BATTLE OF THE DARK WORLD

EPISODE 6 - Allyn's Family (iii)

Knowing she would explode in a few seconds, she went and held her Sister, ‘I have not been any good to you, let me out!’

B2 said, ‘you were right, I am not your sister but I am not afraid of death.’ She was bleeding excessively.

‘Yes you are my sister! I am your Sister!’ A1 cried.

B2 retorted, ‘we are just codes with masks, we don’t see what’s beyond.’ A1 could not save her own Sister.

Joshua was back on his feet; he took his daughter and went to live in Brazil. He took care of her and slowly she adopted his life style. She started schooling and mingled with friends.

One day, he left her with the teacher who got upset time and again for he was not good at keeping time. But he did it for people. He was always fighting the codes and saving lives of humans.

‘I will be back soon’

‘Oh yes you better be!’ she responded. He didn’t tell her that he was flying to Mexico.

‘I will give you a window of fifteen minutes or find a baby sitter!’ she added.

The child smiled, ‘I will be fine Dad’

 ‘Oh great!’ the teacher added.

Few months before, A1 woke up in the hands of B2. She looked up slowly and realized they were still alive. They looked at themselves and marveled at who they were. They had the same height, almost the same weight and they were ninety-nine percent identical. They were beautiful twins and had the same accent.

A1 remembered she had stabbed her Sister. She checked to see how badly wounded she was but B2 said, ‘I am fine; he did it though I don’t know how.’

They looked around and saw their masks, they walked closer and found a note, ‘I am glad you made it, keep your faces safe and I wish you well in your new life. I have to take care of my child.’

B2 felt sorry, ‘he wants to take care of the child.’ Her Sister said, ‘there’s a chance we might see him again.’

‘No, it will not bring back her mother. I murdered her, she died because of me,’ tears fell from her eyes.

Her Sister agreed, ‘It was my fault too. I was there but did nothing. Just like when the Codes wanted to kill you, I was watching.’ No one had strength enough to comfort the other.

Joshua arrived in Mexico and went to see where his wife was buried. He went closer and anger filled his soul. He wept but could not go further because the government was watching. Therefore, he ended up kneeling on a different stone and pretended not have gone for his deceased wife.

‘He’s not the one,’ said the Codes. ‘Then keep looking! Do not let that stone out of your site! He must be the Code that helped the missing Codes’

In the night, B2 walked out when A1 went to take a bath. She walked to a neglected shelter and heard someone weeping. It was Joshua. Joshua was filled with vengeance; he was hurt that he didn’t want to see B2 ever again. Therefore, he cried to let go of the pain.

B2 saw him and A1 reached her faster. They saw the fury on his face, he turned and never looked back.     

B2 could not stop blaming herself, ‘she died because of me.’ ‘What did you do to me?’

Three weeks later, A1 took her to an open place. She could not think straight and though they were surrounded by a crowd of people, B2 was alone. Her Sister ordered all kinds of food but it did not work out.

‘I need water,’ B2 told her Sister. Immediately her sister went to get water, someone stood behind and touched her shoulders, ‘Stop blaming yourself, you will not see me like that again.’

She did not turn immediately to see who it was. When she did, she found nothing. She glanced at almost every angle and ran out of the building.

A1 came with water and found her sister gone. She got worried but then, later she found her outside the building. Together, they saw Joshua who smiled and walked away.

At home, B2 kept on saying, ‘Did you see his face? He looked happy, and he waved at us.’ A1 was proud of her Sister. ‘Yeah I saw it. I feel relieved too.’

B2 asked, ‘how can we help him back?’

‘I am not sure yet, we will figure it out.’

She took a breath and asked, ‘where is my water?’

A1 stood to get the bottle of water. When giving it to her, she read ‘Protect your faces and guard them safely. I am always with you.’

‘See this! It’s like he’s watching us.’ ‘Maybe he’s protecting us,’ the young sister added.

B2 asked again, ‘would you pass me some food?’

‘Seriously? We are the same age and almost the same weight, get up and get it yourself.’    

‘But you are still my elder sister!’ A1 denied ‘No! We are twin sisters. We are alike!’ They spent the whole night arguing.

Finally, A1 said ‘So, what kind of face would you go for?’

B2 asked, ‘what do you mean?’

‘He tells us to keep our faces safe. Maybe he wants us to change our faces so that the government does not recognize us. He’s protecting us remember? So, what kind of face would you go for?’

B2 looked at her Sister, ‘I would like to have your face’

A1 brought a big mirror, ‘you see; you look exactly like me, wait a minute,’ she brought a dictionary and defined the word ‘identical.’

B2 was equally happy with her Sister. ‘I was just kidding; I know exactly what I look like. I know who I am and what I am.’

‘What did you mean you would go for my face then?’ the elder Sister asked.

B2 said, ‘You look exactly like me. There’s no need to change my face. Maybe he meant that we should not let anyone to cover us with masks again. Can I be right?’ 

A1 stayed quiet. B2 then said, ‘would you heat some water for me? I really want to take a bath’

A1 looked at her adorable Sister, ‘Yes Sister, I will heat the water’ ‘Yes!’ screamed B2.

She heated the water and B2 went to take a bath. She then sat thinking how much her Sister suffered when nobody wanted her close. How she was tormented when she denied her and never wanted her near again. She then remembered the day she wanted to kill herself; if she had not saved her, she would not have someone adorable like her own sister.

Her eyes became tearful but she did not want her sister to see her that way. She tried not to but immediately she came out of the bathroom, she held her like a little baby.

The day Joshua neutralized the detonating devices on their masks, made the government wonder if they did it by themselves. They thought about all the possible ways as to why the masks did not detonate.

‘Maybe the masks had faults,’ they thought.

‘We gathered all the children with special powers, if there is anyone, we would have detected them’ someone said during a cabinet meeting.

‘What if there still exists a Code with powers to deactivate the device? What if a Code was left out during the screening of the world? What if that Code existed?’

Another member asked, ‘did you retrieve the masks?’

‘Yes mum, the masks were retrieved’

‘Was there anything to indicate that someone tampered with them?’

‘No mum, there was nothing. The devices were intact but they couldn’t just blow off’

‘Any other suggestion?’

‘What if the Code is out there?’

‘Are you hiding something from us? That’s the third if not fourth time you have talked about the Code being out there. I remember when you brought the kids I asked, “was everyone screened? Are you sure you haven’t left any single child with a special gift?” Your answer was precise unless you have something to tell the house!’

He stood up, ‘I detected unusual power on a certain group of kids but when I screened them, it was all gone. I screened them twice, it all disappeared. How could a child hide power? We threatened, and shot some dead but nothing was ever detected again. I believe there is a Code out there. A code more powerful than…. maybe they don’t know themselves yet. It could be the reason why we haven’t detected them. But if that’s the Code that deactivated the masks, then they are aware of what they are capable of doing.’

They started training the other Codes to live as one family. They trained them more with a well-known reason, to capture the unknown Code believed to be in existence somewhere in the world.

‘There is a bad Code out there! We need you to work as a team to capture it! Our mission is to save the world by destroying anything that puts it in danger. The Code that is out there is dangerous, it has no mercy and it will not spare any of you. From today onwards you are brothers and sisters. You will not be allowed to take off your masks until the Code is captured. Remember, destroy the Code!’

‘At your service Sir!’ they all responded.

Back in Brazil, the teacher asked the child ‘what does your father do?’

‘He looks after me’ she answered her.

‘Anything else?’

‘He takes care of me’

‘And… what else?’

‘He protects me’

‘Ok, apart from you; you and you what else does he do!’

‘You sound offended, are you alright?’ she asked her teacher.

‘Look, let’s be fair and answer accordingly ok?’

‘You are a good teacher; I like you’ she told her.

‘Oh, you are such a nice kid. Your Dad must be proud of you’

‘He loves me and I love him too’

‘Yeah I know, it’s all about you and your Dad!’

“Are you offended?’

‘No, not at all!’

‘My Dad taught me not to worry, if I worry I make things worse. I need to be strong and do what I have to do’

The teacher stayed quiet for some time and asked, ‘what did you just say?’

‘I say it once’ the child told her.

Next to her house was another teacher. He was staring at the window and saw her happy with the kid. ‘I wish she could always be happy. She scares the hell out of me,’ he said to himself. 

They both turned and saw him starring; the teacher looked puzzled. ‘What’s the matter?’ the child asked.

‘Nothing, there’s totally nothing’ she answered.

‘You are lying aren’t you? My Dad taught me not to lie’ ‘Enough of you and your Dad!’  She screamed.

She took a breath and said, ‘Ok I did something stupid and ah…I prefer not to remind myself but I cannot just forget about it’

The child ran to his house and the teacher screamed calling her back. However, she knocked and the man opened the door. ‘Sorry, we didn’t mean to bother you. These kids are… good but they are a problem at times’ she said.

‘Actually, you should hang out quite often. I didn’t know you had a child,’ he said.

‘She’s not my kid!’ her tone was high. She took a breath again ‘It doesn’t mean I can’t take care of her.’

Joshua found them; she looked at her watch ‘what happened? You took three days!’ she screamed again.

‘I appreciate everything,’ he said and told the child ‘time to go’

They walked away and the child asked, ‘Dad, we are leaving aren’t we?’

‘I have found another place for you. We are going to stay with King Julien.’ ‘Yeah, I like King J!’

She ran back to the teacher and hugged her. ‘Can I say one more thing about my Dad?’ she asked. ‘Yeah, sure’ ‘He taught me that humans do not forget but they can let go of the pain’

They didn’t know what to do, she misjudged the kid all the days she stayed with her and thought that a little child could not be of any help. She looked at the man who asked, ‘would you mind if I offered you a drink?’ She entered the house, but she could not stop thinking about what the child had said.

Joshua and his daughter went to live in Madagascar. He began training the child how to handle emotions and taught her everything she needed to know. By so doing, she was growing healthy and lived a normal life.

The government had deployed the Codes in Mexico as well as Brazil. They caught everyone who looked like Joshua and murdered those with any kind of power either dormant or semi active.

One night, Joshua was watching television and saw people chanting against the vessels that were stationed everywhere in Mexico. They were Codes screening for any possible source of power.

The following morning, A1 went shopping with her sister. B2 said, ‘Some people look strange, it’s like they are pretending to be doing something.’ Her sister agreed ‘What they don’t know is that they can’t hide from pretense.’

B2 further said, ‘I feel something terrible might happen’ ‘I am here to see that nothing happens to us’ said the elder Sister. However, she developed a strange fever in the evening.

B2 went to buy medicine and the Codes recognized her at a chemist. ‘I can’t reach her mind like I did when she was with us, she must be the one.’ They walked closer to her. ‘So you are hiding here? You thought you were clever?’

B2 said, ‘I don’t know what you are talking about. It must have been someone else and not me. Whatever it was you better live it in the past. And why are you wearing masks?’

‘You have guts to talk?’ they chipped in.

They meant to kill; they threw her to the wall but Joshua was there on time. He saw the fear in her eyes, ‘I am sorry; I will not be late again’

He closed his eyes and disarmed the masks. Though they could not fight again, he left them alive.

Joshua and B2 took A1 with them and left for Madagascar. He examined A1 and removed a metal chip which was planted in the head when they gave her a new mask to kill her Sister.

‘I need to train you, both of you’ he told them.

The young sister said, ‘I am not gifted. I do not have any super power.’

Joshua said, ‘You are the most powerful of all but you haven’t realized it yet’

‘Uh…? But how can I defeat a Code without super powers?’

 ‘You have said well, there are many Codes with diverse powers. But you never considered yourself a Code. And I don’t want you to do that.’ He left them and walked outside.

‘I don’t get it, do I?’ she asked her Sister.

 ‘It’s true you did not regard us as Codes, you treated everyone as your Sister’

They walked out and found him looking at a drawing. He sat next to his father and the twin sisters sat next to their mother.

A1 asked, ‘where did you get that from?’ ‘You mean the drawing? I cannot take it out of my head.’ He answered.

‘No, you shouldn’t’

 ‘I will be inside if you need me’. He walked away and sat with his daughter.

Both A1 and her sister recognized the drawing; it was the last memory they all had with the family. They stared at him through the window and then rushed in,

‘You are our brother aren’t you?’

But they found nothing inside. They rushed outside and found nothing too. They thought that he never wanted them to know. However, the child went to them and asked, ‘why do you look sad?’ They held their brother and cried out with joy. The little child was Tia.

Together, they started protecting people. Though the government continued sending the Codes, they saved lives of many. However, humans failed to protect them when they needed help. Joshua and Allynne-B2 died on the spot.

The central government was under the influence of Captain Marsho; they charged Allyn with treason and blasted her to die in space.

Tia, was adopted by foster parents. She grew up and became a junior doctor.