She was slammed into this new captivity. Her head and arms free her body was smothered in a wall on top of her. Her eyes glossy, expression broken.

“I guess… This is it. All of my choices, failures… This is the things I get. What I deserve. In a nameless pit, after putting herself and others in such a meaningless journey… All I wanted to fucking do… Was to stop failing…”

She couldn’t even bury her head into her arms, she didn’t have the energy to do so.

“How did this happen…? My parents were normal, all they did was taught me morals… They fucking supported me and I still fucked that up. I destroyed it, and then I destroyed others because of my stupid decisions… They were hoping for me, proud of me… And I screwed it up… And kept screwing up. Stay screwing up!”

She balled her fists and slammed them.

“And I knew that! I got in shape, I studied harder, I did things out of my comfort zone, and tried being their greatest success, all of it so I could get away from failure as much as possible! All because I got scared and this supernatural shit asked me how much I could fuck myself, and I asked it ‘how much?’ All of that, gone, because of that… Because I give in…”

She closed her eyes, letting go of her fist.

“I hate how mad I got… I hate how rash I got… Threw what I worked for, all away… All my fault. All my fucking fault. So why did I never let that sink in…? Accept it?”

She let that question sit in her. No point in not letting it now.

“… I didn’t create the Shifts. siVis. Trends. N’atural… Despite not feeling that we didn’t do enough…”

Her eyes opened, her mind feeling this low spark.

“That isn’t my fault. Feeling fearful isn’t my fault. It’s what I do with that, that I have to carry on my own. But it isn’t my fault, so why let it…?”

She looked at her hands, and flexed her fingers.

“It’s all outside of my control, and I have to accept that—and control what and how I feel about it… What I do. This life, there is no justice. No honor, it doesn’t… Exist… Unless we uphold it. And it has to start… with one person…”

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She paused. And looked up, at the darkness.

“Uphold what my parents gave me. Uphold what people… My friends… Gave me. Be kind, even in the face of existential meaninglessness. Fight it, I can fight it! Even if I can’t stop it…!”

She planted her hands firm against the floor, and began to hoist herself up with no energy.

“EVEN IF I CAN’T STOP IT… MY MEANING… IS KEEPING FIGHTING BACK!”

Her body flared with siVis, phasing in and out of full control. Each moment, each moment of clarity, effort, strength… The wall rose up in inches. These moments turned from minutes to seconds. The wall melted into an amorphous sphere she carried on her back.

Jackie Jackson screamed as she struggled, as she fought back. Soon, she was back on her feet once more, as she shifted into a siVis specter once more, before shorting out.

Crawling out, letting go of the blob, as it slammed into the ground.

The metal surged around her, as she looked around questioningly.

“…Don’t tell me…”

She looked up, and the metal formed up into a hill.

And not only that, but opened a hole. To the surface.

“It was all in our heads…” Jackie said in wonder. “It… Responded to our mentality…”

She looked up to the exit, taking that in.

But turned around, despite at this point buckling and stopping as she did. She had to go back. She had to save them.

What followed was the others, stumbling out their respective holds. Each of them reaching their levels of carethesis and figured out what happened.

Maddie, of course, flopped to the ground. Causing Aiko, who was the nearest, to grab her again.

“I got it… Don’t worry…”

Jackie nodded. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a meek, approaching Tracy.

Jackie just raised her hand.

“Let’s just… Get out of here, first. I promise we’ll have an actual… discussion about… Everything…”

She saw her nod. Jackie turned as much as she could, slightly to River.

“I get it…” she said to the silent girl. “We can… Talk about it if you want…”

“Yeah,” River responded. Choked up.

“Let’s just go, girls…”

They walked up the hill, stairs forming at their feet. And at the point their legs finally gave out, the stairs turned into escalators and the only problem they had to worry about was keeping balance.

The light got more and more close, and soon, they were met with the cleansing rain.

She didn’t have a lot of time, but Jackie closed her eyes. Letting it pour all over her. Feeling the drab, hot, filthiness wash away in real time. And took every precious second in, before screaming.

“WE NEED HELP! OUR FRIEND, SHE’S REALLY SICK!”

Without warning, two robots formed from the ground. Davenoids.

“Well, sorry to hear that, first off!” the one on the left somehow digitally chirped. “We’ll help in no time flat!”

Jackie wanted to snark about ‘why not now’, but time and place.

“What is your name, dear person?” the right one asked.

“Jackie Valerie Jackson Jr.,” she answered.

There was a slight pause. Jackie just looked at both of them, before they turned to her.

“Not to cause you concern, but you were reported dead over three months ago.”

Everything about that sentence caused her to faint.