I've been gone for too long - my apologies. Teaching for realsies is a lot harder than teaching for grad-school. I hope y'all are still reading!

The days passed too slowly for Jade to bear; despite doctor's orders to rest the first evening (and an appointed caretaker instructed to insure she comply,) she tore the house apart searching for weapons and supplies. She was determined to wage war if she must, injuries be damned, and this was the only way she could think to help – preparation. Andre, though resolute, was no match for her rage, her unrelenting fury, as he tried to reason her back to bed.

"Exhausting yourself is only going to hurt our efforts." He'd offered.

He had promptly been ejected from their home to suffer the bitter cold as punishment.

Jade's search continued unabated. By the time sunlight began cresting over the nearby mountains she had only amassed a pitiful stack of weapons: the pistols they'd managed to relieve from Phoenix security guards, an ancient rifle that she doubted would even fire (it'd been collecting dust over their fireplace for decades), a hunting knife, and a few half-empty boxes of ammo. She massaged her temple with her good hand and stared angrily at her finds; this wouldn't do at all. She'd failed in the one task she had set before herself.

A scrape of a key in the lock signaled her roommates' return, and she turned her gaze, bleary and pained, to her friends as they staggered through the door. She only hoped she didn't look half as bad as they did after their all-nighter. Beck's clothes were stained and he reeked of oil and grease, Cat's hair had been pulled into a ponytail and seemed to only be retaining the shape in good faith, and Robbie was supporting a pair of singed eyebrows and bangs. A small red blister was swelling angrily on his forehead. Andre trudged in behind them, frost gathering in his long hair; it appeared he must have lingered around the house all night, possible peering through the windows to make sure Jade was overworking herself.

"Truck's almost ready to go." Beck was the first one to break the silence. "Replaced the old belts, the carburetor… installed a new motor for the wench."

"It'll be as good as new!" Cat chimed.

"It'll be as good as we can manage. But it should get us there and back."

"So we know where "there" is now?" Jade asked.

"Not specifically. But, based on the amount of fuel stored in the back it's at least a day's drive. I think Norris is worried you'll get too impatient and leave before we're ready." Jade huffed and eased against the back of the couch. He was right. The absolute last thing she felt like doing was waiting around for his bureaucratic bullshit. This wasn't a time to consider their options – they only had one. Rescue mission. Now.

"So how much longer? Truck's almost fixed, what else are we waiting on?"

"I'm welding together a brush guard." Robbie spoke up, rubbing his head tenderly. "I should be done with it tomorrow."

"And I still have a lot of ammo to refill." Cat chimed. Jade shot her a wilting glare and she made a pitiful meep. "But now that Beck's done he can help me."

Another day. She groaned inwardly and closed her eyes, allowing her twisted imagination to wander. What will they have done to Tori by then? What were they doing to her now?

"Wine?" Lillie offered. She clutched the glass awkwardly with her splinted fingers; her left arm hung in a canvas sling across her stomach. "It helps take the edge off."

"No, thanks." Tori muttered through gritted teeth.

"It's here if you change your mind." She placed the wine on the table before the young brunette and limped back to her own seat next to her sister.

Tori shifted slightly in her chair, the rattle of her chains enough to gain her captors' attention. "Uncomfortable?" Lillie inquired.

The cyborg was heavily bound in logging chains, crisscrossed over her chest and wrapped around her waist and legs for good measure. Even on her best day she'd stand no chance of snapping half-inch thick steel, let alone in the battered condition she found herself in now. She took a stifled breath, the action serving to remind her just how tightly they had bound her. "Not at all. Feels all cozy like a mother's embrace." She snipped definitely.

"Then you won't mind staying there for a while." Lara muttered.

Tori chewed on the inside of her cheek. How she yearned for Jade's wit, for her ability to retort with something pithy and threatening in an instant. Everything she could think of sounded way too cliché: I won't be here for long! You'll see! Or, these chains won't hold me forever! God. Movies had done away with that kind of dialogue long before Tori had been frozen in time. Why was she just naturally so cheesy? Words failing her, she instead chose to glare resolutely at the older sister.

"You might as well enjoy your stay, Victoria. We live more comfortably than Norris and his group of ascetics. I promise you'd love the place if you just let yourself." Lille swirled the dark liquid in her glass a few times before tossing back the remainder.

"You tried to kill my girlfriend and kidnapped me. And the name is Tori." She snapped, jerking against her bindings angrily; the chair did little more than creak in response.

"Do you think if Queen Victoria had gone by Tori she would have had nearly the impact on British history?" Lillie chided. "Queen Tori doesn't sound very regal, does it?"

"I'm not a queen; my name is Tori." She replied sternly.

"Well with that attitude you never will be." Lillie countered, her voice raising.

Lara pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration as Tori's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Leave her alone, Lillie." She ordered. "Go check on Sinjin." The pair stared at each other silently, engaging in a wordless conversation. The communicated with flaring of nostrils and turning of eyebrows, apparently carrying on a heated argument. It ended moments later with Lillie huffing and rising sharply before exiting silently from the room.

"Sisters, right?" Lara sighed. "But, of course, you know how difficult they can be. Is Trina still as frustrating in her advanced years? I'm hoping Lillie will level out." A knot tightened in Tori's chest. "Sinjin's been telling us how you've never quite finalized plans to get her across the border. You'll be happy to know we're taking care of that for you." The Latina's wavering gaze betrayed her faux confidence; a smile crept across Lara's bruised face.

"Why are you doing this?"

The older woman leaned back in her chair, her sharp eyes studying the immobilized figure before her. "How was it? Living at the turn of the century?" Tori blinked at her and narrowed her gaze. She knew better than to respond. "You don't really have to answer. I've read the papers, the ones that came out years after your disappearance. You were a very popular topic of discussion, I hope you know."

"So I've heard."

"Many figured you'd been killed… you became a martyr for your kind."

"My kind?"

"Cyborgs."

Tori knew this; Norris had told her. But it was still a concept slow to sink in. She didn't feel worthy of that kind of title – after all, it'd been Trina who made that decision for her, Patrick who had done all the work. She just carried the burden of their efforts, and not at all gracefully.

"You remember how bad things were for you? It was worse for your peers. There were a lot of hate crimes, a lot of innocents killed." Tori knew that too, but couldn't determine Lara's reason for telling her this now. "Armageddon only made things worse but, then again, you saw some of that for yourself."

Lara rose and retrieved a piece of bread from a plate on the counter and lingered there to smear peanut butter on it. "Lillie and I had barely graduated from MIT when the world went to hell. Back then, incarceration was a luxury. Supposed anarchists weren't arrested. They were killed. Are you at all surprised to know that, once they realized a large group of Horsemen was based at MIT, they tried to lynch us all?" Lara stared hard at the ceiling, recalling how the entire east coast had bared down on them hard. It was only after Armageddon that she and her sister had even joined the Horsemen, and that was really only to guarantee safe passage out of a warzone. They eventually began to embrace the techno-anarchists' creed, and realized it wasn't really about abolition the modern way of life and thrusting them all back to the Dark Ages… it was about revolution, about restoring a new, better, order for the world, with the right people in charge.

She folded the bread in half and turned again to face Tori. "Lillie and I barely made it out." She crossed the kitchen and stood before the young cyborg, offering her the sandwich. "Try a bite. It's not poisoned." She coaxed gently. Tori had been in their hands for almost 24 hours and hadn't had anything other than water. "We're not all bad people, Horsemen."

"You tried to kill my friends." Tori snapped.

"After your girlfiend attacked us first." Lara countered.

"Because you were trying to kidnap me!"

"But we weren't trying to hurt you, were we?"

"I'm still not so sure about that." She turned her nose away defiantly.

"We don't want to hurt you, Tori. Or your friends." She briefly wondered if the wolves had found Jade's corpse yet. "We need your help."

"Then why didn't you approach me like a normal human being?" The Latina huffed, jerking again at her bindings. The chair creaked in protest.

"Your magnanimous leader won't allow us within city walls." She saw Tori's brows twitch almost imperceptibly; good – she had piqued her curiosity.

"I'm not surprised; you two are crazy." She replied softly but firmly.

"You'd be surprised at how little you know about Norris, Tori. How very little." Lara fought to remain composed; this was where the real fun would begin. "He may have taken you in, but don't be so quick to trust him." Tori held her tongue, and trained her gaze resolutely on an old frame on the wall. "But today has been a long day. You rest. We'll talk more later." She left the food on a plate within Tori's reach and made her way towards the door. "Try and eat something; you don't want to get ill.

The hours continued to pass at a glacial pace; night felt like an eternity as Jade tossed restlessly. When sleep finally came it was uneasy, filled with distressing dreams. She found herself waking every hour, anxiously checking the clock to see how much longer it was until sunrise. When she woke for the final time she breathed a small sigh of relief when she saw early grey light creeping across her bedroom floor. Dawn.

Jade rolled out of bed with her hand nestled protectively against her stomach. The dull aching had become constant, only interrupted by brief moments of intense, blinding pain. She shuffled to the bathroom and carefully removed her clothes and surveyed the darkening bruises on her torso. They were angry: mottled purplish-red splotches marred her otherwise porcelain skin, and minor abrasions oozed clear fluids when chafed by the fabric of her clothes. She looked like she'd been hit by a bus. A blonde, crazy bus.

Mindful of her bandaged hand, she stepped into the shower and allowed the water pressure to knead her sore muscles. She gargled a mouthful of water to rise away morning breath, and made some effort to wash her greasy hair. Today she was going to find Norris and Sikowitz; Cat had detained her yesterday with those pitiful eyes and a plea to rest with her. Today she would make a point to leave before the rest of the house even woke and find them men who were withholding information from her.

Hair still wet, she bounded down the front steps in the freezing morning air and moved quickly in the direction of town. Smoke drifted from chimneys and, within a few windows, she spied signs of early morning activities in some homes. She knew many of the men ventured into the woods some mornings to hunt; surely their wives were up preparing breakfast for their return. Jade could hardly imagine waking up this early, let alone an earlier to sit in a small shack waiting for the mere chance of game.

As she suspected, Norris' lights were on in his workshop when she arrived at his home. She slipped around back and entered quietly through the door that he always forgot to lock and helped herself to a pot of coffee in the kitchen. Based on its taste, she guessed it'd been made hours ago. He and Sikowitz must have had a sleepless night as well. She took another reluctant swallow from her mug and continued on her way.

Both men were crouched over a table with their backs to the door, their bodies blocking whatever they appeared to be working on. "I'm going crazy in that damn lodge. I need something to do and I'm not crawling under an old Bronco."

They jumped, their tools clattering to the ground when they jostled the table. "Jade!" Sikowitz was the first to recover, and he crossed the room to meet her and wrap his arm around her shoulder. "Yes, cabin fever is a very real thing. But Norris tells me preparations are almost complete. He also assures me that Tori is more than likely still in once piece… so there's that."

"You're not helping." Jade scowled as he steered her back to the table

"Quite the contrary, I promise." Norris replied, stepping aside to reveal what the two men had been hunkered over.

Jade stared, her trained eyes scrutinizing every inch, every seam, of the cyborg hand before her. She vaguely recognized the design – it was based on newer technology but appeared to be patched by salvaged parts. "What is this?" She demanded.

"I didn't leave LA empty-handed." Sikowitz chuckled, amused by his own cheesy humor.

Jade's nostrils flared.

"Because it's a hand." He elaborated, hoping to earn a smile. "You'll think of this later and laugh."

"What is this?" Jade repeated, turning her attention this time to Norris.

The older man carefully picked up the prosthesis and turned it over, presenting it from every angle. "This is one of my last designs before Armageddon." Sikowitz interjected, finally taking a more appropriate tone. "The CX400 cybernetic glove. The prototype had just been approved – we were about to begin mass production when the world came to a screeching halt."

"They approved this? Really?" Jade took it in her own hands, testing its weight and sturdiness.

"It was in better shape." Sikowitz defended, sounding less like a scientist and more like an offended parent of an insulted child. "I kept it as a memento of the Golden Age, not in hopes of ever actually using it. It's taken a beating over the years, but I assure you that now, after I've made repairs, it's fully functional and waiting to be put to use." Jade arched a brow at him. "It's not as pretty as Tori's, but it's nearly as powerful. I assure you."

"What repairs did you make?" She still wasn't fully convinced, and wasn't about to sacrifice what was left of her hand to faulty equipment.

"I replaced damaged panels on the back, here," He pointed, tracing a delicate finger across the back of the hand. "And replaced older wiring with better quality materials. Sensitivity and response time have improved dramatically.

"How much is this like Tori's?" She repeated, recalling her girlfriend's super strength and practically bullet-proof armor.

"As much as it can be without full amputation… and even then, we simply don't have the tools or facilities to reproduce that kind of technology. You will be stronger, and be far more dexterous than you are now. I'm not a surgeon, but, based on what Norris has told me, this is your best option for recovery."

"Without it, your hand will be practically useless. Lara and Lillie have ruined almost all hope of ever recovering more than 50% mobility, if I had to guess. I know it's not "top of the line" technology, but it's better than he alternative and the best option we have right now considering the delicate situation we have been thrust into." Norris added.

Jade knew he was right, and knew that this, ultimately, was what she'd been wanting for months. She just wished she had more time to tinker, to modify to her specifications . Time was precious, though, and Tori was waiting for her. Modifications would have to come later. This was, as Norris had said, better than nothing. "So… how does this work?" She found herself nervous for the process to unfold.

Sikowitz smiled faintly and carefully took the glove into his hands. "The seams split along the sides." He explained, gently prying the device apart. "Medical jargon aside, we put your hand in here, surgically attached the sensors to the nerves in your hand, and seal it. Recovery time is low, and, since it's not a full prosthetic, there's hardly any chance your body will reject the implants."

"You're leaving out a lot, aren't you?" Jade deadpanned; she knew it really couldn't be that simple.

"Tons. The surgery will take hours. And you have to be awake so we can test the connections as we go."

"We'll have a steady supply of local anesthetics; it won't hurt." Norris assured.

"And when we're done the pain you've been dealing with for months will be gone."

Jade stared at the glove and tried to imagine it hanging where her own flesh and blood now hung. She had no other option, really. Not for her sake or Tori's. "Well, let's not waste any more time."

Jade rested on a newly prepped slab in Norris office, her arm extended out at a ninety degree angle so both men could operate at once. Norris was prepping the area with iodine as Sikowitz laid out all the tools they would need for the procedure. Her breath caught in her throat as a needle pierced her skin and she only released it when she felt everything below her elbow begin to numb. A few minutes passed before Sikowitz poked it gently with a probe. "How does it feel?"

Jade shook her head. "Can't feel a thing." She confirmed. The older men nodded and shifted to block her view of their first painless incision. She tore her gaze away from Sikowitz's back and towards the ceiling, forcing away the gruesome thoughts of what might be going on at her fingertips and focusing, instead, on the end result.

The pain would be gone, and she'd finally be ready to go after those ganks who kidnapped her girlfriend.

She could already imagine closing her new hand around their throats.