Chapter nineteen -The Sacrifice
Anna walked down the street, wearing that same black dress as on her date with John Calhoun, silently staring ahead with a set jaw. She had made up her mind that it was foolish to stay away from the funeral merely because she was upset. Everyone was upset. That's what a funeral was for - to help ease each other's pain in the matter. Her excluding herself from the world until she healed would only make the process slower.
This male was dear to you? The top left tentacle asked curling around her. The other three were busy keeping the crowd out of bumping range of their host and causing quite an uproar.
"Yes. Very dear," Anna answered refusing to let the tear that threatened come.
It is simply awful! We cannot possibly coincide with your pain and anger Anna, are you sure that home will not comfort you? The bottom left asked.
"Yeah. I'm sure." Anna made it to the apartment complex and knocked on the door. She folded her hands in front waiting for Peter or Mary Jane or even Hillary to answer and ask what made her change her mind. Unexpectedly, no one came to the door. She knocked again. Maybe they were all in the other room. The bottom right tentacle jumped at the chance to help and lightly tapped the door. Then became harder. Then harder.
"I think you've made your point," Anna told it as it bowed out and behind her. "They might've left already. The funeral does start in five minutes." Even so, Anna stood on the bottom tentacles to peer inside the window. There crouched Spiderman on the floor behind the sofa with Mary Jane, Rosie, and Otto close around. There was a lump lying lifelessly in the middle of the crowd and Spiderman was doing something to it. It kinda looked like CPR, but she couldn't be sure. The lump was a person dressed in red and blue spandex, much like Spiderman in fact.
Anna gasped. It couldn't be, it wasn't... Spiderman lifted the body's head up to his half-uncovered face and breathed into its mouth. It was Hillary! Anna burst through the door and was horrified to find that her friend was sopping wet and bashed up - who knew if there were fatal wounds or not - and unconscious. Anna rushed over to the myriad.
"Oh my gosh! What happened?" She asked in one breath as she got down to her knees.
Peter hadn't looked up and was still engrossed in his work even as he answered. "I found her in the Hudson river right after an explosion."
"Is she alright? Does she look like–"
"I don't even want to think about the possibilities, Anna. Please," Spiderman cut her off as he went down for mouth-to-mouth again.
"What can I do?" Anna asked.
"Nothing."
"Please let me do something! Anything! What do you need?" Anna begged.
"Nothing. I've been giving CPR for about three minutes now with no results. There's really not much more we can do," Peter said reluctantly.
"Do you think an electric shock will revive her?" Anna asked sheepishly fidgeting with the fingers of the top right tentacle.
"Maybe. But we don't have anything like that," Peter said while trying to pump Hillary's heart again - his own heart pumping faster as the end was coming nearer for his daughter.
"I–I bet I could sever one of the wires of my actuators. And that would be enough of a shock, wouldn't it?" She asked even more quietly but quickly.
Otto was taken aback. "Anna do you know what happens if–"
"I know!" She exploded not attempting to hide her fear for what she was about to do from anyone. Anna sighed and spoke again. "The only wire with enough power to create a significant surge is the one right-" She ordered the top right tentacle to cut a slit in her dress right at her midriff and she pulled the two ends apart to reveal the strips of metal 'round her middle. Anna pointed right in the center where a large vein-like strand ran along the surface of the brace. "Here." Disappointment clouded her voice.
"But Anna," Otto protested, "That is your main strength line. Without it, your body and actuators disown each other and may never accept one another again. If that happens, you'll always be weaker than normal, and pain will most assuredly be due. Our actuators are built entirely different."
"I know Dad," Anna didn't say. Leave it to Otto to state the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. She responded audibly in no way to his words but ordered the top right appendage to retract its blade and the top left to release its own. It was the one that would understand. Anna then helped the arm close to the bio-electronic vein.
We do not understand this. Why are you set on doing this torture? The top right asked.
"Because it has to be done," Anna replied.
"You'll risk your life for someone who may not even make it." Otto tried one last time.
"Hillary risked her life for me," Anna said with her eyes fixed on Otto. She got down closer to Hillary. "Now when I cut the wire, make sure that I fall on Hillary's heart, OK Dad?" Otto forced a smile and nodded. With her eyes closed and her mind yelling at her why she would do such a stupid thing, the blade slid across the vein and sliced it in two. As predicted, Anna fell from sudden lack of strength with a cry of pain right on top of Hillary.
Hillary's body pulsed a couple times with the electricity being released and coursing through the limbs. Suddenly, Hillary's eyes shot open and she coughed up water. Rosie gasped and placed a hand over her mouth as Otto pulled Anna off of Hillary using the tentacles- Anna now being the lifeless form. The tentacles brought her to him and draped her over his arms. The vein bled some from being part flesh as Otto knew it would from his studies. Otto perused his daughter's face searching for some sign of consciousness. It would be a stretch to say that he was relieved to see her eyes blink slowly. But he was relived - though worry coated it so thick one could hardly see it.
Hillary, after Peter and Mary Jane checking to make sure she would thrive again, looked up at Anna in Otto's arms drowsily. "What happened to Anna?" she croaked out still shaky of breath.
Peter looked up at Otto searching for an answer. Otto shook his head slowly as pain tugged at his emotions almost to unbearable levels. He then turned and walked silently into the bedroom not bothering to ask whether it was alright or not nor if Rosie wanted to come. Rosie rushed into the bedroom after them. Peter looked back at his daughter with a teary smile.
"Nothing honey. We'll talk about it when you feel a little better."
"But I want to know now," Hillary persisted knowing that her dad was struggling to hide a sad truth from her. "What happened to her?" She looked into Peter's eyes unwaveringly. Hillary could read his face like a book and he knew it too.
Peter sighed to buy himself some more time. Hillary didn't wait. She struggled up to her feet, and using the furniture around her and the walls, made her way down the hall as fast as she could with her shaky legs. She held herself up by the doorframe and saw Anna lying weakly on the bed with Rosie knelt on one side of her and Otto on the other. Otto sent the top left tentacle to fetch a tissue and bring it back to him. He then pressed it on the bleeding part of Anna's stomach.
Hillary gasped - nearly loud and high enough to be a cry - and launched herself at the bed. "Anna!" She screamed pulling her body onto the bed beside her friend. Anna opened her eyes to look at Hillary and smile.
"I knew it would work," she said quietly.
"Don't speak," Rosie chided as she brushed Anna's hair out of her face. She spoke to Hillary without looking at her. "Hillary, you should be back there with your father. Peter was very worried about you. He acted strong, but your mother and I could tell that he wanted to cry and hug you back to health." Rosie then looked up at her to see if the words had sunk in yet.
They had and Hillary looked down at the bed. She hadn't really considered whether her father had been alright. She was too considered about Anna. But even so, he could take care of himself and Mary Jane could also. She had a duty to keep. "So, what's actually wrong?" She asked softly now that she had swallowed the shock of the moment and leveled her voice.
"To conduct an electrical current to arouse your heart again, Anna punctured the main strength line that bonded her bodily functions with those of her actuators. It was the thing that kept them in sync. Now, the actuators are simply wild animals tied to her." Just as Otto finished saying that, Anna gave a cry and arched her back on the bed and the tentacles hissed and screeched and scratched the walls, floor, and ceiling. The tentacles attached to Otto held Anna's down to the ground though they continued to fight blindly. Otto carefully pressed Anna back down on the bed and her hard breathing slowed as the surge of pain eased slightly.
"Maybe we should take her to the hospital," Rosie said to Otto. Otto shook his head. "Why not? She needs help."
"Why? So they can document her as another beast to hunt down? That's what they'd do. They'd keep her locked up. Especially since–" he stopped himself.
"Since what?" Rosie asked curiously.
"Nothing," he looked away.
"Tell me."
"There's someone else present." Otto said and they both looked at Hillary which made her feel very uncomfortable sitting on the bed where she now knew she wasn't wanted. "I–I'll tell you later."
"Are you going to tell me later? Or is it going to slip your mind?" Rosie tested with an eyebrow raised.
"It won't. Right now we have other things to worry about. But I will tell you later," he assured her.
"I'm sure you will," Rosie finished and the room fell silent as she wondered what her husband hadn't been telling her all these years but she tried to keep focused on Anna. She was the issue at the moment that needed to be taken care of. Otto's confessions could wait 'til after.
Otto looked the wound over trying to think over his notes and discoveries back at home where he figured many repair notes to his and Anna's tentacles incase of breaking, infection, and things like that. "Have you copied the documents into your minds?" he asked the tentacles.
Yes.
Here they are.They obediently brought back to his memory everything he wrote. It was a whole lot easier to have someone else jog his memory.
Otto looked the files over mentally. There had to be something there about Anna's harness. He searched harder now becoming quite worried that he hadn't written anything about the harness. Then finally he found something. Otto became excited and 'opened the file' so to speak only to have his hopes crushed. It had the word 'harness' in it, but it was about his harness. Completely irrelevant to that of his daughter's.
Anna had another surge and this one more intense and leaving her weaker. She was close to unconsciousness and he didn't even want to think what might happen if her mind became dormant while the tentacles remained intact. Rosie stroked her hair some more to comfort her daughter though she was disturbed that this had happened earlier that year. She had to try her hardest to keep her voice steady as she soothed her daughter. Anna had to know that there were stronger people taking care of her; it wouldn't help to know that they were just as scared as her - maybe even more.
We cannot gather what is happening. It is a myriad of inconclusive images. The bottom right complained to Otto.
"Anna is hurt and I do not know how to help." He was afraid to say so. It was the truth. He didn't know how to help. It was a feeling he hated - the same feeling he had when he thought Rosie had died. The electric shock was painful - sure - but he tried to pull away from it because his wife needed him. Now he was seeing his daughter die before his eyes and being unable to do anything, just like fifteen years ago.
Our children are dying? The top left realized.
They can't die!
We won't let them!
"So now they understand." Otto thought.
Do not let them perish, The top right commanded.
"I'm doing my best to do that for Anna. I don't rightly care about her actuators." Otto stated bluntly as he felt down the vein carefully to where it was cut off. Anna flinched when he moved closer to it, and he pulled his hand away from it and looked at her. She now laid almost unconsciously again - her chest moving up and down in stressed breath.
"If I could get this to close up, then maybe it'd go back to normal..." Otto mused looking it over.
"Hillary," Anna breathed out. Hillary looked nervously at her. "You know–what needs to be done."
"I–I do?" she asked looking around. Hillary knew what Anna was talking about, but she couldn't possibly. Not after how much effort Peter put into keeping it a secret.
"Yeah. Please Hillary. What are secrets now? I need you. Your web is the cleanest and strongest bandage here. A lot of pressure is put on that vein. Nothing else half as sanitary will hold," Anna explained.
Rosie looked at her almost in surprise, but not much. Just a smile. "You knew?" Hillary asked.
"Well, nobody told me, but I figured it out after I saw Spiderman come in, everyone referred to him as Peter, and you were dressed in his apparel. What else would you be doing out above the rooftops in spandex?" Rosie explained.
"Oh," Hillary realized. "Well, that makes it a lot easier." She shot small, glassy strands of web over the break as Otto held them together carefully. Anna didn't like it one bit, nor her tentacles - as they displayed by wreaking havoc on the floor - but soon it was all done and over with. Otto let go and Hillary sat back. The smile faded from her face.
"Did it work?" She asked Otto.
"She needs some rest," Rosie said petting the side of Anna's head once more before getting up. "We'll be right out here," she said to Anna. Anna made no movement but the slowing breathing reassured her that she was doing better. She walked over by Otto's side and looped her arm through his.
"We should wait out here 'til she recovers and we have some time to talk about some stuff." She hinted as she and Otto walked out the door. Otto made a worried expression wondering how he would tell her and why he said he'd tell her in the first place.
When they were gone, Hillary moved to the side of Anna to talk to her. "You really risked your life to save mine?"
"Ha," was all she said with a teasing smile.
"'Ha'? What's 'ha' mean?" Hillary asked.
"'Ha,' as in 'ha. I got to save your behind instead of you saving mine for the millionth time. So now we're even. Ha." Hillary laughed at this and took Anna's hand.
"You still shouldn't have done it," She chided. Anna rolled her eyes.
"Yeah-huh, and I do it again," she declared a little louder. "I had to save you from drowning. By the way, why were you drowning?"
"Suicide bomber. I think he's OK." Anna laughed. "What?" Hillary asked.
"Taking up your dad's colors. Really cool. I guess, I kinda took up my dad's colors too for a while there."
"Ah don't feel bad about it." Anna said nothing to this. "Well, your mom wants you to rest up so I'd better go."
"No. Don't." Anna said. "I can rest with you in here. Besides, it's more soothing."
Hillary didn't feel entitled to argue with the one who had just saved her life, so she laid down at the end of the bed and closed her eyes to go to sleep.