Gaia

The longer Mari sat on the floor of the sky deck, gazing up at the stars the more she began to regret snapping at Eli so suddenly. She had been in such a bad mood and the day had just been so weird… She shouldn't have taken Renee’s word over Eli's. Then again, he'd snapped right back at her and told her to leave, and she wasn't sure that was called for either. She sighed and flopped to lay on her back, closing her eyes for a few moments. She sat up when she heard footsteps coming towards the door, and someone poking their head through. It was Jeremiah, and he looked relieved to find Mari there.

“I've been looking all over the place for you,” he said with a nervous laugh. “Your brother said you might be here.”

“I might be,” she said, tons flat and unwelcoming. “What do you want? Did Eli send you?”

“Kind of, yeah,” he admitted sheepishly. “There's some trouble, he just asked me to keep you somewhere for a little while. Are you going to come with me peacefully?”

“Probably not,” she said. “You'll just have to kidnap me.”

Jeremiah shifted awkwardly, and Mari raised a brow at him.

“You're being serious?” she said. “Wow, Jeremiah. You came here to kidnap me? For real?”

“I'm sorry,” he blurted. “It's not up to me, he was very firm in his request.”

“What kind of trouble is he in?” Mari asked, standing. “Is it Desoto?”

“I don't know,” he said. “He just told me what he told me. And he told me to take you to this place and gave me an address. Will you please just come with me?”

“You can come and try, Jeremiah,” she challenged.

For a second, with the glare on Mari's face, he looked afraid to step forward. Then he tried to grab her arm sort of suddenly, but she easily swatted him away.

“Come on, you've been professionally trained,” Mari smirked. “You can do better than that, Jer. Show all those kids who made fun of you in school what a big man you turned out to be.”

“For your information, I was very cool and popular in high school,” he said.

“That's awfully defensive from someone who was so sure of their popularity,” Mari teased.

Jeremiah succeeded in grabbing her this time, trying to twist her around so she'd be harmless, but she slammed his foot with her stiletto heel and brought a knee up to his groin, knocking the air out of his lungs.

“Not fair,” he wheezed.

“All is fair in love and war,” she told him.

“Good, so this isn't cheating,” he muttered, straightening out and whipping something from his belt.

It was that goddamn spray that got Mari the first time. She went dizzy for a moment, and then everything went to black.



“Mari? Mari, are you waking up?”

Mari's vision started to come back, and she could just barely make out a figure hovering above her. It was Gracie's voice coming from the blob, and Mari felt someone gently pick her head up and place it in their lap, brushing her hair from her face.

“Gracie?” she mumbled.

“Yeah, it's me,” Gracie told her. “You're in my room right now. Do you want some water?”

“I want to know how and why I'm here,” Mari said, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

“I honestly don't know,” Gracie said, lowering her voice. “Eli gave me this super cryptic call earlier, and next thing I know, his robot butler is here with some guy I've never seen before, who's got your unconscious body slung over his shoulder like a sack of rice or something. He kind of just left you on the bed, and then he got all weird and awkward. He said he has to hang out with us for a little while, and then he asked me if I had a boyfriend. And I didn't say anything, so he asked if I had peanut butter and now he's just sitting on my couch, watching tv and eating peanut butter with a spoon. And Reuben is just hanging out next to him.”

“He asked you if you had a boyfriend?” Mari asked, raising a brow. “Never mind. We have to get out of here. Eli is off trying to deal with Desoto on his own, I'm almost positive.”

“What?” Gracie gasped, absolutely horrified. “He can't do that!”

“I agree,” Mari said, lowering her voice and pulling Gracie closer so only she could hear. “That's why we need to get out of here. Eli thinks that this is some kind of protection for us, but now there's no one protecting him. We just need to get Jeremiah out of the way.”

“I don't know, maybe we should stay-”

Mari cut her off by slapping her across the face. It wasn't physically hard, of course, but it still startled Gracie.

“Did you just slap me?” she asked.

“I did,” Mari nodded. “Woman up. We're going to go rescue your brother because God knows he needs rescuing.”

“You're right,” Gracie agreed. “How do we get away from Reuben and Jeremiah?”

“Reuben should be easy,” Mari said. “Just ask him politely and he'll go away. We’ll put him into sleep mode, for good measure. Jeremiah is harder. We need to tie him up and stuff.”

“I have some loose shoelaces and a shoe bag we can pull over his head,” she said eagerly.

“Good, that'll work,” Mari said as Gracie went into her closet to get the goods. “You go talk to him. Look cute, get him distracted. Don't tell him I'm awake.”

“Got it,” she nodded, standing up and straightening out her hair and dress before going back out.

Mari watched through a crack in the doorway as Gracie sat down next to Jeremiah on the couch. He scrambled to sit upright, smoothing back his hair and trying to look cool and casual. Mari snuck around, moving behind them through the kitchen. Reuben was in there, wearing Gracie's frilly pink apron and chopping up some vegetables, but Mari switched him to sleep mode before he could say or do anything.

“Sorry it had to be kind of rough like this,” she heard Jeremiah say in the other room.

“Oh, no,” Gracie said. “Actually, I think it's very brave of you to help Eli in such a time.”

“You do?” Jeremiah said, peeking up. “I mean… Yeah, I do that a lot. Is Mari okay?”

“She’ll be out for a little while longer,” Gracie lied. “We have a little bit of time, just the two of us.”

“Just… The two of us?”

Mari held back a scowl at Jeremiah’s pathetic flirting as she snuck up behind him on the couch, holding the silky shoe bag. She suddenly snapped out and threw the bag over his head, pulling the drawstring tight enough so it would stay secure, but wouldn't choke him. He panicked suddenly and tried to jump up, but Gracie and Mari desperately held him down. He was bigger than both of them, but together they managed to force him to the ground. Mari held him down while Gracie bound his wrists and ankles with the shoelaces.

“Hey!” Jeremiah yelled from inside the bag. “Hey, what the actual fuck!”

“Sorry!” Gracie said. “You really seem like a nice guy!”

“Gracie!” Mari snapped. “You don't compliment your hostages!”

“But he didn't even deserve this,” she said.

“Haven't you done this before?”

“You have?!”

“Never mind,” Mari said. “Do you have chloroform?”

“Where would I keep chloroform?” Gracie questioned. “Oh yeah, it's right there between the fruits and vegetables in the kitchen.”

Mari thought for a moment, then perked up, struggling to hold Jeremiah down. “The knockout spray! It's on his belt!”

Gracie nodded and unhooked the spray from his belt, spraying him twice and holding him down until he went still.

“I think you're only supposed to do it once,” Mari told her as they hauled his body into a closet.

“What happens if you do it twice?” Gracie asked, locking the door.

“Well, either he gets really sick the next day,” Mari said, “Or he dies. I don't know which one.”

“Oh,” Gracie frowned.

“Come on, we have to get to Eli before Desoto does,” Mari said, brushing the gruesome thought away.

Gracie shook the front door furiously, though it wouldn't budge.

“They must've reversed the lock settings,” she mumbled.

“What?” Mari frowned.

“You can only open it, with a key, from the outside,” Gracie said.

“Shit,” Mari groaned.

She sat down on the floor, totally frustrated at that point. Gracie sat down next to her, speaking to her softly.

“Something happened between you and Eli, didn't it?”

Mari opened her eyes to look up at Gracie, then turned away and nodded.

“I was kind of a bitch to him,” she admitted. “I jumped to conclusions. I can't let anything happen to him now. Not after that note I left him on. I probably could've prevented this whole mess.”

“I can't let anything happen to him either,” Gracie agreed. “That's why we can't give up this easily. You care about him, don't you?

“Yeah. A lot.”

“Then get up,” Gracie said. “We need to get out of here.”

“Right.”

Mari stood up, thinking for a moment before returning to the bedroom. There was a window there. Mari opened the window and looked outside, finding another open window just a little ways over, in the next apartment. She went back in and kicked her heels off, while Gracie gaped at her.

“I'll climb in from that window, go out through their door, and unlock yours from outside,” she told Gracie.

“Mari, you can't just scale the side of the tower,” she said. “That ledge is only a few inches thick, what if you fall?”

“Then you should time me and see how long it takes me to hit the ground,” Mari said, tying her hair up into a high ponytail. “For science.”

She climbed out the window and balanced on the ledge. She suddenly regretted deciding to wear a pencil skirt that day, taking tiny steps along the ledge. She did everything she could not to look down, where everything just plummeted down into oblivion. Part of her wondered if falling from such a height would send her into the twilight zone. Gracie watched from the windowsill, both their hearts threatening to pound right out of their chests. Mari hesitantly glanced down, and she felt her stomach do a backflip. It was a longer fall than she thought.

“Mari, are you okay?” Gracie called.

“I- I’m okay!” She yelled back, over the sound of wind whipping around her.

She was almost to the ledge.

“Mari!” Gracie shrieked. “The shuttle!”

“What?!” she yelled back.

“The shuttle!”

Mari realized too late that she was talking about the shuttle that whipped back and forth between the towers. She saw the lights, and knew it was about to snake right past her. It blew past in a blur of lights. Her ears popped and she squeezed her eyes shut as it passed, feeling her foot slip. Gracie screamed as she slid off, though she grabbed the window for dear life. She used all her strength to pull herself through, stumbling into safety inside.

Thankfully, no one was home. Mari made a mental note to come back and tell the family that lived there that she was the one who'd broken in, and reassure them that she didn't take anything. She rushed back down the hall and took the key out, swiping into Gracie's home. Gracie was waiting right in front of the door when Mari opened it, throwing her arms around Mari in relief.

“I thought you were going to fall for sure,” she squeaked.

“But I didn't,” Mari told her. “Come on, let’s go.”

She and Gracie both ran as fast as they could to Eli's office, where they knew they'd find him. Mari almost passed out when she heard gunfire come from inside. She got dizzy and had to lean against the wall for support, but Gracie charged right in and beat someone up, though Mari didn't see who. When she came in, Desoto and Eli were both unconscious and bleeding out. Gracie was kneeling over Eli, putting pressure on one of his wounds. Mari snapped back into reality to take care of the other while they waited for the authorities.

“I'm really sorry, Eli,” she whispered to him as medical androids showed up to take him away.

The scene was cleared up quickly, before anyone showed up for work in the morning. The authorities took Desoto away while Eli was rushed to the hospital. The doctors refused to let Mari or Gracie anywhere near him, so they held hands and spent all day in the waiting room. When they were finally allowed to see him, he was out cold due to blood loss mixed with medication.

They stayed with him for a little while, until a doctor told them that they had to leave, and could come back in the morning. But Mari didn't want to leave. Mari wanted to sit there and stare at Eli until he woke up, so the first thing she could do was tell him how sorry she was. Gracie reluctantly left when they told her to, but Mari refused. She went as far as to tie her wrist to the arm of the chair, so they'd have to cut her loose and drag her out if they were really that desperate. Eventually, the doctors gave up and just let her sit there, as long as she didn't touch anything. One of them brought her a pillow, and after staying awake and watching Eli for hours and hours, Mari finally fell asleep in that uncomfortable hospital chair.