Circus Antics and Cups of Cold Tea

"What have we got here?" Ryoko grinned stepping closer and bending over to look at the dead faces of Brooklyn and Sam and clicked her tongues, "Oh but these two are dead, even an ant could see that. What are you doing here with them?" she turned back to check and mocked surprise before looking back at them, "Is there a secret portal to a hospital here?"

Of course she knew The Wheel was right under her but what she was wondering on the inside was how they had known.

"Move out of the way," Adonis ordered.

"Guards," she counter ordered more powerfully, and flung her arm at them, "Take them away. Basement Prison Cluster." They pulled Aiden back by force and he shook trying to break free, "Those two are dying! We can save them!"

She scoffed, "There are at least fifty other people outside who are dying...how are they different from these two?"

Kayden's blood boiled in his veins as she said those words. She didn't stop, "What makes them so...special? If they die, these two die too."

Kayden wanted to throw her against a wall, and see her eyes tear up. For her to feel what it feels like to run out of breath and to feel your whole world slipping away before your eyes.

He would have by now, if it was a guy. But this...the anger was only bottling up. Sam was dying, somebody do something!

"Madam," Isaiah said in a monotone voice, "We're sorry, we'll go back."

If Brooklyn was conscious, she would have looked at him in disbelief, Isaiah knew. But she wasn't here. She was nothing but a...painful memory.

The guard grabbed Isaiah and the girl from behind. Isaiah didn't resist and allowed himself to be dragged away as he stared at a lifeless Brooklyn on the carpeted floor. The girl however, started screaming, "No! Please!"

Kayden was dragged too, Sam falling on the floor with a dull thud. Kayden couldn't comprehend what was going on...it was as if everything was happening in slow motion. He could hear is breath heave louder than before and saw Adonis shaking himself his screams cutting through the broken air, his hat falling off and tufts of silver being revealed.

The girl kicking her legs and screaming. 'What have we gotten ourselves into?' Kayden thought. He looked off into the distance, at the cafeteria compund. At the people slowly falling on to the floor, one by one. Like dominoes. Like they were never living at all.

Hundreds of Wintral soldiers encroached the area and many littered into the Palace, heading for the Throne room and Royal Bedrooms. Zykarian guards were decreasing every second.

His eyes closed and he saw himself in another world. Everything was white all around and there, in the distance, Sam was standing. A wind blew, tousling his black hair as he smiled and raised his two arms for a hug.

Kayden staggered forward and then broke into a run to hug him. Just before his fingertips grazed his skin, Sam's hand disintegrated into dust and soon his entire body turned to dust and flew with the wind.

"Sam!"

Suddenly, the scene changed and Kayden was a little kid...no, a baby. He was squirming and wailing on the seashore sand as waves crashed upon his baby figure and salt water entered his lungs.

An older man lifted him. Kayden saw his face...Dad. "Oh you poor little baby," he said and took Kayden to his house. "I wonder who left you there on the seashore, all alone."

Suddenly Kayden was 10 years old.

"Useless!"

"Circus freak!"

Then he was 13.

"Boy lover!"

"Ew, get away from me you, don't touch me!"

Kayden blinked his eyes open again and saw them all. He can't save them. He is useless. He couldn't save Sam. Useless. Freak. All of them were right. Loving Sam lead to all this....lead him to die!

The girl winced again now, her hand tearing at where her Dragon Stone was instead of her heart.

Ryoko sighed, a strand of hair flying, "You guys," she stated, "are so dramatic."

The girl thrust her hands out right then and blinding light blazed throughout the alley. The guard covered their heads with their hands and Adonis broke free, pulling back and punching a guard on the face.

He had a silver ring on his right index finger. As the guard fell down, Adonis saw the hint of a red line drawn by the ring on the face. How many guards had he thrown down today? More guards than the times he had seen his younger sister, of course.

"Adria..." Her name shot past through his head as he punched three more guards down. He sensed one coming up from behind and turned around in a frenzy before curling his fists and threw a punch where his abdomen was.

The guard groaned in pain and clutched his stomach, stumbling backwards. Another punch from Adonis landed on a jaw and the other guard's eyes teared up as his face flew back wards and crashed against the alley wall.

"Aiden!" Kayden screamed as he saw two guard preparing to take down Adonis's legs and weaken him. Kayden rushed forward and pulled one guard back as Adonis dealt with the other.

They both looked up at Isaiah as few feet away now, calmly getting dragged by two guards. Before they even thought about going after him, they heard a slap.

On the dead end wall sandwiched between the two long walls of the alley, Ryoko had the girl pinned. The girl's right cheek burned red as she struggled to keep her gaze in line with the secretary's.

"What are you?" The secretary threatened, "Why did you come here from Mars? And...how did you get these powers?"

The girl was silent and bit her lip. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to stop herself from crying. The pain in her chest, it was only growing.

Ryoko shook her, "I need answers! Give me that or I'll kill you!" she yelled to her face. A strong hand grabbed Ryoko's shoulder and pulled her away from the girl, "Leave her alone," Kayden threatened, his voice deep and sharper than a double edged sword.

Adonis looked back and down at the trap door. He fumbled towards it and rolled up the carpet before opening the door. He slipped inside halfway and tried to pull Sam down into the Library. "Kayden, I need help!"

Kayden looked at the girl. He looked at her with expectation. She had the powers. If she shoot herself 72 million kilometres through space, survive a century in the core of a burning star and survive a day on this scary place called Zyka, surely, she could decapitate this witch of a secretary?

The girl understood and wincing, she curled her hand around Ryoko's neck. Ryoko's eyes widened as she struggled against Kayden's hold, "What are you doing? You monster!" She turned her head back, "Guards! Where are the damned guards?"

The girl let her eyes close and breathed, tightening her grip on the woman's neck. Two seconds passed and Ryoko's knees gave in as she went silent and dropped to the floor, her straight black hair spilling on to the carpeted floor.

Kayden looked down at the woman and then at the girl, "What did you do?"

She shrugged, "She's just unconscious...she'll wake up in a day or two undisturbed."

Kayden smiled but it soon dropped as he saw the girl stumble and tried to hold the wall for support. Kayden strode forward and curled his strong arms around her small waist.

"Hey, hey, hey," he half-whispered, "You okay?"

The girl looked up at him, her eyes blurry and unsteady, "N-no, I don't think so. I'm exhausted." Kayden nodded and let her take support on his shoulders.

Kayden helped Adonis shift Brooklyn and Sam down into the Library.

"Aiden...sorry, Adonis. Why didn't you tell us you were a Wintral?" Kayden asked as they latched close the trap door and carried the two next to The Wheel. The girl sat on one of the tables next to the shelves, half asleep, dreaming of nice things.

"I didn't want to get killed on sight," Adonis chuckled uneasily. He glanced towards the Wheel, "This will work."

Kayden smiled, "Yeah I believe you, you guys have a reputation for having the best spy system in the world. If anything, you might know more about Zyka than the Prince himself."

Aiden lifted Brooklyn's hands and placed it on the lower left spoke of The Wheel and Kayden did the same for Sam's hand on the right lower spoke.

Sam's and Brooklyn's head touched against each other as the lay on the floor. They looked as good as dead. No wonder Isaiah abandoned hope and gave in to the guards.

Would this even work?

A few moments passed but nothing happened. "Um..Adonis...isn't something supposed to happen?"

Adonis stared at the corpses and The Wheel back and forth and thought, he scratched the tip of his chin in small stroked unconsciously. "Wheel magic...ionic reaction," he thought out loud, trying to remember the snippets he had heard in the recording of the meeting his father,the Mars Wheel Mission leader, had attended. "Electricity. We need electricity," Adonis concluded.

Kayden raised his eyebrows, "Like lightning?" Kayden wondered what had made him say lightning back in the Forbidden Room. It was almost like...he knew everything about the wheel and the girl but when he tried to remember, the memory ran away. Just like when he tried to remember who his parents were.

It was there in his head, but it was tucked away in the wrong places. It was frustrating.

Adonis nodded, "Exactly like lightning."

Kayden got up and helped the girl towards the Wheel, "Could you, try the light thing you tried back there in the alley?" Kayden asked , crossing his fingers.

The girl tried to focus her vision, "What?"

Kayden repeated his question.

"Oh that," she realised, "I'm not sure...I'm not in my strongest state right now..."

Kayden and Adonis locked eyes and there, somewhere in the right place in his brain, Kayden fished out an idea. He was giving it his all.

"We coud...lend our energies, Adonis and I. We have plenty in us. Would that do?"

The girl sat silent for a moment and then nodded. Kayden took her right hand and held it tight, feeling her slow rhythm coming in tune with his. Adonis took the girl's left hand and the three focused on the two valuable people in front of them.

'Please,' Adonis thought.

'Let this work,' Kayden shut his eyes and wished as he tried hard to keep his heartbeat in check as it burned in the palms of the girl who fell from a star.