AN: And now we come once again to the next-to-last chapter; I hope it's all you dreamed it could be. And thanks to everyone for your kind words on the last chapter; they were all I dreamed they could be. PS - Sorry if I offend anyone by making fun of Fox News. I'm just more of a Daily Show fan.
Saturday 9:31 pm
The second time Tru woke up, she didn't have the fortune of being distracted by a nightmare. At first, she thought the ringing in her ears was her relentless alarm clock. But when she tried to roll over to smack the snooze button, rockets began to ricochet around inside her skull, drawing a pained sound from her dry throat.
"Open up, Davies. It's okay."
Tru opened her eyes and saw the wall of what she immediately recognized as Haioshi's office. She also saw someone's bare foot. Tru was lying on her side with her head cushioned on an outstretched leg. Gingerly turning her face up, she found Kiff sitting with her back against the wall and a hand resting idly on Tru's arm. She looked as spent as she had the first time they met.
"Kiff? What are you doing here?"
Kiff quirked her tattered eyebrow. "You don't remember?"
Tru closed her eyes and searched her severely gapped memory. She remembered a few things, none of which explained her presence in the dojo or Kiff's presence in any of it. But there was one thing in particular she did remember, which at least explained her presence in Kiff's lap. She looked back up at Kiff.
"I've never told that to anyone before," Tru said quietly.
"Well. Sometimes it's easier to tell that kind of thing to strangers. I'm not a therapist, but I hope it helped to say it to someone."
"Wow. Nice platitude."
"Thanks. How're you feeling?"
In truth, she felt terrible. Besides the headache and her maddening inability to focus on anything, every muscle in her body felt like it had been replaced with pine planks (aching pine planks that would splinter if she tried to move). It was worse than the time she had mono.
Looking down at herself, Tru found she was lying on one of the folded mats they used for practicing falls, covered with a woven textile that pictured the forty-seven ronin. Experimentally, she lifted a protesting, sluggish arm to touch her forehead and found it to be tender and bandaged. She probably had a black eye.
"Better than I look, I'm sure. How'd I get here?"
Kiff emitted a humorless laugh. "That's a story I could sell the movie rights to. What do you remember?"
Tru thought hard, trying to wrench the images from her swimming brain. "I remember the crash, pulling the cops out of the water, and then I... I think I got lost."
"You almost froze to death. Meanwhile, I've been fending off cops who wanted to break down my door, AND the advances of your sleazy little brother."
"Oh, God!"
"I know. That guy's faster than he looks."
"The cops came after you?"
"Yes. And now I'm hiding out in a martial arts studio with you and three strange men. My mother would platz if she found out."
"Kiff, you could go to jail. And your job -"
"Helping people in trouble is my job. Tru, I'll admit I wasn't exactly hip to the idea when you darkened my doorstep this morning. But when you're trapped in a small room with a mysterious half-frozen girl for a couple hours, you get to thinking: Of all the things I've done in my life, this may just be the most useful. Whether I like it or not, you can't beat that."
Tru was touched, if only for the brief instant that the urgency of the situation allowed.
"It's not just that, Kiff. Helping me -"
"I know. Jack might come after me again."
"It's a real possibility. He's done it before. Jack lost with you and he's not going to care if you're an innocent bystander in this one. Look what happened to Fielding..."
Tru's throat closed on the name and she covered her eyes with one hand.
"Hey, now," said Kiff. "I didn't know it bothered you so much. You barely know the guy."
"It's my fault he's dead. He wasn't supposed to die. He's dead because I screwed with the timeline."
Kiff's eyebrows met in a confused frown.
"Fielding's not dead."
Tru blinked up at her. "He's not?"
"No! I got the page twenty minutes ago. He survived five hours of surgery. If there are no complications, he'll be fine."
"But... But that's..."
Tru inwardly clamped down on the building dizziness, breathing slowly through her nose until it passed.
"I take it from your incredible pallor that this is bad somehow?" Kiff said carefully.
"This doesn't make any sense. Why would they tell me Fielding was dead? The whole reason those cops tried to kill me was because..."
Just then the curtain that served as the office's door was swept aside and Harrison appeared in the little room, Davis at his shoulder.
"Knock-knock, Spiffy-Kiffy. I thought you could use a stretch, so how about I sit with Tru for a - Oh, God!"
With a horrified look on his face, Harrison covered his eyes and shrank against the office wall like a vampire being burnt by the sun. Kiff voiced the thought of everyone else in the room.
"The hell is wrong with you?"
"I knew it. I knew there was a reason I wasn't getting to first base. Normally I don't mind as long as I get to watch. But not with my sister, man!"
Tru sighed. "Harrison, you strange, insane idiot."
"Tru!"
Davis knelt in front of Tru and put a light hand to her forehead. She watched as a look of intense relief washed over his face.
"Your temperature's normal. That's great!"
Tru had to smile a little. Once again, here was Davis when she needed him. For a moment, she marveled at being alive. For a moment, she marveled at the people responsible, people who were willing to risk their careers, their freedom, even their safety, all for her. She was amazed. Sometimes, she was amazed they even believed her, but they did. And then it struck her: There, as a wanted fugitive with men out to kill her, she'd never felt so protected. As comforting as that was however, it didn't do much for the situation at large. Suddenly -
"What time is it?" Tru asked.
Davis checked his watch. "Uh... Nine-forty."
"What happened to the bank?"
"Nothing. Nothing happened to the bank."
Tru felt a sudden need to be anything but horizontal.
"Help me up."
"Tru -"
"Help me up! Please."
Davis gently took her shoulders and levered her upright so she was sitting against the wall next to Kiff. She breathed slowly through her nose, waiting out the ensuing dizziness.
"This doesn't make any sense," she repeated. "Why? Why would someone blow up a bank one day, but not in its rewind? Why would someone set me up to go down for armed robbery and then use grieving cops to have me killed?"
Have her killed...
"Oh my God..."
Everyone looked at Davis, who had a look of utter horror on his fuzzy face.
"Dee, sit down before you fall over, man," Harrison said.
Davis fell back onto his haunches. "It's you, Tru."
"Me?"
"The rewind day? Arresting you? Trying to kill you? Don't you see! YOU are the connection. All this was to target you."
Tru shook her head. "No, that's impossible. There's no way I'm worth all that trouble. Who would...?"
"The same guy who uses a bomb to rob a bank," Harrison supplied slowly. "The same guy who knows it's all going to be undone the next day anyway."
Tru's head pounded in time with her heart.
"Jack."
"Think about it, Tru. He's always wanted you out of the way."
"But what about that rule he has about not changing fate?" said Davis. "Tru was never supposed to die."
"Seems like in her case he'd make an exception. I mean, Luke wasn't supposed to die either, was he? But Jack got him to teach Tru a lesson. Maybe she just won one too many and he's tired of the game."
Tru was feeling more and more like she was going to pass out again. It had finally happened: Jack was finally coming directly after her. On some level, she'd always thought he might, but why now?
"All right, all right. Whether it was Jack or not, we need to decide what to do next. It's not going to be easy to clear my name, and if I know Jack, this isn't over until the day is over."
The curtain was swept aside again, and Haioshi stepped in. In one hand, he had a steaming tea mug. In his other hand was a 9-inch 1980's portable TV. Seeing Tru upright, his tiny smile appeared.
"Tru San. How good to see you with us again. I only hope the news I have won't discourage you from staying."
The little man handed Tru the tea cup and gestured for her to drink, then set the TV on the floor and turned it on. One of the Fox News bubble-heads graced the screen, his best grim-earnest look firmly in place.
"... was called in by a Detective Patterson of the city police department, who stated the suspect called him personally to make his demands. We now go live to the scene with Lori Trachtenberg. Lori?"
The image cut to a woman in a trench coat and pants suit who was standing on the corner of First and Main. In the background, fire trucks and cop cars sat with their lights flashing.
"Doug, I'm here at the First Street Bank, where the bomb threat was called in some time ago. The building has been evacuated, but there's really no telling the range the blast could have if a bomb is detonated inside. The bomb squad is here, but as yet has not been able to enter the building. Negotiators are working to reason with the suspect who is believed to be somewhere inside."
"Lori, has the suspect made any specific demands?"
"Doug, the only demand he's apparently made is to speak to a..." Lori consulted her tiny notebook. "A 'Tru Davies'. Yes, he wants to speak to Tru Davies in person by midnight tonight or he will detonate the bomb."
"Lori, did he happen to say what a davies is? And why an imitation one wouldn't do?"
"Doug, I'm guessing this is the same Tru Davies for whom there's been an all-points-bulletin in effect today. Apparently, the young woman is wanted in connection to the robbery at the Fifth Street Bank this afternoon. This is of course a problem - Since police do not know where she is, they cannot produce her for the suspect."
"Lori, what evidence do we have that there is in fact a bomb inside the building? Wasn't this the same building where a phony bomb scare was called in earlier today?"
"Doug, we actually don't have any. Police are fully aware that this may be just another elaborate hoax, and have distributed their forces throughout the city accordingly in an effort to avoid..."
Suddenly, a blast sounded and everyone in the frame ducked. Rocky debris showered from the sky.
"Lori? Lori, are you there? Lori!"
Lori reappeared in the shot, her neat hair mussed and her calm expression overrun by terror.
"Doug, there's just been an explosion! There has just been an explosion in the building behind me!"
The camera panned up to an upper corner of the building... Or rather, what had once been a corner of the building. Now it was a smoking void surrounded by red-hot broken bricks.
"Guess we know there's really explosives in there," Harrison said numbly.
Saturday 9:42 pm
Jack grinned at the frenzy on his hand-held TV screen and set down his remote-detonator. Doubt that he was genuine, would they? Hell no.
He hated to use up resources just to teach those bubble-heads a lesson, especially resources that were so troublesome to come by. Then again, he had plenty. Besides, lessons were what this was all about. Lessons that people failed to learn.
After all, it was because Tru had failed to learn her lesson all those months ago that he'd been forced to break his own rules just to maintain the order of the universe. It was because of her that he was sitting in a dark, cold basement by himself instead of out pursuing the small pleasures of life. No one had ever said being the angel of death would be easy, especially with Tru Davies around.
Tru Davies. His great and worthy opponent had turned out to be a skinny little med student. Let it never be said that a man shouldn't have a healthy respect for women. Maybe even a healthy fear of women.
Oh, well. He only had to live with the idea for another hour and 18 minutes.
Jack picked up the beer he'd been nursing for the past hour and saluted the package he'd placed next to the boiler.
"To temporarily absent friends."
Saturday 9:47 pm
The company in Haioshi's office silently watched Doug and Lori regain their composure enough to announce that no one had been injured while everyone present on the scene extended their distance from the building by about thirty feet. No one quite knew what to say, especially Tru. Nevertheless, she felt that she of all people should say something.
"Thank you, Sensei. If you don't mind, I think the farther you are from me right now, the better for you."
Haioshi gave a slight bow. "As you wish. It happens that I shall soon be late for my 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' program if I do not get home soon. But Tru San..."
"Yes, Sensei?"
"Remember where to look."
With that, he winked at her and slipped out of the office.
"Very interesting person, your karate instructor," Kiff said.
"Yeah, we're thinking of putting him on display at the Smithsonian. Now how am I going to meet Jack if I have to get past all those cops?"
"Whoa!" said Harrison. "Hold the phone here, America's Most Wanted. You're not actually thinking of going."
"I have to go."
"You can't go! This is obviously a trap."
"No," said Davis, "actually, the word 'trap' would imply that someone is employing trickery to lure you into some kind of hidden snare. This is more along the lines of inviting a Christian into the Coliseum."
"Yeah, what beard-o said."
"Guys, Jack is in there with a live bomb. You weren't there when it went off yesterday. I was. I saw what happened. So what if there's nobody inside? Everyone at that scene is directly in the path of the blast. Cops, firefighters -" She looked pointedly at Kiff. "- Paramedics."
"No way," Davis said. "He'd need about a zillion tons of explosive... Or else put a little explosive next to a big accelerant."
"You mean like a big boiler?" Tru ventured.
"Well... yes."
"Like a big building would need? A big building like the First Street Bank?"
"Yes... Oh, jeez."
Harrison cleared his throat. "You know, there is that other pesky detail that you almost died today. Again. Can you even stand up?"
"I'll have to. I'm not going to let those people die. Otherwise... What good is this stupid whatever-it-is that I have anyway? My mother was killed because she could do what I do. If she was willing to give her life for it, then I'm not going to be deterred by some sneaking, cheating, self-righteous weasel! I'm not."
The resolve in Tru's voice left everyone else quiet for a few moments. In the end, it was Harrison who spoke up.
"Mom's dead, Tru."
Tru looked at him pleadingly. "Then you of all people should understand why I have to do this."
Harrison was a long moment in replying, or even looking at her. Slowly though, he returned her gaze. And then he nodded.
"Yeah."
"How nice that we all share the same firm resolve," Kiff said. "Of course, the whole point is moot if we can't get Tru past the cops."
"Not necessarily."
Everyone looked at Davis, who was wearing a strange thoughtful look. He kind of looked like Lucille Ball did when she was about to engage in some hair-brained scheme with Mr. Mooney.
"Remember that part in 'Phantom of the Opera' when they try to trap the phantom by putting on his opera?"
"No," everyone said in unison.
"Oh... Well, they did."
"So?" asked Tru.
"So, they thought they'd catch him because he was sure to attend his own opera. They had police planted everywhere, everyone in the cast knew about it, and they even used his girlfriend as bait, even though she's not really his girlfriend, he just thinks she is -"
"So what happens?"
"Well... He puts himself in the opera."
TBC...
Thanks again, everyone. Please tell me if you liked it, drink lots of water as the weather gets hot, and I hope to see you all at the finish line.