Zoe Thanatos (16 page)

“Has this ever been done before? I
mean, has anyone from Terra ever brought in an outsider from another universe?”

“No,” Eva admitted. She hesitated
before continuing. “We don’t make a habit of involving ourselves in the lives
of others. We observe and learn from other cultures, but never at the expense
of our own civilization.”

How ironic
, Zoe thought.
Although it did offer some explanation as to why Evan was so hesitant to answer
her questions. However, he had interfered in her life to begin with, so it
wasn’t as though he had much of a choice. “How do you know it will even work?
What’s going to happen to my body?” How
did
one travel between
universes? What did a gate look like? Would she be safe? She had more questions
than answers.

“I don’t know for certain but I
have a feeling you’ll be fine. Technically speaking you shouldn’t even be able
to transport to other places like we can, but you were able to with Evan.”

“So your theory is that if I can
survive that I can survive traveling to Terra?”

Eva’s lips curled into an uncertain
smile. “Theoretically? Yes. Even I don’t understand the specific science behind
it but I’m quite certain you’ll be fully reassembled on the other side of the
gate.”

“Fully
reassembled
?!” Zoe
exclaimed. The decorative pillow fell discarded to her side.

“Technically. Look I know it’s a
risk but I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think you would be fine. Believe me, the
last thing I want to do is kill the girl my brother is interested in.”

Zoe looked at her incredulously. She
couldn’t ignore the bad feeling settling inside her. She wasn’t the type of
person who would drop everything in her life for someone else, irrespective of
their experiences together. She could barely manage everything in her own life,
let alone take on someone else’s. Throw in the fact that it was another
universe and the whole situation seemed more trouble than it was worth.

“Like I said, I know how this all
sounds and I know it’s a tremendous decision on your part. Think of it as an
adventure! How many people in the world can say they’ve been to another
universe?”

“Besides you, your brother, and
countless others from Terra?” Zoe retorted.

“Yes, and I give you my word I will
do everything I can to make sure you have a way to come home.”

Zoe hesitated. “I don’t know. I
don’t want to be some pathetic girl who drops everything in her life just to
accommodate the guy she likes. That’s not the kind of person I want to be. Not
to mention the scope of what you’re asking me to do. I can barely believe the
words are even coming out of my mouth.” It was too much to comprehend and even
a lifetime seemed too short to fully appreciate how upside-down her world had
turned in just a short span of time. She could only take things at face value
for so long.

Eva nodded, seemingly resigned to
Zoe’s reluctance. “I understand. I owed it to my brother to try.” She stood up to
leave but turned to look at Zoe again. “I know my brother better than anyone. If
anyone can find their way back, it’s him. He may not realize it but I can see
that after two days with you he is a different person; a better, happier,
lighter person.” Zoe felt her stomach flip in her chest again, this time for a
different reason.

As touching as the sentiment was it
was still not a valid reason to drop everything in her life for a man. “I’m
sorry,” was all she could manage. Eva would have to understand.

Zoe stood and wished Eva a safe
trip home, nearly apologizing for having wasted her time. Eva produced an
object similar to what she had seen Evan with. Up close she had a better view
of it, and nearly doubled over when she realized the same thick glass was
identical to the box she had found in the wall only moments prior..

“What is that?”

 “It’s a Communicator. Like a
phone, I guess.” Before she could finish Zoe ran for the office and retrieved
the box and opened scrolls. When she returned she put them in Eva’s hands,
certain she would recognize it.

 “Where did you get this?” She
turned the box over in her hands before picking at the scrolls, reading the
ones Zoe had already unraveled.

“It was hidden behind a wall in my
office. Inside were all of these scrolls but none of them made any sense to me.
I forgot all about it until I saw your Communicator-thing.”

Eva picked up the scroll containing
the map and stared at it, her eyes growing bigger the longer she looked.

“You recognize it, don’t you?”

Eva didn’t say a word. She picked
up the one with the family tree of names and slowly took her seat on the couch
again. Her mouth was gaping open, but no sounds escaped. She was completely
transfixed on the hierarchical tree.

“Eva?” Zoe put her hand on Eva’s
shoulder hoping to break her trance.

“I don’t think you should come to
Terra to see my brother,” she whispered, her eyes never leaving the scrolls as
she examined each of the scrolls. “I think you should come because it’s your
home
.”
She turned the scroll around in her hands and pointed to a line of script Zoe
had missed on her initial examination. At the top written in a fine ink the color
of gold, was:
Lineage of the Original Family of Terra: Thanatos
.

The blood drained from Zoe’s face,
leaving her ashen and lightheaded. “No, that’s impossible,” she nervously
laughed. Her body dropped back down to the couch, her back and legs sinking deep
into the cushions.

“You were able to transport with
Evan,” Eva whispered. It was as if the conclusions were dawning on her one at a
time.

“That was Evan!” All she had done
was pass out.

“I couldn’t figure out why your
name was so familiar to me.
Thanatos
. That’s the name of the original
family.”

“The original what?” She didn’t
like the sound of that, nor the tone in her voice.

Eva placed the glass box next to
her and turned to face Zoe. “The first ruling monarchy of Terra. Of course! That’s
why the book was stolen!”

“What does that have to do with
me?”

“The woman who stole it claimed it
told a different version of how the Stratons came into the Crown.”

Zoe felt the hysteria rising in her
veins. “Who are the Stratons?”

“She claimed her name was Thea. Look!”
Eva cried, pointing to the name near the bottom of the tree. “This has to be
you!” Her finger moved to Zoe’s name. “This is your family. Thea is your
mother
.”

“No. I can’t be from another
universe!” Zoe scoffed incredulously. There had to be some enormous
misunderstanding.

“Why not? Because it isn’t
possible?” Eva asked incredulously.

“No! Because I think I would know
if was from another planet!” she laughed. “Just because you are doesn’t mean
that am too.”

Eva looked at her pointedly. “Then
where’s your family?” Zoe’s mouth opened and shut. “You do have one?”

“Of course I do!”

“Where are they? Tell me about
them!” she demanded.

Zoe stood and walked away from the
couch, stopping in the middle of the expansive living room. Of course she had a
family. She had to have come from somewhere and that somewhere was Santa
Barbara, the very place she’d lived her entire life. She tried to picture the
faces of her family but could remember none. Places and events were accounted
for, but the people were missing.

“You don’t have any family, do you?
At least not here.”

Zoe turned and looked back at Eva.
She tried to find something, anything to say but could do nothing more than
stare with her mouth open. Eva picked up the box and scrolls of paper and handed
them back to her.

“These are pages from a book
belonging in the Royal Anthology. How could you have possibly come upon these
by accident?”

“I don’t know!”

“Think about it, Zoe! A woman
claiming to be Thea from the original family - the
Thanatos
family -
risked her life to steal a historical book from the Queen, a book that
chronicles the founding monarchy of Terra. These scrolls are from Terra and
they happen to be hiding in
your
house here in Gaia? How many people do
you think have the name Zoe Thanatos?”

 “Eva, I…”

“Zoe,” Eva whispered. She took the
glass box and papers from her again and set them down on a chair. She took
Zoe’s hands in her own and squeezed them gently. “How many coincidences is it
going to take for you to realize that you
are
from Terra? What other
explanation could there be?”

Zoe shook her head. “If any of it
is true then I’m not the person I thought I was. How does someone live for 25
years without knowing their true identity?”

“I don’t know, but you can find
out. I’ll help you.”

Zoe looked up into Eva’s blue eyes
and saw a little bit of Evan in her face. She trusted
him
once, hadn’t
she? Who was to say she couldn’t also trust his sister? How could she not draw
the lines between coincidences? Her name was written on a piece of
ancient-looking paper that supposedly came from a book in another universe. The
glass container she found the paper in was identical to the Communicator both
Eva and Evan had used. On top of it all, she had no recollection of any Earth
family. Surely there must have been someone? Who had raised her? Who had bought
the house she lived in; earned the money she lived off of?

What were the odds that she had
lived a lifetime in one universe and then randomly met someone from the
universe she came from? Was everything, even sitting next to Evan on the boat
to Santa Cruz Island, nothing more than a string of coincidences?

This was her fresh start, wasn’t
it? She hadn’t ended her life like planned and was trying to fill it with something
meaningful. Perhaps Terra would reveal all the answers to her. If it truly was
her home, didn’t she owe it to herself to know for sure? And to the woman who
was possibly her mother?

“Okay,” she sighed. “I’ll go.”

“So how exactly is this going to
work?” Zoe placed the glass box in a small carrier with the rest of her
belongings and tightened the strap around her shoulder. Initially Eva
protested, saying she wouldn’t need to bring anything from Earth, but Zoe
insisted. If she came back and needed to get home by herself, she would need
money and identification to do so. Eva may have thought it was unnecessary, but
it made Zoe feel safe.

The glow from the Communicator lit
up Eva’s face as she consulted it. “First we go to the gate’s location, and
then we use it to go to Terra. It won’t take very long.”

“Will it hurt?”

Eva looked up from the Communicator
and smiled. “It isn’t painful, it’s abnormal. Although, technically you’ve
already done it so it might not feel like anything at all.”

Zoe looked down into the contents of
her carrier, feeling an odd trepidation at their impending travel.

“As soon as we arrive I’ll take you
to our residence. We’ll need to change your appearance.”

Zoe blinked in surprise. “What?
Why?”

Eva looked her up and down, taking
in everything from her hair to the designer denim and shoes. “Because you look
like you’re from Earth.”

I am
, Zoe thought. She
looked at her clothes, then Eva’s, and knew she was right. She wouldn’t look
like she belonged even if she technically did.

“Do you really think Thea is my
mother
?”
The word sounded unfamiliar to her as it whispered out of her mouth. She knew
she had many questions about the woman, but it still didn’t seem real to her.

Eva shrugged apologetically. “I
really don’t know. If she is your mother then we have a lot more to worry
about. She’ll soon be in the custody of the Crown and I doubt the Queen will be
lenient. We’ll need to be careful.”

“I know,” Zoe conceded. She
couldn’t put too much stock in Thea being her mother just yet. She could only
handle one monumental life event at a time.

“Do you have everything you need?”
Zoe caught Eva looking at her bag and smiled. “Anything you’re going to need
we’ll have.”

“I know. This is what I need for
Earth.” Zoe felt a thread of defense in her words. She watched as Eva’s face
registered her resolve.

“Let’s go to the gate.”

Evan watched as Alcander bound
Thea’s hands together, ready to take her to the Military Complex for
detainment. The Elder woman’s dark eyes burned as she glanced back at him. The
conversation didn’t feel like it was over. He would have to find a way in to
talk to her, to find out more about the original family, and specifically about
Zoe.

Despite having seen the words with
his own eyes he still couldn’t believe it. Thanatos was, nor rather,
is
the original family. Did Zoe know? Nothing in their time together suggested she
lied about her origins, yet alone even knew about them. Not to mention the
total shock and disbelief she exhibited when he told her stories of Terra.
Whether or not she knew, her life was on Earth, and she was better off there
for the time being. He would find a way to see her again, and soon.

Alcander pulled Thea by her
restraints and lead her in the direction of the Military Complex as the other Crown
Soldiers escorted the remaining prisoners behind them. Hector rounded out the
group, following last in the processional.

The King appeared at Evan’s side,
his arms clasped behind him as he watched after the departing party. “What do
you make of her?”

 “Does it matter? She’ll likely be
dead soon.” The thought troubled Evan. The Elder must have had a plan. Would
she really go through all that trouble just to be executed? It didn’t make any
sense. Even if she did have a plan, how would she follow through with it while
locked up?