Imperium

Chapter 9: It'll Be Fine

He thinks that maybe the meditation itself doesn't help as much as the memory does. That was honestly the first time he was actually able to spend some quality time with Peace, which was quite uplifting after losing John. Even though Edith was away in Idyll at the time, he was still able to feel a sense of home.

Even when Regan and Data interrupted.

"Well, Loverboy? You comin' or what?" J pokes her head in through the window, upside down from atop the roof of the car.

Colin opens his eyes and nods, shutting off the vehicle and getting out. He retrieves Edith from the backseat and carefully lifts her into his arms, letting her head rest against his shoulder as he makes his way over to J. "Lead the way," he says.

J giggles and sidles up a little closer to him, staring at Edith with a giddy smile. "Aww, she's so cute when she's not dead! Be sure to keep 'er that way!" she snaps her fingers and the fedora on top of her top hat poofs out in a pink mist, then reappears atop Colin's head.

He sighs again and nods. "That's the plan."

J claps and steps back. She stands still for a moment, then jumps into the air with a front flip, also poofing out and when the pink smoke disperses, a small brown monkey wearing a tiny top hat is in her place and she climbs up onto Colin's head, pointing him east.

"That way, Loverboy!" she says.

He wishes he could say that's the weirdest thing he's seen her do, but earlier today he saw her disguised as a hobo pirate man who was gremlin crouched atop a jukebox that wasn't even real and she threw a wad of cash at him.

He takes one last deep breath before walking through the dusk forest.

"Here we are!" monkey J exclaims and jumps off of his hat, running forward and stopping in the middle of some trees.

Colin tilts his head and looks around as he slowly approaches, seeing nothing but trees. The walk here was much shorter than the drive. It only took about ten minutes, but he supposes it's a good thing they left the car since this part of the forest seems too dense to try maneuvering a vehicle through.

"Where is here?" he asks cautiously, trying to stay vigilant in case this turns out to be an ambush.

"Here is here! And we are here where we're near our destination!" monkey J rushes over to a large tree and climbs up the trunk, swinging from branch to branch until she vanishes into the leaves.

Colin stays standing in place, momentarily wondering if he's made good choices in his life and if this is one of them. He's starting to think not, but feeling Edith unnervingly motionless in his arms makes him set aside his doubts and allow himself to have faith that everything will be okay. If he starts being cynical about every choice he makes, they probably won't get very far. He has to stay positive.

He hears a metallic 'clink' sound come from up above, when monkey J freefalls back down, bouncing off Colin's fedora and flipping forward to land on the ground. She rushes back over to him and shoves him at his knees.

"Step back just a little bit..." she says and he complies, waiting to see what the hell is happening. He backs up until she grabs his pantleg. "Perfect! Now just stand there and don't move, trust me!"

"The amount of times you've told me to trust you isn't exactly reassuring," Colin says.

Monkey J rushes to stand a few feet behind him. "It'll be fine! You'll see!" she says and reaches for something at the base of a tree near her. She punches the trunk and a soft metal bang rings out. A small square cutout at the base of the tree flips open, revealing an array of buttons and J presses a few. "Just... hold on tight to sweetcheeks, kay? Got it? Good!" she hits another button.