Dawnstar - Mirror World 4

Simple as that, Elizabeth was standing there, eyes searching the group. Her full denim skirt rustled loudly as she stepped over the border into Dawnstar, her casual slip-ons barely making any noise. Upon coming on board, she surveyed the group curiously then cautiously, a worried look on her brows before relaxing upon seeing Raju.

“Raju…” She walked forward in greeting. Raju stepped up as she embraced him briefly, touching his face and stroking his hair. She gave a soft laugh.

“Its…hard to believe that you’ve grown so much. The last time I saw you, you were a little shorter than shoulder height.” Her hand lingered on his shoulder before letting go, a warm look on her face.

“You too. You don’t seem to have changed much, though.” Raju twitched upon all the sudden physical contact, but held his place.

“Well, maybe not physically.” She glanced around again. “And these are your friends?” Her eyes stopped at Buster, suddenly realizing the implication of a heavy machine armed to the teeth was in her vicinity. Her last sentence seemed to waver.

“Yes. This is Buster, our siege droid. Sophia is my historian, and Shinako is my weapons officer and sidekick.” Raju introduced.

Shinako bowed a little and Sophia smiled warmly, but Elizabeth seemed a bit downfallen and maybe hurt, her eyes still locked on Buster. She quickly glanced at everyone else. “I’m pleased to meet all of you.”

“We have a lot to catch up on,” Raju spoke up. “Let me show you to our briefing room.”

Raju started to turn when he realized Tamilia had followed them. Her face had some fright realizing that she was discovered, but she was frozen in place, unsure if to run or stay. Elizabeth let out a small sound of recognition as she passed Raju and came to in front of Tamilia.

“Oh….You’re all right.” She said in relief. Her hands touched her shoulders, as if to make sure she was real and alive. “You’ve been through a lot, haven’t you?”

“More that you would know.” Tamilia seemed to start boiling over a little. “What’s going on here with me? With him?”

“Well, I was going to tell you in a little bit.” Elizabeth answered, surprised at the response. “I need to catch up with Raju first.”

“I don’t mind catching up, but I have to agree.” Raju stood beside Elizabeth, facing her. “I’d like some answers.”

Elizabeth was quiet, lips moving as if searching for words. “I see…”

Raju soon had Elizabeth in the briefing room, Sophia and Shinako on either side of him. Buster waited outside, Tamilia not far from the door. Elizabeth was seated on the other end of the table facing them.

“So what happened when I saw you last?” Elizabeth inquired.

“Few events, but big ones. We moved to Mars a few years after. Then everyone died in a bomb blast and I survived. I’ve been a Freelancer since.”

“Your parents are…dead?” Elizabeth couldn’t comprehend the fact. “I’m sorry. I guess making up to them is out of the question…”

“I don’t know if it would have made a difference or not,” Raju answered. “I don’t think they liked you for whatever reason. You were a nice mentor when it lasted.”

“Lasted? Raju, I never forgot about you. When I found out you moved, I had no idea what happened or where you went. I’ve been looking for you all these years. But when I heard your name and what happened at Dantius, I tried to get ahold of you again.” It was clear Elizabeth was distressed.

“So why Tamilia? What does she have to do with this? Why not just find me?”

“Tamilia…was a test. To see if you were the same person you were fifteen years ago. And to see how good people actually said you were. I guess you could call it extra insurance so I knew about you better.”

There was silence for a few moments before she spoke up again.

“I know you’re closed up to me, aren’t you? You don’t trust me?”

Raju didn’t speak, his silence his answer.

“Are you going to take Tamilia back with you?” Sophia asked.

“I…was going to take her back. But first I’ll give you the answers that you need.” Elizabeth leaned forward and rested her hands on the table.

“Tamilia…is from an underdeveloped colony. Where I will not say, but she suffered an accident and fell ill. Through some excruciating circumstances I was able to rescue her and tried to help her recover. Physically she recovered, but she was mentally scarred. There was nothing that I was able to do to change that.”

“So that’s why you had that creature try to fix her memories,” Shinako butted in.

Elizabeth nodded. “It took quite a bit of talking, but I was able to make some progress in communicating with it. In exchange to learn about us humans, I let it try to alter her memories to remove the horrible experiences that happened to her.”

Sophia had a hesitant look on her face. “Elizabeth, forgive me if I don’t quite agree with what you did, but wouldn’t Tamilia cease to be the normal person she was without her memories? It’s…an interesting solution, but it doesn’t sit right with me.”

“Well, you’re entitled to your opinion, but believe me, those memories she had is something that somebody hopes that they will never go through. I am not going to tell you what happened to her, neither will go try to find out her past. Do I make myself clear?”

Elizabeth’s pleasant demeanor had suddenly changed to a firm and scolding tone, and one could even sense a bit of hostility in her voice. It was clear that she didn’t want the girl to learn about her past in any way.

“So what are we supposed to tell her then?” Shinako demanded.

“Nothing,” Elizabeth snapped back. “Understand?”

Nobody replied. Elizabeth seemed to be getting a bit upset with the silence, standing to her feet. “It seems that you’ve changed all right, Raju. But I didn’t expect this…a lack of understanding. Nor taking my word for it.”

She walked out of the room, everyone standing up and following her. Upon exiting the room, she gave a warning glance at Tamilia, who had started to approach her to ask questions. She stayed put as Elizabeth walked by.

“That wasn’t a lot of answers, you know,” Raju came to Elizabeth’s side.

“I believe that is a sufficient amount of answers for the matter at hand,” she answered, still walking briskly. “You have recovered Tamilia, so she will be coming with me.”

“Look here,” Raju grabbed her arm to stop her. This seemed to infuriate her a bit, her face angered as she turned to face him.

“You’re on my ship, and as long as I have some way to enforce what I say, what I say goes. Tamilia isn’t going anywhere until you give me some answers. And she sure has hell isn’t going with you until you answer them.”

Elizabeth came up to his face, her voice lowered and full of fury. “Do you really want to tell a girl that her parents were mutilated by a wild sea beast, she was administered drugs to give her feelings of lust and raped by a malicious man, then nearly killed in unthinkable ways that would give you nightmares for countless nights?”

Raju was silent for several seconds. “Maybe. People that don’t know anything can’t be kept under lock and key forever. They’re bound to find out sometime.”

Elizabeth was about to retort with a line when she heard a small gasp followed by a whimper. Tamilia had heard her, regardless of how low her voice was. Her lip was unsteady and her body seemed to shiver some. She was clearly at a loss of words, but wanted to say something; but all she could do was stare blankly.

Elizabeth glanced at Tamilia with a softened face, but hardening once more upon looking at Raju. “I hope you got what you wanted. Now if you excuse me, she’s coming along.” She took Tamilia’s arm without a word and started back towards the airlock with her ship.

Sophia moved to act but Raju held her back. “Just…let her go. I don’t need things anymore sour right now.”

She looked at him, a bit confused, eyes a bit wide. “Let them go!? Raju, are you out of your mind?”

“No, not this time. Not this time…”

Raju strode onto the bridge as Haley greeted him with a surprised look on her face.

“Hey, she’s leaving! Did everything go all right?”

“Not really. You guys did do overwatch while I kept her distracted, right?” He walked to his chair and sat down. Amiria climbed off beforehand, going over to where Sophia was sitting and leaning against her armrest.

“Oh yeah! Entire computer core is all ours!” Bob zoomed around in a circle.

“We can sort it out later, but can you access navigation data?”

“More importanty, did you tag the ship first?” Shinako asked.

“Yeah, ship’s tagged.” Yorina winked. “Interfacing…downloading current processes and data.”

There was a tense moment when Elizabeth’s ship jumped off sensors. “And I got it,” Novia announced. “Target’s heading for Earth.”

“Earth? Like the home cluster?” Shinako had this incredulous look in her eyes.

“Yeah, that Earth.” Haley sighed. “I haven’t been there in two years. Do you want us to follow?”

“Just to keep track. Once we figure out where she’s going, we’ll work something out. But wait a bit before we jump, we don’t want her figuring out that we’re following her.” Raju leaned back in his chair.

“Gotcha. Hang on!”