Reborn - Pandora's Box (Book 2)

-.-Split-second Decision-.-

Nix awoke to being forcibly shaken.

"Mom? MOM!"

"Christ, Nix-"

"MOM!"

"What, what is it?" She cried, shooting up into a seated position, swiping at her eyes with the backs of her hands, trying to rub away the sleep. 

She found the entire squad staring panicked back at her. "What? Bloody hell, what?"

"Mom! I thought I'd lost you!" Spider suddenly attacked her in a hug, his voice trembling.  "Your mask!"

That was when she realized that when she touched her face, her fingers met skin, not a shield. Her mask, her breathing mask - which she had forgotten to put back on last night. 

Well shit...

"Your mask, you're breathing without it," Spider cried, no doubt voicing everyone's thoughts.  "How is that possible?"

"I-I don't know..." She reached up and patted her cheek - yup, only skin, no shield. 

"Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine."

Spider was crying. "I don't understand-"

"I don't either-" That part was at least somewhat the truth.  "-But I'm fine, that's what's important, right? Even if it doesn't make any sense."

"I-I guess... I thought I lost you," he said again, tears painting streaks in the dirt on his face. His voice was trembling, and barely a whisper.

"No, you're not losing me," she promised. "You'll never lose me."

_-------------------------------------------_

After the initial shock of her mysterious maskless existence outdoors in the poisonous Pandora air wore off - some at least, a little - the group started the day. 

Nix started out how she did every day, by whispering a prayer she had taken to repeating every morning and every night: "Great mother, please watch over my daughter while I can't, and until I can do so again myself..."

Q, impatient as always, urged them to get going. Today it was set that the rest of the squad who had not yet succeeded in bonding with their own Ikran do so. Again, it was going to be a long day. A very long day. 

"Are you kidding me?" Spider called down to where the Recombs were - once again - very behind, in the ascent of the mountain.  "Haven't you idiots learned anything yet? Come on, you have two pretty awesome teachers!"

Q was actually keeping up with them pretty good, but she didn't point that out. She hated that she had noticed it, picked up on that little detail.  Keep your gaze up, Nix. Ahead, not down. 

"Hey," she said to Spider when they once again reached the top of the mountain and thus the nest.  "No more flights."

"Yeah, and no more falling off cliffs."

She scoffed. "Damn right."

And so it began. It was Fike's turn. The other Recombs watched from the sidelines - making sure to stand way, way, way  back. Maybe they were learning just a little. They cheered in encouragement. 

Idiots was right. But they already knew that. 

Nix sat off to the side, with Augustine thankfully, watching but not taking anything in, distracted, unfocused. She had been that way a lot lately.