Chapter 13 (Rough)

What happened after.

Jade and I didn't talk much after that. She piloted the bicopter around the wreckage, and we searched over the debris field from the collapsed engine, finding no sign of Spence. As for the ship, it drifted and exploded, raining more debris across the forgotten city until finally crashing to the ground with a massive expulsion of dust and smoke.

In the dark of the old city, morning broke, signaled by the chime of my comm, and we reunited with Finnic and Hadley to the tune of military bicopters and hover vehicles descending into the subterranean city. We were soon swarmed by peacekeepers and military personnel alike. All business at first, they eased up at Hadley's credentials, and the legendary authority or Jade's family name. Some of those who questioned us seemed visibly wrenched by emotion in response to our speculation of Spence's whereabouts after our escape, as the old soldier's exploits were the status of national pride and mythology, by this point.

Peacekeepers led us to a military access elevator, built into one of the larger columns. We were told it would be awhile for the next lift cycle and had to wait in the lift's staging lobby in the meantime. Jade and I sat against a wall leaning shoulder to shoulder, head to head. I was mentally walled off, experiencing emotions that I had never felt before, and couldn't put into words.

As for Jade, she sobbed with a steady stream of tears. I wanted to console her, but I didn't know how. I tried to imagine what she was feeling. I couldn't remember her mother, because I was too young when she passed. The confusion and pain of her parents' divorce never affected me either. The uncertainty of Virgil's whereabouts was something I could relate to, and now Spence, but I couldn't imagine how all the loss in her life was weighing on her. I was an orphan, with no memory of anyone important to me disappearing before Virgil, that fateful night four years ago.

I tried to remember what my parents were like, but nothing came. Not even the faintest glimmer of a memory. Whenever I tried to think of them, all that I could imagine were eyes shrouded by fog.

Eyes… I thought about Spence's eyes the moment he removed his mask. And then I remembered how Virgil and Jade both had the same eyes as Jade. And it struck me -- Jade didn't lose everybody. She had a brother, who probably had those same eyes. A brother that she could find, if only she knew.

"Jade," I leaned my head back against the wall.

"Yeah?" she sniffled.

"There's something I want to talk to you about," I started, recalling all of the things I had heard from Chandra.

"Erk," she sighed with a tinge of exhaustion. "Please. Please, I just want you to be my brother."

It was like a knife twisting in my heart to hear her say it. It hurt doubly so because it was not my intention in that moment. Tears welled up in my eyes and I tried to hide back sniveling.

The lobby door slid open with a metallic thud, and neither of us could be bothered to look up. Footsteps echoed in the otherwise silent room, and were soon accompanied by the rumbling murmur of the peacekeepers sharing the lobby with us.

I looked up, and my jaw dropped. Spence was alive, and standing before us in the lobby. I felt Jade tilt her head up beside me, before gasping in genuine elation. She erupted off of the floor and ran to her grandfather, wrapping her arms around him with force as he groaned.

"This old Neonite has a few tricks up his sleeve," he laughed.

"How did you get out?" Jade demanded.

"I know that ship like the back of my hand, but also…" he paused dramatically, "you aren't the only Spence who carries a grappling hook, little Jay." He looked at me and winked in time with her nickname, and I felt her cringe as she buried her bashful face into his cloak.

"You know that ship?" Jade ignored the use of the nickname that she hated.

"Yeah," he chuckled, looking my way with a grin. "I was the one who brought it here, all those years ago when I first came to Chyunda. The AI locked it down and had been repairing it internally, ever since."

I struggled to get myself off the ground, exhausted and not knowing how much more I could take before a good long rest. "How come the military didn't find out as soon as it woke?"

"They would have found out soon enough, but it was designed to avoid detections like that for as long as it needed. My old comm implant pinged when it woke, though. Then I set out to find you two, because I knew only Erk could interface with the AI-core."

"Kavalli genetic imprinting?" Jade recalled what Spence had said about the shimmerblade, before our duel. "What's with that, on a Neon ship?"

"Security feature. Didn't want the ship falling into the wrong hands, so we made it very difficult to override." He looked to the corner, where Hadley clutched his stump of an arm. "Unitans would assume we imprinted it to our own genetics. They'd never think to use a Kaval to open it."

During the elevator ride up, Jade was all smiles and wouldn't stop talking. I even caught Hadley fighting back a charmed smile behind his chiselled grim Unitan face. No doubt he was more preoccupied with concern over whether he would have to regrow his lost arm, or replace it with a synth.

In the middle of explaining the fight with the Crystalline behemoth, Jade suddenly stopped with a gasp. "What time is it!"

I lifted up my mobi-comm and projected the time for all to see. It was 6:53.

She ran over and grabbed me by the wrist. "I need to check my mail from the Academy!" She urged with inexplicable worry. "It comes in at five!" She shook my hand with vigorous intensity.

"Okay, okay," I chuckled, feeling tenderness for her again, and recalling the notification chime I heard aboard the bicopter almost two hours earlier. I realized I had gotten mail at five as well.

She took the comm and cycled through her messages. After a few moments, her finger stopped cycling while her eyes strafed across the projection. Her lips formed a smile. "Congratulations, your fast track application for induction into the Infiltrators has been approved."

She hugged me and I was speechless as everyone congratulated. I couldn't believe that she made it. She handed back my mobi-comm while dealing with praise from the others.

I stared at the comm, ghostly with anxiety, and accessed my own messages. I recalled that we had applied for fast tracking together -- mine however, was simply an application for early acceptance into the Academy. I browsed past the spam, and stopped on an automated message sent from the Academy at five this morning.

Jade's excitement toned down as she looked back at me. I was trembling, flooded with anxiety, when she came to my side.

"Let's open it together?" She looked at me, resting a hand on my shoulder. I nodded, lips tight and speechless.

I tapped the note, and we read it together.