Blake's finishing up when I walk down with my chest. He's wiping his hands on his jeans when he notices me.
"Please don't tell me you found that buried on the beach. And if you did, are you going to share?" he jokes.
I force a small smile and bring it down next the fireplace. Blake comes and sits next to me. I'm breathing heavily, partially because I'm excited and the other because I feel guilty.
"You okay?" he asks.
"Kind of..." I say. "This just brings back memories of Annie...but...if these...tools or whatever can help us contact the others or fight against the Mogadorians..."
"Do you want me to hold your hand?"
"Sure" I smile and link our figures together.
I take the lock in my free hand and concentrate. Nothing happens. I'm puzzled until I remembered how Annie and I opened it the last time.
"I need both hands for a moment," I say to him meekly. He lets go. I place both of my palms on the silver lock and interlock my fingers. The thing becomes warm in my hands and the lock falls to the floor. I take my time opening and a bright light shines in my eyes. I squint and wait for the light to fade.
Once it's gone, I slowly reach my shaky hand and dig through. My hands find something small and flat. It feels like paper and I bring up an envelope with my old human name, Sofia, written on the front. I hear Blake sigh.
"What?" I giggle. "Were you expecting a plasma cannon or a shield?"
"I was kind of hoping this was a chest full of ancient and exotic treasures from an alien planet instead of alien paperwork."
"This is not part of my inheritance. Annie told me about this letter...before she died." I feel tears welling up.
"I'm sorry," Blake says, grabbing my hand. "I was being stupid."
"It's fine," I say. "I'll read it later." and I place it next to me.
I feel like a child with a toy chest, unaware of what comes next. I dig my free hand back in and I feel something soft. I pull out what looks like a purple velvet bag with some kind of rounded contents. I fish them out of the bag one by one and place them on the floor. There are about seven of them in total. They look like different size balls. One looks like the size of a golf ball, another the size of a squash ball and another the size of a tennis ball.
"What do you think these do?" I ask shutting the lid of my chest. I pick them up off the floor and examine them by the light of the fire.
"I thought you were the expert," Blake says.
"I guess the Elders didn't send instructions with them," I say.
I hold them in both my palms. They feel like there's some kind of energy in them. I throw them in the air and they all fall to the floor in a heap. I was really worried that they would break.
"That didn't help," I say picking them up.
"Try blowing them or licking them or something" Blake suggests.
I take all the orbs in my hands again and blow. This time, they light up and float out of my grip. I am stunned as they begin to rotate around an orange-sized orb. This is not the human galaxy. I know all the planets and their positions.
"I...think...this is my galaxy," I say slowly.
Blake is also captivated by what he's seeing as the smaller orbs rotate around what I think is the Loric sun.
"Whoa" is all he can say.
I examine each one carefully and the fourth one I see is dark and grey. It looks like there is no life at all. At first, I think this is Mogadore. Annie told me they junked up their own planet before they came to invade Lorien. I try to recall all of Annie's lectures and she told me that Lorien was larger than Mogadore. I notice a smaller orb further along and it is also grey and dark. I go back to the fourth orb and I know.
"This is Lorien," I tell Blake. to him. I feel tears coming to my eyes. All of a sudden I remember the chaos of the day. Being torn from Anali and to watch my home be bombed from the safety of Annie's arms. I remember seeing the other Garde and their terrified faces as we were herded onto the ship. What our planet looked like when the flames destroyed the surface, and all of us had to watch from the spaceship. These were memories that I've tried to suppress and now they all come flowing back to me. It's overwhelming and I let the tears flow.
Blake puts his arms around me and we watch the galaxy rotate around us.
"It must be hard to go home again?" Blake says to me.
"Yes," I breath harshly. My breath reaches the fourth orb but something happens and I miss it the first time.
"What the..." Blake gasps. "Do that again."
I release an exasperated breath on the orb and the grey turns to green and blue and all sorts of colours. It's very brief before it fades back to grey.
"Holy crap!" I scream and do it again and this time I breath harder. The planet comes alive again with radiant colours of blue, green, red, purple and yellow.
"That must be what Lorien looked life before it was destroyed!!" I gasp. I do it again and I just want to keep doing it until I pass out. Just to see my planet as it was is enough to get me excited. The tears in my eyes are happy tears. I really want to keep the memory alive, to be reminded of what we're fighting for.
"Wow!" Blake exclaims. "No, wonder you're so anxious to get back"
I stop short. I can feel my face turning red and my heart starts to race.
"I'm not eager to go anywhere unless you're here with me," I say firmly. I wait for him to respond but before he can.
"Something's happening!!" Blake gasps. I turn towards the solar system.
The orbs hovering in my hands begin to spin faster and faster and their glow becomes brighter. I have no control over what's going on and I scramble backwards as the orbs collide with the sun one by one. A new planet has formed in front of us, much bigger than the orbs themselves. It's about the size of a basketball now and rotates in front of us. The orb continues to rotate on an axis and flashes the light that is so bright we need to squint to see.
The globe begins to dim and the sections shift to create a replica of...
"Earth" I gasp in amazement.
I immediately notice several pulses of light on the globe. Two are in the States and one is moving north towards what I think is Brazil. There's a fourth pinprick that pulses in India as the globe rotates.
"What are those things?" Blake asks, pointing to the pulses of light on the mini-Earth.
"No idea," I say, still stunned at what just happened. The globe glows almost hypnotically and I can't take my eyes off of the tiny lights that are on the globe. I want to know desperately what they are and what this means.
"It's gone!" I scream. One of the light pulses is gone. I rub my eyes to make sure I'm not insane. Sure enough, one of the lights in the States is gone.
"What do you think happy..." Before Blake can finish, the light re-appears in the same spot as before. I can't tell where exactly the lights are but I think it's near Ohio. The dot vanishes again.
"Wait!" I yell at it. "Come back!"
As soon as I say that, the globe flickers and vibrates. At first, it's gravely and full of static but it is a voice. A human voice! I can't understand it at first and I try to get closer to. I practically grab the globe with my hand and pull it towards me.
"Very cool, Four, very cool." a voice says. The orb grows fuzzy and flickers with the voice.
"Who said that?" I scream. "Can you hear me?!" I turn to Blake, my heart in my throat with excitement.
"It's some sort of communication device," I say turning back.
"Who's Four?" Blake asks.
"One of the Garde, I think Four is...John Smith."
Before anything else is said the globe vibrates again.
"Hello? testing one, two, three" a voice says. "Okay, if any of you Garde members are out there standing in front of a glowing ball, listen up. Four and Nine are together and we're ready to meet up with you. We want to train and end all this bullshit and get back to Lorien. Pronto. We're not going to say exactly where we are in case any Mogs are listening in, but if you have a macrocosm going you'll see two dots together, and they are, uh, us. So, um..."
There's a brief pause. I cannot speak. I'm in total shock and awe.
"That is all. Over and out and stuff"
The globe stops flickering.
"No!" I scream, finally finding my voice. I grab the globe and scream at it. "Where are you?! I can hear you..."
"Christina! get a grip" Blake says trying to pry my hands off the globe. "They can't hear you."
"Then how come I can..."
The voice comes on again. I'm so surprised that I let go.
"Everyone comes to America ASAP. Setrakus Ra has shown his ugly face over here and we're aiming to smash it in and take him down real soon. We'll send out another message tomorrow. Stay tuned."
"Wait!!!" I yell again at the globe. Blake tries desperately to restrain me from grabbing at the floating globe. I fight him but I know I can't hurt him.
"Where in America?!" I scream, tears in my eyes. "I'm here, Number Five is here and alive... Please!!"
Before I can yell again, there's the sound of an explosion, followed by a voice.
"Six! You okay?" The voice is familiar, I've heard it before but where. I hear a scream and another two explosions rock inside the globe. The edges are fuzzy again and we hear helicopter blades in the distance and more explosions.
"Six!" I hear inside the globe. It's a different voice this time and more frantic. "It's me, John! Can you hear me?"
John? Six? Nine? How many Garde are together? Where are they?
"John Smith!" I scream, not really caring if I sound insane. Blake has to hold onto me again. "John Smith, Number Four?!! SAY SOMETHING!!!"
The globe goes quiet and the edges of the Earth are solid again. The lights are now gone and the globe slowly shrinks back into seven orbs again.
"NO!!!" I yell at the top of my lungs. I break away from Blake and grab the orbs. I try to throw them in the air again. I blow on them with all my heart but they are silent. I'm shaking so badly that I let the orbs fall to the floor. I slump to the floor and let the tears flow.
My first contact with the Garde and I can't even call back. I feel like I've failed them. I wanted to let them know that I was okay and I wanted to meet them ASAP like the voice said. The globe couldn't help me figure out where the Garde is. The thing only showed four lights. I thought there were six of us left! And why did one disappear?
I feel Blake put his arms around me. I'm shaking so bad that I'm vibrating the glass orbs on the ground.
"It's okay..." he says gently, trying to calm me down. "At least you know they're alive."
"But how many?! You saw the globe, there's only four... lights on earth."
I count in my head. Nine and Four/John Smith. Number Six...the girl that screamed "Adelina" and the girl that screamed Six's name and the one in Brazil.
I begin to calm down a bit now that I know there is more than four Garde out there. We still have a fighting chance and with our human allies, it's not an army but we can manage. At least they are coming together and getting ready to fight...the leader, he does have a name. Setrakus Ra...the name drips of evil. He's the one who contacts me in my head and tries to destroy my sanity. But no more, now that I know who he is and I will challenge him again and the Garde will be right beside me.
I begin picking up the orbs with my telekinesis and putting them back in the bag. Blake holds onto me while I do so.
"I finally saw where you came from and it...was...is beautiful." He begins kissing my neck gently and I embrace his warm lips against my skin. I turn and meet his lips for a moment.
"It was my home but right now... Earth is my home and I love it."