All the king's horses and all the king's men can't put the past together again. So let's remember: Don't try to saw sawdust. -Dale Carneige

Here's part three of Actress. It's a direct follow up, taking place the same day as the last, and about three or four days after the very end of chapter 6 of Reconciliation (as i've said before, they sort of go hand in hand, this one's just Techna-based because she doesn't get enough attention in the show.

Chapter 3

Why the elevator wasn't working was beyond her.

Why the elevator wasn't working was infuriating her.

Techna pressed her hand against the scanner again, harder this time. The light on the screen flickered, but didn't scan, and then it beeped and a message appeared above it: Remove hand and try again.

"I don't bloody want to try again," she seethed. But still she took her hand and calmly moved it away, flexing her fingers. If it didn't work this time, she'd give up and take the damn stairs because this was just getting ridiculous. She'd designed the device herself; she'd dealt with every last detail herself and even rewired it when the hardware started to glitch out. Why it was acting out now, she had no idea but in all honesty she didn't care. (Okay, so she cared a little. But only because it was another thing going wrong for her.)

She pressed her palm flat to the screen and in a desperation to be out of the suddenly claustrophobic elevator, she channeled her magic only a little (as, on principle, in a society based on the technological advancements rather than magical ones, she usually chose not to use hers) and urged the scanner to work. She reached inside and twisted the circuiting and then after only a second the panel lit up. Her jaw was tense the entire time it took for the scanner to acknowledge her prints and after it beeped she dropped her hand, gripping her briefcase with both bone-white knuckled hands. She licked at her lips and glared at the numbers that changed above the door and cursed them for not going by faster (and that cursing turned into her pushing just a little further into the inner workings of the damn thing, pushing it just a little faster).

When she exited the elevator on the fourteenth floor and stalked out of it, her sharp heels clicking loudly against the floor. Their apartment was one of only five on the floor and yet she'd never taken the time to get to know any of them.

Screw them, she thought bitterly. They didn't care for her any more than she did for them.

Techna reached into her purse, pulled out a cigarette, and placed it between her lips. She keyed in a code to the holographic number pad on the wall and pressed her hand to the sensor pad and stood back while the door breezed open. Sometimes she really wished she that things were the way they'd been before—when not everything was automated and things between her and…him weren't so stressed.

Wishing never got her a damn thing in her life, though.

The door closed behind her and she swung her purse onto the kitchen counter, nicked a lighter from the table, and headed out to the balcony off her bedroom—because it couldn't really be considered his anymore. The bloody prat hadn't set foot in that room for months.

The thing that she loved so much about the window in her room was that it took up the whole wall. When it was opened, half the wall moved with it and it was just a huge gap that opened up to the outside. All it was was breathing room and it was so much breathing room that for once she didn't feel stressed when it was there. It was, to her, like the whole world opened up to her and she could think clearly for once without worries of remaining within the carefully placed lines that she'd involuntarily built up around herself. They were the very lines that were keeping her exactly where she was in her job and they were the very lines that on some level of her very parallel mind she knew was keeping her from getting anywhere with Ti—him in the rest of her life.

She lit the cigarette and took a drag, blowing the smoke out without even tasting it. He could make a little more of an effort, too, though!

She wasn't even that subtle. It was a mantra and she knew that it wasn't entirely the truth—she wasn't subtle, but she wasn't horribly blunt like some skank would be, either (okay, so there'd been that one time…but he hadn't even noticed! She'd been practically slobbering on his fucking neck and he…he'd just nodded and said 'that's great, Tech, I'm almost done here' without looking away from the gadget he'd been fooling around with and she'd ended up falling asleep on the bed alone in silk lingerie and when she woke up, he was still just almost done and it was still great).

Unless she was mad at him for something at work, he hardly even noticed her anymore.

"Wow," a rough voice said from off to her left. Techna choked on the inhale of smoke that she'd taken and while she coughed she turned her head to stare at its owner. Musa was huddled in a ball in one of the uncomfortable, extremely modern chrome chairs on the balcony and hugging very tightly to the back of it with a half terrified expression adorning her oriental face. "That's some serious mess-age you've got fluttering around in your heart. It's got me buzzed."

The android (that's what she was to the world now, after all) composed herself and placed a hand to her chest as she coughed up the last of the foreign contaminants from her windpipe. "Musa?" she inquired in her refined way. "What on earth are you doing up here—I mean, out here?"

Musa shrugged and her eyes darted to the balcony. "Your elevator kicked me out of the building so I decided to fly up here instead. I was locked out."

Techna glanced down over the side of the ledge to the street lined with hovering cars fourteen stories down. For some reason, she herself got nervous at the thought of having to fly up so high. She leant back against the rail and took in another long drag. "What do you mean the elevator kicked you out?"

Musa's eyes were watching her with wide eyes. "You said I just had to press my hand against the glowing thingy, right?"

She let a small grin out. "More or less."

"Yeah. That didn't work so I hit it with a really low power orb and then it started glowing red and then the next thing I know I'm being blasted from the building out onto the street by nothing." That explained why the elevator wasn't working—with no way to interpret them, mixing magic laced with and powered by emotions with technology usually ended up in a high-tech meltdown on the computers end. The short fairy rubbed at her elbow. "Wish they'd had the common sense to put some throw pillows on the sidewalk across the street."

And then she laughed, a genuine laugh that made her feel much less weighed down than she had for the whole day. "Right, that's entirely sensible. After all, so many people are evicted at the doorstep that there's no reason not to have them." Her smile was bright, her teeth were perfectly white, and dimples appeared on her cheeks before they hollowed out with another inhale. She exhaled. "Didn't Timmy key you into the building's security? He'd said he would three days ago."

Finally pushing herself away from the cold chair, Musa stood (her legs shook, which struck Techna as very odd because Musa was the most graceful person she knew) and leant back against the wall, her hands groping the building. "I guess he didn't. I wouldn't blame him, though. He probably just forgot." She'd stepped inside the open glass wall and plopped down on the floor just inside—and suddenly looked much less freaked out.

Techna's face hardened. "I'd blame him."

"I kinda picked that up from the parade of angsty bitterness that you're starring in. I also picked up that you're not talking about the elevator." The girl's blue eyes caught on the lit cigarette for the first time and she frowned. "When did you start smoking?" It wasn't that she'd never done it, it was just a habit so entirely un-Techna that it surprised her.

Techna shrugged nonchalantly. "Some time between then and now." She took the last drag of the thing and then stubbed it out into a self-cleaning ash tray that dissolved the butt once she'd let it go. Techna ran her hand over her pencil skirt, smoothing out the lines, and shrugged. "It's just calming. Nothing too big. Don't tell me that you're going to start moaning at me about it? It'd be awfully hypocritical of you if you did and I don't want to hear it."

"Moody enough, Tech?" This wasn't like her, as long as she'd known the pink-haired woman. She could get snappish, but she'd never…this just wasn't like her. "I was just curious. I'd never pegged you for a smoker."

She was right. Techna's face fell into a frown and she slumped over with her back against the railing as she slid down to the ground. The technology fairy ran a hand over her face and sighed. "I'm sorry Musa. I don't know what got into me." She really didn't. She didn't mean to be so cross…with everyone.

Musa laid down on her stomach and propped her head up on her fists. "I know exactly what's gotten into you. You want me to make you up a list or do you just wanna spill it yourself? Because I'm sensing a lot of denial from you."

Inside, Techna blanched. She was just reading her as if she were a book—and she hadn't even given her permission. She wouldn't have minded so much if she had asked—but she knew that was a lie. And she didn't like lying but even more she didn't like people knowing more about her thoughts than she did. Techna crossed one long leg over the other and stared Musa back in the eyes. "I don't know what you mean. Everything's fine."

"There it goes again." Musa crossed her arms over her chest and her eyes narrowed. "Techna, as your friend, there's a point where denial becomes outright lying. One more time and you're there."

She spoke slowly. "Everything's. Fine." She started picking at the hem of her skirt, her brows drawn together in frustration. "If it wasn't fine, Timmy would realize that something was wrong. Wouldn't he?"

The door to the bedroom whizzed open and the orange-haired specialist in question lanked in with a smile on his face—he'd apparently gotten over the ordeal in the conference room; Techna was still holding the grudge. Timmy straightened his glasses and gave a pleasant greeting to Musa, who waved her fingers in return with only the slightest fraction of a forced smile upon her lips (nope, she was focused). He turned to Techna—this was the farthest into the room that he'd been since…the last night they'd been together. (The thought stopped her flat and the blood in her head went cold; was it something she'd done? Oh dear Circuits, she really hoped that wasn't the case.)

"Hey Tech," Timmy said happily enough. She thought back to their conversations since that night, just because it was on her mind, and she realized…no, he wasn't acting any different; he'd always just acted like Timmy always. So then why?

Techna turned her head away from his gaze. No matter the reason, she wanted things to be different. And no matter why they were the way they were, she almost wasn't sure she wanted to fix them because she wasn't sure if Timmy wanted to. "Timmy," she said back coldly. Timmy didn't pick up on the bitter edge of her voice, but the resident musical fairy heard it like drums and whistles beating in an amphitheatre the size of Sparx.

Timmy held up a small computer chip and pointed his thumb in the direction of where he'd come from. "I'm gonna work on the contract with Byrite in the office, if that's alright with you."

Her lips were pursed together. "That's fine, Timmy."

"Great!" He smiled broadly at her and turned to take his leave, but then stopped at the doorway. "Oh, Musa, I almost forgot; Stella called. She said she needed to see you tomorrow about the wedding plans and to meet her at the Inter-Realm transportation Station in Magix around eleven."

The loud snap reverberated throughout the room. Musa looked over at Techna, holding in her hand pieces of the gleaming lighter she'd demolished within her grasp seconds ago, and then glanced back at the ex-Specialist. "Thanks, Tim." That was his cue to leave—he heard it in Musa's voice and he knew from all the years they'd known eachother that when she got that tone she really would back it up. Timmy left and the door sealed behind him. "I guess that answers your question, then," she said softly.

Techna glanced down at her hand, strained from her fingers to her forearm, and she lessened her grip on the broken lighter, the larger pieces falling away easily and they clanked against the floor. She held her hand before her face, not picking out the shards like Musa thought she'd do, but simply staring at the damaged, bleeding flesh with intense concentration that scared the blue-haired fairy.

The two fairies' eyes met across the room, Musa's blue eyes burning in concern for her friend and for all the pent up grievances seeping out of her, Techna's teal eyes were hard like a mirror that was only beginning to crack.

"I'm bleeding," Techna whispered so quietly Musa's ears had to strain to hear it. She'd said it so plainly that the musical princess wasn't sure quite what to make of it. "Timmy…he acts as if I'm all android. But androids don't bleed red." A single tear fell from her eye. "Do you think he'd love me if I were?"

Outside of the room, Timmy pulled his ear away from the door and frowned. Musa offered up some form of reply but he didn't pay any attention to it. He hadn't meant to listen in; he was just going back in there to check with Techna on one of the last minor details before he started typing up the Byrite contract. He felt bad about the issue in the conference room earlier that day and he didn't want to upset her again—he never did; he didn't always understand her, though. He hadn't meant to listen but he had. He stood frozen outside the door, silent as death. He had no idea what to make of what she'd said.

Because…he'd thought that things between them truly were still good.

But it seemed that from her point of view, he was dead wrong.

More chapters to come soon. Heck, there might even be an actual PLOT established here soon (gasp!).

Please leave your thoughts, comments, concerns, and/or ceremonial chickens with the 'review' button below :)

xxEcho