Planet Omega

Chapter 7

 It takes three days for me to be able to have an actual conversation without feeling like I'm dying after a few minutes. Apparently, I had taken three bullets that my armor stopped, but broke multiple ribs of mine, which caused internal bleeding. Eventually, my heart stopped. It was Emma, with the help of a root plant Will found, that ultimately saved my life in the end, even if there was no guarantee I'd ever wake up again. Hence, Emma's tears when I did.

Will's train car had been the best sort of hiding spot because in all of the time we'd laid low, there had never been anyone who crossed into the train yard. The city was in total chaos after that night, rightfully so, because not one, but two buildings were taken down. Will promptly informed me that everyone was abuzz about how powerful of a witch apprentice I was because of that. But I can't take credit for the other building, the pawn lab.

I had nothing to do with that one. Only one of the reasons of many for my frustration and anger. The less pain I'm in, the more I run the actions of that night through my head, trying to figure out why it occurred. Had Emma given any indication on the matter?

To distract myself while Emma's gone, bringing some things back from Mateo's, she said, I work on cleaning up the second train car. Will's had been taken over for long enough, and the movement will help with my mobility.

"There you are," Emma's relieved voice comes in through one of the small windows. Then, she disappears and pulls open the heavy door before leaning in the doorway. "You sure you should be doing this?"

Which she knows better than to ask me. I give her a look when she hops inside the significantly less dusty train car. This one's a lot emptier than Will's is, with far fewer seats, which tells me it was likely a transporter car. Good for me in theory, but actually bad because now I have to make everything that I need rather than use what's been given.

"You sure you shouldn't have told me that the same fucking night we'd planned to take down one of the armory buildings, you used that as a decoy to blow up another pawn lab?" I shoot right back without missing a beat.

The smile on her face vanishes, and an unsteady look shows up instead as she straightens up. I know she was hoping I'd never bring it up again, but I can't just drop it. I can't, because this was a secret that almost killed us.

"I didn't use it as a-"

"Don't," I interject, "Don't start with with a half truth, Emma. Don't skirt around the fact, don't...pretend like our raid was a success."

"But it was a success!" she cries out.

"I almost died!" Well, it lasted a good ten seconds before I rose my voice. I can feel the panic creeping in through my pores as I finally let myself soak in the gravity of what had happened. Like Emma taking care of me the past few days, like she always does, didn't mean a damn thing to me. "You almost died! Will probably almost died, too! And you still are trying to avoid telling me about the obvious here."

It makes me mad that she thinks she can act like she had no part in either of the two deadly pawn lab explosions. She can have her secrets, but not if they start to affect me and my life. Not when I can't plan for what could happen.

Emma opens her mouth and I see her take that breath to answer me. She doesn't say a word at all before closing her mouth. I want to give her time to answer, but I don't want her to tell me things I already know. She's never outright admitted that she participated in any of the pawn lab explosions, and that's left with me a whole list of questions that I can't even ask because she won't tell me.

"I just want to know the truth, because it feels like you used me for your plan. It feels like you saw an opportunity and you sent...god, I don't know, Mateo, who I'm sure is in on it, right? You're not doing it alone, because you were with me when the first explosion happened, so you didn't set it off." I run my fingers through my hair, frustrated. "So you used me, and we almost fucking didn't make it out of there at all, because half the city was alerted to the pawn lab and every guard was on high alert everywhere by that point!"