Next Destination

The dream was back.

Roxanne was back in the void. Endless black, she knew the deal. The shining white being appeared once again, in front of her this time. Roxanne felt a vague anger radiating off her this time.

“You’re nothing.”

It started off with the same tone as always, but quickly picked up in intensity. The phrase “You’re nothing.” Being repeated over and over again with enough intensity to shake the ground around her. But unlike the other dreams, the tendrils exploded behind her and took her into the ground all at once. They wrapped around her body before she could do anything to combat it and rapidly pushed her into the ground, and she began to sink. She tried screaming once again. Not out of fear, but purely out of instinct. The tendrils came undone around her mouth, and she managed to finally splutter a scream out loud before she fully sank.

“Roxanne!”

Roxanne woke up, face on the floor of the miracle scouting ship. Next to her was a pool of vomit. Her sense of taste came back, which led to her realization that the vomit was hers.

“Are you okay, Roxanne?! Say something if you can hear me!”

“I can hear.” Roxanne mumbled, spluttering up some more vomit. Cassandra picked her up and moved her back to the couch. Roxanne tried moving again, but her leg wasn’t cooperating.

“Oh, shit. I’m just glad you’re up. Just let me clean up everything.”

Roxanne lay on the couch staring at the ceiling. She heard Cassandra get some paper towels to cover the vomit, as well as a small bucket for Roxanne to vomit in again. Roxanne tried willing her leg into working again. It didn’t work. It still felt like the bone inside was replaced with liquid and not letting it move.

“Okay, that should hopefully be good enough.” Cassandra said to herself. “Sorry if I seem out of it, I was woken up by you vomiting.”

“It’s…it’s cool.” Roxanne mumbled. “What happened?”

“Well, I don’t know.” Cassandra replied, moving Roxanne’s leg slightly to sit on the couch, and then placing her legs on her lap. “We still have the axe, anyway.”

“What about the bow?”

“I got shot. Vines chocked me out. But what happened to you, anyway?”

“I was on a date with Dermot when the alarm went off. Three people were in front of us when we tried to get out. One of them was the girl who tried to kill us on the miracle scouting ship, so that’s when I knew something was up. She attacked Dermot and his friend Marty and beat them, and then the two others grabbed me and threw me down the stairs.”

“Down the stairs?” Cassandra asked.

“Yeah, to try to get rid of me. But as they were carrying me down the stairs, one of them kept saying ‘don’t die’ to himself. So maybe they want to get the weapons by hurting as few people as possible?”

“I mean, either way, they still plan on using the weapons to take over the world, right? So I don’t think it matters if some of them don’t want to kill.”

“Still though, those guys could at least be used to tell us what’s going on with the new legion ships.”

“Hey, are you okay?!”

The two looked over to see Julian in the doorway of the ships interior. His eye was widened towards Cassandra, who he ran over to immediately, shaking her shoulders.

“Cass! Cass, are you alive?”

“Yes?” Cassandra replied, trying to pry her boyfriend off her. “I just woke up a couple minutes ago.”

“Okay, we need to get you tested.” Julian yelled, picking up Cassandra. “Sorry Roxanne, but this is important.”

In the master bedroom, Julian let Cassandra down gently, shaking his hands.

“Okay, how’s your neck?” Julian asked, tilting Cassandra’s head to see any signs of damage around the neck. There didn’t seem to be anything too bad. He tested her respiration, and that seemed to be regular.

“I think it’s fine.” Cassandra replied, grabbing her neck.

“Okay, how?”

“How?” Cassandra asked. “I dunno, I survived long enough to get the vines off me, I guess.”

“No, seriously. Those vines were grabbing your neck for several minutes. By all metrics, you should be dead.”

“Oh. Well, I guess I’m just more durable.” Cassandra shrugged.

“Okay, mind if I just?” Julian put his hands around Cassandra’s neck.

“What the hell?” Cassandra spluttered.

“Look, how much does this hurt?” Julian asked. “Can you breathe?”

“No! Let go.”

Julian did as she asked. Cassandra rubbed her neck.

“Look, if me surviving that is a freak accident, then it’s probably just me regenerating enough to survive longer.”

“Okay, okay.” Julian sighed, throwing his arms around her. Cassandra noticed him breathing incredibly heavily. “I’m just…I’m glad you’re alive.”

“Same here, man.” Cassandra sighed in return, hugging Julian in return. “But while I’m here, did you hear the axe talk?”

“The axe?” Julian asked. “No?”

“Oh.” Cassandra said, stroking her hair. “Well, when I was fighting that girl, I was about to strike her with the axe. But then it told me not to hurt them and shocked me until I fell to the ground.”

“Weapons can talk?” Julian asked.

“Well, the axe can, I guess.”

“So what’s your theory there?”

“I don’t know. The weapons were made before the skyships, right? So maybe some wielder down there gave the relic weapons life.”

“What purpose would that have?” Julian asked.

“I don’t know. We still don’t know what gave the weapons their properties, so maybe letting the weapons talk was a side effect? God, I just really want to know what the deal is with them.”

“But the axe didn’t have any problem hitting the hammer, did it?” Julian asked.

“That’s the next question!” Cassandra asked, putting her head in her hands. “Nothing about these damn things makes sense!”

But before Cassandra could ponder further, there was a knock on the door. She answered it, and Caoimhe was standing there. Caoimhe looked towards Cassandra’s neck with hand marks around it, and then at the bed Julian was sitting next to.

“Did I…walk in on something?” She asked, blushing and taking a few steps back.

“No, we were just testing something a couple minutes ago.” Cassandra shook her head calmly, before the implications crept into her mind.

“Wait, no! It was how I survived being choked! During the battle! You get it, right?”

“I swear it’s not weird. Besides, we’re both dressed.” Julian yelled from behind the door.

“Right, right.” Caoimhe said, looking away and showing Cassandra her phone. “Look, the leaders of the Lux found out about what happened, and the leader of Inariu wants to talk to you.”

Cassandra took the phone, and on the other end was a woman’s soothing voice.

“Hello, is this the miracle group?”

“Yes, this is Cassandra.”

“The one with the broken leg?”

“No, that would be Roxanne.”

“Can I talk to her?”

Cassandra gave Roxanne the phone, and she picked it up.

“Hello?” She asked.

“Hello, is your leg broken?” The voice asked.

“Yes?” Roxanne replied, looking at Cassandra. “Who’s this?”

“Ah, I have the right person then. I’m Ola Okorie of Inariu. And seeing as you’ve broken your leg, I would like you to come over and give you a free prosthetic until your leg heals. Sound good?”

“Um, one sec.” Roxanne turned to Cassandra.

“It’s the leader of Inariu. She wants us to go and treat my leg.”

“Well, that’s right next to here, right?” Cassandra asked. “Shouldn’t be too long of a trek, anyway.”

“Yeah, we can go.” Roxanne said.

“Okay!” The voice yelled from the other end, causing Roxanne to recoil slightly. “Will I send a ship over or can you bring yours?”

“We’ll bring ours, don’t worry.” Roxanne replied.

“Okay, see you soon!”

The line cut off, and Roxanne handed the phone back to Cassandra, who gave it back to Caoimhe.

“So, we’re going to Inariu next?” Cassandra asked.

“Guess so, but I said we’d sail over to them. I bet they have a lot to deal with right now.”

“I mean…sure?” Cassandra sighed. “I’ll start the ship once the guys get here.”

“Nah, they’re preparing something else.” Caoimhe interjected. “Since the two have new weapons we figured it’d be best to train with them before we try fighting the New Legion again.”

“New weapons?” Cassandra asked.

“Basically, Luca decided he wanted to give up swordfighting and master spears. But since teams can apparently only have one user of a certain weapon at a time, Gavin had to give it up.”

“So that’s why the small guy has a massive axe?”

“Pretty much.” Caoimhe sighed. “Besides, I don’t think we have to protect you anymore. We got an offer to go to Fightston.”

“What’s happening in Fightston?”

“The Fightston games. Big tournament’s coming up, so I guess they want us as celebrity endorsements or something.”

She got another call and answered the phone.

“Yeah, I’m just wrapping up here. We’re being offered a sponsorship by a smoothie place? Okay, how many luxa are they offering?” She walked out as she kept talking.

“Well, I guess we gotta go.” Cassandra sighed. “I’ll start up the ship.”

Back on their own ship, Caoimhe returned where Luca and Gavin were waiting on their overly large black semi-circle shaped couch. Just one of the many extravagant things on the ship. Like the large fish tank in the corner filled with many extravagant species of fish. Allegedly. In truth, some guy in Vannana probably scammed Luca and nobody cared enough about fish to check.

“So, how are they?” Luca asked.

“Julian seems to be doing okay, anyway.” Caoimhe knew that was all he wanted to know.

“Just okay?” He probed further, leaning forward in an attempt to get into her soul.

“He’s dating the redhead girl now.” She replied, casually taking a can of luxury water out of their minifridge studded with pink jewels.

“And did he mention me?” Luca asked.

“He’s over you, friendo.” Caoimhe sighed. “Didn’t say anything.”

“Right, right.” Luca glanced towards the expensive fish. “Anyway, we shouldn’t keep a ruler waiting, correct? So I feel it’s time to make our way to Fightston! Gavin! Start the engines!”

“On it.” Gavin sighed.

And so, Caoimhe lay down on the couch opposite Luca and took a sip as Gavin started up the ship. They got out of any major work to deal with the weapons stuff for now, and Julian’s new team was probably equipped to handle it. But it was time to forget about them for now, and focus on the next stage of their journey in Fightston.