The world whipped in a chaotic torrent, up and down were interchanged as Nicole struggled in vain to right herself only to crash to the ground before she realized she was free of the effect. Unfortunately her vision was still clouded by spots, and blinking them away wasn’t helping nearly as much as she hoped it would.

  Worse, everything was spinning from whatever had happened even as her chest burned from her earlier fight. Nicole knew she needed to get up, to be ready to continue the battle, but her stomach lurched instead and she barely managed to keep the contents down as her fingers dug into the dirt beneath her. That thought jarred her from the internal panic as the rest of her senses caught up with the current situation.

  Nicole had expected to end up in a cold space made of metal, yet it was the sounds of birds chirping rather than machines cttering that greeted her. Despite her vision having not recovered, despite what felt like an inferno slowly burning, Nicole continued to take in her surroundings as best she could. Green dominated her sight where the spots were fading, and it didn’t take long for her to realize she was in the woods somewhere, and that it was now daylight.

  “Fan-fucking-tastic,” Nicole muttered, forcing herself to sit up.

  The world turned sideways as she did, yet her stomach stayed in pce. She grit her teeth to keep from retching. Nicole knew enough that throwing up in such a situation was a really bad idea. All she could do was hope that the nausea passed quickly. Measured breaths were the name of the game as everything slowly settled, the heat bleeding off with them, and finally enough of the spots had cleared for her to get a better look at her surroundings.

  Bugs crawled through the underbrush and in the distance a lizard snapped one up before skittering away. Above, animals she had no hope of identifying howled or cawed, rustling through the dense foliage. The forest wasn’t like anything Nicole knew, but that didn’t mean much to the city girl. For all she knew she was an hour outside of Somerville and Grace was looking for her. Something told her that wasn’t true but a girl could dream. Either she had been unconscious for hours, or she was very far from Kansas now.

  Fuck, was Grace okay?

  With how Nicole no doubt disappeared in a fsh of light, Grace had to be losing her shit, and she still had a sister to get to safety. Just the thought of Grace being taken like that hurt her heart, and having to make the call to prioritize the safety of someone else while another you loved was in obvious danger…

  Nicole didn’t know if she could make a decision like that. She wouldn’t have much of a window left, and there was nothing Nicole to do to help her at this junction. Worse, she had her own mess to worry about. Maraline was nowhere to be found in her immediate surroundings, which was puzzling, but at least it meant she wasn’t in for an immediate fight with the dangerous Syn.

  That was when her eyes fell on the hilt of one of her daggers just feet away, half sticking out of the ground. The second wasn’t far and she sighed in relief that she wouldn’t be unarmed in unknown territory. She reached over, grabbing them despite how things still wobbled, and stowed them away before taking another moment to collect herself.

  After a few minutes of just taking it all in, Nicole took a deep breath and pushed herself to her feet. Her gear was roughed up, but mostly intact following the fight with Maraline’s automatons. The sleeve of her shirt was torn, but that wasn’t a surprise even with knife resistant fabric. There was only so much that could be done there and the Syn bdes were far sharper than most Earth made bdes.

  At least the armor given to her by Sincir Industries had held against the Orange banded machines. They were a lot harder to put down without her morphing ability, yet she had still managed to hold her own despite that. Nicole checked her watch, finding it just as dead as it had been when she recovered it from the b space.

  It was probably too much to hope that exposure to Syn based teleportation might be enough to jump start it. With a heavy sigh, Nicole picked a direction and started walking. The air was humid, and rather warm, which immediately ruled out being anywhere close to where they had been, or home for that matter.

  “Just what I needed,” Nicole said with a sigh. “Why did I leave my phone in the car again? It’s not like I could morph and short it out.”

  Not that she was likely to get a signal in a jungle that she was starting to suspect might be on a completely different continent. Food and water would be a problem in short order, and Nicole was thankful that she and Grace had stopped for food barely an hour outside of Somerville. That would buy her time to figure out how dire the situation might be.

  Sure, Nicole could probably kill an animal with a thrown knife, but she didn’t want to do that if there happened to be some people nearby that might be able to help. Looking down at her outfit, she couldn’t help but ugh. Like hell anyone would trust her at first gnce when she came across as a lost assassin from some crummy made-for-tv movie.

  Bits of sunlight broke the thick canopy above, the light growing ever dimmer as time passed. There was some temptation to climb up and try to get her bearings, but Nicole hadn’t seen a stream yet, nevermind the two stagnant puddles which were an option of absolute st resort. Worse, she kept catching glimpses of movement in the brush, which sent her instincts into overdrive. Something was stalking her, but she had no idea what it might be.

  Nicole was almost certain it would come for her after dark, which meant getting a fire together would be paramount prior to then. She was about to start gathering something to start building a camp when a scream tore through the usual sounds of the jungle. Nicole was in motion before fully processing it, and burst through the underbrush with ease.

  A clearing unfolded, still covered by the expansive canopy, yet far more open than anything before. A zy river cut through the clearing that was barely ankle deep, yet that wasn’t the thing that truly grabbed her attention. Three rge cats circled their target, one bleeding from a wound on their shoulder. Silver hair whipped in the wind where it wasn’t matted to their scalp and lic eyes shone with defiance. There, in the midst of the big cats, stood a panting Maraline, her bdes held tight in a defensive stance.

  Nicole had only a moment to take that all in before a fourth cat jumped from the brush, cws extended as it came directly for her. Senses sharpened to a needlepoint as Nicole turned, hands in motion grasped fur and skin, then she smmed it down into the riverbed with a spsh, alerting everyone to her presence.

  A dagger was drawn and Nicole slipped it into the back of the cat’s neck, ending the animal’s life in an instant. Warmth surged through her, that nebulous connection to the Source bringing a twinge of strength with it. She tried to hold onto it, to draw it out, but the feeling slipped through her fingers as if grasping smoke.

  The riverbed exploded into motion once more, Maraline slicing through one of the cats almost cleanly even as a second nded upon her back and cwed at her. Nicole froze, staring with wide eyes as she was actually injured by the animal. This was a woman who held off her entire team and Carlos at once, yet she struggled against jungle cats?

  Shaking her surprise off, Nicole rushed into the fray even as the smoldering fmes reignited within her. She spun, shing out with an extended leg and kicked the cat with everything she had. Cws tore free of Maraline’s flesh, earning a sharp hiss from the Syn general even as she drove her bde into the animal before her. The cat got back up, shaking itself as its limbs trembled under the strain. It looked between the fallen felines and Nicole could almost see the pain in its eyes. Then a leg gave out and the animal let out a pained mewl that made her heart clench.

  These animals had sought them as food, and found themselves prey instead. She wasn’t sure what species they might be, but that didn’t stop her from feeling some measure of pity for them. Maraline gasped as she held her shoulder, gring at the injured cat. The proud general forced herself to her feet and stepped over to the panting feline.

  It seemed to accept its fate as she plunged her bde into it, ending the fight once and for all. Or so she thought, Maraline turned, raising a bde with her good arm to level it upon Nicole. The General was gasping heavily and it didn’t take an empath to see how hurt she was, yet those lic eyes were hard.

  “Do you intend to finish me?” Maraline demanded.

  Nicole sighed, stowing her bdes as she did. “Yes, I protected you because I’m the only one allowed to end your life.”

  She’d spoken the words in the bndest deadpan that she could manage, and it had caused Maraline to blink. Then the woman cracked a smile and actually ughed, only to wince and grip her shoulder as she wobbled on her feet. Nicole moved to her side in a blink, helping to support her without a second thought. Maraline tensed at the contact, but Nicole was careful to be gentle.

  “I’ve got you,” Nicole said softly, examining the cerations from the battle. “That looks bad…”

  “Feels worse,” Maraline muttered.

  A breathless ugh escaped before Nicole could quash it. Maraline gred at her, but it was impotent as she helped her to the edge of the stream. Setting Maraline down, Nicole pulled her facemask off and removed the cloth, for once thankful that she hadn’t bothered with the helmet given to her by Sincir.

  “This will sting,” Nicole warned.

  Maraline grunted in acknowledgment as Nicole dipped the cloth in the stream. She wrung it out, already worrying about how unsanitary it was, but leaving the wound unattended would be worse. She touched the cloth to the wound, and gently dabbed the blood away. Seeing Syn blood was always a dichotomy, given they bled blue. Still, Nicole worked slowly, being careful to not make the wound worse.

  “Why help me?”

  Nicole paused at the question, then continued her ministrations. “I seem to recall this woman who once went out of her way to assist me when I was at my lowest point. It seems only right to pay that kindness forward.”

  For a time the only sounds were those of the jungle and the occasional hiss from the woman as Nicole cleaned her wounds. The cws had done a number on her back, and as much as Nicole might have been curious, she knew better than to ask how the Syn General had managed to be injured by something as basic as jungle cats.

  There was a safer question she could ask, if nothing else. “Any idea where we are?”

  “Asia,” Maraline answered. “I’m unsure of the exact location, though I would guess we are somewhere in the southwestern portion of Asia.”

  “Good of a guess as any seeing as it is daylight out,” Nicole said with a sigh. “How the fuck did this even happen?”

  “Crass nguage aside,” Maraline said softly. “I do not know.”

  “Wonderful.”

  Once the wound had been cleaned and was no longer leaking copious amounts of blood, Nicole used the rinsed cloth to cover the wound. She knew that wasn’t a good bandage, something about the fibers getting stuck in the healing wound, but it wasn’t like she had surgical stitches on hand to close it.

  Her training was focused on emergency first aid as a responder, not as an EMT.

  Tying the cloth off, Maraline let out a soft whimper before reaching up to run her fingers over the bound cloth. The light had dimmed noticeably since she first arrived, with the shadows growing deeper by the moment, which meant their time to find shelter was diminished.

  “I thank you for the assistance,” Maraline said, pushing herself up with a grunt. Nicole moved with her, ready to steady her if she wavered. “Unfortunately I am unable to call for retrieval, otherwise all of this would have been unnecessary.”

  If that wasn’t a loaded statement, but she was showing a degree of trust by revealing that, so Nicole wouldn’t press the issue. That left the important matters to attend.

  “Then we need to establish shelter and a fire, as well as a way to boil water.”

  “Agreed,” Maraline said. “These animals should serve well as a food source, if nothing else.”

  Nicole didn’t like the idea of eating a feline, but beggars couldn’t be choosers and all that. It was with some trepidation that Nicole picked up one of the animals and slung it over her shoulder, blood dripping from the wounds inflicted upon it. Maraline nodded, then turned to survey the area.

  “I came from that direction, and you from that,” she said, gesturing at each. “That way leads upstream and may be the source of a spring. We should follow the river and look for a small tributary. With luck it may lead to a cavern that we could use for convalescence.”

  Nicole hummed in agreement, and began to follow the person that was attempting to kill her just a few hours prior. It was strange to consider, but she truly did think of Maraline as a friend despite everything between them.

  As she stepped away a small group of monkeys dropped down and began to pick at one of the remaining cats, a few bickering over who got first dibs or something. Nicole left them to it, too tired to really care all that much after the st several hours. She really needed to find somewhere that she could just y down and rest.

  Thankfully that didn’t appear as though it would take long as Maraline paused before a small feeder creek. She kneeled with a bit of effort and scooped some water out before sniffing it. A smile graced the woman’s face as she rose.

  “The water is clean, so we follow.”

  Nicole shrugged, which only served to jostle the cat on her shoulders before she squared them and continued on. Though Maraline led the way, Nicole didn’t miss how the woman was growing less sure by every step, or how she had begun to sweat. It was a strange sight, but Nicole didn’t comment, not yet at least.

  The underbrush had darkened significantly when they found the source of the tributary, a small spring that poured forth into a rge pool before splitting off in two directions. One ran down to the river, but the other diverted into a massive cavern that would easily shelter them from any storm. Nicole could only grin at the sight, moving to set the cat down when Maraline began to list to the side.

  The movement may as well have been spontaneous, but Nicole was there to catch her, helping the woman to y down against a sturdy rock. Maraline’s skin was paler than normal, which was saying something, not to mention how she trembled. Nicole was quick to remove her duster and slip it over her friend, then she began to look for anything combustible to get a fire going.

  She didn’t have any flint with her, but Nicole did have two daggers and plenty of rocks. Her survival skills weren’t much to speak of, but she’d pyed a few games over the years and knew the basics of what was needed.

  Branches littered the ground, which was good enough for her, but everything was soaked through. Nicole checked inside the cave next, and found a handful of drier bits of wood and decaying leaves. There were broken logs further in, but she could grab those once she had something actually burning. The smaller bits would have to do for a start and she would just need to hope that it could be used to catch some of the rger pieces as it went.

  The bdes that Grace had forged for her had endured punishment far beyond anything she could ever expect of them, and they continued to serve her loyally. She struck the bde against the stone, letting the sparks fall on the dead leaves until they began to smolder. She cupped her hands, blowing gently, until they extinguished.

  Growling in frustration, Nicole continued to strike her bde, getting more sparks to smolder, but this time she continued until she actually saw fmes. More dried out leaves were added, along with a handful of twigs. The fire grew slowly, and Nicole began to add some of the rger hunks of dry wood that she had found, along with a single wet one.

  Only once the fire had built up did Nicole move back with a shaking breath. The sun was almost completely set now, only a dull light remained, but she had done it, she made a fucking fire! Take that mother nature! Nicole turned to where she had left Maraline with a wide grin only for it to fall away almost immediately.

  Maraline had slipped to the side, her breaths coming quick and shallow. Nicole hurried to her side in a panic, checking her over. The wounds weren’t bleeding anymore, but they were still in rough shape, the skin around them was red and infmed, which couldn’t be a good thing. She picked her friend up and brought her by the growing fire, careful to keep the duster covering her as much as possible. Nicole took the cloth off the wound and to the creek where she cleaned it as quickly as she could, then returned to repce the makeshift bandage.

  “I don’t know what else to do,” Nicole muttered, her hands trembling as she tied the knot once more.

  Field medicine would be the first thing she looked up upon returning home, just to prevent shit like this from happening again. That and she would be keeping a first aid kit on her person at all times. Flint too for that matter.

  The fire would take time to grow, and Nicole wasn’t sure what she could do to help it along given how everything was damp. Checking deeper into the cave found a mess of dead limbs caught on some rocks on a path that led down into the dark, but she paid that little mind as she brought them to the growing fire.

  Rocks followed, being pced in a circle around the growing bze, and even found a retively ft one that might be useful for cooking or something. She rinsed it off in the spring before bringing it to the fire and setting it beside the hot coals. Maraline had stopped trembling, but her breathing was still quick and the cast of the light made it difficult to check her complexion.

  Knowing that she was running out of things to do, she turned to the big cat and drew her knife once more. She wasn’t looking forward to butchering an animal, not that she had the first clue about doing so, but it couldn’t be that hard to find something edible on the animal. Legs were usually good for that, especially the muscles.

  And so, as the night truly settled in, Nicole continued her grizzly task of cutting meat and preparing strips to cook and smoke, all to ensure she survived the coming days. Something told her they were going to need every advantage that they could get.

  Pendragoon