I first notice the cold. It feels like I'm lying in a freezer, on a cold metal shelf with only a sheet of fabric protecting me from the chill. 

Then I remember the Training Base collapsing, and me falling into it.

I curl up in a tighter ball, trying to control my trembling. I'm too afraid to open my eyes. I don't know what's going on, and I don't want to know. I don't want to be here, I don't want to be here, I'm dead, I am dead, I am dead and I don't want to be here...

After five minutes, I force my eyes open. I'm lying in a jail cell... made of steel.

The realization makes me feel sick. I tuck my chin to my chest to avoid the walls, but I only see a flower print gown.

The combination of stainless walls and the pattern is enough to make me raise myself onto my hands and knees on the shelf and throw up over the edge.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see a guard. I slowly lift up my head and watch him. He seemed to notice me when I threw up, because he's standing and watching me as he unclips a little black box with holes from his waist. He presses a button on it with his thumb and speaks into it. "The prisoner is awake. Shall I lead her down?"

His accent is like no other. Judging by that and his wide features, I'd say he's human.

"I told you, she's not a prisoner!" a very familiar voice shouts angrily from the box.

"Do I take her down?" the man asks again.

"Yes, yes, bring her down," Simon replies.

The guard clips the box onto his belt again and unlocks the cell door. I consider bolting, but I still feel very woozy. The guard grabs my arm and pulls me down the hall.

He leads me up a stairwell, down a small hallway, into a huge room packed with people chattering in what I think is English. It echoes up to the cavernous ceiling above. It's so high up that there's four balconies around the edge, with tables and benches. He leads up a large stairwell and though a pair of double doors labeled "Control Room."

Ever since I found out all about it, I had hoped that I would never see the machine. But inside the control room, there it stands, in all its purple lighted glory. Two people are in there, one waiting by the machine, the other playing a game on the computers. Simon and Kira. Bixan help me. I stare at them, fear making my palms sweat and my body tremble.

"Callie!" Simon exclaims, as if we were still good buddies-which he destroyed when I was five. I can't talk, can't move. I never wanted to see Simon again that I can barely think.

He comes over and wraps his arms around me and holds me tight. And I'm so shocked from what's going on, from meeting Simon since that fateful night when I had just gone to bed as if it were any other day, to waking up to my Guardian leaving and following him, and finding out that Simon disappeared, that I don't realize that the man who murdered my Guardian's lover, who started a war over a dimension, is hugging me and I'm just standing here, letting him.

I pull away and take a step back. "What the hell is going on?"

"Oh, I've missed so much, girl. How's James? How's training?"

"Training is over," I say in a tight voice. "And James is-" I get choked up, because there's no reason for Simon to save him like he saved me. If that's what happened. I'm still very uncertain about cause and effect.

"James survived," Simon says gently. "I pulled him out of that mess like I did for you."

I open my mouth, and all that comes out is a very confused, "How...?"

"Teleporter," Simon explains. "There were actually two projects here, both in this room. I'm sorry for the discomfort- being pulled through space isn't easy."

"I'm lost," I say.

"I don't understand the exact basics either," he says. "I just care that it works. Now this, on the other hand..."

He puts his hand onto the portal- and immediately yanks his hand away. "Shit!"

"What happened?" asked Kira boredly.

"The machine burned me!" Simon holds up his blistered hand. Kira swivels around on the chair. Her beaded braids are pulled into a ponytail, and she wears a very revealing shirt, if you could call it that. It's more like two bits of cloth, connected in the back and tied at the neck, lifting up her rather ample chest. I wonder how she doesn't freeze. Then again, I have lived under a desert my entire life. Maybe I'm just not used to the cold.

"It burned you?" Kira asks. "That's never happened. Do you think that might have to do with the girl's presence?"

Simon looks at me. "Maybe."

I want to laugh at his humility and pain, but I'm a little afraid of him. He won't kill me- he needs me to operate the machine- but I wouldn't put him past torture.

"I want James," I say. I want to sound bold, but it comes out as a whimper.

Simon sighs and pulls a similar black box to the one the guard had off his belt. "Bring James."

"Yes, sir," a female voice replies.

I eye those things warily. "Is that a human cellphone?"

Simon frowns and holds out the black box. "This? This is a walkie talkie."

"Huh?"

"Humans developed it," Simon explains. "Like the teleporter, how it works doesn't matter, only that it does and it's pretty useful."

"So you went to Earth?" I ask. "How'd you get there?"

"Trying to catch up with me? Saying, how you've been, whatcha been doing?" Simon asks. He's not taunting me.

"I'm just curious," I say, taking a step towards the exit. Why, I don't know. I'm on an asteroid orbiting the planet. I'm in space. There's nowhere to run.

"You can't go anywhere," Simon says, as if he could read my thoughts. "The only thing here are space ships, and you can't fly one. Especially not the big one underneath us. That one can travel to Earth in three months." 

"How? It's twelve light-years away!"

"Same tech that made your necklace," Simon smirks. "The ability to travel as fast as tachyons- that's what the humans call it, anyhow- and still come out whole, without any damage. You don't time-travel, Callie, you just move faster than light sometimes. And so can the big boy downstairs. Just takes longer."

"I'm lost," I say truthfully.

Simon sighs. "Oh, forget it." He pulls out the walkie-talkie and presses a button on it. "Where's-"

The door bangs open, and James is brought in, being manhandled by the burliest of guards. His face is bruised and bloody, and it's clear that he's not getting treated like a guest. He still wears his robes from earlier. They're ripped and stained orange from the sand. I barrel into James and hug him tightly and bury my face into his chest. He wraps his arms around me and rocks me back and forth, muttering, "It's okay, it'll be okay..."

He looks at Simon and says tightly, "How many lives are lost because of you? Astrid, Isa, Baya..."

He chokes up and buries his face into my hair. I can feel tears on my scalp.

"Technically, only one of those is my fault," Simon says. "I didn't make the facility collapse. And kind, sweet Isa ditched her Keeper to save herself. She made it out on time. Barely."

I don't believe him; don't want to believe him. Isa loved Astrid like she was her mother. She probably realized Astrid was too weak to save. Even so, wouldn't she want to try to save Astrid? Why would she leave her for dead?

"Your war caused Astrid's death," I say angrily. "The Training Base was safe. You destroyed it!" I pull away from James to glare at Simon. "What's the point? So you could have access to that?" I gesture to the portal.

"There's more to the story that you wouldn't understand," Simon says. Gone is the calm, nonchalant voice. Now he sounded annoyed. "You need to know only your part and-"

"No," James says firmly. "We want the full story."

Simon sighs again. "I suppose," he says. "But now isn't the time. My goal here to make you, dear Callie-"

"Call me 'dear' one more time and I'll rip out your tongue," I say angrily.

"That's-cheerful. What I was going to say is your wish is my command. I want you as comfortable here as possible."

I consider being difficult, then realize I could use this to my advantage. "I want an actual room," I say, "and something besides this hospital gown. And I want James to be treated the same as me."

"Thank you," he whispers.

"Alright," Simon says, "fine."

"And no guards," I add.

Simon makes a noise of disgust. "Don't push it. One guard only. Give me any crap, and you will go back to that cell. Agree?"

"And I won't be put in cells for the rest of my life," I say, just to test him-not a wise decision, he already seems a little unstable-but you know what? I live to push buttons.

Even if it's a murderer's.

I know I said I was aiming for longer chapters, but due to the lack of Internet, they're not gonna be much longer after all. I wrote most of this at the hotel during Scioly States (Third place in Optics, good job Tyler & Seb!), but that was a few weeks ago, and I've been itching to write more since then. I can't wait to get Internet again, but that won't be for a while. 

On a side note (and a little bit of good news) I saw a puppy birth at around 1 am! I went to bed last night, and we had one dog. Woke up at midnight, we had two. Went back to bed a little past 1, and there were five. Woke up this morning, there's SEVEN. One was actually born yesterday.

Vote, comment, and get a free puppy! (JK)