There was no Gabe standing outside on Iker's flagstones. The polished ones across the house's glass entrance that lead to Iker's personal jaunting portal. Joaquim had no idea what to make of his brother's disappearance, especially now that he was sure that he did remember Gabe having handcuff marks in the dream.

  Was it a dream? Something more? Did... did he actually go there? Physically?

  Recent events made Joaquim reach the corners of his sanity. The only thing Joaquim could come to the conclusion to was that whoever arranged this madness had to make sure Joaquim was not privy to certain information. He had to be in the dark at all costs.

  But why?

  Joaquim had his own Ember military uniform, and even though to him it was the first time he was wearing it, the uniform itself had a different opinion on the matter. Another memory trickled in, this time a curmudgeon recruiter at the base had given him a tight uniform even though Joaquim had requested a much larger size. Regardless, the now stretched uniform graciously had more cozy room.

  The jaunting portal hummed.

  Gabe's memorable silhouette stood in the light. No change in clothes.

  Joaquim was by himself on the platform, so he briefly checked that the door would lock on his way out. And it did. He glanced below to check his combat boot laces, and then walked across the sleek flagstones to the forefront of the jaunting disk where the hologram screen floated. The selection was still on where Iker and Lucia went earlier this morning, which was the two topmost platforms of Ember City which were more like nature reserves rather than urban platforms. Where the exam to join the exclusive two platoon would take place.

  However, Gabe loaded successfully onto the jaunting disk, and now he was a stone toss away from his little brother.

  "Hi," Gabe breathed.

  Joaquim did not respond, and on top of that he pretended that he did not walk all the way to the disk on his own volition. He acted like he appeared there by accident, almost walking towards the edge of the midair platform to view the city until Gabe stopped him.

  "I know why you're mad," Gabe said.

  Joaquim did not reply again, and then he heard approaching sneakers walking on the flagstones.

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  "You need to change back Joaquim... I mean Naomi," Gabe said. "They are going to kill us both—"

  "Then let them try," Joaquim said. "I am not going back to the way I used to be."

  "So you no longer believe in God? You don't believe Prophet Ameen is our messiah? You don't believe you're engaging in decadence by doing this?" Gabe asked.

  "Did you know they used to call it sinning?" Joaquim replied. "The Aulasy changed the word sin to decadence for some reason. Or maybe the word's meaning changed over time."

  "You're copying my tactic of avoiding questions," Gabe said. "If you don't take me seriously I'm leaving—"

  "You already did that once," Joaquim retorted. "So do it again. Get your skinny ass out of here."

  Utter silence fell on Iker's residential platform, but Joaquim had no care for Gabe's silence. Well, it could be he was trying to convince himself of that, so he turned to Iker's house to look at its enigmatic architecture. Well, it was no longer enigmatic when Joaquim found its meek supporting beams a few days ago. From the outside it looked like the three round floors surrounding the inner hothouse should topple on each other, yet the illusion had them floating on top of each other. The cladding had a calculated yet chalky texture, bubble patterns could be spotted in it when one peered close enough.

  "Yea, go stare at that house as if you weren't living there in the past week," Gabe said. "Are you going to answer my questions or not?"

  "For the most part, I don't think I actually did," Joaquim replied, taking more steps away from him and towards the house Gabe just spoke about.

  "Okay... Naomi I am really trying to save you," Gabe pleaded. "If you don't come with me now... I don't know what they'll do to you."

  "You can stay with me and take the test," Joaquim said. "I know you are a candidate to join. When did you do the bootcamp by the way?"

  "Sis, seriously," Gabe said. "They told me to come here and kill you. I need you to listen to me."

  "KILL ME THEN!" Joaquim yelled, flinging his arms up while turning around. "I AM RIGHT FUCKING HERE! DO IT BITCH!"

  Gabe's eyes got glassy, and he turned himself around. He marched back on top of the disk after changing the selection on the hologram screen, then he tried speaking again.

  "I tried—"

  "Whatever you want to tell yourself," Joaquim interrupted. "You're funny bro. You can't even kill a fly. It will be funny to watch you try doing something like that."

  His tone of voice had one story, but Joaquim's eyes had another. His eyes got glassy too as he reached the railing on the platform's edge to view the city. The closest platform was a mostly concrete and metal park, and whoever was the one that designed all the monkey rails, swings, and slides was given the creative freedom to push the limits on what was possible for those attractions.

  Even though he tried to distract himself by seeing all the happy parents walking by a sandbox that had really fine and glittery beach sand, Joaquim could still hear the jaunting platform sending Gabe somewhere else entirely.

  While a tear fell, Joaquim spotted a father freezing mid step. He had one arm up and one leg raised, however for some reason could not take the next step. The man stared forward without moving at all.

  The father looked so bizarre standing on one foot, and the parents and children around him walked by him as if it was normal.