“Ruby!” Odie called frantically from Jayson’s room. It was eight in the morning and the house was theirs. He had to shout to be heard over the blaring music across the hall.
“What?” Ruby answered, lyrics about Vikings coming from a land of ice and snow was only marginally lowered as she turned down the volume.
“Can you come in here? Now, please!”
“What do you want?” Ruby walked into the room her head bent over a handheld game.
“Check this out, will you?” Odie waved for her to join him on the desk where he sat facing an open laptop. “Bo sent a message, and... and... I need you to read it.”
Ruby sighed dramatically and made a big show of turning off her game and climbing up the chair. It wasn’t until she looked at his face, pulling the laptop toward her, she realized something was wrong. Her brother, though also prone to being dramatic, was being oddly silent. Confused she read the subject line out loud, “Leia is gone. Wait, what? Leia is gone?” she looked at Odie but he was staring blankly out the window. She read the rest of the message, her jaw going fully slack when she finished. “Oh, no. That’s.... this is...”
“Terrible? Scary? Alarming?” Odie offered.
“D- All of the above,” Ruby re-read some sections, her head shaking steadily back and forth in disbelief, like the pendulum of a grandfather clock.
Odie nodded gravely; a stony neutral expression plastered itself on his face. The shock was still there, but he was trying to get control over himself, he was the Breaker after all. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
“What are you going to do?” Ruby asked, trying to read his thoughts. He was usually an open book to her, right now, though, he was strangely unreadable.
“I don’t know, I was thinking of talking to Bo first, you know get it straight from the bear’s mouth. Maybe...” His thoughts drifted off.
Ruby rolled her glassy eyes then clapped her paws in front of his face, snapping him back to attention. “And then what? If this story is true, and I would bet money it is; it’s going to scare a lot of Defenders. He said, and I quote, ‘the last thing Henri remembers was Leia’s voice calling out.’ I mean come on! And we had our own weird experiences last night too and there is no reason for Bo to make any of it up. This story is going to freak a lot of Defenders out.”
“You’re telling me,” Odie gave a flat mirthless laugh. “Don’t you think I know how this sounds? How everyone is going to take it? If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.”
“What about Henri?” Ruby suggested the idea like he was a small child. “Do you think she can verify any of it?”
“That’s a good point!” His face brightened. “We should hear it from her too before the story gets out to everyone. I’ll ask Bo to bring Henri to the garage before the sleep over meeting, tell her story to everyone on the Council.
“That sounds like a good plan.” She smiled at him, then leaned over and gave him a punch in the arm. “Oh, and you’re welcome.” She said, then turned and hopped off the bed.
“I didn’t say ‘thank you’?” He called after her, half smiling in spite of himself.
“You were about to,” she said, without turning around and leaving the room.
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