Original Fiction (Sci-Fi): On Angels’ Wings (Part 2)

Here is part 2 of “On Angels’ Wings”. Third part will be up in less than a week. Hope you enjoy!

 

Aren was awakened the next morning by Snap’s voice in his mind, saying “BEEP, BEEP, BEEP.”

“Enough already!” Aren replied as he forced himself to get up and ignore his sore muscles.

“Be in the hall in ten minutes, Colt. Otherwise I’ll come in and drag you out.”

And she would do it too. Aren quickly dressed and wolfed down the packaged breakfast ration. It was tasteless, but he’d gotten used to it in basic. At least there was enough here. You’re important now, he reminded himself. The higher-ups had reason to make sure he was properly fed.

“Two minutes!” Snap sent, and Aren wished that he could wear a disruptor, if only to keep her from doing that. As he let his frustration steep a bit, he formulated a plan to surprise Snap, and maybe even gain back a point or two he’d lost the day before.

He stood just to the side of the door, counted down to her deadline, then waited. As the door hissed open, he dove across it, grabbed Snap by the waist and tried to pull her to the ground.

Instead, he felt a thump on his neck, and was on his back, Snap’s leg on his neck. She pressed hard enough for him to feel it, but that was it. “D for effort,” she said with her ubiquitous smile that could mean one of far too many things. “At least you tried,” she added as she got off of him, but did not offer a hand.

Aren stood up and almost immediately flinched as Snap ruffled his hair. “You’re cute when you’re angry,” she said. “I should keep you that way, Colt.” Abruptly, she spun on her heel and walked out of the room.

Aren followed a safe distance behind her as he moved his hair back into place.

“You know if I wanted to,” Snap said as they turned a corner, “I could infer from that that you really did enjoy our grappling yesterday. And who could blame you really? Unfortunately for you, everything happens on my terms.” She laughed. “You might as well just come out and say it, Colt. I don’t hide things from you.”

Yeah, because you apparently don’t have a filter on what you say out loud! She was really good at getting to him. And he’d been good at dealing with teasing back in basic.

“You haven’t told me your name,” he said as Snap entered a code into a panel next to a door.

“Yes I did,” she said without turning around. “I’m Snap, for snapping necks, other bones, and whatever else is in my way, very quickly. Though I’m sure some of my old team wanted to imply that I’m crazy, but I’m clearly not.”

Clearly. “That’s not your real name,” he said. “You know mine; it’s only fair I know yours.”

This time Snap turned around. Her eyes were narrowed. “I’ve decided that I like you, Colt. Don’t make me question my decision. My name is Snap.”

There was no getting anywhere with this now. Aren nodded. “Fine. Lead on, Snap.”

The panel beeped, the door slid open, and revealed a very different training room. It was big enough that Aren couldn’t tell exactly how large it was, and it looked like a mock military compound. It outclassed anything he’d seen in basic.

“Over here, Colt,” Snap called from a short distance away, near an equipment rack. Arranged on the wall was all of the gear an eidolon would take into the field; the armor parts that would go atop the bodysuit, the weapons, and infiltration gear. Light and efficient. “Suit up,” Snap ordered.

As Aren began to comply, she continued. “You have a target to kill. You are to make your way through the compound undetected, eliminating any obstacles you cannot avoid, kill the target, then get out. Enemy forces will be the usual humanlike androids. And before you ask, I need to get a sense of your skill, or lack thereof. Even though the vellak are blind, we will still have to sneak when we are impersonating one—it’ll just be different sneaking. Oh, use of the Penumbra is not allowed, not until I say so. Understood?”

Aren nodded as he prepared. He knew the drill. Infiltration had always been where his talent lay. He’d only had to take the final exam once.

“I’ll be in the compound, watching,” Snap said. “Don’t screw up.” Then she disappeared before Aren’s eyes, using the Penumbra to turn herself invisible.

Aren grabbed a rifle off its rack, lowered his helmet’s visor, and proceeded into the compound, guided by a map display. The room was, apparently, made up of many smaller ones.

His armor picked up motion nearby. From his position hidden behind a wall he spotted the very human looking android, armed with an assault rifle, patrolling the next corridor. He was tempted to shoot it, but remembered Snap’s orders.

Utilizing his map, he saw a large air vent nearby, which led deep into the compound. When the guard next left his line of sight, Aren moved, and made it into the vent just in time. After some uneventful crawling, he reached the end of the path, closer to the center, and his target. Unfortunately, there was a guard standing close to his exit. Aren quietly removed the grating, then dropped down behind the unsuspecting android, which he then grabbed by the neck like he would have a human, and a few moments later, it shut down. Bad combat skills you said? He wanted to say to Snap.

He silently sprinted forward and took out another guard with a shot to the head, then dragged it into an empty room before closing in on the room the target’s location. From a small nearby alcove, Aren scoped out the protection outside the room. Immediately, he knew something was wrong. There was only a single guard. There was no way it would be so easy. But all the same, he didn’t pick up anyone else, and after several tense minutes nothing changed. It seemed there was only one option.

He left his hiding spot and shot the guard in the head without breaking stride. A moment later, however, he heard another gun fire, and knew he’d made a mistake.

“And you’re dead,” Snap announced as she reappeared a few feet away, with a pistol aimed at Aren’s chest.

“But you said—”

“What, that I would be watching? I never said I wouldn’t be part of the exercise. Do you think every enemy will be easily spotted? Rookie mistake. We really are doomed.”

“But—”

“No buts, Colt,” Snap said, no hint of mockery or playfulness in her voice. “You screwed up. Bang, you’re dead. No chance to try again when it’s an enemy holding a gun to you. Fortunately, I’m nicer. A little nicer.” She pulled the trigger, and Aren grunted as he felt the rubber bullet hit him just below the ribs. “Again!” she ordered, then disappeared.

Aren trudged back out of the simulated compound, waited a few moments, then slowly made his way in again. Knowing the simulation, he made it through quicker, but again came to a halt near the final door. Snap wouldn’t be there again; with the rest of the test the same, she wouldn’t make it so easy.

His hunch proved correct when he saw two more guards begin to approach the door. Aren smiled. This scenario he knew how to deal with.

He pulled a small flash-bang grenade from a utility pouch, primed it, and rolled it toward the three guards.

A moment later it went off, his suit adjusting to shield him from its effects. Then he made his move, firing first at the guard on the right, then the center, then the left. At some point one of them took a shot at him, but it missed, and the door hiding his target was undefended. His hand was on the handle when an invisible weight forced him against it. Snap.

“Again, mistakes!” she shouted as she appeared.

“What? I took out the guards fine, and you weren’t there this time. I know you weren’t,” Aren objected as he strained against the invisible barrier, his heart racing.

“You let one of them get a shot off. And you didn’t check to be sure they were dead. Mistakes.”

Was she serious? “Tiny mistakes that didn’t affect the outcome! No operation goes exactly as planned.”

“Tiny mistakes?” she shouted, then turned away from him and tossed her weapon onto the floor. “You think you know what those are?” She began to remove her bodysuit until her back was bare.

“What are you—” Aren started to ask, then stopped as he saw the scars on her back. There were several, ranging from faint lines to uglier marks. So many.

“Take a good look, Colt! These are tiny mistakes when you’re lucky! Half of these would have killed me if it weren’t for other factors! I’m sure you’ve wondered why I stay here, given my opinions on the old men in charge. This is why. I can never go back to civilian life, not like this. Scars never fully heal. This is my only place, and it will be the same for you. If you live.” She began to pull the bodysuit back on. “Yes, things don’t go as planned. Those problems can be dealt with, if you don’t make other mistakes.”

She turned around and walked toward Aren until she was a hairsbreadth away. She pointed at her throat, at the long scar plainly visible with the bodysuit not fully zipped up. She pointed at it. “Take a good, close look. You know who I am. I am the best eidolon in the service. See what happened when I made mistakes? I want to live. I want you to live. This is why you will do whatever I say, trainee. Now, we go again!”

Aren, feeling numb, nodded silently, and returned to the start of the exercise.

The simulations continued for the rest of the day, though Snap’s demeanor was more subdued as Aren’s became more determined. Even more than doing it so he knew he was capable, he felt like he was practicing for her. He was the weakest link. If they failed and died, it would almost assuredly be his fault. Despite her harsh method and lack of care for what she said, she was trying to do her job as best she could, and get Aren as ready as possible for something out of his league.

At the end of the day, after successfully completing the final simulation, held in a different training room altogether, Aren couldn’t describe how good it felt to hear Snap say, “Good work, Colt. Tomorrow the real work begins.”

For the first time since learning of the mission, Aren felt that maybe—just maybe—they had a chance at success.

 

“Basic training teaches you next to nothing about the Penumbra,” Snap said the next morning as they sat in the mat-covered training room where they’d spent the first day. “Actually, you should probably forget everything they taught you. How do you draw the Penumbra to you?” she asked.

“I picture myself floating in a dark void, surrounded by the Penumbra. To call it, I visualize an image of an angel crossed with the Eidolon Initiative eidolon, which merges with me, bringing the power with it.” He hadn’t told anyone about his method before, worried that they might think it silly, but he’d decided to do whatever he could to make his partnership with Snap work, and that required honesty.

“I’ve heard worse,” she replied as she shifted to a different position on the mat-covered floor. “Please tell me something though. When you picture yourself for this process, are you clothed?”

“What? Yes. Why would that make a difference?”

“In my experience the process is easier if one pictures oneself naked. You should try it.”

Aren had never heard of such a phenomenon. Snap certainly knew more than he did, but something felt off. “Are you making this up?” he asked.

“Of course I am, idiot. I wanted to see if you’d do it.” She laughed. “Still, feel free to try it when we’re mindlinked,” she added.

Aren sighed, but didn’t continue the argument. This was how Snap acted; arguing would just waste time.

“Alright then,” Snap said as she stood up. “Connect yourself to the Penumbra. We’ll run through all of the basic things I need you to know today, so we can focus on the mindlink and vellak emulation over the rest of our time together.”

Aren nodded, and stood up as well. He created the image in his mind, and quickly the angel’s wings had, metaphorically, lifted him out of the realm of the physical and connected him to the intangible power of the Penumbra, which flowed into him in a rush. It had been an intoxicating feeling, early on, but Aren had a handle on that, at least.

“Defend yourself,” Snap said simply.

Aren, who hadn’t been paying full attention to her as he drew on the Penumbra, barely saw her begin a punching motion, too fast and close to deflect normally. He pictured a barrier between him and the punch, and a split second later, Snap’s fist came up short.

“Not bad, Colt,” she said before she launched another series of strikes. Aren managed to stop nearly all of them, but near the end he lost focus and took a kick to the back of the knee that sent him to the floor.

“Up,” she ordered, and Aren did so despite the pain in the back of his leg. “What else did they try and teach you in basic?”

“The basics. Barriers, telekinetic actions, some mental interactions, and simple energy projections.” He already knew that Snap was not going to be pleased to hear it. The mental aspects of the Penumbra would be more important for their mission, and it was his weakest area.

“Lots to do, too little time,” Snap said as she tapped her finger on her belt. She walked around Aren once, then stopped where she’d begun. “I’m going to do something unusual, for me,” she announced. “Do to the lack of time, I am going to assume that you know what the hell you’re doing as far as basic telekinesis and energy projection are concerned.” She placed a hand on Aren’s shoulder and locked eyes with him. “You won’t let me down, will you?” she asked with an uncharacteristically pleasant smile.

Aren had to return the gesture. “Of course not. I want to live through this too, after all.”

“Excellent.” Snap replied as she flicked some stray hairs away from her face. “But before we get to the sneaky mind stuff, I’ve got a quick trick to teach you, since you’ve been so receptive thus far. I assume you’ve heard of physical projections? Weapons, specifically?”

“Of course I have. Never had a chance to try though; we were always told it was too advanced for us.”

“And they were right. I won’t bore you with the horror stories of past trainees stabbing themselves with invisible knives when they screwed up. Or maybe I could tell you some, if you’re into that sort of thing,” Snap said, her grin borderline maniacal again. “One second nothing, and then…” she snapped her fingers, “a knife in the gut.”

Aren felt a pit in his stomach. “You know, it might help if you didn’t try and scare me away from trying this.”

“I know, but it’s so much fun!” she messed with his hair. “But I guess it is just wasting time.” She looked down at the matted floor below them, bent her hand inward, and Aren saw a thin tear appear in the gray mat.

“See? Very simple. Once you get the hang of it, it takes barely a thought to create a weapon of any size or shape. Your last line of defense, one that can save your life. It’s saved mine dozens of times.”

“Alright, so how do I do it?” Aren asked, hoping he didn’t sound too eager.

Snap stepped behind him and held out his right arm with hers. “It’s very similar to marking barriers. The main difference is that instead of an indistinct wall or whatever, you need to make a very specific shape. I won’t even try and teach you how to alter already formed shapes; there’s no time for that.”

Aren nodded. “Let’s go then.”

He felt Snap’s wrist close around his, her thumb brush over the small metal piece on his bodysuit’s wrist. “What you weren’t told in basic was that these little things are focus points for the Penumbra’s energy. It helps make it easier to focus in general, but it’s especially so with making weapons.” She tapped on the metal piece again. “Use this as you focus for now. Picture the blade coming out from here, like it’s the handle of a knife. Just don’t make any sudden movements after you create the blade.”

Aren took a deep breath to calm himself and slow his heart rate, which had spiked when Snap took his arm. Fortunately, he was still connected to the Penumbra. Following Snap’s instructions, he imagined a straight, narrow blade about as long as his arm extending forward from the metal piece. After a moment of concentration, he felt it form, even though he couldn’t see it.

“Very good!” Snap exclaimed, as though surprised he’d done it on his first try. She slowly guided his arm down toward the floor, and his invisible blade cut through the mat as easily as hers had. “Now dissipate it. Your mind is holding the blade together, though you aren’t consciously aware. To dissipate it, just release the energy.”

Aren did as instructed, and a moment later he no longer felt the blade. “Consider me mildly impressed,” Snap said as she released his arm. Your abilities could rival mine in a decade or so. If you survive this mission, of course. That is unless you somehow survive while I don’t.” She laughed. “Wouldn’t that be something?”

Aren had to smile. “It’s in my best interests to do well, I think, for both our sakes. I wouldn’t want to let you down.”

“That’s what I like to hear. Now, we’ll run through everything else, get that out of the way. We’ll need the rest of our time for the really hard part. If you continue like this, maybe we’ll actually be ready. Then I’ll really be impressed.”

Aren decided to make that a goal. “Let’s get going then. We don’t have all day.”

 

By the time Snap let him go that evening, Aren felt completely exhausted again. The difference was that his body was not as tired, rather he just felt so mentally drained he doubted he could make a simple calculation. “I think you broke my brain,” he said as the door to his room slid open.

“Well you’d better fix it by tomorrow, Colt,” Snap replied from across the hall, outside her own room. “I’m not even close to done with you. Sleep well!” she winked at him, then vanished into her room.

Aren shook his head, then staggered inside and collapsed onto his bed. And people thought that the Penumbra made it so you wouldn’t get tired doing things. Almost immediately, he felt his eyes closing, and he lacked the will to fight them.

 

He awoke to loud banging on his door. “Up! Get the hell up!” Snap shouted through the door.

Aren groaned and turned toward the sound. “What, yelling at me inside my head is too subtle for you now?” He pushed himself into a sitting position.

“You made it clear that you didn’t like it,” Snap replied simply. “Don’t say I can’t be accommodating. Now get yourself out here before I come drag you, whether you’re dressed or not. I don’t mind.”

Aren shook his head. He was never going to understand her. Had he really slept all night? He didn’t feel rested. As he pushed himself up off the bed, he glanced at the open closet where a spare uniform hung. After a moment’s thought, however, he decided it wasn’t worth the effort, and staggered out of the room.

“Getting your first taste of Penumbra lag, I see,” Snap said. She looked perfectly fine, of course, despite having done at least as much as he had yesterday. Come to think of it, there had yet to be a moment where she hadn’t looked, well, perfect. It wasn’t fair.

“Penumbra lag?” he asked.

“Yeah, it’s something that can happen when you have a day like yesterday. Symptoms include feeling like shit, as you seem to now. It’ll wear off shortly, hopefully before I have to go inside your head. Dammit!”

Despite the mental fog, Aren smiled. If he was going to feel miserable, it was only fair Snap felt the same way.

Snap led him back to the mat room, the only place that really felt familiar in the base. “Get comfortable,” she ordered, “we’re not going to be moving much today.”

Aren nodded, and settled down on the floor. He was just glad she’d chosen the only room with a moderately comfortable floor; he could just as easily have seen her choosing the room with the training course, simply to make his life harder. However, she had been less abrasive lately, he had to admit. Still just as unpredictable, but less frustrating.

Snap joined him on the floor after fiddling with the door control panel for a moment. “Ready?” she asked. She had a serious look on her face, and there was no hint of sarcasm in her voice. Well, she had legitimately earned a reputation as competent and focused, after all.

“Since I assume you’ll know soon anyway,” he replied, “not really.”

“Congratulations on not deluding yourself, Colt. Now, give me your hand. Touching the other person makes it easier for beginners.”

Aren had no problem with that, so he took her extended hand. Though he had held her hand before, he was still surprised when her skin felt warm and soft. He just hoped she didn’t notice his thinking during what felt like a long, quiet moment.

“Now, connect to the Penumbra,” Snap commanded.

Aren nodded, and a moment later the familiar connection to the intangible power appeared. “What now?”

“This is the tricky bit, but luckily I can more or less move us forward on my own. It’s much easier to teach than figure out from scratch,” Snap replied as she tightened her grip on his hand slightly. “What you need to do is open your mind to me. Let me in, do not resist. Once I establish the link, we can move forward, but I don’t want to spend hours getting in there.” A slight smile appeared on her face, as though she had recalled something funny. “Prepare yourself, get ready to divulge your deepest, darkest secrets.

Aren grimaced at the reminder, but he was given no opening to object. A moment later, he felt her presence, her consciousness, pressing against his own.

“You’re not cooperating,” Snap said inside his mind. “The mental link used to talk in your head is way too simple for what we have to do. Remember, to fool the vellak we have to be as closely linked as they are.”

“Sorry,” Aren replied as he tried to force himself to let her in. when nothing immediately changed, he visualized a door between his and Snap’s minds, then opened it.

Suddenly, a huge rush of information flooded into him. The first things he noticed were sensory, such as the fact that he could now see himself as Snap was, felt his own hand in addition to hers, as paradoxical as that sounded. Then everything else flooded in at once; thoughts, memories, feelings that were not his own, so quickly that he couldn’t focus on anything. Aren felt himself—at least he thought it was—begin to hyperventilate.

“Calm down, Colt,” Snap ordered, but not in a way that indicated annoyance. “Focus. Focus on one thing from your mind. Let there be nothing else.”

Aren, still completely overwhelmed, latched onto the first thing he knew couldn’t be from Snap’s mind: her face as she sat across from him. There was no glint of mockery in her eyes, no furrowed brow to indicate anger. All Aren could pick up was a hint of…concern. He focused on the image, let it fill his mind, even as he knew Snap was hearing every thought—which was just as well, as there was no reason to waste energy denying that he thought she was beautiful. Slowly, steadily, Aren felt himself relax.

“Good. Well at least we’ve established that that feeling is mutual,” she remarked.

Aren was about to ask what she meant when the answer suddenly came to him—well, it came from Snap’s mind, actually, freely shared. At least she was just as confused as he was.

“Maybe we should focus on something more important,” Snap said just as Aren saw the thought enter her mind, “getting you used to this. You should explore my mind while I do the same to yours. We have to become used to it so that we don’t see something surprising and lose focus and cohesion. You might as well enjoy the trip; I know I’ll have fun learning exactly what makes you tick.”

Aren felt himself flush, and when he instinctively tried to hide his reaction, he knew it would only compound his embarrassment, as she would see it, which would make him feel awkward again, which would…chain on potentially forever. “Just relax. It’s not every day you get to look into a girl’s mind.”

True enough. Aren made sure he left his own mind open, then ventured into Snap’s. There was a lot he didn’t know, but wanted to. As luck would have it, however, his first question led him to a dead end—several, actually. Everywhere, whatever Snap’s real name was had somehow been replaced with the name she had taken on.

“There are still ways to keep small secrets,” she mentioned. “I might have forgotten to tell you that. There’s no need to confuse you, and the name I was given at birth it not something that concerns you. I’m Snap, and that’s it.”

Aren didn’t respond, but made it clear what he felt about that as he sifted through Snap’s memories. He watched her progress through life through her eyes, as she left her home to join the military, her training, her combat experiences. The latter in particular were jarring, as he had never experienced combat himself. Now he had, sort of.

Snap had been generally truthful in leaving her mind open to his perusal, Aren decided, after glimpsing memories clearly private and personal, many of which he chose not to watch all the way through. Through the moments—or hours, there was no way for him to tell—that he spent inside Snap’s mind, he got a good sense of who she was, and he was surprised. From inside her mind, Snap seemed…normal, or at least as normal as anyone could be.

“What did you expect? Some tragic history, painful traumatic events? Someone that needed fixing?”

Aren decided it was best to let the topic rest. Snap spoke again just as he was about to ask what the next step was. She was looking forward to it.

“Next is the hard part,” she said. Aren found it strange, knowing what she was about to say a split second before she said it. “We need to merge our consciousnesses together like the vellak do. Once we can do it while sitting still we’ll move up to doing it while in action.”

Again, just as a question came to Aren’s mind, Snap replied. She clearly was experienced at this. “I’ll guide you; I’ll be controlling the link anyway. Just stay relaxed. You’ve already experienced the link in full, when we first joined minds. You couldn’t handle it then. Let me ease you into it now.”

Aren understood, and Snap of course knew that he did as well. Almost immediately, he felt something happening. He still saw through his eyes, but he also saw through hers, as he had briefly before. “Focus on us, Colt. The link,” Snap said. “We must be two bodies, two consciousnesses, one unified will.”

Yes, of course, Aren reiterated to himself. They key to tricking the vellak wouldn’t truly be making their connected mind seem like that of the vellak, but just nailing the two-as-one concept.

“Exactly,” Snap replied to his thought—or had he replied to himself? It all made perfect sense. Their minds, their thought processes, slowly merged. What one thought, the other thought, as though it had come from their mind. Colt was surprisingly adaptable to it as well, much more than Flare had been. She’d been less of a stick-in-the-mud though. But at least now—Aren stopped himself. Those were Snap’s thoughts. He’d never met Flare, the loud, opinionated girl who could shoot coins from a hundred meters away. But at the same time, he missed her. He could see her death again and again, and he—no, Snap, still wondered if she could have saved Flare.

“Flare is dead. It’s not worth thinking about her with an inexperienced trainee to keep alive.”

            “I don’t think I ever met an eidolon with as much self doubt as you, Colt. The powers and the training generally get rid of that.”

            “They did, until I was called up here and given this impossible mission.”

            “You can’t deny that you’ve enjoyed this. Meanwhile I had to deal with a kid fresh out of basic. There were some perks though.”

Aren didn’t need Snap to vocalize what exactly she considered ‘perks’. Images did that well enough, to his embarrassment, as thoughts and memories began to flow together, one leading directly into the next. Each clearly came from a mind viewing itself as singular, but it came through both. Two distinct identities, intertwined, just like the vellak. He forced himself to not let his discomfort mess them up. They had to do this.

“Now we try and move, simultaneously,” Snap announced as Aren wondered what came next.

He—they—began to get up. Aren could feel her movements as well as he did his own. Then, suddenly, something went wrong and Aren collapsed back to the floor. It felt as if a massive elastic band had snapped back into him, and while he saw that Snap had fallen as well, he couldn’t feel the floor through her hands, couldn’t feel the frustration that was evident by her scowl.

What happened? He wondered before realizing that Snap wouldn’t immediately hear his thought. “What happened?” he asked again aloud.

“Connection broke. We’re just ourselves again.” She laid down on her back and massaged her temples.

“Why?” Aren asked as he rested his head on his hand.

“Moving. The melding of minds is easier because it’s not too far off from the mind reading and telepathic communication you’re more familiar with. Much easier to combine our consciousnesses than to move as a single unit while still controlling both bodies.”

“So how do we get past this?”

Snap sat up and moved opposite Aren again. “Practice.”

“I was afraid you’d say that,” he said as he accepted her extended hand.

“I know,” she said with a smile as her mind rushed to meet his.

 

And practice they did, for hours, apparently, though Aren’s sense of time was a complete mess by the time their minds separated for the final time. He didn’t want to count how many times the connection had broken as they tried more complex actions, but their perseverance and determination, mostly Snap’s, eventually saw them to success.

“I think I’ll just spend the night here,” he said from his position lying on his back. And he’d thought the previous day had been exhausting?

“Suit yourself.” Snap, of course, still had the energy to sit up, though even she had finally shown signs of exhaustion. Her replies didn’t have their usual edge to them, and near the end the tiredness Aren had felt was certainly not only his own “Just be ready in the morning, Colt.”

Aren realized that having seen Snap’s mind, he no longer minded the nickname. “It’s weird, not having questions to ask you. Well, not many, anyway.”

“Yes, it’s weird, sharing everything. It’ll be more interesting if you’re my first mind-partner to survive a mission. Good night!” Snap said before abruptly striding from the room.