to go anywhere, Walker." I took in her bloody clothes and tight-lipped grimace and knew she was right.
"I have clothes. Would you like to change into something less...bloody?" I asked, still unable to comprehend that Jules had killed someone. She'd managed to defend herself.
"I'd prefer to wait until her fever is down," Jules replied. It was odd seeing her so vulnerable and frazzled. She'd always seemed unaffected before. Mia had become someone that meant a lot to her over the last five months.
"You might be waiting a while. Where is Tallis?" I asked. Last I'd seen them, they were in the beginning stages of a relationship.
"He's in the Walker Zone." Jules' voice had a dreamy quality to it that made me think that they were still together.
"Why is he there?"
Jules turned her attention towards me before answering, "He's joining the Resistance. We're going to fight Cavil."
Absorbing her words, I finished smashing the Kava plant into the paste and made my way back over to Mia. I felt Jules' eyes on me as I lifted Mia's dressings to look at the stitches covering her torso. Using my gloved hand, I slathered it over her. Mia bucked when my hand touched her, and she moaned at the contact, her teeth gritted in pain.
"I thought that was for pain management," Jules said, crossing her thin arms over her chest and eyeing me with scrutiny. "It doesn't seem to be helping with any of her pain."
"If ingested, it can relieve pain, but when applied topically it prevents infection. It'll sting, but it's keeping it clean." Mia let out a moan, and I went to check her temperature once more, worried that an infection would set in.
"So why are you here?" I finally asked, working up the courage to know how Cyler, Jacob, and Maverick were. Did I want to know? Many nights I spent wondering if they'd moved on. If they were happier without me. It seemed silly now. Everyone's lives were at stake, and I was worried about unrequited love.
"I'm here because, even from across the empire, you're proving to be a gigantic pain in my ass."
The tent was dark despite the morning sun peeking through the entrance. But it wasn't dark enough to hide her angry brown-eyed stare directed right at me. "How are you even alive?" I asked, not taking the bait for her argument. I knew that she wanted a fight, but I wasn't going to give it to her. Jules was so stubborn, her heart seeking each and every opportunity to argue in order to avoid the pain it was feeling with each beat.
"I guess I have you to thank for that." In the corner of the tent was a bucket of deadlands water and a small mirror propped up on a shelf. She made her way over to it and began washing her face, wincing when the acidic water touched a cut on her lip. "I was about a breath away from death. In fact, I did die. For two minutes to be exact. When you crossed the boundary, it activated my fetter, and the electric shock activated the rejection cure."
Jules turned around and began rolling up her stained sleeves, showing me her arm. There, where her fetter once was, was a purple scar wrapped around her bony wrist. How was that even possible? "Did you know that when a host dies, the fetter is programmed to detach itself?" She then nodded at my wrist where the reminder of my time at Ethros still sat proudly. "That fetter of yours has probably had dozens of owners before you."
"How...economical," I said with a shiver. It bothered me to think of how nonchalant she was about it all.
"So I guess since you fled to this little vacation of yours, nearly killing me, I should thank you. Your selfish little stunt saved my life. I escaped Ethros in a coffin. My brothers asked Cavil to bury me in Dormas. Maverick gave me some medicine that put me in a deep sleep, then I woke up in the Zone to Tallis and Mia."
There was so much in that statement that had me stuttering, but I clung to one part. "Selfish? I had no choice. You have no idea what happened to me," I growled while stomping towards her. "I woke up in the very same bed Mia is in. It wasn't until I was in the transport that I realized what was happening. I would have stayed, Jules."
"You had to have known,