-Dexlabs-

Closing her eyes, she could still smell the freshly watered grass. She could hear the roar of applause from the crowd.

Dixie was back in her only haven.

Dex leaned on the console as Jack, Ben, Five, and he watched Dixie on the monitors.

Dixie lifted her hands, her fingers spread. With a flick of her hand, she was holding eight tops. Her eyes remained closed. Slowly, she tossed them, one at a time. She hit them with the inside of her feet and they were spinning all over her arms and shoulders. They were amazingly steady as she pirouetted to and fro.

She twisted into a jump and the tops were airborne. She caught them on her four knuckles. She gently rocked her hands and the tops were spinning faster. She tossed them just high enough that she could switch to her palms. Dixie's palms were being drawn on by the impressions of the spinning tops.

"Watch this part," Ben said, pointing.

Dixie wasn't moving, but the tops began to rise off her hands, as if levitating.

"There! Now that's amazing."

Five and Dex leaned in to take a closer look.

"How is she doing that?" Five asked.

Dex saw it before anybody figured it out. "Dixie was infected long before we made the jump. She's got some of Fuse's material inside of her." He pointed at Dixie's slightly blue palms. "If it's been inside of her for nearly five years, then it's reasonable to believe she's got some power she won't understand herself."

"Does that mean...?"

Dex nodded. "I think more than fifty percent of the jumpers were infected. Dixie may be the first to show the signs of being infected."

Suddenly, Dixie's tops fell to the floor. They looked at the monitors and Ben sighed.

Dixie just stared down at the still tops. Her head finally lifted and she sat down, cross-legged. "Well, that was fun, wasn't it? Now what? Do you want to go again?" she asked the tops. She reached out and started to pick them up.

Jack turned away.

Five spoke up. "Is she talking to them?"

Ben nodded. "She did that last time, too. They suddenly fall and she talks to them. I don't know what she's doing, but that's what she was up to earlier. Wait for this." Ben pointed.

Dixie suddenly lifted her hands and the tops came upright and followed her hands upwards, spiraling so fast they were blurred acorn shapes. There was a soft, green fog starting to emit from her down-turned palms as if they were being pulled from a fog machine. With a quick motion, the tops shot outward and hit the walls, virtually shattering the fog before falling along the floor. She sighed and sat down, curling up.

"Now that is frightening."

"I can hear you!" Dixie shouted. "I know there's supposed to be more jumpers!" She stood up and dusted off her rear. "Look, if you're done, I need to answer nature's call!"

"What?" Ben and Dex asked.

Five smiled. "Nature's calling." She waved her hand. "Squeeze the lemon, use the loo, rest stop, bathroom break, use the can." She smiled. "She's good at using a different way of words. We'll let you out." Five walked away.

Jack, who was still quietly standing on the side, watched Dixie's eyes. Although dark and stern, he could see a softer line along the lines of her soul's path. He could feel something dark in her soul and a fear of something that was holding her down. Jack felt that strain, that need, but he didn't want to shoot it out of the dark. He wanted her to open up the way he'd learned to. Open up to the world at large and the friends who might be waiting for her.

-Dirk-

He looked over his shoulder and smiled brightly. "Hi, Fuse."

"Is everything alright?"

"Oh, yes." He paused and then the smile dropped. "No. I'm worried. Dixie hasn't shown up anywhere. I'm worried she might not even be alive or free." He leaned on the table again. "I'm afraid they're using Dixie to find information on me."

Fuse smiled to himself. "Well, why don't we pay them a visit? They've taken her long enough."