Chapter 10—
Whi-Two creeps through the dark, listening for footsteps other than her own. It's been thirty minutes since she's part ways with Team Two and the rest of the Interpol, and surprisingly, no one has decided that she was acting suspiciously and needed to be pursued.
But then again, she's probably lost in the map she has sent everyone. She is, after all, in the undetected areas.
Thank God she chose to program the member trackers a little later, otherwise, even her own movements during the missions proper would've been monitored. Being too careful with her words and movements back at the headquarters has proved too cumbersome for her.
It was like being a runaway criminal all over again.
Whi-Two leans on a grey wall, readies her rifle, and listens for footsteps. When she realizes that there weren't any, she moves snappily and points her gun at whatever was waiting for her at the other side of the corner.
What met her was another hallway. She was still alone.
The brunette takes a deep breath as she lowers her rifle.
She was in safe grounds now. This was part of the data she's deleted from the map.
Thank goodness. She can now put down the gun she loathed handling. No one can impose a threat on her now, at least enough for her to raise her gun again.
"Now to find Lord N…" she mutters as she starts looking around. If she recalls correctly, N's room was somewhere in this hallway.
Of course, there is no guarantee that N was there, but she's already taken enough chances that could cause her her own death, so why not continue while she still could?
She reaches a series the end of the hallway and reaches a double-doored room. It showed no signs of having been touch for at least the past five years, and it made her heart sink.
Does this mean…? Whi-Two decides to not make any conclusions until she's seen everything.
With a grunt, she pushes open the door, and listens to the creak it makes as she steps in. The sound of her footsteps echoes through the walls, throwing careful tapping sounds for the emptiness to hear. Navigating the room using only the light coming from outside makes it hard for her to move faster, and it doesn't help that toys are scattered everywhere.
Lord N was such a child, she thought fondly to herself.
She bends forward and picks up a cubed-shaped item. She holds it to her face and realized it was one of N's most favorite toys: his Rubik's cube.
Whi-Two's stomach sinks at the sudden feeling of emptiness the item has caused her.
She never knew how much pain one stupid child's room could cause her.
"Oh, Lord N…" she whispers. "What I wouldn't give to see you again…"
Whi-Two senses a movement, and she quickly bends down, drops the cub and picks up her rifle and points it at the darkness in front of her.
There was nothing. But Whi-Two knew better than to simply rely on her sight.
"Show yourself," she demands, cocking the gun.
The sound of light footsteps comes forth. Whi-Two watches as a tall figure emerges from the shadows, the light from the open door illuminating first reveals its legs, then its upper body, and lastly its face.
Whi-Two takes a sharp intake of breath as she recognizes the face now scowling at her, but the look of surprise is quickly replaced with anger. Her eyebrows lower themselves as she raises her gun to target his head.
But still, the scowl in Lack-Two's face does not disappear. He stares at the gun for a few minutes before giving out a deep sigh.
"Try what you want," he says, crossing his arms over his chest. "I know for a fact that you can't pull the trigger."
The determined look in Whi-Two's eyes remains unfazed.
"What makes you so sure?"
The boy's eyes were devoid of emotions.
"…You never cocked a gun at me back at the University."
"I had witnesses back then."
Lack-Two again simply exhales, not lifting his deadpan stare from Whi-Two's firm stance. It was as if he was studying her, taking note of her every detail, of every shade of color her face drains into, of every rise and fall of her chest as she tried her best to calm herself down. He took them all in and weaved them into one general image of Whi-Two.
This is getting closer to the Whi-Two he had wanted to see.
"…Don't trouble yourself," he finally says, closing his eyes and lowering his head a bit. "You can never fire a gun at anyone. It just isn't in your personality."
Whi-Two watches him carefully, examines him for any guns or other forms of weapon he could use to attack her. She finds none, although it is still very unlikely of Lack-Two to be completely unarmed. The boy might still be hiding something so she can never be too wary.
But still, she lowers her gun. Pointing it at someone who was showing no signs of resistance felt too burdensome to her already weary arms. Besides, in the event that Lack-Two pulls a fast one and comes at her, she always had her combat knife as back up. She lets go of the gun with one hand and felt for it on her belt.
"What are you doing here, Lack-Two?" she asks as her fingers felt for her combat knife's handle. She grips it like it was her life.
Because it might just be.
"I should be asking you the same question," he replies immediately, finally opening his eyes to return the scowl to her.
"What are you doing here, Whi-Two? Why did you leave Team 2 behind?"
"I gave them my orders," came her quick reply.
"To what? Search for hay in a needle stack? Even if the hay is not there?" Lack-Two frees his arm from his recent position to show Whi-Two his Tracker, which showed the positions of all the members of the mission.
"Location Unidentified," it said.
"You said you were no traitor, Whi-Two."
"People can change, Officer," the girl replies, returning her free hand to her rifle. She raises it, and points it again to Lack-Two.
"Especially when they're pushed beyond their boundaries."
She suddenly moves quickly and pulls the trigger.
"I SAID DON'T COME NEAR!"
Lack-Two stares at the hole on the ground where he was about to step to and watches it let out a small amount of smoke. He had to return to his original position.
Whi-Two winces from the recoil, but it doesn't stop her from cocking the gun and pointing it at Lack-Two again.
"You're next," she warns.
Lack-Two simply returns his gaze at her, watching her, waiting for her eyes to tremble, even slightly.
Whi-Two remains firm. It was then that Lack-Two decided to speak.
"I don't understand what you're getting so worked up about," he begins. "Clearly, you understand that personal business is irrelevant in this line of work. It is no different to the life of a syndicate you have been living for years, so why react the way you do?" He crouches down, causing Whi-Two to follow him with her gun. But all Lack-Two did was search for the bullet she had just fired.
"You placing too much emotional baggage upon yourself for something you have assumed on your own is your fault, and not mine."
With a few digging with his finger, he was able to fish out some residue of gunpowder. But the bullet was gone.
A frangible bullet. Just as he thought.
Whi-Two had loaded her rifle with bullets that could only wound but not kill—severely against Interpol protocol for Team Captains. This girl has infiltrated more than simply their maps and tracking devices.
Impressive.
The girl watches Lack-Two with anticipation, anxiously waiting for his next move. But the boy simply stays where he sat, still examining the gunpowder from the bullet she has fired.
Has he realized?
"What do you mean 'my fault'?" she asks in hope of breaking the maddening silence he was causing. "How is all this my fault?"
Lack-Two simply looks up at her.
"...It's not my fault you're suffering the way you are..." was his reply.
To that, Whi-Two snaps.
"Not your fault?!" she cries. "Not your fault?!" She gives out a bitter laugh as she drops her gun in frustration.
"Okay, then, officer, let's kindly have a recap of all the things that are not your fault, shall we?!" Whi-Two bites her lips as she looks Lack-Two down with her pained, blue eyes.
"It's not your fault that I was arrested for the sin of trying to live a normal life away from the past I've been trying so hard to forget! It's not your fault my mother and I have to live the rest of our fucking lives as prisoners whether or not we stay within the walls of the Interpol because you had to give everyone the idea that we have the information we clearly know nothing about! It's not your fault I had to leak information you didn't even need to succeed! As a matter of fact, it is definitely not your fault I am in this fucking mess in the first place! Lack-Two, I was as happy and as distant as I could possibly get when you met me at that university, but you..." Whi-Two swings her arm forward as if to strike him, but given the distance he had kept from her the whole time she was talking, Whi-Two only ended up striking the air. Weakly. Frustratingly.
As if all her pain, all her worries, all her frustrations are only worth that unbelievably weak strike.
"... You came and dragged me back to this hell of a life, and now..." She wipes her tears away and picks up her gun.
"I have no choice but to finish what I have started..."
Lack-Two slowly stands up. His eyes were devoid of any emotions—of any form of reaction to Whi-Two's litany. He just stood there.
It made Whi-Two even more frustrated. But she couldn't scream anymore. Somehow, all her feelings were only worth that one long speech. That one long speech that did not even reach him.
Like always, she still couldn't reach this man. This sick, convoluted man.
"Why..." Whi-Two chokes, walking towards him, looking at him the eye for once. "Why do you do this to me? To all of us? Why are you so manipulative and deceiving, Lack-Two? And why do I keep getting convinced by you? And why me...?" She tremblingly reaches for his shirt.
"Why does it always have to be me...?"
Lack-Two did not make a move as she clutches on the thick fabric. Whi-Two bites her lips as she looks up to him. He only looks back, and for that rather long moment, they only stared into each other's eyes, not saying anything.
Then Whi-Two points the gun to his temple. It was only then that Lack-Two spoke.
"Do you really despise me that much, Whi-Two?" he asks in a low voice. "Are you willing to kill me just so you could get your Lord N back?"
Whi-Two clutches his shirt even tighter, and she presses the gun harder to his temple.
"Yes, that's right," she hisses, her voice suddenly raised and loud and reverberating.
"I hate you, Lack-Two!"
Her voice echoed through the metals walls and into Lack-Two's ears. He listens as it bounces along the vicinity, and he feels himself drown in mixed emotions as he let the words recursively play themselves in his head.
Lack-Two smiles nonetheless as he raises his arms to admit defeat.
This was it. This was the Whi-Two he had been anticipating for so long. The Whi-Two he had molded.
The Whi-Two who hates.
The Whi-Two whom N will despise.
This was now his Whi-Two.
Whi-Two ignores Lack-Two's peculiar reaction and proceeds to mustering up enough courage to pull the trigger while silently counting up the last seconds before Lack-Two's head is blown to pieces.
Or until Lack-Two makes a move and turns the tide on her.
"I'm no sinner," she says to him as she did, as if apologizing. "But I'm also no saint…"
She presses, and the sound of the click came too abruptly, but no bullet comes forth. Whi-Two was aghast.
But before she could react, a loud click was heard, and the suddenly, the room was engulfed in bright lights.
-End of Chapter 10-
A/N: This scene was roughly based off of that Megamind Scene where Roxanne finally found out that Bernard was really Megamind. I don't know. It really got to me and it triggered the scene.
Last update before classes start. But don't worry. Will still update.