"So… You killed him?" Vida muttered as she and Hendrix sat in his room.
She looked at him, equal parts her brow furrowed as she tried to hold back her shock.
Both of the teens sat on Hendrix's bed, side by side. They both faced the window as Hendrix responded.
"Yeah…" Hendrix looked down at his feet, scratching his black hair. "It was all in the moment, but…"
Hendrix's words stopped in his throat.
"I would do it all over again if I had to." Hendrix thought.
They both went silent.
"He's always been an emotional rollercoaster, but maybe the Doctor was being serious." Vida thought.
After a few more moments of quiet contemplation, Vida opened her mouth.
"I guess Chase was right," Vida thought back to what Hendrix had told her about the mission. "That Deputy probably would've done the same to you, or worse. I don't blame you, not one bit."
Vida turned towards the boy and let out a little smile.
Hendrix didn't say a word. He kept his eyes trained at the floor, bringing one boot up and onto his mattress so he could rest his arm on his knee.
Vida examined his black hair. "We should dye it again. You always hated when your roots grew out."
Hendrix was too deep in thought to hear his friend. He dragged his hand down his face, stopping at his mouth.
"I feel like I know myself less and less." Hendrix thought. "Can I… Be trusted…?"
Vida examined her friend's face.
"I never know what you're thinking, Hendrix." Vida thought, before deciding to take a shot in the dark.
"Hey, we all know you'd never hurt any of us." Vida said, her comforting eyes focused on Hendrix. "You don't need to worry about me, or anyone."
Hendrix heard her that time. He looked up at Vida, then smiled. "Thanks."
Vida nodded, shooting up from her seat on her friend's mattress. "Alright, well I'm gonna go check on Amora, I think she's gotten anxious since Chase got back."
Vida walked towards the door, opening it before she stopped.
"I'll always worry about you, though." Hendrix muttered, failing to notice he had even spoken it aloud.
Vida stopped in the doorway, smiling to herself.
"Oh!" Vida spun back around. "I made you some grilled cheese, your favorite!"
"Oh, is that what those tupperwares were for?" Hendrix smiled.
"Just the red one." Vida wagged her finger. "Don't eat the blue one."
"Alright." Hendrix chuckled as Vida smiled as she started to close the door-
A blood curdling scream echoed through the hallway.
Thud. Thud.
The sound of a body hitting the floor followed the scream
Vida looked to Hendrix, who wore the same concerned expression that she had.
They both rushed down the hallway.
"What's going on…" Vida's question faded into nothingness as both her and Hendrix understood the situation.
Taro and Chase stood in front of Ginji and Asuka's room.
Hendrix peeked into the room to see Alex hanging her head low as Ginji and Asuka sat on the edge of their bed.
Asuka rocked back and forth, letting out the occasional sob between her manic breathing.
Ginji held his wife's shoulders, trying his best to hold back tears himself.
"Hendrix!" Asuka spotted the boy in the doorway, running up to him.
"Please! Please, it has to be a mistake!" Asuka grabbed Hendrix's shoulders, her hands trembling just as much as her voice. "It must've been someone else, please tell me it could've been someone else."
Hendrix gritted his teeth, looking down at his feet as he balled his fists.
He raised his head for a second, looking past the sobbing woman in front of him as he peered at the couple's nightstand.
A picture sat facing the door, a picture Hendrix had examined when he was helping the couple move into the compound.
In the photo, Ginji and Asuka stood on either side of a small Tripp, no older than ten.
Hendrix noticed the little girl's smile, filled with so much excitement as she pointed to the giraffe peering over the gate behind them.
Hendrix was so engulfed in the photo that he didn't even notice the tears falling down his cheeks.
Asuka turned around to see what the boy was looking at, locking eyes with her little girl through the photo.
"Oh no… Please…" Asuka fell to her knees in the doorway as she covered her face with her hands.
"Asuka…" Ginji went to help his wife up as Hendrix turned around, making his way down the hallway while he covered his eyes with his fist.
Vida watched him leave. She instinctively took off after him, but she felt a hand on her shoulder stop her.
"I think…" Alex muttered, holding Vida's shoulder. "I think he needs a little alone time."
Vida looked back at Alex, nodding softly.
A few hours later:
Most of the compound had gathered in the graveyard, circled around a small hole in the ground in front of a makeshift tombstone reading:
"Tripp."
The sky was a light grey, the sun covered by layers of clouds that made the air feel heavy as the compound residents watched Jason walk up to the pit in the ground with a small wooden box.
Inside the box was a picture of Tripp, smiling in her second-year high school yearbook photo.
The crowd of rebels was silent, except for Asuka's sobbing. She hadn't stopped in the hours since Alex broke the news.
Jason closed the wooden box, resting it at the bottom of the small hole in the ground as he nodded at Biggie, who was standing next to the hole.
Biggie picked up a shovel as he started to pour the pile of dirt sitting next to him into the hole, covering the small wooden box in a matter of seconds.
Hendrix watched on with a blank expression. He was trying his hardest to stand still, but his whole being told him to walk away.
A storm of anger, horror, and sadness raged inside of him as he pictured the moment Tripp fell to the floor in that laboratory.
In that moment, every thought Hendrix had was filled with death.
"Maybe Biggie's right." Hendrix thought, glancing at Biggie's pile of dirt, which was quickly disappearing into Tripp's grave.
"I knew it! You're some kind of fucking freak!" Biggie's words repeated in Hendrix's head.
"Hendrix." Ginji turned to the boy, trying to keep Asuka on her feet at the same time. "Thank you."
Hendrix's brow furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean? I… I couldn't save her-"
The boy wasn't able to finish his sentence.
"You tried, you almost gave up your life trying." Ginji's lip quivered. "And that's more than I could've ever asked for, so thank you. We're more grateful for you kids than you could ever know."
Hendrix's head hung low, despite Ginji's words.
His gaze was low enough to catch Asuka, who had fallen to her knees as the last of the dirt was patted onto Tripp's grave.
On the other side of the grave, Taro and Kai stared at Biggie's shovel as it smoothed out the top layer of dirt.
"How many people do you think this has happened to?" Kai whispered to his brother. "Hendrix said there were a lot of tubes."
"If what that Deputy said was true, that's not the only site." Taro responded.
"Thousands." Akilah muttered from the other side of Kai. "The worst part is, there couldn't be a good reason why they would need to collect Spirit. It's a life force, not some sort of fuel."
The three of them went silent as the crowd began to disperse, leaving only the teens and the grieving couple.
They all sat in silence, making a broken circle around the makeshift grave.
"I think I understand why you guys do this, now." Asuka broke the silence, getting up to her feet as she tried to steady her voice. "I want to hurt the people who did this to my baby. No, I want to kill them. But most of all, I want to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else."
The kids looked at each other, trying not to cry themselves.
"Because it hurts. I haven't been able to take in a full breath in hours. The memory of my baby's smile is ruined." Asuka continued. "Every time I think of her from now on, it'll hurt, and I'll never forgive those monsters for that."
Ginji placed a hand on his wife's back as he began to speak. "We'll never be able to fight like you guys do, but we'll help in any way we can."
"We'll make sure this doesn't happen again." Vida spoke for the first time since the funeral started. "We promise we'll stop it, even if it's the last thing we do."