***

The structures and very groundwork of the mental prison shattered into blocks, pixel pieces as they gathered up in the white void.

As Jackie, true to form, crashed chin first onto the “floor”.

“…Y’know…” Jackie grumbled, letting the rest of her body slam onto the ground. “I deserve that…”

Picking herself up, shaking her head, but refusing to not let the thought letting this happen leave.

The gambit paid off, or at the very least, so far. For whatever reason, the girls’ state effects their surroundings, at the very least technology based on Shification on some level. Jackie doubt that this was some secret power, more the fact they’re physical scourges. Fuck-ups that thus fucks up every system they’re in.

A gambit as well as a bargaining chip. The precious little that they’re able to do, and this being proof for the others, as Jackie glanced over.

To see Tracy rocking in place, before realizing what’s going on.

River dejectedly standing there, head further downward than usual.

Aiko in angry sorrow, as tears were slathered on her knees, looking up with her steely gaze that’s faltering.

“W-what’s going on, Jackson--?” Tracy spoke in a broken cadence, not only drilling her afraid eyes at her, but backing away.

“Look,” Jackie raised her hands. “We need to talk—”

“I—I will not, unless, you tell me exact—just for once, please—tell me what’s going on here…”

“I broke the little jail they’re holding us up in, I think…” Jackie then continued to ease through her words. “Technology doesn’t agree with us somehow, so I’m using that for once. All we’re doing is talking. Everything is up to you—”

“BULLSHIT!” Tracy screamed at her. “Since when have you remotely cared about thinking other than what you want?!”

Jackie clinched her teeth. “Now. If you let me.”

“Why does it matter what we do next?”

Jackie looked at River, who had her arms crossed.

“From the sound of your throat being graviler than usual, I’d say your life is irreversibly broken as well.”

Jackie briefly reached up towards her throat, before her face fell heavy. The weight of everything resuming it’s crush once more.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“… Vent,” Jackie answered. “Don’t even talk just… Let’s vent. Because yeah. Life’s fucking terrible right now and I had a full-scale breakdown. I wanted to kill everyone and thing until I got everything out… So maybe…”

“It’s not like it’s going to help.”

“It’s all we really have,” Jackie responded.

A silence washed over the plane.

“…My parents worried themselves sick,” River said, detached. “So they’re at a medical home, possibly forever.”

Jackie’s face softened.

“My parents are now Extant PR drones,” Aiko sniffled. “They’re perfectly content in locking me up in my mind to be used as an experiment…”

Tracy shrugged with a condescending smirk. “And I guess you all know what my parents are like and what they’re doing~”

Jackie continued her tone. “I’m sorry. For all of you. Truly.”

“So, what’s going to be the bullshit reasoning to get us to do MORE crazy, insane, and ultimately inane things, hm?” Tracy just railed. “Can’t you see that this is the end of the rope? That we can’t do anything anymore…?”

“…But we can,” Jackie looked like she was struggling to believe the words herself. “We can do the one thing, how little that can be.”

“Sure,” River didn’t meet her eyes. “We’ll finally defeat Frieza after losing to him and dying multiple times after he made Namek into a parking lot—no wait, you won’t get that. Fine, we’ll stop Voldemort after he’s done killing everyone and Hogwarts swallowed up by a tsunami.”

“…It’s going to get worse,” Jackie pointed out. “You all know that. We’ve all… We’re proving that right now. So sure, we can give up. But the fact that we can choose to give up at all, versus just dying before any of this…”

“What the fuck is there to do, you insufferable--…?”

Even through her angry tone, it was tired and strained.

“I don’t even have the strength to argue with you…”

“Yeah, the one that covers you is y’know, taken away across the city,” River quipped but there was no victory, no strength. “So how do we get her before they rest the entire world?”

“All of this is getting so much worse…” Aiko rubbed her face. “And now that they know we can do this, we’re fucked. They’re coming straight for us as soon as this fails.”

Jackie walked closer to the bunch.

“There’s nowhere to go,” River responded. “Nowhere to hide.”

“And at the end of the day, what does it matter…?” Tracy summarized the air in the room.

Jackie got in the center. Looking at each girl.

“The one thing we always could do… That we proved that we can do, that we’ve always done at this point. Not brute force. Not attacking. Run and survive, for now. It’s us versus this shitty, fucked up life—fending against all sides and finding the smallest crack they don’t care to look. And if it does fail? Then we’ll finally be put out of our misery or finally get to a point where nothing CAN be done. Right?”

Each girl traded a look at her.

"This is a terrible, fucked up, meaningless, absurd existence... We will never--even if we had everything we ever wanted, and everyone else had everything they ever wanted... It's all too vast, too indescribable to grasp still. The only thing we would have is... Distraction from that fact. I want nothing more than to destroy all of it. And the people who are keeping it that way, and the forces beyond my control... But I can't. That's not the answer. It never was. We had the answer all along and we thought it was simple weakness. We can live. We can keep trying to live in the face of everything... By doing that. By surviving. By understanding. By trying. By moving. We ARE fighting."

There wasn't a dry eye in this room. Despite each girl being so drained of tears, they looked at each other, and found that their faces had siVis use etched across. Letting themselves finally let it all out.

But Jackie continued on. Against shaky tone. Against her wavering vision. Against her effect over the mind prison starting to fade. Against the ensuing gravity of their unfolding situation.

Against this world.

“Moving. We’ll just keep moving. They’re all staring, looking up and freezing as things keep hitting them. But we keep moving, and it’s about time for us to finally give ourselves fucking credit, for once.”