Cleopatra sat on the edge of the shaft and stared blankly into the darkness, finally able to come to terms with everything now that the betrayer was dead and the danger gone, if only for a while. As she sat on the edge of the precipice her lip started to tremble. 'Come on, Cleo,' she mentally scolded herself. 'Don't be such a wimp!' She blinked several times in order to stop the tears she knew were coming and took deep breaths.

 Ten seconds later, tears were running down her cheeks. With a sob, she buried her face in her hands and bawled.

"Cle-" Hel, who had been looking for Cleopatra, stopped short when she saw her sitting on the ledge of the precipice, shoulders shaking as sobs racked her body. Deciding to give Cleo a little while alone, Hel turned and went back to the lab.

 "Where's Cleo?" Sarge asked, looking up from her datapad.

 Hel jerked a thumb in the general direction of where Cleopatra sat. "I think she needs a little time to adjust... she'll be alright."

 Sarge gave a non-committal snort and turned back to the datapad.

As Cleopatra sat and cried, she had flashbacks of all the people she'd left behind. She remembered her mom trying to match her up with countless idiot-boys and smiled sadly. She thought of her little brother who had a penchant for doing dumb things in order to make people laugh, and almost giggled through her tears. Her best friend, Sarah, who was always hyper. Her boyfriend, Greg, who would never stop talking, no matter what happened.

She remembered her father, who'd been dead for several years, and then emitted a strangled sob as she realized they'd all been dead for much more then several years.

She missed them all. She missed her mom's clumsy matchmaking, her brother's dorkyness, Sarah's energy, Greg's never-ending monologue, her dad's quiet sarcasm... and her cat, Maow. 'What had happened to them all?' she wondered.

Hel was pacing around in the lab muttering, and it was really starting to annoy Sarge. Finally she looked up and glared at Hel. "If you're so worried about Cleo, go talk to her," she said crisply. "Do something, anything, just stop pacing."

Hel stopped abruptly and smile sheepishly. She knew that Sarge wasn't really mad, she just had a habit of getting a bit snippy on occasion. "I guess I'll just do that, then," Hel said with a slight smile.

Sarge nodded and waved her hand vacantly away from herself, her attention fully focused on the datapad again.

Hel approached Cleo quietly and sat down beside her. "Hey Cleo," she said kindly.

Cleopatra looked up and wiped her face, sniffling. "Hi Hel," she managed before bursting into tears again.

“Awww, sweetie,” Hel murmured, taking Cleopatra into her arms and comforting her like a mother. “Why don’t you talk about them? It might help,” she insisted when Cleo shook her head. “I should know about this, I lost my whole family.”

Cleopatra turned her tear-stained face to Hel. “Are you sure this will help?”

Hel nodded the affirmative. “Positive.”

With a sigh Cleo put her head back on Hel’s shoulder. “Well, my mom had reddish-blond hair, which she always wore in a bun...”

“Yeah?”

So Hel listened to Cleopatra talk about her life long into the night.

And Sarge looked up from her datapad and smiled.

The end... not like there really was a beginning or a middle, so I thought everyone needed a way to know that it has ended. There. Over. Done.

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The characters from Cleopatra 2525 belong to RenPics... not me. Sadly. I am not making any money off of this. Mmmph