Only four more chapters to go before this story is over. Just a little warning, the last one isn't written yet and I've left the almost complete version on my home computer which I'm not gonna be able to get near until this coming weekend. Other than that I should be updating daily so please take the time to read and review.
Spasmodic shivers broke through his body, his wide eyes staring into nothingness, a great abyss that only he could see. There wasn't even fear in them, just this emptiness, like there weren't any emotions that he was capable of feeling. Gradually the shivers became less aggressive, they didn't encompass his entire body the way they had and he slowly slipped away.
Shalimar was destined never to know how much he slipped away. The fight had been hard and she hadn't intended to kill him but in the end it turned out that he believed in something so much so that he would die for it. She couldn't and wouldn't understand how he could believe in an organisation that made people's suffering a part of big business. But she could definitely sympathise with the overall sentiment, with the commitment he felt. After all, hadn't she entered the building with the very same commitment fuelling her heart and brain, making her body move.
There was no blood. That was the one thing about the scene that didn't seem quite right to her. Blood was almost always associated with murder and even though she knew it was a broken neck killing him she still couldn't seem to get her head around the complete lack of colour on his body. Looking at her hands, and seeing them clean didn't feel right. She shouldn't be so clean, she shouldn't escape from the situation so totally unscathed.
Not that she regretted what had happened. She may have been fighting for herself and her family but there were others who would feel the effects of what had happened that day. As she stood up, as she walked out of the room, along the corridor she knew there were people in the world who would thank her for what she had done. But that wasn't what she wanted out of this. As she walked towards the stairs that she would have to descend to reach the outside world she just wanted to see her family. The operation had always been a risky one, they had all known that. The chances of them beating the Dominion were minuscule and yet they had gone in regardless. What was she leaving the building to find? Would they all be dead? If she was the only survivor the concept of carrying on with her life was a distant one. She would live for Taylor but if that was to be her life, living for her daughter and nothing else then she would end up dying an unhappy woman.
The stairwell was dark but her eyes adjusted quickly and she looked down, over the railing at the seemingly endless flights of stairs below her. If she hadn't been so desperate to get back to her world she would have given up then and there, sat down and waited for someone to find her.
She frowned and drew her head back from the edge as she heard footsteps behind her. Loud, pounding footsteps, ones belonging to many feet. She looked around her nervously before taking her first step down. But as she did so she was halted by the sound of numerous doors being slammed further down the stairwell. The slams were followed by shouts, indistinguishable in the tumult of noise and then the sound of more footsteps as people started making their way upwards.
She turned, knowing who they were and what they wanted, grabbed hold of the hand rail and began her long journey up, towards the roof. It was the kind of thing that big breasted bimbo's did in horror movies to get away from the killer and she realised it could potentially put her in even more danger but there was no way that she had come this far to be shot down by some guy in a uniform. She took the steps two at a time, pacing herself for the long haul, occasionally glancing backwards to see if the guards had picked up on her scent yet. Her breath came in short bursts, her pulse quickening, the adrenaline pumping itself to every part of her body, forcing her ever onwards and upwards.
'This is Shalimar Fox,' she said into her comlink as she ran, willing someone to reply, wishing someone into existence at the other end of the signal.
'This is base ops. What can we do for you?'
She had never been so relieved to hear someone's voice in her entire life. It spurred her on as she heard the footsteps below her drawing gradually closer, her voice and the sound of her own steps alerting them all to her presence.
'Get me out of here,' she yelled, struggling to draw enough breath to get the words out.
'We have your location, a helicopter is two minutes away from the helipad on the roof of the building.'
'Two minutes might be too long,' she muttered as she ran up her final flight of stairs, smashing into the door that would let her out onto the rooftop. She pushed against it, whimpering as it refused to budge. She could sense the Dominion security getting closer, the sound of their guns slapping gently against them as they ran. She breathed in deeply, taking a step back before slamming her small frame into the metal. It gave way and she was thrown out into the cold wind that blew across the roof. She stepped out, shutting the door behind her, hoping that it would stick for the men as it had for her, stalling them, affording her some more time.
She looked around her, the open space a relief after having been stuck in every cramped, confined space the building below her had to offer. Her eyes darted from one stretch of the sky to the next but she could see nothing. There was no helicopter on the horizon for her eyes to pick up, any sounds lost in the intense wind.
Her neck twisted as she heard the banging of something crashing into the door. A second crash sounded through the metal and then the door flew open, bashing into the wall behind it. Men, dressed all in black, with helmets and more black covering their faces jogged out into the space, cutting off her only escape route. She couldn't work out how many of them there were but there was no way she would be able to fight any of them. She could feel the laser sights, the bright red dots burning into her chest and skull as they raised their weapons.
It was over. She slowly raised her hands above her head, quelling the shivering that seemed to have taken over her nervous system. After everything that had happened this was how her ordeal was going to end. She was going to be shot down on a roof, not given the chance to see her family, her friends ever again, not given the chance to say goodbye. She raised her chin defiantly. Fighting may not have been an option but she was not going to go down whilst looking at the ground.
Her head turned slightly as the sound became more distinct. Against the wind it was faint even to her, to the men in front of her it must have been nothing. But to her that faint noise was the sound of hope, it was the sign she needed to know that the fight was still going to be fought. A smile spread over her face, she couldn't help it. Her life was being handed to her on a plate.
She watched as the body language of the men changed. Their guns lowered momentarily as they took in the sight behind her. As she continued to watch them, too scared to turn her head she saw the flash of electric blue shoot over her and hit the front line. They fell and she looked over her shoulder, her saviour hanging out of the doorway of a helicopter. She breathed, trying to summon the courage to run.
As her legs started moving she heard a shot ring out, saw the helicopter falter slightly, move backwards, further away from the edge of the rooftop. It was too far. She couldn't jump it and hope to survive.
She looked up, her legs still moving and their eyes met. He was going to save her, she knew it. She could see the wide gap between the building and her safety and her heart leapt into the back of her chest via her stomach. She took a small jump onto the low rail that surrounded the roof, using it to push off. She could feel herself flying through the air, the wind ripping at her hair. She reached out her arms, her fingers splayed and felt his hand wrap around her wrist. Her shoulder jolted, she was winded as she slammed into the hard metal of the landing gear at the bottom of the helicopter but she was soon in the vehicle itself, watching as the rest of the world disappeared, the helicopter taking flight across the city, the bright sun glinting against its windows.
'You don't really think you can win, do you?' asked Dominique, looking Lexa straight in the eye.
'Oh God, please tell me we're not gonna do the talking thing,' Lexa replied, holding the older woman's stare.
'You can make out like this is all just some trivial matter but I know you better than that Lexa.'
'My friends call me Lexa. You are not one of them,' she bit back. She was finding the situation increasingly boring. Time was passing by too slowly and she was losing all patience with it. She knew that there were still Dominion assigned bodyguards waiting outside the room, she was certain that some kind of alarm had already been activated despite her previous threats. She wasn't stupid and she knew that a noose was slowly tightening around her neck.
Her whole life had been leading up to this moment, the point where she got the chance to confront Dominique, to talk to her about everything. But, as things so frequently did the situation wasn't quite what Lexa had expected. After all the years of imagining what she would say to the woman, Lexa suddenly realised that she had nothing to say. There were no words to describe Dominique, nothing Lexa could ever say to her that would make her feel some semblance of guilt, regret about the things she had done, the things that had been instigated by her. Lexa didn't even mind. She had been given the chance to look the woman in the eyes, to gaze into those orbs and she realised now what she should have known all along. Dominique was not going to change for Lexa or the CIA. She was who she was, it would be futile to even try.
It would have been a bleak ending to the whole tale if that had been what Lexa was left with but it turned out that she was also unchangeable. She was who she was, and it didn't matter if it was Dominique or Eckhart or the newest villain of the week. Lexa Pierce was going to fight. She was going to fight because there was nobody else who could do it, because if that wasn't her purpose then what was, but mostly because she was one of the good guys. Her motives may not always have been perfect, her missions may not always have turned out quite the way they had been planned but Lexa was part of an elite group, a group of people who risked their own lives so that others could live. She had been given powers, ones that she didn't always appreciate but ones that she was going to use to help.
'I could be your greatest friend, if you let me.'
The brunette turned. She knew what was being offered. A life with the Dominion, a life fighting for the other side. She smiled, a genuine, open smile.
'Tempting, isn't it?' Dominique said, misreading the look.
'No,' Lexa replied. 'And that's what none of you get. I'm different from you, all the members of Mutant X are. And your biggest mistake was placing me with them in the first place. They're good people, the kind that give everyone with any compassion, any humanity hope that there is something more that we were born for. Are you done yet?' she asked, turning to the two men at the computer.
'Just finishing…now,' one of them declared triumphantly. 'We can go.'
'One minute,' Lexa said, allowing them to take her place in front of Dominique. She raised her right hand, drawing the beams of orange light to her fingertips before pointing at the computer. Sparks flew as the machine exploded, plastic shrapnel bouncing off the walls.
'Now we can go.'
'You'll never get out of here alive,' Dominique said bitterly, her face contorting itself into a grimace.
'We don't get out of here alive and neither do you,' Lexa replied. 'So you'd better call off your security team.'
Five minutes and a lot of manoeuvring later Lexa, the two CIA agents and Dominique were standing on the steps of the Capitol building, Lexa's glowing fingertips positioned next to Dominique's throat. The sun was still shining, its rays warming everything they touched.
'So what are you going to do with me now?' Dominique asked.
'That nice team of CIA agents standing on the other side of the road are going to place you in a CIA holding cell to which I have a copy of the key. Enjoy your sleepless nights,' Lexa replied.
She watched as Dominique was taken away. And for once she didn't feel angry about everything. All the things that had happened over the years seemed to melt away around her. She had no reason to be angry, no reason to feel bitter. Everything was resolving itself.
Her thoughts, not for the first time that day flew towards her team mates. She had no idea how they were doing. Seeing Dominique taken away had made her complacent about everything else that was going on. She had completely forgotten that she might not have a team to go back to.
'How long are you going to stand there for?'
Her eyes lit up at the sound of his voice and as she turned she felt his strong arms wrap around her, pulling her close. She could feel his heartbeat through his shirt. Tears filled her lower lids, threatening to spill over, her legs wavering, not sure whether they could successfully hold her weight for one second longer.
Her eyes looked straight ahead of her. Standing in front of a car was Brennan, his face and arms bearing his battle scars, but his shoulders less burdened than they had been since the reunion. Next to him, sitting on the hood of the vehicle was Shalimar, bruises staining her pale face with colour, a bandage with the red spot of persistent blood strapped to her shoulder, her chest heaving deeply as she tried to breathe. The battles had been hard, they had taken their toll on the individuals involved and Lexa's heart went out to her team mates, her friends, her family, but at least they were all still alive.
The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth, violating her taste buds. She tried to draw breath but found the action impossible. She had no idea what the anatomical reason for that was but at that point in time it hardly seemed relevant. She was going to die, probably already was. There was no one to save her, nobody who could help.
She turned her head to the left, feeling the hard floor beneath her aching back, her neck protesting violently. The mangled body of one agent was lying a few feet away her, a metal pipe, covered in blood the guilty culprit; the other agent was lying further away, a pool of blood forming beneath his head where the bullet had embedded itself into his skull. There had been no chance of survival for them, just as there was no chance for her.
Her head rolled back until she was looking up at the ceiling. Her vision was becoming blurry, her eyelids moving slower, becoming heavier. She could sense him moving closer. She squeezed her lips together to stop her chin from quivering with the effort of keeping the tears in. She looked up into his face. It was hard, cold, uncaring and she knew that the moment had come. She raised her arms, all the strength she had left within her being used up in the simple action.
'What? You wanna fight back? You want me to be merciful?' he taunted.
She closed her eyes, willing her lungs into action.
'Now I am free,' she whispered, her final act of defiance as her body was consumed by all the flames that she had held inside of her for so long. They overwhelmed her, breaking across her skin and for the first time in her life she gave herself up to it, for the first time feeling the heat, bearing the full weight of her gift.