Changed by Time ✔

twenty-nine.

2341 hours

Wendy pulled herself up from the ground, gripping onto the rocks behind her as she regained her strength. She could feel her abilities returning, very slowly but they were returning. She wasn't sure what she was expecting in her attempt. It certainly had promising results.

Well that was something I wish I didn't have to learn, she thought as she bent over to pick up her mask. As she was straightening her posture, she noticed something just around the edge of the wall and slightly hidden between some boulders.

She walked over, letting out a quiet gasp as she realized what was hidden -- hidden between the boulders was Titan's corpse. It was clear that his death wasn't just his little ol' heart giving out the second he got down there.

Wendy crept over, tiptoeing around him as she got closer to his face. She looked back towards where she was sitting, finally noticing the faint blood splotch and trail leading over. She was so caught up in everything else, she didn't have the time or focus to actually see it.

She looked back over to him, kneeling slightly as she looked down at his face. His eyes were half-open but she only saw the whites of his eyes. He looked a little flushed and sweaty. His body reeked of death and vomit, a clear stain around his lips.

"He was affected by the Neon gas," Wendy said to herself. "The gas itself isn't toxic though." She looked down to his harness and back towards where the other operatives had been rappelling down not too long ago. "He must've been poisoned by the gas while climbing down and fell to his death. Jeez..."

She walked back out from the hidden area, her hand cupped over her mouth as she tried to get the stench out of her nose. She looked down at the fox mask, rubbing the edge with her thumb as she processed the vision of Titan's corpse.

If what I saw before those other two operatives came down really was another dead person, then that means that Mom has already killed two people, Wendy thought, placing the mask back on as she went inward into the cave. I haven't heard anymore gunshots but I haven't found Abigail's body. Come to think of it, I didn't really see Mom either.

It wasn't hard to connect the dots. Wendy just really, really didn't want to.

"I have to find Nolan."

2345 hours

Wendy knew that it was only her, Nolan, Andrea, and Abigail left in the cave. That didn't mean that she didn't stop taking cover behind the rocks and checking before she moved yet again. Better to be safe than sorry – especially when there were originally two more people down there.

She slid down one of the rocks and pressed her back against it. Her fingers were calloused and blistered from the constant climbing and sliding, though her palms were mildly okay. The plating was the biggest feature on those gloves, not so much the fabric they were made from.

Wendy peeked around one of the rocks, checking before she prepared herself to move again. She shivered, her fingers twitching as she looked around. She had maybe about a third of her abilities back, definitely not enough to really do anything useful with them. Unless you counted making pretty blue vapor as useful.

She prepared to move, taking a step forward as she moved to the next rock to take cover. She was jerked to a stop as a hand grabbed the strap of her duffle bag, pulling her back behind the rock. She started falling back, only for a pair of hands to quickly grab her arms and catch her before she hit the gravelly ground.

Wendy looked up, letting out a quiet sigh of relief as she met those familiar dark eyes and mop of chocolate hair. She stayed in her half-laid position as she said, "Fancy running into you around here."

"It's quite the coincidence," Nolan quipped.

He sat her back up, the two simply sitting behind the rock for a second as they just looked at one another. Wendy had to admit, it was nice looking at someone whose eyes weren't clouded over and didn't reek of death. In fact, it was a bonus that he happened to be very cute.

Nolan reached over to her, wrapping his arms around her in a tight embrace. He held her close, taking in her scent. She didn't exactly smell fresh at that point, but it was something he'd prefer to anything in the world at that moment. She didn't smell like a cave – that was something.

"I'm glad you're okay," he mumbled against her shoulder. He pulled back, resting his hands on her arms. His face was filled with worry. "I saw Marcos kick you right in the face, are you okay?"

Wendy pulled off her mask, revealing the faint bloody trail underneath her nose. She shrugged and replied, "I'm okay. Wait, Marcos? That was his name?"

"I heard Abigail give him and Lucy the command to stay up there as back-up in case something happened." He rubbed his chin. "I wonder if Abigail contacted them from down here."

"I doubt it. Everyone here seems to be pretty occupied with not dying and just killing the other." Kita and Titan's corpses flew back into her mind. "By the way, I saw two corpses down here that were definitely part of Abigail's group – Titan and some other person."

"Kita. Yeah, I saw Kita too." Nolan gestured down to his shoes, revealing the dried blood on them and the cuff of his pant legs. "Is there a chance that you mom may have..."

Wendy slowly looked down to the ground, shaking her head as she said, "I wish I could vehemently deny that. To just be so offended that you would think that my mom would do something so horrendous – to take the life of a human being in the midst of her plan to take so many more. But I just can't."

"Because...?" Nolan knew what she was going to say. That didn't mean he wasn't afraid of the answer.

"Because I know she did it. When she talked about how Dad was killed in such a violent manner, there was just this despaired look in her eyes." She kept her eyes on the mask as she rested it in her lap. "It was still there but mixed with just pure rage when she talked about how she was going to enact her revenge."

"Wendy, I don't want to be the one to tell you this," she looked up at him with eyes that just screamed for someone to tell her that they were wrong, "but I think the person your mom was is gone. She's just... angry. Really, really angry. Anger consumes people and makes them do stupid things that they think at the time are smart."

"I hate that you're right. I do." She shook her head, reaching up as she ran a hand through her half-fallen-down hair. "I don't know what to do now. It's clear that she did something to Abigail since there isn't any more gunfire. I just don't know what."

"We'll just have to figure that out as we go along..." Nolan's eyes fell to her side. He slowly pointed to the bloodied and torn fabric as he asked, "Please don't tell me that's a stab wound you've just been ignoring."

"What?" Wendy looked back down to her side, quickly realizing what he was talking about. "Oh yeah. That Marcos did end up stabbing me before I cut the rest of their rope. But it turns out that I can apparently heal myself at an accelerated rate due to my abilities."

Nolan just stared at her. He had no idea what to say or even how to say it. There was so much said in not that many words that he truly didn't know how to respond. Obviously he had a lot of questions. Now was just not the time for them.

"You can ask all about it later," Wendy eventually followed up, noticing the gears turning in him. "Let's just focus on the now."

"Yeah, yeah... What now?"