Chapter 7
AU: Adam is dead….Sad, sad, sad, sad. Well now onto the reactions of the X5's. (And if I don't seem sad, you'll understand. Her death might not be a bad thing)
In the middle of Terminal city was a large place the Transgenics called the good place. It was simply a large place that had once held a garden. What had once been a place where office workers came to enjoy flowers now stood as a memorial for dead soldiers. Graves were dug and marked with simple symbols, most of which only had meaning to the specific series.
Max stood around the newest dug grave still in shock. She claimed to be able to handle anything, but she was beginning to doubt herself. The tears had welled up in her eyes on the run back to terminal city and hadn't stopped all night. Cindy and Joshua had stayed up all night trying to calm Max down, but she was inconsolable. She cried not only for Adam but for the others she had never really grieved properly for. Ben, Tinga, Jack, Eva, and the others who had died.
Frankie and Trigs were standing by the end of the grave. Trigs had her arms around Frankie, who was fighting back the sobs. Dragon, who had a broken arm, split forehead, and a mild gunshot wound to the side, stood at the other end of the grave, looking down with a very empty look in his eyes. Finn had re-dyed his hair from blue to black. He looked so young, dressed in simple black clothes instead of his larger than life rave clothes. Cree was not there. He bringing Adam's body in from the cold box, and it was taking him a while.
'Cree is going to be hurting," said Finn quietly, "I think we all need to put our differences aside and help him."
"Why?" said Frankie, "We all hurt so bad. I feel like someone has ripped out a piece of my soul. She's gone."
"And he blames himself," said Finn, "He thinks that if he had stayed still Adam would've lived."
"That bitch would've killed her anyways," said Trigs.
"You don't understand," whispered Dragon slowly.
"What don't we understand?" asked Max, looking to Dragon.
"I…I feel the same pain he does. I know what it's like to feel responsible for someone's death. If I had not been so careless, Khalid would be here with us."
"Dragon," said Frankie, "That wans't your…."
"My point exactly," he said, "The hardest guilt to let go is the guilt of causing someones death. I still haven't forgiven myself. A hundred times a day I play through in my head how I could've saved Khalid. The guilt never stops. Cree feels that. I can see it in his eyes. He was in love with her, and she died because he moved forward."
"That's NOT what happened," said Frankie, "Dragon you know that ain't what happened."
"I don't have the guilt of her death on my shoulders," said Dragon.
"You're nuts. Is there anything we can do because it is SO not his fault," said Finn, but Dragon wouldn't answer. He was staring at the solitary figure walking into the garden carrying a limp body.
"Cree," said Trigs.
"You okay," asked Finn as Cree neared the grave and lay the body of Adam in the hole. He then reached into his backpack and took out a small quilted shroud.
"She loved this quilt," said Cree, "When we were on that mission, and she was a singer, one of the children of the Mobsters we worked for gave it to her. Two days later Adam found the little girl with a bullet between her eyes. I remember her clutching this blanket crying. She was in so much pain…"
"No more pain," said Dragon, "She is at peace."
"In the good place," said Trigs, stifling back sobs.
"Where you can eat as much as you want," said Finn, "and it all tastes good."
"Where you only play the games you want to play," said Trigs.
"And no one dies during games," said Frankie.
"Where you can talk and giggle," said Max.
"And no one ever gets yelled at," said Finn.
"And no one ever cries," said Cree.
"Where You can be on whoever's team you want to be," said Frankie, "And everyone always wins."
"Where the Nomolies are all better, and watch over us," said Trigs.
"And where it never gets too cold," said Max.
"Or too hot," said Finn.
"Or rainy," said Cree.
"Where you never get sick," said Trigs.
"Where no one ever disappears," said Dragon.
"Where you can stay up as late as you want," said Max.
"And when you wake up, you can stay in bed for as long as you want," said Finn.
"She's so there," said Cree, laying Adam gently in the whole before laying the blanket on top.
"She wouldn't want it buried," said Finn, "She would want people to see her blanket."
"She would," said Trigs.
"There are other things she would want," said Dragon, looking at Frankie, then looking at a sobbing Max.
"I know," she answered, walking over and wrapping her arms around Max.
"Lest we forget," said Cree.
"Lest we forget," they all murmured in unison.
"You wanna do it?" asked Finn, holding out the horn he scrounged up to Max.
"No," she said, "I don't think I could do her justice."
"Let me," said Dragon, taking the horn to his lips and blowing out a sweet, sad song signifying the end of a good soldier.
'Adam X5-584,' read the plank Cree placed at her headboard, 'She was a person before she was a number.'
'She knew me better than I knew myself,' read a piece in Finn's handwriting.
'She taught me how to give a damn,' read Trigs's cursive script.
'She never placed blame,' read Dragons block printing.
'Soldier, Comrade, Sister, Fighter, Friend,' wrote Frankie's frilly handwriting.
'Above all else, she was loved!' wrote Cree's script.
'That I missed my chance to know her was is my only regret,' was spelled out in Max's messy scrawl.