Xander's eye twitched.
Sure is heartwarming to see it on a screen, he thought, watching Vander and Powder embrace in the flickering green light.
Then his gaze dropped to his bleeding chest and torn ribcage.
But god fucking damn it!
True to the show, the cries of his loved ones had pulled Vander out from the depths of agony. Without the wolf grafts or shimmer excess, Vander's mind seemed almost whole.
"Powder," Vander croaked, clutching her tight, tears streaking through the grime and stitches on his face. "How… how are you here? Where's Vi?"
"I'm right here." Vi's voice trembled as she rushed forward, wrapping her arms around them both.
Vander froze, blinking rapidly, his disbelief plain and half convinced this was another hallucination born of pain and confinement.
"How… where—?"
"It's a long story," Vi sniffled, voice quivering as she held on tighter. Powder said nothing, her shoulders shaking against Vander's chest, silent tears slipping down her cheeks.
Vi looked back over her shoulder. "Sorry… for doubting you," she murmured to Xander. Then her eyes fell to his side, blood dripping through his fingers, and she blinked several times before realizing this wasn't the time to celebrate.
"We need to go," she said quickly, tearing herself away to scan the restraints. "How do we get you out of this?"
Slowly, Vander's head began to turn. However the second his eyes searched the surrounding room with tubes, cages, vats, the smell of blood and chemicals, his breath hitched. His chest rose and fell in shallow bursts and when his gaze locked on Xander's demonic mask, his panic deepened.
"Stop—" Vi grabbed Vander's face, forcing his eyes back to her. "Don't look at anything else. We'll get you out, just… close your eyes, okay? Powder, get working on those chains! And you-" she looked at Xander, frustration bleeding into desperation, "take off the mask!"
"No," Xander said flatly. "They don't know what I look like without it. It stays on."
Powder ignored them both, crouched near the operating platform, tugging at tubes and restraints. Caitlyn hovered near the entrance, rifle shaking slightly in her hands as her eyes darted between the corridor and the reunion. She clearly wanted to be happy for them but the situation had her on edge.
Grunting, Xander forced himself upright, pressing a hand to his wounded side. Powder glanced over, worry flickering across her face before she focused again on freeing Vander.
"Do you even know what these tubes do?" Vi demanded.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out!" Powder shot back, yanking on another chain. "Why don't you help me figure it out?!"
"I'm trying to keep Vander calm! And I don't even know what half this shit is!"
"Ugh!" Powder groaned, jerking one of the chains loose. "Then stay outta my way!"
While they worked, Xander drifted to the far side of the chamber.
The body of the two-headed monkey lay twisted where he struck it. Two creatures fused together, flesh warped and half-melted. He could feel the death energy pulsing faintly beneath the skin.
Before, his command to detonate the corpse had been rejected. Now, he sensed that barrier was no longer there. He could feel it answering him again.
Singe's work, he thought grimly. A failed attempt to cure death? Was this supposed to guard Vander or did it escape confinement?
His gaze swept over the stitched flesh, the floating organs in jars, the surgical tables and the hand-written notes covered in blackened fingerprints relating to the research.
All this mutilation… all this madness… to save one daughter.
Disgust twisted his face beneath the mask. He turned away and stepped into the corridor beyond Caitlyn and he hall stretched before him, lined with mangled corpses, his corpses, and every one looked just as mortifying as the creature he'd just slain.
Am I any different? Or am I worse?
I tell myself and them there's a cause but... is it just an excuse? Compared to Singe's reason to save his daughter, my reasoning is...
A quiet, humorless laugh escaped him, muffled and distorted by the mask. To Caitlyn, it sounded cruel and mocking as her gaze followed his as it swept across the corpses.
Her hands tightened on her rifle as she stared at him from behind. Her knuckles whitened and it took every bit of willpower she had not to raise her weapon.
The sound of that hollow laugh followed her into the dull silence that settled on the lab.
-------------
~Later~
"How soon before the other gangs are mobilized?" Silco snapped, pacing restlessly across his office. His tone carried the brittle edge of a man losing patience.
"Jinx went missing after befriending that thing!"
Sevika, slouched on the couch with her arm resting over the back, didn't even bother to look up at first. She took a drag from her cigar before exhaling through her nose, smoke curling lazily in the air.
"The doctor's lab was also raided," she said quietly. "His work's gone. Stolen, destroyed. By the looks of it, the monster paid it a visit."
"Yes, I know that," Silco snapped, slamming a fist against the table so hard some whiskey spilled from his whiskey glass. "One problem at a time!"
Sevika's brow furrowed slightly. She gestured with her cigar, her voice cool and measured."She befriended a monster, Silco. You can't protect her from every suicidal whim."
"Don't," he barked, slamming both fists onto the desk this time. The wood groaned under the force.
She didn't flinch, just took another long drag. The faint glow from the cigar's tip briefly lit the sharp lines of her face.
When she spoke again, her voice's tone held some reassurance.
"Some of our men thought they saw her. Blue hair moving through the Sump. They lost track of her soon after. No one else can move like that and evade our trackers."
She flicked ash onto the floor.
"That monster leaves bodies behind. Every time we hear about it, there's nothing but death."
Silco stilled. The fury didn't vanish. His hands trembled on the desk and his damaged crimson eye twitched, darting around in speculation.
"She's being cautious," he muttered. "Keeping distance. If she hasn't returned to her hideout, she's worried it might follow her."
"Maybe," Sevika said.
He looked back sharply. "Maybe?"
She met his sharp gaze unwaveringly.
"You know how she is. For all we know she could've caused it."
The silence that followed was heavy.
Silco's expression softened, if only slightly, and he leaned forward, pressing both palms to the desk as his voice lowered into something more fragile.
"We must find Jinx."