Eden | Raven Reyes (s.u)

Chapter One

Inhale, exhale. Slowly one by one she could feel her body taking control of itself once more, away from the monotonous routine her body had been doing for decades. Conversations and the usual hustle and bustle of Eligius IV reaching her ears. Her eyes bursting open, looking around frantically, blurry figures and shadows, until she found the identical hazel irises staring down at her.

Blaire Stone knew immediately what this meant. Blaine wouldn't be waking her up from cryo sleep if they hadn't reached their destination. After decades, the twins had reached Earth once more.

Just below her, was her last chance at a fresh start and nothing was going to stop her from taking it. The twins had been offered a final choice shortly after their arrest, although the answer was always going to be a no-brainer. 

Be forced to succumb to the death penalty or get sent into space to mine asteroids where their lives weren't a guarantee, with hundreds of people just like them although most of them hadn't done what they had to in order to survive. Both Blaire and Blaine had grabbed at the chance to keep their lives, although Blaire had suspected that considering the worst of the worst was being sent up to space, they were certainly expendable but it was probably better for the entire planet if they weren't on it any longer. 

Their expendability had only increased when news got out that as the majority of the prisoners were getting sick due to the mining, Blaine included, that they were almost abandoned by the Captain and Crew of the Eligius IV, leading to a mutiny, led by Charmaine Diyoza, in which Blaire was forced to go against everything she was trying to stand for with this second chance. But as always her survival won over everything else even the collective deaths of both Captain and Crew. 

And now decades later with one crew member remaining, their pilot, Miles Shaw, the prisoners had arrived back at Earth, a feat that had taken longer than necessary due to the loss of an engine. But Blaire had no clue what she was potentially walking into back on Earth. 

"Come on!" Blaine called with a foreign childish excitement, grabbing his sister's hand before pulling her through the corridors of the Eligius IV to the nearest window. 

The sight beneath them reflected of their pupils, eyebrows creasing, mouths turning down identically. The sphere beneath them, bleached from colour was a far cry from anything that Blaire had imagined Earth would look like after all these years. With the drought and the dust before they had left, Blaire had expected something but it certainly wasn't this. 

But then her eyes caught it, the beautiful speck of green throughout all of the grey. The only colour throughout the entire surface and it was truly beautiful. Blaire caught her brother's eyes and for a split second, Blaire forgot about everything, her desire to make her final second chance worth it, her brother and all the troubles that came with him and finally the problem that arose with the fact that her loyalty was tied to a group of prisoners who she wasn't convinced saw this as a new beginning more of another way to repeat old doings. 

"Hey, you two!" A voice shattered Blaire's brief epiphany. "Diyoza wants everyone up to meet in the bridge."

From the bridge, that green dot stared Blaire further in the face, almost tauntingly, refusing to vacant from Blaire's thoughts for a second. 

"The sixteen of us along with Shaw will go down to Earth in the Gagarin and scout out a spot for the rest of us to come down with us." Diyoza briefed, the prisoners gathered around the bridge. 

"Where will we be landing? I don't know if you've noticed but it's a wasteland down there." Another prisoner, Baines spoke up, gesturing to the sphere hanging beneath them. 

"Do you see that green spot in the middle of your wasteland, Baines?" Diyoza asked sarcastically. "That's where we will land."

"If it's the last alive spot on Earth, surely there will be the remainders of the human race down there?" Blaire couldn't help but speak up, voicing her thoughts. 

"Indeed, Stone." Diyoza agreed. "And we will deal with them. . .accordingly."

Blaire grimaced slightly but refused to let it show, the prisoners already thought less of her, she didn't need to be giving them another reason. Although Blaire had long since earned her place among the worst of the worst, her hardened nature sticking out for all to see, but her desire to use her second chance for good had instantly made her a slight outcast among the rest of the prisoners. It was only Diyoza and Blaine most of the time who didn't treat her slightly differently, although Blaire still didn't know why. 

"Are we clear?" Diyoza questioned only to receive a mixture of agreement chorusing around the bridge. "In that case, grab your things and head onto the Gagarin."

The rest of the prisoners left the bridge, leaving only Blaire and Diyoza left. 

"Diyoza," Blaire spoke, gaining the attention of their leader. "We are heading back to Earth after years, this is our chance we have to right our wrongs, to try to be better, I don't understand how running in with guns blazing is doing that? We could be destroying the last remants of the human race."

"Blaire, all of us have only done what we've had to for our very survival, you know that," Diyoza responded, looking down at Blaire. "But I will try not to shoot first. And now get on Gagarin, unless you want to be left behind."

Inhale, exhale. Blaire Stone squirmed slightly under the straps holding her tightly in her seat, her eyes never once flickering from her only view of the outside world. 

Despite everything, even Blaire could hardly contain her true excitement at returning to Earth although her own thoughts about the whole ordeal had quickly been shot down by Diyoza, her mission to herself still remained true, she was going to do better even if she died still trying. 

Although Blaire had had many transport trips within the Gagarin, her return to Earth seemed to ring a different note within her. The ship vibrated roughly to each side before the landing shuddered everyone inside. A slight hiss filled her ears as she along with everyone stood at the door to the outside world. 

In a brief second, the sun was warming her face, the sounds of birds and the wind burst in her eyes, playing on a constant record in her mind. Her eyes adjusted to the blinding sunlight before her eyes landed on the green surrounding her, everywhere she looked there was green. 

Inhale, exhale. There it was. Plain as always but still a much-welcomed element in Blaire's life compared to the musty, dusty air that she had consumed throughout her entire time in space. Fresh air. And just like a neatly wrapped present laid on a doorstep for a welcoming, this was Earth's way of welcoming Blaire back home.