Mara

Mara Alive

"What did you just say?" She opens her mouth to answer, but at this moment there's a nearby explosion. She whips around just in time to see a giant piece of the nearby building hurdling towards her. Just as she winces and curls her body under her shield the debris is blasted to dust by some kind of energy blast. It's not ours, the Syndicate's energy canons are great, but they can't do...that. She looks at me familiarly, it's both comforting and unsettling. The stranger drops her shield to the ground and smiles with glossy eyes, "I knew it."

I look up to see my arm outstretched, palm still glowing red and warm, like I'm holding a flashlight to the other side. I can't believe it.

"You always did have hot hands," she says jovially as she approaches me. I draw my dagger from my ankle sheath and point it at her, my brows furrowed and my jaw clenched.

"Why do you know my name?! Who are you?!" I'm so confused. 

She laughs.

"What?!" I snap.

"Sorry, sorry. Just you using a dagger" Her emphasis on the word "you" sends shivers down my spine. It's so odd how she acts like she knows me. It makes me feel hollow, like she's talking through me. It's almost like she's mistaken me for someone else, but the look in her eyes, the tone in which she addresses me, I know she knows me.

"And why's that so funny?" I ask cooly, trying to regain control even though it feels like my mind is in a million places at once, trying to make sense of what is happening. What is happening?

"Oh, um just..." she gestures vaguely at me, at my hands "it just feels a little..." She tilts her head and looks up to the side like she always does when she tries to find the right word, "patronizing" Like she always does?! I don't even know her! My head feels like it's going to explode. Reality is toast. Yup, I think I've finally lost it. One too many hits to the head. Why would I know a rebellion soldier? Why would she know me? In trying to make sense of what she was talking about I look down at my hand, it still has a faint glow. I had almost forgotten the superhuman feat I had performed just a few minutes earlier. It seems impossible. I guess if I can do...that I must look pretty stupid with the small blade, but I have no idea how to do...that again. I'm still half-convinced that I got knocked out and am hallucinating. If I am unconscious this has got to be the weirdest concussion dream I've ever had.

"Mara?" her concerned inquiry snaps me back to the present moment. Consumed by my thoughts I had allowed her to approach me. She reaches out to put her hand on my shoulder, but I quickly block her arm and bring my blade to her neck.

"Stop!" I roar. "I asked you a question. Who are you?!"

As she raises her hands above her head an expression of deep sadness and pure pain flashes across her face, but she quickly masks it and takes a deep breath, "I'm Eva." My throat burns and there are tears in my eyes, I don't know why. I've done this hundreds of times. I look down at my weapon held up to her neck and I almost vomit, this feels so wrong. As if she can read my thoughts she slowly put her hands back by her sides.

"No," she says.

"No?" I ask shakily, caught off guard. By her familiarity, her confidence, boldness, by her eyes–I've looked into those eyes before–by my feelings, what are these feelings? Everything is so confused.

"You're not going to kill me." She says levelly.

"You're with the resistance are you not?" I ask.

"That I am. But you are not going to kill me" She repeats slowly.

"And why is that?" I ask through gritted teeth–force of habit, but–I'm more curious than angry in all honesty.

"Because you can't" Eva states as if it's one of the laws of the universe.

"I think there are some rebellion fighters that would disagree with you" I sneer.

"More accurately–" she steps forward and grabs my wrist, bringing the blade up to touch her neck. I gasp, taken aback by this surprisingly bold and impossibly stupid move, "–Won't."

"You don't think I'll do it?" I ask, tightening my grip on the dagger, stalling, trying to regain control.

"I don't know what they've made you do, what they've done to you, what they've told you, but I know what you told me..." she looks away for a moment as if she can see the memory she's drawing from on the ground right in front of her, "all those years ago. I know you. So, if there's nothing left of the you I fell in love with then do it. What are you waiting for?" Eva tightens her fingers around my wrist and brings the blade closer to her throat, drawing a little blood this time. "Do it!" she yells.

I gasp and drop my weapon. The memories come rushing back. The first time I knicked her in training, how I cried at the sight of her blood, dropped my blade, and rushed to her, how I wouldn't leave her side no matter how many times she reassured me that she was ok. Us as children, playing together, growing up together, training together, relying on each other, loving each other. But the bad came too, the Syndicate attacking our planet, taking me, hurting her, the rage, the pain. I came back to the present and collapsed into her arms. We melted to the ground among the debris, a puddle of grief and pain, love and war, a future and a past. Tears streaming from my eyes, mourning for what I'd missed, what I'd done "I'm so sorry" I said, barely audible.

"It's ok," she said through a teary, disbelieving smile as she took my face in her hands and kissed my forehead, "that wasn't you."

"I'm so, so sorry," I cried, trembling in her arms.

"Ok Mars, I'm reveling in the idea of you apologizing, but more Syndicate soldiers are on the way. We gotta get back to the ship."

"No," I said.

"No?" Eva asked, confused, concerned. "Mars, you have no idea how much I missed that token stubbornness of yours, but I don't think that a dagger and a bow staff are going to do much against 300 Syndicate soldiers, and more are coming. We're retreating. It's over"

"Oh it's far from over," I could hardly contain the rage at the memories flooding back of what the Syndicate had done. To Eva, to the galaxy, to me. Without realizing I had floated off of the ground, I was glowing with a golden-yellow light, energy radiating off of me. My hands were enveloped in this golden flame, like two torches. At seeing this Eva smiled with glossy eyes "that's my girl" she said quietly to herself.

It's weird that the Syndicate never used my powers, but I get it now. They couldn't control them, thought they were too powerful. Thought I was too powerful.

They have no idea.