Immunity

"You're immune to the sun?" Atton whispered.

Danielle shifted nervously in the darkness of the small cave and nodded.

Atton leaned back. "How is that possible?"

She shook her head. "I don't know,"

"No one is immune to the sun," he said. "It just isn't possible."

"I can…prove it, you know?" she said.

Atton shook his head. "You're either crazy or some kind of superhuman. If you die out there, don't blame me. I warned you."

Danielle stood, not wanting to waste another second. Her footsteps echoed off the cave walls. The tall, maple-haired man followed after her, scanning the outside with his dark eyes. The entrance to the cave was in sight. Others were beginning to stir and wake up. Some watched them in confusion or interest or horror.

"Well," said Atton, "This is your stop. I sure hope you're right about this."

"Atton," she whispered, "I didn't mean to keep this from you, really."

Everyone was watching them, now. Atton took her hand in his to comfort her.

"The truth is," she continued, "I've only known you a short time, and I don't really-"

He bent forward suddenly, touching his lips to hers. A collective gasp rang throughout the cave. She had no time to react; in a single moment, he pulled back. "Shut up," he whispered. "Don't die."

Danielle looked down. "You shouldn't have done that, Atton," she said. "You're the Earth Sage. Your title will be revoked if this reaches the council."

"I don't care," he said. "If being a stupid Sage means I can't kiss you, then I don't want it."

A warm, bubbly feeling surfaced in the pit of her stomach and she beamed.

"You're smiling," he said. "This is the first time I've seen you smile."

"I won't make it be the last," she promised, and slid her hand out of his as she backed out of the cave. Someone screamed; everyone thought she was trying to kill herself. There was a scramble to the mouth of the cave to watch, all halting an entire two feet short of the line between shadow and sunlight.

When the light touched her skin, the cave went silent. Seconds passed. Everyone held his or her breath, expecting the red-haired girl to burst into flame at any given moment. Finally, Danielle smiled. "See?"

"Impossible," whispered Atton. "It's true. You really are immune to the-"

"Monster!" someone shrieked.

Her smile faltered.

"It's unnatural," someone else muttered.

Whispers broke out across the cave. "I've never seen her before," someone said. "How did she get here?"

"Earth Sage!" a woman clutching a koala-like child called, "We cannot keep the girl here! It may encourage others to go out into the sun! She is a danger to us!"

"Dan, come back," Atton said softly.

Danielle hung her head and hurried back into the shade. The adults hung back, whispering, pointing, and muttering, but the child of the woman who had spoken scrambled out of her arms and raced over to her.

"Pretty Lady," she said, tugging on Danielle's jeans, "What's the sun like?"

"I-" she stuttered, glancing at the child's mother.

"Go on, Dan," said Atton. "Tell her the truth."

She gulped. "Well," she said slowly. Everyone's attention had been captured once more. "The sun is big. It's shaped like a ball, and it burns a long, long ways off. So when you stand in the light, it's…warm."

Some of the younger adults and the children had misty, far-off looks on their faces. "Go on," the young girl urged.

She took a breath. "The sun is a star. It's much closer to earth than the other stars."

"The sun is a…star?" a different boy asked from behind his father, who shushed him.

"Yes," Danielle nodded. "It is. In fact, all stars are suns, but they are very, very far away. When our sun goes down, it takes the light with it, and so we can then see the other stars in the sky."

"What about constellations?" asked a young mother, holding her baby in her arms. "Did the Council really arrange them?"

"No one arranged the stars," Danielle said. "It's coincidence that they appeared in patterns we recognize. Like Libra, Draco, Gemini, Orion's Belt, and all the others."

"Did the Council connect the dots, then?" someone else asked.

"No," she said. "No, they did not."

"Who did?"

"Thousands of people, a long time ago. Thousands and thousands of years. Back before English was the universal language."

"That is a very, very long time," said Atton.

Danielle nodded. "Yes. In fact, some of the earliest people to record stars were the Greeks and Romans. Even some Native American's and the Aztecs."

There was a silence, and she knew she had said something wrong. She looked to Atton for guidance, but he seemed as confused as everyone else.

"What's America?" asked the young girl. "And Ro-mens and Ax-ticks?"

"What's – what?" she whispered.

"America," repeated the young boy's father. "I've never heard of it."

A mutter of agreement swept throughout the cave. Danielle looked at each of their faces and found them staring back, waiting for an answer. She had none.

"Dan?" said Atton. "How do you know so much?"

She shook her head. "I-" She backed away. "I-I have to go home,"

And she ran.

She knew she shouldn't have come forward so far. She knew the risks she had been taking when she stepped into her uncle's time machine, but she had to see Atton again, just one last time. And to only have it end this way…

The first time she had gone to the future had been an accident. She had tripped the security button and stepped onto the platform before she had meant to. And then it was the year 800992. For some reason, the sun killed everyone.

Everyone but her, a specter from the past. Atton had found her wandering around at night, and took her into the cave before she could be burned by the morning's light. The next night she ran back the way that she came while everyone slept. She found the portal back home inside the national museum. There was her uncle's time machine, encased in glass.

A week after she returned home, she wanted to go back. She wanted to see Atton. And so she did, many times. This time she planned to tell him the truth – that she was from the past, that this wasn't where she belonged, that the sun didn't affect her, and that she had to go home for good.

The new knowledge of the future shocked her, however. Danielle had known the Council was bad news from the moment she heard about them. The Council controlled everything. They made it so that the people lived in caves rather than houses, which didn't exist. They covered up the bad history and made it so that they did anything good that had ever happened.

In a future where America, the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave did not exist, and everything was contained and twisted, Danielle wished that she'd never come in the first place.

She wished that she'd never had a glimpse into the dreadful future.

The museum was an entire day's walk away. Night came fast, and Danielle watched the sun disappear over the mountains. She didn't even know whether or not it would rise in the morning. In the new-covering darkness, people came out of caves and began to walk around.

Exhaustion caught up with her. Inch by inch, she moved forward. The museum was in sight, lit up in the darkness to attract customers like bees to honey. Hundreds of wide stairs led up to the entrance. Danielle stepped onto the first one.

"Dan!"

It was Atton. And, what looked like all the people in the cave, the children included. They were all panting as if they'd been running.

"What are you doing he-"

"Don't go, Pretty Lady!" wailed the small girl from earlier. "Don't leave again! You're the only one who isn't afraid to tell stories!"

"You're the only adult who listens to us!" cried the young boy.

"You're different, but you're good!" yelled another.

"We don't want you to go either!" the young mother with the baby screamed.

"Please don't leave!" said the mother of the small girl. "I'm sorry I snapped at you – I was just shocked!"

"We don't want you to go! You play with us!"

"You knew how to fix the refrigerator,"

"You can read and do math and you know a lot about the earth,"

"None of us can do that!"

The pleas died down. Danielle stared at them.

Atton stepped forward and silence overtook the air. They looked at each other. "Dan," he whispered, "Don't tell us that you're leaving for good. Please. I don't know how you got here in the first place, but you're unlike the rest of us. You have a spirit that only children hold. You know so much off the top of your head that we have to look up in books. You're strong and capable and beautiful. And…"

She took a breath.

"And…I love you for it."

Everyone hung on the edge of their nerves, waiting for her response.

Danielle closed her eyes. "I'm not from this time," she whispered. "I'm from the year 2011. I came here by accident when I activated my uncle's time machine. I never meant to come back after the first time, but I-"

Her eyes found Atton's. Everyone understood. No words were needed for the emotion that spoke silent volumes.

"This future isn't what it should be," she continued. "This is wrong. It's all wrong. I wish I had never learned about man's fall. It's just too terrible. And the sun…" She looked up toward the stars that began to appear. "In my time, the sun doesn't hurt people. Well, some, but they have illness. All of you, you're healthy. I don't want my race to fall to the point where even our own sun rejects us."

After a pause, Atton whispered, "Is it better, in your time?"

"Yes," Danielle whispered. "It's beautiful there. I wish I could show you…wait a…I-!"

"Dan?"

"That's it!" she yelled, making everyone jump. "That's just it! Come on, follow me!"

She raced up the steps of the museum and threw open the doors, everyone hot on her tail.

"What's going on, mommy?" asked the small girl. "Why is the Pretty Lady so happy suddenly?"

The mother shook her head. "I don't know, sweetheart."

"This is the answer, Atton," Danielle said, pointing to the grey and green capsule in the center of the main dome.

"What is?" he asked.

She grinned widely. "Come back with me!"

"What?"

"Come back with me, to my time! If you don't like it there, you come back here, I promise!"

"But," he said, "What about the sun?"

"What about it?" she shrieked. "It's thousands of years younger! It can't harm you! Although you may have to experience your first sunburn."

He winced. "It sounds painful."

"It's not that bad," she said, waving her hand. "Are you coming or not?"

"Just let me check something," he said.

He kissed her once again, earning another unscrupulous gasp from the crowd. This time, Danielle leaned into it, never wanting the moment to end, never wanting him to end. He was the reason she came back, after all. Atton pulled away.

"Yup," he said. "I definitely can't live without that. Okay, I'm coming."

"Earth Sage!" cried the girl's mother, "You'll get your title revoked if the Council finds out about this!"

"Screw the Council," he said. "And screw being a Sage. Right now, I'm just a normal man."

"Who's madly in love with a lady from the past," mumbled a young boy. "All right, I'm coming too. I don't wanna miss this."

"I'm not passing up the chance to feel the sun," admitted the small girl.

"Oh, let's all go!" cried the young mother.

Danielle smiled and took Atton's hand, facing the capsule. "Okay," she whispered. "Let's all go."