AFA Part 2
Falling from Grace
Ch. 12 – "Scars"
With the nation's focus on catching problems coming in from Japan and elsewhere, it was considerably easier to get out of the US for Jill, Katsumi, and their mysterious companion than expected.
Since her disappearance from the hospital, the US agents had little information in the search for the unknown woman. Nor did the agents know who had aided in her escape, or what their plans might have been. At least, Jill hoped this was the case.
The music pounding her eardrums knocked her train of thought out of kilter again. She glanced at her wrist, noting the time on her PA and realized she had subconsciously turned the music up during the last song. She tapped the side of her PA to lower the volume again and stole a glance at the seat in front of her.
Katsumi sat next to the woman they suspected was Linna Yamazaki, even if they didn't have definitive proof just yet. That would come soon though –a personal verification of sorts- once they arrived at their destination. This bus traveling through the mountains of Switzerland would eventually drop them off in a small town. There, Jill could use money stashed away from her previous life with the Knight Sabers to rent a car. The car would take them the rest of the way to the childhood home of Sylia Stingray, a home that was now active again according to her research. Jill knew there was only one reason for the recent deliveries made to that home: only if the previous owners were living there once more.
But as Jill analyzed the purposes of the trip, she tried to keep the simmering emotions of the past in check. The heartache that had overwhelmed her in the hospital after that last, fateful boomer attack still lay deep inside her. The rational side of Jill's mind knew that dwelling on these feelings now served no purpose, but still… she wasn't sure she would be able to hold back if she saw the one person who had given her much, yet had taken so much more away from her.
Mindlessly flexing her right hand, Jill sank back into her seat as she reached over to her left wrist, tapping the side of the PA to crank the music even louder than before.
The sound of a car accelerating away warned Henderson that something was amiss. Before he reached the front door, the bell rang. Upon arriving at the door, practiced mannerisms took over as he stood back while turning the doorknob. The door opened to reveal a deeply tanned young woman with an exhausted smile on her face. "Mistress Nene! Please, come in."
"Thanks, Henderson," she replied, even as her thoughts turned to someone else. "Where's Mackey?"
"He's resting in a room in the back. Would you like to see him now?"
"Yes, please," she answered with a hint of desperation. "I would have arrived here sooner after I called you but it took a while longer to make my passports and paperwork than I expected. Have you heard anything about the others…?" Nene's voice trailed off as she walked into the room behind Henderson… the room that Mackey's body now rested in.
The lights were dim, the delicately decorated bedroom mostly illuminated by the medical display sitting atop a nightstand.
From her memories, the young girl heard his voice once more. The most recent memories were the most painful ones. Floating in space, waiting to die… and then his voice, calling to her, telling her not to quit, to live on, to live for them both…
"Here, Mistress Nene." Henderson offered a tissue to her.
"…huh? …" Nene blindly stared at it until she realized why everything looked so strange, as if she was looking at the whole room through a waterfall. She took the tissue and bowed. "T-Thanks."
"I'll leave you alone now, if you prefer. I was just making some lunch; are sandwiches satisfactory for you?"
"Yes… Henderson, thank you. Oh, before you go, have you heard anything from the others?"
"Nothing yet, I'm afraid. Masters Leon and Masaki are out looking for them now."
"Masaki?"
"An acquaintance of Mistress Linna from her hometown."
"Oh."
The elderly butler closed the door while Nene's thoughts turned back to the still figure lying under the covers of the freshly made bed. Nene pulled up an antique wooden chair from the small desk by the wall and sat next to him. "Mackey…" She held onto his lone remaining hand, below the medical equipment wrapped around his upper arm, and laid her head onto his blanketed chest. "… Mackey, you've got to wake up… you've just got to… you can't be gone…" Quietly, she began to weep into the bed sheets.
The next morning, Henderson was making breakfast when another knock on the door caught his attention. "I wonder who that could be?"
As he walked past the guest room, the door opened. A pajama-clad Nene peeked out and yawned a question to him. "Who's that?"
"I'm not certain yet," he answered, turning into the foyer and towards the front door. When he reached it, he opened it in the same practiced manner as usual, stepping off to the side and opening the door fully.
"Yes? Oh! Mistress…" Henderson started to speak before being cut off by a loud scream.
"SYLIAAA!" Nene finished, running at full speed through the doorway and crashing into the plainly dressed woman on the other side, knocking them both to the ground. Even on the floor of the wooden porch, Nene held her hug.
Sylia finally returned the hug as she smiled at her youngest Saber. "I was afraid you were dead."
"So was I," Nene replied, tears flowing down her face for the second time in two days. "Why didn't you try and call!"
"It's a long story," she explained, her eyes darting to the side as she spoke. "Nene?"
"Yes?"
"Can I get up now?"
"Oh! Sylia… I- I'm sorry!"
Once they untangled and stood up, Sylia straightened out her borrowed clothes and started to walk in the house. As she did, she glanced back over her shoulder at the pajama-clad Nene and smiled. "Nene, you surprise me. I never knew you felt that way about me."
"Huh? What way… wait! I didn't… but… SYLIA!" Nene ran in after the giggling Sylia; Henderson just shook his head as he closed the door.
After a short visit to check on the comatose bodies of Nigel and Mackey, during which Sylia made a promise to come back to Nigel sooner rather than later, they all met in the living room. Henderson passed out fresh tea and cocoa to the ladies, and Nene was first to start. "Sylia?"
"Yes," the tired woman answered, setting her cup of tea down on the coffee table in front of her.
"What happened? I mean… after that explosion knocked me into space?"
"So that's what blew up?" Sylia spoke, her own questions coming to the forefront.
"Yeah, I was…" she paused, recalling her near death experience with her own teammate. "… controlling the lens when… Linna's… hardsuit, I think… flew in and tried to kill me. I dodged out of the way but… I couldn't control the cannon anymore. It exploded… I think… I don't remember much… except waking up in space… floating towards the atmosphere. Then I heard… Mackey…"
"Mackey?" Sylia sat up straight in her seat at the mention of his name.
"Yeah, he was… with me… He gave my hardsuit some power somehow and told me…" Her eyes misted over as the memories came back to her. "… He told me that it wasn't Linna's fault… and that I needed to live… for both of us…"
As she heard about her brother's heroic efforts, Sylia let her tears flow down her face. She bowed her head in shame as she replied to Nene's story. "He was so brave…" she murmured
"He is brave!" Nene answered emphatically. "I won't give up on him! He didn't give up on me!"
"Yes, of course," Sylia spoke apologetically. "I shouldn't have given up on you either…"
"Huh?"
"That explosion… I heard it and… I wanted to help you… I wanted to find out, really," Sylia pleaded. "But, Galatea… she was there… and… I… I left you in space… I left you to die so I could go after Galatea… and that was wrong," she admitted, begging for forgiveness.
"No it wasn't, Sylia! It was the right thing to do. You had to stop…"
"No! It wasn't the right thing to do! I- I wasn't thinking straight. Galatea just used my anger, my hatred. She tricked me and…" Sylia's thoughts drifted away; her body began to shiver, shaking almost violently at the recalled nightmare of Galatea forcing her to relive the death of every boomer the Knight Sabers had destroyed. Suddenly a warm embrace lifted Sylia form her torturous memories. She blinked and found Nene now sitting next to her on the couch, trying to lend comfort. She gripped Nene's hand, the tremors subsiding into a shallow state of calmness. Sylia had to smile at the role reversal as the youngest of the Sabers now acted as the strongest. "Thank you, Nene."
The blond girl nodded as she relaxed her hold, but leaving one hand on her back reassuringly. "What happened next?"
"I was… trapped by Galatea… but Linna came and rescued me…" Sylia stared thoughtfully at the floor, her face turned downwards.
"What?" Nene asked, puzzled.
"Her hardsuit… I just realized it was… different…"
"So he was right," Nene whispered softly.
"What?" Sylia asked, now confused herself.
"Oh nothing… it was just something that Mackey told me in space."
"Oh, that's right. Sorry, I forgot. My mind's not working at full capacity right now."
"That's okay, Sylia. So, what happened after Linna rescued you?"
"She said we had to go find Priss. That… Galatea was using her and we had to stop her."
Concern flooded Nene's face. "Using her?"
Sylia glanced over at Nene and nodded as she continued. "I followed Linna. Somehow… she knew where she was going… and there was this lab. It… sort of reminded me of the Wizlab…"
"The Wizlab?"
"Yes, but I didn't know why until I asked Linna. Then she told me…told me…" Sylia's eyes filled with fresh tears at the horrible recollection of what she had discovered.
"What? What happened to Priss!" Nene asked frantically, now seriously concerned for the fate of her missing teammates.
"Just like my father… Galatea… she was using Priss to create another of her kind… another sotai."
"Oh my God! B-But why? Priss? God! Why… why would she…"
"I don't know!" Sylia screamed, not at Nene per se, but she still shocked the young woman. Sylia recognized and immediately regretted it. "Nene… Nene, I'm sorry. It… it's just…"
"It's okay," she murmured weakly. "Just… so… what happened next?"
"Parts of the lab came alive and attacked us. Linna's hardsuit… I don't know how… but looking back on it now, it was stronger, much stronger than my design. She took on everything at once, fighting like someone possessed."
"Like someone possessed with love," Nene whispered knowingly.
Sylia paused for a second, nodding her understanding to Nene before she continued. "She told me to find Priss' hardsuit while she tried to free her body. Luckily it wasn't too far away and I found it with the internal tracers. I thought Galatea might have used it to attack us. But she didn't, as if she was saving it. When I brought the hardsuit back to the lab, I found Linna holding Priss…"
"She freed her!" Nene's voice filled with excitement at the news.
"Yes. But the room came alive just as we got Priss into the hardsuit…"
"But… I thought the liquid hardsuits had to be prepped a certain way or else you couldn't do that, unless…"
"I know, and that's what still bothers me."
Nene nodded her own concern as Sylia continued.
"As soon as Priss had her hardsuit on though, the floor… It… just melted, the gravity dispersed… and then the orbs…"
"The battery cells from the power station?"
"Yes, I think so. The same ones that Priss fought earlier, three of those attacked me. And… I was going to fight back when they combined right in front of me. I think… I think they exploded like some kind of bomb. That's the last thing I remember…"
"But… Priss? Linna?"
"I don't know what happened after that. I woke up floating in space. I thought I was dead."
"Just like me," Nene whispered.
"Except I was all alone. After a short time, my power started to fail and I passed out thinking that I would just burn up in the atmosphere… but…"
"The hardsuit saved you?" Nene guessed based on her experiences.
"No, the Chinese government."
"What? Why?"
"They wanted the hardsuit technology."
"But you're here. So that means you didn't give it to them, right?" Nene assumed, relying on what she knew about her leader. However, the guilt written deeply into Sylia's face told a decidedly different story. "Sylia, you didn't…"
"I-I wasn't given a choice. They already had it by the time I woke up. The only reason I was spared was because of a friend of my father's."
"A friend?"
"It-It's not important now. It's in the past… and, apparently, so is Galatea."
"Wait! So… Priss and Linna did it? They stopped her?"
"I think so. This friend told me that I was the only thing larger than a half-meter still left intact in space. Galatea is no more."
"But… what about… Priss? Linna?"
"I'm afraid…"
The sound of a car's engine revving down became apparent even inside the house. The two women perked up as Henderson headed for the door. "Henderson, do you know who that might be?"
"I'm expecting some supplies I ordered to be arriving shortly, m'lady."
"That doesn't sound like a truck," Nene commented curiously.
The doorbell rang, drawing Sylia into the foyer as Henderson's voice filled the space with a joyful tone. "This is certainly a most welcome surprise."
"Priss? Linna?" Sylia asked assumingly as she rounded the corner… and stopped dead in her tracks. Two ghosts from the past stood together at the mouth of the doorway, walking into the house as Henderson held the door open for them. Any doubts about their identities quickly dissolved as the voice of the short blond resonated against her repressed nightmares.
"Thank you, Henderson. It's been a long time… Sylia…"
Their eyes met in one fateful instant. One woman's face full of shocked disbelief, the other's immediately brimming with malice, anger, revenge…
"… Jill… Katsumi…" Sylia's voice cracked badly.
The sound of her voice triggered Jill into action. She stormed to Sylia in three heavy steps, stopped directly in front of her, swiveled her torso to the left, and in a flash lashed out viciously with the back of her right hand.
CRACK!
The blow to her cheek nearly floored the taller woman, knocking her off-balance. Sylia braced herself for more, and was quick to receive it but not in the manner she expected…
"Why? Why couldn't you trust us with the truth Sylia! You trusted us with your hardsuits, damnit! Wasn't that enough?"
Sylia couldn't bear to look into her face, the rage flying from Jill's words stabbing her deeper and deeper with each inflection. She flinched at the motion in her peripheral vision, fully expecting to be struck again. Instead, two shaking arms circled around her body as Jill snatched her into a hug.
"What more did you need from us Sylia! What could we have done!" Jill's voice now cracked in desperation as she pulled Sylia's bruised cheek down towards her own teary face.
Sylia looked into Jill's eyes and saw the same pleading, begging eyes that had haunted her nightmares for the last two years. Those blue eyes staring up at her as she lay in a growing pool of blood, Jill's own blood… Sylia had carried their bodies to the hospital and left them there, never daring to look back at her failure.
But here they were, despite her best efforts to keep away from them. She couldn't get away, couldn't wake up from this nightmare. But searching deeply within her torn soul, she found the path to healing holding on to her tightly… and she didn't want to run away anymore. Sylia brought her hand up and gently caressed the side of Jill's face as she spoke to her.
"You couldn't have done anything. It… it wasn't your fault. None of it was. It was me. I shouldn't have put you in those suits."
"But why didn't you tell us what you really wanted? Why you needed the Knight Sabers?"
"Because I didn't know exactly why then. I didn't learn that until much later. And, even now, I don't know if I did the right thing or not."
Another pair of arms wrapped around both women simultaneously as Katsumi's choking voice joined in. "How can you say that, Sylia? You stopped that monster your father created! Of course you did the right thing!"
Sylia shifted her arms to hold both of the original Sabers in her embrace. "Thank you… Jill, Katsumi… it's been too long…"
Henderson stood in place simply soaking in the long overdue reunion. Nene, on the other hand, stood frozen in the living room. Her mouth hung open in disbelief at the sight, a door into Sylia's past now thrown open before her. She cautiously approached the overly emotional greeting, her words coming out awkwardly. "Uhh… um, hi there. I'm Nene."
Sylia lifted her head from the shoulders of the other two women. "Oh Nene… sorry… this is…"
Nene wasn't listening any longer though. She looked past the three women and her eyes doubled in size. Her face lit up like a Christmas tree as she leapt around them and towards the still open doorway. "LINNA!"
Sylia looked around in surprise to catch sight of their missing Green Knight simply standing on the porch with a very confused look on her face. But something about that state of confusion didn't quite seem right to Sylia.
Before Nene could greet Linna with the same flying tackle she had greeted Sylia with that morning, she stopped dead in midair, let out a loud "OOMPH!" and then slid to the ground as if she had hit an invisible wall.
The other two women turned around in time to watch the spectacle. Jill answered the unspoken question. "I guess I should have told you about the hardsuit."
"The hardsuit?" Sylia asked.
Just then a green hardsuit materialized from thin air, guarding the path to Linna.
"So what made you start building them to act on their own, Sylia?" Jill asked calmly.
"I didn't," she answered, shocked.
Jill and Katsumi stared back at Sylia. "What do you mean you didn't?" Jill asked first.
Katsumi followed with her own question. "If you didn't, then who did?"
No one could immediately answer that question, though suspicions were beginning to grow in Sylia's mind. "Linna. She was captured by Galatea before. I wonder if she had something to do with this? But, why… why would it protect Linna like that?"
"So that answers one question," Jill spoke. "That is Linna Yamazaki, right?"
"Huh?" Nene asked groggily, shaking her head as she rolled over.
"Yeah, we weren't sure who she was since…" Katsumi started to reply before stopping, unsure how to tell Linna's formerly ecstatic friend the truth.
"Since what?" Sylia demanded.
"Since she couldn't even tell us who she is, Sylia," Jill finished. "We think she has amnesia."
"Amnesia?" Nene repeated weakly as she continued to shake her head, trying to clear out the cobwebs. She looked in Linna's direction and finally saw the hardsuit. "Yaaaah!" She scampered backwards on all fours, escaping the boomer that had terrorized her nightmares for the last few days… the boomer that had nearly killed her in space. That boomer stepped to the side, apparently devaluating the threat to its charge.
All four women and Henderson could clearly see the confused and shaken Linna standing on the porch, dressed in a simple blue blouse and khaki slacks, both borrowed from Katsumi. Sylia took a step towards her and held out an inviting hand. "Linna? Linna, can you remember Nene and me? I'm Sylia Stingray."
The brown-haired woman continued to stare blankly at her. The pale violet eyes of her former teammate and friend were now the empty eyes of a stranger. "I… I don't know…" Linna stammered, wincing as she rubbed the back of her neck with one hand.
"C'mon, Linna! You're just joking, right?" Nene begged, standing up in front of Sylia.
Linna took a step backwards, still massaging the back of her neck. "I just… can't."
"Linna, this isn't funny anymore!" Nene took a step towards the door despite the hardsuit's looming presence. Sylia stopped her from taking another with a firm hand placed on the smaller woman's shoulder. Jill and Katsumi stood back, unsure of what to do.
"… Can't remember…" Linna's voice was strained, as she moved both hands to the back of her head in obvious discomfort.
"Nene, you're making it worse for her!" Sylia scolded.
"But Sylia!" She started to complain before a piercing scream from Linna silenced her.
The brown-haired woman clamped both hands to the sides of her head, staggering back towards the porch steps, then tripped down the first one and fell headfirst towards the ground and out of sight.
"LINNA!" Nene started to run after her fallen friend when the hardsuit stepped up to block her path.
But as Nene pulled up short of the porch, Jill sprinted past both of them. The hardsuit recognized Jill as a friend, allowing her to pass and then gliding down to its fallen charge. They reached Linna at the same time; she lay curled into a fetal position with both hands gripping the back of her neck.
"Linna? Linna, can you hear me?" Jill asked, putting one hand on her shoulder. She didn't get an answer. Linna lay twitching, her lips quivering, her breathing rapid and shallow. Jill's heart sank as it dawned on her what Linna's hands held.
She didn't have to wait long for proof as the hardsuit lowered a hand to Linna's neck, using a neon green beam to scan the affected area. A hologram projected itself from the hardsuit's visor into the air above Linna, giving Jill a 3D view of the problem.
"Oh my God."
"What is it!" Sylia screamed, running outside to help. Once she saw the image, her jaw dropped as her feet froze to the porch. "That… that's…"
Nene was now standing behind her, staring in disbelief. "What? Sylia, what is it?"
"Linna, but she said… Priss… Priss was the one…"
"Priss?" Nene asked, confused. She looked at Sylia, then turned back to Linna's scan, her mental wheels cranking furiously. Suddenly, she made the connection as a quiet gasp escaped her dry lips. "… oh god…"
"What!" Jill demanded.
"Galatea… Galatea must have… when she kidnapped her…"
Jill's frustration began to boil over as she flashed her eyes between the two incoherent women to the other lying motionless on the ground. "What the hell are you two babbling about!"
Something clicked in Sylia's head as her eyes doubled in size. She spun around and ran into the house.
"I hope she's calling a hospital…" Jill remarked, mentally processing the possible outcomes, factoring in their escape from the Chicago hospital. "Hey! Hardsuit!" she suddenly yelled out. "Can you display her vital statistics? Blood pressure, heart rate?"
With a single pulse of the orange visor, a separate table of information displayed in the air next to the live scan.
Despite her lack of medical training, Jill could tell the readings weren't good. She looked up and shook her head at Katsumi, who stood behind Nene watching the scene. Her fiery blue eyes turned towards the shorter blond in front. "So, in plain Japanese, what the hell is that thing on her neck?" Jill demanded.
Nene blinked twice, snapping herself out of her shocked trance. "I… I think it's another sotai."
"A so-what?"
"Another sotai… in other words, another Galatea."
"What?"
A shout from Katsumi drew everyone's attention towards the open front door. "Sylia, what are you doing!"
A shaking Sylia staggered onto the porch wielding a shotgun, which for the moment was pointed towards the sky.
Katsumi stepped back as Sylia stopped at the top of the steps. Time slowed as Sylia lowered the barrel toward the prone woman lying on the ground a few meters away.
Jill had seen that look in Sylia's eyes before and instinctively knew her intentions. She sprang to her feet and raced up the steps, reaching Sylia and the gun as it leveled down towards Linna, towards the demonic seed planted in her body.
A loud crack precipitated a mammoth wave of pain in Jill's right arm. She screamed, her head jarring backwards involuntarily. As her watering eyes opened again, she made out a peculiar sight: the gun pointed up with her hand holding the barrel in check. But the pain came from lower down her arm. Her eyes traced the pain and stopped at a steel spike thrust through her upper arm, above her bent elbow, and clean through her forearm. The point of that spike ended millimeters away from the side of Sylia's face.
Sylia's eyes focused squarely on the point of what should have been her end. Shakily, she looked along the spike, past Jill's quivering arm now pinned in place, and directly at her assailant: the green hardsuit defending Linna, this time with lethal force.
Katsumi ran to her friend's side. "Jill!"
"D… damn… hurts…" she spat out through clenched teeth.
Meanwhile, another pair of hands reached from behind Sylia, grabbed the shotgun and ripped it free from the two struggling women. "Sylia, what the HELL are you thinking?" Nene screamed as she threw the shotgun off the side of the porch.
"She's thinking… with her heart… not her head," Jill answered weakly for her. "But… she doesn't need to… shoot Linna… to kill her…"
Nene and Sylia stared at the injured woman as she fell to one knee, Katsumi doing her best to support her friend.
"We rescued her from a hospital… in the US… The agency… wanted to recover that thing from her… and… they were willing to kill her to do it…"
Sylia let out a telling gasp as Nene listened in horror.
"… they said… removing it… she might not live through that…" Holding her bleeding arm, Jill glanced over at Linna now lying still on the ground. "… but it looks like she won't live… with it in either…"
"Jill…" Katsumi said, speaking in a strangely calm voice. "… just turn it off."
The blond smiled at her with a knowing look. "It'll be easier to pull out with it still active. Can you…" she started, before Katsumi nodded to her and shifted around to her back.
The Japanese woman winced, holding back her revulsion at the gory sight, as she grasped the end of the spike with both hands. She turned her head to the side, bracing her knees into Jill's back. "Now."
Jill bit her lip while bending her arm against the foreign object. A sharp scream echoed across the Swiss countryside, scaring a flock of birds from the nearby trees. Jill let out a hard grunt then a sigh of relief as her right arm dropped lifelessly to her side. "Whew, that's better," she breathed out, then glared at Sylia accusingly.
Katsumi dropped the spike to the ground, letting it roll to the feet of the hardsuit, which had turned its attention from the non-threatening humans back to the fallen Linna.
It only took an instant for all the pieces to click into place for Sylia. "Your arm! But, I thought… the medical reports said they saved it!"
As Katsumi helped her to her feet, Jill looked down at the ground, momentarily sinking in the despair of the past. "Yeah, they saved it. But it was all but useless. The nerves in my hand were dead, tendons needed to be replaced… I had more screws in there than I do now," she added with a glance at her dead arm. "A few months after the incident, I was given a choice: either several operations and years of therapy to regain a fraction of what I once had… or a clean slate." Her eyes, still brimming with anger, bored into Sylia once more. "I chose the clean slate, and it looks like that slate just saved your worthless life!"
"Jill!" Katsumi warned, before a fiery glare from the blond stopped her protest.
"Look at her, Kat! She still hasn't learned! Even now she's throwing away friends like they mean nothing to her at all!"
"That's not true!" Sylia bit back, tears now leaking from her shocked eyes.
"You're wrong, Sylia. It's as true now as it was two years ago, and I was a fool to think you'd be any different now. C'mon Kat, let's see…" Jill turned to help Linna, in time to see the hardsuit lift her into its arms.
Without warning, the hardsuit split itself in half, lifted Linna upright and carefully inserted the unconscious human into itself. It turned away from the house and crouched in a position to launch itself into the air.
"Wait! Where are you going with Linna?" Nene yelled.
The hardsuit responded by turning its visor to the side and projecting a holographic map in midair. In the center of the map was a circle labeled with the name 'Krankenhaus'. The map showed for a couple of seconds before it dissipated as the hardsuit righted its helmet. With an explosive blast from its jump jets, the hardsuit rocketed off into the distance.
"Krankenhaus?" Nene asked, bewildered and obviously concerned for Linna.
"That's German for 'hospital'," Jill clarified for the other blond.
"Probably where you should go, don't you think?" Katsumi suggested, gently tugging her injured friend towards the car. "I think I can pull up a replica of that map in the rental."
"But… what about Linna?" Nene said in disbelief.
"I probably shouldn't care anymore. Besides, she wasn't my teammate. But I feel more obliged to Linna than I do her leader," Jill seethed, letting the ice-cold words spill bitterly from her lips. "We can try and check up on her at the hospital, assuming they don't try and blow up that hardsuit first." Jill turned her head towards Nene. "You're welcome to join us if you wish."
Nene stole a nervous glance at Sylia, trying to decide where her loyalties lay at the moment. For her part, Sylia just stood motionless, watching events spiral out of control around her. After a few seconds, Nene shook her head and ran past Sylia towards Jill and Katsumi's car. "C'mon then! We can't just leave her alone!"
"Mistress Jill! Please wait!" Henderson called from the porch.
Katsumi and Jill paused and turned towards the house as Henderson stopped at the top of the steps beside Sylia. "A friend of mine lives in this area. He is a very good doctor and has a history with cybernetics. I was going to ask him to help with Master Mackey but he should be able to help you, if I can get in touch with him."
"Who is it, Henderson?" Katsumi queried.
"It's actually an old friend of Mistress Sylia's father, a Dr. Boynton," he replied. "I'll call and ask him to meet you at the hospital right away… except I don't know which one to send him to yet."
"I'll call you as soon as I find out the name," Nene answered. "You have a phone in the car, right?" Nene asked Katsumi and Jill.
"Yes, we do," the black-haired woman answered firmly.
Moments later, all three women were in the car, driving down the long path to the city while Henderson briskly walked into the house to get the phone, closing the door and leaving Sylia alone outside.
Sylia stood on the porch, frozen in shock, not only at the situation, but at her response and the damning effects on the people closest to her. Finally, her blank stare shifted to the side, towards the leafless tree that still stood at the side of the house. It never changes. It never gets any better. No matter what I do, I can't escape you, can I, Father? I just can't stop this madness you've started.
Weathered images of past horrors played out in the scenery around her; Sylia stood alone in the center of a mental vortex of destruction. Her mother's death; her father's death; the Kanto quake; Jill and Katsumi; Mackey and Nigel; Galatea; the Chinese Government; now Priss and Linna… Where will it end? How can I stop it! "JUST MAKE IT STOP!" she screamed into the eternity of the skies above, clutching her head as she crumpled to the floor of the porch, sobbing uncontrollably.
Inside, Henderson had managed to find the phone number and was in the process of calling. However, his outgoing call blocked an incoming one. On the other end of that call, Masaki stood at an outdoor pay-phone in India, one eye on the vid-phone, the other on the drunken Leon sitting against the wall of the club he had just pried him from.
"Busy? Damn, did I get the right number?" The annoyed man spoke only to himself, since his companion was of little use in his current incoherent condition. Since finding this small strip of Westernized clubs, Leon had become a liability, spending all of his time and money trying to drown his past sorrows instead of finding answers about them as Masaki had intended.
"Prrissss… Mann, di… did ya seeeeee her si… sing? She was grreeat," Leon slurred, drool running down his jacket.
"Idiot." Masaki gave him a disapproving glance while checking the number written in his wallet. After verifying the number, Masaki punched it in again, this time hearing it ring. One ring later, the signal picked up, the screen showing 'audio only' since the phones in the old Stingray house were antiques.
"Yes?" The elderly voice that Masaki expected to hear spoke.
"Henderson? How are things?" Masaki asked unassumingly.
"Well, we've had a very strange day. But three of the ladies have come back!"
"Three! That's great news, Henderson!"
"Not that good, I'm afraid," the butler sighed regretfully, before going off on the long dissertation through the day's events.
A few minutes later, Masaki hung up the phone with an anxious hop in his step. "Leon, get up," he ordered, grabbing the big man by the jacket and hauling him upright leaning him against the wall.
"Huh? Wha'?"
"They've found Linna."
"Yeah? S… so? I d'n car about that b… bitch."
Masaki had to restrain himself from pummeling the ex-ADP officer on the spot. "She's going to a hospital… they're afraid she won't live." Seeing the uncaring, bloodshot eyes of Leon wobbling back and forth, he had one more idea. "They also found Sylia and Nene, but neither of them knows anything about Priss. Linna's the only one who might, so we need to go see her now."
That seemed to flick the dim light on in Leon's head. "'Kay," he slurred, turning towards the wrong end of the road before Masaki finally managed to steer him in the right direction. The two men lumbered their way towards the fastest transportation that they could find back to Switzerland.
Meanwhile, back at that house, the door opened to the room where Nigel rested. He lay unmoving and unresponsive, tucked tightly under warm blankets, as a lone figure drifted to the side of his bed. That figure lowered her head down to his cold forehead, placing a kiss there while she gently wiped a stray strand of hair back into the pillow.
"Nigel, I know you've helped me try to get past everything. Now, I'm going to finish what we started… and I wanted to do it with you," Sylia said, holding up a box of matches. She held one match between shaking fingers, striking it along the box and lighting the darkened room with its flame. "Now it ends, my love," she whispered, preparing to drop the match onto the sheets… planning to ignite the bed with its burning touch, in turn engulfing the room with its all-consuming blaze. Flames could take the two remaining pieces of her father's work in one fell swoop, cleansing the Earth of some of his devilish intentions forever.
To be continued…A/N: PA – personal assistant. Mini computer worn on wrist that tells time, can access the net, run programs, and play music as well.