Lesson Learned by My Indigo

I don't know how long I was sitting like that before I felt a hand on my back. I turned to find Amelie staring at me sadly. She knelt down, rubbing my back. "I'm sorry, Taylor," she murmured. "I can't send you back. Higgs is keeping you here."

"How the fuck did he get me here? I'm actually here. This is my body. It's not just my soul," I said angrily. I felt so helpless. And betrayed on many, many different levels.

"He's tied to me," she said sadly. "I can send you to a different beach. Your mother and father are with Katharine."

I shook my head. "Thank you, Amelie, but no. I'll wait here. I did my grieving for Katharine and my parents. More grieving than I needed to for Katharine. I feel better knowing she's with my parents." A thought occurred to me. "Why do they share a beach?"

She hesitated. "They came into this world at the same time."

"Higgs?"

"I'm so sorry, Taylor."

I hid my face in my hands, unable to stop the tears. Higgs really did take everything from me. I had been told my parents were lost in an accident while they were doing some field research. The bodies were never found. Now I know that Higgs murdered them somehow. The same day that he took Katharine for me. I was so wrought with grief that I didn't leave my room for days. It must have been easy for him to do whatever he wanted then. With Fragile. With the BB he hid from me. With...everything.

Amelie sighed, hugging me as I cried. She was comforting. Motherly.

"You'd be a great mother, Amelie," I sniffed, wiping my eyes. She chuckled.

"Thank you, Taylor." She sat on the ground next to me, watching the waves. And then she was gone. I looked around, trying to figure out where she had gone. Somehow I knew she wasn't here anymore. Higgs had her. I noticed a photograph where she had been sitting. It was a picture of President Strand, Sam, and his wife. She had been pretty, I noticed. It looked like a bit of timefall had gotten onto the picture at some point. The picture was at least ten years old.

I smiled. Sam looked so uncomfortable to be having his picture taken.

"Sam," I said aloud, falling backwards onto the rocky sand and staring up at the grey sky.

Sam's POV

"Sam." I sat up straight. Taylor. The alarm for Edge Knot City was going off. An automated voice suggested preparing for combat. I checked my emails. No response from Taylor. It's been over a day. She always responds within a few hours.

I got up and checked on Lou. The bridge mother network was down. Lou looked uncomfortable. I got dressed and went back up to the ground floor. There was some cargo sitting on the conveyor belt. A yellow cargo tag was tied to the rocket launcher.

Thought you could use this. X

Taylor's handwriting. The timestamp on the tag was shortly before her last email to me. I put it in my cargo carrier. I'll worry about that later. For now, I have to figure out what the fuck is causing all of the alarms to go off.

As soon as I stepped outside, I saw it. There was a giant, solid BT walking towards the facility. "What the fuck," I muttered to myself.

"Oh Sammy boy!" Higgs called. He's in that thing, I realized. And then I saw Amelie. She was sticking out of the chest of it, unconscious. "There you are! Haven't heard from Taylor lately, have you?"

My teeth clenched when he mentioned her name. He doesn't get to speak her name.

"She's on the Beach," Higgs all but giggled. "She tried to kill me when she found out what I did to her." He whistled. "Good thing I took her away 'cause nobody can fix what I've done." He patted Amelie's face. "Isn't that right Amelie? You tried making her feel better, you perfect angel."

"Get the fuck away from her. What did you do with Taylor?"

"I told you, she's on the Beach. Don't worry, I'll make sure she knows where you are when I send you there."

Taylor's POV

I fell asleep at some point. I was wandering through the Seam, looking at all of the strands around me. Sam. That was Sam's body. I swam over to him, holding his face. He died. Higgs. It was so hard to think here. I tried focusing to see Sam's strand. I found it. I swam over to it, grasping it firmly. It felt like he was with me. No. Not yet. I pulled against its struggling and pushed it into the chest of his body. His eyes opened, meeting mine briefly, and then he was gone.

I was yanked out of the Seam and back onto the beach. I began coughing up tar water.

"You just can't fucking stay put, can you?" Higgs growled, kicking me in the ribs. I winced, falling over on my back. I stared at him defiantly, saying nothing. "Sam could've stayed dead that time. Guess I'll just have to take care of him here." He ran his hand through his hair. "You are infuriating."

"Good," I said coldly, glaring at him. He clenched his fists before just waving his hand at me angrily. I don't remember anything after that.

"Taylor, wake up," Amelie's voice called to me out of the darkness. I groaned. My head was killing me. "Taylor. Wake up. Taylor."

I opened my eyes. I was lying face up in some water. I heard gunshots in the distance. Amelie was strung up in some hardened strands of tar. She was looking at me worriedly. When she realized I was awake, she exhaled in relief.

"I was afraid Higgs killed you. He hit your head pretty hard against a rock."

"I definitely feel like it." I staggered to a standing position, holding my head. There was dried blood there. After a few moments, I staggered through the tar to Amelie. I tried pulling the strands off of her.

"I don't think they'll pull off. I think you'll have to cut them." I reached for my cufflink. Gone. Of course.

"What's going on?"

I was so disoriented. It was hard to stand. I was using the strands for stability.

"Sam, he's here," Amelie said. Her blue eyes looked over to a rocky stretch of land. I pushed through the pain, trying to find them. Higgs was getting pissed. Sam was calm, collected. I attached my mind to Higgs, drawing strength from his rage. My head became clearer as I began to heal.

I stood up straight and began looking around. There was a ton of destroyed cargo laying around. Maybe I could toss it at Higgs and distract him. I pushed my way over to the shore, climbing out. I grabbed one of the small packages, crouching behind a beached whale. Higgs was hunting for Sam.

"Hey asshole!" I yelled at Higgs. He turned in surprise. I threw the cargo as hard as I could. It hit him in the knee. He went down. Sam took the opportunity to tie him up with a strand. He hesitated. "Fucking kick him!"

Sam got a good jab into Higgs' chest before Higgs got free. He teleported over to me, pushing me back at Amelie. One of my arms was captured by the tar strands holding her in the air. I tried struggling to get free. The more I struggled, the more the restraints spread. Eventually I just stopped, watching anxiously. Sam eventually got the upper hand. Higgs went down, unconscious.

"Cut Amelie down," I pointed to her. He nodded, beginning to cut her down. Before he could get more than one of her legs free, Higgs grabbed him and pulled him backwards. Sam retaliated by punching him in the face.

This began the most nerve wracking five minutes of my life. They just stood there, waist deep in tar water, slugging each other for all they could manage. Higgs got the upperhand for a few seconds, taking a chunk out of Sam's ear. Sam managed to knock him out in retaliation. He dragged higgs over to the land, tying him up. He came back into the water and successfully cut us down.

Fragile appeared, standing over Higgs. She had Lou in her arms. She handed him to Sam. "Managed to bring him by thinking he was cargo."

"He's all yours, unless you want him," Sam looked at me.

"I want to talk to him," I said. I looked at Fragile. "You owe me that much."

She nodded before turning to Sam and Amelie. "I can take you back now."

"No, I think we've got it from here. The UCA thanks you for your contribution." Amelie does not like her. She turned to me. "I can send you back when you're done. She handed me a quipu. "Just think about it when you're holding this." I nodded.

"Sam, before you go, I found this," I said, holding out the picture. He took it, looking at it before putting it in his pocket.

"Thank you, Taylor." I wanted to go to him, but I was rubbed raw. My head was a mess. So was my heart.

"What Higgs did," Amelie said over her shoulder as she and Sam walked away, "it's undone."

"What?"

She smiled, linking arms with Sam, and dragging him away. Fragile looked at me. I was still staring after Amelie. That wasn't possible. You can't just return that stuff from the Beach to the living. I kicked Higgs in the ribs. "Get up."

Higgs stirred, his blue eyes locking with my brown ones. "You stayed to watch the killing blow. I didn't know you had it in you. Guess I put it there huh? Just like Katharine."

I punched him in the nose. It broke with a satisfying crack. Blood began running down his face. He spit it out of his mouth.

"I deserve that."

Fragile was silent, observing the scene before her. I don't think she knew about any of this. Not many people know about Katharine.

"You killed my parents," I said in his face. "And our daughter." I grabbed his shirt and hit him again. Again. "That's for them." I headbutted him. "And that's for me. You're dead to me." I turned to Fragile. "Do what you want with him. I'm gonna wait over there."

"Wait," Higgs said. "I did love you. As much as I could ever love anyone." I didn't turn back around to face him but I stopped. "I just didn't love you enough to ever be satisfied. I could love anyone enough for that. Katherine is fine. She's with your parents. I checked. Amelie wasn't lying."

I hadn't realized I was crying. I closed my eyes.

"Goodbye, Higgs."

I walked away until I couldn't see them any more. I sat on the ground. The tears eventually stopped. A final gunshot rang out into the air. Higgs would never trouble me again.