CONTAINS CONTENT:
Strong violence, some gore.
{{Unedited}}
Vincent dragged himself to the shower and was staring at the wall, broken and distant- when he reminded himself that he had no time to do this; not enough minutes or hours to lose himself in the flow of hot water that ran over his body. It wasn’t comforting.
The entire world had turned around ten times since yesterday afternoon, but he had to refocus and consider the task at hand.
It didn’t matter- the situation with Marielle and Austin, it didn’t matter that Tala was here, confused, and being watched by Chamber, and that they were not involving her today. It didn’t matter – for now – that he’d told Cory the truth, and that he had intended on trading Tala to them. That had been the entire reason that he let her come along in the first place. Which had gotten her killed. He hadn’t wanted that, he figured that he would tell them about her abilities and her suit and that after they used those things, they’d leave her alone. He hadn’t known that they had their own Tala on that side now until he and Chamber found her under the stairs. It felt like redemption for a moment. He couldn’t replace who they’d lost…but in a way he could. Wasn’t he doing that with Marielle? He swiped both hands over his hair. It didn’t matter.
It didn’t matter that he’d barely slept again, and for the first time for a few months he had been deeply plagued by nightmares of a ghostly pale, frail Marielle with sunken cheeks, reaching her hand out to him for the last time.
Once dressed, he exited into the hall, surprised to find Sasha still there, keeping watch. Vincent was going to walk by him after Sasha nodded at him, but he paused for a moment and turned back to face the tall blond. “Sasha? Would you say that we are…friends?”
Sasha narrowed his eyes for a moment as if surprised to have been asked this question. He and Vincent had been strangely close during the first few days that he’d been at Valorant. While it was true that Vincent didn’t say anything, Sasha had given him food, watched him, brought him his clothes, taken him to shower, and spoken to him a few times even though there was no reply during all his shifts on guard. Sasha leaned the back of his head into his laced fingers. “It’s true I’ve never gone to have a beer with you, or talk about our lives, although I know quite a bit. But I would say… yes.” He looked up at Vincent for a moment with one brown eye, and the other; fake. “I would say that I respect you, deeply.”
Vincent took Sasha’s hand, they shook, and Vincent helped him stand from the chair he was in. Vincent put an arm around Sasha’s shoulder, “Let’s have a drink when we’re back home.”
“Okay.”
Both went down the stairs together.
The room with the fireplace, piano, and bar had become their place of meeting, and it was slowly filling up as each of them wandered down the stairs, grabbed a pastry and coffee and sat, waiting anxiously.
Vincent was amazed to see how Sabine was handling the scenario. Her tired eyes were red; she cared even if she didn’t want to show it.
Resting her head on John’s shoulder, she quietly ate her chocolate chip bagel and stared down into her lap. The realization that hit Vincent then was strong and clear; one of the reasons that Sabine disassociated from Marielle was because she was one of her last connections to Morgan and Peter… John was a bit different, he had been in the room, and had no memory. But Marielle was where she and Morgan met, made a connection, and eventually fell in love.
John patted her and was whispering something when Liam entered the room with Tala.
He looked around at them all, “I know how weird this is,” he began. A few of them hadn’t seen her yet, and Klara gasped, putting her hand to her mouth. “But she defected- she wants nothing to do with them,” he explained.
Han jumped up, ran to her, and threw her arms around her, crying. At first, Tala looked like a deer in the headlights, but after a moment, she held Han back, tears also streaming down her face.
Wei Ling joined, also holding Tala from behind. “We accept you,” she whispered.
“We all do, but…” Liam began and they pulled away, listening expectantly, “that doesn’t mean that we be careless. She’s not getting involved today. No one call Mateo, yet. Leave him alone, we’ll break this to him slowly, and be there for him as he processes it.” Everyone nodded their agreement. “And we need someone to stay behind and be with her… Not Kirra or Wei Ling, we need you both.” The women agreed.
Han raised a hand, “I’ll do it!” She cried.
Tala nodded her approval making it quite clear that she and Han had probably been close at some point in the Vincent’s dimension as well.
Liam cleared his throat, “You both stay here until we’re done, eat, drink, talk, do not leave unless there is no other option. Protect each other. Do you understand?” He asked Han. She agreed. Tala also said yes, and Liam gestured for them both to go back upstairs. They obeyed. “Help her understand some things,” Liam said as they went up. Then he turned to the others, “Okay, now the real issue, here.”
Chamber entered the room and everyone acknowledged him before he went to the coffee, pouring an obscene amount of sugar into his cup.
“Okay, everyone,” Vincent began, slowly, his tone laden with sadness. “As you all know, Kingdom… and probably Cory, and Tundra have two of our t-team…” his voice trailed off.
Liam stepped in, “They were captured last night during our final moments in battle. It became clear to us pretty quickly that this was what the enemy team had been waiting for- they wanted to capture Marielle and Austin together.”
“Why?” Klara asked, her expression twisted up in a confused way.
“We’re not a hundred percent sure.” Vincent said.
“What we do know is this… their main objective was her. They will absolutely kill him in a matter of a day or two once he becomes a liability.” His gaze landed on Vincent briefly. “Once they don’t need him to control her.”
Kirra put her fingertips to her mouth in horror. Even Sabine looked shaken.
“They want to try and understand her…” Vincent’s voice trailed off again.
“Her ability to move through him?” Sabine asked, a bit of sarcasm edging her tone as she tilted her head back at him.
“Oui.”
“And they have Tundra for that,” Jamie realized with a heavy sigh. What he was really saying becoming evident in everyone’s mind. Kirra was hiding the fact that she was crying, now and Tayane clapped a hand on her shoulder and pulled her into a hug that Klara also joined. Everyone knew that Kirra had feelings for Austin by this point.
“Once she gives in enough, yes,” Vincent said gravely.
“So, we think that’s why they have them… Kingdom has always been on our radar as possible enemy territory… now we know the real enemy is and always has been our doubles… but they’re working together,” Liam added.
“Why?” John ventured, leaning forward after moving Sabine’s hand into his own from his back and squeezing it.
“Cory has convinced them that other dimensions have radianite that will cause other effects, other powers. Cory is probably correct about this I must add,” Vincent said with a sigh. “They probably want to understand Marielle’s powers so they can do things like move through walls to obtain information, and move through people to create bonds and telekinesis… but also to stabilize the dimensional field so they…” Vincent looked down. “They can stay here.”
Quiet chatter went through the room for a moment.
“What do you mean stay here?” Sabine growled meeting eyes with Vincent.
“I’m sorry that I have not always been forthcoming. Knowing what to say and what not to say has been a challenge at times,” he explained cutting his gaze to Liam. Liam gave him a strong nod. “They will not be able to physically stay here for more than a few months without it ripping them apart because-”
“Because they don’t belong here,” Jamie realized.
Vincent nodded, “Oui.”
“Then how are you here?” demanded John.
Vincent shrugged exaggeratedly. “I have all the cards in the room,” he said wistfully. “For lack of a better way of putting it,” he met eyes with Chamber who was drinking his sugary beverage, “I am a genius, and I worked these things out.”
“Yeah, well, no wonder they’re all so mad at you,” Klara huffed.
Vincent looked down. “Never the less… They need Marielle, and they need her to stabilize the field. How they will do this, I don’t know, but she can do it- that much I do know.” He sighed.
“She has Austin, though. That’s good, right?” Kirra said shakily, tears rolling down her face.
Sasha was finishing his coffee and he looked to her, then to Vincent, “They- they talk to each other, don’t they? In their minds?” he asked.
Vincent nodded, distantly, hating every bit of that fact. “They can talk to each other, share information… she can show him what she’s looking at.”
“That… would be useful, especially in battle,” Jamie agreed.
“Exactly,” Liam agreed.
“Sadly, neither Marielle nor Austin has any idea how or why this has happened to them. It happened to them in my dimension as well… we studied it ourselves, researched, drew blood, put them through tests,” Vincent pursed his lips and shook his head with a shrug. “Nothing.”
“That is… bizarre,” Tayane said, putting her arm around Klara’s shoulders.
Vincent swallowed hard and looked off.
How he wished that it was only bizarre. It was so much more than that for Austin and Marielle. “You all know that Marielle’s ability to do this is an ultimate ability,” Vincent added quietly. “Which means-”
“Which means that they’re going to force her to do it until it kills her,” Sabine interrupted, and at this she stood up, and adjusted her gloves, and prepared to put her mask on, gearing up for the plans and the fight that would take place with Kingdom.
“Austin won’t let them do this,” Vincent explained, then he sighed heavily and removed his glasses from his face, momentarily biting the end of one side, “Which means that he’s going to take the building.”
The room fell silent. “Can- Can he do that?” Sabine asked, stunned.
Vincent looked to her and shrugged a shoulder, “In theory,” he said with a tone that sounded sad. “He’s certainly been trained to do it.”
“This means that we need to get in there, and get them out,” Liam explained, “before Kingdom pushes them too far, or they’re forced into these actions.”
“And if Austin and Marielle are already acting on this?” Kirra ventured.
“Then we go in and support them breaking out,” Sasha said with a strong nod.
Vincent agreed.
“Okay, do we know anything about this facility, or…?” Sabine pressed, securing her gloves.
Klara turned her laptop around to the room from the top of the piano. “There’s a gate with two doors, a long road that leads up to it, a moat that’s pretty deep and full of forest, and the facility is surrounded by a wall,” she explained. “The compound itself is sort of like a prison… I think it was one at one point,” she said with her finger curled to her chin. Her computer screen revealed the image of the compound. They saw heavies walking the grounds with guns and other artillery.
Vincent raised his finger, “Also…” he went to Klara’s screen and used the mouse to zoom out, “There’s another several bunkers behind the main compound,” he sighed, raked his hair, and turned to everyone else. “Now, I know Austin-”
“He would have been taking note of everything that he could see,” Chamber interjected, finishing Vincent’s thought.
Vincent nodded once, “Right… So, what this might mean is that-”
Jamie interrupted, “-is that he is unaware that there might be a whole hell of a lot more men and women there than he is accounting for,” he said distantly, eyes locked in terror.
“And quite possibly more doppelgangers,” Tayane said with a detached look of horror on her face.
“We’re going to need a few people to go back there and try and take care of some things,” Liam explained.
“I’ll go,” Jamie volunteered, raising his hand.
“I’ll help too,” Sasha said, pouring a shot into his coffee, again. Vincent smiled at him and Wei Ling sighed heavily. They were standing together and the back of her hand lightly brushed his. She took it away. Sasha hadn’t seemed to notice.
“Me too,” Kirra added.
“There’s one more thing; Barbara Hammond is a traitor. She works for Kingdom. Kirra observed her forcing Marielle and Austin into a van at gunpoint. We believe she sold them out, for reasons not yet known. If you should happen to run into her, feel free to fire,” Liam explained.
“John, how many times can you teleport in say… an hour?” Vincent asked.
“Four, maybe five,” John replied. Vincent nodded and looked to Chamber who was stuffing what seemed to be an entire pink sprinkle doughnut in his mouth. He paused, wide eyed noting the room’s gaze on him.
“Oui?” Chamber asked.
“I don’t know, maybe something,” Vincent said, thoughtfully eyeing John.
***
The two, armed men in black, marched to the front door of the building after the knock and glanced at one another curiously; no one was supposed to be knocking, the compound was open to anyone on campus.
When they opened the door, they found a man with the pizza box in his hands, paper bag resting on top of it, glasses, and shimmering…gold on his face. This man looked over the top at them; breadstick in his mouth like a lit cigar. “Bonjour…” Chamber paused, “breadstick?” Chamber asked nonchalantly before dropping the entire armful to the ground, pulling Headhunter from his arm, and shooting both men in the face before they even had time to react.
There was a snap, and Vincent materialized in a flurry of purple and gold next to him, pulling Headhunter from his arm as well. Chamber recalled his teleporter, and set his watch for a thirty second count down. They both nodded once at one another before splitting and standing on either side of the door, using the wall as cover.
“That wasn’t supposed to work,” Chamber said, chewing the bread in his mouth.
“The element of surprise is still at large,” Vincent said under his breath as he shot at and dropped a man running from behind the building.
“You mean the element of confusion?”
“Confusion works as well,” Vincent quipped, shooting at another group of men that were trying to round the corner. Now, men inside were realizing the problem and an alarm started to sound overhead.
“Yeah, but no one ordered pizza.”
“Which is why it was surprising,” Vincent replied flatly. “And confusing.”
Chamber slid to the ground, eyes wide on the food that he’d dropped, cracked the bag open and pulled out a second breadstick. “Au, pain! Pain!” He mocked, watching Vincent drop another man.
***
Austin looked up when the alarm started from his crouched position, where he’d been taking the shock stick from the dead man’s body. “Either we’ve been told on-,” he stood and sniffed, “-or our friends are here.”
Marielle was standing behind him with her gun. “Just tell me what to do.”
“Stay close, kill anyone that we don’t know,” he replied and at this Austin pulled a bowie knife from the dead man’s belt, whirled, and in one good chop, he cut off doctor Kyle’s right hand. “Uh…” Marielle tilted her head at him, confused, shocked, and a little disgusted; also slightly interested in his precision in doing such a thing. He’d managed to get the entire hand in one good thunk.
He took the lab coat off one of the female scientists and twisted it around, tying the ends of the sleeves until it made a small bag around the appendage. “We might need clearance somewhere,” Austin explained, watching her pale.
They both dashed out of the room.
“There!” Austin pointed as two guards came barreling down the hall at them from the left. Both Marielle and Austin raised their guns, fired, and easily took them down; neither had been prepared for them to come busting out of the room, apparently.
Austin ran to the elevator, pressed the button to call the car, and then turned to the fire alarm and pulled it. The building was instantly blaring from both the alarm that was sounding due to escapees, and now the fire alarm as well. He set the bloody bag on the floor across from the elevator.
Austin said, –Now talk to me, here. Our thoughts are louder than the alarms.
When the elevator dinged open, Austin was flush against the wall, and Marielle had done the same on the other side. Both stood still, waiting as four more men pushed out of the elevator, guns up and ready. There was a pause when they noticed the bloody bag.
The moment that the first barrel poked into view, Austin grabbed it from the side and yanked it – and the man attached – forward, whipping the weapon away, and elbowing him in the face. The guard dropped to his knees, and in the same instant, the two behind were distracted, so Marielle fired at the second grunt on the left and he was down.
The third goon pushed out of the elevator and managed to engage Austin in a fight after a missed shot, and kicked the gun; it skittered away.
He’d pulled a knife from his belt and was slicing at Austin, who jerked back, from the gleaming tip, repeatedly.
With each thrust backward, Austin was forced towards the back wall where he smashed the glass with his elbow, and yanked the firehose out. He whirled the clunky metal end around, and clubbed the bigger man in the face, forcing a stumble.
Another goon rushed out of the other end of the hall from a stairway, and with only enough time to glance, Austin took the shock stick from the bag, activated it, and flung it end over end like a throwing knife. It hit its mark, and jerking and sputtering, the guard collapsed.
Marielle was still dealing with the fourth man from the elevator, dodging his punches, and evading his grasp, until one blow finally connected, knocking her back with a grunt. The first man from the elevator wave was up and tried to charge the fight between Austin and knife guy.
Austin whirled the end of the firehose again, and it thwacked against knife guy’s face. At this, Austin moved in with the hose wound taut between his hands, and used it to jerk the blade away from the man.
The fourth guy leapt, and Austin thew a kick that knocked him back, used the hose like a whip, taking him down a second time, and turned, grabbing knife guy around the neck with the hose, making a quick noose, and dropping him to the floor with him yanking at his neck long enough for Austin to get at his gun and fire at all three men left standing with expert precision.
Each hit the ground, the last one falling away from Marielle as she stood, stunned for a moment until she realized what had happened.
She ran quickly to him, and they briefly hugged, both gasping for air, as the adrenaline filled every crevice of their bodies. She glanced at the man with the hose still around his neck, hanging dead. Austin could feel her tense.
-I’m with you.
-I’m with you.
Austin turned, grabbed the “hand bag,” smirked at his own humor, and hit the elevator button again, making it return to the first floor. He checked the magazine on the weapon that he was holding, grabbed her wrist, and ran for the emergency exit stairs, taking her along with him.
Austin peered over the stair railing, flagging the area.
There was a man with a large Viking beard a few floors down, waiting, with his weapon pointed into the opening between the stairs. He fired, just as Austin jerked back. “Okay, we’re playing like that,” he hissed, before he whipped the weapon that he was carrying across his back and vaulted the railing straight into falling down the middle of the stairs.
-No!
-Trust me!
The man who’d been waiting for them was firing upward as Austin had grabbed onto the railing, yanked himself up and over. He landed in this guy’s face, and spun the rifle back over his own left shoulder, bringing it back up under his arm, and thrusting the butt of it between the guy’s legs. He collapsed, gripping his crotch. Austin fired.
-Come to me.
Austin lifted his left hand; he could feel a tingling; the drugs were wearing off. He’d have his ice powers back soon; he could feel it.
Marielle was there, standing at his back, where he was kneeling with his new rifle, aiming at the stairs below, and waiting.
-Aim up, protect our backs. My powers will be back, soon.
-Yes, sir.
He smirked as she aimed and fired at a man rushing down towards them. He was dead, and his limp body came to a stop at her feet. She looked away, breathing hard.
Then she trained her focus to him, trying to do what he said… ground yourself. Stay with me. Talk to him.
-So… that night at the bowling alley…
Austin’s scrunched up face pulled back from the rifle for a second. -What the hell? Why are we going there?
-Did you leave to look at porn because you wanted me so desperately?
He peered back down the scope. -Kind of a weird topic right now.
–Did you?
-Yes.
-It didn’t help, did it?
-You know that it didn’t, Marielle. The only thing that will destroy my desire for you at this point is you, that’s it… and here’s the thing- that won’t destroy it, only fuel it. Every time I get more of you, I need more. It’s dangerous, I know.
He pulled back against the wall and motioned for her to come to him. She obeyed. The alarm above continued its screaming, but hid the sound of them both as four different men ran their way up the stairs towards the two.
He lifted his hand, and tried for his powers; a little frost squirted out of his palm and splatted to the floor. They both looked at one another with similar expressions in their eyes, and both tried, and failed to suppress a throated chuckle. The word impotent lingered in the air.
Boots pounded stairs as the men pressed up toward them. Austin glanced up, then back, then up again trying to decide… stand and fight, or go back to the beginning of their break out and try and repath from there?
He darted back up the steps, yanking her behind him, and peering out into the hall that they’d started this whole debacle in.
Moving around the dead body with the hose still wrapped around his neck, Austin used his elbow, to smash in the glass for the fire extinguisher, and took it with them.
-Come on. The “bag” around his chest was dripping blood, and had been for a while, so now they were leaving a trail. He considered this… -I have an idea. He dragged her towards the elevator, with her walking backwards for a moment to fire at anyone coming into the hall from the stairwell they’d just exited.
It was at this that he heard two, familiar gunshots; only one gun in the world sounded like that. Their eyes widened at one another.
-Vincent… they noted simultaneously.
***
Chamber and Vincent exchanged looks, hearing the firefight inside. “I think that’s our cue,” Chamber noted, he peeked inside and darted in with Vincent covering his back.
This place was a maze. “How are we doing back there?” Vincent asked into his ear piece.
“Coming down the stretch, now,” Liam replied, as he drove in the van down the bridge.
John had teleported both Chamber and Vincent through the wall that surrounded the compound. It was awkward to say the least, but it had worked.
Liam and the others cleared a path by fighting off the guards who were watching the gate at the end of the bridge. They’d taken everyone that mattered down in a standoff, and were coming.
A few moments after Vincent and Chamber entered the building the black van carrying everyone else skidded up to the front and the team poured out.
Jamie and Sasha nodded at one another, and Wei Ling tried to join them, but Vincent popped out of the building long enough to stop her, grabbing her wrist. He shook his head, then gestured to Kirra instead, “Kirra, go with them. You stay with us.” Kirra was already in compliance. Tayane was following closely behind the three of them. Both Jamie and Sasha looked back at Vincent. Jamie aimed imaginary guns at Vincent and fired them with a wink. “Just take a seat, I’ve got this,” he said.
“Why?” Wei Ling asked, tilting her head at him. Then she nodded, realizing exactly why. Wei Ling was the only one of them that could resurrect someone if there was something left… and if Austin and Marielle went down, she’d only be able to revive one of them, but she knew that if they were both down it’d be Marielle. Austin would want it that way, too.
She nodded and went with Vincent and Chamber, shotgun at her side as she threw Sasha a glance and a small prayer. Vincent breathed a sigh of relief.
Wei Ling used her blocking ability to instantly put up a wall against the doors, hindering anyone else from coming in from that way for a minute or two until it’s power wore off and the wall broke.
Several armored men poured out of the stairwell; bullets flew.
Liam, Sabine, and John stayed out in the parking area for a few minutes, backing one another up and using their powers to defend the area as the wave of goons who were hanging back around the right side of the building came forward, creating a blockade in the parking lot with their own vehicles, and began trading bullets.
Sabine shot a poison orb up and over one of the vans that they were using as cover, and three of the men staggered out, and fell to the ground as acid ate away at their suits, then their skin.
Liam shook his head, looking away from the gruesome scene. “You scare me, sometimes.”
Sabine shrugged, and lifted her long-barreled pistol, “I don’t deploy it for kicks.”
“You sure about that?” Liam chuckled, and a pop from his gun split the area as one of the men tried to break away and fire at them from behind a tree that sat near the edge of the drop off into the rest of the woods. He pulled a hand grenade from his belt and cried, “Molly!” before tossing it into the group ducking behind a van. Flailing, burning bodies went flying.
“And you’re any better?” She quipped, lowering her gun long enough to turn to him and give him a raise of her brow. “I plan on taking from them what they took from me…” she growled, then she aimed and hit another man in the chest, “Everything.” Liam understood. When they’d tried to break in the first time was when she’d lost her family.
John lifted his hand and sent a swirling dust cloud of black and purple over a particularly open area. “Cover going out,” he hissed.
Sabine smirked at him. Once the area was sufficiently covered, he turned to Sabine and leaned in, pressing his forehead to hers. “Worry not,” he growled in his gravelly, low tone. Then he vanished.
For a moment, she looked around. Then it became clear to both Sabine and Liam what he was doing. He had teleported, picked up one of the men, and teleported up into a tree, where he proceeded to drop the man from; a good fifty-foot drop. Then he appeared back next to them, as both stared at him in wide eyed terror.
He said nothing, and continued to aim and fire at the brigade still assaulting them, “If I must live in this nightmare, my enemies might as well join me,” was all he rasped.
No arguments from Liam or Sabine.
“Jo- I mean, Omen…” Sabine began after firing a few bullets, then reloading. “Are you able to teleport again?” she asked.
“Yes,” he replied.
“Do you think you can go do recon in building? See if you can spot Marielle?” John slowly cocked his masked face to one side, then vanished. For a moment they proceeded with their blockade without him. But a few moments later, he reappeared beside her.
“I am exhausted. I don’t know the building layout, Sabine. I am sorry.”
“It’s okay, my life,” Sabine replied with a smirk in his direction. A strong, I love you in her eyes.
Another wave of men joined the others, and Liam sighed, leaning back. “I’m going to use our satellite,” Liam said.
“Better luck this time,” Vincent replied in the earpiece.
Liam opened his wrist watch, and held his finger over the button, “Klara, are you ready?” he asked.
“I read you…” She said from back at the rental where she was watching the fight take place. She aided him by punching in a few codes.
Liam took a deep breath, “Open up the skies!” And the guided laser came bursting from the atmosphere and shooting down at lightning speeds from space, scouring the area where the other armored men were hiding behind their blockade.
Several were eaten up in the intense heat.
***
Austin dragged Marielle into the elevator by the wrist, and the doors closed just as the men following them up the stairs burst into the hall.
Inside, he pushed all the buttons as he stood and let the bloody bag drip on the floor before smashing one of the glass walls with his elbow.
The mirrored glass shattered in a spiderweb pattern and a good chunk of it fell to the ground.
Marielle kept her weapon trained on the doors even though they were moving and there was no chance of anyone coming in just yet, but she glanced at him, wondering what it was that he was doing.
When she caught him glancing back in the mirror that wasn’t smashed at her, she smiled softly and looked down and away. He was still looking at her, even when all his focus should be on whatever it was that he was doing. He was still intrigued by her, and still wanted to see her, feel her nearby, and make sure that she was safe.
He used part of the broken glass to cut some of the sleeve of the jacket that was holding the doctor’s hand away, and wrapping it around one end of the glass to create a makeshift knife. Then with his fist holding the cloth, he cut the telephone cord from the phone, and wrapped that around his waist like a belt, which he tied in the front, and inserted that knife in a way that wouldn’t hurt him, tucking it into some extra fabric from the bag.
After he glanced up, he pushed some of the ceiling aside and whirled the handbag up into the cavernous area above the elevator as it was moving to the next floor.
It was dark, open and there was a vast connection of wires and obstacles to be aware of.
He jumped, and lifted himself up into the darkness on top of the elevator car as it was slowing down.
Thrusting a hand down into the car, he reached for her. “Come on,” he whispered, and she grabbed his hand.
He pulled her up, the elevator stopped, and Austin carefully replaced the ceiling and stopped moving just as the doors “dinged” open and they both heard three or four men push their way into the car with big weapons.
Marielle closed her eyes.
Austin side glanced her. He could hear her heart thud, although it was distant like a war drum over a hill. He knew the men below heard nothing. -Don’t move, darling.
-I’m so scared.
-I’m here. I’ll die to protect you. You’re doing so well. I couldn’t have done this without you, Marielle.
-Austin… I’m so scared.
-Marielle. She wouldn’t look at him. He kept his eyes on her, and slowly reached over, touching her hand with his blood-stained fingers. -Masin. Her eyes flicked open. -I’m in love with you. He reminded as if this were new information. She looked at him adoringly, unable to say it back, think it in those moments, or even feel it. He didn’t care. He simply smiled at her as they heard the men start to talk below. -I’m so in love with you.
“No idea… the blood trail stops here. They must have gotten off on a different floor,” one of them was saying into their earpiece. “There’s a blood trail in and out, it seems.” Marielle understood why he’d let the bag drip so much, then. “Anything on the camera?”
The car started moving upward again, and Marielle bent, holding tightly to the roof. He reached over quietly, and took her wrist, and put the tip of his index finger on the other hand to his lips. They formed a silent shhhhh. She nodded, hardly realizing that she’d made a small gasp when the car had started moving.
The car stopped and two of the men got off. Austin closed his eyes and counted boots and footsteps. “We’ll search, they may have realized that they were bleeding, and bandaged themselves up, or maybe they…” the man’s voice trailed off as the doors dinged closed again.
–I desperately want to kiss you again.
Marielle shook her head at him in the darkness. –Kind of a weird topic right now. She mimicked him from the stairwell earlier.
He smirked. -I’d kiss you all night long if you let me… His eyes went to her lips.
He realized that the bottom one was fattening from having been slammed against something. Again, he glanced over her face and head; he’d always loved women with long, gorgeous hair. Hers was gone, now. It didn’t matter. He loved her.
Two years ago – ten months ago, even – he would never have kissed a bald woman, or even entertained thoughts of them together. Right now, he’d have kissed her, touched her, stroked her, made love to her, it didn’t matter. He loved her; not her hair, not her mouth, not her little blood-stained fingers – which were trembling – not her pale skin which was developing bruises; her. -Your fingertips, he continued, knowing that she’d heard most of that thought particular process. -Your cheeks. Your hands. Your shoulders. Your closed eyes. Your forehead. Your ears. I’d kiss every part of you.
-Don’t tell me these things now. Wait…
-Til when? We’re dead.
She shook her head. -Just wait. Our friends are here.
He looked away, spitefully for a moment. -Vincent’s here. He realized. She was thinking about him.
The elevator came to a stop, and another man got off, leaving the last guy alone.
The car started again.
Austin took in a deep breath, and looked to Marielle. Then he leaned in toward her, and gently brushed his mouth against hers, staring into her eyes; waiting for her to tell him no. She didn’t. He gave her another soft, sweet kiss, feeling the tension between them and the way that he was saying I love you in his lips and how they pressed into hers. Then pulled back. -I’m going to jump down in behind him, and break his neck.
Marielle exhaled slowly, and nodded her reply.