[Better Albert was safe on the new island than stuck with the crazies as well. It was going to be hard enough keeping Eve safe as well as trying to reach McCoy.]
It came into my room as a projection without warning.
I was trying to sleep, but after that there's no way. And there hasn't been time otherwise.
[The last time he got any decent rest was the night after the vote, twined with Jet and relaxed for the first time in ages despite the other worries to consider. And that was two days ago now.]
I'm going to stop texting you if you don't get some rest.
[But he gets it. He gets it cause he was there in Computopia too and he saw what that place had tried to do to Albert and Frannie and how much he wanted to punch that AI in the face and how frustrating it was that he couldn't.
He also knew he was being a bit of a hypocrite. Eve was in one of the other rooms and the bed he'd shared with Albert was cold and empty and Jet hadn't set foot in there except to change clothes after his shower. He was on the couch and he suspected that was where he was going to stay because at least it wouldn't feel like someone else was supposed to be on it with him.]
A projection that controls everything in this place. I know I need to sleep longer, but I have tried and it won't come.
[As exhausted as he is, every little noise, every unfamiliar settling of the compound makes him flinch, and he can't seem to get his mind to turn off. He has to think of a way to get back, a way to rescue those still on the island, a way that Jaden can be touched and taken down.
In his sleep deprived state he goes back to that analogy of Ragnarök. Who will be their Heimdall? Who will call to battle against Loki and his forces? Who will fight Jaden and take him down with him? Albert would gladly take the role if it meant freeing those trapped on the island, if it meant Jaden couldn't hurt anyone else.]
You've got to stay safe. Lay low. We'll think of something.
[He types out 'don't worry, but erases it before he can press send. That was a dumb and useless thing to ask for.]
Please keep trying.
You can't help anyone half asleep and unable to think clearly.
[There's a pause of his own, but it's only about half as long as he debates with his desire to say it versus how lame it sounded. Maybe lame was just what was needed here.]
I won't. I'll keep texting you as much and as long as I can.
I'll text you in the morning too, to let you know the island hasn't blown up in the night or anything.
[To let Albert know Jet was still alive. To let Jet know Albert was still there, just out of physical reach at the moment. That was all he needed and texts were the only way he could do that.]
[But he's glad. It eases a little of the tension in his chest to know Jet is as safe as he can be given the circumstances, that they're still in contact.
[He resists the urge to remind Albert of exactly where Jet had been working the past two and a half decades and how 'being traced' wasn't something he was worried about.]
Shaken up. The somnua who attacked was that friend of hers she was looking for.
It's not a problem anymore.
But she got scraped up pretty bad from falling when I pushed her out of the way. She'll heal, though.
[Albert wasn't the reckless type, but he'd been known to do uncharacteristically stupid things and Jet wasn't so dim as to not be able to pick out the trend.]
[It pulls a small smile from him, bittersweet but somehow nostalgic. The same things he's worried about in the way that Jet operates are some of the same things he's missed so terribly.]
[By the time Albert walks into Elle's room, Kiri has been here for some time, slumped in a chair at her bedside. The first thing out of his mouth is fired like the loose canon he is without her. Not much thought, but a whole lot of feeling.]
I can wake her. I can fix this.
[That crackle in his voice makes it sound a lot more like: I can protect her. This is my fault.Trust me. Just give me a chance.]
Page 1 of 3