The Slammer

--Charlie's Perspective--

---February 20th, 2446---

Alex and I were thrown into the same jail cell after the guards took us away from Queen Ultima. My knee was cut out and when I hit the ground, it erupted in even more pain.

The glossy bricks, layered with dried blood and tears, had new additions added to them as Alex dropped to my side.

The iron-barred door shut aggressively and the two big guards grunted as they walked away.

"Are you okay?! What do we do?!" Alex shouted out.

"What do we do?! What are we supposed to do?!" I asked. I felt anger taking over my voice, even though he was innocent. The pain in my knee was far too intense... and bleeding out was a possibility with this injury.

"Get that bedsheet, please," I told Alex. He nodded, grabbing the sheet off of the white bed and handing it to me. I tightly wrapped it around my leg and tried to straighten it, but to no avail.

"Yeah, I'm not walking for a good while... not even strands can heal me?" I looked down at my injury, realizing how bad this was for Alex and me.

"Shit... is there anything I can do to help? I know, it's not likely, but I'd still like to help," He told me.

"Observe our surroundings. How locked in here are we? Will a knife get us out? Will anything get us out?" I asked him.

Alex shifted around a bookcase, looking all around, behind, and through the books to see if there was any tool for us. It turned out that nothing there was useful enough for us, so he moved to the barred window behind the cell.

The cell was about twenty feet long by the same amount wide. The barred window sat in the back, half blocked by the bookcase after Alex moved it. He looked through it, around, and even tried moving them. Nothing happened, and he returned to my side with a sigh.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing here," Alex told me. I nodded and looked back toward the front of the cell.

"You just got here, why try to leave so soon?" A man asked us.

Through the cell bars and the darkness of the cell in front of us due to the lack of light, I could see somebody with green eyes that looked way too familiar to me...

"Hey... who are you? Do we know each other?" I asked him from across the aisle where the guards could walk.

"Come on, you don't remember me? Don't let your memory fool you," He told Alex and me.

Alex stood up and placed his hands on the bars and peered closer into the cell. After a few seconds, he gasped, trotting backward, and then looking down at me.

"Charlie... that's Orion..." He mumbled.

My eyes perked up and I looked again, realizing that Alex was telling the truth.

"How the... you shouldn't be alive... you died... how are you here?" I asked, slowly standing up with all the pressure on my left leg.

"I wonder if you guys could figure it out if I didn't tell you. I'll explain it, but only if you tell me... are my wife and daughter alive?" Orion asked us.

Alex crouched down beside me and suggested an idea...

"This could be a fake, waiting to gather more information from us," He asked.

Orion must've heard, and scoffed, shaking his head and smiling.

"Woken up on the beach on the Isle? Did you see the Statue? Did you know of my castle? What about my soldiers, Dante, Noboki, June, and Amera? How the tower that fell only had two spires on top? How the boat I sailed away on was made of teak wood? How the tattoos on Sky's body moved from his left hand up to the right side of his forehead? How much more specific do you want me to get?" Orion asked.

I nodded.

"Your wife and daughter are okay, under Sky's supervision closely. No signs of danger, and he's kept us all safe so far," I admitted to Orion.

He sighed and wiped sweat beading on the ridge of his eyebrows off, smiling while he looked at the ceiling.

"The White Stones... their consciousness is carried through the System in order to awaken new abilities in the next set. I'm no longer a White Stone and I don't have my abilities, but this is truly me. I woke up on Earth after Queen Bitch summoned me through the System here. My Soul was intercepted, and I was thrown in jail here to tell them all I knew about this kid... Sky Asterio, I found out his name," Orion told us.

This all wasn't making any sense... but I felt like he wasn't lying.

"So... are Zeal and the others still alive as well?" I asked Orion, fearing for the answer.

"Well... not exactly. You see, I told you that White Stone Souls are carried into a new consciousness, right? Zeal took all of their abilities, which meant that he had parts of their souls in his own body. Illya killed Zeal, so she stole all of it... the only White Stone not killed by Zeal was me. I couldn't get into Sky's body because he already had a White Stone Soul in his body, so I was sent to the System. Tell me... who was in Sky's body? Who did he kill?" Orion asked us.

"Didn't he kill Demos? Wouldn't that be who was within Sky?" I asked Orion before answering.

"No, because Sky didn't touch his body after he died. Zeal was holding onto him. Sky was the last and only one to touch me," He explained again, adjusting his sitting position.

"In Sky's body... he had Faith and Avie, right Alex?" I asked. Alex nodded and Orion took an interest.

"Avie...? I haven't heard that name in forever... Zeal spoke of it once. She's the blue-haired Speed-Blitzer, right?" Orion asked us.

"That's right... enough of that, how long have you been here, Orion?" I asked him.

I still harbored an intense hatred for that man, but it was already set in stone that we beat him. He doesn't have an army, and he's a shell of the person he used to be. He's just a regular man now.

"Only nine days, right? That's when I died at least," He said.

That's right, I had forgotten how much has happened in those nine days... it was still reasonable that he could be alive. I still wasn't sure, and couldn't trust him, but now that we know somebody here, this might be easier to escape.