This is the third and final instalment of my current series. It follows Give Up The Fight (1) and It Don't Come Easy (2). I encourage you to read those first, because this fic will have numerous references to the events that have happened there.
The title is taken from the Patty Griffin song 'Icicles' - I figured I should stick with her, given that she's titled the other two fics in this series! :)
Tonight
It might look pretty bad
We might lose everything
We thought that we had
But shadows will pass
Smoke, it will clear
If something survives of us around here
The wind buffeted the geo-cruiser relentlessly, scattering ice chips and hard rain against the windows. Kwame clung to the controls desperately, his muscles tensed as he tried to keep the vehicle steady.
"Gi, tell me where I can land," he said desperately, sweat on his brow.
Gi gnawed her lip, her fingers digging into the back of Kwame's chair as she leaned over him, the ring on her right hand sending out bright pulses of blue light.
"It's all just snow," she croaked. "It's too deep and soft for us to land in. There's nothing solid down there. But I've never done this before, Kwame..."
He shook his head and she trailed off, glancing back over her shoulder worriedly. Linka's face was pale and Wheeler didn't look too well either, though he was currently distracted with helping Ma-Ti and Kwame stabilise the geo-cruiser's flight, leaning across the back of Ma-Ti's seat to help him hold the controls steady.
The storm had hit suddenly, and with ruthless abandon. For the past half hour, they had been trying to find an outcrop of rock or ice – anything solid enough to land the geo-cruiser on until the wind and the driving sleet died down.
The cruiser lurched suddenly, tilting sideways and catching another rough current of air, cart-wheeling through the blizzard. Gi and Wheeler were tossed roughly around the cabin and Kwame gave a yell as he wrenched furiously at the controls, trying to straighten up again.
Ma-Ti looked over his shoulder desperately. "Are you all right?"
Wheeler scrambled to his knees and grabbed Gi around the waist, hauling her into the nearest seat. "Put your seatbelt on," he gasped. He grabbed Linka's hand and used her anchored weight to haul himself up before he stumbled to the back of the geo-cruiser, tilting and rolling with each rough movement of the aircraft.
"Ma-Ti," Kwame gasped. "I need you to –"
"I've got it," Ma-Ti promised, gripping the controls in front of him with white knuckles.
Kwame looked back towards Gi desperately. "Gi, try again."
"I can't!" she cried anxiously.
"Please," he urged. "You can. I know you can..."
She winced and clenched her fist. Water.
Blue pulses throbbed from her ring again and she closed her eyes as the uncomfortably-familiar feeling washed over her. For a moment her body raced through the cold blue depths of the snow and ice beneath her, travelling the water particles and shifting the heaping white mounds aside in a desperate search for something solid.
"It's too deep," she breathed, already feeling exhausted. "It's too deep and it's too unstable. You felt it too, when you searched for earth or rock..." She locked eyes with Kwame again. "There's nothing for us to land on until we reach the mountains near Blight's base."
Kwame turned back to the front of the geo-cruiser anxiously, feeling the wind buffet the streamlined shape of the vehicle and threaten to tear it out of his control again. "We cannot be too far away."
"The radar is still jammed," Ma-Ti said. "If she has seen us coming..."
"She's jammed it," Wheeler spat. "Of course she's jammed it. She wants us to fly straight into a mountain."
"Well, lucky for us, Blight does not always get what she wants," Kwame said firmly, fixing his eyes to the front again.
It was useless – they were flying blind. Snow and ice spattered and froze against the windows of the geo-cruiser, and the wind tossed the vehicle around like a cork.
"Landing in the snow has to be safer than this," Ma-Ti gasped.
"If we land, we may not take off again," Kwame said worriedly. "But I do not think we have a choice. We can –"
He gasped and wrenched at the controls as a strong gale of wind slammed into the front of the geo-cruiser, forcing the nose upwards. The body of the aircraft caught the wind like a sail and went spinning through the air, its passengers helpless to do anything but hang on tightly as the world whipped past them in a flurry of white ice.
Linka moved first – survival instinct kicked in and she threw her hands up in front of her face, the glimpse of a white bank of snow through the windows prompting her to brace herself. She heard Gi scream, and Kwame shouted something at them all over the roar of the storm, before the geo-cruiser slammed into the snow and the windows blew inwards, shattering glass across all of them.
It could only have been a few seconds. But a lot had happened in those few seconds. Linka blinked and squinted against the cold flurry of snow that swept against her face. She held her hand up, confused for a moment about the intruding snow, until she saw the front of the geo-cruiser.
Ma-Ti was shifting slowly, easing up into a sitting position. Shattered glass tinkled and fell as he moved gingerly. The front of the geo-cruiser was smashed in. Large piles of snow from a thick bank had been forced through the front windows. Smoke drifted out from under the control panel, which was littered with broken glass and droplets of blood.
"Babe?"
Linka turned and found Wheeler at her side. He was shivering and pale.
"Da, I am okay." She unbuckled her seatbelt shakily. "Kwame..."
Wheeler shifted his eyes to the front of the geo-cruiser. Ma-Ti and Gi were carefully unbuckling Kwame from the pilot's seat, easing him away from the smoking control panel.
"Is he hurt?" Wheeler asked anxiously.
Ma-Ti nodded, looking frightened as he helped Gi drag Kwame backwards, to the back of the geo-cruiser.
Gi swiped at her temple with the back of her hand, meeting blood of her own. Her head throbbed.
"Is everyone okay?" Ma-Ti asked them desperately. "No broken bones?"
"I'm okay," Wheeler muttered, looking worriedly at Kwame's still form.
"I think I hit my head," Gi said, rummaging in her pocket for a handkerchief. "I'll be okay."
"I am okay," Linka assured them all. "Kwame is bleeding..." She tugged the first aid kit out from under the seat at the back and rummaged for bandages.
They huddled together, piling themselves around the unconscious Earth Planeteer, shivering and at a loss as to what to do next. The silence that had settled around them spooked them more than the fury of the storm.
That fury had lessened significantly. Though a fierce wind continued to buffet the side of the geo-cruiser, the snow and driving rain had stopped, and there was a sharp clarity and icy edge to the air.
"Why didn't we see that storm on the radar?" Wheeler asked, shivering and rubbing at a bruise on his elbow. "We're not stupid enough to fly straight into something like that."
"There was nothing on the radar, thanks to Blight," Gi answered tiredly. Ma-Ti shook her gently, warning her not to fall asleep. One unconscious Planeteer was more than enough.
Linka rubbed her thumb over the bandage she'd wrapped around Kwame's brow. He hadn't stirred.
"How far is Blight's base?" she asked, tucking her legs beneath her and folding her arms, cuddling into herself against the cold.
"A few miles, I think?" Gi estimated. "Three or four – maybe more, maybe less. We were blown a little off-course."
Linka chewed her lip. "Do you think she is capable of causing a weather pattern like that?"
"It happened awfully suddenly," Ma-Ti said slowly. "All the things she has achieved... A snow storm does not seem out of reach, considering her past technology. And it is usually so dry down here – there was something about that storm that was not natural."
"Great," Wheeler muttered. "We're off to a fantastic start. We haven't even seen her yet, and already she's tried to kill us in a giant snowball fight."
Another rush of wind blew in through the shattered windows, sending a flurry of snow and smoke towards the Planeteers, still huddled at the back.
"What do we do?" Gi asked desperately. "Abandon ship?"
"If we had somewhere else to go, sure!" Wheeler answered. He reached over and squeezed Kwame's shoulder. "Kwame, wake up, man. We need Captain Planet."
Linka watched Kwame's face anxiously and shook her head. "He is hurt," she breathed, feeling close to tears. "It could be a long time before he is awake..."
"Well at least smother that smoke with some snow or something," Wheeler said desperately, looking at Gi.
She used her ring to pile snow across the smoking control panel, wondering what further damage she was causing in the process.
"So we're stuck here," Wheeler sighed, slumping back against the wall.
"Only until Kwame wakes up," Ma-Ti answered. "Then we can call Captain Planet and we will get to safety."
Gi glanced around at the shattered glass and twisted metal that had previously harboured them from the icy winds and snow. "I hope Kwame doesn't take too long," she said, shivering. "I'm not sure how long we can sit here like this."
One eye – one bright, blue eye – watched the smoking wreckage on a high-resolution monitor.
"Scan for survivors," was the request. The voice was soft; inquisitive. Curious and demanding at the same time.
"Four conscious forms," was the reply. "Five heartbeats."
"Hm." Blight tilted her head slightly at her long-term companion. "I guess we have to bring our A-game, MAL baby."
MAL smirked back at her. "I do love your games, Doctor."