Rift

Chapter 27: On the Way

Edith stands with Regan in the main room of the Firefly, watching with wary eyes as Naomi paces back and forth in front of them with her head down and her hands shaking. It's been only a few hours since Nisha's signal was lost, but that's enough time to send Naomi completely batshit over not knowing what's happening or what to do, especially after her vision.

"What if they killed her?" Naomi asks with strain between her panicked breaths. "Or what if she's... I don't know... tortured?" she stops pacing and faces Edith and Regan. "What do we do?!"

Edith steps towards the girl and holds her by her shoulders to get her to meet her eyes. "I'm sure she's going to be fine. She knows what she's doing."

"Yeah, because she's never been caught before! But if she gets caught, then she won't know what the fuck's going on!" Naomi exclaims and steps out of her hands to resume pacing, now taking each step with more fervor.

Regan sighs and holds Edith's shoulder, when they hear footsteps coming down the stairs and turn back to see Colin making his way towards them, looking mentally drained to all hell.

He sees the questioning anxiety in Regan's eyes and he sighs. "It's done. Nothing to do now but wait and see if it worked," Colin says and stops at Edith's side. She looks up at him with her brows contorted up in worry.

"Your emotions were very strong when you were out..." she says. "...That bad?"

Colin slowly nods with another sigh. "Yeah..."

"What was the problem?" Regan steps towards him, still searching his eyes for answers.

Colin stares at him for a moment, trying to decide if Regan should know exactly what was planted in Cree's head to make him side with the Imperium. He's already been rather on edge lately, so would it really be a good idea to add to that?

Ultimately, it was Regan's idea to enter Cree's head with the sole purpose of finding what was changed. He went through all of this work just to know, so he deserves to know.

"The Director made him think..." he hesitates for a moment as he sees Regan's tension through his gaze alone. "...that you killed John."

Regan freezes and seems to lose whatever train of thought he had prior to hearing that.

As they're talking, Naomi stops her frantic pacing once she hears a crash. She turns her head towards the sound, when the ceiling in front of her breaks and Corb falls to the floor, laying in a pile of wooden boards.

The boy throws his fist in the air. "We're here!"

Everyone turns to see the boy with fear on their faces, when Todo falls directly on top of him and instantly hops up to his hooves and takes a proud stance. "The cavalry has arrived! Fear not for your lives, citizens!" he shouts with a smile.

The door opens and Kitty rushes in, holding her crossbow ready with Oliver following, holding his head in his hands like a disappointed parent surrounded by three insane children.

Naomi sighs with relief and runs to her friends, throwing her arms around them. "Good. You guys are here. I don't know when shit's going to go down, but it's coming. It has to be because Nisha just got caught by the Imperium," she says, the panic of her tone rising to the surface again.

Colin gasps and looks around at everyone. "Wait, what? She was caught?"

Regan sighs with aweary nod. "We believe so... But what are you all doing here?" he asks as Naomi lets go of her friends to face him.

"I had another vision the other day... I saw the Firefly attacked... There was blood and fire and I heard gunshots and crying and..." she takes a deep breath to steady herself. "I called Kitty and Oliver to help. I'm not taking the chance of ignoring another vision like that again," she turns to look at her friends. "But why did you bring Corb and Todo?"