The Earthly Queen: The Woman of Worlds Apart

Chapter 9: (Caine)

Mack-He makes quicktime getting us back to our base.

Eris hasn't made eye contact with me since we escaped. She seems so small right now. She looks so small and ashamed.

I feel a little sympathy for her and I suppose I understand why she did what she did but I'm still pissed, more at the situation than herself.

The back of my head still has a raised knot where she hit me with the but of the gun that I gave her. There is so much irony in that.

The cruiser stops at the front doors of the unfinished building and Mack-He emerges from the grid. "We're here, need anything?" He sees Eris looking as though she's ready to have a panic attack and me fuming like a furnace. Mack-He has a look of the middleman friend of two teens going through a breakup. He vanishes back into the grid, unable to take the tension.

I get out of the vehicle and snap, "You coming?" at Eris who hasn't made a move. She jumps and exits the vehicle timidly. She closes the door so lightly it doesn't latch. "Oh for the love of the gods!" I mutter viciously and slam the door with such force the whole vehicle rocks.

I feel a monsterous snarl build in my throat and my vision starts to go red. I catch myself and immediately back away from Eris and turn my back to her. I breath deeply and clench my fingers into fists so hard my nails draw blood from my palms. Eventually the red recedes and I get my bearings.

I can't risk losing my bearings again. Not here not now, not at Eris, not at anyone. It's been a long time since I've been put in a position where "the red" has popped up. A rage so intense that I get irrational and do... things and make things... happen. I have forgotten how terrifying it is to teeter on the brink of falling into an uncontrollable blind frenzy.

My anger drains away from Eris and if anything I just feel bad for her. She was in such denial and was certain she was just being tricked. Now her worst fears have been confirmed.

"Hey, come on," I say, trying to be gentile. She warily follows me back into the building and we return to the top floor.

I check the progress of our shuttle. It's here and ready to enter Earth's atmosphere. Good, we need to get out of here as quick as possible.

I pull out a plastic bag from my pocket and remove the gun I gave Eris. i grab a holster from my bag of supplies. "You'll need this," I say, holding the gun up. "I'd appreciate you not hitting me with it again." She chuckles, weakly.

I walk over to her and hold the holster next to her waist. A belt shoots out and custom fits to her snugly; I slip the gun in.

"Just hang out for a second, please. Gotta get cleaned up real quick before we take off. We'll be leaving in a few minutes."

"Cool," she says simply.

I strip down and cleanse the clothes as well as myself.

I'm standing nude out in the open - it isn't as though I have a curtain to hide behind or anything. Eris' eyes go wide and she quickly averts her eyes. I blush deeply.

Mack-He sits by and puts my boots back together. He works so quickly his hands are a literal blur. Being a rogue server he can upload programs to change his hands and fingers into any tool needed to put the pieces back together. In a matter of minutes he has both boots completely repaired. He changes his index finger to a stylus and whispers ancient incantations. He drags the stylus across the sides of both boots and draws ancient protective runes. They flair up a bright orange - the color of safety - and dim, casting a permanent protection from magical influence. He does the same to each of our weapons.

"Won't be seeing these get deconstructed again!" Mack-He says, looking satisfied with his work.

As soon as the cleanser beeps, the process over, I jump back into my clothes.

I approach Eris. "I'm sorry!" she blurts out. "I just thought I was going crazy and you were bullshitting me and it was all fake and it really wasn't and I should have listened - "

I raise my hand and halt her. "It's alright, I forgive you, I get it. My only question is, are you alright? Really?"

"No. but I guess that's to be expected," she says. "It's just... my family is never going to know what happened to me. It's not as though I can just call them up and say, 'hey, mom, I was abducted by literal aliens, won't be home for dinner.' I've been thrown into a 'Verse' of space humans and cloaking devices and criminals and Glimmer things." she sighs. "How should I be feeling?"

"Not my call," I say. "But, don't blame yourself. You didn't ask for this. And if I thought it would help, I'd fly you home right now and erase your mind, make this all a bad dream."

"That's sweet of you... kinda."

I chuckle.

Mack-He pops up. "Cruiser's taken care of," He says.

"About the geneprint - "

"Nothing yet, I'll keep you posted," Mack-He cuts in. "By the way, nice consolidation, you're such a sweetheart."

I have known Mack-He for six years and in that time I have never seen him angry before, not once. But right now he looks downright pissed. He keeps giving Eris openly passive aggressive looks and looks past her drooping face. "I'll pilot the ship in from here, it's in the atmosphere now." He vanishes.

I gather the last few things up as an alarm goes off on my tablet. The ship must be over the building now. There is a bright light outside. A tractor beam waits on the other side of several large glass windows.

"Come on, were leaving."

I stick my Tri-Gate to the wall and it opens up a hole for the both of us to step through. She gauks and sticks her hand through it. "Where - where did the glass go?"

"It's still there, the Tri-Gate just temporarily converts the energy patterns and physical makeup of the window so you can see and phase through it."

"Sweet."

"Yeah, these babies were left over from my time in the Legion, like my boots. But, that's a story for another time.