Chapter Eighteen:

Rosiee was still in the Headquarters; everyone else apart from the pilots were in their bedrooms. They said they were going up to get some sleep, but she doubted if that really was the case, especially with Elliot and Charlotte. Squinting to see the small print on the laptop that had been attached to her ever since Isla disappeared. This small laptop had got her through the worst of times and now as she sat hunched over her laptop an overwhelming sense of homesickness washed over her and she stopped reading about a case of someone being poisoned and placed the machine on the little table opposite her. Out of the corner of her eye, Rosiee noticed a pool of five or six Whale-dragons gliding past the Space Pod, but she found it strange that the same ones appeared again and again.

Getting off the comfortable sofa where she'd been for the last hour, Rosiee approached one of the circular windows and peered at the luminescent dragons. She thought she saw a person hanging onto the tip of a wing.

She shook her head, tying her hair in a ponytail as she scolded herself, "You must be going mental, Rosiee." Just as she turned her head to go back to her reading and researching she blinked several times, amazed by what she saw. The largest of the Whale-dragons was actually pulling a string of people all of Space Suits holding hands. They lit up in glowing white among their luminescent scales, except for one that had Rosiee squinted and pressed her hands to the glass, what looked like a Raven-dragon wrapped around them.

Turning around and tripping over her own feet, Rosiee rushed to the pilots screaming, "James! James! Adrien!"

"Yes! What?" they both asked, alarmed at the sudden disturbance.

"I think I've found them! Some of the missing people I mean. Including Isla! You have got to turn the Space Pod sideways in the direction of where the Headquarters is. Hurry. Hurry!"

"Wait, Rosiee. Just slow down for a minute. What did you see? And what the hell is going on?" James replied.

Trying desperately to explain herself in a calm manner, Rosiee began telling them exactly what she saw and said that she thought, though she couldn't be sure that the Raven-dragon was Cosmo. Once she had finished James just stared with a mixture of awe and disbelief. Adrien turned and once again pulled up the holographic map spinning it around with his hands. Sure enough, Rosiee had been right and he gaped at the shapes on the map. It was showing an outline of massive slick dragons and linked two of them were the outline of tiny people.

"James, why don't you steer and I'll navigate?" then he turned to Rosiee saying, "did you see their faces and how many of them were actually there?"

"I think there are quite a few. About, umm," she stopped talking to think and Adrien navigate and helped slightly with the stirrin as she continued, "I would say 20 or so,"

"20! We can't take 20 people. How are we going to save them all?" muttered James going in their direction anyway.

"Rosiee, can you go back to the Headquarters, please? Oh and wake up Mason and Taylor. we are going to need them. We'll keep the door open so you can shout when we are getting nearer to them. We need to get those people as close to the interlinking passage as possible. Go!" James said, concentrating on the task before him glancing at the map.

Rosiee didn't need to be told twice and she raced up the stairs knockin on every single one of the bedrooms, including her own, where she knew that Charlotte would still be awake. As it turned out they were all fully alert and ready immediately.

"Rosiee, I heard shouting. What's going on?" Charlotte and Elliot called after her, both confused and dreading the answer.

"Agreed," called Taylor, trying to catch up with Rosiee who had always been a faster runner than her, even in childhood. Star flapped her wings gracefully as she sensed that Cosmo was nearby, also wondering how that could possibly be because she knew he wasn't in the Space Pod.

"I'll show you all! Just come!"

Rushing to the window, Elliot couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was something out of a storybook his dads had read to him as a child. He pinched myself and to his surprise it actually did hurt him. Freya felt goosebumps travelling up her arms as she also saw the majestic creatures trying to bring these people to safety. A smaller Whale-dragon, who was the same size as her, came to the window and nuded it with their nose. When they opened their eyes to see everyone staring at them, they went back to their mother who was obviously the leader of the pool. Freya and Charlotte tried to make out their faces to see if one of them was Isla, but however hard they tried they just couldn't. Because the white Space Suits were glowing so brightly, their faces were hidden.

"James! Adrien, you're moving away from them! Go a tiny bit closer!" Rosiee called.

"That's not very scientific, Rosiee! We need Points!" James hollered back irritated.

"Go two points over to the right," Taylor said, "and there's no need to be rude, either." She rolled her eyes at Rosiee, who smiled at her gratefully. The last few days and even weeks, if she was being honest with herself, had been diffifult to say the least. She didn't get any reply, but they felt the Ship turning slightly.

"Why don't the four of us go into the interlinking passage? Then we can help them on board the Ship," Mason suggested, indicating to himself, Melody, John and Elliot.

"We'd like to go too," Charlotte said, indicating to Freya. She was tied to always feeling left out and she wanted to be part of things for a change; even if she had a broken arm at that moment.

"Okay. Are you okay here, Rosiee? Taylor? Star?" Mason asked, glancing at them. When they reluctantly nodded, Elliot and Freya led the way to the interlinking passage, holding the door open for the others to walk through. Knowing how to open the door the best, Mason pulled the lever and ever so slowly the large door opened and they were confronted with a massive eye the size of a toddler's hand staring at them. Mason stepped back in surprise as they blinked back at him. The Whale-dragon moved back to reveal the first person in the line of about 19 others, a frightened look on his face.

"We are here to help. I can promise you that," Elliot said gently moving towards Mason, still not making out any individual faces. "Can we take your hand?" The person in the Space Suit looked from the tip of the dragon's wing that he was gripping onto for dear life and back to Elliot's hand.

"There are 17 of us! You can't possibly help us all," he replied. Freya grabbed on to Elliot's other hand, while Melody and John joined the chain and Charlotte held on at the end with her good arm.

"Yes we can," Melody said fiercely, surprising both John and Mason. Normally she was quite quiet (CHANGE). "On the count 3. Okay?" Once they nodded she counted and the male hanging on to the Whale-dragon's wing took a leap of faith and let go. Elliot acted quickly, grabbing his hand.

"Thank you," Freya and Elliot whispered to the Whale-dragon, who seemed to understand them and went back to the other dragons in their pool. The smallest of the Whale-dragons decided to push the people in the Space Suits towards the 'wingless dragons' as they called humans. Shocked at the sudden force of being shoved to the ground Elliot, Freya, Melody, John and Charlotte fell on each other as if they were dominos. All of the 17 people also fell on top of them and Charlotte, who was at the bottom of the pile, shouted out, "Ouch! Get off me, will you?"

Gradually as everyone in the tight room stood up again Mason, John, and Melody led the 15 strangers they had just saved into the Headquarters, as they realised that Isla would want to say hello to her friends alone. Mason then hurried back as he closed the door to the outside world. They didn't notice Finley that hung back and he saw that all his childhood friends had sad eyes and heavy hearts and he wanted to just hold them close, but he wanted Isla to reunite with them first. He thought back to the last words that they had spoken to him in the cafeteria and tears welled up in his eyes. Once Isla finally saw and heard who was around her she half ran, half limped to Freya and threw her arms around her, both of them sobbing. 

"Hi, strangers," whispered Finley from behind Elliot and Charlotte. As soon as she saw him she burst into tears and wrapped her arms around him nearly knocking him over. Elliot stared at him open-mouthed and he put his hands in his pocket to check if the drawing was still there, which of course it was.

Isla and Freya came over holding hands, both silently vowing to never let each other out of their sight ever again. Upon seeing her cousin alive, Freya ran to him and they embraced each other both choking on their tears.

"But.. We saw-we saw you..." Charlotte sputtered.

"Die?" Finley finished for her, gently pulling back from Freya to take off his Space Suit.

They nodded, gulping back tears and Finley finally turned to Elliot and hugged him. Elliot cupped his cheeks and kissed his lips.

"Let's go to the others," Isla whispered, "we can ask him about everything later," Freya, holding on to Isla's hand tightly, and Charlotte reluctantly agreed and walked to the inside of the Space Pod. Cosmo flew over and sat on Isla's shoulder, talking to Charlotte who was excited to see them again.

Finley kissed him back and caressed his cheek with his thumb. Elliot pulled away slightly and whispered, "I've missed you so much. You have no idea, Finley,"

"Yes I do. I know because I missed you even more," he replied. Elliot held him close and kissed him once more overjoyed by his return. Finley reciprocated the kiss and said, "Now that we've kissed and I spent an embarrassingly long time on that drawing" he laughed then; a beautiful sound according to Elliot, then continued, "will you be my boyfriend?" Finley looked down, his cheeks flaring up in a pinkish colour showing more of his freckles.

"Yes," Elliot said.

"Wait? Really?" he replied stunned.

Elliot nearly burst out laughing at his reaction as he spoke, "Did you really think I was going to say no?" Finley didn't answer for a while and when he did, he suggested that they went to see everyone else going to the Headquarters. As Elliot gripped Finley's hand, frightened of letting go again, he realised that this was almost all he needed, his boyfriend, his twin sister, and his friends with him. The only thing that they all needed and missed the most there was their parents, aunts and uncles, etc.

As the two young men walked through the interlinking passage and through the doors of the Headquarters to see all the people they'd rescued talking and laughing together. Elliot could tell that most of them were in pain, including Isla and Finley, who both looked terrible.

"What happened in there, Finley? How-how are you even here?" Elliot whispered to him. Just before he had the chance to answer his question, Freya ploughed into him with a hug. He hugged her back, gritting his teeth against the pain blossoming in his ribs.

"Sorry!" she exclaimed, "did I hurt you?"

"That's okay," he answered, shaking his head at her question. Now it was Mason, Taylor, Rosiee and the rest of the crew members' turn to look at Finley as though they'd seen a ghost. Isla watched as Melody and John, still glancing back at Finley directed the others to the cafeteria.

Rosiee spoke first, "What the hell happened?"

"Well, it's a long story. Should we sit down first? Or get something to eat?" Finley replied, glancing at the cafeteria uneasily. He still remembered the pain of dying and that room would forever hold cruel memories. Isla, Charlotte, Freya and Elliot obviously felt the same way as they declined food and went over to the sofas where they always sat. Rosiee and Taylor followed soon after with Cosmo and Star, who curled up next to each other under the little table. Finley smiled as he noticed Isla's notebook, which still lay open on the page with his drawing of him and Freya.

"What's the story, Finley?" Freya asked, gently, seeing his unease with the whole situation.

"Well, I died, which was actually painful," he began, avoiding their gazes, "then I felt at peace at the same time. It was a strange feeling. Anyway, the next thing I knew, I felt as if I was being ripped into pieces and my heart hurt. There was all of this, I don't really know what it was to be honest... It looked like flashes of blue light and seemed to hold my body into place. Once the Intergalactic Federation Officer...,"

"Was it the IGF in the end? What did they want?" Taylor interjected.

"I'll get to that,"

"Sorry,"

"That's okay. Anyway, I realised after a while that the Officer was pushing this red button and when she finally let go and fell to the bottom of this sort of glass tube I was in. Two large men opened the door and proceeded to carry me under the arms and threw me into this cell room with a padlock on it. Isla, I'm sorry I didn't tell you this earlier. We just had no time and...,"

"What is it, Finley? Is it about Luca?" Isla asked, heart thumping in her chest as she squinted to see him properly, her damaged eye still throbbing.

"It is. There were other cells like mine in the room and Luca was in the one next to mine,"

"He-he was alive?" Isla and Charlotte said together, both remembering his glassy green eyes when they saw him for the last time.

"Was. Yes. He was," Finley stopped to regain his composure and continued, "in bad shape. Are you sure you want to hear the rest of the story?"

"Yes," said Isla and Elliot nodded firmly.

"Okay. Well, his head was bleeding quite a bit and he only spoke in a quiet hoarse voice, but he wanted to give everyone a message and wrote individual notes. I've kept them in my pocket ever since. A lady IGF officer, who called herself. Mrs. Thomas gave him a pen and paper to write them. I don't entirely know what they were doing, but the experiments they were performing on us were horrible. Apparently, I heard from Luca that they were also experimenting on dragons," Finley said. Rosiee and Charlotte, who sat next to one another looked at each other in amazement. The article that they had read last night about the injured dragons 20 years ago was true!

Isla and Elliot stared at each other in horror, each thinking about the poor injured Whale-dragons they thought they had been rescuing in the Physical Trials at the time of the 23rd birthday.

We killed them.

The thought sent shivers through Isla's spine as she tugged at a strand of blonde hair. Freya, who seemed to know that she was thinking let go of her hand and wrapped her arm around her shoulder instead.

"And then what happened? Did you find out anything else?" Elliot asked directing his question to both Isla and Finley.

"Estelle, the girl next to me, I couldn't really see how old she was or what she even looked like, but anyway. She said that she'd been there for months and that the experiments had also progressed during that time. She witnessed the experiments done on the dragons and said that they were... horrible," Isla replied, looking over at Finley to see if he had anything else to add. When he said nothing she spoke, "What about Luca? What happened? Please. I need to know."

Just then Mason came to join them and Elliot filled him in until he was updated with the new information. He nodded to Finley and shook his hand and his pale blue eyes returned to Isla as he answered, "the experiments were getting more and more severe and one day when he returned with one of the guards he was in very bad shape. He told me he was losing his vision and his ribs and legs were in pain. When I was taken for more experiments in the glass box and came back to the cell he was gone,"

"Gone?" Isla questioned, confused, leaning in trying to hear him over the noise of the chatter in the cafeteria.

"Well, at that stage it was too painful to really register what was happening," Finley gulped back the tears at the memory and Elliot squeezed his hand in his. He continued, looking at Elliot gratefully, "later, however, I obviously noticed and Mrs. Thomas came into the room carrying his body to prove that he was truly dead,"

None of the seven nor the two Raven dragons spoke for some time after that and Isla's tears poured down her cheeks at the news that her twin brother was actually resuscitated. She could have seen him again if she'd been there earlier, could've rescued him. Freya turned to hug her and as she sobbed one of the rescued captives came up to them and whispered to Finley who nodded.

"What did she say?" Elliot asked, glancing over Isla. Cosmo had flown to her and was now sitting on her lap, his tears scorching her skin, which started to heal some of her many wounds.

"Sorry? I didn't hear you," Finley said, turning to Elliot.

"I asked what she said to you," he replied gently, seeing that he was in pain.

"She just asked about the sleeping arrangements for them," Finley answered.

"You've just arrived," muttered Charlotte, "and instead of saying thank you for saving them, they demand bedrooms!"

"They're just tired, Charlie. They're hurting," Finley said gently.

"Thank you. All of you," Isla said, "how did you find us?" She had so many questions that she couldn't possibly ask or answer in one evening so she tried to keep them to a minimum for now. Just then Liea, the jellyfish, appeared, pulsating towards Elliot.

"Adrien used the holographic map and we researched," Freya answered, not mentioning their feelings of helplessness, grief and loneliness. She didn't mention the fear of never being able to find her alive or the fear of being stranded on a planet littered with dead dragons.

"I think Mason wants to say something," whispered Cosmo, who was still on Isla's lap. They glanced up in the direction he was looking at. He had moved from his place next to Elliot and was trying to get everyone's attention. When he had failed to get anyone's attention amongst all the chatter Charlotte yelled out, "Everyone shut it! Mason wants to talk!"

After that outburst everyone in the Space Pod was so silent that he was sure they all heard his thumping heart.

"Now you know why I didn't use the loudspeaker," Mason joked, embarrassed, "Thank you Charlotte," She turned away slightly, her cheeks turning to a shade of red. She'd realised in the last few days just how much she actually liked him and Rosiee.

After the laughter died down, Mason spoke in a soft voice as he found himself staring at Elliot for too long, "Welcome, I hope you will be happy here. It might take us a while to sort out the sleeping arrangements, but we've already made some changes," Mason waited for the questions to stop before continuing, "Well, Finley and Elliot are sharing a room, then Isla and Freya, then Rosiee and Charlotte, then Taylor, Melody and Estelle will also be sharing. John and I will be sharing a room as well. Mrs. Thomas will have her own room. The rest will need to sleep on the sofas in the Headquarters for now,"

"That's not fair!" shouted a male voice from the crowd.

Isla recognised the voice from when they were leaving the IGF and Finley voiced his fears. She turned to him and said, "Life isn't fair, genius." She got no answer from him, but Estelle, who Isla could now see had wavy mid-brown hair and hazel eyes, burst out laughing.

"You deserved that one, Noah," Estelle commented.

"Anyway, we will show you where your rooms are and where the sleeping bags are," Mason said, not wanting to start an argument.

Taylor led the group that didn't have any bedrooms yet to the interlinking passage to a small door to their left where the sleeping bags were. Isla, Elliot, Finley and Freya excused themselves and walked up the stairs, each one exhausted.

"I've missed you all so much. I thought I was never going to see you again," Finley said to them as they reached the top of the stairs. Isla turned and threw her arms around him. Freya then hugged them both as did Elliot. He felt that really Charlotte should have been there too, but she seemed to distance herself from the rest of them and the thought weighed on his mind.

"We missed you too," they replied together. Isla didn't elaborate on just how much she had missed him and how she'd seen the way Charlotte, Freya and Elliot had grieved for him and needed him to come back. She clutched her head as a sudden sharp pain washed over her making her vision more blurred than before.

"Isla! What's wrong?" Freya asked, a slight panic in her voice.

"I'm fine, just a bit tired, that's all," Isla replied. The three others looked at each other in worry, especially Finley who had been experiencing similar symptoms. His ribs were still in pain and, even though he appreciated them, tight hugs were not helping.

"Well, why don't we all go to bed, it's already 10 pm and you two must be exhausted," Elliot suggested. They all nodded and Freya shouted down to the others informing them that they were going to bed.

"Good night!" shouted Charlotte from the bottom of the stairs. She had missed both Isla and Finley a lot over the last few days, but she knew that the couples needed some time alone. She had plenty of time to reconnect with them. 

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