"Hello, Blue." I look up from my completed drawing, only to see Kara sitting on the car's hood, staring at me.

"Please, can we not do this while everyone else is here?" I beg. "Not when I just got them back."

Cassie's hand grasps mine tightly.

"But that's exactly what I want to talk about." She says.

"Who is it?" Cassie whispers to me.

"My mom, I'll handle it." I turn back to Kara, daring to stare her in the eyes, no matter how much it hurts. "I already know what you're going to say. Making up for one thing doesn't make up for everything, I get that. Please, just let me enjoy this for a little bit."

"Oh no, that's not why I'm here." She says, a smile spreading across her face. "You made a promise to share with them what you did. I'm here to make sure you actually follow through."

"None of us are in shape for that conversation. Please, just let me wait until everyone feels a little better."

"Fine." She says. "But I'll be watching. If you don't, I think you know what will happen." Kara vanishes from the hood of the car, thankfully leaving me alone.

"Thank you." I let myself fall back in my seat and close my eyes, letting myself relax for just a moment.

"Are you ok?" Cassie asks.

"Yeah. She just wanted to remind me of something."

"Ah. Sorry. They won't take it poorly." She quietly reassures me.

"I know. But I'm still going to wait until we're all settled."

Ivy's sharp eyes peer at me through the mirror, desperately wanting to say something, but unable to.

"Can you give me the tablet and hold the steering wheel?" I ask Cassie. "And Corax, can I have the cord back for just a moment?

She hands it over to me, and Corax unplugs himself. I gently put my foot on the gas pedal, keeping our speed consistent.

I plug myself into the tablet and get to work weaving a small program. I collect every word I've ever heard her say, and use my two voices as a base to create a voice of her own. I weave that voice into the writing program already on here. If I was in better shape, I could do this in an instant, but with how I am now? It takes minutes to accomplish, but this is more important than healing. Once done, I unplug myself and hand the car back over to Corax.

"Here." I pass the tablet back to Ivy. "You can type whatever you want to say, and it should say it with something very similar to your voice.

"So, Cassie." Her voice comes out flat and artificial, but undeniably hers. I'll improve it when I'm better. "You and Blue."

"Can we throw her back in the trench?" Cassie instantly asks, burying her face in her hand.

Silent laughter racks Ivy's body, and Cassie pulls a laugh out of me, despite my current state. Corax, and even Vince both let out small chuckles.

"I've missed you all so much." Vince says quietly.

"I'm just sorry it took so long." Cassie says, desperately trying to hide her embarrassment. "We could have been one storm faster if Zero bothered to help."

"You did fine." Vince reassures us. "You got here in time, that's all that matters."

"Still."

"Cassie and I had the idea of stopping by Vegas on the way home and drinking literally all their alcohol." I say.

"I think I could be convinced." Vince says. "Is that where you met your friends?"

"No, we found a city full of AI." I say. "They've been hiding out since after the war."

"Really? What's that like?"

"You'll see." Cassie answers quickly. "I'd hate to ruin the surprise."

"We'll stay there for a while to recover, if that's alright with you." I say. "They've already promised we're allowed to."

"We'll need to get a message to Silver first, let them know it's done and we're alright. But yeah, that sounds nice." Vince sighs. "We should be able to get that done in Vegas, if it's on the way."

"Clover might be able to do that, actually. Are there any rangers in Arc City?" I ask.

"They come through occasionally, but they don't have a permanent base. Why?"

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"It turns out that all quantum AI are connected through a hive mind. Clover might be able to ask another quantum AI to deliver a message."

"Huh, I guess it's worth an ask. I doubt she'll want me to do it though. If you can get 'Code Sixteen' to Silver, they'll know what it means."

"I'll ask when we arrive."

"Sounds good Little Blue." Vince lets his eyes drift closed, and leans further into Ivy.

Pure happiness spreads through my mind.

"I didn't realize how much I missed hearing that."

"I didn't realize how much I missed saying it." He agrees.

Silence settles over us all once again while I try to blink away the moisture in my eyes.

I end up having to take over driving from Corax once we reach the nearby mountain range to actually find the cave we stayed in, and it's not long until we're all outside it. Fitting all three cars inside might just be possible, but it'll be close. I take us in, parking as close to the back as possible.

"It sucks being back here." Cassie mumbles as she steps out.

"It's just until the end of the storm." I reassure her. "Then we just get to retrace our steps."

"Yeah." She pulls open the back door. "Alright you two, who's more injured?"

"Ivy is." Vince says immediately.

"Vince." Ivy's tablet says just a moment later.

"Alright." Cassie rolls her eyes obviously, lingering on me for just a moment. "Come on Vince, you're going first." She begins to help Vince out of his seat just as the other two cars squeeze in behind us.

Nimda drives one car, with Clover collapsed in the passenger's seat, seemingly dead to the world once again. I'm not surprised by that, I can only imagine how hard today must have been on her. Lance and Robin drive our old car, and I immediately shuffle over, opening up the back seat. There's stuff I need to get out of here. My mind pounds from so much effort, but I can rest when everyone is safe.

"Nice place to stay." Lance says.

"Yeah. It's the only reason any of us are alive." I grab the cloaks I made for Cassie and I in one hand, and our medical supplies in the other. I spread the fabric out in the small amount of floorspace that still exists in the cave just in time for Cassie to lower Vince onto it.

Cassie carefully begins to help him out of Ivy's clothes, and I set up Lucas' light to give her just a little better view.

"Shit, what the fuck did she do to you?" Cassie asks as soon as his shirt is off.

"I don't think either one of us wants me to answer that." He says with a sad smile.

Bruises and cuts spread across his body, carefully designed to hurt, but not to harm too much. He's never going to die from his injuries, unless they get infected. And with the amount of crap that's plastered against his body? That's more likely than not.

"She got off too easy." She carefully shimmies him out of his pants, revealing the same wounds across the rest of his body. "Blue, get me… Just everything."

"You don't hesitate when putting down a rabid dog." Vince says. "That's all she was."

"I guess."

I hand Cassie the medical kit, and start by grabbing whatever spare cloth I can find and organizing it in reach of her. She does her best to clean him up as much as we can without water.

Ivy tries to get out of the car on her own, and I have to drop everything to catch her when her leg gives out. The two of us together just barely manage to remain standing, although we very nearly end up on the ground. We support each other as we shuffle over to Vince, both of us sliding down the wall and sitting just beside him and Cassie.

"What am I going to do with all of you?" Cassie asks nobody and returns to trying to clean Vince.

Ivy picks up her tablet, slowly typing letters.

"Be pretty bored, I think."

I let my mind rest while Cassie works. Lance immediately comes over to be her assistant, and Robin begins to look at Ivy. They're all in good hands, but I can't force myself to stop paying attention to them.

Cleaning Vince only makes him look worse, revealing yet more wounds under the layers of filth. I can't let myself be angry, there's not enough space in my shattered mind to hold it right now. Besides, Cassie is angry enough for both of us.

"So, tell me what hurts." Robin asks instead of immediately touching Ivy.

"Four ribs, unsure if fractured, broken, or bruised. Fractured left hip, walking on it for weeks. Left knee, unsure. Few cuts, most stitched. Bruised spine. Brain's fried, needs time. No internal bleeding." Ivy's tablet lists out her injuries one by one.

"Alright. Can I poke around a bit?"

"Sure."

Robin carefully lays Ivy down on the cold ground.

"Alright, tell me how bad this hurts."

"Wait. Blue, cord please." She types out, and I hand it to her without question. "Have pain dampener, check that." Ivy slots the cord into the base of her skull, and hands the other end to Robin.

Robin plugs himself in and begins to poke around Ivy's hip, knee, ribs, and other parts of her body.

"Alright. How much do you value being able to walk?" He asks.

Cassie's head whips around at the question, but Ivy only shrugs casually.

"It'd be a shame for all my experience to go to waste." She types out.

"Alright. Your hip feels closer to a bag of gravel than to bone. I don't know how we're going to set this with what we have."

"Oh, that's fine." Ivy reassures him. "I'll just get a new one when we get home. Just do what you can."

"Alright. Hey Nimda! Can you try to make some crutches?"

"We have some in our car, actually." Vince says.

"I'll collect them." Nimda says.

"Corax? I'll be back. I'm going to fix myself." I whisper to him, and focus entirely on my mind. Entire chunks of it have been ripped apart, floating in the void of my mind. My threads have woven together, creating thin, flimsy bridges between the core of my mind and the rest of me. It keeps my memories accessible and allows me to think, but slows my healing process to something nearing non-existent. A few stray threads are desperately trying to pull the chunks back into me, but are making close to zero progress.

I focus on the bridges, reducing them to the absolute minimum to hold onto the distant islands of my mind, freeing up innumerable threads of thought. I focus on one chunk at a time, slowly pulling it into my core and stitching it back into place. The stitches remain until my mind begins to meld back together, and unweave themselves, reaching out for another chunk.

Long seconds turn to minutes which blend into eternal hours while I work. I feel every moment pass, but it's fine. I've been through worse. I can just let everyone else handle everything while I do what only I can.

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