Chapter X: Mending Bridges

Date: January 17th, 2031

Time: 7:15 AM

"We can't just stay underground and let this blow over," Michael stated flatly, his arms crossed as he leaned against the back wall of Si and Nightcrawler's hideout in the old joke shop. "They've gone off the deep end. You saw what Lantern was going to do to Gwen."

"He's not thinking straight," Rachel agreed. "Something's wrong, and we can't just sit by and watch. People will get hurt, and I'm beginning to think JJ has nothing to do with it. JJ's acting completely out of character."

"Even so, we can't be sure that we can stop him," Erik admitted. "Whether he's in his right mind or not is completely irrelevant as to whether or not he can carry out his plans. And the fact of the matter is, he puts up a very good fight."

"That's even more reason we have to stop him," Rachel urged, beginning to get frustrated. Erik and Isaac had been hesitant towards helping at all, but now that their ambush had ended in a stalemate at best they were even more hesitant to continue. If they were truly honest, it was easy to see why. Even so, how could they abandon it now? Especially when they considered it may not even be Lantern's fault.

"And what about Gwen?" Isaac asked pointedly, nodding his head to the back of the room, where a door was shut tight against the outside world. Jetta was inside – still sleeping after her injury in the attack – and Gwen was kneeling by her bedside, just as she had been without fail for the past hour. She would not move when approached, would not speak when spoken to, would not even shift her gaze if someone tried to get her attention. Lantern's attempt to kill her had given her quite a shock, but Rachel knew it was far more than that: Gwen felt guilty. In her mind, this was all her fault. People were dying and Jetta was seriously wounded. That never would have never happened if Gwen hadn't tried to stop Lantern. Lantern was out of control, that wouldn't have happened if Vortex hadn't tried to kill Gwen, and Vortex could never have attacked her if she wasn't around.

This assessment was far from fair, and everyone knew it. Everyone, that is, except Gwen, who Rachel knew from experience had a terrible habit of blaming herself for everything. It didn't have to be real. It didn't have to make sense. If there was a way Gwen was connected, then – at least in her mind – it was her fault, and no one could talk her out of it.

"Gwen needs some time to process," Michael stated, glancing to Rachel knowingly. Evidently he had come to the same conclusion.

"We all need time to process," Erik pointed out, sighing in exasperation. "Which is why we can't go jumping right back into the fray."

"Why are we jumping back in at all?" Isaac inquired. "If this Vortex guy is brought to justice, is that really so bad?"

"Whose justice?" Rachel snapped. "Lantern's? Gwen's?" She shook her head. "The moment we start carrying out our own orders for execution is the moment that we go from savior to dictator, you know that Isaac."

"And if the civilians don't want our help?"

"When did whether someone wants help ever factor into the equation?" Michael demanded, his arms spread wide in exasperation. "Whether someone wants something or not has absolutely no impact on right and wrong."

"But the lives of bystanders do carry an impact on wisdom and foolishness," Erik countered, raising his hand gently as a sign for everyone to calm down. "I'm not trying to insinuate that we should leave this alone and let whatever happens happen. What I am saying is that we need to consider the approach. We can't get hundreds of citizens killed in an attempt to stop the death of one would-be murderer."

Rachel opened her mouth to speak, and then stopped mid-breath. Try as she might, she couldn't help but admit that Erik was right. Obviously they couldn't let Lantern loose. At the same time, they couldn't let innocent people keep dying because of their struggle. As it was, more and more of the city was being beaten and bogged down with every attack. They had to change their tactics. She gave a deep sigh before slowly nodding in understanding. "So what do we do then? Sit here and wait for JJ to attack? Play cards as he does whatever he wants?"

"No," Erik conceded, glancing towards the door that separated the four from the two girls inside. "But you do have a friend in there who could use someone to talk to."

Rachel bit her lip and stared down at the ground hesitantly. Of course Gwen needed her help. That had occurred to her the moment Gwen had locked herself in that room. At the same time, did she even want Rachel's help? And could she help even if she did? What would she even be able to do?

"What if I say the wrong thing?" Rachel inquired, voicing the fear that truly kept her from going into the room.

"You might," Erik agreed, shocking her with his bluntness. "However, I can promise you that saying nothing is already saying the wrong thing. From there, it can only get better."

She nodded a bit, glancing over to Michael for reassurance. He gave a slight nod, a half-smile of support coming to his face as he gave a quick nod towards the door. After forcing a slight smile back at him, she took a deep breath and walked over to the door at the other side of the room, the boys turning to continue speaking once she did.

Rachel hesitated slightly at the door before knocking gently on it three times. Only silence greeted her from beyond the wooden barrier, and again she knocked. Again, silence. "Gwen?" Rachel inquired worriedly, still receiving no response from her friend. Sighing, she turned the knob, only to find it was locked from the inside. With a frown, she pulled a bobby pin from her hair and easily picked the lock, opening the door gently and stepping inside.

Gwen was still knelt beside Jetta, staring at her with an expression of pure guilt and loneliness that broke Rachel's heart on sight. It was very possible that the silence had not been out of Gwen ignoring her, but because she was so wrapped up in her own head that she legitimately hadn't even noticed the knocking. Wordlessly, Rachel walked over to Gwen and knelt down beside her, placing a hand on her back reassuringly. Even at her touch, Gwen barely seemed to stir, blinking somehow seeming optional in the midst of the tempest inside her brain.

"You know this isn't your fault," Rachel spoke softly, trying to get through to her friend. "This would have happened with or without you."

"Vortex wouldn't have been able to attack me if I wasn't around," Gwen pointed out dejectedly, her voice quiet as an almost imperceptible tremor ran through its tone.

"If it wasn't you it would've been someone else," Rachel assured her, trying to reason through the emotion and guilt that Gwen was bringing upon herself.

"You don't know that."

"Neither do you."

The two sat there a few moments in complete silence, Rachel rubbing her friends back gently as Gwen stared at Jetta in concern. To Gwen, this was more than just guilt. This was a personal failure. A week ago, this girl had saved her life before she even learned her name. Now, she was nearly comatose because of Gwen's own inability to keep things under control. It shouldn't have come to this in the first place.

"How did one little scratch do so much damage?" she breathed, trying to figure out the logic behind all of this. "One little nick in her skin and suddenly a lightning storm is pouring out of her…"

"It's normal," Rachel assured her. They had wondered the same thing, but a quick examination of Jetta's vitals revealed she was very clearly extra-terrestrial in origin. She looked humanoid externally, but where a human's veins ran with blood, Jetta's ran with pure electricity. Her organs, while similarly structured, were in slightly different locations throughout her body, and their general shape was different in many ways as well. Her bones were denser, her muscles thicker, and her skin tougher than the standard human, though it seemed that these all grew more malleable as she lost electricity through the wound. "Her species has tough skin, but when she does bleed…"

"She gushes," Gwen finished sadly, looking down at the floor. "Is there any news on who threw the boomerang?"

"No," Rachel admitted, glad for a change of subject. "Whoever it was didn't want to be found."

"It was probably pretty easy to get away with that lightning storm going on," she remarked bitterly, grateful for her salvation but also a bit angry that someone else had gotten hurt in the process.

"You know they didn't mean to hit Jetta," Rachel reminded her gently. "They were saving your life."

"I know," Gwen admitted, locking eyes with her and giving a slight frown. "I know… still, it'd help to know who I have to thank."

"Maybe you will someday," Rachel offered, smiling slightly. "Why are you so concerned about Jetta? I know you'd be worried no matter who was hurt, but why Jetta specifically? She tried to kill you after all."

"She tried to get Lantern to stop," Gwen admitted. "Not just this time, but in the argument back at the warehouse. I might not always agree with her methods, but she recognized Lantern has been going off the deep end. Besides, she saved my life from Vortex… regardless of how she feels about me now, I owe her."

"We saved her life too, I think you're probably even," Rachel reminded her.

"I'm also the reason she was hurt in the first place."

"Oh my God, I didn't save your life just so you could beat yourself up for returning the favor you narcissistic šikna," Jetta groaned from the bed. Gwen and Rachel immediately looked up in surprise, their mouths hanging slightly open.

"How much did you hear?" Gwen inquired slowly, trying to wrap her head around the sudden recovery.

"Enough," Jetta assured her, pulling herself into a sitting position with some difficulty. Both Gwen and Rachel tried to force her down, but a glance from Jetta was all they needed to see she was fully capable (or at least that she wanted to pretend she was). Propping herself up on her elbows, the girl glanced up at the two girls with an expression of what could only be described as mixed emotions.

"Look," she said, trying to figure out exactly how to say what was running through her mind. "I had no clue that this is what Lantern had in mind."

"We know that," Gwen assured her.

"I just wanted to take Vortex down, you were never supposed to be a factor."

"We know that too," Rachel confirmed.

"The moment he attacked you, I wanted to leave, but I had to figure out what he was-"

"It's okay," Gwen insisted, cutting the girl off. "We get it, honestly."

Jetta nodded slowly, looking down in guilt. It would be some time before she forgave herself for the trouble her actions had caused, whatever her intentions had been. Gwen and Rachel both understood this, to varying degrees, and they also recognized that there was very little they could say to placate the sensation. It was something that would have to pass of its own accord, for better or worse.

"About you getting hurt," Gwen began, only to be cut off as Jetta placed her hand over her mouth, forcibly muting her.

"Look, as far as I'm concerned I saved your life and you saved mine. Regardless of any issues we may have had during the events in between, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Okay?"

Gwen nodded a bit, and Rachel smiled off to the side as Jetta removed her hand. Silence filled the room for a few moments, each wondering exactly what there was to say from here.

"You said you were figuring out what Lantern was up to?" Rachel inquired curiously. Jetta looked over at her in surprise, seemingly having forgotten she was present, then gave a slight nod of confirmation.

"He's gotten… strange," she admitted. "At first, I thought maybe it was just mental issues or something like that, but he seems too far gone to be that simple, especially if this is new for him. It just seems so out of nowhere, doesn't it?" Gwen and Rachel both nodded at that, having had similar thoughts themselves often over the last few days.

"Did anything unusual stand out to you?" Gwen inquired, searching for any form of clue they could use to deduce why he was acting so out of character.

"He's been using the word 'we' a lot," Jetta admitted, racking her brain for specific examples. "At first, I just thought it was 'we' as in Frostbite and Voltwing and the rest of the group, you know? But then, I started to overhear what almost sounded like conversations between him and someone else. When I'd glance into the room, he'd be alone. No phone, no computer, nothing that he could be using for communication, but he'd still be using the word 'we'."

Gwen had grown noticeably paler during this conversation, and a chill ran down her spine. She had heard of many instances like this one, experienced one in particular that made her skin crawl in ways nothing else could. If what Jetta was saying was true, then it was no wonder Lantern had been acting so strangely.

"Jetta, that sounds like-"

"Like a Symbiote," Jetta finished. "Yeah, it does."

Gwen stared at her in confusion. Most people knew of the existence of the symbiotes, given her father's consistent battles with them. Knowledge of their traits, however, was much more limited in scope. Before she could question how Jetta knew this, however, the girl began to speak again.

"You were wondering how I knew about symbiotes, right?" Gwen didn't answer, but evidently she didn't really need to, as Jetta immediately resumed speaking, not waiting for a reply. "When I put my hand over your mouth, I accidentally read your memories. Not all of them, but enough."

"You read my what?" Gwen repeated in confusion, sure she had heard her wrong in some way, shape, or form.

"Your memories," Jetta nodded. "My people, the Ohmans, have a certain connection to electricity that most species can't imitate."

"You don't say," Rachel muttered, remembering the electrical storm after Jetta's injury.

"Electricity flows through our veins like blood through yours," Jetta continued. "In battle, we can use it to strengthen our muscles to extreme levels, enhancing our speed, reflexes, durability, strength, and agility. When injured, it pours out, like you saw earlier. But in creatures with electrical-based nervous systems, like your own, we can also read the electrical patterns of your brain. It's not always something we can control, whether I intend to or not."

"So you know everything about me?" Gwen inquired worriedly, a bit concerned about the breach in privacy, however unintended it may have been.

"Only pieces," Jetta assured her, though her eyes showed a kind of pity that made Gwen think she had seen far more than she was letting on.

"Okay, hold on a second," Rachel interjected, desperately trying to keep up with all of this. "Can we get back to the Symbiote business a moment? Because you can't possibly mean what I think you mean."

"That's exactly what she means Rachel," Gwen confirmed grimly. "A Symbiote like Venom, or Carnage, or Toxin, or who knows what else."

"I thought they were dead though?" Rachel responded, rubbing her temples in concentration.

"Some of them are," Gwen admitted. "Others… not so much. Besides, what other explanation is there? Overusing the word 'we'? Getting more violent and unpredictable? Even you have to admit Lantern seems to be way more powerful than he usually is. It fits the profile to a T."

"And if we are dealing with a Symbiote…?" Rachel prompted, hoping for some kind of game plan.

"Then we need to get it off of him," Jetta stated flatly. "And fast."