They had been sitting in silence for what seemed like hours. Sky was shaking but every time Poison reached out to her, she just shook her head. She wasn't angry anymore but simply shocked, trying to make sense of it all although they both knew it was impossible to do. Although she believed him, she was still upset. Mainly at herself, for lashing out at him like that. Up until now she had no idea how important her necklace really was to her. She stared at the tiny, strangely shaped, metallic object that was tangling from around his neck.

'You can have mine if you want. I know it'd be safe with you.' he said but again she shook her head.

'No. It's yours. I need to find mine.' she replied. 'We need to go look for it. Please, Poison. We have to! Don't you wanna find out what it all means? Why we have the same necklace, why we both have no memory of our childhood and why that necklace is the only connection we have to it?'

'Of course I wanna find out. But who says we would find out, even if we find yours? I'm gonna help you find it, I promise. I just don't think it's gonna give us any answers.' she could tell he was choosing his words carefully, not to upset her even more.

Sky knew he could be right. She knew it would most likely not change anything. And what if it really wasn't that relevant after all? Maybe it was just an ordinary necklace, a common souvenir or talisman a lot of people had. That it was simply a coincidence that they had the same one and the only connection they shared was that whoever their parents were, they had chosen the same necklace for their kids. Maybe she was so desperate to find out where she had come from that she was clutching at every straw in order to find out. But what about her gut feeling? What about the strange feeling that had overcome her when she had touched his pendant, almost like a shockwave. She knew he had felt it too. She didn't want to believe that it was all meaningless.

'But what if it does?' she whispered, not able to look at him.

He sighed. Sky could tell he was scared and so was she. Scared of finding answers, scared of not finding them.

'Okay. We'll go. First thing in the morning. But Sky...we have to keep this a secret for now. Lemme handle the guys. We're just gonna tell them that we're going on another mission. They don't need to know about this.'

*

They had started their journey before sunrise and Poison had simply left a note, telling Kobra, Ghoul and Jet they had taken a bunch of supplies in the car to look for other rebels in need of help. It had been the best excuse he could think of. Sky looked pale and tired, her eyes puffy from crying, she hadn't slept at all. Her anxiousness had definitely started to affect him too and he couldn't remember ever feeling that uneasy about driving out into the desert.

'I'm sorry...for yelling at you. And, you know...accusing you of taking my necklace and lying about it.' she had curled up on the seat, leaning against the window. 'I hope you know that I didn't really mean it. I was just...so confused.'

'I know. It's okay.'

She didn't reply and when he looked over to her, he saw that she had fallen asleep. He didn't mind. He was used to driving by himself. After a while he turned on the radio, keeping the volume down so it wouldn't wake her. The hushed voice of Dr D filled his ears and distracted him momentarily.

'Another red, hot sun is about to rise. Are you ready for the day? You better be, motorbabies, because it is more than ready for you. To swallow you whole and probably not spit you out anytime soon. And I might as well provide the soundtrack for your own personal apocalypse. Enjoy the ride.' his voice faded into music that Poison knew by heart by now.

Dr D didn't have a lot of records left and his playlist was pretty much limited to around 20 songs. Still a luxury considering BLI had taken all pleasures away from them. But D reminded them of their existence. Not all was lost.

Four hours later, Poison stopped at the bunker. It was something they had built to store supplies, for other rebels to find. Thanks to Dr D, most of them knew the location and how to find it and even though it was still way out in the outskirts of the zones, people would stop by to pick up whatever the Killjoys left there on a regular basis. Sky woke as he got out of the car.

*

She was dazed, the sun blinding her, forcing the sleep out of her eyes in the most annoying way.

'Where are we?' she asked him and stretched while Poison had started offloading the supplies.

'At the bunker. Where we leave supplies for other rebels. Are you feeling better?' he replied.

Sky nodded and got out of the car, giving him a hand. As she carried the first load towards the hole in the ground, she looked around and noticed something. The area looked familiar, she had been here before. She couldn't remember when or how she had ended up here, it all seemed like a blur but she recalled finding water and some food in the bunker, as well as a temporary shelter from the merciless sun. Poison looked at her.

'You've been here before?' he asked.

'Yeah, I think so. Which means you saved my life more than twice without even knowing.' she handing him the last couple of boxes.

'And I'm probably gonna do it again.' he smiled and climbed out of the bunker, dusting himself down before heading back to the car.

'Maybe I'm gonna save yours, who knows.' Sky replied.

'You already did.' Poison just said and her heart skipped a beat.

There was a weird energy in the car as they continued driving, like the calm before a storm. It was noon and Dr D had ended his broadcast for today so Poison had started scanning the radio waves for signals. So far, there had been only static and she could tell he was getting frustrated. What had they expected? It had been a shot in the dark from the beginning.

'Can I try?' Sky asked and he gave her a surprised look.

'Sure...go ahead.' he answered and she began to turn the tuner back and forth.

Nothing. She sighed, closing her eyes, she thought of her necklace. There was no point in lying to herself. It WAS important. She wanted nothing more than to find it. Now even more than before she had found out Poison was wearing the same one around his neck. There had been a connection between the two of them from the very beginning and although she knew it could have been simply because of the fact that he had saved her from the dracs, deep down she knew there was more to it. It was a feeling she had never felt before. The feeling of belonging somewhere.

She was about to give up fiddling with the radio when a booming noise ripped through the car, blasting from the speakers. Sky had to cover her ears, it was almost painful. Poison stopped the Trans Am almost immediately, staring at the radio in shock.

*

There it was again. That static, extraneous noise that he couldn't match to anything he ever heard before. Except for the night he had found Sky. His whole body was trembling, the noise passing through him almost as though it had entered his bloodstream.

'TURN IT OFF!' Sky yelled and it seemed like it only got louder at her request. She reached out to the radio but Poison grabbed her hand.

'WAIT!' he ordered, not even sure what he was waiting for.

Next thing he knew, Sky was shaking him, screaming his name. As he looked out the car window, he could see the sunset. Sunset? How was it already evening? What had happened?

'Where are we?' he asked and Sky pointed to what was in front of them.

The shack.

Suddenly, he felt nauseated. All he could do was open the door and vomit what little he had in his stomach, on the ground, cold sweat running down his back. How had they gotten here? The fact that all of this had happened before should have made him feel less surprised but he couldn't help but feel freaked out that it had happened twice now and still, he had no explanation for it. Exhausted, he leaned back in the seat.

'Are you okay?' he could feel Sky's cold hand on his cheek and he nodded, closing his eyes.

'Is this what happened the first time?' she asked and again all he could do was nod.

He could tell that she had a ton of questions but that she was also aware he didn't have the answers so she decided not to ask them. Instead, she got out of the car and he opened his eyes to see she was approaching the shack.

'Sky, wait!' he followed her, pulling his gun. 'I have to make sure it's safe first. Please, just go back to the car until I've checked.' She did as she was told and he headed inside, an overwhelming smell greeting him as he entered.

The bodies of the dead agents were still there, rotting away. Poison could feel another urge to vomit but managed to suppress it. Covering his mouth and nose by pulling up his shirt, he surveyed the small room where he had found Sky almost a month ago. He had killed the first drac outside, then cut the second one's throat and shot the other one, within just seconds. The first one's body was gone, probably dragged away by coyotes before they had realized it was inedible but the two other corpses were exactly where he left them, the stench almost unbearable.

'It's safe but it's pretty nasty. I don't think you wanna see and smell that.' he told Sky but she got out of the car anyway.

'Do you really think I'm gonna puss out now?' she just replied, rushing past him.

Notes

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