A/N: *taps fingers against the table* No, Journey is not over yet - I just had a small fight with the plot. If I've had to live with this monster for a year (yes, a year. Yes, I need a life), you'll damn well have to suffer with me. No, a lack of reviews will *not* change my mind about this, unless there's a general agreement that the fic must end now (read: within 15 chapters). If so, tell me and thy wish shall be granted (really. Stop snickering, Ageless. I *can* finish this within 15 chapters!). Either way, Journey *will* be finished - if nothing else, then because I owe it to my regular reviewers ;) So - gimme your thoughts, in the reviews or in my journal, or even by e-mail: end it now, or take it to the real ending?
I won't bite - just tell me what you think, all right? Good!
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Chapter Seventy-Three: Eve of Darkness
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The gun felt uncomfortably heavy in her hand, the metal almost painfully cold where it touched her skin. She watched the weapon warily, then let her eyes rest on the cartridge on the wooden table, the dark metal box daring her to pick it up.
A sigh, and she put the weapon down, the soft sound of metal against wood whispering in the silence.
"Kyle..."
She felt him move behind her, then the comforting touch of his hand on her shoulder as he walked up to her.
"I know," he replied quietly.
There was no reason for her to explain what she meant - they both already knew. Having lived together for more than a year, they were very familiar with each other by now, and Kyle knew the unusually strong sense of honor that Suzuka possessed. She had been raised to fight with honor and without using any cheap tricks to win. Someone with her skills should be good enough to win without cheating, and that point of view had remained with her through all the things she'd been through.
She fought with honor, and as she saw it, there was no honor in fighting with a gun. It didn't require much skill to kill someone with a bullet - it was cold, impersonal, and rarely gave the opponent a fair chance. She had - reluctantly - agreed to let Kyle teach her how to use a gun properly, but to ask her to actually use one of these weapons against another...
"I won't kill anyone," she said quietly, but didn't turn around to face Kyle.
He sighed softly and reached out, his hand absently stroking a lock of her hair. "You won't have to."
"Promise?" She finally turned around to look at him, eyes silently asking him to make the doubts and confusion go away.
Kyle nodded. "I promise." The answer came without hesitation, and he knew that he was going to keep that promise - he wasn't about to let Suzuka become a killer or let her die because of this situation. And if that meant becoming a killer himself to keep her safe, then so be it. He knew how the world worked, and while he still had a sense of honor left, there was also a more cynical side of him that knew the meaning of kill or be killed. Suzuka, though...she lived by the honor concept, and if she was forced to kill someone in this way, there was no telling how she'd react.
"Thank you," she whispered. For a moment it seemed like she wanted to say something more, but then the sound of footsteps coming closer reached them, and she shook her head, snapping herself out of her trance-like state.
"Suzuka..." Kyle began, but the girl sighed.
"I can handle it, don't worry. I just..." she sighed again. "I can handle it."
They both looked towards the door to the shooting range as it opened and Jordane stepped inside, pausing momentarily at the sight of the two. Suzuka looked briefly at Jordane, then at Kyle again. "I'll be in our room." Kyle nodded, and Suzuka left the room, without sparing Jordane a second look.
The heavy door closed behind her, and for a long moment Kyle and Jordane watched each other, before the girl finally moved closer. "Blade wanted to know how Suzuka's doing."
Kyle raised an eyebrow. "And he couldn't ask himself?"
"He's busy." The reply he got was short, snappy even, and a lot more annoyed than he had expected, even from someone with a temper like Jordane's. His eyes narrowed, watching the girl carefully. Sure, her bad temper could be explained by the stress of the situation, but still...working with Blade, she should be used to something like this by now, shouldn't she?
"Are you sure you're all right?" he asked, a hint of concern shining through the words, a remain from their late-night talk.
Jordane hesitated for a moment, unsure of how much to tell the other, then sighed softly. He couldn't really use the information for much anyway, and he *did* seem to be honestly concerned about her... "It's just the drugs," she admitted. "It's taking forever for the side effects to disappear."
Kyle frowned and took a step closer, then reached out, his hand resting lightly on her forehead to check her temperature. "I don't think you have a fever, but you should see a doctor, you know."
"Blade told me the same thing," Jordane replied with a faint smile. "I'll handle it once we get out of this shit."
"*If* we get out of this shit," Kyle corrected quietly, some of the depressing thoughts returning, reminding him of the bad odds they faced.
"We'll get out of this," Jordane disagreed. "You might not be used to this kind of thing, but we are. We're not completely helpless."
"The odds don't look good," Kyle pointed out. "Even with..." he trailed off, not sure how much he could say. The room could very well be bugged, and revealing that Ryan and the others would be there, would definitely not be a good idea.
Jordane shrugged, guessing what Kyle hadn't said out loud. "It's not as hopeless as you think. We've survived worse than this before." She smiled wryly. "Not much worse, though."
Kyle raised an eyebrow, but didn't ask for the details. Jordane has only just begun to trust him, and he didn't want to destroy that by pressing her for information he didn't need anyway. "Sounds like you've had an interesting couple of years with him," he remarked instead, his voice deliberately casual.
"I guess you could say that..." Jordane replied, some of her guarded attitude returning at Kyle's words, realizing that she might accidentally say too much.
Kyle nodded slightly at the comment, silently deciding to back off and leave the subject alone. "So...what did you want to know? I'm assuming that Blade didn't send you down here out of concern for Suzuka's health," he commented, easily changing the subject.
"We wanted to know if you'd managed to teach her anything, or if she's still hopeless," Jordane replied, a hint of something biting in her words. Annoyance? Disgust? Anger? Kyle sighed. Who knew? It wasn't easy to tell what went on in the girl's head.
"It's limited what she can learn in a day," Kyle replied with a sigh. "But no, she's *not* hopeless, and yes, I *did* teach her the basics." He paused, mentally debating how much to tell the other, then continued. "I don't think she'll ever be able to kill anyone with a gun, but she knows how to use one."
Jordane nodded. "Good."
A moment passed, then Kyle frowned. "How are we getting into the building, anyway? We need to plan that, too."
"Don't worry about that," Jordane replied. "We'll get in as reporters."
"And that was something you two figured out, or...?"
"Sanders' orders," Jordane explained and shrugged, indicating her lack of control over what was going on.
Kyle sent her an annoyed look. "And you were planning on telling us that...when? When we were standing outside the building?"
"Actually, that was the second reason why Blade asked me to find you two," Jordane snapped, her temper flaring for a moment. "Although I don't see what useful things you can contribute with."
Kyle glared at her. "Well, at least some of us have a useful mutation and won't just destroy everything we get within reach of," he snapped, letting his self-control go for a moment, against his better judgement.
"And at least some of us won't try to get everyone killed by doing some dumb, heroic thing like insisting on saving the bodyguards," Jordane snapped back, not at all liking how Kyle talked to her.
For a long moment they remained unmoving, neither willing to back down, then Kyle sighed. "Sorry I snapped at you," he apologized, doing what he could to sound sincere. This whole mess would be hard enough to get out of as it was. If they started to act like immature brats, their odds for surviving would be somewhere near non-existent.
Jordane continued glaring at him for a moment longer, then slowly relaxed as well. "It's okay...I shouldn't have insulted you, I guess," she admitted. It wasn't entirely an apology, but it was probably the closest she'd come to giving one, and Kyle accepted it with a small nod.
"Let's get back upstairs, then," he suggested. "We still have some details to work out before tomorrow."
Jordane nodded. "Yeah...Blade and I managed to fix most of the details earlier, but we still need to-" a sudden wave of dizziness cut her off and she leaned against the wall, trying to force back the sudden feeling of nausea.
"Jordane?" Kyle quickly walked over to her, reaching out to support her. "What's wrong?" he brushed a lock of dyed hair away from her face and saw just how pale she suddenly seemed. Worry took over and he tipped her head up, trying to get an idea of just how bad this was. "Jordane?" the girl didn't reply, and he continued. "You have to see a doctor before this gets any worse."
"No," Jordane protested, her voice betraying the weakness she suddenly felt. "No military doctors."
Kyle frowned. He could see why she didn't want anything to do with someone who worked for the military, but he also knew that whatever had just happened to her could not be a good thing. "Jordane..."
"No!" she repeated, stronger this time, and slowly straightened up again. "No doctors. I'll be fine. It'll pass in a few minutes."
"You mean that this has happened before?" Kyle asked. "But..."
Jordane sighed, her mind slowly returning to normal after the sudden dizziness. "I'll see a doctor when we get out of here, but...no military doctors. It's two days at the most. I'll be fine."
Kyle didn't look convinced, and she continued. "Please...you know they can't be trusted. I'll probably end up as a guinea pig somewhere. I'll be fine. Trust me."
Kyle wasn't sure about her being fine, but he couldn't argue against her other reason. There was no telling what might happen if they put Jordane's wellbeing in the hands of someone who worked for the military. She'd be more likely to end up dead than cured of whatever side effect the drugs had inflicted on her, and they both knew it.
He sighed. "All right...no doctors."
Jordane smiled faintly, slowly starting to feel better, and nodded towards the door. "Good...let's go. We need to work out the details, remember?" Not bothering to wait for his reply she headed out the room, pausing briefly to look back. "You coming?"
Kyle nodded. "Yeah." Jordane disappeared down the hallway and Kyle followed her, his eyes resting on the girl. He would have more than just the plan to discuss with Blade - they wouldn't be able to send Jordane to a doctor here, but they *could* keep an eye on her in case something happened. And he had a nagging feeling that it would be necessary - something was wrong with Jordane and not even the best of her efforts could hide that.
He frowned. Dizziness, increasingly bad side effects from a drug that should have been out of her body by now, an almost unhealthy paleness...
Yes. Something was definitely wrong.
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