I couldn't remember the last time I shut my jaw. My salivary ducts ran dry, letting my mouth coat itself in the muggy air of outside. No matter how much I wanted to close my mouth and just idly watch the events unfold before, I unconsciously couldn't. I was just frozen in bewilderment of what all of the factions were witnessing. Everyone around me unanimously watched on in utter silence.

It started with Crimson. She was the first to go up in the Vulrant before any of us could, she would be the first one to receive the serum of the injection. Normally we'd all carry on uniformly until we were all fitted with the injection.

But that hadn't turned out the way I imagined. The way, I think, anyone would imagine.

Crimson began to react violently to the injection. Her body writhed around uncontrollably from the looks of it. She started freaking out and screaming, launching herself forward onto the floor on her hands and knees. Crimson kept screaming at the top of her lungs in a earth-shattering, blood-curdling kind of way. Warranting the lot of us to remain frozen in our spots and for Omar and the Indigo doctor to look upon her with confusion and worry.

It was as though no one even tested the injection before hand, she was probably the first person to blindly be tested with it. I thought for sure she was going to die at that point. Something stopped me from running out and trying to heal her in whatever way I could. I felt like that no matter what I attempted to try and help her; none of it would work to any avail. There was no guaranteed reason as to why I thought that.

But I had a gut feeling that this was supposed to happen, like it was all apart of some plan. A grand scheme...

Blood started coming from her mouth and nose, flowering into the water and rippling away in splotches. Crimson placed her head on the ground at one point and looked to be pushing into the ground whilst carrying on with her pained screams.

Then there was some foreign movement out the corner of my eye. I looked over to see a group of five walk out from behind a closed set of doors and exposed to the rain outside. It looked as though they were heading towards another pair of doors across from them. The group consisted of Zoe, two Xultant guards dragging a mortally wounded person while a younger boy followed behind him with a gun of his own.

I recognized the boy just a bit. More so solidified by seeing his neck tattoo of the word 'Thrree'.

He was a Zyto, I knew that much, I remembered a year or two back when there was a small rebellion occupying one of the markets in the city. I had worked with him closely as he and some other Xultants and Zytos to suppress the situation. He was shot in the leg at one point. I remembered running out and dragging him behind some cover to heal him as best as I could. The process would take longer than twelve hours to fully have it healed, and would have to be dealt with daily treatments. So I prompted to close off any internal wounding of arteries and repair his skin so that he wouldn't bleed out. I remember him giving me courteous nod and a 'thank you' before returning back to the situation.

I could vividly recognize who he was from that day for no particular reason. It confused me as to why he was over there with Zoe instead of waiting in line for the injections.

And then something broke out within the group of five. The man the Xultants were holding, presumably a prisoner of some type, broke out of their grasp and started fighting back against them. He grabbed a gun from one of the guard's holsters and shot him twice in the chest. I flinched each time the shot rang out from afar. How could all of this be happening now all at once?

The prisoner turned around and started to fight the other remaining Xultant, ending it with the prisoner killing him with the gun. Everyone now had their attention directed towards him, Zoe and Thrree. The prisoner stumbled over himself, completely dismissive of killing Thrree, even though Thrree clearly had a gun on him. He fell over and landed on his hands and knees, yelping and continuing to crawl forth towards Crimson direction. I was deaf to the conversation around me or the words that came out from the man's mouth. If I was listening I would've known that he was calling Crimson's name.

It was only until he crawled part way to her that I could hear his voice once more made clear from the rest of the white noise. And simultaneously I recognized who the man was.

It was Shawn... Crimson's father.

I knew Shawn briefly, not too personally, but he and I did talk on occasion if we ever found ourselves together. After I became really close friends with Crimson he became wary of me. Understandably so, as every responsible...

Father

...should be doing. Looking out for their daughter when an unknown boy starts coming around. Such as the likes of myself who was considered bad luck by many because of the numerous amounts of times the Indigos were almost wiped out and extinct. After a while he surprisingly grew to like me, and I did to him as well. We'd talk about our interests, life, jokes, whatever the subject was that time he always somehow had a way of making them vastly intriguing.

Sometimes I subconsciously thought he might've wanted me to be a love interest for Crimson, especially since he always asked me questions of what I felt about her and my days with her. I'd always vaguely talk of how amazing of a person she was and how much she meant to me while not acknowledging that he was curious as to if I felt any certain type of way for her.

And I did for the most part. But more recently I've come to suspect and expect that Crimson wasn't necessarily interested in me in that way, only as the brother she never had or the best friend of all time. I didn't know if I could easily accept that fact but; I should respect her wishes...

Now that I saw Crimson and Shawn in this situation it shredded my heart apart in sorrow. They were like family to me, all of them. Even though I had a the Indigo leader as my father and his wife as my mother after my- that man -and loved them dearly, Crimson and her family were the next best thing I had after I moved out on my own. They were the family I always wanted.

I could see Shawn reach for the dangling necklace swaying around his neck, rip it off, and throw it towards Crimson. Crimson for the first time since she took the injection had a clear emotion plastered on her face at this sudden action from her father.

Confusion.

And then clarity.

Everyone knew it, even felt it perhaps. But Shawn, Crimson and I all knew truly what his action was intended for.

Shawn knew his time was coming to an end.

I still remained deaf to the commotion that was occurring between the four figures here. Crimson, Shawn, Zoe and Thrree all had their key contributions to the debacle happening in front of us. Thrree was the only one to remain silent the entire time. Zoe mouthed some frantic words to him that I couldn't decode from my ears being drowned in the nauseating white noise. Her eyes looked different from the few times I had seen them, they looked heavy with worry and... regret? Crimson kept yelling out to her father while he muttered a few words to her and kept quiet for most of it.

I continued to stare at Shawn's detached face, looking as though he had finally accepted the fate he was about to receive. And he didn't look worried anymore. Just disappointed, most likely at himself that he got himself in this situation. Shawn's face was so horrifying to look at with how calm he remained that I began to feel a wavering disorientation and nauseousness from it. I wanted to wind back and vomit out all of my emotions at the sight.

The gunshot was what broke the white noise for me.

Shawn's body gave out at once as the bullet went clear through his head. The entire time I stared at his swift death. Atrocious amounts of blood misted outwards and coated Crimson a bit as he collapsed nearby in front of her. I looked over to my right to see Thrree still standing there with the handgun still in his shaky clutch. A look of shock and surprise masked his face for the moment. I could feel my eyes widen at the sudden kill of Shawn.

Thrree had killed Shawn. He just... murdered him without a second thought. Right in front of all of us. In front of Crimson. I don't even think Thrree realized what had just happened, he just stood there frozen and wide-eyed.

Two Zytos rushed over to Zoe who had faintly gestured for them to come over. She spoke briefly before they ran off quickly into the fog.

I looked down to Shawn to see that Crimson screamed out at his sudden death and kept yelling as she crawled over to him. Her cries became softer as she started to close her eyes before she collapsed atop of Shawn. She didn't make any more noises or movements, and for a moment I thought Crimson may've died from the injection if she hadn't done so already; mentally.

A girl ran from out the Zyto line and kneeled down to both Crimson and Shawn, crying into the crook of Crimson's neck. I could feel my eyebrows furrowed in confusion at the sudden actions of this girl. It was Fivve, another close friend of Crimson's that I barely knew about. We talked a few times but I never thought she'd be close enough to break out of the Zyto line and cry over them. She looked over to Thrree and started angrily walking over to him. I took into account that Zoe had, by that point, been long gone from everyone. Xultants started filing in and gesturing for all of us to leave.

No one else would be receiving the injections...

I stood there dumbfounded at what just happened. I could barely even notice that my heart had long since hung far below in the depths of depression with Shawn's death. My clouding thoughts were interrupted by tap on the shoulder. I looked around to see an Xultant guard standing behind me, looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Time to go buddy, lets get a move on" he gestured to the lines of factions being led out of the Honorary Circle. I nodded and started walking in that direction.

I looked back to see that two Xultants roll out a sheet and pick up Shawn's dead body, wrapping him up in it to hide the sight of his death and contain any blood he might have pouring out. Another pair of guards went over to carry Crimson's unconscious body away. My eyes widened and I broke from the line to approach them. "Hey! Where are you taking her"?

They continued walking away from me, one guard held Crimson by the upper half of her back, supporting her neck while the other one carried her legs. "It's none of your business. I suggest you get back in line and leave the area, okay? Thanks" the Xultant holding Crimson's back said.

I walked up to the guard holding her legs and placed my robotic hand on his shoulder. "I'm not going anywhere without my best friend. Now I suggest to you that you tell me where you're taking her".

The two stopped dead in their tracks, the Xultant holding Crimson's legs chuckled before setting her down and turning to me. He secretly held his fist back before reeling around and striking me on the right side of the face with his punch. I twisted around and fell to the concrete with a thud. Blood streamed from out my nose to be instantly washed away by the light rainfall. It was the one time I fully recognized that the rain had died down a bit and was now just sprinkling. The thunder had muted itself and now roared on a distance away from outside the walls.

I remained there on the floor accepting my defeat. The Xultants carried on taking Crimson to wherever she was needed. I wanted to get up with fiber being of my body but the heavy weight of defeat kept me down.

Shawn was dead. Gone forever. Never to happily come back home to Crimson and his wife and be a family with them again. I'd never get to talk to him again or even inquire on if he always insinuated if I was the type of person he wanted for Crimson.

He instantaneously ceased to exist.

How would Crimson ever recover from this? I knew from the numerous times she told me that Shawn was the only true person she could trust besides me. With him dead, what would that leave for her? For the rest of her time with her mother? Could she ever face leaving her mother?

Would I even be strong enough to support Crimson like she has for me dozens of times?

"Are you okay?" a voice called out, interrupting my deep thoughts while laying on the concrete. I rotated around onto my back to see a shadowed hand hover over me, offering to help me up. But I couldn't make out who it belonged to with my eyes withering in disorientation. When my vision finally restored I could make out the features of a young woman. She remained standing over me with a concerned look and a helping hand outstretched towards me. She had a rich dark tone of auburn hair that was slightly curled and resting atop her shoulders, even though most of it was soaking wet and hanging in front of her face. Her faint and glassy blue eyes fixated upon mine in wonderment, perhaps, because of my own lavender eyes. The woman had a faint peppering of freckles above and on her cheeks A silver necklace dangled from her neck with a turquoise stone wrapped in a thin silver casing.

Still wary, I reached my hand robotic hand up to my nose and retracted it to see a red tinge of blood stain it.

I shook my head and turned my focus back to her. "Uhm, yeah" I chuckled a bit "I'm alright, I'm used to it" I said to answer her question.

"Doesn't necessarily look like it. You got knocked down pretty hard" she shrugged, raising an eyebrow.

"Like I said; I'm used to it".

She huffed and roller eyes "if you say so dude. At least let me help you up"?

I nodded and she held out her hand once more to help me up. I took her hand with my robotic one and reached out with my normal hand to reach her other one. Looking at her hand in my fake one; it looked small, fragile, to my rather lifeless hand. She pulled me up in one swift movement as I pulled my own weight with her. I sprung up and slightly bumped into her.

"Well, I really appreciate it, thank you-" I paused, inviting her to tell me her name.

"Tracey. Tracey Ixx" she smiled warmly, genuflecting to me.

I returned the feeling to her with a half smile of my own, despite realizing that I seemingly forgot everything that just happened before she helped me up. It was as though hours passed by while I was laying on the concrete face down.

"Thanks Tracey. Name's Anthony".

"Anthony. Nice to meet you. I guess under unusual circumstances" Tracey laughed smally and awkwardly at the understanding of their situation.

"That's an understatement" I added. I could feel my lip suddenly crack and open up from the punch and sting with little slivers of blood hanging just below it. More blood came down from out my nostril. I placed my hand on my mouth and nose and closed my eyes. A tingling sensation ran its course on the places my hand covered, almost feeling like everything was binding together. After a few seconds I pulled my hand away to see there was no blood on it. The cut and my nose bleed dissipated until there was nothing left.

Tracey's eyes widened in wonderment "You're an Indigo?" she asked, sounding almost amazed.

I smiled a bit at her amazement and nodded smally "yeah, I am. You sound almost mystified by it".

She laughed a bit, probably realizing how she sounded towards me and fidgeted around awkwardly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to act weird about it. It's just that I've always wanted to be an Indigo, but my family pressed for me to become a Skyrupt. They never told me why. I just went along with it to make them happy" Tracey shrugged.

I shuddered a bit thinking of what she said. Joining the Skyrupt because her family seemingly pushed her into it. Maybe thinking that it was best for her, that it would provide more substantial benefits to all of them. It sounded like something I always had to do for

...him...

to not make him consistently angry at me or want to just flat out kill me just because he could. I did things I never would agree to nowadays as I've grown into who I am with the better influence of my once Indigo family and Crimson's family. I could instantly feel empathy for the situation she probably had to face as a young kid going into the Skyrupt.

"Hey, that's alright, at least you got those amazing powers that come along with it. Right?" I said, instantly regretting it. That's not any way to make light of a situation. I knew personally that I never preferably liked hearing the phrase 'it's alright' or any other formatting that would fit that connotative meaning. It was just a easy way of dismissing any true and deep feelings anyone would have. It never delve deep to truly know the roots of someone's problems. I stuttered out some quick 'uh's' and 'um's' before saying "I didn't mean it like that. I'm sure you have your gripes with it and I-".

"Anthony".

"-What I meant was-".

"Anthony".

"-It's just that-.

"Anthony stop. It's fine" Tracey shadowed a small smile to me. I stopped in my tracks, realizing I was rambling on trying to justify myself to her while she was trying to get my attention. "I understand what you meant. And it's not like I hate these powers. They're quite esoteric once you find yourself in its hold. They're marvelous from an outside perspective to witness, but to experience the nirvana that blankets over you is another. However all of that seems overshadowed by the fact that without this" Tracey paused, taking the necklace in her thumb and forefinger and swinging it back and forth "I'd lose all concept of reality and go insane. Which is something I never really agreed to in the first place. I always wanted to help people, not have powers harnessed to kill others. It's just always been a passion of mine to help those I barely even know physically or mentally. Hence why I wanted to be an Indigo, and kind of nerded out about it when you told me you were one" she genuinely explained.

I looked around to see that every other faction and its people had been long gone from the Honorary Circle. Only a lone Xultant guard idly stood by far away from us, keeping watch and remaining quiet. It was just Tracey and I standing in front of each other talking for what seemed like a eternity. Not that I had any problem with it. Seemingly getting to know this stranger eased all of the panic that ran its course through my body. She gave off a genuine and warming nature about her that I felt engrossed to stay around and know all this information she dumped onto me. I almost completely forgot about...

Forgot about...

"I completely understand what you mean, with wanting to help people. And surely I believe you could even without the labeling of such as a Skyrupt. Using your powers could completely help out the entire city if you thought of it. Save it even, if worse came to worse. I think your heart is in the right place Tracey, you just don't know how to implement it when it comes to such powers as your own".

Tracey