Rising Shards

"How many do you think there are?" I asked.

"Do you seriously want me to count them all?" Marmalade asked.

"I mean, a guestimate might be something," I said. "It's gotta be in the thousands."

They were retention sprites, soldiers from an old army called the Sharai. They stood still, waiting for an order.

I never wanted to be back in this desert. A while before, Ovie found some tracker device that she thought would bring her to Jeans, and somehow I had the energy that made the tracker find her (that barely made any sense to me so I couldn't explain it better than that even if I wanted to).

This time I was there because I agreed to go, but it wasn't under the best circumstances. It was hot and dry in the sands, but I still pictured a snowball rolling down a hill, picking up more and more as I thought about my Downside situation, which had some new wrinkles now.

"The equipment has a monster counting feature," Aira said. "It works on retention sprites, too, since they're kinda the same thing."

Marmalade sat at a dorky looking little rectangular cart, it was like a desk with tank treads. An ancient looking computer was at the front of it. Aira leaned in and pressed down on some of the big keys. A yellow wave of energy shot out like a wave over the sands, and the computer made a little ding each time it counted one of the sea of memory sprites.

Roux made an incorrect buzzer sound. "Only three hundred and six. Get real."

"Shut up, Roux, don't make me regret bringing you," I said.

"Roux would've come along no matter what you did," Syval said.

"It says they're all retention sprites, so good to have that confirmed," Marmalade said.

"Can we get started already? They're gonna like, go, right?" Syval asked.

"I think...I think she has to get them to," Aira said.

"How do you get her to...?" Marmalade asked. I could tell by her tone and her tensed jaw that she wasn't too trusting of this idea. Hell, I wasn't. But it was one we were stuck with for now.

"So far she hasn't really listened to me," Aira said. She placed a hand gently on her collarbone. "Um, can you come out and make them start fighting?"

I scoffed as our new...accomplice made us wait.

"I'd say we could just get to it, but..." I said.

"Probably won't feel fair if they're not doing anything," Marmalade said.

So it was myself, Marmalade, Aira, Syval, and Roux. And another guest.

The cart thing was hers, and all the Sharai retention sprites were hers, and she was letting us test out fighting as a team against them. She showed Aira how to get them, and how to clear it with her school account so nobody would notice.

Finally, she showed up. It looked like light from a projector shooting out of Aira, making a girl appear. A girl I really never wanted to see again. Jeans.

To recap, Aira and Syval kind of lucked into some superhero vigilante business. I found out and the three of us snuck off to a Taramin lab, where I drank some of the serum the devil Cani had, giving me the ability to shift into a monster form I was calling Downside. Aira and Syval found some Atrian crystals, which are super rare crystals that heal someone gravely wounded by putting them inside the crystal (I didn't really understand this part either). The two thought eating them was a good idea, and now were finding out that eating Atrian crystals that had a person inside of them was...a pretty terrible idea. It did give them a huge power boost, but...

Jeans stared at all of us. Even if she was just a projection of herself, her presence still filled me with some nasty dread.

"At least you can get her to come out," Syval said. "I still can't get my guy to do anything."

"That's because Rem doesn't have projection powers like me," Jeans said.

"Who is Rem, again?" Marmalade asked.

"Laenie's brother..." Aira said quietly.

"And who is Laenie, again?" Marmalade said. "There are so many people I have to remember now, I'm not used to this!"

"I'll give you the full rundown later," I said. "Jeans, make your stupid soldiers go already."

"Not even a thank you?" Jeans asked. "You should be grateful I'm even willing to humor the idea of being on your side."

"I'm never gonna say you're on our side," I said.

"I'm letting you slaughter my sprite army, what more proof do you need that I'm willing to be allies?" Jeans asked. "At least until I'm freed of...this condition."

Aira looked away from Jeans' stare. I couldn't begin to imagine what those two were going through.

"Don't say slaughter like that, they're retention sprites," Marmalade said.

Jeans didn't know Marmalade, Marms only had one run in with her and she barely got to see her. I wanted to limit the two interacting as much as I could, but I couldn't get Marmalade to stay home. I could see Jeans looking at her as a target like she did with Zeta.

"Listen, we're not allies, we're never going to be friends after what you've done," I said. "We're just...unfortunately doing the same thing today. As we work to other stuff."

"What are you even working towards?" Jeans asked.

I hated that I didn't have an answer. This Downside thing kept tumbling ahead, picking up more and more, and I wasn't sure if I could turn back at this point.

Jeans was pleased that none of us answered, and finally shouted out to her sprites.

"Minions! On my command, charge at us! Attack with all your might!" Jeans said.

"Minions?" Marmalade said. "She thinks she's a cartoon villain from like forty years ago."

I didn't have time to laugh at that, as the Sharai retention sprites started charging at us. I took one last look at Marms before we headed into battle.

"I'll hang back, I don't wanna mess with any of this equipment," Marmalade said.

"Don't worry, we got this!" Syval said.

"I sure hope so," I said.

I half expected to hear Zates say, "Team Starlight, go!" A pang of guilt hit me. But I told myself it was fine. I could be on multiple teams. Zeta, Oka, and Lillia shouldn't be on this team, anyways. I let that guilt fuel myself as I shifted into my Downside form, hoping some action would help ease that feeling.

I should probably explain how things wound up there.

After Roux found out, I got real paranoid that they'd tell everyone immediately. That the Taramin people would call whoever and arrest me for breaking and entering, stealing...it didn't help that I had a very awkward chat with Zeta and Oka the day after the whole Falling Shards incident. It was just the three of us sitting in our dorm room. Well, Oka had moved out but it was still kind of her room, too.

"Hey, random thing," Zeta said. "We had to walk with Anastasia for a bit. She was probably lying, but she said she knows what's going on with you."

I was shocked that Zates was the one to say it. But I was sure they were all suspicious about me. I was surprised they didn't ask about Syval, he was frantic too that they were onto him.

"Yeah," I said, my mouth dry. "Yeah, she's so full of it."

Why was I even keeping this from them, anyways? To protect them?

Well, now there was a huge new reason. Now I knew that Aira had Jeans in her soul or fused into her body or something? Any time I was with Aira until she had that sorted out, I had to keep Zates away. But did that mean I couldn't tell her? Would it protect her more to know or to not know?

Caya told me how this hero life can take you from your friends. Was I already on that path? Was I too late?

I croaked something out about having a beam chasers practice club with Syval and Aira that I think they bought, but I knew I said details without thinking that I'd need to backtrack on later.

I had to get everyone involved in the Downside stuff on the same page, we all needed to talk because this was spiraling out of control. I managed to wrangle everyone a few days later after class.

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