Chapter 30

ORIANNA

"I just realized something." I said out loud stopping Flo from fixing whatever contraption is was tinkering with.

"Do share the epiphany." Flo said with a smirk.

"You may have Stockholm syndrome." I said.

"Sure Ori and you have Lima Syndrome." Flo answered rolling her eyes at me and resumed her tinkering.

"Flo I'm serious. I'm try to look for an explanation as to why you don't hate me." I mused, handing her a screwdriver when she signaled for one. Cisco was currently still curled in his bed.

"I don't easily get to hate people Ori. I try to understand them first before hating them." Flo answered. "For your case you were operating under orders. You could have been killed if you did not follow. I understand that and I can't hate you because of reasons you can't control."

"I kidnapped you." I argued.

"No you did not. I willingly came with you. Trust me I am a very hard person to kidnap. I won't come that easily." Flo said. "Why are you so bothered about this?"

"It's just.. you're too forgiving." I said with a shrug.

"With understanding comes forgiveness." Flo answered with a smile. "Now give me a minute so I can concentrate here and not screw my hands to the floor."

I watched her as she fired up the hand held machine driller apparently giving up on the manual one. Her brows were scrunched as she drilled. The noise filled the space but stopped after a few seconds.

"There we go. That will stop the leak." Flo said wiping her brow. She sat down heavily on the floor and started to look for something to wipe her hands on, seeing none she wiped them on my pants. I let her do so. She looked up at me when she was finally done.

"What's wrong Ori?" She asked softly.

"Why is the world so unfair to you Flo?" I asked back.

"The world is never fair Ori. You should have learned that a long time ago." Flo answered. "For me I just focused on the bright side, the fun happy times. I look at the bad times as lessons while the great times as gifts. All of them have a reason."

"Is this a bad time then?" I asked a bit saddened.

"No. Right now, right here. No this is a good time." Flo said with a smile patting my hand. "You should stop thinking you forced me here, which you did not. I told you my story so you can understand why I came with you. It was not just because of your brother but it because of them. Nobody forced me to do so."

"But if things were not manipulated, if I didn't play to your weakness -" I said but Flo stopped me with a wave of her hand. Her eyes full of pain yet understanding.

"I know what I choose. It might be due to some situations but my reaction to it is solely based on my own judgment. It might be considered stupid but.." She paused and look down at her hands. She took a deep breathe and looked at me again. "You showed me several sides of my life I didn't know exist. How fragile it was and how bad I was handling it. You gave the push, what everyone's reaction was what they felt. Would I want it to end in another way yes of course but Ori. . I had a good run. I'm just so tried of everything outside of this island. You gave me the escape. I willing took it."

"I am still to blame." I insisted.

"Yes of course. So is Master, General Pilak. Even my friends.." Flo said saying the last word softly. I can almost feel the pain she felt. "Everyone is too blame for this bloody mess."

"I'm so sorry Flo." I said reaching to touched her hair and it softly. "I took everything from you."

"You didn't take anything Ori." She said and her blue eyes started to tear up. "They left."

"You have Cisco and me now. We will never leave you." I said.

"They said that to me too." Flo said as tears started to fall.

"Oh Flo. I'm so sorry." I said feeling my eyes tear up too. Crying was still so foreign to me that I pulled back and wiped a tear from my cheek. I studied it closely.

"It's just water Ori." Flo said sniffling.

I flicked it away and smiled at her. I was sort of glad that she cried since this was the first time she acknowledge the hurt she felt to us – to me. She just hid it and now she was slowly starting to move on.

"Also Flo.. in the spirit of this discussion." I said and took a calm breathe. "I'm so sorry about Butter Flo."
She looked at me, her eyes shimmer with tears, there was a glimmer of resentment then it was gone.

"I forgive you Ori." Flo said softly and fresh tears came. "Butter.. oh my poor baby.."

"I don't know what to say." I mumbled getting off my chair and sat down beside her wrapping her in my arms. "I should have not done that."
"Stop lying Ori. I know you didn't kill my dog." Flo said between sniffs.

"How can you say that?" I asked.

"You get violently sick at the smell of blood. Butter was tortured. Melted into a pool of blood, fur and entrails. I didn't see any vomit anywhere in the mix then." Flo said burying her face on my shoulder. "Whoever did that had a very strong stomach and was also a psychopath."

"I couldn't agree more." I said softly and started to rub her back. "I'm so sorry I upset you today."

"It was a good cry out." Flo answered wiping her nose on my shirt sleeve.

"You were bottling it up." I said.

"I didn't want the distraction it brought but now I think I can give myself a few minutes." Flo said. "I miss the sun Ori."

"Oh! Let's go outside then." I said with a smile. "Cisco would love to go too. The typhoon has already passed so we can go. We can even try to sneak to the beach."

"That sounds wonderful." Flo murmured to my shoulder, nuzzling into me like a puppy. It might sound cute but she was actually wiping her nose so it was not cute.

"Flo can I ask another question."

"Sure."

"What do you and Master do every week? Why do you need to meet him so regularly?" I asked.

"I'm sorry Ori. I can't tell you." Flo said pulling away, she was now guarded.

"Yes you can." I insisted. I was worried about her weekly meetings because she comes back silent, sad and brooding, even Cisco brought that up.

"I can't. Master will harm Cisco and all this – we really should give them a code name." Flo mused. She faced me with a serious expression on her features. "Master knows I have come to care about you and Cicso Ori and you knowing me so well know that my Achilles heel is my friends."

"I can take care of Cisco and you. Is he hurting you Flo?" I asked feeling panicked as I imaged what that vile creature is doing.

"No." Flo said shaking her head. "I'll be fine Ori. I can take care of myself."

"Please tell me." I said.

"I'm fine." Flo said firmly. Her tone not be argued with.

I was about to push her more when alarms suddenly rang everywhere. Flo jumped up with me following close behind. We ran to the main hub.

"ED!" Flo shouted.

"Power failure Mistress." ED answered.

"How can that happen?" Flo said sitting down on her chair and started to type fast. I was at lost at what to do to help. Flo glanced back to see me looking at her. "Get Cisco Ori. I need all the help I can get."

"Alright." I answered leaving as she resumed typing. Apparently Cisco had also heard the alarm because he was already at the second barrier.

"Ori! What's wrong? Is it Mr. Pilak again?" Cisco huffed out when he finally reached the main door.

"I don't think so. ED said it was power failure." I answered.

"That's strange." Cisco replied walking briskly towards where Flo was. "How can our power generators fail when there is no typhoon to cut it out?"
"I don't know." I answered truly lost.

We finally arrived back at the main hub where a hologram of the whole experiment level was floating in the center.

"What can I do Flo?" Cisco asked.

"Try to manually redirect power here Cissy." Flo answered, her eyes filled with fear.

"Whats wrong?" I asked.

"This level's power is down, even our back up power is not functioning. It's putting everyone in risk." Flo answered.

"At risk?" I asked trying to shut down my sensitive hearing. The sound was starting to give me a headache.

"ED try to divert power to life support." Flo ordered her AI. "Cisco can you try to access the main power grid and tap the power from there?"

"I'm trying to do just that." Cisco answered also typing at a terminal. "How did we loose power?"

"I don't know but I sure will found out." Flo answered. "Ori. Can you monitor the tubes? I need to help ED."

"Go." I answered taking her place.

I can be more of use in this part. I focused on the hologram and amped up the volume I was hearing. I wanted to check if I can hear intruders. Filtering the sounds I heard none. My eyes saw the red hologram start to flicker black in a few areas then a corner became black.

"Flo! It's turning black." I said.

"ED. Report." Flo said.

"Life support for section H has failed mistress. Three minutes before total shut down of life support." ED answered. "Still trying to divert out power to life support Mistress."

"Keep trying." Flo ordered. "Cisco -"
"Still trying Flo. Someone is shutting us out from the main grid." Cisco answered.

"Damnit." Flo swore loudly. "ED Give up half of your power supply and divert it to Sector G and I. Communicate to me by ear piece."

"What are you doing?" I demanded keeping my eyes on the hologram but glanced at Flo who was throwing a couple of tools into a bag. "Florence!"

"I'm going to try access the tubes electric wires from the tubes themselves." Flo answered. "Cisco keep trying the main grid. Hack into it if you must."

"Flo you can't touch the wires! They're live. The power loss also caused our systems to be jammed and that caused the remaining electricity to go haywire. Touch it at the wrong time and you'll be burned." Cisco said loudly but Flo was already running out of the main hub. "Flo! You'll get hurt! Ori stop her!"

I was already running after her powering up my legs to do so. I never realized how fast Flo can run. I caught up with her around section F.

"Flo damnit. You'll die if you trample with the wires." I said grabbing her arm.