Chapter Four: The cake is a lie

If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don't, they never were.


-=Judith Crawford Pov=-

"Be advised, we'll be coming out of our eighty-ninth jump in a few minutes, you will have a few hours while the Witch-space drives cool down. I suggest you find some sleep in the gravity rings, Over." I said while sitting in one of the three captains chairs, which was located in the center of the unsealed CIC room. The new Farragut Interdictors I helped design put in far more creature comforts, including two city sized gravity rings for the entire crew to reside in. Each of the rings had a space in the center almost reaching two kilometers, giving the rings an outer diameter of two kilometers. This new ship had three CIC rooms, a weapons room, fighter room, and the main room which held the Captain and a few miscellaneous officers for different tasks. To fire one of the four, Class Seven Railguns mounted in the broadside position, the captain would tell the executive Weapons officer in the main CIC room to fire. He would then relay the message to the weapons CIC room, which would in turn tell the actual gunner to fire. This took about five seconds in total to complete, and with a ship that big, five seconds usually wouldn't make an issue.

The same process would be done for the fighters deployed or docked. All emergency damages crews would be relayed through the ship's computer system, SATCOM, or Sam as she preferred. I still couldn't believe Elliot let her upgrade herself freely, which ended in her acting completely human par for the humanly errors. Both of our copies of SATCOM knew they were computers, they just didn't care; My version of Sam had been copied from Elliot's original, which was who raised both of us from birth. Sam Even tried to convince me to let her use our automated manufacturing shop to make a Bio-printed body for herself. Of course I explicitly forebode it, although she often took control of the humanoid security bots to talk with me regardless.

"Admiral, you have the helm. I need to be somewhere." I said to the dark skinned man next to me. "OH, and Denton, you still owe me a twenty for that bet a few days ago." I whispered while sauntering past the chair to my right. The moment I passed the threshold into the Hallway, I found four soldiers standing around me, two on the floor and two on the ceiling.

I told you to stop following me everywhere, I can take care of myself." I said while being followed to one of the elevators that would move me to the right gravity ring. The moment I stepped into the industrial sized elevator all four soldiers entered with me.

"Come on Ma'am, you're the most important women in the Galaxy right now, we have to escort you everywhere." The lead man, who was wearing a stealth Exoskeleton suit said.

"Fine, at least the EXO suits are almost invisible. I mean, you almost look decent William."

"Ohh and the President uses your first name, She wants the D!" The women in the group joked.

"Ha-ha Evelyn. Dunn and I have known each other for awhile. Besides, don't you think I just want to have a conversation among friends?" I asked the group of four, who were all wearing the almost invisible EXO suit.

I had personally designed their clothing, weapons, and armor to be very concealable. All four of them wore OD green pants, tan long sleeve shirts, rimless shooters glasses, and a micro sized Exoskeleton suit that gave them the strength of fifteen men. All the clothing had been embedded with the same material as my G-suit, only to a lower degree of protection. The glasses had an embedded heads up display that presented vitals of the user, ammo count, a small radar system that synced into their EXO suits, and retinal tracking for their weapons. The Exoskeleton suits had design elements off of my Wingsuit, including the dual beam lasers that extracted above the user's head. I also incorporated the temporary shield and Quantum Refraction Field into the backpack module. All in all, the highly trained Ex-infiltration forces guarding me looked very dashing.

"I suppose we could back off a bit, but then how would we know where you are if you're ditching us… again." Evelyn Hawkins replied.

"Uhh, I dunno, maybe the tracker embedded into my spinal chord." I snarked back. "Anyway, have you had some range time with the suits yet?"

"Yes Ma'am, not that we need range practice. All we do is look at the target and press a button on the side of our index finger." Second Lieutenant Dunn replied.

"Yeah, but it's still good to get familiar with the energy drains on the system. Well, looks like we're here, no following me in there." I said while standing at the entrance of the C.S.S room.

"But we got training in there." Specialist Lawrence Yates interjected just before I closed the door.

"I'm well aware of that Yates, but right now, no one is to come or go except for me and J.F, Clear?"

"Yes Ma'am" Dunn replied.

Inside the C.S.S room wasn't too fancy, just a few horizontal chairs for people to lay in, and a single clear tank filled with opaque blue liquid. In this room was the uplink for Sam's simulated reality systems, allowing a thirty to one time scale inside the program. I had used it to give my four private guards nearly three years of intensive training from Sam in just thirty six days.

The tables allowed for a normal uplink to the computer system, and the blue liquid filled tank was used for extended uplinks, up to one whole year if necessary. This would give the user three decades of time in the computer system, which was indistinguishable from the real world.

"Hey Judy." Someone mumbled from behind me.

"Morning... you doing okay?" I asked the depressed women.

"Ehh, just hoping I can see him soon." She answered while standing next to me.

"Yeah, me too. But hey, we can always check his vitals and other stuff." I said while walking up to the large tank butted up to the wall.

"Can I maybe have a hug?" She asked hesitantly.

"Sure thing Jacqueline." I said while turning around to face the Raxxlan Snow Leopard. Upon wrapping my arms around her, I found my leg enveloped in a fluffy tail. "Something in particular bothering you?" I asked the spotted cat, who rested her head on my left shoulder.

"I don't know." She mumbled. "I just don't understand why Elliot decided to do this."

"Can you keep a secret?" I asked, which received a silent nod in response. "I don't know what happened to Elliot while he was in that coma, but he changed. His physical DNA is different and I don't know how it happened. . . He could consummate with you and produce offspring." I said, which caused her to slightly tense for a moment.

After a few seconds of silence, I started to notice her shuddering ever so slightly. "Then why would he leave me without as much as a goodbye? Why would he just lock himself in that computer for the past three months without as much as a reason?" She whimpered.

"I don't know Jacqueline, I simply do not know." I replied while rubbing the wailing Feline's back.

"I just want to hold him so badly, a-and Sam won't let us take him out, and-and-and. . . I miss him so much."

"If it makes you feel any better, Elliot should be out of the simulation in a few minutes. The thing he was trying to verify has been verified." Sam said through the intercom, which caused Jacqueline's claws to extract into by back; Although it did hurt, I wouldn't bother interrupting her grieving.

By the time Elliot was ready for disembarkation from the simulation, Jacqueline had recomposed herself and become rather giddy. With a loud hiss from the tank, the blue liquid inside was drained to the floor, leaving Elliot in a thorough covering of the blue slime. Once the floor was completely emptied of liquid, a shower of water washed off most of the retention fluid on Elliot's naked body.

"Jacqueline, Close your eyes." I said while holding my hand over her face.

"I'm not a child." She replied indignantly.

"Would you like him to see you naked in that tube?" I asked while raising an eyebrow.

". . . Maybe." She replied coquettishly.

"Heh-heh, Elliot sure knows how to pick em'." I thought to myself while the glass tube opened, allowing me to unhook him from the various cables and wires linking him to the computer. By this point, Elliot was being suspended by a mechanical arm grasping his shoulders. I really didn't like the idea of him using the Long Term Integration Chamber due to several disembarkation complications that always popped up. First off was the long time he would spend unconscious, second was once Elliot woke up, he would have mental problems. More specifically, he wouldn't know what was real and what wasn't, something that wouldn't be a problem with normal uplinking through the bed/chairs placed around the room.

I decided to lay him on one of the bed/chairs while we waited, sending S.F.C Hawkins to go get Elliot some soft clothing due to his skin being over sensitized from the blue retention fluid. She ended up returning with some fluffy blue pajama pants and a long sleeve Pajama shirt of the same hue. Almost the exact second I finished dressing the naked body, Elliot opened his eyes a sliver.

"Hey, long time no see Elliot." I cooed from above his supine body.

His response was only an incoherent mutter that was followed up with tears coming from his eyes.

"Oh shit." I muttered. "DUNN, get me sixty CC's of Pipecuronium bromide, NOW!" I shouted in knowledge of what would come the instant Elliot regained muscular control.

"W-what's happening to him?" Jacqueline asked with worry.

"He doesn't know that it was a simulation, DAMMIT! This is why we never use the L.T.I.C, it always fucks with your mind." I said in frustration.

The longer we waited for William to return with the chemical, the more coherent Elliot became. At the two minute mark he began crying about someone named Viper Five, and how he would find retribution for what someone did. Most of it was still scattered and impossible to understand, but I could tell whatever happened in there wasn't a pleasant experience.

"J-Judith." He whispered in a beckoning tone.

I leaned in close to his mouth, careful to keep a taser in my hand just in case I had done something to him in the simulation. "I'm here Elliot." I cooed.

"Y-You have to kill her… You have to kill that fucking cat." Elliot mumbled with an abominated tone. I nodded silently to him while returning to my upright position.

"You need to leave." I said to Jacqueline, who looked at me with a 'what the hell' expression.

"I've got it Ma'am!" Dunn shouted while darting through the door, quickly handing me a large syringe with clear liquid.

"Judy, what's wrong with him!?" Jacqueline shouted, causing Elliot to snap his head to the left. Almost instantly, he rolled off the table and stood up, albeit groggily.

"Dunn, restrain him." I said while bleeding the needle of air.

"Yes Ma'am." He replied while moving towards Elliot, who started backing away.

"NO! You have to kill her, she killed my best friend. . . She killed Alex right in front of me." Elliot said in a panicked wail of tears.

"Elliot, what are you t-"

"JACQUELINE, LEAVE!" I shouted with frustration, causing the cat to immediately scamper away. When Dunn cornered Elliot, he began to hyperventilate uncontrollably while pressing his back up to the corner. Dunn tried to reason with him, all ending in the same answer. "You have to kill that cat."

"Dammit, just bring him over here Dunn." I ordered with impatience.

When Dunn reached out, Elliot responded with a quick jab to Dunn's neck, causing the Second lieutenant to collapse on the ground.

"Dammit Elliot, stop resisting." I said while setting down the syringe to grab Elliot myself. As I walked closer, he began side stepping towards the door. "Elliot, just relax." I said while holding out my hands.

"Y-you're working with her, h-how am I supposed to trust anything you say?. . . Just leave me alone, okay." Elliot replied warily.

"Whatever you remember happening, didn't happen. It was all just a simulation."

"Heh-heh-heh… You think I'd believe something as stupid as that." And poof, Elliot was running through the entrance of the C.S.S.

Knowing that the rest of my security team would subdue Elliot, I padded to Dunn, who was still laying on the floor in a coughing fit. "Dunn, you had one job, ONE JOB." I said while hoisting him upright.

"Sombitch packs a wallop." He replied.

"LET ME GO!" I heard Elliot yell from just outside, prompting me to retrieve the syringe and walk to the restrained Admiral. When Elliot laid eyes on me with the syringe, he started violently shaking in terror while staring wide eyed. "Please, just let me live my life in peace, all I need is the R.S.K to fix my body."

"Elliot, I'm not going to let anything happen to you… You have my word." I said while pressing the silver needle into his neck, sending the terrified man limp. "Take him to the prison hold, but make it comfortable." I told the two holding Elliot by the arms.

"Yes Ma'am." S.F.C Hawkins replied.


-=Eight hours later: Elliot Pov=-

"Ella, Ella look at me!" I commanded with dread, getting an immediate response from the small kit.

"FOUR!"

"I will Always love you, my special snowflake."

"THREE!"

"I love you too daddy." She whimpered back.

"TWO!"

"Close y-your eyes Pumpkin." I said while falling to my knees.

"ONE!" The snow leopard shouted as the most precious thing in my life shut her amber eyes.

"AHHHH!" I screamed while shooting upright. I began frantically looking around me for Ella, yet only found that accursed Snow leopard sitting on the other side of an energy barricade.

I was in a cell, although it had many things a cell wouldn't have. A nice bed was this first, books to read, a table with a sharpened pencil that I immediately clutched in my hands. Blank pieces of paper, and a holographic cube PDA. Realizing I had a nightmare, I started looking around the ten by ten foot room, finding no possible escape without dropping the energy barricade that comprised an entire wall.

"What do you want? You already took my things, my friends and family, what else could you possibly want from me?" I hissed while sitting on the bed, still clutching the sharp pencil.

"What happened to you in there?" She replied with sadness.

"UGH, you can drop the fucking simulation bullshit. Even with Prism's advancements, you couldn't possibly produce a virtual reality."

"I. . . I brought you food ya-know. . . If you're hungry." She mumbled while sliding a tray of steaming mashed potatoes and chicken through a small hole in the shield.

"I'm good on the drugs, thanks." I said with spite. I then walked within inches of the shield, and knelt to the sitting cat. "If you want to get any information out of me, you should know I spent five years of my life enduring the most unthinkable torture out there. So unless you plan on disemboweling me, then putting a set of incompatible organs in my body so my immune system starts eating away at my organs, then repeating the process dozens of times… good luck getting anything out of me." I said with a sinister smile.

"Elliot, as long as it takes to help you get better, I'll wait for you. Just like you promised, I love you now and forever." She said with a few tears damping the spotted fur upon her face.

"Uh-huh, you did say something about me proposing to you a few years ago. But like I said before, I have no idea who you are. Now if you don't mind, I have some things to do." I said while seating myself at the table, a blank piece of white paper sitting in front of me. Before the mopey Snow leopard sauntered away, I began scribbling on the paper with expert precision when I noticed something. My hands and arms were void of all burn marks or G-suit fabric. Immediately shooting my shirt up, I found nothing on my chest either. When I looked in a plastic mirror embedded into the wall, I found my eyes were actual eyes, I just hadn't noticed the vision change until now.

"What the hell really happened to me?" I mumbled while staring at my pristine face.


-=Three days later=-

"Stand against the wall, legs and arms apart." A man said, I believe his name was Dunn. Yeah, that was the guy I punched in the throat.

"Not even going to take me to dinner first?" I asked with unamused sarcasm while complying. After the man patted me down, he began searching the cell. "I don't know what you expect to find, I haven't exactly been able to go anywhere that would allow me to make something." I said.

"Just making sure, with a man of your skill set, anything could be possible." He replied while taking a closer look at some of the drawings I taped around the room. "Who's this fox?"

"..."

"That's okay, I'll find out one way or another." He said while carefully pulling all my drawings off the wall.

"Hey, Come on. Give them back." I said while turning around.

"AH-AH, Hands on the wall Crawford."

"… Please." I mumbled with sadness while the man reactivated the energy barricade, still holding about a dozen of my pictures.

"I will return them once We've analyzed who these people are." Dunn said while flipping through the stack. "Hey, I recognize this guy. Who is this?" He said while holding up a drawing of Alex and I standing next to each other.

"My friend… Saved my life at the cost of his own."

"Ah, who killed him?"

"She did." I said while pointing to the Snow leopard that was walking up. "Shot him right in the face inches away from me." I said while restraining my emotions.

"Uh-huh… I should have these back by tomorrow. They're really good by the way." Dunn said while walking down the hall. I didn't bother greeting the cat, simply sitting down at the table to resume my current drawing of Ella sitting in my lap. After a few minutes of silently drawing, and resharpening my almost depleted pencil, I didn't like the feeling of the cat staring at me.

"What do you want?" I asked coldly.

"To talk with you, that's all." She replied in the Raxxlan language.

"Ahh, and you don't want anyone to know what we're saying?" I replied in Raxxlan.

"No, it's just easier to speak this language compared to yours."

"Well, get on with it then."

"A few days ago you said something to me that's been keeping me up at night. You said you proposed to me a few years ago, was it true?"

"Why should I answer you, what would I get in return?" I asked without taking my eyes off the paper in front of me.

"I-I could try to get you something. What do y-"

"Colored pencils. A large package of high quality colored pencils. Acid free, one-hundred weight fine tooth paper. A kneeded eraser, and a high quality sharpener. I understand if you can't get me the latter, but everything else is non-optional."

"How do I know you'll hold up your end of the deal?"

"If I don't, you can just take the things away." I said while sliding a piece of paper through the food hole in the Energy barrier. "My items are on the paper."

(Mostly Strings: All I want)


-=Three hours Later=-

"I got you everything you asked for, even the sharpener." The snow leopard said while sliding the items in one by one. I began checking each thing, the stack of high quality paper, my new pencils, and so forth. "So?" She asked while sitting on the floor.

"I don't know."

"What?"

"I don't know if I proposed to you or not. I don't even know why you're asking me this, after all, You're the one who said I proposed."

"WHAT!? You can't just give me an answer like that after all I went through to get you this!" She shouted in response.

"You wanted to know if I really did propose to you. I don't know the answer to that question, my memory has been quite spotty the past few years since the Baal-hermon explosion."

"The what?"

"OH, WOULD YOU QUIT WITH THE IGNORANCE! The Neutron bomb that destroyed the Rabbit town! The place where you built your EMIPIRE off my technology! The place where you shot my best friend and my daughter right in front of me!" I screamed with tear filled eyes. "If you're going to swing the ax, JUST SWING IT! But don't come in here and keep me prisoner, saying you have no idea what you've done to me!"

"Elliot." She whimpered back.

"LEAVE ME ALONE YOU FUCKING BALL OF HAIR!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. Seconds later, the cat stood and scurried away from me while crying. After all I had been through, after all I had sacrificed to keep those around me safe, It all ended in my Loved ones dying in front of my face. It all ended with the girl I swore to protect till my last breath having her brains splattered on the wall, and it was all because I wanted to live a little bit longer. I got my best friend and my daughter killed all because I didn't want to be taken care of like an old man.

Then to have the one responsible for it all standing in front of me, allied with the one who I trusted most in life… My wife. Judith, the one I grew up with, the one I loved with all my being had allied with the one I hated most. I had no one in this world left I could trust. Who would be there to watch my back when everyone I knew was killed or turned against me. No longer could I trust the Federation or the empire, for they were merged into the Human defense forces under the control of Judith Crawford.

Out of everyone in my life that I trusted the most, it was her. But now she was nothing more than an enemy holding me prisoner in a place I did not know, In a land far from my home. As I laid on the bed in a ball of snot and tears, clutching the one picture that hadn't been taken from me. I stared at the picture of who gave me joy in the depths of my despair, The one who always put a smile on my face when I was feeling down. The one who I won't ever get to hold and comfort again.

"I will always love you my special snowflake. Goodbye Ella." Was written on the back of the black and white drawing.


A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Reviews are appreciated. If you have a writing tip, throw it at me.