TEMPEST B.E(BEFORE ESCAPE) March 25, 2029

The humans had been holding strong onto their new little tactic of the month.

Isolation.

Or maybe in the last couple of months, the timeline was a bit fuzzy without a tool to be able to scratch the days into the walls. It was something that brought me peace before, not the keeping track but rather the counting part of it.

It kept my mind working and reminded me I was still alive.

In its absence I found solace in counting the feathers of my wings instead, bottom to top, even the small fluffy ones you could only see if you peel the sharper ones back. Running my hands through them, bruised and battered as they were, was all I had now.

I hadn't seen food since before they locked me in this large white room and I hadn't spoken to another soul in longer. If I took in too deep of a breath I could almost feel my bones straining to escape beneath my flesh and I would sometimes whisper random words into the space so that I would not forget my voice.

I had not sung in a while, and I probably would never sing again, it was something that brought humans great joy and I cared very little to see them satisfied.

They believed they would break me, they were mistaken but it was amusing to see them try. My people are strong and I had no doubt the others were giving them worse than I was.

We'd get through this, the people of Mars would not sink into the soil and blow away.

The sound of metal sliding over itself had my ears flickering and my head lifting from its position tucked in between my knees. The first crack of light I'd seen in a while nearly blinded me and I shut my eyes so they could adjust.

"Hello?"

English, was a language not of Mars but one they had brought to us when they first arrived in peace. I'd never found much interest in it so my understanding of it was rather surface level, something I quickly learned was stupid of me after my capture.

I shuffled myself away from the crack of light the open door brought so that I would remaind out of sight which amounted to nothing as a few seconds later a switch being flicked hit my ears and the room was engulfed in light.

"There you are."

The first smile I'd seen in forever gleamed back at me, the human teeth were straight and white, only looking brighter as they caught the light. One of his eyes was grey, the color of Mars's smaller moon, and the right one was green, like the forests of earth I'd seen in pictures.

He was tall, or maybe I was just sitting down.

But on a better day, I probably could have taken him down easy considering his leaner stature, as if he'd never worked a day in his life.

There was a tray in his hands, metal, unlike the flimsy ones they'd feed us with. He placed the tray on the ground and slid it over to me, not hard enough that it would reach me but just enough that if I shuffled closer I could reach what was on it.

It was a food, at least I assumed it was. It looked like nothing they'd ever fed us before but his next words only confirmed my thoughts.

"Food," He told me, pointing at the tray before pointing at himself. "I," He pointed at me "Bring you," His finger found the direction the tray again "Food."

I crawled over to the tray, ignoring the ache in my wings as the chains wrapped around them strained against my feathers. When I could reach it I examined the food, pretending as if I were interested in it as my fingers inched towards what looked like a small dagger that was on the tray.

The human took a few steps forward, "You've probably never seen these before, that's my fault I suppose. I had to steal something good from the kitchen to even get you something that isn't that bland stuff they usually give you guys," My hands curled around the metal, my knuckles turning white from how hard I was holding it, "I'm not supposed to be doing this and I'll get in heaps of trouble later but I'm-

I sprung from the floor, using adrenaline to work through the exhaustion in my bones, and aimed the tip of the weapon at his throat.

S O L

"He's quite the ugly bastard."

Astra snorted, "I'd argue he's actually what the humans claim is the picture-perfect man."

I washed my hands in the sink, shrugging "Your human's idea of beauty is quite flawed, and besides his face doesn't move on one side."

She nodded "You're right, if I remember correctly he got into some freak accident when he was younger-

This piqued my interest "What kind?"

"Can't recall, but it was probably one of the insane sports he used to do when he was a kid. The accident nearly completely unhinged his jaw. His parents had it fixed but I guess it was never the same."

"Your humans have such technology?" I eyed the poorly made bathroom "They seem very primitive."

"Almost every problem one has on earth has a solution," She replied, ripping out some white follicles of her hair as she poorly attempted to braid it, I winced at the sound. "You just need to be willing to pay for it."

This made me frown "Why have such impressive healthcare if everyone doesn't have equal access to it? Do humans not have rights on their planet?"

"Don't get me wrong, humans are considered equal on earth," She gave up on her hair when she broke the third comb of the evening. "Just...some humans are more equal than others."

"That doesn't make sense."

"Neither does risking your life for sport but you can try asking Ambrose why he did it," She remarked, putting Teegan's hair supplies back in the cabinet. She was about to close it when she stopped and reached her hand further into it.

"What is it?" I asked, trying to get a look at the box.

"Fertility treatments, expensive ones too. Probably stuff Kofi put Teegan on when they were trying for a baby," She waved me off before trying to return the box. It slipped from her hand and landed on the floor, I cursed at the scattered medicine and sunk to my knees to help her clean them up when she became distracted with one of the pills that had rolled out of the cracked bottle.

I continued gathering the colored pills with my hands "You curious?" I glanced aat her.

She shook her head "No just confused."

"You could take one and see what it does."

She shoved me playfully, rolling her eyes at me "Not on what it feels like dummy, why it looks like that."

I leaned over her shoulder to get a good look at it too "Maybe you're forgetting what they look like, like you said, it's been a while since you were checking up on Earth."

"Yeah, but it's just humans rarely change things that work fine. They're simple like that," She shook her head, popping the single pill back into the broken jar before throwing it away in the trash. "Anyway maybe I'm being silly, I just thought because of the line on one side they look a lot like...vitamins."

T E M P E S T (B.E)

This was perhaps the most humiliating thing the humans had done to me. They'd forced me into a white shirt that strapped my hands across my chest and had folded my legs into an uncomfortable seating position.

I had no control over my limbs.

The human that had visited me earlier however did not seem swayed by my attack on him and would often come with more food even during his recovery. Seeing his face made me side, the bandages across his neck only reminded me that I'd failed my planet and the people who'd trained me.

A warrior who couldn't kill one defenseless human?

I'd be a laughing stock when we win the war and escape from this.

I didn't look up from my seating position when the door opened, I already had an idea of who it was. He sat in front of me, a bowl in his hands that steamed with something that had my nose tingling.

He was not wearing his bandage today.

"I can see you're eyeing my neck, got a good one on me huh? You have one heck of an aim I'll give you that. Managed to miss all my major arteries so I guess funnily, I owe you my life," He chuckled to himself like he'd said something funny. I understood almost half of what he'd said, a word I knew well, however, was 'miss', a word that filled my eyes with fire and my heart with a promise that I would not miss a second time.

"We've been at this for a couple weeks now and I guess you don't talk much, I guess that's alright, I'll just have to talk for the both of us," He showed me the contents in his hand "I tried this time, I hope you like it. Found it on a root that surprisingly grows here, some people who used to visit Mars a lot showed me how to make it."

It was Dujoi. A soup with healing properties, something I doubt he knew and I almost opened my cracked lips to tell him it was not typically eaten as a meal but the sparkle of hope in his eyes had me continuing my blank stare.

"I doubt it's very comfortable to be all strung up like that but," He sighed, "Boss's orders," He leaned into me making my eyes widen "But I think they'll let me take you out if you continue on your best behavior," He grinned. "Maybe then we'll get to share a meal, well a better one than the last."

He brought the utensil to my mouth and with the smell of something familiar that wafted to my nose I found myself opening my mouth- until he spilled it on me. I flinched back, alarmed when I remembered I couldn't move very well and scorched by the hot liquid. He cursed and dropped the bowl, using the front of his shirt to dab the Dujoi he'd spilled on me away, rubbing almost obsessively.

"I'm so so so sorry," Strands of his dark hair fell into his eyes, as he looked up at me- a hint of a smile on his otherwise worried face "I didn't mean to do that, I got a bit excited," He admitted before moving away "I mean this is the first time you've eaten in weeks!"

He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head "Im screwing this up again, aren't I? No wonder you gave me this hideous scar," He joked, leaning back slightly on his arms that flexed in response. "You don't even know who I am and I'm just expecting you to trust me it's so insulting and I'm so-" He took in a deep breath before looking me in the eyes, "I'm Ambrose."

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