***

“Come back to the magic!”

Before Jackie to remotely take any of that in, she felt a burrowing, tense shock shooting across her body, causing her to tense up into a curl.

“C’moooon on now, we need you here! We need you to keep being here! Come on back to the magic~!”

This shock aimed deep. Penetrated muscle, through nerves, and finally bone. As if attacking the pain receptors itself, to overwhelm and rip them apart. All that was left was a vacant, draining sensation.

And despite not having the energy to do so, Jackie sluggishly opened her eyes. Scarily enough, that’s when her vision returned, flickering on.

She was met with a dim, yet ever-present green light. Following the source, she found it radiating from her wrist.

The thing was a disk, with feelers and yet, completely stylized. As if it’s a merit badge that was upgraded to current technology. It was snug into her wrist, and she was painfully aware that it was deeply embedded inside.

So of course it was personified, to add to the surreal horror that was her life now.

“Welcome back to the magic!” it was cheerful, but in that way that it tried to be general. Not to annoy or nudge, yet fell face-first into those things purely due to the sugary and lifeless tone.

On the screen, Jackie assumed that the lines it displayed were her vitals, pulse. But the two lines separated and formed a huge smile as it talked, forcing her to begrudgingly realize that yes, the two bolts on the right and left on top of its sides, were meant to be eyes.

“I am so so so so so so so so so so happy that you’re still with us, today!”

She did not have time for this.

She looked down at herself. Her once good suit, again a remnant of the past, is in tatters. Just dangling scraps mixed together into each other.

Taking the lack of energy into account, Jackie used siVis to whip her head upwards to see where they were.

“Oh, fuuuuuuuuck…!” she whimpered and heard it echo.

They were in a cavity.

She was staring up at a steep, unforgiving crevasse. It felt like she was staring up at miles before her, never mind feet.

And the opening wasn’t distant light. It was a ceiling that had buildings swaying inorganically. Glittering softly on their uncanny surfaces, lights reverberating uncontrollably.

“Hey hey hey!” the device blabbered at the worse possible moment. “I sense that your heart rate and stress levels spiking, let’s calm down and let clarity define us in the end!”

“WHAT ARE YOU?!” Jackie roared at her wrist. “WHAT IS THIS—WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

It shushed back at her. In a rhythm. Each one trailing off into a whispering calm.

“I’m everyone’s newish friend, the Davenboy,” its attempts of reassurance plunged Jackie further into madness. “I’m here to help. I’m designed to crawl into the spaces even our talented emergency services cannot reach, to save you and keep you safe.”

“By drilling yourself into one of my vital veins?!”

“I systematically pinned myself into your body, in an effort to ‘flush’ all of the pain that you are in,” the Davenport—boy—thing tried to make sense of the insanity of what it was saying. “Keep in mind that you still need medical attention, but I will keep you okay and help you stay okay.”

Jackie tried to facepalm but was met with her fucked up hand, causing her to shake with sudden anger and a shout.

“FINE, whatever you say!” Jackie was practically growling. “Do your job then, what’s my status?”

The two lines stabilized, having a bean of light green, racing back and forth across.

“Multiple bone bruises, massive damage on your right hand, tears in muscles—”

Jackie sighed, then said to herself, “I’m tempted to say ‘any NEW injuries’ but—”

The lines stabilized once more.

“NO,” Jackie shouted again. “I WAS JOKING!”

“I see, I see! I am very sorry!” the Davenboy said in response.

“Right, now, this ‘help’,” Jackie spoke into her wrist. “Are emergency crews coming? Where are we?”

The lines stabilized.

And it slowly turned into a very pregnant pause.

“Now, while there are no signs of help coming yet—” Davenboy tried to reason, speed fast this.

“Don’t you dare,” Jackie shot our venom. “Explain.”

“Now, while there are no signs of help coming yet, I’m here with you to stay calm and bring you back to the magic,” the device just repeated. “Now, while we cannot determine your exact location, that does not mean people are not looking for you. We all want you back to the magic.”

“Fuck your magic or whatever you’re constantly prattling on about!” Jackie stressed. “Fuck you! Fuck whoever ‘we’—OH FUCK, WE--!”

She forced herself up, her respective joints buckling under her own weight.

“Your legs may be the second most damaged area of yo—” the Davenboy reported.

Jackie screamed again, shooting herself up, nearly falling backward, before shooting forward, and hunch over to keep herself up.

She looked around, raising her wrist as a desperate light source.

Instantly finding the others submerged within the floor of the cavity.

Her eyes locked onto the very first thing that went into motion, and it was a planted arm, waving helplessly.

Rushing over, Jackie gave it her all and pulled at the arm. Everything. All of her.

“You are putting way too much stress on your body at the moment—”

“SHUT UP—JUST SHUT UP!” Jackie yelled, agitated. Frantically pulling. “I DON’T NEED YOUR COMMENTARY! I DON’T NEED TO HEAR YOUR VOI--!”

Jackie then felt a fast, series of pops rippling down her back, then searing pain, that caused her to whimper out throatily.

The instant fall backward was enough to pop Aiko from the ground, the two girls tumbling back down again.

The impact alone, against her injured back, would’ve shook her to her core.

It was seeing Aiko on top of her that did it.

She wasn’t shaking, she was flailing. Fumbling, hitting Jackie over and over as a result of her hands becoming blurs. She wasn’t talking, she just relayed words that Jackie barely caught. Help—please—Do something—Anything—Do it—Anything—Please—Something—

“Aiko! Aiko!” Jackie was clearly scared, forced to grab the girl’s head with both hands, despite her back feeling oddly numb.

That didn’t work instantly. The two, broken girls had to wrestle with each other. Screaming, panting, in horrible pain for what felt like five minutes.

“Aiko. We need to keep our heads on more than ever right now. Stay. With me.”

The girl nodded, fast, with tears in her eyes. Jackie tried to maintain a thin layer of stoic command, but she was clearly wavering at the sight of this fearless girl suddenly feel her mortality.

“You have to listen to me…” there was something invisible yet wholly tangible lodged within Jackie’s throat. “Find the others. Rip this wrist thing off of me, and put it into yours. It’ll give you the chance to clear your mind, and keep you focused. Okay? You’re doing something. You’re doing something that’ll get us out of here, okay?”

Aiko hesitated. That made the weight in Jackie’s throat instantly rocket into her stomach at blinding speeds.

“Aiko,” Jackie leveled her own glossy eyes with Aiko’s. “Please.”

And the weight of that, caused Aiko to gain a bit of clarity in the end.

She took Jackie’s hand, lowering it away from her face as she looked at the Davenboy. Moving, and then hovering her other hand over the device, before hooking her fingers around it. Aiko squeezed her eyes, and then yanked away, causing the trademark sparks to spray briefly in an arc.

That would’ve been blood.

Jackie nodded, actual use of stiff upper lip to hide her gnashing teeth due to the sharp pain. Nodded at her, and Aiko got up shakingly, before plugging the device into her own wrist. Shivering, she sauntered away out of Jackie’s vision.

She was finally allowed to writhe on the cold ground.

It was a radiating wave, that traveled from her ruined back, scanning across her body and tightening into her stomach. Over and over again.

It wasn’t long, until she was awash in this instant, chilling feeling.

Opening her eyes again, they darted around.

Trying to take in, to make sense of, why she was on the ground in the middle of the street.

She rose her head, and saw a blown open, 50’s style diner in her vision. Letting her head fall, she groaned at her stupid, petty mind.

The bustle of the city grows louder, in the wake of something happening that stops it. She heard the muttering, the screams, the cars that got caught in the crossfire blaring alarms. But it was the 3-9-8 call that her ears seemed to focus on:

“Yeah uh—there’s these siVis people fighting at D. Drive on Steppe Ave—uh, they started fighting and these girls were the ones that started it—she picked a fight with Bentley Blake and his friends because they were taking over the diner—”

“Couldn’t think things out, can you luv?”

Jackie trained her eyes on the Bentley illusion before her. Virtually the same, tacky denim jacket and pants, a gaudy bat that he used as some umbrella or cane to only look cool. Light brown locks that were overly taken care of.

The only difference was his eyes being pitch dark violet, staring right back at her.

“You got into a fight and you managed to swing so badly…” Bentley cheekily motioned a swing and miss. “You manage to hurt yourself more than me. But it’s not just me, innit?”

Jackie tried to bite back, to scream at him, at the hypocrisy at this asshole trying to teach lessons when he’s willing amoral. But her head snapped to it’s side.

All she saw was his friends, beating up the people she was responsible for. Viciously. Practically a mess in motion. And while it didn’t happen like this, it might as well have.

Her head snapped back at Bentley.

“Wanna solve your embarrassing lives?! You wanna make this fucked up hellhole remotely better?! Then stop! Stop whatever you think you’re doing!”

Jackie was panting at this point, so brimmed with rage, with what he represented.

“…He’s right…”

Her eyes shot open, as she shuddered and turned to her left.

It was her, battered and defeated, staring right back.

“All I do… Is get hurt… And spread it around… Wherever I—”

It was easier to snap back at this time, due to Aiko’s pained panic.

“TRACY’S GIVEN UP—RIVER CAN’T STOP—AND MADDIE…!”

Aiko couldn’t stop crying and holding her head.

“Maddie’s…!”