Kylie had never seen anything as beautiful as the astral plane they traveled through. She was aware that the colors and energies inside were unique to everybody who saw it; at least that is what Luna had told her before in one of her recollections. To Kylie, however, she could not even describe in her own head what the place felt and looked like- she just knew that her breath was taken away by it.
Near the end of the trip, the three of them began to feel dizzy and lightheaded, and then everything went black. Kylie was the first to wake up afterward, and the feeling of soft, warm grass caressed her skin. She opened her eyes, still lying on the ground, trying to remember what happened. Then, she heard the crackling of some sticks and leaves, which made her shoot into a sitting position and look around. Luna and Christian were still unconscious, spread out around the clearing.
She heard the sticks again, this time closer. She scrambled to her feet and stumbled over to Luna. She shook her, trying to wake her, but it was no use; she was completely knocked out. She went to Christian next as the sounds were getting closer to them and faster in speed. She managed to wake him up, his voice slurred.
"W-what happened?" He asked in a groggy tone.
"We got knocked out, but that's not what I'm worried about," Christian noticed the noise and suddenly became alert. He shook his head violently and pulled his hair back into a knot with a scrunchie he had on his wrist.
"Could you wake Luna up?" He asked. Kylie shook her head. "Shit! Okay, I've got my knife on me. Go try to wake her up again-- I'll stay on guard," She nodded and went back to Luna to try to wake her. Christian stood, brushing his knees off, and grabbing his knife. The sounds were almost to them now, and Christian was prepared to stab anybody if it came to it. Then, just as the source of the sound seemed like it was about to jump through the brush, it abruptly stopped. Christian gulped.
"It stopped," Kylie noted.
"Yeah, I know. Weird. I don't trust it," The sound started again, but this time, Christian caught a glimpse of what was causing it. He backed away as a young woman parted the brush in front of her and laid eyes on him. Her green eyes widened, and her tan skin was dusted a faint blue on her cheeks. She started speaking to him in Afrödic, but he didn't understand. Kylie looked over and raised an eyebrow.
"That's the most human-looking alien I've seen so far, Chris," She noted. The girl came out farther from the brush and saw Luna unconscious on the ground. She covered her mouth with her hand and gasped.
"Oh boy, here we go..." Christian mumbled, "I knew this was a bad idea," The girl grabbed Christian by the hand and brought him over to Luna and Kylie. She let go of him and knelt beside him, examining Luna.
"Lunabelle Y'Mauai," she said in a thick Afrödic accent. She dug in her sundress pocket and brought out a small vial of what looked like smelling salts. She opened it up and put it near Luna's nose. When she breathed in, she shot her bloodshot eyes open and coughed. The girl backed away and stood, hiding behind Christian. Luna sat up and looked around, groaning.
"Where are we? Did we make it to Carlisle?" She saw the girl hiding behind Christian and hummed. "Does she speak English?" Kylie and Christian shook their heads.
"She speaks Afrödic. The only thing we could understand is when she said your name. Well, your old name," Christian explained. Luna stood up and brushed her behind off.
"Well, Lunestics aren't allowed here because of what happened during the war," Luna explained. "Look at me, I'm almost just as pale as one, and I look just like the fucking dead princess," The girl started speaking Afrödic again, and Luna listened carefully, hearing every word she had to say. She nodded.
"Can you translate?" Kylie asked, intrigued. Luna nodded again.
"She said that she'll take us into town to recover in her house, but Chris has to hide his knife because that will get him arrested," Christian sighed and folded his pocketknife. He stuffed it back in his pocket. "Don't complain, Chris. They're pacifists here, remember?" Christian rolled his eyes and followed the others out of the woods.
The girl led the three of them into town, which was a remarkable place where the buildings and houses were built into trees. The Carlites looked almost human in Christian's eyes, much more human than Lunestics or Islanders did. He looked the most like a Carlite out of the three of them, what with his broad shoulders and tanned skin. Kylie joked that since Luna was a Lunestic reincarnate, Christian may be a Carlite reincarnate. He rolled his eyes at the joke.
"I'm a human. An Earthling." He spoke.
"Gaiatian," Luna corrected.
"Yeah, whatever,"
The girl led them to a small tree house just outside of town and climbed the ladder first. The others followed suit; Kylie was nervous that she might fall. When they were all at the front door, the girl called to the people in the house and opened the door. It looked like the girl's grandparents were inside cooking together. The grandfather took one look at Christian and grew pale. The girl noticed this and quickly explained to her grandfather the situation. Luna nodded to the girl's explanation and added her own bit to the story, explaining that the three of them were from Gaia and how they were collaborating with the empress and prince to stop Albrecht's plans. She explained further that she was the reincarnate of Lunabelle Y'Mauai, and that they could trust her and her friends. The girl's grandparents understood but started asking questions about Christian, motioning to the small altar in the corner of the living room. Christian walked over and examined the photos by the altar. He sighed.
"Damnit, Kylie, you joked around too soon." He spoke. He picked up one of the frames and looked at the woman in the picture. "This...woman... looks just like me, except she has a pixie cut,"
"They said that was their daughter. She fought and died in the last conquering Albrecht did. The girl that helped us in the clearing is her daughter," Christian looked over at them and swallowed thickly. "She was a witch,"
"You're telling me I can do magic? I-if that's even me?" He asked, taken aback. Luna shrugged.
"Probably. We'd have to ask Al, though. He could teach you a thing or two. Or at least try," Luna explained. "Do you have any memories of this woman?" Christian shook his head.
"I mean, I did think that girl looked a lot like me. Other than that, nothing else comes to mind," Christian said, sadly. "And it would explain why I had the urge to back out of boot camp back on Earth...even though I got discharged before I could even do anything helpful...I always thought I wanted to be in the military, but something in my gut made me back out last minute before we were deployed overseas,"
"It could just be a coincidence," Kylie suggested, "Since you have no memories of it at all," Christian sighed and did not say another word to anybody.
The girl, who they learned was named Leilani, told Luna that she would take them to where the president of Carlisle was staying now because Leilani was both her assistant and her niece. Leilani explained that normally she would turn down such an idea, but since Christian was possibly the reincarnation of her older sister, she may give in and listen to the plan. Luckily, according to her, the president could speak English.
Leilani led them to the other side of town to a small house that was built around a tree on solid ground. She knocked on the door and opened it up for the three. Luna walked in first, and Christian walked in last after Leilani.
The president was a tall and tan woman with black hair and yellowish whiskey-colored eyes. She was sitting on her sofa in a sundress like Leilani's, doing paperwork and scribbling in a notebook. Leilani said something to her, and she looked up and blushed lightly.
"Stars, you brought me Gaiatians just as Albrecht is about to attack? That'll lead him right to us!"
"We need your help," Christian spoke up before Luna could explain what they were doing here. The president looked up at him, and she grew a little pale. "My planet is in danger, and we don't have enough forces to take Albrecht on ourselves," She gave an audible gulp.
"What's your name?" She seemed to be taken aback by Christian's looks, as he expected her to be.
"Christian Miles," he said. "I... was told I may be the reincarnation of your sister-?"
"Well, duh! You look and sound just like Krysta!" She exclaimed. "Although I never thought she'd be the type to grow out her hair...or be a man..." She noticed Christian's expression and sighed. "You don't have any of her memories... Figures. Well, my name is Juniper. And as much as I hate Albrecht with every fiber of my being and would love to assist in this war, I'm not sure how my people would feel about it. Pacifism is a long-standing tradition of ours,"
"Even pacifists can go to war for the good of the universe," Kylie chimed in. "I read a book about it once,"
"Well, this certainly isn't fiction. I'll see what I can do, but I cannot promise anything. Even for my sister,"
"So, you'll try, then?" Christian asked Juniper. Juniper smiled at Christian and sighed quietly out of her nose.
"Yes. I'll try. Only because it was you who asked, Krysta," Christian smiled, relieved.
"Just... call me Chris,"
For the next hour, Christian and Luna told Juniper the plan so far, and all that has happened in the past week. She seemed understanding, and she even wrote most of the information down. She was especially intrigued with Christian's background, but Luna assumed that was only because he was supposedly the reincarnate of her sister. Christian sighed quietly through his nose, and thought to himself, Krysta... that sounds a lot like my deadname...
They learned a little more about Krysta as well. Her full name was Krysta Jac Daanovyn, and she was a mechanic until war broke out on Carlisle about twenty-three years before. She was drafted into the military to fight off Albrecht's troops. Unfortunately, she died from a bullet in between the eyes by Albrecht himself. Her daughter, Leilani, was born a short time before the war, so she only knew her mother from pictures and videos.
Juniper mentioned that if they didn't wear helmets or masks during battle, Albrecht sure would have recognized Christian's face after he arrested him earlier in the week.
After the conversation and planning, they had with Juniper, Luna, Christian, and Kylie were given a stronger warper to get back to A'cielinsulariä. Before they left, however, Leilani insisted that they head back to her home because her grandparents had a gift for Christian. When he walked into their home, he was greeted with a hug from the grandfather and was given a box. He was told not to open it until he arrived at his destination later.
Luna, Christian, and Kylie said their goodbyes to everyone and warped back to the sky islands. While in the astral plane, Christian kept thinking about Krysta and wondered if he truly was her reincarnation.
When the three of them returned to Ferdinand's base, Christian immediately went to a table to open the box gifted to him by the Daanovyns. Inside was some of Krysta's belongings- they were hoping to trigger a memory in Christian's dream space. Among the things in this box were Krysta's old army jacket and military boots, along with the dog tag that he could not read because it was in Afrödic.
"What's all this?" Alejandra asked, walking over. He peered over Christian's shoulder at the dog tag and read it. "Krysta Daanovyn? Who is that?"
"Me, apparently," Christian said, putting the dog tag around his neck. Alejandra hummed.
"You? Don't tell me you're a reincarnate of someone special, too," Christian rolled his eyes at his remark and sighed.
"The reincarnate of the president of Carlisle's sister. Supposedly. She died twenty-something years ago during Albrecht's attempted war on Carlisle. The man shot her in the forehead so as soon as the time comes, I'm going to shoot that poor bastard in his forehead to see how he likes it," Christian explained. Alejandra picked up the jacket and examined it. It was dark green and made from natural plant fibers and leather. The inside was lined with light brown fur. The buttons on the jacket were made of pure gold.
"Was this Krysta character a witch or what? Look at the patches on this thing. She had to have been a witch; a decent one at that," Alejandra said, draping the jacket on Christian's bare shoulders. He nodded. "Then that means, since that life was recent, you still could have some of that energy left. There's hope for you yet, Christian," He nodded and fixed the jacket right on his shoulders, the clothing a perfect fit. The boots were made of the same kind of leather accented on the jacket and had pure gold on them. He was surprised at the almost immaculate condition of the clothing as if it hadn't been through any kind of war at all. It almost felt wrong to wear any of it.
Alejandra motioned Christian over after he put on his new boots and presented him with a new pistol. Christian's eyes lit up at the sight of it- it was a dark blue accented with a bright yellow color. He also handed him a holster and a magazine full of pinkish crystal bullets.
"Saw this and thought of you," Alejandra said. "I know you don't like me that much, and that's fine. Just trying to help," Christian nodded and took the gun from his hands after strapping the rest to him. He examined it closely, still not being able to read the Afrödic scribes etched into the barrel, but he assumed that it was information about the gun such as its caliber. He looked up at Luna who was examining some daggers and knives, back down at his gun, then down at the open box, which had some other things like jewelry and accessories. He walked over to the box, set the pistol down, and picked up a ring. Alejandra walked over.
“I don’t want any of this stuff…” he mumbled under his breath, “Not really manly now, is it?”
“I guess our cultures are vastly different, if you think any of this stuff is ‘girly’,” Alejandra remarked snidely, peering over his shoulder. “They’re just magical accessories. They do help if you’re just starting out,”
“Well, I don’t wanna ‘start out’ either. I don’t wanna do magic at all! Didn’t y’all say it would kill me eventually?” Christian argued, setting the ring back down. Alejandra shrugged.
“I mean, look at Luna. She’s got the spirit of a mage. And she’s already really fucking good at magic…” he sounded almost love-struck, his cheeks flushed a light blue when he looked over at Luna, making Christian scrunch up his nose. “I’m sure if you’re really this lady’s incarnate, you should be able to do magic without a problem. Just put the ring on and see if it does anything,” Christian looked down at the ring, then back at Luna. He swallowed hard in his throat.
“I’m still not sure…” Christian nervously said, “I-I mean, look at me! I don’t even look like a magical kinda guy! I’m the mechanic! The ballistics dude. Not some sparkle witch…” Alejandra narrowed his eyes at Christian, and their eyes met. He leaned down to get closer to his ear so no one else would hear.
“It’ll make Luna happy,” Alejandra hissed, “I know she’d love for us to teach you together. She’s always been eager to teach others magic, since the day we met, so for the love of the gods, do this one thing for her,” Alejandra straightened and looked down at the box where the jewelry lay. Christian was still unsure, and Alejandra could see that. He huffed when Christian closed the box back up and pushed it away.
“Not now. I…still need time. I think I need to take a walk outside or something to clear my head,” Christian explained. Alejandra nodded his head once, opened the box, and picked up the ring. He grabbed Christian’s wrist and cupped the ring in his hand.
“Take that with you. Just in case,” Alejandra told him. Christian looked up at him and sighed. He set the ring in his pocket, and left the room. When he finally made it upstairs, he realized this was his first time being by himself on an alien planet. He walked down the path some until he was a little ways from the shack leading into the underground city. He didn’t wander off too far, just in case he was needed.
He looked out on the horizon, and the suns were hanging low in the sky. He took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, thinking about what Alejandra said. Would learning magic really make Luna happy, or was Alejandra just saying that to make him put on the ring? Either way, now that he was thinking about it, putting that ring on sure was tempting, even if he wasn’t fond of jewelry or magic. It was just sitting there, in his pocket, and he felt like it would burn a hole through it if he didn’t do something with it.
Carefully, Christian took the ring out of his pocket, and wasted no time slipping it onto his finger. After he put it on, he felt a surge of energy shoot through his body, and he felt his eyes flash. As soon as his vision returned to normal, he held his arm out and tried to do something magical. Anything would do. However, nothing was happening. He sighed and decided to go back inside and tell Alejandra he finally had the balls to put the ring on.
As soon as he walked back into Ferdinand’s hideout, his ears rang. When he covered his ears, Alejandra looked over and noticed the ring sitting on his finger. He hummed, smiling faintly.
“So, you finally put the bastard on, huh?” Alejandra asked, walking up to him. Christian nodded.
"What just happened?" Christian asked, panicked. “Why the hell is everything so goddamn loud?!” Alejandra chuckled.
"Relax. The jewelry in there is aura-enhancing. As soon as that ring was set on your finger, it reset your energy," Alejandra picked up the other accessories from his box and examined them closely. "These are enhancers for ballistic and elemental magic. Weird, considering they came from Carlisle," He handed the rest to him. "Put the rest on, I've got to watch this," he said with a sly chuckle. Unsure, Christian put the bracelet and amulet on, and immediately the energy surged again. His eyes shone for longer this time, and this gave him a massive headache. Alejandra giggled gleefully until he realized what his aura color was.
"What is it this time?" Christian grumbled, starting to get agitated. Alejandra hummed with a confused smile on his face.
"Oh, just your aura color, that's all. Haven't seen a yellow in a long time...not to mention that's not a color a man ever ends up with,"
"Yellow?" Christian asked with his nose scrunched up. "Kinda hoping it would be blue...something a little more manly at least," This made Alejandra chuckle, and Luna come over.
"What's going on here?" She asked, intrigued.
"His aura reset so now he can do magic," Alejandra explained. "He's yellow," Luna scrunched up her nose and raised an eyebrow.
"Yellow? Kinda thought it'd be blue--"
"That's what I said!" Christian cried. Luna hummed in thought, remembering that a yellow aura is exclusive to women, and went back to her business examining weapons and talking the plans over with Ferdinand. Alejandra rested his hand on Christian's shoulder, and he looked up at him.
"Would you like me to teach you a thing or two?" He asked him. Christian raised an eyebrow.
"A-about what?" he asked, still dazed.
"How to do magic, of course. For some people, it comes naturally, but I don't think you're that kind of person, so I thought I'd be helpful," Alejandra explained.
"What can we learn in three days?" He asked bitterly. "I feel like it’d be a waste of time," Alejandra scoffed.
"You'd be surprised. Come on, I know just the place," Alejandra looked behind him and shouted something in Afrödic and the others responded in Afrödic as well. He looked back at Christian. "Follow me, we're going back to the surface. I'm going to take you to the place where I was taught," Christian hesitantly started to follow him, twisting the ring on his finger out of nervous habit. His body felt almost heavier with all the energy flowing through it, which he thought was strange since Luna always commented that she felt lighter since she began performing magic.
The two took the water elevator back up to the surface and left the shack they entered the rebel town through. They then followed an old and overgrown cobblestone path closer to the mountain on the island. They stopped at a clearing inside a small patch of woods in front of the mountain. Christian was in awe by all the different plant life growing in this area.
"What is this place?" He asked, looking around. Alejandra smiled and smelled one of the flowers growing off a tree limb nearby.
"The place where Marilynn taught me everything I know," He replied. Christian was curious, so he decided to ask more; but before he could even take another breath to speak, Alejandra continued. "Most of us in the military were trained all together in one room by a general. But I was a special case because like you... I couldn't even make a spark with my fingers, let alone any sort of spell," He looked up at the trees and closed his eyes. "I was only in the military because my father forced me. He was a cruel man, maybe just as bad as Albrecht was to Lunabelle... and he only wanted daughters because they're held to a higher importance on Lunestica. He just wanted to be rid of me,"
"My family didn't really appreciate me either. I was the 'weird' one," Christian added, walking up to him. "I was picked on a lot. So, I ran away from home after I graduated high school. I had nowhere else to go, so I joined the military thinking it could pay for some sort of education. I got discharged before we were deployed overseas, so I got a job as a mechanic. I ran into Luna after that, who also had nowhere to go, and since we knew each other briefly from school, we rented a house together and it had been like that ever since,"
"So, you understand the pain of rejection?" Alejandra asked. Christian nodded. "Good. So, the way I shall teach you should be easy for you," Alejandra turned to face him and unbuttoned his shirt. "Take your shirt off," Christian's face flushed, and he immediately remembered his scars.
"What? No! Why?" He asked, flustered.
"To feel the energy on your skin. Trust me, Marilynn taught me this, after all," Christian sighed.
"Fine. But promise me you won’t say anything to anyone about how my chest looks. My aura color is embarrassing enough," He slipped off his jacket and tank top and tossed them to the side with Alejandra's shirt. Alejandra studied his torso and hummed. "What?"
"Those scars...the sparse hair on your belly and face...your hips," Alejandra thought out loud, intrigued. Christian blushed harder and crossed his arms. "You were born a woman, weren't you?"
"I'd...rather not let that define who I am," Alejandra hummed.
"Interesting...well, I hope your body hair doesn't interfere, otherwise, we're gonna have to get rid of it." He ran a hand through his hair to slick it back some. "Wait... where else do you lot have hair? And do other women have hair in the same places? Or do you look like that because of hormones?"
"Let's just start training, okay?" Christian pleaded, crimson-faced and annoyed.
"Alright, then," Alejandra did not mean any harm by his questions, he was just intrigued.
For the next several hours, Alejandra trained Christian on how to control his energy and even taught him a couple of spells. After their first session, Christian was a tired and sweaty mess. He was especially hot because his body hair absorbed the heat from the magic. He eventually had to strip down to his underwear so he would not overheat, hoping Alejandra wouldn't notice his lack of visible bulge.
The two rested by a stream that came down from the peak of the mountain, and Christian, though he never got in the water, looked like he had been swimming for hours. Finally, he was able to cool down, and he laid down on his back to rest.
"Is this normal?" He asked after a long silence.
"Is what normal?"
"Being so hot after doing magic! I feel terrible," Alejandra chuckled and rested his weight on his arm to look behind him at Christian.
"Well, you are pretty hairy. I guess it's just because of Gaiatian evolution...y'know, you lot coming from apes and whatnot," Christian blew a sweaty strand of hair from his forehead and sat up to face him, a confused expression on his face. "What? You lot don't even know your own history? We're evolutionary cousins, you and I."
"I can see that perfectly well, but since you know so much, what exactly happened?" Alejandra smiled and looked back out towards the water.
"I only know as much as school taught us when I was small," He replied. "We all once lived on the planet sister to Gaia. Well, our ancestors, anyway,"
"Venus?" Christian asked. "But how, that place is uninhabitable,"
"That's what you lot call it, now? It was called Afrödos, and that is why we're all called Afrödites. We lived there and used Gaia to experiment on biology since we were just starting to enter a scientific age," Alejandra explained further.
"Y'all did something with the monkeys, didn't you?" Alejandra laughed at this.
"The Afrödites did, yeah. They were trying to make intelligent life so, after several attempts at injecting their DNA into animals on Gaia, they finally succeeded with apes. Then they left them alone to figure things out for themselves. After that, the Great Afrödite Civil War happened because some people thought it was... inhumane, if you will, to experiment on animals. This led to nuclear fallout because the government decided to nuke some folks,"
"So that's why Venus--I mean Afrödos--got like that?" Christian asked. "That's harsh," Alejandra nodded.
"Yes. The losing side of the war got sent down to Gaia without their tech or tools as punishment, so they had to use the same thing as the experiments were using to survive. Some of the Afrödites hunted the experiments for food, others decided to breed with them, and that is how Gaiatians started their evolution," Christian hummed.
"That's not what we were taught in school," he said quietly, looking back to the stream.
"Of course not. Luna has told me what kinds of things are taught in your history and science classes. None of it is accurate at all, especially about the history of the solar system. Haelios isn't really that old…”
"You mean the Sun?" Christian asked, an eyebrow raised. Alejandra sighed.
"Yes, I mean 'The Sun'," Alejandra said in an almost mocking tone. "You lot don't give cool names to anything! Every star system has its own name in our culture! We named Haelios after a dragon,"
After a couple more minutes of silence, Alejandra stood and stretched.
"Put your clothes back on, we're heading back," Christian nodded, standing up. He did not realize how sore he was until he tried to walk over to his clothes. "Man up. I am not carrying you," Christian sighed and got dressed. Then the two made the long hike back to the rebel base, where they saw Luna out in front of the shack practicing her own magic. The pink and gold magic shone angelically on her skin, and both Alejandra and Christian blushed heavily at the sight of it.
Alejandra walked up to Luna as the light from her aura toned down. She looked over at him and grinned lovingly.
"Hey, stranger," She greeted. "How'd Chris's training go?" He came behind her and massaged her shoulders. She sighed gratefully.
"We concluded he's got too much body hair- that shit conducts all the heat from the magic. The man had to strip down to his underwear to prevent a heat stroke." He bent down and rested his chin on her shoulder. "Lunabelle, dearest, do Gaiatian women have the same amount of body hair as Gaiatian men do?" He asked her in a whisper, hoping not to expose Christian. She laughed, and Christian felt relieved.
"Usually not. I don't anyway. I just usually shave my hair because it's annoying, but luckily it doesn't grow that fast," Alejandra blushed heavily.
"Thank Gods..." He said quietly, nuzzling her neck. "It's getting dark out here... wanna go away for a while and stargaze?" She smiled.
"I would love that,"
Christian watched as Luna and Alejandra walked away from the shack and he narrowed his eyes. Even though he was on decent terms with Alejandra now, he was still extremely jealous of him. He went back into the base and down the water elevator with a scowl on his face and went back to Ferdinand's with that look too. Aevaan and Alias were back from their successful mission to D'Chaalö, and Aevaan was looking for his father. He asked Christian where he went, and he told him with that same sharp tone of jealousy he had been feeling.
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