Chapter 24 - Done and Dusted…Not Quite
Tyana pumped her fist in the air and shrieked with utter delight, her eyes welling with tears she was so exultant. Shadow laughed and they high fived one another, proud and triumphant. Tyana pulled Shadow into and embrace and hugged her tightly.
"Thank you so much" she whispered, "I couldn't have done this without you…hell, I'd probably be dead by now"
Shadow shook her head and backed up, "No way, it was a team effort…we saved each other's asses!" she laughed and hugged Tyana one last time before she switched attention to the unconscious final victim of the good side. It had been a week and a half since the day Tyana had spend a day with Jeff only to get him caught up in assassin attempt on his life and in those 10 days they had worked towards this one night, repeating their previous mission by visiting the last houses, destroying the chips, the equipment, erasing memory. And they had finally done it. On the floor beside them, unconscious, unknowing from now on, was the final one, the final chip maker. And they had done it. They were free of it all. The Witnessing was over, Bret was sending a plagued virus through their enemy's remaining systems at this very point in time and they were free of it.
"Come on" Shadow began, moving her eyes away from the blacked out figure to Tyana, "let's get out of here" Tyana nodded and they left, jumping clean out of the window into identical crouches on the lawn in front. The stayed squatted for a second, savoring the excitement of their final mission, staying cautious even though they had no opponents now, and then they darted off into the darkness of the street in front of them. Their feet slammed against the tarmac as they ran down it, sprinting away from the final reminder of the life they could now leave behind. They thighs trembled with the excitement, their muscles beginning to ache as they ran for miles back to the hotel, not stopping to gasp for breath once. They reached the area in which their place of residence was located and allowed themselves to slow a little, giggling with happiness, giddy with the fizzing of left over adrenaline. Inside they were exhausted, their muscles over worked and tired from such long periods of grueling activity, their lungs working hard to keep them breathing enough to respire as they slowed their pace, their mind allowing now unneeded details to filter out of it, making way for memories of new experience they were looking forward to so readily.
They would live the life of the mortals of this plane, they would get work, they'd find a place to live, and they'd do all the stupid little things they could never do in the other world. And they would cherish it. Because they weren't being watched. No one was. And they never would be.
Tyana gasped a little, trying to refill her lungs efficiently as their legs slowed to walk, "Ya reckon we can still stay in contact with Bret and Quande? Now that they don't need us, I mean."
Shadow shrugged but smiled, "Hopefully. They've done a lot for us" Tyana bopped her head in agreement. Her senses were alive and thirsty, drinking in every new sights, sound, taste, smell of her new life. A life where she could be safe and liberated and happy. A life where she could be with Jeff, the way she had wanted to for what felt like such an eternity now. But then her hungry senses picked up something from her old life; the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, her arms rose with tiny tingling goose bumps, her body began to pump with adrenaline again as it picked up on something, as it recognized an all too familiar sensation.
They were being watched.
Tyana swallowed slowly, clenching her fists subtly, still walking so not to alert Shadow with a quick movement that could get them both killed. God, how could she have forgotten this? Of course she wasn't free, people were still trying to frailing kill her. Assassins still wanted to see her dead, still wanted to view the sight of her blood leaving her lean young body. She knew that was who was watching her, she could tell. She reached for Shadow's hand and took it gently, giving it a short squeeze. Shadow looked down at her hand clasped in her friend's and her forehead creased; she knew something was wrong. Something was out of kilter, Tyana's grasp alone told her that much. She looked over at her friend's face, her hand still in hers, and knitted her brows, asking her silently what was going on.
Tyana's eyes were wide, flickering with energy that was preparing her to fight or run, or maybe both. "They're watching us" she whispered, barely moving her lips.
Shadow's eyes widened just a little, "who?" A bullet that pinged off the pavement below them answered her question and Shadow's eyes instantly flooded with energy that reflected that in Tyana's. She had thought everything was done and dusted, she had thought they were out of danger. But as their legs took them off at a cheater-like sprint again everything within her screamed that it wasn't true. Not quite.
***
Jeff stirred awake and stretched, feeling a glowing impression flood his body as he woke. He had been dreaming of Tyana again, dreaming of their before life. But he didn't hadn't figured out that he was reliving it. He thought it all seemed so familiar, so right, because it was Tyana and he knew her, he knew he wanted what he wanted in the dreams. His was clueless to the experience of his past creeping up on him. He yawned and looked over at his bedside clock, noting that it was 3am. With a dry throat he crawled out of bed, deciding he would get a drink of water before he climbed back under the covers and released himself into the world of the truth again. He stumbled into his bathroom in a semi-sleepy haze and found himself a glass, filling it with water and sipping a few gulps from it. He poured the rest away and returned to the bedroom, throwing back the covers to clamber back in. just as he was about to hit the mattress there was a knock on his door. Thinking he was so tired he was imagining it he went to go back to sleep. When the knock sounded again, more eager, he looked over at the door and let his brow fold. He climbed back out of bed and crossed to the wood, opening it an inch to look out. A familiar head of turquoise hair stood in front of him so he opened the door further and looked her over, noticing in his tired state that she was fully dressed, slightly sweaty, panting a bit.
"Ty, it's 3 in the m—" he was cut off when she threw her arms around his neck and crushed her lips into his, kissing him hungrily. Even though it was so early he could hardly tell his hand from his foot every part of him responded to her touch and he kissed he back, wrapping his arms around her waist. After a moment more she pulled back, far more breathless than she had been when he had opened the door to him. She beamed into his lips, brushing them against hers in a feathery way.
"Sorry, I just needed that" she gasped, biting his lip gently when she was done speaking. Jeff nodded mutely, stunned by the desire lapping his half awake body. "I didn't mean to wake you. No, obviously I did" she unpeeled his arms from her waist and stepped back, letting her hands trail down from his neck and over his bare chest before their limbs were untangled. "Just, yeah. Go back to sleep. I'll see you tomorrow." She beamed cutely, blatantly fully awake—at least one of them was. She gave him a peck on the cheek then dashed off into her room next door, leaving Jeff perplexed but blissfully happy. Her fingerprints tingled a line across his neck, his lips and cheek humming with a happy buzz. He closed the door and shook it off, crawling back into bed confusedly. He drifted off to sleep, recalling their past again.
***
Shadow shook her head with a small smile when Tyana rejoined her in their hotel room. "What was that about girl? You couldn't wait 'til morning for a little sugar?"
Tyana shrugged, a smile she couldn't quite hold back spreading across her full lips, "something like that, yeah." She sighed, her smile fading a tad and then ran her fingers through her hair. When she was done, her hands then resting on her hips, she paused, blowing out a thoughtful puff of air, drawing it out. "I guess we should probably get into contact with Bret and Quande, tell them what's going down"
Shadow nodded and moved to find her communicator while Tyana did the same. They placed them both side by side on the bed so that Shadow could see their Guider's from where she sat and Ty could too from where she was stood near the television and chest of drawers. The screens lit up and both Carers looked instantly hungry for news. Shadow beamed as best she could and nodded, answering their question without it even having to be posed.
"Yep" she confirmed verbally, "We did it. Mission completed. The Witnessing is officially dead. Ain't no way that bitch is getting kick started again now" she shrugged, blunt.
Bret and Quande's faces lit up with happiness. "Brilliant!" Quande enthused. "I knew you'd do it, congratulations"
Bret nodded and joined in, "That's great. I'll let the board know immediately. Well done girls, you've done it. You're totally free." Tyana lifted her eyes from the ground and looked at the man she had come to trust so greatly. She watched his exultant face flush with the reality and he looked at her like the excited big brother he was to her. He thought she was free. With a wry smile and scuff of her shoe she told him the rest.
"Nope. Not quite. Well" she paused, looked over at her pink haired friend. "Shadow is. But not me, not yet anyway"
Bret's forehead creased immediately with confusion while Quande cast a perplexed look at her Guided. Shadow didn't acknowledge the sidelong glance and instead raised her eyes to Tyana's, shaking her head firmly.
"Nuh-uh girl, no way. Ain't no crap like that going down, it's you and me, to the end. That whole musketeer's gig, that's what it's all about. We in this together and I won't take it anyway but like that" Tyana raised a hand to object.
"Shadow don't be silly. This isn't just some play mission. We're not trying to figure out a way to steal ice cream from room service" If they were discussing anything else Tyana would have had to laugh at the comment she had made; they had gotten a quart of Ben and Jerry's free of charge only last night and god only knows how many times before. She opened her mouth to interrupt the protest she could see Shadow forming. But Bret jumped in.
"Wait, hold up. Will some one please tell me what exactly is going on?" Tyana looked down at his screen, noting how both hands were raised and aimed towards each girl as if he was standing between them, his face deadpan as he tried to decipher their almost code-like argument.
Tyana sighed and took the cue to clue him in. "The Mission is over. But my assassins aren't giving up. We were targeted on the way back. Which means not only do they still wanna kill me but they're getting frailing impatient; that's the second time this week and I've never had that many attempts so close, its dead serious shit now." She scoffed, "No pun intended"
Bret nodded, digesting it all. Instantaneously his fingers began to tap away on his keyboard and soon after Quande began to do the same.
Shadow took her turn to sigh. "What are we gonna do then? We can't go back to the other realm and I think we all know neither of us would even if it were possible. And there's no way they're gonna give up until" she looked over at Tyana with a sunken frown. Her jaw set in stone. "And there's no way that's gonna happen" Tyana was touched to see the concern all 3 others in the room were showing for her. Shadow was obviously up in arms over this and Quande and Bret were typing away so furiously Tyana was half expecting smoke to come out of their boards.
Bretski slammed a certain key on his pad and waited, as if waiting for data to be delivered or processed. Quande looked behind her off the screen, where Tyana and Shadow couldn't see but had come to learn Bret was seated in the information center on the Other Side. They all had their eyes trained on the man with pale green hair. And he in turn had his windows set with a deadly, glazed look.
"Simple. We have a threat. We pin point it." His face darkened, so serious it was almost painful to watch, looking at Tyana as if to say 'this is you and I will not allow you to be harmed'. "And we eliminate it."
