Chapter 104: Chapter One Hundred Four

It took about twenty minutes for Zeke to call me back, and we didn't  talk much until he did, just kind of sat together. I picked up  immediately and he gave me an amiable grin. "Mission accomplished. Got  the kid with me, she wasn't fully under yet, which is a good thing, but  it means she's fire spitting mad. Though not literally thankfully, she  hasn't Ascended yet if she's going to, but then she's about nine and  that's early as hell. We're on the shuttle on our way to you. I know you  wanted me to bring the brother back, but if you're going to have him  wish for a cure then bringing her there works better, and she's safe  with me."

He wasn't wrong, and his presence kind of  invalidated any worries about having a kid in the wilderness. There was  literally nothing on this planet that could harm someone if Zeke didn't  want them harmed. Still, I couldn't muster up any excitement. I'd  expected to feel triumph and exultation after we beat the Heartrippers,  to get started on a brand new journey at the Academy. But this didn't  feel like a win. I felt...sad. Not for Aiden obviously, that guy was a  dick, but for all the people who had been hurt, and for all the damage  that needed undoing.

This would be a good start though.  Getting Cark back to his sister. Helping her heal. That was good. That  was hope. Zeke seemed to pick up on my maudlin mood. "Hey kid you ok?" I  looked up, jarred from my ruminations. He sighed sympathetically. "Ah.  Right. This is probably your first post battle crash. All your other  fights have been quick sorties. Sieges get your adrenaline up and keep  it up for a while. Can really mess with you after. Take a beat and just  let it hit you. Work through it before you do anything big. See you when  I get there."

He cut the call and I slumped back against  the wall, sliding down to sit. Callie dropped down next to me. "He's  right you know. Your first drawn out battle always hits you hard, and  you haven't exactly taken much time to process things lately. With the  Academy and then the Heartrippers I don't know if you ever really dealt  with what happened with Stricture. You've just been kind of going full  steam ahead trying to get stronger. Which is fine, sure, and you're  hardly the first, but maybe taking a bit to talk about things will help  you deal. "

I smiled at her. "Maybe, but not right now.  You were right earlier. We can talk later. I'll take Zeke's advice and  take a minute to pull it together but then I want to get tell Cark the  good news." She put a hand on my cheek and nodded, then seemed to  hesitate before she leaned up to pull my mask up and give me a quick  peck on the lips before settling in against my side, not saying  anything, just sitting with me.

I think Zeke was on the  money about the adrenaline crash. After the good news I felt like a  weight had been lifted, and taking a few minutes to just let myself  decompress helped. The wait for the call had been tense not conducive to  calming down, but taking a few minutes to myself and just sitting with  Callie was...nice. After a little while I got up and offered her my  hand. I pulled her to her feet and gave myself a mental shake before  heading back upstairs.

Cark was pacing around looking  rattled until he saw us. I felt momentarily bad for taking my minute to  process when he was waiting for news, but I figured it would just be  less time waiting for her to actually arrive, so it all worked out the  same. I made a mental note not to put off such big news in the future  though. When he saw us I gave him a nod and he slumped against the wall  in relief. "She's safe then?" His voice was hoarse with what I suspected  were unshed tears, but his face mostly just showed relief and  exhaustion.

I walked over to clap him on the shoulder.  "Safe and on the way. Zeke is coming with her so you don't need to worry  about her safety, but he figured you'd want to see her as soon as  possible. Apparently they didn't finish hypnotizing her, so she's  completely aware and from the sound of it super pissed off." He burst  out laughing at that, and it was heartbreaking how much pent up emotion  the sound seemed to release. I couldn't imagine what it had been like  for him these past weeks, not knowing if she was alive or dead, and then  not knowing if she'd ever be the same.

He pulled me into a  tight hug. "Thank you, man. I mean it. I don't know if I could have  found her on my own. You can't imagine what this means to me." I clapped  him on the back, pulling away after a second or two before gesturing to  where Aiden was still prone on the ground.

It was a shame  to bring down the mood, but we had made a deal. "We still have him to  handle. If you don't want to do it I can take care of things. I'm sure I  have some skill or other that would make quick work of him." I didn't  want to. I didn't want to kill a helpless unarmed man, even a child  stealing psycho. But I didn't want to back a friend into doing it even  more. If he wasn't up for it I would find a way to be ok with doing the  job myself.

He just shook his head. "No. I told him I'd do  it, and honestly I feel like I need to. I need to know he's gone for  sure so I can get back to my life. I don't want to wake up terrified my  sister is gone again because I didn't see it to the end. If I'm going to  have nightmares, better it be of putting him down than of her being  gone." I didn't particularly want him to have nightmares of either, but I  could understand his point so I just sighed and stepped back with a sad  nod. Cark flashed me a grateful smile, but it dropped off his face  along with all other expression when he turned to face the cult leader.  He walked slowly over to the other man and picked him up, throwing him  over his shoulder before walking down the steps.

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With  him gone, Callie turned to Benny. "Our old friend is also bringing  transports for the captives. keep them sedated until he picks them up  just in case. He can keep an eye on them to make sure they're acting  normal without Aiden pulling strings and if they are release them. We  can always track them down later if they're not a danger anymore.  Assuming what happened is something fixable?" She directed that question  at me, and I realized she hadn't been around during the first call so I  gave her a quick nod.

Benny  didn't have to be asked twice, he headed over to the ledge at the top  of the hatchery and stepped off. I winced slightly at the sight, but  realized that I probably didn't need to, even without Leaf on the Wind I  could probably have taken that drop without any serious injury as I was  now. It just went to show how new all of this was, and how little I  really thought about all the changes that had come with it. In some ways  I still thought of myself as a mortal. I stepped to the ledge to see  Benny land safely and surprisingly lightly.

I  had forgotten his leg could change density. I remembered from my early  education downloads that if the density of an object was less then the  fluid around it it would float, and that air counted as a fluid in that  context. It was how balloons worked. The rest of his weight obviously  wasn't offset, but I guessed he managed to lower the density enough to  at least slow his fall. I watched him head off towards the captives and  as I did I saw a burst of blue flame light up the area opposite where  they were being kept.

I  sighed, glad that Cark's sister was going to be here soon. I had a  feeling the big guy was going to need her. Callie came to stand next to  me and we looked out over the forest. It was starting to get dark but  the scenery was still beautiful, despite the still fading flickers from  around the side of the building from where a psychopath had presumably  been turned to ash. We watched the tree line for a while, both to enjoy  the view and to make sure that nothing came out of the trees, and  eventually we saw a line of three air shuttle's coming out of the dark  headed right for us.

We  all made our way outside to meet them. The shuttles touched down as we  made it out the front door, and a small form bolted off of one of them  to meet Cark as he arrived in front of the hatchery. Cassidy Cark was  swept into a massive hug by her crying brother as she came within range,  and Zeke hopped down behind her to amble over to us. He was wearing a  blank white mask, one of his, though a throwaway he'd probably made last  second by slapping  a few enchantments on a piece of porcelain.

He  gave everyone a cheerful wave. "One small child delivered to her  brother as promised, now I believe you have a hundred assassins to give  me as payment?" That was a pretty smart way to phrase things, just in  case the geas decided to be pernickety about it. He looked around  slowly. "You already take care of the handler?" When no one answered he  nodded thoughtfully. "Well glad that's been handled. I didn't bring  anyone except the pilots and WCP personnel don't work for free though,  so you'll have to load them up yourselves."

He  strolled past us and stopped. "Is that in invented building?" When I  nodded he gave a low whistle. "Ballsy. Those are dangerous. Last one I  saw tried to eat the person who made it. You guys lucked out if it's  been useful at all." He shrugged. "Oh well, all's well that ends well.  Can't wait to see what it does." He headed inside without further ado,  leaving behind a giggling Jessie and leaving Benny looking torn between  rolling his eyes and being incredibly disturbed by the fallout. We'd  talked about how it could have gone, but Zeke had actually SEEN it, and  that was a bit of a reality check.

As  I looked over at Cark holding his sister, who was now loudly  complaining about how boring the church had been and how much their food  sucked, some of the malaise from early slipped away. This had been the  ending I wanted. Maybe things weren't perfect, some of the sleepers had  died and I wished we could have saved them all, but in the end Cark got  his sister back, we beat the bad guy,and the still living sleepers would  be looked over and receive treatment once we got back.

I  still had a lot to process, a lot to think over about how things had  been going for me, and a lot of questions I had to find my own answers  for. About my mom, my dad, hell about myself, but in the end we'd gotten  through this without taking any big hits, and for the moment I still  had a task to get done. It was time to get started on the scavenger hunt  for real. No more sitting and waiting. It was time to play offense.

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