Prologue

"Mom... Mom! God damn it..."

Ember grit his teeth, eventually groaning out of frustration.  He pulled his backpack from his shoulder, tossing it upon the coffee table. The teen climbed atop of his mother's limp body, her mouth agape as she laid upon the sofa. He sat on her lap, his hand gripping her chin and erratically shaking it left to right.

"Mom! Wake the hell up!"

His attempts however, would be in vain. His mother didn't even let out a groan nor a twitch, causing Ember's brows to furrow, the pit in his stomach only weighing down further. He frowned, releasing his mother's chin to raise his hand in the air. The teen took a deep breath, shutting his eyes before swiftly throwing his palm against his mothers cheek.

The woman's eyes shot open, revealing a pair of mossy irises passed down to her child. She let out a shrill scream, causing the boy to flinch as his mother  flew forward, slamming her forehead against her son's. Ember harmonized to his mother's cries of pain, stumbling back off the sofa and collapsing onto his back against the aged wooden floors.

"How could you hit your own mother?!"

"Mom, you just headbutted me!"

The two yelled at eachother in unison, Ember sitting up and sinking his head downwards, forehead buried in his palm while his mother held her reddening cheek.

"What the hell would your father think of this, huh?! Assaulting your own mom in her sleep!" She continued to yell, sweeping her feet over the couch to sit properly, glaring at her child with knitted brows.

"You weren't sleeping! You were practically in comatose from the two bottles of wine you downed last night! And we have a meeting with my school counselor, which I'm sure your drunk ass conveniently forgot." He hissed out through his pain, hand gesturing to the empty bottles sitting beside his bag.

"Screw you. You are lucky I even entertain your selfish dreams. You need to go somewhere that teaches you some respect, not some aviation school for you to end up like your father. I don't know why he ever encouraged his own son to throw himself into danger... I guess now we know who you got that stupidity from." She spat back, her words harsh but her tone quieting down as the woman slowly came to her senses.

Ember sighed, lifting his head from his palm to gaze at his mother. The woman's auburn curls were disheveled, some of which was already knotted up from being unkept for who knows how long. She wore a simple black tanktop with sweatpants of the same color. The lady was in her early forties but the trauma that had ensued over the last couple months already aged her past her prime, having fine lines of wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and lips.

"Mom, can we please just get to school. I really don't need the back and forth. Today is important." He insisted, having already grown into his mothers abusive words. The woman hadn't been the same since Ember's father had gone missing a few months back and while that fact had long crushed the boy's spirit, he no longer let it distract him from his aspirations.

The teen was right. Today was the day they'd find out if Ember qualified for his scholarship. He had known that the money his father left behind was running thin. This was the boys only chance to go to the school he loved, to actually have the freedom he craved without it being at the expense of his dad's money. It'd be an oppurtunity to give him and his mother the life his father would've wanted.

Ember's mother sighed, standing up and trudging over to the sink for a glass of water. She winced, holding her head as a migraine sent waves of pain down her body. Her hand gripped the corner of the sink for a moment, eventually reaching for a glass as Ember could hear the faucet begin to run.

"Making me go out feeling like this... fine. Ill get ready. But you better not bother me about this nonsense after you get rejected. And if you ever, EVER put your hands on me again, you'll have more than a little bump on your forehead, you hear me?"

Ember sat in the waiting room of his school's office, staring off at a television screen hung up and expanding across the wall. His mother sat besude him, knee hopping up and down as she rested her cheek in her hand.

"This just in, two more aviators have fallen into the pit of venomous foliage known as flowers. This adds to over a dozen cases of pilots who've either perished or gone missing, likely due to the distracting nature of the flowers vibrancy. Our president Neo has stated that all pilots must be back to Noir City by sundown to avoid any danger caused by either the ravenous nature below, as well as the horrible people on the ground floor who wish to see our good men d-"

"Im smoking a cigarette." Ember's mother announced, breaking the seventeen year old's trance as he glanced over, idly nodding in response before sighing, his eyes soon darting back down to his lap.

Ember didn't blame his mother for wanting to leave in that moment. The boy had grown up learning the painful death that came with being poisoned by Earth's flowers. Ember couldn't help but think of the painful suffering his father may have had ever since the man disappeared.

"Ember Chain, counselor Karma is ready to see you." The receptionist called out within the crowded room, causing the boy to turn his head to the receptionist before quickly standing and tossing his bag over his shoulder. He quickly paced over to the door, tapping on the window as he made eye contact with his mother as she smoked.

He pointed behind himself, frowning as he mouthed the words 'Come on.', illiciting an eyeroll from his mother before she flicked her cigarette away and made her way inside. The receptionist waited on them, watching as Ember's mother strolled inside and join her son. Once the two were in proximity, the receptionist led the way, guiding the pair to Karma's office.

Ember was slouched into his seat as his mother sat beside him in the counselor's office, the boy's hands stuffed into the pockets of the brown bomber jacket his father had left behind, the man's formal name still embroidered on his son's right shoulder.

Ember's mother was silent as she watched Karma flip through the pages of Ember's academic record,  staring tentatively as the counselor's eyes carefully traced through each page. The woman was around the mother's age but significantly more formal. Karma's blonde hair was slicked back neatly into a bun, wearing a red pant suit combo with a black button up underneath and a red tie to match.  She pursed her ruby lips curiously,  each motion she made filled with intention as she ocassionally wrote on a notepad placed upon her desk. She eventually smiled, glancing up to meet the two's nosy stares.

"I have to say Ember, I'm impressed. Not only do you have perfect grades, but your recommendations have told me that you are quite the skilled mechanic. Where did you learn to fix planes at such a young age?" She asked curiously, tilting her head slightly.

"My father. He'd been teaching me since i was eight." The boy replied, causing his mother to glance out the window, her eyes narrowing slightly. Karma smiled at Ember's response, but that would falter slightly as she saw his mother's response.

"I see, I'll add that having Ashe as your father doesn't hurt either. He is a very talented man. And I'm sure he'd be very-"

"Was. He was a talented man. He's dead. So don't imply otherwise." Ember's mother cut in.

This caused Ember to glare at his mother, clenching his fists.

"You dont know that!"

"I'm not getting into this with you again! I've already entertained it by coming here with you. But if you think I'm going to blindly play into your delusions-"

"Dad doesn't have anything to do with this!" Ember cut off his mother, causing her to growl, lifting her hand and striking the boy. A grim silence filled the air, a quiet gasp from Karma being the only thing heard in the room. Ember looked ahead, holding a hand to his cheek as tears filled his eyes, a frown growing on his lips by the second.

"He has everything to do with this! You think I'm just going to let you go out there? He did his job and look what happened! You aren't going to do what he did! You are going to waste your time, and your life trying to find him. No, you are going to get yourself killed! I'm over it! I'm over your false hope, the way you look at me with disdain for trying to move on! For accepting the truth!"

Ember looked downwards, a tear rolling down his cheek as he scoffed bitterly.

"You? Move on? You still haven't sobered up from last night."

"Excuse me?!"

Karma suddenly stood up, slamming her hands on the desk.

"Hey! Both of you, stop it! Now!" She yelled, the woman's eyes piercing into them as they both glanced over with wide eyes, the unexpected change in tone from the counselors relaxed demeanor throwing the two off guard. Karma sighed, shutting her eyes a moment as she looked down to collect herself.

"Ember, can you go back up front and let me speak to mom for a moment?"

Ember glared at his mother once more, eyes reddened as hesniffle.d. He wiped his tears away before standing.

"Fine." He muttered, turning and storming out, slamming the door behind him. Ember's mother frowned, watching as her son left so abruptly.

"I swear to god, that child is going to get himself-"

"That child isn't going to be a child much longer, Mira. And if you keep holding him back like this, treating his dreams like some kind of dig towards you... He's going to end up doing this to get away from you. Then what are you going to do? Let your adult son disappear from your life to do who knows what?"

Mira grew silent, her gaze falling back to the window of Karma's office. She felt tears of her own begin to prick her eyes.

"You have no idea what it's like. Having to raise a child who wants nothing more than to end up dead just like his father!"

"No I don't, but I do know from looking into his records that the boy is brilliant. Your son is brilliant. But he's also unwell. His records with our therapist shows that he is dissociative. And it's likely cause he has PTSD. Those things are working against him and you shoveling all of your pain on top of that is what's really going to kill him." She retorted, her eyes glued onto Mira as she so briefly paused.

"And I know you are suffering too. If I had the power to take all that pain away, I would. But me telling your son no, that he can't go into aviation despite showing more work and dedication than all of his colleagues... It's only going to make things worse. For the both of you."

Karma watched as tears streamed down Mira's face, softening her gaze as the mother began to cry.

"What am I supposed to do?" Mira's voice cracked, burying her face in her hands.

Karma walked around her desk, sitting beside the woman and leaning in, a hand resting on Mira's shoulder.

"Let him follow his dreams and be there every step of the way to keep him safe. Don't let him have to do that on his own... And sober up before he loses his mother, too."

Mira whimpered, her hands collapsing into her lap as she shut her eyes tight. "You can't admit him. Please." She insisted.

Karma took a breath, standing up as she made her way back to her desk, taking a seat.

"I'm sorry, but he's going. And you arent going to be able to stop him."

Mira frowned at this, her hands balling into fists as she stood up, glaring down at the counselor. There was a moment of silence, the mother trying to find the right words to say, but Karma's composed gaze told her there wasn't any.

"If he dies, you are going to live with that. Not me." She muttered hoarsely, turning on her heel and storming out, matching her son's actions.