Aleck's friends chased after her as she ran out of the small one-room movie theater, screaming and crying. She slipped on a patch of icy pavement and fell hard on her leg, unable to control her landing. Her friends rushed towards her with concern. "Whose brilliant idea was it to watch a vampire movie with her?" Odette growled.

The boys look guiltily at each other.

Aleck lay on the frigid ground, unable to move from where she fell, shivering not just from the winter snow but also from haunting memories of the past. Jareth grabbed the can of the medicated Caja and shook it, trying to put it in Aleck's hand. However, it slipped and spilled onto the snowy ground. "Wake up, Aleck. It's not real," said Odette as she desperately shook her friend.

Ben pulled out a comically strange-looking robot. "Look, I made this silly little robot that you love. Come on, wake up and see it."

But Aleck's eyes were fixated on an invisible screen where only she could see. She didn't respond to her friends' attempts to bring her back to reality. In a desperate attempt, Jareth reached out to her mind and gasped as he experienced the violent memory alongside her. He clenched his jaw as he watched the horrific scene unfold before him.

In her minds memory Jareth saw Aleck as a young girl huddled with her twin brothers in a filthy, blood-soaked cell. They were surrounded by other frightened children, packed in so tightly that there was barely any room to move. Aleck desperately tried to quiet a wailing baby in her arms, but it only cried louder and louder. Suddenly, gray-skinned creatures with razor sharp teeth burst into the cell and began snatching up the children. In horror, Jareth watched as they started devouring the kids alive. One of them reached for the infant in Aleck's arms, and she fought back fiercely to protect it. The creature chuckled shrilly and shoved both Aleck's arms and the baby into its wide mouth.

This was too much for Jareth, who quickly pulled himself out of her memories and vomited violently to the side. His friends looked on with concern, knowing about the strange mental connection between Jareth and Aleck. They had spent countless hours speculating about its origins over coffee at their local shop. As Jareth's stomach settled, he prepared to dive back into Aleck's mind to help, but then he heard Odette say "wait."

Odette had a unique ability to understand people. "Think of a safe place in your mind. Take her there. Help her see the memory from a distance." Jareth looked at Odette and nodded, closing his eyes and picturing a peaceful hill covered in green grass. He guided Aleck's younger self to this imaginary place, holding her as she sobbed and rocked back and forth. Eventually, she felt the comforting presence of her friends and began to calm down. But when Aleck returned to her current self, Jareth quickly let go, it was different to comfort a child versus a teenage girl.

Aleck looked at him with tear-stained cheeks as he helped bring her back to reality. "They ate my sister," she repeated over and over as she cried. With tears of frustration in his eyes, Jareth handed her the Caja before stepping back. Part of him longed to hold her and comfort her, but it was against Rillian laws to touch an unwed woman. Instead, he let Odette embrace Aleck while she verbalized the nightmares that had almost consumed her. They listened patiently until the sobs subsided, and then they all watched the beautiful snow falling in the sunset sky.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Odette reached out to help Aleck up, suggesting they take a walk and talk about something else. But as Aleck tried to get up, she fell back onto the icy ground. Ben carefully helped her remove her leg from under her, and was taken aback when sparks flew out of a gash in her leg. Knowing about the horrors of war from Aleck's stories, this revelation should have come as no surprise, but it still shocked him. "You're a cyborg!" he exclaimed.

"That's right," Aleck confirmed with a bitter smile. "We all are. It's how the people of the outer worlds survived the war. When my sister was eaten by Sharlakar and they started tearing into me, there was a sudden raid from the rebel army. The soldiers managed to rescue me and my brothers, along with a few other children."

Even Jareth, who had been wondering about Aleck's missing arms in her dream, couldn't hide his shock at this information. Aleck wouldn't blame them for walking away from her; knowing such classified information could put their lives at risk. But they didn't leave her side. Odette looked at her with sadness, while Jareth showed concern. And then there was Ben.

Ben's face lit up with excitement as he exclaimed, "It's not far from my place! I think I have everything we need to fix that in my basement." Everyone knew Ben as the mad scientific genius of computers and robots at school, so it wasn't surprising that he would be excited about cyborg technology. He was always coming up with new programs and inventions, but dealing with actual cyborg parts was something he had only dreamed about before now.

Ben's home was a tiny white house with peeling ice blue paint, attached to the bustling ice cream shop his parents owned. The entrance led to a small yet cozy living room, adorned with ice blue shutters over the windows. As soon as they stepped inside, Ben breathed a sigh of relief, knowing his family must be busy working at the shop in front.

He carefully helped Aleck down to a couch in the basement, which stretched under both the house and shop. The space was cluttered with old computers and discarded electronics on one side, while a cloth curtain separated Ben's "bedroom" from the rest of the area. In a matter of moments, he had removed all of Aleck's cybernetic limbs and began repairing them with parts salvaged from discarded machines and robots. Even the most advanced cybernetic engineers would have been amazed at Ben's resourcefulness and skill.

Jareth and Odette tried not to stare too much at the limbless Aleck, who lay helplessly on a bed with cords attached to her head. Ben, a skilled programmer, was busy modifying and improving the programs that controlled her prosthetic limbs.

Odette looked at what was on the screen and asked, "What is that?"

"It's Aleck's current cyborg vision," answered Ben.

"I think your screen is dirty," said Odette. "No, her vision really is that poor," replied Ben.

"Those are all heat signatures," explained Jareth. "I've used heat vision goggles before and it looks just like that."

As Ben made some adjustments, Odette commented, "Oh that's much better." Aleck confirmed, "Yes, I can see stuff much clearer now."

Odette reached out to wipe off nonexistent dust from Aleck's vision as she realized her friend's eyes were still not functioning at 100%.

"While the brain is designed to receive electronic signals, we still haven't mastered a technology that is as good as the eye itself at sending that information," explained Ben. Suddenly, there was a ding and he announced, "Her leg's done repairing." He retrieved it from a machine that resembled an overly large easy bake oven and reattached it to Aleck's body. With her new leg, Aleck was able to walk around and grab objects with ease. Ben couldn't contain his excitement - he had found a way to truly help his friend through something he loved doing: programming and creating innovative technology.