Eden was the only one who'd moved by the time I returned. After spending so much of the night hard at work madly finishing up our plan with our person on the inside to bring down The Company, it'd been my turn to take another break. The first had been to return home to check on the two lovebirds, and checking up on them had made the rest of my task harder. Getting extra clothes and other things out of my room proved incredibly difficult with Amaranth and Ethereal all cuddled up in my bed. Amaranth had stirred for one brief moment, but with the glassy gaze of sleep in his eyes I doubted he'd even remember seeing me when he woke up for real. I'd made sure to leave him and Ethereal a note though. The second break now consisted of me taking a nap, washing up as much as I could, and getting a bite to eat. I'd had rougher nights, but this one was certainly going to be ingraining itself firmly in my noggin for the rest of my years to come. Not just because of the stress, but because of the aftermath our humble group would cause upon our success.
"B, it's more than past your turn if you want to get some sleep or something."
While we knew each other's real names, we used each other's codenames here.
"Good luck, U. He's not having a break," our orange friend, G, told me with a grin, "It took all my effort just to get him off his computer and onto the couch."
I sighed and shook my head.
"You're going to be the death of me." I told my stupid, genius friend.
"Please, this is nothing compared to staying up late at night with a colicky baby. A little lack of sleep is nothing." Eden declared proudly.
"I thought E was well past the point of having colic by the time you met her," I wondered, using Ethereal's own codename.
"She was. I was talking about the other project babies. Half of them had it."
"Oh."
I leaned back and stretched. That was another aspect of this I kept forgetting. Ethereal wasn't the only child whose life had been manipulated. Eleven other children were out there somewhere unknowingly dealing with the effects of The Company's selfishness. Eden had told me the boy who'd been born after Ethereal had terrible heart problems. One of the girls had rett syndrome. Several had awful eyesight, and another suffered from a weak immune system as Ethereal did. Those were merely a few of the problems too. It'd been hard to imagine Ethereal as the healthy one when I'd seen her so sick at various points in her life, but from what Eden had divulged more as we got closer and closer to the ultimate moment it made more sense why The Company had chosen her.
"I hope they don't hate us for this." I said quietly.
"Who?" Eden asked.
"The other project kids. They've all grown up believing this massive lie. Once the truth gets out, their lives will be turned upside down. I'm sure there will be some of them who would have preferred to stay in the dark. The majority are still underage too, right? The parents are sure to be arrested for their dealings with the black market and paying into the program that caused the children's suffering. Their families are going to be ripped apart."
"Probably." Eden agreed reluctantly.
"Alright boys, you're getting a little too depressing over there. Let's just focus on this other problem first." C, the purple woman across the way, interrupted.
"My bad." I said.
Eden and I talked about peppier, mundane things to brighten the atmosphere. Our other friends working in different rooms popped in and out, and I eventually returned to my desk. I'd barely gotten started when D, the blue guy, spoke up.
"I've got a call trying to get through. U, it's going to your line." he said.
For safety's sake, none of our phones were near us. The few calls we did get were being patched through and rerouted to a proxy phone.
"Does the number end in 5751?"
"Yeah."
"That's A's number. Run it through the security protocols just in case though."
D's fingers typed away at his keyboard. Several seconds later the phone nearby began buzzing.
"Hey, kid. What's u-?" I tried to address my nephew.
"Blaze, they've got her!" Amaranth began before I could finish, and his panicked, rapid, frightened tone and the knowledge it gave me immediately sent my own heart racing, "They found out she was here and they came and got her! I-I tried to stop them, but they came in so fast and I-"
"Am, breathe. It's alright," I somehow managed to speak calmly before pulling the phone away and speaking to G who looked at me with concern, "My apartment has been compromised. They took E."
"What!?" Eden jumped to his feet and dashed over.
"Am, are you alright?" I questioned, ignoring him.
"Yeah." he answered, although his voice quivered and it sounded as if he was about to cry.
"What happened?"
"Al called, and I was talking to him. The next thing I knew, Ethereal was giving out a muffled shout as some brown man drugged her with something he had coated on his glove. She passed out. I had two other goons swarm me with guns. I didn't get hurt, but one of them got away with the brown guy. The other asshole I've got right here in front of me with his own gun pointed at him" Amaranth clung onto whatever strength he found inside to tell me all as quickly as he could, "Blaze, I don't know what to do. I can hear the others tenants from the lower floors scrambling up here. What do I-"
"You don't know anything, Am. You know jack shit about what's going on- that's what you tell them. Say as much of the truth as is needed, but you don't have a reason as to why. Okay? That should tide you over. I'll be there soon."
"O-Okay. Just be careful too. If they knew Ethereal was here, they're probably onto your location as well."
As soon as he said that, the screens in our room flashed alive with warnings and lines of data.
"Someone's coming," G spoke urgently, "I've already got the evacuation programs running. We need to get out of here as fast as we can."
The other three leapt into action. Eden stood there dumbfounded, horrified, and shocked.
"Am, I will see you soon, alright? Stay strong. I love you." I said to end the call.
"Yeah. I-I love you too." he replied softly.
It hurt my entire body to imagine the expression on his face and to press the disconnect button. I didn't dare try to play out the scenario Amaranth described in my head. The thought of some bastards having faced guns in his direction would either have me devolving into a fit of anger or freezing up as Eden had done. D sped away at his keyboard again running the last of whatever programs we needed to activate to help take care of our own problem while G began a quick, flurried conversation with C as he saw me moving over to Eden. I was the better one to snap him out of it, and we both knew it.
"This is it. I've failed her," he mumbled to himself, his eyes wide, "There was only hope while she was away from them. They're too big for us to take down. I should have realized. Now it's all useless. I..."
"Nonsense. B, there's plenty of time to fix this. We've got plenty of plans to deal with this scenario."
If Eden heard me, he ignored me. On and on he mumbled for the brief few seconds I could afford to spare him. The warnings beeped louder. The other three were already almost ready to rush out the door. Eden, however, his breathing quickened and the draining of the color out of his face signified he was about to lose it.
"Eden, c'mon," I took the risk to use his name as I dragged him in tight, "You haven't failed yet. You won't fail ever until the day you give up. Ethereal's strong. She brilliantly smart. You've raised her like that, so she can handle herself until we get her. Our enemy is not impenetrable. There's a means to get them, and we're going to find it."
"I..."
His voice disappeared. Tears threatened to fall from his eyes, and his legs quivered as if about to collapse. From that, a burst of anger swelled in my gut.
"Fucking hell, Eden!" I reprimanded with a goading bite, "Ethereal has been drugged and kidnapped. She's going to be terrified, alone, and overwhelmed. Every second we waste is more time they get to hurt and abuse her! Do you really want to spend that time throwing a damn pity party for yourself?!"
Eden jerked as if struck by electricity. He started to unclench himself from my embrace, and the wetness in his eyes cleared as sanity and confidence retook him.
"No." he spoke with unwavering determination.
"Good. You're pissed off at them. That's what we need," I encouraged, bringing him in for one more hurried squeeze before stepping away, "Let's go get Am, and then let's go get your sister, huh?"
"Yeah."
Eden dashed over before I could blink to grab his things from his desk. I scrambled to mine to do the same. The other three met us at the door while the screens and lights went dark as C shut everything off. The sounds of the others in the building rushing out met our ears, and Eden closed the door behind us as we went to join the evacuation.
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