Chapter Eight

As I walked back toward the meadow, the sound of Theo and Samuel talking grew louder. Rounding a small curve in the pathway, I saw them standing within feet of one another, their arms outstretched in front of their bodies as if they were professional wrestlers dancing around each other in the ring. Theo was hunched, like a panther ready to pounce on its prey, as he prowled stealthily around Samuel.

Samuel mimicked Theo's walk, lunging toward him every few seconds to see if he could catch him off guard.

"C'mon. Stop dancing around me and actually try to hit me." Theo huffed, slamming his palms against his thighs, his narrowed eyes making it look like he was squinting.

"Like how Esa hit you a few minutes ago?" Samuel chuckled, and then he put his two palms together and slowly pulled them apart, revealing a ball of electricity. "By the way, how's your jaw doing? It looked like she got you pretty good," Samuel said as he threw the ball straight up into the air. It passed the few meager clouds that lingered and came back down as five smaller balls.

Theo tugged at his medallion and disappeared, only to reappear several seconds later on the other side of the meadow.

"Nice try," Theo retorted, turning and bringing out what looked like a large boomerang that glowed from with electricity. It arced around the meadow before flying back to Theo's hands. I hadn't noticed, but Samuel had disappeared.

He reappeared standing next to me. "Glad you decided to join us Esa."

"I thought about taking off and running from this place, but then realized I have no clue where I'm at or how to leave."

"Good point," Samuel said.

"What are you guys doing?" I pushed up the sleeves on my white top. It was getting warm and the soft fabric was itchy against my skin.

"We are practicing," Samuel said.

"For what?"

"In case we get attacked. We always need to be prepared. The new robots are getting faster and more human-like, but they still can't do some of the stuff we can."

"How are you able to disappear and then reappear?"

Samuel looked over at Theo. I watched as they both stared at each other. Theo then nodded his head forward as if to give Samuel the sign that it was okay to talk with me.

"Esa, you are my only sister, but if we find out you are working against us, then I won't hesitate to kill you," Samuel said. "However, I don't think you are plotting anything against us. I really think something happened to your memory. That's why we have decided to freely talk about things in front of you. I just hope you don't prove me wrong."

"I won't. I've told you nothing but the truth," I said.

"Esa, the medallion is your life line. It's what opens the Jump Line." Samuel held out the disk attached around his neck.

"That's not possible. My medallion doesn't do anything. Trust me. I've always wondered why I had this thing and couldn't seem to take it off." I traced the medallion's familiar surface. It had been my safety net for so many years.

"Slightly tug on it." Samuel lifted his hand up to his medallion. "Maybe something happened to it while you were in 2010."

I wrapped my hand around my own medallion. I felt my hand release a small bolt of electricity into the disk. The soft vapor rings from earlier reappeared in front of me.

"Whoa! That was amazing." A small laugh escaped my mouth. I had touched the medallion multiple times a day for the past few years and it had never done anything. This was definitely something new. My eyes looked around at the vapors. Seconds later, it disappeared. "What was that thing?"

"It's called the Jump Line and it's how we travel," Samuel said. "You can travel from year to year or stay in the same year and travel from place to place."

"That's why you don't need a flying car," I nodded, thinking back to our previous conversation and suddenly feeling silly.

"Exactly," Samuel responded. "The Jump Line is a little more advanced and it's very powerful. Don't be fooled. We have to take precautions. We can't just bring anyone or anything onto the line."

"What do you mean?"

"Our mother put us through a rigorous training program to prepare us for the line. She also started giving us a special serum to try and protect our bodies. The first time any of us went on the line, something inside the serum was activated. It's one of the reasons we all have pale skin and white hair. The radiation stripped away most of our pigment. It is also the reason we have electricity inside of our bodies." Samuel continued with his story. "I saw you wearing sunglasses in 2010. Did your eyes hurt?"

"Every day. Any light hurts my eyes," I thought back to Mrs. Vaughn's class and her constant reminders to remove my glasses.

We sat there in silence as I tried to take in everything he'd just told me about my life. The one I should have always known about, except I had been gone.

A thought occurred to me. "If we're twins, why are your eyes so blue?"

"I developed a new protective lenses for our eyes after you disappeared. We all now wear them to protect our eyes. I had LUX put a pair in your eyes."

A mirror image appeared in front of me, my eyes were now the same vibrant blue as his and Theo's.

"How did you do that?" I opened my eyes a little wider to inspect them.

"It's just what I do," Samuel said. "I guess you could say I take more after our mother. She was pretty amazing."

"So, if you take after Mom then who do I take after?"

"Our father."

"Why?"

"It's complicated."

"Fine. Can we go meet the other three soldiers?" I asked.

"You will meet them soon, but right now I need them to focus on taking care of the years where you have lived and been spotted," Samuel said. "We also need to prepare your body for the extra energy and see just how good your skills are after your time away."

I thought back to the classroom. I had felt an increase in energy in the room when Samuel appeared. "Do you think I'll get my memory back? Do you ever think I will remember what happened right before that awful car accident?" I asked, secretly hoping he would tell me he had figured out how to fix that as well.

"I'm not sure. I don't even know what happened to you." He paused. "Maybe over the next few days some of your memory will return and we can work together to figure out just what happened."

"I want to know more about my powers. Is it just electricity or is there more?"

"Just electricity, but, trust me, it's a valuable weapon," Samuel said as he threw another ball of electricity into the air.

"Show me how to create some of the weapons you both threw."

"All right," Samuel said nonchalantly as he thrust out both of his palms in my direction.

"Don't touch me. Just show me." I raised my hands defensively and took several steps backward to make sure Samuel couldn't try to send another painful bolt of electricity through my body. I'd already had enough for one day.

"Fine." Theo strode past Samuel to get closer. He loomed over me.

I held my hands up in front of my face and looked at them. They seemed so normal: soft and narrow, with long, thin fingers. My nail polish from when I was in the year 2010 was pretty much gone. Instead, there was only the soft pale pink of my bare nails.

Theo shrugged. "All right. Just let your mind do the work. Envision a weapon and then hold out your hands."

"Okay." I thought about the large boomerang Theo had just been holding.

"That's a good one, Esa. Definitely one of my favorites," Theo said.

I opened my eyes to see the weapon in my hands.

"Now, throw it at Samuel," Theo said with a little laugh.

Samuel crossed his arms over his chest. "Go ahead, but just remember, I firmly believe in paybacks, and you've been gone for a few years now, so I have a feeling I'm quicker than you."

I chuckled and faced him head on. "You ready?"

"Ha! Let's do this."

"Good." I launched the weapon in his direction.

Samuel placed a hand on his medallion and disappeared.

"Now it's my turn," Samuel said as he tapped me on my shoulder.

"Great," I mumbled, grabbing the weapon and watching the electricity flow into my body.

Samuel paused. "Esa, you will also need to learn how to control the levels of your electricity. Not everything has to be full power. Sometimes we like to just stun people."

Suddenly, a look of fear crossed Theo and Samuel's faces. Their eyes widened, and Samuel threw the entire weight of his body on top of me. A faint whizzing sound buzzed straight past us, and something hit a tree, causing bark to fly off the trunk, leaving a large black hole in its wake.

"What in the—?" I gasped.

Samuel grabbed my arm and pulled me up. "Esa, we need to run. The soldiers have found us."