The Calm

"Well, it matches the color of your hair," Court said doubtfully.

Lucy bit down on the snarl that was bubbling up. She shared a fulminating glance with Rena who was visibly unclenching her jaw.

"That's not the point right now," Lucy slowly said.

"I think the point might be moot," Jebediah interrupted, cradling Trolli's broken body against his chest. Sparks of electricity jumped off of her every so often, making dark sooty marks against Jebediah's clothes that he wasn't acknowledging. "We have to keep moving."

"True, true," Rena nodded. She grabbed Lucy's arm, tears in her eyes. "We have to keep going. The distraction isn't going to last, and the outsiders are coming as well."

Lucy opened her mouth to retort when an explosion sounded, shaking the hallway. She glanced back at the approaching guards to see them ducking the debris falling from the ceiling. She pushed Rena behind her as one of them raised his restrainer at them, a slow, ugly smile blooming on his face. She knew him. Simone had whispered that he'd tried to do something to Amber when escorting them back from the labs.

There had been a container nearby when Simone had said it, monitoring the childrens' creche. The container had gotten furious, one hand resting on her swollen belly as her face had reddened. The guard had been sent for discipline as far as Lucy knew, but obviously this incident was being thought of as necessary for all guards to thwart.

The barrel of the restrainer seemed to magnify as the guard's finger twitched on the trigger.

*****

Lucy started up from her bed, breathing hard. There were beads of sweat on her forehead and tears in her eyes. She angrily dashed them away before peering around.

No one else was in the girls' quarters. They'd been set up on opposite ends of the warehouse but the same side. Lucy had thought it would be better if the boys weren't quite as far away from them in case of emergencies.

She ground the palms of her hands in her eyes. She hated thinking of Liberation Day. She hated dreaming about it. Nothing had turned out quite like they had planned.

With an angry huff, she jumped out of the bed. Unlike Simone's massive princess themed one, hers was a smaller twin with an elaborately carved headboard. Every one of the girls had a similar one, the headboards worked on whenever Carol found the time. Working with wood calmed her down.

Lucy thought that was hilarious and sad at the same time but didn't bother to mention it to Carol. She couldn't figure out how they got Carol's situation so wrong. Then again, they'd only been ten and unused to how human society worked.

Even herself, who'd grown up in it for the first four years of her life, hadn't understood it that much. Then again, she'd been just a little kid and an overprotected one at that.

Lucy snorted at that idea. Her Aunt Sissy had been happy to squirrel her away those first couple of summers, but then she'd gotten married and the less said about her husband, the better. Lucy only hoped that Court didn't turn into an idiot when he grew up, or he'd be in serious trouble.

The last time she'd said that, Court had laughed and kissed her on the cheek. The cheek! Lucy hadn't known whether to laugh it off or do something. She was still working on that something.

She could still feel the shock that worked its way from her cheek to her very tips of her toes. It had been like her brain short-circuited, rendering her unable to come up with a snappy comeback. Lucy still wondered if Court noticed since he'd wandered away chuckling and hadn't mentioned it again.

Lucy pawed through the clothes in her armoire. It wasn't that big, but big enough that she could squirrel away her more favored outfits. She hastily picked out a pair of jeans and a shirt liberated from her mother's gigantic stash. Lucy grinned at the red and white garment's motto while she also grabbed a pair of boots with leaves elaborately tooled across them.

"Rena is going to freak when she sees these," Lucy muttered to herself as she headed towards the bathroom area.

She still marveled over how Court got it all done. When Jebediah and Rena had shown up, the bathroom hadn't been anywhere as elaborate as it was now. Now it rivaled most bathhouses that she'd seen.

A half-hour later, she sauntered into the lit square of the hideout's main living space. Trolli's candy roadster was now replaced by a ferris wheel. Lucy blinked at it as it slowly rotated, Trolli making excited squeaking noises.

"How?" She began before Dawnie cut her off.

"Dowels, lots and lots of dowels," Dawnie said while nodding.

"And for some reason, they had to be edible so that was a thing," Leilani added from what Lucy was starting to refer to in her head as 'Leilani's couch.'

"Why edible?" Lucy was spurred to ask.

"For the competition," Carol said from her position next to Leilani's couch. She was holding a digital camera in her hand. "Dawnie, just a bit closer so we can show scale. Oh, and block Trolli just a bit."

"Competition?" Lucy echoed.

"Don't think about it. I gave up a couple of hours ago," Court said, brushing past her and heading towards the kitchen area. "Did you sleep well?"

"Super," Lucy lied. She took one last look at the candy ferris wheel before following Court. "Was I sleeping for forever or something?"

"No, but I hate to think what they'd do if they had a lot of free time," Court said with a laugh. He sobered up. "Is Rena with you?"

"No, Rena is with Rena," Rena said, emerging from the darkness. She stopped and stared at Lucy's boots. "You've been holding out on me!" She accused with a piercing stare while Lucy preened.

"Is it my fault you didn't check my closet thoroughly?" Lucy taunted, swiveling her ankles to best show off her footwear.

"Can I have a minute? I think I found something?" Court said, pulling out three glasses and pouring milk into them.

"What? Lucy has another cookie stash? What kind?" Rena asked, distracted by the milk.

"I do?" Lucy snared her glass, glancing around the kitchen. As far as she knew, most of her stress baking was already gone.

"Not that, this," Court replied, shaking his head. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, round device.

"Isn't that that door opener thing the manager of the Dime Store gave you?" Rena asked Lucy.

"Well, it looked so cute that I thought that Court might like to play with it," Lucy said, burying her face in her glass of milk.

Rena laughed at her. Then she grinned at Court who studiously ignored the byplay, a faint blush on his cheeks.

"I got it to do something other than open a door. I don't know if the people who made it thought of this," Court said. He tilted his head to the side as he eyed the device. "This thing is awesome. If it isn't consumed when the door opens, I think I'll keep it."

Lucy licked the milk off her lips. She thought about when she got the devices and then shook her head.

"I think they think they're one-use only. So maybe it won't open a door after they're used for that, but also won't disappear?" She couldn't keep the questioning tone out of her voice.

"No worries. As long as there's a smidge of it, I won't be sad," Court said. "But the thing I found is interesting, to say the least."

Rena and Lucy exchanged puzzled looks as Court lightly tossed the device in the air. Instead of falling, it hovered halfway from the apex of its toss and started shining. A blank square of light lit up and suddenly a picture was formed.

"That's a cylinder room," Lucy suddenly said, staring at the picture unblinkingly.

"That's a cylinder room with Jebediah!" Rena blurted out. She set her glass on the counter and moved closer to the floating picture.

"San, they got San." Lucy looked at Court who shrugged and shook his head.

"No clue, but we haven't been here in a few days," Court said. "Is that Paul and Morris? What are they doing?"

"Having an argument with San?" Rena guessed. "They look angry."

"Well, it's San." Lucy took another sip of milk. "At least they're all in one spot. Makes things easy?"

"Sure, easy," Rena snarked. Then she frowned at the picture and then her eyes widened in shock. "Lucy?"

"Hmm?" Lucy asked. She opened her mouth to ask Court a question when she noticed that his expression was paling. "What?"

"I don't know if she should—," Court began.

"—If who should what?" Lucy finished, turning back to the picture.

The glass of milk in her hand slipped from her fingers, breaking against the floor.

"Ah! Careful," Dawnie said, appearing at Lucy's side and frowning down at the milk. "What are we all…" Her words died off as she looked upwards.

"No," Lucy said, blinking rapidly.

In the picture, Niles and some brown-haired girl were moving rapidly towards San's cylinder. The girl was cradling a baby in her arms.

"No," Lucy repeated.

"It can't be Niles," Rena said cautiously, glancing at the frozen Lucy.

"No," Lucy said again, and this time there was an agonizing thread of calm in her voice.

Niles keyed something into the control panel of San's cylinder and a small square popped open. The girl shoved the baby inside and quickly closed it. Niles flinched, and the flinch revealed the collar that had been hidden by shaggy green hair and clothing.

"No," Lucy's voice carried a grim calm even as nearly visible waves of green started arcing off of her.

There were tiny arcs of electricity dancing on the collar as Niles used San's cylinder as support. The girl laced her fingers in his, taking on the burden, even as a trickle of blood dripped from the corner of her mouth.

"And that's enough of that," Court said, shutting down the display. "That wasn't what I was thinking of showing you at all."

"Four hours," Lucy said, clenching her jaw as she tried to calm down.

"Yes, ma'am," Rena said.

"Need me to come?" Carol asked from the edge of the kitchen, Leilani beside her with Trolli in her arms.

"No, you three are going to guard the warehouse. If they have San, then they might know where this place is," Lucy said, walking past them.

"I need to liberate some toys," Lucy tossed over her shoulder as she headed towards the exit.