Spectrum #16: Laments and Remnants

Hey, I'm actually back on schedule! It's almost like I give a shit. 

Chapter Sixteen: Laments and Remnants

“Again!” Ashley shouted, Blasting into a whistle to give a shrill ear piercing squeak, they stood in the center of the arena in the sunset as their seventh day of arduous training continued. All four students, Maria, Jonah, Caleb and Lily hunched down and pushed away with pulse to attempt and dash themselves forward. Jonah stopped the shortest, Maria doing slightly better but still only a couple of feet with one stride. Lily was easily doubling that and Caleb was doing even better than her, though it was pretty clear that he's practiced with pulse for some time at least.

They were sore and tired as they nearly worked for 8 hours a day to practice pulse. At first, it was just holding a paper in your palm and seeing if you could lift it without moving, then it was leaps, and now it's dashes. They've been practicing dashes for a day or so now and it seemed like they were all finally getting the hang of it, though some better than others.

“Again!” She once again shouted as they all scrambled back in line to do another dash with similar results, Maria felt like her knees were about to cave from how much stamina she was burning from using Pulse over and over again. She nearly passed out the day before when she got back into her bedroom. “That should be good for now.” Ashley requested all of them to stop, and Jonah quickly stood up to bend his back far enough so it could pop. Everyone else was yawning and stretching to try and work out the kinks. “Holy crap, finally...” Jonah said through his tired stretching, Caleb patting him on the back once or twice. “I could go another hour, to be honest.” He said with a grin, Jonah glaring up at him with an unamused glance.

“Wanna join me, Jo?” He asked with a smile, Jonah huffing and crossing his arms. “I'd rather not take place in your one-upping jock routine, Caleb.” Caleb scoffed a bit and walked away to Maria, looking down at you. “What about you, Red?” He asked, giving her that nickname even though she didn't ask for it. “Hell no. When I'm done, I'm done.” Maria shrugged him off, they still didn't know each other that well, but she did know that she had a slight bias to Jonah as a friend compared to him.

“Now to finish off for the evening pulse practice, we'll finally dip into the concept of Pulse fields and armor.” Ashley stated with a gusto, the three newbies groaning out of suffering as they stood back together in a group for the next thing. “Aww, come on you three... Last thing for today and I'll give our little birthday girl her day off.” Ashley stated to try and get them more motivated for one final exercise. Though she somewhat skipped one important fact. “Maria's birthday WAS today, Ashley, not tomorrow.” Lily corrected Ashley, which she frowned at. “Oh... my bad. I should have given you the day off TODAY then, I'll give you one tomorrow instead.” Ashley admitted, before walking up and patting Maria on the head like she was a cat, she wasn't fond of it.

“Don't pat my fucking head.” She stated flatly, almost like she was too tired to get pissed off. To Ashley, this was a good thing in every way imaginable. “Now, you have the easy way, or the hard way to actually figure out how this works. Which one you pick is up to you.” She explained, Maria combing through her hair to try and fix it while she explained to everyone. “What's the long way?” Lily asked, Ashley smiling at her and crossing her arms as she reached down to adjust the hilt of her blade a bit. “Mostly just doing exercises of trying to repel things away from you, initially pieces of paper or dirt, eventually things like projectiles and other people's attacks. It's pretty consistent and doesn't often leave much of a mess. This process takes a couple of weeks usually.” She heard everyone groan when she said that, she could understand why as they were all tired.

“And the other way?” Maria asked to finish Lily's question. “I slap you in the face until you repel it.”
Everyone looked confused and a little frightened by the second option as they all stared up at her, realizing that she was completely serious. “So, what will it be?” She asked, waiting for everyone's answer. Lily and Jonah both piped in out of concern of not wanting to be slapped in the face. “I'll pass!” Ashley chuckled to herself for a bit, looking over to Maria and Caleb who were standing beside one another. “And you two?” she asked, Caleb shaking his head as he piped in. “Well I know how to do it already...” He reminded her, Maria spoke up before she could be asked again. “I'll try the short way. It's been almost six damn months, I want this over already.” She admitted she was getting a bit impatient for how long the training was taking.

Ashley gestured her to come a bit closer, which she responded by walking up and looking at her. “Alright! Hit you in the face training is a go. Try your best to push away my hand the same way you've learned how to dash.” She said, pulling Maria off to one side and holding onto her shoulders as she looked at the slightly shorter teen. “Ten slaps to the face without blocking means you have to do it the normal way, understand?” She warned, Maria glaring up at her and nodding her head as she tried to focus her head and push away whatever what was coming.

And she got slapped across the face hard enough to turn her head and cause a warm red stinging feeling. She reached up and lightly rubbed her cheek as another slap knocked her face the other way, making both cheeks red with hand prints. Caleb started to chuckle at the surreal sight and Maria turned to shout at him. “Shut up, Caleb!” She shouted as she got slapped in the face another time. Then the slaps came faster and faster, each one she was unable to block until it got to ten. “Looks like you're doing things my way, then.” She claimed, Maria sinking her head a bit and looking at the floor out of defeat. “Okay fine, your way.” She replied, still hearing Caleb's chuckling as Ashley released her, Lily walked up and patted her on the shoulder to help her cool off.

“I actually think that's enough for today, all I have to do is tell you one bit of news and the rest of the day will be to yourselves.” Ashley announced, everyone looking up at her as she spoke. “The team name we will be called in our missions from now on will be team 'Equinox.' This was randomly drawn from a list of code names we could have. Our sister team is team 'Solstice.' so they are easy to sort and match together than something like 'Equinox' and 'Key Lime Pie' would be.” She joked, but got deadpanned by everyone there.

“And with that, I bid all of you farewell. Make sure you rest, as training for all of you will pick up in 2 days time.” She announced, before turning tail and leaving. The rest of the group gathered closer to talk to one another as Maria rubbed her sore face. “Well that went nowhere.” Maria commented with a sigh, as Caleb looked down at her with a chuckle. “At least we got you being slapped in the face a couple of times.” Maria growled at the joke, looking up at him with a maligned glare. “Oh screw you, man...” She spoke, as he chuckled some more at getting her annoyed. He didn't really like making fun of people but he still had a good laugh about it.

“I'm so hungry, though...” Jonah commented, they were training so hard that they had to skip lunch. Lily smiled at the other she as the offered a proposal for them. “Well, the cafeteria closes at 8, we could probably go and have a quick dinner and get out.” She said, Caleb and Jonah grinning at the prospect as Caleb gave a celebratory fist pump. “Awesome! Let's get there before my face gets anymore numb from how damn cold it is.” He joked, he couldn't feel his face because he was bombarded by cold wind all day. Even if he wore his big leather coat with a fuzzy inner lining for extra warmth, it didn't cover his head. “And you, Maria?” Lily asked, but Maria raised a hand and shook her head.


“I'm just not that hungry.. I'll be back at the dorm.” She said, turning down her offer and slowly turning away to leave. “Well.. I'll save you something” Lily said, Maria looking back and giving her a soft nod. “Right, Seeya later.” She replied, Lily was a bit puzzled but maybe she was just not in the greatest of moods to be around other people. Over the past months, Lily has learned sometimes Maria just wants to head off by herself somewhere quiet and just think to herself interrupted. It wasn't super far fetched but it could be an inconvenience sometimes.

A short while later, Maria popped the door to the dorm room and flicked on the light. The two bunk beds with plain black bed sheets sat on each side of the room, there was a dresser in the back facing a window along with a mirror near the foot of another dresser near one of the bunk beds facing the opposite of the bathroom. On the black bed sheets rested her pet cat, Snowy. Well... to everyone besides her he was Snowy, she just called him 'cat' and since majority rules, she didn't win the vote to keep calling it cat. He was getting his pure white fur all over Maria's bed sheet... which she sighed at.

“Hey you lil' dipshit.” She said, walking over and taking a seat besides the cat on the bottom bunk. She was switched to the bottom bunk after it was found out she had the habit of falling in bed like an insane person whenever she woke up. The cat opened it's double eyelids and looked up at her with a yawn as she reached down to pet it. It purred and nestled it's head into her hand as she cracked a small smile.

“Yeah, yeah I know... I forgot to feed you again.” She said as if the cat could reply, even if she knew it didnt. She reached into a small bag of cat food she put beside her bed and filled a small bowl, the cat climbed off and started to eat out of it. “...You're gonna get fat if you keep eating this often.” She joked, The cat looking up with a glare commonly matching the one she gave at others. Suddenly, Gale manifested over her shoulder to comment. “Do you think he can understand you at all, Maria?” He asked her, they weren't really friends, but they tolerated each other much more than they used to by just being stuck together.

“Hell no.” She stated flatly as the bird slowly floated down to perch in front of the eating cat, knowing that it can't even see him, he was still nervous. “I don't know why, but being around him makes me nervous.” He commented, Maria glaring down at him incredulously as she leaned up, folding her arms together just a bit. “Eh.. cats eat birds all the time.” She said, watching them both as the bird lightly backed away from him. “Does not help my confidence, Maria.” He stated, sounding slightly scared by this strange fluffy cat thing and all it's... cattiness.

“Oh, I know. Just I get enjoyment from your suffering.” She said jokingly, she had this habit of insulting people she liked playfully and in a way that they knew she probably didn't mean it. The bird floated back up as she watched him. “Hey, it's not like you can actually touch anything...” She stated, as the bird slowly faded from existence once again to speak in her mind. “Oh, you're right.” He replied, as the cat finished his bowl of cat food and climbed back on the bed to fall asleep. Maria reached over him and into her backpack to grab a lint roller, slowly wiping her bed off from all the cat hair as the door silently opened behind her.

“Doing things with my cat, buzz off.” She replied, not looking back at who came in to see her. “Hey.” A familiar, but long not heard voice spoke softly behind her. Maria turned to look back and as soon as she saw who it was, the hair on the back of her neck began to stand up. Sienna was staring down at her, wearing a faux fur jacket over her typical blouse instead of her captain jacket along with a bag over her shoulder. A soft frown on her face as she looked down at Maria tending to her cat. There was an awkward silence for a couple of seconds as Maria didn't speak, but only stared. Sienna stared for a couple of seconds before sighing quietly as she walked up in front of the bunk bed to look down at her.

She unzipped the bag on her shoulder and dug through it, grabbing a small cake into one hand and walking over to place it on a nearby shelf. “I remembered your birthday, Maria. I even got you a personal sized cake.” She spoke softly, placing the bag at Maria's side as her glare stared at Sienna without breaking. “And?” Maria asked, expecting some kind of catch to go along with Sienna's basic birthday wish. There had to be a good reason why she would suddenly speak to herself once again, Maria thought. “It's your favorite flavor, too... Strawberry.” She added, turning back around just to see Maria staring at her in the same position.

“Can we talk?” Sienna asked, sinking her eyebrows a bit as she watched her sister. Maria shrugged her shoulders and sighed. “Fine.” She replied flatly, she felt no love for her sister at the moment and Sienna could tell how obvious that was. Sienna sat beside her bag, putting her hands into the bag and sifting around for something. “How does it feel to be sixteen?” Sienna asked, Maria cocking an eyebrow at having such a trite question after nearly 6 months of barely any contact. “Like when I turned fifteen, not that different.” She stated, Sienna nodding a little bit as they sat together.

“Oh... Yeah I guess I could see that.” Sienna said with a hint of nervousness as she awkwardly rubbed on her own shoulder, while the ticking of the small clock placed on the beige wall slowly began to tick louder and louder to compound how silent the room was between them. “Spit it out.” Maria demanded without raising her voice, Sienna frowned and looked up at her. “I fucked up as a sister, didn't I?” Sienna asked, looking at the floor slightly defeated. “...I couldn't say no.” Maria replied, not really helping how Sienna felt in any way whatsoever.

“I know I did... I should have done more for you than just.. toss you onto the curb and act like you weren't my problem. I'm the only person who has the rights to take care of you.. and I wasn't taking responsibility for my own actions. I gave up on you when Ashley did more than me and she didn't even know you.” She confessed, Maria staring at her sister as she pulled out a small box, pushing the bag aside and placing it in her own lap.

“So you came over because you felt bad for kicking me off your team?” Maria asked, with a very small amount of disdain in her own voice since she still held enough sour grapes to hold a wine tasting contest. “No... I heard from Ashley that you were not a bad fit for her team. You're not doing the best or anything but.. you're at least improving.” She admitted, Maria furrowing her brow and sighing. “Hey, I thought family is supposed to oversell my skills, not tell me that I'm not doing that great.” She commented sarcastically, which got a slight smile out of Sienna.

“Just being honest.” Sienna joked, though Maria still wasn't in the best of moods to laugh at other peoples jokes. “Y'know... Gabriel had to leave two weeks ago.” Maria started, Sienna frowned at her as she tried to keep the conversation going. “Yeah, I heard... It's really unfortunate.” She said, Maria looking up at her as she leaned forward enough to place a hand on one of her own legs. “...His parents wanted him to come home after his sister died. He was ALLOWED TO LEAVE. Why didn't you leave when you heard I was hospitalized after OUR PARENTS DIED?” Maria dropped a pretty grim question that she's been pondering over ever since it happened, as Sienna looked at the floor. “I knew this was going to come up eventually.” She admitted, trying to compose herself to give a good enough answer.

“I visited one time... The day after they put you in the ICU.” Sienna calmly stated, Maria watching her and observing as she explained all of her actions. “You were in such bad condition that they weren't sure you could actually have a life outside of the hospital, yet alone actually join Spectrum.” Sienna continued, Maria looking to the floor as she realized how lucky she got in the fact she recovered enough to be able to live without constant medical supervision.
“I was upset I lost both my mom and my dad, but my little sister lost her life too... I thought you were either going to die or be cooped up in the hospital for the rest of your life.” She said, wiping a tear that was almost about to leave one of her eyes. “But... I was younger and more stupid. I thought that it wasn't my job to constantly overwatch you. I was so focused on me and my life at Spectrum I just.. I left you behind as I thought you couldn't have a life anymore.” She spoke, Maria looking at the floor quietly as she listened.

“So everyone gave up on me, not just Lily.” Maria stammered out, Sienna frowning as Maria seemed less mad and more just depressed sounding at this point. “Sorry, Maria.” Sienna calmly apologized as Maria sat back up straight so they could keep talking. “Did everyone just not want me around? I mean... where was the rest of our family?” Maria asked, Sienna looking away briefly as she replied. “I haven't heard from uncle Elliot or Cousin Rosalyn for 3 years now. I don't know where they went but as soon as the accident happened, they just disappeared.” Sienna explained, Maria furrowing a brow at that.

“Why did you take me into your team and kick me out 2 weeks later?” Maria asked another question, Sienna sighing and shaking her head just a bit as she spoke. “I thought I could handle the responsibility, but it just blew up in my face and I threw you out like an idiot instead of helping you work through it. It was really irresponsible of me as an older sister.” She finished, Maria closing her eyes and sighing in response.

“Do you mind if I ask you something?” Sienna asked in place of Maria, Maria leaning back and placing her arms on her bed to prop herself up as it was starting to get uncomfortable to sit on the bed. “Go ahead, I guess.” She answered, Sienna nodding a bit as she folded her arms into her lap. “Why are you here? Like... Why did you join?” This question made Maria lean up and look away from her from either guilt or shame. “I joined Spectrum because you are all I got when it comes to family.” She admitted, Sienna shocked and looking at her from hearing something like that come from the much more naturally bitter Maria.

“I hate what the rift fallen had taken away from me, but my grudge isn't going to give me any solace even if I try and use it as an excuse.” Maria admitted almost like she needed to tell herself this as well. “At first I joined just because I thought that if I just died it might make things less painful, but I also joined because I just wanted to find a way to be closer to you for once.” Maria explained, Sienna frowning and looking down as she realized that it really was her little sister, even through all the shit they both went through. She was still a kid, even if she didn't want to act like it.

“Maria, I'm so sorry.” Sienna said, placing a hand on Maria's shoulder. “Can you forgive me? I promise we'll work on this together.” She asked, Maria reaching up and grabbing her hand to pull it off of her, before standing up. “No, I'm not going to forgive you, Sienna. You left for Spectrum when I was only 10, you barely visited unless mom called you and guilt slung you into joining, even after our parents died you didn't even visit me when I was conscious” Maria complained, The frown growing on Sienna's face as Maria pretty much tried to tell her off.

“After 3 years of being in a shitty boarding school, I come back and you get sick of me within 2 weeks of me joining because I happened to do something stupid. You seem like kind of a prick, Sienna.” Maria ranted without raising her voice. Sienna admitted defeat in her head, sinking her shoulders and wiping a tear from our eye. “That doesn't mean we can't try fixing it.” Maria grudgingly admitted, crossing her arms over her own chest and looking out of the only window in the room.

Sienna stood up and placed a hand on her shoulder once again.“Do you mean that?” Sienna asked, she wasn't anywhere close to heaving but it was pretty clear that she was starting to tear up. “Yeah... We'll work on it.” Maria sputtered out, she wasn't really the type for sentimental words and stuff so saying stuff like this just made her uncomfortable. Sienna smiled somberly at her and hugged her around the shoulders tight to press both of them together. “You hug way too hard...” Maria complained, as she didn't let go for nearly ten seconds until Maria eventually reciprocated it.

Sienna let go, reaching down to grab the present box wrapped in dark purple paper and a white bow. She handed it to Maria as Maria started to inspect the box. It was light and thin and she wasn't exactly sure what was inside of it. “Go on, Open it.” Sienna goaded, as Maria pulled it open and revealed that it was a picture of her family. “You didn't have a picture of them since the house burned down... So I thought you could have this one.” Sienna said, Maria started to feel tears roll down her cheeks as she looked at it in silence. “Thanks...” Maria stammered quietly, placing it on the dresser as well.

“Don't worry about it.” Sienna replied, patting her on the shoulder once again. “Look, I need to go to my dorm before all of your friends show up.” She mentioned, Maria looking up at her as her eyes were slightly bloodshot from the tears. “Uhh... Do you want to go get ice cream later?” Maria asked, but Sienna frowned and poked her once on the forehead. “It's winter, you doofus.” She joked, Maria chuckling and looking embarrassed.

“But yeah, see you later.” She said, walking by before she realized Lily was in the room. She was holding a bright green sweater with a picture of a white cat sewn onto the front. Sienna walked next to her and stared at her. “Uhh... Hey Lily.” Sienna greeted her, before looking down at the shirt. “Uh... What is this about?” She asked, Lily holding up the gaudy looking cat shirt. “Maria's gift, Sienna.” She replied, Maria looking shocked as she looked over Sienna's shoulder. “Oh god no...” Maria muttered to herself out of fear.

“Happy birthday, Maria~!” Lily shouted, walking past Sienna and tossing the shirt to Maria, which promptly smacked her in the head before she could catch it and look at it. “I didn't know what to get, but my butler told me that this was an awesome idea! You didn't have a sweater, so I thought this could be your first one.” She explained, Maria looking down at it with wide eyes. “It even has Snowy on it! Ain't it cute?” She said with a sing song voice, Maria just glaring at it with an unbroken leer. “...I would rather run outside naked and try and capture a live falcon than ever consider wearing this shirt in my entire lifetime.” Maria responded, crashing Lily's smile into a huge frown.

“But whyyyyyy, Maria?” She said, holding her hands in front of her chest and giving a sad pout as she tried to go for puppy dog eyes. “It's just... Could you ever imagine me wearing this sweater?” She asked, Lily quickly imagining Maria and her typical scowl while wearing a sweater with a cat on the front of it. “I just did.” She replied, Maria frowning and throwing it onto her shoulder. “Look, I appreciate the sentiment and all but... I don't think I could wear this sweater in my life.” Maria explained, Lily sniffling a little bit and running to hug her out of sadness.

“It looks like you two have some talking you need to do, later!” Sienna said as an excuse to leave the uncomfortable scene as it was. Maria lightly grabbed at Lily's shoulders as the door closed behind them. “Look, I'll consider it just... I don't know.” Maria tried to find an excuse to not wear something that stupid looking.

“MARIA PLEASE WEAR THE CAT SWEATER, IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU WILL EVER DO!” Lily cried out, Maria sighing and sinking her head as they continued to argue.