Chapter Text
Selene is locked up in a Civil Corp cell, but she needs to get out. Haru was caught last night, and she needs to be in Martle Square to help support him, stall long enough that Logan can make it back into town, warn everyone of what's to come, and help take down Pen. One of the cell bars has a weak spot she's been meaning to fix, but now, hopefully it will come in handy. Oddly enough, her pickhammer hadn't been taken away, so she pulls that off her belt and starts swinging at the weak spot with all her might. The metal of the bars creaks and groans, a horrific grating sound, but Selene presses on. She focuses on her form, using her legs to generate the movement of her core that drives her arms and the pickhammer against the weak spot of the metal. The bars are still sturdy; she needs each swing to be perfect to make them count if she hoped to get out in time.
Despite her best efforts and focus, Selene can't get the swings right. Either a leg will slip, she'll under or over rotate her core, or something goes wrong. What feels like an eternity later, the bar finally crumples with a shriek of shearing metal. Heart in her throat, Selene shoves it out of the way and scrambles free of the cell. Every frantic step as she sprints out of the building and towards Martle Square feels too slow, too unwieldy.
When she gets there, a slight sense of relief trickles through her. Haru is still on the front steps, the trial is still going on, and Logan hasn't come back to town yet. Then she sees Pen with his hand on Andy's head again; the threat in his actions clear as anything with what she knows now. Selene wants to warn Andy, call him over to her, anything to get him away from the traitorous Duvos agent. Before she can, the small child starts reaching up towards the glove on Pen's hand. Now she definitely can't say anything, lest she draw attention to Andy's actions.
It doesn't matter, that she says nothing.
Pen notices.
As Selene tries to surge forward to put herself between Pen and Andy, unseen hands grab her arms, holding them behind her back so all she can do as watch. With the same arrogant grin as always, Pen shifts the hand on top of Andy's head to his neck.
Squeezes.
Crack!
Selene shot out of bed, landing in a defensive stance, heart racing. Even in the darkness, she could make out the familiar shadowy shapes of her bedroom. Relief crashed down as she realized it had just been yet another dream; Andy was alive and well, Pen was in prison where he couldn't hurt anyone anymore.
Knowing if she tried to go back to sleep all she'd hear was Andy's neck snapping again and again, Selene decided to go ahead and get up for the day. The tunnel supports certainly weren't going to build themselves.
Something strange was going on with Miss Selene, Andy had decided. He wasn't sure if anyone else had noticed or not, but sometimes adults were dumb about stuff like that. Although when he'd tried to bring it up to Jasmin all sneaky like, she hadn't really thought anything was all that different either. So maybe he just had a superpower when it came to noticing stuff about people. Cause even if Jasmin hadn't noticed nothing, that didn't mean there weren't nothing to notice.
Miss Selene still watched him when Logan had to work later at night, or was gonna be out for a few days. She still made him super yummy food and gave him more candy than he was supposed to have while reading to him, but she forgot to do the voices a lot more now. And she didn't take him out on Patches as much. And he never woke up before her no more. That was the weirdest part to Andy, cause Logan had always joked that even in the Hideout, they could tell when sunrise was based on when Andy woke up, and Miss Selene had always said she and the sunrise were strangers. So how come she was awake before him? Andy had a feeling it was grown up stuff, but if that was the case, why hadn't any grown ups said something? It was a mystery, that's for sure.
For now, any time Andy saw Miss Selene, he just ran up to her and gave her the biggest hug he could. It always made him feel better when she gave him hugs, and she seemed a little happier when Mr. Zeke would give her hugs too. He didn't even say nothing when she hugged him too tight or too long; he was a big boy, he could tough it out. And she always looked a little better afterwards, so Andy kept doing it.
He hoped the grown ups noticed soon.