Parasite Eve: Fuse

Sunset walked through the garage, staying along the wall instead of weaving through the lanes as she normally would. She also didn't bother with the main entrance since she didn’t want to run the risk of Fluttershy spotting her as she passed the clinic. She was unsure of her capacity to suppress her signature and was already fortunate that Rarity was out today as it was. Dash hadn’t seemed to have noticed when she slipped out her window, not even taking her bike to make her way down the side streets to the station. Gallus and Jack sat chatting in the break room but didn’t even notice her rush by.

She neared the stairway junction when she was tempted to just hit the locker room and bail, but she shook off the notion and definitely strode past and quietly made her way up the stairs. If she was going to get caught then she was going to get caught. She knew she couldn’t leave without a contingency for the worst.

Well… another contingency at least.

She kept as quick a pace as she dared to while trying to also not draw any suspicion. She closed on her goal, slowing to almost a crawl as she approached the door. Placing a hand upon the wood, she closed her eyes to focus. She could feel something but it wasn’t strong enough to be the room’s most frequent occupant. Nevertheless she gave a quick peek through the window, confirming the space to be unoccupied.

She stepped into the lab, making her way toward a cabinet against the far wall. She tried not to look anywhere else but found herself startled at the sudden sound of scurrying feet to her side. She let go of a held breath as eyes landed on a row of cages lining the back wall. An entire mischief of rats scampered about inside their confines, several standing up along the bars to study the new arrival curiously.

It was a new addition to the lab, one that now reminded Sunset that Fluttershy had finally managed to get a blood sample from Brandon, even tagging the wild crow before he had enough. Twilight was very excited about the findings, enough to finally begin live testing of infections again. While a vaccine or safe methods of making NMHs were still a long time away, she stated being able to study infections in a controlled setting again would still be a massive leap forward.

‘A shame I’ll never see how it turns out’ the redhead tore her eyes away and returned to her task, standing in front of the storage cabinet a moment later. She was almost surprised to find it unlocked. ‘Of course it’s unlocked. Who would steal anything from here, let alone from Twilight?’

She would, it turned out. Just another regret to add to a rapidly growing list. She grabbed a slim, rectangular orange case and stuffed it in her backpack. She was just closing the door when the last voice she wanted to hear spoke behind her.

“Shimmer?” Rupert’s baritone questioned. Sunset turned with her best poker smile “What are you doing here?”

His tone wasn’t accusing. If anything it hurt Sunset’s heart how much genuine concern she could make out. While perhaps not as easily picked up by others, she’d been around him enough to finally pick up on at least some of his subtleties. Perhaps even to sort of understand why everyone treated him like he was so much warmer than his cold exterior implied.

Simply put: he was.

“Sorry sir, I just forgot something in the locker room” she returned in a half truth “I was poking my head in to see if Twilight was here when I heard a noise. Turned out to only be the new lab rats.”

The director nodded understandingly, trusting her excuse. Too trusting in her opinion. She wished she hadn’t managed to deceive him so well. She didn’t deserve that trust. Another beat went by before the man shifted uncomfortably.

“Listen, Shimmer, I… I didn’t mean to lead you astray.” He began awkwardly, earnest regret behind his eyes “I know I said you only needed your side arm for cleaning watch. Most the hunters-”

“Stop. That… That’s really not necessary sir” she interrupted, head down as she felt her eyes beginning to water “You told me I could bring my primary, I was the one who didn’t. It’s not your fault. I’m sorry I yelled at you.”

“You’re not at fault either Sunset” he declared quietly. It was one of the few times he’d used her first name. He put a hand on her shoulder, sending even greater waves of guilt through her with the simple touch “These things can get the drop on any of us. Even Rarity can’t always sense everything. You didn’t do anything wrong last night.”

“Thank you, Sir.” It took everything she had to keep her voice from cracking, from breaking down right there. But she didn’t. She was Sunset Shimmer. She might be a coward who ran from all her failures, but she could still manipulate with the best of them. So she lied. Head down, she would continue this charade to its end. She could cry later. “I uh, really should, um…”

“Of course” Rupert returned, stepping back to let the young woman pass. She hurried to the locker room, both immensely grateful and disappointed no one was there. Other than the sound of one of the shower stalls running, no one else was present to see her to load her bag and abscond.

She left the garage and retrieved the stashed shoulder bag with her clothes and paused, looking down the various alleyways. A small gust fluttered through as she pondered which direction to take now.

‘I suppose I could be poetic’ she sighed and walked with the gentle breeze at her back.

Wondering where the wind was going to lead her.

Twilight hummed happily as she entered her lab. She was just coming back from the hospital with some happy news: Indigo had regained consciousness. She managed to let Fluttershy know just as the nurse was leaving, glad her friend could let Sunset and Rainbow know in person. A much relieved Rupert said he’d inform the team and let Twilight get back to her work. She grabbed a bag of pet food from the low security storage cabinet and began portioning it out to the rats. While there was a good chance most of them wouldn’t be surviving the upcoming tests, an unfortunate truth of her work, she was going to be sure they were as comfortable as she could make them in the meantime.

She finished topping off their water bottles and returned the food to its proper place, just stepping away when something tugged at the back of her mind. Opening the door back up, she studied the contents, feeling something off. Her focus landed on a small stack of slender orange cases made of plastic. She plucked the inventory list off its hook, flipping through the numbers and then double checking the check out notes on the last pages. She frowned and immediately made her way to the director’s office.

“Rupert? Did any of the teams need new suppressant pens? I’m missing a case.” she poked her head through the office’s already open door. The dark skinned man flipped through a few pages on his desk for a moment before answering.

“Not that they reported. I didn’t see anyone in the lab except…” the scientist saw him set his jaw before casting her a dark look “Except Shimmer.”

“Sunset was here?”

“Yeah, she said she forgot something in her locker.” he returned slowly, gazed darting around in thought “I caught her just coming out. She said she heard a noise that turned out to be the rats…”

“I don’t understand. What would Sunset want with a case of suppressants?” almost as soon as she asked, the director’s phone rang.

“Broderick” he answered before a nervous voice Twilight could hear from the door rambled from the other end “Flut- Fluttershy, slow down. What’s happened? …Okay. …Right. Calm down. You and Dash keep looking, I’ll call in some support.”

“What’s wrong?” Twilight muttered quietly as he hung up. She hadn’t managed to make out much, but she caught the gist of what was causing the nurse’s worry. Still, she needed to make sure.

“They can’t find Sunset. Her room was tossed with a number of her drawers turned out. There was no sign of foul play, not that it could have escaped Dash’s notice. She left her phone behind too.” he answered, typing out a succinct text before sending it to a decent number of the team. Not a second later he was standing and grabbing his coat “Shy said Sunset's bike was still in the garage, and it was only a couple hours ago I saw her. She couldn't have gotten too far.”

“Rupert-” she called as he made his way toward the garage.

“Stay here in case she comes back.” he turned back with a glance, though double took at the doctor’s expression.

“She’s just scared, Rupert. She’s not-”

“I know” he cut her off, giving her a determined look of his own “Don’t worry, we’ll find her.”

The moon hung high in the sky, bathing the quiet courtyard in a brilliant silver light. The lamp posts dotted around the area were hardly needed on a night like tonight. Sitting upon the cool cement, a young woman leaned against the stone base of the statue in the center of the space.

“This was stupid…” she whispered to herself. The odds of the portal being open were slim at best, and that was assuming it was even still working after that surge that hit it when she jumped through. It simply hadn’t been long enough, she knew that. And yet, despite not having much of a direction to begin with, she somehow found her way back to it anyway.

She sighed as she stared at the moon. She could see the ‘face’, though honestly never really thought much of it. Sure it was kind of there, but it didn’t hold a candle to the mare in the moon. Even half full on a cloudy night, she could still be seen clearly as… Well, not day, but nopony could miss her.

A shadow fell across her vision before someone landed next to her with a soft grunt. Her head snapped right to a pair of intense blue eyes beneath locks of gold.

“Hey kiddo.”

The redhead tried to scrabble to her feet only to have a hand grip her jacket and tug her back down. The blonde glared at her incredulously.

“Seriously?!” Aya snapped, letting out a huff at the girl's sheepish wince. She pinched the bridge of her nose “Look, if you really want to, we can do the whole chasing thing later. But for now, just… listen for a bit, alright?”

Sunset didn’t say anything but let the tension ebb from her, gradually relaxing against the stone. The veteran hunter looked her up and down before starting in a soft tone.

“Look, you had a hell of a close call last night. I don’t blame you for freaking out a little. But running away isn’t the answer, Sunny.” she told the troubled redhead “Honestly, it’s kind of amazing it took this long for everything to catch up to you. With all you’ve been against, with the couple of other close calls you had, you should have realized your mortality a while back.”

“I just… I couldn’t… she almost…” Sunset curled into herself, hiding her head behind her knees as her voice began to crack “Zap almost died. I almost let her… I didn’t…”

Aya blinked, the girl next to her petering off as she realized the real problem.

“Huh,” she scoffed lightly, followed by a small chuckle as a small smile came to her “I don’t know whether to be concerned or impressed now...”

Curiosity finally won out, dragging the cyan eyed girl's head out of its protective depths. Her watery gaze found the blonde looking at her with a new found respect.

“You don’t care that you almost died. This is all about almost losing Zap, isn't it?”

“Well, I mean… I was scared for me too…” she began.

“Yeah, but you’ve been scared for you before,” Aya countered “The last time you really freaked out was when you almost shot Lily. Blush also said you were left pretty shaken by her just thanking you...”

The awakened reasoned before regarding her with a sad expression and it all fell into place.

“You’re afraid you’re going to get someone killed. That you’re going to have to watch someone die and won’t be able to stop it.”

The redhead’s face twisted in shame before retreating back into her lap. She could hear the blonde sigh, letting a few moments of silence pass before speaking again. In a surprisingly casual tone as well.

“There was this guy, back when I was still a cop, Chet. Real pretty boy type, and rich to boot.” she relayed. The girl’s cyan eyes emerged again, befuddled to say the least “There’s a point, I promise.”

“Anyway, we met at a ball the chief threw to try and woo some donations out of some of the city’s elite. Now, despite being a spoiled rich kid, Chet was actually a pretty decent guy. Not my type but a better person than most would expect from the cliché. It turned out that *I*, however, was his type” she told, a reminiscent smile on her lips “And boy was he persistent. I can’t tell you how many times I turned him down. Even with the subtle suggestion from my chief that humoring the guy couldn’t hurt in buttering up his parents, I really wasn’t interested. Eventually though, I caved. If nothing else just to get him to finally give it a break for a while.”

A ghost of a smile tugged at the redhead’s lips, but she still had no idea where the veteran was heading with this.

“He went all out too. Fancy diner, a limo and even tickets to a sold out show…” Aya’s smile fell and her brilliant blue eyes grew distant.

“On Christmas Eve at Carnegie Hall…”

Sunset’s eyes grew wide as realization flooded through her.

“I watched as EVE emerged and an entire theater of people burst into flames,” Aya delivered evenly before turning her attention back to the young woman next to her “And there was absolutely nothing that I was able to do about it.”

“People are going to die, Sunny. Worse, there are going to be times that’ll be your fault.” Aya told her bluntly “And even worse than that, there are going to be a lot more times where it won’t be your fault at all, when you do everything right and people will still die. That’s something normal emergency responders have to deal with and we fight monsters for a living, Sunset. You can’t tell me you didn’t at least consider that. I know you’re too smart for that kind of ignorance.”

“...I did. But I tried to ignore it. To convince myself I was too talented to let it happen.” Sunset admitted with a croak. The quiet stretched on after the confession, lasting longer than it probably should have. Aya just waited patiently though, watching her contemplate “I don’t think I can do it. I mean, how does anyone cope with something like this?”

“Different ways, with varying effectiveness.” Aya answered after a moment “AJ drinks, as you’ve witnessed… So does Rupert. I wouldn’t suggest it, but it’s how they manage for now. Rarity has her little side business to keep her busy. Dash distracts herself any way she can, not letting herself dwell on things. Twilight, I believe can truly see the light at the end of the tunnel, giving her something to make it all worth it. And Fluttershy, she just… does. I’d never met anyone that strong…”

“And you?” Sunset asked in little more than a whisper. Aya sighed again, looking out over the courtyard.

“Frankly, I don’t know sometimes,” she admitted “I really fear I’ve simply grown jaded to it all… that I’ve lost just that much more of my humanity…”

The blonde's gaze dropped, a list of regrets that Sunset’s could only pale in comparison to flashed across her face, just for an instant. However, she raised her head back up a moment later and took a deep breath. Sunset could literally see as the resolve within her reignited.

“But in the end, it all comes down to the question of what happens to those we are able to help if we’re not there.”

“You don’t need me” Sunset argued “I can’t save anyone…”

“You saved Zap.” Aya stated simply. The redhead opened her mouth but the blonde didn’t allow it “No. It doesn’t matter if any of the rest of us could have too. It doesn’t matter if she wouldn’t have been hurt if that were the case either. ‘IF’ doesn’t matter because it’s not what happens. You keeping her alive did happen. Zap’s only alive because of you. And yeah, that kind of thing is fucking Terrifying to know. Believe me, I get it.”

She finished, slightly short of breath as she continued looking at the teen.

“Running isn’t the answer, Shimmer. You can’t deal with this stuff on your own… none of us can.” she sat back against the statue's base, the look of shame on her own face startling the former pony “I can’t tell you how happy I was when I f- …when Eve awoke. How happy I was when Twilight showed up at our doorstep. As messed up as it is, part of me was even happy when the first stable infection happened.”

Aya’s gaze turned upward, letting Sunset see her own eyes were now shimmering, no longer so intense.

“It… is So Damn Hard to live with shit when you’re the only one.” She took another breath. Blinking rapidly, the veteran hunter rolled her shoulders and regathered herself before standing. Looking down at the young woman, she gave in conclusion “You’ve made friends at MIST Sunset, and some damn good ones at that. You don’t want to leave all that behind… I know I wouldn’t be strong enough to.”

Without another word, the older woman began walking away.

“We’re not doing the chasing thing?” the girl called after her.

“My feet hurt.” she said without looking back “Besides, this’ll all catch up with you in the end. It's just a matter of how you want it to.”

She watched the hunter walk away, until she rounded the corner to the parking lot and out of sight. She slowly rolled back against the statue's base, eyes finding their way back up to the moon…

“You found her” Rupert commented from the office's door, to the woman cleaning her gun at her desk. “Your text said you found her.”

“I did find her.” she answered simply.

“And yet she’s not here” he pointed out “You even called everyone off the search.”

“They don’t need to search anymore.” she returned “Because I found her.”

“You didn’t bring her back.”

“What did you want me to do Rupert? Cuff her and drag her back here kicking and screaming?”

“Better than leaving her in the wind.” He growled “If she turns-”

“She’s not going to turn. She stole the suppressants for just that reason.” she explained nonchalantly.

“If they work, and only until she runs out.” he countered “She’s-”

“A good kid” Aya swiftly interrupted “Emphasis on kid. I know a lot of us look like we’re only 20 but she actually is. But she’s also technically an adult too. One with a lot of growing up to do still sure, but legally it’s a damn wasp’s nest on whether we could actually force her to stay; awakened or not. This isn’t a choice we can make for her. She has to come back on her own.”

“And how can you be so certain she will?” he asked skeptically. The veteran hunter opened her mouth to respond but abruptly hesitated. Her eyes flicked, slightly distant for a moment before a grin broke out across her face.

“Because she’s a good kid” she repeated smugly “and because she already has.”

Before he could say another word, he heard Twilight stomp past down the hall. Taking a step back, he could see the red and gold haired young woman standing sheepishly at the entrance. She shrunk back abashedly from the approaching scientist, who held her hand out expectantly as she stopped in front of her. A moment later the young hunter caught on and dug the case of suppressants from one of her bags. Twilight snatched the box away and kept her irritated glare on the girl before her.

It only remained a few seconds longer however, Twilight's face growing much softer as she then looked to the girl with sympathy. Rupert saw her ask something he couldn’t make out, to which Shimmer shook her head. Stepping back, the doctor then gestured to her to follow. The redhead jumped as she spotted the director looking on, though only hesitated a moment before dejectedly continuing to follow.

“I swear you’re fired if you say it” he warned the blonde with an unamused glower.

“Say what?” she returned innocently. He gave a small harrumph before leaving to meet the pair.

Sunset glanced into the office for the brief moment they passed. Aya simply gave a knowing smile before returning to her maintenance.

‘Welcome to the family kid.’