Disclaimer: I do not own anything Fallout 3 or Fallout 3 related. Only Hikari and Mei. That is all.
Songs of Inspiration: Walk on the Water by Britt Nicole. I own neither the song nor the singer. Head Against the Sky by Eisley. Don't own Eisley or the song.
Chapter 8: Taking it Down
Somah decided to join us in our pursuit of the last generator. After it was completed, Charon would go up outside the ship. I prayed that there would be nothing wrong with the suit after it had been cryogenically frozen. I would rather it have been me to go up, but Charon was not going to let me. He said he cared too much and didn't want to lose me right after he had gotten me back.
Somah began to work on one of the ships many teleporters as Charon and I shot any of the drones before they got too close, along with a couple aliens. Suddenly, there was a glow from behind us and a weird buzzing. I turned around, and Somah had disappeared. I stared at the spot.
"Hey, kid!" I heard Somah call. "Over here!"
I turned to look and she was standing on another balcony.
"I don't know what I did, but I somehow teleported over here! I'll try to meet up with you later. Just try to destroy the generator!"
I nodded and Charon and I continued deeper into the bowels of the robot assembly. We destroyed many robots and aliens alike, not bothering to wait for them to attack first. If we did, it may have been the last thing we did. We kept going until we came to a dead end.
"Now what?" Charon asked.
I began to look around, and I spotted a weird, glowing blue thing on the wall. It looked like some sort of computer, and I tried to hack it, but to no avail. I got frustrated and hit the keyboard. Electricity seemed to swarm around it, and I simply stared at it. I felt Charon grab a hold of my shoulder and pull me out of the way, shielding me between his body and the opposite wall. The bigger part of me was not surprised that he did it, but there was a small part of me that was oddly surprised and a bit mad that he would risk his life for mine.
"That seems to have done the job," I heard Charon say. "There is a hole blown in the wall, and the production seems to have stopped. Let's go."
I nodded slowly and followed him into the tunnel. We climbed over broken, incomplete drones and avoided shots from aliens and drones up ahead, firing our weapons as we did so.
The generator wasn't too far ahead, and we met back up with Somah on the other side of the tunnel. We exited the robot assembly, fear and apprehension writing in my stomach. I didn't want Charon to go up to the top of the ship by himself. I would rather it be me, especially since I noticed that I could heal. It was the logical choice, but I couldn't do anything. Maybe... Maybe I could talk him out of it. Maybe if I begged and reminded him that I could heal, he would let me go instead of him. I hoped it would work, but I had my doubts.
Charon stripped the suit off of the astronaut and began to slip it on.
"Charon?" I said, stopping his hand.
I avoided his eyes as I spoke. I could already feel the tears begin to form in my eyes, and I didn't want him to see me cry.
"Yes, Hikari?"
"Please, don't do this," I begged. "I just got someone solid back, someone I remember. I-I don't want to lose you. Charon, please, don't do this to me."
I heard Charon sigh and relax his arms. "Hikari, I cannot let you do this. I cannot lose you again-"
I looked up at him, letting the tears fall. "Charon, you know I can heal. Why won't you let me go? I have a higher probability of staying alive."
"It is not that. I am worried you will get captured by the aliens. They will experiment on you, they-"
"I don't care," I replied. "Let me go instead."
He shrugged my hand off as he turned around to finish putting on the suit. "I must be the one to go. You must understand this."
"That's the thing, Charon, I don't understand," I pressed, feeling frustration growing inside. "I understand that you want me to be safe, but I've already been experimented on. It's nothing new to me! They-"
He began to walk away, and the rage began to build. This was not the Charon that I remembered at the memorial. The one there wouldn't have walked away. I guessed that in that time that I was gone, something inside changed him. I watched angrily as he entered the chamber, not even bothering to turn around. Sally stood at the controls. I felt frustrated, upset, and just plain mad inside. Mad at Charon for ignoring me, mad at him for abandoning me, mad at the aliens for taking Harkness and me, mad the aliens for taking everyone here, mad at them for experimenting on us, mad at them for trying to kill us, mad at myself for just letting Charon go in there alone, mad at myself for not remembering anything...
The door closed as he reached forward to press a button, and an alarm began to go off. I felt my heart sink, but I had to wait until he started up the transporter.
~Charon's POV~
As Hikari begged for me not to go, I couldn't look at her. I knew that my resolution would be dissolved in an instant. What was happening to me? I went from hardcore trained, gruff, no-nonsense mercenary, never bothered by the tears of others, to someone who was weak, questioning himself and the life and ideas that I once clung to. I was getting weak, soft. It was the girl's fault. She had given me my own contract and set me free. It was awkward at first, but I kept the ideas with me as I protected and watched out for Mei. She had Talon Company Mercs coming for her nearly every day, and I fended them off. I never let go of my ideals, until I knew that Hikari was alive. She had broken me out of the contract, and I hated her for it. She made me want to watch out for her, to protect her.
I avoided her eyes as I continued to pull the suit on. When I deemed it secure, I headed into the decompression chamber. I could feel her presence behind by Sally as the door closed. I pressed the button, and an alarm began to go off. Oxygen was sucked out of the room, and the door up ahead of me opened up. There was a dead alien sitting on the floor in the room up ahead, and I knew it was good that I had the suit on.
There were many flights of steps up ahead, and I thought that they may never end. I noticed that my feet began to stick to the metal flooring as I headed up, which made me wonder if the suit had some sort of metallic sole to prevent people from floating away from pre-war ships if they had to make repairs on their ships when in space. It would make things rather difficult if there were. Maybe they were only activated when gravity was not as heavy.
The door at the top was slightly stuck, but with a hard tug, it came open with no sound. I guessed that there was no sound because sound waves can't travel without air. I pressed through on to the top of the ship, and the teleporter glowed orange up ahead between the upper part and the lower part. Well, I guessed it to be a teleporter. For all I knew, it could have been something that held the two parts together, and my stepping in it would break the two parts apart, of it could fry me. There was nowhere else to go, so I decided to take my chances.
As I stepped in it, a tingling sensation filled my body, and everything turned a bright orange, which then slowly began to turn white molecule by molecule. Suddenly, everything sped up and went white, nearly blinding me in the process.
~Hikari's POV~
I let Charon go, and I was mad at myself again. Why didn't I try harder? I could have- My thoughts were interrupted by a small voice.
"Hikari, there's no use wallowing in self-pity," Sally said. "Come and explore with me! It'll make things go faster! There's plenty I haven't seen yet."
I sighed. "Fine, let's go."
She smiled and grabbed my hand, leading me only God knows where. I wasn't really paying attention until she stopped in front of a glowing platform.
"This thing lit up after you destroyed the last generator," she stated. "Come on, let's go in!"
"But, Sally, we don't know where it goes."
"That's the fun part!"
She smiled and ran into it before zapping away. I frowned and felt as though I had no choice, so I jumped in after her. My body felt tingly and everything glowed for a split second. After that, it was dark. I couldn't see a thing and something horrible filled my nostrils. I turned on my pip-boy light, but it didn't help much.
"Sally?" I called. "Sally, where are you?"
A small glow came from up ahead, and I headed toward it. I tripped a couple of times over some things, but I didn't know what they were. I came into a weird, small room where Sally was messing around with some kind of device that was on the wall. The buttons emitted a blue, almost electric-looking light. I wasn't entirely sure she should be messing with that.
"Sally, do you know what you're doing?"
"Nope," she replied.
Suddenly, the door behind shut behind us, and the feeling of falling began. I closed my eyes and clung to the wall, fear filling my body, but it didn't help one bit. We jerked to a stop and I felt a small amount of relief. Light flooded the small compartment, and I realized what we were in: one of the garbage chutes. There was a single alien in the room where the light was coming from. I quickly ducked down and waited for Sally to get the thing moving again. I kind of wished she hadn't, because the sensation of falling came again, and my fear reared its head.
"Think we were spotted?" she questioned.
I didn't reply. I couldn't. We stopped again, and things were better, but the adrenaline still flowed through my system, and I began to shake.
"Cows? We got cows!" Sally said.
I stood up just in time to catch a glance of some Brahmin before we were off again. I clung to the window ledge until we stopped again. I was disoriented and didn't see what was coming. I felt something come in contact with my right and left shoulder, causing me to fall backwards.
"Hikari!" Sally shouted.
A burning sensation filled my body as the wounds began to stitch themselves back together. I brushed the hot, alien, plasmic goo off of my shoulders and allowed my hands to heal themselves before returning fire. The aliens were close, probably thinking I was incapable of fighting back. I managed to kill two before I had to duck back and reload. The other two were easily disposed of with V.A.T.S. I made sure my gun was fully loaded before turning to Sally.
"That was cool!" she shouted. "How come you can heal?"
"Dunno," I replied.
"Well, I think you'll be fine for a while," she stated. "I'm going to see if I can't find a way to get out of this place. I think I can fit through the window, but you're too big."
"W-wait, you're leaving me here?"
"Only to find a way to get you out," she replied. "Don't worry, I'll be back soon."
She began to climb, and I sat right under the window once she was out. I was alone in the darkness and garbage with only my weak pip-boy light. The garbage chute could fall at any moment, and there was nothing I could do. Great. My fear of heights and falling began to settle in the pit of my stomach.
After a while, there was a terrible groaning noise, and my fear intensified. I felt the room begin to fall at a rapid pace, and I clung to the sides once more. The double door to my left opened up and the cart tipped as it stopped, causing me to slide with the garbage, and I tried to find something to grasp on to. I clung to the edge and tried to pull myself in, but I lost my grip and began to fall through the darkness and silence. I blacked out before I reached the bottom, my heart racing the whole time.
xXx
My leg hurt a bit, but everything else seemed to be okay. The odor that I had smelled before had increased tenfold wherever I was. I heard an odd noise, and flipped on the light of my pip-boy. I shone it around, but it did little good, only illuminating a radius of about one foot. I saw something shining and red, and I ventured carefully towards it. As I drew near, I realized something. It was Harkness. The noise was coming from him, and the red stuff was blood.
"Oh, gosh, Harkness!"
I knelt down beside him to try to see if I could help him in any way.
"H-Hikari," he said with a light cough. "Good. You're safe. Have they hurt you?"
"No," I lied. "Can you walk?"
Slowly, he shook his head. "C-can't feel my legs."
"I've got to get you out of here," I told him. "I'll help you walk."
"No," he said. "No, I'll only slow you down, increase your chances of getting killed."
"Look, I have the uncanny ability to heal. You, however, don't. I'm not leaving you."
"Yes, you can heal," he wheezed. "But that does not mean that you cannot die. Hikari, you are not immortal. Everyone dies, some way, somehow. This… This is my time."
"Harkness, don't say things like that," I said. "Come on, I'm not leaving without you."
"Hikari, I will not argue this point any longer… Your gun is about to jam. Let me see it."
I sighed and handed it to him. After all, it had been him that had given it to me in the first place. He tinkered with it, using only the small amount of light from my pip-boy. I don't even know what he did, but he handed it back to me after a moment.
"Now get out of here-"
"No," I told him firmly. "I refuse to leave you here to die."
I bent over and tried to help him up, but he wasn't helping.
"Just leave-"
"No! I'm not leaving, and that's final. You can either cooperate with me and make this a lot smoother or you can drag me down and cause even more of a risk. Your pick."
He sighed, but decided that it would be better to cooperate. He leaned heavily on me, but I ignored it and helped him to walk, hopefully to somewhere safe.
~Charon's POV~
On the top part of the ship, the platform activation was easily initialized. I waited for people to come through, but none came. I briefly wondered if I had activated it correctly. I stepped into the teleporter and wound up where I had entered the decompression chamber. No, everything was correct, but no one was nearby.
I ventured farther down the hall, my gun at the ready. Anything could have happened aboard the alien ship, so I had to be ready. I heard voices, but it was on; Sally and the others. I approached them cautiously, wondering why they weren't waiting by the teleporter.
"Wait, where's Hikari?" I questioned.
"I don't know!" Sally said in an exasperated tone. "That's why I came back from exploring! She was in the garbage chute when I left to find a way out, but it went away, and now I don't know where she went!"
I felt rage begin to course through me. "We will find her. Show me where you last saw her."
"O-okay…" Sally mumbled.
~Hikari's POV~
I stumbled passed odd-looking things that seemed to compact the alien trash, carefully avoiding being hit. I had a feeling that if I were to somehow go underneath one, I would be pulverized to a pulp.
I crept thought the garbage, Harkness leaning against my side, hoping that there would be no aliens anywhere that I had to deal with. I was running very low on ammo, but I may have been able to use one of the alien's guns. There was bound to be a lot more ammo for those kinds of guns around.
I opened a door cautiously before slipping in. I could make out six aliens on my pip-boy radar, which was still working surprisingly well. I went to take out one, but I missed, alerting them to my presence. I cursed my luck and ran down some stairs, narrowly avoiding the shots that flew my way. Laying Harkness against the wall, I stood up once the shots seemed to have stopped and began to fire again. They took the opportunity to fire upon me at the same moment, and I felt many of their plasmic shots splatter across my body. I fell back down next to Harkness, suppressing screams of agony as the goo began to burn right through the little bit of protection that I had. I brushed it off, but it was sticky and was hard to get off.
Beside me, Harkness stood up, a look of pure torture etched across his face. My body seemed to have restricted my movements when it began its healing process, and I could only watch as he grabbed my gun and began to head for the stairs.
"No," I muttered. "Harkness, no, don't-"
"Hikari, get out of here and save yourself. I love you."
I was frozen, but not because of the same reason. I stared at him, unable to find the words to say. Was this why he was acting the way he was? Why he was helping me?
"Harkness, I won't let you do this," I managed to say.
"I have to," he said. "I'll take out as many as I can. Goodbye."
He stood up, and my stomach began to clench as I watched him go in horror. He began to fire before he even got to the top of the stairs. I had never seen anyone fire so quickly. He must have gotten off a good ten shots before he reached the top of the steps. I resorted to crawling towards him. I didn't know what good it would do, but maybe there would be some was that I could protect him .He was one of the only people that seemed to know who I was.
I reached the first step, ignoring the constant burning that plagued my body, just in time to see the worst thing I had probably ever seen. A shot from the alien weapon struck Harkness, and he stumbled backwards, but kept firing. More and more shots stuck to him, and the smell that filled the air was sickly sweet, of burning flesh.
"Harkness!" I cried out. "Harkness, no!"
I could tell that he was in a lot of pain, and it made me feel horrible that I could do nothing about it. I kept crawling up the stairs, hoping to reach Harkness. Suddenly, Harkness fell to the ground, plasmic goo stuck all over his body.
"Harkness! NO!"
I felt like crying, I felt sick to my stomach, I felt shocked, I… I was so scared out of my mind, and had just seen one of my only friends get himself killed to save me. Harkness was the one to help me after my memory had been lost. He was one of the few that actually gave a damn. And now, he was gone. Gone forever. There was nothing I could do, and I felt so… helpless. Hot tears streamed down my face, but I wiped them off. I would not let Harkness's sacrifice be in vein. He wanted me off of the ship, and that's what I'd do. I'd kill every one of those aliens, for doing what they did to us.
The gun slid over to my position, and I was filled with rage, fury, anger, sadness, despair, everything of the like. I felt a new wave of energy wash over me, more adrenaline, if that was possible. I grabbed the gun and stood up, firing at the aliens, my pain going numb. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as I fired, and I kept firing, even after I knew that they were dead.
Suddenly, I felt a pair of strong arms restrain me from behind, and I fought, tears filling my eyes. I shouted, louder and louder each time, until I collapsed on the ground in sobs. Charon said nothing; he just held me close, which was exactly what I needed. I sobbed into his shoulder as he stroked my hair with one hand and cradled me with the other.
~Charon's POV~
Hikari was devastated with the loss of Harkness. I had no idea just how strongly she had bonded with him in the short period of time. I hated to do it, but I had to force her to slip out of her depression. More aliens were bound to show up sooner or later, and we needed to move before they turned the teleporter off again.
Hikari's clothes were completely ruined, and she had nothing else. I thought for a moment before giving her the space suit that I was still wearing. It would be big on her, but it would be better than the rags she had. Her ammo had also depleted during the fight, so she was forced to use one of the alien guns. It was similar in size to her old one, and we were able to figure out how to reload it and scrounge up enough ammo from the bodies of the dead aliens.
xXx
As we made our way silently through the hallway, I heard some more aliens up ahead, and they had robots. I tried to convince Hikari to stay, but she refused to. She wanted revenge, and I doubted it would be good for her, but hell, she needed it. She deserved it.
We were able to sneak up on them and frenzy one of the robots, which began to attack the other robot and the aliens. It managed to take out the other robot and one alien, leaving just a couple for us. Hikari shot with no mercy and a fearless, dangerous look in her eyes. To be honest, I had hoped that she would snap out of things, but she was desperately clinging to her emotions; she was in a rage, and nothing would stop her.
xXx
It seemed like we were finally getting to the aliens as they shot off their death ray to frighten us. Hikari seemed unshaken, along with Somah, Paulson, and me. Sally and Elliot appeared to be quite frightened of it. They wouldn't blow up their own ship, and that would be the only way to stop us. We would get off of the ship, even if it killed us.
~Mei's POV~
I lay on the bed in our Megaton shack, hoping and praying that Charon would be back with Hikari soon. I was bored out of my mind, and he was taking way too long. It hadn't even been a week, and I was about ready to pack my things and go searching. Wadsworth putted in for the fifth time that morning and asked me if I'd like anything. Again, I said no. Honestly, if that bugger didn't leave me alone, I might have ended up shooting it. Didn't it understand that what I needed was to get out? But no, Charon made me promise that I'd be a good girl and stay in Megaton to heal.
I sighed and decided to get up. Maybe there would be something around town to do. Ha. Yeah right. What was there to do in Megaton other than live? Die. That was it. The place was pretty dead, especially with Gob and Moriarty gone. I wanted to kill something. That sounded good. I grabbed my assault rifle and left the house and went up to where Stockholm patrolled and sat with my feet dangling over the edge.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"I'm waiting for something to kill," I stated.
"Why?"
"Because I'm fuckin' bored!" I snapped. "Is it against the law to be up here? God…"
I was pretty sure he sent me some sort of loathing look, but I didn't care. I stared on the horizon with my assault rifle ready and loaded. If I was lucky, maybe there would be some raiders that ventured within killing range. Yes, that would be good.
~Hikari's POV~
I couldn't wait to get to the bridge. I wanted to kill the captain or whoever was in charge. They took away one of the few people that truly cared for me, and they would pay. Dearly.
"This is the teleporter to the deck," Sally stated.
"You sure?" I questioned.
She nodded, and I didn't hesitate to jump in. I would go in guns blazing, taking down as many as possible before they took any more of us down. I fired off shot after shot of the alien matter, doing as much damage as I could before the others showed up. The captain, or at least, I thought he was the captain, was talking to another hologram, and I didn't hesitate to shoot him in the back of the head while he was busy talking. He turned to a pile of ash on his seat, and I could sense that something was wrong. The others filed in behind me just as another ship came into view.
"This is just like an episode of Captain Cosmos!" Sally exclaimed. "Somah, can take those controls over there, Elliot, you can go over there, Paulson, you can be Jangles the Moon Monkey, and I can arm the death ray!"
"I ain't no space monkey…" Paulson muttered.
I looked over the readings that were at the captain's chair. They appeared to show the shield and death ray power distribution of our ship and the other ship. I pressed a button, and the death ray fired, hitting the other ship. They returned fire, and I steadied myself in the captain's chair. I watched the damage report on our ship, as well as theirs. I waited for the button to light up again before I shot another blow. I then quickly turned shields up to maximum and waited for them to fire. I then turned the death ray to max and fired before turning the shields back up. The cycle went on for quite some time before something seemed to have really damaged the ship. The death ray wasn't firing, and our shields were failing.
"Look around and see if you can't find any kind of repair switches or something!" Somah shouted.
I glanced around before I spotted a backup generator switch. I hit it, and the death ray seemed to come back online. More aliens, however, poured in from behind us. Paulson and Charon kept them at bay, along with the samurai. I wasn't even aware that he had returned until I heard him shouting in whatever language he was speaking.
I hit the switch again, hoping that this would be the shot that blew up their ship. Ours had slightly less damage, but that was probably because we had launched the first assault. I turned the shields back up to maximum before we retained more fire.
When the ship suddenly sent out an explosion, I was half delirious. We had just blown up an alien ship, and something inside of me felt so much more… relieved. I relaxed in the captain's chair. It seemed as though our struggle against the aliens was coming to a close.
"Umm, Hikari," Elliot called. "You might want to come and look at this."
Great. Just when things were starting to turn around.
"What is it?" I asked, staring at the screen.
"I think that during the battle, I may have accidentally launched some sort of homing beacon down to Earth. Now, I'm not sure, but I think it may be a way off of this ship. I believe it is somewhere outside DC."
I stared at him hopefully. Maybe there was a chance that we could get off of this ship. I hoped and prayed it was so.
"How would I access it?" I questioned.
"There is a teleporter in the captain's quarters," Elliot stated. "According to the readings, you should be able to access it from there."
"Thank you!" I exclaimed. "Charon, did you here that? It could be our way home!"
He nodded solemnly. I didn't understand why he wasn't as excited as I was. That homing beacon could mean that we could go home, get off of the ship, and get back to Earth. No more aliens, no more blasters, no more unpleasant things… Well, not in the same sense. There were plenty of unpleasant things, from what I could remember, and there were some kinds of blasters, but not in the big death ray sense.
"Well. I'm going to try it out," I stated.
"So, I guess this is goodbye," Sally said.
I nodded. "I guess so."
"Well, you're always welcome back if you decided to leave Earth again," she replied.
I couldn't help but smile. "I'll be sure to come straight here if I get sick of the wasteland.
"Goodbye, Sally."
"'Bye, Hikari."
The girl wrapped her arms around me and embraced me in a final goodbye. I returned the gesture before she let me go.
"Thank you, all of you, for your assistance," I announced. "I will miss you all. Goodbye."
With that said, I stepped into the teleporter. I felt tingly all over, and it made me feel weird. Everything went from bright white to pitch black as my face pressed on something hard and rough. I sat up slowly and pulled up my pip-boy map. I was up north, in the mountains. It wouldn't take more than a couple of days to reach Megaton, where my home was, and where I was being called to.
~Mei's POV~
I had been going up to Stockholm's lookout for a few days. He had grown used to me being up there after that time. Suddenly, something in the sky lit up. It was so pretty, and yet… scary, almost. I felt drawn to it though. I wanted to know what it was, and I wanted to be in front
of it when it happened. It looked so cool.
"Did you see that?" I asked Stockholm.
"See what?"
"That light!" I replied as I pointed. "You can still kinda see it if you look really hard.
He narrowed his eyes as he stared off in the direction I was pointing.
"Yeah, I guess there is something there. Just ignore it."
"But I want to know what it was!"
He shrugged and returned to his patrolling. I stared off and fired a couple of warning shots at a couple of raiders that ventured too close. After the sun began to dip below the horizon, I decided to try to go and catch some sleep. The more I slept, the faster I recovered, and the faster time passed.
The following morning, I woke rather late, and I could smell something cooking downstairs. It smelled of Salisbury steak, insta-mash, Blamco, and nuka-cola. I went downstairs to investigate.
"Wadsworth, I thought I told you not…"
~Hikari's POV~
Upon arriving in Megaton, I felt so at home. The rusted city with its high, rickety walkways and slanted buildings were so familiar, as though they all held memories. Charon led me to our house, but my gut told me which one it was. I entered and I could nearly see the memories, but they weren't there.
"I shall make something to eat," Charon stated.
I nodded and left him to his work. I hadn't eaten since Charon arrived on the ship, so I was up for anything. As I walked around the room, everything I touched called out to me, as though begging me to remember. It was there, but I couldn't see it.
I heard footsteps from upstairs, and I looked up the stairway.
"Wadsworth, I thought I told you…"
The person that I was staring at looked almost exactly like me. I remembered Charon and Harkness saying something about a sister, and everything seemed to hit me at once. Memories that had eluded me since waking up flooded back into my consciousness, flashing before my eyes. Each one held the person in front of me. Life in the Vault, leaving the Vault, the first view of Megaton, Gob, Moriarty, the bomb, the ruins of Downtown DC, Underworld, Ahzrukhal, the Brotherhood of Steel, Project Purity, my death… Everything. Mei and I stared at one another, completely and utterly shocked.
"Kari," she whispered before running down the steps.
We embraced, and my life seemed to fall back into place.
"Mei, I've missed you, even though I couldn't remember you," I told her. "There was something that was missing, and now I realize that it was you."
"I've been so worried about you," she stated. "Kari, how did you survive all of the radiation at Project Purity? I saw you die, I-"
"I don't know," I stated. "I woke up in the Citadel, and… Oh, God, the Citadel! It was under attack when I left! I think it was Enclave! Mei, we've got to help them!"
"Kari, we need to wait," she tried to reason. "You just got back. Charon is making food, you need to rest, he needs to rest."
I sighed and collapsed in a chair by the table. "You're right. Besides, who knows how long ago the attack was. It's probably over by now."
"Good, Charon, how much longer until the food's ready?"
"About five more minutes."
After Notes:
So, I apologize for the wait. I've had so much to do, between exams, marching band starting back up, two concerts, graduation, a parade that I had to be in, sickness, family events, etc, and I've been having a hard time getting some writing in. But, school is now out. The thing that actually encouraged me to finish was the fact that I was pretty much rejected by the guy that I like. When I am emotionally upset, I write a lot, so thanks to that guy for making me just enough emotionally distressed enough to finish the chapter. Much appreciated, HikariMei.
