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Currently, at the lab, Cosi was being transferred into another room. Everything was still a haze, figuring that the scientists probably had drugged her in her sleep. The bed she was on stopped moving as she opened her eyes, coming face to face with the traitor himself.
"How long will the testing take?" Copley questions as if he was suddenly regretting his decision but she couldn't focus on what he said but rather whether she should kill this man for putting them in this position.
"Until we have results we can replicate," Merrick confidently answers. The sound of groans was being made to which Cosi turned slightly, catching a glimpse of who she saw was Nicky arching his back from the immense pain made by the female scientist.
Cosi began to violently thrash from her spot immediately as the sound of Nicky's heart monitor blared louder and louder through her ears when all she could see was red. Her right arm seemed to break free from the now broken strap, grabbing Merrick's shirt who was closer to her, throwing him across the room in satisfaction before someone sedated her into another deep sleep.
⭒✡♛✡⭒
"Do you feel the wound trying to close?" The female scientist asked Cosi, taking notice of her regaining consciousness. Cosi didn't say anything, trying to hold back any signs of her discomfort - not wanting to satisfy the scientist.
Hush voices were heard on the other side of the room, "You don't need them for that. You've got the samples, blood, tissue, DNA."
"Well, you know the concept of proprietary data," Merrick slowly explained to Copley, taking steps closer to him. "And they're the product. They go into the vault. They stay there under lock and key."
"For...ever?" Copley furrowed his brow, perplexed at the idea of this. The plan was to turn them in and have them get what they needed to create a solution for diseases but never did he imagine Merricks's plan of putting the immortal trapped forever.
"We can't have them strolling back out into the world...into my competitors' laps," Merrick spoke darkly as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "If this takes years, maybe decades, what does it matter to them? If we can unlock their genetic code, the world will be begging us for the key."
Cosi broke the tension between the two men with her amused chuckle as if she heard that funniest joke, raspily speaking, "What key? You won't find what you're looking for and won't last to see the next day when I get out if it's the last thing I do."
"You think I go too far?" The female scientist questions with disinterest. "That I am unethical?"
Cosi blankly stared at the ceiling, "I think that you couldn't find any other solution, so we're your next hope. This is not something to play with, no, to experiment. We are human just like you, I would say immoral."
"I believe this can change the world." The female scientist says, looking at Cosi with confidence.
"Be careful what you wish for because this is not the first I've heard of it." Cosi taunted her, dimming her confidence a little before she left the room.
⭒✡♛✡⭒
Just a distance away from the abandoned mines, Andy stopped the car and got out without a word. Evy followed suit, believing that they were where she needed Andy to take her.
"Who are you?" Andy immediately grabbed Evy by the arm, catching her by surprise. She was confident that this wasn't Cosi but she didn't want to jump to a conclusion just in case she was wrong.
Andy could say anything more as Nile emerged from behind the wall of leaves, catching Evy's attention. Andy sighed heavily knowing this can't be avoided but she needed to be careful and warn Nile and Book soon.
"Cosi!" Nile sighs in relief, pulling the once more startled girl into a tight hug. Evy tensed but quickly relaxed, patting her back, to keep up with the fake acting as Andy was already suspicious with her enough. Pulling back from the hug, "You're okay?"
"Your mom and brother?" Cosi signs with a raised brow purposely diverting this awkward situation to something else.
"You have my phone?" Nile looks as if she was about to cry. Relief that Andy had her phone all along. Andy looks down at it then back at her, handing it to her, she immediately grabs it. Nile stares at the picture on her phone longingly.
"Where's your father?" Cosi signs to her out of curiosity.
"Killed in action when I was 11," Nile explains shortly quickly looking at her then back down to her phone. Cosi feigned a sympathetic expression.
"Here..." Nile swipes over a picture on her phone to show both Cosi and Andy a picture of her father in what looks like a uniform. "My mom, she was drowning after he died. Southside of Chicago, a million different ways we could have went left. She fought for us. Never back down. Never let us down either."
Nile spoke of her mom with such pride. Something not even she could say that about her parents because she has never met them but they did let her down by putting her in the hands of someone else but she wouldn't have given up where she is today.
"You come from warriors," Andy spoke to Nile in admiration of her family's determination and will to get through life. For a moment, Andy forgot about her suspicions about Cosi.
"Yeah," Nile nods her head agreeing with Andy. "I do."
Andy smiles at her confidence and respect for herself. Nodding her head, "I can't remember what my mom looked like," Andy opens up with tears beginning to well up. Cosi turns her head to look at Andy with a sudden curiosity and a question that to everyone's knowledge is unknown. "Or my sisters. None of them."
"Time steals it all away, I guess," Nile softly concludes but it made Andy laugh as if it's not the case.
"It's not what time steals...it's what it leaves behind." Andy finalizes looking up out into the sky with a distant look. "Things you can't forget. I gave up searching for her. I made Quynh a promise and I broke it." Shaking her head with a new determination. "I'm getting Joe and Nicky back. Whatever it takes."
Cosi stayed quiet the entire time because she knew that she had nothing to say or to add but to Andy's knowledge Cosi always had something to say whether it was to cheer someone up or add on to the heart-to-heart talk. It was another sign that Andy surely did not miss.
