The Quest of One

Escape From L.A.

The handle starts to vibrate. It's a steady hum for a moment, but then intensifies as I start to push the door open. The door slams shut instead, and before I can react, I am thrown back into the street by a concussive force. Glass bursts from the doors and windows of the precinct and shower me as I hit the parking lot. The wave continues on, pressing me into the asphalt so hard that I think some of my ribs are snapping.

There's no fire accompanying the shockwave. Just pressure, like a telekinetic force. The ground roars beneath me, vibrating with seismic intensity.

A Legacy.

Heldos Elkos.

When the ground stops rumbling and the car alarms are the only sound, I manage to get to my feet. My hair has fallen out of its braid and fans around my head. The sky is a deeper blue than it was when I parked. The precinct is nothing more than a crater now, hilled in by mounds of rubble. Water from destroyed pipes starts to bubble through the chunks of concrete as I make my way to the source of this explosion.

"Raven!" I shout rasping against my broken ribs, over and over, until my vocal cords are raw.

After a while, I see something rise from the incline in the crater. Her blond hair catches in the low sunlight as she stands.

My Garde.

"Ray," I gasp, and with my next breath, I sprint down the crater and over a huge slab of concrete, reaching her in a few seconds. She stands there, unscathed, hunched over in an attempt to hold in this new power. I notice her sandals are torn, the soles blown outward and the straps barely hanging on. This was Terric! "You're alright, girl."

"Ray's dead," she mutters, straightening up to look me in the eyes. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for any of this to happen."

"It's not your fault," I reply. I stare into Raven's—into One's—wide, brown eyes, to see if they betray any fear or sarcasm. But I can't find it. Just ñdwoj. "We still need to leave."

"Yeah, but first," One crosses past me and squats in front of the slab on concrete I stepped over, "we need to get them out of here."

She uses both hands and manages to lift the debris by a foot. Veins rise from the muscles of her bare, slender arms, straining against the pressure. I don't react as quickly as I should, instead staring in awe at this girl who looks like the Garde I've Kept for a Sage-Term. When she was younger, it was difficult enough to keep her training for hours on end, but recently I haven't been able to get through to her. Like me, this planet has made her skin thick, her heart stoic. And yet here she is, tank top and boardshorts, helping humans that a year ago she would have left to die.

I fight back the tears after she gives me a flustered look that screams, help me, and join her in lifting the slab. It's heavier than I thought it would be, and the state of some of my ribs does little to help. The concrete vibrates as she unintentionally fills its molecules with her Terric. Any moment now, it could shatter into countless stone shards.

"Hold it for me," I tell her, kneeling down. "Please don't drop this on my head."

"Okay," One strains.

I squeeze beneath the space she made for me. This must've been an office before the building exploded—the metal desk is crunched and stained brown with coffee. A burly police officer and a man in an FBI jacket are tucked underneath the debris. I focus my hearing and listen for their steady pulses.

Still alive.

"Come on," I reach in and grab the cop by her arm, dragging her out of the mound and into the humid evening air. When I set her down, she stirs, tries to sit up. "One, I need you to shove this thing uphill. Can you do that for me?"