Disclaimer: See Prequel
Vada made her way to the bar and stretched. She could hear 494 playing something incredibly depressing in the background, and she could see their goofy grins.
She knew that Manticore hadn't told him where she was. She knew it just in the way he moved the day she had found out where she was going. He acted normal. He didn't even say goodbye. He would have said goodbye, good luck. Don't kill yourself.
Don't fall for anybody.
Vada should have learned her lesson through his stories about beautiful Rachel. She should have known that falling in love while on a mission is dangerous. Very dangerous.
"Hi, I'm Natalia." Vada smiled at the boy sitting behind the desk. "I'm here for the audition."
"Um, here." He fumbled through his papers nervously and there was a flush on his cheeks. Vada recognized it from what the people on the outside called embarrassment. Something she had never seen before. She was captivated. "I'm Tony. You must be auditioning for a spot in the chorus."
Vada nodded. "That's right." Her target was right there in front of her.
"My father owns the company. Most of the time he puts me in the chorus just to keep an eye on me." Tony admitted. He ran a hand through his dark hair.
"Lucky. I can't ace an audition at all. They always say I'm too tall or too skinny or something." Vada grinned at him. He handed her a clipboard.
"If your dancing is anything like your looks, then they have to be crazy."
Vada blushed to her surprise. "I bet you use that line on all the girls."
"No, not really. I'm not even supposed to be here, but my father's mistress needed help. She's his secretary." Tony shrugged, and Vada was intrigued by his care-freeness. "What about your parents?"
"I, um, live with my dad. He's a great guy. My parents had me young and I don't know my mother." Vada made up a lie. 494 counted as her dad, she supposed. He was a surrogate after all.
"I guess I understand what you mean." Tony said. "I guess I should leave you to filling out your audition information."
"Actually, these are different from all the other audition forms I've gone through. Could you help me out?" Vada used her most innocent smile, the one that she used on 494 to get him to play 'Ten Minutes Ago' again.
"Yeah, these forms are crazy." Tony murmured. They sat down in the wicker-and-leather chairs.
Vada was so much reminded of 494, that she began humming 'Ten Minutes Ago'.
"I saw you." Tony sang in a low voice, following the tune and key perfectly. "I looked up when you came through the door."
"My head started reeling, you gave me the feeling the room had no ceiling or floor." Vada followed, and the two burst out laughing.
"This is crazy. I have never sung Rogers and Hammersteins in the lobby of my dad's office." Tony admitted.
"Funny, the only time I sing Rogers and Hammersteins is when my dad is playing it." Vada told him.
"You know what? Screw the audition. You'll get in. Trust me. Let's go have some fun." Tony grabbed her hand and the clipboard fell to the floor.
"I wanted to ring out the bells, fling out my arms and to sing out the news!" Vada sang softly to herself as she began her pirouettes across the floor. "I have found him, he's an angel, with the dust of the stars in his eyes. We are dancing, we are flying, and he's taking me back to the skies!"
She stopped when the image of Tony's face flashed in front of her. She couldn't stand it. She couldn't dance anymore. But then the beginning of the next track began to play and the horrible memories began to play in her head.
"Is this Miss Natalia Christiansen?" The man on the phone that she had just been handed asked.
"This is she." Vada replied.
"We'd like you to be part of the 'Sparks of Magic' production, staring Anthony Andrews. You would play the love interest, Ana."
Tony had pulled his strings. And now, she was going to dance.
494 struck the keys heavily, putting the heavy affect on 'Moonlight Sonata'. He had seen X6 528 watching him play and watch Vada dance. Vada wasn't on point yet, but she was beautifully interpreting the music. It was a dramatic song, and 494 felt that it described Manticore perfectly.
Vada was expressing the music through her every movement. Her blinks, the way she rotated her wrists and stretched out her fingers, and especially the way her long legs moved, it was definite that 528's eyes were no longer on her. 510, another blonde X6 from another unit, had also stopped to watch. Then there was 548. He was a brunette X6 that Vada had chummed up with once when they were paired together. But they were never friends. All X6 males, all from different units, had their eyes on Vada.
And he stopped.
"That's enough, Vada." He corrected himself. "734."
"But it is never enough, 494." She told him flatly, her hands on her hips. By the time she turned around, 528, 510, and 548 had disappeared.
494 began playing her favorite. He hated when she pouted.
"Ten minutes ago--." She sang sweetly, dancing around the room with no real choreography in mind.
"Vada, they were watching you." 494 whispered.
"Who?"
"510, 528, 548. Looks like those X6 boys are finally realizing what a hottie you are."
"Oh, bother!" She muttered. "494, I refuse to listen to this!"
"You refuse to admit you are attractive? Outsiders would jump to hear they are so god damn seductive." 494 said with a grin.
"Whatever." She told him, rolling her eyes. "I would have seen them."
"You see no one when you are dancing, Vada." 494 told her.
Vada closed her eyes, hoping to block everything out. The explosion, the look on Tony's face, the music, the dancers, everything needed to go.
Moonlight Sonata began to play in her head. It had been exactly what was playing when she got it into her mind to leave Manticore.
494 wasn't playing it. After she had come back from her mission, 494 was no longer her surrogate. 548 played for her.
But he did not play as well as 494.
When she danced, Manticore allowed her to wear a baby blue cross-over sweater over a white leotard, with light blue tights, and her very own pair of baby blue ballet slippers. With an icy blue sarong made of floaty material, she could close her eyes and instantly she was cold. Freezing. Goosebumps went down her arm as 548 played. It was the only thing that 548 was allowed to play, to remind her that she was not supposed to feel.
Moonlight Sonata was Tony's favorite song. He often played it for her, to get her to dance. He had been playing it before the explosion. She knew it, just by instinct.
She hadn't gotten there in time. She was just getting out of the Manticore car in the parking garage a block away when she heard it. She ran as fast as she could. Tony was making it out of the doors, and she nearly screamed for joy. But as he realized she was there, he smiled. And then he was shot.
She rushed over, crying over his crumpled body, and she was being dragged away before she could scream or say goodbye or anything. And then she was unconscious.
And they continued to make her dance to it twice daily. 548 must have noticed that she closed her eyes every time he played, just to ensure that he didn't see the faraway look in her eyes.
"You succeeded, 734. You killed the target's father and his cronies. With a little help, you got the target, too. He didn't suspect a thing."
He didn't suspect a thing.
Vada stopped dancing. She couldn't stand it anymore. She had to get out. She had to forget.
But how could she forget when the very theater she had exploded was in perfect view from her balcony, still in ruins?