Shep shrugged. 'It's worth a try,' he said.
'She might not even like women,' Kit argued, her reasoning growing thinner.
'But she might like you,' Shep said.
Kit knew that she wasn't going to win this argument with him and was tired with talking about her personal life. 'You should rest,' she said as she got up.
'Think about what I said,' Shep said as he took her hand. 'Don't go through this life alone when you don't have to.' There was something about the way he spoke to her that chilled her, his face had changed, grown more withdrawn and his eyes looked sunken, like the life was fading from them.
'Are you sure I can't get you a glass of water?' She asked him.
Shep shook his head. 'I'm just going to sleep for a while,' he said. 'And hope there's something nice waiting for me in the Starlight.'
Starlight. Shep never spoke of the place where you went when you slept, he believed it was a place you went to when you weren't supposed to wake up. 'You stay away from that place, you hear me?' Kit asked him. 'I'm not ready for you to go wandering too far in that place just yet,' she said quietly. But as Shep closed his eyes, Kit knew that it was time to let him go. He hadn't been able to recover from his injuries, and he had been clinging onto whatever his soul could provide him, but it was over.
Shep slipped away and never woke up.
Chapter Twelve
FUNERALS WERE NEVER A thing Kit liked organizing nor attending. She was grateful for Rook and Lil who took over the planning for the friends they had to say goodbye to. Shep and Kingsley would be fare-welled together, while Cara would have her own private ceremony. One night, Kit had been walking home when she saw huddles of people in the cargo stalls, they glanced over to her and instead of giving their usual smiles, and they turned their backs on her.
After a long day of scouring footage of the Spire and running through the last minute details with Rook and Lil, Kit snuck away to the Mermaid Inn where she saw Adam stood behind an almost deserted bar.
He came round to her and they hugged tightly, for the first time in months Kit allowed herself to collapse into him, grateful for his support. He led her over to the bar and she pulled herself up onto one of the stools. He looked at her and couldn't remember a time when she looked so exhausted.
He turned to his chef, who was behind the windowed wall and ordered her a plate of food. 'You should have come and seen me sooner,' he told her.
'I've been meaning to,' she said. 'But it's been hard to get away.'
'I meant so I could give you something to eat and take care of you,' Adam said.
Kit was quiet for a moment and Adam sensed the awkwardness. 'How's your new recruits going?' He asked, quickly changing the topic.
'They're tired,' she said. 'Same way everyone is, but they're legit,' she added as her meal was delivered. The chef had made her an old fashioned Po'boy with shrimp and shoestring fries, and Kit suddenly had a memory of her father and an illegal movie they had watched set in Old Orleans. She was surprised how the memory came back so quickly, and how she had been able to forget it.
'It's not often we get defectives from Volt who are readily trained to help fight against Galen,' Adam noted.
Kit nodded as she took a bite of the sandwich, savoring the taste and the memory that she was having with it. 'It's not often Hawk leaves Volt and comes to the territories,' Kit added and filled Adam in on what had happened. 'I'm still trawling footage trying to find her, but I'm thinking something's happened to it. It should be easy to track down given we know roughly when the rebels attacked but there's part of the feed that keeps skipping.'
'Has someone tampered with it?' Adam asked.
'It's likely,' she replied. 'If Hawk's survived she's probably gone back to the Shard to report on what happened.'
'Would she though?' Adam asked her. 'Think about it, if she came to the Spire with two of her leading scientists to find a soldier who'd gone AWOL, with the intention of killing all three for going against their President, would she go back and tell day that she failed?' He asked.
Kit considered the suggestion. 'I hadn't thought of that,' she admitted. 'But if she doesn't go back then she's a defective as well and would face the same consequences as Jack and Evie, she's too much of a loyalist to do that.'
'Unless she's gone back and reported the mission as successful,' Adam suggested. 'Told Galen that she succeeded and cover up her failing.'
'Maybe she thought she has killed Evie,' Kit added. 'She looked pretty dead when I found her.'
'Then why leave the body?' Adam asked.
'Because if anyone were to do an autopsy, they'd likely find out that Evie's a mutant,' Kit said. She was suddenly energized again by the theory and jumped down off the seat. 'I've got to go,' she said and was already heading to the door before Adam could call after her.
Kit looked at her team after she had shared her theory. They looked stunned but not surprised. 'Someone say something,' she said.
'It's a bold theory,' Lil said.
'But a good one,' Canaan added. 'It would make sense that Hawk would lie to Galen to protect herself.'
Jack was looking skeptical. 'You don't know her,' he said. 'She's tactile and needs Galen on her side if she's going to have any power in the army. If she risks lying to her and is found out she would lose everything and she's not brave enough to do that.'
'So what would she tell Galen?' Lil asked.
'That one of the most prominent scientists in Volt is dead and was killed by mutants which is why there was no body,' Evie said dryly. 'Would make more sense and it means that she'll have the full army at her disposal.'
Kit was surprised but impressed by Evie's idea. 'If she did kill you they would have to do an autopsy which would reveal who you are and be a huge embarrassment for them,' Kit said and a hush fell over them. 'It's no use thinking about possibilities,' Kit said, sensing the low energy in the room. 'We have funerals to get ready for and we need time to pay respect to those we've lost.'
The team agreed with silent nods and murmurs and Kit knew now wasn't the time to try and work on a strategy against Hawk. 'There's been talk,' Canaan said. 'People in the Stacks have heard about the strikes in the city and are concerned that there'll be another attack and we’ll be their next target. If they find out we have two of Hawk's former employees here, then they're going to lash out in protest,' he said and then looked over to Jack and Evie. 'No offence,' he said.
'We always protect those who escape from Volt,' Kit said. 'Evie and Jack are no different.'
'It wasn't exactly a traditional escape,' Lil noted.
'So we should only protect those who escape by crossing the Plains and using the underground network?' Kit asked. 'We've never had an admission policy before, we're not going to start one now.'
'We want to help,' Evie said. 'And we'll prove that to anyone who doubts us. We've lived too long hiding who we are, we don't want to continue like that.'
'And we want to help work against Hawk,' Jack added.
Kit admired Evie's desire to escape the only way of life that she had known, to turn her back on it, to fight for something that didn't have to be hers was courageous. 'Okay,' Kit said. 'But you're going to need some training,' she said to Evie.
'She graduated top of her class,' Jack told her. 'There's nothing this one can't do,' he said proudly.
The others grinned. 'Clearly you've not seen Kit in action,' Lil said.
'They don't call her the drill sergeant for nothing,' Rook added.
Evie began to feel wary of what she had signed up for, she knew she needed to learn how her abilities worked and how to control them but she wasn't sure she was ready for what Kit had in store for her.
'That'll come in time,' Kit said. 'Go home, get ready for tomorrow, I have a feeling it's going to be a big day,' she said.
They disbanded but Evie lingered for a moment. 'You okay?' Jack asked her.
'I just don't think I'm ready to say goodbye to Cara,' Evie said and Jack saw her re
solve begin to waver. 'She's always been there, since we were kids, how can she not be here anymore?'
Jack hugged her and Kit glanced up at the moment between them as she pretended to check her gun. 'We have to believe she's in a better place,' Jack said. 'And we will get her justice, and Lux, and everyone else who the Empire have taken from us.'
Kit couldn't believe that the Empire would hurt their own people in such a way. Volt had always promoted protection for people who hadn't been infected, for those who weren't mutants and wanted to work towards creating a better Empire since the first attack. Yet here were two prominent members from their community broken and ready to fight against them. Kit wondered who Lux was, if she was another sibling, a friend or something more. Kit shook that thought away, she couldn't think like that, not now.
'If you two want, you can stay with me,' she offered, not sure where it came from. 'Evie's well enough to be out of the hospital unit and sleeping on the floor here can't be comfortable.'
They looked at her gratefully. 'Thanks,' Jack said. They picked up their things and followed her out of the barracks to see the Stacks for the first time.
Evie had heard about the Stacks from quiet whispers. It was one of the few places in the Empire where mutants could live freely and have sanctuary so long as they didn't pose a threat to the State. Evie walked out of the bunker and saw it was a large metallic shed that looked like it was one of the biggest buildings in the neighborhood.
'The Council granted us this space as a training arena,' Kit told them. 'When mutants first arrived there were so many who couldn't use their powers in a controlled way and were considered dangerous. Lil and Canaan had already set up a training school and the Council wanted to establish an army in case Volt decided to revoke the protection we had been granted.'
'Why did they grant protection?' Evie asked. 'Volt was always insistent that mutants be captured and returned to the compound.'
'When I escaped, there was a plan for more mutants to follow and due to the number that were able to escape, there were too many for Hawk to try and recapture. They tried, but when they admitted defeat, they granted safe zones for us on the provision that we don't launch an attack against them,' Kit said.
'Which is why they were never able to capture you,' Jack added.
Kit nodded as they stopped outside one of the cargo stalls. 'Yes,' she said quietly. 'When I escaped, I was very...different, to how I am now. Galen and Hawk knew if they tried to capture me that it wouldn't end well and so came to the armistice agreement.'
'They always told us that you were dangerous, which is why it wasn't safe for any of the men to try and come after you,' Evie said.
'It's better to turn someone into a martyr so that fear can continue,' Jack told her. 'That's what Hawk's idea always was, she'd say to us that they needed a face of the rebellion so it looked like Volt were doing something to protect their people, and it distracted people from what was really going on.'
Evie felt like there was so much about the world that she lived in that she didn't know. She frowned at the thought of allowing herself to be so blindly lead by propaganda and refusing to question it. Even when Lux wanted to escape, she couldn't fully understand why she would want to leave Volt, it wasn't until she had been killed that Evie began to question more but her fears over being persecuted by the guards challenged her pursuit of the truth.
'How did the world come to be like this?' She asked. 'I read that there was a time when the Empire was different, that people were free and lived in a democracy, how can a countries history be changed so drastically?'
'How much history do you know?' Kit asked her.
'Just what we were told growing up,' Evie said. 'We weren't old enough to remember the first invasion or the Blast, so we were left to believe whatever we were told.'
'Volt didn't provide critical thinking skills,' Jack told Kit.
'Clearly,' she said. 'Come with me,' she then told them.
They followed her down the main street, Evie looked at all the quirky little stalls that were selling a variety of goods and nick knacks. She saw the people who were serving customers and saw they were all mutants, some were more human in appearance than others, while many looked like something she had only seen in the lab.
Kit led them down a narrow alleyway and stopped at a crate towards the end of the road. She unlocked the padlock and opened the door. 'Welcome to my home,' she said and gestured for them to enter.
Evie stepped inside and felt a sudden comfortable warmth greet her that was a welcomed relief from the cold air. She looked around the cargo crate and was impressed at how Kit had made it look homely. She saw the small kitchen area and living room, there was a partition that Evie guessed went to the bedroom. Kit had decorated the space with a few fairy lights, blankets and rugs.
'Not what I'd expect from a soldier's quarters,' Jack said. 'Much less a General.'
'I'm a woman first,' Kit told him and she saw him look at her curiously but he didn't say anything. 'Take a seat,' she said indicating to the couch. Evie sat tentatively next to Jack as she watched Kit rustle drinks out of her fridge. 'You don't need to look so scared,' she said to them as she handed them the bottles of water.
'This is new for us,' Jack said.
'Jack's not used to talking to girls,' Evie joked and he elbowed her. Kit smiled, she liked seeing the friendship between them and she remembered being back with her unit in the Shard, how they were told they were raised to be brothers and sisters. She thought of Logan and Oz, the brothers she never allowed herself to think about. She shook the memory away, the thought of those she left behind was too painful to think about.
Kit pulled out another laser pointer as she sat down next to Evie. Evie felt her leg brush against Kit's and her powers danced under her skin in a happy flurry that felt new. She didn't say anything and saw an image of old New York flicker onto the screen before it was destroyed by attacks. 'This, is what our city used to look like,' Kit told them as she sat next to Evie. Evie felt their arms graze briefly and her skin tingled. 'Before President Galen's grandfather took office. Everyone was free to live how they wanted, there were no mutants and the country still believed in having a democracy. We were even allowed to vote for which President we thought should be in office,' she said and Evie and Jack saw old news footage of a woman waving to a large crowd outside the old Capitol building. 'President Fletcher was opposed by Galen’s grandfather. When he wasn't elected he turned rogue, started a shadow government that would eventually assassinate Fletcher as she tried to stop the beginning of human experiments.'
'So the public knew about it before the media became a one woman show?' Evie asked.
'Which is when the ships arrived,' Kit said. 'Divert attention from the issue while creating something that would ultimately change a country.'
'Fletcher was killed?' Jack asked.
'Assassinated amongst the chaos,' Kit said. 'Galen was nominated as President by an Alliance who was trying to regain control of the country.'
'And ended any form of democracy,' Jack added. A hush fell between them as scenes of New York changed to a city that had been destroyed.
‘You can say the ships were alien,' Kit said quietly. 'But our own downfall was created by humans.'
Evie needed to step out of Kit's apartment for a moment and she stood in the cool breeze as she tried to catch her breath. She closed her eyes as she could feel her heart starting to race. Her fingers began to tingle and she didn't want to see what was happening. She felt a hand slip into hers, it was small, cold but she felt fingers wrap round hers and when she opened her eyes she saw Kit stood next to her.
'It's okay,' Kit told her. 'It's a lot to take in.'
'How did you get used to it when you broke out?' Evie asked her, aware that neither were letting go of the other.
'It took a while,' Kit admitted. 'But I learnt how to control my powers so that I felt more in charge of what was happening. I think that's what you need to do as well.'
&nb
sp; Evie felt panic rise in her at the thought, the last time she had used her abilities was when she was at the Institute but she couldn't bring herself to tell Kit that she was certain she had been responsible for killing someone. 'I don't know if I can,' she said quietly.
Kit held up their hands. 'Watch,' she said. Evie looked at their hands, and saw how they fitted comfortably together. Blue and purple wisps of electric swirled up from their skin and danced together. Evie smiled at the sight and saw the color change to a deep velvet. She didn't feel Kit's hand slip from hers and watched as her powers danced over her fingers.
'It can be beautiful when it's not being used to kill people,' Kit said.
'It's like magic,' Evie said.
'Rook has a theory that this is something that exists in everyone, regardless if you were part of the experiments. If you can find beauty in something that's supposed to be destructive, then magic is a much better word for it,' Kit said with a smile.
'I've never thought of it like that,' Evie told her. 'Growing up I was told it was something that wasn't human, so it wasn't normal, something to be ashamed of and feared.'
'If you allow yourself to believe that then you will never find power in it,' Kit said. 'If you want to have freedom then you need to believe that you hold the strength, otherwise Galen will always win.'
Evie didn't say anything but looked at her hands that were now quite ordinary again. 'Why do you want to help me?' She asked Kit. 'We're supposed to be enemies.'
Kit blushed slightly and hoped that Evie didn't see. 'There's something about you that makes me believe that we could win this war if we work together,' she said. 'And you make me feel a way that I haven't felt in a long time.'
Evie was surprised by the admission but couldn't deny that her first thought was of Lux. She looked at Kit, who was so different, her tough demeanor, her strength was the opposite from how Lux had been. But through the persona Evie found herself captivated. 'Me to,' she admitted.
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