“This is it,” Indigo said slowly. She took a deep breath. “Let’s see if our little vision will work.”
~~~
Wufei faced Cassius boldly. In his head he was trying to come up with a way to escape.
“Too bad I have to kill you, we could have been great together, Fei.” Wufei just glared at her, “Get on with it, woman!”
Cassius opened her mouth to say something but paused. She looked to her side and her eyes widened.
“What the…?” She carefully touched her shoulder and pulled off a thick clump of long, silvery hair. She looked panicked. She grabbed at her head and was mortified as she pulled out more hair.
“No…”
She ran into one of the rooms and stared intently into a mirror: she screamed.
Wufei watched curiously.
Cassius tried to come up with a reasonable explanation for what was happening. Her hair was thinning to the point where her scalp was showing through. Her head was covered in red sores and scabs, and her hair just kept falling out. “It…it must be my dream inducer…it has to be!”
She felt her head again. Nothing, there was nothing there.
She dropped down to her knees and stared at the full handfuls of hair clenched in her fists. How could this be a vision?
Wufei watched Cassius freaking out and was confused. She kept pulling at her hair and looking, crying, at her empty hands.
“I see…” Wufei smiled, “It must be those kids with the dream inducer.” He laughed.
~~~
“Not good enough, Indy, we need more.” Seth grinned.
Indy looked up at him and shrugged. She looked back down at the computer and continued typing.
~~~
This woman is pathetic… Wufei thought as he watched Cassius weeping on the floor. What were they showing her?
Cassius didn’t think it could get worse, but it did. When she looked down at her arms, they were so thin. They had shriveled to the point where she could see the outline of her bones, ribs, and spine. Her clothes hung off her like rags. She was…ugly!
She looked up and glared at Wufei. There was more madness than usual in her eyes.
“You…” She hissed as she stood up shakily. “You’re doing this to me! You’re making me ugly!”
She lunged at him, aiming for his throat and clawing at his eyes. Wufei easily countered her and kicked her in the head. She screamed when she saw her rotting teeth fall out.
Again, she tried to attack him, but with one easy move he had her hand trapped behind her back. Cassius kicked and screamed and cried but it was no use. Wufei managed to get her flailing hands into cuffs and pushed her against the wall.
Cassius was shaking now, her lip trembling.
“I’m so ugly…” She stuttered. “How…how is it possible? Was I like this all along? Was my beauty an illusion too…?”
Wufei rolled his eyes and called the others. “Time to go, I have Cassius.”
~~~
Helen was stunned for a moment as she stared at Jason. His arm was twisted at an odd angle and blood was seeping out from underneath him. She turned to Brittney, clearly far beyond pissed.
Her eyes watered as she raised her gun.
“What are you gonna do? Shoot me?” Brittney mocked.
“Yeah…”
“You don’t have the guts.”
“Sure I do, and this time, bitch, you won’t be coming back.”
“Well then go ahead! Kill me!”
“Oh, I’m not going to kill you. I’m not that nice.” Helen squeezed the trigger and Brittney crumbled to the ground. The bullet had pierced her through her side, painful, but not fatal. She lay on the ground, gasping for air before Helen walked over to her. She was blinded by rage and she kicked Brittney mercilessly until she was tired. Then, she cuffed her and dragged her inside a transport. Then she ran to get Jason.
~~~
“Time to go!” Jasmine smiled as she saw her father emerging from the base. “Dad’s got Cassius! We’ll help him back to base.” She instructed the other three. Carol, Joel and Saber nodded, “What about Helen?” Carol asked. “Where is she?”
“I’m coming,” Helen’s tired voice came over the Com Link.
“Jason’s hurt pretty bad. Call ahead to the base and have a team ready. I have Brittney too.” She didn’t even seem to care about Saber and the Averis suits being there. She just hurried towards the base as fast as the transport would go.
~~~
Carol reached the hanger and watched the commotion down below here. Most of the other pilots were either taking Brittney and Cassius away or concerned about Jason.
Carol decided that she too, would like to check up on her friend. She opened up the hatch on her mobile suit and started to climb down. But about halfway down her side started to hurt, a lot! She winced and lost her grip and fell the rest of the way down.
She prepared herself for pain, but it didn’t come. Instead she fell right into someone’s arms. She blinked and looked up, finding herself staring right into Saber’s dark eyes.
“You ok?” He asked.
“Yeah, fine…” Carol answered uncomfortably. “Just a scratch.”
“Hm,” He didn’t believe her at all. He reached down and took hold of the end of her shirt and pulled it up. He nearly gasped when he saw the huge purple welt forming on her side. He gently traced his fingers over the wound; Carol shivered.
“You should get this looked at,” He said, “Come on,” He took her hand and started to lead her out of the hanger.
“Saber? Can I ask you something?” Carol asked timidly.
“Sure,”
“Why’d you come back? Honestly?”
Saber blushed, “Because of you…”
“Huh?!” Carol cried.
Saber continued, “I couldn’t stop thinking about you, and I wanted to know why. I knew you were in trouble.”
“Y-you mean you came back and fought for me…?”
He nodded slowly.
“Aw!” Carol squealed. She jumped on him and hugged him tightly. “No one’s ever done anything like that for me before.”
Saber just blushed even more.
~~~
Helen stayed in the room while the doctors examined Jason. They had tried very hard to get her to leave, but she would have none of it. Finally, they allowed her to stay as long as she didn’t get in the way.
It took hours to get him stabilized, and Helen watched the entire time, completely numb to her feelings.
When the nurses and doctors were finally gone, she slowly approached the bed and crawled in next to him, being careful not to disturb any of the many machines he was connected to. She could hear the doctors talking outside.
“There’s a chance that he may never wake up.” A woman said, “And even if he does, he’ll most likely be brain-dead. I’m going to suggest pulling the plug to his parents. We need to think about quality of living…” Helen squeezed her eyes shut and tried to block out the voices while blinking back tears. She put her arms around Jason and prayed for a miracle.
“Please don’t die, Jason…” She begged, “Please be OK.”
