All righty then.
We lost.
Nearly there, but... that's sport for you. Anyway. New chapter, like I promised. Lots of speeches in this one.
Chapter Thirty-four
Saffa returned to find the rest of RAF gathered in the Social Board. There were quite a few people recuperating from injuries and most of the group looked tired and worn out from the fight, but they were all laughing, chattering among themselves and generally having a good time. She smiled. It always felt good to be back.
She found Rose busy bandaging Aquilai’s leg, and went up to her. “Hey,” she said.
Rose looked up, then, dropped the roll of bandage and hugged her sister. “Is he gone? Did you do it?” she said.
Saffa shirked back – she was not really the hugging type – but returned the hug anyway. “Yeah,” she whispered. “Yeah, it’s over.”
Rose pulled away, then noticed the blank, cold stare in Saffa’s eyes.
Not good. “Austin… he didn’t make it, did he? Because he’s not with you.”
Saffa took a breath. “No, he didn’t,” she said slowly. “But he died saving me. He did his duty.”
“Yeah, I guess he did.”
A solemn silence hung in the air, broken by a sudden spurt of guffaws from the group of chairs next to them. Blaze had either said something very funny or did something dumb, which was causing Steph, Parker and Blue to LOL.
Saffa shook her head and turned to Rose, who had resumed with her work on Aquilai’s leg. “So how did you guys deal with Snow?”
“Oh, it was totally crazy at first. We couldn’t get anything through it, and it just kept getting us. And it has an iron grip – “
“That’s what happened to my leg,” Aquilai put in.
“Anyway, that’s when Underseen comes running in like a lunatic yelling ‘Water! Water! Use water!’ And
then I remembered your wine trick. Aquilai was epic. He was hanging in mid-air from a tentacle but managed a big lunge and whacked a pipeline – “
“Heck, even I didn’t know I could do that!”
“ – and Seal also did this cool thing where she summoned the water of the stream right onto Snow. Plus, final flourish, Cloaky opened up a geyser in the ground; so altogether, it didn’t really stand much chance after that. We don’t know if it’s totally gone or went back to the Bannedlands, but at least now we know how to get rid of it if it comes back. There, you’re done,” Rose told Aquilai.
“I can’t believe I’m actually saying this,” Saffa told Rose, “but I’m proud of you.”
Rose shrugged. “Hey, it was nothing. I actually listened to you, that’s a first, and it paid off.” She paused. “It won’t bring back Austin though.”
“I’m not expecting it to.”
Saffa went over to a table where Cloak, Gaz and Underseen were discussing the events of the day. There was another girl behind them, a teenage newbie she hadn’t seen before, looking at Saffa with interest. She smiled back.
“It’s over,” Saffa said simply, pulling a chair for herself. The others said nothing, just nodded their approval. Saffa turned to Cloak, and the look of understanding he gave her said enough: there would be time later to talk, to look at the decisions they made over their enemies… and to decide, for themselves, exactly where the line blurred.
“I heard Richard is supposed to make an appearance,” Gaz said, bringing them back to the conversation.
“Wonderful. He’s probably going to take the opportunity to make another Big Inspirational Richard Speech,” Saffa said dryly.
“Maybe this time he’ll start with ‘Friends, RAFians, Countrymen,” Underseen suggested. Then, he added, “I really hope not.”
“Of course, he’d leave out the countrymen bit,” Gaz pointed out.
It was all just pointless, general gabble – but it was so lightening after everything Saffa had just been through. The weight on her soul was reducing, slowly.
Then a tall figure stepped through the doorway and swept into the room, causing everyone to instinctively stand up out of respect – for respect was exactly what the Father of RAF commanded, especially on occasions such as these.
“Sit down, everyone,” Richard commanded in his clear, Caribbean-accented voice. “I don’t know why on Earth you all keep standing up, anyway.”
He looked at the crowd, who stared back at his expectantly. Richard surveyed the tired, battle-worn, yet happy faces of his forum, and could not but help feel proud of how far all of them had come; some more than others – and some finding their place at the right time, he thought, noticing Saffa in the back.
He cleared his throat. “Ahem. Friends, RAFians, everyone…” he began. Underseen began giving everyone around the table smug looks.
Richard continued speaking. "Another fight won... sure, it was relatively an easier trouble to weed than many others we've had in the past, but not entirely pointless. In fact, it's only reminded us even more how terrible this technology can be, if it falls into the wrong hands.
"I will not waste my breath and your time on elaborations. All of you know what you have gotten yourself into by becoming RAFians," he looked hard at the newbies in the front row as he said this, some of whom were giving him dubious looks, "a duty of guarding some of the universe's most powerful secrets, and keeping the rest of the normal world at peace by using them. The world outside isn't always full of nice, normal people who might believe you if you told them you've come into contact with aliens or you have special powers. There are many minds – like Lewis Miller – that will be thrilled to bits knowing what RAF holds, and will take it merely for personal gain."
"But what's wrong with personal gain?" a snarky voice piped up from the front. Saffa realized who it was and groaned. "I mean, hasn't RAF used a lot of alien technology for a lot of stuff? If the rest of the world can't know, then..." he was still saying.
"Shut up, Rotiart," Saffa said on impulse, loud and clear enough for all the newbies to turn around and stare at her. She suddenly felt like Meredith Grey. All these stares were annoying... The teenage girl behind her table wasn't staring, but she smiled at Saffa and gave her a thumbs-up.
Fair enough. Let's get this over with."Look here, man," Saffa said, still addressing Rotiart though everyone else was listening, "didn't Richard already make it clear? We use technology we have access to, to keep the rest of the world at peace. And it's not like we stole it. The teleporting technology was ours on a compromise with the government, we made our intentions clear. Everything else, ask anybody. We procured it legitimately. And we're not using it to take control. So if you want to, well, the ideas are yours alone, so SHUT UP and keep them to yourself!"
The silence that followed was broken only by a few whimpering noises that came from Rotiart cowering in his chair under Saffa's glare. Then, Cloak stood up.
"She's right," he said. "Whatever else certain other organizations might say, we are
not evil. And most of you have joined RAF because you know this, apart from the fact that you know of the existence of many other universes besides this one. If anything, the Miller problem has shown us that now's not the time to be bickering amongst ourselves. There's plenty more coming... and if we need to put a stop to it, we have to work together, newbies, mods, everyone."
"Exactly," Saffa said. "Look... would you all please stop staring? This day hasn't exactly been easy for me. My best friend got shot. I killed a man not knowing whether I did it off my own free will. And now this idiot in the front takes it upon himself to annoy me." She sighed. "It's a jungle out there, and we're all gonna lose something in the course of this battle. I'll move on from it all eventually. But right now, if you can help me heal, it would be very nice." She sat back down. Richard called off order, and everyone resumed what they were doing, though a few stares were thrown in Saffa's direction. She facepalmed.
"That was a nice speech," the teenage girl said. Saffa looked up at her and smiled.
"Thanks, er... ah..."
"Abby. Or Blaster. Call me whatever."
"Thanks, Abby," Saffa said. "And thank you for not staring."
"My pleasure. Heard about what happened... I'm sorry."
Saffa said nothing, but apparently Abby understood, because she turned to everyone at the table and said, "Drinks at the GESB? It's on my tab. Come for the company, Cloak."
"You're underage," Underseen said, grinning. In response, he received a friendly kick under the table. "Ow!"
"I could sure use one," Saffa declared, leaving with the other four. She'd come back to Rose later, and make plans... but right now, as she herself said, she needed time to heal. And friends like these were the best kind of Band-Aid.
