Chapter 74! The longest chapter ever written! Enjoy!


Rise up

Lucas rejoined Sean once Alexandra had left the small deck where she had killed the man and punched the guard. He opened and closed the door quickly. When he turned around, Sean was waiting for him, sitting in the same chair he had asked him to sit previously. With one exception: there was a gun in his hand.

"So, you're back…"

"I told you I would be."

"I have plenty of questions for you."

"I guess we need to talk, then."

"Have a seat," he commanded him, pointing to another chair with his gun. "Please?" He drawled, mimicking Lucas' previous behavior.

"What do you need to know?" Lucas started bluntly.

"I really wonder why the great Lucas Taylor risked his life to come back here and save the life of a woman who betrayed him. Especially when we all know that this same Lucas Taylor betrayed his boss who's incidentally the father of that same lady."

"Alex has never betrayed me," Lucas pointed out forcefully.

"Never? How strange, because she's working for her father. The man you have decided to stop working for. The man who tried to kill you, if I remember well."

"She had no other choice."

"She followed Charles and left you dying at Terra Nova. I don't really see where she was forced in that story."

"Is that what he told you?"

Lucas was stunned, but he shouldn't have been. He should have known that Charles would not say he had lost everything, that his plan had failed.

"How did he explain Alice's death?"

"Alice's death? She's not dead," Sean chuckled awkwardly. "She's at their dome in France."

Sean's answer made Lucas laugh so hard that his face slowly decomposed.

"Are you so credible?"

Sean frowned at his question and lifted up his gun that had lowered while Lucas was speaking.

"Don't talk to me like I'm a fool. I'm not stupid. I know something is wrong with Charles' explanation about his wife's absence."

"Yeah, right," Lucas smirked arrogantly. "Alex was wrong about you. You're definitely not clever."

"Stop talking about her like she knows me!" Sean vociferated.

"But she does! When are you gonna understand that? SHE KNOWS YOU! YOU'RE HER FRIEND!" Lucas hollered standing up, his index finger pointing at Sean's face.

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Sean yelled, standing up too in order to face Lucas.

They glared at each other silently, breathing hard.

"She's not the girl you think she is," Lucas stated strongly.

"I know damn well who she is. She-"

"-has been kidnapped by her father! Forced to work for him to stay alive! And Alice is dead. Totally dead. My dear father shot her last year."

Sean seemed to ponder what to believe, his mouth agape in shock. Lucas took the most of it and, as he had edged closer and closer to the desk, he ended up close enough to grab the gun and aim it at Sean.

"I'm not lying here. If you really know that I'm against Charles, then you have to believe me when I say Alex is on my side too. Our side. Because I know you share the same opinion about the man. I'm also sure you would fight him if you had help. And this help, well, Alex is going to give it to you."

"I don't wanna fight Charles. My life depends on him."

"Rubbish."

"Even if I wanted too, there's no way we can destroy him."

"Alex has a way."

Lucas didn't move his gun from Sean's face until he was sure Sean understood everything he had just said.

"If we are on the same side, then lower that bloody gun," Sean eventually blurted out hopelessly.

"Stop freaking out. I'm not going to kill you. Just shooting you if you deserve it."

"Very funny."

"Look, I can't tell you everything. I'm sure you're not a genius, but smart enough to understand that if I tell you too much, it could change a lot of things. And we can't interfere with the timeline."

"Why would I believe her? Why should I believe you?"

"How do you think I knew where to find you? How do you think I came here? She was here. She recorded everything in her mind and told it to me."

"So, it's true…"

"What is?"

"Her hyperthymesia. I thought it was a myth."

"Well, like a lot of stories you heard here, people lied to you."

"I'm trying hard here to believe you. But you're not known for your loyalty."

"I know it can work", Lucas assured him. "And I'm loyal to myself. Be sure to stay on my side, and I won't betray you."

"If I agree with you, we could both be wrong," Sean replied.

"Geniuses are never wrong," Lucas reminded him with a smile. "Do we have a deal?"

Sean glanced one last time to Lucas' serious face and held his hand out to him.

"Deal."

Lucas spent the rest of the day working secretly in Sean's lab. He knew that Sean did not totally trust him. However, Sean knew that his story was believable. Also, Lucas' help with his work was a real plus and Sean couldn't deny that it was worth it.

Lucas' first encounter with Alexandra, or actually, his first observation of her life there, had been quite aggressive. Her actions were composed of violence only. From what he could see, she was always fighting. Anger was her leitmotiv. Soon, she would explode. Nobody could live long with that kind of life. Even him, he had had to stop one day.

At the end of the afternoon, Sean left Lucas to go and retrieve some files from level 4. That was why, when the red light started flashing five minutes later, Lucas immediately ran to the cupboard and hid, knowing it was not Sean coming back. The lab's door swung open, revealing Alexandra and her father fighting.

"Alex, I've heard you fought again."

"Fought is not really the proper term."

"You broke his jaw, on purpose."

"We had a little spat. And so what? Get over it."

"Calm down girl. I know you have to prove that you're better than them. But don't forget they work for us. They're not enemy."

"It has nothing to do with that. I…"

Alexandra stopped arguing when Sean entered the lab, his hands full of papers. When he saw them, he stepped back in surprise and let some papers fall down.

"Oh! Mister Dubois, Miss Dubois, I…"

"What's with you now?" Alexandra groaned as she spotted that the desk was covered with a lot of files too. "Your desk is messier than ever."

"My daughter's right. It reminds me about a scientist I knew... Not a good memory."

"Sorry Mister Dubois. It won't happen again," Sean apologized, standing up.

"Get this room cleaned up."

"Yes, Sir."

"Alexandra is going to stay with you a moment. I need information you have and she is going to get it for me."

"Sure," Sean replied, noting the dark glare she was sending him. Now that he knew her gift was real, he understood better why she was coming almost every day to read his work. She was not correcting it, she was just recording it.

Charles left without waiting any longer and Sean ended up alone with her. He noticed Alexandra's right arm was bandaged and couldn't resist trying to be friendly. After all, Lucas had said they should become friends in the near future.

"Broken wrist?"

"Someone's jaw attacked me," she said caustically.

"A little bit clumsy, are we?" He noted lightly.

"That's none of your business," she spat darkly. "Show me what you've done for the last two days. I don't wanna spend my whole day here."

"Here," he replied, showing her the corner of his desk.

Alexandra took the papers and sat on the chair next to the cupboard. She started reading while Sean sat at his desk, glancing occasionally to the cupboard, nervous. At one point, she seemed disturbed about something as her eyes were staring at the arms of the chair. It was like she had known Lucas had sat on it. But after 15 minutes, she stood up.

"I'm done."

She dropped the papers on the desk and was ready to leave when her gaze stopped on something.

"What's this?"

"What?"

"This," she pointed with her index finger to the plan Lucas had worked on earlier with Sean.

"Corrections."

"From who?"

"Me."

She looked him straight in the eyes, observing him.

"Doesn't look like your handwriting."

"Who else could have done that?" He shrugged innocently.

Alexandra stared at him suspiciously for a moment before speaking again.

"You wouldn't work with someone else, would you?"

"Of course not!"

"Good. Because we both know how it would end for you."

"Are you protecting me?" Sean deliberately teased her with a smile.

"Did you really say what I think you said?"

"No, because, you know… I know I'm an attractive man, quite dashing. I can understand if you have feelings for me," he grinned.

"What's wrong with you? Are you out of your mind?"

"Okay, alright. There's nothing," Sean stated, holding his hands in the air in surrender.

"I don't believe you."

"Well I'm sorry to hear that," he replied, clearly not sorry.

"Okay, what the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Nothing!"

"Every time I come here, things are different. I know you're hiding something."

"I swear, there's nothing."

"Why are you suddenly playing the friendly guy?"

"Am I?"

Alexandra stepped closer, stopping inches away from him.

"Don't play with me. The gauge of my patience is really, really thin lately."

Lucas was praying to God that Sean would stop taunting her. He was going to expose them. He should have coached him better about the Alexandra of the future.

"I think you need to have fun more often."

Uh-oh. Sean was doing exactly the opposite of what Lucas had told him to do. He was risking a lot. Lucas couldn't see why Alexandra liked the guy so much. He was arrogant, smug, always bragging about his pseudo intelligence. How did she end up believing in him? Suddenly, realization caught him. He was him, Sean was exactly like Lucas. Or, as Lucas wished, like the old him.

"Do I look like I care?"

Alexandra's tone was blank. She was clearly analyzing Sean, wondering what his goal was.

"Obviously not. But maybe you should care. Maybe having a friend here would be a good thing for you."

"Meaning?"

"I've heard you wanted to dethrone your dear father."

In less than a second, a gun was suddenly in her hand, pointed menacingly at Sean.

"Who told you that?" She asked angrily.

"Everyone knows."

"Liar!"

"It's obvious!"

"Don't make me shoot you. I've already killed too many people in the last couple of days," she sighed in annoyance, her gun still aimed at his head.

"You won't shoot."

"Oh yeah? I won't? And what makes you so sure about it?"

"I'm on your side."

"Which side is that?"

"Everybody needs someone to count on."

"I don't."

"Everybody does… You'll regret it if you kill me."

"Yeah, like I care. I bet it will haunt me forever!" She joked darkly.

"You can't be that heartless."

"You do it, then you forget it. As simple as that. I bet my father would find another scientist quickly."

Sean's cocky attitude suddenly dropped as he understood she really could kill him and leave no trace behind.

"Okay, I believe you. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"No one hurts me. But I could hurt you. Don't forget that next time we meet. Oh and, by the way, spread the word: I'm loyal to my father. Never forget it."

On that menacing note, she left the room, clearly upset. Lucas was out of the cupboard in an instant, glaring angrily at Sean.

"I take back what I said earlier, you're really too stupid!"

Then he ran to the door and went outside. Lucas couldn't waste the opportunity to see Alexandra again. She was walking fast and it was hard for him to keep pace with her without being noticed. Soon, she entered a corridor and he hesitated to follow her. There was nothing indicating where it would lead to.

After a moment of weighing the pros and cons, Lucas walked in too, praying, once again, that no one would spot him. Behind the door was another corridor, leading to a gymnasium. Thanks to windows, Lucas could observe her without being noticed.

He saw Alexandra put some headphone in her ears. Then, she started stretching her muscles before grabbing some weapons. The music was so loud in her headphones, Lucas could almost hear the bass. He was quite surprised she was not deaf by now. She trained fighting, shooting, but also throwing knives. And it appeared that she had become extremely skilled with knives. It was almost like a choreography. She was dancing so easily, it was beautiful. Lucas almost forgot she was dangerous and armed.

"You shouldn't stare at her like you are, bro," a man's voice warned him. Lucas cursed himself for his lack of attention. He should have been more careful.

"Why shouldn't I?" He drawled.

"Because she doesn't like it."

Lucas turned slowly to meet whoever was talking to him. A thin smile appeared on his face when he recognized the man who was with the guy Alexandra had punched. He was younger than Lucas had thought the first time he had seen him.

"I'm Caleb," the young man said, holding his open hand to Lucas.

"I'm Damon," Lucas grinned. "I like to stare at what's not mine."

"Well, Damon. She's no one's. And she wants to stay that way. No hunting there. It's guarded."

"Well, Caleb. I never doubt my abilities with women. Of course, most of the time, I'm surprised when I eventually understand I can't have them. But it has never stopped me trying again and again."

Lucas was quite amused with his private jokes about Damon, while Caleb seemed perplexed about Lucas' sanity.

"Oh, oh. This is bad," he suddenly stammered.

"What is?"

"She's staring at us."

Lucas hid his panic at the idea Alexandra could see him and put his arm around Caleb's shoulder.

"Come on," he commanded him, pushing him to the exit. "I'm sure you've got a lot to tell me about this girl.

They walked quickly to the deck and once outside, Lucas told Caleb that he had to go and left him. Instead, Lucas hid not far from the corridor's door and waited for Alexandra. Lucas smiled at the thought he was becoming very skilled with this hide and seek game. Five minutes later, Charles appeared on his left and went directly to the gymnasium. A few minutes later, he was out with Alexandra who was obviously upset to have been disturbed during her training session. And they were heading straight in his direction. Lucas was kneeling down behind a barrel and praying that Alexandra would not walk closer. Fortunately, she stopped a meter away, her gaze lost somewhere in space.

"Alex, you're not listening," her father scolded her.

"Hmm hmm…"

"Alex, you haven't heard a single word I have said, have you?"

"The blond girl, black cap and khaki jacket."

"What?"

Lucas could feel Charles' fright at his tense tone. Surely since Lucas had felt it, Charles had recognized his daughter's behavior. She was in a defensive mood.

"I've seen her before."

Her voice seemed calm but Lucas could hear a sense of urgency to it. And that was probably what warned Charles that something was wrong.

"Where?"

"Outside," she replied blankly, her gaze still on the petite woman that was leaning against a wall.

"Well, maybe she has been hired recently. You should call…"

"No," she cut him off. "She was with the demonstrators."

Charles froze and examined the blonde girl once again. And so did Lucas. If Alexandra had not said she was a threat, no one would have noticed her. Now Lucas was observing her, and it was true that she looked different. Her cap was covering most of her face, making her unrecognizable. Her jacket was too big for her and she was stamping on the floor, stressed, waiting for someone or something. Alexandra's hand ran slowly to her walkie-talkie and Lucas heard her asking for reinforcements and a scan of the woman's face. Too late.

In a second, the atmosphere changed as Alexandra seemed to spot a deep menace and yelled that there was a security breach on the second floor, before running to where the woman was. Lucas had just enough time to turn his gaze to the girl in question, to see her literally implode before his eyes. The detonation of the bomb shook the whole floor. The blast of the impact was so violent that Alexandra, just like a dozen other people, was projected at least ten meters back. She finished her gliding as she landed against a wall, unconscious. Lucas could not hold back any longer and ran to her.

"Alex! Alex!" He called her, shaking her. "Alex, love, can you hear me?"

She mumbled inaudible things in response. Lucas quickly checked her body and figured out that she would be alright. She was covered in blood, but it was not hers. That was when he also understood he should not have been there. He needed to leave or he would be captured. That was not counting on the attack that followed. A dozen armed civilians started to fight with guards. Lucas glanced around to find an escape route. He was circled, trapped as much as Alexandra whose eyes started to flicker open, staring at Lucas emotionlessly. Charles was not in sight anymore, so when one of the civilians tried to shoot Lucas, he didn't give him time to pull the trigger and punched him hard in the gut.

People were screaming, shocked by the attack. Some of them were wounded because of the explosion. Everyone was fighting, but it was easy to see who was on which side. The soldiers had uniforms, like the civilians, but the assailants' outfits were a khaki color.

Lucas stepped back and felt the wall against him. He glanced down, noticing Alexandra was not there anymore. He looked around quickly to find her and eventually saw her when, as two people were running on her, she grabbed two knives that were tied to her ankles and threw them right in their hearts.

Suddenly, hindsight caught him. She would handle this battle. Maybe it was this famous day that she had enough fighting. Maybe she needed to be hurt again to fall into that depression that had invaded her that night she wanted to end her life. As this realization filled his mind, he turned his back to the fight scene and walked away, heading back to the lab.

Once there, he waited in silence. He waited for the attack to end. He waited for the right time to go and look for her again. Sean tried to talk to him without success. Lucas just wanted the time to pass. He just wanted this fight to end so he could go and try to see if Alexandra was alright. He was not regretting his decision because he knew it was the most rational one. But he also knew that his heart was screaming at him to go back there and help her, protect her.

After an hour, the alarm stopped and a voice through the speaker said everything was under control again. Lucas had a theory about where Alexandra could be and he was ready to follow his instinct.

"Where are you going now?" Sean sighed, annoyed, when he saw Lucas walking to the door again.

"I need to know if she's fine. And so should you."

"Look, she meant everything she said to me earlier. She wants me dead! How can I want her alive?"

"She meant it, indeed. But you acted like an idiot. You changed your attitude with her from a total ignorance to an intense interest. You, dashing? Honestly, Sean, what were you thinking?"

"I don't know! I don't know how I could become friend with her. There's no reason, except the one you told me. But, I mean, I thought about it too. You said we became allies, but you never said how. And I don't know that. I really don't know why I would do that!"

Lucas was not really listening to Sean. His mind was already running fast like a machine. Sean was right. He had no idea how or why Sean had one day decided to be friends with her. Alexandra had never told him. He was not even sure if she knew why. Lucas needed to see her now. It suddenly felt very urgent.

Like every time she felt bad, Alexandra was alone at the edge of a place. Like the time she had climbed the fence, like the time she had run to the falls, like the time she had gone to that cliff. Alexandra would always go where there was an end. Maybe it was helping her think. Or maybe it was a figurative way to face the truth. In any case, Lucas didn't like it when she wanted to escape reality. It was always ending badly for her, for him.

She was standing along the barrier of Deck 9, staring away, a bottle in her hand. Totally drunk, she slid under the barrier and stumbled to the border of the deck. Reflexively, Lucas stepped out of his hiding spot, ready to run to her. Suddenly, she turned her head quicker than Lucas had thought she could. Their eyes met and they both froze. She blinked many times, narrowing her eyes, her mouth agape in disbelief, while Lucas was praying to a God he didn't believe in to give him an escape plan.

He could not destroy everything, not now. Lucas waited for her to move, but she didn't. It seemed like an eternity before she shut her eyes tightly and murmured inaudible things to herself. Lucas took the most of it and hid behind some barrels. When he dared looking again, she was staring where he was a second before. She appeared totally lost, her gaze blank. She looked like a fragile little thing, so fragile she could fall into pieces in an instant.

She made her way slowly to the edge of the deck and sat there, her legs in the air. Lucas observed her for a long moment before something triggered in his mind. That was it. That was that precise moment she had told him about. That moment when she said she had thought she had seen him. This was that dark moment when Sean had come to talk to her. She was going to try to commit suicide and Sean was the only one who could stop her.

Lucas waited but no one came out. Why was Sean not coming to rescue her? The minutes passed and Lucas' anxiousness was growing every second. And suddenly, everything made sense. Alexandra and Sean were not friends. Alexandra and Sean would never be friends. Unless someone changed that and pushed them together. And Lucas was this someone. The story had always been written and Lucas was the author of it. He was the one who had made them become friends. He was the one who had saved her. He had already intervened here.

Lucas raced to Sean's lab, worried that he had waited too long before realizing what had happened. Alexandra had really seen him that night. He had been there. He was the one who had told Sean to be her friend. He was the one who had made Sean save her. He quickened his pace when he remembered she had said Sean had talked to her like Lucas would have. He had to inform Sean, he had to. He had wanted so much to not interfere in their lives, afraid to break the timeline, that he had avoided talking about subjects like this. Sean needed to know everything.

Lucas stormed into Sean's lab but couldn't find him. He started searching for him everywhere, his heart quickening its pace every second that passed without seeing him. He grabbed his head in his hands in anger, cursing Sean for his absence. He needed to think quickly where he could be. It was around eleven in the evening. What did Sean used to do during the evening? Lucas was fuming inside when the solution appeared all by itself. Sean was in front of him, a mug of coffee in his hand.

"You! You come with me, now!"

"What? Hey! Stop!"

Lucas didn't wait to explain and grasped his arm, forcing him to join him outside.

"Listen to me, I'm not going to repeat myself," Lucas started as they were walking fast to Deck 9. "One night, Alex tried to end her life. This precise night, you came and talked to her, stopping her from doing something so stupid."

Sean stopped dead, taking his arm out of Lucas' grip.

"Wait! Is it tonight?"

"Yes."

"Hang on, I can't… I don't know what to…"

"You're gonna say to her exactly what I'm gonna tell you, understand? There is a wireless headset connected to this walkie-talkie. I will guide you along the way. You just repeat what I tell you."

Sean didn't seem convinced, but Lucas didn't give him chance to go back. Once the elevator's door opened to level 9, Lucas pushed Sean outside and ran to hide where he was earlier. Lucas stayed hidden, ready to listen to every word of their conversation.

"Walk to her!" He ordered Sean from the walkie-talkie. "Go!"

Sean stayed motionless, his eyes searching for Alexandra. The deck was totally empty, but then he spotted a silhouette at the edge of it, behind the security barriers. He walked to her silently, his steps hesitant. He crossed the barriers but stopped inches away from Alexandra. She didn't even turn her head to see who was coming.

"Go!" Lucas murmured forcefully to Sean. "Come on!"

Sean glanced in his direction, his gaze black. If he could have yelled at him to go to hell, he would have done it.

"Was it you?"

Alexandra's broken voice startled Sean.

"So-sorry?" He stammered.

"Did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Make that girl explode?"

"No! Jesus, no!" Sean denied, honestly shocked that she thought he could do such a thing. "I would never do that!"

For the first time, Alexandra looked at him.

"Then… What are you hiding? Why are you acting like you suddenly care?"

Her eyes were pleading with Sean to tell her the truth. She needed the truth to hold on. Suddenly, with no apparent reason, Sean turned his headset off and Lucas was caught off guard.

"What the fuck?"

Lucas was very upset about not being able to hear what Sean was telling her. He was sure he was going to destroy everything. Lucas gritted his teeth in frustration as he saw Sean go and sit next to her. He seemed to be explaining things as his hands were moving in the air. Alexandra's face was showing concentration. She was listening to him seriously, nodding from time to time. At the end, Sean took something from the inside of his jacket and showed it to Alexandra. A thin smile appeared on her pale face and some tears ran down her cheeks. Lucas could see she was talking now and hated Sean even more for having cut his headset off.

It seemed like ages to Lucas before Sean eventually stood up, holding a hand to Alexandra. A hand that she grabbed. Her acceptance for help almost made Lucas jump up in happiness. Sean had succeeded. Lucas hated to admit it, but Sean had played his role eventually. And, if Lucas was honest, he would have told Sean that he had no idea what he could have asked him to say. Because, once again, Alexandra had never, ever told him the conversation. It had been her secret since the beginning.

When Sean said goodbye to Alexandra who took the elevator, Lucas ran to him, assaulting him with questions. But Sean didn't answer. He looked quite shaken. The only thing he promised him was that he was going to help her and that he did believe him now.

"How do you know it worked?" Lucas asked one last time.

"I talked to her with an open heart like you said. And it worked."