Chapter 35

"I get it. I get it. I get it. I get it," Page continued to say in an endless loop without even blinking.

Freyja grit her teeth. She could feel them in the Link, along with Damien, Bumble Bee, Sprinkles, and Sherlock. It should have worked, but it was like their brain got hung up on some unknown revelation. So, she dove in to find where the tangle lie. Page's entire life unfolded before her. Childhood, losing their best friend Constance when she moved away to live with her grandmother after her mother died, realizing they were genderfluid in high-school, helping their father at construction sites, woodworking, lock-sport, being overjoyed that their father was giving them the Simmons and Son company, building homes in their hometown, building houses for charity in their spare time, motorcycles, creating the Children of Loki bike club with friends, joking with them about being bad at noticing flirting, the holiday event with Santa, losing Aaron White, Samar Al-Zein, Skye Roberts, Arty Christopher, being shot in the face, seeing Loki with hair like fire and lips scarred by old sutures assure them they'd survive this and other things. Prison, chess, Kira-217 hacking computers to get them out of lock-up, surprising them with a bike and places to stay while explaining her plan, showing up in person with a Human Host to ask for Page's input, preparing for a war against the Hive. It all knit together in order as Freyja sorted through the contents of Page's mind. She drew back into herself in time to see Page finally blink then flex their hand, healing the bite wound and wiping the blood on their pant's leg.

"I get it," they said with a soft smile, then looked over at her. "You saved me. Thanks."

Freyja's shoulders relaxed. "Thank gods."

Kira-217's expression was pure shock. "You just...undid the madness."

"Madness?!" Sherlock shouted.

He shifted quickly, stretching out in size forming a giant mouth full of jagged sawing teeth. He caught Page crossways over their torso, slicing their body messily in half while splattering the yard with blood. Someone screamed, but it wasn't Page as they could no longer breathe due to a lack of diaphragm. Sherlock tossed their upper body into the air, opening their mouth like an enormous dog with a treat to catch mid-flight, swallowing them. He didn't shift back into the form of a cat, however, remaining a mess of shaggy orange fur and muscle, with too many legs and three long tendrils armed with sword-like bone blades emerging from what had once been his back.

"HOLY FUCK!" Sam shouted. "Jesus Christ!"

"She saved them! She saved them!" Kira-217 wailed.

It is only right for Sparks to be devoured, Sherlock said across the Link. He turned his attention toward Freyja.

She didn't let him move. Instead, stepping forward, no longer giving a shit about anything except killing Sherlock. He'd just eaten Page alive. She had saved them. They'd figured something out about something and she didn't get a good look at it before they were sliced in half. There was no way Page would have been able to heal from the wounds he had inflicted on them, even if he hadn't consumed them with the intent of absorbing them completely. She shifted herself, as large and quickly as she could, pinning Sherlock to the ground with huge bone spears from one arm and hand, cracking the soil beneath him as she roared in anger through a half dozen gaping maws.

I did what was right, Sherlock objected, his ears back and myriad of eyes wide in confusion.

She replied by engulfing him herself, biting down, crushing his essence, folding in on herself, and devouring what had once been a cat piloted by a worm. It didn't take long for her to resume her Human form and collapse on the blood stained ground. She curled in on herself, head pressed to the dirt, hugging her knees, silent.

"She saved them!" Kira-217 shrieked again between racking sobs. "She saved them!! SHE SAVED THEM! NO!!"

The ground rumbled as a pair of jets raced overhead, followed by a thunderous sonic boom cracking several of Kait's windows. Kira-217 stopped crying when her head snapped in the direction the jets had gone. She tilted her head, her lip twitching, breath heavy. A moment later the sounds of explosions echoing in the distance reached them.

"I...we...have someone to kill," Kira-217 said.

Freyja managed to glance up in time to see the Local Probe's warship appear not far overhead with a staircase descending just low enough for the cyborg woman to mount the lowest steps then climb inside the craft. It lifted off and left, traveling in the same direction the two jets had gone before vanishing entirely as the cloaking device re-engaged.

"What was that? Holy shit. Did I just record a snuff film? Were those jets? What the fuck is going on?" Sam rambled, his phone still in his grasp albeit far more limply than previously. "Fuck."

Freyja hung her head.

She failed.

Page was dead.

And the military was bombing things.

She pushed herself up to her feet, her clothing in tatters around the blood soaked yard. The Brothers of Fervor politely averted their eyes. Kait rushed over with a towel, wrapping it around Freyja's shoulders tightly. Damien stared from where he stood at the corner of the house. His terror clearly evident across the Link as well as on his face.

The only good thing about the situation was Gunner and Zoe not being present to see what had happened. However, she feared for their safety. The jets and explosions had been from the direction of the city of Georgetown. The same direction they'd been traveling.

Are Gunner and Zoe even still alive? she wondered.

They might be dead? Damien asked.

Freyja cut herself off from the Link.

"Let's get you inside," Kait said.

"The Armory," Freyja replied. "My stuff's in there."

Outwardly, the building looked like how it had when it was still in the city of Georgetown. Inside was a different story. Gone were the rows of safes along the walls and the center of the room. They'd been replaced with neatly arranged racks for the guns and ammunition along one wall. Shelves holding the food graced the opposite wall. Everything was clearly labeled and organized. The floor was metal repurposed from the safes themselves, just as Kira-217 had said. All of Freyja's personal belongings remained where they had been in the Armory. The composting toilet sat in its little tent thing in near the back of the building. Her inflatable mattress, microwave, clothing, and other supplies remained by the garage door at the front of the Armory.

"Wow, you live like this?" Kait asked.

"You should see the house," Freyja replied.

She went straight for her bag, rummaged through it, and grabbed somethings to wear: a tank top and jeans over basic underwear and sports bra. She was without of shoes thanks to having destroyed the ones she was wearing when shifting to eat Sherlock.

I killed him.

Whatever Kira-217's plan was it was shot.

No.

She thought a moment, realizing that she knew what Kira-217's plan had been: guerrilla warfare using Humans and turncoat Hive members against the Hive to slow them down, then hijack other Local Probes until she was able to take over the main ship that was on its way to Earth in two weeks. She also knew everything Sherlock had been thinking since arriving on Earth. Why she couldn't see his memories before that eluded her. Realizing she now had knowledge from not just the worm in the cat but also the Page, person he had killed, made her stomach turn.

Maybe I remember stuff from Page because I pulled them out of that madness spiral?

"You...okay?" Kait asked when Freyja stopped moving.

"No. But we don't have time for me break down right now." She shook her head then looked Kait over from head to toe. "You?"

Kait's hands trembled at her sides. "I...that biker just died and...you ate my cat..."

"Sherlock the cat died when that worm infected him. I'm sorry," Freyja replied.

"All my cats are dead?" Kait asked weakly.

Freyja pursed her lips. "Not exactly. They don't all do that. It feels like they become one with the cat sometimes. Bumble Bee is like that. The worm is in there, but so is the cat. They combined themselves and became one. General Latch, er, Sherlock wasn't the same. He tried to snuff out the cat and take him over that way. I think it messed with his mind. Which is why he killed Page."

"Sherlock was such a sweetheart. Dumb as a bag of rocks, but sweet, you know? He didn't deserve that," Kait said.

"None of them did," Freyja agreed.

"What do we do?"

She wanted to go after her brother. Then get him, Damien, and Zoe somewhere safe. Doing so would mean abandoning the Armory and the cats, however. Strategically, it would be foolish, even for family. She didn't need Page's lingering memories to tell her that so she shoved everything from them and Sherlock into a corner of her mind.

"Oh my god, Gee! You're back!" Damien shouted outside.

"Holy shit, what happened to your car?" Sam said loudly.

Freyja's heart skipped a beat as she hurried to the Armory's door. Kait waited to follow her but eventually left the building when Freyja was halfway across the back yard, about where Page's blood stained the cracked soil and scrub grass. The Brothers of Fervor had gone back in their house while Sam had given up on filming things with his phone but stayed outside. Gunner parked his car next to Freyja's outside of Kait's gate. Bullet holes lined the passenger side door up to the missing window. Steam poured off the engine which whistled like a tea kettle. A few more holes were evident in the vehicle's now dented hood. Her brother leapt out of the car and raced to the back seat to grab Zoe, then hurried through the gate to Damien. He handed her off and collapsed against the open gate, blood sticking his shirt to his belly.