Think of these stories as a series and this is the season finale, okay? I expect comments - I expect thoughts - I will answer them all as best as I can w/o revealing what will transpire in the upcoming stars (fear not, 4 is finished, 5 is finished and pt 6 is well into the 80 written pages)
s*t*a*r*s/J*A*D*E*S
“What do we do?” asks Natalie.
Spencer?
Mom, I can’t find them! Abby is making a new passage and I can’t….
Slow down. Sydney can port right to them, but she has to calm down, take your time. If you go off the clutch you’ll pop it and stall. Easy and you’ll be in gear.
Christ on a crutch, Mom!
I got them, breaks in Sydney.
s*t*a*r*s/J*A*D*E*S
“It’s not good.”
“Get us there!” orders Spencer.
They materialize and Spencer feels the jolt again. The rocking of the world stops and she is facing an army of those things, those dead cold things that came from the water. No stone. Nothing but this. It was a rouse.
“I can take care of this,” says Sydney.
Spencer looks around, there are twenty of Susan’s cold ones surrounding them. “You can’t.”
“I can, go find Rylee and the others, get them out of here,” begs Sydney. Her power bristle around her, she grabs Spencer’s hand and pulls her close. “Save them.”
“What if I can’t?” asks Spencer.
“No such word as can’t,” says Sydney. “Go!”
Spencer doesn’t look back. Sydney is right, all that can hold her back is thought. She has to make sure Rylee is okay, and Tegan. It is the sole thought on Spencer’s mind as she hears Sydney begin to hopscotch around the cave, popping the remainder of the things out there to some far of region of space, or better yet, the sun.
Spencer runs. The dark rock walls are a blur as each step brings her closer to the one person who has hurt her most in life – but she is also the one person who Spencer truly lives for. That’s what Rylee never understood. That Spencer lives for her.
The dead calm of the inner cavern that Abby has created stops her cold. Abby, her hands blood covered and shaking is crouched next to Rylee.
Rylee’s chest doesn’t rise or fall.
She is motionless.
A warm hand feels for Spencer’s – it is Tegan.
“We tried…”
“We couldn’t…,” begins Abby.
“Abby – go help Syd,” orders Spencer.
The flicker in Spencer’s eyes makes Abby hesitate. “No.”
“Go,” barks Spencer. “We need to get out of this cave now go!”
Spencer?
It’s okay, Mom. It’s all going to be okay.
Tegan nods to Abby. Abby slowly walks to Spencer and says, “I tried.”
Spencer, realizing that Abby thinks that she is angry with her, lifts her hand and touches Abby’s cheek. “I know it will be okay. Go make sure that Syd is okay to, please?” Spencer’s thumb caresses Abby’s cheek, an intimacy that Spencer never allows herself. To touch.
What are you doing, Spencer? Talk to me, Spencer? screams Jo through their link.
I’ve got it covered, Mom. I can’t pop the clutch now, Mom.
Abby nods, thinking that Sydney doesn’t need any help, but that Spencer needs one last moment with Rylee alone.
Spencer closes her blue eyes, waiting for Abby’s life force to be farther way, listening internally to her own heart, which is still beating. It is remarkable that a heart that should never have fluttered, is beating so hard for someone she should never have met.
“This is what our mother’s meant by biting off more than we can chew, isn’t it?” asks Tegan. “We killed Rylee.”
“That thing out there killed her, we didn’t,” says Spencer.
It is time.
It is ludicrous to think this will work, this spur of the moment thought, but Spencer has to try. Moving to the beaten and broken body of the girl she’d fallen for instantly upon meeting, Spencer kneels. Spencer edges closer to Rylee.
Rylee’s body is covered in blood – her once pretty face is almost unrecognizable.
Without her, she’ll die, is the only thought that festered in Spencer’s mind now. She can’t be immortal without love, can she? She doesn’t want to live without Rylee. She’s seen what living without your soul mate can do to a person, how it ravaged her mother. How it broke Amy each day to walk the earth without Jo. Spencer’s fingers trail down Rylee’s arm, and continues to touch virtually every part of her body that she can.
Tegan turns away, her face wrenches in pain and the tears glisten on her cheeks. “Stop, Spence, please.”
“I can’t live without her,” says Spencer.
Tegan spins around, watches as Spencer places both hands on Rylee’s body and sends a shock wave of energy into their already dead friend.
“Spencer!” yells Tegan. She darts to Spencer, pushing her away from Rylee. “It’s over!”
“You don’t get it! If she’s gone, a part of me is gone too, Tegan. I have to bring her back and I only know one way to do that,” says Spencer. She scrambles back into position, closing her eyes and pushing her power as hard as ever before. She feels the world shifting, draining away from her, it isn’t blood it is energy.
It is love.
Tegan watches in equal amazement and horror as Spencer flickers then fades, like a photograph in time. Rylee’s wounds begin to knit and close, bones shattered become whole.
“Spencer Andrews, you can’t leave! No, Spencer, stop before it’s too late!” yells Tegan. Tegan shoves at Spencer’s shoulders, but her hands simply bleed through. There is one last flicker, Tegan meet Spencer’s disappearing eyes and realizes that Spencer has given Rylee one last gift of love – herself.
s*t*a*r*s/J*A*D*E*S
The room is utterly silent for a moment, and then all Rylee can hear the soft sound of her mother’s breathing. Her eyelids are heavy, wrenched closed against the light that Rylee knows is streaming through the windows of the infirmary. Night has turned to day how many times now, thinks Rylee.
Rylee knows she is in the infirmary, the smell that taints her nostrils tells her that. And, after the blow that one of the cold ones had dealt her, that sulking evil thing had dealt her, it is the only place she can be. Where Darci could heal her, to put her back together again like Humpty Dumpty. So many things had gone through her mind on that mountain, none of which Rylee wants to think of. Each gash of the razor talon fingers had only brought blood and the realization that she was an idiot. That her love for Spencer was strong enough to withstand anything, even if they could never touch. Life had once been lost, but now, now Rylee thinks there is a chance of redemption.
Eyelids flutter open and Rylee sees the one thing she doesn’t expect.
Spencer.
Crouching next to her bed, her long hair tied in a loose ponytail, messy as always, not a battle scar on her perfect skin, blue eyes all knowing, looking very intently at her. All the things that have gone on between them: Rylee cheating on Spencer, the lying, the betrayal, and still, Spencer is at her side.
“Spence,” whispers Rylee. Emotions batter her, harder than any blow, any power, and knife or fist could deal her. How had she let her life spin so out of control?
The grittiness of her voice astonishes and frightens her. How badly had she been hurt? Her vision, or lack thee of, hadn’t come to realization. She was alive..
“Shhhhh,” whispers Spencer. Spencer’s voice takes on a sing song quality to it, almost lulling Rylee back to sleep.
“Where?” says Rylee, losing her train of thought, all she can think of is that Spencer is here, with her.
“The rest of the girls are over in another area, Tegan, Sydney, Abby are all okay. Jayden is all good too, not an inch of her is hurt anymore. Emma passed out about an hour ago and your dad is behind you. But don’t turn, it will tear out the stitches, okay? I wasn’t able to heal everything.”
Rylee closes her eyes, feeling for the first time the damage that had been done to her body. It feels old already, the memory of it, the devastation of having seen her own death, which caused the inevitability of it happening. How convoluted it is. Rylee’s mother had always told her that if you foresaw your own death, that it would kill you. Much like the legend if you saw your death in a dream it killed you in real life.
“Spence?” asks Rylee.
“Mmmmm?”
“Do you—”
“I forgive you,” says Spencer gently. “It is – it is inevitable. I love you too much to not forgive you, we all grow, right? I’d die without you. I’m sorry for all the things I said, I was hurt. I was lost without you.”
“It hurt to be without you,” admits Rylee.
“It will hurt less in time,” assures Spencer.
“I’m groggy,” says Rylee.
“They gave you some drugs,” says Spencer. “It will take the edge off, it won’t hurt so much, for a little while.”
Rylee tries to remember, tries to see what happened. The calmness of Spencer’s voice only lulls her into that place again.
Rylee’s hand grazed his ancient arm, her head snapped back, shards of red visions danced in her head.
Death.
Pain.
Her own.
Rylee gasps.
“Please don’t remember,” pleads Spencer. “Not yet. I’m not ready. Open your eyes, talk to me, see me for now.”
Rylee tries to fight the drugs, the pull of the memory is to strong, it drags her down into the void of reality.
Flashes of light, of death, then of darkness – Spencer’s hands on her chest.
Screaming.
Begging.
“Lee, don’t,” says Spencer.
Rylee’s eyes snap open. Staring hard at the girl who had taken her heart so easily, and then Rylee had given Spencer’s back in pieces.
“What did you do?” asks Rylee. “What did you do?
She asks, but Rylee already knows what Spencer has done.
“I – I didn’t know what else to do. It is no good without you. I didn’t – I didn’t know it would happen, I just knew I had to be there for you. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, Lee, I gave me up for you.”
Rylee feels her breath catch in her throat, her whole body shivers.
“After everything I’ve done to you, Spence, please, tell me this is a dream….”
“It’s a dream,” says Spencer as she fades, the lie hangs between them, a shroud of darkness.
“No,” begs Rylee. Her fingers reach out, encircling Spencer’s wrist, but then it is gone. The reality of what she’s just guessed at explodes in her mind.
“You’re not going to die, you’re not….” Vows Spencer. White-blue electricity coursed over, around and through Rylee. Spencer pouring all that she is into the person she loved most in the world: Rylee.
“NO!” roars Rylee.
Emma shoots from her chair as her daughter calls out, instantly at Rylee’s bed, trying to calm her. But nothing will calm her. Mario tries to stop her as she tears the sheets off the bed, but Rylee has to see. She has to see that she is gone. How could she be gone? How? It is inconceivable that a person who conducts energy can die. She is immortal, damn it!
The hospital Johnny falls off her shoulders, and Rylee sees the marks on her chest, the faint handprints of the girl she’d loved. Fingers of love that had resurrected her.
“Rylee,” begs Emma. “Don’t go in there, please.”
“She did it, didn’t she?” says Rylee, frantic and pleading. “It isn’t a dream?”
“She did,” says Mario.
Rylee moves from them, back peddling from the truth, from the insanity of what they are telling her, of what she already knows.
She hears soft mutters, and Tegan’s voice from another area, hidden away behind curtains. Pulling away from her mother’s grasp, Rylee stumbles through the all-hiding curtain.
Tegan is standing at the head of the bed, Jo is sitting on the edge.
“Where is Spencer?” demands Rylee.
“Rylee, you shouldn’t be up,” says Tegan.
“Don’t!” orders Rylee, pointing at Tegan, her finger shaking.
Jo says nothing, staring intently at her feet.
“Jo? Jo, where is she? I want to see her.”
“There is nothing to see, Ry,” says Tegan gently. Tegan makes her way to Rylee, touching her cheek. “She’s gone.”
“Gone?”
“Whatever she did – it brought you back,” says Jo. Her voice chipped with ice.
“Where did she go?” demands Rylee.
“She’s gone,” says Tegan.
“What do you mean, gone!”
“Her body, it disappeared,” says Natalie. “She is just – gone.”
Gone
12.30.08
Feeling low and lost today
You’ve taken too much on your slight shoulders
Rushing around
To and fro
Can you take a moment
For me
You’ve got to slow down
You’re losing me
I’m in the breakdown lane
While you fly on by
You stress
You’re minds a mess
Hit the brakes
Before you lose all that’s precious
I want you to stay still
Remember what you’re missing
But only if you want to find the time
Why do you run when I walk with you
Life is rushing by you
What do you see
The world is whizzing by you at a rapid rate
I’ll be off to the side
Standing by, living life
If you listen
I’ll make things perfectly clear
If you keep rushing around
Missing all that is waiting for you
When you finally look and stop
I’ll be gone