Of all fucking phrases Maddie woke to, it was “You all seem lost~”

She made it a point to open an eye, turn her head towards whoever said that, and just tilted it for good measure. The semi-dry goop residue making a gross shlushing sound made the point better.

But she had to admit, the dumbass that said it was an important one.

Chestnut-colored, straight hair that reached her shoulders with a fringe covering her forehead. A youthful 30 something or near 40 something, it didn’t really matter since she was the type that didn’t need to worry about doing heavy lifting, trying to keep the look going. Gray eyes, a sharp-ass chin that she managed to make work, and finally a fair-skinned complexion. She was leaning out of the materialized window of the Extant Cinderblock--“Shift Terrain Vehicle”.

A stirred-from-sleep Jackson was the one that needed to give a fuck, to name drop her.

“Holy cow… You’re Professor Diana Blake…”

“And you lot… Are a mess…” the Professor cringed, looking at them up and down. Something clicked in her head quick, proving it wasn’t so full of air after all. “Oh! Right! Where’s the Stew?”

“At the Megaplex,” Jackie pointed down the industrial desert. “We ruined the Stew, but we needed to make sure that you guys knew about it… I never thought you of all people would come--!”

“But that place is new!” Diana exclaimed in disbelief. “Those fools must’ve just left it… Entertainment venues, am I right?” The woman shrugged and gestured the girls inside. “Well let’s go clean the mess, guys! You, the building, but mostly you—”

“Yes ma’m!” Jackie proceeded to shake River and the rest awake, completely oblivious to what kind of person this Diana is so far.

Maddie pegged Diana Blake as full of herself, versus the dead air she thought she had locked in her head. She can already see the signs; speaking the first things that come to mind, yelping away—circling around the actual subject until they’re satisfied. And the zaniness. She’s a character, she knows it, and she wants to make sure to perform to every eye that so much as glances at her.

Granted, Maddie never really seen much of her over Athernet or TV—sans Taber’s death live and a somehow younger Diana being promoted in the worst way, your boss literally dying while you were there. She was sure that Diana has done a plethora of shit Maddie has no idea about that allowed her to sleep and awake to see another day.

But actions do not save how people work—how they are. They only give people away. Diana could be the greatest researcher and record breaker. Doesn’t change the fact that she’s also a blowhard, if she continues down this track. She can be both, and somehow make it work, but Maddie had to keep it real. Assholes can singlehandedly ruin shit for themselves, including rare chances like that.

Firsthand experience she had with that, after all.

Maddie pushed back her thoughts, for now at least. Jackie was getting everyone to speed, a bit out of it yet pleased that something is going right for them, for once. The Cinderblock broke apart to create the door for them, and everyone got on to board it, with the monolith death vehicle closing itself.

The insides were lined with shit Maddie couldn’t possibly recognize or point out. Didn’t help that everything was near dark sans some glowing at weird places. AR Shift data floating about, coming from and floating back into screens that lined the walls? Tables or something also jetted forward from those walls, with a chamber in the far back where the Extant Discovery guys coming out, two of them, obviously coming to receive orders.

“Get the Null Void prepped,” Diana sounding responsible. “This could be messy.”

The goons… Couldn’t nod, as Maddie quickly wondered—figured—but in turn they did some handsign, maybe for okay. They shuffled quickly back in.

“They’re currently within a generator, they became electric parasites…” River droned, but explained. “They were these air-worms before—”

“JESUS!” Diana oversold her overreaction. “Are you serious?!”

“I’m pretty sure we’re going to develop breathing problems in the near future, I wish that we were…” Tracy quipped. Maddie didn’t peg her being able to quip, that’s pretty wild.

“…You girls?” Diana begun. “You girls are lucky. We prep for the absolute worse cases and still, it’s a struggle. You lot managed to… Managed to basically stop the things we could only stop because it couldn’t have gotten any worse. That’s amazing—”

Jackson laughed and wrapped her arm around River, shaking her a bit. “It’s only because we have our own genius here that we managed to do it!”

She can see River squirm in both shyness and being overwhelmed by sheer happiness. Maddie relates, dealing with all that sucks because there’s just isn’t a defense for that if you don’t just as quickly stomp it out, but this was good.

Like it or not, River was the smartest one there, or at least knows about the important shit. She can’t afford to mope about being useless when she’s the only one that’s key in surviving this, and Maddie’s glad that Jackson was smart enough to catch on her ribbing and jump in.

Expose and needle, then have someone encourage and kiss those boo-boos up. It’s literally the best way for a person to feel less shit about themselves, and actually get them to do the things they needed to do.

If Maddie had to peg the human race as a whole, this is what ultimately everyone wants. You can come from any race, creed, or whatever—But you can’t deny the fact that you want to be loved and you want something to prove. River wants to prove she’s a bag of shit, but also wants for her references to be heard, wants to say a factoid that would help—overall be not useless, or the kind of useless she fears that she is.

People are weird babies, no matter what age. The catch of course, is to catch whatever the whining is, and use it against them.

The Cinderblock shuddered to a stop, rocking everyone inside. It was weird for Maddie to see the “vehicle” to open itself, to form the door. The tech and finer features were swallowed up, all for the blank surface to spilt itself open, what looked like a stop-motion cartoon from the before times.

“You girls wanna see these creeps get Null Voided?” Diana grinned with the charm of a homeless person gesturing to the damp alley way.

And like that scenario, as much fun as it sounds, everyone’s bit hesitant.

“C’mooooon. This HAS to be some form of catharsis,” Diana urged. “We’ll protect you, you lot done your bit. Let’s see the finish.”

“Well, as long as we don’t get in the way…” Jackie responded.

They all go out, just in time to see the Extant works drag out the Null Void.

Which is… Something.

Two workers held up this mesh of technological garbage, acting as the sides for this green-gray-brown A.R. net. The net hummed, it trembled, as if it’s seconds from turning off. It shook, vibrated, and even sometimes surged forward, as if it was ready for what happened next.

The other workers opened the doors, as the living electric lanced out as the Null workers moved forward. The lightning screaming out, not knowing it went head on into their prison. The Null Void tugged the Nullgart out of the Megaplex, as the net clutches the monsters, as if it’s consuming them.

And as they go through the net, the Nullgart fall out of the other side, with a sickening plop. They were basically curled back up into whatever those fetus grubs Maddie saw them as, before all of this. Featureless, eyeless, yet eternally screaming grubs.

The fact that Maddie thought about that whole spiel of humans being the babies only minutes ago was not lost on her.

“There we are!” Diana tried to provide levity as literal creatures—forced to live in this world—were just skinned and turned back into baby material and was of course failing. “Now we’ll bring these things back, dunk ‘em in the Fridge, and they’ll be added to the on-going research so we can finally curb something Shift related.”

She rolled her head, letting it lean to the right as she rubbed her neck’s side, “Can you believe we’re cracking the Nulgart faster than the other two threats? Yeah, I don’t get it either…”

Now that Maddie’s gotten a full look at the woman, she even dresses the tacky she naturally oozes.

She has, somehow, a mini-lab coat. Long coat arms, cut off at her midriff of her grey top. She uses some puffy, black pants to give off the impression or void that the lack of a long labcoat left.

Diana, with hands on her hips as the Reseachers continued to do all the work—scooping up the Nulgart in their clasping, fuck off big hands, said this.

“Now let’s get you girls the showers and look ups you deserve. Better yet—with an exclusive back-lab pass with Extant Discovery!”

Jackson peered over, looking at Maddie.

“Hey, we’re getting free showers too!”

It took awhile for Maddie to get what she meant, and just as much time for the personal realization that she hadn’t talked for a while.

She glanced back at the armored-up van, and then smirked. Yeah, she had material.

“Eh, I’m wary about anything free coming out of a white van and some old lady-“

Jackson just rolled her eyes, as Diana legitimately laughed at that.

“Aaaalso, we really need to get out of this habit: showering together. Not really about that life…”

Diana propped an eyebrow, scanning at everyone. “…I guess you girls had a crazy couple of days…”

Diana looked back, as the Cinderblock formed a back door, showing where the Extant crew worked—their lab mainly. She pointed, gestured a bit while explaining the following, “The showers are on the left—a bit high pressure mind you, but they should get the job done. We have to stay and clean up a tad, but we should be wrapped up when you’re done~”

Everyone else said their thanks or whatever, but Maddie was still stuck on something. She followed everyone into the van, heading to the showers that were thankfully cubical.

There was one thing that siVis was useful for Maddie was the clearer thoughts, the clearer mind. Shit’s rawer, there’s less random shit—or at least they’re easier to catch, and easier to… Oddly think about.

So, as Maddie flung her backpack outside of her stall, walked into the showers—stripped and tossed the ruined clothes over the locked door, and turned on the roaring water. She needed to get to the bottom of this.

She closed her eyes, letting the spray rushing down her head, dripping from her now-wet curls.

She searched her mind, trying to find what was bothering her, what was fucking her up.

She floated about, watching the interconnecting pieces connect, pull apart and shift. It was weird, almost like falling through an endless void yet swimming through a huge ocean. But instead of fish, it was just floating factory bits that Maddie floated by.

She glanced down, seeing from the distance that a structure was struggling to hold together, almost throbbing in a way.

Maddie winced, grunting in reality, as her back ached suddenly.

She then sighed. She figured.

She tried to comb her hair with her fingers, but the pain from the center of her back radiated. She practically had to keep her mouth shut, clamping down to fight against it.

It was easier to retreat back to her Mindspace, she knew what it was and knew how to handle it.

Her mind shuffled, using pieces to recreate her memories—remembering the night before.

She saw her struggling to breathe—Jackson trying to help.

She saw her taking the fall on her back, and the Nulgarrt chasing after if it wasn’t for Aiko diving in. “Didn’t need to owe any favors anymore”, apparently.

She finally remembered how Jackson ordered for them to group together—her, Aiko, and Tracy. That the Nulgarrt always target either the weak, or desperately try to take out the perceived problems.

And considering how she did nothing but get knocked on her ass and had people carry her: she was fucking weak. Even Tracy managed to do something.

Maddie heard the creaking of shower knobs, the cue she’s been on this already too long. She opened her eyes, tightening the knobs, shower head coming off.

She put both hands above the knobs, on the slippery wall, and just started down at the floor.

The memories were summoned by her, the memories that made her and will continue to make her.

Hospital visits proving that she’s fragile. Sickness constantly beating her down with nothing to fight back.

Never understanding or realizing that her parents will let her down time and time again. Not accepting it.

Letting Marigold constantly be on her mind. Always letting that slip, never keeping it inside, never…

Never letting her rest.

Maddie admitted that she is weak, she’s always been. She nearly died while being born, barely grew right never mind up. She needed to be strong. Otherwise, she has nothing. There’s no other option and she can’t stop now.

She shook her head and sighed softly to herself. People live to be proven right, and to be loved.

Maddie can’t have either. Because that means letting up. And that’s something she never afforded in the first place.

And with that, Maddie was good to go. She and the rest opened their doors and opened their packs to dig out the cleaning supplies they stole from the convenience store. Everything side was smashed up, the snacks and food being the ones hit hard, but they carried on cleaning up, dressing and coming out.

They went through the lab, which had the Extant goons studying the grubs, trapped within the net of the Null Void.

And Maddie wondered why people were so freaked out over this Shift thing.

They went passed them all the same, coming back into the front of the Cinderblock with Diana again.

“So, Professor—” Jackson was cut off.

“Ah! I can already guess your question! I technically asked a question first~!” Diana wagged a finger.

Jackson laughed, on cue. “Of course, of course…”

Maddie folded her arms, but not as hard as Jackson was folding before her. She knew Jackson was too good for her own good, she’s sure that she’s picked up the same vibes as Maddie did… But she wants to play junior diplomat. Maddie didn’t want to burn bridges or disrespect this lady, but it can and will be dangerous to deal with someone like her when she thinks she has advantage over you.

Jackson was done with her explanation as she got out of the thought. Maddie mentally slapped herself over that, she needed to pay attention to this conversation.

“My…” Diana rubbed her chin. “No wonder a lot of things about you all didn’t add up… You HAD to have siVis or else you would’ve been missing arms or worse versus just being in goop… But you gained siVis in such a way that there is a lock. You don’t even have your Rebirth Marks.”

“Ah?” Jackson said quizzically.

Diana pointed at her neck, her exposed skin. “All siVis users have this piece of themselves jutted out, more or less riding on the same reasons as a birth mark—hence the name sake. There’s tons of things about you all getting siVis that doesn’t quite make sense, given your story…”

“Could you at least explain… What exactly happened?” Tracy piped up. “Where did we fall to? Where did we go? And why did has it taken the toll that it has…?”

Diana leaned on the desk. “Sorry to say girls, sometimes things just happen.” She brought up her hands, moving her fingers. “Reality constantly bending and breaking—while being stretched and shrunk… Sometimes things just happen. And I think that’s the case here, you all got swept up in something that was a mess up. Just like what’s happening here on Davenport now, sometimes there’s unexplained ways how things play out. All we can do, is learn from it and figure out how to lessen the chances of that.”

Everyone fell silent, basically after being told that yes—they all managed to fuck up in the worst way possible.

“That’s the true terror in all this… So much ground—foundation, for every single that can go wrong, will. Beyond anything that we can possible fathom.”

“Jesus,” Maddie finally said. “You keep going like this, and you’re gonna run me out of my only job here. I’m the doom and gloom motherfucker—”

Diana laughed at that, “Hey, at least you say it in a very funny way.”

“I was gonna go to clown college, until the Shifts dashed my hopes and dreams away.

“Hey, at least you don’t have to compete with Marlena in any way,” Diana fingergunned. She looked around, reading the room.

If she didn’t have her arms folded, Maddie would’ve openly rubbed her hands together. Not only Diana took the bait, but the saw that the audience she thrives on was bummed out by her. She wanted to see how the Professor will react.

“Anyways,” Diana quickly swept away the board, trying to start again strong, just like Maddie figured—“I came out here because, well… Kinda needed a break. We’re doing our best, but trying to crack parting this wall is going to take much longer than we thought. So, we’re prepping and reinstated the PATH-OS.”

“You’re gonna try teleporting everyone over…?” River asked.

Maddie raised an eyebrow, “And wasn’t it basically a Davenport-brand gimmick in the first place?”

“The years since it’s been down, it’s been tested and reworked for commercial use—And luckily today was all days that it was cleared for organic transport! Our original goal was just to use it to keep the supply line going, but the progress proved too good for not going for the chance… Which brings me to what I’m going to offer you lot.”

Diana opens her arms.

“Congrats! You’re going to be the first ones on board! My treat!”

Everyone was floored, looking at each other in excitement… Until.

“So what’s the catch, exactly?” Maddie questioned.

Diana titled her head. “None at all… Madsion, was it?”

“Sure. We had a suck-ass time, but we’re hardly the biggest sob story affected by all this… And you’re giving us a free ride?”

“I mean… As sad is that is? And true as that is… Well, I didn’t meet those people. I’ve met you all.”

Maddie looked at the Professor, up and down.

“C’mon Maddie,” Jackson said to her, “What happened to finding the good things within the bad days…?”

That all it leaves you open for when the bad days get worse? Maddie thought to herself. She sighed.

“Hey,” the small girl shrugged. “Even if we put it to some vote, I’m outnumbered either way. Let’s.”

Jackson proceeded to thank Diana, as Maddie tuned that out.

There was something about this that doesn’t click, and she’s sure that maybe it’s another case of just being thrown by people choosing to be nice.

But teleporting over that wall, to be reunited with their families… Just like that?

Maddie still felt that this whole thing she and the others are going through… It’s not done with them, yet.