"Alright, open communications?" Xander asked, and Elliot nodded, reaching over to open comms to the other escape shuttles, "Checking in, how many escape shuttles got away?"
The man who was keeping Bella updated while they were on the ground—Who introduced himself as Uncle Gong—Answered, "Forty-nine out of fifty, the one that didn't make it was the one that was hit with the cannonball. All survivors of the impact were transferred to another escape shuttle."
There was a round of cheers, and Xander chuckled, letting out a sigh of relief, "A'Li? How's Bella?"
"She's resting right now, Leon, Owen, and Fenix are taking turns keeping an eye on her," Lumina said, "She's got a couple of bruises, some I don't think are from the explosion, but she's mostly alright."
"Good," Hyunwoo added, "Let her sleep. If she wakes up, tell her to go back to sleep and that we've got everything handled. She's a bit overwhelmed right now."
Lumina nodded, "Do we have everything handled? We do need to talk more about the plan and what just happened."
Xander sighed, "Honestly, I don't think we can. Everyone is overwhelmed right now. We need…We need to regroup. Process. As many people as we did get out of there, we did lose people…"
The other woman was quiet, "Uncle Li, I'm cutting off communication with you, is that alright?" She asked. The older man nodded, closing off the communications. Lumina sighed and looked over to Xander, "Who have we lost?"
"...Sam, Haven, Lifen, and Ariyasul we know for sure. Sam and his spouses joined the night of the wedding. We also lost quite a few trying to get the escape shuttles off the ground. I can't even tell you how many civilians we lost though, the streets were filled with dead bodies—" There was a loud explosion in the distance behind them, and they all turned to look out the windows.
"Jesus Christ," Val said, moving over so Nia could sit up against her to look out the window. A few more airships were now circling over the town which was being leveled to the ground by bombs, "Everyone's already gone, are they really that determined to demolish the town?"
Xander let out a rushed breath, "It isn't about destroying the town," He said softly, "It's about sending a message. This town didn't pledge their loyalty to anyone, They're showing the other Sectors that this is what happens if they don't give up control to the White Lotus. This means allies are going to be very difficult to come by from now on."
Elliot nodded, "Other than our own rebellion members, we're on our own. Lumina, can you take a log of injuries over there? If there's too many wounded, then I'll send you the coordinates to one of our camps outside of the Sectors."
"We're mostly alright, Elliot," Leon responded, "As long as Bella gets the rest we need, everyone else just has a few scratches and bruises here, nothing we can't patch up. Besides, we have Mina on our side. Besides, I think we'll reach Sector 3 before you guys so we'll have time to regroup and rest on the ground."
Elliot held down the button, talking, "Alright, since we have Nia and Val, plus the baby and kitten, we're going to stop at the camp. We need to get Nia and Val properly looked at for now if they're staying with us. Depending on what doctors say, we'll make the decision whether they'll stay at the camp or not," The two mentioned began to argue, but Elliot wasn't having any of it, "No, I'm not going to be swayed on this, either of you. If you're too injured to be going, then you're not coming."
Suddenly, someone's voice called from the doorway, "Hey, Elliot?" Chaewon asked, hesitantly, "...I really hope I'm wrong about this…Can you hand the controls over to someone else and come over here?" He turned to see that his wife was holding the baby in her arms. He nodded, giving the controls over to Kaedan, who sat down in the pilot's seat, Xander leaning on it behind him.
Elliot walked over, and Chaewon handed Xingxing over to him, "Huh? What is it, Chae?" He asked, confused.
"Does anything feel off?" She asked.
Elliot concentrated for a minute. She'd asked him to hold Xingxing, so it must have something to do with her—
No.
Oh, no, no, no, no.
"You've got to be kidding me," He whispered, "A baby? How far are they willing to go for their damned experiments?"
Val approached them, walking a bit slower so as to not aggravate her injury, "What is it? What's wrong? Is Xingxing okay?" Alya was on the ground, gently nudging her foot.
Chaewon and Elliot looked at each other, before coming to a decision, "This baby…She's like us," Chaewon said carefully, "As in, like the fourteen of us."
Val's eyes widened, "What—How do you know? She's just a baby, there's no way…"
Elliot sighed, "Risále, can you come over here?" He asked. The girl nodded and came over near him, "Hold Xingxing for a moment," He handed the wriggling baby over to her. She gently supported her neck, bouncing her a bit to hush her, "Do you feel anything strange about her?"
Risále slowly came to a pause as Xingxing calmed down a bit, grabbing onto pieces of her blue hair and playing with it, her tiny hands patting Risále. Suddenly, her eyes widened, "What…What is this? It's…A weird feeling. It's not…Exactly the feeling I had around Lumina, Owen, Leon, Hyunwoo, and Bella, but it's really really similar. With them, they felt familiar, as though I should know them. This…Isn't the exact same feeling but it's very similar. What's going on?" She handed the baby back to Chaewon.
"You guys know how Leon recognized all of you, right?" Elliot asked, and all of them nodded, "Just like that, Bella, Chaewon, and I also recognized all of you the moment we saw you. Let me also add that if Risále's memories weren't strangely muddled in general, she would have also recognized everyone here the moment she met them. What do we all have in common?"
The realization seemed to sink in as Nia spoke, "All of you used to be White Lotus scientists. And all of you are cyborgs."
"Wait, then what about me, Kaedan, and Owen?" Fenix asked from the other side of the communications, "I was raised by the White Lotus scientists and I was forced into helping with the experiments as well. Kaedan and Owen are technically cyborgs as well."
Bella was the one who explained, "No, you weren't officially one of the scientists, and you weren't part of the experiments that Leon, Risále, Chaewon, Elliot, and I were part of. Specifically, the ones were done on Leon, Risále, and me. Even for me, because of my betrayal, they managed to mess with the information I had, which is why Leon knows way more about all of this than any of us. Kaedan and Owen were 'failed' cyborgs, which is why they don't have the same knowledge that we do."
"You're telling me they did the experiment on a baby?" Leon asked, his voice trembling in fury, "God, if I knew this is what my research would be used for, I would have just…" He seemed to realize who exactly was listening to his words and stopped, "Elliot, did you…"
"No, I knew nothing about this. If I did, I would have never…I would have stopped them. My hands were tied as well, they didn't trust me," Elliot said, his eyebrows furrowed.
Leon shook his head, "I'm not blaming you, I know that if you knew, you would have done whatever you could to stop them. But why…What reason could they possibly have for experimenting on a baby?" He asked.
Chaewon interrupted him, "Leon, why are you asking Elliot if he knew? Both of us…Lost connection with White Lotus activity at the same time," She chose her words carefully, "So, why would Elliot know something that I didn't know?"
Elliot and Leon looked at each other through the screen, both of them trying to figure out how to explain it, "...Chae, I can't talk about it," Elliot said slowly, "I can't hint anything towards you unless you start to figure it out yourself. For now, just trust me. All I can say is…Think about why I might have known so much about the White Lotus's plans and why I seem to know more than I should."
Chaewon seemed to think about it but then sighed, "Alright. I trust you," She said, rocking Xingxing in her arms, "By the way, we're all mostly fine except for Val and Nia, so we'll only be stopping for them both and to give Xingxing over to someone to take care of her. We can't very well bring a baby on this mission. Or a kitten," She looked over at Alya, and the little kitten looked back at her, kaleidoscope eyes meeting her own as the kitten blinked slowly. Somehow, the kitten felt much older than it seemed at that moment. She couldn't describe but it just felt…Different.
Then, Alya went back to snuggling into Val's discarded sweater, and Chaewon decided she must have been imagining things.
"Alright, sounds good," Lumina responded, "We'll check in with you guys every two hours or so, just so we all can make sure we're alright and, you know, no one has crashed or anything—Uh, Risále?" Lumina seemed to notice the girl, "You alright?"
Elliot looked to see that Risále was staring at Xingxing. When she looked up at him though, he sucked in a breath, "It's not Risále," He announced, "Welcome back, Your Highness," He said.
"Lose the title, will you?" Apocalypse sighed, waving her hand, "A Queen of a destroyed kingdom is no Queen at all, besides, being Queen only brought me trouble. Just Apocalypse is fine."
"What do you want?" Chaewon asked, and for a moment, Apocalypse looked strangely unguarded, hearing her voice. Instantly though, her defenses seem to come back up, but not all of them.
She took a deep breath, "Can I…Hold her?" She asked. Elliot and Chaewon both seemed taken aback.
"Sure," Chaewon said. For some reason, even though this woman was known for having murdered more than sixty people by herself, something in her inherently wanted to trust this woman. Something about this woman felt…warm to her. Something about this woman reminded her of comfort. She looked to see Elliot looking at the woman, a puzzled look on his face as well. As his eyes met hers, they made the silent agreement to talk later. She handed the wriggling baby over to Apocalypse.
The woman gently bounced the baby, rocking her a couple of times as well and hushing her. The baby made a little confused sound, and Apocalypse cooed, tickling her under her chin, "There you go, that's it. You're safe now, sweetheart, don't worry," She said. Xingxing gurgled a bit before letting out a small giggle, reaching up to grab Apocalypse's finger, "Hello to you too, darling," Apocalypse responded, a smile on her face.
"You're…Good with children?" Nia asked.
Apocalypse let out a laugh, "This wouldn't be the first child I've had to take care of."
Nia crossed her arms, "Wait, how old are you?"
Apocalypse huffed, amusement in her scarlet eyes, "Almost twice your age, that's for sure," Nia blanched and Apocalypse couldn't hold back her laugh, "Alright, alright, I'm thirty-three right now, was twenty-three when I died. Aside from what rumors the White Lotus spread, I was actually a pretty good Queen. I might have been known as the Warrior Queen while I was alive, but I never tried to hurt the people I was ruling. Obviously, being a good Queen means being good to children. Some of the people working for me had children, and sometimes I'd take care of them," There seemed to be something else she wasn't saying, but no one was going to push the woman who had been known as The Warrior Queen.
"Alright. I'm going to close comms for now. If you guys need anything or if something happens, just open comms again and someone will open it from our side," Lumina waved, and Leon, Fenix, and Mina echoed her actions.
"Bye, guys," Xander responded and turned off the communications. He turned back to the others and sighed, one hand on the seat Kaedan was sitting on and the other on his hip, "Get some rest, according to the coordinates, we'll be there in about a day. We'll take two-hour shifts, Kaedan first, then me, then Elliot, then Chaewon. Send a message to Lumina and remind her to switch between her, Mina, and Bella."
The other nodded and agreed.
"Oh," Apocalypse said softly, "She's asleep," She looked down at Xingxing fondly, "Good, she's been through a lot."
Elliot smiled as he leaned on the doorway, facing Apocalypse, "She likes you," he said softly.
"Terrible decision, really," Apocalypse laughed quietly, "But if that's her choice, who am I to say anything?"