Immortal

Forcefully Persuaded

                                           This chapter is dedicated to @MaxwellStevens for all their constructive comments on the last chapter. Thank you and enjoy!

In which the bad idea is conducted regardless 

"You're crazy," Alex told her when she was finished. "Absolutely crazy. Why would you think of doing something like that?"

"I don't want them to suffer!" Freya protested.

"Suffering is a part of life."

"It's also a part of death!"

"Listen-" Alex gave a huge sigh, and her hair fluttered. "Do you know how many humans I've seen die? I know we say they're weak- heck, they die if one of their little food boxes falls on them- and the truth is, they are. Some humans are going to die. But death is part of life."

"I know that. But they're afraid." Freya turned towards the black-and-silver legend. "Have you ever been afraid before? We live in a gold-plated city made of stardust, built on top of those stars that the humans practically worship. We live literally forever. And about 97% of us have never and will never go on Earth. On that planet- sometimes you don't know if you are going to make it another day. Can you imagine that?"

Alex was silent for a moment. "Look, I've actually been on that planet, and-"

"-And you still know nothing." Freya felt heart racing. This was very, very dangerous territory. She was trying to convince the ruler of this entire operation's pet to directly disobey him. "I'm a humanologist. I know how they work. Together, we can save them."

"Okay, first off, I never expected the join-me-and-change-the-world speech come from you-"

"How did you expect it from? Wait, you expected that?"

"People in power get that kind of thing all the time. Just normally from someone more.....sinister."

"Hey, I'll have you know-"

"Anyway," Alex said with a wave of her hand. "Humans don't need saving. They've survived epidemic after epidemic. Why, just a couple years ago, they would get sick on purpose, just so that they won't get it again."

"That was a couple hundred years ago," Freya corrected, standing up so she could pace. She found pacing to be quite therapeutic when things weren't getting her anywhere except deep trouble. She needed a new plan. The gateway to Earth was just a couple hundred feet in front of her. There were no guards save a cat (in honor of the Judge) and, of course, Alex's terrible logic.

But Alex was key, literally- she had the golden badge on her chest that would allow them entrance into the room where the Gate was in the first place. But she would never let Freya take it. And she was too smart to be led there.

At the moment, Freya thought to herself, it's looking like:

a) Tackle an extremely fit field agent, rip the badge off, run and pray she doesn't call someone

Or

b) Literally anything else

Neither of which were very good options.

"Finally realizing how stupid this is, hun," Alex smirked. Alex was just humoring her. She didn't think she had anything at stake, because she doesn't. Now, how could Freya use that?

"Freya doesn't know," Freya whined under her breath.

"Hun?" Alex replied, forehead wrinkling in concern. She's concerned for me! Freya felt a giddiness in her stomach.

So she supposed it was only natural that she tripped over her own stupid feet and fell on the floor.

Falling over is never pleasant, but falling over of this floor was even more so, because the bridge and in fact the whole facility was built of thousands of little tiny pieces that made the surface knobby, and indeed rather unpleasant to fall on.

"Ow," Freya moaned as metal bit her body and a throbbing pain blossomed in her ankle.

Alex crouched down beside her. "What hurts?"

"Ankle." Freya bit her lip to keep tears from welling in her eyes.

"As the humans say- yikes," Alex commented. "Well, that will probably be about half an hour-"

"It won't." Freya felt a new sensation in her stomach, this one decidedly sour.

"You won't heal? Why not?"

Freya looked at the ground- so much closer than it should be- and then back at Alex. "I set my pain settings to 'human'," she whispered.

"You can do that?!"

"You can now," Freya said bitterly, for once regretting her fascination with humans. She had just wanted to feel what real pain felt like, not Dopomolian pain, which was next to non-existent. So she had gone into the database, which controlled how Dolomolians perceived new things in a different environment, and tweaked it, just a little...

It turned out real pain hurt.

"We need to go to a Healer."

"Um, okay- where?" Alex's cool, collected face was quickly breaking way to panic.

"Behind the Gate room," Freya grabbed Alex's hand and hauled herself up, attempting to ignore the pain.

"Really?" Alex wrapped her arm around Freya's waist and helped her take a hobbling step.

No, of course not. "Yeah, they installed another one there after that Glen guy made one of those wicked rare purple fires," Freya snuck a look at Alex, who seemed to be eating it up.

"Oh. I must have been on my mission to New York. They have so many buildings there, it's ridiculous."

Freya forced a laugh. Almost there. They were right next to the Gate room. Just a second longer...

"Yeah, like this one time-"

Now! Freya used her arms around Alex's shoulders to slam her into the golden door. There was a soft beep as her badge touched it, and it slid open. Inside was a gateway, glowing blue, and a tabby cat sitting on a cushion.

"What the hell, man?!" Alex tried to pull away, but she was too weak. There was blood running down her nose and mouth. The cat was meowing loudly. Behind her, she could hear shouts through the wall. They'll be here any second.

Freya scooped up the cat, took one last, sneaking glance of home, and then pushed Alex through the gate.

"Hey! Stop!" Voices screamed behind her. 

The cat hissed. The Gate made a low humming noise. Easton was staring, agape. Silver-coated figures were shining bright lights.

Freya screamed, and cat in hand, launched herself through the Gate.