What's Out There? Part 2

Chapter 14

Midnight melted the ice away, freeing Blood Ruby and Johnson. "Ruby, he's all yours," Midnight gestured to Johnson. Blood Ruby smiled. Johnson cowered back. Maxwell stepped back to let the chaos go, but nothing happened. Blood Ruby didn't move or attack, which left everyone dumbfounded.

"Um..." Maxwell looked at Midnight and gestured to Blood Ruby.

"Are you going to do something?" Midnight questioned her. Blood Ruby shook her head. Johnson let out a sigh of relief, but Midnight and Maxwell were extremely confused. "Why not?!"

"Maybe she's forgiven me," Johnson said sarcastically. Maxwell walked up to him and slapped him.

"You don't get to be sarcastic." Maxwell was unamused.

"I guess I'll have to deal with him..." Midnight grumbled as she stood up.

"What do you mean?"

"It's my tuuurrrrrrrn." Midnight popped her knuckles. Small sparks of red magic flew from her hands. Maxwell backed up further to give Midnight space to beat the crap out of Johnson. Johnson rose off the ground, taking a stance to fight back. Midnight would typically have huge outbursts of fire magic at her hands at this point, but it seemed as if she was having trouble starting the flames.

"Um... why aren't you using your magic?" Maxwell asked. He had just watched her melt the ice; her magic was intact, so why wasn't she using it?

"Heh, just... give me a second," Midnight smiled at Maxwell awkwardly. Johnson relaxed a bit.

"Doesn't seem to be working."

"I noticed." She began inspecting the charm of her necklace.

"Is something going to happen, or..?" Johnson pointed behind him.

"I dunno," Maxwell shrugged.

"Beating up Johnson will have to wait. I've got to get back to Aperture, right now," Midnight stated.

"Okay," Maxwell replied, opening up the portal that led back to Aperture.

"But Johnson's coming with us."

"Hold on wh-" Johnson was going to object, but Midnight grabbed the collar of his shirt.

"Let's go!" She shouted and jumped through the portal, closely followed by Maxwell and Blood Ruby.

Once they landed, Midnight let go of Johnson and pushed him towards Blood Ruby. Then she took off running down the hall. Maxwell was the last one through the portal and he watched her run off. "Wow, she's fast..." Johnson said. Maxwell nodded and ran after her.

He caught up and found Midnight in a large lab, grabbing random chemicals left and right. Her necklace sat on a counter.

"Um... what are you doing exactly?" Maxwell asked. She didn't answer, she was too focused on everything she was grabbing. So Maxwell went to go look at the necklace on the table. The heart charm was cracked and barely holding itself together. Instead of being its normal cyan color, it was a gray-toned blue, as if life was fading from it. Maxwell knew that wasn't good. "So..." Maxwell looked at the chemicals she was using. Midnight still wasn't paying attention, she seemed to be focused on finding something. "What exactly are you doing?"

"Fixing my necklace, I just have to remember what they used..." She replied. Maxwell noticed her hands were shaking badly.

"Are you going to be okay enough to fix it?"

"Yeah, I should be fine... for now."

"Good."

"Where's Johnson? Oh—nevermind that," Midnight dismissed that thought. The Necklace's charm had some sort of cyan liquid oozing from the cracks. "No!"