The Edge

Arian: Part Six

The one nice thing about places like this was how logically they were laid out. There was also plenty of maps and easy-to-follow signage, so Arian was pretty confident he'd make the meeting in time. That wouldn't be a problem. Getting off the ship? Yeah, that was going to be a problem.

It was doable, technically. Arian had sneaked off-ship plenty of times. But he wasn't usually in deep shit when he did. Between the mishaps on Midgard and the blow up argument he'd just had with Helen, he was sure the others would have eyes and ears on him in a big way. He'd have to get creative if he wanted to get out. That was why he'd given himself some extra time to get to the meeting.

He'd just have to find a way to make that extra time count.

Okay. Think. Arian packed up what he needed and considered where his siblings might be on the ship. Luca was the easiest one to figure out. He'd be either hiding in his room or stress pacing around the halls of the ship. Either option worked perfectly for Arian's needs. He double-checked that he had everything, took a deep breath, and stepped out into the hallway.

Calling people like him shifters was a bit inaccurate. They didn't actually change anything about their appearance. Instead, they created a psychic field that made their natural faces look generic and could be manipulated into making people think they were someone else. He could make big changes or small ones, from tweaking his eye and skin color to making himself look like a different person entirely. Imitating an actual person worked best if you knew them well.

Fortunately, Arian had spent a lot of time around Luca. He had all his twitches down perfectly.

There were risks, of course. There was nothing that could counter his psychic abilities, but the better you knew a person, the easier it was to see through the façade. All he needed was one sibling to see him at just the wrong angle and notice the slight, silver sheen to his eyes.

But it was a risk he'd have to take.

It helped that, in some ways, Luca was the perfect cover. He made a point of avoiding people when he was in Anxiety Mode; that meant Arian could, to a certain extent, duck and dodge and weave his way through the ship without scrutiny. If the others spotted him doing that, they'd get suspicious. If the others spotted Luca doing it, they'd assume he didn't want to talk and leave him alone. Utterly perfect.

Arian did feel a little guilty for using Luca's face like this, but desperate times, etc. etc. He could always apologize later if he still felt bad about it. Weirdass apology to make, though.

The ship felt unnaturally isolated. It almost felt like everyone had left. For a brief, irrational second, Arian wondered if perhaps everyone had bailed on the ship for no reason, but then he heard voices in one of the cargo holds.

One of the voices was Luca's. That kind of threw a wrench in the plan.

"...feel like I'm losing my mind a bit..."

Arian froze just outside the doorway, back pressed against the wall. He could probably sneak past, but he wanted to get a handle on the situation first. He needed to know where Luca was in the room, who he was with, that kind of thing. He didn't want to just waltz past directly in Luca's line of sight, and looking like whoever was with him. "It's like this is all a bad dream but I won't wake up..." Luca's voice cracked slightly. "Does that make sense?"

"Yeah, I feel you." Okay, that was Adoette. Anyone else? "I think we're all feeling that."

There was a pause. "Arian's not talking to you either, right?" Luca asked suddenly.

"I mean, he's talking to me, but he's not talking to me," Adoette huffed. "So, to answer the question you're actually asking, no. Arian doesn't talk to anyone. He could probably stand to, though..."

Well, that's uncalled for. Arian nearly dropped his disguise to call her out, but instead switched to looking like Gideon and speed-walking past the room. No one seemed to see him, and their conversation faded as he kept moving down the hallway. He switched back to Luca once he was a safe distance away and started speed-running for the door.

Almost out, almost out, almost...

He made it through the door and out into the docking area. No one tried to stop him. He was out.

Damn. Shit. Arian wins once again!

But not quite, because he still had to get to his destination. Arian approached a random dock worker. "Excuse me?" he asked. He had to be careful, here; while the psychic field worked with only voices, it only worked in terms of shifting the vocal tones and such into Luca's ballpark. The illusion fell apart if he didn't talk like the person he was imitating. For instance, this time, he had to force himself to sound subdued, like a guy with clinically diagnosed anxiety and not his usual casual self. "Do you know how long the storm is going to last?"

The worker grimaced. "Gonna be a while, unfortunately. I think the current projection is...three hours until it's safe to take off? Might be longer, though."

Hell yeah. "Thank you, Arian said. He put on his most timid smile before walking away. It took a lot of self control not to leap for joy.

Three hours. He could totally do this in three hours. Maybe things were looking up after all.

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(Author's Note: This story was cross-posted from singlequantumevent.com. If you'd like to see more stories like this one, including ongoing stories and ones that haven't been posted to WattPad yet, check out the site!)