Bubblegum Crisis 2036

Shadow of Lies

Part II

By Analogk37

"Who did this???" Linna screamed, furious, pointing at their names scribed from Priss' blood as if it required any more attention to get noticed.

Immediately Nene double-checked her scanners. Still nothing, no humans boomers, or even significant power sources were anywhere in the building. "I'm not picking up anything," Nene replied tersely.

"Okay then. Linna, get Priss to the van quickly," Sylia ordered, taking command.

Linna didn't move at first. She stood, staring at the crate with her arms by her sides, fists clenched and shaking.

"…Linna…" she repeated.

Finally, Nene could almost see Linna blink through her visor, focusing on the task at hand.

"Y… yeah, I'll take care of it."

The next few minutes were a blur for Nene. Sylia directed their activities: Priss' primary care and evacuation, a quick scene analysis, and cleanup of the evidence. From there they split up. Sylia brought Priss to the private clinic. Meanwhile Linna and Nene changed back at the store and then sped separately to rendezvous with Sylia, trying to remain as anonymous as possible.

A sudden twitch in her palm immediately brought Nene back to the present. Her eyes blinked and saw Priss' fingers move again. "Priss? Priss, can you hear me?"

The head on the pillow turned slightly in her direction. Bruised, purple lips flinched ever so slightly.

"Priss? Just… hold on, I'll get a nurse." Nene said, letting go of Priss' hand… or at least trying to. Fingers that shouldn't have been strong enough to hold a feather grabbed her hand in a sudden death grip, startling Nene. She spun back around to look at Priss' contorted face actually forcing open her swollen eyelids, red eyes brimming with pain boring into her.

She drew one deep pained breath. A single, faint word managed to escape from her lips… "… sylvie…"

Nene turned white as a ghost. Her mind spun with the possible meanings, with several becoming very real concerns. "Sylvie? Priss, did you just say Sylvie? Did…" She almost could bring herself to ask, but she had to. "Did Sylvie do this to you?"

Priss tried to draw another breath, but began a hacking cough instead. In place of the words, she squeezed Nene's hand and nodded as best she could move her neck.

"But… but that's not possible. She's dead… at least… as dead as…" And then Nene realized the flaw in her logic. Still, questions burned through her mind. But I thought Sylia destroyed the remains. What if its not the same Sylvie? She looked down at Priss and asked as careful as she could given how she knew Priss felt about the reformed boomer. "Priss, are you sure it was her. Are you positive it was Sylvie."

Priss gathered her strength, taking short, shallow breaths this time. "Yes, I'm sure… she… Sylvie… remembered what happened… with… the DD… the disk… Anri…"

"But how is that possible? Sylia, I thought…" Nene countered, before Priss squeezed her hand.

"I just… just know it was her… Nene… it was Sylvie. Nene…" Priss paused, looking at the ceiling, her swollen eyes now filling with tears, streaks forming on either sides of her bruised cheeks. "… she… Sylvie didn't want to… she kept… saying… can't… can't stop…"

A alarming beeping noise from above Priss startled Nene. She glanced up into the source of the noise, reading an electronic display. "Med App Prog 2 Beg," it read in yellow digital letters.

"… I couldn't… fight back… she… was crying… couldn't stop… couldn't… stop… crying…" Priss voice trailed off as her eyelids closed again, her grip loosening up.

"Priss? Priss???" Nene's head swiveled back and forth, scanning the rest of the meters, looking for any other hints of what was happening. "What's going on???" Finally, her panicked voice finally prompted a response in the form of a nurse entering the room.

"Is everything alright here Miss?"

"She was just awake!" Nene said alarmed, worriedly glancing back at the now silent Priss.

The nurse walked over to the other side of the bed into the bank of machines. She pressed a few buttons, scanning through some displays. "Ah yes, well, it appears as if an auto-scheduled dose of pain medication was just injected. And from these readings, it does appear that she was conscious."

"I know she was awake! I was right damn here!" the other woman angrily huffed, combing one hand through her frayed, red locks.

The nurse gave a short smile at her. "Yes, of course. Well, I would guess by the dosage that she would likely be sleeping for most of the next 24 hours."

"24 hours??? Just great," Nene sighed.

The nurse nodded briefly towards her and picked up a clipboard at the end of the bed, leaving the room.

Nene stared down at Priss, rubbing her tired eyes. "Now what do I do?" Could she really believe Priss? Could it just be the drugs in her system? But what if she was right? What did it mean, and what about Sylia?

Glancing down at her watch, Nene decided to go right to the source for some answers. It was time to go see Sylia.

"For the most part, the 33S known as Sylvie is destroyed," Sylia answered cryptically, standing close to the dark windows of the lounge.

"The most part?" Nene repeated, upset.

Linna wasn't very happy either. "What about the rest of her? Where is she Sylia?!?" she stood, voice rising by the syllable.

Nene stared at the back of her friend. So much for trusting Sylia and having nothing to worry about She managed to keep that thought to herself.

Sylia still remained calm however. "Please sit down and I will start from the beginning."

Linna grumbled, but did as she was told, taking her seat on the couch as she began to nervously rub her right forearm. She and Nene exchanged worried looks, then focused back on Sylia.

"After the battle with Largo, and especially after the ordeal that Priss suffered with both Sylvie and Anri, I knew that we needed additional information on the 33S type boomers. It was imperative that samples be taken and analyzed of some of the more critical components…"

"Like their brains?" Linna interrupted angrily.

"CPU's", Nene corrected, to which Linna shot her an equally angry look. "Hey, I'm sorry."

"Nene is right," Sylia agreed. "Remember, Linna, we are not dealing with humans here. This is technology, boomer technology from my father's research that is potentially being misused."

"Sylia, we've been through this before. I understand what your saying, except that you and I both know that when Priss finds out, she won't care if it's a brain, a CPU, or a toaster. All she will know is you lied to her about Anri and Sylvie."

"And that was a chance I had to take. I had those components analyzed here as far as I could, and then…" she paused, bowing her head for just a moment before raising it with a small, pained look on her face, "… I had them further tested by a respected colleague at Kyoto University."

Nene immediately read between the lines. "… oh no…"

Linna sunk her head in disgust. "Let me guess the next part. He stole the parts and sold them to Shadow Weapons."

"That would be the most accurate working assumption, from all the intelligence we've currently been able to uncover," Sylia answered.

Linna huffed, shaking her head. "Priss is going to kill you."

Nene quickly piped in, nodding in agreement. "Without a doubt."

"So this is why you were so cryptic with our job investigating Shadow Weapons?" Linna queried.

"And who are we actually working for this time? Just you Sylia?" Nene further surmised.

Sylia closed her eyes and smiled. "I suppose after five years I shouldn't be surprised by how quickly you catch on."

Linna wasn't smiling. "And after five years, I thought you could trust us Sylia."

Her face instantly turned ice cold, peering silently through cracked open eyelids at the former dancer. The room filled thick with tension as the two women stared each other down, one sitting, the other standing a few feet away, both with arms crossed tightly on their chests.

"Um-hmmm!" Nene interrupted, clearing her throat to help cut through the drama. First she turned to Linna. "Listen, I wish that Sylia would have been honest with us, but I understand why she wouldn't tell us. We both know what Priss would have done if she had found out."

For her part, Linna finally blinked, then bowed her head. She knew it was the truth. "But still," she argued to the floor, "that doesn't change the fact that you hid this from us… and Priss was almost killed tonight because of it."

"Linna…" Sylia started to reply.

The other Knight Saber wasn't finished just yet though. With fire brimming behind her eyes, she lifted her head up and stared straight into the other woman. "No Sylia, just… don't. I don't want to hear it. Listen, we've fought side by side for years now. We've always covered each other's backs. But tonight, for some reason, that all changed. And the worst part is, tonight, for the first time, I don't think you gave a damn about Priss' life." With that, Linna stood up and walked out.

The sudden move took Nene off guard so much, she never even had a chance to stop her friend. Indecisively, she spun her head from the door, back to Sylia and then to the closed door again. "But what about the… but what… oh… what do we do now Sylia?" she stammered, utterly confused. On one hand, she wanted to run after Linna and convince her to come back. After all, they still had to figure out what to do about their names showing up in that lab earlier. But, on the other hand, she realized that whatever Sylia did to Priss by hiding the fact that she was still using parts of the 33S', Linna took it very personal. Especially after what happened after the last battle with Quincy at the Genom tower.

A low groan brought Nene from her introspections and back to reality, where she found Sylia rubbing her temples in obvious pain. "Sylia?"

"I… I'm okay… Nene. I… just need to take… something…" And with that, Sylia gingerly walked out of the lounge, gripping the side of the doorway for support as she left.

Nene was too tired to chase after her. She collapsed into the couch behind her, putting a weary hand to her own forehead. But Linna was right in one regard, this was not the Sylia that they had known for years now. Or was it? That was the trick with Sylia, their mysterious leader. Nene had to wonder if she ever really knew Sylia at all, especially with the evening's revelations about Sylvie and Anri.

She glanced back at the closed doorway, recalling Sylia's awkward exit in her mind. But as she thought on it, another image flashed in her memory and brought with it a fresh stab of pain in her heart.

"… mackey…"

The image… the young man nervously running through that same doorway… running away from the Knight Sabers…and Nene… at least that's what she had finally deduced. Her boyfriend left without much in the way of an excuse, explanation, or a plan. He had just left. Sylia attributed it to his need to grow up and be his own person. For her part, Nene wasn't so sure. For a couple of weeks prior Mackey had acted very strangely, not talking to her, missing meetings, sleeping at odd hours of the day. And then, out of the blue, just announcing to the team that he was moving overseas.

And Nene still had no idea where he was.

"… mackey…"

The small car parked on the side road, the black haired woman sat in her seat staring ahead at the steering wheel. "Why am I here?" she asked herself for the fourth time in the last fifteen minutes. She glanced down at the chronometer. It glowed 1:45 back at her, green light illuminating the bottom half of the shift handle. The other half burned in a faded brown light from the overhead street lamp, marking out a circle around the car.

For the fifth time, Linna looked across the street and into the third floor window. It was still dark, blinds drawn shut behind the shut glass. She turned her head back and tilted it back, pressing her hair hard into the headrest. Linna gripped the steering wheel, let out a deep sigh then ripped the keys from the ignition and strode out of the car. With a few purposeful steps, she quickly walked into the stairwell and up to the third floor of the apartment building.

The doorbell buzzed for roughly five minutes before the multiple locks started to click. The door cracked open and a tall, rough around the edges man peered through the vertical slit.

"What the hell… you…" His eyes flared with pained recognition.

Linna saw him glance over his shoulder at something. probably the clock , she surmised.

"It's almost 2," he announced, his slowed, tired mind trying to piece together the clues. It didn't take long for his heart to make his mind up, however. "Look Linna, I thought we both agreed this would never…"

"Leon, not now," Linna stopped him, pushing hard on the door and forcing her way past him and inside the doorway, stopping just a few feet past him with her back still turned in his direction.

The ADP officer left the door cracked open, unsure if he really wanted to go through with this right now. It only took his heart a fraction of a second to make up his mind. "I think you should leave."

"I don't have anywhere else to go."

"What about Stingray?"

"No."

The tone in her voice told Leon something was wrong. "Priss?" When Linna didn't immediately answer, he knew something was very wrong.

"She was almost killed tonight."

The door closed and the locks clicked in. Inside, voices continued to murmur.

Meanwhile, outside and down the next alley two dark shapes flowed around the fleeting lights of the quiet residential street. They merged with the shadows and flowed silently around the parked cars first. Next, they slithered up all three floors of the stairwell. Lastly, the two shapes flowed with the still night breeze up to the freshly secured door.

To be continued…