The Outsiders: Year Three (pt. VII)

Startled, Hara whipped around, his helmet dropping on the sands, his blade out and ready to strike.

The woman in front of him stood still, watching him.  She was as tall as he was, willowy, with bronze, weathered skin, and silver, waist-length hair blowing in the gentle breeze.  She wore no clothing, but was adorned with various bracelets, anklets, and tattoos that Hara noted looked quite ancient.  Her most striking feature, however, were her eyes, which were a solid golden hue, matching that of the pendant that rested upon her chest.  She spoke with a familiar voice, encapsulating and enchanting.

"It has been a long time since the Children of Corangar have even set foot upon this world, let alone dared to breath its sweet air without protection."

Hara stared, not knowing what to say.  She started forward, and, reflexively, he raised his blade.  She smiled reassuringly.

"I mean you no harm, Thestian."

"Why do you keep calling me that?" he asked, taking a step back.  He needed to make sure he kept a safe distance from her, he thought, as he tried to analyze her offensive capabilities.  Thunder continued to rumble behind him.

She cocked her head to the side.  "Have you forgotten your roots, Child?  I suppose it has been quite a long time to your kind..." she trailed off, seemingly lost in memory.  Hara waited a moment before pressing the question.

"When did you come here? When did you leave Nykna?"

She looked at him then, her eyes gently narrowed in curiosity.  "Whatever do you speak of, Child?"

"You are a Daughter of Nykna, right? When did you arrive on this planet?"

She seemed amused at the inquiry.  "I know not of what you speak, Hara, Son of Thestus."

"How did you -"

She paid no mind to his question, speaking over him.  "I have always been here.  My father was here, he was the beginning.  Your kind came next, but were nothing before me, and my siblings.  I had older brothers and sisters, and younger ones too.  And we have been tied to the fate of this world since its inception.  Time has been cruel.  We strayed from our purpose, fought and bickered.  Shepherds, turned wolves.  In the end, you all left, but we remained...and are not long for this world, I'm afraid," she sighed.  Hara realized that she had moved closer to him as he had stood, transfixed by her ethereal figure and her divine voice.  He hesitated a moment and sheathed his blade.  She nodded her approval.

"So you are not an alien?"

"I am of Agraea, forever and always."

"Agraea?  That's what this place is called?"

"This land," she gestured, opening her arms to indicate their surrounding.  "Shaped by my father, at first.  And then by us, in an age of old."

"Shaped?"

"We made the land as it is, Hara.  My brothers and sisters and I.  The desert is my domain, and has certain bounds.  The mountains to the north do as well.  As does the influence of that volcano you find yourself so drawn to," she said, walking past him.  He turned to find her staring at the rainclouds showering the lone mountain and the surrounding plains.

"You made this land?"

"Yes."  They were silent for a moment, watching the rains fall on the plains.  He felt a strange comfort in her presence.  A contentment.  Now that she was closer, he could see how thin she was and could sense her age.  He would have been happy to sit in silence for a while, but he had one other question on his mind.

"You keep mentioning that I'm a 'Son of Thestus.'  What do you mean?  My father was a scientist on a far away planet."

"But he is of a lineage," she replied, finally turning to look him in the eyes.  "The mountain," she said, raising a gaunt arm to point.  "It calls to you because you and your blood are of it, of The Great Wyvern.  This is why you are here, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your kind fled this world.  Why you left...does not matter now.  Where you disappeared to, we did not know.  Those of us left, we tended to this world as best we could, but without you, we are lost.  Left to decay.  We thought ourselves eternal, but now we find ourselves ephemeral.

"But you have returned now.  And within you I feel the Gift, and my brother's touch upon your very fiber."  She placed a hand on the chestplate of his suit.  "You have returned to take up the mantle left behind by those who took to the skies.  For that I am grateful, to know that we are not forgotten."  Hara kept silent, not knowing what to say, not wanting to ruin, what he sensed, was her last shred of comfort.  "Be warned though, Child.  In old age, Thestus has gotten quite ornery."

She started to move away, back towards the desert.  He called after her, and she paused.

"Won't you come with me?  I...I don't even know your name," he admitted, sheepishly.

The woman turned, with a sad smile on her face.  "I cannot leave this land, Hara.  This desert and I are bound.  Safe travels, Child."  Before he realized, she had disappeared, and before him was the gaunt lioness.  Turning tail, it disappeared over a sand dune, leaving Hara to his thoughts.

The Outsiders: Year Three (pt. VI)

"What the hell was that?" he asked, raising this voice to be heard over the shower.  The steam that had escaped when he had opened the door started to fill the room again.

"What was what?" she called back, nonchalant.  He ripped open the curtain and immediately regretted it.  He caught her smirk as he turned away, balling his fists.

"You know full well what you did.  That...that wasn't..." He tensed as her warm hand touched his shoulder and she embraced him.

"I sensed that you needed to relax, to take your mind off of things.  Where I come from, this is one such...method to accomplish that.  Unless I'm mistaken, it was something you wanted too...right?"  She sounded worried, he noticed, and he exhaled to steady himself, shrugging out of her arms.

"I...look, that isn't the point.  You manipulated me.  I was -"

"- I did what I did to comfort you, to make you feel better!" she interrupted.

"Comfort?!" He whipped around suddenly, engulfed with rage.  "That wasn't comfort!  I opened up to you, I was vulnerable, and you took my feelings for you and you did that thing," he gestured wildly at her eyes, ignoring the shock on her face, "and you took advantage of me.  How the hell is that comfort?"

"Hara..." she started, tears swimming in her eyes.  "I...I didn't mean to, I just...I wanted to make you feel better.  I thought we were..." She reached out, but he pulled away.  The anger was probably misdirected, he thought.  He hadn't had an outlet for it since he left the Institute, and it was likely tainting his reaction.  Try as he might, though, he couldn't let it go.

"Look.  Honestly? I do care about you.  But you didn't need to convince me or whatever you did.  That was a breach of trust.  You should've just...asked? I don't know, anything but what you did.  You...Aela, its just, maybe we shouldn't take this any further."

To her credit, she only looked stricken for a moment.  Ever the consummate soldier, she composed herself in an instant and, her jaw set, nodded.  "Shower's yours, O'Ans," she said, stepping past him.  "Best make it quick; D.D. is expecting us in 20."

He sighed, alone with his thoughts.  He did the right thing, he told himself, as he showered.  It was wrong of her to do what she did.  Sure, he did want it, want her, but that was not excuse for taking advantage of him.  The devil's advocate in his head, however, begged to differ.  Maybe he should just explain that he hadn't meant it, that he did want to be with her, and maybe he was overreacting.  He could feel the indecision gnawing at him as he got dressed.  Why did he feel so at odds?  He had thought this was fairly cut and dry.  And yet here he was, feeling guilty.  Absolutely absurd, he reflected, as he crossed over to the lander.  Aela was inside, armored up, her helmet on and visor darkened.  She didn't say anything as he walked past into the deployment bay.  He donned the Vector suit, ruminating on the events of the previous night.  As he finished suiting up, Hara had made up his mind.  He decided that he wanted to talk to her while they looked for the Mirzaj.  When he stepped outside, Aela was standing with D.D., who turned as Hara approached.

"Well, O'Ans.  It seems you've convinced Arturi that you need to go on a scouting trip."

"Oh," Hara replied, caught be surprise.  He had completely forgotten his separate objective for the day.  "I guess I have."  D.D. continued speaking.

"O'Ans, you will search as you please.  I expect a return and report by sundown today.  Yokan and I will continue with the primary objective due east from camp.  Any words for him before we depart?" D.D. asked, turning to Aela.  Her visor remained darkened and her voice was cold in reply.

"None."

Hara could see D.D. raise an eyebrow, but he didn't address the issue.  Hara saluted and headed for the exit.  The talk with Aela would have to wait.  He had a job to do.  Leaving the camp, he walked several paces east before igniting the jetpack and jumping straight into the early morning air.  Wind readings reported a relatively calm day, with winds from the east.  That should help with fuel, he thought, as he turned westward, flying towards the last sighting of his mysterious lioness.

Half an hour in, Hara realized that he should have given this search more thought.  The desert stretched, seemingly endlessly, all around him.  Without a single lead to follow, he was just burning fuel.  It didn't help, he considered, that all he could think of was getting back to Aela and setting things straight.  Hara rose, preoccupied, even further into the sky.  He could see to the south, on the horizon, the dormant volcano that he had flown by on his way to his comrades.  He felt a strange pull then, towards that lonely peak.  He had seen it last night in his dream.  Hara could hear the voice faintly echoing in his head.  Otun, it had been called, back before the Empire had arisen, when the gods and goddesses still held sway on the land.  

"Where are you?" Hara muttered, moving slowly towards the mountain, scanning the land below him.  He had no doubt about the owner of the voice in his dream, or the source of the dream itself.  Arturi had mentioned that the lioness was an ancient alien, capable of things that normal people were not.  While dream projections were somewhat peculiar, Hara had seen enough oddities among his travels in the universe to not be too concerned.  Still, this being would be a powerful one, and one that he would have to be careful around.

He wracked his brains as he dipped downward, meandering towards the mountain, skimming the dunes.  What else had he gotten from his dream?  There were a couple of names on the tip of his tongue, ones that he felt might have vital import to his current mission.  He mulled it over as the peak grew closer and closer.   Without realizing it, Hara had come to the edge of the desert.  He landed lightly and checked his HUD.  Enough fuel to lap around the volcano and get back to camp in time.  Taking a short break, he looked at his destination.  The mountain was framed by dark clouds, threatening a torrential downpour.  Thunder rumbled in the distance.  In stark contrast, the sky behind him was bright blue, the sunlight assailing the dunes without reprieve.  He thought for a moment and hailed Aela.

"What do you want?" came the reply, through the static in the link.

"I was just wondering if we could talk," he replied, staring into the distance.  It had started to rain heavily, south of the volcano.  The tall grasses of the plains swayed violently in the wind.

"If you don't have anything on-topic to say, I'm a little busy with our mission," she said, curtly.  He sighed.

"Fine.  I'm leaving the desert for the bit, heading southwest of camp, towards the volcano I passed by on my way in.  Just keeping you posted."

"No need to."  She cut the link, leaving him dejected.  He did a systems check and diagnostics came back positive.  Hara had been recording data constantly since departing in the morning.  Environmental data would be particularly interesting to Arturi and to those in the Archives.  He pulled up what he had covered so far and the data gave him pause.  The atmospheric readings looked phenomenal.  He hailed Aela again.

"This better be good."

"Aela, the atmospherics.  Have you read them?"

"Naturally.  Abysmal.  Why?"

"They aren't though.  Not here, at the edge of the desert.  My readings are...normal."  She heard the implication.

"Don't do it."

"Why not?  There's no reason not to."

There was a pause on the other end.  "D.D. says under no circumstances are you to endanger yourself in a such a reckless way.  Don't be so stupid as to think that -" Hara cut the link, rolling his eyes.  He noticed that she was hailing him, but he ignored it.  He was sure that the rest of her commentary would be about the malfunctioning sensors on the Vector, as she and D.D. had been experiencing on and off during their time on the planet.  But the Vector had never let him down, and the small visual issues the day before were substantiated by the very real entity that Hara was trying to meet.  He reached up slowly and, after a moment's hesitation, pressed on the bilateral latches in the rear of the helmet.  With a hiss, his helm disengaged and he gently removed it it.  The warmth of the sun behind him was encouraging and the breeze from the plains was welcoming.  He slowly exhaled and, gambling, took a deep breath in.  For a moment, nothing happened.  And then -

"That was very brave, Thestian."

The Outsiders: Year Three (pt. V)

"HARA! Hara, wake up!"

His woke with a start, gasping for air, with Aela holding him down by his shoulders, peering worryingly into his face.  His jaw was sore and he was drenched in sweat.  The visions in his head had faded as soon as his eyes had open, but the sense of loss still lingered.  Taking deep breaths, he steadied himself and sat up, propping himself up with his arms.  Aela withdrew, sitting in seiza, placing a hand on his chest to caution him.

"Easy soldier.  Are you alright?"

"Yeah...yeah, it was just..."

"A bad dream?" she offered, a sad smile on her lips, her iridescent irises glowing in the dark.  "Hara, you were having a fit.  I mean, a full on seizure.  You were yelling and twisting...Stay here, I'll go grab the MediKit."  She made to rise.

"No, Aela," he grabbed her arm.  "I'm good. Truly."

"No, Hara, you aren't."  Her voice had grown sharp in anger.  "You won't talk about it, but you know as well as I do that you cannot lose like you did and still be okay!  For the love of Mino, you've got to talk about it."

He sighed, laying supine with his hands behind his head.  The ceiling of Aela's quarters were bland, quite unlike their counterpart on The Sabre, which were littered with photographs of her homeworld.  "I...it wasn't that."  Where to start?  "Yeah, okay, I lost," he remarked, begrudgingly.  It wasn't easy to admit, and hearing her say it had been hard.  He kept his eyes on the perfectly barren ceiling above him and, before he knew it, it was all tumbling out of him.  "I lost at Krypia.  I lost my leg, I failed my mission, I couldn't protect them.  I let you all down.  The Collective won that battle and worst of all, it was him." He could see the face, leering, laughing, and leaving him broken on the battlefield.  "And every night...well, usually, I relive the whole thing in my sleep.  The dive, the escape, the trap.  The duel.  The executions.  All of it.  And every time I try to do something different.  I try to see what I could've done to fix it.  What if I had been faster?  Stronger?  What if I had just sucked it up and fought back when he..." He lifted his prosthetic leg and gently laid it back down.  "Every. Single. Time.  He. Wins," he finished, through clenched teeth.  "And there's nothing I can do but take it."

Aela remained undeterred, a hand on his chest.  "Look at me, Hara," she said, softly.

He finally made eye contact with her, blinking away the tears of frustration that had welled unfairly, trying their hardest to showcase his new found vulnerability.  He had always had trouble looking her in the eye, particularly at night, when her the glow from her eyes were both alluring and blinding.  In fact, he had often been warned against it by Lero.  But now, looking into her eyes, he found not pity, as he had feared, but understanding.  He started feeling calm and his mind cleared.

"It is in the past, Hara.  You cannot change it, you cannot dwell in it.  There is a whole universe out there, and there are people here, still, because of you.  You have to let it go, Hara."  She paused, taking a breath.  "But that's not what it was today?" she asked.  "Tonight was something else, wasn't it?"

"Yeah..." he said.  "Tonight it was like...like a movie.  No, really," he said, as she smiled.  "It was just these...visions, scenes, like somebody was in my head, showing me something.  I saw..."  How could he describe it?  What had he even seen, really?  Why couldn't he remember it?  It had been so vivid only a moment ago and now...now he felt his mind clouding, as if a fog was enveloping his brain.  "I don't know what to make of it, but I saw things...people and places I had never seen.  And something happened.  To them, I mean.  There was this war.  Strange men, strange beasts and strange technology, but then everything changed.  It was over, one of the beasts was slain and then the land was torn asunder and -"

"'Torn asunder?'" she interrupted, raising an eyebrow and biting her lip.  "Arturi would be proud."

He smiled in spite of himself, sitting up to be on her level.  "Well, there was this voice. In my head.  Narrating, I guess?"

"Oh, so your dreams have voiceovers?  Is that a Corangean thing?  Because that's weird," Aela replied, crinkling her nose.  He laughed, feeling strangely light, given the images that kept flashing behind his eyes.  Images that flitted by, never staying too long.  It seemed the harder he tried to recall his dream, the further it slipped away into the nether.  At the same time, he couldn't help but notice how she looked in front of him, the curves of her body, how close she was to him.  The light from her eyes seemed to pulse gently.

"No...we..it was different."  His mouth was dry.  He ran his tongue absentmindedly along his lips.  "This hasn't happened to me before.  But there were all these images and I can't remember much about them, or the voice.  Things...they went by fast.  There were cycles of war and peace, kings and queens, whole realms shifting and realigning.  Son of...she called me the son of..."

"She?" Aela prompted.  Her hand was on his chest again, drifting ever so gently.

"The voice...And the whole time the civilizations grew more advanced, killed each other with more and more power and then..." His brow was furrowed, trying to concentrate, but he couldn't look away from her, couldn't break eye contact.

"Then what?" Aela breathed, and her breath was sweet and inviting and when had she gotten so close?

"And then...it...was..." Her lips touched his and his mind went blank.  Much like every other night, Hara barely slept.  But it wasn't until the alarm rang and she hopped into the shower that he was able to shake the fog from his brain.  He took a moment to collect himself.  What had just happened?  He remembered the dream then, and the melancholy.  And he remembered, with some disbelief, the latter half of his night.  He looked at the bathroom door, closed for the moment.  Considering, ever so briefly, the consequences of his actions, he jumped up, open the door, and stepped across the threshold.