Page 13 of Gift from the Tree

His words float around my mind in a dizzying spin, and they should have me questioning his sanity, but instead, my chest begins to warm, and feelings of hope, love, and peace flood my system. Things I’ve never experienced here.

Fuck it, what do I have to lose at this point?

Well, your life for one…but that’s a more likely possibility here.

So nothing.

I place my hand in Gaster’s, and he pulls me up, catching me as my knees try to give out, my body and mind beginning to rebel against me.

“The first time traveling by transport will probably make you feel very sick, Willow, but I’ll get you all healed up as soon as we get back home and have you fixed up in no time,” Gaster explains as he links our arms.

At this point, I have so many questions, I don’t even know what to ask. All I know is I’ve made my decision. I’m going with Gaster wherever he’s planning on taking me.

“Where’s home?” I decide on. At least I’d know where we’re going.

“Elementra, child.”

The words are spoken with such devotion, my body shivers, then the world begins to spin around me, causing everything to go dark.

Five

Tillman

That was too fucking close.

Arms crossed over my chest, I stand beside and listen to my second-in-command, Ry, give teams one and two the debrief from our Aquaria mission. Although this mission was more successful than previous ones, some rookie fucking mistakes were made today. Like Nikoli, fucking idiot, freezing up and allowing two enemy guards to transport out.

He’ll pay for that in training in the morning.

“Overall, solid job today,” Ry compliments the groups, not one to give out personal compliments for doing what’s expected. “Nikoli and San, report to the yard at dawn,” he adds to his finish and then dismisses.

That’s one reason why he’s my second and my best friend outside of my brothers. I didn’t have to tell him that I expected Nikoli to work off that mistake. He knew. And if Nikoli had to work it off, so did the rest of his Nexus, including himself.

“Man, what the fuck was that? He could’ve been killed freezing up like that out there.” He turns to me, throwing his hands up, exasperated. Seeing one of his Nexus members make a mistake that could end their life has him on edge. Losing one of your Nexus brothers is like losing a limb.

“I know. He’ll work that shit off in the morning. He’s been distracted since you found your Nexus’s fourth member. He’s convinced himself your Primary is going to show up any second now,” I say with a little longing slipping through there at the end.

Having a Primary isn’t a rare thing by any means in a Nexus group, but most are decided just on a power scale, and many don’t wait around to decide who they’ll bond with. A true Primary bond, on the other hand, has become more and more rare. Very few pop up yearly, the numbers continuing to dwindle, so lack of fucking patience causes everyone to just settle.

Not us. Not my Nexus. Even if we found a female who could come close to matching the power the four of us wield, we wouldn’t want her. We know we have a true Primary. Just a feeling we all have. We just can’t find her. And we want the true connection, true power, and devotion that come with that.

“What a crock of shit. You and I both know how rare a true Primary bond is and why the fuck would we be lucky enough to find ours? We’ll end up searching for a powerful female and calling it a day. The only one who’ll put up a fight and want to hold out for a true bond is Jamie,” Ry remarks with a scowl on his face.

Just because he’s accepted that as their fate doesn’t mean he’s happy about it. And he’s right about their fourth and final Nexus member, Jamie. They just found him when he transferred here last month and he’s probably the smartest person I’ve ever met in my fucking life, a scientist, and he won’t just bond with anyone.

“Have the healers reported back about the survivors?” I ask, changing the subject. I don’t want to think about a Primary anymore. We’ve got too much to worry about right now.

“Yeah, this group is even more fucked up than the last. Apparently, they were experimented on more invasively and they’re panicking being in the healing wing,” he grimly replies.

“Fuck. That’s not good.”

“Nope.”

We sit in silence, lost in our thoughts, thinking about those we brought back. Each mission we bring survivors home, they all have horrible, terrifying stories of what’s been done to them. Some don’t even remember.

At first, we thought maybe the mind was blocking out the trauma they’d been through, but after I looked inside their heads and several tox screens came back showing multiple illegal ingredients found that are used in a memory potion, it was obvious they were being drugged.

“Tillman.” My name being called breaks me out of my dark thoughts. I don’t have to turn to see who it is. I already sensed them.

---