes. "He's dead?"
Naomi was shocked when Elodie gave a humorless chuckle.
"Actually," she said, "no, he isn't. I talked to him a bout a month ago, before he left Satellite for good."
Now Naomi was extremely confused. "You've lost me."
"He was dead, but dark forces brought him back," Elodie tried to explain. "His anger and desire for revenge allowed him to be reborn in the shadows."
Naomi blinked. "Still lost."
Elodie's lips twitched slightly. "I'll explain in more detail later, I promise."
Elodie leaned back in the chair, but sat up again when she felt something draped over the back of it. She picked up a brown, leather jacket with thin strips of fur lining the seams. It must have belonged to Kalin, Naomi realized. Elodie hugged the jacket close to her and sighed softly, and Naomi though she saw a tear escape from beneath her eyelids.
"So... What happened when you saw him again?" Naomi asked a little timidly. She was curious, but she didn't want to make Elodie feel more pain than she already did. To her dismay, Elodie cringed and winced, the expression on her face equivalent to one who had been stabbed.
"I... I'm sorry, I would rather not talk about that."
"That's okay," Naomi spoke quickly. "I understand."
Elodie set the jacket down in her lap and looked Naomi in the eye again. "You do understand," she stated. "You understand a lot more than I though you would. You've felt most of what I have been through, haven't you?"
The x-ray thing was back on, and Naomi found it even harder to resist those eyes. She found herself torn between wanting to keep her past a secret and sharing it with someone who had felt much the same way.
"You don't have to tell me everything yet," Elodie suddenly spoke softly. "Just know that I'm trying to help you because I really do know how you feel. That's why I'm telling you all of this."
Still holding the jacket, Elodie stood and moved toward the doorway. "I'm sure you're tired of hearing my sob stories, Naomi." She stood with a small attempt to lighten the mood. "The rest of my story is a bit happier, I promise."
Elodie looked over her shoulder at Naomi and smiled. "So follow me, Naomi. I hope you like kids."
Both: Please review!
EK94: Maybe it'll keep her from forgetting...