SING.

“Hey, Motorbaby, Frank.” I greeted my companions as I brought my own bucket for water. I wondered briefly where Kobra Kid and Jet Star were, before my mind was sieged with flashbacks of all my wrongdoing. I couldn’t ignore them as I set to the mindless task of getting water.

“What happened to Battery?” Girl asked, fluttering her long eyelashes at me, and I couldn’t resist her childish eyes.

“She got in a bit of a scrape. She might be in trouble.” I saw Frank’s eyes lift noticeably out of my peripheral vision. At least I knew he agreed with me in this case, and was excited to get the damn traitor off of our team. I still didn’t like how Dr. D had forced me out of the room for her punishment, but hopefully that meant it was something worse than he thought I should see. Maybe he tied her to a post somewhere far away and was going to let her die slowly. I would be so happy to hear that as news of her conviction.

Alas, as we made our way into the base, I heard the light snore of Battery Monster from one of the nearby rooms. I would recognize the howling of her nostrils from anywhere. She was so damn quiet all the rest of the time, so I supposed it made sense that when she slept she made such gargantuan utterings. I was hoping by now she would be sleeping with the fishes, but I guess Dr. Death was being procrastinator-like?

No, he wasn’t someone that put anything off, he clearly had some motive or… or he’s letting her stay. Was he really going to let the parasite continue to leech off of us until she drew out all of our blood and left us rotting, mummified in the desert with no liquid in our veins to speak of?

I couldn’t let that happen. Dr. Death had to see the light. Maybe if I got Girl on my side he would listen, just maybe. I dropped off my large bucket of water and grabbed another. I grabbed Girl’s arm, pulling her along, lightly telling her that, “I have something to show you.”

It would be useless to get Show Pony’s opinion, he wasn’t the type to talk, more listen and stare calmly through the visor, or when he did show his face, talk only sporadically and then very quickly. Too quickly for humans to conceive what alien language he must’ve been speaking.

“Girl, I lied when I said Battery was in trouble.” Once we got out of ear shot of the base, I told her that.

“Why? I know you don’t like her, but that’s no reason to lie. Lying is wrong.” Go her for having morals, but this was not the place for morals. This was, in point of fact, the Wild West, and she wasn’t going to be a cowboy until she smartened up. She was just going to be the barkeep’s ward until she figured out that there was grey area. The world wasn’t just black and white.

“I lied because I didn’t know I was lying. I thought she was in trouble, now I know she is trouble.” I was cryptic, but I had to break it to her lightly, the ice was thin and I could barely tread on it without causing fractures here.

I didn’t spare Battery Monster this pain; she didn’t deserve to be spared. She was 007, with the license to kill and everything.

“What do you mean?” Girl stopped in her tracks and I stopped along with her, sighing in regret at what I was going to have to do, to keep us all alive: to keep my family safe.

“Battery isn’t who you think she is. I… the guys and I believe she is a spy, and we have evidence to prove it.” Her grey eyes looked up at me, trying to fathom what I was saying. I heard a wispy breath rattle out of her chest as if she had been stabbed. Motorbaby groaned in pain, falling down on her knees, crying loudly, like children normally did. I had never seen her cry, she was so strong usually.

“What… evidence?” She yelled, screaming as hot tears burned down her face, vaporizing in the heat of the desert. I gulped, trying to force the bile rising in my throat back downwards. I really didn’t like hurting her, she was like a little sister, no, a daughter, to me. She was my family.

“She had a transmitter, small and black, nearly unnoticeable. It was a global position thing, and it let Better Living find us. It led them to us, because they wanted to kill you to get to me, and they wanted to ruin us. She wanted to ruin us. She tried to kill you.” More tears tracked down her face like sleds in a winter wonderland.

“She treated me like family, like the sister I never had, and you’re telling me she’s a traitor?” The utter disbelief in her tone made me wince in shared pain. I bent down, wrapping my arms around her, kissing her forehead and putting it to my own.

“Yes, I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you before you got close. I need you to help us so that she won’t endanger us anymore. We need to convince Dr. Death to throw her out.” She removed herself from my grasp, tears trembling in her eyes, but not falling out anymore. Girl stood up and let it all out, every last word:

“No. I don’t believe you. If you need to convince the Doctor, you’re wrong. What if he believed I was a spy, would you let him throw me out?” How could she ask that?

“No, but you’re just a kid, you can’t be…” I tried to grab her arms, get some type of contact with the Girl I once knew, but nothing, she spurned my attempt and began arrogantly pacing, making gesticulations in accordance with her words. I could only sit on and let her tirade cease.

“She’s just a kid! Battery is just a kid, and you can’t throw her out because she’s not a spy and she’d die all on her own. She’s not a traitor. You’re the traitor if you think Dr. Death judged her wrong before bringing her into the fold.” She stalked off, leaving me with a distinctly bitter taste rolling on my tongue and settling down for the night.

That was when I noticed how late it was getting. Rich colors painted the sky, watercolor jade set about a rose circlet of fading light. As beautiful as it was, I couldn’t appreciate it, not with my person, the person who I went to when I needed advice, angry at me.

Battery had turned her against me.

Realizing that, I shouted after her, hoping for a late reprieve, “Did Battery turn you against me, against your family?” Was it a pitiless guilt trip? Yes, but it was worth it if it got her to consent. It was worth it if it got me back in her good graces.

“No, she didn’t. You did.” The scorn in her voice tightened a knot in my chest, which threatened to cut off my circulation. I fell fully to the ground, defeated. I had ruined a relationship; I had ended something that I could possibly never get back, at least not in the same way.

Her words stung like bites from snakes, and stings from scorpions but all I could do was to keep breathing afterwards. To keep breathing after being despised by what could quite possibly be one of the only people that made me smile.

What was going to happen was all her own fault.

I went to the forsaken oasis and grabbed water, sealing my bucket and making my way down. The stars pulled themselves into sight as the night sky fell into place, its creamy navy contrasting with the bright balls of gas floating about. As soon as my arms began aching from carrying the water and my eyes and neck pained me similarly from my detailed staring at the sky, I was at the base.

A chorus of laughter came from within, and I saw Show Pony lifting Battery Monster off of a table and roller skating around the place, carrying her as she giggled at his equal stoicism. Mikey walked in after a hard day on patrol, followed by Ray, they laughed at the two’s antics, completely ignoring the situation at hand. I wished I could do that, just ignore the signs, but I couldn’t.

It was too late for all of me. Girl left me, Show was on his way, and I wasn’t even a blip on the Doctor’s radar. I sat down, digging myself a divot for my butt in the sand. I scoped some water from the bucket and brought it to my lips. After quenching the dreadful thirst in my parched throat, I just sat and watched: I sat and watched the family that wasn’t mine anymore.

Dr. Death-Defying walked in, holding his arms out like a fatherly figure to the two girls. They came rushing in for bear hugs. He held them gingerly, with the correct amount of force, as if they really were his own daughters. Girl had been my person that I got to hold like that, and Battery had taken that away from me in the space of a week.

It wasn’t fair. None of this was fair. I was a leper, ostracized for caring about my people. I lay, on the outside looking in, entirely unable to find a door or window to hoist myself into and join them. I punched a nearby rock, not regretting it, as the fresh pain gave me something else to focus on, a vice or crutch.

I punched the rock again, feeling increasing satisfaction every time I did. That was when I looked back in the lit window. Frank joined the gaggle.

I thought he had been with me this entire time, but I guess I was wrong. Damnit, I needed someone to talk to, but both NewsAGoGo and Agent CherriCola were unavailable due to their spying stints in Better Living.

I’m alone.