Chapter thirty four

Chapter thirty four
Kichi
My back was stiff, my left leg was asleep, but I didn’t exactly have a valid reason to be cross. The sun shone down through the forest canopy lazily, making glowing shafts of sunlight dancing around in the air. The warm breeze brushed across my face, and it was nice to wake up to the peace of birds chirping. It was one of the better mornings to wake up to. But oddly enough, I had a feeling something was out of place, I couldn’t put my finger on it. I had a hunch not a lot of time had passed, and this looked similar to the setting the mutants usually camped out in; remote and natural. But the mutants weren’t there, nor any remnants of a camp.
“Hello?” I called out “Anyone here? Storm? Adara? Are-.” I lowered my head as I remembered what had happened, all I had left were Storm, Adara, and Fire. A silhouette passed behind a clump of trees, and I caught my breath. There was an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Ares stepped out of the green background, and I gasped. He smiled at me, not his I-am-sorry-about-what-I-did smile, but a real smile that brought out the sparkle in his eyes. This, I realized with shock, was the old Ares. If this had been a normal circumstance I would’ve rushed over to hug him and never let go.
But, of course, this was no usual circumstance. He was here, with me alone, but hatred stirred up inside me. But yet, I longed to be back by his side and for the nightmare to be over. I had been hoping for this moment ever since the betrayal, but now I realized that I didn’t really want it. It was total confusion, and it shamed me.
“Why Kichi,” Ares said “you’ve changed a lot since the mutants came around.” The mutants! He betrayed them, no, he betrayed me. But I was so lulled by the way he said my name with such warmth, and his words no longer contained the arrogance he had had as a scientist. _He betrayed you, and didn’t care afterwards_ I cautioned myself _but yet, here he is. He had to have cared if he came back. Why is he back? He was having a fine life with his little daddy and his test tubes_
“Kichi, I know you are thinking all about me, and what I did. I wasn’t myself, and I feel horrible, if I had a time machine… I thought we could start all over, as friends again.” He said. The words rang in my ear, that had been what I wanted all along, hadn’t it? The truth was that I had become more of a mutant than I liked to admit. I was one of them, and Ares was a traitor.
“No Ares,” I whispered “I don’t want to be with you. No matter what, I can’t forget how you betrayed us, no me, and left me to die. No amount of ‘starting over’ can undo that.” He frowned. And he opened his mouth to protest, but I cut him off calmly
“Now if you’ll please show me the way, I want to go back with the mutants, even if it means surrendering myself to the scientists.” Ares frowned again, and then shook his head. “Kichi you don’t understand. I set you with them so I could collect all of you together, in one sweep.” He faltered on his words, choosing them carefully. “But I wanted you to be okay, and here is our chance to be okay, together, like old times.” I got a bit angry then. “See that’s the problem!” I shouted, forgetting my good mood “it _can’t_ be like old times because I know you were just using me! Waiting for the right time to turn me in!” Ares gave me a stern look, and then shook his head disapprovingly for, like, the fourth time. “But now’s our chance to erase all that. Without the scientists.” He said, going for a comforting tone. “No!” I cried, “I want to go back now! Take me now! I don’t know the way back! You have to take me back.” Ares stared at me hard, then spoke at last “I’m sorry, Kichi. I can’t let you go back.”