Illumination

It did get better.

Against all odds, it did. It took two months of physical therapy, but Jack’s burns were now pink marks on her skin and it didn’t hurt to rub them anymore. She could wear normal clothes, not the scratchy hospital gowns that the nurses had made her wear.

On a bright (well, as bright as it could be) Saturday morning, Jack sat in a chair that leaned against a window. The sky was a pristine grey and she, without Illumination, could even see the silhouette of the mountains ahead. A grey shawl was wrapped around her shoulders and she held it so tightly that her knuckles were white.

“Miss Amundsen?” Without turning around, Jack knew that it was her nurse from the sound of bare feet shuffling across the carpet. “Have you eaten breakfast yet?”

“Yes, I have,” Jack lied, turning around in her chair and folding her hands neatly in her lap. “What’s going on?”

The nurse, a tall woman with teal eyes and auburn hair, gestured to the doorway. “Well, I feel that you’ve progressed enough to see the General. I’m sure you’re curious about what happened.” Jack was curious but did her best to hide her excitement. For two months they’d kept her in the dark as to how she was rescued and what had happened to the Apexes. She knew only bits and pieces of the big picture because the nurses had deemed her “too emotionally fragile” to know the truth. “Let me know when you’re ready and I’ll take you down to the General’s office.”

“Oh, I’m ready now.” Jack stood up, putting on shoes and standing next to the nurse excitedly. “Are the others coming?”

“They want to interview you one at a time. Liam, Sierra, Robin, and Bailey have already seen the General. You’re the last one.” The nurse smiled at her, opening the door wide and gesturing for Jack to head down the hallway. She did so, keeping her eyes averted from the door at the end of the hall, the door that had once led to Ben’s room. “This way.”

As they went down a flight of stairs, people parted on either side of the stairwell to let them pass. Hands reached out for Jack and she turned away. Do they...know me? Everyone murmured kind words as she passed and they hit hard, forcing Jack to hurry on to avoid listening. They’re talking to me. Am I a hero? I didn’t do anything. I just...watched Ben die. I watched him die and just sat there and broke his heart! I wonder if he missed Hazel. She pressed her fingers against her temples and let out a hiss.

“In here,” her nurse said as they exited the stairwell, coming out into a bright, tiled room. At the other end was a door. “I’ll be waiting right outside. Knock if you need me.”

Jack took a deep breath, walked over, and pushed open the door. An office came into view, with the General sitting at it calmly. It was an all too familiar scene, even though it was different in so many ways. “Hello.” Jack stood in the threshold, not sure of what else to say. She kept her eyes averted from the General and instead let her gaze roam around the room, looking at photos and maps that were tacked up on the walls.

“Sit down.” Such a common gesture of politeness; Jack accepted it. The chair was made of leather, which then reminded her of the solfects. Ben’s face flashed in her mind, solemnly staring at her, his hand on her wrist. Beware, he had said. Was that the word that had started it all? Don’t think about it, Jack said to herself, taking small, gasping breaths through her nose as she sat in the chair. “Kera says you’ve made a lot of progress.”

“Who—” Jack started, looking around. Oh, the nurse. “Yeah, I suppose so.” She picked at her fingernails before remembering it was a Bailey habit and abandoning it.

“I’m sure you’re wondering what happened,” the General continued after a moment of pause. Without letting Jack ask any questions, she launched into the story. “We were just beginning to give up and assume that you’d gone rogue when we got a radio call from someone named Connor. Claimed he’d gone to flight school with Robin. Said that your brother had given him a signal to radio us if something went wrong with your mission to 186. He never got a chance to use that signal for we immediately sent a reconnaissance team after you.”

“A—after us? Just a bunch of mechanics?” Jack thought back to when she was wandering alone on the icy plains, wondering if anyone would come and save her.

The General leaned forward, smiling gravely. “Why wouldn’t we send out a search party?” Jack let out a puff of air through her nose and gestured for the other to keep going. “We found the burning wreckage of 186 when we arrived and rushed on the scene. All the Apexes, well, most of them, were dead. But after searching through the rubble we found you, Jack. You were the first one we found and after that, I sent out more search parties across the ruins of the colony to find the others. We picked you up and brought you to the hospital; you were barely breathing and your clothes were smoldering.”

“You never found the other solfects?”

“We found approximately eight dead, but there should’ve been a red-haired girl, according to the files. Her body hasn’t been found, but she is presumed dead.” Hazel. Jack frowned, suddenly uncomfortable. I hope she escaped. I wouldn’t put it past her.

The General seemed to sense Jack’s discomfort and nodded. “I have nothing more to say. You should head back and get some rest now.”

“But what about the Apexes?”

“I’ve already told you that most of them were dead. The leader somehow survived but was taken into custody. He confessed to the entire thing and has been sentenced to life in our security prison. Thanks to you all, their plot was stopped.” The General nodded and shifted in her seat. “And don’t worry about the rest of the interview. I already got all the answers I need from your companions.” She pulled out a holofile and began to leaf through it, shoulders sagging.

Jack took this as a sign that she was no longer welcome and stood up. “Goodbye,” she whispered at the doorway. “Thank you for looking for us.”

“What a strange thing to say,” the General mused, a slight smile playing across her face. Jack opened the door and left the office.

Instead of her nurse waiting for her as she’d expected, Jack found Liam standing outside the door, shifting from side to side nervously. “Oh, hi,” she said with a chuckle, walking forward to greet him. “I...was expecting my nurse.”

“I sent her out to get us some tea. Thought it’d be nice.”

“Tea? That’s British, Liam.” For a moment, Jack let herself fall back into the old rhythm. “Where are we sitting?”

“Over here.” He took her by the arm and led her over to a small, white table with seating for two. It reminded Jack of the time when Ben had disguised himself as a barista to talk to her; it seemed like so many months ago. This is Liam, not Ben, she reminded herself, pushing the chair back and sitting down across from him.

“How are you doing?” Liam started awkwardly, looking around for something to do.

“I’m thirsty,” she said. The other stared at her for a moment before she added quickly, “For tea. Sounds good, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, it does.” Liam looked past her but then his eye refocused on her face, slightly watering. There was silence, only broken by Jack’s staggered breathing and footsteps sounding in the distance. Now’s your chance!

Jack stood up, rushed around one side of the table, and wrapped Liam up in a hug. “I’m sorry for being mean to you all this time. I was just teasing, really. You aren’t a low-life suckup with the social consciousness of an Apex. You’re still stubborn, though. I’m not going to give you that.”

“What brought on this?” he asked, somewhat startled but accepting her embrace with a blush.

“Nothing! Nothing at all!” Jack, suddenly feeling embarrassed, stepped back and hovered a foot away from him, looking for an escape route. “I just feel like…”

“I feel like that too, if that’s what you’re asking.” Liam flushed even deeper, pushing his hair back out of his face, which revealed an eyepatch over his left eye. “I forgive you.” A smile flashed across his face.

“Tea is ready!” the nurse called from across the room. Jack realized that she’d been leaning towards Liam and turned away to hide the blush that was creeping across her face. Oh well, you can’t get everything. “Come and get it!”

The two of them stood up and crossed the room to recover their steaming saucers. As they did so, Liam bumped shoulders with Jack and whispered solemnly, “You know, Robin and I used to have tea together at flight school, before he dropped out.”

Jack chuckled, the noise echoing across the room. “I bet he hated it.”

“Sure did. You can ask him about it.” As the two of them crossed the room together, Liam looked into her eyes and said, “Do you think things have to change?”

“What do you mean?”

Liam’s gaze was distant. “Paparazzi, news articles, speeches...that sort of stuff. The General said in her interview with me that we’re colony heroes.”

“Isn’t that what you want?”

He stopped and turned to face her. “The idea of going up onto a podium and making some sort of announcement when all you want to do is cry—I don’t know if I could do it now. Ben’s gone. And if something like that—the Apex attack—happens again, the colony is going to turn to us for an answer. I don’t want that anymore.”

Jack elbowed him in the ribs gently. “Liam…”

“Okay, maybe just a little bit.” A smile broke out across his face then faded as the nurse called out for them again. “Come on. Tea is waiting, and then we’ve got the whole day ahead of us. Where do you want to go after this?”

“Me?” Jack felt her heart skip a beat. “Anywhere.”

Liam took her hand, and the last puzzle piece fell into place.