Ace awoke to the conversations of everyone in Team 57.

 They were inside a private shuttle pod heading towards the S. S. Andromeda, rented out so they could prepare for the first job of their careers.

  His face was squished up against a window, and his eyelids fluttered as he tried to tune out the noise. He ran his fingers through his bright red hair, stretched, yawned, and paid the several conversations no mind because he felt like something was more important.

A strange feeling came over Ace like he had forgotten something, but he couldn't remember what it was. It was a weird feeling, to know that you forgot, but couldn't remember what you forgot!

  So, he told himself, if it was important, I'll remember it eventually.

 Anything was more important than the “mission” he was on that day.

Their first mission was to protect the famous singer, Rikka Slater-White. She was performing on a space cruise-liner, so it should be an easy three-day trip around the moon, and back to Earth.

Their First Cadet, Levi had arranged everything.

 It was mere coincidence that the singer was his cousin. Even more so that the parent company that ran space cruise liners like the S.S. Andromeda was owned by one of his uncles.

Ace mulled over these facts, but he was brought back to reality by the odd whispers in the seats behind him.

“She broke up with him. There’s nothing left to worry about.”

" Nothing left to worry about!? I saw her. She was eating fingers an—"

  At the mention of cannibalism, Ace turned around to face them in the seats behind. Levi was talking to Fenton, his best friend, and Fenton looked like he was caught stealing something.

He grinned and came up with a quick lie.

  "We're just talking about a video game," he said.

  He swept his black bangs out of his face and averted his eyes as he lied.

 Ace knew he was lying because he never looked someone in the eyes when he lied. Ace’s death glare shifted to Levi and that was his cue to escape.

He was a tall man and had to slightly bend when he got up so his head wouldn't hit the small pods ceiling. It made his getaway look more cartoonish than that of an evil mastermind.

  "What are you hiding from me," Ace asked.

  "Nothing," Fenton replied.

  "It's not fair that you can see what anyone is thinking but won't tell me what you're thinking. Why were you talking to Levi? Doesn't he hate us?"

  Fenton couldn't come up with another lie, and he decided to bargain.

  "I'll tell you after the trip. I don't want to ruin it," he said.

  "I kinda don’t want to be here. I didn’t make First Cadet.”

  Fenton moved up one row into the seat next to him and consoled him, squeezing his shoulder.

  ” Levi’s family owns the cruise liner, our academy, and The Company. It was an uphill battle.”

  Ace accepted that it was an impossible goal he set to become First Cadet and tried to make the best of a hard day. He turned his attention out towards the window again as they approached the SS Andromeda.

Levi could sense everyone in the cabin felt like they weren't up to the task or weren’t taking the task seriously. He tried ease their nerves.  

  "There's nothing to worry about," Levi said. "This will be easy. Just make sure to keep your Fealty Rings on. They have trackers so if anything happens the main base can find you."

  "Oh my god, something is going to happen to us where they will need to find OUR BODIES," Harmonia shouted. "We're going to die."

  Like a few astrals, the side effects of her abilities made her look...odd. She glowed a soft pink, like a walking radioactive ball of happiness, and consistently smelled of fresh laundry, her beauty sometimes scary more than pleasing. Her looks changed with her emotions, and she went from her usual pink to a dark purple of panic.

  "No. No. Nobody is dying. No,” Levi said.

He was ignored.

Levi was trying to get fifteen people into shape in time for their end of year performance tests. Some of them were caught cheating, and judging by how things were going, many in their team wouldn't be passing.

  He tried his hardest to improve on the weakest link.

  Ace.

It wasn’t going well.

As the pod attached onto the loading dock, and everyone made a rush to the tube the conversation changed into well, if I'm going to die, I'd like it to be in a such-and-such way. By the time everyone walked down the dock, everyone was back to their usual ridiculousness, and it would be another day of skating by on the bare minimum.

 The loading dock was a long glass tube, lit up with small pulsing blue lights on the bottom. The pathway took them and other passengers into the heart of the ship. Levi saw Ace and tried to see what he could do about his little issue.

Without thinking, he grabbed Ace by his shoulder from behind, making him yelp in surprise.

  "Sorry. I just wanted to let you know that you're going to be in the main group today, okay?"

  "Okay," Ace replied uncertainly.

“So just uh… I uh… nevermind…”

  Fenton's eyebrows arched up, his eyes flashed purple, and he quickly scanned a new target's mind before he could leave. Levi quickly jogged off into the ship and Ace was left even more confused by his recent behavior.

  "He's just trying to apologize in his own way," Fenton said.

  "At least I’m in the main group! I get to meet this famous chick everyone's talking about!”

“What if you go on a date with a famous singer? Forget about Candice,” Fenton teased. “She’s not serious anyway. She keeps breaking up with you and getting back together.”

“I bet she’s with him, “Ace replied.

“There’s a higher chance of Levi being interested in me than her.”

It was too late though.

Once an idea was in his head, even wrong, he would run with it like he stole it.

“I’m going to my first shift. I’ll see you soon,” Ace mumbled.

  While Ace walked through the red carpeted halls of the ship his mind ran in circles, trying to figure out who Candice had left him for. He knew it was someone stronger, or taller!

It must be Levi! 

He took his position as First Cadet! Now he’s trying to take his girlfriend and pretend that he cares about his performance!

  As he arrived at Rikka White's suite, he realized he was being ridiculous, and knocked on the door.

  Levi answered it, and he was annoyed.

  "How is it that someone who can teleport is always late?"

  "I can only teleport to places I've been or seen. I've never been to her room before," Ace exclaimed.

  Levi pursed his lips shut and decided to be the outside security, so he waited in front of the door.

  Inside Rikka's suite, Ace was greeted by her personal bodyguard David, and another one of Ace's teammate’s Gabriel.

Gabriel was neatly dressed, wearing a rosary, and his brown hair was well done. He looked like he was about to go to work at an office instead of protecting a client, versus David, who wore all black, had a short, curly mohawk, and a gun at his side. Ace and Levi were dressed a lot more casually and Rikka didn't care, she wasn't that serious about security on her ship.

  She could handle herself fine.

  She just couldn't use her ability on board out of fear of killing everyone on the ship.

  But she did care about Ace.

  "Rikka, this is overkill,” David complained.

  "No, it's not! They're those pervert stalkers who want my BODY!"

   Shivers went down her spine and she dramatically clutched her body, making the worst face she could muster. Keeping the same pose, she looked David dead in the eye, with authority only the rich could have.

   "Could you get me some food, please? I'm hungry."

  David obliged.

  "Sure. Nothing is going on anyway.”

  "Wait,” said Gabriel. "Let me come too, I'm hungry.”

  Once they left, Ace was nervous alone with Rikka.

  There was nothing to be nervous about, Ace told himself. She looks like a normal girl. She just happens to be rich and famous, tall, beautiful and smells nice. That's all.

  That's what he kept telling himself to calm his nerves, but it didn't work.

.  "Finally, they're gone,” Rikka sighed. "I wanted to get the two of us alone."

  Ace's face flushed, his mind replaying the different intros to the many porn videos he watched online. All that was missing was the bad music, the strong lighting, and the strange house with minimum furniture.

  "W-what do you mean,” he asked.

  "Oh, don't pretend like you don't know, silly."

 Rikka leaned back in her puffy purple chair, with bedazzled legs on the bottom. She pointed a finger straight at him and grinned wildly.

 "You're just like me. How did you get one?"

She pointed at his small cloth bracelet around his wrist, and she could feel the intense energy coming from it.

" I have no idea what you're talking about,” Ace replied. "You're-"

  Rikka got up from her chair and grabbed his wrist. 

Hard.

Rikka held out her necklace for Ace to feel its own power, but he didn't feel a thing. He was confused and a little scared.

"You have a celestial object. Just like me! That's why I wanted so many bodyguards," Rikka explained. "The celestials can't fall into the wrong hands. I can usually take care of myself, but I can’t use its power on the ship, or else it would explode!"

"What's a celestial?”

 Rikka gave Ace a good, long, look.

"You seriously don't know, do you?”

“No. Let go of me,” he said.

She gripped harder.

"This bracelet was made from the blanket my dad found me in. You got me confused for someone else," Ace explained.

Rikka was still gripping onto him fiercely and she looked at him, up and down, trying to see if he was lying or simply being dumb. She inspected him and started to see that there was something worse going on.

  "Someone did something to you,” she said.

  Rikka's eyes flashed bright and blue.

She saw things that others couldn't and scanned him up and down, knowing that someone had hurt him. The handiwork of Maximillian, and her father, Rico, was all over Ace. She could see that someone had rearranged his mind, and whatever they did to fill in the blanks somehow made it all worse.

"They blocked you from seeing the truth. To help you maybe, or just to hurt you," Rikka mumbled.

  She held his hand and shivered, wondering what had happened to him, nervous to see what was inside. Rikka had seen many horrible memories, but these seemed worse than everything she had ever seen.

  "Come here. I will show you the truth," she pleaded.

  Ace snatched his hand away and Rikka was angry with him.

"Don't you want to know the truth," Rikka screamed. "They hid you from yourself!"

  Rico's work was impressive. Ace didn't want to know, because he had implanted many subconscious thoughts into his mind, to keep him stupid and weak. Rikka saw his handiwork all over, her father’s marks of those he hurt.

  Like scars, they lined his arms and legs, his chest and face, and it terrified her. Rico had not only hidden bad memories and replaced them with good ones, but he had replaced good memories with bad ones, scrambling his brain like eggs.

  "You're so confused. It's okay," she told him. "Let me help you."

  "Don't touch me," Ace growled. His eyes turned an intense black and Rikka shot up from her chair. Like all Slaters, she was ridiculously tall, even taller than Ace. She stared him down and tried to reason with him.

  "I won't hurt you," she said. "I promise. I just want you to hear his voice."

  "Is this some kind of religious thing," Ace shouted. "You wear the same dumb thing Gabriel does!"

  "Don't be rude," Rikka hissed. "I'm offering you the power of the gods, and you dare to reject me?"

  Before Ace could argue with her, she grabbed his right hand and put it over his eyes. She was strong, but Ace was stronger. However, he was afraid to fight back because she was a woman. A rich woman, at that. He didn't want people to think he had done something, alone in a room with a crazy woman who spoke of seeing and magic.

  "Close your eyes,” she commanded.

   Ace closed his eyes and his heart raced as Rikka moved his hands away from his shut eyes and placed hers instead.

  "True sight is my power. You will see through the lies,” she boomed.

   Ace's head felt strange, and his body tingled all over. He felt like the air was being sucked out of his lungs and he gasped for air.

  "Open your eyes.”

  She pushed her hand hard, into his face, as if she were pushing something out of him and Ace shuddered, feeling gross all over.

  Like he needed a bath.

  That the room was wrong.

  Something had changed and he didn't know what.

  "Nothing has changed,” he lied.

  "Look at your wrist.”

  Ace looked at his wrist, but instead of a cloth bracelet, what he saw was a metallic bracelet. It was silver and had a golden band that went through the middle.

   "You changed my bracelet to metal,” he exclaimed.

  "No! I've never met someone with so much power to be so stupid! Dad has clearly done something horrible to you!"

  “You need help,” Ace replied.

  "Be quiet! Listen! You have been blinded for so long you can't hear him!"

  Suddenly the door opened. Gabriel and David were back, and with food.

  "Is everything okay,” asked David. "You look upset.”

  "Oh, I'm fine," Rikka grinned. " We were just arguing about the best movie."

  Rikka turned back into her bubbly self, causing Ace to question if anything had ever happened, and he fumbled with his bracelet, now metallic. It was silver and gold, and looking at it, he knew he had it before. From somewhere. He just couldn't remember. Every time he did, it was like a wall was pushing inside his brain, and he would sweat, the mental exertion becoming physical.

  The longer he looked at the bracelet, the harder the wall would push back.

  The smell of BBQ filled the room, wrapping Ace inside a warm embrace. All the arguing had made him hungry, and he grabbed a barbeque sandwich with shredded pork. "Thanks, David, I love this stuff,” he said.

  "Yeah, me too,” said a voice next to him. Ace turned and saw a young man. He looked familiar.

  Everyone was eating their sandwiches, totally ignoring him.

  "It's a shame I can't eat this stuff,” he said. "I just love the smell of meat.”

  Everyone continued to ignore him. Then Ace realized.

  They're not ignoring him. They can't see him.

  Ace got up abruptly and made an announcement.

  "Bathroom."

  He exited the dressing room, and the strange man followed him. Ace eyed him from the side while walking down the hallway, worrying if that Rikka’s crazy was contagious. He was sure this is what people meant when they said rich people were different and didn’t think like regular people.

   He seemed to have tan skin, with blonde hair. In fact, Ace believed he had met him from before but wasn't sure from. He seemed happy about something, and wasn’t sure what was so exciting, as they walked down the hallway.

His armor was silver and gold, and his cape glowing and iridescent. It was hard not to look at him, impossible anyone could not see or hear him, as the man was huge, at seven feet tall. Ace looked both ways down the hallway to make sure no one else was around, still afraid that he was insane, so no one would see him talking to himself.

  "Why do you keep following me,” he hissed.

  The strange man was shocked and pointed at himself, as if he were addressing some other invisible knight, with a soft sparkling glow in an empty hallway.

   "You're talking to me?”

  "Yeah, you,” Ace snarled. "You some kind of psychic stalker? How come no one else can see or hear you?"

  After years of being ignored, someone had finally seen him. The poor young man was starting to believe that he was a ghost all along, and the years he and Ace had spent together were a fabrication of his lonely mind.

  Little tears came out as finally, someone had seen him, no longer would he have to suffer loneliness ever again.

  "Years, it's been years since you've acknowledged me."

  The man began to sob, and Ace awkwardly patted his arm. It didn't do much, because he was covered head to toe in armor, and all Ace did was simply smack metal.

  "Uh, it's gonna be okay, uh..,” Ace trailed off. "What's your name??"   

  "Invictus." He wiped the snot from his face and his tears faltered. "You should know. You named me."

  "That woman made me crazy just like her," Ace said quietly. "This is impossible."

   Invictus grabbed him as he turned to walk away. "No, you're not. We're best friends. I kept you safe when I was still a blanket. Remember?"

  Ace thought hard and then he remembered. Invictus.   

  When Ace was a kid, he had a blanket his father found him in. It was plain white, nothing special. As Ace grew up, he loved to use the blanket as a cape. He would pretend to be a knight. And every day he would play knights and dragons with his imaginary friend, Invictus.

  When Ace got too old to carry his blanket everywhere, his father turned a piece of it into a bracelet for him. Eventually, he grew up, and Invictus went away. He was never real.

Or so he thought.

   Invictus was standing right in front of him. An actual knight. His armor gleamed in the hallway, and his long cape shone many colors, and for some reason, standing closer to him, Ace started to suddenly feel at ease, his worries washing away.

  "You're not real. You're my imaginary friend,” said Ace. "Emphasis on imaginary."

  "That hurts," cried Invictus. "After we promised to be best friends forever. I'm not imaginary at all!"

  He side-eyed Invictus who was clearly hurt. He faded away, glaring at him, his cape turning a harsh and bright red, and Ace's mouth hung agape.

  He could feel Invictus' anger and it was disconcerting, that maybe he wasn't crazy. The ramifications of a sentient blanket made him question if he wasn't just a sock stuck underneath someone's bed. He didn't want to know anything more, because the small truth he had learned made everything around him feel wrong.

  So, he decided to go to the bathroom, to wash his face and calm down, but while there he forgot, as he usually did, what he was doing, and did not return to his shift.