Part Six

The Whole Truth

I woke up slowly. I had slept rather well, considering that I was on the floor of a jail cell. But that was probably because of Electra.

"Jack? Uh... where are we?"

I opened my eyes. Spike was hanging on the bars of the cell, looking around.

"We're in a jail cell." I replied. I was about to stand up, but doing so would break my connection with Electra.

Spike noticed.

"Who's that?" he asked.

"I'm Electra." I heard her say. "Electra Ovirowa."

Spike looked a bit surprised. "Jack, is this that-"

I gave Spike a "choose your words carefully" look.

"Is this that beautiful young woman you told us about?" Spike asked.

"Aw, that's nice of you, Jack." Electra said.

"Yeah, this is her." I replied.

Spike shook his head. "Hold on, you're distracting me. Why are we in prison?"

"We're not in prison." Electra said. "We're in the 'protective custody' of Cherious. The only differences between the two are a much smaller prison, no free time, and a memory wipe once we get out."

"When do we get out?" Spike asked.

"A few hours from now." she replied.

"And, wait a minute- don't you work for Cherious?" Spike asked.

"Ah, the million-dollar question." I said. "I was wondering about that, myself. But I think I know why already."

"You do?" Electra asked, surprised.

"You're vaccinated, aren't you?"

She sighed. "So, you do know."

"What are you two talking about?" Spike asked.

"Spike, you already know that Cherious was secretly manufacturing weaponized nanomachines, right?" I said. Spike nodded.

"How do you know about that?" Electra asked.

"We've got a very skilled friend." I replied. "So, Spike, after Vincent got ahold of the weapons, the company probably wanted to erase all evidence of their involvement, right, Electra?"

"Yeah." she replied.

"Now, Vincent has a vaccine coursing through his bloodstream, as you already know, Spike. As you also know, anyone who comes into contact with his blood or any other bodily fluid that could contain the vaccine will be vaccinated." I said. I held up Electra's hand. "She has."

Spike looked a little bit confused. "Jack, I thought you-"

"Jack and I fell in love on Titan." Electra said. "But I also cared for another man. Vincent Volaju."

"Damn." Spike said. "Is there anyone in your squad you weren't sleeping with?"

"Spike!"

"It's alright." Electra said. "I think I deserved that."

"Electra, I just have one problem with the whole thing: after Vincent came back to the squad, I could feel that you were disgusted by him. Yet you would have needed to have come into... contact... with Vincent to have been vaccinated." I said.

There was silence for a bit.

"This was why I was afraid of your investigation." Electra said. "You're right. When Vincent came back, I was disgusted by him. I hated the disrespect he had for human life, the needless violence that he caused. But he...ignored me. The old Vincent wouldn't have done that, I knew. This was someone different. So, one day the Private started flirting with me. It didn't bother me; I was used to it, being a high-ranking woman in the military. But Vincent saw it."

"He killed the Private." I said. It wasn't hard to figure out.

"Jesus." Spike breathed.

"You thought I created that monster..." I said. "I'm so sorry, Electra. I know I'll never be able to make it up to you."

"It wasn't your fault." Electra insisted. "Where would I be now if you hadn't chosen Vincent? Would I be the terrorist?"

"I still made the decision." I said. "I swear to you, Electra, I won't rest until I end him."

"I don't want you to start a vendetta over me." she said.

"Too late." I replied. "Now, the first step is to break out of here."

I stood up, breaking the connection with Electra. I felt a bit weaker the moment our hands stopped touching.

I stood in the center of the cell, and looked at the door in front of me. I was going to try something I hadn't done in a long while.

I accessed a part of my mind that had been left dormant for some time. It had reappeared briefly on the monorail. Now, I needed it for a while.

I felt the searing pain again, this time multiplied by ten. I started screaming, but I didn't realize it. The white light was now blinding. Luckily, it only lasted for five seconds.

I had gone through this full-fledged "awakening" only once before: in an infiltration ship, on my way to Titan. It had been forced on me then. Now, I needed the abilities for a much shorter period of time than Titan; but a simple "quick start" like what I had gotten on the monorail wouldn't do.

Eventually, it stopped. I looked around. My vision cycled through various spectrums of color for a while before returning to a much sharper version of what I normally saw.

"Are you alright!" Spike asked, frantically.

"I'm... I'm fine." I said, and stood up.

"Jack, don't do this." Electra said. "Send the abilities away. You don't need them!"

I looked down at my body. There wasn't a really drastic change or anything, but I was more muscular than I had been. I quickly went through various stances I had learnt; my reflexes and agility had improved, too. My powers were back.

Spike was figuring it out. "Jack, are these..."

"...my powers from Titan." I said. "Sorry, Spike. But I don't think I can take Vincent on my own."

He nodded. "Look, can you get us out of here?" he asked.

"I think I have an idea." I replied.

I went back a few steps, and looked at the wall. I pulled back my arm, and pounded the wall, very hard. There was a loud crash.

A guard rushed into the area, and down towards our cell.

"What the hell was-"

Spike shot out a kick through the bars, knocking out the trooper. My friend took his body, grabbed the card key, and threw it to me.

The card worked, though I hadn't doubted that. When I stepped out of the cell, I picked up the guard's pistol and threw it to Spike, and then grabbed the guard's other keys and unlocked Electra's cell. When it opened, she fell into my arms. I held her for a few seconds, and then she stood up and moved on.

"Before we go, we should grab the vaccines they've been manufacturing from my blood sample." Electra said. "They should be on this floor."

Spike kicked down the door, and ran out, gun drawn. We hadn't caused enough commotion that the guards would be on to us, and thus we were okay.

"Spike, put the gun away. No one's suspected us of anything." I said. He slipped the pistol in his coat pocket.

Electra led us to the research labs. We entered an airlock.

"Alright, you're going to need to put on the-"

"We don't have time for the suits." I said. "You and I both know that security will be here any second."

Spike simply ran through. I followed.

There was one scientist in the room, looking through a microscope. Spike put the gun to his head.

"Where are the vaccines?" Spike asked.

"Th-the second rack! The yellow packets!" the scientist said.

I pulled open the second rack on the wall. It was filled with yellow packets. Electra grabbed a container, and we started loading the packets into it.

"Thanks for your help." Spike said, putting the gun away.

Electra closed up the box, and started running with it.

"Time to go!" she said.

Spike and I followed her through the facility to the garage, where we put the container in her trunk and hopped into the car.

We sped off just as security arrived.

A/N:

Looking back, I kind of think I should have given the Private a name. He's not even a minor character, so it doesn't matter much. If it bothers you, just call him Jenkins, or something. Believe me, it's not important.