Joanna knew he was right. They couldn't… but they had to. "We can't not go through with it. But, there's not much we can do now. We're trapped." She whispered, trying to listen and talk at the same time.
"She's proved quite powerful though… and normally pretty correct. Don't you remember the Davis situation?" A softer toned woman asked, in more of a hypothetical way. "That's how we lost the two. The system sent Davis, and he got in with us. His sister tried to warn us, and we didn't believe her about Davis."
"I know." Arsen rested his head against the wall. "It's too bad neither of us can turn invisible. That would be so helpful." He rested his hand on the wall. "Maybe we could try and follow him? Later? And get him after the gala?"
"I do remember that. Caroline still hasn't awoken from her coma." This was a rough-sounding man. "What do we do, then? We know that they're already with the System, and I don't think we have any Runners (mind readers/controllers) anymore, now that Caroline isn't awake."
"We could try and invite them over again," Luna said, voice trembling. "And try and tell them the truth."
"And if you leak too much, and it doesn't work?"
It sounded like Luna was barely keeping herself together. "I just miss my brother."
"Maybe we-" The last comment cut her off, and she felt her face go pale. Her stomach turned, and felt sick at her words. Joanna had no idea why she felt so sick, but that had completely raddled her. "B-brother? What… what are they talking about?" Joanna asked weakly, supporting herself on the wall.
The room was silent for a couple seconds, before a soft shuffling followed by foot steps. "I know honey…" Jake told her in a softer tone. "It sucks, but we can't risk anything. What would we do, if they found us out? They could use us, he could hurt you. I know he's your brother, but he's also incredibly dangerous."
"Exactly, Luna. Even if Arsen doesn't, she might hurt you. That's not a risk I'm willing to take."
"I-" Arsen's face was pale, deadly pale. He could feel something in him trying to get out, to escape, to make itself known, but he didn't know what. "I don't-"
"He would never hurt me!" Luna seemed to gather herself. She sounded furious. "You never knew him the way I did. He would never hurt anyone if he could help it."
Joanna pushed away from the wall, unable to force herself to listen anymore. Yet, she was finding it difficult to stand up straight. So she never went very far, just not up close. "I-I don't understand…" She said weakly.
"Luna, you need to listen to logic. We're not in a fairy tale." A serious tone snapped, though sounded like it had taken much force to do so. "Just because he wouldn't have in the past, doesn't mean he won't know. The System has jacked up their memories so bad, and turned them in to such experiments, they're barely what they used to be. We've only got one shot at this."
"He's right, Luna. Please just listen." Jake pleaded with her softly.
Arsen wanted to help her, he really did, but he couldn't seem to move. He was trying, trying to figure out what was happening and what was being spoken about. He couldn't wrap his head around what was being said.
"But then what do we do?" Luna asked, sounding angry, and hard, as if she was crying. "I want my brother. I want my best friend. I hate the System, and I just want everything to go back to normal!" She sounded weary, as if she had been fighting for a long, long time.
It was quiet once again, and no one moved. You could probably cut the tension with a knife, if you had one.
"…I say we take the chance. What else can we do? Their going to come, and we don't have many other options." A soft voice piped up, seeming to be on Luna's side. "And if it doesn't work, we can try to keep them there until it does work. Until we find a way to get them to remember.
"We could see if we can find anyone who can wake Caroline up," the rough voice said once again. "And maybe it would work? Or we could see if one of us can read her notes, and understand it."
"Is it a good idea to try and mess with that? We could screw them up worse than they already are. We also don't have any 'test subjects' to test it out." The soft voice insisted, sighing weakly. "Maybe we should try waking her up first."
"Agreed- I don't want to be the one to make things worse. Though I still don't agree with this." The stern man insisted, as he stood up and soft foot steps were heard. "For now, we need to make sure they're not here. If some of you don't mind staying here with me, Luna, and Jake, that would be appreciated. Though we need more of you out there."
"Okay." Luna sounded tired.
There was silence. Arsen stared at Joanna, his face pale. "What-" he shook his head. "What is going on?"
Joanna gave up trying to keep away, and just fell back into the wall with a weak sigh. "I-I don't know…" She admitted, holding a hand to her forehead. "But I'm shaking… really, really bad." Joanna whispered, still swaying a bit, even with the support of the wall. "I don't… I don't know what that was- but it can't be real. It just… can't be."
“They must know that we’re here. And they decided to, instead of letting us know, tease us.” Arsen shook his head. He wanted to go and help her, but he was too shaky to do anything.
So badly she wanted to agree, but the way the room went all hazy… and started to blur into her own thoughts… stories she hadn't seen before coming up front. Joanna really couldn't agree or disagree with his statement at the current moment. Her body went numb, and she slowly slid down the wall as she slipped into a state of unconsciousness.
(Would we want to write the memories, just to have some ~fun~ getting to write their previous story? Or would we want to just have everything come back?)
(I think we should write some memories, like maybe some really prominent ones?)
Arsen stumbled toward her, trying to hold her up, and found that she was almost unconscious. She twitched slightly at his touch, but otherswise didn't react to his shaking. And then he stopped, vision going blank.
(Agreed. Should we decide what those are in PMs first? Just so we're not writing aimlessly. I also have some specific ones that I think are important.)
About 10 years ago…
The small bus drove along the path, shaking quite a lot. On it, were over a dozen students sitting around excitedly as they made there way along. Almost everyone at least. A smaller girl sat in the back, alone and quiet. She was fine, just not as excited as the others.
They were going to the zoo, an hour away from school. Normally, the girl would be more excited, but something was telling her not to be. Silently she wrote in quite neat writing for only being ten years old. With the nice writing, the name Joanna was written at the top, in cursive writing. Below were things about herself, that she quite enjoyed. It was silly, but she needed the boost.
Joanna hadn't had the best morning, feeling a little neglected as they road along to the zoo. All of her friends were too busy, up near the front of the bus. All interested in something up there, she stayed in the back.
As they pulled up to the zoo, Joanna began to pack her things up in her small pink backpack. Pulling it up on her shoulders, she started making her way to the front of the bus. She didn't speak to anyone, keeping her distance so she wouldn't get trampled.*
A young boy stood at the back of a crowd of loud, rowdy students, his arms crossed, an annoyed expression on his face. He was adorable, his baby fat not quite yet having left his cheeks. His eyes, a blue so striking it seemed to stare through your soul, had an expression of boredom in them.
Arsen hated field trips. The teachers would all try and make things interesting and fun. "Learning is a privilege," they would say. He didn't care. None of his friends had to come! This trip would be as boring as it could be.
Then he saw her. She came in, pink backpack bright against her darker shirt. She was at the back of her classmates, and looked almost… frightened. Right then, Arsen knew that she was the one for him. He walked straight over to her and held out his hand. "I'm Arsen," he said with a bright smile. "You're really pretty."
Joanna heard his voice, turning her head to look at him. With her wide green eyes, and darker red hair, he wasn't wrong. "… Thank you." She said softly, lowering her head down to the floor. "I'm… I'm Joanna." She told him, her cheeks turning a rosy color.
The little girl had the smallest of smiles, barely glancing up at him. In all honestly, Joanna hadn't expected the abrupt compliment. Especially from such a cute boy. Smoothing out the denim shorts she wore, she glanced over her painted finger nails to distract herself. She knew her class was already moving on, but it wasn't like anyone would notice she was gone. Not for a while anyways.
"Can… can I help you?" She asked him softly, glancing over to her class nervously. Even if she didn't want to be with her class, she didn't want to be lost.
"Yeah," Arsen said, smiling gently at her. "I'm bored, and I don't want to be with my class. Do you want to explore the zoo with me?" His tone was so hopeful, it could break your heart. It was fourth grade romance at its cutest. "I've always wanted to be with someone as pretty as you. You'd make things interesting!"
Joanna's lips parted a little, and pushed up into a smile. Glancing back at her class, she decided that she would much rather spend time with him. "Yeah, I think it could be fun." She said softly, taking a few steps closer to him. She was still nervous, but not as badly. "My friends are all too busy, anyways."
"Well, they're not very good friends, are they then?" Arsen grabbed her by the hand, a roguish grin on his face. "Come on!" He looked back at her. "Where do you want to go first? I've been here a hundred times, so I know where places are."
Joanna's flush deepened when he took her hand, and she looked up at him. "I… I don't know. Maybe we could go see the lions?" Joanna offered, not seeming one-hundred percent sure. She never really paid attention when they went on field trips.
"Sure. They're cool. They actually had a baby lion recently, and it's soooo cute," Arsen said, grinning, seeming to do his best to set her at ease. "Although, not as cute as you."
Having warmed up to him a little bit, she let a light giggle through. "I think it's got to be cuter. I mean, a lot of baby animals are." Joanna told him, holding on to his hand tightly in her own. Her smile wasn't wavering, as it felt good to have someone tell her they thought she was cute. "But that's just what I think."
"No," Arsen insisted, grinning. "I promise you, some of the baby animals are really ugly. Like the… like the…" He searched for an animal out of the top of hid head. "Like a puppy, when it's first born. They're so ugly. Or baby rabbits, when they're first born. They're all hairless and weird."
"That's true… if you're sure they're really cute, then let's go see them." Joanna smiled brightly, brushing her red hair out of her face. "Lead the way, Arsen!"
