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He could hear the ocean, soft waves rolling into plumes of frothy foam against a hard floor of solid wet sand. The gleaming orange of a burning sunset embracing him from behind, as he clutched the cold form to his body. He couldn’t see her face, vision blurred with salt-filled tears but the white silk of her gown was smooth and gentle in his grasp. Her bodice soaked through, and her chest still. She drew no breath.
“I guess it’s true, the greatest love stories do always end…in tragedy.”
The voice was unfamiliar and weak, but so sweet and comforting. The last warmth that she ever whispered.
He screamed and sobbed, feeling like something was ripping and shredding him from the inside out. Clutching her cold form closer, holding on to a phantom from the depths of his mind that he couldn’t name.
Jay woke up crying.
The Administration approved cotton sheets were hurled off his sweating shaking body. The thin cloth some how feeling constricting against his skin. Jay let his face fall into his shivering hands, wiping away the tears as quickly as they welled into his eyes. Wrapping his arms around himself he looked around his dorm quarters. The room a collection of matching sad baige furniture and administration issued supplies. Nothing personal. Nothing warm. Nothing real. It was empty and hollow, a perfect reflection of Jay’s heart and mind.
A chill crawled up his spine and Jay reached for the sheets to wrap around his shoulders again. He sighed; breath still unsteady.
Amnesia sucked. Zero out of ten, Jay does not recommend he thought. Why was he quipping when there was no one there to laugh at it?
Even without all the jokes, it really did suck. Not knowing who he was. Some of it was annoying, like not knowing how he took his coffee, and all that trial and error that came with it, or what hair products worked best for his curls. Some of it was confusing, like when Jofy in the breakroom had knocked over a bowl of spicy noodles and Jay caught it right before it hit the ground. He was a good agent, Jay knew that, but the reflexes that were needed to pull that off…
Some of it was down right horrifying. He could understand these given fundamentals about life outside the Administration. People came from families, usually at least. People fell in love. Parents had kids. And yet, Jay couldn’t put faces to titles. He couldn’t remember his mother’s name or face, or if he even had one. Logically he knows that he does, but he had forgotten about her…
Her…
Jay’s eyes drifted over to his nightstand, the single solid connection to his ‘before’ laying on the fake plastic imitation wood top. A yin coin half and a marriage ring sat there, still in the cold of his dorm. His fingers coiled around the pieces with care, as if handling the most fragile figurines of tender glass. The ring was ivory in color, polished to the point it shined like a pearl fresh from the sea. It fit perfectly on his finger. While the coin was halved, the pattern on its carefully painted ceramic left incomplete without its match. Both of them had been on his person when he woke up and the agents found him in the realm of madness.
Add the coin and ring to his dream – the dream of the woman dressed in the color of cirrus clouds and a voice that brought both a smile and tears to him – it wasn’t too hard to figure out that remnant of a memory meant.
Something must have gone horribly wrong at his beach wedding.
Jay huffed, more tears dripping down his freckled cheeks. Some part of him wanted to know, to find closure in her memory, to know who he had given his heart too. But another part, a louder part, rejected the idea. Because as painful as the uncertain silence is, the screaming grief would only hurt more.
The ground flew up to meet her face. Hard rough stone colliding with her cheek as she was thrown back and sent rolling across the battlefield.
You can never just mind your own business can you Nya? You just had to involve yourself with a conflict between people made of rocks, and bunch of freaking dragons!
The taste of metal and bile flooded her tongue, as church bells rang underneath her temple. Brushing rubble off her tattered gi, Nya rolled onto her stomach and elbows, straining to get up. Her body and instinct fighting its own internal war. One side feeling every bruise and blow and begging for rest. The other screaming that she needed to get to her feet or risk her life.
Heavy rapid thumps radiated through the stone, trembling against her belly and rattling her brain, growing closer and louder with every step. Nya glanced upwards, finding an enraged dragon maw rushing towards her. It was the same big scaly jerk that had slammed his thick tail into her not even a moment ago.
Move! Move! Move!
Usually someone would’ve grabbed her shoulder by now, dragged her away from the danger. Family never fought alone. Nya always had someone close she could trust. Then the storm that cracked the sky came, and it broke her family along with the world. Scrambling to the side, she felt her eyes burn. Talons sparking as they scraped against the grounds right next to her.
She rolled backwards, shoving her feet underneath her, and taking off before her balance was even found. Her hand flung out behind her, hurling a cool liquid blast into the dragon’s eyes, making the beast snarl and scream. Nya ran, trying to put distance between her and the danger. Her head ringing ever louder.
A second dragon pounced from her right. Its claw outstretched behind it. Nya blinked and the swipe hit her in the back sending her crashing into the rock below her. The bells turned into sirens and her vision became to swim. Oh, she was definitely concussed.
Hot breath hit the back of her neck, and Nya tensely turned to see the dragon now towering over her. Yellow eyes glaring down at her, drunk on power that didn’t belong to them. Some part of Nya wanted to be pissed. Angry at the world for being unfair or at herself for being so unsteady she couldn’t defend others who needed her help. She was just so tired. It had been non-stop war since that storm, and she wanted nothing more then to go home.
Go back to the monastery.
Hug her brothers.
See Jay.
Her marriage band, a ring of storm cloud grey with a rain drop sapphire, and yang medallion hung heavy from a short chain around her neck.
“Get away from her!”
There was a flash of red, leaping onto the dragon. The beast began to shake its massive horned head at the blurry red form clung to its crests, brandishing a sharp silver stick. A mountain shaking roar erupted from the dragon, as that stick seemingly cut deep into its scales.
Kai?
That guess felt wrong.
Gentle yet strong hands, gripped Nya’s shoulders and began to pull her away. Her boots scraping against the ground, exhaustion settling in her limbs. The water wielder felt her will to move fading, she had been fighting since before the sun had risen that morning. Now it hung high and hot overhead.
“-Nya? Can you hear me lillypad?”
Nya blinked, seeing a familiar face. Concern creasing the faint wrinkles and smile lines, framed in long dark hair only beginning to go grey. Full lips, like her own, and a set of identical ocean blue eyes was locked with hers.
“Mom?”