Next chapter, enjoy^^ Sorry for the really long delay! =(
Lexi moved down one of the long, winding corridors present in the Loonatics' Headquarters. She wasn't thinking too much about anything, she was just wandering wherever her feet decided to go. She'd made sure all the guys were okay, even though they seemed a little irritable at points, they seemed fine. Lexi shuddered as her hand brushed her neck, there was a small bruise forming that Time Skip had left for her.
"Hey Lex," Ace greeted, as he exited a room near to her and halted his movement in front of her.
"Hey, how are you?" She asked casually, leaning back against the wall.
"You know me Lex, fine as always, we had a good workout today." Ace grinned faintly, but the female rabbit knew her leader well enough to know that the fight was bothering him. Perhaps he was curious about the silver cloaked figure too?
"Time Skip is pretty…pretty good," Lexi admitted after a while, Ace's gaze snapped to hers.
"But there's only one of him Lex, we're a whole team. Tactics, that's all we need. Tech is looking at some of his gizmo-gadget devices, to give us some kind of advantage." Ace told her, it was meant to sound reassuring but there was the underlying hint of uncertainty in those words.
"We just need to use our numbers effectively, then?" Lexi didn't press the matter; she sensed her leader needed an agreement of his thoughts, a 'nodding of the head' so to speak at his plans.
"Exactly," He flashed his smile, before heading of down the corridor whistling some tune that had entered his mind. She kept listening as she kept walking, this time she knew where she was going – she wanted a jetpack, even if she had to disobey his orders. But she wasn't going to fly straight off with it, she was just going to take it in advance – Rev's tip of flying later in the night was going to go into practice. She plucked up one of the older models before taking it back to her room – her enhanced sense of hearing was useful for avoidance.
She hid the jetpack in her bed, underneath her blankets before heading back out to the living room to sit with the guys for the rest of the night until they all went to bed. The evening passed with reasonable pace, even though tempers still flared here and there, everything generally went smoothly. Ace walked Lexi back to her room, it being one door down from his. They didn't say anything, they didn't need to – a small smile and nod was just as good as saying 'goodnight, sleep tight.' Lexi didn't change though, she just pulled the blankets up to her neck and folded her ears down – it was dark, no one would come in anyways.
Again her abilities allowed her another advantage, having spent so much time around the guys, she had subconsciously learnt their breathing patterns – even their sleeping breaths. And she could hear any odd noises, such as someone moving around or something of the like. I never realised how my powers could be used like this, they've developed just like I have. I only used to use them in my 'career' not personal affairs. Then she paused, this had started off as a personal affair, but with the villain's arrival it was becoming apparent that this wasn't going to stay small – whether she wanted that or not.
She almost nodded off, the warmth and comfort of her bed easing her almost to sleep – when a silver coloured flash of light streaked across her face as if something had moved past the window. She's here, whoever she is, she's turned up! Lexi's thoughts were excited, as she pulled on the jetpack without haste and as quickly but quietly as she could, slipped down the corridor and opened one of the doors to let her out. She didn't care about sleep, not one inch – something she knew she was going to regret tomorrow, but not now. The jetpack hissed as the flames ignited allowing her to launch off into the air. She kept upwards, looking for signs of the person she was searching for.
Then she saw them, she saw her standing on top of the headquarters. Her silver cloak hid everything, aided by the darkness of night, but her head was angled upwards – towards Lexi. Lexi smiled to herself as she pushed towards the woman, but then the butterflies hit her in the stomach. What if Duck was right and she was a bad guy? Lexi would be all alone, and very high up. She cleared her mind, she had to do this – she'd never forgive herself if she didn't, something in her heart told her she had to be the one to talk to this figure. As she flew down getting even closer to the figure, it felt more like she was back in her dream.
There was no one else around, apart from those two. The way the silver cloak glittered in the moonlight made the air around the figure glow a soft pale white, as if she were some kind of ghost – not an actual person standing there before Lexi. How should I introduce myself? My name or-or something, perhaps the fact I'm not an enemy? Lexi's mind stuttered around as she landed on the roof, but she moved no further than that. Her legs didn't seem to want to move, if anything they felt a little shaky. The figure didn't move either, though she didn't seem to have the air of someone arguing with themselves over silly matters such as appearance or greeting – Lexi did however.
"Hello," Lexi said, unsure of how loud or quiet to speak, "I know you don't like to speak, so I'll try and like, ask easy questions…so you only have to talk when necessary." Lexi babbled, her bold confidence seemingly gone when confronted by this woman.
"Quite the contrary, I am happy to speak to you, don't worry. And good evening to you, before I forget." The figure replied, tone light as she gave a slight inclination of her head towards Lexi. Her tone was calm, but yet firm and strong like she was used to speaking as a leader. Though Lexi couldn't see the woman, she could make out her outline. The woman was thin, curved but she was strong – her fighting today had shown she was quite the expert fighter. This made Lexi feel another emotion, jealousy. It was faint, but it was still there.
"Wait, you're happy to speak to me…but not the guys?" Lexi snapped her mind away from her scrutiny of the woman.
"Yes, I cannot give myself away to them like I can to you." The woman answered, her tone honest.
"Even though you hide yourself from me?" Lexi folded her arms, the woman gave a noise that sounded like a laugh, but Lexi didn't see the joke. "Why is our situation different?"
"You and I are very similar," Was the simple reply, and then the woman sighed as Lexi's eyes narrowed. "That is as simple and honest as I can make it, you'll understand what I mean."
"There's just so many questions I want to ask you," Lexi finally vented, after a few minutes of silence by both of them.
"Of course," The figure replied, "But I want you to know now that my identity is only going to add to your amount of questions,"
"It feels like we've met before, that's the annoying thing – but yet I cannot place you to a face." Lexi said glancing down slightly, even in my dream she didn't show me who she was.
"I had to hide myself in all meetings, no matter the place until the time was right. You had to see what was happening around you first," Now there was movement, the figure moved closer about a foot or two. "Do you know why you were feeling so lost?"
"No, I mean, there was no complex explanation for it. I was just depressed or something," Lexi shrugged, "But what does this have to do with anything?" Lexi asked, how did she know how I was feeling earlier? Part of Lexi's whispering mind caught her attention, and she tensed up slightly – apparently the figure noticed this.
"You aren't wondering anything else?" The figure made it sound like a question, but both of them knew it was a statement.
"No," Lexi lied, as she decided to now wrap her arms around herself slightly as well as fidgeting her legs around a little to stop the chill of the night affecting her limbs.
"I see," Came the reply that said 'I don't believe you, and you know it' in two short words accompanied with an almost flat tone. The figure moved next to Lexi, but she looked out across the city. Lexi watched the woman, uncaring that she was staring.
"It's a nice city at night," Lexi said, turning to face the same way as the woman.
"Yes, though walking through the park was the best place at night. All the lights from the stars and from the streets gave it a nice glow that I couldn't find matched anywhere else in the city."
"Weren't you worried about being attacked at night? This city is full of enemies that have mutated powers, surely even in your time."
"In my time, there is only one enemy with mutated powers and you met him today. All of the other enemies are either in jail, or just lurking in the slums and darker areas of the city hoping to avoid Time Skip."
"They're respectful or him, or fearful?"
"Both, their fear outweighs their respect, but it's still present. They hope that he'll call on some of them for chores, or dirty work but he's not that kind of villain." The figure paused, "He's much more than any other villain that's ever existed in this modern time. He makes sure if there's any dirty work he does it so it's done the way he wants, and gets the results he wants. He also doesn't need any other enemies to be any scarier or powerful,"
"But he was just some teenager when we faced him, some teenager who got a hold of his grandfather's time mechanics and was able to adapt them so he could use them."
"That was in the past, he's not a teenager in my time. He's a calculated, sly man. The meteor did things to his body, he realised that he could control time without his grandfather's mechanics – they just allowed him more flexibility over which areas of time he dealt with. All those clocks and such you saw on him control a different part of time,"
"So, what doesn't make sense is why he's come back to the past. I mean, he's got complete control of the whole city, why come back and change that? He's not a good man," Lexi turned to the figure boldly, forgetting her nervousness. The figure's shoulders slumped slightly,
"That…that was my fault," The figure answered Lexi's question after a good long pause and sigh,
"Your fault? Why didn't you go to the Loonatics for help? I mean, surely in the future they've got technology that makes ours look pretty out-dated and useless," Lexi's mind made her ask more questions in one go than she wanted to, but she had too many questions to keep just brushing to the side.
"Lexi, listen to me. Do you think if the Loonatics were as good as you think they were that Time Skip would've been able to seize control of the whole city?" The figure snapped at Lexi, tone rough and full of anger. Lexi took a step back, something in that comment unsettled her and she backed off. The figure rose her hand to her forehead, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to come across like that – it's just that's a sensitive area for me."
"I shouldn't have asked," Lexi found herself saying, as she turned away.
"I was expecting you to ask it, actually. I just…wasn't ready to answer, even if I told myself I was." The figure whispered in a hoarse voice, their calmness and certainty gone from their tone and their posture. Lexi angled her head over to the figure again, her long green ribbon came unhooked from her armour as it now fluttered around at the same pace as the figure's cloak. The green ribbon seemed to attract the figure's attention, for they moved closer and reached out to let the ribbon slip through their fingers. The figure was only an inch or two taller than Lexi, and they wore black armour with a silver chain hooked on at their wrist which trailed up to their shoulder.
Their long delicate fingers eventually let go of the ribbon, and they stepped back, Lexi felt their gaze upon her.
"Green is a nice colour," The figure said, her brief topic of conversation rather random.
"Yeah, I know…I like green, even though I also like pink." Lexi smiled faintly,
"They go well together, at least. No clash," The figure responded, "Pink is a bold, feminine colour. But green, well green is neutral and calm."
"Green reminds me a lot of nature," Lexi said, "My parents often took me out when I was younger to the parks, I like the greenery that accompanies spring and summer, plus it matches my eyes." Lexi told the figure,
"That's when there were a lot of parks around, when you live in a metropolis that declines, sadly." The figure continued, Lexi paused, something about that sentence sounded funny – like she knew of the times Lexi spoke of.
"You know, you still haven't told me who you are. You made it clear you know the villain, and you're against him, but you don't like the Loonatics either. So what's your part in all of this? You haven't explained Time Skip, but perhaps it'd be better to hear about you first." Lexi confronted the figure, "You dislike the Loonatics, but yet you come to us. That doesn't add up, how do I know you're not with him? You left a little too quickly after my team-mate Duck accused you of working with him,"
"Duck is very confrontational naturally, you know that. I can't explain to the guys much about me, that's why I had to flee because they might have worked something out and that's dangerous. Hell, even meeting you like this is dangerous and you're the primary reason I came back here." The figure turned, and then moved forwards so abruptly that Lexi tensed up. Her eyes flashed pink, and her ears straightened out ready to fire her blast if necessary. "You don't understand, I know. And I've got a lot of talking and explaining to do, but you've got to trust me Lexi, you've got to side with me and side away from your team."
"What? Side away from my team? Have you gone mad?" Lexi cried out in shock,
"No, I know what I'm talking about. You and I have to take on Time Skip, with as little aid from your team as possible, otherwise nothing will change! Everything will keep repeating, and repeating." The figure gripped Lexi with a strength that, for a moment in their confrontation, reminded the female rabbit of Slam.
"You're not making any sense!" Lexi tried to shake off the grip, but to no avail.
"You want me to make sense? Fine, choose the difficult way. Don't say I didn't warn you, my identity is going to throw you right off." The figure let go of Lexi, and took a great step backwards. She didn't reach for the hood of her cloak, she just gripped the buckles fastened by her neck and then pulled it off and let the cloak fall to her feet. Lexi took in the sight, opened her mouth but couldn't get any words to pass her lips. She stumbled backwards a few steps; the figure unfolded their arms as if suddenly regretting their outburst, and the argument between the two of them, before they dropped their gaze that held embarrassment.
Then Lexi fainted.