Fabricated Chapter 27

 When the humans return, PC stands, sets Alice aside, and hugs Alex. It is deep, and pressing, and he thinks they must understand the need behind it because they return the intensity even with a napkin stuffed up their once more bleeding nose. 

He hugs the others too, just as deeply and almost hungrily. Davey does not entirely reciprocate, and that is fine, and Tulip squeezes back too hard, but that is fine too. 

Espeon, when he plucks her from atop Tulip’s head after breaking the hug with the latter, kneads her paws against his shirt and curses him out for scaring her so bad. 

“I’m sorry,” he says, one of many times, to her. “I can’t promise it won’t happen again.”

“Real xcom hours are CANCELLED,” she says, and the humans and Alice murmur weary agreement.

“Not yet,” he says. “Not yet.” 

“Well, we know where the Psi Gate is,” says Tulip, flopping onto the bed, one hand patting the bandage on her forehead. “It’s just in the middle of a Psionic hornets nest.”

“You could have left me,” Alex says. “They had me in the girl’s dormitory, I could have stayed and snuck around and—“

“Absolutely not,” says Davey. “We were absolutely not leaving you in that hell hole.” 

“We’ll figure something out,” says Espeon. “We always figure something out.”

“Did you see any of them? From the campus? Were you followed?” asks PC, and there is paranoia in his throat, memories of backstabs and betrayal that never actually occurred.  

The humans shake their heads. Espeon shakes her head too. “We woulda shot the shit outta one if there was somebody,” she says.

“Okay,” he says, but it does not ease his fears. “I’m glad you took her with you,” he says, but he isn’t certain Espeon could have done much on her own. “We’ll be alright, I think,” he says, but he doesn’t believe himself, not at all. 

“You met a girl while we were there,” says Alice. “Perhaps she can help us.”

“I don’t know,” he says.

“She helped you when she probably was gonna be punished when it got out she did that,” Espeon said. “That’s some XCOM material right there, I’d think.”

“Hair dye is cheap,” says Tulip as a possibility, only for Alex to murmur, “Awakening is cheaper.”

“Well, we’re not going back now,” Davey says. “I’d rather have some kind of arms before I did.”

“We have Tulip’s gun,” says Espeon.

“Yeah, but that’s Tulip’s,” says Davey.

“You didn’t shoot anyone did you?” asks Alice.

“I wasn’t aware that any of my firing at the sky and trees hit anyone, no,” she says. “If I did, oops, guess that’s a ‘don’t try to mob us’ lesson they got to learn.” 

“I have a gun, Alex and Espeon and PC have Psionic powers... I guess we just need two more weapons?” Tulip says. 

“I have a baseball bat in my truck,” says Davey. 

“Sick,” says Espeon. 

If it was possible for Alice to pale, she would, but in approximation just shakes her head very vigorously. “I don’t think we should be going lethal,” she says. “These people might not even be aware of what they’re doing.”

“Shit, it’s easier to pretend they’re just mindless hellions,” Tulip says, turning over onto her stomach. 

“PC met a child there,” Alice insists. “We cannot harm children.”

“Alright, alright, we only shoot to injure and only adults,” Tulip says. Espeon lolls her head in the mimic of a eyeroll. 

“We’ll go back,” says Alex. “Espeon can find the girl, and she can come talk to us, and we’ll figure something out.”

PC feels himself swallow, feels Eylion’s hope and determination rise in his gut to match Alex’s optimistic tone. 

We will succeed, hums the Ethereal out loud. 

But what if we don’t? he thinks at it. What if we—

That option is not possible. We win, or we die. We win, or Earth dies. Which will not happen. 

And that is the end of that. 

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