Sodor's New Worker (Semi-Hiatus Due to an AO3 rewrite)

Beyond the Red Dawn

"You.." he muttered to himself. "It's you...all this time.."

"..."

   She didn't say anything. Not a word came out of her as the grey skin dissipated, revealing it's true, pale colors. Alfred had been right, cruelly right. Bonnie was not real. It makes sense to James, how he eventually grew to have an infatuation with someone who hated him.

   Maddy held her still-bleeding gash on her face, blood and glittery magic seeping through her fingers. She just stared at him with all the hate and malice she had toward him. She ripped herself away from him and kept walking off to...well, she didn't know where. Whatever she ran into first, a hospital or the Steamworks.

"IT'S HER!" he shouted out. "IT'S MY HONEY BEE!"

   The woman stopped dead in her tracks. The slow turn she took put a chill down James' spine. She spotted several engines coming in their direction, which only fueled her anger.

"**Nid myfi yw eich Gwenynen Fêl. Ni fyddaf byth eto. Peidiwch â chyffwrdd â mi, peidiwch ag edrych arnaf, peidiwch â siarad â mi. Nid ydym yn ddim mwy na chydweithwyr."

"..What?" he asked. 

   James didn't know what she said, but he could understand the tone behind her speaking. It was filled with rage and hate. Hate for him.

   Before he could come forward and get another word in, he felt the solid base of a cane crack him in the back of the head. While it didn't knock him out, it certainly took him to the ground.

"Something we agree on." he heard Nate mutter.

"Quiet, you." Duck seethed. "She said she's not your Honey Bee. She wants nothing more to do with you. You best turn to the gods that made you and beg for forgiveness and pray they give it to you. Because you, Hughes, will not get it from her."

"..You knew?" he groaned, rubbing the back of his head, turning to look up at the crowd of his fellow engines that surrounded him. "The whole time?"

"What does it matter to you if I did?" Duck snapped back. "Actually, all of us at the Little Western knew. She had no reason to hide from us, and we have no business blathering about her life. We respect it and move on with our days."

   James saw Donald, Douglas, Oliver and even Ryan nod their heads in agreement. 

"And as for the rest of you." he spoke, turning to the crowd. "I wouldn't expect anything from her either."

"Well what did I do but DIE at her hands!?" Nate hissed.

"Besides you and your family." Duck rolled his eyes, waving them off. "You three have done nothing but die and/or grieve. She's got no reason to hate any of you. Now hush and allow me to speak.

   They all fell silent, listening to Duck and the occasional tapping of his cane against the ballast.

"I'm not condoning what she did to Nate. It was awful and I'm sorry for you and what happened to your family." the Pannier man started off. "But all of you are at fault too."

"Well, pray-tell Montague, what did we all do wrong?" he heard Gordon boom.

"You all had a right to be angry at what she did. Disown her, what have you, but you, especially Edward and Henry, and by god YOU, James, knew this woman was hurting. Do you have to forgive her, no. Absolutely not. But you as husband and parents at the very least could have tried to help her. Let me ask you, would she normally act like this? Go as far as to take the life of another engine over a misunderstanding?"

"Well, no.." Henry sheepishly replied. "Take matters into her own hands, yes, but no intentionally kill someone who doesn't exactly deserve it.."

"You all stood by and let her sink further and further into a hole that led her to this point. From the kidnapping, held hostage, getting hurt, threatened, fighting. What I have learned is that hardly any action was taken."