Tinga's Ghost Chapter 3: Part 3, Walk in my shoes said the Ghost, a dark angel fanfic

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 3, Walk in my shoes said the Ghost

Part 3 note I would like to thank Jeffy of the band EligantSuicide for the use of the song "Nothing Left To See".

***

Over the last few days I have been making a copy of the extraction suit that Tinga was in when she died. Part of me wanted to disprove Max being wrong about how she died while all of my inner being screamed that she was right. For the most point at this time the suit looked like I was making a swimsuit with its tube top and skirted codpiece. I hadn't added the tubes yet but, wearing it for that little while sitting in the bathtub my mind was swimming about what Tinga would have gone through hanging in that sensory depravation tank with salinatied water the same temperature of your blood. I hadn't added the ventilation tube due to the time it would take to track down the medical tubing needed so I decided to use a homemade snorkel to breath through. I just lay in the bathtub for several hours just breathing though that tube and just letting my body relax from its worries. It wasn't until I started to hear Marzena enter the Hotel room with Zane I started to get worried about them finding me in here like this underwater. So I tossed the snorkel into the bathroom kit I had making it look like one of the tubes me and Zane used to put our toothbrushes in. As I quickly wrapped a towel around my body I heard Zane and MZ talking.

"Zane I know that Brin is one of your Manticore Kin, but she has been re-indoctrination and trust me it was not pretty." MZ said as Zane sat down on one of the beds.

"I know but I feel like she is running from something that happened to her back at Manticore. Something has her really spooked. It is like the time when we were kids and Zack and the rest of us snuck down to the basement and ran into a few Nomalies. She was so scared that she had urinated in her gown and grabbed hold of me for dear life." Zane's voice showed a true concern for me.

"Yeah, I think this entire thing with her sister Tinga might be her way of putting right what she sees as what she did wrong working for Madam X and her little off the books Black projects." MZ said as I heard her lean against the dresser in the room as it creaked against her weight.

"Madame X? Who is she?" Zane said as the curiosity in his voice started to worry me. If MZ told him even a fraction of what I did, then I was scared that he wasn't going to love me any more and Tinga would not stop haunting me.

"Dr. Elizabeth Renfro or Madame X as she was called by the staff at Manticore was into a ton of Black Projects such as germ warfare, biological hardware such as living guns, and cybernetics. Most of what I heard about her was only told in hushed whispers. But this I knew along with everyone else, She and Lydecker butted heads over how Manticore should be run. She for Black operations and assassinations, and Deck for honorable legit ops to supplement troops in the field."

"So Brin was part of Renfro's Black Ops group." Zane said as I could hear her sigh.

"Yes..." Marzena said as I kept leaning towards the door as I started to strip off the suit so I could stash it; I continued to listen in. That was when I slipped on the wet floor and landed on my naked ass. A moment later MZ and Zane were in the bathroom with me. I was just caught with the canary in my mouth. Zane just looked at me with the words "Oh Shit" plastered on his face as he helped me off the floor and took me into the bedroom. I could just feel their eyes on me as the cold air rubbed against my hot skin. But for some reason Marzena was moving towards me as something about her made me think more about who I was and who I wanted to be.

"Brin..." Marzena said sitting down next to me "... want to talk." I could feel that she was seriously concerned about me. Then that is when Tinga returned again and I was not the only on along for the ride. We were both transported into the spirit realm.

The eerie cliffs of where I was last at emerged to the surface again. This time I was clothed and MZ was with me. Then this is when things started to get weird. Tinga was there wearing her angelic white dress, but there were other Spirits with her and from the look on her face she was worried about something. And it was something that scared me to my very being.

Marzena said as my sister's ghost moved over to her to look at both of us before she started to speak.

"Hello Brin, I see that you found on of those meant to help you on this quest." Tinga said as she started to examine MZ like she was an old friend, then Tinga started to say something in an almost animal tongue that sounded like the Nomalies spoke in the Basement of Manticore when I was a child. I swore I saw MZ blush from what Tinga had said to her. But the mood changed suddenly as Tinga turned her attention to me as a sense of worry formed on her face.

"Brin" Tinga said as worry formed on her face, "Case is in danger. I need you to go find him and his Father and get them to safety." I was concerned as something in her eyes screamed that there was something more at stake then she grabbed both MZ and me and yelled. "Brin, Marzena. The people after Case and Charlie are about an hour away from getting the four of you. YOU MUST LEAVE NOW!!!" With that were dumped back into our reality.

"Zane, Get Jason, we have to bug out now. We have hostiles on the way." Both MZ and me said at the same time. Zane just gave us a look of "What the hell just happened to you."

"Zane, whatever has happened to Brin seems to be some sort of Spirit like with the other side." MZ said "Whomever, she knows on the other side has just given us Intel on who is about to pay us a visit."

"Zane, they are after us and Case. I owe Tinga that much to make sure that he doesn't wind up like she did." I yelled. My heart was in my throat as Me and MZ tossed clothing an gear into backpacks and tote bags and dumped the stuff into the back of Zane's pickup truck. Soon after that Zane showed up with Jason and Brutus his Doberman and we were off well before the cops and the Military officials showed up at the hotel. But I kept getting this feeling that there was something darker chasing us and it was just using the government as a cover for something much more hideous than whatever Manticore could have ever dreamt up in its most evilest of days.

***

We spent the next few hours driving north through the back roads as Marzena and me explained what had happened to us in the hotel room. I don't know who believed it more me or having MZ tell the story about Tinga's ghost visiting us in the vision we had. At that point I made a decision that I would do what Tinga asked me to, I would save her family.

"Zane we need to find a phone and call Max. Charlie and Case are in Danger." I said as I saw Tinga's face nodding in approval reflected in the windshield of Zane's pickup truck. The music fit my mood as we were driving; it was the song "Nothing Left To See" by the band EligantSuicide.

When I look into your eyes/ Theres nothing left to see

Nothing but my own mistakes/ Staring back at me

I'm asking myself why/ I have made the sacrifice of

Staying with you/ You just push away

I can't see my own reflection/ Looking back at me

My eyes are blinded by my own demise/ I'm somewhere cold

I'm alone and shaking/ Everything's black

And I can't see anymore

Everything falls apart/ My life shatters before my own eyes

I'm stumbling back into a dream/ Where I'm not so alone

I can feel myself breathing/ I can see everything before me

I'm not blinded by my demise/ I'm not cold and shaking

It's easier to breathe/ I feel I belong now

Life's so much easier for me here/ I have no one to push me away

To hold me down until I cant breath/ I'm free from the pain

And from my own self denial

Why I stayed with you/ I just pushed away

No matter what I said/ Everything is just so faint to you

You're too blind to see/ That you're wearing me down

I'm breaking underneath the tension

I'm telling you that it's the only chance for me/ That the only thing

Left is to turn and face you/ But I'm too weak when I look

Into your eyes/ And I break down again

I'm asking why!

Everything falls apart/ My life shatters before my own eyes

I'm stumbling back into a dream/ Where I'm not so alone

I can feel myself breathing/ I can see everything before me

I'm not blinded by my demise/ I'm not cold and shaking

It's easier to breathe/ I feel I belong now

Life's so much easier for me here/ I have no one to push me away

To hold me down until I cant breath/ I'm free from the pain

And from my own self denial

I can't feel my own hands/ I can't feel my own breathe when

I breathe/ The airs so thin

It can't carry my desperate cries/ I can't reach anyone

On the outside that look in on me

I'm trapped underneath this thin layer of glass/ I'm shouting but

Still it has not affect/ Please wake me from this nightmare

I'm telling you it's the only chance for me/ But all I see

Is you turning away from me

Everything falls apart/ My life shatters before my own eyes

I'm stumbling back into a dream/ Where I'm not so alone

I can feel myself breathing/ I can see everything before me

I'm not blinded by my demise/ I'm not cold and shaking

It's easier to breathe/ I feel I belong now

Life's so much easier for me here/ I have no one to push me away

To hold me down until I cant breath/ I'm free from the pain

And from my own self denial

Everything falls apart/ My life shatters before my own eyes

I'm stumbling back into a dream/ Where I'm not so alone

I can feel myself breathing/ I can see everything before me

I'm not blinded by my demise/ I'm not cold and shaking

It's easier to breath/ I feel I belong now

Life's so much easier for me here/ I have no one to push me away

To hold me down until I cant breath/ I'm free from the pain

And from my own self denial

There's nothing left to see/ I've changed

There's nothing left to see/ I'm starting over again

***

It took us almost six hours of driving until we reached the apartment of Charlie and Case Smith. Max had told the two that we were coming and that I was under Zane's wing. So if I got out of hand, he would make sure that I didn't do anything stupid. But my stomach felt like it was in knots. Marzena held my hand as we went up the stairs. Whatever was hunting us was also after Charlie and Case as well. And that scared me more than going through this meeting.

This was my sister's child. And I was more scared of this event than the time the others and me had snuck into the basement and ran into the Nomalies when were kids. The only thing that helped me through the fear was that Zane was there and I could feel love leach into my once cold heart. Then I saw Tinga's white shawl fly past me and pass right through the door before me like some underwater fish. We were at the right place.

"So we better knock." Jason said as he held his hand up to the door to sense if there was anyone else in the room before we knocked and entered the apartment. Then I felt something change in the room around me. Like there was something worried about me getting hurt but it wasn't Tinga's spirit. It felt like it was something close to me that wanted to be with me, like it needed me to survive. That was when the door opened and I saw Charlie Smith and he was not glad to see me.

"Hi Zane," Charlie said as he invited Zane into the apartment. The look on Zane's face was worrisome. Zane just took my hand and brought me into the apartment. Marzena and Jason just sat beside me on the couch. Jason just looked at me and said out loud. "Brin you look like shit." At that moment as Zane and Charlie were talking I just moved into one of the bedrooms and just started to cry. My hair in a ponytail just flapped as I just shook in fear. It took moment for my eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room as my night vision kicked in. It was a little boy's room and between the toys on the shelf there were pictures of Tinga with her son. Baby Pictures, running pictures, Tinga covered in soap as she bathed her son. I kept seeing the mocha brown of her skin and brown eyes reflected in that of her son. There was a since of her in bed with her baby son in her arms. Each image haunted me as if this was what her ghost was attempting to say to me. Then she appeared beside me as if she was lost in her memories of her life.

"The time I found out I was pregnant I thought it was the flu." Tinga said as her ghost moved over to touch one of the pictures. "It wasn't until I started having the visions. I was scared and I felt that it kept telling me it he was inside of me. So I took a pregnancy test and I learned that I was Pregnant. I was only sixteen at the time and scared out of my wits." Tinga's form started to shift back and forth between her white garb and the extraction suit she died in. I was getting scared as she moved a homemade book on a shelf and put her hand on it. "I think you should look at this one." With that she disappears as the door opened and I saw a little boy there. It was Case. I just froze as he came in.

"You know your eyes are like my Mom's" as I saw his eyes glowing as well.

"Your Case... Tinga's Kid." I said to the child. At that time I was more terrified than the night I ran away from Manticore. Was this my destiny to be cursed forever for my actions? With that I picked up the book that Tinga had mentioned to me and moved over to where Case was and sat down next to him by the door.

His eyes were glowing. He was definitely Transgenic and she was scared. With the book in my hands I sat down next to the child and I started to read to him. As I started to read the story of the knight that had been captured the princes and princesses and hidden in a dark place until they escaped one day. The images of the story was about our escape back in oh, Nine. I started to cry as I held Case next to me. I kept picturing myself given this child a gun and ordering him to blow my brains out to avenge his mother's murder as I wore the extraction suit I Made for this scene to be played out. Then I looked into his eyes, Tinga wanted him to be born free of the sins we had committed in our brainwashed Manticore state. She gave her life to defend this child with her life and she wanted me to complete her mission. At that moment I asked that if I had the strength to go on then I would. I would never fail my sister again. I am this child's protector, I took away his mother and now I would protect him with my soul and life.

Tomorrow was a School day for Case and I was to keep watch over Case like his mother should have been if I hadn't taken her life with my own hands. Screw Renfro and her lies. I had killed my sister and it was time for me to make amends for my sins.

***

The hours afterwards were a nightmare as after I put Case to bed after reading to him for almost an hour Tinga's unfinished children's book. I moved into the living room and took out a gun from my handbag and gave it to Charlie. Charlie wondered what I was doing that was until I disrobed in front of him wearing nothing but the extraction suit I wore. My skin was covered in pen of the veins that had appeared all over Tinga's skin. I was terrified as a begged him to kill me. I knew I was breaking my promise to her, but I just wanted the pain to end. Seeing Case was hell. Marzena and Jason had gone back to the hotel to have some private time together as they left Zane and me with Charlie and Case.

I could hear the voices screaming in my head, as I demanded Charlie to pull the trigger and put me out of my misery. I could keep feeling the barrel of the gun against my head as tears steamed down my face.

"Kill me, Kill me for what I have done." I screamed as Charlie just stood there. That was until I looked up into his face, my eyes burring puffy red from the salt in my tears. That was until he said the words of spite in my face.

"No Brin. I knew that you took Tinga's life. But I know that you hurt from your actions." Charlie said as he took the gun and removed the clip from it. Then he placed the clip and the chambered round in front of my face. "Brin, you are going to know that from this day forward you will live your life knowing the pain you have caused this family. Because I know that you are all too human, so living is the only punishment I can think of because Tinga told me of you and that you had a life she dreamed of. Well you will learn that your life is going to be lived day to day remembering that you have taken your sister's life and you can feel her loss." With that Charlie removed the barrel from the gun and flung it at my knees as I scooted away from it. "You said Tinga's ghost was haunting you, will I will beep letting you haunt you until you die of old age." That as when Zane came into the room as I started to curl up into a ball on the floor. I could hear my heart race at full speed as I could hear Tinga again

"Little sister, I sent you her to protect my son and you will do it." She said angrily as I could see her behind Charlie in the Extraction suit she had died in. From that point on I understood that my life was her's to play with at her leisure. With Zane moving by me, he covered me with his Jacket.

"Oh, Brin. What were you thinking???" He said as he held me tight.

"I just wanted to be free from what I had done to Tinga." I started to feel like I had to get this out. I was scared. Charlie just looked at me realizing that I was scared out my wits. I just tried the coward's way out. I had attempted "Suicide by cop" so I could free of the guilt of taking my own life. Tinga had put me on this mission and I knew that I had to complete it no matter how long it took.

"Brin, if you are searching for absolution for what you did to Tinga, then only you can receive it from God." Charlie said as he leaned over towards me. "Marzena told me about some of the brainwashing you underwent. Tinga said before she left that breaking the programming the first time was hard, but it can be done." With that he placed his hand on my shoulder as I attempted to curl up some more away from him. "Now you must find something to hold onto so that you can break it again." With that I knew that Charlie and Zane would have to help me amend for my actions. So after a few hours Zane and me left to go back to the hotel room. That was when I came out and told him that I loved him. Trust me the words were not all that elegant but the emotions I conveyed towards him in our own unspoken language made how I was feeling come across real clear. I think it was the feline in my genetic mix that screamed. I love you Zane, I am scared about what I have done, but every tortured part of my being cares about you. You make me whole and I want to be with you the rest of my life, through the good times and the bad. I think he got it as we kissed; the pain in my heart was slowly fading away as my tears were transformed from those of pain but of love.

That was we walked in on Marzena and Jason. What shocked the fool out of both of us was that Marzena was wearing less than I was with Zane's Jacket and the Extraction suit. She was only wearing a pair of panties and nothing much else and Jason was acting as a human pushup bra with his hands. That was when I lost my lunch in the doorway. It was going to be a long night in that I didn't sleep very much I was going to be pulling guard duty on Case in the morning to see who was after us. Max was going to get back to us about any information about who the goon squad that was after Charlie, his son and us. I had the feeling that it wasn't Manticore that was after us but something worse.

***

The next day I decided to guard duty at Case's school. It was long as I started to feel that there was something about to go wrong. Seeing Tinga over the past few days had forced me to think about my actions of what I have done to her and her family. It didn't matter what Renfro had said to me to lighten my actions or what Max had done. I had killed my sister, I had sentenced her to death the moment I forced her into that other convoy without Lydecker's knowledge. Now it was mission to ensure that her child did not suffer the same fate. That was when I saw something suspicious going on outside of the School. That is when I got on my cell phone and contacted Zane and the others and informed them that something strange was going on and that I was going to check it out. I don't know what pushed me into moving into the school and checking myself in as a family relative of Tinga's but having Case vouch for me made me worry about what he had said. I have to live with my guilt of my actions. It didn't matter who ordered it, it was me who put her into that position in the first place.

I kept thinking back to the Lopez family who had taken me in the months before the Pulse. I was so terrified about them finding out about who I was and what I was. But Mama Lopez had cared for me and taken me in as one of the family. Even after I had been accepted to University, I had come down with the first stages of Protegra and was forced to go on the run. Now I wanted to let them know how I was doing, but the entire Tinga issues was going to be something that would come up at sometime in the future and I was afraid about talking about it. But it was Case that was driving me now. I was drafted into the role of being his Aunt and I was going to be the best damn Aunt this kid was going to have. I was going to teach him all the stuff that his mother would be missing out on due to me taking her life. That was when I started to walk down the hallway I saw that there was something wrong. When a bell rang for recess, students should have been leaving the rooms to have a good time with their friends, but there was no activity. The place acted as if it was under some sort of shutdown. That was when I smelled the sent of gun oil and a severely injured patrolman on the floor. It was a hostage situation and that I was up to me to ensure that not only Case was saved but the lives of his classmates as well. That was when I got on the line and contacted Zane and the others about what I had stumbled into. As I hung up a guy came up behind me and tried to take me down. With all my speed and training I through the guy several feet in the air. I watched the guy hit the wall with enough forced to leave an imprint in the drywall and brick. As I started to walk away I saw the guy get up of the floor and start to run towards me. The force of that impact would have killed a human but given the way that this guy was behaving and the way he was moving he wasn't human. With that I want into full combat mode.

With repeated punches I blurred flipped and dodged like I have never don in the past. Not even when fighting against my fellow Transgenics I had dealt with strength like this. When I had gotten a chance to get behind this guy I was able to get a look at the back of this guy's neck and saw that there was no Barcode, no implant scar on the back of his neck to determine that he was a Red Series, but given his speed and strength he wasn't human. That was when I grabbed his neck and with a sharp blow I snapped it. As I watched the body fall to the ground I thought about how I would hide the body so that if there was any security patrols this guy was with they wouldn't find him for a while. So I picked up his almost three hundred kilo body and blurred into a storeroom in that hallway and heaved him into the soundproofing tiles above the door. It would be a while until he would be found if ever, well given that his rotting body wild give him away. As I was heaving him up His jacket sleeve ripped and I say some brand marking that looked like an inverted Cadialus symbol. I studied it. It looked like it was scar tissue that seemed to have been crated and almost calcified into the flesh. At that moment I almost sense something different in me. It was as if some sense in me started to kick in. That was before I heard the footsteps coming down the hall with my enhanced hearing. It was as if I had gained the power of a Millennia movie superhero character who could sense danger before it happened. But wearing Red and blue Spandex was not my thing. Then I got the feeling as I started to look at them pass by with my enhanced hearing as I kept quiet and dropped my heart rate down to minimum levels that was when I felt that I was safe. That was when I was listened to what I was hearing.

"The Child is like us and the initiation has to be done."

"Yes but due to faulty Intel the girl is gone and we are stuck in a school filled with Human cattle, and the authorities are outside waiting to hear our demands." That was when I started to sense My way through what was unfolding. "These were the people who were after Case that Tinga warned me about." As I waited several moments after they left that I got out of the storeroom and started to do a standard Recon of the building to get a sense of what was going on. That was when the "Spider Sense" kicked in and I duce to where a water fountain was set into the wall as I watched the Terrorists move by. That was when the sense kicked in again but before I could react I was thrown against the wall and I fought this guy again fully prepared for him being not human but that was when I was sucker punched from behind by a guy that could have doubled for Mount Everest.

When I woke up later I had been dragged into Case's classroom and Case had been near my. I had been tied up some, but given the restraints I had been put into gave me the feeling that they did not know I was a Transgenic. But the guy I fought was not human and not Transgenic, so what had I been fighting? That was when Case came over to me and sat down beside me.

"Aunt Brin, are you okay?" He said as his brown eyes shown up to me. A little glowing green shown through.

"Yes I am, so tell me what the Bad men want?" I said as I started to size up the situation. No windows, a side door entrance that was guarded. Handheld wireless video gear covering all the main entrances and exits of the structure. Encrypted Radios and sterilized hydrogel glocks Nine Millimeters. These guys wee defiantly professionals but they were not Terrorists, nor mercenaries, but they operated more like a retrieval team. That was when I listened to what Case was saying.

"Well they were looking for a classmate of mine named Annise but for the last few days she hasn't been in class." Case said as I debated my next move. This was a retrieval that had gone bad. That was when I made the decision to use what resources I had at my disposal, the kids, the Teacher and her aid and Mine and Case's Transgenic powers.

"Case. How much do you know about your Mother's powers?" I said looking down at Case as he curled up next to me.

"Mother said that I could see in the dark and hear faint things like her. But I was to keep my powers hidden from those who would try to hurt me." He said as I started to work on the restraints on my wrists.

"Well it is about time you learn that we leave no one behind. If I fail to protect you and I am too Injured to help I want you to kill me." I said to Case as I saw Tinga's Spirit come into the room. She was wearing a type of Angelic armor and a sword. Her face shown worry and concern. This is what she had warned me about and I had just royalty screwed up.

"Brin make your move when I am ready. But protect these people until I am ready. Protect Case." Tinga said as she stood guard over us as I nodded in agreement. Two other spirits dressed like her moved out the door. At that moment I wished Zane and the others were here to help. Especially Zane. The first time in years since the night of the escape I felt that I need to protect someone I loved. I was in love with Zane and Case was a member of my family. I was going to make sure that Case was protected until Tinga gave me a sign of when to act. With that I started to stroke Case hair with my chin to keep him calm.

Zane where are you?

***

Part 4, Penitence for my sins