Meliora - Emanate - 58

[lady_mab]

Liala Darcy

Despite what happened at Temple Fusion, watching the scene play out between Ayn and the Assistant Program Manager, it doesn't feel real. Nothing about this feels real.

I had resigned myself to the fact that we would never get to leave. Bit by bit, we pieced together an idea of the truth, but nothing beyond that. No firmer promise that we would get to actually catch a train out.

But with one frantic text message, and one strange liminal moment in Kaito's bar, we are secured a spot on the path home.

Rhys carries me back towards the train station, even though I tell him that I can walk. He avoids eye contact with Kaito during this whole process, so in the end I let him use me as a distraction. Besides, it's been ages since he's given me a piggyback ride.

Lysander and Ayn head off in one direction, while Jun and Zoné head in another. They haven't said much of anything during the entire time we were there. I couldn't bring myself to ask them what had happened. Jun's fingers trembling awkwardly on the tabletop were enough of an answer for her state. Nothing could explain Zoné's blank-eyed stare.

Kaito promises that he'll catch up with us soon. The bar doesn't open for another few hours, but he wants to make sure that someone else will be able to cover for him. He doesn't look away from Rhys as he speaks.

So much is happening, and yet I still feel so clueless.

Even Lionel, after pulling the encrypted files from Ayn's phone, wanders at our side in a strange, half-floating sort of way. He carries my backpack in addition to his own.

"What am I supposed to do with all my computer stuff?" he finally asks as we sit on the mostly-empty train back to our apartment. "It took me years to build that collection."

Rhys' eyes are closed, and his head is tilted back against the seat. It looks like it takes a massive effort for him to take a breath so he can speak. "Have Kaito manage it. Ship it back to us once we have somewhere to live."

I sit up, though Rhys keeps an arm around my shoulders. "Where are we going?"

He hesitates, then slowly shakes his head. "I don't know yet. We've been renting out the family home all these years, but there's still tenants there."

"Their contract would be up soon, wouldn't it?" Lio asks, staring at his phone. He's always staring at his phone, but now I'm more curious about what the contents of it are than I usually am. Is it a list of things he doesn't want to forget? Is it the message from the AMP? Is it the documents he pulled from Ayn's phone? "June?"

"I think so," Rhys admits. "We can find temporary housing. I don't want..." He pauses, struggles to breathe, and takes another moment to try again. The words are ground out when he finally manages to speak, forced and mechanical. "We need to get you to a hospital first. As soon as we get off the train in New Oxford."

My brow furrows and I glance up at him. "What for?"

"You're still weak. There's an excess of Vitamin E in your system, and I'm worried--" It sounds like there's supposed to be more to that sentence, but nothing else comes. Rhys glances to Lio. "And I'm hoping that we'll be able to do something about your memory issues."

My twin shrugs and waves his phone tauntingly in the space before Rhys' nose. "Shouldn't be too much of an issue once we're out of here. Looks like it's something that was pumped into the air system." He lets out a huff of breath and sticks the phone away in his bag. "I was wondering how they managed to distribute so much of it so quickly."

I always hate when he sounds impressed with awful things. It's the same kind of tone he had when we first received the message and he worked through the email to pull the list, when he picked apart the app we had to install and made it send him messages he wasn't supposed to receive. Grudging acceptance at someone else's intelligence, even though he was able to break through. "Yippie. So we all run the risk of having our memory short circuit on us?"

Lionel shakes his head and leans forward so he can see me around Rhys. "Not quite. It's absorbed in through our skin and through the air that we breathe. Leave Eminence, we leave the source of it. If we're taking you to the hospital for bloodwork, you'll get it out of your system far quicker."

Rhys glances up when they call our stop, patting my shoulder and pulling himself to his feet. "We should all get check ups. It will be the smart thing to do."

"Don't want to bring any more of ALICE with us than we have to," Lio snorts.

We disembark and make the short walk to mine and Lio's apartment. We pack only what we need, sorting through clothes and objects that we've accumulated over the last five years. We still have our suitcases, shoved into the back of a closet and forgotten.

When we move on to Rhys' apartment, our older brother's footsteps slow and he practically drags himself up the stairs. Kaito's already inside, which might have explained his hesitation. They don't speak, at least nothing beyond stilted conversation as we do the second round of packing. Lio and I exchange puzzled glances, but don't say anything.

I think we can put two and two together well enough to know what might have gone on between them.

Kaito agrees to take care of our stuff for us and will ship it once we have a permanent address. He says it with the tone of someone desperate for a distraction.

In almost no time at all, we're done. Rhys spends a few moments on the phone, making the necessary arrangements with vague half-truths.

"Yes, we're moving."

"I need to withdraw Lionel and Liala from school. I know it's only April--"

"We'll provide a forwarding address when we get settled in."

He calls his work, apologizes for being late. He asks if it would be possible for him to work remotely for a few weeks. That he has some things to do outside of the city and he doesn't know when he would be back but would appreciate the courtesy if it is possible.

It must be, because the conversation doesn't end with 'I quit'.

Kaito gives him a strained, hopeful smile as he hangs up. "Told you you can't get rid of me."

"I didn't want to have to hear about you failing to open the second club on time," Rhys says and shoves his glasses up his nose.

Lionel sends a quick text to his work to let them know that he's quitting. He doesn't have as much tact as Rhys does when handling the situation.

We don't bother calling Henrik. Kaito rides the train with us, helping with our meager luggage. About five suitcases between the three of us, which is such a small amount to equal a life of five years in this city. I'm not allowed to carry anything heavier than my backpack, and even though I protest, I'm grateful.

I'm not too sure how much longer I'll be able to keep up with the stress of today without having to crash.

Ayn and Lysander are already there. Henrik is nowhere to be seen. She smiles when she sees us, and this time, it looks a bit more healthy than the few attempts she made at Temple Fusion. "You made it. Zoné is helping Jun. They should be along shortly."

I drop down onto the bench with a short huff of air. My legs are shaking from the constant movement over the last few hours of frantic packing. When we moved out here in the first place, I was exempt from the effort. I also spent a good amount of that time in the hospital, ensuring I was strong enough for the trip to Eminence.

Lionel drops down next to me without saying anything. He's back to reading the files on his phone.

Behind us, Rhys and Kaito are engaged in a small, whispered conversation. There's a newfound intimacy to their closeness, in the way their hands come together like two pieces of a puzzle.

"I told you something was going on," Lionel mutters, glancing up to catch me staring.

"I didn't say you were wrong. I quite agreed when you brought it up."

He snorts in amusement and then shifts his attention to where Ayn and Lysander, by contrast, stand with an awkward distance and no words between them.

I wonder why they're not having a more tearful goodbye, since they're dating, but then I notice the bag that's slung over Lysander's shoulder and the duffle at his feet and I remember Jun's words. "Lysander, don't you have a class to be teaching?"

He glances at us in surprise, as if he had forgotten that we were sitting there. Then his casual smile resumes its place on his face. "I called in sick today. Just like you two."

"Are you leaving, too?" Lio asks.

"Yeah. What gave it away?" It's meant to be teasing, but there's something about the way that Ayn looks at him that rubs me the wrong way. I can't put it into words. It's almost as if she's not entirely too happy.

Though, granted, that's sort of a broad idea. She hasn't looked happy all morning. She's been alone, without her teammate.

Our attention is pulled away from them as Jun and Zoné arrive. She's carrying very little with her, but considering she has been here less than a year, it's probably the same amount that she arrived with. At her side, Zoné has a knapsack and little else. He catches my curious glance and shrugs. "Not like I live far away or anything. It's an hour by train."

Ayn sighs and brushes a hand through her bangs. Her hair has been pulled back in a sloppy braid, draped over one shoulder, and she's changed out of the white dress she was in this morning. She looks a little more put together. "Now it's just a matter of which train is ours..."

"Why us?" I ask suddenly before she can turn away.

She looks at me and tilts her head. "Why not?"

"You could have selected any number of teams. You could have selected all of them. Why is it just us?"

Ayn's expression goes distant, focusing on something that isn't there. "It won't be much longer before the ban on travel is dropped, I think. When asked to make a choice, I thought about who needed it most." Her dark eyes settle on me once again. She still looks so tired and sad. "And who better than us?"

I don't have a better answer, because who indeed. Like Rhys said, I need to have bloodwork done at a hospital that isn't ALICE owned. We've spent too long in their thrall, and the paranoia of what else could happen is sky high. We've watched Glen die. Jun's fingers lost their ability to function properly. How much of it was malicious or intentional is unclear.

But it's enough to remind us just how much is at stake if we remain.

"Besides," Ayn says, pulling the attention back to her. "You have all contributed to the conclusion of this game. I want to thank all of you for your assistance, for not hesitating when asked to make a stand."

Zoné starts to say something, but words fail him. Jun picks up the slack.

"You took a stand for the rest of us. Thank you, as well."

Ayn pulls away from the group and moves towards Rhys. "I understand that you might not have a place to stay right away. My parents have a lot of space. You're welcome to stay with us until you have your feet back underneath you. I know I am asking a lot of you suddenly, leaving the city and your jobs. It's a temporary solution, but the best I can offer."

Rhys reaches out for her hand and grips it warmly between his own. He doesn't say anything.

She seems to understand all the same.

A delicate cough, barely audible over the general chatter of the central train station in the late afternoon, brings our attention round to Henrik. He stands again with his hands folded behind him, the crisp lines of his suit almost incongruous with the rest of the setting. "Is this all of you then?"

Ayn's face shuts down immediately, a frown settling onto the corners of her lips. But her shoulders straighten and her head lifts defiantly. "It is."

He looks like he wants to say something. In the end, he steps back and waves a hand. "Follow me." He waits for us to gather up our things, then leads the way down the platform. Away from the rest of the people.

I wonder how many odd looks we are getting. We must make a very strange sight -- a hodgepodge collection of people carrying luggage, led by a man in a suit.

Tourists, if Eminence got any.

"It was a simple matter of reprogramming one of the trains," he's explaining as he walks. Only Lionel really seems interested in the topic. "We generally send them back out empty after anyone arrives in the city. However, you might have noticed that we don't exactly have a very large influx of arrivals."

I did notice that. We flew in to the airport at New Oxford and took the train down from there. It was fairly empty.

"It's very difficult to have to control the population of a city. We don't want too many people arriving, because we will run out of space for them."

"Or out of drugs to poison them with," Zoné mutters, loud enough for all of us to hear.

"It's a good thing that's not going to be a concern much longer, isn't it, Mr. Braum?" Ayn asks, her voice far lighter than the glare she gives him. "Soon people will be able to come and go as they please."

He frowns, jaw tensing against the words he won't say. His expression isn't enough to convey his unspoken conversation to the rest of us, but it must be enough for Ayn. "If you would just give me the documents--" he starts, and once again Lio perks up.

Ayn shakes her head and glances away. "Should have thought of that before you decided to interfere."

"A--Miss Starling--"

She's not having any of it. "Is this our train then?" We've reached the end of the platform. At least the lights are working well enough, and it doesn't seem to be in a state of disrepair. I half expected to be led to a platform in shambles where they had to dust off an old train car to be able to carry us out of the city.

"This is it," Henrik explains. "It will carry you out of the city as far as New Oxford. From there, it is up to you to make arrangements to wherever you are going." He levels each of us with a careful stare. "Seeing as you all managed to arrive here in one piece, I don't imagine that will prove much of a challenge."

He holds up a key fob to the door, and it opens with a pneumatic hiss. Ayn is the first one on board, and I watch her bright red hair pass by the windows as she moves through the car. Jun and Zoné go next, close on her heels.

Lysander lingers back long enough to shake hands with Kaito. "It was a pleasure, sir," he says, loud and boisterous.

"Always charmed," Kaito returns, equally enthusiastic. "Try not to get stuck anywhere else for so long."

With a grin and a slap on the shoulder, Lysander turns around and follows the others onto the train.

That leaves the four of us on the platform. Henrik stands by the door and pointedly avoids looking at us.

Kaito pulls me in for a tight hug, and, after a moment's pause, pulls Lionel into the same armful. "You kids look out for your brother, alright?"

Lio rolls his eyes, but I return the hug with as much strength as I can muster. "You look after yourself."

"I always do."

Behind us, Rhys snorts.

Slowly, we release him and take a step back -- then another until there is enough distance for Rhys to step in.

We can't hear their goodbyes, despite the fact that we're not all that far away. Their foreheads brush as they lean in to exchange soft words. Then Kaito’s hand lifts to Rhy’s cheek, and the remaining distance is eliminated by a kiss.

I turn away, tugging Lio along behind me.

It's over far sooner than I thought it would have been. Rhys helps pick up the rest of the luggage and loads it onto the train car.

Henrik doesn't say anything as we board. He casts one last glance down the car, then places the key back against the panel.

The doors creak, hiss, and slide shut. Moments pass as we stand in stunned silence.

With a lurch and a sharp jerk, the train starts to pull out of the station.

At the far end of the car, a shuddering sound escapes Ayn and she doubles over to bury her face in her hands.

Zoné, a look of shock on his face, watches the walls of the station pass by the window. Jun has her head tucked against his shoulder.

I turn to my two brothers. Rhys' expression is pained, but not like he's about to break down. Lionel releases a soft breath. After a beat, they return my stare.

"We're going home," I repeat, a broken record at this point. Only no matter how many times I have said it, the words have never tasted so bittersweet.