Chapter 6: Sorrowful truths

An hour passed by while the rain beat down harshly on the exterior of the black vehicle I've come to know as a "mustang". Rose was driving now, and Eric sat in the back seat comforting me by laying my head on his lap while I drifted in and out of sleep. Eventually, I had fallen back completely asleep during the trip and was unable to keep the horrid nightmares from continuing anymore. While I slept, Rose and Eric conversed with each other, planning on where they were going to stay. They needed to find a place that security wasn't going to track us and a place that was going to keep the last gummi bear in existence safe from harm. "She can't keep running forever." Rose informed him. "I know." Eric responded solemnly. "But I still wish I could keep her from her nightmares." His voice was soft and gentle as he spoke about protecting me that way. "I care for her too, Eric. But I also realize that the only way to help her survive is to send her home." Rose argued. "I...just don't want her to hurt anymore." Eric said even more solemnly than before. He could tell from my tossing and groaning, that I was having another nightmare. He lifted his left hand up and gently placed it on my shoulder and the feeling of comfort washed over me while I dreamt and my nightmare turned into a blissful dream. "You realize that she is going to find out sooner or later?" Rose reminded him. Erick simply shushed Rose and whispered to her, "Let her dream something good. She deserves it after everything she has experienced so far." Rose lightly shook her head at the fact that Eric wanted to keep me ignorant to some vital information for as long as possible. "Either way, we still have to find the time stone." She then mumbled to herself.

Far away, in the basement of the tower that reached past the clouds, a figure enveloped in shadows and surrounded by large wires was breathing loudly, deeply and slowly as if his life had wasted away, but he refused to simply die. He was completely surrounded by screens that flashed and flickered with images. A member of the city's security force stood in front of the figure's door and nervously typed in the pass code to open it. The door gracefully slid to the guard's left and he took two steps into the room. He began to speak in a formal militaristic speech pattern and he stood at perfect attention. "Lord Igthorn, the southern research labs have had a breach. The main lab had been damaged badly and there were reports of them having a gummi bear in their possession." The shadowy figure stirred and his heavy breathing shivered slightly. "What color?" The figure asked in a weakened and aged voice that displayed angst and disappointment. "They said it had yellow fur sir." "So, little one, this is where the time stone has brought you." The figure said to himself. "Who was in charge of the main laboratory?" "The soldier looked at his notes and said, "Isaac Lavender, sir." "Where is he?" The figure asked evening his breathing. "We...don't know sir. He...vanished without a trace. We...cannot find him...sir." The guard admitted with much nervousness. Suddenly a pair of white glowing eyes opened around where the shadowy figure's face was located. "That's very disappointing." The figure maliciously said to the guard. Somehow the guard had an idea of what was to come and that scared the spit pot of him. And rightfully so. Almost out of nowhere, a short, golden yellow streak of light lodged itself into the center of the guard's chest. The moment it hit, the guard was thrust to the ground, on his back. He suddenly felt an intense pain in his chest like something had begun expanding rapidly in his body, he screamed out in agony as his chest and stomach began expanding like a balloon being filled with air until the guard exploded form the pressure. Blood and flesh was thrown around the room, the blood splattering against the walls and the guard's innards scattering in random directions. Moments later around eight gorgeous, young women wearing black and white maid uniforms came in through the door the guard had entered earlier and began cleaning up the remains of the guard. The figure in shadows then turned to a screen at his left side and spoke into it. "Send a squadron out to locate the gummi bear. And send another out to locate the whereabouts of Doctor Isaac Lavender. He just booked his last appointment with me." Another guard's face that was being shown on the monitor simply said, "Yes sir." And the monitor turned back to searching the facility for any signs of treachery. However, Igthorn ignored his monitor and simply watched as the maids cleaned up his mess.

Eric gently shook me awake when Rose stopped the car at her parent's old house far away from the city. Still groggy, I sat up and rubbed my eyes to try and clear out the sleep. When I gazed upon the house, I saw that despite it looking old, it looked taken care of. The exterior of the house was painted bright gray with natural looking trim. The front door was a light brown with a crystal pained front window in the general shape of a tall oval with a rose in the middle of it. It was a fairly big house and looked fairly beautiful even in the stormy weather. First thing Rose did was walk around the perimeter of the building acting as if she was looking for something. When she located a metallic box about two feet wide by two feet tall by two feet thick, that had a double door front to it, she asked Eric, "Did you acquire what I asked you to?" Eric then made his way to the driver's side of the mustang, reached down and pulled the lever that released the trunk. He then made his way to the trunk, lifted it up, reached inside and brought out a glass orb about six inches in diameter that had two odd shaped metal diodes perfectly across from each other. Inside the orb was a ball of soft blue light that shone as gently as the stars in the sky on a clear night. "What is that?" I asked genuinely curious and dazzled by the thing. Rose briskly walked up to Eric and gently lifted the orb from his hands while she said to me, "It's a high frequency neuron power cell. Pretty much, this thing could power a city for a year. Or, in this case, power an entire house for two hundred years."

We followed her to the box she located earlier and watched as she opened the doors and revealed the two connecters for the diodes. We watched as she gently placed the power cell inside the box making sure that everything was hooked up just right and closed the doors to the box. She then reached into her lab coat and pulled out some sort of heavy duty lock and locked the doors shut. Obviously to keep others from stealing the power cell. Curious, I asked Eric, "Why was she so meticulous with it?" He looked at me and answered, "Because, if she dropped it, there would be an explosion big enough to see from outer space." "Outer space?" I asked confused. Eric simply pointed to the clouds and said, "Out with all of the stars." At this point, the rain had stopped and the clouds parted, revealing a half moon and an endless sea of sparkling stars, each glittering and gleaming like rare stones shining from the light of the moon. It had been a while since I had seen the stars and the moon, but something toward the back yard of the house caught my eye. It was a familiar sight, a large tree that was twisted around itself. Many large knot holes and limb stumps that were hollowed out and a familiar sight of wild bushes that sprouted various colors of berries. "Gummi Glen?" I asked myself gasping form nostalgia.

I found myself magnetized to the sight of my old home. Noticing that a couple thousand years of neglect only allowed the berry bushes to grow wild and rampant, I plucked a purple berry from a nearby bush and tasted it. The berry was slightly sour and wild to the taste rather than sweet and lovely like they used to be. I slowly made my way to one of the entrances, noticing that it had been widened to the size of a fully grown human. I guessed that this was how Igthorn got out of the glen. The enlarged hole was crude and looked like it was dug by a clumsy spiraling blade of sorts. Parts of the ground had caved in for reasons that escape me for the moment, and the tree even looked worse for wear. Ivy had choked it off and just about killed it. I stared down into the enlarged hole made by Igthorn trying to escape from the glen and all I was greeted with was black darkness and silence. The sound of Cubby's playing was nowhere to be heard, and I even wished to hear Grammi and Gruffy arguing, but there was still nothing, just silence and the sound of the wind howling through the tree's openings and branches.

A few drops of liquid dripped onto my shoes as I approached the glen closer. It only was later when I realized that they were my tears streaming down my face once again. I continued to peer down into the black abyss, hoping to eventually see Zummi or Tummi walk by and say, "Welcome home." Nothing happened however. "I grew up in this house and never once did I think that this was a gummi bear home." Rose admitted with deep surprise in her voice. She and Eric wondered close to me and simply stared at the tree in amazement. "I always thought that wild animals burrowed here." She then added. Eric knelt down and placed his left hand on my right shoulder and said, "It's late, we'll help you explore it tomorrow. Alright?" Snapping back to my reality, I solemnly nodded and whipped the tears from my eyes.