Witness watched the moonlit street with interest. Her contact, a man named Werner, was nowhere to be found and she was growing impatient. She glanced across the boulevard to where she knew Kaid was lurking in the darkness of an alleyway and wished, not for the first time, that she could be the one lurking in the shadows while the others did the negotiations. Instead, she sat openly on a bench beneath a solitary streetlight, waiting to establish contact with an organization she'd spent the majority of the past two years trying to forget.
Two figures rounded the corner at the end of the block. The illusory manifestations of their future actions appeared as nothing more than blurry shadows that lead their physical counterparts by a few seconds. Witness couldn't quite make out their identities by their future-shadows alone; the rough outlines only represented the possibility of potential future actions. Thicker, more well defined shadows signified a more likely event which was why the general figures of the two people were rather apparent. However, certain details like faces and hands were often blurry messes of many different possibilities. A few seconds behind their future-shadows trailed the two people. From what she could make out, one was a man of average build who walked with a poised, determined gait. That would be Adrian. She recognized him by the shape of his suit and the fancy briefcase he always carried. The other was a short woman with a shaved head whose future-shadow flickered with uncertainty. She appeared to walk with hunched shoulders and her head constantly turning to check her back. Witness recognized her as Maire, one of Prophet Julius' most dedicated disciples.
Witness frowned. Neither Adrian nor Maire were on particularly good terms with her. That, coupled with Werner's strange absence didn't leave her with a good feeling. She once more glanced to the alley across the street but saw no sign of Kaid in the shadows. It was part of the plan for him to remain hidden, sure, but Witness felt as though she'd be a lot less nervous with some confirmation that he was still in watching.
Adrian and Maire stopped about fifteen feet away and regarded Witness with wary looks. Their future-shadows were blossoms of possibility that expanded and shifted as each attempted to anticipate her next movement. Unfortunately, this made it difficult to see their faces or physical bodies. Witness reluctantly stifled her abilities.
"Where's Werner?" She called, trying not to let apprehension creep into her voice.
Adrian and Maire exchanged a glance before Adrian took a cautious step forward
"He couldn't make it." Adrian shouted back, "Got caught up in something. We're here instead."
Witness stood. She met Adrian's eyes and recognized a look of disdain. The Order didn't take kindly to deserters, she should have expected as much, but for some reason she'd expected more of Werner than to send two of his people after her. Of course, that was assuming Adrian and Maire were acting on his orders.
"Werner hates acting through intermediaries." Witness said, "I'm surprised he didn't decide to call the meeting off."
"You can drop the act, Witness. We both know why I'm here." Adrian spat, "You aren't welcome back, no matter what Werner says."
"Not even to fight our mutual enemy? Look around you, Adrian! Atlas controls everything! The only way we can beat them is if we work together." Witness pleaded.
"And how do you plan to do that? Defeat Atlas?" Maire demanded angrily, "We've tried for ten years to fight back, and look where that's gotten us."
"Inmate Seven." Witness said firmly.
Shock appeared across Adrian and Maire's faces.
"You'll get us all killed!" Maire shouted angrily, "You'll bring Atlas down on us even harder than before! Nobody Anomalous will be safe!"
"Witness." Adrian said solemnly, in sharp contrast to his compatriot's violent demeanor, "You know what I must do."
Witness snapped her visions back into focus. Adrian's future-shadow condensed into reality and she dodged as a throwing knife whizzed right by where her head had been a second before. She responded by pulling out a sleek ceramic handgun she'd hidden beneath her robes and fired a shot into the place she knew Adrian would dodge. The bullet never hit. Instead, it appeared to stop entirely in midair as Maire's eyes began to glow white. Witness fired at Maire and the first bullet dropped to the ground as the shorter woman focused her power on stopping the second.
Witness noticed a dark cloud on her periphery and whipped around to see Adrian unlatch the clasps of his briefcase. A dark swarm of pale insects erupted from within its confines out into the night air, filling it with the sharp sound of buzzing wings. Witness leapt backwards, keeping both of her assailants within her vision.
"Come on, Kaid…" She muttered under her breath.
A shadowy trail burst through her torso and Witness spun, Maire's reflected bullet careening past her. She raised her gun to fire, but once again had to dodge as Adrian's swarm of locusts dove at her and she barely escaped from their stinging bites. Adrian followed up the swarm's attack with another knife, expertly placed to catch her as she dodged the swarm. Witness twisted her body to avoid it, but was pinned between the swarm and Maire, who'd begun to advance. The blade struck her in the thigh and she grit her teeth against the pain. She fired her gun again at Maire, but the shorter woman's eyes glowed white as a concrete slab from the sidewalk ripped itself from the ground to block the shot.
Witness stumbled backwards. The knife in her leg had caused more damage than she'd anticipated. Each step wrenched her muscles around the blade, driving its point deeper and deeper. Thick blood had begun to seep from the wound and ran lazily down her leg. She tried to push the image from her mind, adrenaline staving off the pain. If she didn't think about the knife or the blood, she'd be able to ignore the pain. But the blood— The blood!
Witness tore the knife from her thigh, sending droplets of blood splashing out into the air. More of the crimson liquid flowed from the wound, now freed without the blade holding it in her body. It spun in midair, floating away as soon as it left the wound and coalescing into a small ball. Adrian and Maire whipped around in shock as a tall, thin man with a bushy brown beard stepped from the shadows. He flicked his hand and the blood that had gathered formed into a spike and shot at Maire, who deflected it off the concrete slab that still floated in the air. She sent it flying at him, and Kaid ducked to the side, the slab catching him in the shoulder as he did.
Witness simultaneously fired her gun at Maire and threw the knife at Adrian. The swarm of insects quickly reformed as a protective barrier in front of the well-dressed man, shielding him from the knife. The bullet caught Maire in the chest. She screamed in pain, but remained standing as her eyes burned with crackling energy. The blood that burst from the bullet's wound twisted and wound back around to strike her back, but Maire ripped another concrete slab from the pavement and deflected the blood away from her. She ran, dodging another blast of her own blood as she disappeared into an alley. Kaid gave chase as Witness stared down Adrian.
The swarm's future-shadows clouded her vision. It was everywhere and nowhere, a million tiny specks with a million possibilities. There was no way she could anticipate its movement, not without Adrian commiting to a single angle of attack, and he didn't have to worry about attacking her. He could wait until the wound in her leg had caused her to lose enough blood to weaken her to the point where she couldn't resist. She'd have to act first, or risk death at the hands of attrition.
Witness raised her gun. The locusts' future-shadows became darker the closer they were to Adrian, signifying a higher probability of those outcomes. Witness fired twice at his head, the swarm forming a thick shield around it, before firing a final round into Adrian's abdomen. The swarm attempted to divert some of its drones, but responded too slowly as the bullet snuck through the thin coating of insects. Now that Adrian had been hit, the swarm's movements became erratic and Witness emptied her magazine into the mass surrounding Adrian. Eventually a second bullet must have gotten through because the swarm dispersed and Adrian lay dead.
Witness frantically glanced around. The street was still empty, but it was doubtless that someone had heard gunshots. Atlas would be arriving soon and she didn't want to be around when they did. She made a makeshift bandage from a scrap of her cloak and tied it around the wound in her leg, then slunk into the shadows, disappearing into the night. Kaid was still out there, but Maire was injured. She doubted he'd have trouble tying up that loose end.