--Echo--

“I’m not scared. Not of myself, not of anyone else.” She defends. “You can’t see through me that easily.”

“I can see through you like glass. It’s crazy how easy it is.”

“Shut up, Echo.”

“Why? So you can convince yourself that you’re tough? That you can protect yourself? Piper, nothing’s going to get better if you build up your walls again. You can’t just hide from the world and expect it to fix itself.” I tell her, and she doesn't meet my gaze. 

“I’m not allowed to exist, Echo. I have every right to be angry at the world. And I’m not going to fix it, because I didn’t break it.”

“So you’re fine with living in fear the rest of your life?” I ask. 

“Thanks to you, I won’t have a long life. I’m not going to worry about how I spend my last few days.”

“You still blame me, huh?” I ask. She nods. “Well, I’m sorry. I certainly didn’t mean to endanger your life.”

“Thank you for the apology, but I still hate you.” Why? I’ve saved her life, risked everything that I knew before to help her, and I’ve tried to be sympathetic.

--Piper--

Who does this annoying brat from the stars think he is? And why is he right? I am scared. Scared of myself, scared of the world.

My only choice is to push him away. I don’t want to get soft. I don’t want to trust anyone anymore. I lost everything because of people, and I’m not going to trust them to give it back. I’m going to die alone, but I’ll die strong. That’s the only way to survive. Friends make you weak, and being weak is death for people like me.

The van rolls into the big, gray building that belongs to the Lords of the Otherside. Here awaits my doom.

The police lead us out towards a doorway, but without the walls. Identity scanner. If I walk through there, they know my name and everything about me in seconds. I slowly walk through, holding my breath, braced to hear everything about my meager existence listed off.

“Identity: Piper. Age: 14. Parents: Vera and Roger. Status: Phantom.” They pull me through to the other side, and I turn around to see what the scanner says about Echo. Something tells me it will be very interesting.

“Identity: Unknown. Age: Unknown. Parents: Not on Record. Status:” The machine stops talking at this part, as if it’s thinking of something to label him as. When it finally speaks again, the voice is distorted. “Status: Unknown.” After a few seconds, there’s a burst of sparks, and the machine shuts down. The policemen look from Echo’s smug face to the broken machine, with wide-eyed expressions.

“Get them into cells, and get me in contact with the Lords. Whatever this kid is, it isn’t human.” The chief orders. “And get a mechanic for the scanner.”

“Everything inside it is fried. We’ll have to order a new scanner. It can’t be fixed.” The policeman holding Echo’s chains says, glancing at the smoking machine which is now making odd hissing noises. I look at Echo, who is trying desperately not to laugh at this situation. 

“Just get them into a cell. We can worry about the scanner later.” The policemen nod and drag us along a hallway and down at least eight flights of stairs. We come out in a room lined with cells. Each one of them holds two people. Oh, crap. I have to share a cell with Echo. As soon as we are locked in a cell, Echo laughs out loud with a wide smile on his face.

“You think this is funny?” I ask.

“A little bit. Did you see their faces when the circuits got fried?”

“Sure, it was a bit amusing. But you shouldn’t be teasing your captors, or they might not be so nice to you.”

“You’re not in charge of me.”

“I should be. You’re always being so stupid that someone’s got to keep you in check.”

“In my defense, I was only born yesterday.” Echo says, the last traces of his laughter still apparent in his black eyes. “Have your random invisibility things stopped?” I nod. “Maybe they stopped because you’ve been using your abilities more often?” He suggests.

“Don’t say ‘I told you so.’ It will only increase how annoying I find you.”

“What can I do to not be annoying in your eyes?” He asks.

“I could name a few ways. But you don’t listen to me anyway, so it’s pointless.”

“Try me.”

“Well, you could start by removing my villain label.”

“Why can’t you do that yourself? You’ve got the power to.”

“No, I don’t!”

“If you don’t want to be a villain, then you should stop acting like one.”

“I’m not acting like a villain!”

“Yes you are. You’re refusing to feel emotion, and you’re being rude.”

“I’m being rude? You’re the one who said I wasn’t human!”

“I apologized for that, you know.” He points out. I sigh and sit down on the floor. “And why do you want to be human? You know how horrible they are.” He says with a shrug. 

“Why do you want to be a Phantom? You know how horrible we are.” I look up at Echo, tears making their way to the corners of my eyes. No! Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Especially not in front of him. I still have my dignity, right? 

I blink to destroy the tears, to pretend they never existed. But one of them escapes, and rolls down my cheek. Hopefully the light is dim enough for me to hide it.

--Echo--

Piper cries silently, staring out the bars as she sits on the ground. Her green eyes look cool and sparkly because of the tears, but from what I’ve learned of humans, crying means negative emotions, most of the time. I reach across the cell to wipe off her tears, but she smacks my hand away, with an empty look in my direction. 

“Please just stop trying.” She says, shaking her head. I put my stinging hand back down, and sit down next to her. She shivers in the cold cell, sighing. I unbutton my vest, and offer it to her. “What’s this for?” She asks, holding it at arm’s length as if it’s disgusting. 

“You’re cold.” I say, taking it from her, and putting it around her shoulders. 

“Why doesn’t it have any sleeves?” She asks, looking at the holes. 

“It’s a vest.” I say with a shrug. “But science says that if you keep your chest warm, your arms will be fine.” She rolls her eyes. 

“You’re such a know-it-all.” She says, but buttons the vest, accepting it. 

“Okay, fine, sorry for trying to be nice.” I tell her, sighing, and scoot away from her. Piper’s head comes up again. 

“Thank you.” She says quietly, almost silently. Wow, that was not expected. I nod, and look out the door of the cell at the dim hallway. 

“Come with us.” A guard says, coming to our cell. Piper looks up from the ground, brushing her hair out of her eyes. 

“Why?” I ask. “And can I have my satchel back?” I ask. They took it at the gate, and I feel weird without my pencil always near me. 

“Just get up before we kill you.” He says, opening the door and pulling Piper to her feet by her shirt. They handcuff us, and lead us out of the cell. Piper stares at the ground the whole way, shaking. When we get to the stairs, they pull us up by our hands, and lead us to a large room lined with various machines I do not recognize. It’s scary how little my training prepared me for this. I have no idea what is going on.

“You, get on the exam table.” They order me, shoving Piper into a chair by the door. I notice an exam table in the middle of the dark room, just as they said. A single shines on it, making it even more terrifying to behold. This isn’t going to end well for me, is it? I think, slowly walking towards the table after they take my handcuffs off. 

“What is this?” Someone asks, walking into the room. They have cold gray eyes and thinning brown hair. They wear a dark suit, which looks like it cost a fortune. I remember this from training. Taylan Miranda. He’s the head Lord of the Otherside, he’s in charge of the whole planet. “Why have you called me here?” He asks the guards by the door. The identity scanner operator walks out from behind a machine. 

“Sir, this prisoner was put through the scanner last night, and the scanner broke, we have no idea who he is.” They say. I smile a little. 

“So can’t we just fix the scanner, why did you bring me into this?” Taylan asks, turning to the operator. 

“Sir, he’s the reason it broke.” They tell him. He turns to stare at me. “His record doesn’t exist.”

“That’s impossible, we have the whole planet on record.” Taylan watches me intently, and I wave and smile. 

“He might not be from this planet, sir.” They tell him. Taylan blinks, and turns away from me. 

“Find out everything you can about him.” He orders, then looks over at Piper. “Who is the girl?” He asks. 

“A Phantom we picked up along with him, she might know something.” The operator says, sticking a needle into my arm. The needle is connected to a long wire that connects to a computer on the other side of the room. 

“I’ll interrogate her.” He says, and pulls Piper to her feet by her cuffed hands. “Let me know once you find anything out.” He orders, and pulls her out of the room. The operator sighs, and types on his computer, not talking to me. 

--Piper--

“Okay, what’s your name?” Taylan asks, sitting me down in his dark-colored office. 

“Piper.” I answer, folding my arms. He has no idea what he just did, taking off my handcuffs, did he? 

“And what is your ability?” He asks. I smirk. 

“This.” I say with a smile, and turn myself invisible. Taylan looks around, stunned. Hah. Idiot. I stand up and walk away, reaching for the doorknob. He sees the doorknob turning, and quickly grabs my invisible wrist, pushing me onto the ground. I get the wind knocked out of me, and my visibility comes back. 

“I’m not an idiot, you know.” He says with a laugh, pulling a metal rod out of his desk, like a policeman’s baton. He presses the button on the side of it, and it lights up with electricity, making a zapping noise. I quickly sit up, and edge away from it, shaking. “Who is that boy downstairs?” He asks. 

“He’s my friend.” I answer, backing up. 

“Where did he come from?” He demands. 

“Well, technically he was imaginary for a while but then I almost fell down the stairs making sure a wombat didn’t eat me alive, he appeared randomly as a human, and that’s as far as I know.” I lie, scrambling to get to my feet. 

“You’re lying.” He says, and jabs me in the side with the baton. I scream in pain as electricity courses through my body. 

“Please, I’m telling the truth!” I sob, collapsing to the cold floor. Taylan grabs my arm, and jerks me to my feet. The phone rings just before he zaps me again. He drops me on the ground, and answers the phone. 

“Okay, coming.” He says, yanking me to my feet again. “You got lucky, they just found out everything downstairs.” He cuffs my hands, and pulls me out of the room.