A Phoenix Unfurls Her Wings

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For a moment, Erin felt as if she was experiencing a time-loop. As she pretended to watch the instructors give their carefully choreographed demonstration of the Falcon Wing, Erin's mind wandered to the past.
She had stood here before, years ago. Maybe she was not in this exact spot, but the process played out the same. Other children from other worlds with other stories she might never learn shuffled around the troop bay of the Pelican to get a good view of the training instructors. Erin wasn't a mind reader, but their faces betrayed their inner thoughts nonetheless. The children were confused, concerned, and scared.
The instructors, one of which was a familiar man from the last time Erin was here, demonstrated how to wear and utilize a parachute harness Erin was all too familiar with. While the other children were seeing the equipment for the first time, she couldn't bother to listen in.
Erin had experienced the jump already. She remembered the pitch black sky of Onyx. She could still feel the roaring air billowing past her as her altitude rapidly decreased. The audible chime indicating it was time to pull the chute was ingrained into her mind from repeated drills.
The instructions didn't matter to her; she's heard them all before. Her eyes never settled their gaze on the packs or their multicolored cords. They wandered across the faces of the children.
This was a new company, a new start. Despite Erin telling herself it was impossible, she still naively held onto a small piece of hope that she might recognize a friend among the crowd, as if her entire unit was stuck in the time-loop with her.
A burst of turbulence shook Erin back to reality as one of the other candidates lost his balance and fell on her.
"Watch it!" Erin exclaimed instinctively, pushing back on the boy in a momentary burst of anger. He toppled in the other direction, bumping into another girl on the other side of him.
"Hey! I slipped, okay?" The boy glared back at Erin as he recovered his balance. He looked to be about the same age as Erin, perhaps a year younger. "It's not like I chose to fall on you, princess!"
Erin wanted to retort with an insult of her own, but she bit her tongue. She was taught better than that. This boy was her teammate, not the enemy, even if this was the first day they've ever met.
Besides, the boy was right. Erin had no difficulty staying upright within the shaking fuselage, but that wasn't expected of him or any of the others. They weren't part of the time-loop.
"Are you hurt?" the other girl asked, first to the boy before turning her head to Erin. She was much younger than the boy, and held her arms close to her chest like a turtle trying to escape into its shell. She reminded Erin of herself—the version of her from the first jump.
"I'm okay," Erin responded with a sigh, calming herself back down. She looked back to the boy, apologetically. "I didn't mean—"
"Oh, shut up. You didn't mean to?" the boy asked, putting emphasis on the "you" to highlight Erin's mistake. The boy looked prepared to continue with a belittling speech, but he too was interrupted as the lights in the troop bay dimmed.
"We're approaching the drop point," the familiar instructor called out from the back of the bay. Erin's memories quoted him verbatim as he spoke the words aloud. "Line up and collect your gear."
Erin found her place in the line, cutting in front of the boy in such a manner as to make it appear like happenstance. Falcon Wings were dealt out to each of the recruits, and Erin slipped hers on with a single elegant motion. The rest of the children were more cumbersome with their approach, but with some assistance from the instructors they each eventually secured themselves in their harnesses.
All sound from within the Pelican became imperceptible as the rear bay door cracked open. The roar of the engine thrust and dirty wind filled Erin's ears, deafening her to anything else the instructors might have been saying. While Erin was near the back of the line, she could still see between the heads of those in front of her the black void speckled with little white lights that made up Onyx's constellations.
The line began to shuffle forward as one by one the candidates made their jump. The girl in front of Erin, the turtle, quite nervously inched towards the open door at a pace much slower than the line in front of her. The instructor waiting for her ushered her forward with exaggerated hand motions, but it didn't speed the girl up any faster.
Did Erin take this long to make her first jump? She wasn't quite sure. She remembered the fear, the uncertainty, but not how long she stood frozen on the end of the bay ramp. In the moment, it must have felt like an eternity.
Eventually, the girl in front of her worked up the courage to take the dive and approached the ledge. With a light push on her shoulder by the instructor, the girl quickly vanished into the night sky. Erin did not remember the shove. She wondered if it was introduced because of her.
Either way, Erin wasn't about to delay the instructor for the second time in her life. After a short, calming breath, she walked towards the ramp with haste. She gave the instructor a smirk and stepped off into the same inky black sky.
In a split second, the dimly lit troop bay was replaced by darkness, the stars only faintly illuminating the ground. High winds threatened to tumble Erin around as she oriented herself, but she didn't struggle against them. She would have time to control her descent once she deploys her parachute.
Seconds felt like minutes, but Erin didn't complain. She glanced up at the stars above her, her wobbling making it difficult to focus on any one star in particular. Perhaps she wasn't supposed to, the rocking of her body being only natural in the moment.
The seconds-turned-minutes gave Erin time to think. She wasn't supposed to? Who dictated Erin's path? Did she even have a path? Of course she did. Whether it was out of fate or obligation, Erin knew what she needed to do. She got a second chance to succeed; Kurt gave her another opportunity.
She pulled the ripcord. She was going to be a Spartan.
Category:Shattered Glass Stories