Chapter 52 - Congratulations, Bo: Part IV

10:35 pm - Crime Scene Building

"So let me get this straight," Thomasina murmured as she rubbed her pulsing temples. "In your world, the killer was your uncle. In my world, you initially suspected your brother but your father is actually the killer?"

Instead of waiting for Bo's reply, she raised her eyebrows at Bo and quickly teased, "how many serial killers are there in your family, hmm? Should I arrest you too, just to prevent possible future murders?"

Bo laughed. "No, it's not my father. It's the parallel version of him, an evil version."

"Well has this parallel version raised an evil version of you? " Thomasina asked.

"No, I don't think that he has any kids in this world," Bo explained. Then, she clenched her lips and added, "well, I guess you should probably check just to make sure of it."

"I don't need you to tell me how to work on my case, okay?" Thomasina rolled her eyes. After letting out a light sigh, she started to pack her equipments.

They left the crime scene building afterwards, and got into Thomasina's flying vessel.

"So, your father," Thomasina asked as she watched Bo buckle up in the back, "do you know what he looks like?"

"Yeah of course I do," Bo said. "If you can find me a sketch artist, I'll tell them what he looks like and they could draw a picture of him."

"A ske-what?" Thomasina asked as she gave Bo a frown.

"Ummm...the sketch artist, you know, the person who draws a sketch of someone according to the description given by the eyewitnesses?"

"Oh, don't you mean the profiling booth?"

"The...pro-what?" Bo asked. It was her turn to be completely confused.

"The profiling booth," Thomasina repeated. "The thing you've just described. It draws the picture of a suspect. On and by the way, it's a thing, not a person. It's certainly not an artist."

"Fine," Bo muttered. "As long as it draws the…."

She trailed off when she noticed a sparkling spot hanging beneath the roof of a tall tower far, far away from her. It was that same bright thing she had seen while talking to her brother's phantom. He had told her that it was nothing, but for some reason, she felt that it might be something useful to her, or something important at least.

"What is that?" She eventually asked Thomasina as she pointed at it.

Thomasina took a glance. Then she furrowed her eyebrows at Bo. "What? You don't have stars in your world or something?"

"Ummm...no, I mean, yeah, of course we have stars in my world, but...I don't think it's a star," Bo murmured, yet she couldn't be so sure now. Could it just be a bright star?

"Star or not, it is not who we are looking for," Thomasina said as she started the engine. "Let's go finish my damn case first, and then we'll figure out a way to get you home before the Crimson Watchers grab your sorry little ass."

Once again, her tone and her use of words made Bo chuckle.

1:15 am - Police Station

Bo followed Thomasina down a long, empty hallway, where she didn't see a single room on either side. However, at the end of the hallway, there was a locked door.

A guard with a pair of goggles stood beside it. When he saw Thomasina, he gave her a slightly nod before he took her PI card and scanned it with a handheld device.

He returned her the card afterwards, and then he turned to Bo. One of his goggle lenses rotated slowly as he focused on Bo's face.

Bo thought he'd ask for her PI card too. She nervously turned to Thomasina for help, but Thomasina just gave her a comforting smile.

The guard didn't ask her for her card. He didn't even try to talk to her. He just clumsily spun around and faced the door while fumbling with a large set of keys that was hanging on his belt.

It took him a while to eventually select a large bronze key which had small gears and bolts on it bow.

The gears started to turn as the guard inserted the key into the keyhole. The rims around the keyhole rotated noisily until there came a slight click.

The mechanism that controlled the door shut now pulled it open. The guard stepped aside and stood there, quiet and still like a statue.

Behind the door, there was a big case-like machine in the middle, and that was the only thing that was inside. The machine, with shiny bronze bars, humming pipes and gears, it was slightly larger than a phone booth.

In front of the cage, there was a monitor which looked like a TV from the 70s. There was nothing on display but random noise.

"What is that?" Bo asked Thomasina in a whisper, even though she sort of already figured out the answer herself.

"It's the profiling booth," Thomasina told her.

"So...this cage will draw the picture of my father how?" Bo asked as she curiously placed her fingers on one of the bars.

"Ummm...it reads your mind and then it draws the picture?" Thomasina said as if it was the most obvious fact among all things.

"It reads my mind?" Bo raised her eyebrows.

Thomasina sighed. She knew that the more she explained, the more confused Bo might become, so instead of elaborating further, she opened the gate to the cage and let Bo in.

"Why don't you stay inside and see what happens?" She suggested.

"What am I supposed to do exactly?" Bo asked as she looked around. She thought she'd see some sort of device that could somehow connect her to the cage, but there was nothing. It was as if she was inside an empty birdcage.

"Just concentrate on your father's face. The booth will do the rest," Thomasina told her before she closed the cage.

As the gate was closed, things around Bo changed. She suddenly found herself being enclosed inside the cage and could no longer see outside even though there were space between the bronze bars.

Hmm….She thought as she curiously touched the space between two bars that were closest to her. Some sort of force field prevented her fingers from moving any further.

Okay….She closed her eyes. Concentrate.

She tried to picture her father's face in her mind, but she found it impossible to focus since too many things had happened for the past day. She ended up having all sorts of images and memories flying inside her head.

Thomasina came in after a few seconds. "Hey, I need you to focus, okay?" She demanded, though her tone was soft. "The booth is drawing all kinds of weird shit right now."

"I...I just can't focus. I mean, how am I supposed to do this really?" Bo grunted in frustration.

"Well, you picture him in your mind as if you are looking at him right now. His look, his appearance, as many details as you can."

"I am doing that. I just...I can't keep my mind of other things. They are really distracting," Bo complained.

Thomasina sighed. "Alright, let's try a different approach then. Don't try to focus that hard on his face. Think about the last time you saw him. Relive that piece of memory. Details, details, details."

"Okay..." Bo murmured as she gave Thomasina a nod.

The other woman closed the gate again. Bo took a deep breath as she went back to the last time when she had seen her father.

That was one weird day. She almost got shot. Some woman saved her life. They were chased by a bunch of armed people in suits. Bullets and broken glasses were everywhere. The loud carnival music, the ferris wheel, the crowd….

Then, there was her father, standing in the middle of the crosswalk looking at her. Cars were honking at him, but he didn't care. He seemed to have a lot of things that he wanted to say to her, but he just didn't have time.

She watched him leave. She watched him hop on that bus. She watched that bus drive away. She feared that she'd never see him ever again….

"Alright, that's enough," Thomasina's voice pulled Bo out of her memories. "I think I've got what I need."

"Oh, okay," Bo nodded. She exited the cage and took look at the monitor. A black and white sketch was displayed there. A sketch of her father standing in the middle of the crosswalk looking at her.

"Well, that's him...that's my father," Bo said.

Thomasina studied the sketch with her eyebrows furrowed. "Hmmm...I suppose the killer would look less harmless than him, wouldn't he?" She commented.

6:40 am - Police Station

With the help of the sketch, the police arrested the killer in just a few hours.

Bo watched the officers escorting the man into a temporary holding cell. She met his eyes for a second or two when he walked past her.

He looked just like her father, but at the same time, he looked nothing like him.

"Finally," Thomasina murmured as she closed the case file folder. "I can close this case now…."

Bo nodded. "So..." she murmured, "I helped you solve your case. How about you help me get back to where I came from?"

Thomasina looked around, before she leaned in and whispered to Bo, "let's go find Kenzi and see what she has found out."

7:20 am - Clock Tower

Thomasina and Bo found Kenzi buried under a pile of books and devices. She was snoring loudly.

Thomasina bent down and pinched Kenzi's nose until the girl woke up with a strong inhale.

"Huh, who, what-don't touch me," Kenzi mumbled incoherently.

Thomasina rolled her eyes. "It's us," she drawled.

"Oh," Kenzi nodded. She got out from the book pile in a big yawn. After mumbling and grunting for a while, she turned to Thomasina and Bo. "So, what can I do you for?"

"You know, the exit?" Thomasina reminded her. "You said you'd go through the books while we were out there solving the murder case?"

"I may or may not have said that," Kenzi said as she raised her index finger. After another yawn, she added, "but I did talk to some of my friends, you know, the kind of friends you don't want other people to know about."

"Yeah, yeah, what did you find out?" Thomasina cut her off impatiently. "At least one of them has given you some clue, right?"

"Well, one of them has this friend who has a friend who has a friend who is crazy about travellers. He's been gathering all sorts of info. Whenever there's a rumor that some traveller pops up somewhere, he'd go there and check out himself. He once met a traveller, like a long, long time ago."

"What happened then?" Bo asked.

"Well, the Crimson Watchers happened," Kenzi sighed. "They caught her before she could get out. Oh poor, poor girl…."

"Kenzi, the exit," Thomasina reminded her.

"Oh yeah, of course, the exit," Kenzi murmured. Then she went quiet and started to ponder. After knocking the top of her own head for a few times, she continued, "he did tell me something about the exit."

"What did he tell you?" Bo asked.

"He said there indeed are exits that allow travellers to leave our world. It's just...the exits don't have fixed locations, and they don't even look the same."

"Well, does he at least know what they might look like or how we could find one of them?"

"He said that the travellers, and only the travellers, would know where the exits are," Kenzi replied.

"But, I don't know where they are. I don't even know what the hell an exit is!" Bo exclaimed. "Is it a door? Is it a passageway? Is it supposed to be an object? An item? Is there some kind of ritual I need to perform before I could find it? Just tell me what I need to do."

"Whoa, calm down, young lady," Kenzi warned. "And keep your voice down. I don't want the Crimson Watchers to find you, cuz I like this place and I don't want to blow it up again."

Bo really wanted to asked about the "blow up again" part, but she decided that it was not the time. "Just tell me what to do," she pleaded in a whisper.

"Well, unfortunately, I don't know. That's all he wrote," Kenzi shook her head. "I am not the traveller. You are."

Frustrated, Bo groaned and sat down on the floor. She let out a deep sigh and threw her head back. After having pondered for a while, she asked, "you said this guy once knew a traveller who later got caught by the Crimson Watchers….Did she find the exit before she was caught?"

"According to him, she did," Kenzi said. "He said that she was heading somewhere when she got caught."

"Did he say to where this girl was headed?" Thomasina asked.

"Ummm...north, I think?" Kenzi murmured.

Bo threw her hands into the air in defeat. "I need a clue," she groaned. "So...I'm supposed to know where this exit is and what it looks like...I'm also the only one who knows those things. If that's the case, it must be something that-"

She suddenly stopped talking and turned to Thomasina. "Hey, that star."

"What star?" Thomasina frowned.

"Remember when we were in your flying vessel, I asked you if you know what something was?"

"Mhm, and I told you that it was a star," Thomasina said.

"No...I don't really think it's a star..." Bo murmured as she walked to the window. Through the color glass, she looked at the sky.

She had a feeling that she'd see that thing again, and there it was. A bright thing dancing above a thick patch of clouds.

"That is definitely not a star," she announced as she narrowed her eyes at the rising sun, and that bright thing seemed to be brighter than the sun.

"What are you mumbling about?" Thomasina frowned at her.

"That," Bo pointed at the bright spot.

"I don't see anything," Thomasina said after carefully searched in the sky. She turned to Kenzi afterwards. Kenzi came to the window to look for it too but could not find it either.

Bo gaped at the thing. It was flickering. It went out for a while, before it came back again. Just when it glowed brighter, she heard that voice again. Someone was calling her name.

"That...that must be the exit," Bo murmured. "It's...it's got to be it."

"Ummm...we don't see anything..." Kenzi said.

"Well...maybe only the travellers can see it?" Bo suggested. "I know it sounds ridiculous but it's not like I have another choice or anything. I guess I'll just chase it down and see what happens."

"Alright," Thomasina nodded. "Let's get ready and wait for the sun to go down then."

8:00 pm - Inside the Flying Vessel

Thomasina flew as fast as she could towards the bright thing. There were a few times that both women thought it was close enough, but every time that thing would disappear and then reappear at somewhere else.

"Are you sure this is the exit?!" Thomasina asked Bo.

"No, I am not sure, but what else could it be?" Bo argued.

"I don't know, a hot balloon maybe?"

"Yeah do hot balloons glow like that?" Bo retorted. "Let's just get close and check it out."

"Sure, and also a friendly reminder, someone's behind us," Thomasina told her.

Bo turned back and took a look. There was a Crimson Watcher's vessel right behind them. She nervously whispered to Thomasina, "what are we gonna do?"

"Let's just disappear first," Thomasina replied simply as she suddenly let her vessel drop. Before Bo could protest, Thomasina pulled it up took a sharp turn.

A patch of clouds came between the Crimson Watcher's vessel and theirs. Thomasina took the chance and headed towards an air dock tower at full speed.

Thomasina popped the buckle of her belt when the vessel was right above the tower. Then she popped Bo's. She dragged Bo over and covered her mouth.

The next thing Bo knew, was that both of them were falling down towards the tower. She could hear nothing but the wind.

They landed in the small garden in the middle of the air dock. A thick patch of plants caught them. Thomasina made sure that both of them were hidden behind the bushes while Bo watched their vessel flew away. The Crimson Watcher's vehicle followed it closely.

"It's on auto piloting mode," Thomasina explained to Bo in a whisper.

Bo nodded. After both vessels disappeared, she asked, "are we safe now?"

"No, we are not. It's only a matter of time before the Crimson Watchers find us again," Thomasina told her as she hurried to the corner of the dock. "They will follow my vessel for a while. Then Kenzi will get a decoy out and buy us more time, but…."

She trailed off as she stopped in front of an old flying vessel. It looked rusty, with a balloon on top. There was so much dust over the balloon that Bo couldn't even tell what color it was.

"I hope this thing could still fly," Thomasina murmured as she hopped in.

"Whose ship is this?" Bo asked as she got in too.

"Don't know, don't care. Looks like this shit's been here forever, so I guess its owner don't care about it either," Thomasina murmured as she picked up a piece of metal bar and jammed it into the lock. She forced the lock to open, before she pulled out some wires from behind the control panel and started to engine.

With a loud, shaky growl, the vessel throttled. Bo stumbled inside until she found a spot to sit.

"I guess you haven't been in one of these before either?" Thomasina asked as she maneuvered the vehicle away from the dock.

"No, actually, I have," Bo corrected her. "Once, with Tamsin."

"Oh, so you do have balloons in your world," Thomasina said in a low voice and nodded along.

She pushed the control lever forward, and the vehicle headed into the night sky.

The darkness enveloped them. The thick clouds above them covered the moon and the stars. However, far, far away, they could see that bright thing dancing, rolling, jumping up and down.

"You are...doing something you shouldn't be doing, aren't you?" Bo said hesitantly as she looked at Thomasina who seemed to be focused on driving. "I mean...you are a cop but you are-"

Thomasina shook her head. "I am not like them," she told Bo. "I catch bad guys. I solve crimes. I rescue people. I don't go after innocent people just because they are from somewhere else."

"But...you are gonna get into trouble for helping, aren't you?" Bo asked, concerned.

"Maybe, maybe not," Thomasina gave her a smirk. "I'm not stupid, okay? I know my ways around here. I can take care of myself."

Bo nodded. "It's...really nice to meet you," she said sincerely.

Thomasina snorted. "Unlike you, I'm totally not thrilled," she drawled, and Bo chuckled.

9:40 pm - Somewhere in the City

They "borrowed" another vessel after a while, and then they had to travel on foot because the Crimson Watcher squad was out looking for them. Their vessels were all over the night sky.

"Damn, I thought Kenzi could buy us more time than this," Thomasina complained.

As a Crimson Watcher's vessel dived down and hovered above them, she pulled Bo into the shadow of the buildings and stayed there until it was clear again.

"How do they even know where we are?" Bo whispered.

"Beats me," Thomasina shook her head. "These fuckers seem to know everything. You do something that you aren't supposed to do, and bam they are there….Hell, I don't even know why they are after the travellers like this…."

Bo tuned her out, though. She heard that voice again. It was soft, like a whisper in the wind. It was like someone was begging her to come home.

Suddenly, she figured out whose voice that was. As she whispered Tamsin's name in her heart, a warm rush ran through her body.

She looked around, searching for that voice in reflex. It was then that she noticed a crack opened door across the alley they were in. Somehow, she had a strong urge to go inside.

She followed her instinct. With Thomasina, she went through the door. A long spiral staircase was the only thing inside that building.

They climbed up, and realized that this building was an abandoned watch tower. Above them, there were Crimson Watchers' vessels.

However, Bo was barely paying attention to them, because she found out in shock that the bright thing she had been following for the past few hours was right there.

It was a blob of fluctuating mass. It was hard to tell if the light was coming from the center of it, or if the thing itself was light.

Bo reached for it, but it dodged her hand swiftly and bounced backwards. Then, it rotated in the air and jumped off the roof.

Bo jumped with it without even thinking about what she was doing. She caught it with her left hand, and then she realized that she was falling down.

She saw Thomasina's face, shocked, scared. She saw all the vessels coming at her. She saw the dark sky, the clouds and the hue of the city light that rendered everything light blue.

She noticed that things were quickly fading away, like she was losing consciousness. She closed her eyes, thinking that she'd black out soon.

The blob of light embraced her. Instead of blacking out, though, she suddenly gained all her senses back. They all exploded inside her.

A long gasp forced her lungs to expand. She waved her arms frantically, searching for that light again. She didn't find it, but she did find someone's hand, someone's warm, soft hand.

Her eyes shot open, and there she saw Tamsin's face, a few inches away from hers.

Yes, Bo knew that it was Tamsin, not Thomasina, for that deep, sincere love in those blue eyes, for those lips that were quivering in overjoy, for those happy tears.

"Bo, can you hear you?" Tamsin asked her as she cupped Bo's face and examined her carefully. "You can see me, right?"

Bo nodded. She placed one hand on Tamsin's cheek and asked, "am I back?"

"Well either that or this is a very, very real dream," Tamsin told her as she took Bo into her arms. She hugged Bo tight, choking back her teary chuckles.

"Hey..." Bo whispered softly as she put her arms around Tamsin's body. "I'm here now, Tamsin. I'm back."

Tamsin nodded and cupped Bo's face again. She looked into her brown eyes, before she teased, "you are really Bo, right? Should I ask for some proof of that?"

Bo giggled. "Well..." she said seductively as she licked her own lips. "That hickey I left on your thigh should still be there...but if it's not, I can certainly make another one."

Instead of laughing at her tease, or flirting back, Tamsin gave Bo a weird look as she cleared her throat awkwardly. She raised her eyebrows and gestured Bo to look behind her.

Bo finally noticed that they weren't the only people inside the room. Besides Lillian who was still in the wheelchair with a lost mind, there was Trick, Kenzi, and that little Ubume girl Myra they had helped, whom Kenzi had decided to adopt recently.

The two adults looked away immediately the moment they met Bo's eyes. Myra, however, stared at Bo and Tamsin intently, as curious as a kitten.

"What's a hickey?" She eventually asked Kenzi with a voice so loud and clear that no one could pretend that they didn't hear her.

"It's ummm...it's a grown up thing, dear," Kenzi explained after clearing her throat.

"So what is it?" Myra looked at her.

"Skin lesion. It's a type of skin lesion that...is very deadly to little kids like you," Kenzi blurted, almost choking.

"Why would Bo give Tamsin that?" Myra asked, confused.

"Well like I said, it's a grown up thing and it's very complicated, you know, like really complicated, soooo...why don't we go get you some ice cream and then we'll go to the Dal where we can sit down and listen to Bobo's story, okay?"

Distracted by ice cream, Myra cheered excitedly and started to name her favorite flavors. Kenzi dragged her out after she and Bo exchanged a look quickly.

Trick pulled his vest uncomfortably. "Well, I'll be at the Dal, should you need me," he announced before he left.

12:15 am - Tamsin and Bo's Place

"I thought we were going to the Dal..." Bo purred as she nested in Tamsin's warm embrace.

"The Dal can wait," Tamsin told her softly. "I gotta charge your battery first, right?"

"Well..." Bo murmured as she ran her finger along Tamsin's arm. "I'm charged, multiple times."

Tamsin chuckled and laid a soft kiss on her hair. "So, before you tell your story to the gang, do you want to tell me what happened in that world?"

"Ummm...I met you," Bo said teasingly, "I mean, another you, another bitchy Tamsin."

"Oh really?" Tamsin drawled. "Does she have a hot ass too?"

Bo laughed. Then, she left out a soft sigh. "It's really only been one day? I just feel like-I feel like it's been several days, you know."

"Oh you have no idea," Tamsin murmured as she remembered herself panicking when she thought Bo would never come back. "So you were really in a parallel universe, huh?"

"Yeah...like a steampunk world. It was kind of weird...and you know what's weirder? They have a Bible John case over there too, and the other you was working on it. The killer, however, was my father instead of my uncle."

"Whoa, really?" Tamsin frowned. "Did you meet yourself there?"

Bo shook her head. "No," she said. "I don't think there was another me there...but…."

"But?" Tamsin gently thumbed Bo's cheek as she gazed into Bo's eyes.

"I met my brother," Bo said.

"What? Really? You met him in the parallel universe? I mean...you met the other him there?"

"No, it was him," Bo told her.

"How is it possible? The parallel universe should be something that's inside Lillian's head. How could he have gotten into her mind?"

"It's not really him. It's a phantom of him. He said that when he hypnotized her, he left a piece of his mind in there. I-I don't know, but I think it was his way of leaving me a message or something. It was like...he set up the trap and got me in there just so he could have some fun fucking with us and also talk to me for five minutes."

"What did you two talk about?"

"Nothing much, really. He babbled about how twins were fascinating, how there is a connection between them, and how one might alter from good to evil or something. I mean...it's like crazy talk to me, but...I don't know, I feel like there's something that he wants me to know, or that he wants from me…hell, I don't know, it's probably just him being delusional and crazy."

Tamsin nodded along. "Well, speaking of your brother," she said as she opened the drawer of the nightstand beside her side of bed. There she took out Bo's brother's journal book and handed it to Bo. "Remember this?"

"Yeah, of course, my brother's journal, right? Why? I thought the tech team are trying to crack code. Did they figure it out or something?" Bo frowned.

"They have figured out how it's encrypted. They just need an encryption key, like...I don't know, they told me that it might be a word or a phrase or something. Any chance you have an idea of what it might be?"

Bo took the journal from Tamsin and flipped the cover while pondering. When she saw the name "Sabio" sighed at the bottom of the page, something suddenly came to her.

"Yeah...I think I might," she murmured as she tapped her index finger on the page.

"What is it?"

"Isabo. It's Isabo," Bo replied.

Tamsin frowned. "Like your name?"

"No, I mean, yeah, but it's not the exact spelling. It's how my brother would spell it as a kid. It's also how he's been calling me in the other world. I-S-A-B-O, Isabo."

Tamsin nodded. Then, she picked up her phone from the nightstand and murmured, "I'll text the Wolf then."

After she had done texting, she took the journal book away from Bo and put it back into the drawer.

Sliding her hand slowly down along the side of Bo's waist, she made sure she teased every inch of Bo's sensitive skin.

"Now..." she whispered into the brunette's ear. "Let's hear your sweet voice begging me to take you hard again."

"Tamsin..." Bo protested softly. She wanted to tell the blonde that they might need to go to the Dal and meet the gang there first before a second round, but when the Valkyrie covered her nipple with those soft, hot lips, all she could do was to close her eyes and moan.


A/N: probably gonna have a couple chapters of Valkubus fluff next before coming back to the main plot again. Hope everyone's enjoying this story!