PROMISE ME, BEN PARISH ( 3 )

FIVE

ROGUE

Vosche tells me that my visits with Ringer will need to be suspended for the time being. According to him, Razor is making more progress than I am. He has managed to gain Ringer's trust with small talk of baseball and chess. It seems so inherently human that it makes bile rise in the back of my throat. It could be a meet-cute if it wasn't for the fact that he was tricking her.

Constance and Vosche focus on getting me prepared to meet Squad 53. It takes a month to get to know the squad, their whereabouts, who they are, who is in charge, who's left and who isn't. Based on previous information from Grace, the Drone who was supposed to watch over Evan Walker, those that remain are: Privates Zombie, Dumbo, Poundcake, Nugget, and Ghost. Cassie, the sister of Private Nugget, is there as well. She is the one that Evan deviated for. The one that Evan claims he loves.

During this time, Razor continues to make a false plan to escape with Ringer. He taught her a game called chaseball, one he made up to 'secretly' communicate with Ringer without anyone else knowing. Unbeknownst to Ringer, Vosche has me watching them from the safety of a security room not far from his office. In case something changes, Vosche said. As if things are not going exactly how he wants them to.

It's outside of the Convalescent Wing doors that I learn the real reason Razor is helping Ringer.

Razor bursts through the white doors looking pale and exhausted at keeping up his charade. He's covering his thin lips with one hand as if he is trying not the be sick. Then he catches my eye, and his hand drops to his side. Still, his chest is heaving and there is spit falling from his mouth. Has he been throwing up?

"Don't stop her," he says. Like it makes sense. Like any of this makes sense. Stop who from doing what? "Rogue, you have to let her—"

Light explodes at the base of my skull. Bright white, then a multitude of colours — ranging from pink to gold to peach and maroon. They burn the base of my skull, weaken my knees, throw me against a wall inside of my mind. And then I see him, sitting next to Ringer, tapping away. Razor.

It's like his entire essence has joined my body, threatening to rip me apart, trying to stabilize as it bounces erratically in a body that is not it's own.

"NO!"

I'm on the floor. Razor is beside me, eyes wide and terrified. If I think hard enough, I remember him reaching for me, saying my name, whispering something like what's wrong, what's going on, are you hurt, can I help you—

"What the fuck?" Razor demands. "What the actual fuck was that?"

And I see it, then. Tucked in the back of his mind is the plan that Vosche had given him. Razor told me without telling me. I managed to snag the whole plan, including Vosche's part in it. Including the part where I'm excluded. Wait. Not a plan. A test. One that will lead to the death of Teacup and the official recruitment of Ringer.

I turn to my side and throw up the peaches I had for supper. There's nothing that I can do except wait for the test to be completed. Only then will I return to Sofia. It makes me sick. Makes me want to hurl myself off of the base I'm laying in— I might have, if I thought it would kill me.

There's nothing I can do.

__

The test is carried out the following day. Razor slips laxatives into Ringer's food, which is the sign that something is going to happen. It takes less than a few minutes for Ringer to figure it out and take down both the recruit in her room and Claire, who was on duty. From there, she goes to room 352 to retrieve Teacup.

      Teacup is badly wounded and healing slowly, but Ringer cannot wait any longer. She flees via a Black Hawk with Teacup in tow. Vosche orders that the base go back to normal. Ringer will return in a matter of days.

      He's right. Eight days later, Ringer returns.

      Razor kills Teacup to break the tether keeping Ringer there. Razor is killed by several soldiers because of this, leaving me to cart off his deceased body. On the way to the incinerator, I find a note in his pocket.

      You were right. You're not crazy.

      Alex.

__

Ringer left after Teacup was killed, but returned upon realizing that there were others that she needed to protect. Zombie, Sofia, the rest of her squad — they all need her, especially now that the Twelfth System can rally even that of the Others.

      Constance fills me in about what happened at the hotel. Vosche sent a young girl with a bomb in her throat to meet them, knowing that they wouldn't be able to turn her away. Fortunately for them, the girl didn't detonate when they took her in. Unfortunately for Grace, the Drone who let Evan escape, the kid blew her and the hotel up. Zombie and some of Squad 53 escaped, though we are not sure how or who. Constance actually smiled at that. She's aware that Sofia was my friend, and that it pains me to know she could be dead. And she loved it.

      Squad 53 currently reside in Grace's former home, a cabin in the woods near a gas station. Vosche says there are seven perceivable people in the cabin but they cannot be sure who is alive in there without risking being seen. Still, there was no way that the girl survived the explosion, so the most probable survivors were that who had originally taken shelter in the hotel — plus Evan.

      Constance reminds me that Evan is the target. That the others will only be harmed if they get in the way. It makes me laugh, a bubble of noise not unlike a dying cat. "'Get in the way'? Did ninety-seven prevent of the population also 'get in the way'?" I can't stop the laughter. It makes my shoulders shake and my chest ache. "Constance, you have to be the dumbest alien I've ever met! Do you really think I'll believe that, even after everything the Others have done?"

      Constance sneers at me, and had it not been for my crucial part of the plan, I'm sure she would have snapped my neck. The thought makes the laughter stop, but the smile still lingers.

      "You're right," Constance says. I pause in surprise. "Vosche told me to say that to you, but it's clear that you're not here to help us. You're here to see that friend of yours again. And you know what I think, Rogue?" She leans in close, her breath smelling of fresh mint. When did she have time to brush her teeth? "I think that I'll kill you before you lay a hand on Walker, and I think that your friend might do it even before me."

      My knuckles connect with her nose. A flash of red flies through the air, following a crack! as the cartilage breaks. The two cadets standing outside of the room rush in, weapons drawn. Constance raises a hand to stop them from interfering. Instead, she offers me a dazzling, bloody smile. "Save it for Ringer. Vosche will let me strike down Squad 53 in its entirety if she gets in the way."

      She's right, but it doesn't stop the feeling of satisfaction I get from watching her set her nose back into place.

AUTHORS NOTE:

This is not edited in the slightest and it probably never will be, honestly... ANYWAYS, there should be one more chapter and then Ghost will be back! So yay!