Tatters limped across the ice in the direction of the city. She'd injured her ankle when that tendril grabbed her and pulled her under the ice. On top of that, she'd collected more injuries than she had bones by now.
Up ahead, where the ice became land, she saw a familiar face. Someone who'd probably seen her crawl out of the ice, too.
"She's gone…" Saturn said when she was close enough, looking hopelessly at the sky.
Tatters looked down at his hand, in which he held a small, green gem.
"What's that?"
He looked down at the item and stared at it for a second before responding.
"This… was our plan," he said, holding the gem up. "I don't even know if it'll work anymore, now that she's…"
Tatters studied his face and tried to make out what he was feeling. She knew what he meant, but she wanted to know if he'd already given up. He took his eyes off the gem and studied her back.
"I saw what happened."
"Why wouldn't it work? What was the plan?" she asked, ignoring his remark.
"The plan…" he said as he gave the gem another look.
He turned around and gestured for her to come along, and she followed him with curiosity.
"This emerald gives Jenny her power back, like a battery," he said as he walked, holding up the emerald again.
He stared at the emerald, then looked at Tatters, who walked next to him.
"And that was the plan. Any questions?"
"Why do you have it?"
"Because it works on Dark Jenny too. I was supposed to bring it close enough when she needed it."
Tatters didn't respond.
"But I wasn't fast enough when she did," he continued.
Tatters still didn't respond, and Saturn looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"I saw you get pulled under."
He looked down at her foot and the way she limped.
"Is it bad?" he asked.
Tatters grunted at him and looked away.
They walked some more in silence while Tatters considered this new information about Jenny and that emerald. She wondered how the gem worked. She wondered a lot of things but didn't ask him anything.
"You're kind of insane, you know?" he said out of the blue.
That comment pulled her out of her thoughts, and she didn't know how to interpret his comment.
"What?" she asked him angrily.
He looked surprised at the way she responded.
"You fought Dark Jenny all alone, and all you have is an injured foot. I don't know anyone human who could do what you do."
Tatters stared at him in anger, letting his shallow praise fly by. All she did was slide down onto the ice, then fall through. Anyone could do that.
"And then the arm..." Saturn continued. "Jenny told us you did that."
Tatters pressed her lips together and looked away from him.
"You're probably the only one in the world who could've done that…" he said as he looked at the stars, "and you're right here with us."
Tatters studied him again. She assumed at first that his comment was snarky, but apparently it was genuine. There was some silence again after that, until Saturn stopped walking.
"Look, I'm just gonna go out and say it. I'm prepared to die for Jenny."
Tatters stopped too and looked back at him.
"But I'd rather not," he continued. "I wanna see her again, and I need your help."
Tatters looked down at the ground.
"But what do you want to do?" he asked her.
She wondered about that. The answer to this was clear back when she was burning down her house, but things had changed now. Now, she wanted to free Jenny from the grasp of the monster that took her. Last time she saw her conscious, she was saving the lives of everyone in the city.
Tatters looked at the emerald again.
"Can we bring her back with that?"
He looked at the emerald too.
"Maybe…"
"Then I wanna give it a shot," she decided.
He smiled at her like she just gave him some confidence, and he offered a fist bump. She reluctantly returned it.
"And don't say you don't need our help," he quipped at her.
"I didn't…"
Then, the sky caught their attention as the light from the moon and stars slowly disappeared, covered by dark clouds with a creepy, green hue.
"Shit…" Saturn said, like he knew what this was. "We gotta—"
Suddenly, Tatters fell to her knees and clutched at her chest, and Saturn kneeled to check on her.
"What's happening?" she groaned.
"You're hurt all over… and freezing…" he noted, seeing she was still soaked.
She grabbed his collar and pulled him closer.
"I know I am! What's happening?"
He grabbed her back to help her to her feet.
"There's no time. We gotta run if you wanna live!"
"What!?"
They jogged together as he supported her. It wasn't just the leg injury, it was all the wounds on her body that started screaming at her when the sky started glowing green.
"It's called the scourge," Saturn started explaining while they ran. "One of Jenny's baddies from the past. She told us about it before we got here."
Tatters was allowing him to lead the way, assuming he'd take her to the others.
"It reacts to wounds and cold," he continued. "It's why it came here in the first place. The power cut, too. It was all for this."
Tatters' eyes widened at the realization.
"The kidnapping victims! Your friend!" she yelled and increased her pace.
♦
"They're speaking to me…" Circus mumbled, looking out the car window and at the eerie, green sky with an intimidated look on her face.
Plural didn't know how to talk to her friend now that she was sounding like a crazy person. They were sitting in the front seats of the car Saturn tried to get started, but the battery was flat, so it still had a cold interior. She'd already called Saturn on the radio when the sky turned green and Circus started clutching at her stomach wound. He responded a minute after her call, saying he was bringing Tatters.
Jenny's instructions were clear: find a warm place and seal any wounds they had. Specifically, Circus' stomach wound. Plural was feeling completely fine. She was probably warmer too, even though Circus was wearing her coat.
"Hot springs! Get the bike-thing ready!" radio-Saturn yelled.
He didn't let go of his button and Plural could hear a faint female voice over his radio.
"I don't care what it's called!" he said.
"They have hot springs here?" Plural replied.
"Tee says they don't need power to run! Geometric or something!" he replied, sounding out of breath. "I don't care what it's called!"
Plural got out of the car to get the trike ready to run, leaving Circus inside. When Saturn arrived with Tatters, she had a similar look on her face as Circus, looking at the sky like it was talking to her.
"She's affected too?" Plural asked.
"Yep," Saturn answered.
"I'm fine!" Tatters answered at the same time, while covering a cut on her cheek.
See? Saturn gestured at Plural with his eyes.
"Tell us where!" Plural told Tatters as she started the trike.
♦
Arriving at their destination had Saturn breaking a nervous sweat. The hot springs were at the edge of the city, where the mountains started. They'd all got off the trike after Plural almost parked it in the middle of the spring. Tatters reprimanded her, saying how hard it was for clothes to dry in this climate.
Clothes…
Tatters and Plural were taking them off. Saturn didn't consider this part when he yelled at Plural over the radio to head to the hot springs. Meanwhile, he was standing there looking like an idiot. Circus was too, but she was going crazy ever since the sky turned green.
Tatters was the first to finish and immediately dropped into the water, staying under for a good ten seconds. When she came up for air, she got out of the pool again and ran over to the trike to grab a first aid kit from the side carrier, already moving like she was in much better shape than before. She looked at Saturn, who hadn't moved a finger yet.
"What are you doing?"
"I, uh…" he held his hands in front of him like he was rejecting something. "I feel fine, actually, so—"
"Afraid we're gonna see your donger?" Plural asked him with a teasing tone.
She was the second to lose all her clothes.
"Well, maybe I am…" Saturn mumbled under his breath as he reluctantly started taking off his clothes too.
"You too, patient zero!" Plural walked over to Circus, who gasped like Plural was some kind of boogeyman.
Eventually, Plural managed to drag even Circus in, and the group sat in their corner of the spring. It was late enough for most people to be asleep. Still, there were other people at the hot springs, too. Saturn wondered if they recognized Tatters and her trike, or if they just thought they were a bunch of loud youngsters. Maybe they didn't care at all and paid more attention to the ominous sky that was about to destroy their home.
Tatters looked sleepy but didn't fall asleep. She was massaging her injured foot. Now that she was like this, it was easy to see just how many bruises and cuts she had all over her body. Saturn found the variety impressive for someone who could make her clothes impenetrable. Circus felt around the wound on her stomach with an uncomfortable face, like she was able to feel it again. At least she regained her sanity after getting in the water.
"This feels wrong," Circus said.
"What's the matter?" Plural asked worriedly.
"I mean… this," she said as she gestured her hands at the water. "It's like we're waiting for the world to end. We should be doing something."
Circus looked at the others for any kind of response.
"I'm not getting out of here without Jenny, one way or another," Saturn said, arms crossed.
Plural looked shocked at the implication of what he said.
"Me neither!" Circus said.
Saturn noticed Plural being quiet and looking down. She sat in the middle, with Circus and Tatters on her left and himself on her right. He didn't really want to coerce her into joining them in a hopeless fight against an ancient deity, but he'd be upset if she said she wanted to go home and leave them behind.
"Anyway," he broke the silence and took the emerald from the rocky edge of the spring. "The plan doesn't change. Jenny just can't move anymore."
"What is that anyway?" Circus asked.
"It can bring Jenny back."
"Really?"
Circus' eyes glowed as she looked at the emerald.
"She said it overcharges her. But there's a chance…" Saturn explained, then cut himself off before he ended in a glass-half-empty way. "There's a chance it'll wake her up."
"How? Look at us…" Plural said, hopelessly.
How? Saturn looked at Tatters, who hadn't said a word yet.
"Look at me…" Plural said as she clutched her arms. "When I saw Dark Jenny for the first time, I froze up. It's my fault Circus got kidnapped in the first place."
"Hey!" Circus interjected. "I got it to take me instead of you! And that was my choice!"
"Jenny would've been there to save us if I just said two words, and she's not here anymore…" Plural said.
Circus looked upset but didn't argue.
"If Jenny got to us in time back then, she would've defeated it," Plural continued.
"You know that's not true!" Circus talked back again.
"We wouldn't have had to come here and endanger all these people," Plural ignored Circus and continued.
"Oh, boo-hoo," Saturn snarked, looking away with his arms crossed.
Plural turned to him and retaliated. "You expect us to fight our way through a horde of zombies? Did you forget we're office workers?"
Saturn looked at her and scowled.
"First of—"
"Stop pretending I'm not here!" Tatters yelled.
She grabbed Plural's hand under the water.
"You have me!" she said, not quite looking Plural in the eyes. "If you're scared, I'll… protect you…"
Saturn could see a rare blush on Plural's face. He couldn't help but smile at the display.
"She's not just here for the occasion, you know?"
"I wanna save Jenny too. Whatever the plan is, I'm in," Tatters said.
Saturn spotted an adorably forced smile on Tatters' face, and she looked Plural in the eyes now. Plural took her hand with both of her own hands and looked at her like she was her knight in shining armor.
"Okay…" she said obediently, looking assured.
"But first, we have to find it," Tatters said, looking at the others.
"I wish we'd put a tracker on Jenny too…" Circus said.
Plural and Saturn looked at each other like they had the same brilliant idea.
Tatters looked inquisitively at the two.
"You guys had a tracker?" she asked.
"Don't get excited…" Saturn mumbled as he stood up to grab his phone from the side of the spring. He opened the app again to find the signal still actively broadcasting. It was coming from near the city center, but not close to the place where Jenny found it in the snow. The app showed it moved recently, too. He handed the phone to Tatters, figuring she'd know what was there from the rough satellite photo.
"So, you do have a tracker?" she repeated her question.
"We had one on Dark Jenny, but it dropped the thing in the town center, where Jenny met you for the first time," Plural explained. "She must've put it in her pocket."
Tatters looked at the map and zoomed in.
"This is the tallest apartment building in the city, you can see it from here."
They all turned to look at the city behind them. The building in question was unmistakably the same one Jenny touched down on when they first arrived here. Dark Jenny wasn't visible on the top from down here. Instead, a mysterious black thread went from the roof up into the sky. It wasn't alone, and a small number of other threads could be seen going up from the ground in a different part of the city.
"It's starting…" Plural said ominously.
"What are those?" Tatters asked, looking at the threads in the distance.
"It's the same one, right?" Circus asked with her eyes on the sky. "From five years ago?"
Plural nodded, then turned to Tatters.
"If it wasn't for the springs, you and Circus might've already turned by now, because of your wounds and the cold."
She turned her head and looked at the distant scenery.
"Jenny said that under that sky, everyone who dies becomes a zombie. They all have that black thread going up like a puppet, but if you cut it, it loses control and can't take it back."
"We're in a zombie apocalypse?" Tatters asked. "Is this happening across the whole world?"
"Jenny didn't say anything about that," Plural responded and looked at Saturn to double-check.
"Let's not forget this already happened once, and the world is fine," he said.
"How did Jenny beat it last time?" Tatters asked.
"The main body," Plural answered. "It's one of the threads. If you cut that one, the effect stops completely and the sky goes back to normal."
"What? That doesn't sound difficult at all," Tatters argued.
"Jenny said the same thing," Saturn recalled, "said normal people have a harder time cutting it, and guns don't work well either."
"If one of the threads is the main one, it's clearly that one up there," Tatters said, pointing up at the tall building that had a single black thread.
She got up out of the water, then turned around to sit on the side.
"You look like you've got a plan," Saturn said, worried she was going to run off without a plan.
She grabbed the bandages from the first aid kit and cut a large piece of it off and handed it to Circus.
"It's holding onto Jenny like a plushie," she said.
Circus reluctantly got up to sit next to Tatters, taking the large piece for her stomach wound.
"If we wanna separate the two, this setup is perfect," Tatters said as she looked back at the building.
"You wanna toss Jenny's body down to the ground?" Plural asked.
"And you'll be there to bring her back," Tatters replied as she cut off a piece of bandage for herself, eyeing the emerald. "With that."
"That is assuming you can cut off the tentacle that's holding her, and then throw her over the edge," Saturn noted.
"And not get thrown off yourself," Plural said with a frown.
"And keep it from coming down to follow Jenny," Saturn added.
"Or teleporting to catch her in midair."
"Or flying away."
"Or leveling the building."
"Or—"
"I get it, there's risks. There are always risks," Tatters interrupted them while putting a plaster on the cut on her face.
"I guess she's right, it's the best shot we've got." Saturn admitted. "Maybe it hasn't got a chance to charge yet. We shouldn't wait too long."
"Do you all know how to use guns?" Tatters asked.
Saturn and Plural both looked at Circus, who was tidying up her bandage.
"I guess just me."
"We're gonna need one to break this," Saturn said, holding up the emerald again.
"It's that strong?" Circus asked.
"Jenny said I 'probably' couldn't break it," he replied, then looked at Tatters. "And you're not gonna be there to do it, if the plan works."
Tatters nodded. She looked done patching up her wounds.
"I don't like it when you say it like that," Circus said in a dark tone.
The others looked at her.
"'if the plan works'," she clarified.
Plural, being in the middle, held out her fist in front of her.
"It's the best we can do."
Saturn and Circus joined with theirs. Tatters hesitated, and Plural turned to her with a confident smile on her face.
"Sparkle squad?"
"Don't tell me you've got a team name…" Tatters said condescendingly.
"That's right, new girl, and everyone loves it," Plural replied cheerfully.
Tatters raised her fist, then hesitantly moved it to touch the others and join the group.
"You gotta say it, Plu," Saturn said.
"What?" Plural asked. "We don't have a catchphrase."
"We could all die in this place tonight... Or worse," he said. "Are you okay with that?"
She looked at her fist and hesitated for a second.
"I don't wanna go back to my old life anymore," she said. "Not without Jenny, and not without you guys."
She looked at her friends.
"So yeah, I'll die for her tonight."
"And the whole world with us," Circus said with an uneasy smile.