Cybil (2018) #projectsuper

Chapter 38: The Long Ride

The next morning...

Cybil woke up to find her father waiting for her. Usually, this would serve to relax her. Unfortunately, both of them knew there would be no relaxation for either of them this morning.

The girl went through all of the prerequisites she needed to, from packing her equipment to plugging the autopilot instructions into their copter's computer.

She wished she could just stop and walk away. In fact, she would've loved to not have woken up this morning

But fate wouldn't have it that way, it seems...

"You're quieter than usual, Cybil," James noted once the two were settled in their seats. The doors of the machine closed as take-off procedures began.

Setting coordinates for autopilot set destination. Doors locked.

She felt imprisoned by that very statement.

"F-father?" the girl stammered, suddenly feeling more vulnerable than she ever thought she could.

A look that seemed pained beyond description was her only reply.
---
As the copter took off, an agonizing silence filled the cabin. The two couldn't find words with which to speak, so they didn't.

At one point, James quietly went up and stroked her hair, humming a tune that had once almost always been in her mother's mouth. She wouldn't admit this aloud, but she loved it. Every time he did this, which was whenever she'd had gotten through a particularly hard mission, it had a way of calming her down.

It also made her feel more...human. Less like she was a malfunctioning machine.
---
After a while, she woke up, having dozed off without even realizing it. James was back in his seat now, apparently asleep himself. They had left about midnight, as they had been instructed, so neither of them had gotten any real sleep...

Still, sleep couldn't have come easily with the knowledge of what they were about to do.

She looked out the small window of the cabin, still tired herself. The night sky lit up brightly with stars. It wasn't anywhere near light enough to cause the bluish hue that came just before the dawn. It was a shame. She liked that.

She backed away, wondering what to do next. She was desperately trying to block out the knowledge of her destination and mission, but she didn't have an appropriate distraction for that.

After a bit of thought, a stroke of realization hit her.

"Father. Father!" she whispered, trying to shake him awake.

After a stir, he slurred, "What's up, sweetie?"

"Can you tell me about my last sibling?"

"Huh?" James still looked dazed.

"You said I had five. You've already told me about Ty, Max, and Ryu."

"Ty?"

"I can call him that, right?"

"I'm sure he won't mind."

She stood there expectantly.

James yawned, wiping the sleep from his eyes. "Alright then."
---
"Rachel was the last of anything I created prior to you. She would have also been my last chance to save my hide."

"Would've?"

"We'll get to that," he assured.

"Anyway. The orders from on high (or rather, just Wester) were for a bodyguard. Basically, he wanted me to custom make another addition to his squad of heavies. Fortunately, I had no shortage of material to work with this time. That didn't mean she came out perfect, though."

"She?"

"...yeah."

Cybil then asked a seemingly innocent question. "How did you decide what gender, skin color, age, etc. to make us?"

James was wide awake now, his face had gone pale as a sheet at the question.

"Father, are you feeling okay? I can scan your body for...."

"That won't be necessary!" The answer came out very jumpy and disturbed. "I'll just...tell you about that some other time. Okay?"

She scratched the back of her head but nodded the affirmative.

"Rachel's Gift is far more overt than those of any of you or siblings. Simply put, she has super strength and... Well, you know how you don't get cuts easily?"

She did. She could never figure that out...

"Well, it would take a lot more to penetrate her than common causes of cuts, scrapes, and the like. She's effectively invulnerable from the outside."

"Wow..." She was legitimately in awe.

"There's also something else I need to tell you about her. It's about her size..."

"Is she really tiny or something?"

"The opposite."

"She's really huge?"

He gave the girl a look.

"Sorry."

"Just don't bring it up when you meet her. It's like the situation with Ryu."

"Okay."

He yawned again, causing her to do so. "Get some sleep if you can, sweetie. You'll need every minute of it."

She turned to walk away but then asked. "If I have to kill this lady, will you still love me? You never answered that question."

"I will love you no matter what! Now go." He spoke hurriedly and with a bit of an anxious bite to his voice.

She sat back down, listless until she fell into a dark, dreamless sleep.