Chapter 4
Round 2
James apartment, Steel Canyon
Stacey’s voice mail message plays again. James says “Honey, its James. Please, how many times do I need to say I’m sorry? It’s been four days. Please pick up the phone.” All he hears is silence. “Please call me honey.” James hangs up his cell phone. Stacey has refused to take any of his calls and won’t answer her apartment door. James has seen her at school, but every time she sees him, she runs in the opposite direction, and every time James tries to follow, her friends run interference. James looks around the apartment and decides to head to the base and see if anything is going on.
Disciples of the Darkhand base, Steel Canyon
James walks into the base lounge and plops down on the couch. He sits there and wonders what else he can do about Stacey. He’s tried everything he can think of to get her to talk to him, but she refuses to respond.
“Still not talking to you huh?”
James looks over her shoulder and sees Titania standing there. “No, she still won’t get back to me.”
“Do you want her back?”
James looks at Titania again. “Why would you ask that?”
“I’m just wondering.” She just stands there and stares at James.
James stares back at her for a minute, wondering why she would ask that. He thinks to himself “Does she have feelings for me? Is that why she asked that? Or does she mean something else?”
“I don’t know if I do. Part of me says yes, I have a good time with her when we’re together. I mean, I don’t love her yet, we haven’t been together that long. Part of me just says let it go. She already doesn’t like me being a hero, so maybe it’s just best to call it good.”
Titania thinks about that for a second. “Okay” Then she turns around and walks off.
“Wait a minute! Where are you going?” James stares at her back as she strolls off, not answering him. “What the hell was that about?” James thinks. “Is she mad at me, or am I just reading to much into it?” James starts to get up and go after Titania when his cell phone rings, and he sees that it’s Stacey. “Hello?”
“James, would you come over to my apartment? I’m ready to talk now.”
“I’m on my way sweetie.” James looks off in the direction that Titania went for a minute, and then heads for the base portal.
One month later…
James Apartment, Steel Canyon
James and Stacey sat were sitting on the couch talking. Since their talk a month previous, things have been rocky. There have been several arguments between the two of them, and all of them have been about Titania. Three times during the month she called James on group stuff while he was with Stacey. The first time, Titania called to talk to him about an upcoming Task Force. The second time she wanted to let him know about a group meeting. The third was the worst though. Titania called an immediate all-group action, and issued an emergency recall. James ran off, leaving Stacey fuming in a Founders Falls restaurant.
Then yesterday, Stacey dropped a bombshell on James over the phone. She told him that as long as Titania was around, there was going to be problems between the two of them. That she felt like Titania was trying to steal James from her. James tried to assure Stacey that wasn’t the case, but she wouldn’t listen. She told James that if he loved her, then he would leave the super group, and Titania, behind.
Stacey looked at James “So are you going to do it or not?”
James sat back on the couch. “That’s a pretty unfair thing to ask me to do.”
“Not to me it isn’t. Either you love me or you don’t. Which is it going to be? Are you leaving the group, or am I leaving you?”
Before James can answer, his navcomm gives off a loud alarm. James picks it up and taps a button. Titania’s voice comes over the speaker. “James…” He can hear weapons fire and explosions and screaming in the background.
“T? What’s wrong?”
“James…………War Zone……….ship raid……….we’re……………ing overwhelmed………….Medi-port jammed……Rikti……………need help………I….” And then the transmission ends.
“T? Titania! Shit!” James runs to his bedroom. A minute later he comes back out pulling on his uniform. He grabs his navcomm, places it on his belt, and heads for the balcony. Suddenly there’s a hand yanking on his arm. He looks back at Stacey stopping him.
“Don’t go.” Stacey has an angry look on her face.
“What the hell is the matter with you? I’m going.”
Stacey shakes her head. “No, stay here with me, where you belong.”
“Are you out of your damn mind? I’m not going to let her die!”
“James, if you leave now, we’re through.”
Angry, James yanks his arm out of her hand and steps onto the balcony. “Lock the door when you leave.” He jumps off of the balcony and heads towards the base portal.
Disciples of the Darkhand Base, Steel Canyon
James runs into the teleport room and onto the teleporter for the War Zone. He quickly enters his access code. The teleporter activates……
Rikti War Zone
….and he appears in the War Zone. James immediately heads for the Rikti ship. En route, he uses his navcomm to remote activate Titania’s locator beacon, and a blip appears on the lens of his goggles. He starts to follow the beacon. As James is coming down to the ship, he sees two Rikti standing over Titania’s unmoving body.
Roaring with rage, James flips in mid-air and turns his jump into a dive towards the Rikti. He smashes into them, driving them down into the hull of the ship. James jumps up. One of the Rikti is dead. The other starts getting up. James grabs a Rikti sword lying at his feet and swings it, instantly decapitating the other Rikti. James drops the sword and kneels down next to Titania. Her chest and abdomen are slashed open and she is barely breathing. James jams a healing stim into her leg to try and help stabilize her, and then cradles her in his arms and jumps off the ship in the direction of the Vanguard base.
As he leaves the ship behind, James notices a group of Rikti standing guard over some equipment. “That must be what they’re using to jam the medi-port.” He connects his navcomm to the Point Du Hoc firebase. “Purple People Beater here. Request fire mission. Location: 146.9, -3.0, -116.4. Target: Suspected Rikti Jamming equipment. Vanguard Hero Authorization: Alpha Alpha Zulu Bravo 774. Fire at will.”
“Roger that. Firing commencing.”
James passes Point Du Hoc as the firebase fires several missile salvos. A moment later James lands at the Vanguard base. As he rushes inside, Titania whispers “James…” James looks down at her. She smiles at him and raises her hand to his face. Titania then says something to him in her native tongue, “Namaarie,” Then her eyes roll back and she goes limp in his arms.
“No! Hold on!” James rushes into the medical center. He yells for a medic as he places Titania onto a bed.
A Vanguard doctor rushes over to the bed. He takes one look at Titania, checks for a pulse, then looks at James and shakes his head. “Sorry sir.”
As the doctor starts to move off, James grabs him by the front of the shirt. “You help her right now!”
“Sir, she’s gone. But there are many others here that I might be able to save. Please let me do so.”
James lifts him off the floor and shakes him, screaming at him. “DO SOMETHING!”
“Sir! Please! She’s gone.”
James lowers the doctor and relaxes his grip on him and almost whispers “No, there’s got to be something…” Tears are streaming down his face.
The doctor says “I’m sorry sir.” And moves away.
James looks around desperately and spots MedStar Angel across the room. He screams out “ANGEL!” She spots James and rushes over. James points to Titania and asks her “Please.” Angel nods and steps up next to the bed. She places her hands over Titania as they start to glow. The light quickly spread over Titania and James watches as all the wounds heal up. Her body shudders as her eyes fly open and she sucks in a breath of air.
James moves over to the bed. “Titania?”
She turns her head and looks up at him. “Took you long enough.”
James just shakes his head as Angel chuckles. She turns to Titania “You’ll be fine. Go home and rest for the next twenty four hours.” Then she moves off to another bed.
Titania looks at James “I’m ready to go home.” James nods and picks her up off of the bed. “James, put me down, I can walk.”
“Shut up T.”
Titania looks at him, surprised by his tone. She opens her mouth to say something, but seeing the look on his face, shuts it just as quickly. As James starts to walk towards the base portal, she wraps her arms around his neck, and lays her head on his chest.
