| Part 3 �Ok,� Nathalie said, rematerializing in the ship. There were more people there that she had not seen before, two more in fact and she felt a momentary stab of shyness. �What�s so important?� �Keery,� Blaise said. �This is Brianna MacKenzie,� he pronounced her name with a stress on the first syllable, so that the last two were barely pronounced. �And James Ashton.� Brianna was short, thin, and blond, and James was tall muscular and dark, his skin the burnished gold of a deep tan over his brown skin. �Hi,� Nathalie said, with a small wave. �Hallo,� Brianna greeted, her British accent was clearly marked even in that one word. �Hi,� James said, she couldn�t tell where he was from. Nathalie put her hands on her hips. �What�s so important, Blaise?� �A prophecy.� �What prophecy?� She asked, eyes narrowed in confusion. �I thought prophecies weren�t real.� Blaise shook his head. �They�re real alright.� He said. �You may remember hearing me mention the Darks?� �I kinda remember, yeah.� Nathalie said more confused. �The Darks are TP�s too, but they�re people of pure evil.� �Sounds like my brother.� Nathalie said quietly, not expecting anyone to hear. Everyone�s faces paled, especially Blaise�s. �What?� She asked. She looked from scared white face to scared white face. �What�s wrong?� �The prophecy has something to do with you�� he said trailing off. �And your brother.� * * * Nathalie sat down hard, mind reeling. �My brother? What the heck does Jake have to do with this? He�s not a TP is he?� Blaise shifted uncomfortably. �Is he?� She repeated, then realized that as she looked around the room that none of the four pairs of eyes in the room were looking at her. Not Julie, James, Brianna or Blaise. Finally, Blaise�s gaze met hers and she knew without him saying a word, she knew. He nodded. �Yes, Jake is a TP.� Nathalie felt like her heart was going to stop. But they were twins after all, she didn�t know why it came as such a shock. �How long has it been since he broke out? A few days, weeks?� �He broke out two years ago.� Brianna said. Nathalie felt that her heart had stopped. �Two years?� She looked at Blaise for confirmation and knew that if she had been standing, she would have collapsed. Blaise rushed to her side. �If he�s a TP, how come he�s not here?� Blaise put a hand on her shoulder. �Nathalie, he�s not here because he�s a Dark.� He said. �Darks aren�t allowed here, and in some places n the ship their powers don�t work.� Nathalie started to hyperventilate. �Easy Keery,� Blaise helped her to put her head down until she could breathe normally. �How did that happen?� �Whether you are a Light or a Dark is determined by what kind of person you were before you broke out. By nature, you were kind and caring, while Jake was a bully, to put it mildly, I mean.� Nathalie snorted, a quick laugh. �I agree with that.� �And that�s why you�re here and Jake�s not.� James said, speaking for the first time, his accent finally apparent; British, but she couldn�t place where. �South Africa,� he said, reading her thought. Nathalie jumped, then smiled shyly. �Thanks.� I�m gonna have to get used to that. Blaise put a hand on her shoulder. �We all do.� He said. �Telepathy is something that we all have to get used to.� Nathalie smiled nervously. �Give me peace for a moment.� She said. All were silent for a moment while Nathalie composed her thoughts. Jake�s a TP, she thought, she hoped, to herself. A Dark, an enemy. She fought back a wave of nausea, that last a bitter pill to swallow. This is different from being at odds over dessert or who�s gonna ride in the front seat. We�re enemies now, we might kill each other. A voice intruded into her thoughts. Brianna. �TP�s canna kill.� She said cautioning. �We can set traps, but not kill.� Nathalie growled. She looked around the room seeking escape. She saw only one alternative. �Nice to have met you.� She said, closed her eyes and thought of a place that she�d rather be than there. She teleported out of the ship, leaving stunned faces behind. * * * Blaise stood. Everyone looked to him for an explanation. �I�ll go talk to her.� He closed his eyes and teleported to her, a little ways away so as to allow her the moment of peace that she had left the ship in search of. * * * Nathalie reappeared at the top of a rock formation over the Genesee River. It was accessible only by a steep and slippery path marked off by a danger sign It was not completely private, but close, only a small break in the trees along the path on the other side of the gorge allowed the small spot to be seen. Right about now she really didn�t care if she was seen, she just needed to be alone. She needed to find some way to process all this. She grabbed a small twig from the ground and drew a table, one half to check off pros, the other for cons. Ok, she thought. One: Pro, TP�s are real and I�m a TP. Con, so is Jake. She put one mark in each side. Two: I�m telepathic. One Pro. Total lack of privacy. Con. I can go anywhere in the world. Pro, definitely a pro. There�s a million different ways of getting killed throughout the world. Big Con! She sat for a moment, twirling the twig between two fingers, weighing out everything in her mind, coming up with no sure winner. Suddenly her head came up, sensing that she was not alone. �Come on up Blaise, I know you�re there.� She said softly, though she knew that he could hear her. A few moments later, his blond head appeared at the top of the cliff. He climbed up, and dusted off his hands sitting cross-legged, watching her, waiting for her to meet his gaze. �Do you want to talk?� Blaise asked her. She shook her head. �Got any questions.� Nathalie was silent, her eyes not meeting his. After a moment, her gaze met his coldly, blue fire. �Just one,� she said. �Why didn�t you tell me?� Blaise winced, he knew this was coming. �I don�t know, Keery.� He said. �Telling someone that they�re going to become a Tomorrow Person is not something that you should tell, especially to someone who wanted to be one so badly. It�s like, how do you tell someone that they�re going to win the lottery, just before they do. They�re either gonna think that you�re nuts or that you�re telling the truth and become so excited that they would cause harm to themselves.� �I would never thing that you were nuts.� She said. �You know that, I never have. Your visions have always made me safer. I always felt safe around you.� �Yes,� he said. �We�re all connected, even before we break out, which is why I didn�t tell you, I feared the latter. That you would get so excited that something would either happen to you or to the bike.� �You said that you had nothing to do with it!� She exclaimed, hearing a faint echo from the gorge. �Don�t jump to conclusions, besides, I didn�t come up with the idea of stealing it, but I was concerned for it and for you. I didn�t want it damaged when, not if, you teleported and it fell into the sea with you or crashed.� �Oh,� Nathalie said, touched. Blaise took one of her hands. �I did it for your sake.� He said. He paused for a moment and Nathalie allowed him the moment to compose his thoughts. She could sense that he was having trouble with what he wanted to say next. She wasn�t sure what it was being so inexperienced with sensing thoughts and emotions, all she got was a feeling that there was something important that he wanted to say and that he had wanted to say it for a long time, but she didn�t know what it was. When he finally said it, it was a moment that she would never forget. He made up his mind and looked up into her eyes. He reached up and brushed one hand along her cheek, a soft caress that sent a shiver up her back. �I allowed Julie to do it because I care about you, a lot. I always have.� Nathalie felt taken aback and felt herself stiffen, the rock at her back suddenly hard and uncomfortable, digging into one spot. She was speechless. Whoa! She thought. Never in a thousand years had she expected this. She had had a crush on him throughout High School, but had only the faintest glimmering of hope that it was reciprocated. Now she could sense that it was. He squeezed her hand and she looked up at him, As her gaze met his, she felt a touch on her mind that could only be described as a caress. His amber eyes were wide and hopeful. Nathalie smiled. �I�m sorry I was such a bitch.� She said softly. �This has all been a lot to take in.� �Understandable.� She could see that he was still waiting for a response to what he said earlier. She was struck speechless by the earnestness in his face, so she did the only thing that she could think of. She reached her free hand up behind his neck, pulled him closer to him, and kissed him. He stiffened for a moment, but that soon disappeared, as he relaxed and wrapped his arms around her back and held her close. Nathalie sensed that this was what he had wanted. All her life she had wanted Blaise Kensington, but he had always been out of reach, never available, never seeming to be interested, but her friend, so close, yet so far away. Blaise backed away, ending the kiss, a wistful smile on his face. �Wow.� Nathalie smiled. �I hope the others didn�t sense that.� She said, funny that the others on the ship were the first people that she had thought of, not the two of them. �No,� Blaise said. �They didn�t. I had my shields up, and since you broke out, your mind is quieter. They didn�t hear.� She blushed. �Good.� �Where did that come from?� He asked, fingering his lips. �I don�t know.� She said honestly, now feeling embarrassed. �I�m sorry.� She felt an urge to flee, to teleport away. Blaise grabbed her upper arm as she turned away and tried to rise to her feet, wanting to go anywhere, but be here. �Don�t,� he said. �Don�t feel embarrassed.� He smiled at her, and placed one hand along her cheek, and kissed her again. All of Nathalie�s regret vanished with that move. �It was a long time coming, ok? Don�t worry. I just couldn�t get up the nerve to do it.� �Ok,� She whispered. They sat in silence. �Awkward huh?� Blaise asked, after a few moments, and they both laughed. �Yeah.� �Do you wanna walk about us?� He asked, then changed his mind. �The TP�s I mean?� �Tell me about the Darks. Who are they? What do they want?� Blaise closed his eyes and ordered his thoughts, that�s what it felt like anyway. �Well, we�ve already said what the Dark�s are. They�re Tomorrow People who are purely evil. Your brother is the leader, the Darkest of them all. They have their own spaceship, but the ship is as evil as they are.� He said. �What do they want? That�s easy. They want our ship destroyed. That way, every breakout will go to them. We lose out powers and every other breakout is Dark. Thus, there�s a threat of darkness descending over the earth.� Nathlaie was shocked. The fact that she as sitting against a rock was the only thing that kept her from collapsing or falling into the river, a hundred feel below. Not a happy thought. �How can we lose our powers?� She asked. �They are within us, in our minds.� �I�m really not sure exactly.� Blaise admitted. �Its something that the ship told up a long tie ago, when the war first started. If one ship is destroyed, that group loses their powers and all TP�s go to the other ship.� �But we can�t kill.� She said. �Right?� �Yep.� �So how can we be at war? I thought that we couldn�t harm either.� �Just kill, we can�t kill.� Blaise sighed and ran a hand through his hair. �Well�� he said. �How do I say this? Um�there�s �ways� to kill without killing directly.� �Huh?� �Traps, set so that a TP can�t get out. There�s ropes and stuff that the ship has that counteracts our powers. Also, transmitters that recreate their ship�s signals. Remember how I said that there are parts of our ship that Darks can�t go to?� �Yeah.� �Well, there�s transmitters that recreate that signal.� He said. �Its not a happy war. People die in horrible ways. The Darks are very good at it. Spiked pits with �mits, transmitters, so that a TP is injured but unable to call for help. Traps set in the desert for that a person dehydrates and dies. It�s horrible.� Nathalie agreed, and shuddered. Blaise moved to her side and gathered her in close. �It is horrible.� Blaise set his chin on the top of her head as she rested her head on his chest. Nathalie sensed his emotions as she lay against him, listening to his heartbeat, strong and sure, sadness, confusion, undirected anger, like he was unsure who to turn it on. �What�s wrong.� �Fate is an evil thing something.� �What?� She looked up at him, still holding on to him, the only solid thing right now. �You wanted to be a TP for a long time, you wanted it so much that I knew what Adam was going through with Jade.� He said, smiling broadly. Nathalie chuckled and thumped him on the stomach. �I was not!� She exclaimed in her best British accent. Blaise didn�t laugh. �I kinda wished that you weren�t� Nathalie fell silent. �What?� �I wish that you hadn�t broken out.� He said. �Why?� She felt his outburst coming. �Because you�ve been dropped into the middle of a bloody war!� He exclaimed. �Your brother is the leader of the Darks. As a sap, you would have been safe.� Nathalie coughed. �Excuse me?� She wheezed. �Did you just say what I thought you said? A sap?� �Yeah,� Blaise ran another hand through his hair as it dropped into his eyes. �A sap, a normal human, non-TP.� �That�s what I thought.� �Then why ask?� �I just didn�t think that work was used.� Nathalie said. �It was used in the old series. I never really watched it, but I knew the word.� �Well, you�re gonna hear it a lot.� Blaise said. �Get used to it.� �Oh, it doesn�t bother me,� Nathalie said. �It just surprised me, that�s all.� �You�re gonna get quite a few of those before all this is through.� Blaise said, holding her tight. All this was a surprise, an overload, being held in Blaise�s arms was enough, a comfort. �Just hold me a while, ok?� Blaise gathered her in closer and she settled against his shoulder again. Nathalie held on for dear life, her only solid thing right now. Her entire life had been turned upside down. Her secure ground had disappeared. She was no longer a normal human but a Tomorrow Person. She was staring down into an abyss with Blaise�s arms the only thing that kept her from falling. She felt a touch on her mind, gentle, comforting, unobtrusive. �I won�t let you fall.� Blaise said softly and she felt her heart skip a beat And Nathalie knew that it was true. |