Bright Blue

“You took quite a risk telling me all those things you shouldn’t even know,” said Lithuania. “What makes you two so desperate?”

Winfry and Isa looked at Lithuania, then at each other, then back at Lithuania. “Well we are about to die if you don’t do something about it,” said Winfry. “So…”

Lithuania looked up at the ceiling, as if she could see through to what was above ground. “How do you know this?”

“There really isn’t much time for explanations,” said Isa. “If we don’t move soon, we’ll get cut off from the next tower.”

“What more do you know?”

Winfry shrugged. “We don’t really choose to know what we know. What we’ve told you is all we’ve got.”

Lithuania frowned. “Sure.” She didn’t know the full story behind these two, and that bothered her. But she was also convinced that what they said was true. But she needed to keep up the suspicious front—if they were truly helpless in her hands, then they’d divulge as much information as they could, if only to assuage Lithuania’s suspicious and get on her good side. If she became friendly too quickly, they’d grow comfortable. They’d think she’d be OK with their hiding the truth from her, because she’d already trust them. She needed to keep them proving themselves to her. At least until she knew everything they knew.

“Felix!” Lithuania called from the cell, hoping he’d hear her from somewhere down the tunnel. No reply. She rose, left the cell, locked the door, and walked over to Timoteo. “Hey you.” She unlocked his cell door.

Timoteo was on his stool, elbows on his knees, eyes to the ground. “Yes love?”

“Shut up. Get up. We’re moving.”

“I hear there’s danger afoot,” he said, eyes glinting mischievously as they met Lithuania’s.

“And it’d better not be your fault. Now get up.”

“Aren’t you going to need a man to escort me?”

Lithuania whipped out her pistol. “I’ve got everything I need. Now move it.”

She led Timoteo out his cell and had him walk down the dungeons in front of her. “Winfry, Isa,” she said. “I’m taking Timoteo down to the next tower. I’ll come back for you in a bit.”

“No!” cried Isa, eyes wide. “We don’t have enough time!”

Lithuania’s expression darkened. “You serious? Not enough time for me to drop him off and come back for you?”

“There really isn’t,” said Winfry. “But you don’t need to worry about—about escorting us or anything. It’s not like we’re going to run away.”

Lithuania glowered. If they were right, they were in more danger than she thought. They were unprepared. Any attack on the tunnels would effectively be a surprise attack. And being unable to communicate with Felix only made things worse. She whipped out her keys and unlocked the cell in a single swift motion. “This doesn’t mean I trust you. Come on.”

Together they walked down the tunnels, Isa and Winfry leading the way, followed by Timoteo, and lastly Lithuania, her gun pointing straight at Timoteo’s back. The pitter-patter of their footsteps was the only sound echoing down the black tunnel.

Suddenly, Lithuania felt a strange sensation. An uncomfortable lightheadedness—a rush of dizziness, like her soul was rising and leaving her body. She stumbled.

“You alright there, princess?” said Timoteo.

“Keep walking,” she growled, pressing her pistol into his back. She blinked hard. Once, twice. She felt like she was going to faint. And then, a tightness in her chest—her arms, her neck, her scalp, all felt compressed—squeezed—terribly tightened—

And then released.

Timoteo, Winfry and Isa all jumped away from Lithuania as a thousand specks of tiny blue light erupted from the surface of her skin. Lithuania felt an instant of sheer bliss, and then—

She was lying face down on the floor, exhausted, emitting a faint blue glow. “Oh my God, Captain Starr!” cried Isa. A split second later Timoteo was diving after Lithuania’s pistol, before Winfry gave him a swift kick in the midriff and sent him sprawling across the floor, gasping for breath.

“Don’t even think about it,” threatened Winfry.

A wry smile spread across Timoteo’s face, his lips so thin his smile looked like a deep wrinkle. “Idiot.”

Lithuania opened her eyes, the taste of blood in her mouth. She had a cut lip. She had apparently smacked her face hard against the concrete floor. “Estonia,” she mumbled.

“Here, let me help you up,” said Isa, taking Lithuania’s hands.

Lithuania looked dazed. “My sisters,” she said. “They’re—” Then she realized where she was, and who she was with, and decided it’d be wiser to keep her mouth shut. She had just had some sort of out-of-body experience or something—but whatever it was, she had clearly felt the presence of both Latvia and Estonia appearing somewhere very nearby. They were in LusciousLocks now. She just knew it. Which meant that, according to Isa and Winfry, rescuing Marco was now a real possibility.

“Are you OK?” Isa asked, peering into Lithuania’s still glazed-over eyes.

“Huh?” Lithuania blinked. “Yeah, yeah,” she focused on Isa’s eyes, right in front of hers. Then she looked at Winfry. Then at Timoteo, sprawled on the floor, looking thwarted. She felt for her gun in her holster, then realized it was on the floor, not far from Winfry’s foot. Winfry, following her eyes, reached down for the gun and handed it, handle first, back to Lithuania. Lithuania thanked him hurriedly, cursing inwardly at what had obviously just happened. Winfry and Isa could not have made a better display of good faith, which was good, but bad for Lithuania, who had wanted to remain outwardly suspicious of them for as long as possible.

“Captain, what just happened to you?” Winfry asked.

Toss him a bone, not the full cow, Lithuania thought. “You can call me Lithuania, Winfry,” she said. “And I’m not—I’m not so sure what just happened. But I feel alright now.”

“Oh fie!” spat Timoteo. “You know exactly what just happened. You just want to keep these two imbeciles in the dark.”

“I swear, Timoteo,” said Lithuania angrily. “I am running out of patience with you. If you don’t—”

A tremor. Everyone stood stock still. “Isa, Winfry…” Lithuania said quietly. “That isn’t…?” But the terror on Winfry and Isa’s faces said it all. The walls started shaking, harder now. “Go. Go, go!” Lithuania urged. A second later they were all sprinting down the tunnels, the vibration of the tunnel walls surrounding them in a deafening bass.

All the while, Lithuania wondered whether her sisters had anything to do with the attack. Whether the AssMachenstani offense had been waiting outside for Latvia and Estonia to arrive before launching the attack—or whether it was all just some bizarre coincidence. Why, after all, would an AssMachenstani offense wait until two girls with no military training showed up, inexplicably, in LusciousLocks? Were Latvia and Estonia even there, or was Lithuania just having another one of her mysterious fits?

“The Monolith!” Lithuania called to Winfry. “Will they attack with the Monolith?”

“No!” Winfry called back. “The beast is in Green City right now!”

Never mind how Winfry knew that the beast was in Green City. More importantly, why was Lithuania feeling an uncanny surge of energy and magical power when the Monolith wasn’t even near? The Monolith had provoked her otherworldly teleportation and blue burst of allegedly magical power last time, right? So why was she suddenly feeling so… powerful?

An eruption. Pieces of cement fell from the walls and ceiling. The droning sound was deafening. And suddenly, something large and heavy smashed Lithuania to the ground, crushing her. She couldn’t move. She could hardly see. The pain down her back was unbearable—she felt blood everywhere—and she couldn’t feel her lower body, at all.

Someone took her hand. She looked up, amidst the noise and clouds of pulverized cement. “Relax Lithuania,” said Timoteo. His expression had changed completely. It was… benevolent. “You guys!” he yelled behind him, presumably at Winfry and Isa. “Keep on running! All the way to the North Tower! Hurry!”

“But Lithuania—” came Winfry.

“This isn’t when you’re supposed to help her!” Timoteo snapped. “Now take your stupid librem and run! RUN!”

Utterly perplexed, Winfry and Isa dashed off down the hazy, trembling tunnels.

“Timoteo, but what—” Lithuania croaked. She could feel the blood pouring from her wounds, pooling around her chest.

“Don’t let go of my hand,” Timoteo said, closing his eyes. “This is going to hurt.”

In a matter of seconds, Timoteo’s body was glowing bright blue. Then Lithuania’s body was glowing bright blue. Before Lithuania had time to think, she was overcome by pain. Overwhelming, absolute pain. She shrieked as the giant block of cement was lifted from her body—as the bones in her body realigned—as the blood seeped back into her veins, and her wounds closed of their own accord. She took a deep breath.

And she was up, standing on her own two feet. She could feel them again. “This isn’t where you die,” said Timoteo. “Now give me your gun.”

Dazed and unquestioning, she handed her gun over to Timoteo. As soon as it touched his hand, the pistol acquired the same magical bright blue glow. “There are very few combinable actions here that will result in your making it out of this alive. They’ve calculated it to be that way. So you have to trust me, OK?”

Lithuania nodded, quickly and at an utter loss for words. Suddenly it seemed everyone knew more about what was going on than she did. Timoteo pointed at the ceiling with Lithuania’s pistol, closed his eyes, and slowly the pistol turned brighter and brighter, until acquiring a blue but glassy, translucent feel. Then the bullet in its cannon glowed bright blue-white, and shot into the ceiling.

A deafening roar, clouds of dust, and when Lithuania finally had the nerve to look up, she was shocked to find that her measly little pistol had blasted an enormous hole straight through the tunnel ceiling and out through the surface. Still, she and Timoteo were about twenty feet below ground.

“Now it’s your turn,” said Timoteo. “Take us up and out—quickly.”

Lithuania looked at him, wide-eyed. “But I can’t—the Monolith isn’t—”

“The Monolith doesn’t cause your powers,” Timoteo snapped impatiently. “Now stop doubting yourself and concentrate. You can teleport us both up there. Just focus.”

Lithuania looked up. The distance seemed impossible. The world around them was still shaking. She couldn’t do it. She didn’t know how.

Timoteo slapped her. Lithuania blinked, stunned. “You see why I do it now?” Timoteo yelled. “DO IT NOW!” A wave of emotions rushed through Lithuania’s chest—resentment, powerlessness, fear, loneliness, anger. She closed her eyes—

And they were both on the surface. Timoteo released her hand. “Now get ready for the real challenge,” he said. Lithuania looked around her. They were out in the open, next to the woods.

And they were surrounded by AssMachenstani assassins.