Disclaimer: Ok, you all know the stunt: I don't own anything here save for my twisted little mind, all right?
This is based on a wonderful mod HeX Coda by Stefan Gagne. Setting is his, characters are his; words and Sindel are my own, but they are both cheap, so you can have them. ;)
Secrets
Daniel grinned as a shadow slid down the wall and landed neatly in a crouch on the tip of her toes and outstretched fingers of one hand. He stopped himself from sneezing as a light breeze blew his way, sending few strands of hair across his face and also filling his nostrils with a particularly nasty breath of toxic waste and garbage piles and he chanced a quick glance upwards before returning his attention back to the shady dead-end street once more.
Almost dawn.
Soon enough, rays of light would pierce through the hazy mist and smoke, refracting into several yellow-and-red colors of the spectrum on their way, heralding yet another polluted day. Day – the hustle, the bustle and the light; night – the quiet, the alert and the dark. And in between, the dawn – time for revealing the secrets conceived in the womb of yesterday's dusk.
Daniel smiled. The poetry of the moment was not lost to him.
The shadow in the corner moved briskly; her head jerked up, casting a quick glance left and right before her body shot up like an spring released, pressing her back against the wall. For a moment, she merely stood there, breathing through semi open mouth so that the air made little noise coming in and out. In his mind's eye, Daniel could clearly see the frown of concentration that he knew must have settled on the obscured face in the dark.
Yes, there it was. Just as he expected. A silent moment of effort and the shadows around the figure faded slightly - the deepest ones, sliding down her shoulders like a dropped cloak – and returned lazily to their respective corners. Like a soft breeze sending ripples through the dark-grey smoke, shaking the shadows off; like unwrapping a shadow-made veil.
Daniel awarded the sight a nod of approval. She was getting good.
He bid his time until the figure detached herself from the wall and stepped forth, her light gait leading her to the corner and close, yet not directly into the circle of light shed by the streetlamp. She neatly avoided it by moving close to the wall, and proceeded down the street.
Daniel smiled. "Well done."
The quiet voice stopped her dead in her tracks and her shoulders jerked back. Swiftly, she spun about on her toe and instantly, Daniel was met by a glinting cat-like pair of eyes, a dagger hilt sliding out of the arm-band and into the waiting hand on a reflex. But barely a second later the blade slid back into its sheath, accompanied by a sigh of recognition.
"Oh, it's you."
Daniel arched an eyebrow, tilting his head to the side. "Not surprised to see me?"
"Surprised at you being nosy?" he heard her chuckle. "No. Actually, I was wondering what took you so long."
Daniel's smile took on its usual smug edge. "Oh, I just wanted to see how good you're getting first."
"Not much," she grinned, "Obviously, since you snooped me out. Then again, given the fact you probably had more practice with Pandy than is merciful – No wonder."
Daniel laughed. "Ah, but you are getting good." He looked at her more carefully. "And in barely a year… Fascinating."
She made a face. "You mean you've been tailing me that long?"
His customary mysterious smile was all the answer Daniel cared to offer.
"Now that's depressing," her shoulders slumped. "Fat lot of good am I getting if I can't even sense you at my back."
"Ah, but lets not forget that the Corps are probably much lousier at it than I am."
She narrowed her eyes and fixed him with a stare. "I see… Well," she glanced around, scanning the still-empty street then glancing at the paling sky above. "If this is going to take long, and I suspect it just might, than lets walk. I gotta stretch my legs."
Daniel grinned. "Lead the way."
& & & & &
A rat scurried along the garbage heap, the waste and the dirt shuffling beneath it's furry feet. A splash of water echoed from the side, its surface soon to loose its nightly pretense of crystal-clear black and take on it's usual, mud-grey hue.
A deep, yawning rumble sounded in the distance, breaking the silence further – the engines of the waste plant waking up with a rusty belch as the two figures drifted through the still dark street: one, tall and blonde-haired, clothes matching the gold of his hair and the grey of his eyes; other, elfin and slim, clad in dark green and ashen grey.
Somewhere behind them, a door squeaked open, a sleepy plant worker stumbling through – A good, honest early riser, out to earn his daily bread. Daniel listened to the slow, splashy footsteps walking down the street and away. Even in the distance, they were still louder than the soft-booted tread of the elfin female beside him and Daniel couldn't help but smile. The mechanics of the easy, soundless gait was known to him – he saw Pandy do it enough many times to learn it– but the actual performance always escaped him, so the ease and the grace with witch Pandy (and, as of late, Sindel as well) moved never seized to amuse him.
They strode in silence for a while longer, turning left, than right, cutting across the square and briefly pausing at the junction before opting for the more quiet narrow side street instead of the wider, main one. A thin line of fluorescent red stretched on the horizon, and turned the fog of the suburbs iron grey.
Day break… Soon… But not just yet.
For now, the mist was still hanging low in the streets, or better yet, what they all liked to pretend was mist, but was, in truth, a heavy grey smog; the water still looked black and clear, the streets empty and almost clean and the houses all silent and neat. When the thin red line grows thicker and turns first orange, then golden-bright, warming its way upwards and across the sky, the last remnants of the night-time shades would be dispersed; when the day finally breaks, the oily stains on the water surface would be the first to reflect the truth. The streets would come to life with their full assortment of mud, people and dirt and the silence would crawl back into its deep, secure box of imagination, giving way to voices, shouts and music and the ever-present waste plant belching rumbles.
But not just yet.
Yes, there was truly something poetic about these last moments of dark and quiet, Daniel reflected. Nighttime was for secrets, daytime was for lies. And dawn was for the truth… and secrets revealed.
How fitting, he smiled to himself, throwing an bemused look his companion's way.
Sindel met is gaze with a questioning one of her own.
"So… do you plan to tell Dayvid about it?"
"About what?" She smirked slyly. If he didn't know better, he would've actually believed the innocent tone of her voice.
"Your… shady business, of course."
She chuckled at his choice of words. "Which one, Daniel?"
Daniel stopped and made a pretense of thinking abut it for a moment. "Hmmmm… All of them?" he tried hopefully.
Sindel laughed.
"Some of them?" he tried again.
Her laughter bounced off the walls. Daniel put on his best hopeful-pleading smile.
"Any of them?"
Sindel shook her head.
"Well," – Daniel wasn't giving up – "if not to Dayvid, to someone else, then? Or," he mused (or was it "teased"?), "Perhaps you're hoarding it all for yourself and are just waiting for the opportune moment to sell it to The Cathedral instead?"
Sindel stared at him for a second before bursting into another laughing fit. There was only playfulness in his voice, she knew, not real accusations of any sort. "Sure! Along with my body and soul. I'm just waiting for them to meet my price."
Daniel struck an "I'm pouting" pose, crossing arms across his chest. "You're cramping my style, Sindel! I am the mysterious little bastard of the crew – not you!"
Sindel grinned. "That you are, Daniel. Proven beyond reasonable doubt."
"Well," Daniel grinned back, "Let me keep the hard-earned honorary title, then."
Sindel snorted. "Selfish. That way you get it all – you get to keep both your title and your secrets, plus you want to snatch away mine as well."
There was something about the way she said "your secrets" that made Daniel's jovial expression turn strained. "I told you already, I think" he said more quietly, "that whatever I'm holding back does not put any of the team in any sort of danger…"
"And what I am doing does," Sindel finished his thought. "Then again, all I have is your word for it, Daniel…"
She left the sentence hanging and Daniel ran a hand through his hair, kept it there and looked away. He opened his mouth to answer, but closed them again as he met the glowing green piercing through him expectantly… and challengingly, daring him to give the same thing he was asking for. Secrets…
Secrets. How many was he keeping? His mind raced across the rocky field of things gone by, skipping stones and kicking pebbles, climbing and falling and dancing away from the avalanches of thoughts and their fragments while staring at the high adamantine peaks of polished, shiny granite in the distance. Every peak a mystery, every stone a secret, every pebble just a fragment of the scenery he had not let any of his teammates… anyone, to see. The landscape of secrets… And all they had was his word that those mountains were not for them to see, and again, just his word that whatever avalanche might come tumbling down, they would not get buried underneath.
He'd like it if they could trust him, but he knew that when one sees a foreboding ton of rock potentially rolling down one's path, the words "it won't hit you" were very difficult to believe.
Still, he kept trying, even while knowing it was a war lost from the start. He could win a battle, he might even win a few, but he couldn't win the war. But that only made the small victories all the more precious, the grains of trust he won as a prize even more worthy of saving – A precious treasure he would not like to lose.
He looked back at Sindel, letting out a tired sigh. "I thought we got past that stage." Sky knows it took them long enough.
"Past that stage?" Sindel cocked her head wryly. "No we haven't."
Daniel's eyes shot a bit wider at the statement. For some reason, a small lump formed in his throat.
"I don't trust you, Daniel. Never said I do. Blind belief is not my thing. In fact, I am sure that whatever you're keeping from us is bound to break the dam, sooner or later, and flood us all… and then we'll all be wet as ras and I, for one, will be very, very pissed at you."
Daniel found it hard to keep the smile on his face, not only his lips, but his eyes as well. The one on his lips was waning; the one in his eyes darkened, taking on a sour hue of disappointment and, was it.. pain?
"But," Sindel added, "What I do trust you about is when you say you'll do your best not to let it happen. That I believe fully," she finished with a warm smile spreading across her features and slipped her hand under and over his own. She stepped away from the wall she was leaning on and pulled him along.
Mirth returned to his face. With a sigh of relief, he allowed himself to be pulled along. She looked up at him mischievously and a chuckle already formed in his throat, anticipating the words he knew she would say.
"And now I expect you to do the same for me."
"To trust you will not allow…"
"That I will do my best not to allow…"
"I stand corrected. To trust you will do your best not to allow yourself to get caught sabotaging the Cathedral, tampering with shadows and trying to contact Lester (even though you know he will never answer). Or, if you do get caught, you will do your best not to let the rest of us fry for it," he recited in one breath and grinned at the smirking elf beside him.
"That's the idea, yes."
His next words came out sounding a bit more serious. "Can you do it? That second thing, I mean."
She looked up and chuckled. "What, can I get caught?"
He gave her a "don't play stupid "look.
"I dunno," she shrugged. "Guess you'll have to wait 'til I get caught and see."
She tugged at his arm again and they resumed their aimless stroll in silence for a while; SIndel, staring in front of her and Daniel casting an occasional glance her way. Sabotage…
Well, of course she'd be doing it. What else could he expect from a rogue like her? All that time she spent with Pandy, practicing, hacking codes and breaking chyphers… It seemed as if she was doing it for kicks and practice only, but he was onto her for months now. Still, he bid his time, waiting, putting off the inevitable confrontation indefinitely… Why? Because, he was telling himself, it was really nothing overly serious… yet. And also, because he was curious to see just how far could she go… and how far would she go. But also, he admitted at last, because he dreaded that confrontation and all the potential problems it might bring; because keeping secrets was what he did and, regardless how much he enjoyed revealing the mysteries others had in stash, somehow it still felt sour and wrong to poke – to poke into secrets held by one of the rare who never showed any desire to poke and pry into his own; because she trusted him on his word solely… because she was a friend, and that friendship was something he did not fancy losing.
Sabotage… No, it wasn't that serious, Daniel decided and found himself trusting her not to cross the line.. even if she did push the limits quite dangerously sometimes. Trust for trust. And besides, for all her occasional rashness, Sindel was still not Lester – Lester, whom she tried contacting ever since he left.
And that last attempt of hers was really something. Daniel sighed. How he wished he could've seen those ruins. But, as it happens, Sindel took Lester and Miranda for a ride instead. He sighed again. For some reason, he still felt a little bit hurt. And now she was trying to contact the renegade… again and this time around, Daniel had no doubts she would succeed. Well, in getting the message through, at least. The bracer…
The bracer from the ruins - A part of Lester's arm mechanism, containing a rich Second Try-style melody, only filtered and changed by Lester himself; the bracer he discarded, now containing a synthesized, modern version of the tune that only three people (bar the ghost) knew, and only one out of three with skill and will to extract it and broadcast it now. Oh yes, Lester would hear it, and know beyond doubt who's calling.
To no avail, of course – the man was way too proud to ever answer – but she kept trying nevertheless. There was something in that persistence to be admired. Like, for one, even if it sometimes did melt into pure stubbornness, it never spilled over the line dividing from sheer zealotry. And in that (as well as many other things), Sindel was different than their ex-teammate… Which was why she opted to stay with the Coders in the first place, sticking with them even when her favorite one bailed out, Daniel reflected… Which was when he came into view more closely and…
"…and I'm still trying to get the right… err, feel of it before I try tampering with it further, which is why I still don't want to… You're not listening to me at all, are you?"
Daniel stopped suddenly, his mind returning to present. It was not often he got so lost in thought not to pay attention to what goes on around him. He bit his lip and smiled sheepishly.
"Sorry. I wondered away a bit it would seem. What were you talking about?"
"My tampering with light, of course. Or, more precisely, with the null potential of shadow. Thought you might be interested."
"And I am," he smiled broadly. "Now, if you would just repeat the last two hundred words or so…"
Sindel laughed and shook her head. "All right. What I was saying, and you better listen this time, was that…"
& & & & &
Daniel kept walking, keeping his ears open and letting himself be dragged into conversation fully. The sky above them paled as Sindel went into quirks and details of her up-until-then secretive experiments and research into the "negative light". A half-globe on the horizon turned into a full one, the warm glow spreading around and onto the world below. The dawn came and went, blending inconspicuously into yet another day – a shift from nighttime secrets to the daylight lies. He listened carefully to her points and observations, but when she came to the part that worried her – something about "things in there", beings of pure shadow that looked like time-wraiths, but weren't that, that smelled like echoes, but not quite like it – he stopped her. As much as he would enjoy peering even deeper into the secrets she had uncovered, Daniel felt it was time to stop.
The daylight came and spread, the magic of the daybreak dispersed into daily mundane.
"Let's get some coffee," he told her and led the way to the nearest bar.
The day came to stay: the time for the truth was over. Shadows and their secrets were better left to wait.
Wait, for some other dawn to reveal.
Well, that's all folks! Unless, that is, I get another irresistable ugre to shoot my mouth off like this. Sudden bursts of inspiration are a bit hard to resist. Thanks for the reviews, btw - I was writing this for fun alone and I really wasn't expecting any... which, of course, doesn't mean I'll be objecting to them. ;)