Sneaking to the hospital gave Dib and Gaz their first, genuine, real look at the wounded. Because the minute they entered in through a tunnelway entrance near the west wing, they saw a man clutching under his arm, blood dribbling down his forehead, another wound to his side. He was panting heavily, wearing a regular white shirt and blue jeans, the shirt smattered with mud and blood from his injuries, his hair a complete mess as he glanced up at them with hollow eyes.
"Humans." He murmured. "Oh, you're KIDS." He mumbled, Dib kneeling by him. "How nice to see some kids around here. I wonder my kids are."
"I need that plasma, c'mon, we've got more injured coming through!" Called out some Irken medics, carrying in a barely-conscious woman in a green patient's robe on a stretcher down a white hospital hallway that was slightly cracked, a chunk of roof had fallen down and fractured the ground. The woman was muttering incomprehensibly, one arm broken and held at an unnatural angle, quivering, the air thick, heavy and hot...and everywhere reeked of salty-iron. Of the distinct smell of blood.
"You're Jayd, right? We got a distress call." said a medic, approaching Jayd as Tak stood by his side, the medic shaking Jayd's gauntleted hands with his own. "Thank Irk you came when you did. We really need the help!"
"This man's pulse is threading, he's bleeding SOMEWHERE but I can't tell!" said a female medic nearby who was tending to a man that had to be laid on a desk because all the beds and operating tables were full. She tilted his head back a bit, her slightly lighter red eyes full of concern, biting her lip. She wasn't a normal medic, she had the clothing but not the nanogenes Jayd and others had. Evidently a new recruit? "We're losing him!"
"Standard triage." Jayd reasoned, quickly breaking the first medic's handshake and whisking over to the Australian patient on the desk. "And I'll need 15 milligrams of inaprovaline." He said, turning back to the first medic.
"Tak, I want to take a look at the ships you're using for transporting patients." Gaz reasoned. "I think I could make some improvements."
"Fine, ANYTHING as long as you're out of the way of the doctors." Tak reasoned, heading over to the patient that was slumped by Dib. "Dib, can you help take this man into surgery? It's over there." She said, pointing down the hall and into a secondary corridor not too far away.
Dib could see a nurse gently leading a young girl who's arm was in a sling down the hall past several other medics who were scrambling about, trying to get supplies and treatment for patients. "Now, now, sweetie, we'll find your "maneem" soon. So-sorry, I mean mommy." The Irken nurse offered. Dib noticed the female medic's outfit was torn in places, and a laser burn was on her cheek. Several Irken soldiers were standing guard by some fire exits, looking nervously around, all of THEM had blast marks on their armor too.
"OCCASIONALLY a couple of Australian resistance fighters made their way into the hospital and we had to fight them off when they demanded we hand over the patients. We tried to explain they were too sick to move. That's how the place got so badly damaged." Tak remarked. "You're speaking to one of the fighters. And he's VERY LUCKY we're willing to give him ANY treatment." She added coldly, looking down at the brown-haired man who looked away slightly. "You remember this, human. Irkens...saved your life."
And with that, Dib took the man's free hand, carefully leading him down the hall as he slightly staggered about. "Come on. Let's get you onto an operating table..." He mumbled.
"How come you're with these...bugs, kid? They kidnap you?" The australian asked, looking as intrigued as he could through the pain.
"The leader of the invasion is my new "master"." Dib grunted out as they turned the corner, heading into the O.R, which some janitors were now scrubbing free of as much blood and grime as they could to get another operating table clean. "Senior's his name."
"Oh yes, the green-eyed one, the former communications officer, mister "Messiah"." The australian laughed. "Oh, the Irkens talked a lot about him down under, or rather, down here!" He sniggered. "Oh, he's trying to help you poor little humans, you should let us, we'll be wonderful for your planet, we'll cure all your diseases and ills and end crime"! And all it'll cost is our freedom and our souls. I don't wanna live knowing I could get plucked off the streets, shrunk and swallowed at any time. Do you?"
"Not really, though..." He thought back to that experience with May. "...though there was this one time when it felt kinda nice being right between this woman's breasts. It was so UNUSUAL and strange, yet...so intimate." He confessed.
"Ya gotta be careful, kid. I think yer in the wrong game. They're getting ya mixed up, tryin' to give you a taste of their honey so what they're doin' sounds nice. CRIKEY, kid, don't let 'em brainwash ya." The australian insisted as Dib finally handed him off to some other medics. "You'll come visit me later, right?"
"Sure. What's your name?"
"Steven. Mum named me afta the Crocodile Hunter. Used to really love that show." He laughed, waving goodbye as best he could before being laid on a table, Dib heading back...seeing a man had slumped down onto the floor, evidently trying to reach the OR on his own.
"Holy crap! I need some help over here!" He called out, racing to the young man's side, his forehead matted with blood, his eyes closed, a deep wound visible on his skull. Dib touched his neck, feeling for a pulse. It was...it...
A medic knelt down, holding up a scanner. The same medic from before that he'd taken notice of, the female with slightly lighter red eyes. "i'm afraid there isn't anything we can do. He's just too far gone. Lost too much blood and his body wouldn't survive any operation." She said quietly. "Help me move him." She added, seeing Dib's falling face. "We...need to make sure other patients can get into the OR."
Dib quietly nodded, lifting the frail body up with the medic, bringing him down the hall, and into a room where many other forms laid. He shuddered at all the BAGS there, the big, dark black body bags each were placed within. The medic sighed a bit, carefully placing the newest one down onto the floor and getting out a new body bag as Dib turned away, and waited for her to fit the corpse inside.
A few minutes later, she left the room with Dib, the medic gently putting a hand on his back as she led the glasses-wearing young lad out, Dib looking mortified as they approached a new patient. "Take deep breaths. DEEP breaths, alright?" She reasoned softly. "I know what you just saw is awful. Horrifying. But you need to stay calm." She whispered back. "My name's Tenn. And you're Dib, right?"
"Y-Yeah."
"Skoodge has written me about you and Gaz. He says you're a really nice kid. I'm glad I got to meet you. Now let's take a look at our new patient, okay? See how we can help him?" She asked, as they approached not a human patient...but an Irken one. A soldier who had a clear, obvious injury on his right foot, he'd taken a NASTY shot to it. "Hmm. Could have been much worse." She told the yellow-eyed Irken soldier as his well-built chest rose and fall, his antannae thick and blocky as he cringed a bit.
"I was stepping over a human, thought he was dead. He caught me right in the foot." The Irken cringed. "These humans, they...they tore through my platoon outside. LITERALLY, they...they began picking them up and...and ripping them apart like they were tissue paper. Then they got all dizzy and couldn't stand up straight."
"Yes, they aren't used to the size changing on that scale. They can only get to a macro level for 15 minutes." Tenn admitted, looking over the wound with her scanner as Dib listened eagerly to the soldier's tale. "What happened next?"
"They fell over. HARD. Crushed a civic center and a few of their own men. So what few of us remained tried to rally back, fire on the surprised resistance fighters. Myself included. That's when I got the injury." The Irken said, pointing at his blasted foot. "But then they got reinforcements and we had to run. They're just so MANY of them. These "ANZAC" soldiers, they're terrifyingly tough."
"...this is quite a bad laser burn." said Tenn softly. "You sit tight, we'll get to you as soon as we can." She offered, leading Dib away, and speaking VERY quietly. "I don't believe his story. The injury is from one of our own Vortian pistol lasers, it always leaves a distinctive impact AND smell. And the resistance only has stolen Irken rifles and the like. They haven't had the time to get Vortian pistols. And if he WAS stepping over a human, wouldn't the human have tried to hit his leg or chest or head, not his FOOT?" She added.
"You think he shot himself?" Dib whispered back, amber/gold eyes widening behind his glasses.
"Yes." Tenn murmured. "And...well...doing that means he'd be charged with attempted desertion. Treason." She quietly mumbled. "And...even now, under our new leadership, that means harsh penalties."
"They won't KILL him, will they?"
"I don't know. Tak's the one primarily in charge of military codes of conduct now, including punishment. If she thinks it's appropriate...well, then..." Tenn shrugged. "Come on. I could use your help carrying more patients to the OR." She asked of him. "For starters, let's get you into something better than this." She added, gesturing at his jacket and normal attire.
"Yeah. Sure." Dib muttered.
...
...
...
...the hours seemed to blend together. He carried patient after patient around, into the OR, into newly-available patient beds. Occasionally, Dib would have to endure the awful,rotten THA-THUD to his chest that came from seeing a new dead human or Irken patient. Gaz was currently finishing up her inspections of the ships, having gotten all the data she wanted for their plans, and was talking now to Tak on ways to improve the ship's speeds, the laser grids, and, of course...transforming said ships into giant attack robots.
Tak approved of the ideas, then asked Gaz to start helping Dib with the patients. Dib would have been lying if he had said he didn't get SOME satisfaction from seeing Miss "It's just a little blood" become less and less calm and calculated as more and more patients were ferried around the hospital. Especially when, soon enough, the scrubs she had to wear were getting soaked with bloodstains like Dib's from some "real squirters" as Gaz put it.
"Her attempt at humor was an obvious defense mechanism." Jayd mumbled as Gaz headed out the door, putting the last bandages on the female human patient before him, looking over her to Dib. "And it is failing her."
"How can you tell?"
"Gaz has never been in any real, genuine danger or real, true, stress. Now she is. She's in the ocean, and she's drowning." Jayd reasoned with a deep sigh. "You're dealing with it far better, you faced Zim on an almost regular basis, faced true, genuine peril. You're stronger than your sister where it counts. Times like this allow the true self to shine through."
"What makes you so sure that she's breaking down inside?" Dib asked.
"Next time she comes in, I want you to look at her hands." Jayd quietly mumbled.
Not too long after that, it was, at last, a lull in the action. And time for everyone to unwind a little, and to eat. The patients were, at the moment, stablizied...or too far gone to be helped. So they were taking eating shifts, half the doctors would be standing guard over the patients and the hospital with the actual soldiers and guards, the rest would be eating in the cafeteria. Dib sat down with Jayd and Tenn, not too far from Tak as she spoke with Gaz.
"Their bodies are very fragile, that's for sure." Tak admitted. "Then again, who are we to talk when it comes to fragility? A good blow to our ego seems to cripple us." She added, waving a fork around in the air. "Seeing those humans using the stolen size-changing tech has severely demoralized my troops, we lost a big advantage. Irkens aren't used to losing, and when we do..."
"Yeah, nobody likes to lose." Gaz quietly said. Dib noticed the hands she was using to cut into her turkey. They were very slightly shaking.
"It's a shame my race STILL can't fully enjoy Earthen meats, but on the other hand, your baked goods are very, very enjoyable." Tak reasoned, holding up a loaf of bread with some peanut butter and jelly on her plate. "I think I'll start with a "lateral incision" on my peanut butter." She joked.
And that's when Gaz began to gag. "Uhoh." Tak said, Tenn quickly bounding up.
"C'mon, quick, quick, to the bathroom!" She cried out, Gaz racing along with her for the bathroom at top speed as Tak sighed a bit.
"Ahh. I remember MY first day after seeing real injuries and death. Our training on Irk could get very...unpleasant." She said wistfully, resting her head on her palm, looking over at Dib as he munched slowly on HIS turkey. "I didn't vomit after it was done. But I did feel very clammy. You get over it quickly, of course. You have to."
"OH GOD-BLLLEEEEAAAAUUUUUUGGGHKKKK! OH SWEET JESUS-BLAAAAUUUGGHHHKK!" Gaz's cries rang out from the bathroom, along with ugly, foul, wet noises. Dib was suddenly feeling a lot less hungry as he hung his head a little, quietly looking down at his turkey and gravy, and absentmindedly swishing it around with a spoon.
"Try to focus on the positive." Jayd offered warmly to Dib. "We'll be able to begin moving patients into the cloaked ships, and bringing them out now that they're finally all stablized. We're in the home stretch, as you humans put it."
"There were a LOT of, um...hand to hand wounds." Dib spoke up, his voice rather quiet.
"Oh, yeah. That's because we started getting good at breaking their weapons." Tak now allowed pride to enter her voice as her spirits seemed to lift. "Especially with me now helping them at the front lines of defense. When these "ANZAC" Australian soldiers lose their guns, they resort to hand to hand. Lots of knife wounds. And if I ever hear "that's not a knife, THIS is a knife" ever again, I'm going to shoot the person who makes that joke." She added with a snort. "Mind you, it was pretty funny the way MINE was bigger than theirs. Their facial expressions were priceless. But then they started with the biting..."
"Yeah...Australia LOVES bites." Tenn admitted. "And I don't just mean the people, every animal here seems to love biting us, from the kangaroos to the wombats to the koalas to the opossums. Before all this went down, that was the most common injury I was treating. Koala bite wounds. Oh, they're CUTE alright, they're fuzzy and lovely and they have jaws of steel!" She added darkly, ripping her PB&J sandwich apart with her teeth with very thinly disguised ferocity.
Dib wondered if any of them knew, really knew, how frightened he was. All Dib could think about was "what happens if the resistance outside tries to get in again"? The others didn't seem to be worried as he was. No one else seemed to be losing sleep over it, so why was it the only thing he could think about? Dib had been in danger, attacked by Zim plenty of times, yet...the danger seemed different here. Almost more real, because this wasn't a fight against a singular enemy he knew fairly well, an enemy he could, to some degree, predict. This was different. This was his own kind. And maybe, after so many hours of seeing what his people could do...maybe that was why he was so afraid.
It was then that the power fluctuated, the lights flickering on and off before shutting down, a red glow lighting up the room as backup lights kicked in.
"DAMN IT! The generator's failing us!" Tak angrily yelled out, Irkens running about, a panicked undercurrent failing bristling in her tone. "And that was our second backup generator, we don't have any more!"
"We could use our ship's power core as a spare." Gaz reasoned, speaking up as she thoughtfully rubbed her chin, closing her eyes. "OUR ship's a bit more powerful in terms of raw conductive energy from the power core than the other ships you have parked nearby. Only the best, after all, for Senior's handpicked staff."
"Well. Looks like I've another reason to be glad you came." Tak said with a chuckle. "Get back to the ship. Take out the power core. Just follow the route you took before, we'll be waiting. Tenn, go with Jayd and Gaz."
"Of course. Not a problem." Tenn said with a firm nod and a salute, as Dib and Gaz and Jayd took off, running through the halls, heading to the tunnelway entrance that led out to the streets of Melbourne. The air outside had gotten that horrifying, all-too-familiar "before the storm" feeling, and Gaz glanced about.
"Someone's trying to grow large again. We've got to keep our eyes peeled." She insisted. They moved from building to building, keeping close to the alleyways, tense and nervous, Dib pointing at a southwestern corner of the city.
"There. We parked the modified Voot Runner there, just beyond that library." He said, Tenn nodding before her eyes glanced up at something in the distance.
"OH!"
They looked up. One of the ANZAC soldiers had indeed grown to huge heights, and he was on in a bitched battle with some Spittle Runners that were zipping around him, trying to knock him down, to blast him apart. They weren't doing too well though, one had already been knocked clean through the air, another torn into chunks, and a third had spiralled around and around...missiles flying through the skies, slamming all around Melbourne.
Including nearby them! With a mighty KRAKKA-THA-SHOOOM gravel and granite and chunks of sidewalk were tossed everywhere, Gaz letting out a cry, grabbing at her eye as Jayd pulled her to the side and Tenn tugged Dib towards the ship. "C'mon, we've got to get you out of here, Dib!" She yelled, she and Dib racing along as another misfired missile slammed into a building across the way,chunks of wall and window soaring about.
KRA-KOOOM! KRA-KOOM! Now laser fire was being shot at the gigantic human, who angrily slapped and swung at the desperate Spittle Runners. They were hurting him, sure, but now ANOTHER human was growing to immense size, and the laser shots were soaring wild as these new Spittle Runners too were sent spiralling around, their shots going far off course.
"CRAAAAAAAAAAP!" Dib screamed out, feeling gravel exploding all around him from laser fire.
Dib and Tenn scrambled as fast as they could, adreline pumping through Dib's veins as he barreled at the ship with Tenn, another explosion rocking the ground around him. They clung tightly to the ground and to the walls of various buildings. "C'mon, Dib!" Tenn called, hiding behind a pillar of a garage, now very close to the library as Dib bolted across the steeet. And then-
THA-BOOOOOM!
Dib went flying, slamming into some bushes not far from the ship. For a brief moment, absolutely nothing existed but pure whiteness that infested his vision. His ears were thundering, his body was wracked with agonizing pain, like many knives sticking in all at once, and then...he was back to normal, lying against the modified Voot Runner, Tenn nearby, lying against the power core.
"G-Glad you're...alright..." She muttered out, her eyes half open. "I managed to...g-get the...power core out and...dr-drag you over here." She mumbled. "There's a...medkit in the...ship. You can...treat your injury." The female Irken went on, Dib realizing he had a nasty gash across his head. He nodded, looking thankfully at Tenn and heading into the ship...but as he passed by Tenn, he noticed an ugly, awful wound in her side.
As he put bandaging around his wound he brought out an anesthesia spray and held it up for Tenn, seeing her body was beginning to heavily sweat, her skin becoming pale. "You need this more than me." He insisted.
"...s-save it." She whispered. "...my...PAK also got damaged." She mumbled, turning around so Dib could see her more fully, and see that her PAK had been partially crushed. "It got hit by debris from one of the explosions. The life support has failed. I can't just...heal myself. And I can barely stay awake."
"I'll...I'll carry you!" Dib reasoned, kneeling down by her wound as she shook her head.
"You try and...and my guts'll get all over you." Tenn muttered. "Its alright. J-Just get the...get the power core to the hospital. The patients come first. They always have to come first."
"I can't just-just leave you here to die!" Dib insisted, a forboding creeping horror slowly swelling up within him as he shook his head back and forth. "You're a nurse, you're...you're not like the rest of them, you don't deserve-"
Tenn quietly closed her eyes and drew in a harsh breath, Dib flinching. "Sorry, I just-"
"I KNOW you hate us for invading your planet. You think I can't tell? I'D hate me if I was in your shoes." Tenn said, her voice getting quieter. "Its okay to be mad. Really. I don't mind if you hate me. I'm just...glad I could die in the service of the Empire." She mumbled. "And...an empire that actually cares if I do die. Tallests Red and Purple abandoned me on Meekrob with wild SIR units...Skoodge got me off the planet. Senior got me a good post. I was...happy." She muttered, beginning to slide down.
"C'mon, d-don't fall over." Dib mumbled, his voice becoming panicked as he tried to hold her head up, Tenn's soft pink eyes gazing up at the skies above, the skies beginning to turn orangish/red as sunset began to settle. "You're gonna be alright, I...I..." He began to lose his voice. He couldn't finish the sentence.
"Your planet really is pretty." Tenn muttered. "...I know I...whined about all those bites, but...it really is so pretty. So...pretty..."
Dib held her tightly, watching as her eyes kept staring up at the blue sky. He watched for a long, long time as the light had faded, her breathing finally fading. He bit into his lip, hanging his head, cringing slightly before he lifted up the power core, and took in a deep breath, barreling off for the hospital again.
The streets were quiet. Everything was silent. Even as he entered the hospital, power core in his arms, all was still. Because he kept seeing Tenn's face in front of him. And feeling the moment her breathing had stopped, that point where her body had gotten so much less warm when he'd tried to hold her head up. People were speaking to him, trying to congratulate him, but he couldn't hear anything.
He just sat in a chair, head bowed, clutching at his skull. His eyes remained open behind his cracked glasses, his heartbeat slowly rising in his ears, and then...
Then suddenly a thought came to him. Jayd had been with Gaz. And Gaz had-
GAZ.
"GAZ!" His head shot up, people scurrying around, calls for more medicine, to move a machine filling the air, and he saw Tak looking down at him. "Tak, where's Gaz?"
Tak could see his expression, and Dib knew she wanted to ask about Tenn, but instead she sighed, taking Dib by the hand and leading him into the cafeteria. Jayd was stepping away from Gaz, one hand resting on her shoulder. "You alright?" He inquired of her.
Gaz was now missing one eye. It was now a big, faintly green patch, tiny little nanogenes scurrying around inside of the wound as she slowly looked up at him. "It feels so...weird." She said in a soft voice. "It's like...like little tiny balls are swirling around in my eye socket. Soft, furry little balls that make it tingle." She mumbled out, her clothing covered in soot and grime from being caught in the explosion that had torn deep into her eye, and leaving some scarring around the socket.
"...Gaz..." Dib whispered, racing over to her as she looked over at him. "Gaz, your...your eye..."
"Could be worse." She said, trying to smile, and managing to surprise Dib by succeeding. "You look WAY more freaked out than I am." Gaz added with a bit of a grin. "I'm gonna put in for a robo-eye when we get home. Gonna be so cool. I want something big and red and onyx!" She reasoned...but Dib could see her hands were slightly shaking in her lap. "So what happened with you and Tenn? You get the power core?"
"I brought it back. Tenn got...hit in her PAK. She basically bled out." Dib mumbled out as he turned to Jayd, then to Tak. "I'm really sorry. Her body's back at the ship."
Jayd quietly pinched the space between his eyes, sighing a bit. Tak looked momentarily stunned before clearing her throat. "Well. She managed to save you, clearly. And you got the power core. We're almost done with the patients. We should be free to leave in an hour, to take them with us and get out of this city."
Dib nodded back in return, sitting by Gaz as Jayd looked at him, Tak going off to keep up her work. "Shall I get you a drink?" He asked the two.
"Just a chocolate milk." Gaz said.
"...yeah, same." Dib said, Jayd walking off as the two siblings stood by each other, Dib biting into his lip. "...I'm sure you'll look really cool with a metal eye."
"Yeah. I'm sure." Gaz said, trying to sound nonchalant. "So...wow. All this sure is crazy."
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
Silence for a few moments. Dib chewed over his lip. Then, at last, he spoke up. "I feel like a coward." He grunted. "I wanted to bring Tenn back too. But she insisted I go bring the power core and leave her."
"Yeah, I'll bet." Gaz remarked. "...you really are feeling a lot more sympathy for our evil alien overlords, aren't you?"
"Every single time I think of them as one way, it's like...something comes along to challenge how I feel about them." Dib muttered back as Gaz looked him squarely in the eye. "I thought they were all like Zim. I thought they were stupid and incompetent, thought they were heartless and cruel. I thought they didn't care about each other, didn't really care about other races. I thought they couldn't appreciate Earth and just wanted it like a trophy. Yet I keep seeing...that isn't really true. They're so much like...ME, in a way." He admitted. "And that makes me so...I feel so uncomfortable and...I dunno how I feel. I just know I don't feel like I used to."
"Yeah...honestly? Me too." Gaz mumbled. "Jayd was holding my hand all through this." She said, poking at her nanogene-filled eye wound. "He looked so...scared. It was kinda touching to see how scared he was for me when he was pulling me back to the hospital, he carried me in his arms, and he kept whispering and begging for me to 'stay with him'." She sighed and tugged at her hair, shaking her head back and forth. "FUCK. FUCK, I...I don't know what I feel now either. I used to not care if any of them died. Now I think I'm gonna feel a little bad about it."
"Yeah."
"And you know, we could all die here. Tak was telling me that the ANZAC soldiers learned of our plan. They've begun amassing their forces, they're gonna try and take the hospital. So all this?" She gestured all around her as Jayd approached them, carrying two chocolate milks he set down. "All could be for nothing. They could bring the whole place down and we'd be crushed."
"Or they could blast us with stolen Irken weapons." Jayd offered.
"That sounds pretty quick." Gaz remarked.
"Well, some people think its like being boiled alive." Jayd reasoned as Dib cringed. "They could just go for their knives. Mauled to death by malee boys. What a very depressing thought."
"None of it'll matter." Dib mumbled out. "In ten years, nobody's gonna remember this one bit."
"...you might be right." Jayd sighed as he sat down too. "Most people won't remember. But I think you two will." He told them. "And I know I will. I remember every patient I treat." He said with a soft nod. "I owe it to them."
He then hesitated, then turned to Dib. "You said Tenn's body is by the ship?"
"Yeah, it's by the ship."
"...Skoodge'll want us to bring her back for a burial." Jayd quietly intoned. "...he was very very fond of her. I think, after all this, they'd wanted to..." He trailed off, and looked down at his gauntlets. "...I have so much power. If only I could heal death. The ONE thing these nanogenes can't do. And believe me, I tried." He mumbled.
"You tried to bring someone back from the dead?" Dib asked, now sounding very surprised, Gaz looking fascinated, the two leaning in as Jayd nodded, clasping his gauntleted hands together as he began to explain the story.
"It was Tallest Miyuki. Zim's big ol' "Infinite Energy Absorbing Blob" had swallowed her and Spork up, and the blob had come back. It had attacked the Massive. We figured out how to hurt it. My nanogenes evidently had a unique radiation field that, while beneficial to a vast majority of organic life, was ANATHEMA to it. It tried to suck me down and it ended up puking me and a whole bunch of other people out, and Miyuki included. And for a few weeks, she was back. Sick, yes, but...back."
Jayd bit into his lip. "Senior was so, so happy. She'd been like his favorite sister to him. We were chatting it up in the cafeteria, talking about what we'd been up to, getting to know her all over again. And we were so pysched, because we thought "YES. Tallest Red and Purple will HAVE to step down, she's taller than they are and so much better"! It was perfect! For...three weeks." He sighed, his antannae hanging low. "And then she just...didn't wake up."
Dib was silent, Gaz letting out a quiet whistle as Jayd sighed deeply. "I guess...she only held on that long because she really cared about us. She wanted to see how far we'd all come. How well Senior was doing, the good friends he'd made. And he was just so sad, he'd...he'd lost her all over again. And I just didn't want his heart to break over her. Not twice. So I did something I'd never done. I tried to pump life back into her. I had the nanogenes flooding through her, and for a few minutes, she was back." He held up his gauntleted hands. "She couldn't see too well, but Senior was hugging her, and crying, and he was so happy, but then..."
Jayd sighed again. "She realized it wasn't right. SHE wasn't right. That all she was was now a shell. And that Senior had to let go. He finally did. And I...I realized there were limits to what even I could do." He said, flexing his gauntlet's claws and shaking his head. "All this power, and yet..."
"All you can think about is "Could I have done something? What could I have done different that would have saved them"?" Dib asked, as Jayd turned to him and nodded.
"There's not really any good answers." He admitted. "But that's what being a medic means. It means sometimes you have to accept there isn't a good answer."
Dib nodded as Jayd held out a hand, and took Dib's. "If you'd like to talk...I can ask Darth to set up a counseling session. And Gaz, if you'd like someone to talk to about everything you're feeling..."
"I'm fine." Gaz said with a dismissive shake of her head, Dib looking back into Jayd's eyes.
"Thanks." He finally said. "Thanks a lot."
Within an hour, they had moved the last of the patients, and were on their way back home. All three sat quietly in silence as the Voot Runner shot back to the United States, Melbourne vanishing in a big, horrific flash of light as Tak made good on her promise, raining down fire and fury upon the city, as any Australian rebels who hadn't took off out of the place were destroyed by the hail of plasma fury. Tenn's frame laid quietly in the back, her eyes closed, curled up slightly on a little patient cot they'd brought. She could have been sleeping.
"...well. Merry Christmas." Gaz said with a bitter smile.
"Merry Christmas, Gaz." Dib sighed back. "And God bless us, every one. I know I'm definitely gonna need it. Along with years of therapy, probably."
"Let's go see Dad when we get back." Gaz reasoned, Dib perking his head up a bit, her tone getting slightly softer. "I think maybe a nice quiet night home with him will help."
"Yeah. Good idea." Dib said, closing his eyes and leaning back in his seat, sighing a little as, for some strange reason, the smell of PB&J danced about in his nostrils, and he dreamt uneasy, unsettling dreams that he couldn't quite remember when he awoke, at last, back at home, lying on the couch, Gaz sitting across from him and waiting for their father to walk in the door.
Dib would never again eat peanut butter and jelly. From then on, the mere smell made him sick.