Notes: I've realised as I wrote this chapter that I've forgotten to use their codenames during this mission. After a bit of thought, I've realised that I like it this way and probably won't be including their codenames again, and probably not in the sequel either, unless I have no choice. This is a bit of a calm-down chapter, a break in the action before the next chapter which, hopefully, will be quite long and very good.

Notes2: Extra big thanks to angyl-devyl for your fabulous review, especially for the con crit. Once I've finished this and have the sequel well under way, I plan to go back and slowly rewrite it, hopefully fixing mistakes and answering questions. That said, on with the chapter and sorry it's a bit short

Chapter Thirty Nine

Selene let out a sigh of relief, collapsing against the wall. Alistor was standing by the window, watching the corridor carefully, and Selene smiled at him.

"You don't let up, do you?" she asked and he just grunted, not even glancing at her.

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you," he mumbled after a second and she smiled again, limping slowly over to the desk and sitting down. As she booted up the computer, she reached down and massaged her ankle, which she had twisted and then had shot. Luckily, it was little more than a graze, but it did make walking a bitch.

Flexing her fingers, wincing as little sparks of pain shot out from the gash along her palm, she quickly typed in a few basic commands that granted her access to the system's core. Streams of data strolled over the screen and she looked at it for a moment, noting with a touch of admiration at the complexity of it all. She wouldn't mind sitting down to unravel this metaphorical ball of twine, and knew that Jamie wouldn't mind it either. However, duty came first, and she dug the small diskette out of her pocket, slipping it into the drive and bringing up the window.

Smiling grimly, Selene clicked on the icon and watched with no small amount of satisfaction as the virus began eating away at the system. A small blue bar appeared, slowly tracking the virus' progress and she waited a moment to make sure it really was working before turning around to look at Alistor.

He was still standing by the window, crystalline armour gleaming in the harsh fluorescent light and sword gripped tightly in his hand. It was stained with blood, little droplets dripping from the edge to create a small puddle of crimson liquid by his feet.

"How's your ankle?" he asked, glancing at her for a second before looking back at the window.

"Hurts, but I'm used to working through pain. You injured?"

"No."

They were silent for a minute, Alistor still scanning the corridor outside and Selene watching the computer, before Alistor sighed softly.

"I've killed a dozen people today," he murmured, and she looked at him with a curious frown. "Before all this… I wasn't a killer. I mean, I wasn't some great pacifist and if you pushed me I'd push back, but… I'd never killed before. No matter what anyone did, to me or someone else, I always… I left them alive, at least. Hurt, broken, bloody, paralysed and in pieces a couple of times, but always alive. And now… dozens of them. What kind of person does that make me, Selene? What kind of… monster?"

"You are not a monster," Selene said savagely. "You are a fighter. You did what you had to to protect hundreds of innocent people. They deserved to die, Alistor. If you'd left them alive, they would've hurt and killed people whose only crime was to be born a mutant. Their blood is dirty and I feel no regret over having spilled it."

Alistor bowed his head, a small tremor running through his shoulders and down his back. "I don't think I can be like that," he said quietly. "I can't be like you."

Selene glared at him, not liking this conversation one bit. "You don't have to. You can hurt over them, you can regret your actions, you can pray for fucking redemption if you want, but what you can't do, is wimp out on me. If we go back out there and run into more soldiers, I need to know that you're gonna kill them. And if you can't do that, then tell me now and I'll continue on my own because I don't need a fucking liability like that right now."

Tense, brittle silence filled the room before Alistor let out a heavy huff of breath. "No. I can't ask you to do that. If you go back out there, I'll go with you. I'll… God, I'll kill to protect you."

Selene bit her lip and hobbled over to him, placing her hands on his broad shoulders so that he turned to face her. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw the sheer agony in his crystal blue eyes. He licked his lips, taking a deep steadying breath and tried to smile for her, but it didn't reach his eyes.

"I'm sorry you have to do this," she whispered and he nodded. Smiling softly, she stood on tiptoe so that she could place a gentle kiss against his cheek, memorising the way his armour felt against her lips, and then limped back to the computer.

The virus was moving along slowly but surely, corrupting and then deleting everything it came across. She watched it for a moment, absently drumming her fingers against the desk in an, her nails making sharp, clicking noises. The movement aggravated the slice along her palm though so she quickly stopped, instead chewing on a fingernail. She could feel Alistor's presence, could feel the cackling of nervous tension in the room, and it was making her edgy.

"You feel it too, don't you?" Alistor asked softly, and she felt her shoulders hunch. "You pretend you don't, you act as if it doesn't affect you, but it does. You're just trying to hide it."

"Not to sound harsh, sweetie, but shut the fuck up. I have to focus." She didn't mean on the virus, that was running smoothly all on its own; she meant on the general mission, on the main goal of defeating the Agency. She couldn't stop to think about her actions for fear that she wouldn't be able to continue. For some odd reason, that comforted Alistor, and he felt a twisted, grim smile curl his lips.

After several more minutes of silence, the virus finished its work and the blue progress bar flashed at Selene. She ejected the disk and checked that the virus had been successful. She smiled when she saw that it had, the complex system reduced to nothing. Standing up, she hobbled over to the door and glanced out the corridor, even though Alistor hadn't stopped guarding her for a second.

"You ready?" she asked quietly, and felt him nod behind her. She licked her lips and drew her gun again flicking off the safety. She took a deep breath, holding it for a second before slowly letting it out. "Then let's do this."

Moving quickly, with Alistor behind her, she walked through the blood-splattered and corpse-filled corridors, trying to block out the stench of death and the sight of what she, and her teammates, had done.