The Prison

[Ander]

This girl was out of her fucking mind.

Of course he thought she was crazy; what sane person wouldn’t? Ander would have had trouble believing that story from somebody completely lucid, much less an emotional roller-coaster of a woman who spent more time “being high than chasing.” In his right and logical mind, he could only presume the story as an inevitable fabrication of her drug addled brain, a cover-up for the more likely explanation of being an illegitimate offspring. As it was, he had difficulty swallowing the account of her as royalty, as much as his reasoning skills insisted it as truth. Ultimately, it potentially simply boiled down to the fact that he had trouble trusting anyone, no matter what came out of their mouths or how completely convinced they seemed of their own rationalizations. At the very least, she maintained enough sanity to understand and predict his completely and utterly justifiable reaction.

“…say something,” Sage prompted.

Ander realized he had gone totally quiet at the most awkward possible moment in the conversation. “What would you like me to say?”

The doctor shifted slightly against him. “I don’t know… anything…”

He closed his eyes, mind searching for something that wouldn’t push her away. “I won’t tell anybody… not about Sol, not about your bloodline, not about… this. Not even to your sister, although that’s probably not a problem since I haven’t even met her yet.”

Because something tells me that’s not going to turn out well…

“…thank you.”

The thief resumed his silence; he needed time to think, to process everything and give the situation a second look, but unfortunately she likely required assurance and security, something he couldn’t exactly provide at the moment after being completely blindsided by her unexpected revelation. His verbal insistences that he didn’t think her crazy even sounded lame to him. Fortunately, an idea popped into his head, something that would give them both what they needed at the moment.

“Hey, how about you take a nap?” Ander suggested.

She murmured a little, a noise of uncertainty. Sage couldn’t really deny that her efforts at healing left her exhausted and in need of rest, but she had a feeling sleep wouldn’t come easily – if at all – with the subject weighing so heavily on her mind.

“Come on, I know you’re tired,” he insisted. He chuckled, and added, “You can’t even get up.”

As if to prove him wrong, she made another valiant attempt to push off of him, and he didn’t try to stop her, his point confirmed not a second later as she weakly collapsed as she had every time before. The woman groaned in irritation, which only prompted another laugh from the nomad.

“See? You’re stuck with me anyway,” he joked.

Sage sighed, relenting. She was far too tired to protest; he’d already broken her down twice now. “O-okay.”

Ander couldn’t suppress a discomfited fidget or two as she adjusted herself against his shoulder for a more comfortable sleeping position, and he pointedly looked in the opposite direction almost as if it made the situation easier. After all, today had been a pretty large breach in slowly acclimating to personal boundaries, and he had to imagine that she felt much the same.

“I-if I do something again… like before, with the ice… just… wake me up, okay?” Sage instructed drowsily.

Ander smiled wryly. “You can count on that one.”

He waited a few minutes, hearing an audible change in her breathing patterns and heartbeat, indicating that she had drifted off into slumber, however fitful it would prove to be.

That was another thing to contend with, and he had barely – yet successfully – suppressed his resentment at the time. For seven long years, he had trained doggedly until his body bruised and broke, until it painfully smashed into the brick wall of his limitations over and over again. And for all he had to show for it, she could summon an entire blizzard in seconds without even thinking about it, without even realizing she was doing it. Such a raw and incredible power, and it still completely dwarfed his own. It made him angry just thinking about what it would be like if she actually tried. In mere moments, she had almost taken his life… again, and he had been completely and pathetically defenseless. In fact, she even had the nerve to heal him again, like he was some kind of helpless infant, and of course, that only served to confuse him further. Did she enjoy sending him to the edge of life and pulling him back again like a yo-yo, like nothing more than a child’s plaything? Why? Why? Why did she do it, when again, there had been no reason. He pushed her, bullied her, backed her into a corner, and still she gave up her own energy to save him.

Without a conscious awareness of it, he had clumped a fistful of dirt into a clenched hand, squeezing it mercilessly through his tensed fingertips. Ander didn’t need her pity, and the only solution was that he would just have to become stronger than her; this incident only drove him maddeningly further into the need for power, for the strength to stand proudly. For the moment, even being in Sage’s presence was akin to holding a wild flame in one’s bare hands: the slightest error in manipulation, and he’d be consumed by his own careless mistakes.

The dune dweller sighed. He had already known she outclassed him in the art of energy crafting, and supposed that it came secondary to the problem at hand, which was her potential psychosis. Ander turned their conversation over and over in his mind like a rotisserie, giving each sentence of speech equal consideration. In the end, what did it matter if she was crazy? What did it hurt? If he hadn’t learned by now that the smartest thing for him was just to run in the opposite direction as far as he could, it wouldn’t make any difference now. If he played along, cozied up to her insecurity and presented himself as a supporter in her corner, there would be nothing left of her resistance to his machinations. After all, she either completely trusted him by now, or was having a really good joke at his expense. Sage had said that this revelation meant danger, and he could only surmise that she could accidentally prevent herself from being born, or somehow erase her own existence. That would be a pretty big reason not to tell anyone.

Then an entirely different notion floated into his stream of thought. If she was from the future, that meant she knew about things that hadn’t yet happened…

A crooked smile formed on his lips. Such information would be invaluable in the right hands… give somebody an edge that nobody else had. Maybe there was something he could get out of the situation after all, if it only proved to be true, of course. The smile melted. What he needed was some kind of assurance, some shred of prove that corroborated this little tale. And the only way to do that was…

“Hey, Sage,” Ander said suddenly, shaking her awake.

“Hmm?” she mumbled sleepily, eyelids dredging heavily open.

“Would you take me to Vegeta-sei?” Ander asked.

“Huh?” the girl wondered, rubbing an eye with the back of her hand.

“It doesn’t have to be right away – I mean, we are kind of stuck here – but, you know, someday?” the thief pressed. And then, for perhaps the first time since his accidental slip on the way to Akiha’s Shrine, Ander revealed an honest truth about himself, however simple and innocuous. “I’ve always wanted to visit other planets. Namek, Vegeta, Arlia… learn about their cultures and stuff. I figured, since I already want to go there, that you could take me, and, I could meet your family. Y’know, your mom and stuff. Kind of like, seeing your side of things, and then maybe I could figure out a way to help you with your time… problem… thing. What do you say?”