Indigo (NaNoWriMo13)

Chapter 5 - From The Dead

 Briefly, she considered leaving, chasing down the source of the disturbance once more but the same feeling of responsibility plagued her. Raph deserved to know.

Her feet dragged her towards the common room.

The entire way there, Athira pored over the words she’d say to Raph in her head. The excuses she could make up, the ways to band-aid the truth, the lies that’d make it easier to hear. All of them came easily to her tongue but her mind rejected them. She owed him the truth after all these years. Why she’d had to leave him, planning to never face him again, figuring he’d prefer it if he never had to put up with her face again.

She slid the door to the common room open with her colour, not even bothering to look for the panel that opened it. The thing was stupid anyway.

The common room was empty, but noises were coming from what she assumed was the kitchen. Athira poked her head around the corner to see Shift rummaging through the pantry, unaware of her presence.

He was humming a tune she didn’t know to himself and was no longer dressed in the suit she’d met him in yesterday. Instead of the green-grey smooth material armoured with flexible metal plates, he wore jeans and a shirt with some kind of logo design on it.

Athira was about to say something when Shift pulled out a box, dug through it and pulled out two bars, placing them on the counter. Barely able to contain her smile, when Shift turned to put the box back, she levitated the bars with her colour and flew them above his head.

Sure enough, as Shift went to grab them, a look of confusion crossed his face. He glanced at the pantry, then back to the counter before doing a complete three-sixty looking for his missing snacks.

Athira coughed. Shift whirled around, and as his eyes settled over her, she dropped the bars on his head.

He narrowed his eyes at her and picked them up. “Y’no, some people like to just say ‘thank you’ to people who helped them out.”

“And other people like to stick trackers on those that saved their lives,” she said. “I personally think my method is a little less ungrateful, don’t you?”

Shift smirked. “You win this round.”

“And every round after that,” said Athira. She glanced behind her. The common room was still empty. “I’m looking for Raph, any idea where I can find him?”

“He’s in the training room with the rest of the team,” said Shift. “I’m just about to head over there if you want to tag along.”

Athira nodded and moved out of the doorway to let him pass. Shift leaned over and took something out of a basket on the counter, throwing it to her as he passed.

She caught it without thinking and examined it. An apple.

“You’ve been in that room for a while,” he said, smiling. “Figured you could use it.”

The training room was on the first floor, and judging by its size it dominated most of it.

The overall area was sectioned off into various stations, all painted grey, white, or another neutral and then striped with the colours Athira assumed they were relevant for. Most of them contained some large machinery while others were simply bars and blocks organised up the wall or floor.

Everything was ringed by a running track.

“Pretty cool, huh?” said Shift. “The Elites come in every month or so and swap the equipment around so we’ve always got something new to practice on. Each one of us has specifically designed equipment, as well as the general obstacle courses and such to test our agility and reflexes.”