AN: Thanks, as always, to the amazingly lovely myparamour, for helping me improving my work, and congrats for her baby niece Mya!
To any other reader out there, thank you for your appreciation, and also I would love some sort of feedback, either as a review or a much more discreet personal message, anything! :)
Chapter Five
The lunch ended too soon for Alex's taste and they were on the move before she knew it. Sure, she wanted to complete their mission as soon as possible but something about it felt off, and the apprehension made a part of her want to put it off as long as she could; when it came to dealing with Amanda, it was like walking on thin ice. One wrong move and you're drowning in freezing water.
Amanda was smart and cunning, capable of deceiving everyone with little effort and zero remorse. She felt compassion for no one, and when it came to revenge she was ruthless. If the plan went sour and Amanda got loose, Alex expected swift and brutal retaliation.
"Alex, your phone is ringing." Yusuf snapped her out of her train of thought, as the phone rang two more times before she answered.
"Hello?"
"Hey, kiddo!"
A familiar vibrant voice answered back, making Alex smile. "Hi, Nikita."
"Can we talk or are you busy? Do you want me to call another time?"
"No, it's fine. Go ahead."
"Well… I'm pregnant, we're gonna have a baby!"
Alex's face lit up, a genuinely gleeful smile spread across her face. "That's amazing news, congrats!" She looked up and saw Eames eyeing her through the rear-view mirror as she continued. "Boy or girl? Do you have names already? When's it due?" She heard shuffling in the background before someone momentarily muffled the phone.
"Hey, Alex, it's Michael. As thrilled as we are right now, this is the kind of news we'd like to celebrate face to face, so get your butt here as soon as you can, okay?"
"Fine, Mikey. Next week I'm taking some time off. I'll visit you then, okay?"
"Sounds good to me, Auntie Alex" he teased her, but when she didn't say anything back he asked, "is everything alright, Alex? Are you on a mission, or do you need to talk about something?"
"No, no - I'm not working right now, just visiting some of Owen's old friends." She lied, but she didn't want Michael and Nikita to know what she was about to do, she didn't want them to worry. "Listen, Michael, I need to let you go now, I'll call later to arrange a visit, okay?"
"You know, if you need to talk, I'm just a call away, alright? Come soon, we miss you a lot, Alex."
"I miss you too, bye now."
"Bye."
She hung up, and swallowed the emotion building in her voice. She missed Nikita a lot, but Michael was whom she missed the most. She had always looked up to him, and he had always looked out for her, caring for and nurturing her as a big brother would. She'd actually never had a big brother, but she liked to think that was what big brothers do. She took a deep breath and looked up to the front seats.
"How long 'til we make contact?"
"Thirty miles," Eames spoke under his breath, gritting his teeth. He had been acting distant since they'd gotten into the vehicle, but she thought he might just be focused on the job ahead, so she didn't push it.
And frankly, she needed to do the same if she wanted the mission to go on without a hitch, because now that she knew about Nikita and Michael, there was no way in hell anyone would stop her from being an aunt to that little girl. Yeah, it will definitely be a baby girl.
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Eames stopped the SUV at the side of the road waited, still holding the steering wheel with both of his hands in a tight grip. He looked to his right, where Yusuf sat, and a sudden ache grew in his chest. The man was clearly on the edge, shaking slightly, not at all prepared to take part in a job with direct confrontation. And it was Eames' fault that Yusuf got dragged down into this god dammed mess in the first place.
Eames sat back and tried to relax and clear his head before Alex moved closer to the front seat and put her hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently as she spoke.
"Eames, the package is on the move."
Eames through the car into drive and followed the government vehicles and their escorts from a secure distance for a couple of miles, until they spotted a truck coming from the opposite direction. Birkhoff's voice filled their heads as he spoke through the earpiece.
"Okay gents – and ladies – our plan is in motion. Alex, it's your turn."
Alex quickly opened the window of the left rear door and aimed an electronic impulse weapon towards the last of the three government cars. She fired, lodging a metal claw to its tailgate, making the car slow down, until eventually it stopped completely. As the third car decelerated, the first two slammed on their breaks.
Even before their team could exit the vehicle, the government agents were firing at them. Eames pulled Yusuf down as small pieces of glass flew above their heads. Cobb, Arthur, Owen and Seymour fired against them, under the shield of an SUV escort, giving enough time for Eames to help Yusuf out of the car as Alex followed closely behind them, taking down two agents with guns pointed towards them. They easily took down the agents from the first car, which left only the two, or maybe three agents still inside the second car, protecting the 'package'.
The group quickly circled the vehicle, Arthur shooting the driver through the front window as Alex immediately shot the agent on the passenger seat. As Owen had suggested while they were drafting the plan, an extra agent was sitting in the second row, whom was promptly disabled.
Alex opened slowly the rear door, her soft light-blue eyes turned cold and sharp as she finally spoke. "Amanda."
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Alex knew that seeing Amanda again, after all that had happened, would be like being stabbed in the gut, and quite frankly, her first reaction upon seeing the woman sitting on the back seat, smiling vainly at her was to shoot her right in the head. It had taken Alex all of her strength not to do it.
"Amanda," she simply said, her voice steady, but her body burning with rage.
"Alex, what a pleasant surprise," Amanda spoke with a smile on her lips as she slid out of the car, her hands bound by handcuffs. "And just when I thought you had forgotten all about me."
"Move," Alex said, as she stepped aside, pointing her to the path though the vegetation. Cobb, Yusuf and Ariadne were already on their way to the base, a 3 square mile wood cabin in the middle of nowhere, arranging the station for the extraction to take place. Owen and Arthur were pulling the bodies off the road as Birkhoff and Eames blocked the road from its remaining access.
Amanda stared at Alex with a defiant look, "now now, where are your manners?"
Alex looked down and smiled, quickly pulling up her gun and hitting Amanda in her cheek with the grip panel, causing her to knock her back against the vehicle. "I said move. Please."
Owen and Birkhoff stayed behind in case the back-up agents were coming earlier than expected as the rest of them set off. Alex smiled at them and nodded when both murmured 'good luck'. As they start walking, she turned back and watched curiously as Owen was whispering something to Eames, his hand clasped to his forearm.
Alex decelerated her pace, giving Eames the time to catch up with her. "What was that all about?" she inquired, receiving a shrug in return.
"Nothing that should concern you, darling. Shall we continue?"
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They reached a small wooden cabin with no furniture that had been abandoned for at least a couple of years, judging by the footprints that were now visible all across the dusty floor and the cobwebs at every corner and around the small window. Ariadne was placing a layer of cloth at a corner were they would sit while attached to the PASIV.
Amanda turned towards her. "Alex, what do you want?"
She knew Amanda well, and she could see that she was nervous, knowing that the information she held was the only power she had over her. "Is it vengeance? Do you want to make me pay for everything that happened to you?"
Alex pushed Amanda roughly against the hard floor and turned away from her, focusing on Eames's conversation, as they all sat, making the final arrangements necessary for dream sharing.
"I guess we can expect more of those nasty projections of yours, wouldn't you say so darling?"
"You know what they say" Alex added with a playful tone as Ariadne passed the needles around and waited for Cobb's word to pull them under. "If it isn't rough it isn't fun."
Suddenly everything became to blur, and soon they would all be brought to face all the darkness she fought to keep inside…
AN: Hope you'd enjoyed chapter five, hopefully I'll update soon and please, share your thoughts on this, pretty please!