Chapter Text
AJ thrashed in her bedding, waking up from the nightmare with a gasp.
“You okay?” A voice called from the other side of the room. They lit a candle, illuminating a tiny room with no furniture.
“I’m fine,” AJ replied, untangling the blanket from her legs and silently cursing.
“You sure?”
"Yeps, I’m sure. Go back to sleep Daisy.”
Daisy blew out the candle and laid down. Soon enough, AJ heard their breaths settle in sleep.
AJ lay back down on the floor in her own thin blankets, but she couldn’t sleep. Her thoughts were racing as the nightmare played on repeat in her head.
It’d been five years since that night, but the nightmares still emerged every once in a while. As much as AJ tried to bury the memories, she could never get her face out of her mind. Her brown hair, the same color as the earth she could manipulate so easily, falling in gentle curls. AJ remembered brushing those curls away to reveal golden-brown eyes that smiled warmly or burned with passion. She didn’t want to see the images that her mind forced her to remember of those eyes looking at her with pain and betrayal.
AJ saw her collapsing to her knees and begging for the first time in her life. AJ remembered walking away as she called her name pleadingly.
AJ didn’t want to remember. She wanted the nightmares to stop. She wanted to scream until her mind finally let her forget.
Did she really want to forget? The first kiss in a tent. The stolen moments along the trails. The teasing and playful bickering. The swimming lessons.
No. Forgetting felt like another betrayal.
Flick pecked lightly at AJ’s hand.
“Hi, sweetie,” AJ whispered, stroking Flick’s head.
She chirped quietly back to comfort her.
AJ fell back into a light sleep, but that didn’t stop the memories and nightmares.
—
“If I’m so weak, then why were you so easy to bury?”
“What? That- That was you?”
AJ watched as disbelief, then betrayal filled Drift’s eyes. She watched as Drift’s heart broke and bled. The blood on her hands was no longer her own or Juniper’s, but instead it was Drift’s, pouring out from her chest.
“It was just a bit of fun, Princess.”
“Why are you calling me that?”
“Why am I calling you Princess?”
“Why are you calling me that? You know I don’t-”
“Oh, Oh, Oh! Why am I calling you this? Let me check.”
“No, no, please. AJ please! Please, please! Stop! Stop, stop!”
Drift fell to her knees, her chest still bleeding out. Instead of hitting the ground, she fell through it and the dirt covered her head, suffocating her. Again.
“Princess Rynn?”
“This isn’t you. I know you. I know you, AJ!
“No. It is.”
“This isn’t you, please. Just sit down and talk with me. We can talk through this, I promise.”
“You were only a bit of fun to me.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I really do!”
“I can’t go back to that life!”
“Then run!”
There was never going to be an ‘us’.
—
AJ woke up gasping again, but this time there was light streaming through the small window. It couldn’t be too far past dawn, but AJ gave up on sleep. She folded the thin blankets and stuffed them into her backpack before silently slipping out the door. She really didn’t care if Daisy woke up before she got back. They could panic all they wanted, AJ needed fresh air and to stretch. She set out on a run around the sleepy village where she and Daisy were staying for the night on their way to their next job for the rebels. AJ despised working with a partner, but Daisy could be worse. Daisy was obviously a codename, like how they knew AJ by Rook. They were a non-binary person who didn’t talk much but was insanely smart. They were the brains, and AJ the brawn of the operation. At least that’s how the rebel leader told it. Daisy had pale skin and short blonde hair, which AJ found fun to make fun of. The disappointing part was that they didn’t rile up easily. They were such an opposite from her,
It’d been five years since AJ last saw her, when she told her to run. It’d been 3 years since AJ abandoned the academy for the opposite side of the continent.
People had become suspicious and AJ’s cover had been blown, so the rebels pulled her out before she could get banished or executed. Not too long after she left, she’d heard rumors about the infamous Dragon Riders who banished the corruption and held back the Storm Realm. Her and AJ's names were noticeably missing from the list of Riders.
The bounty for Princess Rynn had been left unclaimed and the princess declared dead.
AJ’s magic became unpredictable, but she’d found that when she put enough distance between herself and Nico, she couldn’t cast magic at all, so Nico was kept by the leaders of the rebels in the main base while AJ traveled for missions. She’d ride Nico on occasion, but for the most part, no one even guessed she was one of the few Dragon Riders for the rebels. The distance didn’t stop the pain though. It still racked through her body, now more than ever because of how long it’d been since she released it through magic. Alcohol and lavender kept the pain at bay well enough. She was fine.
AJ finished her circuit and found Daisy glaring at her from the door.
“We were ordered to stick together, Rook.”
“Did you want to be woken up at the crack of dawn, Blondie?” AJ asked with false sweetness, “I thought you needed your beauty rest.”
“Come on. We have to move,” Daisy said, pushing off the door frame.
They walked past AJ and led the way towards their destination: a city a few more hours down the road where some rebels needed help to infiltrate the lord’s manor. Daisy and AJ’s job was to sneak in while most of the soldiers were distracted with what they thought were all the rebels in the area.
As they reached the city, AJ scribbled a note to the other rebel group and sent it ahead with Flick.
—
Rook and Daisy almost within bounds
Send crow back when you are ready to strike
—
A very familiar crow landed right next to Drift. Her eyes widened as Flick chirped at her but she felt frozen. That is, until Flick gave her leg a sharp peck.
“Hey! Flick! Ow! That hurts!” Drift complained.
Flick chirped again and Drift finally noticed the note tied to her talon. She quickly untied it and read the even more familiar handwriting.
Rook
That had to be AJ. Drift didn’t want to face her again. But she couldn’t help but remember quiet moments. Happy moments. They were always tainted by the memory of the last time Drift saw her.
“Commander Daggers, do we have new orders?” A voice asked from behind her.
Drift straightened up, fixed the green scarf that covered her hair and lower face, and turned around to face the rebel. She deepened her voice to sound like a man’s so her identity would remain disguised.
“No. Rally everyone together.”