Thanks so much for the continued support on this story.
I apologize for the long, block like previous chapter. It was supposed to have breaks but somewhere between uploading to and posting, that was lost. I hope it wasn't too confusing.
And obviously, this story does not follow the finale in certain points. If it does, I'll point it out. Otherwise, just think of this as an alternate version.
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REDEMPTION - Ch. 3
The nightmares had returned.
After the disastrous hand-to-hand session, Chloe had holed herself up in her room for the rest of the night. She had avoided Amy, Paul and her mom on Skype knowing that they would have picked up on the fact that something was wrong. She had spent some time web-surfing, and then had pulled out her e-Reader to catch up on her summer reading list.
She had fallen asleep midway through a reading assignment and the next thing she knew, she had been dreaming about being chased through the streets of San Francisco which had culminated in a masked assassin stabbing her with a sword and throwing her into the Bay. When she had started to feel her lungs burn as the water had filled them up, she had woken up, her body drenched in sweat.
Chloe sat in her bed, trying to catch her breath and to steady herself. She had had this nightmare before. Shortly after her death at the hands of Scarface. She had taken a class in psychology so she knew that it was due to post-traumatic stress. The only problem was that unlike most people with PTSD, she had to confront her stressful situation on a regular basis. After dying from the fall from the tower, Scarface had made repeated attempts on her life, on her friends' lives. He had managed to hog-tie her and then had thrown her into some water to drown, repeatedly. She knew the Order was never going to stop trying to kill her. That there would be other attempts on her life, some may even be successful.
And deep down, that terrified her. She couldn't really talk about this to anyone. She didn't want to worry Paul and Amy, and telling her Mom was absolutely out of the question. She had thought about telling Alek and at one point, she would have but she couldn't now. She might have talked to Valentina or Jasmine but those relationships were also strained, and besides, they were in San Francisco, and she was here. And there was no one here for her to talk to about any of this.
It was no wonder her nightmares had returned.
She grabbed her watch and saw that it was a little past two-thirty in the morning. Switching on the light, she went over to the console and pulled up her new schedule. Morning training started at five-thirty which meant she had about 3 more hours, but Chloe knew she wasn't going to go back to sleep. The very thought of sleep scared her then, not wanting to have the nightmare again and knowing she had no control over it.
So she put on her workout clothes and decided to familiarize herself with the compound's grounds. Unsure if she was breaking some kind of curfew, she gingerly opened her door and walked out. The halls were dimly lit and abandoned. She drew up a mental picture of the map of the compound and headed for the communications center that Alek had showed her on the tour.
As she wandered the hallways, fully aware that cameras were tracking her movements and yet no one had shown up to usher her back to bed, Chloe came to the conclusion that no curfew existed. They probably didn't need one, she thought. The training was so strenuous that by evening, everyone would be dead tired and sound asleep at this hour.
Everyone but me. Chloe wandered around aimlessly for a while until she found herself in front of the communications center. The two men, the same ones who had been there when Alek had shown her this area, looked up and offered her a polite smile in greeting.
"Uh, hi," said Chloe.
"Miss King, you're up early."
"I couldn't sleep." She smiled. "I get insomnia sometimes."
"Can we help you with something?"
"I was just wondering if it's okay for me to go outside? I won't set any alarms off or anything?"
"Outside?"
"I just want to walk around the track a little." She chuckled nervously. "You know maybe it'll help me sleep."
The man nodded. "That's fine. Just don't go near the fences. They're electrified."
"That's good to know," she said, turning. "Thanks."
Chloe wandered in the direction of doors that led out to the track field but as she neared it, she turned, deciding on a whim to explore the east wing of the compound, an area that Alek had quickly gone over during their tour.
She walked up and down the hallways outside the dorms, all the doors shut, its occupants sleeping peacefully. The east wing had the exact same layout as the west wing. As she walked by the numbered doors, she wondered which one Alek was sleeping behind, wondered what he was like in his sleep. Did his features softened? Did he snore? Does he sleep on his stomach or back or on his side?
"What are you doing?"
Chloe screamed and whirled around to find Alek disconcertingly close to her. If she hadn't been so caught up in thoughts of what he was like asleep, she would have heard him, even in all of his stealthy cat-like ways, because the halls were eerily quiet at that hour. Well they were until she had screamed.
Alek quirked an eyebrow. "You're lucky the rooms are soundproofed or you'd have woken up some very pissed off Mai."
"What are you doing here?" she demanded.
"I could ask you the same thing," he threw back at her. He was in pale blue PJ bottoms, shirtless and barefooted. She looked down the hall for an open door, hoping to determine which room was his but she couldn't see. Besides, her eyes seemed to have a mind of their own and kept going to his toned, sculpted abs and work their way up to his muscled, bare chest.
"I, uh. . ." She cleared her throat. "I'm lost."
"That's fairly obvious." He angled his head. "The question is, why aren't you asleep and getting yourself lost at this hour?"
Fragments of the nightmare jabbed at her and she quickly pushed them back. "I couldn't sleep."
"Why?"
"Just couldn't," she said. "Sorry I woke you."
Alek stared at her for a long moment and then he shrugged. "You didn't." He doffed his head down the hall. "Come on, I'll walk you back."
She shook her head. "It's okay. I'll find my way back. I should figure out this place anyway. Can't keep getting lost can I?"
"Are you okay?" Alek asked, his voice sounding genuinely concerned.
"I'm fine. Just can't sleep."
"I mean today, in hand-to-hand," He indicated the shoulder he had hit. "I thought you'd block me. I know you saw it coming."
"I. . .lost focus." She smiled, but it felt strained. "Stupid mistake."
"What happened when you went down?" Again, the vision of Scarface shoving her off the tower flashed through her mind and she involuntarily shuddered. "Chloe?"
"I-I'm fine. Really." She shrugged. "Sorry I woke you. Good night."
Before he could say anything else, she strode quickly down the hall, feeling his eyes on her the entire time.
#
The next few days were hard, but Chloe was quickly getting the hang of life at the training center. She was starting to build up her strength and endurance and pushing herself so hard actually allowed her to tap into her Mai strengths more easily. Although not easily enough that she could scale that high wall on the obstacle course. That was the one thing she still couldn't do.
That and sleep peacefully. There were nights when she managed to wear herself out so much that she would fall into an exhausted, dreamless sleep. She loved those nights. On other nights, she would sleep and then she would dream and inevitably, she would wake up screaming in terror.
So she pushed herself, harder and harder.
Her relentless pursuit of physical excellence did have the effect of improving her reputation within the compound, and slowly, a few of her fellow trainees had started to approach her. It wasn't like she had made an instant, life-long friends, but she wasn't exactly the loser sitting off to the side by herself either.
Lana was still as friendly as ever, and Chloe, try as she might, just couldn't do anything but respond to that kind of warmth. She wouldn't exactly call them friends, but if she happened to cross paths with Lana, they always took some time to catch up, to talk a little.
Unless Lana was with Alek, which was when Chloe always managed to find a reason to go do something else. She was already being plagued by nightmares, she didn't need to torment herself further by being the third wheel to Alek's love affair with Lana. Alek seemed less angry with her but kept his distance. When they interacted, he was civil and polite and always seemed to be studying her in some way, as if he was trying to gauge something.
There were times that it killed her because she wanted to talk to him so badly. They were friends first before any of the romantic stuff had happened and he was the only one, still, who could really understand what she was going through. He knew Scarface and how terrifying that chase in the woods was. He knew how her transformation into the Uniter had been so upsetting for her, especially when she had thought that she had killed Xavier. He knew the pressure she was under by lying to her mother repeatedly. He understood what it felt like to be caught between two worlds, because he had been in that position himself, not too long ago.
So he would understand and she desperately wanted to tell him, to talk to him, knowing that at least doing that would help but she couldn't. She had thrown away her ability to do that when she had hurt him, had "chosen" Brian over him in his eyes.
And since the Mai didn't exactly have a therapist on hand, she dealt with things as best as she could. And things went well until Saturday came. Pulling up her schedule, she was surprised to see that except for the morning exercises, the rest of the day was free. It wasn't until she had run into Lana at breakfast that she realized why.
"Hey, Chloe," Lana had beckoned her over to her table. "Do you have plans for today?"
"Plans?"
"Every other Saturday, we get the afternoon off to go into Los Angeles and hang out."
"Oh."
"Listen, if you don't have plans, Alek and I are going to the Santa Monica Pier. Why don't you come?"
The thought of tagging along on Alek's date with Lana was even more terrifying to her than her worst nightmare so she smiled and said,
"Thanks but I think I'll just hang out here. Rest up. It's been a hard week and I'm still a newbie."
Lana offered her a sympathetic smile. "I remember how that was." Lana looked at the door and Chloe followed her gaze to find Alek just walking into the dining hall. He nodded at Lana and let his gaze briefly linger on Chloe before he went to get some food. Chloe still hadn't figured out Alek's schedule quite yet. Some mixed sessions he attended and others he didn't. Sometimes he was at breakfast, and other times he wasn't. She could ask Lana but she didn't want to look like a pathetic stalker.
Not feeling up to dealing with Alek today, she excused herself. Lana told her that if she changed her mind, she and Alek weren't leaving until 11 am. Chloe politely thanked her knowing that she would never, ever take her up on that particular offer. She was reckless but not masochistic.
Back in her room, she managed a chat with Paul, who in his sweet, funny way, managed to cheer her up a little. But as she looked at her watch and did some calculations, she realized that having a whole day to herself would mean that she wouldn't be able to wear herself out like she normally did, which meant that sleep was not in the cards tonight.
The daunting prospect of staying awake for a full day made Chloe change into her warm-ups and head for the gym, where she climbed on the treadmill, and set the program for a fifteen mile run. She plugged her iPod buds into her ear, blasted her music and started running. She was just hitting the ten mile mark when she caught sight of Alek and Lana, his arm around her shoulder, walking past the gym. Sometimes Chloe really hated these glass walls.
Lana caught sight of her and stopped, saying something to Alek before she walked into the room and up to Chloe. Chloe reluctantly pulled out an ear bud to hear her but kept up her fast pace on the treadmill.
"You sure you don't want to join us?"
She glanced at Alek, who was wearing that blank, indifferent expression he tended to sport around her. "Very." She smiled at Lana to take out any sting in her response.
Lana nodded. "Well, enjoy your day. See you at dinner?"
"Yeah," said Chloe as she punched up the speed to the treadmill so that she was at an all-out sprint. The burn she felt in her legs felt good to her because it pulled her mind away from the ache inside of her as she watched Alek and Lana walk off. . .headed to a happy day on the Pier.
After her run on the treadmill, Chloe still felt invigorated so she went out to the track field and did some weight lifting. After lunch in the mostly empty dining hall, Chloe decided that she would spend the rest of the day trying to master the dreaded obstacle course. Today she was going to scale that last wall.
She started out slowly and then gradually increased her pace. She managed to go through most of the obstacles fine until the high wall. Each time, she tried she came up short, crashing into the wall. Over and over she pushed herself, wanting both to conquer this wall as well to exhaust herself enough to sleep tonight. She was tired of roaming the halls or watching stupid infomercials in the common room.
She was so focused on her task that she was barely aware that the sun was setting and pretty soon it had grown dark, dark enough for the outside lights to come on. Chloe continued pushing herself and she could feel herself leaping higher and higher each time. Finally, on the next run, she could feel herself connecting to that well of power inside of her, and as she approached the wall, she could feel herself speeding up and then she launched herself upwards.
She felt like she was flying and she knew this time she could clear the wall. And she did.
The only problem was that she misjudged the wall's thickness and instead of landing on top, she instead went flying over the wall, with one of her foot scrapping the wall's edge as she went down. The result was a less than graceful landing. In fact, it was a flat-out ugly. . .and painful landing with Chloe coming down hard, on her arm. She felt something pop and then in the next instant, an intense, shooting pain spread across her shoulder.
She gasped, gripping her left shoulder, trying to control the pain but it was no use. And the pain seemed to unlock all of the emotions she had kept suppressed in the past week. She left out a vicious cry before she fell back on the ground, kicking at the wall and uttering a string of curses that if her mother had ever heard it, would have been shocked by the vulgarity and that Chloe actually knew those words. Her anger burned hot and fast and when it died out, all she was left with was a throbbing shoulder and emotions that she didn't know how to deal with – sadness, regret, fear, anxiety, loneliness.
So she did the only thing she could. She cried.
She pulled herself into a sitting position and leaned against the wall and had what her mother would call, "a good old fashioned cry-it-all-out." And she had a lot to cry out.
"Chloe?" Chloe gasped and instinctively turned away from the sound of his voice. She tried to wipe away the tears but knew it was futile. There was no way with his super Mai senses that Alek hadn't been able to tell that she had just been sitting here crying like a baby. "Are you okay?"
"I, uh. . ." She bit her lip, forcing back the wave of fresh tears. "I. . .hurt my shoulder." For some reason, when she said that, instead of holding back the tears, it unlocked the floodgates and to her horror, she began sobbing anew. She tried to fight it but couldn't so she helplessly gave in and sat there on the ground, dirtied, banged up and cried her heart out right in front of Alek.
She wouldn't have blamed him if he retreated in disgust so to her extreme surprise, she felt him sit down besides her and then, to her utter shock, his arm came around her, being careful of her injured shoulder, to pull her up against him. Completely spent, she allowed herself to lean into him, tucking her head under his chin, her cheek on chest.
Alek's arm rubbed her back in a soothing up and down motion while he murmured words of comfort. Soon, her tears were all expended but she stayed still, not wanting to leave the warmth of Alek's embrace. She didn't know how long they sat like that and a part of her didn't care. But Alek shifted and she was forced to move, lifting her head off his chest, which brought her face within millimeters of his.
Their eyes locked and time seemed to freeze as they stared at each other. Chloe wanted to desperately to kiss him, imagined what it would be like. She could do it, it would be easy, afterall, what was a millimeter or two?
In their case, it was an insurmountable distance with too much history and too much unsaid. Alek finally cleared his throat before he stood up. She remained sitting on the ground, staring off into the distance, not feeling better exactly after her cry, just exhausted to her very core. The pain in her shoulder was still there, but the intense sharpness of it had subsided. She knew she should head to medical to have it looked at but she was just so tired right then.
"Come on," Alek said, his voice still gentle. She turned to find his hand extended toward her. "I'll help you to medical."