Chapter 18

Jack

It's just an overnight stay. People stay overnight at hospital all the time, Jack thought to himself, staring at the closed door to his right. Megan would be back soon anyway, and then this slow-ass crawl of time would speed up to a dragging limp, Jack reasoned to himself.

He was sitting in the consultation room on his own, perched on the very edge of his seat and his whole form leaning forward, ready to be on his feet at the drop of a hat. The doctor had requested to take Angel for an x-ray as part of their diagnosis procedure. All Jack could do was trust the other man, though that was not a practice that came easily to him. As the doctor led Angel out of the room, Jack had grabbed the doctor by the elbow roughly.

"Listen…as far as Angel being a Siren goes…no one else knows other than me, my wife, and yourself. Got it?"

"W-well, of course," the doctor stammered, readjusting his glasses with his free hand. "Mister Bryant, I assure you, doctor-patient confidentiality—"

"No, I mean it really goes no further," Jack snarled. "I don't care if Tassiter himself comes down to ask you about it or what clearance is waved in your face. Before she's a Siren, she's my daughter. Not a science project."

The doctor looked down at Jack's hand, twisted himself from his grip, and made a bold effort to straighten himself out and meet Jack's simmering anger head-on.

"Mister Bryant, I understand your concern. The only person who wants to protect your daughter more than yourself is myself. My primary concern is that she is no harm to herself or others. Now please, I must ask you to wait here."

The doctor took Jack's moment to breathe in as a chance to flee the room. He contented himself with letting out a growl of frustration, turning and pacing the room like a caged bullymong for several minutes. He then threw himself down onto a seat, scowling at the closed door. He was so wound up that he ended up springing from his seat at the sound of his wife returning, a rustle of bags and a greeting preceding her:

"Hey, sorry, I couldn't find Captain Bear, forgot he was in the living room," Megan said breathlessly, setting the bags down by Jack's now-vacant chair. She looked at the empty bed, and immediately an undercurrent of panic crystallised in her eyes. "Oh! Where's—"

Jack jerked a thumb to the closed door that had become his mortal enemy in the last few minutes.

"X-ray. Doctor wanted to check for everything, I think," Jack explained. Now that he was standing up, all the pent-up nervous energy in his limbs had leaked into his muscles, agitating him further. He started pacing again, unable to sit down. "I mean, she seems fine, right? Like, she didn't say the markings hurt or…or anything like that? And she's pretty well behaved, it's not like she's throwing tantrums all over the shop. I know there's not many kids on Helios for her to interact with, but—"

"Jack, Angel's fine," Megan caught him mid-pacing and mid-rant, one hand circling under his elbow and trying to steer him to a seat again. "We're going to handle this. Together. She won't be alone and who knows? Maybe this is a blessing? Maybe Angel's gonna help us make Pandora a better place one day. So, we can live on a planet again instead of a space station…see the sky and not worry about getting shot…" She pushed Jack into his seat, then sat herself down next to him. "Whatever it is, she's still our Angel and we're gonna be there for her. That's all that matters."

"Right. Right," Jack began his staring competition with the door again, inhaling deeply to try and settle his nerves. Of course, his brain was having none of that and fired a thought right in — x-ray?

Jack's eyes narrowed. He tilted his head a little, considering the door.

"…Doesn't the doctor usually come out of the x-ray room to press the button?"

"Huh?" Megan sat forward in her seat and into Jack's peripheral vision, though he kept staring at the door. "Um, yeah, I think so. Should we…knock, or something? Make sure everything's okay?"

Jack didn't need telling twice. He got to his feet and stomped over to the door, peering in through the glass panel.

All at once his limbs turned to lead, his blood to ice, and his heart froze.

"Son of a FUCKING DICK!"

Jack tore the door open, charging into the room and skidding to a halt at its centre — he looked around at the bookshelves, paper-strewn desk, over-filled noticeboards, and personal Fast Travel Station blinking in the corner. Jack lunged at it, typing too quickly, having to back-track, trying again, desperate to find out where the hell his daughter had been taken.

"What—oh my god, where's Angel?!" Megan appeared at his side, pushing Jack's urgent searching through screens. His eyes flicked up at down across the display, finding the last destination that had been typed into the Fast Travel.

"Shit…shit, he's got off-world clearance. The frigging slimy bastard asshole!" Jack yelled, voice cracking under the strain. He had to stop himself kicking the crap out of the machine, some small voice of reason still in his head telling him they needed it working. "He's on fricking Pandora!"

Jack slammed the keys again, a tumbling protest of "No no no no NO!" falling out of his mouth as a password window demanded to be addressed.

"Fuck you!" Jack snarled, grabbing his ECHO-device from his pocket and plugging it in. "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck your stupid password, dumbass freaking machine bastard, let me in!"

The screen remained resolute for only a moment longer. Then, Jack's hacking program chewed through its demands, and the Fast Travel hummed to life, engulfing Megan and Jack in a bright light and sending them on to chase after their daughter on the hostile planet…

Jack's feet had touched the ground for but a moment before he was tearing forward. The bright light of the Fast Travel warp had only just cleared from his eyes, the doctor's silhouette a short distance from Jack, his back turned to him.

"Where is she?!" Jack's fist slammed into the doctor's jaw as he jolted around to face the man, sending the doctor sprawling to the ground. Jack gave him no quarter, jumping on him and catching him by the throat, slamming him back down before he could start to scramble up. "Where is my daughter, asshole?!"

Jack's other arm reeled back, ready to punch the writhing and spluttering man straight in the face again when—

BAM!

Jack's ears exploded with pain, sending him recoiling off the doctor, hands clasped over the sides of his head. His heart hammered, eyes darted wildly, his vision was blinked down to a central point, distorting everything in the room. He had been so hell-bent on beating the shit out of the traitorous doctor that he had failed to realise they were not the only people in the room. Standing near the doctor's now-still body was a lumbering giant clad in flaking black leathers and torn furs. The man's tiny head was encompassed in a large bullmong skull, though it did little to mask the broad grin he was throwing over to Jack. A smoking pistol in his hand pleaded guilty to the deafening sound that had left Jack's ears ringing, as well as the pool of blood forming under the doctor.

"No need, mate," the huge man greeted Jack, gesturing to the doctor with his gun. "Deal was off the moment you showed up. Told 'im, no followers or I get me money back! Not that that's gonna be a problem much longer!"

The bandit jerked his other hand forward, dragging Angel by the back of her shirt to stumble in front of him. She was trembling, wide eye filled with tears as she found her mother, then Jack, then the fallen doctor. She yelped in fear, struggling against the bandit.

"Mommy! Daddy! Help!" Angel cried, writhing and scratching against the bandit's grip, fearful eyes pinned on the gun in his hand.

Jack slowly got to his feet, vision shrinking to the laughing lump of lard in front of him. If it weren't for the gun so close to his daughter, Jack would have charged at the guy, hands around his neck, fingers clawing his stupid eyes out, fist caving his teeth into his throat, anything to make him pay for trying to kidnap his little girl.

"Look, you filthy bandit, just—" Jack ground out from between clenched teeth, before his breath caught. Finally, something more than anger took over him: desperation. More than seeing the bandit reduced to a pile of bloody pulp and mush, Jack just wanted his family to be safe. He drew the venom from his voice, trying to even his tone as he pleaded with the other man: "—Give us back our daughter, okay?"

The effect was immediate. The bandit threw his head back with laughter, jostling a petrified Angel with his other hand as he did so.

"Are you kiddin'? She's a freakin' Siren! I'm gonna be a trillionaire!" the bandit hollered, then lifted his gun up to point between Megan and Jack in turn, making them both flinch and Jack instinctively jolt in front of Megan. "You and your wife get out of here before I sic my turrets on ya. Forget the kid, go make another one."

Angel was crying now, audible sobs and gasps of panic breaking Jack's heart as his frustration rose.

"No! I wanna go home!" Angel yelled.

Jack looked around the room for the first time since exploding into the bandit's hideout from the Fast Travel, looking for something, anything to use. The turrets of all sizes lined the room, some half-built, some mounted and ready. He could hack them — no, too long, the bandit would kill them all before he'd even pulled his ECHO-device out. The gun, could he charge at the bandit and hold his arm down long enough for Megan to grab Angel? Maybe?

"Shut up, kid, or I'll…hey, what the…" the bandit stammered.

To start with, Jack didn't realise why the bandit had faltered — to him, it was a golden opportunity. Jack risked a sideward glance to Megan, trusting she knew what he was planning. The woman's eyes caught Jack's and she gave him the tiniest of nods.

We're going to handle this. Together.

Jack ready to rush forward and grab the distracted bandit's gun at that moment when he saw Angel's whole expression shift. She stopped wriggling, stopped clawing at the bandit's arm. Instead, her hands balled into fists at her sides, her eyes glowing, the markings on her arm growing brighter.

"I! WANNA! GO! HOME!" Angel screamed, voice breaking and tearing the air around them with a palpable charge of energy. In an instant every turret and gun in the room came to life, twitching and sparking, obeying the Siren's call.

They obeyed with a hailstorm of bullets, erupting from every turret in the room, ricocheting around the small space.

Jack yelped and ducked, arms over his head as he cowered from the bullet storm, desperately seeking Megan amidst the chaos. He found her rooted to the spot, eyes wide in astonishment — witnessing Angel's Siren powers for the first time had staggered the woman for just a second.

A second too long.

Blood was already blossoming over her shirt.

"Honey, get down!" Jack yelled out to Megan, but too late — he slammed bodily into Megan, causing the both of them to crash down onto the floor. The bandit's groans of pain rose above the cacophony of bullets, fading away in a gurgle of blood and a heavy crash against the floor.

The turrets wound down around them, the screaming deluge of bullets dying down to cold silence as Jack scrambled to untangle himself from Megan. His hand slipped on a pool of blood oozing under them where they had fallen, and he gathered up Megan's limp body, cradling her in his arms in disbelief. "No! NO!"

His panicked breathing punctured his lungs, shaking hands pawing at Megan's pale and blood-splattered face.

She's not dead. She's not dead, Jack's mind pleaded with him, as though he could do something to change the truth growing colder in his arms. She's not dead!

He tried to say her name, lips ghosting together around a choked breath, but he couldn't. His throat was locked, refusing to allow Jack to do much more than try to breathe.

She's not dead. She's not dead. She's dead.

She's dead.

She's gone. Gone. Everything.

…Megan's…dead.

Jack's brain caught up with the split-second horror that had unfolded around him, registering little more than the awful truth. His wife was dead. Megan was dead.

"…Mommy?"

A tiny voice pierced through the tornado howling in Jack's head, directing its grief, its fury, its pain at the source of that sound. He heard Angel stepping once, twice, inching closer to him. But Jack could not turn to look at her.

"No…" Jack managed to whimper out, still staring at Megan's cloudy eyes. "Angel, what did you do?!" The accusation cut through the confusion, breaking through the numb shock that had wracked Jack's body and acted as a barrier for all his emotions. Fury took his frozen blood to boiling rage in a heartbeat, and grief opened his locked lungs to painful screams: "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

Jack heard Angel's gasp of pain, but still he could not face her. The sight of Megan's lifeless form brought back that numbing fog once again, the sheer levels of grief and anger he wanted to feel, that he needed to feel, simply impossible to process.

His arms slackened. Megan's body slipped from his grasp, rolling onto the ground in front of him. Jack didn't move to catch her. He couldn't. He couldn't feel his limbs anymore. He couldn't feel himself anymore.

Everything faded away around him, everything except Megan's lifeless body in front of him.

Somewhere behind Jack, he was dimly aware of Angel crying, raw sobs and a dull thud as the girl fell to her knees and wept alone.

Fast Travel. He had to use the Fast Travel Station. That was how they would get home.

He had to take his daughter home.

He had to contact the undertakers.

He had to let them in to the apartment and take Megan's body away.

Blood? No, that was her blood. Not his. He was fine. Thank you.

Blood. Shower. Take a shower.

"D-dad? Dad, I…I didn't mean…"

Jack stopped on his way to the bathroom. He glanced across the hall to Angel's bedroom door — she was standing in the doorway, door slightly ajar, hugging the doorframe. Her face was blotchy and red, eyes still swimming with tears. "I…I'm sorry…I didn't…I didn't ask…the machines to…t-t-to….they just…"

She hiccupped, turning closer to the doorframe to hide her face as fresh tears fell.

She's your daughter, a voice in Jack's head reminded him. Say something.

Jack opened his mouth to speak, but his throat tightened again. He flinched away, swallowed, swallowed again, then spoke:

"I…I know."

He left Angel there, shuffling into the bathroom and closing the door behind him.

Jack climbed into the shower and turned the faucet on. Icy water assaulted his head, soaking him and his clothes. One arm against the tiled wall, he let his head hang down and watched with mild interest as the dark pink-hued water swirled away down the drain.

His bottom lip began to quiver, though from the cold or the want to cry again, he wasn't sure. No. It must have been the cold. He didn't feel sad.

He didn't feel much of anything.

Jack twisted the faucet again, feeling the temperature rise from freezing to pleasantly warm. He kept inching the dial higher, ignoring the blistering sting of hot water against his neck, turned it until it wouldn't go any further. Steam filled the room, and he could only just make out the pink-tinged water trailing away down the drain.

Megan's dead, he reminded himself suddenly. Megan's dead. She's gone. Forever. Never gonna…see her again. Hear her laughing. See her smile.

Jack let himself slip down to the floor of the shower cubicle, water a little less scalding for his movement.

Never gonna…see her working on projects again. Do that thing with her face when she's stuck on a problem…tongue sticking out a little to the right…so dumb. So cute. S'gone. Never gonna hug her. Kiss her. When was the last time I kissed her? That was the last time. The last time.

His brain continued to rattle through these blunt observations, without emotion, without feeling. Just facts.

Angel killed her.

Angel…a Siren…that energy…she…killed her. She didn't mean to do it. She couldn't control it. What if she…what…do I do?

Jack could not quite remember leaving the shower, nor could he remember getting dry clothes. He couldn't remember cooking any food, that was for sure, but the pan and two plates with barely-touched meals on them suggested he must have done so at some point.

He glanced around as though he had only just returned to the living room, but from his slouched seat and half-empty glass held precariously in his hand, Jack could only assume he had been here some time. He inhaled, rubbing his eyes and sitting up a little. His brain staggered after the sudden movement a few seconds after, disorientating him.

"Fuck…" Jack mumbled, setting the glass on the coffee table and registering the almost-empty bottle of whisky on it. "…fuck."

Jack managed to find his feet, the world swaying around him as he stumbled from the living room to the kitchen to get a glass of water. He ignored the second empty whisky bottle that caught his foot in the process, clattering across the floor and spinning to a rest by the wall.

Holding on to the side of the sink, Jack drew himself a glass of water and set it on the worktop without taking a sip. He let both hands grip the side, his shoulders hunching as his head dropped.

What do I do?

One thing had followed him with acute clarity all night: Angel was a danger to others. He loved his daughter, but she had killed her mother. She had killed Megan. Ignoring that…would be wrong. Wouldn't it?

He couldn't go back to the doctors, that much was obvious. This was far beyond a mere medical problem anyway. No one could be trusted with this. He ought to have known better — people saw rarity, they saw dollar signs, whether it was crystals or people. No, Jack had already ruled out seeking anyone else's help in this matter. Right now, he was the best authority on Sirens anyway. He had read what little there was in Pandora's fractured records, anything that had sprung up over the years in rumours of Pandora's mystical Vault. He had witnessed first-hand what a Siren could do, as well as the lack of control they had over their awesome powers.

Angel was his daughter. But if he didn't safeguard other people from her…if she couldn't prevent herself from killing a loved one by accident, what hope did the everyday person have? What would happen if, sometime down the road, Angel got angry? Had an argument? Would the other party be dead as every machine rallied to the Siren's anger if she could not control it?

Jack's eyes found the cupboard in the hallway, just on the borders of his sight from where he was in the kitchen. The GEL Core…Megan's unfinished pride-and-joy…gathering dust for years.

It's like a giant puzzle box — it keeps the Eridium's energy moving and doing something, Megan's explanation echoed in Jack's mind as he staggered over to the hallway, putting a hand out to the wall to steady himself. The power is constantly moving through an ever-changing machine, until you open up one of the routes and send some of that energy wherever you want it to go.

A memory flashed, the vision from the mural, the Siren drawing in energy as everyone died around her, powering a machine…

"Together…we're gonna handle this together, Meg," Jack muttered to himself, pulling the door open and rooting clumsily through the cupboard to unearth the abandoned GEL Core.

He had to contain that energy. That lethal energy his daughter couldn't control. Her mother would help her…for now. Just for now. Until he figured out something better.

It was the right thing to do, Jack decided, dragging the machine out into the hall. To protect everyone.

Making a better world meant protecting its people from danger.

Even if that danger was his own daughter.

"I don't understand, daddy."

Jack tapped the control panel to the Hyperion VR station, and the steel doors swung back to reveal the currently-dormant room. It didn't sting to see it as much as Jack thought it might. After all, without the simulation running, it looked nothing like his wedding day had.

"Say hello to your new home, darling!" Jack announced, gesturing with one hand across the wide open room. He led Angel in by the hand, taking her to the chair in the middle, nestled beneath the GEL Core fixed overhead. "You're like a little princess, and this is your throne!"

Angel looked back at the doors closing behind them, then turned to eye the chair.

"I want mommy. Where's mommy?" she asked, tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes again. Jack knew Angel knew the truth. She knew Megan was dead. She knew she had killed her. She just didn't quite understand what that meant. Not completely.

"She's not coming back, Angel," Jack snapped for what felt like the umpteenth time that morning. "Now get in the freaking chair!"

"I don't want to!"

Jack's jaw twitched with frustration. He might have been more pained to hear Angel's plea had he not been working all damn night getting the GEL Core set up. Megan had essentially finished the machine, but the code to get it working smoothly, keeping the boundless energy it was built to channel moving and busy to prevent an overload…that had been difficult. His nerves were frayed, his patience shot — could Angel just take a step back and see why he had to do this?

He bent down, lifting Angel up and carrying her over to the chair.

"Get — there we go — in the chair!"

As soon as Angel was seated, Jack pulled out a DigiPad from his pocket, swiping across the screen a few times and stepping back. As he did so, a purple shimmering forcefield appeared between him and his daughter. She scrambled down from her seat and ran towards him, eyes wide with confusion and fear, and hit her hands against the forcefield.

"Daddy! Please! Let me out!"

"No can do, my sweet little Angel. You're in that chair for your own good, okay?" Jack attempted to keep his voice light, a smile tugging across his stubbled face. He was exhausted. He had not only had to set this thing up but drag it over to the Hyperion VR station. It was the only space suitable for the amount of wiring the GEL Core needed, and the only place that people did not frequent on Helios due to the price tag of hiring the place.

A few well-placed hacks in the system had ensured the Hyperion VR station was out of use. Broken, some might say. It would be detached from Helios shortly and sent down to Pandora for Hyperion's ground engineers to work on. Ground engineers who would be moved quietly from Hyperion's payroll to Jack's payroll. After all, if Hyperion found out it was housing a Siren…well, it didn't bare thinking about. The only person Jack could trust with the knowledge of this power was himself. For the good of the world.

"You're such an asshole!" Angel yelled, slamming her hands against the forcefield.

"Language!" Jack's patience snapped out, before he collected himself. He breathed in, steadying himself, then squatted down to meet Angel's eye-level through the forcefield. "Look, sweetheart. I can't let you out because of what you did to your mother, okay? I just couldn't bear it if something else happened to you."

Tears began to well in Angel's eyes again. She backed away from the forcefield, arms wrapping around her torso. She shook her head.

"I didn't mean to…"

"Shhh, I know, darling," Jack replied, straightening up and nodding to the seat behind Angel. "That's why you need to stay in the chair. But I got you something!"

The man offered his daughter a wide smile, then he jogged over to the DigiPad station nearby. A few quick taps saw the GEL Core light up, opening up some of the routes that connected the energy of the machine to external networks. "That chair is connected to the entire Hyperion network. Now you can see through every satellite we own around every planet in the sky. You've got the best view in the whole universe from that chair. And we're gonna work together. You and me, kiddo. Sound good?"

The Hyperion network wasn't even finished yet. But now…now it would be. And it would be finished Jack's way, as an added bonus. A productive use of Angel's powers as the GEL Core kept her energy spinning around, a perfect way to contain her boundless power. A safe use of her power. No one would get hurt, and she would be helping people with a better network. Jack had to admit, sometimes he impressed himself with his problem-solving skills. Not bad for a sleepless night. With all that work done, he could forgive himself with the rather dull rebrand of the system. After all, what was it Megan had said "GEL Core" stood for again? Jack couldn't recall, but he was sure the "E" stood for "Eridium". It didn't matter anymore.

"Yeah. Okay," Angel agreed, edging with trepidation in each step towards the chair at the centre of the Control Core Angel.

"I love you, Angel."

"…I love you too, Dad."