Shadows of Eden

by RoccoRoccs

Chapter 8: Data Recovery

Pain. Agony. Suffering. I thought I knew what those words meant, but little did I know just how deep their meaning could go. I have no idea how long I fell for all the while passing in and out of consciousness. My body had said enough is enough and began shutting down. The morphine that had been pumped into my veins dulled the ache, but only for so long. I felt cold, hard tile beneath me. I heard a pony shouting. I felt needles puncher my hide ever so slightly. But I could not find the energy to open my eyes.

I just wanted to sleep, I want to sleep forever and never feel like this again. All my organs were screaming at the top of their lungs, pleading for the dull pain to leave them. I just wanted so badly to sleep. But I could still hear voices calling my name. Wave after wave of chemicals hit my system like a firestorm causing my heart to thunder and my skin to crawl. What was keeping me alive? Why was I still here? My lungs began to slow, but were soon being inflated. My heart began to weaken, but was soon forced back to beating. Just let me die already! Stop torturing me!

Just when I thought I couldn't handle anything more, just when I was about to break from the pain, I felt a small jab in my leg of a needle. The pain began to fade slowly, the ache went away and I felt my every muscle relax. Finally, I was at peace. It was finally over, I could rest again. I could sleep forever.

oooooooooooooooooooo0000000000oooooooooooooooooooo

*Beep*

*Beep*

*Beep*

I awoke to the steady chirp of a heart monitor. My mind fully aware that I was still alive, but my eyes were refusing to realize it just yet. No,no,no! Why was I still here!? I had accepted my fate, I wanted to rest! For the second time in my life I had been ready for death, prayed for it this time, and for the second time I was denied. What did that say for my mental state? Here I was alive, sore, something was poking me in the side, I needed to pee and all I could think about was that I would rather die than face what was to come. I had to be back home, back in my time. Who else would have saved me, but what happened? Almost involuntarily I raised a hoof and began swatting at where my alarm usually was. But my hoof barely left the bedside.

"Dingy? Dingy... You awake yet?" A soft voice filled my ears like the scent lavender could fill your nose on a summer's evening. "Dingy, you can do it. Open your eyes for me, please?" It was a mare's voice, hauntingly familiar and filled with dread, worry and sadness. I struggled to find the energy to open my eyes, wanting to see who it was I was hearing so vividly. Dim light began to peak through my lashes as a white unicorn mare with jet black mane came into my fuzzy view. "That's it! That's my girl!" Her voice crackled with notes of both happiness and tears. "I thought we lost you there for a moment. You terrified me!"

"Wha- Wha- appen." Wow, that was smooth. Oh wow my head hurts. How hard did I fall back there?

"Shhh... Save your strength. You are coming out of a medically induced coma, it will take some time for the rest of the drugs to wash out of your system. Just... Take it easy and I'll fill you in." Jet said as she pulled her hoof from my side and reached her magic out for a glass of water. So that's what was poking me! She held it to my lips and I did my best to take a sip... I got more on me than in me. I nodded my head, still trying to focus my vision on her as she shifted closer to my side.

"Dingy, when the portal opened back up on my end, I was standing there waiting for you. It took longer than normal for you to return, but when you did you were thrown from the void and into the medical service cart. The med team was still on their way when you arrived, but you were in such bad shape that...

My point is, you are lucky to be with us. You had some kind of toxin in your blood that was trying to dissolve your nerves. I can't imagine how bad that hurt. You can thank your ghost or whatever she was, without her, you might be dead. It took 9 hours to remove the claw from your vertebrae, but once we did, it was like your body just... went into recovery mode! Neither I, nor Egress, have ever seen anything like it. But the damage to your organs was too severe for us to try and wake you, so we put you under for a few days to help with the pain. In that time you had to have 3 blood transfusions, a bone marrow transplant and your kidneys shut down. But here you are, tough as nails. "

There was just so much to take in and my brain couldn't keep up. Thinking about it was like trying to wade through concrete. All I knew was that I was alive, Jet found Egress and I nearly died. As my memories began to come back to me, I fought to ask questions, but my mouth was still not doing as it was told.

"E-E-Egr-"

"Egress? Oh! Egress went into hiding. We were right, Dingy, Spark sent a team after her. I thought she was long gone until she showed up at the loading dock. She has been keeping tabs on what happened to you, to the team... all of us really. I guess Spark's encryption isn't as good as they say it is. We are some place... far away. I don't want to say much because it could be dangerous to do so but... Just know you are safe. We are safe."

Safe? This wasn't a hospital!? How did they manage the surgeries she meanti- Oh right... Smart ponies with access to sophisticated tech... Wow I'm stupid.

"Spar... Sparrrrrrk?"

"Spark has been planning this for over three years, since we discovered magical tracing and geo-time mapping. Under the file you were listed as expendable. Dingy, I am so sorry! I never meant for any of this to happen to you! You're young and pretty and had your whole life ahead of you and now-"

Jet's mouth stopped nearly as fast as my heart when I saw her reaction to my hoof reaching out and holding her's. I knew none of this was her fault. I didn't need to hear it from her. It was always Spark. Jet was the one that brought me home, she was the reason I kept moving forward rather than die where I stood. I had been through hell and all I wanted right at this moment was to feel somepony's touch. I wanted to feel something real and not think about the pain I just went through for a moment.

"Dingy... I'm so sorry!" She broke down. She held much more regret for her role than I had given her credit for. You would think she thought it had all been her fault in the first place. I gave her hoof a tug and tried to reach for a hug. I wanted her to know that I forgave her and that I didn't blame her for what happened. I just wanted her to stop crying.

She brought her hooves around my neck and crawled into the bed beside me. Ok, didn't see that coming. Here I was fresh out of a coma and I was already snuggling with a cute mare. Nice. Jet sniffed her way through tears as I felt the weight of the drugs beginning to set in again. It wasn't long before I fell back asleep.

oooooooooooooooooooo0000000000oooooooooooooooooooo

"Rise and shine love birds. It's nearly 8 P.M. and you both have some chores."

Chores? Who in their right mind would ever let me operate a broom let alone try and walk.

"No... Sleepy time." Jet mumbled as she rolled over and poked me in the head with her horn.

"Ow! That thing's... Oh wow that hurts. Talking... No..." My voice was scratchy and hoarse from being so dry. When did we fall asleep? We had just laid down when-

"I can't let you two lie here and take in any more ARS in your conditions." She said in a motherly tone that cut me to the core. Dr. Egress I presume. Wait, conditions? Plural? What was wrong with Jet?

"Con... Conditions?"

"Yes conditions sweetie. You need a bath because you stink and Jet needs her bandages changed. After that we need to try walking and eating little miss time traveler." Her departure from the analytical mare I had first met was startling, but it was her, I knew that draw and tone anywhere.

"Jet!? What happened? Are you ok?" I said, just now noticing she was wearing a pained expression.

"I'm sure she's told you by now, but you were pretty banged up when we got you here. You experienced severe nerve death in the outlying tissue of several of your organs. It became necrotic and your body is too weak to fight off some of the resulting systemic infections. Your kidneys being the primary target of much of the resulting stress, failed about 23 hours into your medically induced coma. You required a donor with the same markers in their blood. Jet was a 89% match. Seems to have taken though." Yup... That's her. That's Egress. I had no idea what she was saying and I was still peeing myself over what she said.

"Where is... Here?" I asked, setting up in bed.

"Well without being specific... A little place I don't tell ponies about. Call it my vacation destination. Or the private lab where I work on the real juicy stuff! Now, enough chit chat, there will be plenty of time for that later. Let's get you two cleaned up."

The two mares helped me to my hooves that soon fell out from under me. It felt like I had never used them before in my life. But with each try they slowly came back to me with the help from Egress and Jet on either side of me. We soon came to the bathroom where I was helped into a warm bath. I can not tell you how good it felt because I was too busy nearly blacking out in ecstasy. The warm water filling my dry coat and mane, the relaxation of feeling slightly lighter than normal... Heaven. Egress made good on tending to Jet's wounds. The white bandages had blended in perfectly with her coat save for a tiny red spot that grew larger with the removal of each layer.

"Jet... I told you no climbing around or acting foolish. Look, you tore stitch!"

"Sorry mom..."

I chuckled. It was so refreshing to see these two acting so casual and not so... nerdy. But they both looked at me as though I had lost my mind.

"What, it was funny." I said, sinking my snout below the bubbly water.

"Dingy... Egress is my mother." My mouth hung open. They looked nothing alike! They didn't act alike and they didn't even seem to have any sort of bond! I nearly choked on the bathwater before Egress reached over and pulled me up by my mane.

"But... you don't look... You don't even share a common name!" I choked out.

"Dr. Shadow Egress, at your service. This is my daughter-"

"Jet Shade. I remember the box." I meeked out as I sank my nose below the water.

"Aw, you remembered!" Jet said, giving me a sly look.

"Yes, yes... Well, just because you nearly died and Jet brought you back does not give you two the right to be snuggling while on the mend."

"Mom!" Jet shouted in recoil. It was adorable, like a teenager shouting over not getting to go out. This was a nice change of pace. "I'm 23 years old!" She said through clenched teeth. I glanced at Egress with looks of shame and fear that I had wronged her. She responded with a wink and a soft smile, reassuring me that she was, by all accounts, just teasing her daughter.

"Well I suppose that after all she has been through, she deserves a little rnr... But I'm going to have to cut your allowance for breaking bedside decorum."

Ok, that was too much. I nearly drowned from laughing under water. The pain from my fresh scars on my back lit up like fire, causing me to nearly drown a second time when I saw Jet's face. She was slack jawed and shocked that her own mother, a highly sought after scientist, would be doing this to her. This had to be the adult equivalent of showing off baby pictures. Jet took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to compose herself.

"Mother. I love you. But I will beat the ENTIRE Fu-"

"Now, now. You know I don't like swearing. And that is me being serious. Give me some credit here, I haven't broken out the baby pictures... But I will if I have to."

The two of us fell silent. Me hiding under a thin veil of water and bubbles, secretly kind of wanting to see these pictures and Jet with the cold dead eyes of a killer, but not breathing a word.

"Now. You two get cleaned up and come downstairs and get something to eat. Dingy, I will debrief you at the dinner table for lack of an office. I have some data I need some answers to. Spark may be out head hunting, but I have my own plans." She said as she stood and trotted for the door.

"Ms. Shadow?" I squeaked. "You're not actually... you know... mad about-" My mouth was failing me for a second time today while I tried to find the words 'are you mad I cuddled with your daughter?'. I didn't even know if she liked mares for sure or not.

"Dingy... She's 23 years old and never had a coltfriend. I'm just happy she's not dating a piece of lab equipment." She said as she closed the door and trotted off. Wow, that was way more sass than I ever saw coming. Jet looked on in horror as her mother had just eviscerated any sexual prowess she could have displayed right in front of me.

"Dingy... I'm sorry. She gets this way around anypony I-" Her head snapped to me, hiding under the bubbles in the tub, smirking at how cute she looked embarrassed. "I understand if you don't want to talk about this..."

"It's ok. I get it. I was probably just getting some mixed messages out there. Out then?" Good Dingy, blow her off... I really do suck at this whole... Chatting up mares thing don't I?

"They weren't entirely mixed." She said, swinging her hooves from her seat atop the vanity. I nearly drowned from shock. I knew it! I knew she had a thing for me!

"So you..." I started.

"I have never had a coltfriend, marefriend, whatever. I know that there is so much more going on right now that is more important too and that this is stupid to even talk about but... Do you... you know... kinda-" Oh my goodness. Was she trying to ask me if I liked her?! All of a sudden all that teasing seemed superficial compared to the deep shade of red she was turning under that ivory coat.

"Yes. Yes I like you." I said resting my chin on the edge of the tub.

"R-really!? Why?" Oh crap. Ok, that was not planned for.

"Well. Let's see... You risked your life to bring me back. We can start from there. You talked me through one of the most traumatic times of my life and you gave me a kidney... I would say I'm fond of you." That's it girl, just talk nerdy. Nerds love that. Jet just smiled and began to blush and kick her hooves against the door to the sink. "What about you? Why? Why me?" Jet froze, began to fall and slid her flank into the sink.

"Me?!"

"Yes, you. Why do you like me? I mean, I assume you wouldn't just give out a kidney to anypony."

Jet wiggled to free herself before half falling, half flailing to the floor in front of the tub. She took a deep breath and hid her face in her hooves.

"Because you are brave and strong and everything I'm not. And you're cute." Her words trailed off into a mumble and I couldn't hear her.

"Come again? What was that last part?"

"I said you're cute OK!? The way you wear your mane, the way you walk, even the way you approach things you don't know anything about. It's just cute, ok?" She squeaked. Well, that was certainly more than I was hoping for. Maybe I like you or nice mane, but cute? I could only hope that my blush was hidden by the thin film of bubbles I was trying to scoop into my face. Truth be told the feeling was mutual, but how could I top that adorable outburst? I didn't want to steal her thunder.

"Are you two done yet? The food is getting cold!"

And I wouldn't have to try. Saved by the mad science mare.

"Come on, Dingy. We need to get down their." Jet said with a turn as her magic passed me a towel.

I crawled my way from the tub and took the towel in my hooves. I could reach my mane just fine but as soon as I turned for my back, I nearly collapsed from pain. The stitches in my back were preventing me from such a simple movement. I tried again and gave a wince as I felt the fire begin to flair up once more. This was embarrassing, but I was going to need help drying off. Jet just stared at me curiously as though I had not just had surgery.

"Hey Jet? I know this is going to be awkward, but... a little help?" My words snapped her out of the daze she was in.

"Huh!? Me? Help you... towel off?" The shock on her face said it all. Yup... Embarrassing.

oooooooooooooooooooo0000000000oooooooooooooooooooo

"And then you say she disappeared before or after the little monsters attacked?"

"Blats and yes, inside the storage room." I corrected.

"Ah yes. Sorry."

The three of us had been at it for hours now. I had chronicled all of my grand adventures for them both. Jet seemed less interested in the parts about the ghostly apparition and more interested in the fact that they could be recharged. Egress on the other hoof, well there was no detail that was not of interest. She had built a mountain of notes over what had happened, all on paper. Things were going fine until I got to the Blats, Jet didn't much care for the story, but hung on my every word.

"It is just so puzzling to me that these scary creatures, well some of them, are the only natural predator. They must reproduce at an alarming rate if they only prey on living beings."

"I have no idea. When they get near one another they just eat each other and anything in their way."

"Fascinating! And this... Rocket. She saved you with a..." She paused to flip through her notes. "An explosion?"

"Yes, that is correct." I said sipping my tea.

Egress sat back in her chair before stacking her notes in a tight pile and placing them in front of her. She began tapping her pencil on the table as she thought hard over all I had told her about what was to come of our world. In hindsight, save for the Blats, it was an eden.

"Follow me, I want to see something." She said as she gathered the papers and trotted to a door behind the table.

Jet and I followed her down a set of stairs to a cacophony of beeping and scratching sounds. At the bottom of the stairs I was greeted with the same sounds, smells and sights of Spark, but on a much smaller scale. Everywhere I looked there were machines beeping and whirring away. Had I been blindfolded I would think I was back at Spark. My coat stood on end, making my hide shake. Jet, standing right beside me, gave me a friendly hoof pat on my back for reassurance.

"It's ok, Dingy. You're safe here."

I watched as Egress trotted to a small door on the wall, open it and toss the notes into it. She then pressed a button and turned to us both.

"Mom! Why did you burn those!"

"Ah... You know the rules." She said as she motioned for us to come closer.

"Take the notes, but remember the words." Jet partotid.

"And with notes like those, I'd rather not share. That is dangerous information. Burn after reading kind of information." She said as she motioned for me to give her my hoof. "Ok, I need to take a blood sample, Dingy. I have a hunch about something and I want to try and confirm it."

I watched as she drew a long needle down on my leg before piercing the hide and pulling a full vial of crimson fluid from me. I winced from the sharp jolt of pain and the odd sensation of the needle pulling at my muscle. She then dropped some into a small tube and placed it with one of her beeping machines.

"W-what are you doing?"

"Science dear. Satiating my curiosity to be precise."

She twisted knobs and punched buttons on the clicking machine, shifting from screen to screen, seemingly comparing the data. Jet and I sat in silence and watched her work feverishly on the sample. What could she be looking for? Contamination? A new illness? Anything? But it wasn't long before I got my answer.

"Curious... Jet come look at this." She said, looking at a graph of peaks and valleys.

"That's a lot of flux for a pony who was showing nothing beyond background prior to the test. Possible absorption through the the spell?" Jet asked, looking at a different screen.

"This much!? No way. Jet, you have been slamming magical cocktails for a week trying to get her back here and your's is barely 90% of this."

"So what could it be? There, that marker. What on earth is that? It's in the same spectrum but..."

"Hey, care to fill me in? I keep hearing things... not good things... about my blood. Kinda getting a little scared over here." I said, rocking in place.

"Dear... You have something in your blood. Something that I... we have only seen this in extreme cases of magical exposure. and even then, none of those ponies survived it. You on the other hoof are here, breathing. No other pony has had this marker and been alive. Even after they expire they only show it for a brief time." Egress said as she moved to another machine.

"Not helping!" I said as I buried my head in my hooves. I felt a warm hoof from Jet rubbing my back to help console me.

"Hey... you're here! With me now! You're safe and healthy and still alive." It was sweet, but it did little to tell me what on earth was going on.

"Dingy... What you have in your blood is binned with your blood. It's hard to explain without further testing, but we call it the soul cell. We ran a study on it not long ago, but it was hard to get sound empirical data. Every time we attempted to sample it, we found that the shelf life was less than a few minutes. So for you to be here, alive with it in your dna can only mean a few things. 1. Your soul is bound beyond the constraints of your consciousness, but for that you would have to be dead. 2. you have some other ponies soul inside of you, which is impossible because you were alone or 3. I messed up somehow... also impossible."

"What about Rocket? She was there! She put herself into my cuff to save me! Could it be her?" I said, really hoping that I was not secretly dead.

"Dingy... It's possible that she was just a figment of your imagination. I checked all the magical signatures and the only ones on there were from Jet and myself. Dear... I'm sorry. But you were alone out there."

I sunk my head low. Why wouldn't she believe me? I was there, I saw it happen. I talked to her as if she were a real pony. It was embarrassing, humiliating even.

"Wait... But I heard her speak! It was tinny and hollow, but I heard it. She defiantly had somepony there with her. I detected it in earlier transmissions." Jet said, coming to look at the data.

Jet's tone was coming off more protective than I had expected. I was used to the quizzical nudge here and there from her, but she sounded like she was defending me. It was appreciated and not overlooked. Right now I really wanted to feel like something other than a lab rat. Speaking of, why did she have actually lab rats on her table? Their clicking claws and little squeaks were putting me on edge.

"I know you did, you played the audio back to me... I can't even say how many times. But I'm telling you, your magical signature is the only one on it." Egress affirmed.

Jet looked at me blushingly, as if to say, sorry. But it was not lost on me that she had stuck up for me. I gave her a smile and a nod in return. Damn squeaking!

"Doctor Egress! Can you please put the mice away... They are freaking me out." I asked sheepishly.

"Oh those damned things... how did they get out again!? You would think not being able to see would be enough to keep them in their cage." She said as she began trying to get the two of them back in the wire box.

"Wait... They can't see? That's terrible! The poor little-" I paused.

"Yeah, they were a failed experiment to blend multiple dna strands to create a life form that could survive all climates and heal quickly. Basic 'what we all want' science sure, but if it had worked, the environment would have been none of our concern any longer. Sadly, all I got was rats with no eyes that get fat easily." She said as she put the last one in the box and closed the lid.

I stood up. Grabbed the box, walked to the wall she had placed her papers in, opened the door and threw them in.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? THE POOR LITTLE GUYS!"

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME! THOSE LITTLE GUYS GROW UP TO BE THE SIZE OF ALLIGATORS IN A FEW THOUSAND YEARS!" I shouted in anger. "How could you be so foalish to think you could meddle with animals like that!? Do you know what those things become? Do you even have any idea!?" I screamed as I smashed the button that said incinerate.

"Dingy... We didn't know. How could we know? I just felt bad, abandoned the experiment and tried to give them somewhat of a life. I was doing the right thing!" Egress shouted back.

"The right thing was to leave well enough alone. I nearly died."

"Dear, I understand that but-"

"But nothing! There were thousands of them. THOUSANDS! Each blind, each with hundreds of teeth and claws and... and... they tried to kill me. Don't tell me you understand... I had their claws in my back, ripping at me until that, that, that thing saved me. They have to be destroyed."

Flames roared behind the tiny door. Burning every last shred of evidence and existence of those little monsters. I hated myself for doing it, killing another living creature, but what if they were the reason that they were the only creature on land when I was there. I didn't know if it would change things, but I felt it had to be done. I slumped against the floor and covered my face. I felt the tears begin to grow once more as I tried to just... breathe for a moment. I felt Jet's hoof on my back again, then her other hoof, then a cold muzzle on my neck. No damn it... not now, I'm trying to be upset. How dare somepony have that kind of control over me.

"It's ok. They're gone, Dingy. I understand why you did it. But I will never understand the pain you went through." She said into my ear.

"Thank you, Jet. Thank you."

"Ok... Dingy I'm sorry. You were right, it was foalish of me to meddle like that, but you have to understand that I could have never known-"

Her words were cut short by the pounding coming from upstairs. Hooves on hard wood began to thunder as though a stampede was taking place in the dining room. A loud crack followed by a massive crash followed as the front door was thrown from its hinges. Somepony was here and they were pissed.

"Shit! Girls! Quick, hide in here! I'll distract them and you two make a break for it as soon as the cost is clear! Understand."

"Mom! No! There is room for all of us, get in here!" Jet shouted as she helped me down into the floor space.

"No time, dear. They won't stop until they find somepony, best give them me off the bat. Now get in, Shady, that's an order!" She said, kicking her daughter's hooves out from under her, causing her to fall rump first into the hole with me. "Protect, Dingy. I trust you, don't ruin it." She said as she shoved the cover over the hole right as the ponies came down the stairs.

Jet was pacing around me, the both of us shaking like leaves in the breeze. I reached up and pulled her down to me, but only managed to pull her atop me in my frantic state. She was trying to shout for her mother, but I covered her mouth with a hoof and pressed my other to my own. We had to be quiet if they found us hiding down here... There are no words for what could come next.

"ON THE GROUND!" I heard multiple bucks shout followed by a loud crash as Egress was tackled to the floor. A loud crack sound accompanied by a sharp scream of pain sent Jet flailing for the floorboards. It took all of my strength to hold her back in her struggle to get to her mother. Deep down I felt a pain bite deep in my soul holding her back, but what could either of us do!? They would have us in seconds if we popped out and what good would that do? I promised Egress I would protect her daughter and I intended to keep that promise. So I bit down on her mane and pulled her to the ground with me. Jet looked at me with those dark purple tear filled eyes, they screamed betrayal. But my own tears were flowing with hers, I just pressed my forehead to hers and pulled her tight into me.

"Well, well, well... It would seem you have been hiding from me Ms.Egress. I wonder, where is your daughter? Surely a mother wouldn't abandon her child like that in such a desperate time." A voice said from a buck. I had heard that voice, it was the first one I heard when I came to Spark!

"Don't you dare! You leave her out of this!" Egress shouted.

"Oh now, now. I can't have you speaking to me like that. Don't you know that you are property of Spark? So is your daughter. It was all in your contracts." He said in a cold, condescending voice. "Don't think for a moment we don't know what you have been up to, we tracked the magic right back to your doorstep. We know you have the test subject. We know your daughter is here with her. We know your daughter disobeyed a direct order to stand down. She even used company equipment to bring her back. We. Know. Everything." He said as his hoofsteps grew closer. "Just give us the test subject... That's all we really want." His voice reeked of subtrafuse and lies. He was a far cry from the buck I had met.

"Never. What you are doing is wrong! We can't keep going like this! We will all die!" Egress shouted in pain from just above us.

"Now, who are you to say such a thing? this was all your idea after all."

I looked to Jet who wore the same shocked expression as me.

"At least that is what the files will read. They will state that Dr. Egress was the soul directive and creator of BLST and that the actions within were beyond company law. As such you sent a pony to her early grave. Our actions against you will be a fair bit of clean press. I should be thanking you, really. Nopony will ever know what happened to you, they will just know that you were the cause of the problem." He said with a cold tone that ripped right through me. Now Jet was fighting to hold me back. I wanted a piece of this buck. I wanted to make him squirm for a change.

"Now. Where is that daughter of yours? Jet is it?"

"Fuck you!" Egress screamed through tears and sobs.

"Is that really anyway to talk to me? You know I hate swearing as much as you do. Now, tell me..." Egress groaned and began to scream as we heard bones begin to snap and joints being pulled out of place. "Where is your daughter!?" With a loud pop, something gave way.

"SHE'S GONE! SHE'S GONE!" Egress cried out in pain. "I SENT HER FAR AWAY WHERE YOU WILL NEVER FIND HER OR DINGY!"

"Well, what a shame that is. And to think I was looking forward to a reunion between us all. Now she will just have to come home to a funeral." He said as he trotted back.

"What!? NO! DONT-"

A shot rang out, piercing the floor and biting deep into Jet's hind leg. Jet bit down on my leg and I bit my tongue as I watched blood pour down from the open hole in the floor, splattering across us both. Try as she might, Jet couldn't keep quiet through the pain of losing her mother, through being shot with the same bullet that had killed her, from a buck she had trusted. Light broke through the gaps as a corona of magic enveloped the floor panel, lifting it free.

"There you are." Wolfbain said greedily as he glared down at the two of us. "No worse for wear... Take them both to the holding cell in the lab." He said as he turned and trotted for the stairs.

"What about Egress?" A buck wearing riot gear asked.

"Torch the house. We will spin it that we came to serve her a warrant and she tragically died in a blaze set by her own accidental nature. The papers will eat it alive." He said as he trotted through the door.

A armor clad buck put us both in cuffs, chained together and forced us to trott. Jet screamed in pain as she tried to move closer to her mother but was kicked back by the guard right in her bullet wound.

"FASTER!" He shouted as his gun barrel guided us up the stairs and into the back of a sealed cart.

I should be grateful that we were still alive, but sitting here, holding Jet close just made me feel guilty. Her cries were deep and powerful for her loss and all I could do was simply hold her. Why did I have to go there that day? Had I not gone would things had gone differently? Would Egress still be alive? What about Jet? She had sacrificed so much for me, all in the name of doing what was right, just to lose even more? No, this can't be right. This isn't how this story is going to go.

"Why... Why did they do that?" Jet sobbed into my chest. I just rested my chin on her head and started crying. It was like I was feeling her pain right with her. Deep, tearing pain in my chest, pulling at everything I had and making it all ache. Egress' last words to me were being repeated in my head over and over again. 'Protect her, Dingy.' How could I protect her from Spark? We are in custody! But the pain pushed me to promise myself that I would, no matter the cost. Jet had saved my life and it had cost her her mother's. I was going to pay that back, somehow, someway. I just don't know how just yet.

"I got you, Jet. Just hold onto me, I got you now."

Comments

[Sylica telca]

Evil company bastards.