Fixing What Was Broken (Jenny Sidestory Part 2)

He was right. She knew that. More often than not he was. Still, something inside her violently rejected his words. Despite that she knew them to be true, she couldn't take any more pain. She couldn't lose anyone else. The only solution, living without fear of losing John but letting him live his life. It had to be done. For both of them. He was far better off without the Abyss. Her thoughts were cut off as her father took a shuddering breath.

"You have to leave now honey, I'll see you tomorrow." Shane reached up to take hold of her shoulder one last time for the day, and the nurse came in.

"Wait! I brought you something!" Jenny began digging around in her bag, eventually coming back up with her Dad's old Walkman. "I found it when I was searching the storage area of our music shop. I had Keith load it up with a bunch of our shows, and all your albums. I didn't really get to see you much in June so... happy late Father's Day."

Shane teared up, he had no idea his daughter had even remembered his music career. These days, it seemed that hardly anybody did. "I'll listen to it every day."

"I love you Dad."

"I love you too."

"What do you think Kimberly?" Jenny asked, she had gone straight to Keith’s apartment after breaking up with John. Kimberly had her nursing a pint of chocolate ice cream, and Keith had left when she told them. Apparently, he didn't support her decision.

Keith had flat-out told her that there was no way John had simply rejected the Abyss just like that. In his opinion, she would only make him more eager to get stronger. Jenny hadn't considered that, and whatever reckless thing he might do in the wake of their breakup turned her blood to ice. Kimberly smacked Keith away, telling him he wasn't helping before walking Jenny over to the couch. Keith left after asking for the model number of the upgrade she gave him, mumbling "two problems to worry about."

After half an hour of crying and moping, Kimberly decided it was time to get real. "Keith's right you know. That kid was head over heels for you. I think your message might have had the opposite effect." Jenny hung her head over the ice cream, not saying anything. "Did he make you happy?"

"Yeah but-"

"Then that's all that matters." Kimberly's sage advice was one of the few times where she let herself be serious. She took a scoop of ice cream from Jenny and continued, "when Keith brings him back here you're going to realize that you were wrong. I know you’re scared for him, but he’s his own person. You can't make John leave the Abyss Jenny, but we can make sure he's safe in it."

"I'm tired of everyone else always being right," Jenny commented through a mouthful of ice cream.

"You have to start thinking more Jenny," Kimberly gently tapped her on top of her head with the dry handle of her spoon.

"That's cold." Jenny replied, though whether she meant the spoon or her words wasn’t specified. Looking up at Kimberly, Jenny knew she was right, but she still didn't like it.

"Speaking of cold," Kimberly grabbed Jenny's ice cream, "this is supposed to be mine, and you need to stop moping. Go help Keith find your boyfriend." Jenny sighed as she stood up, walked to her bass case.

"You hired Neve?" Jenny asked, having caught up with Keith easily after calling him.

"Aye. How else was I supposed to track him? Unless you know somebody else who can track Abyssal phones." Keith replied as they neared the edge of the barrier John had created.

"I'm right here," Neve replied, pressing up against the barrier and tapping something on a tablet. A small rod extended from it, and she stuck it halfway into the barrier. After a few seconds she took it out and stuck it into a port on her robotic arm. Data flashed before her eyes as she said, "He's inside this barrier. These readings tell me it's not a trap, it was made about twenty five minutes ago, and it has no time dilation, but significant size dilation..." Neve flipped her blue tinged black hair back as she typed in a few parameters onto her tablet.

"There's a likely chance he made this barrier. Is he a Fateweaver? If he's affiliated with an organization like that, my rate is quadrupled. Your favor won’t cover that." Neve stated flatly, putting the data stick back into her tablet.

“What, no ex-boyfriend discount?” upon the glare this earned him from both women, he relented, he’s not a Fateweaver, he’s just a little... special,” Keith replied, earning him a punch on the arm from Jenny.

“The inside of this barrier seems to be as big as a city…” Neve typed a few more things into her tablet, “I’m going in with you. Both to collect data and properly track this guy.”

Before Jenny could tell Neve that the sooner she left them the better, Keith replied, “at no extra cost?”

Neve contemplated this as she tapped her metal index finger to her lips, “Fine. After this we’re even.”

“Deal,” Keith said, offering his hand for a handshake. He immediately regret it. With a devilish smirk, Neve shook his hand with her robotic one, painfully gripping his fist.

“I hate it when you do that.” Keith complained, shaking his hand to get the blood flowing again.

“Then get stronger tough guy,” Neve replied as she walked through the barrier. Jenny and Keith were close behind.

“Fascinating…” Neve mumbled to herself as she crouched over a fallen robot. A quick analysis revealed that it’s power core simply needed a jumpstart, and she rewrote its parameters as it booted back up. Instead of killing all humans and protecting machines, as its goals were when John encountered it, it was the opposite.
“He’s been through here.” Keith said, looking down the long road. The sound of metal scraping metal could be heard vaguely in the distance.

“How can you tell?” Neve asked sarcastically as the newly invigorated robot propped itself up, devoid of weapons.

“Well, fer one thing there’s that thing you just revived.” Keith was dead serious as he answered, taking a vial of cobalt colored dust from a pouch at his hip. “For another,” Keith started as he uncorked the vial and arced the dust up into the air, it immediately streamed down the street. “I made that with a sample of his blood. It’ll follow him for about half a kilometer. It doesn’t work through barriers as far as I know, but in them…” His work spoke for itself.

“Why and how did you make that?” Jenny usually wasn’t very interested in Alchemy, but the thought that Keith had taken a blood sample from him and thought to make something so specific struck her as odd.

“Yer really going to ask that when you saw him get torn open by an ice spike, same as I did? There wasn’t exactly a scarcity of his blood then.” Keith explained as they began following the slowly streaming powder.

“As fer why I have it… I’ve got one for anyone that’s important enough fer me to track.” Keith finished as they came across the lifeless shell of the first mini-boss. In the distance they heard the sound of glass shattering over and over, followed by what sounded like a powerful motor.

“Do you have one for me?” Neve asked, and since he was leading the group Keith missed her hurt look when he said no.

They travelled in silence the rest of the way, Jenny’s bass at the ready for the smallest sign of an attack, Neve stopping for a few moments along the way to take data and metal samples from the robots, and Keith acutely aware of the avenue in front of them, eager at the smallest movement to trounce a bot if it happened to still be kicking.

“Have you noticed none of these buildings have entrances?” Jenny idly remarked as they passed by one. She had considered blasting one open just to see what lay inside, but the metal looked hard, and it wasn’t worth the mana. There was also something psychological keeping her from doing it. The caution of the unknown.

“Actually, they did at one point. They’ve just been welded shut. The weld is nearly perfect, but anyone with a trained eye would be able to tell otherwise.” Neve snarkily remarked as the powder slammed against a building that looked recently welded shut. It insistently pressed up against the wall, seeking its target. None of them noticed as the noise of shattering glass abruptly stopped.

“Stand back.” Keith and Neve said at the same time, and they looked at each other for a moment. “Together then?” Keith asked as he downed a potion and his skin gained the tell-tale shine of his steel form.

“On my count.” Neve said, adjusting the motors in her arm for a moment. She slipped her tablet into the bag at her hip along with all her samples. “One… two… three!” Relentless blows fell on the metal door, and while they were preoccupied, Jenny heard the staticy voice of a pre-recorded message. “Total building collapse in five, four, three, two,