A/N: Soooo, it's been a ridiculously long time since I last updated this, but after re-reading the story and watching the very sad portrayal of it at the movies, I've gotten the inspiration to start again. I don't know long it will be between updates, but I assure you it won't be longer than three weeks. Any way, here's the next chapter, and if you're one of the few followers who last read this months ago, I really recommend re-reading the last three chapters...I know I had to and I'm the author!
"Jon...Joooon...JON...Jonathan!" exclaimed Jack as Jonathan blearily opened his eyes, blinking them madly as he tried to regain clarity in his vision. Once his sight cleared, he saw the face of his best friend Jack not three inches from his own.
"GAH!" he screamed, pushing his friend away from him whilst jumping away from him. The push sent Jake to the floor of his bedroom, while Jon's head met the wall that his bed was pushed against. Groaning in pain and annoyed by his friends laughter and amused smug face, he said, "What the hell, Jake! Trying to give me a heart attack?!"
Jake just continued to laugh, even as he picked himself up from the floor. "Ah, quit whining you big baby. It's summer! We've got two and a half months of freedom! Let's do something, and stop wasting the day away in your bed! I thought you were the adventurous one."
Jon rolled his eyes and got off his twin sized bed, ruffling his hair as he pushed his friend aside to get to his dresser. "Then we're going out and actually doing something. Meaning we're spending the day outside and not in some arcade, or video-game store."
Jake grumbled a bit, but conceded and left the room as his friend changed.
Once he was dressed in crisp clean clothes, Jon walked out into his living room where Jake had already turned on his T.V and began watching one of his cartoons. Taking the control from Jake's pale hands, Jon turned off the T.V and picked his friend up from the collar and dragged him outside. "You woke me up, and now we're going to do something just like you wanted."
Pulling himself from the taller teen's grasp, Jake dusted himself off. "Fine, but please for all that is merciful, don't take me to your damned obstacle course of doom?"
Jon smirked at his grim looking friend, knowing how much he loathed the times he dragged him to the local gym where they kept a room fitted with a constantly changing obstacle course. Unlike Jon who craved physical exercise and testing his limits, Jake was a complete indoor person that would prefer playing computer or consul games or the like.
"Aww, come on! You'll never get the muscles the ladies love without exercise!" Jon said, smirking at his friends paling face.
"A logical mind is all anyone should need to get a decent girlfriend! I don't want some bimbo who doesn't know the difference between something simple like Star Wars and Star Trek!"
Jon laughed at his friend. Despite their differences, they both shared a love for science fiction, though Jake preferred Star Trek over Star Wars. How anyone could think the wonders of the Force was second rate to Star Trek was beyond him.
"Dude, those girls are diamonds in the rough. Super rare; especially around here where all they care about are how to better cake their faces with make-up or the newest trends." Jon said smirking as he jumped into his car and started her up, Jake finding his place in the passenger seat.
"I know! The only decent girl we know is Anabelle, and she's like...one of the guys!"
"Don't tell her that." Jon said with a slightly grim expression. "She'll castrate you..."
Shuddering, the two teens took off on the open road, enjoying the summer breeze with the windows rolled down. "You know, I had this dream last night..." Jake started.
"Oh? Now I'm not so sure I want to hear this..." Jon teased, earning a friendly punch to his arm courtesy of his friend.
"Shut it." Jake grumbled. "ANYWAY, I had this dream where aliens came down and took over."
"Okay? So what? We've watched tons of movies with that premise."
"No, they didn't just take over the world, or even kill the lot of us. We were still here, but...not at the same time, you know?"
Jon looked at his friend with a raised eyebrow. "You just had to get weirder, didn't you?"
"I don't know how we're friends...you can be such a jackass sometimes." Jake grumbled, rubbing his face with his hands.
Jon, however, just laughed and gave Jake a friendly nudge. "Dude, you wouldn't get rid of me, we've been together since Pre-K! Besides, you love my jackass-ed-ness."
"That's not even a word, Jonathan."
"It's Jon!"
Burns Living Flowers woke up from the dream...no memory with a small smile on his face. It was clear in the memories he had played through that this body and his friend Jake were extremely close, but what bothered him was that Jake was indescribably close to what had happened to the humans in his dream...
Rubbing his tired eyes, Burns stood up from the small cot that Nate had given him the day earlier. The location they were at now was completely underground, being lit only by small holes drilled into the ceiling that let the sunlight in. He had heard, that they were currently working on using their solar-panels to store enough energy to power lanterns so that they would still be able to work in the night hours, but for now, they were stuck dealing with darkness after the sun set in the desert they were in.
The entire base was rather large in size, connected by a series of hallways carved into the stone walls. The base was naturally formed from the little he had seen, but much of it had been supported with wooden beams just in case as the risk of a cave in was prominent underground. Nate had stationed him in a small room at what he assumed was the far end of the base, which he didn't mind. In all honesty, he had believed they would lock him up in some sort of cage as they had originally done so, but Nate was adamant at letting him have his own place, even if it was the furthest one from the center.
He remained in the small cell like room, blinking at the sunlight that illuminated it. From the looks of it, they weren't that far underground, as the ceiling was no more than twenty feet above him, but he would never truly know, and he was positive he would not see the sun for quite some time, if ever again since he had been captured by these humans. They would not trust him to leave with the knowledge of the base's location...and there was a very big risk of being killed...even if Nate had said he was under his protection.
"Good, you're awake." said a voice coming from the entrance of his small room. Looking to the archway, Burns saw the face of none other than Nate, the human who had defended and most probably saved his life.
"Good morning, Nate." Burns said politely, unsure of what to do.
"I brought you some food. Not much, but we won't have much for a while until I send some of the boys out to a run." he said placing a small plate and cup on a flattened rock that stood at about four feet.
"Th-thank you.." he said taking the small piece of bread on the plate and eating the pieces in small bites.
"I would have brought you to the dining area, but I don't think anyone else would have liked that." he admitted, though Burns could see he was hesitant to do so as well.
"It is fine." Burns said. "This is not my place...and I do not mean to upset an others if I can avoid it." When Nate gave a small nod, he continued, "What will you do with me?"
At the question, Nate gave a small sigh and answered honestly. "We can't send you on your way, as you know, and I'm not about to kill the...person, who saved my, and the rest of our lives." he paused before he continued, "You protected us even when you had the chance to go back to your own kind...why? You said you pity us, because of your...host body...but no one else seems to, so why?"
Burns looked at the human before him, true confusion and curiosity littering his expression and said, "This...body...he is strong, and his emotions have...merged with my own. You humans have the strongest emotions we souls have ever encountered, it rules your every decision and goes against all logic...this body has changed me, I suppose you could say, and I cannot bear to see if are taken."
"You...merged?" Nate asked curiously.
"I don't believe that is completely correct...his emotions have greatly connected with my own. I do not feel what he would have felt, but they influence me greatly."
Nate nodded before he said, "I think I need to give you a tour. Can you do anything? I mean, skill wise, can you?" he asked as he motioned for Burns to follow him.
"The body was adept at survival with the barest of tools. The swiss army-knife you took was one such tool that he used to survive in the wilderness for weeks and nothing else. Through his memories, I understand trap-making, various hunting techniques, and other basic to advanced survival skills."
"So you're a hunter?"
"I am not. I cannot bring myself to hunt a defenseless animal as this body had done. While I am not like most souls, that is still something I cannot bring myself to do."
Nate turned to face Burns completely and asked, "You're not like normal souls?"
Smiling a bit sadly, he replied, "Souls are societal beings, yet I have never considered myself at home among them. It is why I enjoy this body greatly, as it already had an instilled love for...adventure. My preferences would be considered too violent for most souls...they are my family, but I am...estranged from them."
Before Nate could deign to reply, another voice broke in their conversation.
"What is it doing out of it's cell?!" he screamed. If his memory served Burns correctly, it was the man known as Evans that spoke.
Nate glared at the man and said, "He is staying with us, he needs to know the base."
Another woman scoffed and spit on the ground, "We should just kill it and be done with it."
"We are not killing the person who saved our lives just yesterday!"
"It's a parasite! It could be lying! Biding it's time for the Seekers to come!"
Rather than Nate defending him, another woman he hadn't seen before answered. "He lied to the Seeker that pulled them over...he could have given us up then, but he didn't."
The woman was younger, and looked to be only about eighteen years of age. Her eyes in the dim lighting were a deep green that contrasted well against her porcelain skin, as did her dark chocolate brown hair that cascaded down to her lower back in light waves. Burns stared at her with something akin to shock. He hadn't expected anyone else to defend him other than Nate.
"IT, Danielle, IT. That thing is not a man!" screamed an older woman who looked to be about sixty years of age, give or take a few years. Her hair was a mixture of black and white, giving off the appearance of something grey from far away. The similarities between both Danielle and this woman were uncanny, and Burns couldn't help but wonder if they were related in some way.
"Whatever, gran. He saved us, the least we can do is keep him alive. He might even be able to help us get supplies."
"NO! We are not letting that monster out of this base. If we can't kill it," exclaimed a man who glared dagger at Nate, "then it's staying in this base and in it's cell."
Nate had had enough and said, "He will be allowed to walk within the confines of the base. He'll not be allowed to go top-side, but we will not do anything to harm him. Is that clear?!"
Nate's voice had risen dangerously, and the group that was before them angrily agreed, though Burns could see that there were many who did not agree in any way shape or form with what Nate was saying. And he doubted they would keep their word not to harm him.
"I'll...I think you should take me back, Nate... I don't want to do anything to upset them more..."
Nate turned to the soul and grudgingly agreed. Right now, they couldn't do anything to quell the others. "Give it a week or two and they'll simmer down..." Nate said as he led Burns back to his room/cell. When they arrived, Nate was about to turn and leave before he asked, "When you get put in...do they stay inside? Trapped in their mind?" his voice was low, and Burns knew that this man had lost someone, or someones, very close to him when the Souls began to occupy this world.
Shaking his head, he answered, "No. When a soul is injected into a Host body, the body's consciousness is...faded away." he could see Nate's eyes harden, but he hoped to do something to quell the mans emotions and continued, "There are...stories, or rumors I suppose, of Host bodies...fighting the Soul...rumors that their consciousness lives alongside out own, but I cannot be sure if they are true. The Seekers tell us that adult bodies are harder to assimilate to because they have...stronger wills than that of a child..."
Nate merely nodded his head, looking slightly more hopeful before he turned to leave, leaving Burns to stay in his cell and find something to occupy himself with.
The room was small, barely around 7x7 feet all around, but it was more than Burns needed. He wanted to help these humans, but he didn't want to hurt his family by doing so, even if he was never truly a part of the Soul Society...
It was a few hours later that another body came into his cell, and when Burns looked to see who it was, he was met with the face of the young woman that had also defended him earlier. Danielle, he believed was her name.
"Thought I might see if you had anything to do in this little place..." she began awkwardly.
"I am fine." Burns answered from his seated position against one of the rooms corners.
"So..." she began, choosing to lean against the archway, "What was your name again?"
"Burns Living Flowers." he answered calmly.
She looked speculative for a moment before saying, "Mind if I just call you Burns? Calling you by you're full name would be annoying after a while."
"I don't mind..." he said looking at the strange human girl before him. "You are Danielle, correct?"
"Yeah, Danielle Roquette." she introduced, "So, what was your...body's...name?"
Burns looked at her confused before he answered, "His name was Jonathan "Jon" Marlow. He was twenty-two when they inserted me into his body five months ago."
"Oh, okay..." she finished awkwardly, as though she didn't know why she had brought it up in the first place.
With a confused furrow of his brows, Burns asked, "Is there something I can do to help you?"
Danielle merely shook her head and said, "No, no, don't worry about it. Ummm...I'll go find you a magazine or book you can read. Staring at the walls doing nothing is a dull way to spend the day." Without another word, she left the room, leaving Burns on his own once again.
He didn't have to wait long until she brought him a paper-back book and handed it to him. The title was, The Kite-Runner by Khaled Hosseini, he hadn't gotten to thank her before she left the room in a rush, confusing Burns even more. He figured that she was, like the rest, uncomfortable with being so close to a Soul like himself, even though she seemed friendly enough earlier. With a small shake of his head, Burns began to read the book and was immersed with it so much that he didn't hear the sounds of people coming to his room.
By the time he did, he saw the angered faces of four men, all bearing blunt weapons in their hands.
Burns stood up and placed the book down, putting his hands in a placating pose, even though he knew that these men would not spare him.
Even though Nate had said he was not to be harmed, these men were here to kill him.
A/N: Yikes I feel so bad for not updating this since... October of last year? Yeah, October... I am soooo terribly sorry to those who actually have waited for this to update, but I hope that now it'll be of better quality and more enjoyable to you all than what it would have been had I updated all those months ago...