Team Crafted: Second Generation

Tyler

"You will never save anyone..." 

The crowd closed in on me. They weren't Shadows, but they had no faces. 

"You are weak..." 

"You will never know how to use the power given to you..." 

I may not have known their faces, but I knew their voices. 

Macey, Dad, Skylar, Jin...they were all talking to me. 

"You didn't save my brother...why didn't you save my brother?" Jenna's voice rang out, and I sank to my knees. 

Let this stop let this stop letthis stop letthisstop letthisstop letthisstopletthisstop-

I woke with a start, only to see I was back in the cave. 

The fire was nearly dead, and only the coals were still glowing. Everyone was asleep. 

Everyone, except for...

"I honestly shouldn't even ask anymore." Skylar said from the corner, where she sat with her back pressed against the wall. "You always seem to wake up when I'm awake." 

I managed a smile. "Maybe it's not that. Maybe it's you're always conveniently awake when I wake up." 

"Isn't that the same thing?" 

"Kind of, yeah." 

We sat in silence for a while, neither of us quite meeting the others' eyes. 

I wanted to talk about what happened in the maze. She'd ignored me up until now, but maybe...

"Hey, Skylar?" 

"What." 

Her tone was flat, as if she knew what was coming. 

"Can we talk about what happened in the maze, what that clone said about you?" 

"Sure. I'll start. They were lies. There. We talked about it. Done. Now let's never speak of it again." 

"That's not exactly what I meant."  

"I know what you meant, and I don't want to talk about it." She muttered, glaring at the coals in the fire. 

"I'm not gonna stop asking until you tell me, so there's that to think about." 

She hesitated for a moment, and sighed. "Fine." She muttered, so quiet I could barely hear her. "Ask away." 

I thought about it for a second. I didn't really know what to ask, there's was too much to choose from. 

"Um...what did she mean when she said you didn't believe in love?" 

She looked to the side, not meeting my eyes. "Going for the painful one first then, I guess." 

"You don't really have to answer, if you don't want to." I said. 

She sighed. "Yeah, I do. Because if I don't, you'll keep bugging me about until I tell you." 

There were a few long seconds of silence, and she spoke up again. 

"My mom split up with my dad when I was six. Left us out of nowhere. I thought she loved my dad, but I guess my six year old brain was deluded. From that day forward, I've concluded that love, at least in the romantic sense, doesn't exist. There. Now you know." 

"...Ouch." I said, not really knowing what else to say. 

"Yeah." 

I didn't want to say 'I'm sorry', because I knew she had probably heard it a ton of times, and I knew "sorry" never helps anything, it's just a word people say to try and be forgiven for not knowing better. 

"Um, so...was that clone lying when she said you were scared of me?" 

"In a way, yes." She said, staring at me. "I can and will kick your butt if I ever need to or want to." 

"I think I know that." I said, remembering the first time we met the others and she had threatened to punch me for no reason. "But wait, in a way?" 

"Yeah. Because in another way..." 

She stopped. 

"No. I'm not going to tell you this. I'm going back to sleep." 

"Skylar, wait-"

"No. I'm going to sleep, Tyler. Goodnight." 

"You can't just leave me on a cliffhanger like that!" 

"I can and I will. Goodnight." 

With that, she closed her eyes, and didn't speak to me again until the next morning. 

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