Frost And Flame

12

I woke up with my head on Tyler's shoulder. My cheek throbs, and everything rushes back to me. They took Frank, and that synthetic hit me with some sort of partical.

"How long was I out?" I ask him, sitting up. He looks down at me, and the relief is obvious. It's nice to have a good friend like him.

"A few hours. We saved the streamer." He tells me. Neither of us has to be told what happened to Frank, though. At least Søl Gunner is safe. We can't save everyone after all.

"I think we need to make a move on silver." Tyler says after a bit of silence. The man driving agrees, and I recognize him as Benjamin. I like him. Not bad, for a human, at least. And he makes REALLY good cookies.

"Why now?" I ask, rubbing my sore shoulder.

"Things are escalating. I don't know why he wanted Frank, but it's clear he wanted him more than Søl. I just feel like things are coming to a head, and if we don't nip this bud before it blooms, we're going to have problems." He says gravely. That was a lot of metaphors, for him, at least.

"I feel it too. When's the strike?" I ask. He looks at me. I know that look. I hate that look.

"Jenny, you have to rest. We still don't know what happened to you." He tries to calm me down. Like hell he will.

"I got my ass handed to me by a little girl. I'm fine. I was just caught off guard." I insist. He shakes his head with a slight smile.

"So you, me. Who else? Dew would probably be great for this, unless Silver freezes her solid, so scratch that... what about Chai and Neptune? They're a pretty good pair." I start listening to other agents until Slate gently grabs my wrist to stop me.

"What? What's wrong?" I ask him.

"They killed him. They killed Neptune for the kid he was protecting." He says with shaky breath. That can't be right, Neptune was one of our strongest agents!

"Things are getting out of hand, Jenny. We need to go all in with this but I need you to promise me something." He instructs me. I nod for him to continue.

"We don't know what hes doing to these people, but if they're still alive, he may have turned them. Unwillingly, maybe. No matter what its probably not their choice. I need you to promise me that if you can't save them, for any reason, that you'll kill them. No matter who or what you see. If silver continues to have his way and use these people, it could spell the end to everyone like us. For the greater good, you can't leave anyone there." He tells me evenly. I nod solemnly. I've only ever had to kill someone once. I don't want to do it again. But for the greater good, sometimes bad things have to happen.  Regardless, I hope it doesn't come to that.

Slade lets go and turns back to the window with a sigh.

"You good?" I ask. He nods for a second, then pauses before shaking his head.

"It's just guilt. One of the first things I told him was that I would hand him over to Silver for his bounty if he didn't cooperate. He might think that's what happened."

"You mean Frank?" I ask, and Tyler nods.

"Oh please, he's the biggest narcissist to ever walk the earth. He probably thought everyone in the world was after him and that it was only a matter of time." I laugh, and Tyler chuckles too. I've known the guy for less than 24 hours, but that much is obvious. He'll be fine, I'm sure.