Shards

Shutdown

Shard grabs Octavia before she can reach Angel. The hold he puts her in makes it impossible for Octavia to reach her. Hatchette pulls Angel away for good measure.

Octavia goes ballistic. She screams and kicks and thrashes around. The hate, anger, confusion, and temptation to believe this girl could be Aurora drives her mad. She wants to rip her skin off and have the acid built underneath it spray and burn everyone in the room. She wants them to feel the pain she's feeling.

"You're sick! All of you! How dare you?" Octavia says. "I hope you all die! Every last one of you!" Her eye shoots dead into Angel's.

The redness on Angel's face pales. Fear rattling her eyes would shake Octavia if she wasn't so mad. But she wants this imposter scared. She wants her dead.

Did the Chromies think such a dumb idea would work? Octavia saw her sister's remains. She was there with her parents to identify and confirm what was left of the body found was Aurora's. Octavia was at her funeral and cremation. She was the one who spread her ashes. Her sister is dead and the Chromies are trying to convince her she's alive by finding a teenager with some semblance to Aurora? No, they're not trying to convince her. They're playing cruel games with her. They want her to suffer. They want their fun with her.

Let them have their fun. Octavia will get as much as she can out of it, too.

After struggling a minute more, Octavia acts as if she's tired out. She does her best to look defeated.

"You done?" Shard says.

Octavia says nothing. She hangs limp in his arms. Her glossy gaze glues to the floor.

"Okay," Shard says as he slowly lets her go, "Now let's try this-"

Once her arms are free, she swipes the cane off the floor and goes for Angel. Octavia can't stand but with the cane, she's within reach of Angel. She swings, but Hatchette takes the hit on her arm for Angel and grabs the cane. Octavia futilely tries snatching it away. Hatchette pulls the cane, taking Octavia with it. She lands with a smack on the floor. Pain shoots through her leg and gut to her jaw, clenching it. Raul jumps on her back and pins her to the ground. Octavia swings behind her to hit Raul, but Shard yanks the cane from her hand. The friction burns her palm. Raul restrains Octavia's hands behind her.

"Ya actually kinda got me there, Sweet-hart. You're starting to pick some things up." Shard taps the cane to his chin. "You must be really pissed at this whole setup."

"Ya think?" Hatchette hugs Angel with an arm and pats Angel's head. Her eyes stay on Octavia.

Meanwhile, Angel sobs. "Tay, what did they do to you?"

"What did they do to me?" Octavia growls.

The thought occurs to Octavia that this girl could've been forced to do this and she tried to attack her. Guy did mention the person in the propaganda seemed force to do what they were doing. What if this girl is brainwashed to think she's Aurora? Guilt pangs Octavia's stomach but anger remains.

"What they, the Chromies, did is murder my sister." Anger carries into Octavia's tone but she no longer gives it the deathly edge. Maybe she can talk sense into the poor girl. "They tortured her, left her in pieces, and dumped her like she was roadkill. A child! A sweet, innocent child! And the news and images went everywhere to show the horrendous, monstrous things the Chromies did to my sister. My little sister. I didn't want to keep seeing it, but I knew I had to in order for people to know what kind of sick evil the Chrome Rebellion is. And they've done only the air knows what to you to make you think you're her just to get at me. Unless you are just as much of a heartless bitch as them to do this of your own freewill." Octavia's eye moves around to the Chromies she can see. "Do you all think I'm so stupid to not know that I'm not going to leave here alive? Why do you have to put me through this torture and manipulation? Why put another innocent girl through shit to get to me? Why spread pain to others when it's me you want? Why not just go ahead and kill me already?" Octavia didn't realize she was crying until she sniffles. "To think Aurora went through worse than this. And I couldn't even be there for her. Maybe it's what I deserve. If not something worse." Octavia buries her face in the ground to hide the tears. Her hair helps to conceal it further. Dust and dirt from the floor stick to her face."Just get everything over with already." Hoarseness grates her voice from the screaming and crying. Her throat throbs and itches.

Emptiness in Octavia weighs heavier on her than Raul. With all the people in the room, she's never felt more alone. Her parents aren't there to distract her. Mindy nor Xander are there to comfort her. Aurora isn't here, either.

There's quiet movement Octavia ignores. She doesn't care about anything. On her head she feels something - arms gently hugging her. A hand pets her head. In this hug, she gets some of the same feelings from the couch. An odd comfort is in it. The hug smells like the couch.

"It's okay, Tay," Angel says kindly. "I'm sorry for everything you went through. It may not seem like it, but we want to make things better. I'm sorry I didn't handle this the way it should've been. I just got too excited. Don't be angry at yourself. Don't blame yourself for anything that happened to me. Please..." Angel rests her head on hers. Tears fall onto Octavia's head.

Octavia brushes off the words, taking them for some nonsense, but allows a small piece of herself to accept the comfort of the hug. It feels genuine, even if it's coming from a brainwashed girl.

"I told y'all that we should've brought her to Techie first. He could've explained things out better. We could've avoided this." Hatchette's tone isn't accusatory but sad-sounding.

"I'm sorry I pushed so hard," Angel says. "It's just been so long and I didn't, I couldn't wait any longer."

Hatchette's voice comes closer. "I know, Angel. That's why I didn't push harder."

Someone sighs.

"Go ahead and get him," Shard says. "Sweet-hart's shutdown now. I think he'll be the only one she'll listen to at this point."

"Are you sure?" Raul asks.

"Believe me, I don't want to risk him any more, but I don't think we have an option at this point," Shard says.

"What about them?" Raul asks.

A metal sound is followed by something closing around her wrists.

"Get her on the couch, and I'll watch the girls," Shard says. "You two go concoct something to get Techie out and over here. You guys are a bit to good at that."

Hatchette chuckles. "Yeah, we are, aren't we? We'll get him and hope this gets better."