Chapter Twenty Two, Memories of Tomorrow
In flight, Pacific Ocean, September 2015
The world was awash in white light, vertical grey lines surrounded the white ground upon which she stood. Darker lines ran along the ground creating the illusion of objects around her, she looked up to see and empty white sky. She walked forwards unsteadily, trying to locate anything that would tell her where she was, she looked right then she looked left. But there was nothing aside from the dull grey outlines of buildings.
Eventually she reached an open area, grey outlines of benches and railings scattered about. She looked around for a bit before slowly walking forwards, as she moved forwards more details began to come into focus. The dabs of grey and black giving the appearance of texture, around her moving lines gave the illusion of life where there was none.
She stopped just in front of a raised circle on the ground, inside of it patches of grey moved around seemingly at random, it almost looked like there was water. She reached down and much to her surprise the circle was elevated off the ground, she moved her hand into the circle and tentatively touched the water like texture. She was surprised when rings of grey moved out from where she touched, and her hand felt wet, just where in the name of time was she?
She took a seat on the circle and faced the way she had come, her conscious mind trying to come to terms with what was happening here. She sat there for a few minutes before movement in front of her caught her attention. She got up and began walking towards the movement, it appeared as a haze of grey and white from where she had come from.
Suddenly haze was nearly upon her and she could make out human like shapes moving inside of it. Then the first shape left the haze mere meters in front of her, color flooded it giving it an appearance identical to that of a human. Though it couldn't be, because the person before her had died almost ten years earlier on Hanka, it was her birth mother, if a few years younger than what she remembered. She tried to speak but the words caught in her mouth, her knees grew week beneath her, stranding her in place.
Then her mother moved on past her, and the haze parted to reveal a crowd all of them walking towards her. She recognized some of them that walked to either side of her at first, though she could only put names to a few of them. But one thing tied them all together, they were all from Hanka. Then a face she knew all to well walked past her, a face she could never forget, the face off the one who had ruined her world, Nirrti. Then she was gone.
She barely registered Nirrti when out of the corner of her eye she saw Jack walk by, quickly followed by the rest of SG-1. Daneil with his round wire glasses, Carter in a combat uniform and then Teal'c bald as always. Following them were several people in military uniforms whom she didn't recognize, then Hammond before he had wrinkles. A few others went by who she didn't recognize then her Janet walked by, her mom.
Following her mom was the people from her early school years, they looked so different when they were young. She then spotted Milly whom she had first met in the third grade, a few moments later Chris who had transferred in during the fifth grade. They were swept by the tide of people pouring past her, then she spotted the first white uniform of the academy.
The people she had seen her first day there were the first to pass her by, including Cecilia and Ichika, she then spotted Nizru, Ludmilia and Sasha followed shortly afterwords. Several more people went by until she saw Charles, then several more people than blue-haired Tatenashi and then Houki. Laura wasn't far behind, a few moments later the Rin passed her by following all the others heading behind her. Then she saw Chris and Milly coming down the lane, both of them looking almost the same as the day they had seen her off. Before they had even passed her by a short black haired woman with oversized glasses caught her eye. A man with pitch black hair in a beige business suit passed her by, quickly followed by Mckay.
A near deluge of people she failed to recognize flowed past her, then a pair of academy uniforms passed to either side of her, she recognized one as the Spanish representative. The other was a dirty blond haired girl, who she was sure she had seen before but couldn't place. Then a man in a leather jacket and wearing an insane grin on his face made her want to run, once he was by she felt almost every muscle in her body relax.
Then another white uniform, a blonde haired girl who looked exactly like Charles went by. Following her was Ludmilia wearing a black business suit accompanied by a slightly overweight man wearing a Russian air-force uniform. A short girl with a face almost identical to Nizru's walked just in front of Nizru and an older woman. Then Nirrti walked by in full Goa'uld regalia.
Then several people she knew from the academy went by her all of them wearing flight suits. Behind them was Hammonds daughter and her daughters, Carter and her mother were following them all were dressed in black. Jack, Daniel, Teal'c, Hailey were right behind them, also wearing black.
Then Ludmilia passed her by again, this time wearing the second years uniform, once she stepped by, the whole crowd seemed to speed up. She spotted the mini version of Nizru again, then Cecilia walked by, female Charles and Laura weren't that far behind them. Ichika and the red haired guy she had run into at the video-game store walked by her side by side. Several others wearing the academy uniform passed her by.
Then she saw Houki wearing the third year uniform walk pass, behind her the man with the insane grin walked by again this time wearing a combat vest. Close behind him was the Spanish representative, a bit behind her was Rin. Then a man with bronze hair walked beside a girl wearing a third year uniform, who well looked like Sasha if she was two meters tall instead of being under a meter and a half.
Dozens more people who she didn't recognized passed her by after that, a man wearing a drill instructors uniform caught her eye, but he was quickly swept up with the flow. She saw her mom again wearing her typical work uniform before she disappeared behind her, Ludmilia looking older walked behind her wearing a Russian air-force uniform. Then came a reddish-black haired woman and a black haired man, behind them was one of the IS pilots she recognized from the SGC.
Then came a dark haired woman with slightly tanned shin and a tall muscular man with braided hair and worn clothes. Behind him came an overweight Jaffa wearing something over his right eye, accompanying him were several other Jaffa. Then came a blue alien with dirty white hair, leading several similar to himself with masks over their faces. Then came several people in green uniforms of a style she didn't recognize.
A man wearing a green baseball hat with a partly shaved beard and wearing a flight-suit walked pass her, it almost looked like he looked at her. Following him were several other people in flight-suits, it took her a second to recognize one of them as Ludmilia.
Then a man and a woman walked towards her on opposite sides of the lane, it took her several seconds to realize they were Milly and Chris, except several years older. Milly was dressed in a business suit while Chris wore an army uniform. And just behind them was a short blond haired girl with blood red eyes. Then came a horde of reporters, men, women, aliens she recognized, aliens she didn't recognize, and then they just stopped.
The flow of people slowed down to a trickle, then as soon as she thought it was going to stop a large group rushed past her. Dozens of different alien species were intermixed with the humans, she recognized only a handful of Serakins, but the rest were a mystery to her. Her eyes caught on a burgundy haired woman with black mist floating around her, and then the blonde haired girl with red eyes passed her by again, but this time taller and in a slightly revealing outfit. A man with black hair and molted green plated armour walked right beside her, if she moved her hand a bit she would have brushed up against him.
Then they were all gone, the last one a dark haired woman with glowing blue eyes. She tried to turn around to see them go, but something held her in place. Looking up she saw a woman walking directly towards her, long grey hair flowing behind her, wrinkles spread across her face. Worn plate covered most of her body with the gaps being filled in by dirty white cloth, her face remained uncovered, her hazel eyes boring into her own hazel eyes.
The woman walked right up to her until their faces nearly touched, she could make out the rings of age in the woman's eyes. The woman's mouth opened...
"All passengers, please fasten your seat-belts, we are beginning our final descent." Her eyes snapped open and she found herself starring up at the plane's ceiling. Just what the hell had that been, first there had been the one on the first day of school then the one with the water and flames and now this, she was going to have to see her mom about it. Weird dreams were not a good sign.
Well at least the flight was almost over.
Null
"So do you think she'll understand." She shifted in her armour, even with the cloth it still felt uncomfortable, but it was the only thing that would protect her here. She faced her partner in crime, they were doing so many things wrong, but it was the only way.
"I believe she will, you two are very much the same after all. In any case what is done is done, we don't have another chance." Mechanical blue eyes stared back into her hazel ones.
"Almost to much the same, maybe she won't make the same mistakes again."
"Yet if this succeeds, you will cease to be, or rather you will have never existed in the first place."
"But if it can alter events just enough, it will all have been worth it."
"You're placing a lot of faith into your mother, more than I believe you should, there is always the chance that things will happen exactly the same way. Despite what we have done."
"Always one to quote the odds aren't you, ..."
"It's my nature, I do hope mother can help though."
"Do you think we should have tried her instead?"
"It most likely wouldn't have done anything, besides it would never have reached her. I nearly caused it to not work anyways."
"I suppose that is true."
In flight
Tabanae tapped anxiously on the armrest, things had not gone according to plan. First her electronic searches had turned up nothing, then she had needed to shut down her own network to prevent it from leading back to her. And now the only way to get the information she wanted was from the source, which meant she would have to in person. Hopefully she would have the chance to talk to them in person and alone, there were several questions she wanted to ask, and Carter would have at least some of the answers.
Of course she couldn't go looking like she normally did, so a bit of a disguise was needed. She had started by removing the pink hair dye she normally wore, returning her hair to it's natural black color, she had also gone ahead and cut it back to shoulder length. She completed her disguise with a pair of oversized glasses. So far she had managed to avoid drawing to much attention to herself, she hoped that would last until she got back to Japan. Though there was always the possibility that she would be uncovered, she was still trying to come up with a contingency for that particular situation.
Good news was the flight would be landing soon, and after that all she would have to do was get to the StarGate Initiative center. Carter was set to deliver a speech within the next week, with any luck she would be able to track her down afterwords.
Airport, American West Coast
Cassandra would never understand why it could take upwards of an hour to do something as simple as get off a plane. There was hardly anything to it, yet it still took her the better part of an hour and a half to get out of the airport, even without a suitcase to worry about. Well at least she was now out of it, and now she just had to find her mom.
She had just begun her search when she heard someone yell, "Cassie." She had just enough time to turn before a mass of brown hair slammed into her chest, only the years spent training with Teal'c preventing her from falling over.
"Hey Milly," she looked up from the mass of brown hair to see Chris walking towards the two of them. "Let me guess, mom got you guys to come pick me up."
"Righto... Car is over this way." Chris pointed his thump behind him. After a moment of struggling she managed to disengage herself from Milly's embrace, and had started to follow Chris. She had to stop when a short woman with short black hair and oversized glasses rushed pass her while yelling for a taxi. Some people had no manners.
After she and Milly had caught up with Chris, Milly started her interrogation. "So have any of the girls at the academy violated you yet?"
She had to let out a sigh, of course that would be the first thing Milly asks about, "no."
"Really, from what I've heard by the time they reach second year every student there had been with at least one girl. Though they may just have not gotten to you yet."
"I'm not sure where you're getting your information, but I can tell you that it is dead wrong. And you should be able to figure that out on your own." Then again Milly had always lived of a healthy diet of rumours and half truths.
"Hey I'm just worrying about you, your the one attending a nest of lesbians after all. Someone has to make sure you stay straight."
Chris stifled a laugh, "I don't think you need to be worried about that, Cassie is John-sexual after all. If it isn't John she isn't interested."
She felt her face heat up, "ju.. jus.. just what do you mean by that." She hadn't been to obvious about her crush had she?
"Oh come on Cassandra, everyone can see how you look at him whenever he shows up. I'm sure just about everyone knows." It wasn't that obvious was it. She was saved from further embarrassment by their arrival at Chris's car, and the focus turned to getting out of the airport and to her house.
Tabanae dropped her bag onto the second bed in the hotel room she was going to be using, not the fanciest place in the world, but it would do. And with any luck no one would take a closer look at her and her identity, it was one she didn't want to replace. That would mean she would have to get a third identity, it had been hard enough getting this one. At the very least no one would find anything wrong with it, being actually legitimate in all forms, even her stated reason for coming into the country was true. Even if she intended to do more than what the officials who had signed off on it thought she was going to do.
She got out a pair of pyjamas and got ready for bed, it wouldn't due to start plotting anything until she got some sleep.
Next Day, Area Fifty-One
Cassandra had to admit that if her friends had known she was going to the center of all conspiracy theory's, they would have demanded they be allowed to tag along. A pity the base was nowhere near as interesting as they thought it was. Everyone in the know knew that all the interesting stuff happened at the SGC.
The base wasn't all that much to look at really, grey-dust-brown buildings, the ground little more than worn asphalt and sand. Her mom wasn't very happy that she was going, honestly she fussed way to much, it wasn't like she was going to be in any actual danger. At least not for several years anyways, then again the uniform she was wearing probably didn't help. Though it would be two years and two weeks before she could join the military.
Carter drove her right up to and into one of the buildings that were on the surface, the same place she had first been given Blitz back in February. It seemed so long ago, but at the same time felt just like yesterday. Carter parked the car into one of the designate places before getting out with her following close behind. Even inside the base they still had to go through a checkpoint before entering the building proper, no one could say that security was lax here.
Once inside Carter led her first to a changing room, where she quickly got changed into a flight suit, something she had come to appreciate after trying to use an IS unit in her regular clothes. It ended up tight in all the wrong places.
Carter lead her down the hallway, stopping at a door and stooping by the handle for a bit before the door unlocked with a clack. On the other side of the door was a hangar similar to the one where she had first activated Blitz, and kneeling in the center of the room was Blitz again. Though the armour looked a bit different than what she remembered.
"I went ahead and did some upgrades along with the repairs." Right Carter, that explained everything. "Go ahead suit up I'll be in the control room." Carter turned and headed of to a door off to one side, while she walked up to Blitz.
"It's been a while." Upgrades huh, a grin spread across her face, she knew who the first person she was going up against was going to be. Time to get a win against them. She climbed into the IS unit and settled in, almost immediately she could feel the unit powering up, it certainly had been a while, nearly the entire summer.
After the armour had finished coming together, covering her from head to toe, Carter's voice came over the radio. "Alright we're going to start running through the basic exercises while I get the final adjustments done." This was going to take a while.
In the control room Carter sat in front of the screen watching the data feed, eyes scanning every bit of information being displayed. It was not promising, Cassandra's IS sync rating had taken a severe dive, and not only that but the reaction delay had nearly tripled. She would have to do some serious work in order to compensate for that, maybe it was caused by her upgrades. She shook her head, that was doubtful as none of them should have interfered with the pilot's synchronization with their IS unit.
Something else was going on, maybe being apart had something to do with it, she would have to look into it. There was something else she wanted to confirm though, "next exercise. See those training boxes over there, use them to hit one of the targets."
In her mind Jolinar spoke up. And just what is this supposed to accomplish?
Just watch. Out in the training area the boxes shifted slightly, before she sent the next set of training exercises over.
That is interesting.
Not quite done yet. "Arrange the boxes into cover." The effect was immediate as the boxes flew from their starting positions and began piling in front of Cassandra. The girl continued on with the other exercises for a few minutes before stopping. "Did I do that?"
That is most interesting.
And it explains a few things, she was definitely the one activating Blitz while it was being stored here, and I suspect I know the reason.
Something to do with her abilities.
Of course, it makes some sense. From what I've been able to determine, Blitz is acting as an amplifier for her abilities, which would mean that every time it activated was a time that she used her abilities.
I suppose it makes sense, but do you have any proof?
Not really, but I do intend to look into it further.
Very well.
Later
Carter looked over the takes from Cassandra's 'orientation' and 'familiarity' session. It was quite enlightening, for one, when compared to her previous values, she had dropped in nearly every category. The upgrades she had done should not have been done that, if anything they should have made it easier for Cassandra to use, resulting in higher scores. Could it be because they were apart for so long? No that didn't seem likely, what was it.
Stop. Jolinar's voice caused her to nearly jump out of her seat. Rewind the recording, she began reversing the recording of the various values. There, stop. Well this is most interesting. At the point Jolinar had her stop at, nearly every value skyrocketed. I do believe that's higher than any of her previous values. She quickly called up the on file records and compared them, they were indeed higher than any value Cassandra had ever achieved.
Interesting.
Now compare that spike to what she was doing at the time, and we may have another piece to the puzzle.
She was...
We seemed to have only considered one half of the equation.
Yes, yes we have.
Three days later, Mall, Japan
It had been two days since she had returned to Japan, and another three days until she was due to return to classes. Which meant she still had some free time on her hands. So shopping it was, or at least a day out with her friends who were still here and anyone whom they happened to pick up along the way. Which meant she had Carmen Mariengez along with one of her classmates along for the ride, though something kept bugging her. She wondered if her weird dream a few days ago had anything to do with it. Seeing as both Carmen and the girl she had brought along, Jane she thought it was, had both been in it.
She was probably over-thinking things, though in fairness to her, she was still rather mad about loosing the match yesterday. What made it worse was she had been the one to issue the challenge then promptly get beaten, badly. Two-hundred and thirty-six, to one thousand. And Carter had told her that Blitz was even better than it had been before, wasn't Carter supposed to have upgraded Blitz. But instead of doing better, she ended up doing worse than the previous two times.
Of course part of that could be due to her not having familiarized herself with the new upgrades, but that shouldn't have mattered. Upgrades meant she should have done better no matter what, not do worse. Cecilia informing her how bad of an idea it had been before then pointing out how right she had been hadn't helped. The girl in question was keeping her distance, Cassandra hadn't exactly taken the it very well.
She was hoping a change of location and some fresh air would help to improve her mood, it had yet to help. Eventually the group made their way to the food court, claiming a table near the outskirts. She volunteered to stay behind while everyone else went to go get food, her brooding was interfering with her hunger.
The others had all gone off leaving her alone at the table, something she normally would have been peeved about, but right now it let her cool off without smacking someone. She was staring off into space replaying the recent battle over and over again in her mind, trying to find something she could have done different to win.
The first thing she had done when the match started was to fire off the Anti-Al'kesh cannon, she had not been expecting the massive recoil that had nearly blown off her arm and sent her spinning. The Canadian Representative's berratement of her failure hadn't helped her embarrassment, nor had their offer to restart the match.
In hindsight, firing off such a large calibre weapon while flying probably hadn't been the brightest idea. At least her opponent had been restricted by the same problem, though that didn't matter as much as she wished.
After her declination to restart the match her opponent had sighed over the line, sighed were they trying to melodramatic! Thankfully the line cut after that, only for her to be showered by steel shards missiles and even grenades. Somehow she had managed to get out of that mess with only minor shield loss, but it had cost her altitude.
It wasn't until that moment when she realized that Jack and John's talk about fighter plane duels had some parallels in an IS battle. Relative altitude being the big one.
Her opponent hadn't wasted any time in taking advantage of that, while she had been trying to get back up they had simply kept firing down on her. After that it had just been a matter of time before her shields were drained, firing up at someone was significantly harder than firing down on someone. If only she had been given the chance to build up some speed first, she would have had a chance.
Nothing she could do about it now anyways, though it did give her some ideas to use in the next tournament. In the mean time she would have to spend the intervening time training as much as she could, next time she wouldn't lose. She looked up to see a black haired guy and a red haired guy walking by, it took her a moment to for her to realize she had seen them both before, just not in the same place.
It was Ichika and the boy she had run into in the game store last time she had been here, he even had a bandana on like last time. Ichika had forgone the academy uniform in favour of regular clothes, he almost blended in, at the very least people would have to see his face to recognize him. Clever boy, though she was surprised Charles wasn't with, she quickly dismissed the thought, it wasn't her problem.
She wasn't sure how it happened, but Ichika turned his head just slightly while she was still turning away, for an instant their eyes met. It was only for an instant but it was enough for Ichika to recognize her, and for him to know that she recognized him. He then proceeded to grab his friends arm and direct lead the other guy over towards her, great she was hoping to be left alone, well at least it would be male company for a change. Something she had discovered she had sorely been lacking in until she had hung out with Chris for a bit.
Ichika stopped in front of her table, the red haired boy looked at her for a few seconds before his eyes widened in realization. "Wait you're the girl from the game store." She wasn't sure how she felt about that title.
"Yes, I'm surprised that you remember." Or was seeing a girl in a game store such a rare occurrence that it stood out in his mind.
"Huh, so you two already know each other, and here I was wondering how to go about introductions." The two of them turned to Ichika, "this world keeps getting smaller everyday, I hope we'll soon find a way off it."
"And here you are going on about your dream again, even being surrounded by the hottest chicks on the planet you never change do you."
"Oh shut it Dan." Dan, she would need to remember that. The two boys pulled out seats and sat down around the table, she wondered what she was going to do when the others got back.
Once seated Dan looked at her, "so um Cas..." He got up and bowed to her, "will you teach me the way of Worlds." She felt herself blink several times, that had been unexpected.
Ichika just laughed, "and you call me childish."
"Hey this is really important." Ichika only laughed harder. Dan then turned back to her before sitting back down. "Anyways what type of build do you use, what are your preferred weapons..." She just stared at him while he ran down the list of questions, and she had thought girls talked fast.
"Whoa there slow down. I don't give up my secrets that easily." She nearly did anyways when Dan sent her a pair of doggy eyes, however she had practice in guarding against that particular attack. "Don't bother, I'm not saying anything."
"And here I was hoping to learn how the pros do it."
"You want the advice of a pro, pick something that works for you and master it, don't go around trying to copy other people, it doesn't work." Dan looked at her slightly depressed while Ichika snorted. "What?"
"Nothing." It was more than nothing, but she had no idea where to start there.
It was at that point that the rest of the troupe showed up food trays in hand being led by Sasha. "Well it seems Cassandra's boyfriends decided to show up." The glare that erupted from Cecilia should have been enough to set the table and the two boys on fire, another mess she would have to clean up. Why Sasha, why.
Somehow everyone managed to squish around the table, though Cecilia was uncomfortably close, Sasha's comment must have really put here on edge. "I'm going to get some food," in hindsight she probably should have got up slower seeing as she sent Cecilia flying, but it was her fault for sitting to close.
She went up to one of the shops and stood in line, from the looks of things this would take at least a few minutes. Enough time for her to figure out what was happening, why was everyone latching onto her all of a sudden, what had started out as just her and Sasha had ballooned into at least seven people. First Cecilia had shown up, then Carmen and Jane, and now Ichika and his friend had showed up, at this rate the whole school and then some would be along for the ride.
Bringing her food back to the table she stopped for a moment when she the whole crowd in an animated discussion. She looked down, it wouldn't be right for her to intrude after leaving so abruptly and rudely, she looked around for another table. There was one a ways further down that she started moving towards. "Hey Cassandra where are you going." She turned around to see Sasha waving her back over, well looked like she was going back. She turned and headed back to the table.
Sasha had moved over to the side enough to let her sit down between her and Jane, though it was still fairly cramped with all seven of them at the table. And all their food on the table... Wait, there were only five trays, Ichika and his friend hadn't gotten food. "Hey aren't you guys going to grab something?"
"Nah, we already ate." Well okay then. "Anyways I see that the two of you are good friends." He was looking at her and Sasha.
"Well yeah we're roommates after all."
"Not what I meant, but whatever." Now she was curious?
"So what did you mean."
"Doesn't matter. I noticed you looked distracted earlier, what was that about?"
"Oh, I was just thinking about my match yesterday, I was trying to come up ways to beat the Canadian representative." She was fairly certain everyone but Ichika's friend, who looked around confused, simply stopped and stared at her for a moment. "What, I can't stand being continually beaten by them."
"Cassandra I really think you should come sit over here." Cecilia was the first to break the silence.
"No. The only reason why you want me over there is to get a chance to grope me, not happening." Cecilia dropped her head into the palm of her hand. Then she felt something poke her butt, she quickly turned to give whoever did that a good smack. Only to see Sasha looking up at her with a big grin, mystery solved, she turned back to the table. "Some people are so immature." A few moments later something poked her in the side of the chest, "do that again Sasha and I'll smack you."
Something poked her chest from the other side, "boop."
"Jane, really."
The girl in question just let out a laugh. "You're making it to easy." She let out a sigh as the rest of the group started laughing, she buried her head in her hands, why oh why was this happening.
"You know, we should probably leave teasing Cassandra to her girlfriends and boyfriends." Ichika perked his eyebrows up, Cecilia's jaw dropped, Jane let out a snort while Carmen giggled. She just stared at Sasha.
"What boyfriends, and seriously, girlfriends!"
"Yeah, all four of them."
"Four!?"
"Yeah, Nizru, Cecilia, Ichika and this guy." Sasha pointed her thumb at Ichika's friend who was sitting beside her. The guy in question began silently pouting, yeah not even worth a name, that must have hurt his ego. Cecilia looked like she couldn't decide who to kill, her or the two boys, or Sasha, Ichika merely looked annoyed. Carmen and Jane were collapsed over the table laughing.
"I'm out of here." Ichika got up and left.
"Four girls and no wingman, nope." His friend quickly followed him, and now it was back to the people she had come into the food court with. Sasha took the opportunity to move around the table to the now empty space, which also gave her some more room. Which she was silently thankful for, no more being squished.
"Well they left in a hurry." Carmen had managed to gain composure over herself, though Jane was still having fits.
"Well there's more room at the table now anyways."
"True enough, and you can stop now Jane, it wasn't that funny."
"Yeah, but that poor guy, I wonder if he will ever catch a break." Jane had finally managed to get herself upright.
"He wasn't chased away when he showed up, so I guess he didn't completely fail." Cassandra chose to quickly finish her meal while the others chatted.
Then she felt a pair of eyes boring into her, she looked up to see Jane looking at her with a thoughtful expression. "What?"
"I don't know what it is, but you feel different from anyone I've ever met."
"You go around poking everyone you meet."
"Not like that, it's not a physical thing. It's just that something about you is different from everyone I've ever met, and I can't put my finger on what it is." She stopped for a moment, she knew what made her different, well the things that made her different, could Jane be able to pick up on it. That was scary. "Never mind, forget I said anything." No she wouldn't be forgetting, she would have to take care around Jane, and look into the other girl at the same time.
After that they continued on in silence, all of them getting up after she had finished her meal. Depositing their trash in the trash and their trays in the reciprocal, the five of them continued on with their day. They headed down the main passageway with Sasha in the lead with no particular destination, they were probably all still thinking on what Jane had said. She had to find out more about Jane, but she couldn't let the other girl know about it, so they continued on in silence.
That was until Cecilia broke the silence, "I know we should go clothes shopping, we could all use some better dating outfits." She didn't like the way Cecilia was looking at her.
"No." Both she and Sasha coursed together.
"Why, don't want to get something to show yourself off to your boyfriends and girlfriends."
"Oh shut up Carmen. I don't have any of either, this universe is sane after all."
"Yeah, it doesn't have wormholes leading to other planets, times and dimensions, so of course it's perfectly sane." All four of them turned to Sasha, what!?
"Huh, I never took you to be a geek Sasha." Cecilia commented to no one in particular, Sasha merely stuck out her tongue for a moment before turning back around and continuing on her way. "I wonder where she's going?"
The rest of the group began following Sasha, into a part of the mall that she recognized but she couldn't quite remember from where. Then she remembered it, "the game store is near here."
Sasha cocked her head around, "the one where you met your boyfriend."
"Just go die." The words were barely out of her mouth when time began to slow, he was standing a few paces in front of Sasha and advancing. Black leather jacket hung around his shoulders, a trio of blades glinted in his right hand, and when he looked up she could see the insane maniacal grin on his face. "No," it came out as little more than a whisper, but it was enough to get Sasha to start turning her head around.
She got a mere glimpse of Sasha's eye when three steel blades exploded from Sasha's back sending blood everywhere. "SASHA!"
