Circe was worried. Not for herself mostly, but for Rex. He had told her that Van Kleiss had said he would keep him alive, but just barely. But it made absolutely no sense to her. Van Kleiss had been hunting Rex, sure. But not to hurt him, not unnecessarily anyway. He wanted Rex to be apart of the Pack. That's what he'd always wanted, even before he knew it was Rex. Ever since he set of that bomb releasing the nanites, he spent hours and hours a day, searching for the one who could cure the EVOs he had created. Maybe that was why he wanted him out of the way all of a sudden; maybe he had a plan for his EVOs, and he couldn't have anyone in the way to stop him.
The whole world was pressing on her shoulders as she set Rex down before Van Kleiss. She didn't want to hand Rex over to him, but if she didn't, neither of them would ever be able to leave. His red jacket was mostly covered in his blood by then, and that made her stomach turn. How could she do such a thing to him? She loved him, they weren't enemies. She shouldn't have to do this to him. Van Kleiss was his enemy, not her.
"Good work," Van Kleiss said proudly. "It seems I have thought wrongly of you two."
Circe clenched her fists tightly behind her back. She knew it was supposed to be a compliment, but coming from Van Kleiss, it was an insult. He always expected them to fail.
"You're reward: a two week's vacation." Circe was taken aback, and Breach was too, apparently, staring wide-eyed at the man sitting before her. No one in the Pack was ever offered a vacation, ever. It just didn't happen.
"A vacation?! Two weeks?!" Circe thought out loud. It was unbelievable!
Van Kleiss raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Do you have a problem with a vacation, Circe?"
"Well, yes, I do have a problem," she stuttered. "We've never been offered a vacation from you, and now you give us a two week vacation?!"
He chuckled. "It was a very difficult task, Circe, especially for you."
She looked at him with bewilderment. How could he know there was anything between them?
"Don't act surprised, Circe. I've known for quite sometime." The smile stuck to his face still, and it made her mad. How could he find it amusing? It definitely wasn't funny to her. She looked over at Breach and even she looked mad. Maybe even more angry than Circe. Her fists were tight, her jaw was clenched. She thought maybe even fire was going to come out of her nose.
"I'm not taking a vacation," Circe said solemnly. "As long as Rex is here, I'm not going anywhere.
"Oh, but you see, Circe, that's not how it works. You bring him to me, and I do as I please with him, and you do as I say." His voice started to get louder, and she remembered how much he intimidated her. "You should've thought of the circumstances of you bringing him here, Circe. You must not have been so ignorant
She glared at him with pure hatred. If only she could speak her mind and tell him what she thought of him. "Fine," she finally said hesitantly. But… don't hurt him." Her voice had a hint of pleading in it, and she hoped that Van Kleiss had recognized it.
"I won't kill him yet, but in time..." She felt a lump in her throat as he pronounced the last word. There it was again: "He'll barely keep me alive, and that's exactly what he said." She should've never brought him here, and Rex had warned her.
Circe was just about to do something unthinkable when Breach took her chance. "No…," Breach mumbled beside her. "No!" Her head jerked up to look right at Van Kleiss. "You've already taken everything I ever had…. You're not taking Rex too!" She threw her hand up and a portal opened right under Van Kleiss. And he was gone. Just like that, he was far away from them. She felt free for once in her life. She turned to Breach, expecting to see something happy in her. But instead, her shoulder's were shaking and tears fell from her veiled face. She fell to her knees and completely broke down, racked with sobs and heart wrenching cries.
"He's going to kill me…. He's going to kill me…," she repeated. "He's going to kill me."
"Breach, it's okay. He's gone." She tried to comfort her, but Breach just changed the words.
"He always finds me…. He always finds me…." It was so sad to see her like this, and she wanted to help her, but she remembered Rex was still hurt. She ran across the room and stumbled towards him. His forehead was covered in sweat and his face was pale. Her hands shook as she pulled off his blood-drenched jacket and rolled it up underneath his head. She didn't know how to help him; she had never been in this situation before.
Circe trekked Van Kleiss's court, looking for something to help Rex, anything at all. She found dead plants, rocks, bricks, dirt, but no medical supplies
"Bandages…." Breach whispered. She was watching Circe with red eyes, tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Of course," she agreed, panicked but composed. She returned to Rex and tore off a chunk of his jacket, ripping the piece in two. Squeezing the melted snow from her shirt onto a frayed piece of Rex's jacket, she dabbed his wound with the cloth, trying to clean it with what she had. She prayed that it would help and that he would live, but she didn't even know what he was doing. Her actions could be making it worse, for all she knew. But she had to deal with what she had.
He was still bleeding heavily, and he kept getting worse. She had made the biggest mistake of her life doing this to him. He would never forgive her.
She realized that cleaning it wasn't really doing much about the bleeding. She grabbed the other torn piece from his destroyed jacket and pressed it against his skin, keeping pressure on it.
"Breach, do you think you can send Rex to Providence? He's dying and he needs help!" But Breach was sobbing again and wasn't listening to her. "Breach!" she yelled, but she just kept rocking herself back and forth, covering her ears. Rex's luck had just run out.
The first thing Rex woke up to was the pain. Nothing made sense to him, everything blurring in and out of focus. That was, except the pain. It was a horrible sensation, his side throbbing, feeling hot and shaky. What had happened? Why was he feeling so much pain? What was wrong with him?
One of the first thoughts that popped into his head was that someone was present. He saw a blurry but distinct outline of someone's face hovering over him. Squinting, he tried to make out the figure, but his vision was still too fuzzy.
"Rex." The voice was unmistakable: Circe.
His vision started to clear and above him knelt Circe, apparently worried about him. "Circe," he croaked. "What happened? Where are we?"
"I don't have time to explain the whole thing right now, Rex." Then she had an idea: he didn't have to know that she gave him up to Van Kleiss. He didn't remember anything, and that was something that she didn't need to tell him. "An EVO bit you, so Breach brought us here. She started having a melt down, so…"
"So we can't get out of here," Rex finished.
"This place is in the middle of nowhere!" she stammered. "I don't think we could ever get out of Abyssus without Breach…."
"Circe…."
"Breach took us here to save you, and now she can't even do that!" Circe started sobbing uncontrollably. "I was so stupid to think that Van Kleiss wouldn't hurt you! I thought he would help you and-"
"Circe," Rex repeated. She looked at him, her eyes glistening with tears. "It's okay. I'll just fly us out of here."
"But… but you're hurt," she stuttered.
"I'm fine. I've survived being at the bottom of a lake for an hour," he reassured her while sitting up.
She'd been beaten. "Alright. But what about Breach?"
Rex craned his neck to look at Breach. She was wailing and fidgeting. He felt bad for her. "What happened to her?"
Circe swallowed hard. What should she say? "She… lost someone back in Alaska. That's where we were when this all happened." It was weak, knowing that Breach didn't have anyone too lose, but stable for the time being.
He shrugged. "I think she'll be able to get herself out of here after she cools down."
She sighed in relief. Maybe he still wasn't thinking straight enough to ask questions. Maybe he wasn't doing as well as he said he was. "Yeah, maybe you're right."
He grabbed his bloodied and torn jacket and slid it on, but it hardly looked like a jacket anymore. Blood was already seeping through the bandages and Rex knew that that wasn't a good sign. His head pulsed with a fever and his side felt like someone had shot him. Maybe it was just as bad as being shot or worse. Maybe he would die.
They both hurried out of the depressing room, leaving Breach with only herself and her depressed cries. Rex had to lean on Circe to go at such a fast pace and he felt embarrassed for having to do so. It felt upside down.
"Sorry for being so rushed," she said compassionately as they tripped over a stray brick. "If Breach sent Van Kleiss just a mile or two away, he could be here any minute…."
"In that case…." Rex abruptly skidded to a stop behind Circe and with a cheeky grin, grew an orange bike beneath his feet. "Hop on!"
In minutes the two were racing down the hills of Abyssus, dodging every tree and rock by a mere few inches. Circe bit her lip as she clung to Rex's waist. She started to wonder if she was better off at the mercy of Van Kleiss than this teenager slouching in front of her. But if they walked, they wouldn't stand a chance to Van Kleiss. This was their only way out of Abyssus alive.
After a few minutes Rex said, "Tell me again why Breach took us to Abyssus instead of, I don't know, somewhere practical?" He sounded exhausted.
She racked her brain. "Uh, well, like I said, someone she was close to died in Alaska. She must not have been thinking straight. And I can't imagine Van Kleiss would be very helpful being in the same room as you, so she dropped him a mile or so away."
"Oh, right. I guess that makes sense."
An hour passed and there was still no sign of civilization. Circe didn't even know where they were headed. She'd never known the way in or out of Abyssus, always being accompanied by Breach or being flown out by plane. They could be driving in circles and neither of them would realize it. It was nearly hopeless; Rex on the verge of death, their lack of knowledge of the land. How could anyone make it out alive under such conditions? And on top of everything, Circe knew that Rex's bike wouldn't last much longer. It shuttered, pieces of metal started falling in their wake. She was scared.
After a few minutes of silence and these terrible thoughts running through her mind, her heart skipped a beat (again) when the bike shook and coughed. Trying to shake it off, she leaned her head against Rex and closed her eyes. Rex is fine, she kept telling herself. He won't-
The bike completely broke apart beneath them. Rubble from Rex's machine crashed to the ground while everything spun around Circe as she let out a cry, trying to keep her grip on Rex. He felt limp beneath her sweaty hands and her heart sank even lower. She bounced along the dirt road when Rex slipped out of her grip and skidded away from her, rocks flying at her face and roots jabbing her back. Squeezing her eyes shut, she waited for the pain to be over, praying that he would be okay. She didn't deserve to hope for herself after what she put him through, after all.
Circe lay there, afraid to open her eyes, to return back to the real world. She didn't want to run from Van Kleiss again or to ride an unstable hover bike all the way back to civilization. And she definitely did not want to see Rex in that much pain again. It broke her heart to see what her fault had caused him. She loved him. And to see someone you loved the most get closer to death minute by minute with nothing you could do about it was nothing but torture. She wanted to cry all her problems away or to wake up from this nightmare. But it felt all too real for it to be a nightmare; the feelings, the pain, everything felt so real. That was the worst part.
Standing shakily, Circe looked down the road to see Rex sprawled on the ground. She stumbled towards him, her heartbeat going wild with the anticipation. Please be alive…. Please be alive…, she pleaded over and over again to herself. Her body ached in protest, but her pain didn't matter anymore. She didn't matter anymore. If Rex was dead, the world might as well be dead as well. He was the world's only hope against EVOs. He was her only hope. She knew she couldn't live a life without him. Her life would mean absolutely nothing. And right before her was her future, love, freedom, everything she'd ever wanted in life. But the huge possibility of emptiness and darkness for the rest of her life also rested before her, and she couldn't breathe knowing that Rex's death could be staring right at her.