Sidestory:
Cut and Wrap
by Emiko and Tami
Perdix had not returned to Sophie's house all summer. He hadn't gone anywhere. He couldn't. He knew the moment a senshi spotted him he was dead. The knowledge bore down on his wing joints like a heavy-handed cook with a knife at the ready, pinning him to the moldy floor of the abandoned American Chemical building.
Something else bothered him, too. Perdix's gaze swept to the window. He had a good view of the hospital across the street, and while he could not see into any of the tinted windows, he knew that somewhere in those depths Theodore Parfett, the Astronomia senshi he had helped put into a coma, still slept.
Similarly, lying some ten feet to Perdix's left, Bjerlo lay asleep. Apparently the alien's biological systems were ill-equipped for the summer heat wave, forcing Bjerlo into a state of semi-hibernation. Bjerlo had said not to worry about it. Soon it would be cold again, and then Bjerlo would rise from his slumber and resume his destruction of the Light Universe Senshi. Luckily, Bjerlo's definition of "Light Universe Senshi" excluded Perdix, mostly because the two needed each other. Bjerlo would surely have died of food poisoning or exposure to the elements had it not been for Perdix's presence and Perdix would have died of sheer misery without a friend to listen to him.
And then there was that Astronomia… Perdix wondered if the boy had anyone watching over him right now the way he watched over Bjerlo. He knew vaguely of the circumstances surrounding the boy's condition from watching news reports on the miniature television he and Bjerlo had stolen from Radio Shack. The boy's family had flown in from England, but the trip to England was thought to be too arduous to fly the boy back, so his parents remained in the United States, waiting for their son to wake up.
Soon, the Parfetts might fly back anyway. Tibby's condition was fairly stabile, after all, and while a transatlantic flight would be of little benefit, it might not cause much harm. It was simply a matter of calculated risks.
Perdix knew he couldn't sit around in the American Chemical building forever, and he certainly couldn't wait for the Parfetts to announce their intention to return to England. He had to see for himself. Even if there was nothing he could do or say, he had to leave. Perdix checked Bjerlo briefly before half-jumping, half-flapping to the windowsill. His claws chipped a piece of the building's pepto bismol pink exterior off as he gave a little leap to the ground. It was around three in the afternoon, so traffic was comparatively low. Perdix headed for the nearby bridge so he could pass safely under the street without risking his feathers. He hated cars for their noise and the danger they represented. Being hit by a car was the last thing Perdix needed right now.
Once he was out from under the bridge, crossing the hospital parking lot was a simple matter. Perdix crouched under some bushes near the entrance while he considered his options. He still needed a way to get into the hospital. A little girl about seven and her father walked by, and suddenly Perdix got an idea. He rushed out from the bushes and made a loud cooing noise. Sure enough, the little girl turned. "Daddy, look at that bird," she said plainly, pointing at Perdix, who was dragging his right wing on the ground. "I think it's hurt."
"Coo," agreed Perdix, limping around in a circle.
"Best leave it alone, Gracie. It's a wild animal."
Wild animal? He, Perdix, a wild animal? "Cooo!"
"But Daddy, it's hurt. If they can fix mommy, they can fix the birdie, right?"
Struck by his daughter's simple logic, the father stopped. "Wait here a moment, Gracie," he said, releasing her hand and approaching Perdix slowly. Perdix made no move to flee-in fact, he hopped once towards the man. The man still seemed uncertain, very cautiously stretching out a hand towards Perdix. He kept inching forward until his fingers were brushing against Perdix's feathers. Perdix merely cooed again, giving what sounded like a completely miserable, defeated sigh. The man moved the scoop Perdix up.
Just like that, Perdix found himself hefted five or six feet off the ground, cradled against the man's shirt. "I'll be darned," the man said, "he seems near domesticated."
"The doctors can help the birdie!" agreed Gracie, reaching out to pat Perdix on the head.
"The doctors here are for people, Gracie," he started, but saw his daughters face drop, "but I'm sure they can do something. Let's take him inside and find out, then we'll go visit mommy, okay?"
"Okay, Daddy!"
The three headed inside to the nurses kiosk near the entrance. A nice young lady with dirty blonde hair pulled back into a neat a stylish twist looked up at them and smiled. "Can I help you?"
"We found this bird outside. I think its wing is broken. Is there someone here who can help?" The man inclined his head ever so slightly at his daughter. Thankfully, the nurse picked up the cue and turned to a doctor standing behind her reading charts.
"Doctor Roberts? You're good with animals, aren't you?"
"Eh?" replied the doctor, looking up.
"This man and his daughter have brought in a bird," supplied the nurse, pointing helpfully.
"He was just wandering around outside," explained the man.
"Well, ah…"
"You're shift just ended, didn't it?" the nurse added.
Dr. Roberts looked from the nurse to the man and finally to little Gracie. Quickly, he said, "Of course I'll be glad to help! Here, why don't you just follow me and we'll find a place to put the, uh, bird down, mmkay?" The latter part was directed more at Gracie, who smiled and nodded eagerly.
Now led by Dr. Roberts, they proceeded to the elevator and rode to the third floor. Here things were quieter than downstairs by the entrance. Dr. Roberts unlocked his office door and ushered the group in. "Just put it on my desk." The man did so.
"Okay now, Gracie, let's go visit mommy, okay?"
"Bye bye liddle birdie!" agreed Gracie, waving her impish little fingers at Perdix before skipping into the hall. The father took one final, sympathetic look at Dr. Roberts.
"Thank you, doctor. Sorry to trouble you."
"No, ah, it's okay." The door clicked shut.
Roberts considered the bird. The bird considered Roberts. The doctor seemed young, a bit shy of thirty, probably a recent graduate of medical school. One of the many diplomas on the wall was from Roanoke College, known for its pre-Med program. Apparently the young doctor was an obstetrician. On the desk next to Perdix sat a computer, and a spare white coat hung on hook behind the door. Roberts ran his hand through his hair. "What am I going to do with you?" he wondered aloud to the empty air. Perdix resisted the temptation to answer him. "I guess I've got to take you to the vet. I'll go get a box, then." Roberts slipped out the door.
When Roberts returned, Perdix was ready. He slipped out unnoticed as the doctor entered. As he scurried down the hall, careful to keep out of sight behind empty stretchers and temporarily discarded carts, he could hear the doctor's confused calls echoing after him. "Birdie? Where are you, birdie?"
That left only one obstacle to Perdix's quest: to find the hospital room.
He wasn't certain how long he was wandering through the hallways, but eventually he saw something that made him stop. Jace. It was then that he knew, truly knew, the extent of the injustice he had done her. He almost turned around right there, ready to run back across the street to the comatose Bjerlo and forget he had even come to this place.
He couldn't. He had done this to Jace, and to Horologium - no, Tibby, he corrected himself - and he had come here for a reason.
It was just so hard.
Nervously, eh shuffled forward. Jace was too intent on the window she stood before to notice him. Perdix wondered what she was watching, and decided it was probably a nurse or doctor or other visitor checking up on the patient.
The closer he came, the harder it was to move forward, until each step was a living agony and there was nothing nearby to hide behind. He steeled himself, flinched, and let out a noise stuck between a cough and a high-pitched choking noise.
The girl who turned around to look at him was almost a pale shadow of Jace. Her red hair, usually cropped close to her head, was getting shaggier and shaggier; her eyes were hollows in her head. She seemed thinner and leaner and almost softer, less dangerous, more miserable.
"Perdix?" Her voice was a rasp, surprised. "That you, birdbrain?"
Just like that, the pressure on his shoulders decreased a bit. He was able to take a few more steps forward. "It me," he confirmed.
Her mouth hardened. "What're you doing here, huh?" she asked, voice deceptively light. "Your Dark Universe pal going to attack the hospital? M'I set to die again?"
"N-no!" he stammered out, barely able to keep his head up. "I-I came to- I came to apologize," he managed at last.
"Apologize." She looked ahead again, blankly staring into space. "For?"
His head snapped up. "What do you mean? I-- How can you even say that? After-- after everything, how can you say . . . How can you ask me that question? I came here!" Despite the outburst, he seemed to be at a total loss for words.
"This wasn't your fault." She pressed her hand against the glass, an odd look on her face. "This... It was his fault, for being a stupid noble piece of shit and... it was my fault, for letting him do it in the first place." She let out a breath. "Not yours. Though... let me at Demantoid and the Graikos and they're dead."
Perdix could not believe what he was hearing. Was this truly Jace? "Stop it! I don't know why you're doing this, but can't you just be mad at me? Please?" Desperation had done more than creep into his voice, it had completely obliviated the sense of any other emotion.
"I tried." Her voice was soft and, surprisingly and somewhat disconcertingly, she turned around and smiled. "I can't. Not you and not Jack. Y'know, bird, you -told- me not to go that day."
Perdix's beak dropped open. If he were still a human, his eyes would have been glistening with tears, but as a bird, he could only pretend to have such an expression. His mouth slowly closed. A cold stillness had descended on the hall. When Perdix spoke again, his voice was cracking. "Oh, Jace, it was so hard. You have no idea how hard." Now it seemed every inch between them was an agony, and Perdix rushed forward to close the gap, leaping onto her wheelchair and collapsing, a pile of feathers and beak in her lap.
Finally, Jace's expression softened, and she looked down at Perdix with pity. She straightened him up in her lap, opening up her jacket so that he could be slightly more comfortable, next to the swollen lump of her stomach.
"Sophie fucked you up bad," she muttered, remaining anger melting entirely. "So bad. She shouldn't have let you get this way. Fuckin' hell."
"No, it wasn't her, it was all me, it's always been me. I'm such a terrible person, you have no idea the things I've done. And now I've done this. I betrayed all of you. I betrayed you. I'm terrible, and I don't deserve to live, and I don't deserve to re-live. I don't understand why the gods chose me, or what I'm doing here, or anything else, though I pretended I did, but I didn't! It was all a lie!" He was on the verge of babbling incoherently now.
"Honey, if you don't calm down now and start breathing, I'm going to forcefeed you a tranq, or possibly kill you." Jace looked up and down the corridor; no nurses, except the ones treating Tibby, who were not paying the slightest bit of attention to her. "Okay, Perds. You've done some bad shit. So've I. None of the other guardians were anything but confused, either, and Percy is a little bastard whose neck I'm going to wring, but I don't think you're that retarded a person considering. What've you done?"
"I killed her," he murmured into her jacket.
Her blood ran cold. This was the wrong type of confession. "Who'd you kill?"
"My mother, Perdix."
Jace resisted the urge to massage her temples. She felt a headache coming on. "... Are you calling me Perdix, or was Perdix your mother?"
"She… She was my mother. My name is Talos." As he said it, the implications of her words drove a dagger into his gut.
The redhead's brow furrowed. "... Talos. Um, nice name but..." Geez, what to say? 'I'm sorry you killed your mom'? "How did this happen?"
"It was…" he began, then stopped and tried again. "She did…" His second attempt met with no more success than the first. He gave a hiccup. "He threw me, and she killed herself from the grief." There. It was said, only it made little sense in and of itself.
She hesitantly moved her hand out to touch the matted feathers on his back. She was pretty sure that Perdix was the least likely bird to give her rabies. "... Y'know, kid, if someone kills themselves because they loved you... and you could do nothing about it... it's not your fault. You didn't kill them." Jace cleared her throat. "... Why don't you tell me this from the beginning, bird. Who's he? Are you talking about... a hojillion years ago or whatever?"
He snorted, almost laughing. "Yes, it was a hojillion years ago," he echoed, and sat up. "My mother and I lived in a house. We were Athenian nobles, descended from the gods, though a few generations removed. There were olive trees, scenting the breezes, and the ocean. My father I never knew, he was gone soldiering, and gone. I never met him. My mother cared for me. Our house was an extension of the royalty and we had no worries about it. A few servants, though never enough to be obtrusive. Perdix wanted me to study under her brother. I was always very bright, and very good with my hands." The implication of that seemed to momentarily shock him to silence.
Somewhere in Greece, with olive trees and the sea... his word-picture was wistful, and she lightly smoothed out the feathers on his wing, hardly wanting to speak and interrupt. "... And she sent you away to him?"
"Just down the street," clarified Perdix - no, Talos. "He had a workshop, and I was his assistant. For a time. But it became clear I was better than him, brighter. I didn't realize it at the time, thought my clever solutions to problems would bring me his praise and admiration. Bah! Such naïveté. It brought me only his scorn and jealousy. And when other people started to realize I was brighter than he was, he could barely contain his fury. I still don't know why he came to the house that day, but it was then… it was then…" His voice struggled. "He saw me for what I was, and he dragged me away from her, and she followed us all the way to the top of the temple. I can still picture it like it was yesterday. The winds on the Acropolis, and her screaming, dress flowing out. I thought she looked more beautiful than the goddess Aphrodite in that moment, hair loose. She had bothered to pull on such a simple white toga, but it suited her so well. She was behind us because of that, though. It had taken time to dress. She wasn't the type to be seen naked in the streets, not that I had that luxury. It was so biting cold up there. And even if she had been closer to us, what good would it have done her? To be dragged along behind. He was far stronger than both of us combined. And I remember… she was reaching out to me, reaching out over the edge with her hair flying loose, but her fingers were too far away, and they kept getting farther…" The words flew out like a river unleashed. Talos's eyes were glazed and he stared off into the imaginary distance, remembering.
Her blood was completely chilled by now, colder than ice cream in her veins. "... He threw you off? For no reason? Just because you were better than him? In front of your goddamn -mother-?"
Talos's voice went cold, as cold as she felt inside. "And because I'm too terrible. Because of the way he found us when he came to the house."
Her mind was in the gutter when realization came, but it couldn't possibly be what she thought. It was -too- sick. "... Why were you naked?"
Once again, the desire for the ability to express as a human was overwhelming. "Oh, read between the lines," he snapped, then rescinded, "Sorry, I shouldn't have… It's just, I never told anyone. I didn't want you all to hate me even more."
"Okay, let me get this straight." Jace expelled a breath. "When you were younger, your mom sent you off to her brother to learn under him. He got jealous because you were cleverer than he was, and then he caught you two fuc - doing something, and he kicked you off - a building?"
"You hate me," gasped Talos. "I was young, she told me-- No, there aren't any excuses." He was staring at some invisible point on the wall again.
"No, I don't hate you." She regretted her coarseness immediately. "I just - how - " How could a mother do that to her baby, how could an uncle do that to his sister and his nephew, but the questions were too big and painful and bleeding. "... God, Per... Talos. That's... it's horrible. It's shit."
He crumpled. "I hate me," he admitted. "If I had only never been born."
"How was any of that your fault?" Jace demanded viciously. "Your mother was a sicko, your uncle was a crazy murdering fuck, you were killed!"
"My mother," he said, nearly shouting and thankfully just below the threshold required to spill his voice into Tibby's hospital room, "loved me! She loved me. She was the only one." He settled back into his daze.
Loved him. Loved him so much that... that she could do that to him. And he'd said he'd been young. How young? What kind of mother manipulated her child into -sex-? With difficulty, she raised her hands, shaking her head. "... I bet she loved you. You sound like you loved her."
"I took her name in honor. Partridges are named after he, you know. Perdix perdix. But she probably wouldn't love me any more, now that I've betrayed the Graikos as well. You said yourself you want to kill Bjerlo. That's just misplaced from me. At least Bjerlo has an excuse."
"Bjerlo's a fucker," she said bluntly. "He couldn't find his ass with both hands. You had nothing to do with whatever he did to, to Sarin. The Graikos are the most useless, stand-by-and-watch bunch of bastards I've ever seen in my life, and I don't blame you for picking -any- side other than them."
"Bjerlo's just like me."
"I'd have a little more faith in you if you had a body and tried to attack a school. At least you might succeed."
"Okay, maybe he's not as smart, but you get used to putting up with idiots, and he's a far cry from that extreme. I meant he's like me in other ways. He's… alone. His supposed friends kicked him out. Now how does that sound familiar?" Perdix sounded like he was attempting to be wry.
"... I'm sorry, Perdix. Talos. Bird." Jace finally let her head dip forward, crimson spikes brushing against her forehead. "Sophie never should've done what she did. It was damn fool stupid of her."
"No, it was my fault." That self-blame thing again. "Do you mind if I stay here for a bit? Bjerlo's asleep, he's got a heat coma or something like that."
"Feel free, Tals. It's just you, me, her and him, and we don't expect any visitors today." Her voice was gently amused. "And, believe me, I wish you hadn't gone. We're all stuck with fuckin' Percy, and lord am I glad to be throwing my towel in."
"Hmm, he's annoying," agreed Talos, snuggling down. It was good to know he had a new nickname so quickly. "Have you put on weight?"
The redhead started laughing. "Oh. Gee. Thank you -so- much. You're never going to get a girl with that kind of tact."
"Hey, I'm serious. I though you looked thin, but…" he trailed off, beak going slack. "Oh." Never had a word been infused with such conflicting emotions. It sounded surprised, lost, horribly confused, and understanding all at once.
"Yeah." There was a note of pride in her voice, the pain masked and gone as she grinned down at him. "I'm going to have a baby. Knocked up six ways from Sunday."
The questions exploded all at once. "What? When? Who?? And why? Wow," he concluded.
She ticked off on her fingers. "A baby. They grow inside you and are hideously ugly. Um, about five months from now, I'm only just four months breeding. That British guy in there. Unprotected sex tends to give you these delightful surprises, and because Jack and I talked it over and I'm not going to get an abortion."
Perdix blanched and whatever small piece of paradise he had managed to secure came crashing down. "It's his?" He felt, if it was at all possible, even more horrible.
"No, you moron, it's Tibby's." Jace looked through the window again. "I do believe you were present on the night of conception."
"Er," Talos answered, shutting up. He could bother with this topic at another junction, when he wasn't feeling so damned crappy.
"Ah, good. I do believe they've finished prodding my brunette with needles." Jace balanced the bird on her lap carefully, waiting for the doctors to file out and nod at her - her jacket concealing her illegal feathered friend - before she started moving into the room. "D'you mind just sitting with me and him?"
"No, I'd love to." And apologize to Tibby, while he was at it.
"Then we'll do just that." She wheeled herself slowly, conscious of Talos. "He's great company, being comatose. He doesn't even spout off witty Britishisms when I call him a fuckwit."
Talos choked, sputtered, and decided discretion really was the better part of valor. "Erm," he said, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
The redhead smiled to herself, entering the familiar arena of hospital bed and beeping monitors and the body of Theo, Per - Talos in tow. He didn't understand her feelings and words on the matter, and it wasn't the time to unload on the poor sap. The poor, fucked-up, human-bird-boy sap, and Christ if Sophie had only -known-...
... she suspected that even if Sophie had known her actions would have been no different. Jace grimaced. Life was a bitch.