LUCAS the BETRAYED [[The Red Queen Fan Fiction]]

Show me what you see and I won't need to dream

Sunlight streams cheerfully through my window the next morning. I frown.

Usually the first day of the week is my favorite, it's the one day I get to sleep in and do whatever I choose. Usually, I spend this day exploring or playing with friends. But as I drag myself from the bed I have no plans to ever leave this room. I decide to get dressed so the servants who make my bed won't think I'm sick and alert everyone. The last thing I want is to deal with family today.

I dress lightly in a cotton shirt and jeans, then call the slab of my favorite metal from the wall. It hovers above me, then drapes itself into whatever shape I will. When I was first learning to control my ability and create my own metal suits I nearly cut off my arm trying to place the shoulder pieces. But I've been dressing myself for years now. I can even float a few inches off the ground as I form my boots.

I stomp towards the curtains and yank them shut in disgust. But as the fabric drifts closed, I notice an odd black dot in my tree. My eyes strain to focus. A girl with black hair stretches for a branch near the top. I tighten my gaze. How dare she! That's my tree, it's the best place to draw and listen to the birds sing. My breath catches in my throat. The nest might fall. She'll kill the babies!

Slamming the door open, I glide down the hall. What is that filth doing? I have to save them. I pump my legs as hard as I can. But she was almost to the nest. I have to move faster! I wonder...

On command my suit lunges forward, pulling me with it. Am I flying? I glance down. Not flying, but hovering is close enough! Surprised by my new trick, I almost forget what inspired me to learn it. Almost. At the end of the hall a pair of Red servants step through the door, blocking my path. I lower my head, determined. I will not stop. I speed up and weave between them, briefly noting their dropped jaws as I burst out the back door.

Finally In the freedom of the outdoors, I pull myself faster across the massive garden. What used to take me several minutes of running at full speed takes only seconds. I hover at the bottom of my tree, willing the metal to pull me higher, up, to the top. but my body bobs and the metal threatens to throw me to the ground.

Fine. I grunt and land on my feet. Grabbing the lowest branch, I start to climb. Every branch I pass makes the tree shake harder. I gasp as the nest wobbles precariously on the branch. Useless, I step back and watch as the Red servant girl clutches the trunk and waits for the tree to settle. Our eyes meet. Desperate, I try to show her my fury in my gaze. She stares back for a moment, completely unaffected, and pulls herself past another branch.

"Get down. NOW!" I shout.

"They'll die!" The Red girl dares to shout back.

"YOU will die if you hurt them." I growl, barely recognizing my own voice.

The girl grunts and struggles trying to climb higher. Is this Red ignoring my command? "With all due respect," her voice strains as she moves but I notice a hint of sarcasm, "but you already killed them when you took their mother, and didn't even bother to clean up the mess."

My eyes nearly pop from my skull. The mess I made? "You know nothing..." I hiss. No answer. She must have reached their nest by now.

She groans from somewhere above, "I know baby birds need food, and water is probably good too. And since their mother's dead and you abandoned them, there's no one left to give them that."

How dare she...be right. After a deep inhale, I exhale and wait in silence for the Red girl to come down. "What's your point?" I ask in my normal voice. Even at the top I know she can hear me. But instead of a response there's a rustle just above my head.

"There." She plops on the ground behind me. I spin around, ready to yell again but girl smiles sweetly and holds out a crumbling bundle of twigs. I glare at her with tightened eyes. Her black hair tied behind her reveals several fresh smudges of dirt on her face. Ignoring me she gazes into the nest. Curious, I lean closer. At the middle, nestled against their mother's headless body, three baby birds snooze happily.

"Here. Hold this." The girl says. I barely have time to hold my hands before she drops the nest in my palms. She reaches behind her, digging through a small pack, and pulls out a tiny glass tube with a small, rubber balloon on top. The girl sets it on the ground, and pulls  another jar from the pack. Carefully, she dips the tube into the jar of brown mush, squeezes the balloon, then releases. I watch, amazed as the goo is sucked into the tube.

"My mother uses it to give medicine to babies," the girl explains. "I thought it could help hungry baby birdies too." She presses the tip against the bird's tiny beak. The bird turns its head. I sigh, releasing the little hope that had grown. But the girl purses her lips, and makes a sucking sound. Like a flipping a switch, the baby birds fling their mouths open and chirp with fury. The girl grins and squeezes the tiny balloon. Brown goo rushes into the baby's mouth. As soon as the straw is empty, the bird smacks his beak a couple times then opens it wide and chirps for more.

The girl refills the glass, and takes turns feeding the starving siblings.

"You..." I blink, trying to understand. "You can really save them?"

She shrugs and squeezes another serving of goo, "I have to try."

I shake my head. This girl looks about my age. But while I was helpless and had given the babies over to death, she dared to go against me, a Silver and save them.

"What's your name?" I ask.

She smiles. "Charlotte, but my friends call me Charlie."

"Charlotte," I nod formally, as twigs crumble from the nest in my hands and sprinkle the ground. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet." She chides, and places the straw and jar of food in the nest. "I can't keep them." With a shrug she waves and runs towards the house.

My jaw drops. "What–But–What am I supposed to do with these?" My voice squeaks.

"I'll bring them food and everything they need, but you have to feed them. Six times a day!"

I'm stunned silent.

She continues before disappearing behind tall, green bushes, "Don't forget!"

Analyzing their bare-skin and ragged feathers, I stare at the baby birds. One of them smacks his beak and nestles closer to his siblings and the dead body. I grimace. That's gotta go.

Little did I know that by accepting her request, the lines that once held the Red and Silver boundaries in my mind began to peel away.