He walked into her office, flanked by two of his top officers, Royce and and Somewhat. As per usual, he had the hint of a smirk on his lips, something that fascinated her. She twisted her candy apple red lips into a smile, knowing that he wouldn't understand how cold it looked, that it simply matched the facial features of happiness. Which was what he expected when he graced the mere mortals with his presence.
"Nina Sharp." His voice was so detached and quiet and he halted in front of her desk.
"Captain Windmark. Forgive me for not standing," she said, her voice so, so sweet. "Lieutenant Somewhat, Lieutenant Royce."
The other two observers peered at her, blinking. She hated them to the core of her being. They were the reason she lost her Olivia. They were the reason she had lost both her Bishops.
"How may I be of service?" she asked, her smile curling larger.
Her secretary was staring at her in horror and Nina knew she must look insane, but these creatures made her sick and she refused to hide her disgust.
"I have been told that you have a database of banned literature within the Ministry of Science. I am here to acquire a copy of it." Windmark tilted his head slightly to the left.
"And have mine destroyed?" she asked coolly.
She already had a copy of the database stored at an undisclosed location, so she had no fear of this one being removed.
"I will allow you to keep yours," Windmark replied, his attention turning to look at her stilled mechanical arm.
She was stunned and for a moment her eyes widened. Royce and Somewhat turned to look at Windmark, apparently surprised, too.
"Of course. Shall I have-"
Windmark's eyes returned to hers. "Royce and Somewhat shall collect the copy from your intelligence department."
He turned to look at the two observers and added a rather firm, "Now."
The two lieutenants turned stiffly and walked through the glass walls, disappearing presumably to the second floor of the building. Nina fought back a wave of nausea as he began to walk around her desk to stand at her window. He looked out onto the street for a moment, then lowly commanded,
"Dismiss your lesser from the vicinity."
Nina hesitated for only a second and then touched the intercom button that went to her secretary's earpiece. "Janalyn, please go on your break."
The blonde turned to look at her, then nodded. Once she left, Windmark vanished from her window, only to reappear at the door to her outer office; he pointed two fingers at the lock and closed it, before vanishing and reappearing beside her. He was completely in her personal space and as a reflex, she had her wheelchair move backwards a few inches.
"Your right arm. It is artificial. You are not entirely human," Windmark announced.
"No," she admitted softly.
She wasn't sure what the observer was up to and she didn't trust him for a second. Windmark was full of surprises this afternoon and knelt before her, taking her unresponsive right hand between his. He turned it over, studying the artificial skin she wore like a glove, his face emotionless.
"You can remove the glove, if you want," she ventured, still cautious.
Carefully, finger by finger, he pulled the skin, slipping it neatly off and then folding it, resting it on her right knee. "Fascinating." He studied the fingers and forearm, pushing her loose black sleeve up past her elbow. "Does it have sensation?"
"Mild. Only in a few areas. Mostly for safety reasons." She couldn't admit that it was dead and she missed the feelings of nerves responding from pain or temperature.
"It is unfortunate that the Ministry of Defence required it to be deactivated. It is...quite aesthetically pleasing."
Nina nearly snipped that he could have it reactivated, but held her tongue, keeping her thoughts neutral and rapidly changing.
"Do you wear the skin to believe you fit in with the other members of your society?" he asked, bending her middle and ring fingers back and forth.
"Do you wear olive wool to set yourself apart from the other members of your society?" she asked in return.
His eyes lifted up to look at hers, emerald green that was so cold it nearly made her shiver. His lips flinched in a smile, and she wondered if he was truly amused.
"I'm sorry. It's not my place to question your actions," she apologised, looking away.
She hated him for reminding her so much of William.
"What are you thinking?"
Her eyes widened again. "What?"
"I want to know what you are thinking of," he repeated. "Who is it I remind you of?"
"A man I used to know. He created Massive Dynamic," she said as nonchalantly as she could manage.
"The predecessor to the Ministry of Science," he noted and as he looked at her, she could still feel him absentmindedly stroking her fingers.
"Yes. He was a very brilliant man."
"You think of me as brilliant?"
"No. Powerful. And careful with showing emotion." She nearly frowned.
"I have no emotion," Windmark said and she couldn't miss the note of arrogance in his voice.
She smirked. He was self soothing with her artificial fingers and palm and he didn't even realise it was because he sought comfort. His primal needs to be with another being were overpowering his logic and careful constructed facade of an all-mighty being. But then, she'd always brought that out in powerful men, didn't she? William, Walter, Philip...
"No. You feel no love. No hatred. No passion," she murmured, smiling fondly at him.
"I am not a slave to such...human matters."
'Such egos,' she thought; it was such a familiar place to be that she felt no more fear with him touching her.
"Humans certainly try to fight those desires, don't they?" she purred, letting her voice settle to a universally pleasing tone.
"Do they?"
In that moment, his eyes were filled with innocent curiosity that she almost laughed.
"They do. We know that they get in the way sometimes."
"I am sure only the smart ones understand this. Though their feeble minds would fight so hard to be like us, only to fail." Windmark seemed smitten by this revelation.
"All men fail in the end. Emotion is too powerful."
She wished her fingers could curl around his throat, crushing his windpipe. William would have found that hilarious and she was sure Windmark would be able to appreciate the irony.
"That is why we are superior to you. Why we are needed," Windmark stated so calmly she could have killed him.
"We accomplish far more than you ever could because we are not distracted."
"We learn to work with distractions," she stated boldly, challenging him.
"Is it true that human females colour their lips red to attract a mate?" he asked rather suddenly.
"Not always. It's a matter of aesthetics," she explained, suddenly self conscious of how bright her lips stood out against her pale skin.
She didn't shield that thought well enough and suddenly his smile returned; his hand left hers and moved up to her lips. She inhaled sharply, horrified that he was touching her real skin, her real body. His fingertips were the same temperature as the air, but it was the pressure and slight scent of his flesh that made her react.
"It is aesthetically pleasing to you?" He asked, pulling his fingers back to show that the tips were red. "This colour?"
"It is the colour of power. Dominance. Of passion and love." She felt her heart beating quicker and the fact he was so close to her was now equally pleasing as it was frightening.
"It shows the others your authority over them," he speculated.
"It shows them that I control both lust and reasonable thinking," she clarified. "My inferiors know to fear my red lips. All words that come from them are powerful. All smiles and frowns I give make them tremble before me."
"You have many inferiors."
His eyes were studying her lips and she realised how dry they were; even as she ran the tip of her tongue to wet them, she realised how stupidly primal the action was. But he was flattering her and she couldn't help her reaction to his words.
"Yes." His eyes met hers and she quickly corrected the word. "I do."
"Then you are my equivelant among humans," he stated, bringing his fingers to his own lips, tasting the lipstick.
She gave a curt smile. "That's a charitable assumption."
"Is it?" he asked.
'I am far more powerful than you could ever comprehend, you fool,' she thought with malicious delight.
"You shouldn't lower yourself to my level, Captain," she said kindly.
"It shall be our secret then." He leaned in close, his emotionless eyes staring into hers. "Humans enjoy secrets. They keep them, thinking I won't find them. But when I do, the range of emotions they experience is...exhilarating."
She gave a shallow inhale, unsure what to make of this information.
"I enjoy finding what is hidden and one day, I will search for this secret in your mind," he whispered , his lips brushing across her cheek, both his hands on the armrests of her wheelchair as he leaned in. "I have always wanted to experience pleasure. I'm sure the extraction of the secret will be everything I hypothesis it shall be."
Nina moved her head so that her lips were against his ear. "Is that a secret, too? That you desire to feel something so basic to me?"
He pulled his head back slowly, his leering smile still on his lips. One of his hands came up to hold her by the jaw, gripping her just hard enough to show that he had control of her.
"Now you try to raise yourself to my level. I want to 'understand', I do not want 'have'."
"How vulgar of me," she replied, the defiance hidden inside her making her heart race.
He leaned his face in closely once more, the brim of his hat pressing against her bangs. "I accept your humility."
She found herself smiling and it made his own broaden. Nina knew he mistakenly thought she was happy to receive his approval—like an animal—when in reality she was simply excited to see she was learning more about his kind in this moment than she ever had with the captured observers in her secret labs. His smile vanished and he turned to look towards her office door. Without another word, he pulled away from her, standing up. Royce and Somewhat appeared with a shimmer and movement of the air.
"We have obtained the copy of the database."
Royce was looking between she and Windmark rather intently as though trying to deduce why he would be so close to her. Perhaps he thought she was being interrogated.
"Is there anything else I can do for you, Captain Windmark?" she asked calmly and he studied her face.
"I have obtained what I need," he replied, equally emotionless. "You should not try to hide anything from me, Nina Sharp. I shall find it eventually."
"Thank you, Captain. I shall remember that," she said humbly.
Without any other words, the three observers exited her office, leaving her alone to her thoughts.
Years later, after Walter fixed her mechanical arm and her band of heroes had returned into her life, she found herself facing Windmark and his wrath.
'You cannot hide from me,' his mind told her as she felt it violent attempting to break through the kaleidoscope of thoughts she was using as a barrier between her information and him.
And then when he had her handcuffed to her chair, she decided to let him see that he had never been as powerful as her. She had the gun pointed at him, opening her mind to accept him once more. His smile became wide and he reminded her that bullets meant nothing to him.
She smirked and thought, 'Remember our secret? Our own shared pleasure that you wish to experience? With me?'
His own reply came as an excited hiss. 'Of course.'
She announced for everyone to hear, "I know."
And because he was arrogant, because he thought he was all powerful, he made the mistake of relaxing in his search for what he needed. He had been planning to savour what he longed for and because of that he didn't anticipate her own last trick. Her final play of power. She brought the gun to her head and pulled the trigger.
Life now extinguished, Windmark's own anticipation of satisfaction left, leaving him feeling a certain emptiness that he was familiar with.
She'd stolen from him.
She'd taken what he'd already told her was his. His thought possession. He'd saved it in her to mature and ripen for his own consumption, something that would never be able to be replicated again. An opportunity lost. A secret that was red like her lips, red like her defiance and power. Lined in the olive of his coat and the silver of her hair. And to find NOTHING of fear in her mind. He was...disappointed. Her loss was disappointing. And now he was the only one left with the secret he'd wanted, her blood and brain matter meaningless. Somewhat and Overmorrow behind him seemed unnerved by the brain patterns he was projecting and he quickly shielded them. He ordered everyone to leave the disturbing facility and didn't spare her a second thought.
She had bested him and unfortunately, now he had the pleasure of that as a secret of his own.