2.5 An Unexpected Visitor

When Noah woke up, he was in a weird building. When he tried to stand up, Mason wasn't far behind. He tackled him once again. Noah tried to fight back, but he was exhausted. Mason dealt him one last finishing blow and Noah passed out yet again.

Periodically he'd wake up and check his surroundings, but it was too dark for him to see. He was so dazed, he didn't know whether he was dreaming or not. His mind kept rushing back to Farina. Was she okay? He recalled one of his favorite memories with her in the past few weeks:

She had been stuck in the dream pod as always. Noah couldn't sleep, and neither could she, so they decided to stay up and talk for awhile in hopes of getting drowsy.

"Noah...you don't have to stay up with me you know," Farina said. She was wearing her undergarments to sleep, but didn't seem embarrassed at all. Noah mentally checked that off the "we must be married" checklist he had made in his head. 

"You're really the only person I care to talk to in Oasis Landing. My coworkers are cool and all...but most of them are robots. Its nice to have human interaction once and awhile."

Farina leaned back and closed her eyes. "I know exactly what you mean."

"How is it in the dream pod?"

"It's ok...the dreams are nice sometimes. But, I really just want to walk around and live, you know? These artificial dreams aren't covering it for me."

"Dreams are great, but you want them to actually happen," Noah responded.

"Yeah," She whispered. "I want to dream with you one day, and then make it a reality."

"I'll make that happen," Noah said to her, but she was already asleep.

-End of Flashback-

Farina felt bad for tricking Noah but she had no choice. She locked him in the dream pod and set it to memories. She had no control over what he would be dreaming about, but she hoped it was a pleasant memory that would snap him out of his amnesia. She ran back to the crash site, knowing fully that Mason was hiding something in there, otherwise he wouldn't have gotten so mad when he had found her there. She was so frightened that time that she had dropped the key and had to search all over for it again.

From a distance she had noticed an explosion by the ship.

"Oh no!" She ran faster, hoping that the ship wasn't destroyed. It turned out to be another meteor shower, something that would only slow her down. Now, she had even more rubble to search through for the key. She tried to quicken her pace. Time was something she didn't have. She had to be back before Mason noticed. She had only a few hours. 

"Excuse me miss! What are you doing out here?" Farina whipped around and came face to face with a young female. Though she was a lot older, Farina had recognized her aura. 

"Daisy!" She screeched happily.

"How do you know my name?" Daisy asked, taking a step back.

"Oh uh...is that your name?" Farina laughed nervously. "I was just searching for daisies...a futile attempt in this world." 

"Nice save, but I wasn't born yesterday. A couple hundred years ago, but not yesterday. I don't get a bad vibe from you...I see you're in a hurry. Maybe I can help you out?"  Daisy asked.

"Oh...! Would you? That would be amazing! I'm looking for a key." 

"First, you have to tell me your name though." Daisy placed her hands on her hips. 

"My name is Farina." She wanted to come clean to Daisy and explain that she was Puzzle, the doll the Gray children had all played with, but it was too risky. She had so many questions of her own but now wasn't the time to ask. She would worry about it later.

"Aha! Over here I found it!" Daisy shouted and ran over to Farina. "Is this your key?"

"Yes it is! Thank you so much! It would have taken me hours to find it on my own." 

"What does it open?" Daisy asked before handing it over.

"That spaceship over there hopefully. I don't know whats in there, but it could be important. I think it might hold something that could solve all of my problems, but I don't exactly know what that would be," Farina admitted.

Daisy began to shuffle her feet. "You don't think it'd be okay if I went in there with you, do you? I'm kind of looking for answers of my own. You see, my brother went missing and I just need to find him." 

"Of course its alright. I'd rather go in with somebody else anyway. I don't know what to expect." 

Farina slid the key into the hole and waited for it to open. It made a creaking noise and a bright light appeared before it opened.

"Alright! We're in!" Daisy cheered.

They traveled through room after room but found only money. Daisy declined Farina's over to split the profit, saying it was Farina's key and that she didn't really need money anyway. 

"Now what?" Farina sighed in defeat.

"Look, over there! Its one more door. Lets go through it." 

"This must be the control room," Daisy said. 

"It doesn't look like anything works anymore."

"Well we can't exactly fly a ship that's buried a few feet underground." Daisy pointed out. 

"I was hoping we could open some sort of trap door or something. There can't be nothing in here, unless...Mason must have taken it out, knowing I'd come back." Farina held her finger on her chin.

"I'm not going to ask, unless you think your information could help me find my brother?"

A deafening scream could be heard throughout the ship. The two girls looked at each other and ran out of the room.

"What was that?" Farina asked.

"I don't know!" Daisy answered.

Lying on the ground was a bloodied Noah. "What the...! No...I still have a few hours until Mason comes back from work! Oh my...Noah!" Farina fell to her knees. She couldn't form any complete thoughts. She was in total shock. Farina felt her body go numb and she completely shut down. All she could do was stare at Noah's lifeless body on the ground.

"What are you doing!?" Daisy shoved Farina out of the way and ran to her brother. "Oh my gosh. Noah...are you ok? Answer me1" She turned to Farina. "Why aren't you doing anything? Call for help....check his pulse. Do something!" Daisy yelled.

Farina continued to stare. She still couldn't bring herself to do anything. "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh." Farina repeated over and over again.

"Damn it!" Daisy cried out in frustration. "Stop doing that and come help me!" She reached for his arm to feel his pulse. "He's breathing....he's still alive!"

Chuckling could be heard from the next room. Mason waltz in the room, head held high. "What did I tell you Farina?"

"Who the hell is this guy, Farina?" Daisy asked.

"Mason..." Farina said breathlessly. 

Mason ignored Daisy and turned to Farina. "What did I tell you Farina?" He repeated.

"Hey! I'm over here...did you do this to my brother?" Daisy shouted.

"Well, technically yes. I did hit him a few times but really this is all her fault. She allowed it to happen."

Farina shook her head furiously. "No. No. I didn't mean to...its your fault!"

"You beat the crap out of my brother!?" Daisy yelled towards Mason. "I don't know how she falls into this, but we'll get to that later. Right now, all that matters is that my brother is ok. So move the hell out of my before I do that to you!"

Mason laughed. "Go ahead. Do your worst, if you want to end up like him. This is your last warning Farina. You do what you're told or one by one thats going to happen to those children." He pointed to Noah's body. Dramatically, he tossed a smoke bomb on the floor and disappeared. 

"What the hell?" Daisy cursed. "That asshole. How dare he. Farina...are you going to help me bring Noah to safety or not?"

"Wait...you still want to talk to me?"

"Well...I can't bring his body out on my own. He's too heavy. Plus, I think you have a good reason for being involved in this which we can discuss later. I told you Noah is my top most priority."

The two headed back to where Daisy was staying. Apparently it was some sort of home base or base camp that time travelers stayed in. 

"He's starting to breath normally again and his wounds are all cleaned up." This was the first time Daisy let Farina in the room. Though she didn't sound like it, Daisy was incredibly mad at Farina for being involved in this whole situation and she didn't expect her to come clean right away, if ever about it all. 

"Oh...I'm so relieved. Thats fantastic. I was so worried," Farina confessed. She couldn't bear the sight of one of her best friends, half dead and bleeding.  

Daisy rolled her eyes, not believing a word of it. "I've called over some people to come and check Noah out. They'll be here soon. For now, you can just keep yourself busy while I get everything together."

Farina could only nod. It wasn't her house nor her brother and naturally, she had no say in what happened.