{{Unedited}}
Vincent brought scrambled eggs and toast with a croissant and sliced strawberries to Marielle who was sitting on the couch watching the roaring fire.
He set the plate in front of her on the coffee table and left, bringing her back a cup of coffee made the way she liked it.
He’d already showered and dressed for the day and he smelled like something rich and musky, which made her heady and anxious to be near him again after enjoying the night before in all its deep, rough, tender, explicit raw emotion. He was in a white shirt with a collar and he’d left the top open a little, piquing her curiosity. His hair was a little wet and despite attempts at combing it all straight back the way that he always did, little bits of it were falling onto his face, which made him look boyish.
He sat on the coffee table to face her, and leaned over his knees as she nibbled her croissant and gave him a soft smile. He smiled back, and reached over, pinching her chin and gently tipping her face up to look at him a little. Their eyes found one another’s and both paused for a moment before he leaned in and gave her a soft, tender kiss. Then he pulled back and sighed, heavily. She knew that he wanted to say something. His posture gave him away. “Masin, I want to talk to you.” He swallowed hard and proceeded. “I know that this has all been difficult, but… I don’t think that I really considered how difficult until this morning when you had that nightmare,” he explained, softly. He was thumbing her cheek. She tried to hide any hint that she was being bothered by the nightmare. It wasn’t working. “You know that I am selfish. I have done things to get you that nobody- that I should never have done. I keep trying to atone for this, but… I don’t think I’ll ever be able to. I think that I figured that once things started, that we’d just be able to handle them. I forgot that you were not yet accustomed to killing, to being involved in traumatic events,” he sighed and tried to push his hair back. It didn’t stay. “I am. You’re not. This isn’t fair to you.” He stood with a sigh, removing his hand from his face. “This isn’t fair to any of you,” he continued. He turned back to her. “I’m going to end this, and I’m going to make you a promise.” He knelt in front of her. “Masin… Chamber asked me to go with him again at the end of November. I told him that I would, which means that I’ll be gone for Thanksgiving.” Her eyes fluttered for a moment, angrily. He took her hand and paused. “I told him that it was the last time. I told you yesterday, we had already agreed to that, and I will keep my promise with him, but I mean it- no more,” he said, flatly. Her green orbs widened and she cocked her head at him. He nodded. “I will give up this life. I have money, I have a space in France that I own and I plan on building us a house there.” He paused, and reached into his pocket. “I want you to marry me,” he stated, opening a sapphire, velvet box with a ring inside. It flashed, dazzling her… silver, with a single diamond on top. Her eyes filled with tears and adoration as she looked back up at him; then the hesitation flashed in her eyes. He looked like he expected it. “You don’t have to answer right now. I understand where we’re at. But I want you to think about it and give me your answer before the end of the year.” She understood the significance of that. He wanted her to answer before Austin left so he’d have her heart secured. “We’ll finish this up with Cory, go to my home dimension, end the Valorant there, and end this fight.”
She was staring at the ring, “And what about the fact that we’ve started this and- and it won’t ever end?” She drummed her lip, “Cory has communicated with how many more dimensions, now? Others will be coming in…trying to steal radianite, trying to plant more bombs. Do we just… let it all happen?”
He lightly cleared his throat. “If you and I leave together, Chamber has agreed to join Valorant sometimes to help. I also think that you and I will come back and help sometimes, too. But only if you want. But Valorant will have him if they need him.”
“And…what if we don’t leave together?” She asked with a tone of trepidation.
He was a wall, unresponsive to her obvious bait. “We will leave together, Masin,” he finished.
“Yeah, but… we started this. Shouldn’t we stay as long as possible to finish it?”
He sighed. “No, Marielle. We didn’t start this. I did.” He stood away for a moment in thought and Marielle was taken by the fact that he seemed apologetic today. He was taking responsibility for his actions. Was this because he had a moment where he thought that he might lose her to Austin? “I’ve spoken to Liam; he agrees that if I help with ending Cory, that my side of everything is done. These things would have occurred whether I had started a fight or not, eventually. For whatever reason, this world and my dimension were both a bit ahead, but all dimensions are trying to break through to others.” He looked over his left shoulder. “And not for good reasons.” His tone was foreboding. “Other worlds have always been trying to get to ones that are more stable, have more radianite, have less adverse effects. They’ll always be coming here or to others to try and steal plans, weapons, resources, and more…we have nothing to do with all of that, Masin. We must stop Cory. That’s it.”
Her eyes narrowed in thought for a moment. She had been so busy with the weekend, and what had happened and the issues with Tundra and his plaguing of both Austin and her nightmares that she’d completely forgotten about Cory. “What is Nightwatch doing right now?”
“My guess? He’s home, planning. Even though he’s lost Tundra…” he looked off distantly, “and trust me, he’s not happy about that,” he said under his breath, “he believes he’s still won this war.”
“Because he’ll come back and try again?”
“Or he’ll try to kill me…”
She sighed and looked off. “How come he hasn’t already done that, yet?”
“The larger teleporters have a cooldown… similar to the one that I use, except it’s much longer. It’s the only reason that I felt safe to leave you here to go to Cambodia. Those teleporters can be used once a day twice in a row, but they exceed power capabilities after that. They require at least two weeks to be fired up again, otherwise they risk overload.”
She was deep in thought as she looked down into the blue box again, smiling softly at the ring. She took it out and slipped it over her ring finger and this action alone made his eyes widen a little as he stared. It was gorgeous on her hand; she could imagine wearing it forever. Then her expression darkened a little. “Vincent?” She asked. He turned to her, fully; his hands in his pockets. She blushed a little looking down from his attractive visage. “Was this my ring in your world?” He swallowed and nodded. “Have you had it this whole time?” He nodded again. A strange pang spread through her stomach, as if remembering again that he’d planned all of this and that somehow, that felt violative… tumultuous. She smiled at the ring, slipped it off her finger, and put it back into the box and closed it. He tilted his head at her. “I’m not saying no. I’m saying that I have a lot to think about.”
He came back to her and sat down. “I know. I also know where you stand with Austin. You love him, I understand. He’s charming, and he’s seduced you. You’re confused about what to do there.” He shook his head. “I was very angry at first, but Chamber sort of… laid it out for me in Cambodia. I’m a selfish man. Being selfish has meant that I have not considered how difficult this was for you, or your feelings as much as I should have during any of this.” He was shaking his head, sorrowfully. He took in a deep pull of air, “I will stop treating you like you are weak. You’re not. Masin, my reasoning for that is based in fear.” His eyes told her that he was in some memory. “I do not believe that you are weak, but I cannot lose you. I can’t do that again. Do you understand me?” She nodded. “You are capable, and you are strong. But I’m not- not in this area.” He pinched her chin, lightly. “Which makes me weak… not you.”
“No, Vincent,” she sighed, “it makes you afraid,” she corrected. “And fear is not always weakness. I understand. I don’t want to lose you, either.” She looked at the sapphire box on the table. “Fear isn’t weakness until you start letting it stop you from doing what you want, or stop others from doing what they want,” she flashed him a pointed look.
He nodded, understanding her meaning, “I don’t know… how I’m going to work through that, but I am determined to try for you,” he whispered, gently stroking her cheek. Then he looked at the time. “Shower. We need to get to Valorant. Liam wants to talk with everyone after lunch.” He put his coffee to his mouth to drink.
She paused, drumming her bottom lip and looking off distantly as she spoke, “Vincent,” she whispered. She saw gooseflesh on his arm. “Don’t kill Austin…” she pleaded. He closed his eyes, drifting. “He’s… so lost right now.”
Vincent swallowed hard, opened his eyes, turned to her, and forced a weak smile accompanied by a small nod. “I promise,” he replied, ghosts dancing around his head.
They took just a few minutes to finish breakfast together. She showered quickly, threw on some black jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt and they headed off.
The entire ride she felt distant and uncertain. He’d just asked her to marry him. He’d also just told her that he understood that she was also in love with Austin, and he’d made it clear that he wanted her answer before the end of the year.
Why am I with Vincent? Why? She found herself asking as they passed by the local shop where she’d purchased all the food that she’d made for him the first week that they had been talking. Is it because I need him? No, Austin’s right, I don’t need anyone. Is it because deep down I want him? I do want him; I love the way he makes love to me, and even though he’s not the most handsome man I’ve ever seen, I am so deeply attracted to him, and his strength, and his control, that he just makes me melt. I can imagine that life that he wants even if it’s not one hundred percent what I want, I can imagine it. I can see myself in that little cottage out in the South of France… making delicious food for us every night, running in the grass in our bare feet, making love under trees and in the soft grass. Quiet, peaceful… finally things have calmed down a bit; the storm passing. I can imagine Christmas’s there… oh my gosh, they’d be so lovely! I’d twist tree branches together to make wreathes, and bake turkeys with cranberry sauce and make cornbread stuffing and potato cakes for Vincent and we’d cuddle and kiss, and fight, and just… love each other… She sighed and leaned on her hand. And yet, it feels like a dream. I wanted to be an agent. I wanted the adventure, the turn around the world… I wanted these guns in my body. She scratched at her back; they were really bothering her in that moment. Because I wanted to use them… to aim, to shoot, to protect those who I loved. It’s why I trained. It’s why I joined Valorant in the first place and kept up with their training… after I knew that I was altered there was never going to be any ordinary life for me… She shook her head and tried to hide some tears. And then what if this world gets destroyed anyways because our doubles keep coming through and trying to steal more radianite or kill us off because they just… don’t like that we exist? Is it better that I am with Austin because we fight so well together? Is it possible that the world actually needs us side by side?
She watched as Valorant Headquarters came into view.
No. No, that’s silly. No one needs us. The same way that I don’t need Austin… but I want him. He was outside the apartment this morning, wasn’t he? That’s whose voice I heard. Is he ever going to grow? Then again… She flicked her gaze to Vincent as he turned. Is Vincent? He seems to want to, badly and in truth I know that what I just did was horrible, and sinful, and I feel like I can’t judge either of these men right now.
She shuddered when they parked. Once again, she’d have to face another day with Austin next door to her.
The two of them exited the car, Marielle scratching at her shoulders and back a little as her guns spun and whirred within her skin. Vincent caught this and walked behind her, his hand and fingers wrapping over her shoulder.
He stopped her walking for a moment, and gently scratched and pounded. “I’m sorry that there is just nothing to help this,” he whispered into her ear. She sighed and leaned back against him momentarily as they stood in the parking structure.
Realizing that they were in the way if anyone drove by, Vincent gently tugged her to lean on a column with him, where he held her against his chest and rubbed up and down her back and arms. It seemed that he had no time frame for stopping and Marielle breathed deeply, feeling a twinge of sadness as she realized that each movement felt good, but only momentarily relieved the skin crawling that made her feel more anxious. She wasn’t a generally anxious person, so these feelings were amplified by this new condition. No sooner than she wondered if he sensed these thoughts in her that he said, “I love you, Marielle.”
She smiled against his chest as he continued to comfort her. “I love you, Vincent,” she whispered back.
“I know you’re confused. I still love you.”
She was confused. All of this was confusing. She remembered Austin telling her that she and him were “trauma bonded…” but she found herself wondering if it wasn’t she and Vincent who were trauma bonded, not she and Austin. Vincent had created the problem and he was trying to fix it… and she asked herself a question that made her skin crawl more. Did Vincent cause all of this on purpose so he could fix all of it on purpose so that she would think more highly and fondly of him?
“Sometimes this gets better after a few minutes of rubbing,” he whispered, still caring for her skin.
“I think it feels a little better,” she said starting to pull away.
He pulled her back. “They can wait a minute,” he purred, leaning in and meeting lips with her.
She melted against him and the power that he had over her and before she had time to protest, or any desire to stop, he pulled Trademark out of his arm, set it down, and gently moved her behind the column. They were basically obscured from most angles, and she understood where this was going. He bent and began to gently kiss her neck. “I didn’t feel that we were done this morning,” he said gently as he thumbed her cheek. “Do you want me?” She always wanted him. He worked quickly, and they disappeared into one another as they engaged in a quick lover’s session. When they were done, he kissed her forehead. “I needed that,” he whispered.
Footsteps caused them both to freeze as they waited for them to pass. A reflection from a car nearby told her that this was Sabine and John. They were quickly gone, none the wiser.
As she held him, she closed her eyes, wishing to pass through him, trying it. Nothing happened. He looked down at her. “Trying to pass through me, love?” He whispered.
She nodded against his chest, then she pulled back a little, and zipped her pants.
He did the same and both froze again as another pair of shoes crossed the path in front of them.
-You’re not fooling anyone; I know you’re there. Austin’s voice broke into her thoughts.
She sighed. -Well, good morning to you, too.
-Oh, I’m sorry… Good morning, Marielle. Is it hot in here or is it just you?
She tried to hide a diminutive smile, but Vincent saw it. “What’s he saying?”
She rolled her eyes and shook her head as her cheeks tinted red a bit. “Let’s get in there,” she whispered, gesturing toward Valorant with her head.
-I thought you weren’t in a hurry.
-Hush. She pulled her shirt down over her stomach a little. -Did you hear all of that?
-Kind of wish that I hadn’t heard any of it. There was a pause as Austin came closer to them. -Does he still want to kill me?
-I don’t exactly think that he wants to be best friends.
They followed after him until they were almost in stride with one another. Austin nodded without turning his head, “Vincent.”
“Austin,” Vincent replied dismissively.
-I’m sorry about last night.
She looked him over and wanted to run. He looked far too delicious this morning in a black trench coat, brown turtle neck and earphones dangling from his ears to have any contact with him. -I know. But you need to know that I’m serious.
Austin scoffed lightly. -Yeah, I think I’m getting that.
-Let’s talk later.
-Okay, darling… Marielle. Sorry.
“How was your time in Cambodia?” Austin asked. It was an honest question, but the moment that it passed his lips, he realized how unintentionally antagonistic it sounded.
Vincent cleared his throat. “Difficult. I was concerned with things here. Bumped into your next target.”
“You’re not supposed to know about that,” Austin growled under his breath.
“I didn’t, but Chamber did.”
Marielle shrank. “Please don’t do this,” she whispered.
Austin jerked to a stop and sighed. He turned to Vincent and Marielle who had also stopped walking. “So, we’re straight?” He took a step toward Vincent, but kept space and the kind of expression on his face that said that he could take him, but that he wasn’t looking for a fight. “You no longer have to worry about me.”
Vincent paused along with Marielle for a moment. “That’s what she said.”
“Did you just that’s what she said?” Marielle asked trying to lighten the mood.
Both men looked at her, and both men smiled. -Just another reason that I love you, Marielle.
Marielle shook her head and kept walking. “Listen, Liam told me that he wants you upstairs with Klara. Goodluck, there,” she said with a heavy sigh as she spoke to Vincent. She walked backward for a moment. “And you and I have meetings- me with Mateo and Tala, and you with John… Goodluck, there,” she said to Austin.
Both men, walking side by side smiled at her, again -Austin’s small and sad, Vincent’s bright.
They entered the building, and Marielle gave Vincent a quick kiss before she and Austin got off the elevator on their floor and Vincent continued up to the biochemistry level, flashing her a look before the doors closed that read as be good.
Austin and Marielle stood for a moment before they turned to go to their offices looking down. “Guess it’s just easier to pretend,” Austin whispered. She took hold of his wrist and pulled him down the hall and into her office where she shut the door quietly, and glanced up, making sure that Chocolate was still there, and safe. “You really care about that bear, don’t you?”
“I love him,” she replied with a nod and a soft smile at the stuffed animal.
Austin let out a long sigh and sat on the couch. “So, I guess I have to say that I’m sorry about last night, again?”
“No, it was my fault. I shouldn’t have started the camera with you.”
A brief pause. “So, why did you?”
She twisted her fingers. He watched it for a moment. “I wanted to know that you were okay,” she reiterated.
He stood from the couch, but kept space between them. “That’s not all that it was and you know it. If that’s all that it was, you wouldn’t have been looking over your shoulder every two minutes like a scared rabbit.”
She looked back at him. “Listen, I told him that I wasn’t going back to you, and I mean that. I understand that we are struggling with feelings for one another and I know that this weekend didn’t help-”
“Marielle…” He cut her off and chuckled silently, “this weekend solidified for me that I will love you until the end of time. Un-until the sun…crashes into the earth,” he gestured wildly toward the sky. “I wanted this weekend more than I wanted… I don’t know, air,” he snapped. “I also hated it because I knew that you’d be playing this game until I left for China.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “What game is that?”
He closed more of the gap between them, “The,” he lifted a gloved hand and started rolling it with each list off, “it’s over, I don’t love you anymore, I don’t want to be with you, game.”
She fell silent for a moment. “I didn’t say any of that,” she hissed.
“I know!” He barked, and even though she jumped a little, she was always struck by the fact that even angry with her, his voice was still on the softer, gentler side. “And that’s why this is so hard.” He growled through his teeth. “You’re saying it by separating us.” He reached for her wrist and when his fingers clasped around it, she phased and pulled away from him. She watched his face tighten a little at this, but he didn’t try it again. The expression he was giving her looked like he knew that he’d lost control for a minute, was sorry, and wasn’t going to try again.
“I told you if you can’t behave, I will cut off contact with you.”
“Behave, huh? Interesting choice of words,” he said darkly. She swallowed and looked down between them, knowing that he was on to her. “All I know here, is that you’re doing something. You’re doing something, and I don’t know what it is, but you are. You’ve worked something out or figured something out and it’s killing me, Marielle, because I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now. What move I’m supposed to make.”
“Make any move that feels correct,” she said tightly.
“You don’t want me to do that.” His jaw tensed.
“No, I do.”
-So, I can grab you, put you to the door and push my tongue into your mouth? She looked away and wandered to the window, looking out. “See? You don’t want me to do what feels correct.”
She steeled herself, straightening her back and wondering what the next right way to reply was. She doubled down, “No, I do.” She repeated.
“Then do you want me?” He asked, sauntering a little closer to her. “Or did Vincent satisfy you in the parking garage?” He pressed. She kept her thoughts turned off but knew that her expression was showing him how guarded and apprehensive she was at his approach. She wasn’t even meeting his eyes anymore. “Because you know very well that I have desired to use that desk to show you my love for you.”
“Love? Or sex?”
He was still slowly approaching; predator and prey. “Both. I think I’ve made it pretty clear and I think that you know that I only used to want to seduce you for my pleasure. Now I want to do it because I love you, and to give you pleasure as well.” He cornered her a little. “First, if that’s what it takes… only if that’s what you want.” She felt her throat go dry as she breathed in her favorite scent in the world. “Which by the way? You can add to my list of nevers… I’ve never wanted to please someone because I loved them. That was always a chore- an end to get what I wanted. Not with you.”
She stared into nothing. Her thoughts betrayed her for a moment, as she thought -Was that it? Her mind wondering if he’d just done the “obvious” thing that would mean that her charade was over. Then she remembered that it would be obvious. So, no. However, these thoughts were buried, and he didn’t hear them.
He narrowed his eyes at her, “Was what it, Marielle? Wh-”
“Was that all that you wanted to say to me,” she lied.
“You’re a terrible liar,” he scoffed.
She closed her eyes, “No, we’re you and me, and sometimes thoughts and feelings come through that mean little to nothing or the context is difficult to explain.”
“Try?” She remained silent. She met eyes with him, and he could see how guarded she was. “You’re afraid,” he noted.
“Why were you outside my house this morning?”
He sighed, raked his hair and turned away from her. “No point in trying to make something up – I wanted to be, simple as that.”
“Why?”
“You hung up on me. You left me alone and wondering if you hated me. I apologized; you turned your phone off. My anxiety was through the roof, Marielle.” He looked distant. “I was up at 4A.M. I had to run, anyways. My feet took me to you, and I let them. I wanted to be there… I wanted to be near you. I wanted to be able to hear you dream. Remember that over the weekend I held you as one of those nightmares swirled in your head and I entered that dream and tried to kill him and you told me that I had to kill him as often as it too-” he paused, something clicking in his head. She held her breath for a moment, terrified. The silence was so thick that her ears started to ring. “Is that it, Marielle? Is my past so terrifying to you that you think I’m going to become Tundra?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think that you will,” she said. But the way she’d said it was odd. There was a little hitch on the word think.
He processed, but couldn’t understand it. “Then… is my past that difficult for you?”
She nodded. “Yes,” she said quietly.
He closed his eyes, hating himself; disgusted with himself. The words, you’re disgusting used to be Erin’s, and hers… now they were his, and they were in Tundra’s mouth as he danced around Austin’s mind, banging on all corners. “What am I supposed to do now?”
She shrugged a single shoulder, “You could find a girlfriend.”
He made a pinched, disgusted face. “Are you kidding me?” He growled. “You know that’s not going to happen.”
“Why not? Kirra really likes you. I mean, more than really, I think she might actually be in love with you.”
“She is,” he said flatly. “At least she’s in love with the parts of me that she knows.” He licked his lips and shook his head as he took her face into his hands, “I want you.”
She pulled back. “You can’t have me. Not anymore. Either we continue on the way we were before the plane, before Italy, before the contract, before the hand holding- we continue on as friends or I will shut you out, entirely.” She looked off toward the chemistry lab. “Now, I know that he’s going to want you to watch me during Thanksgiving, he’s going to be gone again.”
“Answer me a question, Marielle… if he doesn’t want us to be together, why does he continue to put us together? And why does he continue to leave you alone with me? And during special holidays, and-”
“He knows that you’re in love with me.”
He sighed, realization flickering across his expression. “So, I’ll die to protect you.” He put a fist to the wall above his head. “Nothing like being exploited for my feelings,” he said under his breath.
“It’s his last time.”
Then his eyes grew wide with realization mixed with terror. “He asked you to marry him, didn’t he?” He stepped toward her again. “Officially.”
She swallowed hard, her eyes darting about the room to avoid his powerful gaze. “Yes.” She said quietly. “He gave me the ring this morning.”
“He gave you his dead wife’s ring?” He asked, and his breathing was becoming jerky and pinched. She understood his point and couldn’t argue it in any way. She’d had the same thoughts, wearing Marielle from Vincent’s dimension’s ring was odd. “What did you say, I mea- did you give him an answer?” She was silent. “Marielle, did you say yes?”
She shrugged a shoulder. “I didn’t give him an answer yet.”
He breathed a small sigh of relief and his eyes briefly fluttered closed. “Are you going to?” He asked with a hard swallow. She could see his entire Adam’s apple move.
“I don’t know,” she replied. He put a hand to his chest and tried to breathe deeply. “I want us to be friends again,” she whispered.
He tried to repress another disgusted face. “Like I said last night, the problem, Marielle, is that we were never just friends. We were always best friends who were secretly in love with each other.”
“I understand…” she was whispering so quietly now that he almost couldn’t hear her, “which means that not much is different right now. But my answer is no.”
He closed his eyes, feeling the weight of her words once more and leaned the back of his head against the wall. He cocked his head slightly to the side, giving her an ironic smile. “Paper or plastic, darling?” he whispered, his eyes watering.
“Are you conceding?”
“I have no choice.”
“You have whatever choice you want.”
“No, you made it very clear that I do not.” He looked up, perhaps trying to hide the fact that his tears were winning. “I will do what you say,” he breathed. Then he took in a jerky breath and met eyes with her again. She winced, feeling the twinge of pain that he was experiencing beginning to move through her own stomach. “But I want you to know that no matter how much I smile, play with you like nothing’s wrong, joke,” he pinched his lips together as if trying not to let something out. It also won, and a small sob escaped, “pretend…” Her eyes rimmed as well. “That that’s it… it’s all a lie. I’ll stop talking about it to the best of my ability. I’ll stop trying to keep you. But not before I tell you that it’s all a lie. I’m dying inside and I want you to be aware of that.”
She nodded, pressing her fingertips into her abdomen as if trying to remind him that she could feel it, too. “I am.”
He straightened his back. “And all that I want is your comfort, and I can’t have it. Not the way that I want or need it.”
She swallowed and took his hand, squeezing. Then she pulled him into a hug. “But you do have it,” she whispered before letting him go. He needed that hug to last ten minutes longer. “Now go get ready to talk to John,” she commanded softly.
He took in a deep breath, let it out slowly, and put his hands over hers for a moment before turning and going to the door. When he took his hands away, something was in hers. He gave her the kind of smile that was all fake through his sad expression before he left. She looked down at what he’d left in her hands: the note that had come with Chocolate the bear. She glanced at the trash can, he’d taken it out when she was at the window, and returned it to her.
She read it over again.
Most perfect and lovely Masin,
It was enough. You are enough.
– Yours always, your Austin.
She breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that she hadn’t lost this forever and quickly went to Chocolate, lifted him, slipped the note under the bear, sat him on it, and went to her desk.
It didn’t take long for him to talk to her again.
–So, do you think John will knock on the door or jus– She heard him jump and something knocked over.
“Hello, John,” Austin through the wall. –Never mind. I-I have my answer…
“You didn’t see that coming,” John’s voice from inside Austin’s office.
“No, no, I think I did. Just not right then.”
Marielle giggled. -You okay in there?
-Pencils are all over the floor, but I’ll manage.
Squelching outside her door signaled that Mateo was there along with Wingman. She welcomed both in.
***
Vincent slowly approached Klara from behind his tie looped over his hands. She saw him coming in her computer screen and paused, watching his reflection. He stopped when he noted this.
Turning to him, she gave him a faint smile and quickly looked down.
He closed the gap between them, and slipped his tie over her neck. There was silence for a moment. “In my dimension, you and I were very good friends. You were one of my best friends, actually.”
“You killed my double,” she noted. “So, you killed your friend.”
He nodded, his eyes welling. “Oui.” It was sad, and whispered. Silence as he let go of the tie and let it fall against her. “They were trying to hurt Marielle. They would have taken her to Nightwatch… and to Tundra.” He put one hand on the back of her seat, and the other on the desk, leaning in a bit. If she hadn’t been gay, and he’d been romantically interested in her, anyone looking might have mistaken it for a kiss attempt.
“Why didn’t Tundra and Nightwatch come in first?”
“Testing the waters? I don’t know, really,” Vincent replied, sadly as he adjusted his glasses. “Knowing how Cory works, I am thinking that he used the others as guinea pigs without telling them that that’s what he was doing. It’s sick, really.”
There was silence again. “I wanted to be your friend. I wanted to like you. I thought that we had some things in common.” Klara looked off, distantly. “Then you killed everyone.”
“You mean at Everette Linde?”
“Yes,” she replied quickly. “There were a lot of people there that had nothing to do with-”
He cut her off, “they were working with Nightwatch, er- Cory, Klara.” She swallowed. “Another part of Kingdom attempting to buy and sell secrets and radianite, selling out this dimension to invaders.”
Her expression was an attempt at trying to hide her rage. “Am I supposed to like you again, now?”
He took in a deep breath, avoided her gaze, then looked back to her. “Nobody likes me, now,” he said dismissively as he glanced up and around the room. Sabine was avoiding eye contact with them; Kirra was doing the same. Han was there, and she wasn’t looking in their direction. John teleported; Vincent assumed to Austin, he knew that Austin had a meeting with him.
There was a pause. “I understand that you do things because you think that you know the best way…”
He cut her off, “Because I’m selfish, Klara. I do things because I’m selfish. I’m trying to work on that.”
“Yeah, reevaluate your tactics,” she growled.
“I don’t want this life anymore.” He shook his head and hung it between them momentarily. “I want to do better.”
“If normal- regular you means killing everyone? Then yes, I’d say it’s time to be smarter,” she replied curtly and she turned typing on her computer and avoiding looking at him again, but he didn’t move. So, she slowly stopped, and eventually looked at him again. “You’re still here.”
He gave her a sad, weak smile. “Oui, I’m still here, mon amie,” he whispered. Then he looked down a bit, “and you’re still wearing my tie,” he noted. She looked down at it as if she’d forgotten that he’d done that. “Klara, I want you to forgive me. Both of me…” he explained referring to Chamber as well. “We need you as a friend. You were- are a good friend.”
She crossed her arms for a moment in thought, and adjusted her glasses on her face. “My double couldn’t forgive you, could she? That’s why she joined the others?”
“I am the most hated and untrustworthy man in this group… I don’t want to be that anymore. I don’t know how to be anything else. But I want to try, and the only way that I’m going to succeed is if I have friends to help me, and help guide me. Someone I can trust.”
She looked deep in thought for a few moments, distant, as she was considering his words. “You want me to help you?”
“In more ways than one.” He cleared his throat and finally stood, taking, and adjusting his tie, and unbuttoning his sleeves as he rolled them up, and rebuttoning. “I need something.”
“Why did I know that’s where this was going?” She asked with an eyeroll.
“No… no, listen, I do need something, however, I would have come to you to ask forgiveness anyways. I miss our talks.”
She took his words in with a nod. “So do I.”
“Then let’s talk?” He reached into his white lab coat pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. “I think it’s possible to put down two of my teleporters, but I need your help on this. The problem isn’t the teleporter, I can make several. It’s the-”
She glanced over the paper. “Execution,” she finished for him.
“Will you forgive me?” He asked. She took the paper from him, looking it over. It was a diagram of a second teleporter for his arm. “I need you, Klara.”
She leaned on her other arm, palming her mouth as she stared at the paper, then him, then the paper again. “I forgive you.” She smiled at him. “Come back to me in an hour or so.”
He nodded, “That gives me time,” he stood and looked off towards the courtyard. “I need a drink.”
He meandered into the kitchen, found the bottle of Grey Goose along with two shot glasses, gripped it in his hand and went out to the courtyard and to the little spot where both Tala and Sasha were buried. The dirt still hadn’t settled or grown grass; it was deep brown and turned over.
Vincent sighed, poured a shot, and put it on the top of Sasha’s headstone as he sat down at the side of the gravesite. He poured himself a shot, and held it up. “I promised you this, and I’m sorry that it has to be this way,” he whispered. Then he threw it back, allowing the acrid flavor to burn him before he swallowed. “Rest well, mon ami…” He chuckled silently as tears rimmed his eyes. Chamber had been right in Cambodia; things were set now that had no change coming. “As for me? I have no friends left… I killed them all, with no regrets,” he whispered bitterly, wiping away a single tear.
He sat looking at the spot, glancing sadly at Tala’s gravestone, looking at the rest of the grass beside them. It was foreboding how big of an area this Valorant had set aside for the dead. How many more gravestones would line it before they were done?