Tinga´s Ghost by Shannon Hearn
All character of Dark Angel are owned by Cameron-Eglee Productions and Twentieth century Fox.
Rated "R" for mild nudity.
***
Part 2, The morning after
***
I had just had sex with Zane. The Blue Lady had a really sick sense of humor. I just felt dirty, and I did not mean by my body sweat and my loins. I got out of bed not even thinking about touching the sheet and walked into the bathroom, closed the door moved over to the toilet and preceded to make an offering to the porcelain idol from my guts.
***
It had been several minutes until; there was a knock on the door, with Zane saying, "are you okay?" I did not hear the door open as Zane walked up behind me as I was crying slash hiccupping still with my head in the toilet. My hair had become so disheveled from the sweat and the sex that my barcode had become visible. I could hear Zane's gasp as he realized that it was me, Brin his Transgenic sister. The event didn't really sink in until he said my name and I recoiled into the corner away from him.
I just shook like a leaf until Zane took a towel down from the rack and wrapped it around my naked body that I started to spill out what had happened to me since my experience with Stage Five Protegra. For over an hour I told Zane everything, minus the entire Tinga haunting me from beyond the grave thing that he finally understood that I was scared and attempting to break through what they had done to me. It wasn't until a few hours later that we were both bathed and dressed that I decided that the sooner that I found Case and confessed what I had done to his mother, the sooner I could get back to having a life.
***
It took days for me to come to terms with my encounter with Zane. The shock and fear of seeing the Snake, Traitor, Betrayer, and Outcast images in my mind slowly fade away. My heart was torn between hugging the crap out of Zane who I had a crush on since I was a child and wanting to rip his lungs out with my bare hands. So one night I decided to get out of town for a few days. With a tote bag filled with clothes and my nine-millimeter handgun, I just started running in a direction.
I had heard stories about an Aboriginal tradition called Walkabout. This concept flowed the idea of I you walked in one direction long enough you would meet yourself. Sometimes it would take days or weeks to find themselves and get on the right path. If you were on the right path, well the meeting would be nice, but if you were on the wrong path, well from what I had heard, being sent to the basement of Manticore would be a cakewalk compared what would happen.
As I started to walk through the woods of Northern Washington state, I felt as if something was following me, so picking a nearby tree, I jumped upwards and grabbed hold of a limb about twenty to thirty feet up and just sat perched up there surveying if anyone was out there. But I got a surprise when I saw a young woman in the tree across from me.
"Hey there, I see that I'm not the only Transgenic out here." The almost wild looking Transgenic said to me as her tan sweater looked as if it had seen better days, but her blue jeans looked like they were brand new. The most interesting thing about the Transgenic that I had noticed about the girl was that she had a combination of Canine and Feline DNA facial characteristics to the eastern European appearance. I had to pause for a moment as I saw the female Transgenic leap from her perch and land softly on her feet with an artistic elegance that even I envied.
"Hey... " I said looking at the Transgenic on the ground, "What's your Designation and Name?" The transgenic just looked up at me then I felt as if this Transgenic was looking right into her should? Was she PsyOps or some other series? That had powers that seemed to scare me. Then I saw the Female Transgenic do a Buddha grin at me.
"The name is Marzena, X5-478, but these in the know to my mate and those I know, I'm called MZ." There was a pause from Marzena as she saw me free fall down to meet with her.
"My name is Brin, X5'359. So tell me how many of our kind you have run into in the past few months?" I said moving over to MZ and I noticed that the she did not have any shoes on; her skin had an almost tropical tan to it. The feeling that Tinga was waiting for me to show up sent a wave of fear within my soul. But in a little while I would learn that MZ was more interested in knowing how I got there and I was about learning about what she could do.
***
For almost an hour, Marzena sat down on the log of where she was swimming and told me that she was genetically tweaked with Dolphin, Canine and Feline DNA. When she did some of her ultrasonic scan on me I realized it was that strange feeling I had felt in the forest. She was pinging me to figure out what I was.
"So having Dolphin DNA must be real interesting?" I said seeing that under her sweater she was naked as she swapped the sweater off for a normal T-shirt. It was then I got that strange vibe off of her again. "Hey can you stop that I'm not you used to you seeing me from the inside." I yelled. But Marzena gave ma a look of "I'm not doing it?" Then there was a realization of "
"Oh, crap", I know who it is?" with that MZ looked at me.
"Jason, get your Lapis series ass out here now?" MZ yelled in the woods. Then a Blond haired male of he same series like MZ came out of the woods. The muted Forest combat green digital pants he wore he wore contrasted against the white t-shirt he wore. The same deep tanned skin showed through. I found myself almost drooling, but out of Nowhere Zane appeared and tackled Jason.
That is when MZ and me stated to run over to break up the testosterone showdown.
"Jason." Marzena screamed as she started blurring at maximum speed to get between Jason and Zane. I finally had to pull my gun out and decided to whether to discharge it into the air. Then I screamed, "Zane Stop it."
For the longest time, everything was at a standstill, as MZ, Jason, and Zane in tangled mess did not move after I yelled. Zane was ready to pounce when a Doberman just stared baking. I was scared out of my wits as the feline DNA in my genetic cocktail screamed run for your life.
Then MZ used her powers to communicate something I still can understand what it meant.
"Down boy, we are not your enemies."
I was captivated by what was unfolding before me. As Tinga appeared once again but this time she was scared. Then I looked at Tinga as with a magical force she stopped the violence between this mass of Transgenic bodies.
"Brin..." Zane yelled as Jason's grip was realized from him. "I've found Case..." Those words hit my soul with a force of worry and of compassion. In the moments that would follow Marzena and Jason would learn about why I was walking in the forest. Tinga's little quest she had put me on was getting weirder by the moment.
***
Back at the hotel in town, Marzena and Jason, and Zane and Me had called a truce and trust me the two guys were talking guy stuff. I.e. Women, Strip clubs, Cars, Movies, and their missions pertaining to some of the more interesting moments of the off duty stuff. Meanwhile MZ and me were talking about our own stuff, including the greatest sex we have had in our lives and the most embarrassing moment of our lives. But it all came down to me and MZ talking about Zane and me being Oh'Niners and my mission to set things right with my late sister.
The entire issue about what my life had been like before the fire was a heated discussion even after I worked up the nerve to talk with Max on the phone. It was the longest conversation I would have in my life.
***
"Max..." I said into the phone's hand piece. The pit of my stomach felt like someone was fondling my entrails like some sick Med-school pervert playing with his cadaver like it was his own personal sex toy. "...Its Brin," I could feel the silence on the other end. Did Max see me as Renfro's pet bitch or something else? It was the something else I was afraid of hearing Max say.
"Brin, are you okay?" Max said on the phone, I could hear the pain of wanting to be there with me to help me get through this and the urge to beat my head in for killing Tinga.
"Max... I don't know who I am... I'm torn between wanting to turn all of our kind in, and kill you Max..." I said starting to start crying uncontrollably, "And wanting to stay safe where I was hiding at and wanting to make amends to what I did to Tinga's family." I could feel the strength failing from my legs as I slid down on the floor. Zane and Marzena raced to pick me up off the floor, but MZ looked like she felt that there was a conflict waging within me.
"Brin I know it is hard, but remember the first few months on the outside. Remember how scary and hard it was."
"I remember Max... I remember Max..." at that point I started to remember my childhood in the years before and after the Pulse. I could see the family that had raised me in the small California farming community I had fled to back in Oh' Nine. They were like any major Hispanic farming family with at least three generations living under the same roof. I could smell the fertilizer spray on Papa's clothes from him being out in the fields. I could feel the warm sun on my face as my two brothers and I washed the car. The cold slam of being hit by the spray of water from Water hose as the water fight began between us.
I remembered the taste of the Chocolate cake Momma had made for me right after I had my first Menstrual bleed to help cheer me up and let me know I was a woman now. "There, There Lil' Almond Eyes. " Momma said sitting with me on the couch in the big woolen woven blanket we shared rocking me back and forth. "It's going to be okay." That was a week before my Birthday and I could still feel the locket Momma gave me of the Virgin of Guadalupe, The Blue Lady herself. I remember hanging it on the bedpost the night I got sick with Protegra and fled from the family that tended to me for years. At that point I just broke down crying,
"I just want to say to Tinga's family that I'm sorry... SOOOOO SORRY..." I wailed as the tears burned my eyes and ate at my face. MZ just got on the floor with me and held me tight. The last thing I remember hearing was, Zane asking Max where Charlie and Case were before I could feel the hot blackness envelop me.
***
I woke later in bed. My body was screaming. I felt like I was drained both physically and emotionally. I kept having the feeling that Tinga was out there waiting for me to screw up so that she would make an appearance. But it wasn't that that worried me the most, I had remembered what I had been forced to forget when Manticore caught me and cured me of my disorder.
But I felt that I had been drained away slowly, bit by bit. Was this how Tinga had died. Slowly having the life sucked from her little by little until there was nothing left. I knew that her ghost was waiting for something to happen, but what was it. Was this some sister wanting to save another's soul or was it something else that I needed to do.
I just felt sick in my stomach and I rolled out of the bed and headed into the bathroom of the hotel the four of us were staying at. I could feel the roughness of the carpet on my bare feet as I trudged into the room. I heard that there was someone in the shower. Part of me wished that it was Zane so that I could get in there with him and let him hold me. As I reached for the shower curtain and pulled it back, I got the shock of my life when I saw Marzena naked. Her form was almost streamlined. Her nude body looked like someone had sculpted her every bone, muscle, and skin structure to make her into this being that stood before me.
"Sorry." I said moving backwards but something happened. Marzena just got out the shower and moved over to me cautiously.
"Brin, are you okay?" the Nude Transgenic said before me taking no shame in not covering her wet body before me.
"Yeah, " I said weakly, I could tell that she knew I was lying to her.
"You though I was Zane?" MZ said reaching over to the towel rack to take a neatly folded sheet down to wrap around her frame.
"Yes. I did." I said starting to break down in tears before my fellow X-series. "I just wanted Zane to hold me. To feel safe in his arms." I could feel that there was a churning in my stomach as I dove for the toilet. I don't remember what came out of me then, but I had this sudden urge for crackers and buttered toast. Marzena moved over and rubbed my back after I emptied the contents of my stomach out, I could seen that she had reached over to flush the contents down the drain so I would not start pukeing again. That was when Marzena started to help me up and without me knowing it she had undressed me and I was standing naked before her.
"Brin, listen there is enough not water left in the shower." Marzena said as she moved me into the shower and turned the central knob to let the water start landing on my body. "Why don't you take it and feel better okay, from what I heard before Manticore got torched the flu this year is going to be rough on our kind." With that she moved the shower curtain back and I was left standing there letting the heat soak into my body. I was transported back to my youth and remember my first hot shower since my escaping from Manticore all those years ago. MZ would later have me in my bed sleeping soundly as she kept watch over me like a guardian angel protecting a child from harm fearing that something bad happen to me if I was left alone. And I felt the same way.
***
Next:
Part 3, Walk in my shoes said the Ghost