Twisted Returns

"Lorraine. Lorraine, Lorraine, Lorraine. Say something. Please. Or at least eat something. Anything. Please."

I beg and beg until my throat is sore. Until her name no longer sounds like a name and my words don't sound like actual words.

But all she does is shake her head.

"Lorraine... you have to." Even Dean tries. But it doesn't have any effect. Her eyes are glassy, staring at the walls. I'm not sure if she even sees them.

"Nicole," she says out of no where. "Nicole."

Dean and I look at each other sadly, knowing that her statement is a request. And knowing that she won't, and can't, get what she wants.

"Lorraine... You know what happened. I - we can't."

She just shakes her head, over and over again. "Cody."

That's when I turn to Dean. "Do you think we can get him?"

"We don't have any contact with him. Our network is down, remember? It probably won't be up again for a few more days."

"We might not have contact with him," I say, tapping my necklace, "but Marigold does."

----

We sit there, watching Lorraine sleep as we wait for Cody to arrive. She's silent, her eyes closed, but her expression is far from peaceful.

The door flies open and in comes Cody, panic written all over his face. He rushes over to the bed, careful not to wake her.

"What's wrong?" he asks, kneeling down next to her. "Is she okay?"

"She's... she's in shock," I tell him.

"Why? What happened?" He turns to me and for the first time I can see how much older he looks, how tired he is. "Marigold just called me in. Nobody told me anything."

"Uhm, well, I..."

"And where's Nicole?" He looks around the room. "I'd really like to meet my own daughter."

I don't say anything and just look to Dean to give him the news. "She was killed in the hospital blast."

Cody doesn't seem to believe him. He looks down at his girlfriend. "This can't be true. Lorraine... she told me that our baby was safe."

"She was supposed to be," I say. "She was supposed to be staying with Ashlee in the residential wing."

Cody's face takes on a blank expression. And from all the years that I've known him (nineteen, altogether), I've learned that this is a bad sign. The worst. "And why wasn't she there?"

Dean shakes his head. "We lost Ashlee too. No one knows why she wasn't where she was supposed to be. We have theories, though."

"And what would those be?" Cody asks, his voice coming out monotone.

"First off, you have to know about Kellis..."

"Who?"

"Ashlee's boyfriend. He worked in the hospital with her, and he was under suspicion. People thought that he was working for the enemy."

"And was he?"

"Don't know. It could have been him that set off the bombs. But either he was a suicide bomber or just stupid enough to blow himself up."

"Probably the latter," I mutter.

"What does this even have to do with Nicole?" Cody asks, his voice still dead.

"He could have lured Ashlee there," Dean continues. "And even though she should have stayed in her room, she went to see Kellis. Meaning she had to take Nicole with her, too."

"But, what? What would someone want with Ashlee, specifically?"

"I think it's because she's a Terran," Dean says. "Maybe she wasn't particularly important, but she was still one of us. And a close link to Dana. The closer, the better."

That just makes me think that this is my fault. And it is. My fault that Nicole is dead. My fault that Ashlee is gone. And as for Kellis - well, I never met the guy, and I'm pretty sure he was on the bad side. I don't give a damn about him. However, I do care about the other two.

Cody looks down at Lorraine again. "I want to talk to her. Can I wake her up?"

"Sure, but that might not be the best idea."

He shakes her awake anyways. "Lorraine? Lorraine, wake up."

Her eyes flutter open. She stares straight up at him. But her eyes still seem to stare into nothing. She doesn't seem to see him at all.

"Lorraine, it's okay. Lorraine, I'm here." The moment is so sad, so sweet. And heartbreaking.

Then it breaks, and Lorraine is screaming. "Cody! Cody!" She throws her arms around his neck, sobbing freely. He holds her steady.

"Maybe we should go..." I whisper to Dean. He nods and we quietly leave the room.

I stop in the doorway, though. When I look back, I see something that astonishes me.

Because in all the nineteen years that I've known him, I've never seen Cody cry.

----

"Search Kellis Riven."

Dean and I are in the Room of Records. When we left the room, he suggested that we do some research on Kellis. I agreed, because I need to know.

We use a computer to search through the records. It's similar to the ones on Earth, but more advanced in some ways. It can pull thoughts from your mind to get more exact search results (which I find creepy and invasive). And of course, it runs on magic.

But since Crystallaria is conserving power, the computers take excruciatingly long periods of time. We just sit in silence, waiting for everything to load.

The information finally appears on the screen. I scroll through, skinning the file. Date of birth, date of death, origin, species... all of that. At the end of the file is a picture of him.

That's when I realize that I recognize that face.