Cybil (2018) #projectsuper

Chapter 14: In the Mountains

Theme Music: "Snow Base" (Mega Man X4)

Present Day...

Cybil hadn't moved as James weaved his tale. In fact, if one were to judge her by the dead silence and physical stillness with which she carried herself, it would've been hard not to confuse her with a clothing store mannequin.

"Well?" James realized after about five minutes of this silence that he was waiting for an answer he would probably not be getting anytime soon. She still wasn't ready to speak of her own choice yet, he figured.

Not seeing any more reason to keep her, he dismissed her.

A Month Later...

A later mission found her in the cold of a tucked away mountainous region.

*Your status, Cybil?*

This time, none other than Fuller was functioning as mission control, as James had fallen sick.

"Confirmed transport to entrance point. Review mission objectives."

*Did you take care to bundle up? It's more than a little bit nippy out there... *

Cybil still wasn't very fond of Fuller, and his attempt to play "loving father" (and in her mind, replace James) wasn't sitting well with her, to say the least.

"Review mission objectives," she repeated, this time with some bite to her voice. That was becoming more and more common as of late...

Fuller merely chuckled. *You know, Cybil, I don't know why you're so hostile towards me. You've got nothing to fear from me. I'm not going to replace your father."

The girl didn't say a word.

Fuller sighed and relayed the mission objective, which in this case was to retrieve a certain type of crystal found only on this mountain. Equipped with a pickaxe along with more basic climbing tools just in case, she would need to go into the depths of one of the caverns here and dig one of them up before bringing it back out into the open to be transported back with her.

Sounded easy. At least, that's probably what it would have been about five months ago.

Back when she could convince herself that she didn't feel anything...

She managed to hike up to one of the caves with little issue, save for the searing winds cutting through her coat like scissors through paper and chilling her to the bone.

Picking away, she managed finally to catch a glimpse of the particular gemstone she needed. Its blue, glistening radiance was utterly mesmerizing in the midst of the seemingly endless blizzard around it.

Maybe it was the cold, but she blushed even as she got ready to finally chisel it away. Pulling it out, she began to walk out.

Unfortunately, she wasn't alone.