April 8, 2010.

A/N: Greetings!

So I spontaneously went away for the Easter weekend, and when I returned our computer was having issues. Sorry for the lack of updates this last week. But here's the next chapter :)

Now, it was recently alerted to me that the fic has a slow start. I did, in fact, know this, as the slowness of the start - the blandness of Australian life - was meant to contrast with the speed at which the rest of the fic develops, to show how extraordinary the ordeal is for Australia. BUT, as the lovely sakuuya suggested, I was actually supposed to write an enthralling prologue with lots of action, and then flick back to boring-ness. Don't ask me why I didn't carry out that plan. Serious lapse of intelligence there on my part.

So, there will be a prologue eventually. When I get around to writing it.

I'm also going to revise previous chapters soon with Culture Notes at the bottom, so you guys have more of an understanding of the Aussie slang I'm using :) That should make things a little easier. All in all, thank sakuuya for the developments.

That's it for today. Read on.

Searching for Solace

- FIVE -

March 6 – 15:47

"Where are they?"

Morgan stared glumly at the wall as Mackenzie paced anxiously, the cordless phone pressed to her ear. Her expression was tense, her eyes filled with uncertainty.

"I dunno."

"Why aren't they answering?" Mackenzie rumbled.

Morgan sighed. "I dunno, Max."

Mackenzie growled when the phone rang out again and punched in Sarah's mobile number. Knowing her sister, she probably hadn't even gone to school today, which – thankfully – crossed off the possibility of her being there in the slaughter, but opened up the infinite alternatives for where she could actually be. Mackenzie could quite confidently assume both her parents were at work – safe at work, she hoped. It was Sarah being currently MIA that was stressing her out.

"Max, relax for a second," Morgan begged her.

Mackenzie rounded on her. "Relax?! Are you shitting me? It's alright for you – you know everyone in your family is fine! Sarah could be dead!"

"I know!" Morgan roared back, shutting her up. "But sitting around blaming me isn't going to get you any answers! We're just going to have to wait a while."

Mackenzie sighed, and it felt like all the energy was drained from her body as she exhaled. She collapsed on the bed beside Morgan; the phone dropped from her fingers and thudded against the floor. She winced; throwing herself down made her back sting.

"Are you alright?" Morgan asked quietly.

"My back hurts…" Mackenzie muttered exhaustedly. Wordlessly, Morgan leaned over and gently pried apart the two flaps of her dress, examining her skin. To Mackenzie's unpleasant surprise, she hissed something between sympathy and horror.

"Holy shit."

"What?" Mackenzie demanded, alarmed. "It's not that bad, is it?"

"Are you fucking kidding?" Morgan choked. "Max, you have to go to a hospital. If that gets infected – well, any more infected – it could kill you."

"There are a lot of things out there right now that could kill me," Mackenzie replied irritably. Mainly, she was frightened by the worry in Morgan's voice. Sure, the scratch hurt, but it was just a scratch. It would heal. But Morgan's alarm had her questioning and doubting, and when she did that, all she did was frighten herself. "It'll be fine. Just clean it with Dettol or something."

"I'm not sure that'll help," Morgan said doubtfully. "It's just a bacterial cleanser. But it has to be better than nothing. Don't move – try and make yourself relax, okay?"

Mackenzie got up from the bed and crossed to the window, listening to Morgan fish around in the cupboards in the bathroom. Outside, she could see the little glowing orbs floating aimlessly, directionless, like spores in a breeze. She imagined it was what the air would look like if carbon dioxide or nitrogen suddenly became extremely fluorescent. The air was practically thick with the orbs.

"I told you to lie down," Morgan said irritably from behind her. "Disobedient child."

Mackenzie grinned and returned to her bed, lying comfortably on her stomach.

"Seriously, relax," Morgan said in a warning voice. "This is probably gonna hurt like a bitch."

It hurt like more than a bitch, Mackenzie thought, trying to relax her instinctively tense muscles. It hurt like bloody hell. The pain was unbelievable – utterly mind-numbing. Her back stung like she'd had her whole body doused in scalding oil. It felt like the wound was on fire – she kept expecting to smell singed skin. She attempted to stem her streaming eyes, but eventually gave up and just let the tears flow until she was sniffling quietly into her doona, so worn out from the pain that she could hardly move.

"Done," Morgan said finally. "You alright down there?"

"I think I'd rather be dead," Mackenzie moaned. Morgan cleaned up the disinfectant mess and threw away the rubbish. Then she returned and made herself comfortable beside Mackenzie.

"Are you hungry?" she asked.

Mackenzie shook her head. "But if you are, go eat something."

Morgan patted her head gently. "Sorry about the pain."

"Mmm…" Mackenzie managed sleepily. She was exhausted. The day had used up all her energy, plus her extra stores. She couldn't have gotten up even if her favourite re-run of Family Guy had come on. The last thing she was aware of before she succumbed to sleep was feeling Morgan get up from next to her, and kitchen noises before she slipped comfortably into darkness.

March 7 – 07:04

When Mackenzie opened her eyes and her gaze slowly came into focus, the first thing she noticed was that she was lying on her back, and that she had a perfect view of her old Backstreet Boys poster. She reasoned that Morgan was right: it really was time for that stupid thing to come down. The second thing she noticed was that being on her back was possibly the most stupid position to be sleeping in, because now she had to try and get up, and her back was killing her.

The third thing she noticed was that Morgan was sitting beside her – a fully awake, very alert Morgan, who was wearing an expression of ill foreboding.

"Morning," Morgan greeted, unsmiling. Mackenzie struggled to prop herself on her elbows.

"What's going on?"

Morgan pursed her lips and looked down at her entwined hands, which was a nervous habit of hers. "They never came home."

Mackenzie knew the answer to her next question before she'd even finished thinking it. The rest of her family was still MIA. She swallowed the nausea that was quickly swelling. "No word from Sarah?"

"Not yet."

"I was hoping she'd text, you know…"

"Yeah."

The girls were silent. Morgan watched Mackenzie anxiously for any signs of meltdown. Mackenzie stared at the phone on the floor and tried to drag together the many sporadic thoughts that were whizzing through her head.

"Maybe my parents stayed at work," she said eventually.

Morgan smiled a little. "Well, that's possible. They could easily have. And it'd make sense for them not to have headed out into… all that."

There was no need for her to elaborate on 'all that'.

"Breakfast?" Morgan offered instead. It might have been considered strange for anyone else to be offering her food in her own home, but it was Morgan, and she'd practically grown up at the Richards' residence. Her own home was nice and big, but rarely occupied, since both her mum and dad worked long hours, being a neurosurgeon and attorney, respectively. Plus her brother was now off studying at university. When home had become a place that was no longer 'homey', the Richards had welcomed her warmly into theirs.

Mackenzie was chewing on a mouthful of Kellogg's Sultana Bran when the front door shut and Morgan reappeared with two days' worth of mail that hadn't been collected. She dumped the fat wad of envelopes on the table and dropped down beside Mackenzie. Neither of them voiced the question that was bothering them both: Do we go to school today or not? It was much easier just pretending everything was right with the world.

"Anything interesting?" Mackenzie asked through a mouthful of cereal.

Morgan shrugged. "Lots of bank statements, bills, junk mail… Except–" She dragged the word out as she read the intended recipient of the envelope in her hand. It was bulky in one corner, like it contained something roughly spoon-shaped. "This one is for you, apparently."

Mackenzie took a look. There, typed on a neatly printed sticker, was her name, which was odd, because she hadn't ever signed up for anything, she hadn't started applying at universities yet, and she didn't exactly have a vast abundance of friends who could have written to her. Besides, it was the twenty-first century. No-one wrote letters these days when you could send an e-mail in five minutes.

She exchanged a curious look with Morgan, who was aware of the aforementioned facts as well, and messily opened it. A hastily folded letter fell out, and something hard and shiny dropped loudly onto the floor. Morgan stooped for it; Mackenzie unfolded the letter.

She struggled to make sense of what had been written, either because she skim-read most of it, or because it was written in a way that she couldn't understand, but she was much more interested in who the letter was from. At the very bottom, typed in small, bold print, was 'Dr. R. Shirogane'.

"It's that scientist," she blurted in astonishment. "That Japanese one we used to watch on Youtube."

"Does it explain what this thing is?" Morgan asked, holding up the object that had fallen out. It was roughly oblong, made of shiny solid gold, with lots of intricate detail and studded with rose quartz. When Mackenzie held it up to the light, it sparkled prettily.

"I dunno."

"Here." She handed the letter to Morgan, who perused it quickly, her eyebrows kicking every now and then. When she finished, she lowered the letter, looking up at Mackenzie as though she bore the world's biggest secret on her shoulders.

"Holy shit."

"What?"

"Didn't you read this?" Morgan demanded, waving the letter.

Mackenzie blushed. "You know I'm not a morning person."

"We'll talk about it in the car," Morgan said decidedly, glancing at the microwave for the time.

"Where are we going?" Mackenzie asked, as Morgan whisked her half-eaten cereal away.

"My place," Morgan replied. "There's something in the mail I think I'm really going to need."

March 7 – 08:40

"So you actually believed all that Tokyo Mew Mew bullshit all along?" Mackenzie demanded in disbelief. She stared incredulously at Morgan, who was staring determinedly ahead as she drove.

"Um… yeah."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Mackenzie asked hotly, feeling wounded.

"Because the whole fucking thing sounded so stupid, and you didn't believe it," Morgan replied. "I felt like an idiot talking to you about it."

Mackenzie's head reeled. Morgan felt stupid talking to her? The world really had tilted on its axis.

"I still don't think it's real," Mackenzie said, holding the pendant – that's what it was called, after all – up in the sunlight. "This could be a fake. It could easily be some jerk's idea of a joke."

"It's real, Max," Morgan said firmly. "It has the official insignia on it. And there's proof, anyway."

"Where?" Mackenzie immediately demanded. Morgan was silent; Mackenzie read her discomfort straight away. She narrowed her eyes.

"What have you done?"

"Nothing, honestly," Morgan said quickly. "But… um… you know that time you fell asleep in your exam?"

For some odd reason, Mackenzie had a feeling she knew where this was going. "Yeah…?"

"Well, that's when you merged with your DNA partner," Morgan explained. "It was the injection process that made you sleepy, because your body has to be inactive for the process to work; your brain can't handle the neuron dynamics and the genetic convergence if it's conscious."

"Morgan, I know you've always been really smart, but, seriously–" Mackenzie laughed incredulously "–how do you know that? Did they teach you in science?"

"No. It… um…" Morgan glanced over guiltily. "It happened to me, too."

"Hypocrite!" Mackenzie accused, mouth falling open. "You blew it off so easily when it happened to me! That's so unfair!"

"I know; I'm sorry. It happened to me after it happened to you, and I felt so stupid because I didn't believe you," Morgan said, red-faced. "I couldn't admit it happened to me, too. But… anyway… it happened during French. And I had this weird dream. Did you have a dream?"

Mackenzie was quiet as she thought back. It had been a long time since it had happened to her; her memory was a bit fuzzy. "I dunno. Maybe? I remember a feeling of falling, and some white light. That's about it."

"That's the dream," Morgan said. She turned into her street. "It's supposed to be a vision of the animal you're genetically compatible with."

Mackenzie's stomach flipped. "I can't remember mine."

"Neither," Morgan reassured her. "I don't think it really matters that much, to be honest. Your animal's your animal, regardless. Wait here just a second."

She darted out of the car and scurried to the mailbox, returning a moment later with an envelope that matched Mackenzie's.

"Okay, buckle up," she said, which Mackenzie found ironic, since her seatbelt was already done up. A suspicious thought alarmed her.

"Morgs… Where are we going?"

Morgan glanced sidelong at her. "Back to yours. It's probably the safest place right now."

CULTURE NOTE

Dettol: Anti-bacterial disinfectant. A big product in Australia.

'Hurt like a bitch': A commonly used phrase, especially among young people. We have a way with words, no? XD

Doona: Duvet, the Americans call them. Bedding, basically.

Kellogg's: The dominant cereal company.

Sultana Bran: Straightforward, really. Bran flakes plus sultanas. Um... raisins, if you don't know what sultanas are.

Anyway! Our Aussie heroines are starting to work things out, ne? But does clever Morgan know everything? Well, you shall see, won't you?

Next chapter should be up soon :)

Reviews are love!

Love,

Cherrie xx