Dawn

[Neb]

Kidman lay on her back on the extra comfy mat on the floor. She felt much lighter now, freer, perhaps even as free as before she turned to hiding. She had been holding her breath for so many years, swimming for so many miles. At last, land.

It was quiet in her small cell. Quiet and dim. And safe.

The ACMEs had been more than merciful with her, especially Chase.

He had kept the lights off in her cell. He had been patient with her mask, had even come down himself with a gentle solvent. He had kept her out of the system, and now, most importantly, he had listened.

‘The signal to Chase...' came a whisper in her mind and she gently turned it away. ‘The signal is sent.'

No one had ever asked her about the dreams before, so she had never described them, or even sought to pin them down. "What is San Raphael?" had been more a question to herself after hearing it said aloud. She hadn't expected an answer.

Certainly not that answer.

‘If that was real, then how much more?'

There was much time to do very little with, and the girl was exhausted, so she turned her attentions to sleep and investigating what she had long sought to ignore.

It proved to be more difficult now.

The red fire was more a phantom ache, even during the times of day it was usually the worst. Kidman reached for Carmen's pen for perhaps the hundredth time before she remembered it was gone.

‘The pen... Was that it? I focused in it so much. Is that how this happened? Can I get back to her without it?'

After several hours she eventually made headway, and made note of everything that seemed significant.Now she floated at the surface and arranged the data she had.

‘His eyes... When I asked why he hadn't ended it yet, he didn't have an answer. He didn't know. He should have known. This should have been something he would map out long ago, but he hasn't.'

She closed her eyes and recalled his face. He wasn't stone anymore, but flesh and blood. He was human as any other, and his iron eyes held shades of emotion as any other.

‘Perhaps you don't know because you don't want to.'

There was no denying that he had saved VILE.

The irony lightened her heart.

‘After months of trying to destroy us, you throw us a rope.'

Kidman had been surprised that Joe would even tell Chase that VILE was on the edge of disbanding. If anything, it should have made ACME less inclined to help, but Chase gave him the chip instead. Kidman had come instead for the files or ACME's resources, something she had initially failed at.

Kidman closed her eyes and smiled softly.

That didn't matter now.

Chase was clearly concerned, and even if he couldn't find the files or didn't believe in her clairvoyance, the seed was set. He would know what he needed to know when he saw it now.

At last she was free to rest.

‘...the signal to Chase, to Chase...' whispered in her ear as she drifted back to sleep.

‘He has it, Carmen....' she murmured back. ‘It's going to be okay...'

​