Memories

Sky's POV

"For the last time Sky, I don't understand why you won't just upgrade to the newest model!" A young new hire exclaimed. "It would make my job so much easier!" The young girl, who worked in tech support, ranted. She held in her hand a necklace, which I have had for so long that it's just become part of my image. It was a golden string that had been wound around itself several times, both to strengthen it and to give it the effect of looking like a golden chain. The string had also been fastened to a hexagonal colored gem, which when caught in the light looked slightly violet, despite being a rich purple hue most of the time.

"My necklace has sentimental value for me." It was nowhere near as fancy as the new watch that had been recently designed by my good old friend Jin, but it worked, and could still produce a screen, which was all I needed. I used it to travel around to the sets of the various shows I worked on, as well as storing the footage and running as a small, high powered computer. As I ran my finger along the cord, I smiled, lost in the memory of how I had gone from having a watch to having this.

The jewel in the center has the power to leap through realms on a moments notice, so my long-missing friend Jess and I used to use them to go exploring together. On time however, on a particularly misadvised adventure, we got in a large spot of trouble, which we had to fight our way out of. In the battle though, my stone, which at the time was in a watch like everyone else's, was cracked, and the watch destroyed. The small purple jewel had flown through the air, as did my only way of getting home. However, my dear friend Jess quickly pulled me aside, and dragged me away from the battle, which we were loosing.

Once we were deep in the woods, Jess revealed that she had caught my gem. From her pocket she then pulled out a small gold cord, as strong as any, and thread the string straight through the hole that my attacker had put in it. I looked at it worriedly, but Jess assured me that it wasn't badly damaged and would still function fine. She should know, since she was on of the head developers of the stones that we at skyarmy use. (As much as that sounds like an army of followers of mine, it was actually more a reference to the fact that our office is in the sky.) I had quickly run a few short tests with it. I discovered I could still communicate with the other members, it still had my database of important warp points, and it could still transport me to another world. We quickly warped home, agreeing to never speak of that experience. Jess vanished into that night hours later.

"Ugggh!" The irritation in the otherwise soft voice snapped me back to the present. "I swear. You could at least take it to Jin for a software update!" The young girl was clearly at the edge of her patience. Uhh oh. I was going to need to think of a fib on the spot. The real reason I couldn't was because taking it to Jin would mean him finding out just how many worlds I had visited. The max you were supposed to go to regularly was about 5 or 6. I was closer to 10. I went with my usual lie.

"I have pictures of Jess on here that I would loose with a software update." The lie just... poured out, after years of telling lies to my coworkers. Well, it was a half truth I guess. I did have pictures of Jess and I on here. The response I got was so unexpected, I dropped the recording file I was about to watch over. Red's, I think.

"Who's Jess?" Was all that she mused aloud. I took a moment to collect myself before continuing.

"Jess was a wonderful woman who used to work her at the offices. In fact, she was one of the heads of the original skyarmy when we founded the offices. She and I were very close." I finished, unwilling to say more.

"What happened to her? You talk about her like she didn't retire." She pried. I sighed.

"Have you ever wondered who is on com channel one? That's her, so we know she isn't dead. If she was, the system would reassign the number. However, her contacts have been greyed out, so we can't contact her. She just vanished into air one night." I finished, bitting my lip before I could say anything else, or start tearing up. "Forgive me," I continued, brushing away a few rebellious years away with the back of my hand before anyone else could notice. "You must be on of our newer hires." I went on, trying to learn more about her, since she seemed nice enough, just flustered.

"Yes, this is my first month here. My name is Tessa." She explained.

"Tessa? That's a nice name. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to review Red's latest recording. However, if you would like, you can join me next time I need to record."

"Really?" Tessa let out a squeak.

"Sure." I responded. Tessa dashed out of the room at that, leaving me to my thoughts and this video. It was a parkour video, so I spaced out as I watched for any major error.

What would Jess think if she saw us now? She had been the glue of the Skyarmy, and without her we drifted apart. At first we blamed each other for her disappearance . After we got over that, we tried to fill the hole in our lives by recruiting more members to the offices, the place where we all worked and lived. However, we went a little overboard, and none of us know all the names of all the members. Now we were all mourning in our own way, but privately. We only got together for one important day. We gathered on the anniversary of her disappearance, and we wrote letters to her. Maybe it was silly, but some part of me cling to the hope that she got them when we burned them.
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A/N
9/30/18

Hey everyone! I'm baaaack!

To be clear, this is indeed the second September update, not an October update.

I hope you find that this better explains the events that make up the backstory then the previous version did? And if not, feel free to leave questions or comments!

I ended the chapter earlier then it used to end because I felt that the timeline felt too shoved together, and I wanted to insert some time between chapters ;)

Also, since we're going to see Aphmau in a few chapters, I'm going to clear something up. This is an Aarmau book. The story takes into account all episodes as of 10/1/18, but for story's reasons, Aaron is still alive, and has married Aph. He did indeed loose control to Shad, but with Travis' help, he learned to take control back. They now share the lordship of Phoenix drop so that Levin and Malachi can act as dignitaries and diplomats to the Phoenix alliance. They are rasing Lilith and Alena together.

Tessa❤️!

Word count - 1255 words.