Season 1, Episode 2 - The Sewer V - "The Jelly Donut"

Isaac watched the body go down the sewer river for a moment. Just for a moment. Then he returned to reality.

Reed suddenly collapsed to one knee. Audrey and Isaac rushed to her side.

Reed gritted her teeth in mute pain. Her uniform looked tattered and lacerated all over, with cuts in her uniform and tights. The dried blood on the left side of her face was joined by fresh blood around her mouth. Small streams of scarlet blood came down her legs and chest. And her left arm and ankle. Limbs shouldn't look like that.

"What do we do?" Audrey asked, trembling.

"Use your seeds, quick!" Isaac ordered.

Isaac grabbed Reed's side to keep her from falling backwards. "You're doing fine, Reed."

"No shit," Reed dryly answered, and that's when Isaac realized something he never thought was possible: Reed could get hurt. People could get hurt. He talked all this talk about protecting the innocent. This right here, this battered girl, this is what happens when you couldn't protect someone. Isaac wondered about Esther and Myra.

Audrey held the first seed in her palm, which erupted into red energy currents. Out from the seed came the branch of an oak tree, strong and sturdy.

"Get her arm straight on that," Audrey said. Isaac did as complied while Audrey transformed another seed, this time into a long vine. With Isaac holding the arm and branch straight, Audrey ripped the vine in two and tied the vines around the branch, completing the makeshift splint.

"Do you really gotta grow the splints from seeds?" Reed asked, sighing as each wave of pain came over her.

"Seeds save weight and are less bulky to carry," Audrey explained, gritting her teeth as she worked on her friend.

"They're splints, how much can they weigh? And they're straight and rectangular and flat, how hard is that to pack?"

It relieved Isaac much more than it infuriated him (though it certainly did a little) to see Reed acting like her normal self.

Audrey seemed to feel the same way. "Are you just arguing with me as a way to relieve the pain?"

Reed gave a pained smile.

Seeing that smile made golden energy spark in Isaac's palm. "These New York bastards!" Isaac declared, staring into the darkness. "They're gonna pay for everything they've done to us!"

"Ah, relax Isaac, it ain't worth the trouble," Reed said.

Isaac couldn't believe it. "They broke your arm!"

Reed shrugged. "I can walk it off."

When she tried to stand she immediately collapsed onto her knees again. Isaac and Audrey caught her and carefully brought her over to the concrete wall, resting her back on it.

"Alright, fair enough, they broke my ankle, too, though I like to think it's just a sprain," Reed admitted. "But what I'm saying is, don't kill yourself over something like this."

"See what I mean?" Isaac yelled. "They broke your arm, how can you not care? How can you not want to get back at them? Get revenge!"

"And you take it too seriously," Reed retorted. "A broken arm isn't worth dying for. We got two of 'em, for Christ's sake."

"What makes you think I'd die?"

"We send so many people out to fight, a lot of don't make it back," Reed said firmly. "Let's get out here, quick."

"What's the rush?" Audrey asked cheerfully, hoping to lighten the mood. "We - well, you, but I provided a nice helping of moral support - beat up the bad guy, Isaac or I can go get Clayton and Hanai while the other one helps you back. Move too fast and you might hurt yourself even more."

"It's a Saturday, I got stuff to do," Reed explained. But, for the first time, Isaac realized this one was a lie. Maybe it was the disconnect between the flatness of her words and the uneasy tint to her eyes.

Then Isaac felt it too. Golden energy subconsciously flickered in his right palm. "There's a second guy, isn't there?" Isaac realized.

Reed remained mute.

Just like with Esther and Alfie in the school, Isaac could feel the manipulation of the Rddhi, those slight movements, similar to the waves made when a stone hits a lake, those ripples. And Isaac could track where those ripples were coming from.

"Wait here with Reed!" Isaac ordered.

Before the girls could answer, Isaac sprinted into the darkness.

Faster, faster!

Isaac urged himself onward, down corridors and tunnels, following the source of the ripples in the Rddhi. The source, once moving, settled down into a fixed location; Isaac just had to find him and punch his lights out.

Down tunnels and tunnels, corridors and branches, gray concrete and red brick walls, dim light fixtures passing him by as he kept sprinting.

Focus! Find the source! Make sure Reed never gets hurt again. Make sure Audrey won't have to suffer the same. No more Esther's...

He even found himself thinking beyond that.

No more Myra's.

Isaac reached a large tunnel and saw two corridors branch off to the left, one after the other. Upon reaching the first one, he stopped.

There. The ripples in the Rddhi start from here.

Energy flaring from his fist, Isaac stepped into the first corridor. Light fixtures on concrete walls illuminated the corridor in an orange glow. It was narrow, too narrow for Isaac's liking – his movement would be limited. At the edge of the walkway, where the sewer water usually was, a concrete wall stood instead. The ceiling was at its normal height, featuring a large light fixture in its center; that seemed sort of odd to Isaac, but he couldn't figure out why. And he had more pressing matters to attend to.

For a moment, Isaac wondered if he should have waited for Audrey. The corridor stretched thinly in front of him; it was the Yorkist's territory, perfect for him to set up an ambush. Did rushing off from Audrey and Reed set him up for failure? But then Isaac imagined Reed, the hurt and pain she must be feeling at the moment, and he thought of Audrey subjected to the same brutality.

There was no hesitation in him when Isaac stepped into the corridor, ready to take on the world if that's what he needed to do.

The other end of the corridor was out of range for the light fixture. From that cloak of darkness, a tall figure stepped out. He looked more like a soldier than Panama did; he wore a green fatigue jacket, opened in the front, with matching camouflaged fatigue pants and black combat boots. His chin featured a light stubble; his brown hair looked neat; his eyes gazed at Isaac like a shark might view its prey.

"Jackson," the man greeted, extending a hand. Isaac wasn't sure how he was supposed to shake it, considering he stood at the other side of the corridor.

But Isaac had more important issues on his mind.

"Another agent gave his name, too, before he attacked my friend," Isaac explained.

"Panama? He's a swell guy. It's a custom among us New Yorkers to give our names out before taking lives."

"My friend gave him hers before she took his."

"Ah. I could sense the disappearance of his presence within the Rddhi." Jackson seemed undisturbed by the loss of his partner. "Panama waging his holy war. Too much holiness in that war, know what I mean?"

"If you mean killing innocent New Englanders, then yes."

"Ah, I remember being an angry school kid. Brings me back." Jackson didn't seem that old himself; Isaac guessed he was in his early twenties, same as Panama. "Let me teach you a lesson, kid. Nobody's innocent in this world. Not just New Englanders; nobody's innocent. We're all just people, you know?"

Isaac didn't answer, tired of hearing conversation when his fists could be doing the talking.

"Panama took things too seriously," Jackson continued. "And from the sound of it, you do too. Word of advice. Take it easy. People kill, people get killed. Life happens. No need to get worked up about it."

Energy exploded from Isaac's right fist. Some flares struck the concrete walls, forming cracks and sending splinters to the ground.

"That's my friend you're talking about! She got hurt because of all this!"

Jackson raised a steadying hand. "Easy there. I see why you're all fired up now. You fight better when you're calm, you know?"

"Are you calm?"

Jackson shrugged. "I suppose so. I'm not like Panama nor you. I'm not fighting to avenge someone. I'm not here for fame, for money, or anything like that. I'm here because it's something to do."

Isaac didn't believe it.

"Something to do? Hurting people, spying on us, that's 'something to do'?"

"Sure. When I came out of South Utica Academy, I could've been a desk jockey with the officer corps, a desk jockey with the bureaucracy, could've dropped out and gone back to working as a baker's assistant. But infiltration, spying, now that's something to do."

"Then how do you feel, committing so much violence because you have nothing better to do?"

Jackson shrugged. "It's alright. Gotta take care of some extra chores sometimes, but it happens."

Isaac realized chores meant eliminating him and his friends.

"Well, let me tell you something right now," Isaac declared. "My friends tell me I take this too seriously, and maybe they have a point. But our actions have consequences. Everything I do affects others. That's why I take it seriously. Because it's not just me. If I fail here, if this tunnel route keeps going, then it's not only me getting hurt. It's a lone girl in an empty classroom after school. Two friends of mine, one of them wounded. The buck stops here so it won't reach them."

"How noble. I'll make sure to tell them that once we're done here."

Isaac tensed himself, energy swirling around his right fist, up his arm. In contrast, Jackson kept standing there. No energy appeared anywhere on him, and when Isaac sensed the Rddhi, he felt no differences in Jackson's Rddhi output.

"Let me teach you one last lesson," Jackson explained, smiling wide. "Sure, to us, it must seem like the whole world revolves around Rddhi. But Rddhi's not the only weapon out there."

With that, Jackson reached into his jacket.

"Well...that could've gone better."

Audrey heard Reed's words, but she was still looking down the tunnel, at the corner where Isaac disappeared behind on his destructive quest.

"What should we do?" Audrey asked, trembling.

"What do you mean?"

"I should get you to the surface, but what about Isaac? We can't just leave him alone."

Reed pushed herself so she sat up straight against the wall.

"I would only slow everything down. Go after him."

"Reed! We can't just leave you behind! There's no need to sacrifice yourself, we'll figure things out!"

"I'm not gonna die," Reed dryly explained. "I should be able to stand soon. I'll take the radio and walk back until I get in contact with Hanai."

"Are you sure? Can you even walk?" Audrey asked.

Reed looked down at her ankle. "I'm no doctor, but I actually think I only sprained this bad boy. The arm's...yeah, the arm's definitely broken, but the ankle's doing alright. Well, alright-ish. But Rddhi users have accelerated healing, remember? I mean, it still hurts, but make me a tree crutch or something."

Audrey concentrated and produced one from a seed.

"You know, that's real handy," Reed supposed. "I've never had a random need for wood, but if that day comes, I know who to call now."

But then she frowned and got serious.

"Isaac's not thinking right. You gotta get down there and help him."

Audrey breathed unevenly. "How will I find him?"

"Follow his Rddhi. And, you know, listen for noises from a battle and all that."

Audrey rose shakily.

Reed gave her an encouraging look - well, Audrey knew it was the most encouraging look her impassive face could show. "It'll be alright, Audrey. You can do this. And then, when we're done, I'll be in the hospital, so get me some donuts, alright?"

"Donuts?"

"I'm hungry. Get the jelly ones. It's like you're having a PBJ, but in donut form. Well, no peanut butter I guess, but you know what I mean."

"Not really."

"Ah, maybe this is just the blood loss talking."

Reed shooed her away.

"Anyway, get down there. You can do it."

Audrey gulped and nodded her head.

It's not about whether I can do it or not...it's about my friends needing help. What kind of friend am I if I just kept standing here?

Audrey sprinted off after Isaac.