1 Chapter 1: What you avoid, controls you.

RAYLA:

I picked at the dead skin on my chapped lips and flicked it.

"I should wait one more day."

That was what i said yesterday...

The plan must've failed somehow... I stare up at the sprinkle of stars that littered the sky, hoping somebody could pick me up and shoot me up to join the space between them. It was one of those days i wished i couldn't recognize the dreadfully familiar tangy scent in the night is hinting on the thunderous calamity that will soon appear in a couple of hours. I frowned. It didn't matter that the stars were lying, I can feel it coming.

I let out a frustrated sigh and closed my eyes.I won't be able to stay here much longer. I reached for the cold surfdagger that was rested in the sheath attached to my right belt. Engraved on it were our initials 'TM-R' , short for Thomas and Rayla. I thought it sweet that he had mine on it too.

You always were the reminiscing type, always so considerate. Yet, what the hell is this.

You remembered their names, and they still betrayed us...

I breathed in the cold of the night and let the air wrap my lungs making them quiver. My memory was quick to disrespect, floating right up to the surface and without a choice was forced to revisit pieces of my memories that no matter what I do, can neither be found or lost. It followed me like a shadow that is never straying to far and once again unplugging the endless emotions that had been left dormant. I felt a warm tingle ran down the side of my cheek and then another right on cue, my mind became distant and i closed my eyes letting the drug of the moment take me back to when it all began.

Then Thomas, you didn't have to die like this.

"I'm going to fix this mess."

I traced the carvings on the sheath with my finger and draw it out to my palm. I examined the reflection staring back at me and a thought trapped my mind. ' I know my story is tragic but I'd hate for it to be cliché.'

---------------------------------------------------------------------------(Flashback)

"TM-R? Wow, that's stupid creative. " I said, with eyebrows raised in genuine surprise.

"Ah yeah, you know it girl. I won't deny it a complete coincidence, but i always knew that 'he' was generous, given my looks and high IQ" he shrugged nonchalantly as he pointed up yo the god he so believed exist.

If it were not for my strong patience with his annoyingly painful ego, you'd be sure I would have walked away then, but instead gave the ever common reaction to his self-made podium he should'nt be putting himself on.

"Right, and if god knew any better is that you're in need of an upgrade for the lack of inspiration to create a better praise than what a million people have already said. Noted, you at least know that being talented in coincidences is not a skill you should be proud of." I had my eyes edging him on to agree that I was right. Years I have known him and this is not even worth giving a counter argument.

"ugh, so you're saying Einstein coincidence in discovery of

I'd i swear. Hahah" My thoughts clustered in my head and without realizing I was staring at him.

"What? You making me blush, you can't be that touched, I get-"

I snaped out of it quickly, "ugh" and dismissed him quickly.

"It's very hopeful though, 'tomorrow'... I can't imagine what my life would have been without you in it."

I turned to face him again. Maybe we had been together for so long till god decided to give us a telepathic link, I had just been thinking the same thing.

"Gross!" I put out a hand scissors to cut the invisible telepathic wire.

"Weirdo." he said.

We looked at each other for awhile, before breaking into laughter.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I woke up sticky from the humid weather and the persistent chatter of the birds conversing with one another. I sat up and scratched my dry throat before patting down the mess on my head. It was so stuffy. I looked around, searching for my bag that I managed to keep with me throughout the year. I took out a flask and held it over my mouth, but to my disappointment, there was not single drop left. Grumpily, I threw the bottle out the roof and sighed. I waited for the bottle to hit the ground while I stared up at the cloudless blue sky. I wished it would rain...

Ah. I realized.

Where was the sound of the bottle when it landed?

Still feeling parched and unfocused, I turned to look over the roof and what I found was a pair of eyes staring up at me.

Like hell.

An exhausted sigh left me, and despite the danger a pair of eyes can hold for a runner like me, I dropped back hopeful to return to my slumber. I had been very careful in scouring the place, making sure that this town had really been left ghosted. It was so dilapidated that, I should be crazy going to the top of the roof, but I had thought at the time, that if the integral structure of the roof were to betray me, I could at least jump off before I get buried alive. Also, it was a good position to see any suspicious movement from far away, though I had been asleep...

I listened carefully through the short bursts of wind that could possibly mask the sound of his leaving footsteps, but my hopeful protest was not received.

"Hey lady, you dropped your bottle!"

"Have some decency to apologize at least, could ya?"

"Excuse me?!"

I rolled my eyes, took out the dagger and hid it behind my belt that was strapped across my back. Disappointed at being disturbed, I got up very slowly pulling up my shirt to cover part of my face.

I examined this cloaked figure that was holding my bottle in his hand. He looked tall and lean, but his body looks smaller than the usual guards id seen. I searched to find the emblem that was usually pinned at the top left but it was missing. I looked closely to find that he was wearing rather plain clothes underneath the cloak, which I found odd. Regular people don't stray this far out to reach of an abandoned town. Everyone knows the that the expedition is going the opposite direction from here on because of the new threat invading from the north. Could he be a mercenary? But that can't be right. Those types are usually quiet and don't always fight it big. They use strategic methods, like set traps, waiting and skulking before actually moving in for the hunt. This one, was chatty.

"Sorry. Didnt see you. " I put up a hand apologetically.

"Sorry, isn't going to cut it! Never thought that I would be attacked by a bottle." He chortled. There was something familiar from his voice that I couldn't pick out. Then again, I doubt I know anybody as chummy as him. His smirk faded to a serious tone as he squinted to take a better look at me. Before his hand even moved to reach for something behind his cloak, I took out the gun from before and pulled the trigger first. He wasn't even looking up before he dodged it. I knew it, he isn't just a nobody.

"Dont move!"

"Woah woah, hold up."

This had been the go-to tactic I had picked up in the past year. The news spread fast and soon I became the popular stories that people gossip about. I had to learn a few tricks the hard way, until I accomplished what I had to do, there is no way I am going to die.

The bounty on my head was a large sum that the one who publicised the first amount got overruled by an even higher authority and tripled it. I had become infamous and now even the landlords decided to pitch in the hunt. They hired mercenaries to kill me, and now even regular citizens come at me with knives. All in all, it was a game i wish I could opt out. So far, I bested three of them and escaped from two. Lucky for me, i managed to stay alive because of a friend who was always looking out for me. Could it be, our plans got leaked?

"Flinch just a little and watch me blow that head of yours." I fingered the trigger, ready for anything this sketchy guy would pull.

"Wa-wait a second!" He had one arm up behind his head and the other trying to calm the lunatic pointing the gun at him. I had every right to be one.

"Lay down on the ground and keep your hands up! Try to run, and I will, shoot you." I gestured the gun to the ground, eyes locked on him.

"Okay, okay!"

I watched as he slowly dropped to his knees, following the orders and keeping his hands where I could see them. After he was completely down on the ground, I climbed over the ledge of the roof ready to propel down using the pipes that lined the side of the house.

"Stay down, or I could blast your head off"

"Im not going to move, damn it!" he retaliated.

I climbed down in a split second, reloaded my weapon and pushed it to his head.

"What's your business here huh?"

"Omg no, stop. Im a traveller!"

"Cut the crap, youre with the guards aernt you?" My words sounded weaker than I hoped it to be. This damn weather, I could already taste the metallic in my mouth.

I pressed it in harder and continued,

"Where's your emblem? Who sent you?!"

I could hear his hesitant scuffle and decided to search him instead.

"Turn around and sit up." I pulled him up forcefully.

"Take off your cloak."

"What?"

"Take it off!"

A small smile appeared at the corners of his mouth, as if this was all a joke.

"Take it off!!" I strained it too much this time, the itchiness could not be contained, and I started to cough horribly.

He kept on the same, moving to take it off.

I eyed him with my good eye, while I had my other hand massaged my throat.

Who the hell is this guy?

Right after he passed me the cloak, I caught his hand sliding sneakily to the same place that he was about to reach for the first time.

I glocked the gun to his face.

"No No, wait!"

"Hands!"

"Wait, its not what youre thinking!" His smile disappeared the same way his face grew serious when he analysed me. I was suspicious so I scrambled my left hand to his back and found that the weapon he was trying to reach out was jus a transparent bottle. Not just a bottle right then. I stared at the glorious liquids that were now in my hands.

I had forgotten how thirsty I had been when I woke up. I had managed to survive these 2 weeks by taking a sip of water for 3 parts of the day and eventually finished the last of it the night before. I touched the broken skin at the sides and looked up for an explanation.

"Drink."

Again, the soft smile appeared almost genuine, it felt as though I had seen that same one, somewhere before. The guy in front of me had short straight hair that was neatly styled in an undercut matching perfectly with the bangs that covered only one part of his eyebrow. I studied this stranger before me, then decided to do it later. I couldn't wait any longer. I flipped the priorities and took the safest route.

"Thank you." I told him sincerely, and that was the truth.

Before he could answer back, I slammed the blaster right across his head, knocking him out.

I quickly opened the bottle and indulged in 3 gulp-fulls of water in satisfaction.

I quickly went up to grab my bag, packed the bottle and put the cloak over my torn and dirtied clothes. I checked his belongings again, hopefully to find something more useful things that I could use.

I rummaged through his pockets and found what it looked like to be a brown leather wallet and at the corner was just what I had expected. The imprint of the imperial's guard insignia.

"Traveller huh?"

Again, I searched for the emblem that the guards always carried but instead there was nothing except for a bunch of keys for a vehicle. No imperial guard will go anywhere without it, it is their access card to resources and everything. Not having one would mean that either he went rogue, or he did something that caused them to take away his entitlement. Did he come to redeem himself by bringing me back? I tried to flip open some more pockets to find them all empty. I turned my attention to the wallet again and examined its contents.

"Lets see who you really are."

I opened to reveal an identification card with a younger and familiar photo of him. Clad in the full uniform of a guard, i read the name written below it.

Juin Qi, Mark.

Mark? I turned to look at him again and took two fingers squishing his cheeks to face me.

"Mark?"

_End of Chapter 2