Blue Ruby. Red Emerald. Crystalia. Superior. If that was really all that was left, Dorothy could just get rid of them right now.
She was in a main area emergency outlet. There were 200 combined that stretched from Earth to the colonies. There were more than that though, no one knew everything RTL actually had. Inside these places were charming heroes, superhero heroines, would be killers, sanity losers, homeless runners, and children of the others left behind. Superior and Crystalia was in charge of all of it.
All of it. As much as she wanted to leave, to get out of Revenge of the Lost? A running total of many innocent people would have to suffer. Dorothy wanted to know once, just what she had been up against.
Before she made this final move, she took Amira and Zara with her around the place, to look over at Crystalia's white board. Just a mess. There's no way anyone would even know. She probably had them all labeled under aliases. One of the first things her mind filled with direction from the zero system would want.
Forty Two orphanages on Earth alone, with nineteen out in the colonies. In the emergency areas, over 20 names. Two had been scratched out, Kenny and Bubblegum Diamond. A rough estimate of money and deliveries needed to go to each emergency outlet to keep surviving. Triton Bloom's mother is such a fighter. Even though the zero system ate at her mind, she knew it was Crystalia that was making the process slow enough to figure other things out.
Zara put his hand toward her mouth, looking like he was about to cry. No, no. "You are going to be fine." She held him tighter.
"It's rough."
No, not Sapphire. This was hard enough. What was she doing there right now? "So many numbers and places, but so little names in each. We should have all gathered in one area."
"If one gets found, the others go unaffected. Unless Crystalia or Superior is found," Sapphire pointed out. "Crystalia."
Ugh, those eyes. Ugh, that position. "They would still be okay. The government would go in and rescue them."
"If the government tried to rescue them, they would all take up arms." Sapphire pointed out the obvious. "They'd go in shooting and that would be that."
Dorothy knew all of this. Knew it very soon after being brought into the RTL community. "The government would step in to at least help all of the orphanages."
"And children's hospitals?" Sapphire gestured over to the corner. "Oh, but our safety houses. Not burn houses yet, we had many safety houses. We actually all worked on one of the first woman's shelters we made. We wanted to lay down a couple of bricks ourselves. Just to say 'look what we can do'." She started to cry. "It was silly and dumb and I'll remember it until I die. I have a picture of it even." She looked on her phone and showed Dorothy. "Oh, look at those ridiculous smiles."
Crying and laughing. Incredibly vivid moment. Do not break, you need to run! "I believe the one we all want to kill, Miss Relena could have handled it all. She was very smart and very good and very kind." Nope, too nice. "I mean-"
"You have a soft spot for her? A lot of people did. I wonder what her fate was supposed to be with Superior?" Sapphire asked.
"You don't want to know, and I'll never tell." She held her children closer.
"Are you responsible for what is happening to Crystalia?" Sapphire just had to say it.
Too close. "I don't know what you mean, she seems the same to me." Leave the area, leave that woman.
"Thousands will get lost and die on the streets before anyone even understands why. The world as a whole, probaby won't even notice it."
"Someone will take care of them," Dorothy insisted.
"No one did until she did. They were placed in the care of whatever was around that could help. There was no real place, not for all of them." Sapphire was still crying. "No way to place them with families. That's why revenge never worked for me for long." Sapphire came back around to her, not letting her get away. "The gundam pilots were the deal breaker. One of them had suffered in that same exact way we were trying to prevent."
"Then you should have moved out of RTL and back into the safety of STL!" She was stirring Dorothy up. Zara started to cry. Sorry, Zara. It's okay. You need to calm down, you'll make Amira cry too.
"I couldn't, once you join this side, it's for life. I just moved to being a burner. All of those women are going to eventually be found. The state of their mind when that happens. We housed so many. It felt like something between STL and RTL."
"It was the slope that led to RTL." That made sense. Her reason for being here by this board. By talking about her past. She's grieving.
"You can't hide the way we did with law and government involved. The rules of who we helped were no longer just women who lost their family. They could be getting hurt by their family, or even by a boyfriend that just had great influence in politics or the military. When the regular system wouldn't help, they came to us. We were the only ones who would get things done."
"And I'm guessing it wasn't in just a small district." Who was lost for you today?
"We typically housed over 200 each month all over the Earth and the colonies. The last lady I helped had a husband in government and was well known in the military. He realized she knew too many of his nasty secrets and wanted to kill her. We had to get her whole family moved and housed far away with new identities right away. It was a big time project I really wanted done."
Sapphire flipped the white board onto the other less appealing side. The lost side. "Crystalia added their names today. He killed the children too, just for staying with her. Some people!"
Dorothy watched Crystalia head over.
"She really died?" Sapphire gestured to the name. "By him, wasn't it?"
Dorothy heard the name of the one she just said. Didn't he just win a major election?
"Damn. She was the last one I helped before I left," Sapphire said as she tried to wipe her eyes. "I didn't want to believe it. Can I leave flowers for her?"
"On your own life," Crystalia said. She was flipping through papers and gave Sapphire the name of the cemetary. "It would be smarter to just honor her here. I have a section next to the gundams." She closed the papers back up, and Dorothy saw a slip in her expression. "It's become a blooming flower field in the back, you can't miss it. Superior had the idea to decorate it by either a rose, a blue flower or a purple flower. Rose for the adult, blue for babies, and purple flowers for children. There's a market place not too far near here. Get a rose, a blue flower and a purple flower. In fact, go ahead and get some little pots of the blues and purples."
Damn! Do. Not. Break. You cannot help.
"It's not fair. None of them are fair, but that one was so important to me before I left." Sapphire stared at the board. "He got away with it. He won his election too. Killed his family, won his election. Got away with it all."
"They always did before. Now they always will again." Crystalia looked away. "I have to go."
Sapphire looked back toward Dorothy. She could tell. "Even if you do change her, Platinum, could you imagine living with the truth of it all?"
Dorothy turned back around and took off. Too close.
"The others are going to be taken soon," Sapphire said from behind Dorothy. "I'm going to get the flowers and then we can leave. Why don't you join me?"
Already. It was already time. I have to do this. I have to. Only someone who understands is going to be able to help. I don't know this. I'm not good for this. "I think that sounds good. Zara and Amira could use a little fresh air."
"Yeah. I know they will get plenty of it," Sapphire said as she walked with Dorothy out of the facility. As they slowly ascended from all the metal from their underground area and eventually reached the warm sun, Sapphire spoke again. "It's such a shame. To see this beautiful program get so corrupted in After Colony 195. In such a short time, it's just whithering away as this wicked entity. For over 13 years, it helped so many. It's all that damn system and Superior's fault."
"Stop talking." Dorothy was done playing for her. "I don't want to hear from you. You are here because you screwed up. Instead of risking it to better yourself, you just moved yourself over in a good part of this twisted organization until you couldn't twist anymore. It started like a rose with a few thorns, but it ended in nothing but rotting diseased flowers shoved in tangled up vines and mounds of garbage. Crystalia should have known better than to mix all these organizations so tightly!"
"Crystalia was more human before Superior brought her zero system program. Even if the funding had started to disappear, she could have navigated it if she was herself. Will you really be able to fix her?" Sapphire asked. "Where are you going to leave them? How do you know they'll be safe?"
"None of these are your concern. Go get your flowers and leave me. I won't be much longer." He'd be so close, yet so far.
This had to be done. It had to be. She moved her own way, feeling every sensation of her babies. Wondering about it all, aren't you two? It's so nice and bright up here. There are a lot better things up here. You don't have to come into the depths of that terrible place anymore, if momma planned this right.
She was good at plans. She felt that. She was really good at being clever. But, she also had some apprehension. How could she not? She was leaving her children up to chance that the pilot that gave her daughter a dress had cared. A present means care. I know it was him. It was warm. I was fanning myself. He has a light, more delicate voice than others. Bright eyes.
She went over to wait by the library, acting like she was browsing for a book. She sat Amira down, her daughter having fully gone to sleep. Good.
She held onto Zara as she looked at the books near the table where her daughter slept in her carrier. Her boy just wasn't choosing sleep today. Like he knew his mom wasn't okay no matter how much she smiled. If only a book could pull us out of this. She picked up one. "This would be the closest thing. How to put out a raging fire. Unfortunately, the fire is too big by ourselves to handle." She looked through it. "See, Zara? We need big things called fire engines. We would need several thousands of them. So, all we can do, is run from the fire. Momma just can't be burned anymore." He patted the page. "Everyone is burning, no matter what, but I won't let us burn without trying to get out."
She continued to browse books. Time was getting closer. The local storyteller was coming around the corner. Time for the show to begin. "Oh, excuse me? Hello? Miss Carol?"
"Oh, Miss Catty," the young woman smiled. "Hi. I'm glad you could bring your babies this time to the reading."
"Well, I really wanted to, but-? Oh, I don't know what to do!" She started to cry out. "My sister is in the hospital, I have no one to watch my twins, and I don't know anyone else who babysits but you. Please, can you help me? I know this messes up storytime, but I will pay you a lot of money, just please help me!"
"Oh. Uh? Oh. I don't know if I can, but I have other friends that might be able to?"
"Oh please, please, I'll pay you to get them, and I'll pay you extra! You don't understand, I have to trust someone with my babies that are a professional, not a stranger off the street! We are talking thousands when I get back, please? My husband will contact you very soon, please?!"
"Thousands?! I mean? Oh, okay. Okay." Miss Carol took Zara from her arm and stood by Amira's carrier. "I'll see what I should do. Let me know what's going on as soon as possible though please."
"I promise, my husband will call as soon as he gets a chance. Maybe an hour, hopefully. It might be a little later. His name is Quatre. Just tell him his family is waiting for him. If you leave the library, just come back so he can pick them up. He doesn't know the area well."
"Okay, Miss Catty, I'll do that. I promise, I will make sure they are good." Miss Carol started to ease up Zara. "There you go. What's their names?"
Good. Good people would help, but money always made people much more helpful and pleasant. If this Quatre did care, he would come and accept the bill. "You are holding my boy Zara, and Amira is in the carrier sleeping." She is keeping him calm. She is very good. I picked the right person. I have to go back now. "Goodbye, Honeys. Your father will be picking you up soon." And I will be ready, no matter how this goes down. She gave Zara a little kiss feeling his little hands pat her cheeks. "Mommy loves you."
Time to go. She left in a hurry and started running back toward the flowers. Sapphire had actually stayed there. Dorothy was out of breath. "I'm not feeling well at all." Her nerves would definitely be helping to pull that off. "Give me extra time. I just need to rest." She sat down near the stands of flower beds. "Could you get me something? I think I'm going to throw up if I go any farther."
"You're lucky I'm not Blue Ruby or Red Emerald," Sapphire said back to her. "I figured you would need extra time. Our destination ride isn't for another four hours. We are supposed to be there early to survey when it was best to get them." She looked around the flowers. "I have to take off, but you better be there in four hours. We are going to get yelled at waiting even that long."
"I'm sure four hours will be good." If Mister Winner got himself a direct route down there. If not, she would have to run, and accept the consequences, because she couldn't do it.