Stay with me 'till the world ends

~12~

They managed to stop the bleeding and patch the wound but somewhere inside them, they knew that they couldn't save Addison. For all they knew, Addison could have died hours ago. But it was the best they could do. All their eyes were puffy and red and every few minutes, fresh tears would cascade down their faces. And all Addison could do was stare blankly through his glazed over eyes. Cilia and Ms. J searched through Addison's room but found nothing. No knife, no broken glass, no pieces of clothing, not even fingerprints. Just a bloody mattress that once held the boy that was one of their only chances of saving the world.

Iris was holding one of the pieces of paper that Addison had found. She read it and re-read it over and over again, searching for clues about anything. But she found nothing. Iris flipped over the page expecting to find nothing. But there was one sentence. One sentence that Iris wished they had found before Addison had been stabbed.

He will die.

"Guys!" Iris said shakely. "You need to see this!" Cilia and Ms. J was at her side reading the sentence instantly.

"They found out he was going to die?" Cilia said. Iris nodded. "Why didn't they put it on the first page?"

"Who knows." Ms. J said. "But, we can't change anything in the past." She looked up at Addison's body. "But maybe he could."

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Isaac Bridger and his two assistants didn't say anything about the killer. But, they did seem happy when they heard.

"So you're happy that an innocent teenager got stabbed?" Cilia asked. Bridger just laughed. "This is useless." Cilia stormed off, leaving Iris and Ms. J outside the cell. They both followed her to the file room where she was flipping through random file after random file.

"Cilia, are you okay?" Iris asked.

"Does it look like I'm okay?" Cilia asked, not looking up from the file in her hands. Iris and Ms. J exchanged looks.

"We have to continue working to stop the end of the world." Ms. J said.

"Addison did and that got him killed!" Cilia said, finally looking at the two with a crazed look in her eyes.

"Three lives for the survival of the world?!" MS. J exclaimed. "I'd take that chance!" 

"Addison died before he could contribute to saving the world!" Cilia fired back.

"We know what he found!" Ms. J shouted. "And who wrote one of the papers said that he'll die!"

"We don't even know if Addison was 'the chosen one'!" Cilia said.

"Did you see what he did to the robots?" Ms. J asked. "That is what I call being 'the chosen one'."

"WE HAVE TO FIND OUT WHO DID THIS!" Iris bellowed. "WE HAVE TO FIND OUT WHO KILLED ADDISON!"

"And what do we tell his parents and family?" Cilia asked. "'Oh, your son helped us try to save the world which was orchestrated by Isaac Bridger and last night he was stabbed in the heart and now he's dead. Just thought you should know, goodbye'." There was silence.

"What should we do?" Iris broke the silence.

"I don't know." Ms. J said. "When we thought we were close (we were close), something bad happened. Addison died."

"He was going to be so powerful." Cilia said mournfully. "He was going to save so many people."

"But maybe we can." Iris said. "We can do what Addison can't. We can save the world."

"But how?" Ms. J asked.

"We need to find that serum."

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"Where would it be?" Cilia asked. "We checked all the possible places in Ionic and Bridger Industries."

"All of them?" Iris asked. Cilia nodded. "Maybe it's not where we think it is. Check again." Cilia followed Ms. J out. Iris sat at a bank of computers in C.O.A.T.W. looking at a 3-D model of both Ionic and Bridger Industries. She also had the layout and blueprints of both buildings. So far, no secret rooms. But she hadn't finished yet.

Hours later Iris rubbed her tired eyes and checked the time. 12:00. Exactly midnight. And Cilia and Ms. J hadn't gotten back yet. Iris began to worry. She picked up her phone to call or text one of them but remembered the time where Cilia, Iris, Ms. J, and Addison had been stuck in the vents with Ionic guards under them. Iris put her phone down and returned to the computers.

"Come on guys." She said, opening google maps. "Hurry up."

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Ms. J and Cilia arrived at 5:30 AM looking tired and defeated.

"Did you find anything?" Iris asked. They shook their heads.

"Not in Ionic." Ms. J said.

"Not in Bridger Industries." Cilia added glumly, slumping into a chair. "We're going to lose."