"You still didn't answer my question."
Lester's voice was filled with accusation. Anomaly didn't blame him; after their last encounter, he'd been less than friendly.
Anomaly shrugged. "I told you. I was out." Her eyes went blank as she tried to achieve a bored look.
It worked. "This isn't a joke, Anomaly. You need to be here, on time, everyday."
Anomaly shrugged. "Why should I? Face it, Lester. You're talking to a girl who has worked on her own schedule for years." She rolled her eyes. "Do you really think YOU can change that?"
Lester sighed. "When you work here, we will need you. Whenever the Anomaly Detector goes off…"
He trailed off, noticing the 'blah blah blah' hand motions she was doing. She smiled. "Sorry, Lester. You were saying?"
Lester bristled. "You have a real problem with authority…"
Anomaly rolled her eyes and cut him off. "There you go! You've finally realized the truth!" She glared at him. "I'm sorry. But I've lived under the Artalis council long enough to not trust ANYONE with power. It all goes right up here." She tapped the side of her head.
Lester's eyes narrowed. "Authority is not always a bad thing, Anomaly."
Anomaly was on her feet in a second, in Lester's face before he could blink. "You're right, Lester. Not always." Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "But if you'd been through HALF of what I have, you wouldn't be so quick to make that kind of statement." She spat out the words.
Lester took a step back, and then straightened up, indignant. "Listen. You work for me. You traveled to this time by yourself, Anomaly. Now, if you want to go back, I'm perfectly FINE with that. But while you are HERE, you work under MY rules."
"NORFRICTO!" Anomaly spat, suddenly shoving Lester into the wall. "Norfallow tetara!" Her eyes were glazed, electricity dancing on her hands.
"Tetora, Nortoanomaly!"
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Anomaly's breath caught in her throat. Her eyes gained their clarity through pure shock. "No." she whispered. "Nierta…"
Her eyes were wide as she slowly backed out of the room.
And that's when she started running.
She ran in a blur of speed, not thinking to turn back. She kept running and running.
And running…
Sam couldn't breathe. He'd been running for too long. He couldn't keep going…
And then the light appeared. It was distorted, flickering. An anomaly.
And he knew where it went.
Relieved, Sam stood up for one last run. Soon he would find her. And then he could tell her.
"I'm sorry." He whispered. "So sorry…"
"NO!"
Anomaly's cries rang through the forest.
"NO NO NO! He CAN'T be, he CAN'T BE!"
Her shouts chocked off into harsh sobs. "No…" She whispered.
She let out a long, tortured cry, screaming out her fury to the world. "NO!"
She collapsed to the ground, electricity dancing around her, her pattern turning black around the edged. "No…"
"NORTALIA!" She screamed. "Nee Frata! Nee Frata!"
"Nortra…" The soft, hoarse voice whispered out to her.
Anomaly's ears pricked. "Itara?"
Sam collapsed to the ground. Red blood soaked the hard ground beneath him. His heart pounded in his ears, blocking out all other sound. His eyes were open, but he could see nothing.
He didn't know how long it was before the sound of his heartbeat died down. He didn't know how long it was before his eyes came out of the darkness. All he knew was what he saw and heard when they did.
The figure was speaking in some sort of different language. But he did recognize something.
"NORTALIA!" The figure screamed. "Nee Frata! Nee Frata!" 'NO! He can't be! He can't be!
Sam's vision cleared. "Nortra…" He whispered. 'Help.'
Anomaly's ears pricked. "Itara?" What?
"Anomaly…" Sam whispered.
Her eyes widened and she looked for him. She saw his hand held above the plants exhaustedly. She ran to him. Her eyes popped. "Sam?"
Abby sighed. "I'm going to look for her, Lester. Don't try and stop me."
"I never said anything." Lester said, indignant.
Abby glared at him. "Something's wrong. I know it."
Lester looked at her for a long moment. Finally, he sighed. "Go. But be back as soon as you can."
Abby nodded.
"I'm coming too." Connor said, breaking into the conversation.
Abby thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Why not?"
It wasn't a very long drive. Anomaly and Connor had talked about where Anomaly came when she was like this.
When they saw her, something happened that they didn't expect.
She was sitting next to someone, tears in her eyes. "Nortalia… Sam…"
The boy had blonde hair and metallic blue eyes, similar to Anomaly. His pattern was identical to hers, except for the small circle under her eye.
And he was covered in blood.
The blood was obviously his, as he was struggling to speak. Anomaly had his head in her arms, sobbing.
"Istrata. Istrata…" He whispered. "Kita tara. Kita tara…"
Anomaly's eyes were wide. "Nortalia! Sam, Nortalia!"
His eyes landed on hers. "Ista norto nierta flikta…?"
Whatever he'd said seemed to break Anomaly's heart. "Nortalia!" She protested. "Sam, liska flikta! Pelkto, liska flikta!" She started to sob. "Istara, noro istara…"
Sam's eyes were starting to glaze over. "Kirto norlo liska?" He asked, panic in his voice.
"Sam! SAM!" Anomaly's voice was becoming desperate. "NORTALIA! SAM! Nokto torla! Nokto torla…" Her words broke off into heart-wrenching sobs.
A light, sad smile drifted to Sam's lips. "Ista flikta…"
His eyes glazed over, and his head fell limp in Anomaly's arms. She began to sob, not caring that her brother's blood was soaking into her shirt, dyeing her skin red.
Suddenly, she looked up. Her eyes were as dark as a nightmare. The shadows themselves seemed to cower in fear from her fury. Her eyes blazed with dark flames, shining bright in pure hatred.
She stood up, gently laying her brother's head on the ground. She started walking, but stopped after a short distance.
"Nortalo Fritara." She said the words with a cold tone, a dark fury that sent shivers down Abby and Connor's spines. "Nortalo Nortrita. Tertara nortalia placto erta orkat Tolio Etora talo nukta terrnok."
Her hand stretched out in a fist, before opening, an anomaly shimmering in the palm of her hand. The light flickered and danced around Anomaly.
"Tetara norfallow!" She cried. "Itesta Norktro! Nota Liska nortra." Her eyes were dark. "Nortalo Fritara. Nortalo Nortrita. Istra notktor terla. Kestra norflo taralo testarta. Ketra elo liska trotar nortra! Kestaro telkto nora te Tolio Etora!"
She gazed into the anomaly, her eyes hard. "Te Tolio Etora! Te Tolio Etora! Te Tolio Etora!" She repeated the phrase, over an over, each time her fury visibly increasing.
Abby didn't know why she did what she did. All she knew was that Anomaly was in pain, that she needed help. That she needed someone on her side.
Abby had no idea what the phrase Anomaly was repeating meant. She just knew it meant too much to Anomaly to just ignore. So she came next to Anomaly. "Te Tolio Etora!" She cried.
Anomaly looked at her, and Abby knew she'd done the right thing. She looked so… grateful. Like Abby was the only thing keeping her alive. "Te Tolio Etora!" Anomaly screamed, and Abby screamed with her.
Even Connor joined in, after a moment. For a long time, it was all they did. "Te Tolio Etora!" The anomaly seemed to respond to their cries, shimmering and distorting the light surrounding them.
Finally, Anomaly stopped, and the anomaly closed.
Far away, in another time altogether, the man Anomaly refused to name shivered. It couldn't be…
The small circle pattern on his arm began to burn. He rolled up his sleeve, and there it was. In the bright, metallic blue color, a black shape was forming. He watched in horror as a vague picture started to come into focus.
When it was over, his eyes widened. It was an anomaly. It was small and not very detailed, but defiantly an anomaly. He'd done some research on Rouge Child's new name. He knew. This was HER doing.
He covered it up quickly, but not before the microchips in the pattern on his face replayed her message through time.
I will find you. Through time and through space…
Anomaly said nothing as she buried Sam's body.
Abby and Connor had stayed for a while, but decided to give her some space and went to wait in the car.
Tears streaked down Anomaly's face as she kept digging. The ground wasn't giving her trouble, but she almost wished it would; if only to keep her mind off of what she was doing.
Her knife stabbed into the ground again, and she cleared the loose dirt away. She tried to focus on the task at hand, but it was hopeless. Her mind kept drifting to the limp, lifeless body of her brother, only a short distance away.
She stabbed the knife into the ground again and again, tears streaming into the earth below. Her eyes glazed over as the task became natural, almost like breathing. It was nothing; just something that you could control when you thought about it. It did nothing to help the desperate need to keep her mind away from Sam, away from his death, away from the horror that the Council Member had caused.
The Council Member. Anomaly snarled reflexively. It would be him. He would be the one to stab her brother in the back. He would be the one to destroy EVERYTHING.
She stabbed the knife into the ground again, and purple ink began to drizzle down the side of her face.
Anomaly ran by the car simply because she didn't care enough to run faster. She allowed her eyes to glaze over, unable to focus on anything. She couldn't THINK. She couldn't do anything…
When they arrived at the ARC, Anomaly was in no mood for talking. But Lester had other ideas.
"WHERE WERE YOU?" He demanded in that no-nonsense tone that would make anyone cringe. Anyone human, that is.
But Anomaly wasn't human at the moment. "Leave it alone, Lester." She snarled.
"I CAN'T leave it alone, Anomaly." Lester snapped. "You're gone too often, and quite frankly…"
"SHUT UP!" Anomaly shrieked, tears streaming down her face. She whirled around, and Lester was sent flying backwards as a bolt of electricity slammed into him. "JUST SHUT UP! Stop it, just STOP!" Her tears kept flowing, and purple ink began to drizzle down the side of her face.
Ikesa appeared at her side, the other three Florlics following. Ikesa whimpered.
Anomaly collapsed to her knees. "JUST STOP!" Electricity danced around her like a storm, sparkling and flashing in its lethal dance. Tears mingled with the electricity. "STOP!"
Lester stared at her with wide eyes. "Anomaly, stop this NOW!" He ordered.
"THERE YOU GO!" Anomaly snarled. "Ordering people around. You know NOTHING, Lester!" Her voice was tortured, inhuman. "NOTHING!" She got to her feet and ran again, this time to her area of the ARC.
Abby and Connor came in too late. A hole had been blasted into the wall where Anomaly had thrown Lester. "What happened?" Abby demanded.
"Nothing." Lester snapped.
Abby glared at him. "Where's Anomaly?"
"Ask her yourself." Lester replied, snarling. "You won't have much time."
Abby's eyes were dark as they locked on his for a split-second. She couldn't make sense of his comments, but she didn't care. She ran to see Anomaly.
Anomaly was sobbing into her makeshift pillow. Ikesa and Kesea were whimpering. Ferakesa and The Guard were looking at Abby as though to say Why aren't you doing anything? Help her.
Abby came over to Anomaly and laid her hand on her shoulder. "Anomaly… are you ok?"
"Would you be?" Anomaly asked darkly.
Connor entered the room. "Abby, leave it." He whispered. "She needs to be alone."
Anomaly shot Connor a grateful look before collapsing again.
Abby sighed. "Tell me when you're ready to talk."
Anomaly nodded slowly, tears clinging to her cheeks, sparkling like diamonds.
The men moved quickly. Anomaly gave them credit for that. But she had spent six years in an unforgivable desert. She was used to sleeping with one eye open. And moving faster than anything else.
The first one was unconscious before he could cry out. They were all dressed in black, but that did nothing to stop Anomaly. Her eyes had long ago become as comfortable in the dark as they had in the light.
Her knife was in her hand before anyone could blink, electricity dancing around it. "Back off." She warned.
Anomaly saw the man coming up behind her. But she didn't have the strength to fight anymore. She was tired of fighting.
She pretended not to see him as he inserted the needle into her skin as quickly as he could. The sedative went to work quickly. Anomaly's vision blurred, and she blacked out.
The white walls and florescent lighting made it look like a medical clinic, and for a moment, Anomaly was back at Artalis, destroying the clinic in a moment of pure fury.
But the illusion soon wore off as men in masks stepped foreword. They looked like your typical doctor or surgeon, with teal outfits and over-sanitized hands covered in latex gloves. Their eyes were hidden in the shadows cast by their own faces, created with the help of the hideous florescent lights, flickering overhead.
Anomaly sighed. "I know you're listening." She surprised herself by the dead tone in her voice. "And I want you to keep listening, Lester." She wanted to glare at him, but he wasn't there. "I don't care what you thought. This is my fight. I'm sorry." She sighed and glanced at the metal cuffs confining her to her bed. They were taking no chances.
"Who are you?" One of the men in masks asked. "Really, who?"
Anomaly looked at him. "Anomaly. That's who I am." She sighed. "The first word I ever learned in your language." A single tear streaked down her face. "It really fits, if you think about it. A deviation from the common rule, type, arrangement, or form." She chuckled darkly. "A perfect definition of me."
The man looked at her. Someone came up behind him. "The pattern?"
The man shrugged. "Connor said it was infused with microchips. It seems the logical place to start."
Anomaly snarled. "Touch it and die."
The man rolled his eyes.
Anomaly's eyes grew dark. "NORTALO!" She snarled. She pulled her hands up, and the cuffs snapped. Her eyes were hard as they locked on the man's. "I tried to be nice." She shrugged, and slammed her hand into his nose. He flew backwards.
Anomaly ran out of the building.
"You. Did. WHAT?"
Abby's eyes were dark with fury.
Lester shrugged. "She had too much of a temper. I should never have allowed her here in the first place."
"She lost her BROTHER!" Abby snapped. "You'd have a TEMPER too!"
Lester sighed. "There was nothing I could do for her. I tried to overlook it, but she… has a history."
Abby glared at him, unable to believe what he was saying. "Are you KIDDING? Lester, Anomaly did NOTHING to deserve THAT!"
Lester sighed. "It was what we would have done in the first place."
"What? Given up a fourteen-year-old girl up for a LAB RAT?"
Lester bristled. "She's twenty-three." He replied weakly, though his tone of voice indicated no room for debate.
"UGH!" Abby groaned. "You're WORTHLESS!" She started to walk out.
"Where are you going?" Lester demanded.
"Anomaly's NOT going to be happy with what you've done. Once she breaks out of there, she's going to find her Florlics and go home." Her eyes were dark. "And I'm going to have a talk to her."
Lester snorted. "Fine. If that's what you think."
Everyone looked at him, as though they wanted to say something but were unsure what.
Abby turned to the others. "Anyone else coming?"
There was silence for a moment. Finally, Connor stepped foreword. "I'm in."
Steven came foreword. "Same here."
Jenny raised an eyebrow. "Not my area, but why not?"
Cutter was the last, though not by choice. "Let's go."
Abby nodded, and all of them started to walk out.
"What?" Lester demanded. "I did what I had to!"
"NO!" Abby snarled. "You didn't HAVE to, Lester."
Lester was left alone. The silence greeted him as the ARC itself seemed to turn its back on him and what he saw as sense.
Everyone waited.
Abby was sure Anomaly would return here. She'd opened an anomaly here, presumably to her time, why wouldn't she come back?
Her suspicious were correct. Anomaly emerged with four Florlics following.
She stopped in front of them.
"I suppose you hate us." Abby said quietly.
Anomaly shook her head. "I have no doubt you knew nothing of the matter. I personally blame Lester."
Connor shrugged. "He's not always this bad."
Anomaly sighed, but ignored him. "So. Do you have a plan?"
Abby looked at her. "We were hoping you would help there."
Anomaly smiled. "I don't want you getting involved in my fights."
Abby looked at the others, who nodded slowly. "It doesn't matter, Anomaly. We want to help. With anything. Anything at all."
Anomaly looked at them, and they all nodded. "Anything." Connor repeated.
Anomaly smiled. "Thank you." But the look in her eyes said much more.
