Cybil (2018) #projectsuper

Chapter 56: Heart Of A King

The next plane ride that Cybil took was an ordeal. Not that anything leading up to it had been particularly difficult, whether it involved ensuring his brother's safety or planning out the details of their next move. That part had been relatively simple compared to... The flight.

It hadn't been an easy one, to say the least. The thing that made it hard was that question that had lingered when she and her father had talked via communicator.

What would happen if she were ordered to kill him? Fuller had recently demonstrated that if he wanted to, he could easily have her slaughter anyone around her without a second thought.

Part of her wanted to ask her father. Of course, she had already heard his answer, loud and clear. Loud enough not to even require a voice.

What could she do? Sleep wasn't an option anymore, as a shadowy figure awaited her in her dreams, taunting her with talk of a "mission" they had to complete.

Elena was out cold, and for once, James was, as well. Thankfully, the chopper was on autopilot, as usual.

She had to talk to someone. She just had to. She decided to wake up Ty.

"Ty. Ty!" She hissed at the form sleeping on the floor. He was curled up, just as he'd been at the park. Apparently, he liked it like that.

His helmet flashed with the smallest pulses of pink energy as he awoke.

"What?" the boy rubbed his eyes before glaring at her, cranky.

"Are you okay?" Cybil asked, not really sure what to say to him. This was really the first time they had spoken directly to each other in any sort of real way.

He gave her a silencing glare. Obviously, it ran in the family. "No. I'm not. I'll never be 'okay', ever!"

"Can I uh... help in any way?" Cybil asked innocently.

He shook his head.

"I'm your big sister. I want to help you."

"You can't do anything. I'm dead in a month..." he felt the latest drop of himself come off on his hands. "...if I even get that long. Besides, you're younger than me."

"How did you know that?"

The boy sighed like an old man on his deathbed. Cybil actually had to work to hold back tears. "When I told you 'a king never forgets', I wasn't kidding. This stupid crown processes information from the surrounding environment and forces it into me. Whether I want it or not. And it stays."

Ty had impressive diction for... was he supposed to be seven or eight years old?

"So... you're like a living supercomputer?" Cybil asked carefully, not realizing how her words actually sounded, regardless.

His response was clipped and harsh. "You said it, not me. Doesn't matter anyway. I'm gonna--"

She was quickly and quietly over to his side before he could finish his thought. "No. You are NOT going to die, Mister."

He closed his eyes and shook his head.

She decided to change the subject. "You know, you're really smart..."

He looked at her. "Is that really a good thing for me?"

She shrugged. "Is it?"

He mumbled something unintelligible before continuing.

"I don't even get to hang out with kids 'my age'. They bore me against my own will! Mama doesn't even know what to do with me about school. I'm too smart for grade school and not smart enough to... do anything else!"

"What do you mean...?"

"That's just it. I don't know! I... I... You don't understand what it's like to know everything and nothing at the same time!"

That made the girl's head spin.

"I feel like a bag with a hole in it and people keep stuffing more and more things in..." Ty was sobbing by this point.

"I would love to just turn this off for one day and be an actual kid instead of this... This... Melting popsicle with superpowers."

She would have to keep his request in mind.

"I love you, Ty." She was unsure why exactly she said this here. Maybe it was because he simply needed to know that there was one place where he would be accepted.

He didn’t respond to the words.

"Do you think that we could be friends?"

"Okay," he agreed, tuckered out from bearing his soul to her. How many people had he gone into this sort of detail with about himself?

Come to think of it...

She stifled a yawn, her eyes getting heavier by the moment. She found herself feeling... Satisfied? Content was probably the better word. At least there was some sort of glimmer of light amidst this dire situation. Maybe she might even get away with some sleep without those unsettling dreams...